openmaru studio

open-open-open-open-open... and "me" at the center.

(openmaru) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:59:19 -0800

You know one of the this week's biggest news was Google and Facebook joining the DataPortability Workgroup. You also know that there are many signs of that OpenID is ready to take off big time. All of this also points out to a prediction that 2008 is indeed going to be the year of "ME". It's all about open data and identity.

BusinessWeek reports as one of the innovation trends the "me-first" trend:

It's All about Me

"Identity" replaces "experience" as the next big concept in design and media thinking. People create their own identities interacting with products and services. The notion of a consumer experience is a more passive way of thinking. It's so 20th century. Identity gets the buzz in '08.

Yes, in 2008, Me and My Identity. That's where myID can come in handy for you. You've heard about Data Portabilities, Attention Trust's, Social Bill of Rights', and Social Graphs. As we've mentioned before, these are the values that myID is exactly pursuing after.

So expect big things from myID. Just in case you haven't tried it yet, you're always welcome to join us and see it for yourself what the true "openness" tastes like.

Happy New Year!

(openmaru) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:42:30 -0800

Hi, everyone! Long time no see. Can you believe it's already 10 days into 2008? Time flies, doesn't it?

Sorry that we haven't been too diligent keeping up with this blog. But hey, 2008 is here and we, here at openmaru, are all ready to take off. :)

2008 will be a very important and exciting year for openmaru. Not only Springnote and myID are already out, but also we're gonna have to have you ready for more!

You'll also see this blog being updated more often. But let's take one step at a time for now.

(Belated) Happy new year!

Springnote and Openmaru at Web 2.0 Expo Tokyo!

(openmaru) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 02:34:48 -0800

There is going to be the arguably biggest Web 2.0 Conference in Asia next week, organized by none other than O'Reilly Media and CMP: Web 2.0 Tokyo. And you can finally meet us at the Expo!

More than anything, Springnote is being featured in Launchpad. Yes, we've been around for a while, but this is the first time we'll be making a public entrace to the rest of the world. We'll also be hosting a booth at the Expo, so feel free to come by and talk to us--about anything!

openmaru members are travelling as tech experts to participate in many of the sessions. ChangShin Lee will be giving a talk "Trinity for Evolution from Closed Service to Open Platform". (I don't need to remind you of our mission for "open platforms", any more, right? :) We'll also be participating in many of the sessions, including the ones on Ruby on Rails, on which many of our products are built, and a session on OpenID.

What's unique about us going to Japan for the conference is that this isn't just about us doing marketing for our products as we will be reporting from Japan to the rest of the world how far Web 2.0 has come. We'll be travelling with some of the most renowned bloggers in Korea as blogging journalists. One of them is Danny Kim. Danny is actually responsible for writing many of the posts for this blog; he's our blog marketing agent. He is also well known for his TechnoKimchi blog, which covers the digital tech and culture in Korea. You'll be able to hear much about what's going on during the conference through this blog as well as his TechnoKimchi blog.

Excitement is our motto for this year and the Expo will only make it more visible. We're excited not only to meet you all there, but also to learn about the Web 2.0 landscape is like in Asia, esp. Japan.

So, see you all soon!

p.s. You can find an excellent coverage of Springnote on Read/WriteWeb. It talks about what's cool about Springnote and what more we need to work on. It's always very nice to hear what others think about our product. We've been very closely listening to what everyone has to say about us--including myID and Springnote. And how rewarding it has been! More details on this to follow in the next article :)

[Part 3] The Springnote Platform

(openmaru) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:57:23 -0700

This post is the last of the "What's so great about Springnote" series. We talked about the awesome Springnote editor as well as the collaboration features. Making Springnote even more "Web 2.0" is how Springnote can be used as a platform. We've explained before why openness is our ultimate goal at openmaru.

Springnote not only supports various formats for importing/exporting data in and out of Springnote, but also offers an Open API for extending features to Springnote.

First, all of the Springnote documents are XHTML-structured, adding meanings to different properties of documents, such as titles and tags. This obviously makes Springnote documents much more easily machine-processable, however that might suit your needs. What's notable about structuring documents is that it can be done at the editor level, even allowing you to convert regular documents into slideshows in a minute like this:

We believe that many of the Springnote documents will be good for blogging, so we've also added a feature that'll simply transport your Springnote documents to your blog! Among the supported blog tools are: Wordpress and Tattertools, the No.1 blogging tool in Korea.

But obviously, the true openness of Springnote can be witnessed through its support of Open API. Do you want to make Springnote truly yours? Create mashups? Don't hesitate to check out the Open API center. Here you'll not only learn more about the things you can do with the API, but also meet other mashups and the creators behind them. A 3-step process of "Request/Get Approved/Get Pass" will get you started.

I could go on to show how Springnote is being already well used among many; but until you jump in and taste it for yourself, you probably can't realize the value of Springnote. You know what that means. Here's the starting point :)

[Part 2] You're a collabor-aholic

(openmaru) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:49:44 -0700

If you're a Web 2.0 application maker and don't provide collaborative features, you're a liar. You're just not a true Web 2.0 company. After all, isn't "Web 2.0" about social-ness and massive collaboration? Of course, WE ARE! Springnote excellently supports collaboration among users.

Springnote's greatest value obviously lies in the fact that it's an easy "jot-down-your-ideas" service. However, what's the point if you can't share it and can't work on it together with your peers?

Springnote comes with great sharing and collaborative features. For one, we made it very easy for you to invite others to the collaboration space. It fully supports OpenID. You can also invite your peers to the same document just by emailing them.

Rights management part is just as easy. Springnote can be used in private collaboration with business partners, colleagues or friends. Of course, Springnote pages can be published in public and people can enjoy viewing and reading at others' notes and pages as well.

The Web still isn't the only platform for collaboration. Springnote supports the following formats: txt, doc, html and odt for importing. Springnote pages can also be downloaded as a zip file that contains HTML files.

This way, Springnote is a perfect choice for many business partners across corporate boundaries, temporary task force teams, project-based workers, and even college students.

We help you work together with anyone "seamlessly".

That's what Springnote is capable of.

What's so great about Springnote? [Part 1] Some Crazy Editor

(openmaru) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:16:06 -0700

We realized your first reaction to Springnote might be "Isn't this just another wiki service?" Well, while you could say that, Springnote offers extraordinary values which we should not let go unnoticed.

The first one is the fast and easy editing function. In short, when working on Springnote, you'll feel like you're working on a desktop editor like Notepad or gedit. That's how natural the application feels like. No more brackets and weird wiki grammar stuff to express yourself. How easy is it? See it for yourself:

As you saw it above, not only you'll have many keyboard shortcuts for adding headlines, paragraphs, links, and styling, you actually don't have to "save" anything to make a change to the content. Yup, that's how easy it is.

Springnote is a pure web application, consisting of JavaScript only, so you don't need to download or install anything extra. Obviously, you can access it from anywhere you want as long as your device has a standard-supporting web browser installed.

The easy editing function alone makes Springnote a very attractive option for jotting our thoughts, notes, and ideas. But, wait. Springnote is even better when used as a collaboration tool. More on the collaboration part in the next post!

Springnote English version is live!

(openmaru) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:47:01 -0700

For anyone of you who have waited long for this, Springnote English version is up and running! As we've explained, Springnote is a Web-based and fully OpenID-enabled personal wiki service where anyone can join to jot down notes, diaries, or project org. pages. What makes Springnote truly unique amid all the great wiki services out there is the ease of use of the service. What does that mean? More than anything, it means you can use Springnote as if you were writing stuff as simply and easily as on Notepad or gedit. Seriously, you won't understand how easy it is until you try it for yourself!

Of course, we have a long list of great features which Springnote offers. You can check out more details on the about page; but here's the quick view of Springnote features:

Very easy and intuitive editor
OpenID authentication & email invitation
Supports web standards such as XHTML
Access anywhere with any modern web browser
Unlimited text storage and 2 GB file storage
Compatible with txt, doc, html, and other files
Publishable on other blogs
Private or public page viewing
Open API for extension and integration
Open source for EditorXquared

Still not fully getting it? I'm sure this video will help you muchos.
But more than anything, we strongly recommend you to join the service and try it out. It's OpenID-enabled, so you can use any OpenID account of yours; or if you don't have one yet, we also have myID, an OpenID service provided by openmaru, ready for you :)

So, why don't you hop in? I guarantee you it's going to be an amazing experience!

Bloglines supports OpenID!!!!

(openmaru) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:14:00 -0700

As you guys all probably know, Bloglines is one of the the leading online RSS readers. Many of us here at openmaru also use Bloglines for catching up with blogs and news. Of course, we’ve been loving it even more ever since the upgrade. :)

Anyhow, the news of the day is this: Bloglines now supports OpenID. That’s, in fact, real good news. OpenID is something whose value increases exponentially if it’s supported by major applications. Now, we’ve got one of THE major web applications joining the band, we can maybe even happily expect other services to start jumping in as well.

You don’t have an OpenID account yet? You can so easily create one simply by visiting our OpenID service: myID.net. We provide many great services as an OpenID provider.

But wait! We have one more “major” service coming tomorrow. It’s openmaru’s service called Springnote. Yes, its English version is finally live! More on this fascinating service tomorrow!

Big kudos: OpenID.net relaunched!

(openmaru) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:09:00 -0700

OpenID.net relaunched last night and should we call it "pure beauty"? It looks really nice! We know Open ID, in general, has needed something more "average-user-friendly" and what more could we want now with a site like this now? :)

What amazed and amused us even more was that MyID has been listed as one of the OpenID providers on the site. Awesome!

Mad props to those who worked on it really hard. We are strongly convinced that the site relaunching was a huge step toward a wider adoption of OpenID for everyone. Again, congratulations!

How myID can support "A Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web"

(openmaru) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:16:00 -0700

When we came across this article, we were like "Yes! Yes! Yes!" because that's exactly what we are trying to do here at openmaru: Give rights back to users!

We've always believed in the open Web, open social networks, open media, and open platforms, so to see an article written by big names like Joseph Smarr, Marc Canter, Robert Scoble, and Michael Arrington, was definitely a huge encouragement.

Here's the list of rights users must have:

Ownership of their own personal information, including:
- their own profile data
  the list of people they are connected to
- the activity stream of content they create;
Control of whether and how such personal information is shared with others; and
Freedom to grant persistent access to their personal information to trusted external sites.

Also, the sites supporting these rights shall:

Allow their users to syndicate their own profile data, their friends list, and the data that’s shared with them via the service, using a persistent URL or API token and open data formats;
Allow their users to syndicate their own stream of activity outside the site;
Allow their users to link from their profile pages to external identifiers in a public way; and
Allow their users to discover who else they know is also on their site, using the same external identifiers made available for lookup within the service.

That's where myID nicely can come in. Being an OpenID provider, it creates a great way for users to move their identity data around. But, we don't stop there. We also enable our users to move their contact list around. We also have a series of features to be added as time goes on, all in sync with the lists above.

The "four-fathers" of the bill of rights deeply understand the value of the open Web. We are trying to push hard in the same direction as well.

That's what gets us excited. This is the Web IN THE MAKING. And we, as in everyone, are the makers.

Of course, having a sip of what this Web will be a great starting point. Wouldn't it? ;)