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In the ugly dispute between Ning and Widgetlaboratory, the innocently bystanding users are (mostly) well. Widgetlaboratory used to sell widgets for around $30 per month and is the most popular widget creator on Ning. Users who have spent quite some money also on WL widgets to build up their social networks were left with nothing, when Ning decided to remove all widgets created by the popular premium developer because of some violation of Terms of use without notice. While the parties continue to “communicate via blogs” (Ning and Widgetlaboratory), the bold move is the one of WL to open source all their widgets and thus giving the users the control they need to keep up their networks.

We believe that our customers have the RIGHT to OWN their sites, OWN their site content, OWN their own code, and OWN the right to not be terminated, threatened or cajoled by ANYONE, especially a hosting-company executive.

Whatever the issue between the two vendors really is (and who is right), the users benefit from open source.

The light-weight user interface toolkit for Java ME (LWUIT) has been released as open source. Sun has selected GPLv2 and the classpath exception license, which allows developers to link this library statically or dynamically with other modules under other licenses.

LWUIT is a library that helps creating rich Java ME applications through a MVC (model view controller) approach. It supports visual components, theming, transitions, animation etc. Just like JavaFX. But while both LWUIT and JavaFX enable creating a better and more compelling user interface for mobile and other devices, there are really two target generations:

LWUIT will help Java MIDP and Swing developers to enhance the interfaces of new or existing Java ME applications on MIDP 2.0 phones. The LWUIT library which offers pre-made graphical functions and features that developers can quickly and easily assemble into a compelling interface. JavaFX Mobile is targeted at designers and scripters who are looking to create very rich, very immersive experiences across multiple screens like phone, PC, TV, etc. The level of interactivity and animation and control over the presentation is much higher than that enabled by LWUIT. JavaFX Mobile can also run on MSA-enabled devices i.e. smart phones and high end feature phones.

So it is nice to now have LWUIT for sprucing up existing Java ME programs. For new apps I still strongly suggest to consider JavaFX.

At Optaros, most retailers are asking us the following question:

“We’ve done product ratings and reviews, what social shopping features should we implement in 2009?”

The 2009 Social E-Commerce Guide answers the question:

• Suggested approach to plan for 2009
• 32 different options to consider with links to example websites
• Options categorized by adoption rate among retailers

Get it here.

The Open Web Foundation is an independent non-profit dedicated to the development and protection of open, non-proprietary specifications for web technologies.

The Open Web Foundation is an attempt to create a home for community-driven specifications. Following the open source model similar to the Apache Software Foundation, the foundation is aimed at building a lightweight framework to help communities deal with the legal requirements necessary to create successful and widely adopted specification.

The foundation is trying to break the trend of creating separate foundations for each specification, coming out of the realization that we could come together and generalize our efforts. The details regarding membership, governance, sponsorship, and intellectual property rights will be posted for public review and feedback in the following weeks.

http://openwebfoundation.org/

WordPress have introduced an Open Source app that lets you write posts, upload photos, and edit your WordPress blog from your iPhone or iPod Touch. With support for both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress (2.5.1 or higher), users can now write and manage their blog on the go.

Download from the iTunes AppStore.

The interesting bit is the solution to prevent data loss when receiving a call. Wordpress for iPhone will recover your post after ending the call. You can take pictures on the phone and blog them instantly, iPod touch users are limited to pictures from the photo library.
See pictures of the app in action in the gallery.

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Optaros has written a streamlined web client for Alfresco based entirely on REST (web scripts) and ExtJS. It is called DoCASU, which stands for Document Access for Casual Users, and we’re making it freely-available as an open source project on code.optaros.com.

DoCASU 1.0 leverages the understanding gained from corporate user requirements and utilizes Rich Internet Application technologies such as the ExtJS AJAX framework. DoCASU is not intended to replace the already existing Alfresco web user interface, but rather offer an alternative for users who require a limited set of features for them to profit from simplicity and ease of use. Already today thousands of users at NXP, a top 10 semiconductor company founded by Philips, are enjoying the user friendly front end solution.

DoCASU is a showcase of what can be done on top of Alfresco’s Web Script approach with state of the art RIA technologies. Developers can take DoCASU as a start for even more comprehensive (or simplistic) user interfaces, purpose built front ends or just as the base for learning on how to build Alfresco user interfaces and applications leveraging Web Scripts.

It requires Alfresco 2.1.1 or later. The future DoCASU releases will include a drop zone for dragging and dropping files also for desktop interaction, tabbed navigation, configurable skins, usability improvements and more.

Read about the project and download the AMP from code.optaros.com. If you see things that need fixing, create a bug report or fix it yourself and let us know.

With the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 2.0 software for the first iPhone generation and the iPod touch Apple also introduced Microsoft Exchange support.

For a client like Outlook, but also e.g. for my Nokia E61, Zimbra Server will look like and behave lika an Exchange. That means you can simply point Mobile.me (me.com) or your iPhone/iPod at your Zimbra mail server and done. You get mail, calendar and contacts push over the air. Note: Make sure you diable your IMAP account for the same server should you have one, otherwise you might confuse yourself…

This is a playful approach to designed tag clouds. It lacks the real time aspect, but it is perfect in layout and typography. This cloud is based on my del.icio.us entires. Check it out.

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do to help us set the record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours is get Firefox 3 now – it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

Please download Firefox 3 by 11:16 a.m. PDT (18:16 UTC) on June 18, 2008. That’s 11:16 a.m. in Mountain View, 2:16 p.m. in Toronto, 3:16 p.m. in Rio de Janeiro, 8:16 p.m. in Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Rome and Warsaw, 10:16 p.m. in Moscow, and June 19, 2008 at 2:16 a.m. in Beijing and 3:16 a.m. in Tokyo.

Albeit all the preaching we do and all the common sense you think people would/should apply, Outlook is today the most popular e-mail tool in the world. And some Frisco based guys think that the program is so poorly suited for most people’s intensive e-mail habits that they have founded a company, Xobni, intended to fix it.

Xobni (“inbox” spelled backwards) has produced free software that indexes all Outlook e-mail and makes messages quickly and easily searchable.

You might think Google Desktop would do the same for you (does for me for years now), but Xobni, which its creators call an “intelligent filter,” adds a few more features. When it scours the inbox, it extracts phone numbers it thinks are associated with the sender. So when a user searches for a person, Xobni presents the number in a side panel. The software also interprets the social relationships between people who are sending messages to each other by interpreting the to: and cc: headers of each message.

In addition, the data collected are visualized during normal action per user or per object, and can also be analyzed in details through Xobni Analytics. Interesting stats like most frequent mailer or mailee, fastest responder, mails per timeframe etc. can be easily and in a Google Analytics type way be retrieved for whatever purpose you might have.

The company raised $4 million from the investment funds of Vinod Khosla, a Sun Microsystems co-founder, and Niklas Zennstrom, one of the creators of Skype. In February, Bill Gates demonstrated the program at Microsoft’s San Jose developers’ conference and called it “the next generation in social networking.”

The idea is to sell the tools to companies later in time and Xobni now has ambitions that extend well beyond Microsoft Outlooktowards the popular Web-based services Yahoo Mail, Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Hotmail as well as social networks like Facebook and Linkedin. Apple Mail is also on the list.

While discussing Xobni I was also pointed out to ClearContext, which seems to do similar things. Did not try it though.