I’m gonna go out on a limb and do something I don’t typically do, which is guess the fate of something. But my gut tells me Ubiquity, a new project just announced on Mozilla Labs, is going to be a hell of a big deal. Ubiquity, in a nutshell, is a set of functions on top of the browser that allows the user to take data sources existing now, and being created now (i.e like Microformats) and explore them in different (and useful) ways. It’s much better seen than read, so watch this video and then come back to me:

My feeling is that you’re as impressed as I was when I saw it. This is a big deal. We’re creating all sorts of data every day, by using social networks, social software and the web as a whole. What we’re not doing, though, is using that data to its fullest potential. We’re still used to looking at our data as belonging to a silo (even though, as you know, many as I do defend open data) - which it shouldn’t be. The craigslist is a crucial example to me: CL isn’t going to implement (at least not if they’re sticking to their KISS approach) maps anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean that their data should only be visualized in their typical texty-manner. Data is data is data - we just need more ways to look at it.

Write the future

Ubiquity is a step in the right direction. A step I’m sure many of my readers will gladly want to help browser technology take. So get involved if you have the spare cycles and/or the right ideas. I’m not mobilizing you because I have anything to do with Mozilla (beside being a long time fan, I don’t), but because this is definitely a technology that benefits from creative input, in figuring out new ways to both interact with the system, and with the key component of all of this: our data in the cloud. Read the full Ubiquity announcement post here, and enjoy!

This is probably of no interest to the majority of this blog’s audience, so I apologize in advance for cluttering your news feed, but I did want to let the portuguese readers know that we’re now 2 weeks away from Barcamp Portugal 2008! I can’t believe it’s now been 3 years since I was in the Bay Area for the first Barcamp and decided we should play our role in organizing a portuguese edition as well. Now two editions of Barcamp Portugal (2006 and 2007) later, and a third being on the way, we couldn’t be happier about how things are going.

If you are portuguese, or are in or around Portugal on the 6th and 7th of September (that’s in 2 weeks), join us! We have a bunch of surprises lined up for this year’s edition, and things will get hacky and crafty at night - keep an eye out! For more information, go check out the official Barcamp Portugal webpage at barcamppt.org. See you in two weeks!

PS: If you *are* portuguese, there’s more information about the event on my portuguese blog.