Top100k Blog

The upcoming election season is exciting. It reminds me of open source software. There are two great candidates imbued with remarkable integrity available and as an independent I am happy with both of them. This makes for remarkably vibrant campaigns. The debate over open source software in comparison to proprietary software has been continuing for years. There are factions that espouse both types communities. It is the extremist points of view that can spoil things for everyone. Radical views that follow either a complete right wing or left wing viewpoint without question usually mask an ego driven agenda that is most often self serving. There is a place for open source software and proprietary software. Each one fulfills an evolutionary niche. What is great about OS it the ability for the community to analyze the software. That is why operating systems, web production platforms and client-side applications that have security implications are better when open. The community can evaluate the risks. Proprietary software offers the programmers a way to make great software and get paid for their creations without having to share it with others. This allows for the growth of excellent user software applications that would not be created in the shared open environment. Both sides have good points, and I am really looking forward to the upcoming debates.

For more about open source software see our book on the subject
Created by Webovations Interactive Digital Media:
Open Source Invasion

Erik Holm
Webovations.com
Top100k.com
Puget Sound Life

Ever been dissatisfied with a search results. It happens. From incomprehensible listings to incomplete results. The web is dynamic and search engines are continually updated, but there is a phenomenon out there called the invisible web which are sites unseen. From topics discussed on this blog before such as sites that are improperly indexed to dynamic content that is missed or is gone with the wind. To combat this issue I have established a wiki site Top100k.com that uses a wiki community to collect top web sites for researchers. This paradigm for research searching uses category experts and the wiki community to update our list of top informational web sites that can be used for conducting research. By participating in this wiki project you can promote web sites, establish your favorite top sites for other researchers and participate in a dynamic web community.

Erik Holm
Webovations.com
Top100k.com

There is an issue with words. This may just be me. It started with email. Five years ago people split on the proper spelling, with the majority spelling the word e-mail. It irked me to have to type the hyphen every single time I used the term. As a techie it just seemed to slow things down in this quick paced hi-tech world. I chalked it up to the techies vs the corpies (corporate web users). Since this started I estimate I have typed the word email almost 10,000 times. Every time I would have had to pause and looked for the nonintuitive hyphen key. It has probably saved me 2 hours in time using the spelling email sans the dash and I think everyone knows to what I am reffering. Now I am debating whether to switch to website. Why not web site? These are two separate terms why are they combined? Wikipedia say website and the media says website. Will I stand out and not get funded if I use the term the way I see fit? The space bar is intuitive and easy to find on the keyboard, but I may just capitulate on this one. Oh by the way, I think the term jokebook should be one word. See our Animated Interactive Techie Jokebook now available free on-line (or is it on line).

Erik Holm
www.webovations.com
www.top100k.com