there aint no opensocial shindig goin on downunder.

go cadel#1 #tourdefrance.jpg
Originally uploaded by redbarren

did i mention how crap the broadband is here on mornington peninsula using iprimus (not my beloved internode) 24 minutes on a useless convo with IT support after waking up and cant even stream hughesykate@ nova100.com.au or load googlereader. lucky twhirl was chugging away. as part of my unseries on what australia doesnt have which america does, todays post comes from the linkedin blog and is about google's open-social and the opensource shindig project, in which i explore the long term damage to our psyche of receiving our movies months later than America while we were growing up, and television series sometimes not at all. (i still need to see sixfeetunder finale)

so how many australian startups or large web publishers are probably using, deploying, building a business around widgets ? im trying to raise a finger, but its looking like an inverted peace sign. Linkedin show the benefit of geographic proximity in mountain view where paperbag sessions involve geeks from different companies, using open source as a way of showing kewl things, that individuals at night and ultimately companies during the day, can use to their advantage.

The Linkedin Blog : "In September 2007, Google started thinking about Social APIs. Google Gadgets would be better with access to Social Data ... but that's just Google. It was recognized that this is something that many others would like access to.. In November, many Googlers started working on a Google Code project based on Java and iGoogle. However, there was too much proprietary code. In December, Brian McCallister of Ning created an ASF Proposal for Shindig. It was a rough port of iGoogle but with Ning's PHP code. This turned out to be a great starting point. It immediately got interest from Google, Hi5, MySpace and others. While most committers are still from Google, there are 12 developers that work on it full time and they're adding 2 committers each month. Shindig is a Java/PHP implementation of OpenSocial."

so 12 people fulltime working on opensource widget protocols, with a range of socnet companies/divisions from google opensocial, myspace, linkedin, ning, etc going to benefit. is any1 surprised that no aussie co's are involved ? i'd love to hear of 12 people working fulltime in australia on widgets ? :)

this is the point where i come back to finance : speaking to those with dotcom experience they think its farely easy to get engineers because they remember offering them stock options + salary. thats because 1997-2002 there were alot more companies funded, and the fundings were $5m-$50m. that created alot of jobs for engineers, who then got experience in building the widgets of the day. without the money funding the new widget businesses locally, how would a knowledge bank be built up of suitably skilled engineers? (who are able to better define a business technical roadmap and execute against it), which then becomes attractive to an investor.

it's a chickennegg problem which in australia means a straights sets loss. 'no goddamn widget business ere. i thought u said they were the new plastics.' ok rant over, im 7 documents done this week, with 3 to go, and some melbourne travel tomorrow.. if i can manage/afford /coordinate it, i really want to go to dark knight. they said on movie show last nite that heaths role has a touch of brando and cagney, i guess they like the old metaphors there, thats australia4u; old. All that said maybe there are some covert aussies currently working on or looking to get involved in the shindig project ?

Also : Check Mashable on Lightspeed Ventures, for how much better they do it in Israel : "Two years ago Lightspeed partnered with Gemini to create the Internet Lab, a venture designed to give seed funding to early-stage Israeli startups. They have invested in six companies so far as part of the Lab. The first of these companies was Outbrain, creator of a content rating and recommendations widget. Through the Lab they have also backed StyleShake, a do-it-yourself fashion company headquartered in the UK that allows users to design their own clothing and have it sent to them; Vestopia, a resource for investors; and Bahu, a social network for people under 25."