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Posts tagged ‘web2.0’

Our Conversation with John Battelle

John Battelle wrote a post about an app called Tapestry last week. An app he wishes existed and that we aim to enable through our work and that of (the Locker Project) community. After his post, John started an offline conversation with Jason, much of which he chose to republish on his blog.

It communicated many of the core tentants of our work/thesis:

  • Our data is scattered everywhere as a result of the explosion of apps, connected devices, and cloud based services.
  • Today’s data conventions are a new form of centralization that makes building personalized apps a pain for developers.
  • Singly is building a future where I own my data and apps pull data about me, from me.
  • Frictionless development will unlock a world of innovation; that innovation will drive ubiquity of personal data ownership as developers build a new class of powerful applications.
  • The new stack is not simply a software stack; it has data baked into it.  The ways in which we structure the data is increasingly important due to the incredibly sensitive nature of the information.
  • My data “home” will power what I do online and house a significant part of my identity. My identity is mine and will be protected by someone whom I trust.
  • Singly is building this future. Version 1.0 of our platform is now available on an invite basis. We will be letting in several thousand developers (largely) over the coming months to help build out this future.

We’re excited to present this vision on Wednesday (tomorrow), October 19 @ 2:40p at the Web 2.0 Summit here in San Francisco.  You can live stream it here.

On the shoulders of Giants

We’ve been busy over the past few months. We’ve grown, hit our stride as a team, and have hit a major product milestone we’re thrilled about. We’re also fast approaching the Web 2.0 Summit, where Jeremie is outlining a vision for the next 10 years of personal computing.

As we consider this future, we’re mindful of the industry’s past – especially its advancements due to the indelible will and art of Steve Jobs.

He went “upstream, against the currents of social, economic and technological norms, all in pursuit of an unshakable vision” (Pogue, NYT), with a zeal best captured by Apple’s “Think Different” campaign:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in square holes – the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo….the only thing that you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.

Jobs loved to say he lived at the intersection of technology and liberal arts – he saw things from a unique perspective. His art changed things – how we share, create, connect, experience, and grow. Simply put – he was a Giant.

In the coming days, we’re going to share more of our culture, creations and the ways in which we, too, aspire to change things. We want to humbly recognize that we do it “standing on the shoulders of giants” — not just those of this one Giant, but also those of the entire free open source software movement and community to which even Apple owes a great deal of its success, and to which this phrase is often applied.

And, in light of this Giant’s passing, let’s (as a community, team, advisors and investors) reaffirm not just how we see the future, but how we pursue it. To borrow Jobs’ words, let’s stay hungry and foolish; ignore dogma and embrace intuition; love the art of what we do; and remember through our journey together that the dots are always connected.

Here’s to troublemakers; to giants; and to those who get to stand on their shoulders.

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