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ZDnet
Zude: If everybody could mix and match their own Web, could news orgs still set the public agenda? |
I've been learning lately about a Web application that is supposed to launch soon. As long as it's not vaporware -- and as long as it does at least most of what it promises --
Zude stands a chance of being an amazingly creative online tool. This new tool from Fifth Generation (5G) Systems is supposed to offer users near-complete control over the Web experience, allowing them "remix" and "mashup" sites at will.
Here's the concept: Zude apparently will provide a drag-and-drop interface to building dynamic Web pages. Really drag-and-drop -- as in: I see content on the Web, I want it, I drag it onto my Zude page, and it's published there. Or if I want to syndicate current top headlines from New Scientist in a box on my page, I can do that without knowing anything about feeds.
...OK, before folks start panicking over the potential copyright issues (which, I agree, could be legion), just consider this kind of functionality. Aside from creating their own patchwork Zude portal pages, users can also reengineer custom interfaces to Web sites. Here's how ZDnet's David Berlind explains it:
"The New York Times could offer its entire Web site on top of the Zude platform. The default layout could look and feel exactly as the Times' Web site looks and feels today with two exceptions: not only could the NYT's audience members redesign it to their own personal liking, they could integrate content, objects, and functionality from other Web sites as well. Picture for example your personal New York Times business section with a Yahoo! Finance-driven stock market widget from yourminis.com embedded right in it. Or the sports page with YouTube videos and Flickr streams of your favorite sports teams and personalities."
It goes even further than that. From Berlind's video interview with 5G CEO Jim McNiel, it sounds like Zude will be offering something like an application programming interface (API) -- which would allow people with programming skills to do virtually anything they want with Zude.
Bottom line: If Zude (or something like it) actually works and gets popular, Web designers and content creators will have to learn to operate in an entirely different universe. Eventually, some smart development team will pull this kind of project off. At that point, for better or worse, control over context will be ceded to the online audience, in virtually infinite diversity. How might news sites adapt to -- or even thrive in -- that situation? Will we have to consider the "widget potential" of every type of content we publish online?
...Well, let's just see if Zude works. Right now it's still in private beta. I'll keep an eye on this one.
(Thanks to Barbara Iverson for the tip.)
