Chris Saad is onto something, he says "Open is not enough, time to raise the bar: Interoperable."

But I think the idea that Chris is really searching for is Replaceable.

Think of it this way. There is no root to the web. There is no home page. No place you have to go first before you go anywhere else. Same idea -- there shouldn't be any center to the graph-of-everything. That's where the bar should be set. And Facebook ain't even in the ballpark.

It's nice that Facebook has graph.facebook.com, except it should also be XML. And they should be willing to point into graph.scripting.com, and graph.whitehouse.gov and graph.yourserver.org. Anyone should be able to operate a graph. And of course we should be able to point into graph.facebook.com, and not just at the root, but into any bit of data they expose.

Then everyone is on an equal footing. I don't care if their format was approved by the W3C, all that means is that it'll be a kitchen-sink format with all the BigCo's getting to screw with it until interop isn't even remotely possible for anyone without a $100 million development budget. Screw the corporate-owned standards bodies. Instead be open in the only way that truly matters -- replaceable. And to be replaceable the format has to be simple. That way you have to always be earning your market, by providing superior value, functionality, performance, price and trust.

If there's any lock-in at all it doesn't matter if you call it open.

PS: To Chris, white-on-black text is really hard on older eyes. Be kind to everyone and stick with black-on-white.

 5/2/2010; 3:55:01 AM.   .

In the early days when I was starting up DaveNet, which led to this blog a few years later, I would write the most self-indulgent essays in the days leading up to my birthday. They were also my best.

I finally wrote a book proposal this week. I think it's a good one. It's a book I'd like to read, so I'm pretty sure I'll like to write it. My agent said "you know they'll say it's just narcissism and all that," and I'll say (as I said to him) show me some writing that isn't.

And if you choose to write on your birthday, that's pure narcissism. ">

Narcissus, the Greek, sat by the river and gazed at his reflection, in awe of his beauty, so fixed he froze in place. Why move when you've found perfection?

One nice thing about the far west side of Manhattan. After a hot day the middle of the night cool breeze smells of the ocean. Not just any ocean but the ocean of sleepovers at my grandmother's Rockaway house, as a kid, a long long time ago.

In Howl's Moving Castle, a movie I saw for the first time a couple of days ago, a teen girl named Sophie has a spell cast on her by a witch. It transforms her into an old woman in an instant. It's exactly the spell that life casts on all of us! (I suspect the author realized this.)

Sophie quickly learns that being old is harder than it looks. And in some ways more satisfying. "When you're old all you want to do is stare at the sea," she says. "It's so strange, I've never felt so peaceful before." I know what she's talking about. I too find I can just sit and watch and feel great.

On the other hand, Bette Davis said old age is no place for sissies. My father quoted her often, in his last year, which was a very hard year indeed.

Kurt Vonnegut in his memoir, at 82, refuses blame for the awful state of the world. "It's not my fault," he protests -- "I just got here!"

Fifty-five. 55. Not 44, not 33, not 22, not 11.

55 birthdays. Almost two months of birthdays. You'd think I'd have it down. Every one is different but in some ways they're all the same. It's the one day when the party is about you. It's all yours. If you get choked up and cry, it's okay -- it's your day. All yours.

You can call me old for this one day -- I feel old, in a bittersweet way. But tomorrow it's back to normal, just plain sweet, and if you call me old I'll whack you with the cane I don't have. At least not yet. ">

 5/2/2010; 12:01:12 AM.   .