I love Web 2.0

Today is both a terrifying and an exciting day for me. There is a project that I have been working on for the past eight years that keeps coming back and has refused to go away until it is realised. It’s a project that people have referred to as my ‘Killer App’, something that only adds to the terror and excitement.

Every six months or so since 1997 I have been working on this project, conjuring up new ways to get around the technical limitations that have stopped me realising it only to have my dream quashed by another technical limitation. Along the way I have produced several projects that have edged closer and closer but never quite close enough for me to rest. Being more of a scripter than a programmer this was starting to dishearten me, despite being happy working with Applescript, Lingo, HTML, Javascript, Perl, PHP and SQL I have always thought that I would never have the skills that I really needed to write the software I wanted to write. That was until Web 2.0.

With Web 2.0, Javascript and HTML are back and in a big way. Suddenly, skills that I thought I needed to upgrade are cutting edge again and with my knowledge of these two languages and a lot of help from Lee ‘Pixel Hospital‘ Parry I have got not only closer to the dream than I ever thought possible but blown it open to reveal so many more possibilities.

So today, with much trepidation, I lay my dream on the line and present the Chatsum beta:

Ever since I began my love affair with the Internet it has pained me that I have no idea who I may be sharing this virtual space with. Every day our requests are served alongside thousands of others over a finite number of wires and yet the only indication we have for the human traffic around us is an imperceivable change in the speed at which web pages are served to us.

The Chatsum beta allows you, through either a Firefox extension or a Dashboard Widget, to not only see, but also chat to other Chatsum users as you browse the web.

For those that love scenarios, imagine a typical late night browsing session: you’re the only person up in the house, the limitless stream of information coming from the web into your mind is acting like some kind of consciousness ray keeping your mind awake while your body tries to sleep. The question enters your head “I wonder how many other people are up this late looking at these exact same sites at this exact same time?”. You pop open your Chatsum sidebar and low and behold, not one, but three other people. You launch an opening salvo by chancing 6 characters: “Hello?”. A message comes back, “Hey, you like this site? I’m trying to find this page I was looking at earlier, but I can’t find it anymore”.

Type “What was it about?” to talk to the stranger.
Continue browsing to leave this room and enter another.

Really this is just the beginning, without people to chat to there is no point in Chatsum, with users driving the development it could go in any number of directions. That’s why we’re opening it up to beta so early. We really want lots of test users who will steer the development in the direction most likely to increase usage. This direction could be tighter integration with existing instant messaging services, it could be bookmark sharing, it could be for recommending websites, it could be for guided tours of the internet. We’ve got plenty of ideas that we’ll be trying out, all of which can be followed through the Chatsum Development Blog.

Please take a look a www.chatsum.com, register as a beta tester and tell your friends. We’ll be sending out an e-mail some time next week with instructions on how to install Chatsum and get started.