Reading Dan Gilmore's piece about SmartTags I noticed that Microsoft claims their tags and links are stored on a database on the user's machine. This is interesting:
What kind of database is this? Is it user accessible? Can it be synchronised with other databases? Can I add tables to it?
As a User, do I have control over this information resource on my hard drive? If so, all may not be lost! What if we could use that database to create a mini 'cloud' of xml based services that can be connected to each other? I see huge potential in the ability to do this as an individual and as a group of users.
It's great to see friends like “Dave” going all out against MSFT on the SmartTags issue (among others 🙂 But living in Amsterdam has taught me that sometimes to win the war you have to change the battlefield. Much like the underground resistance in '40-'45. We need to create clandestine broadcast networks to distribute the un-altered news on state of affairs, we need our own trapdoors and hidden haystacks. If this is indeed going to be an all out war and we're serious about it, then we must learn to fight effectively with the tools we do control. [Adam Curry: CurryDotCom]