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Web Services and K-Logs: Connections to Web Services can significantly enhance a K-Log. How? Here is my thinking on how this could work.
One of the most powerful features of a K-Log client is that it can aggregate data/content from almost any source, store it as XML in an integrated database, display it as a Web page for local review through use of its integrated CMS and HTTP server, and then provide the ability to publish it (with annotation) to almost any location. In this sense the K-Log is a content router on the desktop.
Web Services can provide an important source of data and distribution to a K-Log (in addition to RSS newsfeeds, e-mail, bookmark lists, and local files). Web Services also provide a growth path for corporate specific uses for the tool. Here's how:
1) To convert information in ERP, CRM, and financial systems into corporate knowledge. For example, the head of sales could get an automated daily report from her CRM system on sales information from the previous day. The result would be displayed as a Web page using the K-Log client's content management capabilities. The head of sales could then review the information, click on a post button, annotate a comment, click a category (to route the information to specific readers), and then publish the annotated data as HTML to her K-Log on the Intranet.
2) To publish to non-Web devices and systems. As mentioned earlier, K-Logs can use Web Services to publish to gateways that connect to SMS phones, faxes, and text-to-voice systems. Sal Central and others are working on these gateways. Additionally, Web Services can enable K-Loggers with the ability to publish data to specific applications.
3) To connect K-Log clients for collaborative applications. Increasingly K-Logs clients will be able to connect via P2P. Jabber's support for XML-RPC and UserLand's (still under wraps) structured Instant Messaging system point in this direction. With P2P connections that provide presence and firewall tunneling, K-Logs can be place where advanced collaborative Web apps run. These collaborative apps will provide a new source of data that then can be published with annotation to an Intranet K-Log.
The key to all of this is the ability of a K-Log to break down data silos (both personal and corporate) and provide static information with the context it needs for better understanding. The ultimate goal of a K-Log is the system for aggregating all relevant data, improving it, and then publishing it for personal and corporate consumption (aggregate-improve-share). By using Internet standards for the basis for the tool, the K-Log will be able to grow quickly to become a vital part of corporate infrastructure due to low programming costs, ease-of-use, and simple integration. [John Robb's Radio Weblog