Clique Space(TM) progress report

What can I say... more good news.

As I write this, believe I have just stabilised the second of the three access levels (Connection, Active Affiliation, and Participant) available in Clique Space. These access levels have relevance to every device that uses a Clique Space, but their use is most obvious to the administrator Client Device because this device, being a device that a Clique Space administrator would use, needs to transfer through each of these levels manually as required by the administrator.

Generally, for devices of any medium...

Connection access allows a device to be seen by a Clique Space, but does not allow other devices (other than possibly those devices that have obtained a Clique Space Participant using the same account) to observe the given device. As I've said before, this is used as a very convenient way to facilitate remote authentication amongst perhaps a few other things that I can't recall right now.

Active Affiliation access allows a device to be seen within a Clique Space, but that access does not give the given device the ability to observe and engage others from within the given Clique Space. Because a device can collaborate with other devices through its device specific way regardless of whether it is connected to a Clique Space or not, it is envisaged that most devices would need only an Active Affiliation to collaborate with any other device for which they are able to engage. Besides that, giving participant access to a device that has no ability to view, and therefore engage other devices through, a Clique Space is redundant, and could subject the Clique Space users to undesirable consequences.

Clique Space Participant access is granted to a Client Device if the associated device possesses a view of the Clique Space. Such devices are usually equipped with a view of the Clique Space to which they have connected, and can actively interact with other devices using the Clique Space system. This interaction may include with those devices that make up the Clique Space.

Alternatively, the operator of a device obtains a Participant for a Client Device whenever the associated device collaborates with another device over some medium. While a device possessing only Active Affiliation access cannot engage another device from within the Clique Space system to which it is connected, that device may be able to engage similar devices in accordance with its own media protocol. If these other devices are likewise connected to the same Clique Space, the Clique Space will model this interaction as a Clique between the two individuals known to the Clique Space or federated Clique Spaces concerned as the devices' operators. Should one of the given devices not be connected to a Clique Space, the collaboration may still be modelled as a Clique between two Participants; one of the Participants is shown as anonymous.

This whole idea is so powerful that it's applicability may far outstrip my ability to describe it.

It is without any coincidence whatsoever that these access types are used to model collaborations going on in any medium by any number of individuals. This access "backbone" is part of the technology that has been developed around the core inspirational concept; the unaltered inspiration I had in 2004 whilst jogging between Bellambi and Bulli. The backbone is made up of three vertebrae (four if you want to be more technical and include the Media Profile) which I have envisaged are central to the Clique Space implementation.

Clique Space(TM) progress report.

My goal of modelling in real-time, interactions between individuals, anonymous or otherwise, that involve any device, any medium and any affiliation is farther along today than I thought myself worthy of. Two years ago, I had thought that the idea sounded good, but that possibly, there was a deep flaw somewhere in it. While I had rather cynically perhaps anticipated that there had been undocumented records of others who followed the path I am now on, I'm getting more confident about how this is shaping up with every passing day. It really appears to be efficacious.

Note, that my posting history should disclose the fact that I believe Clique Space is like nothing else currently conceived by anyone else - as far as I have been able to tell. I've already mentioned in a previous blog-post how Clique Space isn't middleware. I've already mentioned how Clique Space isn't a Multi-User Virtual Environment. I have already delineated the quintessential difference between Clique Space and other products like Google Wave. However, I'll reiterate it here just to make it clear:

• Clique Space(TM) models collaborative encounters by individuals.

That's it. How these collaborations function is up to the hardware doing the collaborating. Hence, Clique Space isn't a middleware system. It also isn't a Google Wave because Clique Space leaves the question of what "content" of a collaboration is modelled unanswered. Ultimately again, this is a question that must be answered by the media being modelled. Clique Space simply provides an environment in which the activity state of connected devices is used to depict coordinated collaborative activity between the devices' operators. Clique Space is more than a Role-Based Access Controller for no RBAC system I have seen asserts that it can create a device-independent model of the collaborative encounter of two or more participants (Participants), each of which are represented by one or more individual users, or are anonymous.

While a Clique Space might require a suitable Media Profile to be installed before it can model a particular medium, a Media Profile does not realise collaborations' underlying mechanics, nor does it instruct Clique Space how to physically realise the underlying machinery of the medium's implementation. The Media Profile simply exposes the existing components of this machinery to the Clique Space system in a manner that serves the intersection of the intents of the individual or organisation responsible for the Media Profile, the Clique Space's administration, and the individuals who make use of the Media Profile and a given Clique Space when they connect a device through the Media Profile to the given Clique Space using an Affiliation that identifies a role to an Account that identifies the individual.

Through this model, collaborative instances (Cliques) may be controlled and audit logs may be taken in accordance with every connected user's ability to do these things. I assert that Clique Space is the first contrivance of its type.

Does anyone have a differing opinion?

UOW approves Masters by Research on Clique Space(TM).

This morning, I received an email from (who is now) my assigned research supervisor giving their approval for a research masters degree with Clique Space as the subject matter.

Excellent stuff. This university (my Alma Mater - because I live here) is a good one. I am hoping this will give me a good incubation environment where the concept's efficacy can be tested. Should this idea prove successful, I hope the university will be able to reduce obstacles to commercial development.