Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Clique Space(TM) and NSW politics.

Again, another post (this time to an ABC television programme called the 7:30 report). I re-post it here because there is no guarantee at the time this blog entry was written that my post will appear there. It's 375 words long, and the web site to which I posted the original says that one's posts should not be longer than 100 words. So, at least I can guarantee that it appears here.

Here it is:

Mr O'Brien. I hope you'll excuse me for a reply that is more than 100 words; this is succinct as I could manage.

If you would like to discuss solutions to Australia's population and urban crises, you might like to include work from home in your discussion.

I am from Wollongong, and since I started in my professional capacity as a software designer, I have had to deal continually with the issue of displacement.

I like Wollongong, and I like software development. Almost 25 years ago, I took to software development as a career choice because I found that programming computers was an interesting and absorbing occupation that I could do from home.

Now, 2.5 decades later, I find that in order to participate in this career, one has to entertain what I consider the pathological association between this profession and a need to physically collocate. The consequence is ultimately to leave ones home town or to spend a significant fraction of one's life commuting from where one lives to an office desk where one works.

This is intolerable to me, and the antithesis of why I started down this career path.

If you like to get Mr Carr on your programme, and if you like to let him say the debate is over with regard to the building of concrete enclaves and sucking people into them, then maybe you might like to let me, another individual, take an opposing view, and let me talk about the troubles I've had in achieving my happiness - especially when such a man as Mr Carr, as premier of NSW, might systematically, with pernicious cajoling intent, thwart my goals in life and replace them with what he thinks they should be.

It is a pity that I cannot give you my email address privately so that you might have a chance to respond privately to my suggestion. However, rather than quoting my email address here, look up "Clique Space" (include the quotes) on Google. Do this, and you shall find a lot of information on a concept that would help managers and employees realise a virtual work-from-home environment. You will also find out how to get in contact with me, as well as a lot more about me.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Clique Space(TM) and yet another blog entry.

After listening to an article on the news, I wrote the following to the person featured in it. I thought I'd share it here because I think it's a good letter, and I invite anyone else to act as the letter instructs. The only thing I have done to change the content is to remove the first few sentences that could identify who the recipient might be. I do respect people's right to anonymity.

Here it is:

I have invented something that I have called Clique Space, and I would perhaps like you to indulge your imagination on just what it does, as there is no practical implementation of the technology [interjection: just yet - though at the time this blog was put up (a day after this letter was sent) I am tantalisingly close]. I am putting a proof-of-concept together between writing emails to people like yourself about it.

Imagine a system where you can connect any personal device you possess to it. Other people do the same. You connect each device to it through an Account that represents you as an individual. You can also elect to represent yourself, your employer, or any other club or association you might be a member of, and this representation acts as a way to limit the visibility of the devices you have connected to others, and maybe also the way these devices interact. This is basically what Clique Space does.

I believe Clique Space is not a Google anything, an Apple anything, or any other type of anything, but I do think that the anythings one possesses can be connected to a Clique Space so that the devices can be controlled, and so individuals can take device activity audit logs of any interactions they may have through the devices while they are connected to a Clique Space. Clique Space does not replace the mechanism that devices already use to communicate, so it isn't a middle-ware anything either.

I have, for a very long time thought that this idea is a sorely needed piece of a device integration puzzle that will become more obvious as time moves on, and so, I have registered an international patent for the technology. I'd like to know from you whether you think my idea might offer the same promise.

No one's really bashing down my door to help me implement this system, but I think that's because I'm one person who chooses, for lifestyle reasons, not to go to where the action might be. Hence, I would also like to know if you might to perhaps write about it. I can give you more info on Clique Space.

Get back to me when you can.

Thanks,

Owen.

--
www.cliquespace.net
Clique Space(TM) Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81335296379
Owen's Garden of Thought: http://owenpaulthomas.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Clique Space(TM) and collaborative devices.

All Client Devices are collaborative for by definition, they collaborate with Clique Space. Because a device would (also, by definition) become a Client Device if it were capable of obtaining a Connection with a Clique Space, any such device can therefore be called collaborative, even if the only thing it is collaborating directly with is a Clique Space system.

In the abstract of my research report on Clique Space, I said that Clique Space models device collaborations over an arbitrary number of media. I have always considered Clique Space a type of medium, and the Agent Devices that make a Clique Space system to be Client Devices that collaborate in a Clique Space. I have steadfastly asserted that a Clique Space can be modelled inside itself or another Clique Space as a Clique where the Participants are the Agent Devices.

Hence, I intend any device that can be connected to a Clique Space - including devices that are not collaborative per se to be collaborative merely for the fact that each Client Device is collaborating with the Clique Space system. A car, a golf ball, a washing machine, a rotorlacter, etc. (if any can be connected to a Clique Space) are collaborative devices.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Implementation Progress of Clique Space(TM).

Reporting on very good news. Every time I get a piece of Clique Space functioning, I continue to be bolstered by the prospect that this concept might actually work. Right now, the (to-be Clique Space administrator) Client Device can create a Clique Space representing itself, and can obtain a Connection to an Agent Device's Clique Space and an Agent Collaboration Clique Space from an Agent Device. I have been able to do this for some time in earlier iterations, but only now am I reasonably confident that I am doing it correctly.

Currently, I cannot disconnect from these Clique Spaces; I believe this is a trivial enhancement, and is one that has been working in previous iterations.

Now, I've partially integrated the Agent Collaboration mechanism into the Agent Collaboration Clique Space. Much of the Agent Collaboration concept was realised by last April when after that date, I began to put together the Clique Space. So, the Agent Collaboration was put aside from then until now, but I have returned to it and am using the lessons I learned about the implementation of the Clique Space to integrate the Agent Collaboration.

So, I think I almost have the framework of a proven concept. Once I have integrated the Agent Collaboration, I believe I can expose Agent Device functionality in a collection of Enabling Constraints which are associated with the Media Profile of the "Remote Client". The remote client is the first Media Profile, and encodes the functioning of the Agent Device itself.

Every component here except the Enabling Constraints has been implemented, but I remain confident that the Enabling Constraints will have their deliverance.