Looking at what said Tim Berners-Lee on Web 2.0: "nobody even knows what it means". There is an interesting article relating this story at http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060901-7650.html
which has been written by Nate Anderson.

Let me quote what TBL said "When asked if it's fair to say that the difference between the two might be fairly described as "Web 1.0 is about connecting computers, while Web 2.0 is about connecting people," Berners-Lee replied, "Totally not. Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is of course a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people. But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along. And in fact, you know, this 'Web 2.0,' it means using the standards which have been produced by all these people working on Web 1.0."

The term "middleware" has been widely used for many years while people are still using it with different meanings. Looking at Wikipedia, it is said:

"Middleware is computer software that connects software components or applications. It is used most often to support complex, distributed applications. It includes web servers, application servers, content management systems, and similar tools that support application development and delivery. Middleware is especially integral to modern information based on XML, SOAP, Web services, and service-oriented architecture."

I was following a blogging path from BarCamp Ireland and landed at an Irish site where I got some ideas for this blog.

http://www.argolon.com/2006/08/20/ict-champions-scheme/

ICT Ireland met to try to scope out a new initiative to encourage the take-up of home computers in Ireland and to further develop computer competence in the community sector. The aim is to help employers and employees improve their general ICT skills.

I'm here at the Helsinki School of Economics presenting at the HSE - 2006 | CKIR Workshop in Helsinki 29-30 August, 2006 which has a theme this year of "The challenge of 'Open Innovation' to firms, regions and public agencies' and a number of the presentations [pdf], are attempting to look at the changing nature of service and business development, work and technology in the Internet world.

Into the earlier morning session and I need to follow up on
The Wisdom of Crowds
and
Europe INNOVA initiative presents the first comprehensive cluster mapping report in the EU-10 new Member States

With the Finnish launch on November 20th, 2006 of a European Network of Living Labs, this IST Event 2006 European Network of Living Labs session is an important close relation to the event.

It’s summertime and the living is easy. Nobody has time for blogging, social collaboration and creative problem solving. All the opportunities have been taken to the beach or to the typical Finnish summer cottages in the middle of nowhere at a quiet lake and no-one else than your closest friends and family at a miles distance. The less we do, more good things happen. There is ceasefire in Middle-East from this morning -- and that just happened. Even those trigger happy people down there got tired of killing each other, which is great. Peaceful cooperation might render better results in the long run.

Reading the Shanghai Daily, dated Wednesday 19 July 2006,beside the 37.4° C it is said that "China's economy surged 10.9 percent in the first half of this year".
"The National Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday that the nation's gross domestic product jumped to US$1.14 trillion between January and June."
Further to this Yan Zhen has written a very interesting article entitled "Innovation the Next Challange" where he is reporting that the top challenge for Chinese universities over the next 10 years is teaching students to be innovative and think critically as it has been said by University Presidents from both home and abroad at the University Presidents Forum weeklong session in Shanghai.

I noted with interest this news item Microsoft, Lessig Launch New Creative Commons Copyright Tool posted relatively recently to the AMI communities site, and attempted an install.

Not a particlarly quick or simple task in the end. Here was my experince.

To download the tool you must visit the Microsoft Download Center
Office Add-in: Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office

One very important item to note, you must have Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 installed on your machine first.
To get it there are two further downloads you must make
1) Microsof .NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package
2) Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1

Can the United Europe and United States remain competitive as 3 billion people in Asia rapidly enter the global economy? It's a question asked by many people across market segments, including IT personnel who worry about offshore outsourcing and the jobs threat that poses.

What are the European numbers?

The national academies' report points out that China and India combined graduate 950,000 engineers every year, compared with 70,000 in America; that for the cost of one chemist or engineer in the U.S. a company could hire five chemists in China or 11 engineers in India; that of the 120 $1 billion-plus chemical plants being built around the world one is in the United States and 50 are in China.

I'm not talking about the ancient Systems Network Architecture "renassience" :-))

The acronym stands for Social Networks Analysis... I think the efforts many people are investing in the development of visualization tools and their integration within social networking servcices e.g. for assesing community facilitators could be a useful innovation approach for collaborative networked environments in the virtual enterprise.