Weekly Wrapup: The Week in Web Technology

The big news of the week was Google's efforts to remove censorship from its search results in China - read on for our coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things.

Note: We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format.

Sponsor

Story of the Week: Google vs. China

• Chinese Hacker Behind Google Attack Found


• Despite Tough Talk, Google Still Censoring in China


• Italy Attacks Web Democracy with Google Convictions

More China coverage and analysis

Historic Conversation in NYC: Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey & Richard MacManus

On March 15, at the prestigious Paley Center in New York City, a conversation will take place between Chinese digital activist and artist Ai Weiwei, Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey, and yours truly, Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb founder and editor in chief. The moderator will be Orville Schell, the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York.

The topic of the event is the emergence of digital activism for fostering positive social change. The onsite event is invitation only, but it will be live streamed exclusively on ReadWriteWeb on Monday, March 15, at 6:30 PM EST (-5 GMT), from the Paley Center for Media, New York City.

Mobile Web

• The Truth about Mobile Application Stores


• Mobile Cloud Computing: $9.5 Billion by 2014


• Our Hottest New iPhone App Discoveries: February Edition

More Mobile Web coverage

Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App

We recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app. As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes.

Internet of Things

• Everyware: Interview with Adam Greenfield, Part 1


• Why The iPad May Save The Internet Fridge


• Are Modern Web Apps Killjoys?

More Internet of Things coverage

Real-Time Web

• Google Takes First Shot at Facebook Search Results


• How the Real-Time Web Will Impact Social Change


• Buzrr Wants to Be Tweetmeme for Google Buzz

More Real-Time Web coverage. Don't miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb's report, The Real-Time Web and its Future.

ReadWriteStart

Our channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

• Never Mind the Valley: Here's Washington DC


• What's In A Name? For Startups, It's Crucial


• Startup Visa Introduced: Is it a No-Brainer?

ReadWriteEnterprise

Our channel ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' and using social software inside organizations.

• Are The Fortune 100 Now Beginning To Embrace Social Media Tools?


• Is Jive Software Taking Steps Toward An IPO?

ReadWriteCloud

Our channel ReadWriteCloud, sponsored by VMware and Intel, IS dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing.

• Weekly Poll: Why Is Apple Building a Massive, $1 Billion Data Center


• A First Look at Apple's Massive Data Center


• Microsoft to Government CIOs: Choice is Here

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Discuss

http://bit.ly/9c0dvt

Open Thread: PRManna - Copy Cat or Inspiration?

Earlier this month we noticed PRManna climbing up the Hacker News front page and reached out to the creator for an interview. Ryan Waggoner started PRManna in his spare time and was open in saying that the project was inspired by Peter Shankman's Help a Reporter Out. The difference between PRManna and HARO is that Waggoner's product was specifically meant for startup companies to answer blogger and journalist tech queries. Whereas, HARO is a general news service. The question is, are the sites far enough apart to be considered different products?

Sponsor

In the Hacker News thread Waggoner acknowledges that in the time that he'd developed his site, Shankman's HARO had transitioned from a listserv to a more comprehensive tool saying, "Unfortunately, I took a look at HARO today and they've apparently launched something very similar, rather than just the old mailing list that I was competing against. So what do you think of this? Should I just drop it or should I add features to make it more valuable? Alternatively, is there something else I could use it for?"

As of today Waggoner may not have the opportunity to change tactics. The developer wrote a blog post detailing a cease and desist letter sent by Shankman's lawyer. As a community with your finger on the pulse of tech launches and entrepreneurial resources, we want to know whether or not you believe Shankman's takedown notice is warranted. Let us know in the comments below.

Discuss

http://bit.ly/b80T6w

Now Silverlight Does Augmented Reality Too

Last year, the ARToolkit, a fundamental building block for creating augmented reality applications, was ported to Flash in the form of the FLARToolkit. This was a watershed moment for AR, as it became exponentially easier for Flash developers to create their own augmented reality experiences. Before then, AR had been a high-tech concept that experienced developers and companies had been experimenting with; by becoming more accessible to Flash developers, AR took off in popularity last year.

Sponsor

Now, in 2010, the ARToolkit has once again been ported, this time to Microsoft's Silverlight platform. German .Net developer Rene Schulte recently released the SLARToolkit which will allow augmented reality applications to run in Silverlight.

"SLARToolkit is a flexible Augmented Reality library for Silverlight with the aim to make real time Augmented Reality applications with Silverlight as easy and fast as possible," says Schulte. "It can be used with Silverlight's Webcam API or with any other CaptureSource or a WriteableBitmap."

The SLARToolkit supports detection of multiple markers, both from simple black and white, and custom markers, and is based on the Matrix3DEx Silverlight library. The port to Silverlight is another important step for augmented reality, and could lead to the further expansion of AR both on the desktop and on mobile devices running Windows Mobile.

Earlier this month we saw Adobe Flash and AIR gain support on the Android Mobile OS, and Flash on the iPhone has been a recurring rumor since the device was first released. AR may not be the biggest mobile market, or a killer feature for mobile phones, but with the expansion of the ARToolkit to Silverlight, and the Flash support on Android, it has taken a big step toward wider exposure to more users.

SLARToolkit - Silverlight Augmented Reality 3D projection sample from Rene Schulte on Vimeo.

Discuss

http://bit.ly/aCnBrQ

Weekend Reading: Guy Kawasaki Author Spotlight

Highly recognized Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki is not only the author of the inspiringly titled blog How to Change the World, but he has also penned nine books on various business and marketing topics. After attending college at Stanford and receiving his MBA from UCLA, Kawasaki cut his business teeth at a jewelry manufacturer called Nova before eventually being bitten by the "computer bug."

Sponsor

After a brief stint at an educational software company, Kawasaki was hired by Apple where he was responsible for marketing the original Macintosh computer in 1984. After the success seen at Apple in the mid-80s, Kawasaki left and started his own software and database development companies, Fog City Software and ACIUS.

Following a short return to Apple in 1995 "to maintain and rejuvenate the Macintosh cult," Kawasaki started Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage seed fund, with Craig Johnson and Rich Karlgaard in 1997. Today, Kawaski is the Managing Director at Garage, and the co-founder of Alltop, which he describes as "an online magazine rack".

Of Kawasaki's nine books, perhaps the most lauded has been 2004's The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, which is an essential read for any entrepreneur. Kawasaki fills the chapters of his startup handbook with GIST, or Great Ideas for Starting Things, as well as tips on marketing, branding, customer development, pitching, recruiting and any of a number of valuable lessons.

More recently, Kawasaki published Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition, a book focused on a similar vein as 1996's How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit. The book's description says its time for a reality check "if the two most popular words in your company are partner and strategic, and partner has become a verb, and strategic is used to describe decisions and activities that don't make sense."

Kawasaki has tuned his storied marketing history into a successful venture capital and writing career. These books and others, including Rules for Revolutionaries and The Macintosh Way, have provided excellent resources for entrepreneurs and startups, and are must-reads for anyone starting any kind of business.

Discuss

http://bit.ly/9BfPwc