Best of this Week Summary 07 January - 13 January 2008

• The DataPortability.org is a quite recently started organisation that is trying to define the end-to-end data portability of identity, making use of existing technologies (like RSS, OpenID etc) as much as possible. Biggies that joined this organisation already are for example Google, Facebook and Plaxo.
  


• Great article on the motivations and issues on the apparent move to the new web development platforms and architectures like PHP, Ruby, RoR, REST and WOA. Also includes a simple example how you can really quickly create a RoR application and use its auto-generated REST API.
  


• Nice story/blog of a (Ror) webapp Pulse (it is a web-based cash flow management tool that allows you to easily monitor the heartbeat of your small business -- your cash) that was built in one month. Includes tools used etc. They used Basecamp to communicate and collaborate between teammembers during the project.
  


• Here's a good bunch of Javascript optimalisation tips for IE from Cyra Richardson, Senior Program Manager Lead on the IE team.
  


• Impressive stats on the data Google processes using MapReduce technologies for their indexing and searching.
  


• Short piece on how The Burton Group sees REST might be replacing SOA. Interesting is the example that explains how REST requires a different way of thinking (though I don't agree you should completely let the OO mindset go):
  Quote: "A REST application to turn on and off the lights in your building will require you to design a URI for every light bulb and then you send it on/off messages," [...] "It's not like I have a single service that manages all my light bulbs. It's a very different approach to designing a system. And it's going to be really hard for developers to get their hands around it."