Alex Iskold

Six month ago, Alex Iskold (pictured) switched from J2EE Grid Computing to Web 2.0, JavaScript and Firefox extension development. He has been writing in Web 2.0 Journal about his experiences - see "From J2EE to JavaScript". Through this transition, I am continuing to have a feeling... (more)

It has been just two years since Firefox appeared on the scene, but this Mozilla browser has surely changed the rules of the game. Firefox brought back the spirit, the innovation and the crowds of followers. Firefox is not only the underdog we are routing for, it is a movement th... (more)

With this article I hope to reach out to the companies and thought leaders working in the attention space and start the dialog on the infrastructure for the Attention Economy. Note that the views presented in this article are my own and do not represent the views of the Attention... (more)

Last week I wrote here about the need to work out the "architecture of attention." This week I will focus on a specific application attention platform – personalization. My article last week generated really interesting and important discussion about the the value of attent... (more)

Alex Iskold (pictured), Contibuting Editor to SYS-CON Media's Web 2.0 Journal, writes: I had an interesting chat last night with Chris Saad of Touchstone about their platform and the attention market. The conversation was prompted by the announcement on TechCrunch that one of the... (more)

Just a few days ago I wrote an article about Amazon Web Services stack, in which I praised Amazon's vision and ability to deliver elegant, generic web services platform of the future. In the end of the article I mentioned that it will be difficult for Google and Microsoft to catc... (more)

I am biased writing this article because my company is a big user of Amazon Web Services. But please read on and see why I am so excited about what the largest online retailer is doing these days. Not only Amazon is the real Web Services company now, it is becoming an icon for th... (more)

One of the things that attracts us all to web 2.0 is that it is slick. Stuff pops up, floats, appears and disappears showcasing us the power of effects possible with today's JavaScript. We sit there in awe, thinking, wow, that was cool! Cool is what compels us to give it a try. C... (more)

The Web 2.0 bookshelf We are expecting another baby, so I was just moving my office from the second floor to our newly finished basement. I am not complaining since the basement turned out to be quite awesome. Its big, bright. clean and, most importantly, conducive to some major ... (more)

Pattern: Concurrent Document Loader Problem: Need to load multiple documents and can't proceed until all of them are loaded Example: Load configuration files for an AJAX application Introduction AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript processing with XML. It is the asynchronous par... (more)

In the beginning of 2006, Alex Iskold - after spending the last 10 years of his career programming in Java - took off his Java hat and started a Web 2.0 company called adaptiveblue. In this Web 2.0 Journal exclusive, he shares his insights on transitioning from Java into the Web ... (more)

Web 2.0 Journal Contributing Editor Alex Iskold (pictured) writes:  We are observing the transformation of the web from an ecosystem into an operating system. Building blocks such as websites, blogs, web services, podcasts and RSS are coming together and give rise to a new comput... (more)

In 1998, I got my hands on Mitchell Waldrop's book called 'Complexity'. Ever since, I've been on an amazing journey discovering one of the most profound developments in modern science. Complexity, or more formally, the study of complex systems, is about unifying themes that run t... (more)

During the nineties boom days, one of my friends told me: Soon your refrigerator will be connected to the Internet. It will talk to the computer at the supermarket and send it the list of things that need to be replenished. It will also check the latest rating information on the ... (more)