I often lament the lack of innovation in the blogosphere, both in the the products that we are developing and those applications that we choose to report on. Everyday, it seems, we spend an inordinate amount of time rehashing the same old news about the same old things that the same tech pundits have feigned weary interest in.

The problem, I am continuing to discover, is not with the technology. The problem lies squarely with us. To make my point more clear, I wanted to show you some amazing examples of how web technologies are being researched and applied to change society in ways that a soc net for Race Horse enthusiasts just can’t.

Shift Space

I like the idea of mass personalization of the web, Shift Space is a step in that direction. This open source platform allows you to personalize any website that you are on. It’s like a more robust version of Greasemonkey. You can set down notes, highlight text, move images around and even hack the page’s source code. In short, you can take complete control over your web experience.

On top of that, the open API means that anyone can create new ways to manipulate data using it.

Mobile Devices In Society

Learn a bit more about how mobile technology is touching culture. A really compelling look at how mobile technology is actually becoming a universally appreciated, universally desired human survival tool. Here are a few show notes.

The three most important things that human beings carry,

• Keys
• Money
• Mobile Phone

We can learn about how the art of delegation can help you “never forget.”

Millions of people manage contact information without being able to read or write.

Complex social structures are developing through using the mobile phone.

What does it mean when the notion of identity is mobile?

Tangible Augmented Reality System

Augmented Reality combines the real world with computer generated overlays. It’s purpose is to allow human beings to take some of the usefulness of computing into reality with them. Imagine being able to see the prices of items just by looking at them through augmented reality sunglasses. This video shows some research that is being done in the field and an experimental user input device that has come out of it.

Semantic Search

One of the big reasons that a lot of tech journalists don’t report on the meaty computer science research is because academia has the uncanny ability of making research material completely unviewable.

This is a good example of that as well as being a great introduction to the Semantic Web through the use of a collaborative research program called Spire. A few landmarks to keep you awake long enough to see the entire thing,

ELVIS isn’t dead, he is being used to describe ecosystem food chains for biologists and computer scientists.

OWLs can help us to ask questions about Heron’s dietary habits.

Swoggle is a Semantic Search engine in dire need of a different name.

Web 2.0 Roundup

This brief tour was designed to show you despite what we might think innovation is everywhere if you are only willing to look for it. If not, I am sure Facebook has done something today to deserve a few gallons of ink.

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