Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote a brilliant post the other day about the coming real time web, following comments by Paul Buchheit (inventor of Gmail). Twitter and the Summize acquisition; Friendfeed; and Facebook are the engine room of innovation right now and real time activity streams are now coming to light as the next big thing. (And I know it’s only going to get bigger as the activity strea.ms workgroup are nearing the finalisation of their spec – meaning all websites can offer it in a standardised way.)
Whilst innovation is always a good thing to see, let’s not forget some of the more innovative people in our world actually are the bad guys. Ladies and gentlemen – introducing real time spam.
The screening of the popular new release movie Star Trek was one of the biggest topics being discussed in the Twitter community (a community where the real time web is at its biggest right now). And the spammers have bombarded it.
The Real Time Web has massive opportunity for our society – especially when everyone is connected. But it also makes us vulnerable – as real time means a captured attention from the audience. And like a police car chase constantly trying to out the bad guys, trying to regulate the Real Time Web could be a challenge.
