NoseRub is a project started by Dirk Olbertz of Blogscout fame. The idea of NoseRub is that it works as a protocol to aggregate data of decentralized social networks. If you want to check it out, the code of a sample application in its early stages is hosted at Google Code. The goal of NoseRub is that everyone can manage and/or host his/her own social network. By separating the profile, the network, and the data, everything will become portable to a great extent. You stay in control of your data, and if any of your friends update their data, these changes will automagically be incorporated into your app.
NoseRub was shown in public for the first time at BarCamp Cologne 2 (one of the most eagerly awaited sessions), where we could see the sample app on two local webservers. It was built around the CakePHP framework, so the structure of the code is very clearly laid out. Of course, because of its early status, many questions arose at the BarCamp session which need to be clarified and resolved (security concerns, technical specifiations). But all in all, the presentation left most of the participants in awe and/or enthusiasm. And so, like many others might already have done or will do within the next few days, I downloaded and installed NoseRub on my local server. What can I say, it works great even in its raw state. My guess is, that developers will improve it very quickly, add new services along the way, so that by the end of the year we should have a great application that helps us take over control over our social networks. Dirk published a quick tour of the sample app, check it out. I will certainly post more about NoseRub, so stay tuned.
My reason for attending this sessions: What can we, Serendipity users, learn from Movable Type 4? Any cool new features inthe backend and so on. Ok, here weg go:
- MT4 is open source (MT3 wasn't)
- Navigation menu at the top
- Media upload via a Lightbox like overlay
- Images can be tagged, too
- Extended entry via tabs, reduces space
- Rich text editor with the options to display HTML, Textile etc. (this might be useful for some)
- You can restrict HTML tags for comments
- Stats on the admin area frontpage: daily/monthly posts, comments, tags, visits (via plugin)
- Categorize audio and video media files ("assets")
- The multiblog functionality looks great; spam comments can be weeded out for all installed blogs with one click
Conclusion: There doesn't seem to be anything in MT4 that S9y can't do or can do even better ;O) But the backend is slicker than S9y's admin area, I must admit. Anway, I really should do a S9y session on my next BarCamp because almost noone knows about its great features. The plugin system (Spartacus) seems to be the stand-out feature and is connected to S9y by others. So we (S9y users and devs) should see to it that it remains this way, and we should try to improve the backend. But a lot of work in this field is undertaken right now, e.g. plugin administration.
Thanks to Jan Theofel for his presentation.
Guido Karl delivers his talk about the police and web 2.0 now. He wants to prove that the police invented web 2.0 
Promises to become an interesting session.
The police are: pioneers of digital photo archives, live streaming since 1989 (even from helicopters), twittering and blogging for years (press portal), finger print scanning, Internetwache.
Sorry for no updates on my behalf, but I had trouble with the wireless network yesterday, couldn't connect neither on Linux nor Windows. Hope this will get better today. Otherwise, I will post a longer roundup in the next days. Gotta go now.
First session this afternoon: "Planning" the BarCampRhine, BarCamps as new ways/innovators to achieve cross-border relationships and cooperation. Had no wireless internet yesterday, so I'm publishing this now.