How do you see Glow?

Do you see Glow as the ground in this picture:

Glow as Earth

or as the walls in this one?

glow as prison

I guess I'm not alone in hoping that the first metaphor is better suited to what Glow will become.

If so, then we need not worry too much about what Glow itself can and can't do internally.  What Glow does well will happen within Glow, and what it doesn't do so well will be done elsewhere. Glow will provide a ground of functionality out of which the interesting stuff can develop. In order for Glow to be successful, based on the first metaphor, we need it to allow the seamless flow of information to and fro between it and the wider Web:  RSS feeds in other words!

Provided we get these facilities, I don't share the concerns of others about Sharepoint as a platform.  Sharepoint can do the boring stuff, which I hope it is fit to do, and the rest can happen wherever works best.


  1. Guess which I'd choose, Robert :-)

    The spirited interchange on my own blog today between Euan Semple, Ewan McIntosh and myself sets out some of the ground that will underpin the 'good' metaphor above. I agree with you on the connections we need to establish between Glow, RSS and all the other functionality we will be either building into the environment or getting to work in tandem with Glow.

  2. Obviously the first JPEG. It is very early to start forming such opinions. Should we not ask this question once the portal has been finalised? We are not finished the trial yet. The trial it’s self is not (quote RM) ‘the real glow’.

  3. Why does everyone read into my post as me bashing Sharepoint?!?! It's just not true!!! ;-)

  4. I'm clearly being too obscure - my post was supposed to be pro-Glow Tess! (Hey - that has a ring to it!)

    I wasn't trying to ask whether Glow is the first or the second now - rather, by putting into pictures two possible views of what Glow might become, I was attempting to clarify that the second possibility is really not an option. It seems to me that the implied concerns about Glow (but not implied by Ewan M of course!) are predicated on an assumption that Glow should provide a comprehensive service. I don't think it needs to - we will still have all of Web2.0 at our disposal.

  5. I may be wrong, but it looks like your tree is dead. It has no foilage on it!
    How about a pod of dolphins as a metaphor for glow?

    They're intelligent, social, friendly, curious, etc.

  6. Oops! I think you might be right Kenneth! I'll change it for another more lively looking one tomorrow! Dolphins are groovy, but I was looking for metaphors for the way that Glow relates to the wider Web. Will it be a wall around us, or will it be a solid foundation from which we can grow out into the Web?


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