Respected industry thought leader, Joseph Smarr, announced on his blog today that he is leaving Comcast-acquired Plaxo to join Google and help drive the company's next steps in the social web. Smarr has been a key innovator in the OpenID , Oauth and related technical movements. Smarr's work is all about enabling innovation by making it easy for users to move data from site to site. Sponsor While noting Google's support for specific open web technologies, Smarr also said: "Getting the future of the Social Web right - including identity, privacy, data portability, messaging, real-time data, and a distributed social graph - is just as important, and the industry is at a critical phase where the next few years may well determine the platform we live with for decades to come. " Smarr was the first non-founding employee of Plaxo, a dynamic contact management service that was once the darling of Silicon Valley, and then became its spammy boogeyman, and was finally acquired by Comcast 18 months ago . Plaxo was co-founded by Napster co-founder Sean Parker and was backed by Sequoia Capital, the fund that backed Google and YouTube. Chris Messina , fellow open-web leader and the self-described evangelist that helped turn Smarr from the dark side of Plaxo's early days ("champions of the open web can come from all corners," he told us), said of the move: "Smarr joining Google is a logical next step for him - I think he's done great work at Plaxo with John McCrea, but advancing the open web has not been able to be his priority since he took on the CTO role there." Kaliya Hamlin , who says she introduced Smarr to the Identity community, said of his move to Google: "His spirit and energy to get things done, work across company boundaries and a deep commitment to open standards innovation will be a great asset for Google. One thing that really stands out for me was his innovation with Microsoft on the Portable Contacts API. That idea originated at the Data Sharing Workshop seeking to make progress on what was possible and within six months under his leadership it was complete." OpenID leader Scott Kveton said this announcement is just the beginning. "That's great news," he told us, "and just the first of more to come I hear. It's going to be down to Google, Microsoft and Facebook. They are hiring all of the people building the open web. I'll be curious to see what kind of impact it has." Smarr photo by Adactio . Discuss

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Google Hires Open Web Leader to For Social Initiatives

"We live in public" isn't just the name of a film; it's an Internet truism. For the past ten years, more and more of us have been using blogging platforms to share the details of our personal and professional lives. With the advent of microblogging, the sharing has escalated to include the most intimate, immediate, and even mundane details of one's daily grind. When pressures abound, venting online is second nature; but oversharing can bear disastrous consequences. The cure? Penzu 's private-by-design, sharable-by-choice blogging software. Sponsor Unlike most modern CMSs (and actually somewhat reminiscent of dotcom-era systems such as Livejournal), Penzu focuses on personal journaling and privacy. The company, a small Canadian outfit which launched last summer, says its posts are private by default. An in spite of its focus on privacy, the system is hardly antisocial. Flickr photos can be imported, and each entry comes with an optional URL for sharing on other networks. The new Penzu Pro features, available for the relatively low price of $19 a year,are pretty useful, as well. With the free version, users can create, save, search and share journal entries. The paid version of the software allows users to also import entires from just about any kind of blog (in case oversharing has been a problem in your past) and export Penzu entries, as well as giving users a slew of customization options, offsite backups and military-grade 256-bit AES encryption for maximum data protection. And just in time for the holidays, Penzu Pro is giftable for the oversharer in your network. We gave Penzu a spin and were impressed by the interface and the entire concept of private blogging. The company has taken something old, given it a beautifully modern UI, added beneficial features and made a useful product that addresses a common problem. Certainly, WordPress, Blogger, and other CMSs allow for locked posts. But the idea of having a separate destination for one's innermost thoughts gives the end user a little more comfort to express himself freely. Give it a spin, and let us know in the comments how the experience feels to you. Discuss

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Is Oversharing a Problem? Try Penzu

Three iPhone application developers are cited in an online petition which asks Apple to approve their apps, all of which have been sitting in limbo for months on end. The developers are awaiting word about their new DJ applications which let users mix loops of their own iTunes tracks stored in their iPhone or iPod Touch's music library. In this case, it's speculated that the holdup either has to do with rights issues surrounding the music or possibly the way the apps in question access the music library. But without word from Apple, the developers can't be sure. The delays have angered fans, too, one of whom created the petition in hopes of forcing Apple's hand. Update: One of the applications was just approved . Click through for more info. Sponsor Why the Delay? The three developers mentioned in the fan-posted petition include Amidio, Pajamahouse Studios, and Musicsoft Arts. All three have created DJ applications which tap into a users' own iTunes library. Unlike the DJ applications already available in the App Store, these new apps let users mix their own tracks while offering features like simultaneous playback of multiple tracks, pitch, fade, tempo, and more. Other DJ applications, on the other hand, only let users mix loops that have no rights associated with them. The rights issue may be one of the problems causing the delays. It's highly likely that the labels don't want their artists' songs to be used in this way without some sort of controls in place - if they deem to allow this type of interaction at all. If that's the case, though, the developers simply want Apple to tell them so. Another explanation for the delay may have to do with Apple's current ban on dual access to the iPhone's music library via third-party applications. In order to work around this ban, the developers came up with an alternative method which involves transferring music over Wi-Fi instead. Of course, Apple may see this "workaround" as just a loophole allowing the developers to break the rules while not technically violating any of Apple's edicts. But again, without word from the company itself, there's no way to be sure. The Petition Although the developers themselves aren't behind the online petition, they've been frustrated for some time regarding the delay. For example, a posting on the Sonorasaurus blog reads: "We have been waiting about 3 months now with no word on if we are approved and when we can release. It is nice to see other people taking issue with Apple's system and their interest in getting DJ apps on the platform. So to whomever thought to include us in their petition: Thank you." The petition itself isn't a kindly-worded plea for Apple's attention either, but an angry letter demanding that attention instead: There are more than 20 million of iPhone and iPod Touch users in the world, but there is no decent DJ MP3 application on iPhone/iPod Touch. Why? Because Apple doesn't approve any of them! At least two quality DJ MP3 applications - Touch DJ (www.amidio.com) and Sonorasaurus (www.sonorasaurus.com) are held "in review" since the beginning of the September. That's 8 weeks in limbo which is insane. The developers of the apps are now facing serious troubles because a lot was invested into the production of the apps. Moreover, Apple doesn't specify any reasons for such delays. There's simply no information about what is going on. This is all really weird and absolutely unfair. Later, the petition writer adds that they had become aware of a third application, DJ Player, which was also waiting approval. Similar Apps Already Approved What's really strange about this current delay, writes a blogger on Sonorasaurus.com (the app from Pajamahouse Studios), is that there are applications which have already been approved by Apple that offer similar features as their new app. For example, the Quixpin DJ uses the same mixing feature, Deadmau5 Mix uses the same packaged songs feature, and Air Sharing uses the same file uploading via HTTP feature. And Musicsoft Arts already has an app called the DJ Spooky The Secret Song which uses the same codebase as the yet-to-be-approved DJ Player application. UPDATE: Oddly enough, of the three apps in question, Amidio's application was approved first, having just launched today in the App Store. Are the others far behind? Did the petition catch Apple's eye or is this just a coincidence? We'll have to stay tuned to the other developers' websites and Twitter accounts to know for sure. Fans Care, Too Regardless of what happens, though, it's an interesting development to see fans getting involved in complaining to Apple instead of just the developers themselves. Although we've already seen high-profile pull-outs from notable Apple developers like Joe Hewitt who created the iPhone's Facebook application and Rogue Amoeba's Paul Kafasis who quit after a three-and-a-half month delay in app approval, we've rarely heard complaints from users outside the tech blogosphere demanding the same. Could this mean "regular" folks are now becoming aware of Apple's issues too? Possibly. The 272 people who have signed the petition aren't all Apple developers or tech pundits. They're just people who want these apps approved. Hat tip to iLounge for pointing to this petition. Discuss

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Online Petition Demands Apple Approve iPhone Apps