is it possible that you can provides invites to the groups noted -- wallop, okrut?

thanks much, ahlen j
ahlenjbr | 08.18.05 - 10:41 am | #

Yeah, that's true. Yahoo! 360 is like it, but is based on an HTML interface. Wallop is based on a more dynmaic Flash interface. Problem is, Yahoo! 360 integrates in the Yahoo! network, but wallop does not integrate into Microsoft .NET Passport system. Music is not in 360, I believe. Nor gifts or links. Also, wallop is much faster than 360 (in respect to the flash interface)

Also, great blog you got here.
Shuai
Shuai | Homepage | 06.06.05 - 2:21 pm | #

Thank you Kevin. I've been playing with Wallop this morning and there are some pretty cool UI features.
Lee Odden | Homepage | 06.06.05 - 8:42 am | #

Alfred is sorta right. Wallop is a research project. The researchers tweak it from time to time, adding or changing features that they want to experiment with and learn about. It was never intended to be a "product beta" that "shipped" one day, though the team certainly expects that learnings, and perhaps features, of Wallop make it into products (i.e. it isn't just about writing research papers for them). The Wallop team talks to a number of Microsoft product groups on a pretty much constant basis to share their learnings and get feedback on where to take it from there. It's a great partnerships that both sides benefit from. But as long as the social computing research group continues to do research in this domain, they will need a research testbed in which to do it, and Wallop provides that for them on an ongoing basis.
Kevin Schofield | Homepage | 06.06.05 - 12:08 am | #

Thank you for your comments Alfred. I was hoping to get feedback from someone at Microsoft.

I'll be curious to see if some Wallop funtionality appears in MSN Spaces and Longhorn.
Lee Odden | Homepage | 06.05.05 - 2:11 pm | #

I don't know what the official plans are but I would not expect to see Wallop open up as more than a research project. MSN Spaces is the product blog and picture space for Microosft right now. Some of the key Wallop people are now part of the Windows group so it would not surprise me if some of the UI learnings showed up in Longhorn. And I believe that the Social Computing people and the MSN people talk so maybe some features from Wallop will shop up in Spaces as well. But a lot of research projects are all about the learning and not much about becoming a product.
Alfred Thompson | Homepage | 06.05.05 - 6:45 am | #