Along came the Implicit Web

A conference about the implicit web inspired me to finally start this blog. The concept isn't very well defined yet, but then again, how much fun would that be?

"Implicit Web" caught my attention because it captures so well what we're doing at Openwater -- building service networks that connect people and information to create better service.

And right there you have an example; how do you know if service is better? That's simple, you conduct a survey. Or do you? Well, I don't know about you, but personally, I detest surveys. And I get really mad at software like WebEx's Meeting Manager that insists on a survey after every single meeting. And rating those movies on Netflix gets old quickly, too. Surveys are annoying exactly because they require you to be explicit.

So how about analyzing service network activity and creating implicit measures of quality?

Take online forums: How long does it take for a question to get an answer? Is it really an answer? How many people read that answer? How many people link to it? Does anyone write "thank you"? Do they come back?

Or take a technique called Search Analytics, explained eloquently here by Gery Angel. How often do users type slight variations of a search query? How many queries return any results at all? Do users click the first, the second or the third search result?

There are endless possibilities in measuring service quality alone, which in itself is only a small but necessary part of what we do. Which brings me back to the reason for starting this blog -- "implicit web" seems to cover a whole swath of subjects we're working on at Openwater. Stay tuned for more.