You know you've reached some landmark in technology adoption when your Web 2.0 innovation becomes a tool of modern warfare:

Among other things, the Israeli military has started its own YouTube channel to distribute footage of precision airstrikes. And as I type, the Israeli consulate in New York is hosting a press conference on microblogging site Twitter.

You might also be interested in this adjoining article about Al Jazeera's mash-up approach to reporting on Israel's Gaza operation.

Actually, Internet collaboration is hardly a new development in what some military theorists and practitioners call "fourth generation warfare," abbreviated 4GW. (Which is now upgraded, in conflicts like Somalia's civil war, to 5GW). Revolutionaries long ago embraced instant messaging, discussion forums, and streaming video. Micro-blogging, whether used by the insurgents or the counterinsurgents, is just another potential edge in the information war.

Forrester colleague Oliver Young makes a convincing argument about widgets and mash-ups:

In a business context this style of data and content presentation can be tremendously valuable, despite the relative simplicity of the application. Think of this same graphic with sales data versus plan, feature burn down rate, or project milestones over time. This information is available today, of course, however the presentation of that data is not nearly as elegant or accessible. Business intelligence software — which this application most closely resembles — is not yet focused on these simple, business-friendly applications, and thus far no mashup or widget vendors have focused on this type of solution for the enterprise.

Exactly. The framework, such as enterprise portals, for presenting this kind of information has been around for a while. The real obstacle to the "dashboard dream" has been the cost of building the dashboard--either for each user, or, preferably, by each user.

By Gil Yehuda
Those who drink the Web 2.0 Kool-aid live in a idealistic world where we can mentally connect a great idea to a great implementation of that idea. We live on faith that the great implementation will come, since there are plenty of smart people out there who will eventually figure out how to make value out of technology building blocks. Sometimes our faith is tested when the killer-app does not show up for a long time. But evidence can restore our faith.

By Gil Yehuda

I microblog.

Why? The truth is, I learn by doing and by speaking with others who do. So I dabble with Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, Spoink, Rakawa, Tumblr, Utterli, Yammer, FriendFeed, 12seconds, and probably a few others that I signed up for and forgot to use. I have found a nice collection of people that I like to follow, and some people follow me too. So microblogging appeals to the extrovert in me, and I'm strangely fascinated reading what other people are doing (or what they say they are doing). Narcissism and voyeurism are at play.