At this day and age, I’m quite surprised that even just a concept of the Weave has been so widely accepted into the world. With viruses and hackers running rampant, I didn’t realize that our metadata was vulnerable enough to have to be stored on a server, as opposed to in our brains. It really does seem like our future is here now – doesn’t it?

Mozilla Weave

Source: http://people.mozilla.com/~cbeard/weave/weave-logo.jpg

The Weave is a new project introduced by Mozilla, which promises to sync all your metadata (saved passwords, cookies, all that good stuff) with a server – preferably your own, yet possibly ones provided by Mozilla – with both being available. How considerate! This means that all your data will be available when you open a Firefox session, and will be automatically synced – wherever you are – including at a restaurant on in your dear grandmother’s house for a nice family gathering.

My main concern with this is how the metadata will be accessed in a secure method. I would assume since metadata consists of such important information, it will be a very sought-after target for hackers. Will the metadata be accessed via a username and password, or will there be a more creative, original method of access? The metadata will all be stored on a server, and you have a choice of either using your own or one provided by Mozilla. I’d like to see how Mozilla handles the situation of teaching an average user how to create their own server, or use part of their computer to store or stream the metadata elsewhere.

Mozilla Weave Services Overview

Source: http://people.mozilla.com/~cbeard/weave/services-overview-v1.png

The actual server should be very safe from intruders otherwise – if Gmail can keep such large volumes of data safe, I believe that Mozilla, a company so successful with their secure browser Firefox, then I think that they can do the same, if not better, with Weave – where they realize security will be an issue. I also think that this will grow to be a convenient service, but I don’t think it will be a revolutionary one. It’s a step in the right direction though.

Weave provides a promising look into the future, but I’m not sure whether it will be one for better or for worse. Such a tactic makes me wonder if humans are getting lazier – so lazy that they are unable to memorize a few passwords – but alas, that’s a total other social issue. I think it will be great for collaborative purposes as well, as partners will be able to use each other’s data to collect information twice as fast, essentially. What convenience, and what a conception.

Official Information:

http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/12/introducing-weave/

Day-to-day Applications/Use Cases:

https://labs.mozilla.com/forum/index.php/topic,392.0.html