A question anyone with a bit of knowledge about these things soon comes up with. What does Clique Space offer that some gadget like an iPhone doesn't?
Clique Space would not compete with a device like an iPhone. As I don't possess an iPhone, I can only say what I have been led to believe one functions as. Therefore, as I understand, an iPhone is a piece of hardware that physically bundles multiple hardware-based media, and allows a user to use their iPhone or similar device to run different applications. An iPhone is versatile within the capabilities of its bundled hardware.
Clique Space is a totally different idea. A Clique Space is an abstraction of any device. A device in the sense of Clique Space is known as a Client Device. A Client Device is anything that can obtain a Connection to a Clique Space. A Client Device may hence be an iPhone, a car, an email server or client, a golf ball, an electronic whiteboard, one's Facebook profile, a concurrent document editing environment, a PC, etc.
A Clique Space Agent Device is also a Client Device in the sense that a Clique Space system is a collection of collaborating Agent Devices. This Agent Collaboration - like any other collaboration - can be modelled as a Clique in Clique Space.
Device vendors (probably Apple in the case of the iPhone) would create a Media Profile that can be installed on a Clique Space. The Media Profile informs the Clique Space how the device and its media works, and how this device might be compatible with other devices. Users obtain Connections to a Clique Space through a Media Profile that their Client Device can use.
The Media Profile customises the behaviour of Clique Space so that all users who possess one or more Client Devices that can display a Clique Space View can see how other Client Devices might work with each. A Clique Space View can also show what one user might be doing with a particular Client Device, and any Cliques which users - yourself and others you have expressed interest in provided you have access to this information - may have engaged compatible media in.
A Clique Space View would represent the activity of any device, even if the Client Devices being observed cannot communicate directly with the Client Device that is conveying this activity to the user through its View. In this sense, Clique Space can also be a powerful tool for the individual user to record interactions with the devices of others if future circumstances require a log of these interactions to be presented.
Clique Space identifies each Client Device to Clique Space users who, connected to a Clique Space through an Account on any one or more Client Devices, can be represented as an individual through their Account, and as a member of an organisation through an Affiliation that they elect to Activate against their Account.
Hence, it can be seen that a Clique Space is not another iPhone or Blackberry; Clique Space is a phenomenon all of its own.
I'll probably talk about Clique Space and Big Bro in my next posting.
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