One month ago when I was invited by Dylan Schiemann to blog on Comet Daily, I thought, “Wow, this is a great responsibility.” I’m a very active writer in web sites, sometimes in the form of articles, product announcements and comments, but doing so in first person (using blog format) and in a timely manner is different.

Server-push is not new for me. Many years ago I was involved in a project trying to do a web-based framework for alert notifications with real-time behavior using the “never ending page” hack based on the ideas of Comet pioneer Just van den Broecke and his Pushlets. Fortunately those days are gone and now we have Ajax to do decent server-push.

Comet is the missing part of the web, a web mainly passive and “pull”, used by isolated users. I think Comet, one of the most interesting and useful technologies, will change heavily how the web is designed and used, creating a web with real-time capabilities, instant communications with other users including a special “person”, the server, now with an active role, using only web technologies very well integrated and transparent to the user.

My self-assigned role in Comet Daily will be to promote Comet in the Java space. I’m the author of ItsNat, a young Java web framework with Comet capabilities, an in my first article I will explain how ItsNat fits in the Comet technology scenario and specifically in Comet Daily.