207 King Development Blog

Have you ever wondered what your current website looked like before? The Wayback Machine let’s you travel back in time and look at archived versions of websites. Think about how your hairstyle and clothing have changed over the last 5 years - the Internet is no different! Much like the mullet haircut and acid wash jeans, I am sure that you will find some versions of websites that will make you ask - what were they thinking?

The Wayback Machine is an invention of the Internet Archive. Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive is a non-profit that was created to build an Internet library with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. You can now find archives for texts, audio, moving images, software, as well as archived web pages.

Are you curious to see what your competitor’s website looked like last month, last year or 5 years ago? Take a little time today to visit The Wayback Machine and peer into the past of some of your favourite websites. I am sure that you will find some skeletons in the closet and have a good laugh in the process!

After getting past the resume and interview stages some employers are not hiring potential employees because of their online social media profiles. Although this is not common practice, viewing someone’s Facebook, MySpace, YouTube or Twitter account is quite easy - and some employers are definitely taking advantage of this fact.

With more companies promoting themselves through social media, the professional and personal lines are being blurred. Granted there are ways to increase security on your accounts, you still have to be mindful of the content you choose to post. The pictures of you, from your wild partying days, might come back to haunt you … especially in today’s competitive job market.

The city of Bozeman, Montana, took this practice one step further and asked potential employees to sign a background check waiver and submit all usernames and passwords to all social networking sites.

An excerpt from the background waiver is listed below:

“Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.,”

After a community uproar, the practice was suspended last Friday June 19, 2009! read more.

The Internet can be an open book so remember that potential employers could be doing more than just calling your references.

YouTube is the industry leader for pre-recorded online video, but Justin.tv claims to be the innovator in online LIVE streaming video. Justin.tv uses live streaming video feeds which enable users to follow people, sports, video games, etc… in real time. Users are also encouraged to make comments about the video feeds in real time, which appear in a chat box beside the video player.

Created in 2006 by a team of MIT and Yale graduates, the Justin.tv platform pushes more than 177 Gbps of video at peak usage - the equivalent of 16,946 standard DVD’s per hour. With more than 41 million unique visitors per month and 428,000 channels broadcasting live, users can create real-time connections with others around the world.

The video feeds are divided into the following categories:

• Social
• Entertainment
• Gaming
• Sports
• News and Events
• Animals
• Science and Tech
• Educational
• Storm Chasers

I will admit that this service seems a little intrusive and odd, but people are producing content and are willing to have their lives on display. With this service you could actually watch paint dry … FOR HOURS ON END!

I am not sure if this is the evolution or the regression of online streaming video, but you can check it out and form your own opinions at www.justin.tv.

This year the London Fringe Festival invades London and promises to capture your imagination and attention!. This year’s theme is “Fringe X” and the website was designed based on inspiration from the artwork of Walter Sayers.

The offical launching for Fringe X is Thursday June 18th at 7:30pm. The Fringe will make you laugh, cry, sing, dance and scream, (both for joy and fear).

The London Fringe Festival is the eighth largest festival of its kind in Canada. Fringe theatre is an outlet for alternative theatre, or entertainment that is not the mainstream. The festival allows artists to produce a wide variety of interesting works. Visitors can expect poetry slams, art shows, plays, films and much more when they attend this festival, which are held at different venues throughout London.

For more information or to get involved please visit the London Fringe Festival Website. Get ready for the invasion of the Fringe X Martians and prepare to bask in the warm glow of happiness! Resistance is FUTILE!

Late last week Google unveiled what they consider the future of online communication - “Google Wave”. The service seems to combine Gmail and Google Docs into an interesting free form workspace. Within this environment, people are able to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss recent news.

With Google Wave you can create a wave and add people to it. Everyone in your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and event feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly.

The service incorporates real time updates, so you can instantly see what your fellow collaborators are working on. You can also use the “Playback” option to see how the wave has evolved.

Google Wave is a platform with a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) that allow developers to embed waves into other web services and to build extensions that work inside of waves. The service is currently available in a developer preview as the API’s and product continue to evolve.

By targeting the developer community, before the official launch later this year, Google is hoping to have a dynamic new platform that will be embraced quickly.

Please visit the Google Blog for more information on Google Wave or consult the Wave Developer Guide to learn more about the capabilities of the API’s.

This new service might set the benchmark for online collaboration and I think it will definitely gain a large audience quickly. Keep your eyes open for the launch later this year!

The iPhone, iPods and Blu-ray players are all new technologies that have touched our lives, but what about the innovative products that didn’t make it?. Let’s visit the Technology Graveyard and pay our respect to the top five technological “advances” that are no longer with us.

• Number 5 - Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard - I must admit when this product came out I was impressed and I thought this would actually catch on. Much like the keyboard debate that exists in the mobile device world, people were reluctant to part with the tactile feel for typing.
• Number 4 - iPod Toilet Paper Holder - I really don’t think this is an Apple approved product. This product is purely foolish and it leads me to wonder - how this ever made it to production.
• Number 3 - Toshiba Gaming Helmet - Gaming enthusiasts are always looking for a way to enhance their gaming experience. But unless you have strong neck muscles, this idea was definitely not going to work. This helmet looks like something right out of a bad “Back to the Future” flashback!
• Number 2 - Betamax - Sony’s first videocassette format hit the market in 1975, but lost a fierce marketing/format war to JVC’s VHS format. After a few futile attempts to save the format it was retired. Oddly enough, VHS has now been retired and it seems that DVD’s are quickly being replaced by blu-ray technology. Who can keep up?
• Number 1 - The Segway - Do we really need to say anything here? This invention was supposed to revolutionize the way we commute. The hype was obviously better than the reality and only 50,000 units have been shipped to date. Although the product has been around since 2001, the company is still not profitable and deserves its place in the “Technology Graveyard”.

I am sure that there are many others, so take some time and reflect on some of the current technological “innovations” that are destined to be buried in the Technology Graveyard.

This week marks the launch of Wolfram|Alpha, which claims to be an intelligent search engine. Actually Wolfram|Alpha does not use the term “search engine”; instead it refers to its service as a computational knowledge engine.

How is this different?

Wolfram|Alpha generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links. It claims to have to ability to perform complex math calculations, complete comparisons, and offer detailed historical information.

Seems like a great idea - and definitely the evolution of online informational searches.

However…

After reading the Wolfram Blog leading up to this launch, I expected great things! I tried the service to compare a few things, and find out some basic information. The service produced NO RESULTS for the majority of my search queries.

Not a good first impression - but it is not all bad! For mathematical computations and basic comparisons, such as cities and countries - it was amazing!

I assume this service will get better as the database grows - so give it a try at www.wolframalpha.com and form your own opinion!

After hearing about the success of Facebook and other social networking sites, many people believe that they can jump on the bandwagon and cash in quickly.

This is definitely NOT the case!

Many of the social networking sites that generate revenue now … operated for many years losing money. However, there are a few models that can be used to create a profitable platform.

• The Sponsorship Model - Getting sponsors/investors is the best way to get your network up and running. By approaching people that are interested in the subject matter of your community, you can get them to offer you start up capital. One of the downfalls of this model is that you are dealing with something intangible and your investors must believe in your vision.
• The Membership Model - Charging membership fees can generate funds, but most people believe the Internet should be free and will resist paying to belong to a community. One way around this is to build your client base through tiered access. With tiered access, the basic membership is free and a premium is charged for upgrades or additional features.
• The Advertising Model - Many people try to jump directly to this step and end up failing. Advertisers typically become interested in a community once you have built up a significant audience and they can see the value of marketing to them. Advertisers will want demographic information about your network to ensure your community is a good fit for their product or service.

There are a few common truths about building an online community:

• Make as few restrictions to membership as possible - make access to your community free and easy
• Remember that it takes time to build up your membership base
• Don’t expect to make back your initial investment quickly

If you travel down the online community path, make sure you are familiar with the potential roadblocks that await you! My advice is to be - persistent, patient and passionate … and you could find success!

The Obama administration’s recently launched official Flickr photostream was just the beginning. On Friday, the tech-savvy administration announced the roll-out of ‘White House 2.0.’

“Technology has profoundly impacted how - and where - we all consume information and communicate with one another. WhiteHouse.gov is an important part of the Administration’s effort to use the internet to reach the public quickly and effectively - but it isn’t the only place.”

The blog post contains links to the White House’s pages on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube, and iTunes.

“The White House blog will power a lot of the content in these networks,” the blog post explains, “but we’re looking forward to hearing from our fans, friends and followers.”

“We want to make the White House more open and accessible for the American people,” Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said earlier this week about the administration’s new official Flickr photostream. Making official images available on the photo sharing site “is just one way we are using the Internet and new media technology to accomplish that.”

These excerpts were taken from this cnn.com article from May 1st, 2009.

New media enthusiasts met this past Saturday April 25th, at Station Park All Suite Hotel, for the “unconference” - PodCamp London. PodCamp London brought together people interested in podcasting, blogging, social media and other new technologies that are emerging on the web. The event drew participants from London and surrounding area, as well as Hamilton and Toronto.

The benefit of Podcamp London was for people of varying levels of expertise to come together and learn from each other. The sessions were very interactive and people learned - not only from the presenters - but also from the knowledge base in the rooms. “The Law of Two Feet” - was implemented - meaning that if you were not gaining any value from the session you were in, you were free to move to another ongoing session.

If you were not able to attend, you could still participate as all sessions were streamed live online and questions were encouraged from those watching/participating remotely. Many people sent “tweets”, via twitter, from the sessions to make sure friends and “followers” could also learn from the event.

Thanks to Bill Deys and all of the sponsors for bringing this event to London and I can guarantee that PodCamp London 2010 will be a spectacular event!

To learn more about this event please visit www.podcamplondon.com. I am sure that I will see many of you there next year!