Lightweight Models & Cost-Effective Scalability

37signals [37signals 2010] is a small, web application developing company that was founded in 1999. The company primarily develops business and personal productivity web applications and is also responsible for the launch of open source web application framework software – Ruby on Rails [Ruby on Rails 2010]; arguably a contender itself for this week’s topic. However, the focus this week is on 37signals and a few of the applications the company offers.

37signals’ first and foremost web application – Basecamp [Basecamp 2010], is a project-management tool used by a significant number of big-named companies for its simplicity and efficiency in coordinating input from multiple sources of people.

Another web application – Highrise [Highrise 2010], is a customer relationship management tool that essentially allows customers to know who they talked to, what was said in the exchange, and when to follow-up.

I could go on and list the other applications that 37signals is known for but the main point is that their success, stems from a motivation to make the complicated, simple, and this ideal is supported by just 8 employees [Caplan 2007]. While all the applications from 37signals are web-based and I am aware that one of the major benefits of Web 2.0 is freeware, I firmly believe 37signals is doing the right thing by adopting a subscription based revenue model.

A quick look at the prices shows that pricing is not exorbitant but actually very affordable even for small-time businesses. In fact, the applications can be considered ‘freemium’ because there are basic free plans for each respective application. Apart from that, factor in 37signals’ superb customer service and what we have here is an actual bargain.

So in relation to this week’s topic, is 37 signals’ business model considered ‘lightweight’ and ‘cost-effective’? I certainly think so because they are basically web-based and with such a small number of staff, have plenty of room to grow and expand if they so wish.

I personally believe 37signals will continue to grow in time and while I realise I’m writing about a company, I felt it was apt for this week’s topic especially where cost-effective scalability is concerned. Regardless, do check out some of the applications they have to offer and let me know how it works out for you because they really do seem to define the words “simplistic” and “effective”.

37signals. 2010. http://37signals.com/. Online May 10, 2010.

Ruby on Rails. 2010. http://rubyonrails.org/. Online May 10, 2010.

Basecamp. 2010. http://basecamphq.com/. Online May 10, 2010.

Highrise. 2010. http://highrisehq.com/. Online May 10, 2010.

Caplan, Jeremy. 2007. Small is Essential. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1622565,00.html. Online May 10, 2010.

2010
05/10
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Leveraging the Long Tail

Gawker Media [Gawker 2010] is an online media company and network of blogs that is regarded as one of the more successful blog-oriented media companies, in terms of visibility and hit ratings based on blog crawler sites like Technorati. How then does it relate to ‘leveraging the long tail’? Simply by catering to different types of information and archiving them.

Here’s a video that highlights the different weblogs under Gawker Media:

As shown in the video, Gawker Media currently has 10 weblogs under them and they encompass a wide range of topics:

  • Gawker.com – New York City media and gossip
  • Gizmodo – Gadgets and technology
  • Kotaku – Video games
  • Jalopnik – Cars and automotive culture
  • Lifehacker – Productivity tips
  • Deadspin – Sports
  • Jezebel – Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for women (without airbrushing)
  • io9 – Science fiction
  • Fleshbot – Porn (I allowed the description to emphasize Gawker Media’s varied weblogs but removed the link)
  • Gawker.tv – TV Drama related
  • Cityfile – Celebrity

These individual weblogs embrace the niches often by reporting all aspects of the information domain they are in charge in. For example, Kotaku’s [Kotaku 2010]domain is in games and while they report on the latest games out, they do not neglect other niche information bits like game developer happenings, rumors related to games and even lawsuits between game developers and publishers. Yet the long tail doesn’t end there. These individual weblogs occasionally display article feeds from one another, thus giving readers a chance to discover Gawker Media’s other network blogs. This formula of sharing information bits between weblogs doesn’t restrict to just Gawker Media sites of course, they come from all sorts of sources to give readers an impression that Gawker Media’s weblogs are sufficient for daily news bits.

It’s easy to identify one of Gawker Media’s sites as well because the general layouts of all its weblogs are highly similar. The individual articles all share the same functionality of allowing users to link them to social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as a commentary segment at the bottom.

It’s hard to discern what the future holds for Gawker Media but with the way it’s currently encompassing various topics, it looks like it will only grow as more niche topics arise.

Gawker. 2010. Gawker Media. http://us.gawker.com/. Online May 4, 2010.

Kotaku. 2010. http://us.kotaku.com/. Online May 4, 2010.

2010
05/04
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Perpetual Beta

In relation to this week’s topic on perpetual beta, O’Reilly said in 2005 [O’Reilly 2005]that users should be treated as co-developers and that the open source dictum of “release early and release often”, is now replaced with a state of “perpetual beta” where updates to products are “slipstreamed” in on a regular basis. This is where this week’s Web 2.0 application comes in – Technorati [Technorati 2010]. Technorati has been around since 2002 and till today, still bears the “beta” tag on its logo.

Technorati is at first glance, a collective feeder for news, blogs and videos. It is actually, according to Wikipedia [Wikipedia 2010], an internet search engine specifically for indexing and searching blogs. Apart from searching for blogs, it appears that Technorati has built a model around advertising bits of information from separate categories, based on popular blogs. A rather dated short video:

What makes Technorati so successful is the dedication with which its developers have put in and nurtured since the site’s inception in 2002. Based on this early timeline [Kennedy 2010], we can see how the site has gradually grown and created technologies or portals to adapt to the internet. One of its adaptations is Twittorati [Twittorati 2010], basically a search engine that indexes Twitter’s updates in a similar fashion to Technorati’s own engine. Another key success factor is the use and contribution to the open source community. Also, they have an active software developer community, many of whom are from open-source culture, a wiki where developers and contributors collaborate, as well as various open APIs. One of Technorati’s known limitations [GetSatisfaction 2010] is its recent focus on indexing only English blogs.

So despite the long time beta status, like O’Reilly said, Technorati has over the years, improved its base service with gradual updates and in the footsteps of Google Labs [Google Labs 2010], added new services to meet the growing needs of internet users.

There are other blog indexing websites out there but I believe it’s safe to say that Technorati is the leading “value-added” search engine to go to. Primarily due to how Technorati displays the latest and most interesting (based on hit ratings) blog posts as well as articles written by their some hundred or so writers.

O’Reilly, Tim. 2006. Harnessing Collective Intelligence.http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/11/harnessing-collective-intellig.html. Online April 25, 2010.

Technorati. 2010. Technorati Beta. http://technorati.com/entertainment/. Online April 25, 2010.

Wikipedia. 2010. Technorati. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technorati. Online April 25, 2010.

Kennedy, Niall. 2010. Technorati two years later. http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2004/11/technorati-twoy.html. Online April 25, 2010.

Twittorati. 2010. Twittorati. http://twittorati.com/. Online April 25, 2010.

GetSatisfaction. 2010. Technorati Blog Directory and Authority/Rankings are currently English only. http://getsatisfaction.com/technorati/topics/technorati_blog_directory_and_authority_rankings_are_currently_english_only. Online April 25, 2010.

Google Labs. 2010. http://www.googlelabs.com/. Online April 25, 2010.

2010
04/25
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Software above the level of single device

Do you use multiple instant messaging applications? What about those found in G-mail or Facebook? If you don’t like the idea of opening multiple internet browser windows and your native instant messaging application like Windows Live Messenger, use Trillian [Trillian 2010]!

Trillian is an all-in-one multi-platform instant messenger application by Cerulean Studios, which can tie in with just about every major instant messaging application out there. Just to name a few – Windows Live (MSN), ICQ, Yahoo! and even Skype. It also connects to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace instant messaging tools, as well as Twitter.

Trillian has actually been around since 2000 and has since then been conforming to times by updating to accept every new messaging application. Even its visual style has been updated throughout the years giving the latest incarnation, a look similar to that of a next-generation application.

Trillian is also available on the iPhone and the Mac OS X version is currently underway. More impressive, Trillian’s website allows users to login and access their accounts just like it would on their computers, albeit in a browser. Logging in via the website does not even require an account with Trillian, also known as an “Astra” account. Instead, users can simply login with their Windows Live account and Trillian will automatically go about getting their contacts. A video regarding one of Trillian’s nifty features:

Trillian also allows users to connect directly to e-mail accounts so when new e-mails come in, a small notification will appear and clicking it, will bring the user to their accounts, be it G-Mail, Yahoo Mail or Windows Live Mail.

Another interesting feature is drag and drop file transfers, where Trillian automatically zips and sends them as zip files.

There are very similar applications out there like Digsby [Digsby 2010] and eBuddy [eBuddy 2010]. However, Digsby does not have an online accessible component that allow users to login from a browser, while E-buddy is the exact opposite – purely browser based with no cross-platform operating system capabilities.

Trillian is really an application that transcends beyond a single device. In true “Lord of the Rings” geek spirit, Trillian is essentially the one application to rule all instant messaging and social networking programs/applications.

Trilian. 2010. http://www.trillian.im/ Online April. 17, 2010.

Digsby. 2010. http://www.digsby.com/ Online April. 17, 2010.

eBuddy. 2010. http://www.ebuddy.com/ Online April. 17, 2010.

P.S. With regards to Wan’s comment, Trillian does indeed support iRC within its native interface, here’s how it looks like:

2010
04/17
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Rich User Experiences

Software is an integral part of our lives and when technology is eventually used to facilitate or satisfy basic needs, it is the user experience that dominates. With the development of the internet and focus of user experience, rich user experiences (RUE) can be regarded as the next step up from the aesthetics of fancy Flash applications that were popular a few years back.

Adobe features a number of technologies that enable developers to create rich internet application (RIA) that in turn, provide RUE content. One example is Parleys.com [Parleys.com 2010], which uses Adobe Flex [Adobe 2010] as its foundation. Parleys.com is an electronic learning platform that allows presentations to be streamed over the internet. Users can define the number of channels they want to have, setup a revenue model if they are planning on commercialising their presentations and even allow for platform licensing so corporate end users can use their own infrastructure to host their own space and presentations.

One of Parleys.com’s more recognised customers to use their platform is Devoxx [Devoxx 2010], previously known as Javapolis, a developer conference regarding Java. One of the newer features incorporated with Parleys.com include support for Amazon CloudFront [CloudFront 2010], which stores content on separate regions so users will be able to tap that content from a closer location. Another feature recently introduced allows users to strip audio from video files they upload, effectively converting presentations into audio only talk, minimising bandwidth needs.

Granted that Parleys.com is not exactly all the exciting, but they do fill the void where presentations can be streamed globally.

Parleys.com. 2010. http://www.parleys.com/ Online Mar. 27, 2010.

Adobe. 2010. http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/?promoid=DINEZ Online Mar. 27, 2010.

Devoxx. 2010. http://devoxx.parleys.com/ Online Mar. 27, 2010.

CloudFront. 2010. http://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/ Online Mar. 27, 2010.

2010
03/27
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Innovation in Assembly

Salesforce is an online company distributing business software, where access to software is based on a subscription basis and hosted offsite. Salesforce is best known for its customer relationship management (CRM) products which are delivered to business clients over the internet using a “software as a service” (SaaS) model. Salesforce primarily develops enterprise platforms through its AppExchange directory of on-demand applications, while its Force.com API extends Salesforce. As of 2008, there are over 800 applications from over 450 independant software vendors [AppExchange 2010], and the company boasts over 38,100 customers and over 900,000 subscribers [CrunchBase 2010]. A similar competitor would be Zoho [Zoho 2010], which also provides online CRM services.

The Salesforce API is hidden behind a traditional object relational model by toolkits that cater to almost every language including Java, .NET, Perl, PHP, and Ruby [Stubblebine 2006]. The API is really only for businesses with specialised needs that the basic suite of applications does not cover for yet. The API is versatile enough that it is backward compatible and Salesforce does maintain support for each version. The terms of service sates that each API version is supported for a minimum of three years from initial release date and when ceasing support, and advanced end-of-life notice will be given a full year before the actual support ends [Force.com API 2010].

One of Salesforce’s more recent innovations is the introduction of Chatter [Chatter 2010].

It’s basically a collaboration cloud which promotes productivity in an interface very much like a fusion between Facebook and Twitter. In fact, based on the introductory video, it works so much like Facebook that the only distinction between the two is purpose. Whilst Facebook is for recreational purposes, Chatter is for organisational usage. The potential to be an attractive and easy to use collaborative tool is there but it might face a few problems; individual professionalism may be compromised if status updates are not worded properly, if staff are following so many objects and people in the network they may not be able to keep tab on everything. If Chatter does manage to succeed, it may well be the Facebook phenomenon in the Enterprise Web 2.0 space.

With so many established large named clients such as Google, Dell and Siemens, and strong support for its APIs, the future of Salesforce, with the coming of Chatter, will be nothing short of promising.

AppExchange. 2010. SalesForce AppExchange. http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/ Online Mar. 21, 2010.

CrunchBase. 2010. SalesForce. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/salesforce Online Mar. 21, 2010.

Zoho. 2010. Zoho. http://www.zoho.com/ Online Mar. 21, 2010.

Stubblebine, Tony. 2006. An Introduction to Saleforce.com’s AppExchange. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2006/11/13/an-introduction-to-saleforcecoms-appexchange.html Online Mar. 21, 2010.

Force.com API. 2010. Developer Docs. http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api/index.htm Online Mar. 21, 2010.

Chatter. 2010. Chatter. http://www.salesforce.com/chatter/ Online Mar. 21, 2010.

2010
03/21
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Data is the next Intel inside

In 2005, in an attempt to define Web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly said “If Netscape was the standard bearer for Web 1.0, Google is most certainly the standard bearer for Web 2.0” [O’Reilly 2005]. In 2006, he described the importance of data by saying, “harnessing collective intelligence is the principle that has opened the Web 2.0 era, but data as the Intel inside is the one that will close it down” [O’Reilly 2006]. Google and its suite of applications have shown just how true the latter statement is.

Most of us have heard of Google and its dominance as the search engine titan of today and in relation to data importance, several applications from Google will be discussed. First, a brief history of Google. In 1998, Google went live and while still rudimentary at the time, was recognised for an “uncanny knack for returning extremely relevant results” [PC Magazine 1998]. Over time, additional features such as searching for images, videos, maps, news and books were added. Its interesting to note how Google Search actually uses its libraries of data to function; when a search term in executed, Google Search assesses relevance by considering many factors, including how many pages link to the potential search result, the positions of the search terms within the page, and the proximity of the search terms to one another [GoogleGuide 2010].

Google Maps [Google Maps 2010] is a mapping application that allows users to do a multitude of things such as viewing streets from a satellite view, obtain traffic conditions, “tag” locations and even zoom in to a “street view” where users can see what the area actually looks like. Data can be shared amongst users by “tagging” locations with images, videos and even Wikipedia posts, all just with a few filtering options. The real “Intel inside” however, are map supplier companies like NAVTEQ [NAVTEQ 2010] and Tele Atlas [Tele Atlas 2010]. Without the base maps from these map suppliers powering Google Maps, none of the compelling features that Google Maps has to offer, matters. A video of Google Maps in action:

In the foreseeable future, Google will continue to add and improve existing applications and data is inevitably an integral part of that future. Data has and will always be the powering force of the internet, and to say “data is the Intel inside”, is just verbalising what has always been.

O’Reilly, Tim. 2005. Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html Online Mar. 14, 2010.

O’Reilly, Tim. 2006. Open Data: Small Pieces Loosely Joined. http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/09/open-data-small-pieces-loosely.html Online Mar. 14, 2010.

PC Magazine. 1998. http://web.archive.org/web/19990508042436/www.zdnet.com/pcmag/special/web100/search2.html Online Mar. 14, 2010.

GoogleGuide. 2010. Understanding Results. http://www.googleguide.com/results_page.html Online Mar. 14, 2010.

Google Maps. 2010. http://maps.google.com.au/ Online Mar. 14, 2010.

NAVTEQ. 2010. http://www.navteq.com/ Online Mar. 14, 2010.

Tele Atlas. 2010. http://www.teleatlas.com/index.htm Online Mar. 14, 2010.

2010
03/14
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Harnessing Collective Intelligence

The term “harnessing collective intelligence” was coined by Tim O’Reilly [O’Reilly 2006] to describe web applications that harness network effects, in a manner where they get progressively better the more people use them. Wikipedia is an excellent example of a platform with “collective intelligence” but what’s more interesting is its voluntary contribution system. A short introductory video:

Briefly, Wikipedia is a free, open-access encyclopedia that has 9.3+ million articles in various languages to date [Wikipedia 2010]. It allows for and even encourages people to contribute, by either adding new facts or correcting what others have posted previously. One might think that the accuracy of data might be inferior to that of commercial encyclopedias since readers are allowed to overwrite data yet a study [Cnet 2005] done in the distant past disagrees. In it, they found Wikipedia to be as reliable as Britannica, a strong brand in the world of encyclopedias.

The Wikipedia Revolution [Lih 2009] suggests that Wikipedia’s various tools, enable voluntary strangers to work together. It reasons that Wikipedia and its volunteers are similar to insect colonies where the concept of “stigmergy” apparently links the two. “Stigmergy” is a notion where complex structures may be built, not through a commanding hierarchy or by direct communication with other members, but by individuals who note the current environment produced by previous members and then set off improving said environment.

However, Wikipedia doesn’t just rely on the goodwill of volunteerism; it baits contributors with a reputation system that unlocks perks the more a member contributes accurately [Wikipedia Reputation 2010].

Others have tried to mimic Wikipedia’s success to varying results. “LA Times” scraped its version, named “Wikitorial”, due to the overwhelming “inappropriate” posts and activities such as posters who incite confrontations, vandals who deface the work of others, and multiple account holders who bias results and deceive others [Msnbc 2005]. Wikipedia has had its share of problems but due to the many dedicated volunteers, vandalism is quickly reverted. In LA Times case, they simply did not have enough “good” users to outweigh the “bad”.

To summarise, Web 2.0 sees the internet changing into ever larger pockets of “collective intelligence”. Wikipedia is just one of countless other such pockets. While they exist individually in respective “walled gardens”, their purpose is specific. For example, an IT centric wiki need not have articles on gardening. The internet is wide enough for many such walled gardens that we are spoilt for choice when seeking information. As for Wikipedia, in future as the internet gets more accessible, it can only grow more informative and to our benefit.

Sources:

O’Reilly, Tim. 2006. Harnessing Collective Intelligence. http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/11/harnessing-collective-intellig.html. Online Mar. 7, 2010.

Wikipedia. 2010. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia. Online Mar. 7, 2010.

Cnet. 2005. Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1038_3-5997332.html. Online Mar. 7, 2010.

Lih, Andrew. 2009. The Wikipedia Revolution. Aurum Press Ltd.

Wikipedia Reputation. 2010. Wikipedia: Why create an account? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WHY. Online Mar. 7, 2010.

Msnbc. 2005. Los Angeles Times suspends ‘Wikitorials’. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8300420/. Online Mar. 7, 2010.

2010
03/07
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Hello world! (World: You IT people seriously need to stop this. Really.)

Hello Jason and fellow Web 2.0 mates! This is my absolute first post on a personally owned blog so perhaps some introduction is in order! My name is Pierre Chan and I’m an international student from Singapore. I previously did a degree in Games and Interactive Entertainment and am now pursuing a Masters of IT with no major. Well to be honest, I did major in Games Production but felt a calling in Enterprise Systems (ES) after taking a unit on it. After that, I quit the major and went for a generic MIT so as to focus on the ES and Business Process Management line.

Officially, I ended up taking Web 2.0 because the internet is the definitive medium of today that is integral with the things we do (e.g. buying things from Ebay, checking stocks, reading news, Youtube!) and I want to learn first hand what this terminology means. Unofficially, I had a free unit and felt this was the most interesting.

Throughout my posts I plan to keep my writing style a little informal (well, somewhat) so please advise me if I should adopt a more scholarly approach.

2010
03/01
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