Andre’s Blog

June 30th, 2006

Steve Rubel lead a very interesting discussion about blogging, PR, marketing and advertising.

What should fortune 500 marketers do? How can marketers and PR people best interact with bloggers. Answers and input from the audience:

• Listen to customers and community
• Darren Barefoot : demonstrate that you’ve read their blog
• As a blogger don’t be an ass everytime you get a pitch

• These aren’t blogging specifc but common sense and good points

Technorati Tags: gnomedex, micropersuasion, steverubel, marketing, blog, blogging, pr

Posted in Technology, Web 2.0, Business | 3 Comments »

June 30th, 2006

After a longer than expected drive with Dave Olson of Elastic Path and Will Pate of Flock from Vancouver we got to Seattle and checked in to Edgewater Hotel. Then headed over to the opening reception. It was great to see so many Canadians down here, the crew from Bryght and RainCity were in full force after wrapping up DrupalCamp.

Friday morning I slept in a bit but got here in time for Michael Arrington’s talk. Seems the hype and/or buzz is alive and well, Seattle must have Kool-Aid factory near by. Amont other things Michael defined his rules for success:

1. Makes Money (giant liquidity event – thanks Boris)
2. Makes the internet a better place to hang out.

I suppose the second is subjective (I never use Digg or find it that useful but it’s a traffic juggernaut and Michael loves it) , but the first is not;-) It was interesting to see the different opinions even amongst folks building consumer services online. Michael is certainly sure of his model and views…he even told an audience member their opinion was a bad one;-) Ouch.

Dave Dederer (founding member of the President of the United States of America) gave and interesting talk comparing the blog-o-sphere to bands and comparing and contrasting the two spaces. Basically how to share and Marc Canter on Apple “their slimeballs!” Ethan from WB on musicians “Musicians get a lot of sex, which is an interesting predicament.”

Senator John Edwards talked to the group, nad he was relieved the plan had changed and he was not giving a keynote. He was very big on net neutrality and using the new internet for political goals and issues. “If the democratic party wants this country (USA) we’re going to have show a little back bone and courage…” I’m not sure but I think people say that kinda stuff all the time;-)

I’m won’t be blogging detailed notes from every talk but, I’ll keep puling out a few little bits of interest from each talk and provide links.

Technorati Tags: gnomedex, gnomedex06, seattle, senatoredwards, techcrunch, michaelarrington,

Posted in Technology, Web 2.0, Business | 2 Comments »

June 23rd, 2006

Yup it was June 23rd 2005 that I started blogging for Nitobi – woot! I made it.

I’m just trying wordpress as my new blogging tool

Andre’s Blog » Blog Archive » First WordPress Vote

technorati tags:blog, 1year, birthday

Posted in Web 2.0, Random | No Comments »

June 23rd, 2006

Wow! The guys at Sys-Con are on a rampage, how a company can announce and put on an event in less than 2 months is mind boggling. It should be a good event though as I’ve heard good things about their AJAX seminars.

SYS-CON Events to produce a day-long event about Adobe Flex Web Application Development at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York on Monday, August 14, 2006. Adobe Systems is the primary sponsor of this unique opportunity to learn from the greatest Flex developers in the world.

FlexSeminar.com

It’s probably a sign that the internet space is hotter than Hansel right now, especially when you consider this event takes place in the middle of August! I think they just decided to do this in an interview with David Mendels not too long ago, wild. I’m going to track someone down there to try to get Dave on the speaker list to talk about how to use the FA Bridge to integrate Flex and AJAX. Reading blog posts about the when not to use Flex make me realize that the real adoption of Flex is likely going to be incrementaly. And I would think Adobe should be getting developers to adopt the platform anyway they can…1×1 pixel swf go for it! Whatever you want, just get people using it! Anyway I love the energy and buzz in the industry, I just hope we can all sustain it.

Posted in Technology, Software Development, AJAX, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

June 3rd, 2006

James “The Brains Behind Nitobi” Douma and Jake the Snake have both started blogging!   I’m excited to see what James has to say as he knows more about AJAX and most computer topics than anyone I’ve ever met (JavaScript, Games, Ontologies, AI…you name it!).  And Jake being the newest blood has some already brought in some great tools like Trac and Js Elipse, so expect big things from this HogTown boy!  Do I sound like a boxing announcer or what!

Now we just need to get Pam the task master, Wendy the graphics guru,
Omar the money man and Agus the AJAX Padawan, but soon to be Jedi, into the
blog-o-sphere and Nitobi will be 100% blog-o-fied.

Technorati Tags: eba, ajax, blog

Posted in AJAX, Web 2.0, Business | No Comments »

June 3rd, 2006

I hooked up with Cote’ from Redmonk and Charles from TheFrontSide to chat about “Enterprise AJAX”. It was a fun conversation and Cote already has it up here. Part 2 is coming soon so don’t worry. They’re old buds and do the Drunk and Retired podcast together, so I was the new kid on the playground.

Some highlights:

• Global namespaces are a pain, and so is global domination;-)
• Next time we’re going to talk about tips to make JS and AJAX components work together and hopefullyform a group to make components work together, maybe Open AJAX is already on it but I’m not sure
• How do you optimize AJAX? I defered too my much smarter colleague on JavaScript Benchmarking Part by Dave Johnson
• How do you sell AJAX? Good question. Nitobi sells components, development, training and consulting
• My favorite point was an acronym that Cote demystified for me, AJAX is now officially a Magazine Driven Architecture (MDA). ROFL I had a good chuckle about that! Wonder if I could get away with a wikipedia entry for that!
• AJAX is all about usability…but I always say that
• AJAX spreadsheets and ODF together are going rock!

Some of the stuff I wanted to chat about was how TheFrontSide compares to GWT and if Charles is concerned by the current bruhaha with Morfik. Next time guys.

And arrggh we just got an XBox 360 for the office! So much for productivity! But team moral is way up:)

Download the MP3

Technorati Tags: ajax, redmonk, eba, cote, podcast, thefrontside, javascript, enterpriseajax

Posted in Technology, Software Development, AJAX, Web 2.0, Business, Usability – HCI | 1 Comment »

May 31st, 2006

Notes from the second Nitobi Podcast.  Recorded with Andre Charland, Dave Johnson and Alexei White.

Yahoo API’s versus Google versus eBay APIs

• Geo Coding and Mapping APIs
• tight licensing, despite the appearance (the illusion of freedom)
• can’t put them behind a log-in for example
• hard to build a business model
• Alexei is working on an RIA / AJAX polling and survey tool
• Dave was looking at eBay API for a grid demo to show off live scrolling and updating of auction items
• Yahoo Maps may not be quite as good, but the APIs are more powerful and flexible
• Will more open win? Or will better software win?
• How are these companies going to build business models
• Who’s going to provide the micropayments?
• Pushpin have the same data
• Yahoo Patterns will have an API soon
• Amazon Web Services Site

• S3 REST based storage service
• Mechanical Turk – is an addictive

Windows Live Mail

• I like deleting with the keyboard, and there should way more keyboard nav on the web

Translating higher level languages to Javascript

• Morphik suing the internet and google WTF mate
• Reg has a blog post about it: http://web2.0central.com/archives/202
• Dear Pioneers! WTF

Enterprise AJAX – the book we’re writing

• MVC
• send us suggestions: djohnson [at] ebusiness [dash] apps [dot] com
• We need Enterprise class AJAX case studies: awhite [at] ebusiness [dash] apps [dot] com

Podcasting with cote and charles about enterprise AJAX on Thursday

• Drunkandretired.com

Java and AJAX

• Dave’s Jupiter Media Webinar June 14th – http://developer.com
• What’s most popular?

• JSF

• Struts

• Spring

Java IDEs

• NetBeans
• Java Studio Creator
• Eclipse

Who’s looking at this?

• http://eclipse-ecosystem.blogspot.com/2006/05/indeed-some-work-to-do-in-eclipse.html
• http://google.com/trends?q=eclipse+java%2C+netbeans%2C+intellij%2C+jbuilder%2C+jdeveloper&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all
• Tim O’reilly: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/02/whats_up_with_netbeans.html

Grid 3.05 Release: http://www.nitobi.com/technologies/webdevelopment/codeandcomponents/ebagrid/default.htm

• Improved Toolbar
• Performance way up!  Faster smoother user experience!
• Fixed some character and encoding issues
• Size / Footprint has been cut down
• Check out the demos
• We’re releasing that May 31st

Hipsters!  Get’ em

• How to know when you have a hipster infestation: http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/spoofs_satire/do_you_have_hipsters.php

Technorati Tags: podcast, enterpriseajax, ajaz, api, mapping, ide, java, eba

Posted in Technology, Software Development, AJAX, Web 2.0, Business, Usability – HCI | No Comments »

May 30th, 2006

My good buddy, RainCity Studios CEO, Rob Scales won the “The Canadian New Media Award – Best Graduate of the Year”! From Rob’s blog:

A few month back I posted that I was nominated by the Canadian New Media Awards for the Best Graduate of the Year. Last night Megan Cole, Raincity Studios Marketing Champion was in Toronto on my behalf since I am in China..

MC kissing the award!

Congrats from me and the rest of the team at eBusiness Applications and DogLotion! You deserve it Rob! Keep on keepin’ on! Looking forward to working with you more.

Technorati Tags: canadiannewmedia, award, graduate, robscales, rcs, raincitystudios, cmna

Posted in Technology, Software Development, Web 2.0, Business | No Comments »

May 26th, 2006

Go Roland Go! The tireless Roland Tanglao of Bryght has just created a wiki page for BarCamp Vancouver.

Still early days and plenty of time! First priorities are: 1. a venue (for 50+ with fast Internet) and 2. organizers. If you can help with either, please edit the BarCampVancouver page, email me roland AT rolandtanglao.com or post something to the BarCamp mailing list.

Because I think BarCamps rock!  And I’m stoked to get all the wicked smart technies from Vancouver in one space, I’ve volunteered to help organize the conference, I’ve also been to 3 BarCamps so I have a bit of experience.  Nitobi will donate a projector.  More than likely Dave will support my decision to sponsor the beer for the event!  Hopefully we can convince the whole Nitobi team to attend!

We need a venue and some organizers so jump in!  I think Bill from Work Space should get involved and we should use his space.

Thanks Roland!  Apparently I’m organizing BarCamp Whistler as well;-)

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampearth, barcampvancouver, vancouver, unconference

Posted in Technology, Software Development, AJAX, Web 2.0, Business | 1 Comment »

May 23rd, 2006

Last month, I spoke with Dan Maclean of the Globe and Mail and ITWorldCanada.com on Web 2.0 and how it can help businesses in a marketing sence.  Here’s a a little snipit.

Since then, Web 2.0 applications have been stirring the imagination of regular folk and businesses alike, with a much richer and more interactive on-line experience. Andre Charland, president of eBusiness Applications Ltd., an application development company in Vancouver, points out that companies such as Nike Inc. and Ford Motor Co. are already using Web 2.0 applications such as blogs for marketing and internal communications. Meanwhile, the dashboard concept is being turned into an effective corporate tool for managing business data and information to support applications such as on-line customer orders and sales notifications.

Business successes have emerged. In the space of collaborative publishing and information sharing, blogs and wikis have spawned companies such as Wikipedia, dig, Flickr and del.icio.us. Then there are companies like Amazon.com and Google that have parlayed popularity and profit from the Web 2.0-based search and information tools.

“It’s all about sharing data so that people can do what they want with it,” Mr. Charland says.

“I think there’s still the ‘what’s the business model?’ discussion going on,” he admits. But he adds: “All businesses should be taking a look at how blogging can impact their marketing and internal communications . . . or how to use wikis to improve their collaborations.”

What’s interesting is that I first started blogging about skiing 3 years ago and didn’t immediately realize the value to businesses.  I just wanted to share some stories with friends and the rest of the community about one my passions, skiing deep powder all over the world!!  Since that time our busines has embraced blogging we have over 5 bloggers and an AJAX Community Blog (AjaxInfo.com).  It has to lead to a book project, Enterprise AJAX, with Prentice Hall and solid business relationships with company’s such as Adobe Systems and Sun Microsystems.  It has definitely helped us position ourselves as experts in AJAX and UI design, which in turn has lead to many great speaking opportunities.  Not to mention it’s our 4th top source of internet traffic to our company home page and our combined blogs receive over 1000 unique visits per day.  We also use Wikis (Trac) to manage our internal development projects and team.  We also use a wiki to promote new and beta products at http://labs.ebusiness-apps.com.

Technorati Tags: blog, web2.0, marketing, media, globeandmail

Posted in Technology, Web 2.0, Business | No Comments »