Broadcast worthy!

We are in a era of self propogation, through blogs, social networking sites and lots and lots of other amazing things. So the web is now really empowering you with self expression mediums. With video broadcasting – its totally gone to the extreme. You can actually configer a television channel for free!. The applications are immense. I see a channel coming up from every corner of the earth, talking about argiculture, politics, education, amatuer bands and god know what else.

So here i have a few application that let you do just that and maybe even more,

•  You tube and google
•  Moghulus

please do let me know of other web 2.0 apps you come across in the same line.  

Why great ideas fail

I have often come across magazine, blogs, seminars with the screaming new idea that you missed. Something that might take the world with storm. And then a revisit after a few years find these very ideas waiting for some kind of rejuvenation

Is it got something to do with great promises made in haste. Is it about one techology replacing the other and yet standing weak in front of the next great promise. 

This was a great discussion topic among a few philospher techno wizard friends of mine. I find questioning a great way of learning and revisiting topics that otherwise seem clear. We dwelved on the dot com boom. Why it turned into such a sudden and global disaster. 

Building a flex Community

Abdul Qabiz has put together a wonderful list of Flex professionals from India. The List is likely to expand. So if you are here to stay in Flex or Rich Internet Application and have a blog/ site.  Remember to drop your name and url as comment in the post.

Abdul Qabiz’s blog : Links to India Flex and web 2.0 professionals {updated}

Is it too early for web 3.0

I came across the term in a NewsPaper – hmm.. maybe people dont want the web 2.0 to end so soon, i mean just a few days back everybody just got used to the term.

Web 3.0 by definition involves some concepts that are already part of web 2.0 – just like most people would say RIA was already there before web 2.0.

I would like to quote lots of articles i have read but would refrain before i am sure there is no considerable change in web 3.0 definition. Basically web3.0 definition is inclusion of lots of activities that were not included in web2.0.

Blah Blah … Some links

• Zdnet Blog
• Business Week
• John Hagel Blog

The news article i read was web 3.0 doing something about helping people shop, without browsing and going through the search engine process. Hmmm…

WOW.. the heat is on (microsoft live)

Google Vs Microsoft Vs Yahoo Vs numerous developers world over waiting to get taken over for ingenious ideas in Rich Internet Apps. This is true return of the boom. Unlike the earlier times when conceptual ideas helped people with the books, we have working solutions with users getting ready to be sold. WOW!

Now this post is about Microsoft Live, Unleashed just a few days back on my hotmail account. I should say – finally microsoft web based ui makes sense.

• Search for images,
• Mail & Theme, did you think it was possible on web
• Plus the normal desktop capabilities

Gmail is a lot about rich functionality, Yahoo is a lot about brand legacy and Microsoft is a lot about os based design achievements in RIA. I strongly feel microsoft is in a position to give google a good run for thier innovations and mergers.

The next operating system is on your browser

Web 2.0 is around and its very likely to give sleepless nights to all major software vendors. Something that is very likely to take the world by storm in next 5 years. What am i talking about …?

Remember Writely, the online document creator that was recently bought over by Search engine major – google. This application demonstrated a lot could be done on the web. And now we have srting of applications make outlook look insensitive to users. Some stuff like spreadsheets, online photo and document organizers.

What most of these tools do is ape the functionality available on desktops. They make it even richer and more sharable on the internet with cross platform abilities. Basically in very near future we are likely to have something like microsoft word running straight from your browser, excel sheet might be just a url and so would be many things you do in office today.

Eventually the browser might be all you need on your pc. Is that all. Not yet!, there are new browser smart applications like Apollo on the way which would switch between your offline PC and Online internet modes. Would i need a fantastic OS then, ofcourse yes, or i might just want to work with anything that can just support a browser.

In the long run – businesses will save considerably on investements part of which do not yield enough in return.

Richness for rich internet applications

Smart web apps have been around for a long time, these are hyper markup pages that perform like desktops. Now we have rich internet web apps that do more, these make asynchronous communications possible. But besides these with apps being developed in flex and ajax, we need certain pointers that can define what would be richest in rich internet applications, and here it is,

• Web metaphor,
• Offer innovation or mock desktop,
• Score high on usability metrics,
• Have all browser based functionalities or provide a work around,
• Rich UI possibilities, and
• User Multi-tasking functionalities.

Web Metaphor
Web metaphor has reduced many possibilities due to page constraints, technical feasibilities etc. With adoption of rich internet application a considerable change can be introduced,

• Multi-page metaphor

• §Interaction design

• Navigation

»Offer innovation or mock desktop
RIA based designs should offer functionalities that are not currently not feasible with web applications. These could include features such as drag and drop, prompts, invoking pages etc.

» Score high on usability metrics
RIA applications bring with them abilities of direct manipulation and instant feedback. With these inherent capabilities Usability metrics should improve in applications.

»Support all functionalities in web applications or provide a work around
Web applications have abilities such as back button etc to make changes to earlier content or locate path. Based on app review all such functionalities should be provided in the RIA application or a work around should be present to accomplish the tasks.

»Have rich design/ graphic possibilities currently not available in web applications
Web applications inherently have limitations such as web colors, use of gradients, image sizes and font limitations. RIA and flex applications should be exploited to this end in providing highly visual applications.

»Multi-tasking possibilities
Due to asynchronous possibilities RIA applications can be effectively used for multi-tasking. In web based apps this type of functionality was difficult to maintain and create.