« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 »
October 31, 2006
Enterprise 2.0 - reality is faster
This morning I put the finishing touches to my Enterprise 2.0 article - for S&S Verlag. The article is an overview of the current state of Web 2.0 as it is being adopted by corporations and something we are currently busy in. In the article I also talk about what JotSpot, a company I've been following for a while, and Google are currently doing in that space.
So, just a few hours after finishing the article - Google goes and buys JotSpot.
Posted by Matthew at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2006
Building a startup - my first 30 days
As people have noticed, the volume of blog-posts over here has dropped dramatically since I started work in my new role at Indiginox. The first month has flown by in a speed I didn't think possible and work has been so varied it often made (makes) my head spin. Here is a short incomplete list of things I've been doing in October:
- Went to the Cocoon GetTogether in Amsterdam and hung with some old friends
- Worked on a re-design and new concept for a customer's product web-site
- Met with and talked to various current and potential customers
- Ordered desks, a color laser printer, a PC
- Wrote a couple of Ruby on Rails based applications that utilize the GoogleMaps and Flickr APIs
- Wrote an article on Enterprise 2.0 for a German magazine
- Fixed the coffee machine
- Sorted out tons of paperwork with our tax consultant and solicitor
- Went to a media event in Heidelberg
- Planned our booth for W-JAX
- Worked on our marketing material for W-JAX (roll-up banner, posters, shirts)
Our desks still haven't arrived so the office is sort of empty, but it's home now. And fun.
Posted by Matthew at 07:38 PM | Comments (1)
Bitten by the API
One of the dangers in using someone else's API to build an application or mashup is that it could change with side-effects you weren't counting on. That happened to us this morning, when an application we've been building that combines Ruby on Rails with the GoogleMaps and Flickr APIs started acting strangely.
On the day targeted for a customer demo - the markers stopped showing up on the GoogleMap. This only happened in Firefox - things were well in Safari and even IE7. Luckily I have Firebug installed in Firefox and therefore the error was quick to be found: "Bd(a, b, true).push is not a function ". Yeah, right.
A quick check of the GoogleMap group and it was clear that an API update was causing the problems.
You can define the version of the API you want to use in your JavaScript, so adding the version number of the API version that didn't show the problems was easy enough. Still, it shows the problems you can run into when you rely on someone else to provide the service.
The application we've built is to demonstrate how technologies like GoogleMaps can be used to construct customer community sites and it's been really fun to write.
Posted by Matthew at 07:17 PM | Comments (1)
October 10, 2006
Launching Overflow
As I've written before, I'm all for making my life simpler and "getting things done". Therefore, after reading TechCrunch's blog post on the new version of Overflow I jumped at something that seems simple enough for me to understand and also actually helpful. 15 $ for this utility is money well spent and my first impression is that this is something I need.
Posted by Matthew at 09:54 PM | Comments (1)
October 04, 2006
Slideshare - YouPowerPoint?
Slideshare has launched and I really like the idea of being able to embed a Powerpoint presentation in my website. I tried the service out using an Indiginox company presentation over on our company blog.
Posted by Matthew at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
Xing is not Crossing
Well, that didn't take long. Only a few days after I wrote about OpenBC morphing into Xing - and in particular hoping they wouldn't drown in the current Web 2.0 hype - I read about the company on Valleywag. Seems as though they co-threw a party in San Francisco and talked about world-domination (already). Check out how the US Web 2.0 crowd thought the name should be pronounced.
Xing's founder gave a microspeech for the guests. When he said his company's name ("Zing"), a few in the audience whispered, "I thought it was 'Crossing.'"
Posted by Matthew at 10:38 AM | Comments (1)
On writing a hit
On the train to Amsterdam yesterday I was reading an interview with Guy Chambers, who has written many hits for the likes of Robbie Williams and James Blunt. One of his quotes in the interview on how to write a hit song is something not just successful songwriters need to follow:
Don't bore us - get to the chorus!
Remember this when writing your next presentation!
Posted by Matthew at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
Cocoon GetTogether - a multi-national event
Arjé Cahn is kicking off the Cocoon GetTogether here in Amsterdam. He is presenting some facts and figures from the registration. In total, around 90 people have registered. I think it is fascinating to see how that figure breaks down to the various nationalities as it shows how multi-national the Cocoon project is:
- 10 attendees from Belgium
- 13 attendees from Germany
- 1 attendee from Brazil
- 4 attendees from Switzerland
- 29 attendees from Netherlands
- 6 attendees from Italy
- 1 attendee from Norway
- 10 attendees from France
- 1 attendee from Sweden
- 5 attendees from the UK
- 1 attendee from the US
On average, each attendee has done between 7 and 13 projects with Cocoon.
Posted by Matthew at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2006
In Amsterdam with the Cocoonites
I arrived in Amsterdam this afternoon after a non-eventful train journey. The Hackathon is in full swing and around 50 Cocoonites are sitting in a room in the middle of the city discussing the ins and outs of the current Cocoon version and in general hacking on various topics. My role is different this year but it is still great to be sitting in the middle of so much enthusiasm. Plenty of pictures already up on Flickr.
Posted by Matthew at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)