Category
cms
-
cms, gilbane, wiki
WikiCalc Up Close
WikiCalc is the latest spreadsheet software from Dan Bricklin, the creator of the first spreadsheet, VisiCalc. WikiCalc, no suprise given its name, is a social spreadsheet application (wiki meet spreadsheet). I saw him give his WikiCalc demo last night in Boston during the Web 2.0 Technologies session he and I presented at Gilbane. From a feature perspective, what impressed me most was its ability to link cells to live services (such as stock prices), but its most distinguishing feature when comparing it to Google Spreadsheet and Zoho is that it isn’t a hosted service, so you own your data.
Related links:
- A canned WikiCalc demo on SocialText
- Podcast with Dan Bricklin
-
cms, ektron, web
The State of Web Dev: An Exciting Time
Over at ektron, we worked with SitePoint on a survey of 5,000 web developers titled The State of the Web Development 2006/2007 (25-page free preview). The goal was to conduct the most comprehensive study to date of the web developer community. The results are available and show not only the state of the industry, but also some interesting trends. A number of bloggers are already commenting and extrapolating.
My personal favorite:Â Â-
Ryan Steward at ZDNet: “We’re in the middle of an exciting time. People are getting very creative about their content – how they want it, where they want it, and what they want to do with it. The technologies are finally here to turn some of those thoughts into tangible solutions.”
Other noteworthy posts:
- Richard MacManus at ReadWriteWeb:  ”Ajax is set to surpass Flash in 07″
-
Nick Langmaid at SitePoint: He’s one of the primary authors of the report and this post reveals additional insights from beginning to endÂ
-
Matt Asay at Alfresco: “This is must-read material for anyone in the WCM space”
Note: the full report with detailed analysis is available through SitePoint.
-
-
blogging, cms, gilbane
Speaking at Gilbane San Francisco 06
Cool! I was just invited to speak at the Gilbane Conference on the future of blogging in San Francisco this coming April. Not too sure of the format at this point, but in any event, it’ll be fun.
-
cms, rss, simplicity, usability
Importance of Subtlety
It’s a small detail, but a significant one. A couple months ago, Microsoft agreed to standardize on a Mozilla’s RSS icon. It is significant because the letters “RSS†are meaningless to most people, and it’s a move in the direction of making the technology more accessible.Â
Â
-
cms, simplicity, vision
Language of Technology
While watching various content management vendors demonstrate their wares at an industry event recently, it became clear to me that the state of things is extremely complex. In a race to stockpile features, so much attention had been placed on what should be added, that no one seemed to notice something significant was missed along the way.Â
What was missed? Let’s take a step back from content management, and look at the way we talk about technology.Â
Notice the terminology we use on a daily basis; we call sites used for searching the web “engines.†We use “tools†to accomplish things that would otherwise require deeper technical knowledge. We label images with the letters “RSS†to denote that syndication is available. The focus is on the implementation and not the application– its function, and not its practical purpose.
This came to be because, for the most part, it requires technical sophistication to create meaningful experiences on the web, and we’re using the language of its creators– engineers and geeks. Yet in the larger picture, that language is unfitting and unfamiliar to most of the people using it.Â
But I’m convinced that over the next couple years we’ll see this language change because as “content management†evolves from a “tool†into something more meaningful and relevant to a larger audience, the web experiences we’ll have will be influenced by a new crowd, those without computer science and engineering degrees. And just as natural language evolves over time due to sociological and cultural influences, the language of the web will change as a new wave of contributors enter.
How this happens—well, that’ll be the fodder for many posts. Suffice to say I’m a big believer that there’s huge room for opportunity and improvement in the way we’re currently organizing the words, pictures, and relationships that comprise our personal and business experiences on the web.
