2008 January

WebKit-based application from Ntractive to debut at Macworld

January 13, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

If you don’t know about the category of applications dubbed "hybrid" or "Rich, Internet Applications (RIA’s)" then you need to learn more since 2008 is the year this category accelerates. RIA’s are functionally like desktop applications but arguably the most significant feature of them is the ability to interact with "the cloud" or computing that occurs with hosted applications on the Internet.

Though not explicitly an RIA-type application, the easiest way most people understand the category is to think about iTunes. This application is a desktop one enabling you to rip, manage, burn to CD or sync to iPod all of your music. But where it gets really interesting is when you’re Internet-connected and you can buy music or videos, subscribe to podcasts, and download cover art. This hybrid nature is quite useful as Internet connections become ever faster, increasingly wireless and more ubiquitous.

The Minneapolis StarTribune had an article in the business section Friday morning showcasing a Grand Forks, ND startup, Ntractive, who will be launching Elements SBMâ„¢ at Macworld which opens Tuesday with a keynote by Steve Jobs.

Marketing Consultant Graeme Thickins of NewMediaWise contacted me to find out if I’d be interested in having co-founder Dale Jensen walk me through Elements SBM, which we did in early December. We met and I was stunned with the completeness of the application, how well thought out it was and that it looked great. The user interface was one that I saw any small to midsized business would have a staffer up-n-running on in an hour.

Rather than re-create the great job they’ve done laying out their features and benefits, I’ll instead suggest you go through the tabs on their site starting with Features. The application integrates very well with such Mac applications like iChat, iPhoto and, of course, connects to Ntractive’s hosted service to leverage data storage and connection in a true software as a service (SaaS) fashion.

What I’ll end with is my perspective about the brilliance of these two deciding on and engineering upon WebKit. There are competitive approaches and examples include: Adobe leveraging Flash and other standard technologies with their RIA container called "AIR" (Adobe Integrated Runtime); Microsoft with a browser plugin to deliver their RIA runtime Silverlight; as well as other projects to "hybridize" web applications like Google Gears and Mozilla Prism. WebKit, however, is a complete, self-contained application framework that is fully standards compliant and open source.

WebKit is the basis of Mac OS X’s Safari web browser (now on both Mac and Windows). Though the horserace has just begun on who will win the dominant approach to creating and delivering RIA’s, I’m experiencing my alpha geek friends staying neutral on which "RIA horse" to bet on (or keep coding using other approaches). Still, there is no question in my mind that choosing WebKit enables Ntractive to move faster and build higher level functionality than other approaches while leaving the framework horserace to the software stallions Adobe, Apple and Microsoft.

Filed Under: Technology, Web 2.0

Minnesota Software “Developer Outpost” Offices

January 12, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

With all the accelerated political discussions during this presidential primary season, there has been a lot of lip service paid to outsourcing, protecting the middle class, the economy and jobs. What is little discussed, however, is that the US has outsourced much of our manufacturing base (thus directly impacting the middle class). What is not as apparent is that we’re also outsourcing more and more of our intellectual work in finance and software engineering.

Of course, this causes me great concern as someone who cares about our country, my children and my someday grandchildren, my state of Minnesota and most of all this premise: if you believe, as I do, that the Internet “platform” is the 21st century conduit for innovation, human connection and collaboration — and is the most “The World is Flat” accelerator of competition in intellectual capital globally — then you’d better be very concerned that we’re essentially shipping our high value, intellectually important work overseas and empowering our future competitors to become the software powerhouses of tomorrow.

What’s more important, however, is that onshore work is often qualitatively higher, is created faster and innovation is higher. Every single alpha geek I know — and some who run major software engineering groups for some of the most visible and successful companies on earth — fight to keep as many of the highest value (as opposed to low value, maintenance type) software creation jobs onshore as they can since they know the exponential increase in cross-talk and communications difficulties that ensue when people are a world away. Makes accomplishing timelines and enjoying the creativity and artistry inherent in US-based development much easier if those jobs are here.

Since nothing happens without a vision or specific outcomes in mind, software visions and outcomes are usually extraordinarily challenging to get across to people whose native language, customs, cultures and work ethic (not to mention time zones) are markedly different than ours.

Here’s one answer and a cogent argument that is a quick read. It will give you one location to consider strongly if you want A-class developers, a midwestern work ethic, an instant grasp of your vision or outcomes — and enjoy a trail already blazed by such companies as Adobe, Microsoft and Sun. Take a moment now and considering embracing what my friend and serial
entrepreneur, Dan Grigsby, has just posted in his A Plan for Minnesota.

Filed Under: Innovation

Macworld 2008: Tablet? Mac Touch? Let’s pay homage to the Apple Newton

January 11, 2008 By Steve Borsch 1 Comment

Next week sees Steve Jobs on stage giving his Macworld 2008 keynote. Some things are obvious (new Mac Pro announcement this week shows machines starting at $2,798 so there’s a huge gap to be filled below it, probably with a midlevel, headless machine) and rumor speculation is rampant with an ultraportable Mac near the top of the list.

I still have an Apple Newton with an Apple fixed asset tag on it (they didn’t want it back when I left the company in 1999). While I didn’t like it well enough to have paid money for it (even with my employee discount), the handwriting recognition in the 2.0 software was excellent and not rivaled for several years until Microsoft debuted the Tablet PC.

In the spirit of yesterday’s post of how slooowly things move — and that each of us should be grateful and amazed by how far we’ve come in such a short time — let’s pay a little homage to the Newton by viewing this getting started video for the device. Seeing how archaic it seems today will surely make you appreciate the ease-of-use of a touch-enabled iPhone or iPod Touch all the more and get you ready for whatever "one more thing" happens next Tuesday.

I bet it will be "touchy".

Getting Started with Apple Newton

Filed Under: Gadgets & Hacks

Internet: Disruption Happens Slooowly

January 10, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Those of you who work at newspapers, TV & radio stations or networks, magazine or book publishers, advertising or public relations, telephone companies — or any of a myriad number of threatened industries being “made more efficient” (i.e., disrupted) by the Internet — may not be fully grasping how a culture of participation, social media offerings and a techno-savvy world is embracing new technologies and forcibly choosing something different or simply no longer paying attention to what you do.

Major disruptive changes happen so slowly that most of us don’t react quickly enough or are uncertain and thus take little or no action.

My grandfather was employed with the Great Northern Railroad beginning in the early 1900′s and lived and worked through the heyday of the railroad. He found himself beyond delighted to have a stable, good job (especially through the Depression) that lasted without interruption for 44 years.

Grandpa also experienced first-hand the massive changes in the last century which caused him to slowly become concerned that “his railroad” was being disrupted by the automobile, the trucking industry and the Interstate highway system and later on by the airplane. If you would’ve told him in 1930 that the railroad wouldn’t be the be-all, end-all transportation system in America today he would’ve laughed at you. I suspect he was tickled to have retired and had his pension before mergers and consolidations happened in the railroad system during the ’60′s and 70′s.

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Filed Under: Web 2.0

CES: Hey Linksys…it’s 2008!

January 9, 2008 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

In a day of accelerating Macintosh market share (Windows is still over 90% of the market…though declining) and where Internet-centric applications, communications and participatory social media make your device choice less relevant, I’m taken aback when a vendor the size of Linksys (owned by Cisco) announces a brand new, very affordable ($120 or $99 street price) stand-alone webcam that only supports Windows.

Linksys’ User Guide says this in the FAQ, “The Camera is designed for computers running a Windows operating system and Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. You cannot view video on a Macintosh.“

This lack of support is not what many people experience with, for example, their ISP (mine is Comcast) who often state, “Ahh…we don’t support the Macintosh” but it turns out they don’t because they don’t have that machine sitting in front of them to troubleshoot nor has the ISP’s customer service group created scripts for the clueless drones to read.

This is no exaggeration: Out of the 100 or so geeks and early adopters that I know, well over 90% of them use Macs. Most have RAM maxed out and are using Parallels to run Windows and Linux within a virtual container inside of Mac OS X (I do the same thing, though mostly for goofin’ around vs. serious geek work). Every company chases influencers — especially in a day where social media is exploding and people want guidance as complexity increases — so it’s really puzzling why Linksys would turn its back on influencers.

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Filed Under: Gadgets & Hacks

“Lazysphere.” Do you “get it” or do you not?

January 8, 2008 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

Over the last 3+ years of my blogging, I’ve struggled between continuing my attempt to add value for my readers in each-n-every post vs. grabbing attention. On those occasions when I have enjoyed a Digg or Techmeme front page link — or had some other post go viral with the typical 60k-100k pageviews that have ensued — no question that I’ve stopped to think “Hmmm….what if I whored myself out and just posted attention-grabbing stuff?“

If no one pays attention, a blogger is the philosophical tree falling in the forest when no one is around to hear it. Does she or he make a sound? I argue that yes…it just takes time and consistency to build readership if you have the right ingredients.

Today’s MicroPersuasion post by Steve Rubel puts a different spin on the “whoring oneself out” thought stream but by calling it the “Lazysphere” (a take on a lazy blogosphere) since he’s calling out the lack of value being inserted into posts in lieu of just grabbing attention.

While I absolutely love Techmeme, Blogrunner, Wikia and, quite frankly, the memetracker category as a whole, I also realize that this category — as the primary method many of us have to get an instant ‘read’ on blogosphere conversations — is THE primary catalyst for the blog echo chamber, naval gazing or whatever you’d care to term it.

But are memetrackers, bloggers chasing thought leader posts to get attention, or people actually lazily placing value into posts the problem? Yes and no.

<shameless plug>
I’ve been at this blogging game for over three years. In that time my goal has been to invest value in each-n-every post (with the occasional rant) and have often felt that I should simply accept the positive feedback I receive from readers, from clients who’ve hired me because of my blog, and for the doors it has opened (and still opens) rather than be dismayed about the lack of “A-List blogger-like” attention. In addition, I’ve often been peeved that the so-called “A-List” bloggers who get attention have opinions or perspectives I’d go toe-to-toe with any day.
</shameless plug>

One thing I think Rubel missed and one he got:

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Filed Under: Blogosphere

CES: One example of our lost technology edge

January 7, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Just finished skimming 187 posts in my RSS reader that were piled up from Engadget‘s coverage of the winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The innovation, evolutionary features and new gadgets are pretty cool but at the same time troubling.

The Japanese and Korean HDTV models are incredible. Any glimmer of a US-based production presence is non-existent.

In the late 1980′s I moved to Chicago to take a job at Pioneer New Media (PNM was part of Pioneer Electronics, focusing on laser videodisc, CD-ROM and cable gear). One task I undertook was holding discussions with Zenith TV in Illinois about their possible desire to private label one or more models of our laser videodisc players.

This was a company and brand I knew well growing up. My grandparents had two Zenith 13″ black and white sets and a color one in the living room, and I bought a Zenith TV as a high schooler for my bedroom. Knowing that former television manufacturing powerhouse Zenith was pretty much irrelevant, I nonetheless dutifully headed over.

The physical plant was like walking through a time warp back into the 1950′s. It was dingy, old, and filled with almost antique furnishings and equipment. The folks I met with were so incredibly clueless about the entire category — and wanted players so inexpensively we couldn’t possibly supply them — that I knew I’d wasted my time.

As a technologist and futurist I’m excited by all the new gadgets. As an American and a father who cares about the country we’re passing down to our children, I’m appalled that we’re making little the world wants to buy.

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Filed Under: Innovation, Technology

Is that an LED projector in your pocket?

January 4, 2008 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

Minnesota-based 3M announced today that they have released an earpiece-sized LED projector for mobile and handheld device projection.

3M is now providing consumer electronics manufacturers with a revolutionary advancement in the emerging field of miniature projection technology. 3M scientists developed a breakthrough ultra-compact, LED-illuminated projection engine designed for integration into virtually any personal electronic device. Roughly the size of a wireless earpiece and less than half an inch thick, the 3M mobile projection engine delivers brilliant VGA resolution images and is available today.

This company creates and develops alot of cool technology, but is primarily a supplier of infrastructure materials or building blocks that others turn into finished goods. They do say in the press release that they are "…partnering with leading consumer electronics companies that plan to launch products in early 2008."

Before I get too excited I’ll have to see one in action. Though I love the several smaller-than-dime-sized-lens 7 megapixel Panasonic and Canon cameras we own, when I’m serious about a photograph I’ll grab my Nikon digital SLR with its huge sensor and lens about the size of a small apple. The resulting image is low on noise and high on clarity.

Of course, cost and convenience are why we always buy the tiny, less qualitatively nice gear, heh? When I look at this tiny little projector component in the 3M picture, I can’t help but remember wheeling a huge Sony 3 gun projector (like this one) into a large group presentation and have been enjoying the continued reduction in size — and increase in quality — of the small projectors. At some point I’ll buy one when I’m confident a small one will be decent.

Filed Under: Gadgets & Hacks, Innovation, Technology

Web 2.0: Not everyone knows…or cares

January 3, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

As I race ahead playing with and learning about seemingly every new Web 2.0 offering, I’ve experienced over-n-over again people I trust (those willing not to blow-wind-up-my-skirt, that is) who’ve let me know how impressed they are by my command of numerous types of technology, process and business models. "Oh my gosh Steve, how do you know so much about ___!?!" is a familiar refrain I hear and I’m just now learning to accept the positive feedback.

Here’s the deal: I don’t think I’m some special Internet/Web expert since I’m always in awe of others who know more than I do; of crowds of thought leaders I rub elbows with while we brainstorm pushing against the membrane of the future; of developers who know the depth and breadth of coding whose talent I equate with a great artist (or as Picasso said, "There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." I’m fortunate to know a lot of thought leaders and transformers of yellow spots in to the sun which keeps me humble, but also makes me realize how much I don’t know rather than be grateful for what I am fortunate to have stuffed into my brain.

Another thing that’s happened in the last six months of 2007 is that much of what was magic and mysterious about Web 2.0 is becoming more mainstream and I’ve realized a gift I have is making the magic and mystery understandable to many. As more companies and thought leaders are blogging, creating YouTube video channels, podcasting, staking their claim in Facebook, offering their customers communication options (RSS, email, Twitter, SMS), and giving away free content and services in order to get attention and attract people to what they’re offering, there’s an increasing demand by those who aren’t doing so to get-in-the-game and stay competitive by moving in the same direction.

Seems like that demand should suck up all the supply of Web 2.0 companies, heh?

Ahh….no. My cautionary tale is a parallel experience these same last six months where I’ve been confronted DAILY with people stunned and amazed by all the Web 2.0 offerings out there. These are people that don’t know what RSS is (and don’t use it), really aren’t sure why they should bother to blog, know their business is being disrupted by the Internet but are overwhelmed as to what action to take, and are simply unable to understand — let alone strategically bet their business upon — any new social media, Internet or Web 2.0 direction.

So keep that in mind as you’re rolling out your new products and services. Don’t assume that people know and will use it. Prepare teaching and presentation tools to guarantee people can dig in and figure it out without help. Make certain your support and FAQ pages are well done and comprehensive. Consider adding a forum or other peer-to-peer support infrastructure. In other words anticipate most people don’t get it and act accordingly.

Because most people out there don’t know, don’t get it, or it’s not relevant to their lives and your success depends on helping them with all three.

Filed Under: Web 2.0

Where will you invest your energy in 2008?

January 2, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Been really under the weather for two days so was a dud on New Year’s Eve/Day (nice timing, heh?) so have been behind on what I wanted to get done and feeling the bum on the fun I missed out on. Today I feel like $900k (close to a million bucks) so have been investing my energy in a bunch of different places faster than normal I guess. Email discussion lists, developing new products with the staff, having strategic discussions with my partner, working on the launch of a new site for Minnesota (more to come) and scrambling around like a madman.

I’m REALLY aware right now — more than I ever have been before — that you can only invest your energy once and a unit of time is gone once it passes. So one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to pick-n-choose carefully where I intend to invest my energy, be better at saying "no", and place my energy where it can multiply.

Since I underpromise and overdeliver as a matter of doing business and in life, I have a tendency to try to do everything. Over-volunteer, try out and be involved with all the latest gadgets and technologies, read-read-and-read, and continually try to absorb and extract meaning from everything.

As I write this I’m looking at my "Firefox workspace" (a series of sites I have open in tabs): Google’s Gmail, Analytics, AdSense, Notebook, Reader; Typepad; Feedburner; Techmeme; Blogrunner; Twitter; Wikio; Facebook; a wiki I’m running; and LinkedIn. That’s just my "MAIN" workspace! I have several other bookmarks folders that I can load into new browser windows (workspaces by client project; banking and financial sites; funstuff sites; etc.).

Just writing that made me chuckle with the insanity of trying to stay on top of all that happens inside of each of those tabs. At the same time it’s incumbent upon me to stay abreast of what’s new so I’m constantly scanning my RSS feed reader, looking at both older and new offerings, applications and trying out someone’s new alpha or beta site.

I make my living doing this but Joe Average does not. If *I* am feeling deluged by everything out there, how does Joe feel?

So when the newest site in 2008 comes online and asks me (or Joe) to:

a) Fill out a new profile
b) Invite all my friends in to it
c) Start to invest energy, time and effort into using them…

…they’re not a social site competing with another social site or a Twitter vs. a Pownce. They’re competing to be SO compelling that I’ll want to either give something else up or dig down deep and come up with some energy reserve to give to them. As such, it’s going to be even tougher in 2008 to convince people to invest their energy in what you’re offering so it better be really, really worth it.

Filed Under: Innovation, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness