2008 September

Acquia Launches: Supported Drupal Social Publishing

September 30, 2008 By Steve Borsch 1 Comment

Today is the official launch of Acquia, a commercial company dedicated to supporting Drupal, the social publishing system.

Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal (who some say is to Drupal as Linus Torvalds is to Linux) joined forces with Acquia in order to realize the vision he had — and the one the community and ecosystem is striving for — with Drupal. Buytaert had this to say this morning about the services they’ll be offering:

The Acquia Network (previously code-named Spokes) is a hosted service that helps you with site management (update notifications, spam blocking, cron service, modification detection, etc) and provides real-time visibility into the health and usage of all your Drupal sites that are connected to the Acquia Network.

Second, the Acquia Network gives you access to Acquia’s technical support team. Whether it is an installation question, a development question or a configuration question, our Drupal experts are ready to provide you with technical support. The kicker? Acquia Network subscriptions are available for every budget — including a free community version. Give it a try!

Third, we are also releasing Acquia Drupal today. Acquia Drupal (previously code-named Carbon) is our Drupal distribution that bundles some of the best, most essential Drupal modules for building social publishing sites. Acquia Drupal is available for free, and all our bug fixes and improvements go straight to the module maintainers on drupal.org. Acquia Drupal defines the collection of modules that you can get technical support for.

I’m installing this distro right now and will be comparing it to Acquia’s promise of a Drupal system that has the fit-n-finish power users demand, pre-configuration to jumpstart a deployment, theming that goes beyond the typical fugly Drupal themes, all in an attempt to accelerate adoption and support us all so we’re successful with a powerful publishing system (and platform) like this one.

Filed Under: Open Source

Free Speech is NOT dead

September 26, 2008 By Steve Borsch 3 Comments

When my Republican friends learn that my centrist leanings have shifted left, they seem stunned. Though there are a few exceptions, when we get into deep discussions about the issues one thing is clear: they don’t listen, watch or read perspectives on both the left and the right, and haven’t opened themselves to alternative views.

We’re living in a time when gaining perspective is easier to do than ever before. Though I watch very little television, I do seek out Olbermann and O’Reilly (two more differing perspectives one couldn’t find!) and use my remote to move back-n-forth between the two programs. It isn’t as schizophrenic as it sounds since there are engaging aspects of each. Sometimes I record one while watching another and then I see both in their entirety. Often I’ll simply watch clips on YouTube and, of course, howl over those shown on Daily Show or Colbert Report.

I read DailyKos, Michelle Malkin, Huffington Post, PowerLine (notice I go left, right, left, right) to ensure that actual "fair and balanced" perspectives can be gained.

During the runup to the last election, I was more deeply concerned about the direction of our country than at any time in my adult life. My concerns, agitation and anger are 10x what they were then, but I’m still forcing myself to listen to both sides, though I long ago formed my opinion and how I’ll vote.

So if you’re an independent and uncertain this close to the election, it’s your own fault. If you’re staunchly anchored to a liberal or conservative viewpoint, shame on you since this country is at about a 50/50 politically and we’ve got to make this country work together.

So avail yourself of what’s out there and at your fingertips — or don’t whine after the election — since access to perspective is unprecedented in an internet-centric world.

Filed Under: Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

Adobe CS4: Bridging Print & Web

September 23, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Like many content creators, our business relies on computers and creative tools to collate and publish products. Though still amazed at how far we’ve come since the desktop publishing revolution in the mid-1980′s, I’m also clear about how far we have to go to truly bridge the print publishing world with the web…especially now that the web is becoming more interactive, richer with media, and the audience for content more participative and sophisticated.

Adobe just released their Creative Suite 4, available in six different bundles of tools. While it’s always interesting to see how new versions of software streamline stuff we’ve always done with these tools, what’s more intriguing is to see completely new capabilities delivered.

This is certainly not an exhaustive review (and you can see some well done videos by the respective product managers at AdobeTV here), but a few things leapt out at me worth noting:

Acrobat Pro 9 has been out awhile, but allows Flash videos and animations to be played inside the PDF container, as well as being able to deliver "portfolios" of any digital file (e.g., spreadsheets, images, other PDF’s, videos, etc.)

InDesign can output in SWF format so a layout can be made interactive and embedded on the web or inside a PDF (watch the brief overview here) or a creation can be handed off to a Flash designer in the new interchange format called FXL

Creating Adobe AIR applications is supported with capabilities delivered with various tools in the Creative Suite. Watch this six minute video as one aspect at how they’re delivering on the promise of AIR apps.

Any downside? Yep. With deep knowledge of both InDesign and Photoshop, I’m still only half as capable as designers I know who make their living with these tools. As I watched the videos for each of the packages within CS4, I was struck by the learning curve of each one in order to be able to create either web, interactive PDF or AIR deliverables, all of which we’re striving to do within our small business in order to deliver interactive, richer content for that participative and sophisticated audience of today.

The tools in CS4 are incredibly powerful and combined with all the other applications at our fingertips on our Macs (e.g., Final Cut, ProTools, Screenflow) we can create and deliver amazing content. Upgrading to CS4 will be expensive for our business, the learning curve and workflow changes fairly formidable for the team, but we’ll do it to achieve a superior experience for our customers.

Filed Under: Internet, Media Shift

Moodle Makes Its Mark

September 22, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Today’s accelerating adoption of open source software (OSS), and the shift from desktop to web applications increasingly built on top of OSS, is being embraced by individuals, the non-profit sector, small, midsize, and even enterprise businesses.

As more of us get connected via the internet and through web applications, seek ways to make our collaboration more powerful, shift our old serial and linear processes to ones that are parallel and associative, OSS is a key building block of internet and web technologies and applications. OSS is also gaining momentum globally and affecting all industries and institutions, even educational ones.

That said, educational institutions often lag the private sector in adopting new technologies until proven, especially the Kindergarten through senior high school (K-12) levels. K-12 is often seen as risk-averse and needing clarity about the efficacy and pedagogy of using any particular technology. It must be proven and the benefits to learning and student achievement crystal clear before any technology is implemented, especially OSS.

On the flip side, higher education is a hotbed of OSS use and many projects have origins in colleges and universities. One could argue that our public institutions taking risks, researching new possibilities, and pushing against the membrane of the future is at least as important as their educational mission and has contributed code and thought leadership in OSS.

Though I’ve been aware of the OSS learning management system called "Moodle" (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) for some time, I was both delighted at what I discovered at the U of MN and surprised (stunned might be the better word) by its adoption within Eden Prairie schools where my son attends high school.

There are lessons in this story for all of us about how two very different educational organizations recognized that collaboration, human connection, and the move to parallel and associative learning is at the core of education going forward, and took calculated risk with the OSS Moodle to meet new needs.

Is Apple’s App Store Top Secret?

September 13, 2008 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

There’s been plenty of talk about Apple’s decision to restrict certain applications from the iPhone App Store. We even talked about it today on our Minnov8 Gang podcast (one of our team is head of marketing for DoApp, the startup iPhone app developer in Minnesota).

While I’ve observed some of the commentary about previous apps that were rejected after the developer had done the work and submitted the app for review (like this “Pull my Finger” fart one), I was somewhat agitated — but then very agitated — when an app I wanted was rejected (even though I still was able to buy NetShare and download it before it was removed…probably permanently).

Then at the end of the week, I had a jaw-dropping surprise over the rejection of an iPhone application from the app store called â€œPodcasterâ€ (You can see a video of Podcaster, and/or order the application, here).

Now I fear that Apple is making moves which will give pause to the ecosystem and either ensure that the killer app is on Google’s Android vs. the iPhone, or at the very least slow development of applications as the developer ecosystem waits to see if the control-freak Apple attitude toward the iPhone persists.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Computing

Web Content Container Companies: Let Us Make Money Too!

September 12, 2008 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

Over and over again I’m delighted by the phenomenal offerings on the Web, specifically in the areas of content creation and delivery. Most of them seem to be looking at the YouTube model of delivery: Make it free; make it (and all the content produced) public; and wrap advertising around the critical mass of users that flock to what you’re offering and make bazillions.

The problem? Any person, company or organization serious about investing time, effort, energy and resources building atop them — and delivering their content in an embeddable container on their website, blog, “FaceSpace” page or elsewhere — need to find a way to make money.

Now before you get all riled up with, “Hey Borsch, you numbskull. Haven’t you heard of the freemium model or that giving content away drives other business?” hear me out.

The answer, of course, is “yes” as evidenced by clients I’ve recommended implement a free/paid/pro version of what they offer online, as well as the huge success I personally experienced when giving away my report, Rise of the Participation Culture (RPC). With the latter example, for me to continue to carve out the time necessary to create quality deliverables like a line of social media ebooks, videos or presentations, there needs to be a way to make some dough off of them.

Arguments like, “Just give your stuff away and people will find you and new markets and opportunities will open up,” is mostly bullshit or a far too optimistic generalization for all but a few who do it. Yes, I believe that there is validity to “free” or otherwise I wouldn’t give stuff away (like free speaking engagements, free initial consultations, pro bono work, or free reports like RPC) but I limit those to 10% of my time or otherwise I’d get nothing else done.

There’s a real crazy-maker though, with licenses, and the fact that these offerings are geared so that YOU as a user, generating content, make NO MONEY and that THEY benefit from your effort.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogosphere, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Web 2.0

Large Hadron Collider: Should We Seek Knowledge or Just God?

September 10, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Started up just hours ago, the Large Hadron Collider has taken me into a contemplative state I never thought I’d be in or to have discussions I didn’t expect to have with people I admire, love and respect.

As it states in a Wikipedia article, the Collider initiative is focused on trying to "produce the elusive Higgs boson. The verification of the existence of the Higgs boson would be a significant step in the search for a Grand Unified Theory, which seeks to unify three of the four known fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, leaving out only gravity."

It seems that all the geeks I follow who blog and Twitter like crazy are feeling the same level of excitement I am about this roughly â‚¬6-7 billion physics experiment starting up (and that the jokes about it generating a black hole and sucking the Earth into it luckily didn’t occur!).

What most intrigues me is this audacious search for knowledge that this investment and risk represents. Nothing we enjoy today — from our cars to iPods to extended life spans — would be possible without the constant and accelerating knowledge seeking (and building upon knowledge gained) which is occurring around the world in thousands and thousands of different disciplines. Read everything you could ever want to know about the Collider here.

What’s interesting and troubling about this Collider startup is how it’s sparked conversations I’ve been having in the last few days with really smart friends who also happen to be staunch Christians who take the bible literally (as apparently Governor and VP candidate Sarah Palin does). They do, in fact, join the 1/3rd of Americans who also believe in the word-for-word literal Bible, and many of these folks also believe the Earth is only a few thousand years old ("geology is just a theory" said one acquaintance), and that searching for the big bang or a Theory of Everything is somehow blasphemous. It saddens me as I observe their mental doors slamming shut as we talk.

I think it was Socrates that said, "the more I learn, the less I know" and I’ve felt that way all my life, which is one reason why my Catholic upbringing has morphed into a massively expansive view of "God" in my adult life that I strive valiantly to learn more about and to comprehend. What I do know is that in a world and universe where knowledge equals survival, I’d rather place my bets on the seekers of knowledge vs. those that seemingly rely solely on faith to guide a country, scientific policy and investments, the education of our youth, the competitiveness of our nation, and that we still need to find Waldo.

UPDATE: If you’re interested, here’s how the Large Haldron Collider works:

Filed Under: Earth

Color, Pattern and Design Matters

September 9, 2008 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

Everyone has a comment or opinion on today’s announcements by Apple, but I want to make one that isn’t necessarily one that matters to engineers (either hardware or software) or, for that matter, most executives that green-light new products: pattern and design matters and color sells.

Just holding a newly introduced iPod for the first time makes a person lust after it. No question the design, the feel and the operation of these music devices is critical to their success.

While color has played a growing role in the design of the iPod, it’s even more critical to add it and get color right as a market begins to soften (as downtrending iPod sales are indicating). If you’re experiencing downtrending sales or lower growth in your product portfolio, freshen up your line with better design and great color and do it quickly.

Why? Let’s turn to the home furnishings industry for a lesson and the work my bride and business partner, Michelle Lamb, has been doing for over 21 years since her days in trend merchandising at Target Stores (and yes, she knew Ron Johnson, SVP of the Apple Stores, when they were there at the same time).

She (and a couple of other people globally) are trend forecasters for the home furnishings industry. She publishes color forecasts like this one which manufacturer’s and retailers use to ensure that the products they’re creating or delivering — and won’t ship for months and the retail channel won’t merchandise for weeks after that — are trend-right and are something the consumer will want in their home.

Though I still chuckle when asked by people, “So what are the trendy colors this year?” (as if I’d know or have learned how Michelle identifies trends and has been so accurate for over two decades), it still points out that people seek new, fresh, strategic color choices before they make an investment in furnishings or choose how to decorate.

Michelle’s work has gone beyond the home furnishings industry into day planners, stationery, plastics, and other product categories (like roofing materials of all things). Color, pattern and design specification is NOT just for women (as many of my buddies assume), but matters across gender, race, age and even economic lines.

Consider this as you’re building your product or even deciding on what color palette to choose as you design your web site, blog or application. The complexity of user experience is more than just color and eye candy (e.g., white text on a black background is hard for most people over 40 years of age to read), but color, pattern and design MUST be a key consideration for what you’re delivering, regardless of what you’re creating.

Filed Under: Innovation

Virtualizing Your Organization as a Risk Management Strategy

September 8, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Depending on where you live or work, chances are natural disasters, avian flu pandemics, earthquakes or other catastrophic events won’t impact you, but have you done any planning for the possibility something could happen besides making certain you’re in good standing with your insurance company or that you can locate a copy of the organization call tree so you can notify others of a business or organization work stoppage?

Over two years ago, I had the privilege to be a leader of a session at the Collaborative Technologies Conference in Boston (now called Enterprise 2.0) on “Business Continuity and Collaboration” which focused on what are typically two discrete and separately funded initiatives in any company.

At the outset, I laid out my premise that business continuity investments are usually made to ensure that information technology and telephony systems have backup, failover and redundancy so the company isn’t suddenly out of business if disaster strikes. To a very limited degree, work processes (and the people that perform them) are detailed along with possible ways in which they could continue to function in the event of a disaster, all in an attempt to ensure the business keeps going.

Continuing on with an overview of collaboration investments, I briefly laid out how these are typically driven by the desire to make work processes more efficient and reduce cycle times, but also to find ways to drive more innovation with people that connect and work with each other.

The problem? In almost every single organization I’ve been a part of or involved with as a consultant, these two don’t intersect and leaders don’t seem to realize that unless the people in their organizations have the company, directory, work processes and information at-their-fingertips and are using these systems day-in and day-out, if there is a disaster there’s no way they’ll be learning it then!

The opportunity? That these systems should be ones that are funded together as both innovation infrastructure as well as business continuity systems, and that people should be using them all the time. If virtual collaboration systems such as VoIP, groupware, web conferencing, webcams, and other “2.0-like” communication methods are something that everyone uses and knows how to work with at home or within the organizations walls, then if disaster strikes they’ll simply find an internet connection, log on and do their work.

Where is the Aldus Pagemaker for the Cloud?

September 3, 2008 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

In light of the last day and a half revelations and discussions about Google’s Chrome browser, I’ve been thinking about comparisons of technological shifts in the past and how empowering tools sparked innovation, creativity, and new businesses.

In the late 1980′s, I was the proud owner of a Macintosh SE/30, a Laserwriter printer, and a copy of Aldus Pagemaker. The desktop publishing (DTP) revolution was in full swing, based in no small measure to the brilliance John Warnock and Chuck Geschke brought forth PostScript as the foundation for a company called Adobe, and perhaps the key enabler of the tools above to replicate digitally what was previously performed on much more expensive equipment.

My bride and I took her knowledge and trend forecasting expertise for the home furnishings industry, coupled it with the above-named technologies (and a bunch of books on type, design and more!) and we collaborated on mockups of a newsletter and created a new business now 21 years old with content publishing at its core.

Had it not been for the enabling tools — not cheap at the time and we had about $7-$8k invested — and an industry quickly reacting to the demand from all these suddenly empowered nouveau publishers, I argue that the Web as a publishing paradigm wouldn’t have evolved as quickly as it has since millions wouldn’t have been ready to create and deliver content and communications digitally.

As I discussed in yesterday’s post about the Chrome announcement, new, revolutionary ‘publishing’ paradigms are on the scene with Adobe AIR, Microsoft Silverlight, Mozilla Prism, coupled with what is likely to appear delivered inside Chrome due to WebKit (and SproutCore).

But where is the “Aldus Pagemaker for the Cloud” that will give some technoweenie and his bride today the opportunity to create a completely new business?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Innovation