In 10 Lines or Less

ICANN understand ANA's argument

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:49:00 GMT

A recent program to become effective in January 2012 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the not-for-profit organization that controls Internet domains, is coming under fire by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).

The program would allow any organization to buy their own generic top-level domain (gTLD). A top-level domain is for example the .com in www.example.com. These new gTLD's would allow anyone to buy a .coke, .bank, or .whatever for around 185k initial cost of buying the rights to the gTLD and 25k yearly fee.

Even congress is now involved in the controversy and the ANA is lobying heavily to stop the program. The ANA contends three basic arguments.

Identity theft - the ability to purchase a .bank for example would allow any spammer or scammer to pose as a bank by purchasing for example citibank.bank.
Cyber squatters - it would create a whole new wave of cyber squatters or domain speculators registering a name closely associated with a brand in hopes that the organization would buy the domain.
Unnecessary business expense - the cost of acquiring a single gTLD and managing it over 10 years could easily exceed $2 million.

ICANN dismisses ANA's arguments and the program seems to be on track for January. Proponents for the program argue that spammers/scammers can and have already used existing standard top-level domains like .info .org and others to pose as a legitimate organization. Additionally, a simple fear of cyber squatters would have prevented standard top-level domains to evolve. There are millions of domain names available today that could be interpreted as infringing on someone's brand.

One important point the ANA makes is that a brand could easily confuse consumers by controlling a gTLD such as .mobile. Since it is the responsibility of the domain owner to lease domains under the top level domain to companies wishing to operate under that gTLD, the owner could easily keep certain competitors from buying the domain for their brand using that gTLD. Once consumers associate a .mobile, for example, with a particular industry it could cause confusion and unfair competition.

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Category: Three Letter Acronyms

Category: Search Engines

Category: Mobile

App exhaustion: Yes, there is an app for that

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:59:00 GMT

From micro-blogging, to geo-location, to flashlight apps -- the endless stream of apps surely suggests there is an incredible demand.

However, consider the following:

Weather it still one of the top 3 most used apps.
Only about 10% of people contribute 90% of all web content.

If you are suffering from app exhaustion: relax, listen to some music, and have a drink.

Don't know what to drink? Yes, there is an app for that. Mosey on over to Drinkify.org, enter what music you are listening to and it will tell what to drink complements it. Bottoms up!

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Tags: gadgets

Category: Web 2.0

Category: Gadgets

Category: Mobile

WebGL: A new frontier in user experience

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 01:10:00 GMT

The quest for a better user web experience has led to a number of web technologies that continue to shatter expectations.

JavaScript, for example, is a special programming or scripting language that runs in a web page. The technology has been around for years and has proven successful in providing developers the ability to turn dull and boring web pages into rich interactive applications. As helpful as it has been at enhancing the user’s experience, there are limitations both in terms of security and functionality.

For this reason, web technologists have sought to overcome these limitations by implementing proprietary mini-applications. These mini-applications or plug-ins are installed by the user in their computer at the time the visitor browses the web page. This approach has led to abuse and opens visitors to all sorts of vulnerabilities.

WebGL, a new extension to JavaScript, expands the JavaScript technology. WebGL provides the web developer a safer yet effective way to create highly interactive 3D animations and interactions without the need for a plug-in. While not yet widely supported, it has promise in taking interactivity to a whole new level.

Google has been a pioneer in this front. Check out their Google Body browser, an incredibly detailed tour of the human body at http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com. Additionally, Google has a series of 'experiments' demonstrating the technology at http://www.chromeexperiments.com/webgl.

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Category: Rich Internet Applications

Category: Gadgets

My web guru skipped town: now what?

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:15:00 GMT

Businesses often forget to include their web application/website as part of their ongoing efforts to ensure business continuity.

Picture this scenario: Your old web guy is no longer accessible. You get a hold of a great web guru referred to you by a highly trusted source. The new web guy or gal indicates that he or she is more than glad to help you. He or she begins to ask you for a number of pieces of cryptic information. You not only not have this information but find out that it will cost practically the same or more to recreate your site as you had originally paid.

Here are some tips to make sure this does not happen to you.

Usernames and passwords

Make sure to ask for any and all usernames and passwords related to your application or website. This includes the following:

Hosting account: Your site lives or is hosted in a server somewhere. You should ask and keep the login information for the hosting company. This sometimes can be more than one set of usernames and passwords depending on your setup. Remember that the goal is to transition to the new person and not necessarily know how to use or access any of this yourself.
Website platform: Nowadays, it is rare to see developers/web designers creating static/hard coded web pages. Instead, developers/web designers are more likely to use a 'website builder' type of application sometimes called a Content Management System (CMS). These types of applications are driven by a database in the back-end where your content is stored. Your new web guru will need access to the usernames and passwords stored in that database to be able to configure and manage your website.
Domain account: Your website url or domain (i.e. http://xyz.com) is often handled as a completely separate account with a 'registrar' company. You do not own your domain but rather 'rent' it from a registrar company. If this registrar account is on your previous web guy's name and you do not have the username and password, you will not be able to use your domain even if it has your company name.

NOTE: The companies that handle all of the above could be the same organization or multiple organizations.

Graphics and source code

Make sure to ask for copies/backups of the original work. This includes the following:

Graphics: As part of developing your web application or website, your web guy could have incorporated custom developed graphics. You would want to make sure to get copies of the original files from where this graphics were derived from. The file types are usually from graphic software packages like Photoshop, Quark or QuarkXpress, or Illustrator.
Source code: Sometimes the developer/web designer could have instituted some source code or programming code to further enhance your web application or website. While this would depend on your web application or website and your arrangement with your web guy (i.e. copyright, etc.), you would want to make sure to get the original source code files used to make these enhancements.
Database and website platform: If your web application/website was developed using a CMS, there is a chance you will not be able to find the original version of the platform. While there might be an option to upgrade to the latest version, there is also a chance your web application/website will not work with the new version. Ask for a backup of all files that make up your web applciation/website including the database if any.

NOTE: When to get a backup will depend on how often your web application/website is fundamentally changed. Assume you will have to pay to redo any enhancements implemented between backups unless you ask for a fresh backup.

Having to recreate any of this information could be very costly and/or time consuming. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it should give your business a cheaper and a smoother transition when your web guy skips town.
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Category: DotNetNuke

enjoy.coke for $100K

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:14:00 GMT

ICANN, the folks that manage most everything related to domain names, approved a new plan to dramatically increase the number of Internet domain name endings -- called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) -- from the current 22, which includes such familiar domains as .com, .org and .net.

The plan allows any company to become their own registrar for any particular TLD. Take for example, Coke could have their own ".coke" and create any domain using such TLD (i.e. enjoy.coke)

At a tune of $100,000.00 per year, I'm guessing there won't be too many takers but it wil certainly put a dent on cybersquatters hoarding domains for some large organizations.

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Facebook Shopping Cart

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Sat, 21 May 2011 21:41:00 GMT

Trying to figure out how to leverage Facebook with your online strategy. A new shopping cart specifically developed for Facebook now offers the ability to have your own Facebook store. Payvment, a Facebook e-commerce solution, is offering a FREE public beta. Their offer will remain FREE even after the beta period ends.

In their words, "shopping on Facebook is naturally the next step in the evolution of e-commerce, ... with social sharing in mind, ... it makes it easy for fans and shoppers to Tweet or Like your products and seed them into various News Feeds."
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Category: Integration

Category: Web 2.0

Category: Gadgets

Real-time web

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:11:00 GMT

Business demands on web applications stretch what is possible on the antiquated web protocol. HTTP, the protocol that runs the web, started as a simple architecture that provided a way to do research based on inter-linked documents. The protocol assumes that once you fetch a document you won't need to stay connected. The second you fetch a document, your connection to the server is gone until the next click.

This constant connect and disconnect makes real time transactions challenging.

While there is currently a technology that makes this somewhat practical, a newer standard embedded into the new HTML5 specification promises to be a more efficient and effective approach.

WebSockets, originally developed by Kaazing, has been adopted by Google and it is currently implemented into their Chrome browser.

While the technology is most useful for transactional types of businesses such as trading firms or banks, it has a lot of promise used in live inventory monitoring, real-time customer interfacing, real-time social media, among others.

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Category: Cloud Computing

Category: Web 2.0

Category: Social Media

Web 2.0: The good, the bad, and the ugly

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Web 2.0 is one part of the "cloud" concept that has been able to successfully deliver on the web promise. However, just like with any shift in paradigm, it does have its thrills, frills, and perils.

The concept of Web 2.0 is primarily based on using the web or "cloud" as a replacement of the traditional operating system installed in your machine. All you would then need is a thin client such as a standards-based internet browser to access productivity tools such as spreadsheets, word processor, and email.

The good

By moving applications you'd normally install in your machine to the web, the user or organization would become platform independent. Since all you need is a standards-based internet browser, issues with compatibility with particular operating systems would be no longer an issue. No more worries whether the application works in Mac or Windows.

The bad

As you implement your strategy based on a particular online service or application, there is at least one important thing to consider: many of these services may and do stop offering the service or simply go out of business. In some cases, this can happen overnight and with no prior notice. Recently, for example, drop.io was bought out by Facebook only to be shut down.

The ugly

While part of the vision of Web 2.0 is to have systems or services that integrate seamlessly with one another, currently and in most cases, it involves at least some technical expertise to integrate the services together using Application Programming Interfaces (API) These services change their policies and API's constantly. Again, in some cases, these changes can take place almost overnight and without prior warning. This means that, if you are integrating their service as part of your strategy, your application will brake unexpectedly until your development team can address the issue(s).

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Category: Cloud Computing

Category: Integration

Category: Web 2.0

Cross-Browser Compatibility

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:21:00 GMT

One of the most misunderstood aspects of a web application is how well it works with different browsers. Whether it be a corporate web presence website, a storefront, or a single web page, the issue of cross-browser compatibility is often confused with the capabilities of the chosen platform.

Take content management systems for example. Content management systems (CMS) are web applications that generate content dynamically. The mechanics of how they work is virtually the same. A web designer or web developer designs and installs an html template that includes some type of placeholders. When a user requests a page, data such as text and images, previously stored in a database, are then rendered into the template in their respective placeholders.

The problem with compatibility with a particular browser is usually due to the implementation of this template. The designer has to make sure that he/she is using best practices, complying with standards, and in many cases implementing hacks/workarounds. The latter is particularly true when one of the desired target browsers does not follow standards. Internet Explorer, for example, is notorious for not following standards from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international community that develops standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web.

For this reason, the fact that your website does not work well with a particular browser has less to do with your chosen content management platform and more to do with how well the developer/designer has addressed the intricacies of each of the desired target browsers. For this reason, it is paramount to agree with your designer/developer as to which specific browsers you are attempting to target. Furthermore, each browser varies from version to version as to what standards they support. The more browsers and versions, the more effort required from your designer/developer.

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Category: Rich Internet Applications

Category: DotNetNuke

Project Management Happiness. Yoiks!

In10LinesOrLess@ovionx.com (In 10 Lines Or Less) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:58:00 GMT

Project failures are an enduring enigma pondered by experts. While the experts offer amaranthine advise, it all comes down to happiness … mind you, we’re not talking about the ‘pursuit of happiness’, we’re talking about the ‘attainment of happiness’. In a presentation at TED, a nonprofit conference, Dan Gilbert explains how individuals achieve happiness.

In essence, he explains how happiness is the function of the odds of achieving something times the perceived value of such achievement. How does this relate to IT projects? If the mission of an IT project is not well-defined, achievable, and practical, the odds of project success diminishes considerably. Add to this the daunting and sometimes impossible task of assigning value (return on investment) to IT projects and it is a surprise that only 68% of IT projects fail.

There are primarily two schools of thought surrounding project management. The first one calls for breaking down large projects into smaller tasks. The focus of the second is to concentrate on smaller tasks in the beginning of the project and spend hardly any effort defining the rest, giving very little details to the remainder of the project.

The first approach causes anxiety as many different tasks makes the project harder to track. On the other hand, the second approach could result in loss of interest since the poor definition of the remainder of the project diminishes the perception of attainability. While both of these approaches still have merit, a third approach would fit best. Similar to guerrilla tactics, a well defined project mission serves as an overall strategy that focuses smaller tactical mini-projects that have a palpable goal and value. While very close to the approaches above, the focus of this approach is to deliver value and small successes quickly and effectively without any special regard to subsequent tasks. This approach boosts confidence by delivering results and value relatively instant.

Learn how this relates to web development projects, download our white paper SCRUM Meet Web 2.0.

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