Hair On Fire

TapLynx put to the test

2009-10-14T01:19:00.006-06:00

We've been promoting how easy it is to use our iPhone Application framework - TapLynx - and how anyone can do it without writing any code. So I thought I might give it a try and see if the framework lives up to the promise.

I don't code but I can stumble my way around Photoshop, and there is a Mac laptop that we use for testing that already has Xcode on it. How hard can it be? As it turns out, its a bit more involved than our widget framework, but not by much.... oddly enough most of the difficulty comes from getting set up with Apple which was a bit of a surprise given how elegant their interfaces are.

So here's how it went-

1) Got my Apple account.
Any app developer needs to get an account as a registered Apple developer, and you'll need to join the iPhone developer program for $99/yr (standard program will do). If you sign up as an individual, signup is immediate, and you'll be accepted into the program as soon as your credit card clears. If you are a company, there are forms to fill out, you need proof of your business, and if you get stuck you'll be dialing an 800 number in Scotland. It takes a few weeks.

2) Got a copy of the TapLynx SDK. Free download, easy.

3) Made an app & built it.
For those of you who are ventureing into Xcode for the first time (like I did), there is a getting started guide on the NewsGator wiki. All I did was to follow the 'getting started' section to get set up, then followed the instructions in this aptly named doc "Where to get RSS content from your favorite sources", which helped me grab some RSS feeds from my blog, youtube, twitter, picasa accounts and threw them together into the configuration file. It was surprisingly easy. Then spent some time in Photoshop making a splash screen, icons, and built the app. I felt quite proud of my 45 minute investment thus far.

4) Loaded it on the iPhone
This is where I had to pay a little more attention. Apple makes it easy for you to get your app running in the simulator, and even to load the app onto a device that is teathered to your computer. When you'd like send the app to someone so they can also try it out - its called an 'ad-hoc build' and it takes several steps, but these steps are very well laid out in the iPhone developer portal.

4a - create your development provisioning profile (login)
4b - register the UDIDs (login) for any external iPhone/iTouch you want to send your application to (or skip this if you're only going to load onto a tethered device)
4c - Finally, follow the directions for creating an 'ad-hoc' distribution

So i'm now a few hours into my app (I re-did my splash screen & icon again) and i've managed to spit out a zip file with my app and a mobileprovision file that I can send to my friends and neighbors to graciously offered to look at the Frankenstein I created. After some quick feedback from them, (most said "keep your day job") I was ready to upload my app to Apple.

5. Uploaded to Apple
This process is pretty straightforward, quite frankly it was more effort to put together an ad-hoc distribution than it was to upload to Apple. But there were a few gotchas I ran into regarding having the right icon sizes & screenshots - see this doc on iPhone graphicsfor more detail on what Apple needs to accept your app.

Then I waited. Apple says that 95% of all apps are accepted within 14 days. That's a pretty safe timeframe for planning purposes but it seemed to take forever. Secretly i'm kind of glad that it takes 14 days to approve for a few reasons:

1) I'll never have to do it again. The configuration file that I filled out that determines look/feel/content in the app lives online. I can make as many changes as i'd like without having to re-upload my app. That alone is worth the price of admission in my book.

2) the longer it takes other apps to get in, the more chance I have to get noticed amongst the other apps already in there. :)

When Apple says your app is "in Review" there is nothing you can do but wait. There is no visibility into the process, which may be by design, but is likely because they are slammed & don't have time to get into a discussion with developers about their apps. Decisions are swift and App store selections are binary. You either get in or you don't. If your app gets rejected, you start over at the back of the line. So having all the flexibility of changing whatever I want whenever I want is pretty nice.

All in all, the process of building the app was fun. It was really easy - and I'm happy to report that the framework does live up to its promises. I didn't write a stitch of code, and it was quick to put together. Brent did a fantastic job.

Want to check it out? Follow this link to download the app to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Let me know what you think!

Mobile = Web 1.0 (all over again?)

2009-10-08T00:13:00.004-06:00

The Software Business Online conference was last week in San Diego (Software Business Online - Sept 29, 2009) - I had the honor of presenting NewsGator's iPhone Framework, TapLynx, to a few hundred entrepreneurs, vcs & business development folks. The title of the presentation was actually "How Branded iPhone Applications Can Increase Your Audience Size and Produce Revenue", or "Why you should take a closer look at TapLynx" for short :).

One of the core points I was trying to make in the presentation is that the current mobile market is facing a lot of the same market dynamics that we saw 15 years ago when the web was getting started: there are/were lots of devices getting online (data plans on phones are relatively new), technology getting simpler (anyone remember trying to establish a PPP connection on a dial up modem?), and ultimately every company needed a website, much like the rampant demand for mobile applications now. Last May there were 35,000 apps in the app store, now five months later, there are 85,000. We can only hope to continue on the same trajectory.

2009 Software Business San Diego - Walker Fenton

View more presentations from Walker Fenton.

Original Twitter-ers: Church marquees

2009-09-20T00:22:00.000-06:00

Every digital innovation has an analog predecessor. Newspapers gave birth to radio, TV and the web, digital photography has replaced traditional film, snail mail has given way to e-mail & SMS, etc. Most of what we figure out in the digital world is an evolution or modification of an analog equivalent. No secret there.

Twitter also has a few analog parents but one stands out- they both consist of short messages that are used to make a statement, share news or attract attention, and whether you read them or not is based on being at the right place at the right time. The original twitter-ers/tweeters are Church marquees.

Let's start with the obvious. They are short form content. Twitter is 140 chars, Church marquees are limited only by the space on the sign and the size of the plastic letters.

They are both better served by attracting 'followers'. More twitter followers means more audience with which to share your wisdom/humor/self absorbed musings. More church followers means more people to absorb religious doctrines and fill the collection tray. Neither is better off in a vacuum.

They both use obscure shortcuts to 'link' to other content. Twitter-ers use URL shortners to point to referenced content. Church marquees use chapter & verse notation to point to specifc passages.

Whether or not you read the messaging depends on being at the right place at the right time. Depending on the number of people you follow on twitter and how active they are in a particular day, you may or may not see something that was tweeted because of the noise. Likewise with a Church marquee, you may or may not notice the marquee when you drive by...

With both, success depends on the quality of the lead. You will either pique someone's interest or you won't. Like any product slogan or tagline, there is an art in being able to communicate exactly what you want within a limited amount of space, and since there isn't really a way to do A/B testing in either medium, you'd better get it right, lest you'd prefer to tweet or preach into the ethereal, eternal bit bucket :)

Fun with Google Voice

2009-07-09T22:57:00.005-06:00

I got my Google Voice invite today, a mostly free service that gives me a new phone number and allows me to route calls to a variety of places- home/work/mobile/etc. Not one to turn down a beta invite, I signed up. First step, pick a new phone number. No pressure, right? You'll likely have this number for the rest of your life, so just pick one. Sure, I want it to be memorable. I would like it to be unique. I don't want it to spell something stupid like 'asshat'. I would like it to be in my home state so others aren't making long distance calls. Good thing Google has a way to search for the numbers that are available, right?. 30 minutes later i'm not that close to picking a number, but I found some good ones.

I started with what I thought were interesting number combinations, like searching for numbers with 6 zeros in them. Those are hard to come by, but I did find one from Delphi, In:

(765) 201-0101
I figured the area code was memorable as its sequential, as for the rest of the number, you only really have to remember its a '2' followed by lots of '01's. Cool, somewhat memorable, but I wanted to keep looking.

I then tried a bunch of random words/phrases:

(530) 426-2382
(530) IAM-BETA
Soda Springs, CA

(774) 264-8474
(774) ANG-UISH
Westport, MA

(920) 474-6635
(920) IPH-ONE5
Mapleton, WI

and then tried to get clever:

(707) 469-3277
(707) 4MY-EARS
Vacaville, CA

(530) 435-5663
(530) HEL-LOME
Gazelle, CA

and finally circling the drain:

(540) 748-8887
(540) SHU-TUUP
Louisa, VA

(775) 863-8669
(775) UNF-UNNY
Duckwater, NV

Ultimately I chose to go with the obvious. Its not my area code, I figure its a number that people will use to find me wherever I am - and hey - if they are in Verona, NJ, it will be a local call.

(973) 433-6866
(973) 4FE-NTON

Try it out - call or send me a text. Let's see how Google Voice works.

2009 Colorado Hajj

2009-06-27T10:33:00.002-06:00

Started innocent enough. Then came the weather. Seth Levine has a great write up of the adventure here, and here's the vid:

Colorado weather

2009-06-26T16:14:00.009-06:00

Three images taken within an hour of each other. Got to love Colorado weather.

Twitter echo chamber

2009-06-25T09:31:00.004-06:00

Check out today's Filtrbox email - great pickup from the TUAW coverage of our TapLynx app framework - but it also shows how Twitter is a massive echo chamber. Don't get me wrong, i'm grateful for the mentions - but as we head down this road of trying to generate signal from noise, this is a great example of the challenge ahead. There are a few retweets in there, and a few others that start off with the same sentence "TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming", but other than that, there isn't a ton to hang on to for deduplication or clustering.

The url shortners alone - almost every tweet in the list points to one - are almost all unique. Of the 46 tweets, there are 26 unique urls from 9 different systems - each pointing to the same place.

http://tinyurl.com/m4zb87

http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk

http://tinyurl.com/l7b2o5

http://tinyurl.com/krm8fa

http://tinyurl.com/n5tqf4

http://tinyurl.com/mhc6xd

http://is.gd/1buqF

http://bit.ly/UZ7lM

http://bit.ly/1aCqTr

http://bit.ly/13T7bU

http://bit.ly/14t7qf

http://bit.ly/qcy7d

http://bit.ly/lQT1e

http://bit.ly/mblTv

http://bit.ly/boAv1

http://bit.ly/fhvZs

http://bit.ly/2Iqcq6

http://bit.ly/M7cqc

http://ff.im/-4m7wx

http://ff.im/4m7il

http://twurl.nl/zaxaxg

http://twurl.nl/sv8051

http://tr.im/px3e

http://minurl.org/yajD3

http://ow.ly/15G1x6

http://cli.gs/25nHR

I wonder if we'll get SEO credit from these links - or if Google, Bing & others are even set up yet to unobfuscate these tiny urls...

	"Proactive Market Intelligence"

Top 10 most active Filtrs in the last 24 hours
Filtr Name	New Articles	Trend (1 day)
taplynx	46 new	24.3%

NewsGator46 new article(s)			Filtr
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk ...http://twitter.com/macfreaker	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://ow.ly/15G1x6 TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://ow.ly/15G1x6 ...http://twitter.com/ChargedMobi	taplynx
4	06/24	tuaw TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, i.. http://tinyurl.com/l7b2o5 tuaw TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, i.. http://tinyurl.com/l7b2o5 ...http://twitter.com/mr_rss	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk from @iNewsApp TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk from @iNewsApp ...http://twitter.com/erubinoff	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming. http://www.tuaw.com/category/iphone/ TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming. http://www.tuaw.com/category/iphone/ ...http://twitter.com/AtomicShroom	taplynx
4	06/24	TUAW.com covers TapLynx: http://twurl.nl/sv8051 TUAW.com covers TapLynx: http://twurl.nl/sv8051 ...http://twitter.com/taplynx	taplynx
4	06/24	iPhone app development just got easier - TapLynx allows custom newsreaders to be constructed without coding.... http://tumblr.com/xv12519k5 iPhone app development just got easier - TapLynx allows custom newsreaders to be constructed without coding.... http://tumblr.com/xv12519k5 ...http://twitter.com/TU_TechPedagogy	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - NewsGator's iPhone Application Framework http://www.taplynx.com/ TapLynx - NewsGator's iPhone Application Framework http://www.taplynx.com/ ...http://twitter.com/tewfiq	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - NewsGator's iPhone Application Framework http://bit.ly/M7cqc TapLynx - NewsGator's iPhone Application Framework http://bit.ly/M7cqc ...http://twitter.com/nuchef1956	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://tr.im/px3e TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://tr.im/px3e ...http://twitter.com/appletweets	taplynx
4	06/24	#iphone TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool to.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk #iphone TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool to.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk ...http://twitter.com/Iphoneblogs	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming. http://twurl.nl/zaxaxg TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming. http://twurl.nl/zaxaxg ...http://twitter.com/computertechie7	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk ...http://twitter.com/lastmacen	taplynx
4	06/24	[TUAW] TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tool.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk [TUAW] TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tool.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk ...http://twitter.com/apple_live	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://ff.im/4m7il TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://ff.im/4m7il ...http://twitter.com/katsanes	taplynx
4	06/24	Daily: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tool.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk Daily: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tool.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk ...http://twitter.com/readlittle	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://minurl.org/yajD3 #iPhone TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://minurl.org/yajD3 #iPhone ...http://twitter.com/iPhone_alerts	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://ff.im/-4m7wx TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://ff.im/-4m7wx ...http://twitter.com/iphonetastic	taplynx
4	06/24	TUAW TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, i.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk TUAW TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, i.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk ...http://twitter.com/myfeed	taplynx
4	06/24	TUAW: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/l7b2o5 TUAW: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/l7b2o5 ...http://twitter.com/macfeeds	taplynx
4	06/24	Apple News: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk Apple News: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk ...http://twitter.com/Apple_Wire	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iPod touchUsers of NewsGato.. TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iPod touchUsers of NewsGato.. ...http://twitter.com/tuawRSS	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/2Iqcq6 TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/2Iqcq6 ...http://twitter.com/appleworldwide	taplynx
4	06/24	TUAW: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/fhvZs TUAW: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/fhvZs ...http://twitter.com/oneofus	taplynx
4	06/24	TUAW - TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tool.. http://bit.ly/boAv1 TUAW - TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tool.. http://bit.ly/boAv1 ...http://twitter.com/cadesubs	taplynx
4	06/24	*post TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools,.. http://tinyurl.com/mhc6xd** post* TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools,.. http://tinyurl.com/mhc6xd ...http://twitter.com/jayshang	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://bit.ly/mblTv TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://bit.ly/mblTv ...http://twitter.com/katudonrss	taplynx
4	06/24	RT: @quanganhdo: #TapLynx seems to be very useful http://www.taplynx.com/ RT: @quanganhdo: #TapLynx seems to be very useful http://www.taplynx.com/ ...http://twitter.com/MrNhim	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/n5tqf4 TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://tinyurl.com/n5tqf4 ...http://twitter.com/themissingapple	taplynx
4	06/24	#TapLynx seems to be very useful http://www.taplynx.com/ #TapLynx seems to be very useful http://www.taplynx.com/ ...http://twitter.com/quanganhdo	taplynx
4	06/24	?????? TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/lQT1e ?????? TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/lQT1e ...http://twitter.com/applenewscentrl	taplynx
4	06/24	I was about to write off NetNewsWire for their RSS reader and now it looks like they're working on something else: TapLynx. I was about to write off NetNewsWire for their RSS reader and now it looks like they're working on something else: TapLynx. ...http://twitter.com/adamvl	taplynx
4	06/24	#TUAW: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tool.. http://bit.ly/qcy7d #TUAW: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tool.. http://bit.ly/qcy7d ...http://twitter.com/michael_duvall	taplynx
4	06/24	Simply amazing! RT @MacNewsFeed: @TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/14t7qf Do it!! Simply amazing! RT @MacNewsFeed: @TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/14t7qf Do it!! ...http://twitter.com/appfreaks	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://tinyurl.com/l7b2o5 TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://tinyurl.com/l7b2o5 ...http://twitter.com/borsatoo	taplynx
4	06/24	#iphone NEWS: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... http://bit.ly/14t7qf #iphone NEWS: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... http://bit.ly/14t7qf ...http://twitter.com/iphone_newsfeed	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/1aCqTr TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/1aCqTr ...http://twitter.com/XombineIPhone	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/UZ7lM TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming http://bit.ly/UZ7lM ...http://twitter.com/GlobalMacInc	taplynx
4	06/24	NEWS: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... http://is.gd/1buqF NEWS: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... http://is.gd/1buqF ...http://twitter.com/iphone_newsfeed	taplynx
4	06/24	#iphone info: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed un.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk #iphone info: TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed un.. http://tinyurl.com/m8r9gk ...http://twitter.com/Iphoneblogs	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: (http://cli.gs/25nHR) #mac #iphone TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: (http://cli.gs/25nHR) #mac #iphone ...http://twitter.com/TND_Mac	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... - http://tinyurl.com/krm8fa TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... - http://tinyurl.com/krm8fa ...http://twitter.com/weightlossking	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx – Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... http://bit.ly/13T7bU TapLynx – Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... http://bit.ly/13T7bU ...http://twitter.com/bigWAVEdude	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming ...http://twitter.com/offerport	taplynx
4	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://tinyurl.com/m4zb87 TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without programming: Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, iP.. http://tinyurl.com/m4zb87 ...http://twitter.com/macatron	taplynx
2	06/24	TapLynx - Create iPhone focused newsreader applications without ... Users of NewsGator's NetNewsWire iPhone news reader have been waiting with bated breath forthe next iteration of the application, with the promise of the ability to mark news items unread and send articles to InstaPaper, amongst other ... ...myiphones.co.cc	taplynx

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#CoHajj

2009-06-20T18:38:00.001-06:00

A new definition for "reach"

2009-04-19T10:06:00.007-06:00

Today's definition of "reach" needs an overhaul, or perhaps an addendum. Wikipedia describes 'reach' as a the "total number of people exposed to a medium". FeedBurner calls it "the total number of people who have taken action — viewed or clicked — on the content in your feed."

"Reach" is a self-limiting measurement of the number of people your message will get be exposed to, defined specifically for broadcast messaging. Self-limiting in that there is no network effect, "Reach" describes the amount of people you might touch because you have a big microphone. So how do you describe the number of people touched because it was continually shared due to the allure of the content? "Viral" is close - but the word carries the baggage of skateboarding dogs and turntable cats. In the widget space, we measure this distribution through a "descendant rate" or "placement rate", but that doesn't really elucidate the power of an event like #motrinmoms or #amazonfail - or the gravitational slingshot you get when your photo or post is voted to the top of Digg.

We are not far from being able to evaluate individuals as channels for distribution around specific topics. But how do we quantify the performance of something like this, how do we monetize and most importantly, what do we call it?

Here are a few ideas:
Cassini (the space probe which used multiple gravity assists to get to Jupiter)
Ropedart
Catapult (though not great b/c that which is catapulted is typically only done so once)
Carry
Hop (as in network)
Suckerfish? (Remora)

Part of the fatal flaw of thinking this way is that reach denotes potential ("Hey Mr. Brand, your message will reach 100,000,000 people and each can become a customer") whereas you can't guarantee "Hops" (for lack of a better term). On the same token, a movie can't predict ticket sales, and they've figured that business model out...

Any ideas?

The Google of Metadata

2009-04-08T14:52:00.006-06:00

There are several systems available today that are doing their part to programatically watch, understand and extract interesting perspectives about the content flowing through the internet. NewsGator is one of them, although we are only doing a small portion of the work that people are interested in. We have attention data, topics and entities, (from our partners at mSpoke) but there are other data streams and metadata we don't have, and there are certainly other smart people trying to solve this problem.

What if there was a way to combine the efforts of all these disparate companies to know everything there is to know about a piece of content - and to be paid for their unique dataset or analysis?

A common architecture for enterprises who need this this information - a single set of APIs, a single SLA...

The "Google of Metadata" - a single place where you can understand not only the context of content, but also gain insight into its impact and reach of distribution.

I'm re-posting an ad

2009-03-27T01:00:00.002-06:00

I literally pulled this off of CNN.com. An ad. I don't even own a Honda.

President Obama

2008-11-04T23:40:00.002-07:00

On the front page of CNN.com, "Change has come to America".

This election season has been fantastic - people engaged, debating, reading the platforms, and most importantly, voting. I was mentioning to a friend the other day that in previous elections, I've felt like I was deciding between the lesser of two evils, this time that wasn't the case. Obama and McCain were strong competitors throughout the election season, they brought different ideas to the table, and now it seems we'll have the chance to try out Obama's. Hope they work.

Speaking of Elections..

2008-10-23T23:15:00.006-06:00

I've been nominated to serve on the board of the OpenSocial foundation, but I need your vote.

If you are not already a member of the OpenSocial foundation, you'll need to join by 10/29 - you can register here:
http://www.opensocial.org/opensocial-foundation/osf-membership-app

If you are a member, look for an email with your voting token, and then go here to cast your ballot.
http://www.opensocial.org/opensocial-foundation/election

NewsGator was a launch partner in OpenSocial, and all of our widgets today support the OpenSocial specification. The reason why i'm interested in serving on the board is to better represent our Media clients as the technology matures... we are off to a good start, but adoption is limited from the development community as the users haven't materialized. One way to get broader adoption is to help Media companies take advantage of the technology to better serve their audiences, which will drive usage and in turn encourage the development community to better support the spec. We at NewsGator are in a great position to help drive that effort, and a seat on the board of the OpenSocial Foundation will help us achieve these goals.

Thank you for your support.

Reuters 2008 Election Widgets

2008-10-03T14:58:00.004-06:00

The latest in our co-branded widget series has launched - and this time we are promoting headlines and video content from Reuters. The program is the same as we did around the Olympics with AFP, media and bloggers can create their own branded politics widgets with Reuters content (for free), sharing the highest quality content with their audience and driving links back to their site.

Here's one that the DenverPost put together (see it live):

This widget (one of three that we're offering) shows the latest video inline, and if you click on a thumbnail below the video, you'll go to a full media player on the Denver Post site. We're providing both the media player and the widget - each one is only a single line of javascript to deploy. All the Denver Post had to do was give us a logo and a page to point links to...

Would your audience like to have access to the political analysis and commentary from Reuters? Try it out

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

2008-09-21T11:13:00.001-06:00

Well said.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Kay

Business Week: Think Like a VC, Act Like An Entrepreneur

2008-09-04T09:55:00.002-06:00

A great article, worthy of a read. Some of my favorite sound bytes:

"Don't be afraid to be wrong—just don't stand still"

"Look for situations where the team or company has a distinct advantage against competitors; where you can leverage your resources, expertise, and relationships to create value."

Disaggregated audience means disaggregated content

2008-08-25T10:11:00.004-06:00

The Democratic National Convention is finally here, and there is way too much going on... so i've put together a list of a few of the places where you can see real time reports.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23dnc08
This searches the tweet-sphere for people using the #DNC08 hash tag in their tweets. Tough to get context from short form reports.

http://www.denverpost.com/live
Denver Post aggregating notes from their reporters around the city.

http://qik.com/dncwidget
Real time videos from people using the Qik broadcast video service.

PoliticsWest has pretty comprehensive coverage, although not realtime, and from the blogger angle, check out the Big Tent.

Got other sources? Leave a note in the comments.

UPDATE: Civic center seems to be a central spot for protests. Here's a webcam to watch the action: http://www.denverpost.com/dncall/ci_10284962

2008 Colorado Hajj

2008-08-12T08:44:00.007-06:00

For those of you who don't know the Hajj, it is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Millions of Muslims make the journey every year as a show of solidarity to Allah, typically in December. I'm not Islamic and live no where near Saudi Arabia, but like the idea of a yearly pilgrimage, so a few years ago my fiend Pat Schwinghammer invited me on a rather adventurous climb, and we had so much fun we decided to make it a yearly thing, thus the Colorado Hajj was born. The ride starts at the steps of the Capitol in Denver, tops out at the summit of Mt Evans, then you turn around and ride back. All in all its about 150-ish miles and 14,000 ft of climbing.

This year I rode with Seth Levine, a first timer. Being from Boulder, he'd never ridden a single leg of the trip - not Lookout mountain, Idaho Springs to Echo Lake, or up to the top of Evans. Combine that with his bike setup of two chainrings (weekend warrior hill climber types like me have three) and its easy to see how the guy is a little crazy or a glutton for punishment. Or perhaps both.

We started our day at 3:40am to get to the capital at 4:00am. From there it was out 32nd to Golden, up Lookout to Gennessee (where we literally ), Evergreen and then breakfast in Idaho Springs before the last 27 mile, 7,000 foot climb. Breakfast this year meant Breakfast Burritos at Two Brothers Deli. Chorizo and eggs might not be the best choice nutritionally, but after 4 hours in the saddle it beats a powerbar.

The ride to Echo lake was beautiful, and the weather held for the trip to the top and back down to Echo lake again. Over squaw pass we weren't so lucky. Rain in your face at 30mph is about as fun as, well, rain in your face at 30mph, and it lasted until Evergreen...

All in all it was a great day - this was the first year that the ride was tweeted, next year we might upgrage to our own hashtag.

Update: The 2009 Colorado Hajj is going to be on June 20th this year. Starts @ 4:00am at the Capital, likely will last 13 hours. The ride is unsupported. And yes, we'll stop by Two Brothers for Burritos.

I look good on Cuil

2008-07-28T19:59:00.009-06:00

Like others, I was pretty excited to try out the new Cuil.com search engine. And like others, the first thing I googled, err, cuiled, was myself.

http://www.cuil.com/search?q=walker%20fenton&pi=0&sl=long

Page 1 was pretty accurate, a recent interview with Blogtalk radio and my twitter account showed up, followed by some random mentions. But starting on about page 3 I found the results got really interesting. For some reason, Cuil likes to attach 'relevant' images to results that may or may not have anything to do with the content. Take a look at this one:

Nice photo, but it isn't me. Nor is it the author of the post. The result links through to a press release on market wire. Interesting. A little further along I found this guy:

He's attached to a press release that I was quoted in for Rally Software circa 2004. Huh? Perhaps he works at Rally?

Here's the answer from cuil.com - faq #7

7. You have images beside your results. How do you pick which pictures to use?
We know from our research that people can make better and quicker decisions about relevance and quality when they can see an image from the website. We do our best to take images from Web pages that accurately reflect the content of the website. Many websites are full of images, so we use advanced algorithms to determine the best image to show the user.

In print I agree with that, I can make 'better and quicker' decisions when I see an image. But so much rides on that image... I found unknown guy #1 again next to a result that pointed to Jeremiah Owyang's blog. Again, I don't know this guy, and he's not Jeremiah. So why is he showing up in my search results?

I think Cuil should back off the photos until they are more accurate.

NewsGator / Gigya partnership

2008-07-22T08:53:00.003-06:00

As you may have read, NewsGator is partnering with Gigya to use the Wildfire sharing components on the back of our widgets. This is a big move for us, to date we've written and maintained our own sharing code, so to rely on a third party service for this critical technology was a significant decision. But as we quickly found out, the benefits easily outweighed the costs with respect to technology and the monetization options they bring to the table.

Without getting into too much detail on the technology, Gigya has put together a very efficient interaction model whereby their systems are not called until requested (by clicking on the 'get this' button on the widgets). What this means is that we are not dependent on their systems when the widget loads, which does not introduce another point of failure into the mix. I should also mention they've integrated into a few more destinations than we have :)

With regards to the monetization options, Gigya has a unique way of inviting people to install additional widgets during the sharing process. It feels like a welcomed add-on, "Since you're already installing a widget on iGoogle, would you like to install this one as well?" type experience. Its not intrusive, and advertisers and other widget makers will pay for the opportunity to be presented in that spot, and Gigya shares the proceeds.

So we're excited to be working with Gigya, we will both benefit from the shared experience.

I hit a scooter doing 20mph. Should I feel guilty?

2008-07-22T00:49:00.008-06:00

It happened at the perennial sufferfest known as the Mt. Evans Hillclimb. This year I was joined by a friend and race rookie, Seth Terry. The wreck (detailed below) wasn't much to write home about, but makes a good title :)

The race was especially challenging this year, the pain of ascent was directly correlated with the amount of time I didn't spend in the saddle this year. On the suckage scale, this ride went to eleven. This was my fourth year in the race and all of my times are still within 5%, albethey slower. So I guess that's ok.

The real motivator for me this year was a guy on a unicycle. I was stuck behind him on the bottom part of the course, which meant that anytime we past people they would cheer for him, then look at me with that 'you can do it' encouragement; but we both knew I was the guy who was losing to a unicycle. Truth be told, he is an amazing climber, and had there not been any flatter parts of the course (where I could shift up), he would have beat me.

Anyway, the real excitement this year was coming down the mountain. Since the citizen group started first, there were a ton of people still on the way up so uphill lane was off limits. And the downhill lane was fairly crowded as well, full of half lucid riders surviving at this point on fumes and hammer gels.

About 4 miles down I was following Seth and passed by a support scooter. The road was still fairly windy and steep, so we were all going at a pretty good clip; I think he was just trying to position himself better when the road opened up. But not 30 seconds later we rounded a corner and scooter guy spotted a rider in the uphill lane who had pulled over, and, being a support vehicle, decided to stop as well.

Now, perhaps I was a little too close, frankly I wasn't really paying attention as I half expected everyone headed downhill had the same goal of getting off the mountain as quickly as possible. So my hands were nowhere near the brakes when scooter guy hit his brakes and turned in front of me to help the wayward rider.

What happened next was a bit of a blur. I remember ping-ponging off scooter guy and careening into the uphill lane and eating it over the handlebars in the rocks. Scooter guy also fell over but since he was already slowing down, his pong to my ping wasn't nearly as dramatic.

After a few 'you ok?' exchanges, scooter guy took off, which seemed odd as now I was the one needing support. I tweaked my brake levers something ugly, dropped my chain, etc, all pretty minor considering the alternatives. After a few minutes to gather myself, I got back on the bike to try to catch up with Seth again.

Oddly enough, he'd also run into a rough patch on the descent with a front tire blowout during one of the straight sections. This was particularly lucky as front tire flats are really dangerous, especially on corners - so the fact that he'd been able to keep control of the bike after such an event was pretty impressive and lucky.

All in all it was a great day. I think next year i'll try to train a little more, perhaps i'll try riding a unicycle.

pics from the ride

Big in Japan

2008-06-26T08:57:00.003-06:00

We just announced a partnership with Digital Advertising Consortium (DAC) in Japan. Details can be found here.

Let the profile wars begin....

2008-05-10T00:48:00.001-06:00

MySpace, Google and Facebook all announce initiatives for sharing data between sites (but maintaining profiles). Mark the date. The profile wars have begun.

Business Week- Twitter Story #bwstory

2008-05-08T16:39:00.010-06:00

Stephen Baker is writing a story about Twitter, through Twitter. Its an interesting concept, to gather data for the story he's engaged in a very public discussion around the pros and cons of Twitter.

Here's the story. If you would like to follow the discussion from the tweet-sphere, the widget on the right will keep you up to date.

If you would like to contribute in the conversation, simply include #bwstory in your tweet.

How to make a successful widget, and what to avoid...

2008-05-06T10:28:00.006-06:00

Another question from the field - How to make a successful widget? I'll try to keep the answer short. In fact, here's the super-short answer. Widgets are successful when you are able to deliver the right content to enough of the right audience.

Breaking that down a little bit more, the success of a widget is defined simply through engagement and distribution. Engagement relates to the presentation of the widget and the content it serves. Distribution relates to whether the widget is getting in front of enough of the right people. Do those two really well, and you'll have a successful widget.

Sounds simple right? Sure. But "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry".

Here are the caveats - some of the places where widgets fall down

Engagement:
- widget is too complicated. Don't make the audience click to get to content (unless it's a big play button on a video). Users will look at the widget, then decide if they want to click. That first look is all you get to bring them in.

- fonts are too small, widget is too bland. Widgets always look great in development, but they have to compete with very busy pages. Pictures, big headlines, source content logos are always great ways to draw users into the widget.

- content doesn't look fresh. Did you forget to include a publish date in the widget? How often is the content getting updated? For most widgets, more content with frequent updates = better.

Distribution:
- widget is buried on your site. You can't put a widget 5 clicks deep in your site and expect people to find it. Widgets are like impulse purchases at grocery stores. They need to be displayed prominently in convienent places for people to pick them up.

- widgets are only deployed to the 'galleries'. Galleries don't work unless you are buying traffic and sending people there. Your audience doesn't spend a ton of time in the galleries looking for widgets.

I'll stop there - did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments