Stories

Kin Lane

Control, track and protect your documents

I was just reading through my Amazon Web Services Newsletter and came across a really cool service. It is something I've thought of doing a couple of times. It is a way to send documents securely, and control and track who views, prints or forwards them. It is called WatchDox. Something clients and people I work with often ask for. And this is built upon the Amazon Cloud Infrastructure so you k now...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Event Management

We just launched a new web site for our company WebEvents Global. It is a new start for our web presence. We do not really have a need for a web site to market our event management products and services. We rely on worth of mouth and networking in the very close knit event and conference management industry. It really bothers me that you can't ...
Read more →
Kin Lane

A new business social network.

Came across a blog posting for a new social network / platform call Smibs. We ahead and signed up for it. I am always curious how fast these networks will grow. I monitor my Google rankings pretty thoroughly. Curious to see how fast it rises in the ranks. Sometimes I will see them popup on my first page pretty quickly. Sometimes I never see them at all. It is an interesting approach to social networking. I got my basic...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Authorize.net Goes Down

Was just reading a blog post on Techcrunch about Authorize.net going down due to a fire in Seattle. Crazy stuff. Seems like they really had everything tight regarding their systems and even the data center they were in. The fire caused the sprinklers to fry the backup generator. Authorize.net is a mission critical 3rd party provider and definitely impacted a lot of busin...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Lifespan of Social Media at a Conference or Event

I was just talking with a colleague over Facebook chat about some great interviews and content she is producing from a conference she is at. She is wondering when the most opportune moment to release this content. When its polished and refined in a week or so...or take advantage of it now. The attention span of users are short. The opportunity for networking around a conference is best during the conference when everything is still fresh in their minds...they are engaged. As s...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Wordpress as a Content Development Platform

I have been using wordpress installations for content development. I am working on a couple of books and whitepapers. The white papers should be much shorter than the books. However the platform seems to work with my way of evolving the co...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Application Program Interfaces (API) are All the Rage...

Was reading a post on Programmable Web today about Sprint opening up a set of REST API to work with the Sprint mobile platform. Developers can now access location, simple presence, and send SMS messages to Sprint handsets without requiring any software installed to the device. This is an important business step for the major carrier. Application Program Interfaces or API is something...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Social Media Usage in the Future Quote

Social media will be used as a spin tool in ways we couldn't even imagine in the near future....by government, entertainment industry, NGO's, Read more →
Kin Lane

Social Media Marketers Who Comment on Blog

This is a message to all you social media marketers who comment on my blog. Thank you so much for your praise of how wonderful I am and how informative my blog is. However if your comment does not add value to my blog or your link is to relevant content I click SPA...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Beautiful Flowcharts and Diagrams

I always want to visual my projects and ideas in easy to understand diagrams that are beautiful. I always look to Dion Hinchcliffe as the master of technical diagrams. I love his work. Being able to take a complex idea and articulate it in a single visual diagram that is universally understo...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Popularity of Internet and Social Media

Listening to Morning Edition on PBS right now and they are talking about the post election in Iran. All the public dissent and open revolts are largely organized by SMS and Facebook. With this kind of usage even in Iran, it really shows the importance of SMS and Social Media as a tool in our society.
Read more →
Kin Lane

Freemium Hostage Business Model

I am a big fan of the Fremium Business Model. Where you offer a base account that is free to get users in the door. Then you can upsell them on premium features. It just makes sense. I am also a big fan of the Free Trial for web based software as well. I think this is crucial to allow people to test drive your application and see if it will work for them. However nothing makes me more mad then the Free trial that really isn't Free. They make you put in a credit card then start...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Internet and Network at Technology Conference

I'm not being to formal about my posts coming together from the Google I/O conference. A lot of work this week so I haven't had time to pull together. So I am just going to rant about a few items randomly. One of them is the network and Internet connectivity at conference centers and events. First put the Registration, Information, Session Speakers, Exhibitors and all non-attend...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Google Wave Federation Protocol

Excited to have started playing with the Google Wave Federation Protocol this evening. I got my sandbox account today and played with the client available there enough....then after going through the Google Wave API docs and Google Wave Federation Protocol Draft Specs again I am eager start playing with some code. Going to play wi...
Read more →
Kin Lane

End of High Price Software and Old School ISP Models

This month we are done with a hostage internet service provider (ISP) at WebEvents Global where I work. When I started we were already under contract with this ISP. We weren't using the T1 connection, however we were still using the rack hosting. After working my way through the sales and tech support I made it to what I guess is the top of the ladder. He expressed no interest in negotiating or even providing the services they had promised. He just reminded we were under contr...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Google Cloud Platform - Spreadsheets as Data Stores

I attended many great sessions while at Google I/O. I really started to see the where they are going with using Google Spreadsheets as data stores. I have used as data stores for quite a while, but they are really pushing for them to store enterprise data, Read more →
Kin Lane

Google IO Wrapup

I am still processing my notes and information from the Google I/O conference in San Francisco last week. I will be making some individual posts on different sessions I attended. I wanted to speak to my overall experience at the conference. I had a little insight behind the scenese because even though I went as an attendee the company I work for WebEvents global handled the regi...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Google IO Keynote - Day One

I am not blogging to among the A list bloggers or drive large amounts of traffic to my blog. I do this primarily for myself and as a result I tend to have some readers and followers. At conferences I tend to take notes and when I find time and get in the blogging spirit I will blog about these topics. So here are some thoughts form the
Read more →
Kin Lane

IPhone Application Directory in a Magazine

I was browsing the magazine rack at borders books this morning as I often do. I notice an IPhone Application directory magazine. Besides the fact that Mac and I everything seems to dominate the technology section of the magazine rack, Apple really is on it when it comes to publishing. I would like to see a Blackberry, Android, and other smart phone application directory or overview publication. I think this would be one more step towards the other handheld platforms competing against ...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Open Data and Transparency for the Government

I am excited about the recent launch of Data.gov. I am very passionate about what API and open data access can do for companies and belive the same is true about Government. Now that the site is launched....we need some data. Doesn't look like much is available quite yet. I queried all categories and all agencies and got eight results. Its a start. I will be watching on a regular basis to see what data sets show up. Hopefully many more agencies see the value in posting t...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Making Web Application Portable Using Adobe Air

I am enjoying taking a current web application and making it run in Adobe Air. So far I have quickly ported an existing ColdFusion web application over to run within a downloadable Adobe
Read more →
Kin Lane

End of a Busy Week at SAP SAPPHIRE 2009

Finished up a very busy week yesterday at the SAP SAPPHIRE 2009 conference in Orlando, FL. Haven't had much time on my hands to do any blogging or much of anything beyond just managing registration at SAPPHIRE. The show was a success. I feel good about it. It was my first on-site with the company and it is our largest event of the year. We had several technology successes including Airport Registration at the Orlando Airport and Self Check-In Kiosks. Both were ...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Too tired to Blog...

Haven't had much time lately to blog. Currently getting ready for the SAP SAPPHIRE event in Orlando.
Read more →
Kin Lane

Amazon EC2 Recovery

I just finished a recovery of an amazon EC2 instance that failed. It failed not due to anything related to the Amazon EC2 instance. It was something Java related in the ColdFusion environment, and still trying to figure out. Anwyays, as soon as I saw I couldn't recover the services necessary to run the application I quickly deployed a new instance from the AMI I had created of the production isntance a couple weeks ago. Once up I copied all web site files. This frustrated me a...
Read more →
Kin Lane

Google Sites Indexing

I started doing some research on cloud computing a couple weeks ago. I have been watching the Google search results for my name to see how long it took for this research to float up in my profile. It showed up at #28 now. I have seen other pages too show up below that. I am interested in seeing how quickly you can launch a site using
Read more →