Stories

For some reason I happen to go to my Twitter profile today. I almost never pay attention to my Twitter stream. I have moments where I pay attention using twhirl, but for the most part I just broadcast to it without paying much attention. So anyways I went to my profile today....saw I rolled over 1000 followers while I hav...

I am not an expert in writing documentation for application program interfaces (API). I do play one on TV though. No not really, I read enough of them so I feel like I'm an expert. I have written a couple of API SDK documentation packages and by no means were perfect. However I have been struggling with a set of API docs for a housing management integration for conferences, and the documentation really confused me. So I'm sharing my thoughts as I am having them...

Just came across good introductory look at the HTC Hero from Techcrunch. I think this is just the beginning of a wave of Android based mobile phones and webbooks you will see over the next year or two. 2009 will be a big year for ...

Was just reading a post on Mashable about Google: Browser is the Platform of the Future, Even on Mobiles. Reading this and continuing my journey to understand mobile platforms, primarily Read more →

I received a Google Wave Sandbox account because I attended the Google IO Conference back in May. They have limited access to the API and Sandbox until it stabilized. I was reading their blog today and they are going to open up the Google Wave API to many people who have submitted their requests. So if you haven't requested access, make sure you do. And let them know your plans, it will inf...

Facebook is definitely a heavy player in the online world these days. I have Facebook open all day and spend moments interacting, posting and generally socializing with my network. I see some well done applications used by friends that casually list data from my friends usage of their applicaiton. Whether its their excercise statistics, diet tracker or otherwise. It really comes down to...if you have a quality application of web site that someone uses and that user has a Faceb...

I was just reading through my Amazon Web Services Newsletter and came across another cool service built on their infrastructure. It is called phanfare, a subscription-based photo and video sharing service for serious amateurs and pro photographers. I definitely feel that Amazon S3 is the best storage for your videos and photos. I store all my raw image, video and other files at Amazon S3. Then I secondarily keep them at the cloud application of my choice such as Flickr, Youtub...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 →

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 →