Archive for the ‘Opinions’ Category

One Internet Under Web

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

I recently chastised my good friend Jen Burkey about using the term “Web 2.0″. I was quickly challenged to a round of blog to blog combat and promptly accepted. I blame our spontaneous self inflicted writing assignment on withdrawal from our alma mater, Trinity University. At the risk of leaving myself eviscerated by the prose of my beautiful opponent, I shall continue.

“Web 2.0″ is an undefined buzz word. That is the beginning and end of my beef with its widespread use. As a software developer, I see the 2.0 as an indication of a new major release. However, last I checked no one came out and sold to the world a brand new internet. We’re still using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (or has the ever present http:// suddenly disappeared from your address bar?) to send content from server to web client. We’re still resolving domain names to IP addresses using DNS servers. And we’re still communicating primarily through web browsers (Matrix plugins coming soon).

Some claim that Web 2.0 encompasses the new interactive nature of the web. Some point to how blogs allow people to create conversations with the consumers of their content and how social media has opened up the internet to everyone. It has admittedly been a long time since I’ve posted to a message board but those seemed pretty democratic to me. Instant messaging had a bigger impact than Twitter. And email predates websites. I’m not going to say that the Twitter and Blogging paradigms don’t change anything, however they don’t change everything.

There is however a Web 2.0 out there. It’s being created by Google and is presently named SPDY (pronounced SPeeDY). If this protocol takes off it would only be a matter of time before you’ll start using ‘spdy://’ to get to your favorite websites (Twitter and Facebook included). This would be, in my (admittedly unimportant) opinion, something worthy of a 2.0 major release label that encompasses the Web as a whole. After all I think everyone would like their emails, websites, videos, and yes even their tweets and podcasts, to load twice as fast. So let’s stop making things a bigger deal than they are and use meaningful language to describe the state of our industry.

And now for something completely different: The Lovely Jen Burkey

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Buzz Worthy?

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

No, this is not another review of Google’s new Buzz offering. It’s still a little premature to comment on it though I have begun to formulate my opinion on the product. In this post I’m going to talk about technology Buzz Words and why you should listen to Public Enemy’s advise, “Don’t Believe The Hype”.

Let’s start with “Augmented Reality”. If you were to glance at the blogosphere (a buzz word if there ever was one) you’d think that Augmented Reality was the second coming of Twitter and that nothing like it had ever been done before. Spin up any jet fighter game and you’ll quickly realize that Augmented Reality is simply a glorified Heads Up Display. I’m not saying that people aren’t doing impressive things with it, nor am I saying that it can’t be used to create exciting applications for the masses. What I am saying is that people need to stop jumping on the new technology advocacy bandwagon. If you think your application needs Augmented Reality, but can’t articulate why, you need to reevaluate your product’s purpose. Augmented Reality can be a nice way to added something to your application (especially when coupled with good content) however it’s being treated like it’s the Astrodome when in reality it’s a construction crane or maybe wet drying concrete (remarkable achievements in their own right).

Before using technology buzz words in a sales pitch you should understand, in detail, what the technology does and does not do. You should also be able to describe what the technology builds upon. My favorite example to hate on is “Web 2.0″. I can’t tell you how many people use this term with me but can’t explain to me the difference between Web 2.0 and the seemingly non-existent Web 1.0. These buzz words for technology concepts sound great and can get the potential client to sign the dotted line but unless you manage expectations and educate the population on what exactly these technological advances are they’re going to be disappointed with their final product or worse they’ll continue to promote an irresponsible use of a buzz word.

Facebook and Twitter both fall under the “Social Media” buzz word but are very different. Telling everyone that they need a social media outlet but not explaining the pros, cons and differences between a public directory and a status messaging service isn’t wise. You also shouldn’t be able to get away with saying you use Social Media when all you’ve done is create a basic Fan Page and a barely used Twitter account. Trust me there are plenty of business owners who are very proud of themselves for having a Twitter account but sadly aren’t properly leveraging it to drive sales. I doubt the builders of the Empire State Building would have been as proud of their construction techniques if they hadn’t built anything with them. Final summation, don’t treat the tools of your trade like they are the final product.

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