Archive for the ‘Business’ Category
Facebook Open Graph
According to Facebook, “The Open Graph API will allow any page on the Web to have all the features of a Facebook Page – users will be able to become a Fan of the page, it will show up on that user’s profile and in search results, and that page will be able to publish stories to the stream of its fans.”
By implementing this new service however, Facebook will become the primary authentication hub for social experiences around the web. This authentication process makes Facebook the center of user identities and the announcement of opening up developer access to emails means Facebook has literally become a wrapper for open identification. Using the APIs, the data will flow back from these sites to Facebook.
“Now that Facebook is willing to share user emails, Facebook Connect will become default signup for most websites.”
Connect is already largely successful. It’s becoming more and more rare to go to a popular site on the web that doesn’t implement it in some way (even if it’s just for commenting). But in many ways, Connect doesn’t go far enough. If Facebook truly wants to be the main hub of social data on the web, it needs more data coming in from more sites, and Open Graph can provide that.
Whether we like it or not, we have to understand what this move means. It impacts users, publishers, competitors and, of course, Facebook itself.
From the developer perspective, it adds to the development process, although many complain the API is tricky and complicated. It seems to be a huge effort from their engineering team.
From the user perspective the major implication is one: privacy.
In my opinion they will be able to control too much and I understand their business practices, but the user should be able to decide what and when to use something.
The Open Graph is a set combination of publisher plugins, semantic markup and a developer API.
Facebook announced simple, RDF-based markup to make the plugins smarter. In a nutshell, the markup enables publishers to say what object is on the page – a movie, a book, an event, a sports team, etc. This automatically enables semantics, that is, an understanding that the user is not just interacting with a webpage, but that he or she is liking a specific kind of thing. More importantly, the markup helps Facebook connect the users across common interests across different websites.
Let’s give it a try.
No silver bullet
No Silver Bullet is a classic known paper among software engineers written by Fred Brooks.
It strips down the nature of software development, or simply the art of programming.
In its history, programming brought to this world so many paradigms related to all activities involved in the process that mastering this art is object of discussion and observation in the Digital Era.
Certainly, it’s not as straight-forward as creating an application lay-out on Illustrator, or enhancing a picture in Photoshop or making that financial spreadsheet in Excel.
From designing the app, implementing chunks of code and make them interact, to debugging the process, the level of complexity raises in an attempt to transfer idea, concepts and the client needs into a digital medium.
The rise of the Internet led to very rapid growth in the demand for international information display/e-mail systems on the World Wide Web. Programmers were required to handle illustrations, maps, photographs, and other images, plus simple animation, at a rate never before seen, with few well-known methods to optimize image display/storage (such as the use of thumbnail images).
There is a constant demand for solutions to new ideas and more efficient communication.
However, software development does not happen in the same pace as hardware development.
New tendencies point to rapid-prototyping techniques turning programmers into heroes, so to speak.
Therefore, which methodology and approach used in a project must be carefully chosen.
“The complexity of software is an essential property, not an accidental one.” We observe that this inherent complexity derives from four elements: the complexity of the problem domain, the difficulty of managing the development process, the flexibility possible through software, and the problems of characterizing the behavior of discrete systems.”
Fred Brooks.
Quick thoughts on Flash vs. HTML5
Posted by Fabricio in Actionscript, Business, Design, Misc on April 5th, 2010
Well, recently there has been a lot of discussion on the future of Flash or the web.
Just because some known websites and companies have chosen HTML5 as an alternative for their development.
I’d like to say this is not a biased statement, but I have to point out the pros and cons of each technology accordingly to my perspective and past experience.
First, I have coded, learned, failed and succeeded with both.
Back in the day I was so amused by the fact that we could code for visual purposes, at least for the web.
So, html came into play and it was fun understanding how all that could be wrapped with data and server-side processing.
From iframes to tables and later divs the language was evolving, slowly but forward.
And that is my point, it takes decades to something new get implemented in html, it took a long time to have a video tag!
Not to mention that html is an interpreted language, not compiled. It needs support form other technologies such as Javascript or back-end ones.
Now, the good part, it can be accessed from any browser, despite some incompatibilities, any app or device.
I am pretty sure that will evolve more in the short-term, new libraries and frameworks of all kinds will be more popular, useful and reliable.
On the other hand, Flash which is mistakenly know only as an animation program, or a way to “make annoying banners” for some (I am serious, I heard that so many time!s) is largely used for delivering digital content on the web, such as video (Youtube owes Flash a lot!), interactivity, 3d, etc.
From a basic prototyped language to a OOP version its language became a powerful resource for web development and adds that dynamic touch as if the webpage is another canvas itself.
There is a lot more to tell and discuss for both technologies, but to make my point clear, I am trying to say that both technologies are useful and there should be no need for such war. It reminds me of the Cold War, Coca-cola vs. Pepsi or Nike vs. Adidas, which means both sides, I mean both side supporters, are more concerned in attacking each other rather than providing better solutions for each technology.
When planes first came out, we didn’t loose cars, bikes or any other type of vehicles. Unfortunately, most people depend on cars more than anything else, but people support alternatives to that.
What about the user?Have we forgot it?To me this should all be about having a better experience on the web, whether it is done in Flash or HTML5. You also need a plug-in (runtime) for Java if you visit a webpage that contains Java apps or applets and still no one mentions that as a turn down for Java. Why do they do it for Flash?
Certainly, HTML5 will benefit the web and Flash use will decrease in the following years, but wouldn’t it be great if they both continue as the main technologies for front-end development? Who is the evil and the good guy here?
Behind this debate there are some many things we don’t know about it, corporations interested in increasing their profits and extinguishing competitors.
My advice for users is use both, don’t complain if it’s Flash the webpage you visit, you probably don’t know how much effort there is in order to bring you that information.
Also, don’t complain if that HTML5 site is killing your processor due to a canvas animation in the background. Eventually, you will have to choose one for certain apps, but don’t feel guilty in your decision, find a way to support both.
For developers, be aware of what’s going on, try them both, the more you understand both, the broader will be your options when it comes to use one technology for a specific project. You may like one more than the other, but coldly analyze what fits better your skills and needs for each app you work on.
Below is some good articles I read in the past few days. It’s more info for you to be wisely involved in this buzz.
Dan Mall post about the Cold War of the Web
Adobe Engineer explaining the nuances of Core Animation in Cocoa (MacOS)
