Posts tagged change
Add Change Tracking to Online Text Editing with Ice.js
Feb 8th
If you’re looking to add change tracking to a Web app, you might want to take a look at Ice from the CMS group at the New York Times.
Ice (or Ice.js) is an implementation of change tracking for any content-editable element on the Web. It can track changes (inserts, deletes) from multiple users, and has some optional plugins for converting “smart” quotes and creating em-dashes.
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Hands-on experience is probably the best way to get an idea what Ice.js can do. The current demo shows a plain content-editable element with Ice.js as well as a TinyMCE instance using Ice.js as a plugin. The TinyMCE demo includes buttons for accept, accept all, reject and reject all.
Ice.js also has an API, so you could use it as the basis for your own custom editor or integrate it into an editor like TinyMCE. At some point, Ice.js should include code to integrate it with WordPress.
Ice.js looks pretty good so far, but the project is still in early days and the developer is calling for other folks to get involved adding features, plugins and documentation. The licensing for Ice may be a problem for some projects, however. The trend these days seems to be using MIT or BSD style licenses which do not require reciprocity, but Ice is GPLv2 only. This means that some projects won’t be able to adopt Ice due to their own licensing.
Change tracking is something that I’d like to see integrated in just about everything, so I’m hoping this takes off. Any other change tracking projects worth noting?
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Do I Change My Site In The UK To Comply With New Cookie Laws?
Feb 7th
People are generally vaguely aware that debates have been taking place in Europe over new legislation which principally affects the use of “Cookies”. European legislation is inevitably more complex than elsewhere because of the way it is drafted by the European Commission and then…
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Future of SEO: Change, Convergence, Collaboration
Feb 7th
The way you work, the tools you use, and your approach to SEO has changed. Be open to changing the way you think about SEO and willing to change the way you view the search world. Take advantage of these opportunities, tools, and platforms.
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Future of SEO: Change, Convergence, Collaboration – Search Engine Watch
Feb 7th
 King of How To News |
Future of SEO: Change, Convergence, Collaboration
Search Engine Watch Like it or not, SEO has changed and its future relies upon a complex relationship with content marketing, social media, and collaborative technology. The end result is a whole new way of thinking about utilizing SEO and social media strategy and … Oylist Announce New Next Generation SEO Profit By Search, The Leading SEO Services India Reaches A Record Achievement … The SEO Copywriter and Search Engine Optimization |
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Netflix’ Daniel Jacobson: Letting APIs Change Everything
Feb 3rd
What we today call the “mobile app” could, in a very short period of time, become known as the portable app, or just the “app.” It tends to use such a simple and straightforward model of interaction that people are starting to prefer using their smartphones for certain tasks, even when their PCs are right in front of them. By this time next year, portable apps originally designed for use on smartphones and tablets may be running on laptops.
The extent to which this changes everything is a topic that no one, not even ReadWriteWeb, has fully fathomed. The Web as we have come to know it will be affected significantly. What users have come to know as Web sites will be willingly and eagerly substituted with Web apps. In Part 2 of our interview with the co-author of APIs: A Strategy Guide, Netflix lead API engineer Daniel Jacobson tells us the one huge difference between an app and a site involves the extent to which they rely on an API. It is part of every app’s DNA.
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The First, Painful Steps Toward Multi-Platform
In 2002, as you learned from part 1 of our RWW interview last week, when Jacobson was with NPR, he helped make a critical decision about its information infrastructure, the implications of which his team had not foreseen: “Literally the first thing that we did,” he tells RWW, “is, we built the API and we put the Web site on top of it. So the Web site runs off the API. It’s a little bit of a different interaction model; it doesn’t have to go through the authentication and whatever else, in the same way that external apps do.”
That API later gave NPR the freedom to build apps that run outside the browser, and that use that same API in different ways. So when mobile apps were invented, NPR was among the first publishers to be ready for them. When Netflix saw it needed an architecture that enabled it to reach all its users without it being dependent upon the usage model for any one device, including the Web browser, it hired Jacobson to build it.
A 2005 Netflix demo at a Microsoft convention featured one of that company’s program managers at the time, Darryn Dieken, showing then-President Jim Allchin the prospects of using one underlying technology as the foundation for developing a unified product line across different devices. The technology at the time was code-named “Avalon,” and evolved into what we now call Silverlight.
After showing how a Netflix product selector ran outside the browser but through the Web, in a way people had never seen before at that time, Dieken showed essentially the same selector running inside Windows Vista on a tablet PC. From there, he proceeded to show where else folks would eventually find Netflix.
The demo took the audience inside Windows Media Center, which had just been released for Windows XP and was being vastly updated for Vista. The Media Center plug-in used many of the same presentation techniques and concepts as the stand-alone version, demonstrating the benefits of code reuse.
But when the demo turned its attention to Netflix on a Windows Mobile phone, it became painfully obvious that the benefits of client-side code reuse could only go so far. Yes, there was communication taking place between all these different clients and the server. But the way these interactions were happening were based on leveraging Web site-oriented, forms-based submissions that at one level could be described as an API, but failed to be uniform – one API for many platforms.
The goal of any modern API, Dan Jacobson emphasizes, is “to treat any presentation layer the same. So if you have multiple Web sites, like NPR does (they have NPR Music as well as NPR.org), both of those sites run off of the same interaction model through the API. They’re just presentation layers, the same way as mobile app or Google TV or [NPR] Infinite Radio. Users are going to consume new material in any way that they want to, wherever, whenever; and your goal as publisher is to make sure that you have a presentation layer that serves them wherever that is. And in doing so, the easiest way, the most effective way to date is to leverage APIs, and invest a little bit on having the right talent surrounding it.”
“Publish Everywhere” Doesn’t Have to Be Homogenous
Because presentation layers are so different from one another, he goes on, a business can and should nurture teams of developers with the exclusive skillsets that each of those layers needs – for example, Objective-C developers for iPhone apps. There’s no reason why certain teams can’t specialize. Having a single API that addresses each layer in a standard way, he says, provides all your teams with the flexibility they require to take advantage of the platforms on which they’re focused.
This allowance for specialization tends to work itself away from the “one Web” way of thinking, the belief that everything will inevitably merge into HTML5. In professing that API design should not be centered around any one single mode of presentation, lest it eventually become obsolete (among other reasons), Jacobson advises that API designers focus on finding ways to symbolize and encode business interactions, the things that businesses do, not the things that Web sites do. Your goal is not to make the browser more efficient or the user experience more immersive. Leave that to the UX designers. As the API engineer, your goal is to enable business.
“That kind of thinking is fundamentally different than, ‘How do I want to structure my content? Do I need to think about what resources can be broken up in which ways and made available in different ways?’” says Jacobson. “For NPR, for example, there are stories, there are assets, different kinds of things in that system. For Netflix, there are users, catalog items. How do you want to structure that material, both in terms of the resource level as well as items underneath it? What are the rights management concerns that go into this, legal constraints internally about what can be published? For Netflix, what can I show users in Latin America that I can’t show to people in Canada? For NPR, it’s, I’m publishing AP photos; whom can’t I present that to, and whom can I? Those kinds of things are really business-oriented decisions that you can’t just flip a switch and say, ‘Make it happen.’ You need to be very thoughtful about what you’re exposing and to whom, and how you’re going to do it so you can get the maximum effectiveness out of it.”
It is this concept which may outmode, or render obsolete, the traditional notion of the Web site, the notion that something that’s created once and published everywhere (COPE) must always be the same thing. Done properly, Jacobson says, it can and should be integrated with the uniqueness of each device.
“When Web APIs started out, they tended to be more about publishing on all kinds of different platforms. Now I think it’s very much about aggregation, and merging others’ API experiences,” says the Netflix engineer. “One of the interesting things with Netflix, for example: We have branded apps on a wide range of platforms, and if you look at something like AppleTV or Roku or Xbox, or any of these other devices, we’re not the only ones there. There is an aggregation of services where Netflix creates an experience on that platform. We actually integrate with their systems, we’re creating an experience on that site, and then people can access our experience in the way they expect it to be presented.”
Next Time: A Lesson From the Entertainment Industry, “Know Your Audience”
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How Social Media & Social TV Will Change Super Bowl 2012
Feb 3rd
This year’s Super Bowl will be more social than ever before.
With the rise of social TV and the first-ever 2,800-square-foot social media command center, fans who have trekked down to Indianapolis and people at Super Bowl parties across the country can now opt to have a super-connected experience.
This marks the first time that the NFL has partnered with a Super Bowl host city. Like a Midwestern truck stop that’s got a restaurant, convenience store, bathrooms, random coin-operated claw games (that you can’t ever win) and gas, the Super Bowl social media command center seeks to be all things to all football fans. Receive mobile updates about navigating the city. The Super Bowl Social Media Command center will answer your Twitter (@superbowl2012) and Facebook questions. Follow the blog here. It’s the customer service center of your Friday Night Lights dreams.
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Tons of fans are already busy on social media. According to research from Nielsen and NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company, the Patriots’ website is beating the Giants’ website in terms of unique visitors. Giants fans, however, tend to spend more time on their team’s site – and they also view more pages. Giants fans are also talking more on social media about their quarterback, Tom Brady.
The Super Bowl is a Social TV Event
Various social TV apps are already available for Facebook. Entertainment social network GetGlue gives users an opportunity to check-in to sports events. ConnecTV is another free social platform that serves as a “second screen,” which means users can talk to friends while watching the Super Bowl. Users can sync shows, and then watch them with their friends while chatting in real-time.
The Super Bowl seems to be making up for the lack of social media at the London 2012 Olympics. In fact, not one of the Olympic volunteers can make a comment about the games without permission, according to Sysomos. At Super Bowl 2012, expect the exact opposite.
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Big Question (Answered): “Can Online Petitions Change Foxconn Conditions?”
Feb 3rd
The conditions of workers at Foxconn have been the subject of discussion for the past few years, but lately more and more people seem to be interested in how the workers at the tech manufacturing giant fare. A petition asks for your signature to pressure Apple into “mak(ing) the iPhone 5 ethically.”
But can an online petition really make a difference in this situation? Apple is not the only company who uses Foxconn to supply their hardware manufacturing. Amazon, Microsoft and Sony also use Foxconn to manufacture the Kindle, Xbox 360 and the PS3, among others. John Paul Titlow goes into further detail in, “Why Petitions Won’t Change Apple’s Labor Practices Anytime Soon.”
Can an online petition change conditions for workers at Foxconn?
We asked and culled your responses from Facebook, Google+ and Twitter and presented them back to you with Storify. If you have additional responses, please leave them in the comments.
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Why Petitions Won’t Change Apple’s Labor Practices Anytime Soon
Feb 1st
Not even 24 hours after Apple reported its jaw-dropping Q1 financial results, the company found itself as the target of some relentless investigative journalism by the New York Times. In particular, as part of an ongoing series about Apple, the Times published a detailed investigation of some of the tech giant’s biggest overseas suppliers, ugly labor abuses and all.
From deadly plant explosions and poisonous screen-cleaning chemicals to unsafe working conditions and long hours, the report was anything but forgiving. In response, there is a small but growing chorus of consumers asking Apple to do more about these issues. A petition demanding a more ethically-built iPhone 5 and other products is said to have amassed 40,000 signatories in its first 24 hours.
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Apple has already made some efforts to improve labor practices among its suppliers, something the Times article acknowledges. It has thoroughly audited its suppliers, in many cases pressuring them to change more egregious practices. This year, the company even published a list of its suppliers for the first time, in an effort to be more transparent. Still, as the Times report illustrates, many abuses persist.
The company, like others that make consumer electronics, remains in an awkward position as its quest to meet growing demand clashes with the ethical concerns that naturally arise when the manufacturing is done in countries that lack the U.S.’s labor laws. Apple has stated that achieving the level of efficiency they now boast simply wouldn’t be possible in the United States, where manufacturing has waned, labor is costly and regulations too strict to allow for lightning speed turnaround on last-minute changes. To stay competitive, it needs to keep its operations in places like China.
E-Signatures vs. Wallets: Which Votes Count More?
Forty thousand signatures may sound like a lot, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to 37 million. That’s how many iPhones Apple sold in its last quarter, in addition to more than 15 million iPads. The pressure from consumer and human rights groups may well ramp up in the coming weeks and months, but for the time being the number of people voicing their concern is only .07% of the number that bought iPads and iPhones in the last quarter. That’s not counting iPods and Macs.
To make a substantial impact, there would need to be an actual boycott of Apple products widespread enough to make a noticeable dent in their sales numbers. Some may decline to buy the iPhone 5, iPad 3 or iTV in protest, but probably not enough to make a difference.
Alternatively, the issue would need to turn into a much bigger PR problem for Apple, leading consumers to think twice or forcing the company to preempt an exodus by pressuring suppliers to shape up.
This isn’t to suggest that a concerted enough Web-fueled protest couldn’t generate the pressure required to encourage change. We saw it happen in more ways than one with the SOPA and PIPA debate. Still, this is Apple we’re talking about. Rather than asking citizens to phone their representatives, such a protest would be asking millions to break their addiction to some of the most popular consumer electronics products of all time. These are devices that have woven themselves deeply into our day-to-day lives.
If people were to flee Apple, where would they go? To one of Apple’s competitors? They’re not exactly innocent either.
What do you think? Are labor rights issues enough to cause you to reconsider buying devices like smartphones and tablets? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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How Targeting People Will Change Paid Search
Feb 1st
Google’s privacy policy revisions and the continued expansion of Google + are part of an important trend in paid search: targeting ads to people, not just search queries. The more relevant the ads, the more satisfied users, the more clicks on ads.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Obama’s Google+ Hangout Didn’t Change the Game, It Just Changed the Channel
Jan 30th
The President of the United States held a Google+ Hangout today. He fielded questions selected from over 130,000 submissions as well as from five lucky Americans selected to hang out with him live. For the rest of us, it was a streaming video experience. It began with a swooping, dramatic intro, and then Google MC Steve Grove took control of the proceedings.
This is the most user-friendly White House in history. It was a nice experiment in Web-enabled democracy. But despite the great camera angles and the believable-but-composed real-world folks, it stretched the definition of “social media” pretty thin. User-submitted content is good, and the hand-picked live participants get to be involved, but for most of us, it’s no different from television.
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The Hangout dynamics did offer some back-and-forth between participants and the president. The action didn’t feel scripted. On the contrary, it felt like people talking over each other, just like a video chat usually does, except there was a moderator to occasionally interrupt and move things along.
But for most of the audience, it was a YouTube stream. The link was posted all over Google+ by various accounts, including the White House, YouTube and Google Politics & Elections, but the comments there were spammed-up and useless. It wasn’t a social event except for the selected participants.
In that sense, it wasn’t much different from the president’s live event at Facebook last April. It was good publicity for a social Web platform, pro-Web PR for the White House, and a TV-like experience for the rest of America.
This was certainly a game-changing event. It was a demonstration of YouTube’s looming succession to television as the most influential video platform. This was a triumph of a tech company over media companies. The production values were high, the program was engaging, and the content was timely. But for the public, it was no more of a paradigm shift than changing the TV channel.
Did you watch the White House Google+ Hangout? What did you think? Share your reactions in the comments.
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