This is the message you receive, once you have succesfully created and published a Sprout widget.
This is the photo I picked up at Stock.xchng and transformed into the frontpage for my new interactive Flash-presentation.
Approved as an Amazon Affiliate. Widgets are easy to acquire, easy to install - and you get to choose what to endorse.
From my recent research I have detected 3 major trends in software development:
1) Lift-off... Online is the new black. Desktops are troublesome, and downloading updates a constant nuisance. Soon downloading software will be limited to drivers and security installations, and hardcopies (DVD format) even rarer. Every type of operation you use your computer for is available online already, sometimes in sweeter version or with tastier functions than the downloadables or installables.
Check out, say, Sprout Builder, a simply amazing system to develop flashy widgets for your websites and blogs. It's all online, and you basically have to upload a catalogue of virtual assets like mp3 files, photo files and videos to make it work. Sprout Builder offers a catalogue, as well as a list of neat integrations with Google Docs, PollDaddy and Twitter.
The best thing about Sprout Builder is that it allows you to update on all platforms, where the widget is embedded, without repasting code. It all happens, when you publish from your Sprout Builder account.
One thing about online catalogues (like Flickr, Facebook etc.): Check out the user agreement, because evil corps may be snatching your copyrights from right under your nose. Facebook does it, so I am officially boykotting it - only the site is like Hotel California: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. So I have cleared it of as much personal info and photage as possible, and now it mainly serves me as a mail client.
2) The second trend is amazing levels of integration. For instance, I am formatting this with the help of Zemanta and ScribeFire. I have to say it is convenient with CMS addons, when you have trouble remembering all the code, particularly in a site like Newsvine - I suspect the admins try to encourage a particular segment of developers / discourage the mob by not offering advanced CMS options.
Both Scribefire and Zemanta are installed as addons in my Firefox. Firefox, offering thousands of addons for a varity of purposes ranging from tremendously useful to downright silly, is probably the most integrated piece of software out there. You can even get a complete SEO package integrated into your browser these days.
The general level of integration of software is increasing. A simple example is my Lexmark Productivity Studio interacts directly with ABBYY FineReader, applying Optical Character Recognition of a reasonable quality to my document scans. I would never bother to scan paper documents unless forced to do it, if I had to open a secondary program, but with the full integration I actually save time and stay far more organized - all my paper documents I have to keep for accounting purposes are all of a sudden electronically archived and searchable.
Google's Picasa3, advertized when you use Blogger, is also highly recommendable. Picasa offers complete management of all photos in every folder one every drive of your machine. The glossy design and 3D animated interaction is neat, and it is integrated to work with Google archives, Blogger and Google Earth. Better yet - photos open in Picasa can still be transported directly to another photo editing program with the right click option.
That kind of integration makes for smooth sailing, when you cross-edit to save time, using different quick edit buttons in different programs from different manufacturers.
And this is how it should be, really, and it is also how it is probably going to be. When you begin to think about it, it's really a revolution inside the revolution. It's some of that openmindedness from the open source movement, adjusting to customer requests, rather than trying to topmanage themselves into a dominant equilibrium on the red ocean of zero sum competition.
3) The third trend has to do with usefulness and a more targeted approach, approximating professionalism. More and more developers and artists are going for the buck. I noticed this, because stock.xchng - an excellent Hungarian site offering very fine photographs as shareware under a free license with some restrictions - has pretty much given me the opportunity to set up shop.
Along with Joomla, formerly known as Mambo, this community has saved me thousands of dollars in production costs and allowed me to produce professional material to match and outdo that of costly office clipart catalogues or mainstream commercial photography. But now more and more artists there are moving to the pro section of the website, claiming full copyrights and asking money for their productivity - and I have to admit many of them deserve it.
The downside is that the catalogue on a free search is significantly reduced from 3 years ago or only 6 months ago. Some of it may have to do with the financial crisis. You got to figure out ways to make money. It's not all just fun and games on the Internet anymore.
Another place to spot the trend is on Widgetbox, the world's leading open source forum for widgets. A lot of the free widgets aren't so free anymore, but more like demo or trial versions waiting to be registered, demanding to be activated and eventually asking you to upgrade to pro to be able to continue on the service.
I guess fair is fair, but paying also means you place demands, ruthlessly cut out a product if flawed and expect service and feedback within a work week. If you cannot live up to that, it is premature to begin to bill.
4) The fourth and final trend is... networking. Ah, but that's not something new. It's the entire basis for Web 2.0, you might say. Not so... the basis of Web 2.0 is community, but not necessarily forming real relations or establishing cooperation. But that's what's going on right now, and it is happening for one simple reason: The output of the various industries involved in the internet revolution have now grown to a size, where it is virtually impossible to keep track of the development without chatting.
By chatting I do not necessarily mean real time digital text communication, but simply the old meaning of the word: To gossip, to leisurely exchange opinions and observations, to communicate without a predefined purpose. The thing is: If you have to have a blog on every major outlet, keep track of everything from Alexa and Technorati to the latest on Twitter and Digg, as well as update your Yahoo and upgrade you iGoogle, as well as... you get my point. We are drowning in applications.
The best way... the only way to stay on top of it all is to listen to the other people trying to keep an edge. You can't surf the entire internet, figure everything out on your own or use Google Trends and Top 100 generators and all the millions of developer and first mover blogs out there to stay informed. You certainly can't read about it in the papers - the papers are still running the same old Facebook stories in new packaging.
This is why online networking has become an essential survival factor for professionals and not just a way to get together or become a little more known, a little more prestigious in your own mind. It's survival of the social, and if all the lone rangers out there can come together, work together and break some codes for each other, there is real power to be gained and enormous momentum to be unleashed.
I hope you guys realize I am giving away money here, exclusively for the Newsvine audience. It's basically a huge chunk of my business model delivered for the world to see. It's a tested concept, used for full time employment in combination with other skills, of course, most of all the ability to sell the concept of online communication with sincere arguments and smooth packaging.
Thank you for your time. See you in the business section.
Nice article.
P.S. Personally, I find joomla to be a TERRIBLE cms.
Nice article.
P.S. Personally, I find joomla to be a TERRIBLE cms.
Beyond my abilities, but welcome information nonetheless.
Microsoft tried to recruit me for Computer Programmer sometime between 1982 and 1985 when I was a student at a community college in Spokane, Washington. I chose to study Journalism instead. I thus missed my first chance at becoming a multi-millionnaire. Oh well.
My revenue stream is nonexistent. I have $50 per month in spendable income left over after I surrender the balance of my real income to the nursing home, where I reside. So you can understand that my options are limited by a lack of funding.
I wish you mega-success, as I do everyone. I do not begrudge the talents or accomplishments of others. Rather, I rejoice.
I use multiple backups just in case.
Frustrating. I am happy for you that you have copies of your valuable original articles.
Hey C, good to see you back and I'm interested (as always) in your project here. I've been secluding myself as well, taking a lot of time to learn some interesting new technologies. I'm about a month out from being fully qualified in developing absolutely anything using Adobe Flex, which is a really cool tool.
I mostly agree with your observations here. The exception I take - and this is personal preference more than anything - is with using pre-built builders for things. The sproutbuilder thing looks neat - but it'll never compare with just doing it yourself in AS3. I guess the tradeoff is speed for control - I'm not a fast-paced guy, I'd rather make sure I understand everything I create fully. This makes me a poor collaborator in many respects ;)
Regarding your point #2, integration - yes, but this must still be in its infancy. Google has an Open API, Flickr has an Open API, photobucket probably has an API - its ridiculous to me that I have to choose one. I understand that competition breeds innovation, but I am in favor of creating a more unified data model for the internet. I understand that that's probably fairly unrealistic, but I am someone who thinks in terms of systems and the sheer organic nature of various services cropping up and overlapping drives me crazy. ;)
Regarding point 3 - there is no "standard" for being a design or development professional. That's what's so cool about it. If you can create something that solves a problem, I guess you are a professional - oftentimes, the only difference between people selling their stock illustrations for 40 cents a pop and people making 120k as graphic designers is that the second group is supported by a sales infrastructure.
I've spent the past year or so really digging into certain technologies, and I am finally at the point where I feel comfortable calling myself an ActionScript 3 developer. In all reality, I've discovered, I could have claimed that title after three months of half-hearted efforts in the field - it's amazing what "professionals" do, the shortcuts they take, the lazy practices they implement. I think we're on the cusp of a revolution in terms of what it means to be a "professional" - as the economy continues to struggle, freelancers and contractors are replacing on-staff programmers and artists, and the competition is becoming stiffer while the rewards increase exponentially for this field. Anyone with a decent portfolio can and should strive to become a "professional" - afterall, in many ways you are what you sell yourself as. I am in favor of this trend.
That's not to say that anyone with a decent portfolio is qualified to be a professional - there are a lot more skills involved than simply knowing how to make something pretty. But if you can do graphics, are familiar with some small degree of programming and have a sense of how the business works then with a little maneuvering you could be very well positioned in the coming economic turmoil. Doubly so if you are a good programmer, even if you don't do graphics.
As for Networking - Twitter is my new home, at least until I finish Meep. We are 100% in line on that count - I am working on something ridiculously cool and I'll send you a link to an early beta, hopefully this weekend! :)
In the meantime, if you're not on Twitter get on there - follow me at @mykola.
Heh. It was a good idea but it also required a certain degree of resourcefulness and commitment from the members, and speaking for myself at least I didn't have them. I find it really hard to collaborate in any meaningful way over the internet for extended projects - for me, I have to build something that can support itself and then just go in and out of it (see: The Newsvine Community - I created a place for myself here, but if I disappear for six months to learn Adobe Flex nobody is too upset ;))
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