I will be presenting a session this coming Wednesday on AIR, at a Brighton SkillSwap event, talking building desktop experiences, specifically using Adobe’s AIR. I will be covering the key features and functionality provided by the runtime, with specific examples of Flash/Flex and HTML based AIR applications. I’d also assume a trip to a drinking establishment would be in order for afterwards!

For more details, see the Upcoming Event Page

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Its Murphy’s law - if you are looking for a tool, you will find it as soon as the chance to use that tool has passed! This is exctly what has happened.As I mentioned, this week I presented on Web 2.0 at work - which seemed to go down so well that I have already been asked to repeat it for our business partners! On top of that, I’m also moving to a new role which will be much more focused on AJAX/Flex/RIA’s, but I digress… What I wanted to be able to do was to create a presentation which would run in my Web browser, making it easier for me to demo things (my demo’s would be part of the slides) and also show off some Web 2.0 stuff at the same time.Now if I owned a Mac I’m sure I would have just used Keynote, but unfortunately that is not an option (yet!).At a recent workshop, the presenter was using S5, a slideshow built using XHTML/CSS/JavaScript, enhanced by script.aculo.us to provide some nice visual effects. I liked how that approach came across so investigated. Not bad, but one thing really struck me - to build the presentation I was editing the HTML directly. It worked, but it added an overhead onto the process, and made it difficult when it came to more complex slides with a few images/diagrams. So, I put S5 to one side and made it in Powerpoint, not my idea format as I wanted to integrate a few demo’s, but very quick to create. The time came, and I just Alt-tabbed to Firefox.Yesterday, I find what would have been the ideal solution, a Web application called ThumbStacks, which lets you create and host Web based presentations. The difference between this and S5 (aside from the fact that Thumbstacks offers hosting/meeting/collaboration features) is the fact that it also has a brilliant presentation builder. It works just like Powerpoint, its simple and lets you create powerful layouts. It also lets you do nifty stuff such as importing graphics from your Flickr account etc.Its lacking a few things like slide transitions/animations which I think some people would find helpful. But, I’m hopeful that they will be inculded in an upcoming update. (Hint for developers: take a look at script.aculo.us, moo.fx and/or Lightbox). And I will definately be using ThumbStacks for future presentations! (more…)

Before we begin, it’s probably a good idea to set the objectives of this session. The audience was mainly project managers and analysts working within technologies, there were also a few developers and project architects in the audience. As an organization, we have neglected the Web for some time, or at least failed to keep up with some of the latest trends. This seems to be changing, but there is still a lack of awareness, and technical knowledge, within the company.That said, the objectives of the session were to:

• Raise awareness of what is going on, on the Web;
• Describe how the Web has changed, and how those changes impact us;
• Demonstrate AJAX/Flex, to stimulate thought about how they could be used to improve our own sites and tools.

There was also lunch, which annoyingly seems to disappear quite quickly whilst you are speaking!So, before I talk about Web 2.0, it’s probably a good thing to understand a bit about the internet itself. It all began in 1969 with ARPANET, a communications network setup in the United States by the USAF and DARPA. It was based upon packet switching, and is the granddaddy of what we know today.TCP/IP didn’t come along until 1983, where it was created by the National Science Foundation to link academic institutions. 1991 saw HTTP/HTML rear its head, used by CERN in Switzerland to allow the sharing of scientific data. WordWideWeb, the first Web browser, appeared around this time however this was surpassed by other browsers such as Mosaic.Prior to 1994, the internet as we know it was mainly used in academic/technical circles. For some reason, which I’m not going to attempt to explain, all this began to change. By 1996, the ‘internet’ had become a household name.The next 5-6 years saw a vast explosion of companies offering online services and commerce. It was the Dot-Com boom. There were lots of success stories, but also lots of failures - in many cases due to lack of technical maturity and poor execution. Others fell victim to the bandwagon effect.Today, there are estimated 1 billion people online. That is one sixth of the worlds population, and that number is set to continue rising.Devices + Connectivity = More UsersThe internet is finding its way into household electronics, whether it be your stereo or your fridge! I have even seen reports of internet-enabled beer coasters, which send a message to the bar when you need a refill! On a slightly more mundane level, Web enabled mobile phones and PDA’s are commonplace. Obviously some of these devices are useful (the beer coaster), others are simply a bit of a novelty.If we examine connectivity, we see a two dimensional increase - speed and availability. Broadband is becoming more and more common, giving the user much faster download speed. This opens up much more possibilities - in particular audio and video downloading (without the dreaded buffering message). You see services such as iTunes going from strength to strength as it has become much more realistic to download multimedia content from the Web.Wi-Fi has made it possible for me to connect to the Web in airports, on trains and on beaches. When I go travelling, I don’t need to worry about my emails because I can find a wireless network in most urban locations.So the user base is growing. Schemes such as One Laptop Per Child, which is producing a $100 laptop, intended for use by children in the third world support this growth even further - whilst improving educational standards and achieving a social goal.It is, to put it lightly, the second dot-com boom.So, we have talked about where the Web came from, but we haven’t really made any attempt to describe what it is. It can really be broken down into four components:

• Hypertext, the ability to navigate between documents through internal connections or links.
• Mark-up Language, a way of presenting data/content, HTML.
• Resource Identifiers, unique identifiers for Hypertext documents, URLs.
• Client/Server, a client makes a request, the server sends a response. A Web browser/server.

What we have is a Web of hypertext documents, each addressable, linked together and viewable through a Web browser.These hypertext documents may be static, or they may be a front-end to a data source of some kind.That is Web 1.0, so what is Web 2.0? A Web of buzzwords?Tom Coates describes it as a Web of data, and I think that is the best description which describes the architecture of this new Web. There is much more emphasis on data and services. Rather than a Web of links, you have a Web of data.Web sites have evolved from being isolated silos of information to a computing platform in their own sense, offering tools/applications to users.Web 2.0 is also a social web, built upon openness, freedom and decentralization. You see communities built up around Web 2.0 applications, creating and distributing content.It is an organized Web. There is greater emphasis on the organization and categorization of content. Search engines help people find what they are looking for, and information architecture is built around the need for a high ranking.Of course, this Web is economically valuable. There is nothing saying that your data or application should be available for free, especially if it has a value to others.Innovation is a big thing in Web 2.0, there is a new found excitement around the possibilities of new technologies such as AJAX, and this is continually building in momentum.But lets not forget, Web 2.0 is also a buzzword; a marketing term. In many ways this is a good thing - it helps separate this new wave of start-up’s from those which failed during the first dot-com boom. Nobody wants to invest in a ‘Web company’, but investors are a lot more receptive to a ‘Web 2.0 company’!We have talked about having open data and services, but we haven’t really explained why. One reason is that it allows people to produce mash-ups - A Web application which combines data from two or more sources.As Vint Cert from Google said:

“We know we don’t have a corner on creativity. There are creative people all around the world and they are going to think of things to do with our platform that we didn’t think of. This will be a major source of ideas for applying Google-based technology to a variety of applications.”

The Web becomes a platform in its own right, with users interacting with services which interact with and enrich other services. But hang on a minute, all of this sounds very familiar… it sounds like the end result of a Service Orientated Architecture. You have your backend databases and legacy systems which you make available as Web services. Client applications can interact with them; other services can interact with them. The only difference is that we have a global SOA. That’s one of the concepts at the core of Web 2.0 - the Global SOA.Note: there was more to the actual presentation, some bits on RSS and API’s, demo’s, and a brief mention of user experience. I will probably tack on the user experience section, going into more detail on RIA’s, at some point during the week. The other parts either are company specific or don’t lend themselves to me simply writing them down! (more…)