Annotated tweets
When you create a tweet, you can add one or more annotations to that tweet. These annotations represent structured metadata about the tweet. What that metadata contains is up to use. The feature simply provides a structure for how to specify the annotations and retrieve them along with the tweet.
A tweet can have one or more annotations. An annotation is a tuple whose first element is a 'type' and whose second element is one or more attribute names with values. Here are some examples of various annotations represented in JSON and in a simple custom format:
A single annotation of type 'type', with a single attribute named 'attribute' whose value is 'value':
JSON:
"annotations":%5B{"type":{"attribute":"value"}}%5D
Simple format:
type:attribute=value
A single annotationn of type 'type', with two attributes, one called 'attribute' and the other called 'another_attribute', both of whose values are 'value:
JSON:
"annotations":
%5B{"type":{"another_attribute":"value", "attribute":"value"}}%5D
Simple format:
type:attribute=value&another_attribute=value
Two annotations, one of type 'type', the other of type 'another_type', each of which has two attributes:
JSON:
"annotations":
%5B{"type":{"another_attribute":"value", "attribute":"value"}},
{"another_type":{"another_attribute":"value", "attribute":"value"}}%5D
Simple format:
type:attribute=value&another_attribute=value,another_type:attribute=value&another_attribute=value
Two annotations, both of which happen to be of type 'type' (this is allowed), each of which have two attributes:
JSON:
"annotations":
%5B{"type":{"another_attribute":"value", "attribute":"value"}},
{"type":{"another_attribute":"value", "attribute":"value"}}%5D
Simple format:
type:attribute=value&another_attribute=value,type:attribute=value&another_attribute=value
To summarize:
Limits:
Creating a tweet with annotations:
Annotations are posted to /statuses/update.format with the "annotations" parameter. You can specify the annotations in JSON (as above) or using the simple custom format (as above).
On successful status creation, the status payload response will contain the annotations.
The annotation portion of a status payload will look like the following examples:
XML:
<annotations type="array">
<annotation>
<type>foo</type>
<attributes>
<attribute>
<name>bar</name>
<value>baz</value>
</attribute>
</attributes>
</annotation>
</annotations>
JSON:
"annotations":%5B{"foo":{"bar":"baz"}}%5D
Error cases:
Brian Casel is a web designer and owner of ThemeJam WordPress Themes and CasJam Media. You can follow Brian on his blog at briancasel.com or on Twitter @CasJam.
WordPress has long been known as a dedicated blogging platform, giving users the tools they need to publish their message and interact with readers. However, with the official release of version 3.0, set to drop this month, the platform will be much closer, if not well within the territory of a content management system (CMS).
The list of new features in WordPress 3.0 isn’t very long in comparison to previous releases. However, the changes that are coming will certainly have a significant impact, particularly if you use WordPress as a CMS. Here is a rundown of the most important new features arriving in version 3.0.
Let us know in the comments which features of WordPress 3.0 you are most looking forward to.
By default, WordPress lets you publish two types of content: “Posts” and “Pages.” In version 3.0, you can define additional content types with their own attributes. For example, if you’re running a WordPress site for a design agency, you might create a custom post type to display portfolio items, another for employee pages, and another for client testimonials. From there, you can customize your theme to better suit each individual post type.
You might even want to turn your WordPress site into something more like Tumblr. This will be easy to do in WordPress 3.0 simply by creating custom post types for Text, Photo, Quote, Link, Chat, Audio, and Video.
Thanks to custom post types, there are many new possibilities for how you use WordPress to publish any sort of content.
Menu management is one of the most exciting and talked about features in WordPress 3.0. This feature gives you full control over your site’s navigation menus. With an easy drag and drop interface, users can create menus that include any mixture of links to internal pages, external URLs, categories, you name it. Then you can embed these custom menus as a widget wherever your theme allows.
So let’s say you’re running a site which has several informational pages, plus a blog, featured video posts, and you also want to promote your social media presence. You can customize your main navigation to look something like this:
Changing the order, titles, and destination of these links is a piece of cake with menu management in WordPress 3.0.
While this new feature may seem a bit complex to non-developers, it certainly brings WordPress 3.0 closer to a true CMS. Custom taxonomies allow you to create additional pieces of meta information. By default, there are “Categories” and “Tags.” Now we can add additional types, with the option of being hierarchical or not.
So what does this mean exactly? Here are some examples of what you can do with custom taxonomies:
Let’s say you’re a film fanatic and you use your WordPress blog to post reviews and rate new movies. You can create a custom taxonomy for “Rating,” then add R, PG-13, PG, G to every review.
Another example would be real estate listing websites. In addition to photos and descriptions, you might use additional taxonomies to provide a list of specs on each property such as asking price, number of bedrooms, year built, etc.
Twentyten is the long-overdue default theme packaged with new installations of WordPress 3.0. It features a clean, yet bold design and introduces some nice functionality not found in many themes. Two features built into Twentyten are particularly useful if you’re new to WordPress and don’t have the coding skills to customize your theme. They are:
Custom Header Image
The Twentyten theme gives you the ability to easily change your site’s header image. Packaged with the theme are eight interesting banner images to choose from. You can also upload your own image. This feature isn’t limited to the Twentyten theme. It can be activated and included by theme developers as well.
Custom Background Image
Another nifty feature found in Twentyten is the ability to upload your own background image for your site. You can also set a solid background color if you want. While this is likely an easy thing to tweak even for those with only light knowledge of web development, it’s certainly useful for those who don’t want to get their hands dirty and edit CSS. Again, custom background functionality can be included in other themes as well if activated by the theme developer.
You can’t discuss WordPress 3.0 without mentioning the new multi-site capabilities. That is, you can manage several different websites (with different domains and/or sub-domains) all with a single installation of WordPress. What was previously known as WordPress MU (Multi-User) is now merged with the core WordPress system in 3.0. Enabling multi-site capabilities likely isn’t something for the average user, as it requires some tinkering with the code and configuring server settings. That said, the average user likely isn’t interested in having multi-site capabilities.
So who benefits from running a multi-site installation of WordPress? It’s perfect if you’re running a blog network, or manage a large news organization with many different departments. Perhaps your business has each employee running their own blog with a unique design or even their own domain. These are situations where multi-site functionality can be useful.
Here are a few of the minor feature enhancements arriving in WordPress 3.0:
Get Shortlink (with your own domain)
We all know how useful URL shorteners can be, especially for tweeting links. WordPress 2.9 gave you the ability to use the wp.me URL shortener. WordPress 3.0 takes this feature a step further by allowing you to get a shortlink for your post based on your own domain name. For example: http://mashable.com/?post=7127. You don’t need to mask your URL with other services like bit.ly. Now you can keep your branding intact when you tweet your links.
Author Templates
New in 3.0 is the ability to create unique author templates. This is great if you’re running a multi-author blog and you’d like to apply unique styles or layouts to individual author pages.
Select Username and Password During Installation
Before WordPress 3.0, new installations automatically set your master account to username “admin” with an auto-generated password. Now, you can define these during installation, saving you the hassle of changing them later. It also adds a new layer of security. WordPress sites have been known to be compromised simply because they use the most common username, “admin.”
Get the entire list of new features and changes at the official WordPress Codex page for 3.0.
Which feature are you most excited to get your hands on in WordPress 3.0? Let us know in the comments!
- HOW TO: Add Facebook “Like” Buttons to Your WordPress Blog
- HOW TO: Secure Your WordPress Blog
- 7 Superb Social Plugins for WordPress
- 14 Fantastic Free WordPress Themes
- HOW TO: Integrate Google Buzz Into Your WordPress Blog
Tags: blog, blogging, BLOGS, List, Lists, tech, web design, Web Development, Wordpress, WordPress 3.0, wordpress resources lists, wordpress themes
WordPress 3.0: The 5 Most Important New Features
- Niklas SjostromWordPress 3.0: The 5 Most Important New Features
- huixingTwentyten is the long-overdue default theme packaged with new installations of WordPress 3.0. It features a clean, yet bold design and introduces some nice functionality not found in many themes. Two features built into Twentyten are particularly useful if you’re new to WordPress and don’t have the coding skills to customize your theme.
- huixing
During a presentation in London today, Twitter engineer Raffi Krikorian offered up an early glimpse of what Twitter’s highly anticipated new annotations feature (or, as he refers to them at one point “Twannotations”) will look like. “Threw together a quick, and extremely preliminary view on what @twitterapi has been working on — and what I feel has the ability of being a game-changer on the platform — Annotations,” he writes on his Posterous blog. Krikorian also posted his deck, which I’ll embed below.
Of note, Krikorian says that every tweet annotation will have a “type,” and each type can have several attributes. This information will apparently have same “visibility policy” as tweets themselves, which seems to mean “public” unless you set your account to private.
More significantly, Krikorian notes that you’ll be able to put anything you want in annotations. Twitter will have some suggestions to help developers get started, but they won’t be restricting anything, apparently. Twitter will also apparently be publishing annotation stats to the public. There will be some sort of “Explorer” product that will give stats about most used, most adopted, and trending annotations.
Check out the full deck for a few other tidbits of information, including about the APIs.
An Early Look At Twitter Annotations Or, “Twannotations”
- (jeff)isageekI have written before about my concern for Facebook's lack of respect for it's users privacy and preferences. It seems to think that the 400 people who use Facebook are raw materials, whose personal information can be sliced, diced and served up in demographically culled chunks to advertisers and direct marketers.
The latest is the abruptly announced decision to replace fan clubs with "like" preferences and to extend Facebook users ability to endorse or pan to other sites across the internet.
On first look, this doesn't seem so bad. Social media users have been Digging and pointing thumbs up or down on multiple sites for some time now. It ios in keeping with one of social media's most powerful attributes--the ability to decide based on what people like you think, rather than what advertisers claim or promise.
Here's what Facebook said:
"To improve your experience and promote consistency across the site, we've changed the language for Pages from "Fan" to "Like." We believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.
The new 'Like' button will help users take advantage of and connect to the Community Pages Facebook is introducing--pages that are to serve as the 'best collections of shared knowledge.
'Liking' a Facebook Page isn't the same as 'Liking' a link, video, or status update a friend posts.
'Liking a Page means you are connecting to that Page. When you connect to a Page, it will appear in your profile and you will appear on the Page as a person who likes that Page,' Facebook says. 'On the other hand, when you click "Like" on a piece of content that a friend posts, you are simply letting your friend know that you like it without leaving a comment.'
It sounds innocent enough. The catch is that what you like becomes part of your profile. And what marketers and advertisers find in your profile is fair game to send you messages that you probably don't want in ways that you'll probably find intrusive.
Every time you say you like or don't like something, you are revealing a factoid that helps marketers put you into a usable box. If you like music, for example, that information can be sold to people who want to sell you music-related products. If you like sustainable energy products, the green machines can now buy your name and so on.
The internet has always been one huge marketplace. But it's magic is that users have been able to get clean information easily and quickly using search and social tools.
It seems to me that Facebook is corrupting that marketplace. It's "likes" tactic is nothing more than lipstick on a very ugly chicken. Perhaps, we might even call it a Trojan Chicken, whose belly is filled with little Direct Marketers waiting to invade the privacy of 400 million Facebook users, one consumer at a time.
Why I don’t like Facebook ‘Likes’
- Niklas Sjostrom
While we focus on the iPad-Kindle war, another Kindle rival may have quietly eclipsed it.
Barnes & Noble's Nook outsold the Kindle in March, according to DigiTimes research.
DigiTimes researcher Mingchi Kuo based his report on "figures from upstream suppliers as indicating that the nook accounted for 53% of e-book readers shipped to US vendors last month."
DigiTimes attributes Nooks sales to it being a newer product and being available in retail stores.
If this report is accurate, it helps explain selling Kindles in Target, where people will be able to get hands-on with the products.
It's also another sign that the Kindle is due for a refresh.
In Amazon's last earnings report, it said the Kindle was its best selling product for the quarter.
See Also: 10 Obvious Things Amazon's Next Kindle Will Do To Compete With The iPad
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Why You Need to Stop Ignoring Image Alt Attributes http://bit.ly/cp25JQ
This is a guest post by AJ Wilcox of OrangeSoda, an internet marketing and search marketing company that specializes in local search and SEO for small business.
As you are coding your site, you most often get the necessary stuff in, and then sweep back for all the leftovers. Quite often, developers forget to add the alt=”” attribute to images because it’s not required to appear completed. Since image alts are not visible to the majority of searchers, they’re easy to forget.
I’d like to cover why you shouldn’t forget about them, or why you should go input them now.
How do you think Google classifies images in order to display in images.google.com when a searcher enters a keyword? A few options come to mind. They can pull the filename (ie. Bluecar.jpg will likely be relevant when someone searches for ‘blue car’), text surrounding the image, the alt text, and they can inspect the image digitally (their technology is improving fast). By including your page keywords in your alt text, you raise your chances of showing up in image searches, and getting subsequent visitors from those image searches.
Users who are blind have browsers that read the page text aloud. When the browser comes to an image, if there is no alt text, the browser can’t add to the user’s experience. Visually impaired users should definitely be able to get the gist of images like the rest of us, so take a few minutes and write some descriptive alt text.
What is Google’s goal? They are first and foremost a business, so they want to make money. They make a good 98% of their money through paid ads. The more users on Google properties, the more chances that users will click their ads, and add to the bottom line. The better the experience that users have surfing sites through Google, the more they will return. Of course it makes sense for Google to reward complete, fully-usable content to hover near the top of their indexes.
Keyword usage in image alt text is classified as having minimal importance by a consortium of SEO experts, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless. It is yet another opportunity to declare your relevance to your given keyword. The little things add up to big things together, so don’t ignore them. Personally, I feel that image alt text plays a larger role than most on-site factors due to the previous point about usability, but that’s personal opinion.
So there you have it, don’t forget your image alt text.
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Why You Need to Stop Ignoring Image Alt Attributes
The typical American buys precisely one book a year.
Ouch.
Of course, this isn't true, because when it comes to books, there is no typical American. There are a lot of Americans who buy zero books for pleasure each year. And then there are people like me who buy 400. The average is irrelevant.
When you can't figure out the best way to treat all your customers, the best way to price things, the best thing to offer, realize that the problem is almost always this: you're trying to treat everyone the same. Don't. Break them into groups with similar attributes, and suddenly the path becomes a lot more clear.
When in doubt, disaggregate
- ryan
Real estate search engine Trulia is launching rental listings for the first time in an attempt to broaden its offerings from home sales listings. Competitors such as Zillow and Realtor.com already offer home and apartment rental listings, but at a time when up to a third of people looking for a new place to live in the U.S. are still on the fence about buying, going after renters is an obvious strategy.
Trulia is leveraging its existing relationships with real estate brokers and other sources of real estate listings to jumpstart its rentals offering. CEO Pete Flint says that Trulia’s rental listings are more comprehensive at launch than his competitors, with millions of units nationwide. In New York City alone, Trulia lists 25,000 apartments for rent, compared to 65,000 nationwide (and 3,600 in NYC) for Zillow, according to Flint. Home ownership levels are down across the country. Going after renters makes sense.
Along with the launch of rental listings, Trulia is also introducing location ratings. These will be geo-coded and tied to a neighborhood or similar area. Visitors to Trulia’s site can rate any location based on schools, traffic, safety, parking, cleanliness, and other attributes. These will be bundled up into an overall rating.
Once Trulia collects enough ratings, it will begin showing them on color-coded maps along with reviews of the location itself. The screenshot below is a mockup of how this might look on Trulia’s site when it launches in a couple weeks (the final design will very likely change, but this gives you a good idea). Also this location rating and review data could become very valuable for other sites and mobile apps which might want to integrate it into their own services. Flint hopes to be able to open up the data via APIs eventually.
I caught up with Flint on Monday in New York City. He explains the new rental and location rating products in the video below:
![If You Didnt Want The HTC Evo 4G Before, You Might Now [Video]](http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/04/01/htc-evo-4g-video/ "If You Didnt Want The HTC Evo 4G Before, You Might Now [Video] Photo")
It was apparent that when Sprint and HTC unveiled the HTC Evo 4G at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas that the smartphone market was really going to hot up.
Being the world’s first 4G enabled Android smartphone, the HTC Evo needed the right attributes to compete in a world of iPhone, Blackberry and Google smartphones – it duly delivered.
Promotional videos and images have been thin on the ground after the initial press releases but we have just been made aware of the following video, posted to YouTube by HTC. If you thought this phone was going to take the fight to Apple, this video suggests round one could already have been awarded to HTC.
Original title and link for this post: If You Didn’t Want The HTC Evo 4G Before, You Might Now [Video]
Techcrunch today talked about a new “Like Button for the Whole Internet” which Facebook looks to be launching some time soon, and has been tested amongst several developers as they’ve been told. What they didn’t mention is that you can access the code for this right now in the code to the latest open source Javascript SDK. While it does not currently work in its current form, it is open for the entire public to see, and has been there for the last few months (along with a few other hints I’ll let you find).
Assuming the source of the new SDK (currently in alpha) remains the same, the XFBML <fb:like> button can be placed on any website on the internet, and it increments the number of likes when a user clicks on it. By default it increments the likes for the current page, but there appears to also be the ability to specify a “permalink” attribute, along with a URL to another page. It’s unclear if that will be changeable in the XFBML tag or not. Also, a required “node_type” attribute that defaults to “page” can be set. Lastly, an optional “page_url” can be set. The XFBML tag loads content from /widgets/like.php (attributes of the XFBML tag get passed as attributes in the URL). That URL appears to be disabled at the moment.
So it looks like the XFBML tag will look something like the following, and it will be part of Facebook’s widgets architecture:
<fb:like permalink=”http://staynalive.com” node_type=”page” page_url=”http://staynalive.com”></fb:like>
Also of interest, Facebook has an entire tag library devoted to the new tag, like.js. You can probably gain a little more info from that. I can’t wait for them to turn on like.php so we can play with this.
My book, FBML Essentials, may just get a lot more interesting as Facebook prepares for their “OpenGraph API”, enabling any website to become its own Facebook Fan Page across the internet. This is one of many tags I’ve seen that are very interesting – see if you can look through the code and find anything else that looks interesting like this. I love being a developer. 
RT @Jesse: "Facebook’s Like Button for the Whole Internet – Here’s How it Works" - http://j.mp/clkTzh
- Martin ReckeFacebook’s Like Button for the Whole Internet – Here’s How it Works
- Rob DianaFacebook’s Like Button for the Whole Internet – Here’s How it Works
- (jeff)isageekSharing: Twitter Search Results to Show Popular Tweets On Top http://bit.ly/bCRzGs
Twitter appears set to tweak search results to return the most popular tweets first — instead of the most recent — for any given search query.
This according to Twitter Developer Advocate Taylor Singletary, who has just updated the developer Google Group announcing the yet-to-be-released product. Singletary says, “This is a beta project, but an important first step to surface the most popular tweets for users searching Twitter.”
The announcement is geared towards developers to prepare them for changes in the search API. The implication, however, is that the appearance of Twitter Search will also be altered to highlight popular tweets. Ultimately, it appears that the revamped search experience will be available on both Twitter.com and third-party applications and clients that move to support it.
While there’s no word on how “popular” is defined by Twitter, we can assume that the popular tweets will be identified by attributes such as quantity of retweets, or potentially tweets coming from a user with a high level of followers and engagement.
We think the new feature is an important evolution of the Twitter search experience and one we’re looking forward to seeing in action.
Tags: twitter, Twitter Search
Twitter Search Results to Show Popular Tweets On Top
- Rob DianaFounding a Startup? Credibility is Your Best Friend http://bit.ly/c3SRdF
We hear a lot about how starting a company takes some serious entrepreneurial DNA with traits like ambition, drive, relentlessness, and above all, passion. But some might argue that these are just the good sounding attributes that can lead to success; what about the other characteristics that may not sound so great? According to WePay co-founder Rich Aberman, starting a company also requires some arrogance and naïveté, so here's his advice on founding a startup straight from the entrepreneurial front-lines.
Sponsor
Aberman and his partner Bill Clerico started working on WePay, an online community where groups and organizations can pay each other electronically, back in August of 2008 and have since raised $2 million in funding after participating in Y Combinator's incubator last summer. In a recent blog post, he equates starting a company for the first time to jumping in a boxing ring with "the champ" and thinking you can take him, hence the arrogance and naïveté; no matter how much work you've done to get ready for this moment, nothing has prepared you for the force of that first punch.
"Not working full time takes away almost all credibility," writes Aberman on his company's blog. "If your idea is so great, why haven't you committed to it? Why should I invest and risk my money if you're not even fully committed?"
Credibility, for first-time entrepreneurs, is crucial, he adds. One of his keys to successfully attaining venture funding is building credibility through traction. As Aberman points out, investors don't necessarily look for the best ideas, but rather the best teams of entrepreneurs. When you don't have a reputation to bring to the table, having traction for your product generates credibility that can catch the eyes of investors. Traction shows potential investors that there is a market for your idea - an advantage you're going to need when trying to raise funds, especially if you're not in Silicon Valley.
Aberman stepped on some toes when he said "unless you're part of the Silicon Valley in-crowd and you have traction, you're not going to raise venture capital," but corrected himself in the comments on his blog and on Twitter. Undoubtedly, there is a much larger pool of cash in Silicon Valley, and Aberman points out that raising capital elsewhere is not entirely impossible, but what he meant was that raising capital in the Valley is harder without being part of "the in-crowd."
His other suggestions focus on the importance of finding a passionate technical co-founder and submitting to the fact that customer acquisition is a constant uphill climb, but these ideas, as Aberman admits upfront, have "been made before, multiple times, by people smarter than myself." The crux of his argument seems to focus on credibility, which generates an equation-like string of logic. Working full time on your project and generating traction creates the credibility that first-time startups need to break into the "in-crowd" of venture funding which relies heavily on reputation.
"How do first-time entrepreneurs gain momentum and raise money? They build something that people like and use," says Aberman. "If you can do that, then you just have to convince VCs that you can keep doing what you're doing."
Discuss
The debate over HTML5 vs. Flash is great for comments and page views, but all that chatter obscures the bigger issue: Should developers and designers invest in HTML5?
According to Eric A. Meyer, an author and HTML/CSS expert, the answer is a definitive yes. In the following Q&A, Meyer explains why HTML5, CSS and JavaScript are the "classic three" for developers and designers. He also pushes past the HTML5 vs. Flash bombast to offer a rational and much-needed comparison of the toolsets.
Mac Slocum: How is HTML5 different than HTML as we currently know it?
Eric Meyer: It's really the HTML we're all used to plus more elements. But that's the 80/20 answer. HTML5 adds new elements for things like sections of a document and articles, and figures and captions for figures. So it covers things that a lot of us do all the time, like create <div class="figure"> and then <p class="caption"> inside of that to go along with an image. Now there's just an element called "figure" and you insert an image and you have an element after that called "caption."
There's been an attempt to look at what people are doing. What class names are people using over and over again? What structures are they setting up over and over again? Because HTML doesn't have elements that directly address those.
The HTML5 spec also attempts to very precisely and exhaustively describe what browsers should do in pretty much any given circumstance. Older HTML specifications would simply say: "These are the elements. These are the attributes. Here are some basic parsing rules. Here is what you're supposed to do if you encounter an error." HTML5 has these really long algorithms that say: "Do this, then this, then this, then this. And if you hit a problem, here, do this other thing." There's a lot of debate as to whether that's even a good idea. But if the vision that's encoded in those algorithms is brought out -- I'm not saying it will be, but if it is, then browsers will be a lot more interoperable.
But that's the base level answer. As you push further into the more obscure corners, then the answer to "how is HTML5 different?" becomes much more complicated.
MS: Is HTML5 becoming a full-fledged development environment?
EM: I don't see it stepping forward into full-fledged programming. But I do see it pushing HTML forward so that it's a better foundation for web apps. That's one of HTML5's primary goals. There are sections of it that are devoted solely to how to deal with web application environments.
The thing that's most directly applicable to making HTML more web-application friendly is the attempt to include what's known as microdata. That's semantic information and little snippets of data that can be embedded directly into what we think of as pages right now. But these can become the views a web application presents. It's the kind of stuff that we put in cookies now.
But HTML is not getting for loops or switch statements. That's going to stay with JavaScript. In that sense, no, HTML is not becoming a programming language.
MS: What skills do developers need to take full advantage of HTML5?
EM: Developers need to know HTML5. They need to know JavaScript and they need to know CSS. That's the classic three.
MS: How about designers?
EM: Designers need to know mark-up. They need to know HTML5. They need to be able to write CSS and understand web layout. And they need to have at least a decent grasp of what JavaScript does. I don't necessarily insist that everyone who ever touches the web be able to write their own web app by hand, but designers should understand how JavaScript works.
There are a lot of people who call themselves web designers who are really just designers who put their designs on the web. And there's nothing wrong with being just a designer. But they're not necessarily web designers. They're visual designers. There's a difference.
MS: Would you recommend starting with web development skills and then adding Flash and others later?
Yeah. Make that your grounding and then add things to it if you like. You're making a very dangerous bet to not have web tools at your disposal. The developer should be able to do web work. And it's not a bad idea to add Flash to the tool belt.
MS: Without getting into the "Flash killer" stuff, how does HTML5 compare to Flash?
EM: HTML5 itself and Flash are vastly different. They have different things that they're trying to do. But the HTML5 plus CSS plus JavaScript package is more. I think that's an easier comparison to make to Flash because Flash is supposed to be this total environment. You can put things on the screen and you can script it and you can define interaction. And HTML5-CSS-JavaScript lets you do that as well.
We got to the point a couple of years ago where the HTML-CSS-JavaScript stack can technically do just about anything that the Flash environment makes possible. It's just a lot harder at the moment to do that in HTML5-CSS-JavaScript because Flash has about a decade's head start on authoring environments.
There are a number of people, myself included, who have been observing for a while now that the current web stack feels like Flash did in 1996. Look at the canvas demos, for example. The canvas demos we're seeing now are totally reminiscent of the Flash demos we used to see in the '96 era, where it was like: "Hey, look! I have three circles and you can grab one with a mouse and flick it. And then it bounces around the box and there's physics and collision and animation and they're blobby and woo hoo."
MS: What's your take on plugins? Are they inherently inelegant?
EM: That's been my feeling for a long time. That any plug-in is kind of inelegant and the wrong way to be going about this. And I don't reserve that just for Flash. I really mean any plug-in. The fact that we need plug-ins to play movies has never felt right.
MS: If, for a given application, HTML5 and Flash can provide the same result, why would a developer go with HTML5? What's the motivation?
EM: HTML5 is native to the medium. It's the feeling that if we're going to do web stuff, let's do web stuff. Let's not do Flash stuff that happens to be represented in a web page. So I think that's the philosophical drive.
The technical drive, to a large degree, is that companies don't want to be beholden to somebody else. And doing everything in Flash means that they're effectively beholden to Adobe. With web technologies, the only entity that can reasonably be said to hold the keys to the kingdom is the W3C. And even if the W3C for some reason turned into "evil goatee Spock" tomorrow and said "we want licensing fees," everyone would go, "yeah, no."
MS: Does HTML5 give mobile developers more latitude? Is there benefit in developing applications outside Apple's approval process?
EM: Absolutely. No question. There are some people who have argued that the whole App Store phase is a fad. Granted, a very popular and lucrative and probably long-lived fad, but that it's still a fad.
The argument is that 10 years from now we're going to look back at rebuilding apps for every mobile device and go "What the hell were we thinking?" It's the same way kids who graduate from decent web development programs today don't understand why anyone ever tried to layout a page with tables. I've had conversations with people who literally just can't understand. Even when you explain, "Well, there was no CSS." They're like, "But surely there was something better because that's just awful."
Betting against the web is the sure losing bet of technology. Over the long-term, that's where I see things going.
Why HTML5 is worth your time
- Panayotis VryonisWhy HTML5 is worth your time
- Rob DianaWhy HTML5 is worth your time
- Kenichi Matsumoto
Jesus Luz has always dated older women.
The 23-year-old Brazilian model, who is the current toy boy lover of 51-year-old pop superstar Madonna, claims he has never been able to connect with girls his own age.
He said, “When I was younger, I liked to go out with one after the other, but when I got older I needed just one cool girl.
“I always liked being in a relationship. It’s difficult to meet a young girl who has a mature head. So I dated mature, older women.”
Discussing what he looks for in a woman, without mentioning his high-profile girlfriend by name, Jesus insists beauty is just one of the attributes that is important to him.
He told Britain’s Grazia magazine, “It’s really important that a woman has a spiritual life and an open mind. Beauty attracts me, but it’s not something I need.
“I have to feel I can trust a person. And there has to be humor. I’m a clown.”
Jesus also credits the photo shoot he and Madonna did for W Magazine for taking his modeling career to the next level.
The hunk, who started dating the ‘Hung Up’ singer shortly after the shoot said, “It was going OK. Things were developing when I got the W job. It was a dividing of the waters, with a renowned magazine, a top photographer and an artist like Madonna.”
Weekend Reading: 17 Rules by David Russo http://bit.ly/apbFae
For entrepreneurs trying to form a startup, one of the first challenges they face that persists throughout the businesses life is how to find and keep talented partners and employees. From finding that first co-founder to finding the prolific programmers to fill your ranks later down the line, talent acquisition is always a major step in any business. Just look at some of the deals that have gone down in the Valley; Facebook didn't buy FriendFeed for their technology, that deal was mostly about getting FriendFeed's talented employees on the Facebook team.
Sponsor
A new book from author David Russo, 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage, seeks to make this process more clear for businesses. Russo is the CEO of Eno River Associates, Inc., which is a consulting service that helps business executives build better team relationships. Their portfolio of clients includes American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. With his new book, Russo outlines the key strategies he has learned over the years as a consultant and human resources executive that has helped him and others create winning teams.
The book doesn't waste any time getting into its 17 rules; after a brief introduction the entirety of the book consists of one chapter per rule. The rules cover a broad base of topics, including the more straightforward rule #4, "Provide Ample and Appropriate Resources," to the more abstract rule #12, "Understand Human Capital." One of the key rules that sticks out to me is #3, "Cultivate Leadership, Not Management, and Know the Difference!"
"Whereas managers administrate, leaders have the power to influence, to motivate, even inspire, and those are distinctly different traits," writes Russo. "Indeed, true leadership is the ability to display attributes that make people want to follow."
Russo points out that leaders need to have passion, vision, and energy, as well as recognize that each employee has value to the success of the business. He likens this value to a tight end in a football game running "a crisp pattern" and distracting the defense despite knowing before the play that he's not going to be the ball carrier.
Another rule which will likely strike a chord with the startup culture is #10, "Make Room for Fun in the Workplace (Nurture Lightheatedness/Levity)." Anyone who has seen the popular workplace movie "Office Space" knows what a bland work environment can do to employees spirits, but I don't think we have to worry about startups not having enough fun on the job.
Aside from being passionate about the job they're doing, most startup employees are probably used to everyday being "casual Friday" and taking a brain break in a game room. Granted, not every experience is like this, but we all know that many startups are a very relaxed environment, which Russo says is very important for attracting skilled employees and keeping them happy.
Other important rules Russo includes on his list include knowing how and when to "cheerlead," acknowledging and rewarding efforts and contributions, and the lastly, telling the truth. While this book isn't aimed directly at startups, young entrepreneurs looking to lead their team to success should certainly take a look at this book.
One of reasons I would suggest it is that at times, young entrepreneurs who have little or no workplace experience are suddenly thrust into a CEO role. If your company takes off, you might be in charge of a lot of people very quickly, and this book will certainly help keep them happy.
Disclosure: A review copy of 17 Rules was provided to ReadWriteWeb by Pearson Education, Inc.
Photo by Flickr user madebytess.
Discuss
Assuming E-mail is the original social network, this Web 1.0 tool continues to have a large role in how we communicate and share ideas. With the exception of the clear GMail/Buzz integration or the recent Outlook/LinkedIn tie-up, for the most part, e-mail has not been dramatically revamped to take advantage of today's faster-moving, highly featured social networks. But despite e-mail's longevity, some basic attributes of the form continue to cause trouble between contacts who haven't mastered their core functionality. One of the most troublesome, the infrequently used, but often abused, BCC.
Beware the BCC: Copying Can Make Us All Blind
- LouCypherBeware the BCC: Copying Can Make Us All Blind
- Mike Fruchter
