Right now I’m feeling especially good about technology innovation.
After experiencing the AT&T’s tyranny and crappy service, I’m ditching my contract and setting up an array of services and devices to do what I need, with no contracts and at half the price. I signed up for a Boingo wireless for my iPhone, getting lifetime Peek, and exploring Skype, SipDroid, and Google Voice. Right now I pay approximately $85 a month for AT&T service only to get a lot of dropped calls and a rigid contract. I’m estimating that all said and done I’ll be paying about $45 a month (over 2 years), factoring in the ATT contract cancellation fee and the cost of the Peek device. (This all follows a move from Time Warner Cable to Netflix streaming with a Roku box).
These are significant changes, not simply because of the savings, but because it’s even possible. It’s an exciting and palpable reminder that tech startups can effectively compete with massive companies.
Lately I’ve been questioning the advantages of native mobile app development over web apps. I’m impressed with the possibilities for web apps, especially now that Javascript includes an API for geolocation (code sample). iPhone 3.0 supports the feature out of the box, and Android phones can access it via Google Gears.
The major advantages I can identify for native apps are speed and visibility (in app stores). These are strong arguments for native development. Also, access to the phone hardware, e.g. bluetooth and accelerometer, is possible only in native apps.
We’re creating a prototype for BeeMe using a Ruby on Rails web app, mostly because I’m better and faster with web development than obj-c or Java. In the long run it probably makes sense to create a native version for iphone and android, but perhaps over time we will see a departure from proprietary app stores to web apps, which would bode well for cross platform availability and development.
Friday was the last day of my summer internship at Etsy. I met some great people and worked on awesome projects while I was there. My main focus was prototyping, both creating actual prototypes and documenting a process to promote ongoing prototyping there.
The tools I explored were balsamiq mockups, Adobe Dreamweaver (templating and libraries), Ruby on Rails, and scratched the surface on Google and Yahoo APIs. Balsamiq turned out to be an excellent tool for initial communication, discovery, and vetting. Ruby on Rails has a steeper learning curve but turned out to be an outstanding platform for high-fidelity prototyping, flexibility, and quick adjustments.
The exercise was useful and enlightening for both parties. Prototyping is an excellent means of product innovation, discovery, and user testing, and bridges the gap between product and engineering teams much earlier in the feature creation process. The result is clearer requirements and a higher level of consensus on feature details when time comes for development.
Big thanks to Etsy for allowing me a lot of freedom and flexibility, and for being so open and responsive to proposals and suggestions.
Over the past few years I’ve advised people and organizations wanting a basic web presence. In general they’ve had limited awareness of technology, so the work becomes an exercise in education rather than a development and design project. I’ve successfully helped these people, but it has been an uphill battle, and limited in scope.
To help the untold others who feel frustrated with the “technology puzzle”, I’ve created Love the Blog. It will be a home for tutorials, and eventually a forum for people to help one another. One of my mantras for some time has been “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.” Creating a community will make the site self-sustaining.
The first tutorial outlines how to get a hosting provider and setup a wordpress blog and template to create a simple informational website.
My wife Kate has started a blog – Honestly Art – to promote “accessible artwork”. She has recently showcased Nahcotta Gallery’s Enormous Tiny Art show, as well as a handful of individual artists. She’s also creating a gallery/artist database for browsing.
SEO – linking the url from profiles on a myriad of social networks
It’s a daring move to go from management consulting to the art world/blogosphere, and very exciting. The fruits of her labors are beginning to show, and there’s been some great feedback. Looks promising!
BeeMe was awarded Best Product Concept at Microsoft Design Expo ‘09, with excellent feedback and interest from the judges, participants, and audience. Thanks to everyone at Microsoft Research for making it happen, to Nancy Hechinger and the Design Expo class, an the other schools: Dundee IMD from Scotland, CMU, Art Center, CAFA from Beijing, UI from Mexico City, and University of Washington.
I’m currently working with a group at ITP on an application to get micropayments for charity. We’ve called it givkwik, it leverages “impulse philanthropy“. I’m doing the frontend dev and some backend/database work. We’re using AJAX, php/mySQL, and jQuery, with a healthy dose of semantc markup and styles. Web 2.0 ftw!
Working with Bryan Lence in 1210 to create a surf report and alert application that works across mobile, web, and tv devices.
The idea is:
you would be able to get alerts if weather and condition data plus user generated feedback meet your minimum requirements. In other words, if it’s 3-4 ft faces and your buddies are saying it’s good, you get out of bed.
once you’re awake, turn on your tv and see real time and captured footage from different beaches, so you can decide where you want to go.
you’re on the road, the same info is on your phone, along with directions and traffic.
Constituent Parts:
user uploads via textmarks & php/mysql
national weather service RSS feed
ip cams at beaches (this one may prove difficult)
Adobe air app to bring it all together and display it on the tv.
My goal is to make 40 paintings in 4 days. So far so good, 10 down.
Day 2:
I’ve solicited photos from ITPers for inspiration. Thanks all!
5 paintings today.
Day 3:
2 paintings today. I’m seeing an exponential decay in the quantity of paintings, but I’ve been working larger and longer.
Probably won’t make 40 total. In fact tomorrow I think I’ll complete the trend and do one large all day painting.
