Web 2.0 abuse and misuse

You've heard of "Web 2.0", that ubiquitous and over-reaching marketing term plastered on everything from average websites to moldy bread. How does it apply to everything and is it related to "Jake 2.0"? I can't tell you much about the "Jake 2.0" part, but I have my ideas about the rest.

What seems to make "Web 2.0" so useful in marketing is that it seems to have no meaning. In reality, most don't know what it means, and all the rest have their own unique definition - most likely one that describes their own product. I've seen it used to describe everything from a UI button to an entire company. The most popular definitions deal with social networking or the Ajax based web sites.

Our own product Timeless Time & Expense Enterprise Web uses Ajax extensively, but I wouldn't call it Web 2.0 because it is just a web application. We have been doing the same thing in the desktop world for years. The term Web 2.0 is often used to justify applications with minimal functionality. Or even justifying forcing the user to 'tag' their application data when 'tagging' is really for disparate data you do not control. I did say it was a marketing term, didn't I?

But I digress. In my opinion, if you had to apply Web 2.0 to anything, it would have to be the social Internet phenomenon. Though I hesitate to call it social. In some respects it is highly anti-social with the main goal being popularity. The web has always been about popularity (how many incoming links do you have?), but it becomes more direct with the social Internet custom of voting, friends and favorites.

That said, some of us used our spared time and got our feet wet in this Internet popularity contest. The site is MyCampaignPlatform.com. The site allows you to create your own campaign platform for the 2008 Presidential election. Done right, you will probably learn more about the issues that you thought you would and be more prepared to vote in the election. In true social Internet fashion, you can even include your own YouTube or Google video and vote on other platforms.

Mobile version

In keeping with the mobile theme, this blog entry is small and simple.

We recently released a web interface for Timeless Time & Expense Enterprise Web. It was a sharp contrast to the highly functional standard interface. By their nature, mobile interfaces have to be simple for a couple reasons.

1. There is just not a lot of screen real estate to work with.
2. Due to the wide range of devices, the interface has to be simple and not rely on java script to enhance the user experience.

It was a different project - partially due to the simplicity and partially due to the challenge of compacting similar features to a small screen.

To try the mobile interface, visit our demo site using your mobile device.

Here we go again

It has been an interesting year. After many years of small changes to Timeless Time & Expense for Windows, we decided to embark on a major project to add a Web interface for Timeless Time & Expense Enterprise. Outside of minor fixes and the constant marketing of an application, it is complete.

While functionally is basically the same as the desktop version, creating the web version was a new adventure. We take a lot of pride in the usability of our applications, so it was no small accomplishment to provide the same usability in a web application. It was exciting in its own way. Sometimes I sit back, look at it and smile.

However, it is not as exciting as adding really useful new features - new features that simplify and change the way people work. That's what makes us excited about Timeless 3.0. It is too early to talk specifics, so don't try to make me. I can tell you this release will be a mix of user requested enhancements and new features to further define the product in a crowded market. As usual, we have more usability enhancements for both the web and desktop to make both even easier to use.

It is early, but if you are interested in receiving beta information, sign up for the Pre-Release mailing list. We have only begun development of Timeless 3.0, so don't expect to receive anything any time soon.

I will just have to contain my excitement until then.

What's the point?

This entry is a result of internal discussions we had when pondering whether we should be blogging. Blogging has been in the mainstream for quite a while. In a business environment, it's been seen as a way to increase communication with your customers. But what's the difference between blogging and our online community? Is it really important to have another place to say the same thing? I've come to the conclusion it is largely a matter of perception.

First, blogging is seen as more new and hip. In some respects it demonstrates you are at the forefront of technology. In reality, blogging is not technologically advanced, but again, this is perception we are talking about (I pray MySpace never becomes the next method of business communication).

Second, by blogging's nature, communication takes on a different tone. It provides a more casual communication channel. You can talk about things more informally and in a more 'unofficial' way. Since different people react differently to different communication styles, the message has a better chance of reaching its audience with multiple communication channels.

But blogging is much more a one way communication compared to an online community. In the community, we would like to foster discussions driven by our user. In the blog, we have control.
Don't expect to see all the same information in this blog.

It's hard to say just what you will see in this blog in the future. Maybe that's the point.

Nexus

It's interesting the way things come together.

Here it is, my first official blog entry. But is it really?? Back in the day (1997-ish) the Internet was where the 'everyman' could publish his thoughts and be heard. It really wasn't that way, but it sounded good.

On my pre-blog ISP hosted personal website, now lost in the bowels of the Internet, I ruminated on the state of browser applications. As I said then, it was not good. Web applications were all the news and what everyone wanted. They could be run everywhere on any desktop. There would be no installation or configuration issues. All would be good.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. When users realized what web applications would be like, they were really disappointed. It this all I get for all that hype?? They wanted more, they wanted a desktop application in a browser. With the technologies of the time, this meant downloading embedded objects and worse, browser limitations and configuration issues. We were right back where we started, only with a hobbled development and user experience.

Leap forward to 2007. The combination of technologies and ideas referred to as Ajax fulfills the promise. In addition to the smaller uses of Ajax showing up all over the web, we now have web applications with the functionality of a desktop application. And best of all, they can be used by the majority of web browsers in use today. With the new technologies we were finally able to develop a web application that rivals and sometimes exceeds our desktop application. (I may talk more about that in future entries.)

It's been ten years, and the subject of my first blog entry is the same as my first 'pre-blog' entry. It's been ten years since the original release of Timeless Time & Expense.

Worlds colliding or the nexus of the universe?????