I spoke on a panel at Mashup Camp this week on why Ajax Standards matter. I was quoted by Doug Henschen of Intelligent Enterprise as saying that we are locked in a struggle for the soul of the web, so I thought I would expand on that theme.
Just because the web has been open so far doesn’t mean that it will stay that way. By open, I mean that content has been searchable, linkable and servable without paying fees.

Flash and Silverlight, arguably the two market-leading technology toolkits More»

Labels: ajax, Open Source, RIA

Adobe today announced its Creative Suite (CS) 4 software package. CS 4 includes Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design editions, Creative Suite 4 Web editions, Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, as well as 13 point products, 14 integrated technologies and seven services. CS4 is supposed to provide the design and development tools for cross-media technologies.
“Designers and developers are shaping the way that people consume information, share ideas, sell products, tell stories and create memorable experiences — in print, online and via mobile handsets” according to Shantanu Narayen, President More»

Labels: Adobe, flash, RIA, web, web 2.0

This week, WaveMaker Software introduced WaveMaker 4, an open-source visual development environment for Ajax applications. WaveMaker 4 provides a point and click development platform capable of creating a fully deployed Ajax application in just 9 mouse clicks!
I’m not talking about some proprietary hairball here - in 9 clicks, WaveMaker takes you from a blank screen to a fully deployed Ajax application complete with Postgres Plus database connectivity and running on a standard Tomcat/Spring/Hibernate server.

The WaveMaker 4 release focused improvements in 4 areas:

Lowest learning More»

Labels: ajax, RIA, wysiwyg

I am doing a lot of customer presentations these days, so am getting much “constructive criticism” about the number of confusing buzzwords on the WaveMaker web site. Buzzwords represent job security for entrepreneurs like me who would be practically unemployable were it not for our secret knowledge of the true meaning of words like Web 2.0.
However, even I must admit that these Buzzwords 2.0 get in the way clear communication. In addition, while there are many standalone definitions of these terms, it More»

Labels: ajax, RIA, Rich Internet Application, web 2.0

Adobe has announced the beta launch of Acrobat.com, a suite of online services hosted by Adobe that allows you to create documents together and share them. It’s a software as a service (SaaS) solution intended to increase productivity and collaboration. The idea is that people can create documents faster without email attachments or version control issues.
They are starting with three apps:1. Adobe Buzzword for creating and reviewing documents together.2. Adobe ConnectNow for holding full-fledged online web conferences with up to three people.3. The Acrobat.com organizer for sharing 5GB of files with others online, including the More»

Labels: Adobe, Google Docs, RIA, saas, zoho

TIBCO (The Information Bus Company) which sells business process management and business integration software is reportedly verbally committing to use Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. The company plans to use Silverlight for their product development to create rich internet applications (RIAs) in cases where AJAX might not meet their needs.
Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for creating RIAs on the .NET platform. In an interview with InfoWorld, Rourke McNamara, Director of Product Marketing for SOA at Tibco said that “Tibco likes Silverlight over alternatives, such as Adobe’s Flash platform, because developers can leverage existing skill sets More»

Labels: Adobe, Microsoft, RIA, Rich Internet Application, silverlight

I spoke yesterday with Michael Cote of Redmonk and Ryan Stewart of Adobe (the RIA blog is here, on ZDNet here podcast is here). What follows are some of the highlights of our discussion on the state of the RIA market.
Today, there are two ways to build your first Web 2.0 application:

Buy $300 worth of O’Reilly books and kiss the next few weekends goodbye

Download WaveMaker and follow the 15 minute tutorial

For anybody More»

Labels: ASP.NET, Dojo WaveMaker, flex, RIA, Rich Internet Application, silverlight, Visual Ajax

Adobe launched today the public beta of it long anticipated Adobe® Photoshop® Express. The free, online version of the popular photo editing software is now available on the web. Express will allow users to store up to 2 gigs of images online for free, make edits online, share photos, and up- and download photos from social networking sites.
Photoshop is a desktop software. What this SaaS-y move signals is a realization on the part of Adobe of the power of the Web’s penchant for free, anytime/anywhere access versus the portability limitations of pricey software More»

Labels: RIA, usability 2.0, user experience

I know I’m dating myself, but Bill Cosby had a pretty funny routine where a PE Teacher explains that the purpose of air is to pump up basketballs and volleyballs.
Now Adobe has launched their Air product (with a matching Kevin Lynch NY Times article, and GigaOm fan dance) to allow platform to allow browser apps to escape from their little Firefox and IE prisons and flit gaily across the desktop like “real” apps.
Now what exactly are the More»

Labels: Adobe, Air, ajax, Dojo, RIA, Visual Ajax

Adobe announced today the launch of AIR and Flex 3 software for creating rich internet applications (RIAs) that can run on the desktop and on most browsers and across operating systems. “The ROI of RIAs is real. A more engaging product visualization experience in eCommerce applications for example, helps customers understand what they are buying, which leads to less online abandonment and increased average order size through cross-sell and up-sell visualization” according to Al Hilwa, Program Director at IDC.
Windows and Mac OS versions of AIR and Flex 3 and their SDKs can be downloaded More»

Labels: RIA, web 2.0, Web Apps