An emerging trend in Social Networking sites and Web portals is the opening up of their APIs to external application develop- ers. For example, the Facebook Platform, Google Gadgets and Yahoo! Widgets allow developers to design their own applications, which can then can be integrated with the platform and shared with other users. However, current APIs are targeted towards develop- ers with programming expertise and database knowledge; they are not accessible to a large class of users who do not have a programming/database background, but would nevertheless like to create new applications. To address this need, we have developed the AppForge system, which provides a WYSIWYG application development platform. Users can graphically specify the components of webpages inside a Web browser, and the corresponding database schema and application logic will be automatically generated on the fly by the system.
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By now, everyone has visited a website that utilizes Flash multimedia within its design. Since 1996, the use of Flash has grown in popularity thanks to its ability to add animation and interactivity to websites. More recently, Flash has become an essential component in the prolific distribution of intrusive “pop-ups,” or web-based advertisements. Flash also grants designers the ability to integrate video into web pages, and this has led many within the Web 2.0 space to use Flash to develop rich Internet applications. Many companies, including my own, Denver interactive agency Fusionbox, offer streaming Flash Video Solutions to clients in need of online video.
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Web applications have entered a new era driven by web site goals such as fast response to user actions and user collaboration in creating and sharing web site content. The popular term attributed to these highly responsive and often collaborative sites is Web 2.0. Some prime examples of Web 2.0 are web sites such as Google Maps and Flickr. Google Maps offers a highly responsive user interface (UI). For instance, you can view a map, then move your cursor across it to see adjacent areas almost immediately. Flickr is a site on which users store and share photographs — users manage almost all the site’s content.
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Jetspeed j2o Desktop is a Web 2.0 solution for portlets. Combining server-side Jetspeed Ajax services with client-side services, j2o is a paradigm shift in the way portlets are viewed and aggregated. The key change here is that Jetspeed 2.0 is a servlet-centric application: every request goes back to the server. The user interfaces experience is driven by HTTP page paradigm.
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So - you are wrapping up development of yet another Web app. The database is in place, CRUD functions are working, user interface and reports have been signed off. Now your thoughts are turning to access control. Just enough time to splice in that trusty user authentication and roles module, make a few tweaks and move on to the next project. Wait! Do you really want to contribute yet another authorization stovepipe to the growing forest? We all curse the proliferation of authentication and authorization “solutions” on the Web. Yet we continue to treat access control as an after thought.
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Modern Geographical Information Systems (GIS) [1] provide a service-oriented architecture for interacting with geographical data sets and related maps. Web-based GIS systems are architected around the same principles as more general Web service systems based on SOAP [2], WSDL [3], and REST. Mirroring the World Wide Web Consortium and OASIS Web service standards-making bodies, the Open Geospatial Consortium [5] defines open standards for messages, XML data formats, and access protocols that are specific to the GIS community. In addition to OGC-based services, there are many companies (such as ESRI and AutoDesk) that provide proprietary, commercial solutions. Services from these various providers are not normally interoperable.
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Migrating to a new learning management system (LMS) has been likened to breaking into faculty classrooms, throwing their course materials into a moving van, and dumping them in a heap at the new location – leaving the faculty to sort and reorganize their course content long after IT support has driven off. This painful process can be averted by assessing faculty needs and expectations, and selecting a solution that supports seamless content migration and intuitive course management. That may be easier said than done. The $350 million market for LMSs is populated by more than 140 vendors whose mission is to support best practices in the preferred pedagogical approach of colleges and universities.
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The evolution of Web 2.0 has deep roots in our human psyche. Web 2.0 is about connecting two or more users with each other, creating communities, connecting assets to owners and growing virally. Enterprise Web 2.0 involves another level of engagement by connecting assets to people, and enterprises to enterprises. Tangible “connected value” comes in various shades, leaving the phylogeny difficult to define.
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