by Don Burnett
People on the web have been talking about tools for making programming easier for sometime.. During the early days of multimedia there was a product called HyperCard. It spawned a whole generation of drag and drop tools for user created programming and authoring. This was long before the web. Having an Amiga computer at the time I'd hear about all the things people were creating with it. Living in a college that also meant a lot of college courseware. I didn't get to join this drag-n-drop programming/authoring revolution until 1991 when Commodore and IMSATT Corporation released Amiga Vision. This was a bit different than it's competitors and ahead it's time because it offered true integration of video and video disc thru it's analog genlocking (video overlay) feature which was unique to the machine at the time. Quality digital video was not a reality as of yet due to processor horsepower of the time. So AmigaVision much video disc based courseware was authored for it.
AmigaVision ended up selling two million copies and being highly successful at moving the Commodore-Amiga 3000 into the business and education markets. AmigaVision gave you programming thru a drag and drop flowcharting style of interface. It along with the video toaster became the Amiga's break through applications (if you discount Deluxe Paint).
Well it's been many years since 1991. A lot of people still want a consumer way to do multimedia authoring today and the world wide web already gives us a great networked platform for multimedia. However, a lot of people still find it difficult to integrate information from one website to another and integrate information. So the next logical step which is already with us is web services.
Web services basically are extensions to a website . There are several issues holding back consumer acceptance and usage..
- Each website doesn't implement web services the same way
- The interfaces aren't standardized (there are several competing standards)
- There are many different standard OUTPUT formats for data sharing (confusing YES!)
- Authentication and interop issues abound.
With the advent of MySpace.com a "consumer" web revolution was abound. People were making their own webpages in droves. Everyone from elementary kids to seniors could now create their own webpages with cool video and audio content. In the 60s people would invite others to "come see my etchings". Now they tell them to come see their profile on their MySpace page.
What's missing however? The next step. Today on MySpace people have videos, sell music and blog. A lot of people would like to add content from other sites. That can be done easily by the software community but the average user today really doesn't have the tools to integrate content well from other sites.. So what's logically next? Well the next "big" thing we here is called the "Mashup" page. The mashup lets you have content from other sites via web services. That's great for the developer community creating specialized applications, but honestly not for the consumer who really wants to do these things but can't because they are too technically complex.
Look up in the sky, it's a web service,.. it's a mashup... No!,... It's Microsoft Popfly..
Well who has the answer to all of this, where is it coming from? Well you might say MySpace? I'd have to say I am not sure I haven't heard anything from them about these types of developments, however we do have a great answer from one of the unlikeliest sources of all... Microsoft.. Microsoft is known for working with the professional developer community most exclusively. It does have a series of great consumer products, from Encarta all the way to the XBox 360, so why not?
Be Fly! Be PopFly!
Warning: PopFly is the second "codename" of what is currently an alpha product, so things still could change drastically before it's release. The details I am publishing including pictures is gleened from information that is publically available on the web and I am being very very careful not to say anything that isn't publically known.
What we do know about PopFly..
- It lets you create your own Webpage (ala MySpace) but with a Nicer "Office Ribbon" style user interface.. So if you know how to make a web page in Microsoft Word you'll feel at home in PopFly.
- It lets you create "Mashup Pages". Integrate mashups that you create onto your own pages. Mashups can also be publically shared with others.
- It offers a visual environment for creating mashups and integrating them together. Each website is a "BLOCK" and you can link blocks together as flows to pipe data between web services and other user created mash-up blocks.
- There will be a Visual Studio express (read FREE) add-on to let you create these "blocks".
- People are already using this with many web programs. The picture above shows three blocks linked.
- "Blocks" for services like Microsoft Virtual Earth, Flickr, and Twitter and many other websites already exist.
- Access to webservice based databases are being developed and tested.
What does this mean? Connected web applications will now be easy to create by teenagers. What does this mean for the professional development community? Simply the bar is raised. Think about it this way, when your boss sees his 14 year old daughter creating a mashup for him to book his airline trips with full Microsoft Virtual earth mapping, what he's gonna be expecting from the IT developers is probably nothing less. The bars and expectations will be raised. LOL I am not saying all of you should go out and download that source code to the "Silverlight Airline Demo", but you might find it helpful.
If you want a website that uses an office compatible "ribbon" control then you might also check out the Office 2007 Ribbon for website. It's silverlight based and quite cool. The PopFly image from above shows the mashup making screen, note the actual content behind it is a preview of the app that is being developed.
I believe PopFly really represents the next generation of consumer programming and authoring. I look forward to watching as the product progresses into later stages of development. . PopFly looks to be unbelievably simple and easy to work with. Everyone should have this one on their radar.. If you want to know more you can watch the video at PopFly.ms
No comments:
Post a Comment