Wed, Jun. 2 2010
After over three months of around-the-clock-effort from an international development team lead by Jim here in Pleasantville and Tarrant Marshall in Australia for Artgig, along with our friends at ESI Design in Manhattan and the Institute of War and Peace Reporting team in London, we are extremely pleased to announce the launch of the new IWPR corporate news website. ESI had been working on this project for over a year when they brought us in and handed off a 70-plus page design spec for production.
We knew the three-month timeline was aggressive, especially considering there were other development teams in the mix working on ancillary components, but in typical Jim fashion, he didn't even blink - he just rolled up his sleeves and got to work with Tarrant in a routine that involved few breaks for air and lots of Skyping.
Amongst the many virtues of the new Drupal site aside from the new look, is easier, faster access to uploading and editing news and articles from not only everywhere in the world but everyone, including journalists in the field - and they can do it in any language they choose. It’s a picture of democracy blooming not only in struggling nations, but in journalism itself. And the open source platform will allow IWPR to continue and expand their work long after we've gone.
It's a difficult concept for westerners, because we're used to standing up and being heard, regardless of what we have to say. Or despite what we have to say, in most cases, and we don’t even have to stand up. Free speech is a luxury we take for granted. IWPR mentors communities for whom this concept is new and often dangerous, with services, equipment and this new website. They teach, encourage, support and disseminate.
But the beautiful part is the greater transparency of the entire process, which is in fact the main purpose of the organization, and indeed of journalism in any form. Every new iteration of the site allows more small voices a megaphone, brings more stories by the people to the people, cultivates understanding and empathy, and along the way enlightens us all and prompts action in the name of justice. Now that's a website to be proud of.
Check it out:
iwpr.net
Tue, May. 25 2010
Tuesday, May 25th 1547 hours
Just when it appeared Apple had Adobe Flash cornered, Google enters the fray.
Last week Google unveiled Google TV at their developer conference and joining Google's VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, on stage in support of the platform were some other tech heavy hitters: Sony boss Sir Howard Stringer, Intel's Paul Otellini, Best Buy's Brian Dunn, and Adobe's chief executive, Shantanu Narayen.
That's right, Google is going full steam ahead with Flash on their mobile Android platform, their Chrome browser which just graduated from Beta, and now coming soon to a TV near you - Google TV.
Attempts at a blended TV/web interactive experience using your television are usually half-baked and clunky but Google aims to change that with the Intel Atom chip to deliver fluid browsing, content, apps and games - all from your remote.
It will also be interesting to see how Google incorporates the power of its powerful speech recognition software.
Our embedded operative and Android tester, Jim Bail, who watched some of the conference webcast, reports the Google gang stuck a big bullseye on Steve Jobs and Apple, calling out comparisons to Big Brother and warning of a Draconian future.
Now let me go search Google for images that include the terms "trench, war, and television."
Stay tuned...
Thu, May. 20 2010
Thursday, May 20th 0956 hours
The big thing that everyone is missing in this Flash War is the fact that Flash is not just video.Sure, it's the preferred platform of the moment because practically everyone has Flash and can run it in their browser the same as the next.But if HTML5 or some other technology bumps Flash from its web video throne, Flash will still be the only competent authoring tool for interactivity and animation on the web.Sure, we've all learned that big splashy Flash intros are bad.And we all know that what most people want on the web is content and they want to get it quickly without jumping through hoops.But do you really want to eat chicken every single day?What about the one day out of the week when you want to change things up, to try something different? To use your imagination?How else are we to achieve the seamless cinematic quality of a big beautiful Flash site produced in capable and creative hands?Or a game?Club Penguin anyone?Farmville?Do you think it can be done in HTML5?Have you seen the amazing "look what I did in HTML5" animations floating around?They stink.According to a 2009 Quantcast study, mobile web is less than 1.5% of all web browsing in the US - and that includes the iPhone, iPod Touch and every other mobile device you can think of. Mobile computing is clearly on the rise, and the iPad will likely add to Apple's mobile share but we're not talking total domination here - not by a long shot.
It's a safe bet that the remaining 98-point-something percent of web users will not abandon their Flash-enabled browsing experience anytime soon.
Flash is safe...for now.
