Social networks dedicated to niche groups focused around a common industry, interest or cause have been spreading like wildfire. Creating your own social network is now extremely easy using freely available tools such as Ning.  

1. Pick Your Purpose & Sign-up

Decide what your social network’s focus is going to be.  Is this a community for your customers to interact with you and each other or possibly an industry related group to bring together new ideas.

Now it’s time to sign-up on the ning.com site.  You’ll need your community name, tagline and description and you’re good to go.

2. Pick Your Style

Ning has a number of built in style choices that include background graphics (some definitely more MySpace crowd focused that others). You have full control over the colors for all text in the site which makes it very easy to get started.  For the more adventurous you can do lots of raw html customization which probably isn’t needed in most cases.

3. Load Up the Features

Ning has most of the typical social network features such as friend lists, member management and blogs. It also includes media capabilities for music, video and pictures — allowing members to rate these items as well.

4. Pay for Upgrades?

Ning communities include advertising space (they need to make their money somehow) by default.  You can pay a bit extra to kill the ads, use your own domain name (so instead of mynewgroup.ning.com you could set up mynewgroup.com) or even remove all references to Ning itself so your users don’t know that’s the platform you’re using.

5. Invite the Crew

Finally, you can either keep the community open to the public for member sign-ups or more likely if you’re creating something more targeted, send out the invitations to your email list.  You can also send out an invite link by copying it and putting it elsewhere — such as sending it to your LinkedIn connections or through an existing email newsletter or targeted publication.

6. And You’re Live

While it may not have the complete customization capabilities of rolling your own using open source or off-the-shelf packages, using Ning also gets rid of 99% of the start-up headaches so you can get rolling in minutes. Now you can focus on interacting with that community instead of wrestling with tech issues.

Apple’s iPhone has radically changed the mobile applications landscape by opening up mobile application development to any web development firm using Web 2.0 standard technology.  No longer is a specialized team who know the intricacies of proprietary cell phone software development necessary.  This allows much faster development of mobile apps and also removes the dependency on a mobile carrier to approve software on their wireless network. And with the 3G iPhone coming soon, web apps will be even faster than the current versions.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is the term commonly used to describe a new generation of web technologies and their focus on interactivity and data collaboration.  The core technology is typically AJAX (javascript in a web browser which talks back to the web server), which provides the snazzy functionality in sites like Google maps.  This new level of interactivity in a web page also usually includes providing the user access to different types of data at the same time (merging functionality from different web sites together in a single place).

Any Web Developer Can Do It…

Using web technologies to build connected apps has proven to be more efficient than using traditional mobile technologies. Mobile applications today are typically developed in J2ME (Java for phones), Brew or .Net, depending on what the target phone(s) support.  These technologies provide a standard but often require phone specific tweaks as not all phones behave the same way.  Usually this meant that a development team built up a special library over time that handled the quirks and work arounds for various phones.

Using Web 2.0 technologies means that nearly any capable web developer with any technology skill set (Java, Open Source, Microsoft, etc.) can now create mobile applications. It also means that existing applications can have new ‘skins’ applied to them to allow already developed functionality to be rolled out in a mobile environment.

All this boils down to it being much faster to build a connected app using web technologies than with traditional mobile technologies.

For example, during a recent Lextech training session, a small team developed a web app that pulled news headlines from the Tribune, created an audio file with the converted text to speech and sent it to the iPhone. With only about 4 hours of development work, the iPhone read news headlines aloud to the user.

Power to the People

With the mobile Web 2.0 revolution, wireless carriers are no longer the gate keepers controlling what applications users can access.  The mobile user merely points their web browser to the correct place and away they go.  This also simplifies the often nightmarish aspects of rolling out and updating applications that live inside of cell phones.  Now an update to the main server updates the mobile application for everyone.

Companies Already on Board

Many leading online firms are already creating iPhone specific versions of their applications to better serve existing customers and tap into the growing market of mobile app demanding consumers. Google, Facebook and LinkedIn have already rolled out versions of their applications dedicated to iPhone users. 

The Future…

The iPhone is merely the first in what will be a wave of Web 2.0 standards capable mobile devices in the market.  This mobile revolution will rapidly accelerate new kinds of applications we’ve never seen before and allow deeper interactivity while we’re physically anywhere.

Web based systems typically require an investment in hardware, hosting and management to get them off the ground once they’re beyond a prototype. That is starting to change with things like Google’s App Engine being released.

The Google App Engine allows developers to create applications using Google’s framework, test them locally and then upload the applications into the Google virtual computing cloud (the same cloud infrastructure powering Google’s own applications). It provides integration capabilities with Google’s applications, build in online storage and a variety of other features to speed up launching an application.

While this sounds like the silver bullet of web apps, there are a number of reasons some companies won’t be using it.

First off, building a SaaS (software as a service) system that you’d like to make money with may not be possible (Google user account management is included but the capability to charge users and restrict access is not yet). Second applications are limited to specific technologies (they must be written in Python). This will make repurposing existing applications much more difficult and Python may not be the language of choice for most developers.

Google’s App Engine is a great first step into making systems scalability a simple infrastructure issue that developers can ignore but it will need to evolve to be deeply useful to most organizations.

Fiona from College@Home pointed us to an article they have up covering innovative ways to use the iPhone in a research or library setting. It presents some great ideas that can be applied in most businesses too.

“Whether you love or loathe technology the reality is that it’s going to play a big role in the future of libraries and educational facilities all over the world. Mobile technology has been at the center of a lot of discussion lately in research and library facilities, with schools like ACU choosing to distribute iPhones to new students for educational purposes. …  Here are a few ideas and tips to get you started on using the iPhone for more than just calls.”

Read more at 50 Useful iPhone Tips for Librarians and Researchers

Previous step — Getting started in part 1

Install day. Pull the car in from the 20 degree November day to the garage with the big space heater going. Numb hands and warming surfaces with a heat gun to make them pliable or to get adhesives to actually stick definitely slows things a bit.

Disassembly is the first step. We (the dynamic duo of my Dad and myself — he’s the automotive and analog electrical expert while the digital side is my domain) pull out the center console & radio, pull the spare and pop panels as we route wires. Next comes building out the cozy, safe and secure home for the mac mini. To help with the vibrations in the car we’ve placed two 1/2 inch layers of sorbathane foam padding (expensive stuff but well worth it) under the mini (cut just smaller than the mini’s base so the air intakes can still pull air in). This stuff is amazing at damping vibrations. The car had a hard styrofoam case already in place previously so we drilled out access and air holes in that and then built out supports around the mini using the blue foam padding you see in the pictures. We made sure to allow air channels to flow around all sides and out into the trunk through the styrofoam.

After the mini is secure we finagle the power, audio and USB wiring under the back seat, under the driver’s side door frame and around under the dash. The power supply is then attached to the base of the trunk and the rest of the wiring tested out and cleaned up. Lots of heat shrink tubing goes in place to make sure there’s no chance of disconnects or shorts.

Now comes the time I’ve been waiting for — connecting the audio and touchscreen. First the AUX audio cabling and switch goes into the back of the Bose system. We then plug in the VGA and USB to the screen and fire everything up (yes, we’ve routed cables for both that are about 20′ long including a distance extender for the USB to make sure there aren’t any signal drops). After some rechecking of settings on the power supply it all comes to life.

Now back to the Xenarc 7″ touchscreen I mentioned before. It works really well — it’s just large. It’s about an inch think and has a good sized bezel around the outside. Rather than completely chopping up the console to fit it in we decide to attach it to the front of the console for this initial version. I think a smaller screen will be a better fit in the future.

Finally everything gets buttoned up again, tested and re-tested. It’s working and I can drive the audio from the mini through the car audio system. Version 1.0 is a success.

Next, it’s on to the development of a simple GUI that is a whole lot easier to use than selecting things in iTunes using a touchscreen.

Next step — Touchscreen GUI software in part3

With the impending launch of the 2.0 OS for the iPhone allowing third parties to build iPhone applications, now is the ideal time to be rolling out an extension of your existing web system for iPhone users. I’m not talking about a different web version but a truly native app that links to your web system.

There is a huge amount of market hype already and many information hungry users and enthusiasts looking for that new ‘mobile’ application. It may have existed on the web for years, but putting a dedicated version in a user’s pocket takes things to a new level.

Depending on your business model you may be able to publish the application for free but then charge users a monthly usage fee similar to your current web users. This opens up your base of potential users installing the app directly from the Apple App Store.

And since the development platform allows pretty ready access to standard URL based services, you should be able to create that native effort without the huge labor it might take to reskin your whole site for a mobile device. If  you use intelligent caching, the user will never have to care if they’re on the EDGE network, WiFi or 300 feet underground — it’ll just work.

And of course if you’re doing it right, the other advantage is that it’ll force you to identify the top 10% of the features in your web system to build into the app.  iPhone users demand simple and elegant interfaces. This simplifies your development, provides a better user experience and may even help you refocus your web development efforts on important areas too.

Security researchers have uncovered a massive database of web site FTP logins and passwords to web sites around the world, including many well known sites. The scary twist is that the crooks behind the database have put in place a trading and payment interface to allow less talented thieves to purchase access to these compromised sites and even automatically upload tools to help them attack site visitors.

Even the bad guys are getting into the software as a service model.

One of the great things about working with really interesting systems for our clients is the inspiration it can give for those personal side projects. After working on a touch screen application for one client I had the thought to mount one in my car (a 1996 Nissan 300zx) and drive it with one of Apple’s Mac Mini computers (being older, the car doesn’t have a CD player so it made sense to skip a few generations and go fully digital). After some research online there were a few folks who had successfully integrated the mini into their car’s systems but no one had taken the functionality to where I’m envisioning. This series of articles will cover the research, install and evolution of my in car computer system.

Of course it has to handle the audio system (using iTunes for the music library and playback) but I’m thinking about slightly more advanced applications as well. Additional features I’d like to implement are checking email using a broadband wireless card and then having the system read any new messages to me while driving. GPS integration with a simple positioning device can then be linked to something like Google Maps for live traffic conditions. And with an always on internet connection the car can do all sorts of data collection such as sending video streams from in car cameras, providing a great test bed for some of the video streaming projects we’re doing in the office.

To get started, I dove in to the systems others had put together to see the components that seemed to work well and those to avoid.

The key components boiled down to:

• Xenarc 700tsv 7″ USB touchscreen (more on this one later — works great, just too big for my car)
• CarNetix P1900 power supply with Mac Mini cabling
• Griffin Powermate (programmable function control knob)
• Apple bluetooth keyboard
• Mac mini
• ActiveTuning Nissan AUX Input plug (the silver bullet for getting audio into the existing Bose system in my car)

Following the same process we would for any fancy military system, the next step was creating a system diagram to show all the wiring points, approximate cable lengths and power requirements. It looked like the best mounting setup was to put the mini and power supply in the trunk and run cables for everything else back to the front of the car. I was able to purchase a copy of the service manual for the car which helped immensely in finding the right points to tap. Using the diagram as the master plan, I purchased the components and hooked everything up on a workbench to make sure I was happy with how it all functioned prior to installation. Not wanting to run the auxiliary device power output from the CarNetix supply all the way back up to the front of the car I opted for a simple unpowered USB hub in the dash rather than a powered unit that would need to be switched on and off.

So everything was planned out and tested. Next step — Install Day in part 2.

I just had the opportunity to put video conferencing to a real trial by fire in an unexpected setting - a hospital waiting room. The other challenge was making the link using only a cellular broadband card — no ethernet, no wifi.

Much to my surprise in conversations with both the Mac’s iChat doing video over AIM and Skype using video, the conversation and video were very usable. iChat compensated for the limited bandwidth by having good looking but more jerky video (fewer frames per second). Skype was smoother with a higher frame rate but was much fuzzier. It was definitely not on par with a high speed desktop connection, but the ability to have a video connection from essentially anywhere was pretty amazing.

In the old days, big companies hired clipping services to keep track of mentions of their company, competitors and specific markets. Today, using tools like Google Alerts, it’s possible for anyone to have real time, targeted information delivered for free.

We tested a number of the web clipping services (from free to very expensive) and just didn’t find anything as easy to use or as effective as the free Google Alerts system. Once you have a Google account (typically meaning you have a gmail account) you just sign up for the alerts. You can enter in whatever search terms you want to cover. If you’re looking to overload your email box, just put in something broad like ‘iPhone’, but I’d recommend using extremely targeted searches for things like client company names, key members of their team or competitors. A great way to help get the right articles is to use the exact person or company name enclosed in double quotes in the search so you can be sure it is an exact match.

The intelligence provided by these alerts can give great insights into the challenges clients are facing, where they are headed and changes in their organization that you might not normally hear about. It will also tell you when they update their web site so you know when to take another look. It’s a great feeling being able to bring a positive article about a client to their attention.

Don’t forget to include a search for your own company and your name to see what press you’re getting or any web comments that may be referring to you too.

Applying the iPhone’s capabilities to existing real world systems is going to be a large new revenue source for companies in the next 12-24 months. Adding a mobile interface to systems that traditionally required a user to be sitting at their desk will open up many new opportunities. The new touch screen interface will also change how we interact with those systems, creating all new ways to use technology.

As an example, traditional surveillance systems use a joystick or mouse to control camera positioning. With the iPhone, the user has the potential of a much more intuitive interface to drag the camera around and zoom in on things by pinching the picture.

Here’s a little sample of one of the internal projects we’re working on right now showing off the capabilities of the iPhone.

Part 1 - iPhone controlling surveillance equipment

Part 2 - zoomed in view of iPhone

Update #2: We’ve put up a survey asking about the types of features you’d like to see in an iPhone/iPod based security & surveillance app.  

Update:  Based on the feedback we’ve received so far, we’d be happy to let you know more about the application as it gets closer to release.  If you’d like to receive an email when the app is ready, please enter your contact info below.

The team here has been working diligently on a wide variety of iPhone apps for quite a while.  Having our official development keys, we’re cranking things out using the new OS.  We’ve even been holding internal training events on building iPhone apps. We are building applications to extend some of our clients’ systems as well as stand alone apps that will be available through the Apple store.

As they each get closer to being ready for distribution we’ll be posting more details here.  First up — controlling uber high end surveillance equipment using the iPhone!

Most systems (especially web applications) are built with very little thought about the post implementation life cycle of the system. One of the key components to staying ahead of the growth curve of a system (and quickly diagnosing problems) is a monitoring system that includes key system metrics.

Ping monitoring a server to determine if it’s alive is helpful to identify critical failures but does very little to tell you in advance when you’re going to run out of disk space or need to upgrade the server. The monitoring system should include key server level parameters (hard drive free space, memory used, CPU usage, network interface bandwidth, disk activity) as well as application specific items (numbers of users, page views, transaction counts, queue lengths, etc.) Having this information available for trending analysis makes it very managable to plan for system upgrades well in advance of the system going BOOM.

Identifying those key system metrics up front and building them into the application initially will be much more cost effective than try to retrofit them into an existing infrastructure. Putting in place a simple web based dashboard that includes graphs over time of those metrics allows any member of the technical or operational team to identify potential pitfalls.

I’m proud to say that through the hard work of a bunch of folks on our team, Lextech has a new online image. The web site does a much better job communicating our focus on building technology based revenue streams for clients and this blog will let us get lots of content out to the world much quicker.

With 6+ writers for the blog you’ll see all kinds of useful revenue generating ideas and technology tidbits appearing.