February 2007 - Posts
Google Reader (my preferred feed reader) has just released an update for RSS content publishers letting them know how many subscribers they currently have. This information is is being conveyed via the user agent in the web server log file. So look for a line like:
http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html;+2+subscribers;+feed-id=3911283426752480696
This pretty cool, nice information to have. I know, sad but true, I have only 2 subscribers. Even sadder, one of them is me!
But, hey at least now I know am not writing entirely for my own entertainment. Plus Google Analytics tells me some of my stuff is found via web searches on a regular basis.
Community Server has released beta one of the much anticipated Community Server 2007.
See the official announcement.
I have not had time to play with it yet, hopefully this weekend.
Well the whole license issue of Community Server has re erupted with the release of the CS 2007 license docs. You can read the endless thread if you wish. But like everyone else there I have my 2 cents.
First and for most. Telligent absolutely deserves to get paid for the countless hours put in to the system, be it technical, support, marketing, etc. So to open my self up to many shots by other Community Server users; everyone should pay something. You want use if as you blogging tool, buy it for $99. If you think that is unreasonable then, stay on CS 2.1 or go to blogspot or the other free services. That being the case they get something from every user. I am sure that would cut down on the support issues and get most of the complaints resolved. If your not wiling to pay for the product then you shouldn't have a right to complain about. (Yes I am running the commercial version).
So now that I have upset the user, time to move on to the vendor.
Telligent, save yourself the hassle you keep introducing into the community. Don't fly ideas by the community on licensing, instead come up with a business plan and financial projections. Figure out your formula for units you need to sell for your profit needs. Adjust the prices and features per version accordingly. When your done, say here is the license levels and what you get for each.
As to the idea of n Forms, n Blogs, etc. I don't agree this is a way to control the licenses. Enterprise search for Enterprise version, add ons for Form Authentication as was done in 2.1. Community Server is a little different of a creature than most applications. It is a full blown application by it's self, but it is also very widely used as a framework for other applications. So know exactly how it will be used and add artificial limits for licensing is a little over kill. As is requiring, the logo.
I have begun a project that is going to utilize Microsoft Work Flow Foundation. Over, I think this technology is going to have a lot to offer. But being an earlier adopter isn't easy.
The framework is very powerful and seems to be very expandable. But to get started is quite a learning curve. At this time I don't have any words of wisdom. Hopefully in future posts I will. I have some resources that I found helpful and will share as my starting point.
Keyvan Nayyeri has written a few bog entries that show how to get started. Very useful. Microsoft seems to be releasing information frequently, but the seem a little behind.
Good Luck, if you find other resources please let all know.
Update: Google did finally give us an update on their Blog. Even more impressive the problem has been resolved with no data loss. Thanks Googlers.
It looks like a bad to be working in Google Analytics IT.
Don't get me wrong I love Google Analytics and I can't complain about the price. However looks like the reports have not be updated from 12:00 EST on 2/1/07. Thats 27 hours now.
I am sure there a bunch of Googlers running around try to get all our report to up to date, and I am glad I am not one of them. This bring to light an interesting response from Google, which is no response that I can see. You would think maybe a blog post on the Google Analytics blog, or something on the Analytics pages after you log in.
Whatever the case, I am sure Google is fixing it. Hope they are still collecting all our data and will be able to catch up when the outage is corrected. Google, your doing great. However, when you can spare a few minutes give us a blog post letting us know whats up. Having a problem is no big deal, especially when the service is free. But not taking a couple minutes and acknowledging that their is an issue can be very bad PR.
Hope our data is okay. Keep the good work and keep us posted!
I have been using Google Apps for Domains for my small business a few months now. That was a pretty easy setup with only a few accounts.
Last week a had a bigger migration with 30+ users. The group is a non-profit with limited technical ability. We where on a SmartMail server and where suffering from a tremendous amount of Spam. To the point that important messages where being lost. As well a lot of user where forward to AOL and other highly spam monitored accounts. Due to the forwarding legitimate message where being blocked as Spam.
So we moved Google Apps for Domains. We where immediately approve for 50 accounts and set up from the Google end in less then a day.
We created all the accounts via the import tool. Rebuilt some distribution lists. Once the project was started we had all our users and list created with in 8 hours man time. We switched the DNS and invite everyone to gain access to their accounts. The invite is even part of the tool set.
In first 24 hours the main administrative address for the organization had a 95% reduction in Spam.
Over all, if you considering Google Apps for Domains. I highly recommend it.
As a geek I wish there was more of an open API for account administration. However trading that for the usability for our end users was easy.