Web Programming Languages

While I’m relatively new to web programming, there is a fairly large barrier to entry to this wonderful world of creation for someone like myself. You see, I like to choose the best tool for a job and get to work. The problem is, there are too many damn good tools for web programming, and I’m not knowledgeable enough to decide on which is the right one to use for any given project.

The short list of programming languages & tools I’ve come across and used in the past few months:

• html (web hypertext markup language)
• php (interpreted web programming language)
• python (interpreted web programming language)
• javascript (scripting language for web programming)
• ruby (scripting language for web programming)
• rails (web framework built on ruby)
• JDK (java developers kit)
• java (virtual machine based language – JVM)
• scala (functional and object oriented language that compiles with the JVM)
• lift (web framework built on scala)
• twitter search API (interface to microblogging)
• twitter account API (interface to microblogging)
• friendfeed API (interface to microblogging)
• Google Application Engine (framework for web hosting/programming, GAE)
• Quercus (compiler for php on the java virtual machine since the GAE doesn’t support php)
• maven build and dependency/repository extraction tool (make on steroids)
• netbeans (IDE for (web) programming languages)
• netbeans scala plugin (plugin for scala)
• eclipse (IDE for (web) programming languages)
• eclipse scala plugin (plugin for scala)
• eclipse GAE plugin (plugin for building GAE projects)
• MYSQL (relational database implementation for SQL)
• MongoDB (alternative database solution)
• DataStore ( or simple data store Googles database for GAE projects and others)

Each of the above tools is complex in it’s own right. The sum of all these tools is dizzying in their combined intricacies. Any web based project may interact with many (or all) of the above tools, languages, APIs, and/or databases. These implementation choices are in addition to hosting options (dedicated server, virtual server, cloud scaled servers).

As an example, I spent a couple of weeks just tooling with the Friendfeed API v2. Then a few weeks later the business was purchased by Facebook. With an unclear future (Friendfeed is only receiving minimal developer resources/time) that time may have been ill spent, except for the fact that I was able to experience the Google Application Engine for the first time. Google should be around for a few more years at least .

The Specific Problem:

To build a tool that:

1. create a user profile to associate several different social media channels together (aggregator)
2. categorize social comments (microblogging, tweets, blog comments, blog posts) through automation, and user feedback
3. enter the extracted tags, any confidence or weights into a database associated with the original social media URL
4. allow users to adjust the tags, and any weights with an interface
5. provide personalized ads to the users from web hosts with a plugin/widget/adbox
6. provide utilities to the user
   • 2-way search tools to the user
   • passive or active search for other users who share their interests
   • passive or active search within other microblog/blog posts related to their tags/topics of interest in a dynamic way (update in real time as folks naturally use social channels)
   • game like behavior must be fundamental to the process to aid user adoption and enjoyment. i.e. minigames based on semantic categorization

Of course this design may or may not be something users are even interested in. We plan on learning from people who play with the various product/tool versions.

I’d like to help develop additional tools to help me find information that’s relevant to my interests (a virtual personal assistant) without having to know what specific search terms to enter. I wouldn’t mind targeted/personal ads that are relevant to my interests, in fact I’d prefer them to banner (or completely inappropriate) ads.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Practical Web Programming with the friendfeed API & Google App Engine (victusspiritus.com)
• Google App Engine – September 17 2009 (slideshare.net)
• Prototyping Java-Processing in Ruby-Processing (viget.com)
• Socialwok is a FriendFeed for Google Apps (readwriteweb.com)

Democratic design results from votes on every decision from the user interface down to the technical nuts and bolts that provide for the backbone of an architecture.

Consider:

• determing user rights? Democraticly approved, maybe a list of what they can’t do makes more sense.
• or a universal protocol? Collaborative input from many parties to ensure a rich interface or protocol.

There’s a place for both but you better make sure you are using the right design concept for the right problem. We don’t want democratic design to decide on the style of a product or service, because we end up with something average or boring. We don’t want to rely on collaborative design for something that needs to be decided now, a quick vote will push through the issue.

I’d like to share a couple of videos I recorded in the last week.

Actions Speak Louder than Words:

and Emergent Properties of Large Scale Collaborative Efforts:

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• Experimentation, Prototyping and Roombas Engaging in Gladiatorial Combat. Highlights from Beyond the Desktop Panel Discussion (adaptivepath.com)

You’ll probably notice the friendfeed embeds are now gone. It is with great regret that I discovered today that Facebook has purchased friendfeed for ~50 million bucks. I’m happy for the dev team (woohoo cash), but I can’t help but feel there was greater potential for the friendfeed service than an early facebook purchase. There are already plans to move some of the founders of friendfeed into upper engineering management positions and other developers into various supporting roles. With little doubt the friendfeed team will no longer be spending their efforts soley on building friendfeed into a stronger social media platform. Instead they’ll be helping Facebook to grow and move forward.

Robert Scoble knows the deal, he’s considering moving his blog comments to realtime js-kit echo

I mentioned not long ago that I’d like to see completely user owned open social media. Now more than ever I understand the need for such a service. All the connections and more importantly friendships I’ve forged online are likely to be affected by my diminished participation in a dying social platform (no firm commitment to continue the service from the friendfeed team). I hope to strengthen many of the social ties that were fairly recent but the social graph we carry with us is only as good as the people who go out of their way to keep in touch.

Years after college all of my close friends have moved out of the Long Island area. Rising costs combined with limited opportunities literally drove them out of state. I’m familiar with the mass exodus of good friends. Luckily I keep in touch with them via email, a social media platform that’s been around a while.

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• FriendFeed Alternative Streamy Hammered By New Traffic (mashable.com)
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• Watch Out Twitter! Facebook Launches Realtime Search (mashable.com)

The reality of using certain IDEs is an incredible rat’s nest

My .NET experience with C++/C# vs. recent Netbeans/Eclipse experience with Scala, Lift, Python, & Google Application Engine

If you’ve used the older microsoft visual c++ IDE or the .NET express editions you’re familiar with how fast you can go from installation to digging into the code. The experience has gradually improved over generations of the IDE and now setting up projects can done in short order. Functionality like “go to definition” and “code completion” are a joy to every programmer.

I foolishly expected my Netbeans and Eclipse installations to be just as smooth. And as long as your only developing in one of their default install languages they aren’t bad. You may have to set some environment path variables in order to get up and running, a mild nuisance but no deal breaker. As soon you go off the beaten path by using something like scala, lift, or the Google App Engine (GAE) you’re in for some hair pulling.

I’ve spent the past few nights struggling with learning the new friendfeed API v2. I very much enjoy the functionality and experience of using friendfeed and would greatly benefit from applying their authorization, social, and feed grabbing functions into a project I’m currently working. The folks at friendfeed have been very helpful (just found out the version of python I installed is too new) by giving pointers on setting up their sample project, which shows the API in action. Unfortunately none of them use IDEs internally and I think I’m starting to understand why. It’s a serious ball buster trying to get the IDEs to work properly with the languages and software they use.

Mr. IDE builders, might I humbly request…

A simple to download and install IDE for web apps (have it automatically set the path and any needed libs with a single click install).

The state of setting up IDEs for web applications is a mess, and there’s a great need for having a consistent, easy to install environment for building in all the web programming languages:

• java
• java ee
• php
• scala (+lift)
• python
• ruby (+ on rails)
• Google Application Engine
• C++/C#
• Groovy
• Haskell (thanks to gnuvince for catching my mind mangling of pascal and Haskell)

Why the added friction to entry?

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• IntelliJ’s Maia shapes up against Eclipse (theregister.co.uk)
• Scala on Google App Engine playing it nice with Java GWT and JDO (eishay.com)

Internet Development Layers

The Internet is evolving in layers of applications. New programs and businesses reside on top of multiple web functional layers, as well as providing APIs to external, potentially higher order applications. One sharp example Semanta has a high functionality API. Their interface has available effective semantic tools to extract meta data from natural written language. I’d like to fulfill a user need to have real time search information based on thoughts they express within social media. This could facilitate discovery of others who are interested in discussing similar topics. The long term goal I have for a business I’m working to startup (along with some sharp friends) is to create the ultimate web based virtual assistant.

There are several advantages to having a public API:

1. First of all it invites developers to create tools which can remarkably add value to your baseline service
2. Second it allows your products to become available to customers in a personalized manner, potentially increasing the value your product has to each user.
3. Once your software is weaved into the rich tapestry of the Internet, you have a greater potential for (unpredicted) monetization by future applications
4. Each product has a limited time to explode in value to fill a need, before a competitor does so. By having an open API, the chance of reaching the maximum potential of any product’s utility is increased, due to the rapid nature of layered development and information consumption (you learn about how users utilize your products faster)

Be careful not to make the mistake of depending on an outside business to be the sole source of required functionality. It’s important to be familiar with multiple competitors and be ready to move to a stronger utility in your baseline choice has been bought up or gone under. The alternative is leveraging multiple external tools and using a aggregated source of information. Building on top of other applications actually makes this type of software change easier, as long as you can fulfill the necessary information required from the original interface.

Real Time Search Authority

Experts in the field have user respect, and may be outspoken and/or well informed. But how do we democratize real time filtering without delaying it? As a quick background, Google’s famous Internet search engine uses page rank. Google monitors links (among other things) to a page from outside sources. The weight of a link is a function of how many external links point to the parent page.

There is an analagous functionality within twitter which is retweeting. There’s a similar functionality in friendfeed, the “like” function, identical to the facebook like function. The problem with ranking real time information using these criteria is that they may only occur as fast as people consume and review the content. But they can be used to identify influential or trusted sources of information. And real time search can push status from these sources up in search priority, as long as the semantic meaning of the status resides within an area of expertise of the broadcaster.

Another method of recognizing real time authority is to check the “hotness” of a status. Reddit takes advantage of this simple algorithm in their social crowd sourcing site. Hotness is driven by the derivative or change per time interval of likes, votes up, or retweets and can signal a fast rising or important status. Unfortunately this method of detection is susceptible to being gamed by coordinated groups.

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What Percentage of Resources Should be Expended on Members vs. Outsiders?

I’d say 95%/5% (for members vs. outsiders) of planned expenditures should be focused on improving things for your members following my earlier stated top 4 business priorities. Without Member Satisfaction you don’t have a business, plain and simple. Your business will be based upon providing value to your members which include:

• employees (they define the body of your business)
• best/super customers (make purchases and give friendly feedback)
• fans (they market your biz)

Employees make everything happen, they should feel connected to the vision for your company while being in charge of responsibilities that best suit their passions and strengths. Don’t forget corporate culture isn’t something you invent after doing business for 5 years, it’s something that is planned for from the very beginning and takes diligence to maintain (thanks to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, and Rackspace chairman Graham Weston for teaching me this lesson via building43).

Why spend 5% of available resources on folks outside of the business? Your company doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Take 5% of what you would normally funnel into creating member satisfaction/value and look to your members to find a needy source. Try and find folks doing the right thing in related areas and support them with manpower, resources, etc. The feeling of community and leadership provided by your company will not soon be forgotten.

Some background for this post:

Fred Wilson has spent some time discussing this issue on his blog.

• The Difference Between Total Users and Active Users
• Active Users and Online Retailing

I responded to the second post with:

Fred your example is applicable to any community building web site/business. Creating a space for folks to interact and build their own value on top of one’s business is a great way to engender trust in a company.

I’ve been using gmail for free for years (thanks Paul Buchheit and Google) and like to support google search (there’s always a chance a search of mine will turn into revenue for the big G) and now friendfeed (can’t accurately describe how cool this social interface is becoming).

I get so much incredible info from Twitter and friendfeed that I’m determined to help find ways to support these businesses (by dreaming up tools to cache (cash in on social media).

The social sites/tools these companies produce and inspire have been incredibly fertile for layered Internet innovation. Some of the augmented reality apps for iPhone & competing smart phones are mind boggling (see through walls and pavement by tracking subways using Twitter).

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While reading Fred Wilsons post on spamming your followers, a series of thoughts triggered as is usually my experience. The post discusses how he inadvertently spammed people that follow him with an automated message. Fred goes on to describe how he self filters his stream as not to spam his followers with more than about six messages per day.

Dave Winer commented via friendfeed that he wants Fred’s genuine status stream, not a self filtered version that Fred Wilson believes would please the majority of his followers.

My solution (a comment back to Fred Wilson on AVC):

You raise some important style questions. How should we treat our followers and the information within twitter and other open social media. I believe that the tools that add to the noise will ultimately lose out by folks unfollowing spammy streams. The information retrieval tools that learn from our streams and our friends streams without cluttering the data will benefit from rapid user acceptance. Imagine hype stream getting the meta data of your tweets, identifying when you naturally chat about music without a hashtag.

I like the concept of filtering the stream, and customizing the type of messages I receive from folks I follow. This allows me to effectively follow more people, but only select tweets/friendfeed statuses/disqus comments that pertain to topics I’m interested in.

I can use friendfeed for some of that now, but what I’m really looking forward to is real time semantic extraction, and meta data filters of streams (another application of the intelligent search/ad tool I’m going to keep working on thanks to Zemanta’s hard work). That type of product will allow us all to become less inhibited by the fear of spamming our followers and lead to a richer and more personalized user experience.

The UI will have to be cleverly designed to allow simple adding of known user tags (derived from previous tweets). This could apply outside of text to images, music, movies or alternative media as long as proper extraction algorithms are used.

And one of the shoddiest videos ever (I promise they’ll get better if I decide to keep making them).

My Super Human Filters

As a follow-on I’d like to share my not so secret source of great infromation from friendfeed and beyond. These folks really act as my super human filters to relevant internet content both new and old on a daily basis. Their observations and experiences are shared as well their favorite content (by the simple like function).

An avid blogger who I like to think of as a thought leader who also happens to be a VC. Fred get’s a kick out of inspiring questions and conversations about a wide range of topics. His posts cover trends in social media, web tech, business, finance, music, open vs. closed business philosophies, as well as relationship advice.

Robert Scoble has been pursuing his passion for some time. As an UBER geek and conversational early adopter, he meets fanastic new tech startup founders on a regular basis. He’s also one of the creative forces behind building43, a community gathering effort to help bridge the gap between businesses and the web of 2010.

Although I just recently discovered Dave Winer, he has a long history of tech contributions (content manager/protocols) and an avid web blogger with Scripting News a 12 year old blog. His views on developing web technologies are spot on.

Louis Gray tirelessly captures the moment as a renaissance media reporter, and gifted blogger. His unfiltered approach to solo blogging has created great value for his readers. I can’t keep up with the dozens of posts that get generated by TechCrunch or Mashup but I can follow what Louis is up to on friendfeed.

I first discovered Matt Cutts earlier this year while researching web marketing for a squidoo lens I put together. After tuning in to Matt’s blog posts and videos for a while I realized how deep the rabbit hole goes when it comes to web marketing.

Paul Buchheit the designer and lead developer of Gmail has moved on from Google to take an entrepreneurial role as one of the founders of friendfeed. Paul has a wide range of interests, but his choice of topics and well developed comments make his posts an excellent source of information. I feel compelled to try and sell Paul on an idea I have for connecting users and personalized ads, but I think he’s got his hands full.

Although I met Jim Connolly while hanging out on friendfeed, I had followed him as TheTechNewsBlog on twitter for a time before that. Jim provides great information on current tech happenings and is wonderfully conversational. He also happens to own one of Europe’s most popular marketing blogs.

FF Enigma, aka Tina has interests that are so far removed from my own that I couldn’t help but add her to the list. Tina is very friendly and super active on friendfeed. From gardening (I tried it’s now a jungle in my backyard), to rollerskating, to cooking (I make eggs), I like to think of Tina’s posts as a perspective so alien to my own that I can’t help but learn something.

Tad, X (dynamic descriptor) is a programmer and family man with a vibrant sense of humor. Tuning into Tad <X> has not only been educational (he’s interested in similar tech), but very enjoyable. He has a keen eye for things that need fixing, and doesn’t hesitate to comment on them.

Logical Extremes shares great discoveries on his web browsing journeys on a regular basis when he’s not travelling the world (he hasn’t been as active the past few weeks, I can only assume from his photo shares that he’s travelling). I greatly appreciate his view of developing web technology and have benefited from his insights on several occasions.

Unfortunately I’m unable at this time to share my list feed on the blog with embedded code. As soon as I can, I’ll jump back to this post and enter it here. You’ll just have to trust me until then that these folks are worth following.