Comments on: Widget distribution and other considerations

By: Ha Vo

Ha Vo — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:45:36 +0000

Hi Alper,

Nice research. We’ve been at the same thing the last year. And we have chosen Wicket to build a new framework – our Chameleon solution – that will allow you to tackle this exact issue.

Feel free to read more about it:
http://www.componence.com/home/id306-2612/chameleon-is-ready-for-introduction—get-your-mashups-close-to-your-endusers.html

We don’t just think in 1 widget or several widgets, but rather mashups that can contain widgets. But the power should be that the different ‘widgets’ can listen to each others events and show better relevant data, to make the mashup more valuable. Please feel free to check our example:
http://blog.componence.com/2009/04/04/mashup-example-lastfm-in-facebook-with-google-maps-amazon/

How did it work out with those widgets for the government? How often were they used in those different networks?

By: alper

alper — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:11:24 +0000

@Charl: I talked to @2nk about this and he says that Tam Tam didn’t actually do the CMS (which might already have been in place) and they were contracted to build a new frontend on top of that. I’m not exactly sure or at all involved in this so maybe somebody else will clarify.

By: alper

alper — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:42:53 +0000

@John We considered this. For the Desktop widget platforms such as Vista or Dashboard the Netvibes gallery provides a way to compile and publish widgets to those platforms. It could be that some of the galleries like Widgetbox and Clearspring provide similar distribution methods —it shouldn’t be that difficult to write— I’ll have to look into that.

With regard to mobile apps, having web pages with specific screen size and targeted information used to be the only way to develop custom applications for the iPhone and it is still possible. But this way of application development has pretty much lost out to platform native software development using native tools.
Short answer yes, for mobile you could display the wiget webpage on the device. Easy distribution for each platform is then again an issue.

By: John

John — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:24:27 +0000

Are you considering developing for OS or application platforms as well (google desktop, vista, os X or Android/iPhone). Could this be done with the Galleries you mentioned?

By: Niall Kennedy

Niall Kennedy — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:04:18 +0000

The Google Gadgets platform is a subset of OpenSocial. Widgets written for iGoogle and the gadget.* JavaScript methods should work in other OpenSocial containers such as the 0.7 container on Hyves. The Shindig project inside the Apache incubator provides an open-source reference implementation of this gadget interpreter for your use. It's possible to host Shindig as a WAR on a Java server such as Tomcat to interpret the gadget code on remote site inclusions (sidebar badges, etc.) Proxies were not mentioned in your analysis but may play a role. When you IFrame a gadget inside a widget platform such as iGoogle you lose the proxy effect. The IFrame technique is more commonly used for securing remote data you would not like to reside on Google's servers for any amount of time. Galleries are a method of discovery and not necessarily badging. The government should list its available services with compatible platforms to reach as many constituents as possible in their home environment. A viral distribution button might pick favorites but you can always detect actively used websites and adjust the presented options accordingly.

By: Hooman Radfar

Hooman Radfar — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:17:52 +0000

WOW! This is a great analysis. I am the CEO of Clearspring – very impressive. Let us know if we can help provide info. Justin Thorp is our community manager and can lend a hand (brain) if need be! HAPPY HOLIDAYS~!!!!!

By: alper

alper — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:10:01 +0000

@Pascal: Fixed 1. And yes, that’s one of the reasons we want to have event data in a format that is iCalendar or is easily translated to it, so that it can be spread through calendaring software.

By: Pascal Van Hecke

Pascal Van Hecke — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:19:43 +0000

- link to “an expensive authoring environment” is the draft post
- calendar syndication into (a.o.) Google Calendar would be nice. Examples: garbage collection (although that’s local government), deadlines for tax filing, dates where taxes/tariffs change, or new regulations come into force…

By: Charl Botha

Charl Botha — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:44:35 +0000

I’m *genuinely* very happy that you are helping Tam Tam on this obviously important project. On the one hand because you know what you’re doing, and on the other because Tam Tam, or some of it, very definitely does not.

After the wonderful job they did on the TU Delft website, I don’t actually trust Tam Tam to be able to tie their own shoelaces up to any degree of success, although they might try to claim victory afterwards.

A roll-your-own-CMS that initially only worked on IE and still doesn’t quite work at all, indecipherable-to-humans URLs and many more great inventions have yielded a mostly unusable website, currently acting as an unsightly wart on the facade of an institution that does actually know better. Due to these factors, internal acceptance of the systems has been quite limited: Many groups are using their own systems in spite of pressure from the powers that be. A redesign is currently taking place, the frontpage is the first outward manifestation of this. I’m holding my breath.

If you feel that my comment compromises your working relationship with Tam Tam, feel free to sensor.