Monday mornings are a good time to reflect on the progress of Emergic. Should do this every Monday.
BlogStreet: we have the basic directory of 150 blogs and search on the index pages of these blogs. We have been also putting in place a backend system for handling updates to the directory, with some code clean-up. The foundation has to be solid before we build too much on top. The plan for the coming week is to (a) grow the blogs to about 300+ (b) ensure daily updates on the Blog Daily (c) begin work on the BlogRoll analyser — given a URL how can we ge the blogroll (d) put in place a Blog Simulator, which helps us create the logic for analysing the world of blogs, identifying clusters and the like.
Digital Dashboard: Last week, we did the sharing of outlines between users. A little stuff still left on this, which should be done in the early part of the week. So, users will then be able to create outlines and then share various nodes with others. The next idea: make this a Web Service. So, I should be able to give a text file and get back an outline either in OPML or in a renderable format. This will give us exposure to XML and SOAP, and also make our Outline code a software component which can be used by, among others, this blog for the categories page and BlogStreet for showing more detailed listings (eg. we could use the RSS feeds to show the new stories integrated with the blog directory listings). Next on the agenda: explore blogs. We’ll probably only get to this next week.
Thin Client-Thick Server: The Server stability issues seem to have been resolved — it no longer crashes. We have 5 TC users and that environment seems quite stable now. What we’ve been working on is (a) Load Testing: how many TCs can a TS support; can we ensure that only a single copy of the app is spawned even when multiple users want to run it (b) Auto-identification of the TC Network Card (to get the MAC address) and the Display Card, so we can create the boot floppy for the TC and feed the same info on the TS (c) making all the necessary front-ends to do “single-click” addition of new machines and users, thus simplifying the life of the Admin. This week, hopefully, we’ll finish on these tasks, so we can add another 5-6 users who are already using Linux to the TC-TS world. After that, the migration of Windows users to TCs.
Enterprise Software: We’ve done the basic specs for an Accounting-Sales software system. Have also met with some clients and development companies. This thinking has still been too conventional. Some re-thinking on how we can make enterprise software using business rules in English to describe business processes, and then generate the necessary objects. I’ll be writing about some of these ideas in the Tech Talk series this week. I remembered a Red Herring article I had read in late 2000 (which I found) on Versata, which had business rules software for automating business processes. Doing some study on this.
Messaging: Making some progress on getting channels to sell. One idea we’ve been thinking on has been to ease the process of giving demos. Use a notebook to give demos. This eases the process of giving demos: walk into companies, connect the notebook on the LAN and integrate it with a test domain, and “show off” the product. Later, this some platform can be used for doing the Thick Server demos.
Personally, this week, I want to put in place more detailed plans for each of the above activities. We’ve been thinking on a daily basis what to do so far. Now that we’ve treaded into the waters and have a feel for it, we can look at swimming in slightly deeper waters. I also want to go through my notes of the past 2-3 months to consolidate many of the ideas together. Doing the Emergic picture helped in providing a nice view of our activities.
The one missing block in that picture is Services, and perhaps WiFi Communications. We’ll work on that sometime later.
