snap

Building the Bazaar: coding community into software

There is a persistent myth that open source operates like Linux, with a global team of developers holding hands and praying for world code peace. Most open-source projects don't work this way, looking much more like Eric Raymond's "cathedral" rather than the holy grail, the "bazaar," as Juergen of SnapLogic points out in an exceptionally insightful post on open-source software development.

The problem with many open-source projects is that while familiarity may not breed contempt, it can certainly breed institutional incompetence:

Why do so many open-source projects not have the active community of external contributors they are hoping for? Because they have been largely developed by co-located teams of hired software engineers, 100% dedicated to the project, managed and organized like any traditional software development effort. This seems to be especially true for the new crop of 'custom build' open-source companies, which would like to take advantage of the open-source business model. They might hope to also enjoy the advantages of the open-source development model one day, but achieving that requires a conscious effort.… Read more

Talking about Facebook with Facebook at the SNAP Summit

Facebook's Senior Platform Manager Ami Vora took the stage at this morning's SNAP Summit in San Francisco to talk about "the state of the platform" from Facebook's perspective. Besides a rehash of the social graph spiel from the launch of the applications platform earlier this year, several interesting numbers were thrown around, including one that noted that 1 in 4 people in Toronto are on Facebook, and that each Facebook user turns about 50 pages a day. The most impressive, however, is that 85 percent of users on Facebook have added at least one application … Read more

Upcoming: How to advertise on social networks

A few weeks ago, I moderated a panel at the Graphing Social Patterns conference, about business models on Facebook. The panelists couldn't agree on which models will actually work long-term. So I'm modifying the question and asking it another conference, the SNAP (Social Network Application Platform) confab, this Friday.

I'll be talking with Lee Lorenzen of Altura Ventures, Darryl Eaton of SocialMedia, Murtaza Hussain of PeanutLabs, and Todd Sawicki of Lookery. My panel starts at 1:30 pm Pacific time.We'll dive into business model topic again, focusing on advertising on social networks. If you're … Read more

SoundSnap serves up royalty-free sounds for everyone

When I was in college, I took a film class. When it came time for postproduction on our action movie, my group and I scrambled to come up with some decent sound effects and ambient music without having to go back and rerecord new sounds, or create something catchy in Garageband. Most of the Web resources we ran into just didn't cut the mustard when it came to finding copyright credit. Our solution was to use the small assortment of audio CDs from the school library that contained short, public domain sound effects--a process that required first loading and … Read more

SnapVillage retools photo sales site

SnapVillage, the brand-new microstock from late entrant Corbis, has just fired up a revamped Web site, and it features some notable changes for photographers--chiefly, the ability to upload images with IPTC metadata such as captions and keywords. But the more interesting information from the company is in the future: the potential for raw-image support at SnapVillage, which I just wrote about at CNET News.com.

SnapVillage has added support for Adobe Systems' XMP, which can record raw-file settings as well as other metadata. Part of the reason for the move was that it would make it easier to handle raw … Read more

Open APIs versus open source

Juergen Brendell over at SnapLogic writes insightfully about the value of open source versus open APIs (application programming interfaces). (This is a related argument to Savio Rodrigues' insistence on open standards.) Open source is nice and helpful in fostering development communities around a project, Juergen writes, but open APIs go that much further.

But Juergen isn't arguing that you can have one without the other (though if stranded on a deserted island, I think he'd choose open APIs). Rather, he's arguing that developers need open APIs first, with open source a nice complement to them:… Read more

New statistical eye candy: Diggspose

I'm a sucker for data visualizations. I waxed poetic about Swivel, the site that's attempting to make data charts accessible and useful, and the things that are coming out of Digg's labs from Stamen Design continue to innovate and change the way users can interact with social sites.

This afternoon I've been glued to "Diggspose" , a mashup made in Adobe Flash that combines Snap.com's preview shots of Web pages with popular and upcoming stories on Digg.com. The result is a moving picture show of story thumbnails you can click on and … Read more

Couchville: TV guide 2.0

Couchville is a new Web service from the folks at SnapStream Media that provides simple, no frills TV listings. Just give Couchville your ZIP code, and a few seconds later you've got the day's programming right in front of you.

What sets Couchville apart from its competitors is a really easy to use interface, which feels a lot like Google Maps. To go in any direction, just click on the guide and drag it. This feels totally natural when you want to see what's happening later in the day, but a little unwieldy for scrolling down the … Read more

Channel your inner Bob Ross

I'll be the first to admit I'm no Photoshop power user. As an avid photographer, I've managed to perfect a few simple edits to treat my photos. I use a small fraction of Photoshop Elements, itself a small fraction of Photoshop. I've found only a few filters useful for my purposes, which is why I was excited to try out Alien Skin's Snap Art. This Photoshop plug-in supplies 10 filters that mimic various fine art forms, including oil and watercolor paint, pen-and-ink drawing, comic book, and pointillism effects.

For treating my photos, I liked the … Read more