web notes - a blog

One of the most difficult aspects of engineering is ensuring the requirements are satisfied without exceeding the budget.

There are two cases, the first is scope creep, where requirements are added. The second is polishing and refinement, where the product is improved continuously.

As a rule, scope creep is driven by the customer, and polishing and refinement are the pursuit of the engineers.

RIA offers such powerful tools, with little effort, that it is easy to push code farther than before.

The only solution is careful and cooperative management by all parties.

There are at least two types of social networks, those started by individuals or organizations with the objective of helping people work together and support each other toward a common goal, and those begun by businesses striving to make money.

Common indicators of ‘for profit’ networks:

• Broad mission
• Membership fee plans, and restriction of access to some or all content without joining or paying
• Ads
• Partners, organizations that want you to see them, and their affiliation with the network. They often paid to become partners and then they usually gain some level of access to the membership data.
• Rewards, any mechanism to persuade you to participate by delivering tangible value for your action.
• Registration data collection which requests or requires a significant amount of information.
• Very polished interfaces.
• Publicity for the network, deliberate posts on other sites directing traffic to the network. Includes all other media as well.
• Referral rewards, encouraging you to bring new members.
• Usually names the company that developed the code and manages it.

Common indicators of networks run by people for people:

• Clear, niche mission.
• Loose registration requirements, only enough authentication necessary to prevent spamming and automated abuse.
• Wide range of content on the subject from a very diverse community
• Few to no ads, few to no partners. The network is a sustainable entity that is not intended to drive traffic to other sites.
• No rewards, other than the benefit of helping others. Ratings mey be used to help moderate posts/content.
• Simple interface.
• Well organized categorization of content, clearly indicates the site managers undertand the material and needs of the site visitors.
• Some areas may require payment to cover costs of valuable services
• Often acknowledges contributions of equipment, skills, or services donated to support it.

There are many instances where a network may transition to a ‘for profit’ site, and, if it retains the positive qualities that predicated its success, that’s the best of both worlds.

If you are participating on a site to gain rewards, a ‘for profit’ site is better. If your goal is to contribute to the common good, it may be better to join a site with like minded individuals.

If you built an interface to a commercial system - the interface code should be considered a marketable commodity and can be shared.

First - be sure you own it. If you built it under contract for a client, the agreement with the client should state who owns the code.

Next - the code should have been written such that the interface can be separated from the remaining application logic and the design. You may only want to share some of the code.

Be sure to state, up front, that the code is ‘AS-IS’ - meaning you will not maintain it, and you are not responsible for errors.

Finally, offer it to the interface owners. They may share it with clients. Be sure to get your name associated with the work, so that you get credit.

The benefits are that you’re sharing something of value (helping others), demonstrating your technical skill (the code should definitely be high quality), and associating your company name with these actions. The interface providers gain by helping their clients reduce their development costs.

The market for social networks is saturated, and it is not a sustainable, profitable business model. Most people don’t want to pay for access, and most people don’t click on ads.

If you see the Internet as a way to engage new customers, find innovative ways to interest them in the products and services of your company. Great opportunities:

• Rich visual images of products - good pictures!
• Careful design for ease of access to information
• Stats analysis to see what pages are used most
• error log checks to ensure the existing site does not have bugs
• Comparison opportunities with similar products, help the customers decide between your products and your competitors. If the competitors have better products, invest in yours to improve them before investing in your web site.
• Product search functions that help the customers see the different characteristics of the products. For example, search on capacity of containers, or BTUs of heaters. Demonstrate the commitment to the product, from the web site until delivery. Help site visitors understand your products.
• Live chat, so people can ask quick questions
• FAQ pages, organized carefully, and integrated into the site search
• Easy contact pages that allow people to send an email without entering much information
• Links to manufacturers or distributors
• Ease of purchase (with appropriate security)
• Store finder, with a zip code search. Provide good descriptions of stores (products offered, specialties, contact information, location, link to map)
• Nice features such as paint color pickers, option choosers, online estimates, allow the visitors to immerse themselves in the site
• Information about the people of your company - especially the top executives. Let people see who you are.

Bandwidth reduction will soon be a priority. The proliferation of RIAs exponentially increases the bandwidth requirements of initial page loads, while potentially reducing that of subsequent requests.

• Use public CDNs - both to access and distribute libraries. Public CDNs are built for this purpose and often compres content. If you have your own CDN, use it.
• Use and allow the use of logo images from their original sources. For example, the logo for your product could be displayed, from your server, on many sites. This allows headers to be set for browser caching, such that subsequent requests for the images will be served from the client, not the server.
• Use compression where appropriate. Optimize images and ensure text is text, not images.
• Examine your file and page architecture. Strive to deliver only that content required for each page.
• Check the stats to find where the bandwidth is being used and focus on improving page performance for those pages. Use http://websiteoptimization.com
• Use AJAX.
• Develop locally, use XAMPP or VMWare.