Yesterday, a few people asked me about running flash applications on Dekoh. We are working on a music organizing/streaming application which is a flash application. We only have a preview of screen shots now. In the meantime I created a small video of the dashboard that also uses XML-HTTP from Flash.
Ryan Stewart did a quick preview of Dekoh and it got covered on TechCrunch.
As expected Techcrunch effect showed on our website with hits and registrations soaring up dramatically. Our excitement has gone up several notches after a very positive review and getting on Techcrunch. If you are not aware of how many pitches Techcrunch receives, read this post by Guy Kawasaki.
Technorati Tags: RIA, Desktop, Techcrunched
Tagging is so powerful a tool that it cannot continue to just remain on certain web sites we visit. Most of us know that tagging can be very helpful in finding related information or content (such as all photos of a place). Tagging also gives different perspectives of the content/information pile, such as what is relatively more popular, which topics have more content, what else should I look at, etc. I love tagging for its very flexible, no-rules kind of approach to information classification.
The same tagging mechanism could be very powerful when implemented on the desktop, although you may be the sole creator and user for the tags. Tagging desktop content (particularly your fast growing personal media collection) will be very useful for recalling items at a later point of time, when all you can remember about the item is some associations (maybe you put them as tags). You may not remember the file name, or title or location on disk of the item that you want to recall.
On the desktop, Popular tags will have a different meaning. Instead of indicating how many people tagged a particular item with ‘this tag’, it would be how many items have been tagged with ‘this tag’.
We implemented tagging in Dekoh and soon realized that the power of tagging can only be realized when
Read more details on how Dekoh tagging achieves these. BTW the Dekoh tag widget is open source. You can see live demo and download from www.dekoh.org
Press Release | San Jose, CA. | February 21, 2007.
Pramati announces Dekoh, a new desktop platform for applications that can deliver integrated experience of web and desktop
Out-of-the-box the platform provides web 2.0 features like tagging, sharing and commenting features. Soon to follow the release will be Dekoh personal media applications.
Pramati Technologies today announces its plan to launch Dekoh a new platform for applications that bring an integrated experience of the web and the desktop.
So far Desktop applications and web applications were built and deployed as silos. Desktop applications are usually written OS specific and offer richer user interface. Web applications are accessed through web browsers. They require Internet connectivity and user data uploaded or saved on websites. Collaborating and sharing data is easy in web applications.
Dekoh brings the unique benefits of desktop and web together. Dekoh platform consists of Dekoh Desktop and Dekoh Network.
Dekoh Desktop is a small footprint download that can be installed on user’s desktop in a single click. Dekoh Desktop includes a web server on which applications written using open standards like JSP, Ajax, DHTML, Flash can be deployed and accessed thru a web browser. Applications deployed on Dekoh Desktop are automatically enabled for web 2.0 functions like tagging, sharing, commenting, rating, etc.
Dekoh Network allows controlled sharing of applications or content on the web. A user can share application/content on his or her desktop with a buddy, who can go to userID.dekoh.net and access it. The key thing to note is that the user is not required to upload different kind of content to different websites. Instead, the shared content and applications remain on the desktop and are served from there.
Jay Pullur, CEO of Pramati says, “Dekoh bridges the big divide between Desktop and the Web. Using browser-based applications seamlessly when offline or online is a compelling value. Writing desktop applications using the same web standards like Java™, AJAX, DHTML, Flash, and PHP is exciting for developers”.
Initial release of Dekoh will include the platform and media applications for Photos and Music. An alpha release of Dekoh is expected in a few weeks. A public beta is expected in April of this year. Dekoh software will be free and open sourced. It will available at http://www.dekoh.com.
Contact:
Vijay Pullur
San Jose, CA
Tel – (408) 435 2700
Fax – (408) 435 2703
Email – vijay(at)dekoh.com
Web – www.dekoh.com
Ryan Stewart made a recent posting with similar title, with a question in it … Should Rich Internet Applications be cross platform by definition?
RIA combine the best of desktop and web. As Web does not exclude anyone, RIA automatically should be cross-platform. How else would we distinguish a RIA from a platform native application that simply has enhanced interface accesses certain web API?
RIA could easily become Rich Interface Application, if it misses the spirit of Internet, which is to be available to all.
Frankly, “Rich Internet Application” is a tricky combination of words and with many different interpretations. I quickly looked at Wikipedia (collective knowledge?) and find a very different interpretation:
Rich Internet applications (RIA) are web applications that have the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications. RIAs typically transfer the processing necessary for the user interface to the web client but keep the bulk of the data (i.e maintaining the state of the program, the data etc) back on the application server.
RIAs typically:
* run in a web browser, or do not require software installation
* run locally in a secure environment called a sandbox
* can be “occasionally connected” wandering in and out of hot-spots or from office to office.
Some of the candidate RIA platform including Microsoft WPF, Adobe Apollo or Parakey, don’t exactly fit the Wikipedia definition.
Given that we are in the early days of RIA platforms, we could be seeing many classifications, like
Ryan also seems to rule out the role of browser, as he says …
In the end, I think it’s about creating those great experiences and breaking out of the browser that defines a Rich Internet Application.
Is Ryan assuming that ‘Rich’ stands for ‘Experience’ alone?
As Ryan himself say .. “I think there is far too much innovation in the space to limit the definition like that.”
del.icio.us 
digg 
Technorati 
Yahoo My WebWhat is a Branded Desktop Application?
Didn’t big brand software companies sell desktop applications all the time? Yes, but it is different this time. Here we are talking of applications from brands like Coca Cola, CNN, ESPN and Southwest Airlines! Yes, you download from their website!
Why not just the website?
Direct marketing outside of the browser has interested the marketers as the web advertising is crowded, complex (need to track user behavior), and well, not everyone goes to their site every day. It would be best to be on the consumer’s desktop all the time, focus on content and user experience of the brand. Serves most of what marketers desire – immediacy, relevance, attention span, permission and repeated brand impressions.
These branded applications are cool. They carry the slickest interface (obviously). They innovate on what exactly is helpful (why would anyone download). Imagine the Branded Desktop Application, which knows where you are going, provides real-time flight update, destination Weather, itinerary planner and seat-picker. OTOlabs has a platform for building such apps. Southwest Airlines has stimulated more ticket sales from a small desktop application called DING. CNN/Pipeline, ESPN/Motion, WeatherBug are good examples.
What do they gain?
Big brand companies would love to be on your desktop. Enhances brand loyalty and lifetime value of their customers. Builds a personal relationship and increased traffic to their website.
It’s all about advertising.
Some applications like WeatherBug sell advertising space to other publishers and brands. Just like the ads on your Yahoo! Internet Messenger.
Although they are ad-supported, these applications are not like the typical Adware that track the user behavior on the web and annoy with indiscriminate pop-ups.
Fine. But why would I need such an app?
While everyone wants some real estate in your icon tray and desktop, why should you permit? Well it provides information, entertainment and functionality at your doorstep and you choose to download and use. Of course, the application provider has to worry about keeping it useful and engaging, all the time.
How is it different from a widget?
Widgets are also tiny applications that work off your desktop, but mostly designed for a widget framework (such as Google Desktop). Branded Desktop Applications are mostly self-contained and independent. Widget frameworks like Klipfolio are brandable, extendible (by downloading more klips) and highly customizable.
Is it about doing more on the desktop or a landgrab of our desktop?
del.icio.us digg Technorati Yahoo My WebI attended the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit 2006 and one thing that caught my attention was the HP’s new marketing campaign – “The Computer is Personal Again”. HP showed a very cute AD and had a variety of stickers to pickup, all with this message.
They are talking of the desktop I have owned for a long time? Then what has become ‘personal again’?
It’s the focus. The focus is again on making the computer personal. More involved. No longer treating it as a window (read browser) to what anyone is presenting a website somewhere. Did we forget the desktop in the last decade of the great web app revolution?
The renewed focus on the desktop has brought change in two ways – enhancing the way the web application is written (Ajax, Rich Internet Applications) and whole new ways of building apps for the desktop, using web as a major resource (Internet-connected desktop application, desktop widgets, Branded Desktop Applications).
Suddenly the desktop is involved in creating the new user experience for the web app. Desktop-like user experience means, more desktop apps could be rebuilt as web apps.
The converse is also true. We are now bringing the web to the desktop. More and more applications (and platforms) are getting built for the desktop that behave like web apps, are always connected, and have most of their data/content coming from the web. This is well supported by web services, web site APIs, microformats and the semantic web.
Will this be a trend of the near future?
del.icio.us digg Technorati Yahoo My Web
Software (Ad)Venturing 