Gotze.eu

Author: administrator

  • Being a service provider

    In June, I started offering a Feed2JS-service, which allows webmasters to create a few lines of code to paste into their webpages, that takes a RSS-feed of their choice and transforms it into HTML.

    When I released the service, I noted:

    You are welcome to use the service on my server, but please let me know if you do so.

    A few of my friends out there adopted the service, and told me about their use. Others just started using the service, and have never told me. My service is used a number of places “out there”, and the script is activated more than once a minute, and used ever more as time goes by.

    I have some good news and some bad news. The good news first: I am releasing a new Feed2JS-service, which does exactly the same as the old service, but adds a few new things, for example, the ability to style the output. And, uhm, I think that’s it, actually.

    The bad news is that I will offer this service on some slightly more strict terms.

    First of all, I want people who use it to let me know that they are using it. Just so I know. Second, I request that sites that generate more than 5000 monthly hits to the service (and I’ll tell you if you reach this level), must include a link to either 0, 0 or, if your site is based in the US, that you until the Tuesday after the first Monday in November 2004 provide a visible link to a site that supports John Kerry, or if you have problems doing so, a link to Red Cross.

    The old service will be outphased over the coming weeks. The outphasing will be be disruptive, and until closing down, random links of a political nature might appear in the provided listings.

    If you run a site that draw more than 5000 hits a month, you should consider getting your own Feed2JS. I still use Alan Levine’s code. Installation takes less than five minutes, and is all out-of-the-box, with very little configuration needed. And then you could provide the same service to your own community.

  • Literally as a document

    There is progress in my development of a web service for the Danish Interoperability Framework. The web service, which I have a developer, Dat, in Vietnam helping me develop, was originally modelled after the Google api, and used rpc-encoded bindings. But in order to enable “interoperability by the book”, the updated version of the web service now uses a document literal binding method in the WSDL.

    I would like to invite web service practitioners to evaluate the service. My intent is to make the service fully standards complaint, but I am challenged by the spec, and can’t get the test tool to run.

    I am using a few online tools to play around with the service:

    It seems the service works, but I did find a few bugs, and invite bughunters and -reports.

    I am pretty excited about the web service 🙂 It is beginning to be a “serious” thing, although everything is done in my spare time and with a very small budget. My excitement is not only about the service itself, but also about the nature of the solution. The web service is made as a plugin – codenamed WS4LSQL – to a popular web application system (Gossamer Threads Links SQL), and can with a bit of work be reused on the thousands of sites that run LSQL (need SOAP::Lite on the server). I have released the code to the community, but still await someone else than myself to adopt the plugin.

    The WS4Gotze web service over at GotzeLinked runs on the same plugin (old version) but I know somebody out there is using the service, and hereby give them a word of notice, since things are changing there too soon. You should drop me a mail and let me kknow if you are using my web services.

  • Wiki wiki wonders

    As a wikilover, I find it worth mentioning that FlexWiki is now a SourceForge project. FlexWiki is a collaborative web-based authoring environment (wiki) implemented on the Microsoft .NET platform (FlexWikiFeatures).

    FlexWiki is Microsoft code, released by David Ornstein under an open-source license, the Common Public License (CPL).

    News coverage: CNet, Eweek, and Slashdot (twice).

  • Blogging policies?

    Know of any public, corporate blogger policies? I know of the Sun Policy on Public Discourse, but can’t find any other. Anyone?

  • EA Toolkits

    I had the pleasure of hosting a chat between Jane Carbone and the students at my ITU course yesterday.

    Jane has a new online course up at the DCI eUniversity. It’s called Advanced Architecture Topics, and pinpoints some highly relevant issues:

    This in-depth course explores what is necessary to create a working target architecture. It will focus on how to develop EA outputs, and train you in a methodology for developing complete target Architecture. Jane will discuss what these critical outputs are – business drivers, principles, models, strategies and standards – and include specific methods for developing them.

    Sounds good.

  • EA University in the US

    FCW reports on the growth of training opportunities in the US: EA university.

    My class on EA at ITU started last week. I have 16 motivated students, many of which are practioners.

  • Teaching EA

    I am preparing for the new term at university. I teach a masters course at the IT University. The course is about enterprise architecture. The course is also on open university offering and still open for registration for a few more days.

    The course is using “blended learning”, that is, it is partly netbased and partly based on classes/seminars (four Saturdays) and a group project with field work. Besides using a dedicated e-learning platform (Luvit), I plan to use blogs, feeds and P2P tools. I know of at least one blogger among the students. Would it be inappropriate to ask students to provide a dedicated RSS-feeds? Either from a blog, or from whatever can create a feed.

    As for the course book, I have decided to retire Spewak’s book, partly because I thought it might be relevant to invite the author to an online chat (Spewak sadly died earlier this year). I used Spewak’s book last term, and found that it was a bit heavy on the students, and also quite expensive. I’ll still recommend Spewak’s book, of course.

    But I have chosen IT Architecture Toolkit by Jane Carbone as the new course book. This book, published just months ago, presents a simple yet comprehensive “toolkit” for practical enterprise architecture. I think Carbone’s framework will be welcomed by the students, although I realise that the book cannot stand alone.

    So, I am also going to collect a number of papers and chapters for the students. I am open to suggestions for good EA-material.

  • Managing democracy?

    A group of Canadian researchers led by Sandford Borins, and Perry 6 from the UK, have established an interesting site, Information In the Public Sector – Political, Policy, and Management Challenges, in preparation for a book about the experiences of the federal (Canada) and Ontario governments in “achieving the great potential presented, and meeting the enormous managerial challenges posed, by the application of information technology (IT) to services, policy consultation, and political processes up to the end of 2005.” I look forward to reading the book.

    Thanks to Alexandra Samuel for pointing also to their e-democracy biography, which I cannot find via the “offical” site. The bibilography is partially annotated, and seems comprehensive and very useful.

  • Directly to government

    Ian Cuddy from eGov monitor has an interesting story: UK.Gov Enters Search Listing Stakes.

    Indeed, : This Google Search for driving test has a placed ad for Directgov.

    I don’t know. Why not?

    I don’t think anyone in Denmark has done so – targetting the search engines, that is. But many other forms of outreach and promotion have been made. For example, for several years, my agency ran a netcafé at the Roskilde Festival. But I guess it is mainly some of the private-public partnership initiatives, or outsourced solutions such as our digital signature, that have used ads.

    Sidenote to directgov: It’s a pity that we users of Firefox are still left with a partly dysfuntional website, which however almost validates, so it might well be a firefox thing, so whom to bash on is questionable, of course.

  • Blogging identity

    I have helped my collegue Søren Peter Nielsen starting up a new blog, the IAM Blog. It is a thematic blog about Identity and Access Management in e-Government.

    Subscribed. And so should everyone interested in one of the most essential e-government challenges.