Archive of TheNextWeb.org
Written on December 20, 2008 – 11:34 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Organizer Peter Robinett with Android
On January 8, Amsterdam will welcome a bunch of Android geeks from all over Europe. The organizers - who are also responsible for the Dutch MobileMonday and the iPhone DevCamp- want to offer the attendees the possibility to get a lot of hands-on experience with both the phone and the Android platform:
Google and Android specialists will be attending as well as developers of popular Android apps. Also we will have many APIs (some exclusively at this event!) available to use. Some API builders will be there to support you in creating your Android application
A quick Google Search finds that Bangalore and Dallas have also hosted a DevCamp for the platform that many see as the future for mobile. Now it’s time for us, Europeans, to learn how to master the fine art of developing Android apps. Sign up here.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on October 7, 2008 – 6:40 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Almost everybody is eager for feedback. Although the positive remarks are pleasant, in the end it’s all about the criticism. Like Paul Arden, marketing visionary who died this year, once said: “Seek criticism, not praise”. I’m more than happy to hear that you like our news selection, but if there’s something bugging you every time you come here, I rather learn about that.
Israel-based Yossi Vardi start-up Kampyle will help you gather that so-wanted feedback. It’s a tool for webmasters and software developers to gather remarks easily, as Kampyle lowers the barriers for giving feedback. Partly by presenting a Feedback button on every page and also with their very user-friendly forms.
I had an interesting Skype chat with co-founder Eran Savir today. He told me they started developing the service in 2007, went in closed beta in March 2008, and are publicly available since July. That was just the website version, which has 3000 customers world wide. But Kampyle now broadens its target group by launching a new application today, aimed at software developers.
25 percent of software installs go wrong
Savir: “Of all the people who start a software installation, 25 percent decides to cancel it. That means every software developer misses 25 percent of its potential users for reasons unknown. They don’t even know where in the installation process the user pressed the cancel button”.
Where did it go wrong?
Kampyle aims to give more info about these unsatisfied users. Therefor they developed a tool that leads people who’ve just pressed cancel to a feedback page. You can see it for yourself at Mailinfo.com, an email tracking tool that has been testing the Kampyle tool for a while. “About 5 percent of the people who canceled the installation posted feedback”.
Although this doesn’t seem much at first hand, it’s better than nothing. Thanks to the clear and well-designed admin panels of Kampyle, you can easily spot certain trends in feedback. What’s the most problematic place? What’s the most reported feedback on that page? Painful places show up pretty fast (Click for a larger version).
Stay personal
The Kampyle dashboard also contains the option to email all the feedback submitters back by using a email client with a BCC field. If I were you though, I’d send a direct message. Why would you screw it up in the end with a not so personal email if you’ve taken all the trouble to fix a problem?
Let’s start using the web version
Although Savir showed me around in the program, I can only write a good review when I’ve tested Kampyle on you, dear reader. So consider this to be a news post about their new software application and expect a extensive review of the Kampyle web tool later. You can register for the software version here.
Written on October 5, 2008 – 9:07 pm
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France
Following on from Patrick’s wish for a specific tool to edit the theme of Wordpress blogs, I want to introduce a company that I would love to use and have been drooling over but can’t because it is PC only and I am strictly a Mac man. However, they do solve a very real problem that I am constantly grappling with, they make money, and they could make a ton more if they designed a Wordpress plug in that solved Patrick’s problem and pain.
To edit a website’s design is currently a real hassle, as a developer you have to constantly fath about in a sort of trial and error mode, adjusting one color or parameter at a time. Of course once you change one, that changes everything so you often end up going around in circles for hours until you no longer know whether you’re coming or going (in my case it’s mostly the latter).
Styling is a very time consuming task which generally causes many arguments and frustrations between developers as they try to attain a unique, fresh and interesting look for their projects. With a product like Stylizer this pain is alleviated and the cream works in minutes. One can control the styles in a live fashion seeing how they change the overall look while simply turning knobs and watching the changes take place before your eyes.
As a nuts and bolts developer I personally struggle tremendously with creating a fresh clean look for my own projects. Only after attempting to create graphics yourself do you really gain respect for graphic designers. Earlier in my design carrier I have been constantly disappointed with graphic designers thinking they overcharge, are slow, produce substandard work, etc. In many cases it is often true and one area where I struggled to find a outstanding professional artist. Though I did eventually it is clear to me they are few and far between.
What is now also clear to me is how frustrating and difficult this task really is, I am certainly in the market and will pay good money for an elegant solution to this personal pain, hint, hint, Stylizer Mac version please!!! It is also a little odd that there is not a Mac version of this software (unless there is by someone else and I dont know of it?) given all graphic designers I have ever worked with only ever used Macs.
So if your in the same boat, struggling with creating a shit hot look and feel for your own sites and you use PCs, give Stylizer a shot and let me know if this software is really as good as it looks! Do also do let me know if there something out there similar for the hardened Mac users.
P.S. This article was written by a human not a machine and following on from last weeks huge outcry about the automatic article generating software, we at The Next Web have pledged never to use such software, but the question remains! are the top blogs actually using it? As many sources I have spoken to still think they are :).
Written on February 7, 2008 – 7:55 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Gen Kanai
This year, LIFT will also organize an Asian edition of the conference. With the session ‘A Glimpse in Asia’, they wanted to warm up the current visitors for LIFT Asia-style. Gen Kanai, a business developer for Mozilla Asia and director of marketing and partner relations for Mozilla Japan, offered an overview of open source in Asia. According to Kanai, there’s a lot to win on the field of open source developing in Asia. He summed up the barriers for open source programmers in Asia:
- Asians have a different style of communicating. They’re not comfortable with the direct way Western people confront each other. According to Kanai, Asians ‘might be intimidated’ when working with people from the West.
- Open Source defacto language is English, so the hurdle for non-native speakers is higher. Also Asian people tend to create islands of groups, such as Mozillagumi.
- In the US and Europe, most programmers work on open source projects after their daytime jobs. Most Asians however, don’t have any free time. Kanai points out that most developers in India work for Western companies and can’t choose how much work they accept.
- Asian open source programmers need institutionalized support.
Despite all the barriers, Kanai urged the attendees to look beyond the stereotypes about Asia. “The continent has contributed to open source”, he said, “Yet we need to do more”. After this visionary speech he couldn’t resist the temptation of promoting Firefox: “Anybody who tells a friend about Firefox, helps the open source community. We can all affect the future of open source”. Next time keep the marketing talk to yourself Kanai, and the applause will be even louder.
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
