Learn from This – Page 4 – nathan's open ideals

Feedback on my TwitterVoteReport Talk at MobileCampNYC3

Eric Mill, of Mill Industries (a personal blog that has nothing to do with heavy machinery), attended my session at MobileCampNYC3 yesterday, and posted a positive note about it:

The first session I went to was awesome, about the Twitter Vote Report, which was actually not just a Twitter thing at all. Via SMS, calling in, Twitter, or native iPhone and Android(!) apps, you could report the quality of your voting experience on election day, even going so far as to specify a rating. In fact, they did an excellent job using hashtags on Twitter such that you could post “Had a #good time voting in #11216 no problems here #votereport” and the Vote Report project would pick up that someone had a Good experience in zip code 11216. Nathan Freitas, a cool guy, and Dave Troy, the guy behind Twittervision, were involved, and they have released as many visualizations and raw data as they can from it. PLUS, Nathan today released the source code to the Android app that he built in a day for it.

I felt a bit negative about the event at the end of the day (see this tweet) mostly because it seemd everyone either wanted to sell themselves or thought i was trying to sell them on something, instead of it just being an open relaxed forum for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. Fortunately, there are posts like this, which let you know people were actively listening, engaged and learning, that help make it all better.

Eric worked for Blue State Digital during the election and is now actively looking for his next gig, so if you are in need of a sharp, energetic thoughtful developer, mobile or otherwise, with political campaign experience, let him know!

iUI and Android: Automagic Mobile Web Fun

Earlier this yaer, Joe Hewitt released a great library named iUI for easily developing iPhone-friendly mobile web applications using a basic set of HTML tags. Here’s a brief rundown of what it does:

* Create Navigational Menus and iPhone interfaces from standard HTML
* Use or knowledge of JavaScript is not required to create basic iPhone pages
* Ability to handle phone orientation changes
* Provide a more “iPhone-like” experience to Web apps (on or off the iPhone)

The good news is that since the Android platform uses the same WebKit browser, the iUI library works automagically with devices such as the T-Mobile G1. I had assume this, but to see that it basically works perfectly without changes, is great news. The only issue is that iUI obviously mirrors the user navigation elements and general interaction model of the iPhone native user experience. The iPhone model is highly usable and easy for most users to pick up, so I don’t think that is an issue, especially with the general lack of specific set of user interface guidelines for Android.

So, if you are looking for a quick way to build a usable, friendly, attractive web application that will work on iPhone AND Android, for now at least, iUI is your answer.

Here are some screenshots of the mobile site I developed earlier this year for Globalgrind.com. You can try it yourself by pointing your mobile device (it supports blackberry, wap, sidekick, etc as well) at: http://m.globalgrind.com or texting “ggrind” to 41411

view the full screenshot set here….

Diagramorama: Sending Download Links to Mobiles

Email to SMS Technique

Originally uploaded by nathanialfreitas

I recently had someone ask about sending video download links to mobile phones. Mux does this using the “your phone number”@”your mobile carrier”.com approach, otherwise known as the SMTP Email Gateways.

Every carrier has a different way to do this, with different limitations, but it does essentially work, and as long as you aren’t spamming people, it is a good solution.

Here is a mostly complete list of the gateways from SMS411.net

Diagramorama: Web 2.0 Portal Design

Web 2.0 Portal Design

Originally uploaded by nathanialfreitas

First in a series….

This was a solution developed for a client who wanted a deep portal experience for their target users, built through the integration of a variety of third-party services. Google Custom Search on a set of curated and keyword-filtered websites. Yelp for finding relevant business listings. Amazon’s E-Commerce API for promoting and selling featured products and building promotional partnerships with specific vendors. Ning as the community glue which would tie everything together. All of these components would be put together under a single skin, navigation and information architecture to create what should be a fairly seamless experience.

This approach can be used for pretty much any niche or target demographic, as well

Learn from This: Nine Inch Nails digital release

Out of nowhere, Trent Rezner and Nine Inch Nails just put out a new release called Ghosts. Like Radiohead, NiN is one of the leaders in the emerging trend of superstar artists deciding to go it alone, go digital, and release in a variety of formats. The options for getting the album range from FREE to $300…. detailed below. What I love about this, is that a casual NiN fan like myself can either go free or pay $5 and get an amazing deal, complete with PDF album art/wallpaper/icons and other goodies…while the hardcore fans will jump all over the limited edition high-end $300 version. They are offering the best of both worlds and giving plenty of reason for people to pay money.

Now, unfortunately, we haven’t made a deal with Trent to distribute on Cruxy.com… but that isn’t what we care about. We care about all the rest of the artists out there who don’t have the money or time to create their own distribution system. That is what Cruxy was made for – the rest of you. Radiohead and NiN’s efforts aren’t just a fad or marketing stunt – it is the future, and its here now.

More detail on the Ghosts release
FREE DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I – The first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection available as
high-quality DRM-free MP3s (320kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged) including complete 40 page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack – various
wallpapers, icons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

$5 DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I-IV – All 36 tracks in a variety of DRM-free digital formats (320
kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged; FLAC Lossless; Apple Lossless) including a 40
page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack – various wallpapers, icons,
and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

This version is also available from the Amazon MP3 store.

$10 2XCD SET
Ghosts I-IV – 2 audio CDs in a gatefold digipak package with a 16-page
booklet. To be shipped TBD. Includes immediate DRM-free download of the
entire collection in same choice of formats as $5 Download option. Download
will include the 40 page PDF and the digital extras pack – various wallpapers,
cons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.
This configuration will be released to retail in North America (April , Australia (April 5), the UK (April , Japan (April 5) and most European territories (April .

$75 LIMITED EDITION DELUXE PACKAGE
Ghosts I-IV – Hardcover book holding 2 audio CDs, 1 data DVD of all 36
tracks in multi-track format (in .wav files readable by Mac and Windows), and
Blu-ray disc featuring stereo recordings in high-definition 24 bit 96Khz with
exclusive slide show. Includes immediate DRM-free download of the entire
collection in all formats and with all extras mentioned above. Also includes
48-page hardcover of photographs by Phillip Graybill and Rob Sheridan.
Discs and art book both housed in fabric slipcover.

$300 ULTRA-DELUXE LIMITED EDITION PACKAGE
Ghosts I-IV – Contains all elements from deluxe package, along with
exclusive 4XLP 180-gram vinyl set, and two limited edition Giclee prints
available exclusively in this package. Disc book, art book, and prints are
all housed in a fabric slipcover. 4XLP vinyl set comes in its own fabric
slipcover. INCLUDES immediate DRM-free download of the entire collection in
all formats and with all extras mentioned above. LIMITED TO 2500 PIECES,
NUMBERED AND PERSONALLY SIGNED BY TRENT REZNOR.