Latest cool application to cross my desk is FilmLoop.
They are working with eBay Motors to roll through gorgeous pictures of vehicles. You can have Corvettes, Ferraris, Packards, Race Cars, Military Vehicles, or Custom Motorcycles glide across your screen, updating automatically whenever a new one appears on eBay. I helped them sort out accessing pictures with the eBay API. Here's an example of what they do:
An interesting twist is that I first heard about them from Guy Kawasaki, one of their backers. Guy founded the Evangelism group at Apple Computer. In the technology context, "evangelism" is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek term that translates to "partner relations with software developers" or "developer relations".
Tech evangelists help build communities of "fanatics" around really cool products. Part of that is convincing developers to write software on top of the evangelist's platform. The platform can be a computer (the Macintosh) or an interface (the eBay API). The evangelical part comes in because developers often have to have "faith" that the platform will ship on time and will do what it is supposed to.
Another part of the deal is supporting them through the implementation and then helping them market afterwards (like, in a blog ...).
My first job in Silicon Valley was as an Evangelist at Apple Computer and I met Guy my second day, while he was speaking at MacWorld. We didn't work at Apple at the same time, but seem to be in occasionally intersecting orbits.
And now, here I am in the eBay Developers Program, evangelizing Guy's latest software. Kinda cool.
Very interesting and beautiful site. It is a lot of ful information. Thanks.
Posted by: Assissotom | Thursday, 17 January 2008 at 03:43