Seán Crotty

Web + Log + Widget = Blidget

Just ran across the new "Blidgets" on TypePad's Widget Gallery.  Created by WidgetBox, a blidget is small module that other people can drop into their sites.  It shows a quick glimpse of the titles of your latest posts, and allows you to customize the look of the module.

We began with "Web" and "Log", from which came "Blog".  Now "Blog" and "Widget" have begotten "Blidget".

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone!

Just back from some R&R&R (rest, relaxation, and rustication) with family in Maine.  Great to see everyone and spend time with friends.  Several large dinners - big clan affairs.  Shovelled a little snow; missed the torrential rains in California.

Etymological Note:  My use of rustication comes from my high school english teacher, Mr. Foster.  He'd say that when he was going "up country" to spend some time in the woods.  I use it in the same sense, but looking it up now in the Wiktionary (the wiki-based open-content dictionary, which is an adjunct to the wiki-based open-content encyclopedia, Wikipedia), I discovered that there was a hidden meaning in his comments.

The British use the term to politely refer to temporarily suspending a student from school.  A student would be "rusticated", sent to spend some time in the country.  I'm sure Foster knew the subleties of the word and was hinting when he used it.  His knowing smirk and sharp quips were always ready -- amusing, castigating, and inspiring his students.

Evangelizing FilmLoop

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.

eBay Affiliate Developers

I run the Affiliate Tier of the Developers Program at eBay.

As you probably know, eBay started as an auction site and is now the largest e-commerce site in the world.  A Developers Program creates tools for programmers so their software can automatically interact with eBay.

Affiliates are people who have a website with special links to other websites.  When people follow these links and buy something on the target website, the affiliate gets a commission from the owner of the target website.

Not all sites offer affiliate commissions.  eBay does, through the eBay Affiliate Program.  eBay provides:

text links

Click here for eBay!

buttons

and

widgets

which affiliates can include on their website.

My program (the Affiliate Tier) is for software developers who want to create more sophisticated websites.  These “Affiliate Developers” sign up with me and get access to the eBay Application Programming Interface (API), also called eBay Web Services.

With our API, they can present anything that’s currently on eBay on their own website to entice people to go look at items on eBay.  For instance, they can show all U2 CDs available right now on eBay.  They can show statistics about how many items are on eBay, category lists to help you find what you want, ... in short, anything that would improve a users' shopping experience.

A great example is Verizon's Superpages, which shows you eBay items related to your online yellowpages search!

I've just surpassed the milestone of 1,000 affiliate developers in my program.  If you'd like to learn more, feel free to check out developer.ebay.com/affiliates.

Coining the term: "Crackdrafting"

Excited to report that my very first Blackberry arrived yesterday!

Afficianados have queued up to give me advice on the wonderful new world of the "Crackberry".  Dave Nielsen, of PayPal fame, gave me the best tip:

When going places, always walk with a friend or co-worker.  Allow them to get 2 steps ahead.  Begin crackberrying.  Keep them in the center of your upper peripheral vision.  Now you can crack away happily, while using them as a navigation guide and early warning system for obstacles.  Conversation not required.

Dave and I did our part for the modern lexicon by coining the term "crackdrafting" for this advanced productivity-enhancing behavior.