SharedBook: On Demand

Congratulations!

I think I mentioned that Thea and I attended the first BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. It was a great event for us -- we went out to raise awareness for our Blog2Print blog printing widget and as it turned out, we also launched Create-A-Cookbook with Allrecipes.com that week.

As a final recap, I am pleased to report that Mary Jo Manzanares won the iPhone we gave away at the show! In addition to being the Travel & Culture Channel Editor for b5media, Mary Jo also provides travel information, tips and destinations on her Flyaway Cafe blog and writes The Seattle Traveler, an insider's travel guide for the Greater Seattle Area.  Congratulations Mary Jo!

Making the Impossible Possible: Shared Responsibility

November has been a crazy month for us here in R&D. We have been working on quite a few projects simultaneously, launching new releases on our beta site almost on a daily basis. And we have been successful! The introduction of Create-A-Cookbook with Allrecipes.com, personalized PlayBooks with YAVarsity.com, and personalized FanBooks with JumpTV Sports (Georgia, James Madison and Penn) are just a few of our projects.

What is the secret behind successfully launching so many projects simultaneously? The answer is simple: people. Finding good people, who can work and can work well together (I already wrote about this here: How Fast is Fast? It Depends on the People) and learning to trust them!

Allow developers to take the lead on projects. Martin Fowler, described this beautifully in his monumental column The New Methodology: “Such an approach requires a sharing of responsibility where developers and management have an equal place in the leadership of the project. Notice that I say equal. Management still plays a role, but recognizes the expertise of developers.”

Here is a short anecdote about one of the projects we will be launching soon that demonstrates this beautifully.

During the initial discussions about the partnership regarding the requirements and the timeline my first thought was, “This is impossible.” The project required introducing flexibility that we hadn’t originally considered in our application.  But I was clever enough to keep this to myself. I went back to my team here in Israel, and asked for their opinion. Ze’ev and Nir gave this some thought, came back and said, “We can do it.”

Sure enough, after a few brainstorming sessions, careful planning, tight coordination with the other departments in the company and great team work, the project was done and right on time. Once again I learned the important lesson of shared responsibility.

And I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Nir, Hagit and Ze’ev for making the impossible possible (once again …).

We're Talking Football, Food and Giving Thanks Today

Just in time for Thanksgiving and the holiday season, we're pleased to announce that in working with JumpTV Sports, Georgia, James Madison and Penn football fans can be the first to create personalized season record books from existing online content! Fans can now automatically flow information from their team's official site (such as player profiles, articles and professional photographs) into a structured FanBook product, and then add their own stories and photos from the season. Thank you to Kimberly Maul of The Book Standard, Dennis Bouchand of 901am and Dennis Hays of Photo News Today for helping us get the word out quickly.

Beginning today, high school sports fans in York and Adams counties in Pennsylvania can also create their own personalized PlayBooks. YAVarsity.comis a next generation high school sports Web site covering 22 schools and sporting events in the York and Adams County Interscholastic Athletic Association. Players and their fans can now easily flow the blog postings, scores and photographs that are relevant to them into a structured PlayBook product, where their own memories of the season can be added and preserved for years to come.

I should mention that SharedBook's Web-based application is fully collaborative, meaning that individuals can always invite others into their personal book making space to contribute additional information if they choose. Anyone invited into the space can also make their own book if they like.

A couple of weeks ago we introduced Create-A-Cookbook with Allrecipes.com. We owe a very belated thank you to several individuals who took a first look: Kimberly Maul of The Book Standard, Allen Stern of CenterNetworks, Ron Hogan of GalleyCat, Jim Lyons of Jim Lyons Observations, Andy Angelos of Mashable, Nancy Stohs of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Minic Rivera of 901am, Michael Cairns of PersonaNonData here and here, Dennis Hays of Photo News Today, Edmund Jenks of Symblogogy and Dory Devlin of Yahoo! Tech.

We sure have a lot to be thankful for ... Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

New Year's Resolution

Yes there are several weeks until 2008, but I can't allow that fact to ruin my chance for yet another bad pun. The topic is image resolution and the way our system evaluates user submitted photos.

The way that digital photography has overtaken the world is truly extraordinary. I think of my parents who still won't use an ATM, but both are on at least their second generation of digital camera. Being a strong advocate of using technology for everyday life, this should warm my heart. But as it turns out, it creates a whole new set of challenges for a Web to print publishing company like SharedBook.

Though you'd be hard-pressed to find a camera today that takes a picture with less than 1M of pixels, there are so many ways that an image can become degraded.  People e-mail them, upload and download on file sharing sites, embed them in their blogs and any number of other things that can alter them from their original high resolution.  The problem is that it takes a keen eye to see the difference and browsers were built to make sure that images can be kept at a low resolution without the user seeing a difference.

As a publishing company we know that once a low resolution image gets printed, the eye will see it very differently.  So our application is built to monitor this and warn the user whenever an image falls below a set standard.  Such images are marked with a warning sign and the whole system is quite smart and dynamic.

But how do you set a standard?  This will always be a matter of opinion so we try to set our standards within a range.  And these standards are always under review to make sure that we are balancing the wants and needs of our customers.

But I'm finding the issue is even more difficult than just setting the right standard.  From a user experience, I'm struggling with a broader question:  What do you tell a user who has a substandard photo?  Suppose that the image is a treasured one and there is no other copy?  Do we scare away a sale saying that the image isn't good enough?

This is at the core of the complexity of Web site design.  There will never be a perfect answer that satisfies every user's need.  Instead it is more a matter of straddling the fence and hoping that the most users will derive the most benefit without sacrificing the experience of everyone else.
   

Be Careful What You Blog

A number of weeks ago I wrote about blogging and how people are starting to get large audiences and even earn a living from their blog posts. I also realize that you can get into a lot of trouble writing blogs especially when they pertain to information about your company or even the people whom you work with.

There are number of well documented cases not only here in this country but in other countries where people have inadvertently crossed the line. One case involves a Microsoft employee who simply took pictures of Apple G5 computers being delivered to the Microsoft campus. I guess he just couldn’t resist the irony! And there’s another case in Paris, where a woman was writing about her experiences about work and was terminated even though she didn’t mention the firm’s name. Although she did include her photo in her blog, which I suppose linked her to the firm and was in effect grounds for dismissal. Interestingly, after her dismissal the word got out and her blog swelled to over 10,000 “hits.”

I bring all this up because sometimes I think I should write a personal blog about my experiences with online dating. Not only do I think it would be hilariously funny, but I could finally send all my married friends there. Every week they ask me about the women I date and this way I wouldn’t have to give the same story 10 times (I have lots of married friends). Sometimes I wonder if they are calling me because they are genuinely interested in my happiness and well being or if my stories are just a source of weekly entertainment. Personally, I believe it’s both! 

However, I would only do this with a couple of rules, I would change the names of the women I date to protect the innocent (or not so innocent) and I would use a “pen name” to secure my identity and also to ensure I am able to get future dates! And lastly, I would never ever post a picture of anyone, especially of myself.

I do have one major concern that could perhaps could get me in hot water or possibly fired if I were to proceed! Here at SharedBook, we have a great tool. Our Blog2Print widget allows people to create a book from the content of your blog and we give 20% back to the content owner on all books sold.

So here’s my question: what if my blog got extremely popular and I started to make lots of extra money selling books with Blog2Print? Would that be considered “moonlighting” or personal use of company property? I wonder … perhaps in this case, discretion is the better part of valor!

SharedBook and ODMP Introduce The Officer Down Memorial Book Today

In the space of a few weeks, SharedBook will launch more partner engagements than it has in the last two years. I’d like to think it’s recognition that there’s a lot on the Web that is worth preserving.

We started the series with Create-A-Cookbook for Allrecipes.com last week and today we're introducing The Officer Down Memorial Book with The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc., every word of which should be preserved as ODMP is a non-profit organization "dedicated to honoring America's fallen law enforcement heroes." According to ODMP, "More than 18,000 officers have made the ultimate sacrifice in the United States and it is with great honor that the ODMP pays a lasting tribute to each of these officers by preserving their memories within its pages."

Hats off to founder Chris Cosgriff for building this site and for reaching back with the help of the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial Fund, Inc. to find information about officers who have died in the line of duty as far back as 300 years ago.

If you’d like to make a contribution to the upkeep of the site and for research about other law enforcement officers who may have fallen, please click here. And know that $10 of every book that you buy will also go to these efforts.

ODMP used SharedBook's open API to build integration into our Reverse Publishing Platform.

BlogWorld Recap

Thea and I just returned to the office this week from the first annual BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas. We exhibited at the show to raise awareness for our Blog2Print blog printing widget, as well as SharedBook's Reverse Publishing Platform. We couldn't have asked for better timing since we announced Create-A-Cookbook with Allrecipes.com right before the show! We met a lot of really interesting people while we were in Vegas. Everyone seemed to be full of ideas and very enthusiastic. It was a fun group to be around and I think it will be exciting to watch how the blogging industry continues to grow. Thank you to everyone for your input regarding Blog2Print. We appreciate your feedback and plan to apply what we learned to future editions of the widget. Stay tuned ...

Today I made a chair.

Working for a high-tech company can be very frustrating sometimes. Basically, what we all do is actually move virtual text from one place to another.

In all my years of experience I have worked for quite a few companies that developed various products. Products for billing, banking, e-commerce, online catalogs, etc ...

I never felt what I was doing was very exciting, and was never able to show others (family, friends) what I was actually doing. When asked, I usually answered "something with computers." Somewhere deep inside I always wished I was a carpenter, so I would be able to show everyone the new chair I just finished.

A CEO in one of the companies I worked for once told me a nice story. He was working as the VP of sales for a very big media & TV corporation. His daughter asked what he was doing at work and he began to explain all about the large corporation and all the responsibilities he had. The little child got confused and bored, but eventually understood two words: sale & TV. So she asked him very excitedly, "So Daddy, you are selling TVs? That's great!" imagining her Dad going from door to door.

I also have a hard time explaining to my three kids what I do at work. Somehow, Quality Assurance & Tech Support always comes down to – "Daddy is checking and fixing computers.”

All this has changed in SharedBook. Today I can come home and show them all the great memory books we are creating here, which are getting better and more beautiful with each new client. I have even created baby books for all of them, which came out wonderful and were praised by everyone who saw them.

Thanks to SharedBook, today I can finally show my family and friends the “chairs” I am making.

The Marketer's Apprentice

Had the pleasure of attending one of NYU’s Media Talk panels this week.  Star-studded panel, moderated by David Carr of The Times, included, among others, Arianna Huffington, who is, no kidding, absolutely marvelous!  I was totally unprepared for the depth of thought, and preparation – very, very impressive.  And of course, for those of you who’ve been napping, The Huffington Post keeps getting hotter, and might go supernova during the 2008 Presidential elections.

So, as always happens, the question of “The Next Big Thing” always comes up at these events, and Ms. Huffington had a whale of an answer, one I will try to paraphrase here:  “Everyone is talking about social networking, and gadgets, and connecting here, and connecting there, and it’s all getting way too much.  The next big thing?  Disconnecting!”

Everyone laughed, naturally, but everyone also paused for a moment of reflection.  Certainly, the students and the faculty in attendance had all experienced a time or two in which they wished everyone would go away and leave them the heck alone.  Maybe more than a time or two.

What she’s saying is if the Internet is really supposed to provide empowerment of the individual, something’s gone awry if all this technology has actually made the individual more beholden to others.

Personalized digital publishing is our game, of course.  When the individual does decide to disconnect, and create a book that is made for them, by them, for their enjoyment, we’ll be ready.  In fact – we’re ready now!

Recipes for Success

OK, so I like a good play on words.  What can I say?  And on this blog - I'm not alone.

Over the past few months Mor, Ann, and Ben have written a few entries about our Open API.  Up until this past week, we have been eating our own cooking and adjusting the ingredients to get things just right.  The fruits of our labor were our Blog2Print application and widget.

This past week represents a major step forward with our API - the launch of the AllRecipes.com Create-a-Cookbook.  Based on the feedback we've received, there isn't any need for me to write about what a great product this is.  Instead I want to point out HOW it was implemented.

This new book was built utilizing our API, and shows the flexibility of the application.  And it takes full advantage of many of the features we first built to accommodate Blog2Print.

Take, for example, embedded photos. For each of the recipes, there is a spot for an accompanying image of the finished dish.  The text for the details and ingredients print around the (right-aligned) image.  Maybe this sounds simple, but what happens behind the scenes is rather complex.  And the image itself is just a simple URL placed inside the text that is sent to our API.

We built this functionality using standard HTML formats and the examples of many blogs.  Now that Blog2Print can handle this, the AllRecipes.com implementation was a snap.

Add a generous amount of our SharedBook core functions - like the auto creation of page numbers and the corresponding table of contents (what's a cookbook without an index of some kind?).  Wrap it up with our customizable soft or hard cover (with your own personal photo) and you have a great pairing!

I expect we will thrill many chefs with a professional cookbook they build themselves.  But I also think we will thrill many Webmasters who are looking for a simple way to implement a SharedBook from their site's content.

Bon Appétit!