Today we are happy to announce the release of Music Mine, a free iPad media discovery application designed by the team at Roundarch for KCRW, arguably one of the most forward-thinking and well-respected radio stations (if not music brands) in the country.

For those that aren’t familiar, KCRW is a Los Angeles-based radio station and product of Santa Monica College. The station is generally known as Southern California’s leading National Public Radio affiliate, featuring an eclectic mix of music, news, information and cultural programming. The station boasts one of the nation’s largest arrays of locally-produced, nationally-distributed talk program content, with internationally recognized programming and DJs that have become household names in the music and recording industry.

I had the opportunity to oversee the project for Roundarch while we worked in collaboration with PRX (Public Radio Exchange) and The Echo Nest to assist KCRW in the strategy, design and development of a next-generation music / media discovery application. The concept, albeit technically complex, is quite simple: create a playful, engaging way for people to discover new music, learn more about artists, and get closer to the original content that KCRW produces every day.

Music mine features top songs played on KCRW each week, as well as direct links in to each of the KCRW shows, offering a completely different way to explore music and KCRW programming: by artist, track or show on which the song has aired.  Once a user dives into the experience, they are presented with a mosaic of KCRW shows, artists and popular songs, and exclusive videos of live performances recorded inside the KCRW studios. The user interface consists of tiles that can be explored by the user, and the tiles are laid out on the screen with the most recent songs appearing towards the center, and the less recent content spread out towards the edges of the mosaic.

Drilling into an artist / song provides a bunch of additional content related to the user’s selection, with a quick and easy way to view photo galleries, biographies, and links to YouTube videos and blogs related to each artist.  One of the things we especially wanted to accomplish with the application was an ability to not only explore, but also to share new music with others through Facebook, Twitter and email integration.  Of course, if users really love the newly-discovered music, the songs can be purchased directly from the iTunes store by clicking a link from within the Music Mine application.

The process of designing this application was done collaboratively by working with PRX and the team at KCRW led by Anil Dewan, KCRW’s director of New Media. In addition, our team worked with music fans for input during the design process and to ensure that the experience that came through in the software was representative of our design strategy.   When we began the project, we came up with the concept that the application should provide a good way to visualize the week’s popular tracks, but also provide the feeling of digging through a great collection of curated music to find the gems you’d want to share with your friends.

I can speak for the entire Roundarch team when I express how proud we are to have been able to play such an influential role in the strategy and design of this experience for KCRW. Our focus on user experience really worked well in this collaboration.  As a company with many serious music fans, we were able to design something that we wanted to use each and every day to get our fix for both the latest and greatest unreleased music as well as classics that we’ve heard time and again.

You can download the free KCRW application for the iPad in the Apple iTunes Store.

Learn more about the app here.

Enjoy and Happy Toonage!

On June 20th, I was fortunate to be able to represent Roundarch at the 2011 Computerworld Honors Laureate Awards Dinner, held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in the heart of Washington, DC. This auditorium has hosted some very historical events.

Me in a Tux!

At the time of its construction, the Mellon Auditorium was the largest government-owned assembly space in Washington and one of the most magnificent settings for government ceremony, and was inaugurated on February 25, 1935. On October 29, 1940, 13,000 people crowded the Auditorium to witness President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiate the Selective Service System lottery and The North Atlantic Treaty was signed here on April 4, 1949 by President Truman.

Here we are in 2011, and the room has been taken over by some of the best and brightest in the tech world – But not just “engineering” technologists; This event seemed to be a gathering of leaders, problem solvers and innovators across a large array of countries, organizations and industries.

The Honors program has been running since 1988,  giving recognition to great many minds over the over these 25+ years. Because of this, it was not only a thrill to be recognized as a 2011 Laureate in Innovation, but also quite humbling because I had learned who else had been there before myself. It was a great honor to accept an award, but even better to be the one representing the entire team at Roundarch.   We were recognized as an Honors Laureate for our work on a cross-device messaging platform and vision for the future of cross-device/cross-platform applications, which will see a huge shift in the way people consume content and use their gadgets.

Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium

There were some fantastic people representing great organizations and really compelling projects across almost every industry you can imagine. It is hard to say what I found most interesting about the event, as it was extremely diverse.  I did meet the CTO of the Giza Pyramids (did you know they had one?) who chatted with me for quite a while about how he is currently working to build out a platform for tablet-based augmented reality applications to help visualize architectural theories and the like. Very interesting stuff.

In fact, I was blown away by the diversity of the other Laureates and their projects, and applaud the “winners” in each of the defined categories. It couldn’t have been an easy decision, as every one of the case studies that was entered was terribly interesting. One thing they all had in common: They were conceived to solve a big problem and hopefully use technology to make the world a better place. Who doesn’t like that?  To get some idea of the types of projects recognized by the Honors Laureate program, take a look at the judges picks for 2011.

The 2011 winners were (by category)

In addition to the Honors Laureate program, the evening also included the presentation of the 2011 Morgan Stanley Leadership Award for Global Commerce, which was awarded to the CEO of VMware, Paul Maritz. This award recognizes individuals whose personal Leadership has made a critical contribution to the effective use of information technology throughout the world, and after hearing Paul speak and share his thoughts on the current state of “the Web” and how he is guiding the strategy at VMware, it seems natural that he’d be recognized in this manner. Paul is really an interesting guy with a unique background.

From 1986 to 2000 Paul was a primary leader at Microsoft, ending his tenure as an executive vice president of the Platforms Strategy and Developer Group and part of the 5-person executive management team. As someone who truly helped shape the Web as we know it, Paul was responsible for Microsoft’s desktop and server software, including such major initiatives as the development of Windows 95, Windows NT, and Internet Explorer. After leaving Microsoft, he founded Pi Corporation, which was acquired by EMC, and was eventually appointed the CEO of VMware.

For some additional insight into Maritz, check out this transcript of his video bio prepared for the event.

All in all, our involvement inthe Computerworld Honors Laureate program has been quite an honor and just another testament to the hard work and creative thinking found across the teams at Roundarch.

Over the last several years, our teams at Roundarch have had many unique opportunities to devise and execute truly innovative solutions for clients.  Many of the companies that we work with seek out our services when they feel they need to break new ground or create a positive disruption and sometimes even defy the status quo.

When our clients find success, the formula most often begins with an exceptionally well-crafted strategy supported by Roundarch’s ability to deliver on user experience; visual and technical solutions that ultimately help set them apart from their competition or solve their business problems.

This formula for success is illustrated in the work we’ve done for clients including: The New York Jets, HBO, Bloomberg Sports, Avis, Alinea and others. We have also recently had the good fortune to be recognized for our efforts by an industry leading organization. Last week, I was notified that Roundarch would be honored as a 2011 Laureate in Innovation, an award given by the Computerworld Honors Program.  For more than two decades, the Computerworld Honors Program has recognized individuals and organizations that create and use information technology to promote and advance public welfare, contribute to the greater good of society and change the world for the better.

Roundarch will receive this award in recognition of an initiative that is several years in the making and is a product of the Roundarch “Labs” program that I have the responsibility of managing.

The technology at hand has been at the center of several of our most innovative customer solutions and offers many opportunities to enable forward-thinking user experiences across the many channels of digital content/devices that have (and continue to) emerge.  The technology, better known as Device Connectivity Framework or DCF is a proprietary technology developed by Roundarch.

Our DCF technology seeks to enable cross-device / cross-language /cross-OS and cross-network interactivity between software applications, providing a starting point for our developers to create applications on any platform that can easily interact with applications on any other platform, taking much of the heavy lifting out of the device-to-device communication.

The Computerworld Honors Program specifically recognized our use of DCF technology in a situation where we utilize it as the enabling technology for software that we also developed for use within the mobile phone industry – by carriers and device manufacturers.

It’s an honor to be recognized as a 2011 Laureate, taking a spot next to other well-known organizations such as IBM, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Siemens who were also named as Honors Laureates this year.

I’d like to congratulate everyone at Roundarch, especially those who have contributed to the success of our DCF technology. I’d also like to thank those who’ve been willing to place trust in the processes related to innovation and the incubation of emerging concepts and technologies.

Here’s to the future.

On September 15th, Roundarch participated in the launch of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 Beta. As most of the industry is now aware, IE9 has been designed from the ground up by Microsoft to be the most compliant HTML 5 browser available, with a lot of additional features including a new, simplified user interface (sans browser chrome), and hefty performance improvements thanks to real hardware-backed graphics acceleration and a fully rebuilt JavaScript engine.

Because of our experience with Rich Internet Application design and development and our existing expertise with HTML5, Roundarch was approached by Microsoft to design and develop a demo application that would leverage the new features of IE9. Microsoft suggested that our team partner with OneRiot, a realtime advertising service, which archives and makes searchable news, videos and blogs being discussed on the social web, all ordered to reflect current social relevance.

Working with Microsoft and OneRiot, we decided to develop a purely conceptual trending news viewer application with the goal of demonstrating both form and function, leveraging a variety of technologies to make a rather complex experience seem deceptively simple, fast and useful.

The Demo Concept

The concept of the application is quite simple, and I’ve included videos below to help you visualize things.

The application allows a user to view current and historical trending news topics (and associated links), as these topics are made popular on social networks and across other Web sites. Not only can users view trending content, but do so in a manner that provides a way for users to visualize changes in the trending topics over time.

Because of IE9′s strict adherence to specifications, the application is 100% standards-compliant HTML5, but still demonstrate user experience patterns that have historically only been possible by leveraging a multimedia-enabling plugin.

The OneRiot “AdBubbles” demo represents trending topics as translucent, physics-driven bubbles – for which color represents whether or not a trend is heating up or cooling off, and which with their size represents the total number of online articles/posts that referenced that trending topic.

To help the user visualize the change in trending topics, the “bubble tank” refreshes itself once each minute, loading the most current trending topic data which causes a visual transformation of the size and color of the currently displayed “bubbles”.

Rather than trying to explain the full application in writing, let’s just take a look at the video clips:

Application Loading

When the application loads, the bubbles fall in from the top. The color of the bubbles represent whether or not the trending topic is cooling down or heating up (cool = blue / hot = red). The size of the bubbles represents the amount of online chatter.

Digging Into a Trending Topic

The bubbles in the user interface all represent trending topics from the RealTime Web. Double clicking a bubble will load a modal window with the latest article results from OneRiot’s partners.

Ignoring and Following Trending Topics

Since trending topics will refresh over time, and a user might want to view a topic in the future that is no longer part of the trends, we’ve allowed the user to drag or toss bubbles at either the “following” or “ignore” containers that are present on the screen. Should a user choose to follow a subject, it will remain available for them to recall the latest OneRiot partner articles. If a user doesn’t care about a particular trending topic, they can toss it towards the “ignore” container, which will prevent this topic from refreshing within the user interface.

The Timeline Viewing Trending Topics and Changes Over Time

To make the most out of the trending topics visualization, we thought it important to be able to view the changes in popularity for topics over time.
The 24-hour timeline allows a user to navigate across time to view how the trends have changed. When a user clicks on a new point in time, the application will compare the current trends with the historical data, and the bubbles on screen will transform accordingly.
Should the topics not exist in both data sets, they will simply dissolve and disappear from the interface and new topics will drop in from above to fill the gap. Should topics exist in both data sets, the bubbles will change size and color, based on their popularity and trending meta data.

“Auto Play” Mode

If the user does not actively use the interface for a set period of time, the software will go into “autoplay” mode. When this happens, the application will randomly cycle through the trending topic bubbles, and display an associated article headline and short description in large typographic text. This is displayed behind the canvas control / physics engine bubble chamber.

The Technology Behind the Experience

I am not going to get too far into the technology here, as Jeff Karova, the lead interactive developer on the project has broken things down in this recent post that discusses the technology behind the demo application.

I will, however, summarize our approach: To drive the user experience, we created an Azure application, hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure. This application regularly connects to, parses and archives data in Azure SQL from the OneRiot API, which is later accessed by the
HTML5 demo via Web service requests.

There are really two types of data: Trending topics and articles/posts related to them. Each time the application requests a new set of trending topics and/or articles, they are stored in the Web browser’s local database, allowing for an experience that remembers your previous sessions, and gives users the ability to navigate between current and historical sets of data.

The user interface, which relies most heavily on the HTML5 canvas tag, features both a physics simulation to help render the bubbles / trending topics and a timeline component to that gives users the ability to explore trending topics as they change over the course of the last 24 hours.

Introducing the Concept of Time-Release Design

The application also has a very purposeful design feature, that will most likely be taken for granted by users until they’ve had the opportunity to use the application over the course of time. The interface was designed and developed with the concept of “time release” experience in mind.

What in the world does that mean?

Just like it sounds, a “time release” experience is one that becomes more valuable to a user that uses the application over a longer time period. We sometimes use this as a way to introduce novice users to more advanced features within a software application, revealing functionality as the user becomes more familiar with how the software they are using works.

Clearly, this isn’t applicable to all types of software. But for a casual news discovery application… why not?!

The concept works quite well, and the more that you interact with the OneRiot “Adbubbles” demo, the more interesting and valuable the experience becomes.

The application provides a new, unique and experimental way to discover interesting news items. Time and again, we’ve heard feedback from users about how they’ve found interesting content using OneRiot that they probably wouldn’t have found any other way, based on their browser habits.

Some Thoughts on HTML5 and Impact on RIA Design & Development

Working with the great people at OneRiot, as well as with the IE9 team at Microsoft was a great experience. The Microsoft IE9 beta is the most robust and HTML5 compatible browser available for Windows computers, and it’s performance is extraordinary, especially when compared to Microsoft’s previous incarnations of their hugely popular Web browser.

At Roundarch, we’ve gained a lot of experience related to HTML5, as many of the current and recently launched projects that our teams are working on take advantage of the new HTML specification, as well as what is now available using CSS. HTML5 shows great promise, and plays an role as another important tool in the developer toolbox.

There is a lot of talk about HTML5 being the end of other RIA technologies. With our experiences, that doesn’t seem to be the case, as there are many examples where HTML5 just can’t do what other technologies can. In time, as browsers incorporate WebGL and relative technologies as well as the ability to run applications that allow for native/compiled code execution, HTML and Javascript have their place, as do more robust technologies like Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight.

Another consideration for HTML5 for complex RIAs right now must be that developers must still rely on users viewing their applications and content using one of many different browsers. It seems that the competing browser technologies and companies behind them simply can’t seem to align across the board on how features are implemented, and what priorities are in their overall product-feature roadmap. This means the potential for a repeat of 1996 and the original browser wars. This means that the amount of testing and tweaking required for HTML5 RIAs should not be underestimated when planning projects.

HTML5 shows great promise, and the next year or two should be quite interesting as more feature-rich browsers are offered up to consumers and as the HTML5/CSS3 specification continues to mature.

Do you want to know more about HTML5 and how it can be leveraged to create standards-based, desktop-like applications that run solely in the browser? Drop me an email, or reach out to our team at Roundarch.

For more information on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9, and to see how it’s helping make a more beautiful Web, check out beautyoftheweb.com.

To learn more about OneRiot, and their perspective on the HTML5 Demo application developed by Roundarch, see their blog post on the topic.

If you want to experience the OneRiot HTML5 Application, it’s online at http://adbubbles.oneriot.com .

Once again, It is the time of the year when designers, developers and business folks who are interested in great digital experiences journey to the annual Adobe MAX conference to share ideas, learn and partake in the always over-the-top festivities put on by our friends at Adobe.

This year’s conference kicks off this Sunday in Los Angeles – The best information on the conference itself can be found on the Adobe MAX Web site.

This year, Roundarch will be sending a small army of designers and developers to the conference to participate in sessions, answer questions at our booth, and participate in discussions with our partners at Adobe as well as our clients around the next-generation solutions we are working on related to the myriad of Adobe technologies.

For this year’s event, Roundarch has partnered with Tesla Motors, one of our most interesting new clients who is clearly not afraid to push the envelope in terms of customer experience, design and technology. It is an exciting time for the team at Tesla, and there has been a lot of buzz around their latest announcement that, in addition to the planned release of the Tesla Model S sedan, they will also bring a family of other vehicles to market in the next several years.

Needless to say, I was thrilled when Adobe invited our team to MAX to present on the design and the technology behind the Tesla vehicles, specifically the prototyping process and the ongoing effort to develop the truly innovative infotainment system that will be the cornerstone of user experience in the future vehicles.

It isn’t as simple as designing an online application using Adobe’s technologies and tools. In fact, the entire process of starting from scratch and designing a full system from the ground up is one monumental design challenge.

We thought it might be interesting to share what we’ve learned, and where Tesla is headed with the attendees at Adobe MAX, and have two different sessions planned at the conference:

Reinventing the Driving Experience
Join Franz von Holzhausen and members of the Roundarch team for an interactive discussion about the many challenges related to automobile design, from form factor and industrial design to onscreen user experiences. The team will discuss process and share what it took to produce the Tesla Model S show car.

• Time: Tuesday, Oct. 6 – 1:30 p.m.
• Location: Room: 406A

Behind the Technology of the Tesla Model S
Join Roundarch’s Adam Flater and Dave Meeker, along with Brian Finn and Evan Small from Tesla Motors, for a lively discussion on the process of developing the technology that powers the user experience (software and hardware) in the Tesla Model S infotainment system. They will discuss the challenges of creating a web-enabled vehicle, and how Adobe technologies have made it possible to bring concept to reality in the Tesla Model S prototype.

• Time: Tuesday, Oct. 3:00 p.m.
• Location: Room: 406A

We hope to make the most of the conference, and have structured these sessions to be focused on crowd participation. Neither the team at Tesla or our Roundarch folks find much use in formality for conference talks, so we hope to present some interesting “behind the scenes” information related to the design and technology of the prototyping process and have a healthy group discussion with those in attendance. Our goal is to have the audience members ask questions and allow the team to provide answers. It should be very interesting, and will provide a pretty deep look into the world of Tesla Motors.

If you will be in attendance at the conference, I encourage you to attend these sessions and also stop by our booth on the main conference floor (Booth 435). It shouldn’t be hard to find… Just look for the Tesla Roadster parked out front!

See you at Adobe MAX!

Before I tell my story, I figured I would reminisce a bit about when I was 16 years old. I inherited an electric piano from my grandfather and in the “working songs” song book was the musical notation and words for the song “16 Tons”.

To this day, I remember the lyrics, as well as how poorly I played it. “You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older, and deeper in debt”. If you think I am crazy, check out this Youtube video of Tenessee Ernie Ford singing this working-man’s classic.

Lets move forward 20 years…

A month or so ago, I was about to head to the SXSW technology conference in Austin, TX. I travel a lot, and whenever I hit the road, I have to pack up my 17″ MacBook Pro and tote it along with me, along with everything else I end up bringing along in my computer bag/man-purse.

My computer weighs a lot, and sometimes I question why I tote it along with me on trips when my main use of a computer is to check and respond to emails, give presentations using PowerPoint or keynote and browsing the Web while back in my hotel room.

To make matters worse, a week before SXSW, I had sprained my leg, and was walking with a cane for the foreseeable future. The promise of lugging a 30 pound bag while being on the road for a week and a half was not exactly my idea of fun. While there was nothing I could do about it, I thought to myself that I should start thinking about my future travels and what I could do to lighten my on-the-road load.

This is where my story really begins.

Up until this point, I had been reading a lot about netbooks. I used to be the “more is more” type of guy when it came to computers, but the notion of storing everything out on the cloud and using my computer for accessing remote data was something I’ve grown more fond of as I see connection speeds getting more reliable and machines getting smaller and more powerful.

I loved the idea of using a little netbook, but was unsure what it would be like to actually try to use one while traveling. My concerns were those of most folks: Can I type on it ok? Is it fast? How does the screen look? I couldn’t see buying one online until I had the chance to see one in person and test it out.

It was two days before I had to head to Austin, and for some reason, the idea struck me: Look on Craigslist to see if anyone in Austin might have a netbook for sale. I could meet them, check it out, and if I liked it, purchase it on my trip. The timing seemed perfect, so I started searching. I came across a post by a guy that was selling a Dell Mini-9. His ad was articulate, detailed and it was clear to me that whomever posted this knew more about hardware than I did. Not only was he selling a mini-9 netbook, but he made it clear that he could customize it for me. That was encouraging.

I tend to be pretty particular when it comes to how I like my own computers to be set up / configured (go figure), so I began to go back and forth in emails with him. He not only responded to my questions, but he started throwing all sorts of interesting ideas at me related to hardware customization and software development. It gave me the idea to ask him if I could have him pre-install some software, configure it to run a variety of operating systems, put in a large hard drive, upgrade the memory, etc. Hey, if I’ve got a guy who really knows his stuff, I might as well take advantage of it.

He wrote back with enthusiasm and even suggested that we take it a step further and replace the stock netbook display with a touch-screen. “That would be great with the proposed functionality coming in both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard”, he wrote.

I responded to him “This sounds great. Let’s get together in Austin and we can discuss it. By the way, you seem to know a lot about software and hardware and it is obvious that you are pretty up to speed on system-level programming and the like. Where do you work?”.

I had anticipated that he’d respond back to me with something like “I work at Dell” or “I’m an IT guy at a company in Austin, and I do this on the side”.

What I got instead was “I don’t have a job.”

Thinking that my new mysterious computer guru email friend might be a victim of the bad economy, I asked if that was the case. “Are you looking for a position now? Did you get laid off recently?”.

His response?

“Hey Dave. Actually, no. I didn’t lose my job. I’m only 15.”

I couldn’t believe it. 15?!? Where did this kid learn this stuff? How did he become such an expert? How does he have the time? Should I even be emailing back and forth with a 15 year old kid? After all, we did meet on Craigslist. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in a position to where I was negotiating with a minor without parental consent.

With one hand scratching my head, and the other on the keyboard, I emailed Jory back and asked if he would ask his parents to come with him to meet me at the conference center. I’d take them to lunch, discuss things with him, and see if I could get him to create my ultimate, custom, traveling computer.

Fast Forward two days….

It was 11:00 AM. I grabbed our two visitor passes from behind the Roundarch booth and headed down to the street to meet Jory and his mother, Shelly. I met them on the corner outside of the conference center, handed them their passes and thanked them for meeting me. Jory was excited, and his mother Shelly seemed thrilled that Jory was able to get in and check out all of the stuff at the conference.

The next few hours basically consisted of me introducing Jory to my peers in the industry. I introduced Jory to the Roundarch team, and tracked down my good friend Josh Holmes from Microsoft. You see, Jory is home-schooled, as was Josh. Josh is a brilliant technologist and is highly respected by others in the industry in his role of technical evangelist dealing with RIA and user experience-driven software for Microsoft. It was clear from the start that I wasn’t the only one who was blown away by Jory’s knowledge of technology and more importantly, understanding of experience design. He didn’t just talk about hardware and software, but how people use them. It is rare that adults have such balanced thinking when talking about next-generation technology, so I was floored to hear some of Jory’s thoughts on the balance of the two.

The Jory Show

After meeting with Josh, Adam Flater, Ryan Stewart from Adobe, an Engineer from AT&T Labs and several others we ended up sitting around in a cafe talking. Well… let me be clear: Jory talked. We, like the group of 10 or so bystanders, just sat back and listened to this 15 year old kid talk about everything from saltwater powered vehicles to porting mobile operating systems from one device to another. Jory told us about how he created a Web application that tracks the national debt, about his opinions on multi-touch, and he even gave an ear full of suggestions to the guy from AT&T about how the iPhone operating system could be optimized better for the hardware that it ships with. It was the Jory show.

Before I knew it, a line had formed. People wanted to talk to Jory. They wanted to meet him. He stood at the end of a table where we were all sitting and preached his version of the technology gospel, and before he was done, had a group of faithful believers. It was a thrill to see this all take place, and even more fun to spend some time with Jory and his mom to learn more about them, and about how Jory happened to soak up as much knowledge at such a young age.

I learned that Jory was doing HTML at the age of 5, lives 52 miles north of Austin in a rural community, is no stranger to ranching, rebuilt a VW bug by himself by reading books, and has very supportive parents that understand he’s not a typical kid. I was surprised to learn that Jory didn’t have a computer to use, because he had traded it for a Wii so his mom could use Wii fit.

The day blew past us quickly, and before long, it was time for Jory and his mom to head back to the country. My head was spinning over my conversations and filled with excitement. You hear so many stories about how kids are bad at math and science, and then you meet someone who has such promise.

Banding together to provide opportunity

I think all of my peers recognized something special in Jory. So much in fact that we decided to band together, throwing our cash and resources into a hat so we could help provide some support for our new teenage friend. Josh Holmes got Jory enrolled in the “Microsoft Dreamspark” program and Ryan Stewart from Adobe said he’s send Jory a box loaded with Adobe software. Pek Pongpaet, who works with me at Roundarch tapped into his contacts and the next thing I knew, Brian Fitzpatrick (who manages the Google technology center in Chicago) was shipping Jory a brand new Android developer phone and a bunch of Google swag. I received Paypal donations from a bunch of Roundarch folks as well as others in the industry, and was able to let Jory pick out his dream laptop on eBay, and went online with him to purchase it. I can’t thank everyone who contributed enough. You are all amazing folks, and have helped to give Jory a great opportunity to learn, tinker, build, and innovate.

This all just seemed like it was meant to happen. Jory’s knowledge, positive attitude and communication skills were inspiring to me. So much, in fact, that it prompted me to discuss Jory with the management team at Roundarch. I remember calling Jeff Maling (Co-President of Roundarch) to tell him all about Jory and about how interesting the last few days had been, and was thrilled to hear his response to me.

“Why don’t we hire him?”

So we did.

Welcome to Roundarch!

It is official. Jory, who just 16 years old, is now an intern at Roundarch.

He will be living in Texas and working remotely. We made things official a few weeks ago, and Jory and Shelly flew to Chicago to participate in orientation and introduce himself at our Monthly company meeting. Jory is going to be assisting with a lot of things at Roundarch, and will be focusing most of his attention on doing research and development for our Roundarch “Labs” projects, including working with building out human interface concepts and prototypes, development of hardware, mobile application design and development, and writing blog posts on his experiences and thoughts.

Jory Cameron, Roundarch’s new intern, engrossed in conversation with Roundarch’s Adam Flater on the morning that Apple announced the iPhone 3.0 SDK features

The first thing that Jory will be doing is writing a paper / blog post that compares the iPhone 3.0 SDK and hardware capabilities against that of Google Android and other device manufacturers.

We expect great things from Jory, and are very pleased to announce him as an addition to the Roundarch team. I’d like to thank everyone that played a role in this over the last couple of months including everyone at Roundarch, Microsoft, Google, and Adobe.

It is an exciting time, and we are thrilled to have this opportunity to help mentor (and learn from) such a brilliant young mind.

Jory? Take it away!

It is a exciting time in the world of  Web technology and User Experience design.

With every passing week at Roundarch, It becomes more clear to me that consumers are embracing these changes and that companies that provide products and services to those consumers are listening. We’ve reached a point where the Internet has begun to shift from that tool we use while sitting at our desks to our primary conduit of communication, regardless of the type of screen we happen to be sitting in front of or what type of device we decide to use.

The advances we’ve recently seen range from the widespread acceptance of social media, micro-blogging, and geographically-centered information  to a wide range of consumer electronics that push and pull information to and from online sources. These devices include set-top television boxes, wireless photo frames and other consumer electronic right down to the cars that we drive.

As a company that has focused on the development of Web technologies for the last 10 years, Roundarch has been able to keep pace with these changes. Our strategy, user experience and technology teams are constantly working with clients to help them adapt to these changes, providing connected experiences that enrich lives, optimize business processes, and create experiences that are relevant, interesting and meaningful to their users.

We do this by experimentation, shaking out the things that don’t have the impact we desire, and focusing on the things that we believe are truly innovative and that will help further our efforts of invention. Naturally, in the process of experimentation, there is both failure and success. Failures lead to us being challenged to succeed. Small bits of success help to generate more ideas, eventually merging together to create truly great innovation.

Applying Roundarch Innovation to the Tesla Model S

On tonight’s “Late Show with David Letterman”, the world will get a nice look at the the Tesla Model S.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last few weeks, you are probably already aware that Tesla Motors has announced the development of their new, all-electric, zero-emission, sport sedan that will enter into production starting in late 2011.

Tesla Model S

“It will likely be the first fully drivable car to appear on Late Show with David Letterman,” according to a statement by Elon Musk, Tesla Motors chairman, product architect and CEO. “I’ll be on the show along with the car, and I am looking forward to a lively conversation with Dave, a fellow sports-car aficionado and Tesla fan.”

Merapi, a technology produced by Roundarch, connects the Model S prototype’s sophisticated on-board computer system with peripheral hardware, resulting in a car that is primarily controlled by an intuitive, responsive, 17” touch-screen control panel that is embedded in this revolutionary vehicle’s cockpit dashboard.

One of the features of the Tesla Model S that has been getting a lot of buzz in online conversations and in the media is the giant, haptic-enabled, touch-screen that constitutes the Tesla Model S dashboard and vehicle controls. (See Photos: Tech Crunch – Wired) / (See Video: YouTube)

Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that the Tesla Model S is a prototype. There are going to be a ton of changes to the user experience of the vehicle as the company works towards the goal of mass production. What you see today is by no means what will be delivered to consumers when the car hits the street. That final product will be much cooler than what has been able to be put together in the prototype vehicle.

One thing is clear though, Elon Musk and the whole team at Tesla is serious about innovation and, like Roundarch, aren’t afraid to experiment with ideas. This is especially true when thinking about the user experience of the in-dash systems, and it has been thrilling for Roundarch to be involved in the development of the Model S prototype.

Thanks to Merapi, the Tesla Model S show car offers users the ability to interact with vehicle hardware systems by engaging with the car’s cockpit control center, including a touch screen consisting of HD radio integration, quick GPS navigation, streaming audio and other Internet and cloud-based data and information.

I’d like to thank the folks at Tesla Motors for giving us the opportunity to be involved, and for recognizing Roundarch’s Merapi Project as an important part of the Model S prototype technology. I’d also like to thank Roundarch for believing in the potential of Merapi, and giving Adam Flater (Roundarch’s Technology Evangelist and Lead Architect on the Merapi Project) and I the opportunity to push forward with the development of Merapi, turning it from an idea into a full framework that enables the connection between the Web, desktop and other hardware & software platforms and technologies.

For those of you reading this that don’t understand what Roundarch’s Merapi technology is or does, I encourage you to check out our Merapi Project Web site at http://www.merapiproject.net.

In short, Roundarch’s Merapi is a revolutionary solution for bridging traditional desktop and Web technologies, closing the gap between what has traditionally been a separation of the two.

Merapi’s key advantages include:

• Access to hardware devices: Browser-based technologies (Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, AJAX) previously did not have native access to hardware other than microphone and Web cam.
• Access to existing APIs: Merapi makes existing open source and commercial software accessible from the browser or from run-time engines such as Adobe AIR without the need for a server.
• Improved core performance of an application.
• Accelerated software development times for complex Web/desktop integrated applications.

We’ve been working hard on a few things related to Merapi, all of which we will be going into more detail on in the coming month:

• Merapi – Open Source Release: After a year of development, testing and refinement, we will be releasing an open source version of Merapi that will enable developers to connect the Adobe AIR platform to applications written in the Java programming language.
• The Merapi Platform – We’ve settled on a product roadmap that will take Merapi from a platform-specific solution to a platform in itself. Look out for some of the amazing things we will be showing off at upcoming conferences. While we will always embrace the Adobe platform and Java, the market has helped push our thinking of what Merapi is, and we will be supporting Microsoft .NET, Silverlight, AJAX and other Web & desktop technologies.

For more information about Merapi, check out:

• This recent interview with Adobe Evangelist James Ward
• This write-up on infoQ’s Enterprise Technology Blog
• The Merapi Project Web site (Which we will be revamping in the very near future)
• Or do a try Google Search.

You can also contact me – Dave Meeker, Director of Emerging Technology, Roundarch

Press Release

On May 8th, Chicago will be the host to the 2nd annual RIAPalooza mini-conference, and in the same fashion as last year, Roundarch will be one of the event sponsors.

The 2008 RIAPalooza event was a great success, and brought together designers and developers from the Microsoft, Adobe, AJAX and Java camps to discuss the progression of Web and Web-connected desktop applications and to dive in and take a look at the competing technologies in marketplace.

RIAPalooza is different from many of these types of events and the organizers are committed to keeping RIAPalooza a “platform agnostic and PowerPoint-free zone”, which means a strong focus on keeping the presentations compelling, with no hidden agendas and company marketing pitches masked as presentations on technology.  RIApalooza is about creating Rich Internet Applications; how to go about building them and what is being built.

Roundarch is proud to be a sponsor of the event, and I am excited to see that our own Adam Flater and Pek Pongpaet will be one of the featured presenters. We wanted to give a talk that would capture the interest of attendees and cover something different than what they may have seen at other events. Because of this, we settled on the topic “RIAs beyond the mouse and keyboard”.

This talk is going to show off a variety of technologies, including our own Merapi Project, a bridge between desktop software and the local operating system and other technologies, including Adobe AIR, Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and AJAX.Be prepared for Adam and Pek to show off some of the exciting things that they’ve been experimenting with. I am positive that the content of their presentation will inspire you.

Other speakers at the event include Kevin Hoyt (Platform Evangelist at Adobe), Josh Holmes, (MS UX Architect Evangelist), Michael Labriola (Lead at Digital Primates and author of “Flex 3 Training From The Source”) and other RIA experts from Chicago companies working with Rich client technologies.

For more information and/or to register for RIAPalooza, be sure to visit  http://www.riapalooza.com.

As Director of Emerging Technology at Roundarch, part of my job responsibilities are to help foster innovation and collaboration among our teams and bring a level of expertise around where experience-enabling technology is headed to our clients. I am not alone in these efforts though, as a primary aspect of the the culture at Roundarch provides a vehicle for everyone here to participate in a similar manner.

To help focus our efforts in idea generation and the research, development and testing of those ideas, we’ve recently started to formalize some internal processes within the company and in doing so, have formed what we are referring to as Roundarch Labs. The Labs is a virtual group within Roundarch that will be co-managed by Director of Technology, Gary Schwartzbard and myself.

Gary and I have two primary goals for Roundarch Labs:

• To serve as an internal mechanism that supports business development, creates marketing opportunities, oversees software product development, and helps to incubate innovative ideas within the company.
• To serve as an external advocate of Roundarch, by demonstrating industry expertise, through community involvement and the evangelism of design & technology solutions developed by Roundarch.

These concepts are not new to the company, as Roundarch has clearly been doing these types of activities since the company was founded and have been quite successful in establishing Roundarch’s position in the marketplace. What is new, however, is the formalization of these initiatives. Our thinking related to this is that our past success can only be amplified as we move forward with the formalization of  structure and process related to the design and development of experimental, experiential projects.

Since the inception of Roundarch Labs, we’ve had a variety of great internal and external wins, and as we continue to push the boundaries of Web, desktop and other screen-based experiences, we will be talking about them on our Roundarch Blog (Impost) as well as discussing them at conferences, in the media and with our clients.

Roundarch Labs will help bring the innovative thinking that permeates the company to our clients and the community, and (i hope) will help provide inspiration both internally and externally on where we think enterprise Web and interactive technology may be headed.

We have a lot going on, and in the coming weeks we plan to elaborate on several different developments that are related to Roundarch Labs, including:

The Merapi Project – Roundarch has adopted the Merapi Project. (www.merapiproject.net). We have finalized the open source merapi roadmap and plan to release the code in the coming month. We are dealing with final details now, and deciding on what open source license works best for the technology. Adam Flater, a long time friend and associate of mine has joined Roundarch in the role of lead evangelist and architect. Adam is the inventor of Merapi, and is now working with our team to expand the Merapi product into a platform. We’ve gotten such great feedback about what we are doing, it’s lit a virtual fire underneath us to push forward as fast as possible with the Merapi platform development. Secrets are secrets though, so more on this to come in the very near future!

Adam Flater, Evangelist and Architect at Roundarch joins a panel at the SXSW Conference where he showed how Merapi can be used to record and transmit telephone calls audio, in conjunction with the cool services offered by Ribbit.

Working with Wilco – The Labs team has been doing a lot of mobile development, focusing primarily on the Apple iPhone and Google Android operating systems, but keeping our eye on the ever-changing future (can you say Palm Pre?). Because most of the large scale Web projects that we engage on with clients have some sort of mobile component, Roundarch has invested a lot of time and energy in the development of what we are referring to as the “Mobile Web Enabler Proxy”. This server-side framework contains a Request Translator and Content Transformation layer, and is designed to provide a standards-based mechanism for the delivery of content to the cornucopia of mobile devices in the marketplace. I will be sure to go into more details about how this all works in future posts, but for now, we are excited to be working with the band Wilco to test things out. We are in the final stages of the development of a Wilco mobile application that will be targeted towards iPhone users and heavily promoted by the folks at Apple. – www.wilcoworld.net

Several Screens of the Wilco iPhone Application being developed by the Roundarch Labs using the Roundarch Web Enabler Proxy.

Tesla Motors, Model S Prototype/Show Car – About a month before the new Tesla Model S prototype car was announced to the world, the Roundarch Labs team got involved to help develop some technology related to hardware-software communication in the vehicle cockpit. This project was a thrill to work on, as you can probably imagine. It is important to note that the Tesla Model S is currently in prototype development and no aspects of the car have been finalized, but we were able to play a role in getting the show car (prototype) ready for the road and look forward to working with the amazing team at Tesla in the future as the vehicle technology becomes more final. It is terribly exciting to witness first-hand the convergence of Web technology with the human other human experiences. – www.teslamotors.com

Human-Aware, Socially Connected,  Ambient Data Visualization – I’ve been working on a concept for about 6 months now, and have introduced it to Roundarch labs as a conceptual design and development effort. I don’t want to spill the beans quite yet, because what we are creating is very different than pretty much anything that I’ve seen or heard of. This prototype project utilizes a variety of enterprise-level technologies that we often lean on for client projects: Rich Client GUI technologies, Microsoft FAST Enterprise Search, Wall-based (large format) displays, Computer Imaging, and RFID. We are currently in the design process and as things progress, I will be sure to provide updates.

HTML 5, CSS 3, Apple & The Release of Apple’s Snow Leopard - If you haven’t seen some of the capibilities of the new HTML 5 and CSS 3 specifications, than I recommend that you grab a cup o’ joe, do some googling and prepare yourself for the future of the Web. At Roundarch, we specialize in developing Web applications that have great user experiences and are experts in “RIA” development (Rich Internet Applications). In short, RIAs merge the best of what the Web offers with the robust interface behaviors of what we’ve traditionally thought of as “desktop” software. To enable these types of experiences, we typically need to lean on technologies like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight, with AJAX as a backup solution for those circumstances where leveraging an embedded player isn’t possible. This is changing though, and the recently announced HTML 5 and CSS 3 specifications bring us very close to being able to develop equally robust applications inside a browser by itself. As a spin-off of the work that Roundarch Labs has done with the band Wilco, we are also working with the band and some of the folks at Apple to create an experiential application that will coincide with the launch of Apple’s new operating system.

Touch Computing and Human Interface Experiments – There are a lot of brilliant people that work at Roundarch, and many have advanced degrees in HCI and similar disciplines. Because our primary goal is to provide world-class Web and software design and development services to our clients, we don’t always get the opportunity to push forward with the ideas that are brewing in our heads. Is the best way for us to interact with information the way we currently do it? You know… sitting in front of a screen with a mouse & keyboard, or fumbling our way across a mobile device’s miniature keypad? We think not! There are several concepts that have been floating around the company related to the next-generation of machine interactions, and we are beginning to work on several proofs of concept around them. This is exciting stuff, and over time, look forward to sharing some of the extraordinary ideas that our teams are coming up with.

Mario Russo, part of the team at Roundarch, experiments with one of the Roundarch Labs’ prototypes

Roundarch Labs is not a group of specific people. It is not a place.

It is not limited to practicality and certainly not constrained by what is currently possible.

We’ve replaced white lab coats and beakers with laptops and a serious passion for the future of user experiences and technologies that enable them.

Roundarch Labs is about incubating and testing ideas and working to bring them to market.

It is an exciting time at Roundarch, and I am thrilled to be able to play a part in it.

The Phizzpop Design Challenge will kick off today in Chicago.  Roundarch is one of four teams given three days to strategize, design and build an experiential Web application based on the latest and greatest Microsoft Web technology. While not limited only to the browser, the contestants will primary use Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft’s next-generation development platform for Rich Internet Applications. They will also be using Microsoft’s new suite of tools for interactive software design and development, Expression Studio.

Mark Ferry, one of Roundarch’s Technical Directors, will lead the 3-person team in a challenge to design an application that applies to Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. No details around the specifics of the challenge have been released, making the event quite exciting (and challenging) for all involved.

The winner of this regional contest will move forward to additional rounds cumulating in the Phizzpop finals which will be held at the SxSW conference in Austin, Texas.

Meet the teams.