Often, the hardest part of any search engine optimization or marketing campaign is getting changes made to the website. Figuring out what to do is often easier than convincing all the stakeholders—including marketers, IT departments, web developers—to take the necessary actions, and coaching them along the way as they apprehensively take baby steps forward. As search marketers, we also need to test web sites. We always want to tweak things and see if we do better, and if not, we go back and try something else. We also work in teams.

Success in search marketing campaigns often depends on the nitty-gritty details of execution. That is why I have spent a lot time investigating different tools that help automate our work flow and promote teamwork. One of my favorites goes by the apt and clever name of Subversion.

Subversion, also known as SVN, is free open source software that provides revision control of source code, web pages and other documents. Revision control means that all current and past versions of each file are saved, with notes about who edited them and what they did. If a bold change goes terribly wrong, a few clicks restores a prior version of the site. Revision control also permits multiple editors to work on the same files without wrecking each others’ work. After updating their local files, everybody can be confident that they have the latest versions. Most edit conflicts are automatically resolved.

Revision control software is much more efficient than ad hoc arrangements such as emailing files back and forth, or using Dreamweaver’s FTP synchronization feature. A web server is for serving web pages, not for syncing files. Our Subversion server provides much faster data transfer, and Subversion tracks changes line by line, so it only transfers the lines that have changed, rather than whole files, saving even more time.

Here are a few situations where Subversion helps most:

Eliminating the IT bottleneck. When a website is hosted in-house, the IT department often does not provide web server FTP access for security or management reasons. They usually want to control all changes, rightly so, because they are responsible. However, IT staff are busy or may lack experience in search optimization. It normally takes three times longer to teach a client how to fix their own website than to just do it for them. IT departments like Subversion because it saves them time, and provides an audit trail, as well as a reliable backup copy of the website in case the server ever suffers a meltdown. When a client is on Subversion, even if I do not have FTP access, I can still grab the latest copy of their website, make the necessary edits and commit them to the repository. Then I ask the client to pull updated files from the repository, review the changes on a development server, and release them to the live site. Verifying and releasing a website update is faster, and requires fewer skills, than editing.

Replacing content management systems. One of the selling points for content management systems is that clients can edit their own website, especially when multiple people are involved. Content management systems usually introduce design rigidity, causing website improvements to take longer and cost more. When websites have a catalog with thousands of parts, or a shopping cart, a content management system is obviously necessary, but when a website is just brochure-ware, content management systems can be a poor investment and an impediment to search marketing. With Subversion, we allow clients to use Dreamweaver or Contribute to edit sites themselves. Everybody on the team uses Subversion to coordinate changes, and if somebody wrecks the site, we can roll back to the prior version. With Subversion as a safety net, the editing process goes faster, and more people can have access.

Delegating work.When managing staff, I need to see what they are doing, and be able to jump in on a moment’s notice when help is needed. Having direct, immediate access to the source code makes it easy to fix a bug in the middle of the night when a client complains. I do not need to tell everybody “sync your files” or risk having them erase my change. Subversion handles that automatically. If a client emails a request, any employee can help themselves to the latest code from the repository, and make edits. Without Subversion, having more than one person working on a site risks confusion.

Backups and using multiple computers.My nightmare scenario used to be losing my computer. What if it breaks? I’ve switched most of my business management tools to cloud computing, such as Basecamp and Freshbooks. But I still have a few important files on my machine, plus all the websites I am working on. Subversion provides secure cloud storage for all those critical files. Subversion makes both of my computers interchangeable. I can right click on any folder to quickly synchronize files from the repository.

Subversion has two components: a server that stores sets files (called modules), and a desktop client for accessing the server. The Subversion server can be installed locally, or on a remote machine. I prefer to use a hosted service such as CVSdude, where they handle all the details for a nominal monthly fee. Tortoise SVN is the most popular Subversion client for Windows. Tortoise asks for the URL of the repository, a userid and a password. All files in a module can be checked out, edited as needed, and then changes are committed. Tortoise integrates into Windows’ File Explorer. Folders show a green check mark if they are current, or a red X when they have been changed.

In 2007 Forrester Research called Subversion “the sole leader in standalone software configuration management (SCM)”. When something that good is free, you think most people would use it. However, most search marketing professionals I speak with have never heard of Subversion.

Jonathan Hochman has two computer science degrees from Yale. He runs an Internet marketing consultancy and a web development shop.

Article source - http://searchengineland.com/080408-084516.php

Posted by Charles Humble on Mar 31, 2008 11:59 PM

Within 24 hours of Apple unveiling the iPhone SDK, Sun Microsystems announced their intention to port the Java ME JVM to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices. In a video announcement Eric Klein states that he sees no reason why the JVM would not work on the iPhone:

“We’ve spent the last 24 hours feverishly pouring through all the information that Apple made available about this SDK and we’re really excited that Apple has decided to open the iPhone and iTouch (iPod Touch) to third party development. One of our original visions for Java was to allow the developer community to create amazing content and applications for as many devices across the world as possible and the iPhone is an important platform in that regard.”

When Sun made its announcement a number of astute bloggers and forum posters pointed out two major issues that seem to preclude Sun’s Java port. The first is a clause in the license agreement:

“An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).”

The second appears at first glance to be a technical limitation in the SDK. According to Apple’s official iPhone Human Interface Guidelines (available from the Apple iPhone Dev Center, login required) only one iPhone application may run at a time, and third-party iPhone applications will not be able to run in the background:

“This means that when users switch to another application, answer the phone, or check their email, the application they were using quits. It’s important to make sure that users do not experience any negative effects because of this reality. In other words, users should not feel that leaving your iPhone application and returning to it later is any more difficult than switching among applications on a computer.”

This is presumably not strictly a technical limitation - the iPhone runs the same kernal as Mac OS X which supports multiple concurrent processes. The iPhone itself can clearly multitask (otherwise it couldn’t, for example, ring when you were using Safari with it) so this restriction is most probably imposed to limit the amount of RAM consumed by third party background processes. It seems reasonable to speculate that Apple could therefore allow chosen third party developers the ability to run their applications in the background. However it seems quite unlikely that Apple would provide Sun such access. For one thing being able to install and Run Java ME applications on the iPhone and iPod Touch would make it harder for Apple to restrict distribution to their store as they intend, and for another Apple’s relationship with Java seems to have become increasingly negative over the last few years. Contrast Steve Job’s comments at a keynote at JavaOne 2000 in which he said:

“We want to bring Java back to the desktop in a really big way. I’m here today to personally tell you we are working hard to make Mac the best Java delivery vehicle on the planet. The biggest thing we are doing is we are going to bundle Java 2 SE into every single copy of Mac OS X [the upcoming Macintosh operating system] that we ship later on this year.”

with remarks he made last year to the New York Times:

“Java’s not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.”

Eric Klein issued a further statement last week stating that Sun would like to talk to Apple if there are conditions blocking Sun’s intentions:

“Our announcement was based on our excitement to build a JVM for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, as well as our assessment of Apple’s publicly available information on the SDK and related business terms. If there are clauses in the iPhone beta SDK license agreement that potentially limit third party application distribution, then these are items that we want to have a positive discussion with Apple about. Sun and Apple have an ongoing relationship around Java SE on Mac OS X and we look forward to further discussions with Apple about a JVM for iPhone and iPod Touch. Sun definitely plans to deliver a JVM for iPhone and iPod Touch if at all possible!”

It will be interesting to see if Sun provide any more details during JavaOne.

Article source - http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/03/jme_iphone

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Despite a new owner and the potential for more competition in the future, MySQL and Oracle will continue to work together.

By Charles Babcock InformationWeek  March 31, 2008 10:00 AM

When MySQL AB was bought by Sun Microsystems, some knowledgeable observers said the first thing Sun would do is make MySQL free of its dependence on Oracle.

MySQL incorporated the InnoDB transaction storage system as part of its database system, then Oracle acquired its Finnish parent company, Innobase Oy, in October 2005. “Look for Sun to do more and more to make MySQL free of any third parties,” said Raven Zachary, open source analyst with the 451 Group, in an interview at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco.

But Zack Urlocker, the executive VP of products, who supervises both engineering and marketing at MySQL, says such independence is still viewed as unnecessary inside Sun. Urlocker appeared on a panel on the state of the open source database market. Seated nearby was Ken Jacobs, VP of product strategy at Oracle.

MySQL’s strength has been in its ability to serve Web pages, and many Web applications are built with MySQL as the database of choice in the background. Oracle aspires to be the database of future applications as well, including Web applications, and it’s conceivable the two eventually will come into more direct competition.

But Urlocker says that doesn’t mean MySQL can’t keep using InnoDB. “We’ve always had a very good relationship with Oracle,” he said after the panel concluded.

“It’s absolutely a fact. We’ve always had a very good relationship,” affirmed Jacobs, one of the original employees of Oracle, who helped establish Oracle with the federal government from its new Washington office in 1981.

MySQL isn’t ready to announce anything yet, but the way Urlocker and Jacobs exchanged meaningful glances, it was as if to say they’re ready to sign a multiyear continuation of their agreement.

Meanwhile, another third-party piece of software on which MySQL used to depend, the SolidDB for MySQL that was under the sponsorship of IBM, has been pushed off to SourceForge. Dhiren Patel, IBM’s community relations manager for the overall SolidDB project, announced that IBM had acquired SolidDB in December for its in-memory database, technology that will help it compete with Oracle TimesTen.

“This in-memory technology, and not Solid’s open source offering, was the key driver behind IBM’s acquisition. As a result, I regret to inform you that, effectively immediately, we will not be continuing further development on SolidDB for MySQL,” he wrote March 3, six days after Sun completed the MySQL deal.

The open source community around SolidDB for MySQL will be free to continue work on the project, and the developer forums and bug tracking have been migrated to SourceForge as well, Patel noted.

Urlocker said both Jacobs and Charles Phillips, Oracle’s president, have assured him of continued, unfettered access to InnoDB. MySQL, initially developed as a read-only database, gets its key transaction handling characteristics from InnoDB and SolidDB for MySQL.

Article source - http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000559

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Today onwards, the penguin too will get a taste of the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) alpha version. And, Adobe Systems has joined the Linux Foundation to focus on Linux for Web 2.0 Applications.

Adobe’s AIR is meant to enable developers create RIA (Rich Internet Applications) and take Web applications to the desktop and store data offline. AIR will enable developers to create RIAs on the desktop using Web technologies such as HTML, Ajax, PDF, Flash, and Flex that they already employ. A free and open-source technology, it will allow companies with Websites to inhabit a permanent spot on people’s desktops, in a way similar to Google’s widgets. For consumers, AIR will reduce the wait time for downloading images and data, because the desktop is constantly updated while the computer is online.

Version 1.0 of AIR was made available last year for the Windows and Mac OS platforms, however release for Linux was deferred due to wait on the core Flash Player’s support for Linux to be finalized, as per the Adobe Web site (last year).

Major news that follows is Adobe collaborating with the Linux Foundation (LF), a non-profit organization that works towards the development of Linux. Through this association, Adobe plans to work with the involved community to ensure Adobe RIA technologies are compatible across the Linux software platform; support for RIA on Linux has been limited until now. Adobe deems LF as a valuable resource that provides a platform to be able to accomplish this mission, as quoted on the LF Web page.

In order to install RIAs for the browser and the desktop, Adobe currently provides major RIA technologies for Linux users such as Adobe Flash Player and now also Adobe AIR.

Article source - http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Now_AIR_for_Linux_Adobe_Teams_with_Linux/551-88069-580.html

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This is the most important acquisition in Sun’s history,” said CEO Jonathan Schwartz.

By Charles Babcock
InformationWeek
February 26, 2008 05:20 PM

Sun Microsystems (NSDQ: JAVA) has completed its acquisition of MySQL six weeks after announcing its intent to do so. As of today, Marten Mickos, MySQL’s former CEO, is now senior VP of a new software database group, reporting to Rich Green, executive VP for software. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said Mickos also will report directly to him as part of Sun’s senior management team.

The $1 billion cost of acquiring MySQL was worth the price, said Schwartz. MySQL “was the crown jewel of the open source marketplace,” with 11 million customers and “the strategic value of opening new markets to Sun,” he said in a teleconference announcing the closure of the deal on Tuesday.

MySQL is the speedy, open source, Web-page-serving database that’s used by Facebook, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Slashdot, and other giants of the Web. With Sun’s help, MySQL can now overcome what Schwartz termed “the chief liability of open source companies,” supplying 24/7 global technical support.

The acquisition “marks the end of a remarkable era for MySQL and the beginning of another remarkable one,” Mickos said at the teleconference. “As part of Sun, we will grow to serve more customers with bigger deployments and bigger scalability.”

The announcement was filled with superlatives. “This is the most important acquisition in Sun’s history,” said Schwartz, even though Sun’s $4.1 billion acquisition of Storage Technologies in June 2005 was much larger. Reminded of StorageTek, Schwartz said, “We don’t have any second thoughts about history. MySQL as a database is as much about storage as StorageTek. We’re gathering together the most compelling open source storage platform in the industry.”

Sun is counting on MySQL’s continued growth in the $15 billion-a-year database industry to fuel additional software sales out of the Sun portfolio, although analysts put MySQL’s share of that at somewhere less than $100 million a year in revenue. Both Mickos and Schwartz took pains to say that Linux, not Sun’s Solaris, will remain MySQL’s primary operating system. In fact, MySQL runs on Linux as its most popular platform, with Windows second, and Solaris coming in a distant third. Nevertheless, MySQL was developed on Solaris, said Simon Phipps, chief open source officer at Sun.

At a media summit Feb. 13, Schwartz raised some eyebrows when he said the popular LAMP stack, which includes Linux and MySQL, doesn’t have to be taken literally. Sun will encourage developers to use Solaris, instead of Linux, with the stack.

Regardless of operating system choice, Schwartz asserted that with MySQL, Sun has a set of software that more directly competes withMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Windows Server and SQL Server database. “I couldn’t agree more strongly,” he told a questioner, when asked if the acquisition brings Sun closer to head-to-head competition. But Sun will compete on building out the next generation of Web applications for the Internet, not dominance of the desktop.

Sun’s Green said it wasn’t the right time to talk about future possibilities stemming from the acquisition, but it wasn’t unreasonable to expect Sun to more closely integrate MySQL with Sun middleware, such as its GlassFish application server project.

As developers build out Web applications that interact with individual site visitors, answer questions with fresh product information and data, and conduct transactions, Sun wants to be the supplier to the enterprise for the network’s next phase. Sun plans to buy additional open source companies, but it clearly views MySQL as the cornerstone of its campaign. It gives Sun an open door to the builders of the next generation of applications.

That acquisition wasn’t only big for Sun, said Schwartz. “It was the most important acquisition in the industry,” he said during the teleconference.

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By Ryan Paul

In a recent article, renowned virtual reality guru Jaron Lanier criticizes the community-driven software development process of the open-source movement, asserting that the model isn’t conducive to radical innovation. Lanier believes that the scientific community should shun the open approach and not follow in the footsteps of Linux.

Lanier is a noted critic of Internet collectivism, and one can look at his previously stated positions in order to gain a better understanding of his opinions about open-source software. In a 2006 essay titled “Digital Maoism,” Lanier condemned Wikipedia as a “fetish site for foolish collectivism” and cautioned against what he perceived as descent into mob mentality. The basis for Lanier’s concerns about Internet collectivism, which he elucidated in an article for TIME magazine later that year, seem to extend from the observation that collectivization has a dehumanizing effect that erodes moral autonomy and reduces individuals to the lowest common denominator of the group.

Like most people who have had close encounters with idiocy on the ‘Net, I can certainly sympathize with many of his concerns. In the article, Lanier points out that anonymity tends to foster abusive attitudes and that a collective of anonymous people can easily become a brutish gang. The correlation between anonymity and abrasiveness, especially in the presence of an audience, is quite apparent on the Internet (we may even be treated to a demonstration in the discussion thread for this article). Lanier doesn’t directly address the issue of how collectives magnify the effect, but I think the reasons are pretty obvious: in a collective, participants mutually reinforce each others’ behaviors.

The open-source software community certainly exhibits some of the negative traits of collectivism. For instance, there is a very strong tendency to erect personality cults around strong leaders whose opinions are then given undue weight. There are also many cases where certain groups or factions of the open-source software community have resorted to nasty personal attacks and other inappropriate mob-like behavior in response to a perceived threat. I can also recall several notable instances where irrational group consensus led to adoption of poor practices and technologies to the detriment of innovation. One example of this is CORBA, which was adopted with way too much enthusiasm on the Linux platform despite serious deficiencies and has now been almost completely purged.

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