This year, CRT has been very involved with Transaction Management Systems (TMS); first in our work to develop TMS technical standards and increase TMS interoperability and integration with other real estate apps, and secondly through our 2005 REALTOR Technology Efficiency Survey. Many questions have been raised about TMS, its current status and where it fits. In some cases there is confusion on what is TMS.
I recently read a new white paper that does an in-depth review of the current status of TMS, the perceptions and in some cases the misconceptions. If your involved with TMS the paper will have some points where you’ll agree and others where you won’t. It doesn’t seem to favor a TMS approach, platform or particular vendor. It does go to great lengths to explain the issues surrounding TMS and increased adoption.
The white paper’s depth of TMS review expands on many of the finding in CRT’s survey. Papers and efforts like these aid the industry by putting substance where there has mostly been marketing hype or conjecture. The white paper was done by the WAV Group, an industry consulting firm and can be obtained through their web site. The paper goes a good way to answering the question; TMS - where is it?
Submitted by Dave Dribin:
libRETS is cross-platform RETS client library written in C++. libRETS is under an open-source license. libRETS provides an abstraction layer making it easier for developers to get started in RETS. Developers can use libRETS as the basis for RETS clients on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other operating systems.
Features
- Provides access to login, logout, search, and get object.
- Can be accessed from many platforms, including Visual C++ on Windows, and gcc on just about any flavor of Unix.
The first public release of librets, version 1.0.0 beta 1, has been released. It can be downloaded from http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/rets/librets/
We’ve released source archives as well as Windows binaries.
ezRETS is an ODBC driver that connects to RETS servers. It is licensed under an open-source license. It allows ODBC-aware applications, such as Microsoft Office (Excel, Word,) to easily load data from a RETS compliant server using those applications built-in wizards and other tools.
Right now, we only have a binary version for windows, but that seems to be the most useful to the most people. For those who would like to see/edit/compile the source, the source is available via subversion as well as at the download page.
You can download it by visiting http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/rets/ezrets/
Changes in this release
- SQLRowCount has been implemented. Hopefully fixes problem with SQLServer DTS package.
- SQLGetTypeInfo returns data on the types ezRETS supports.
- SQLColAttribute has been updated to return Column name. Fixes problem where column name was garbled in PHP.
- Unix configure script now uses librets-config to get linking and include information
I often get asked “How can I differentiate my website from others?”.
Typically, I launch into the typical response that starts with “by adding more than listings”. What I mean is to create a web community with the website, creating a loyalty by providing service to consumers. Yes, this includes the thought of supplementing the website with a blog about local events, real estate as an investment or preparing the home for sale.
The other day, I received an e-mail from Don Kanare with a question about adding RSS to his website. I have thought about RSS for “hotsheet” publication from the MLS, but never considered it for a consumer website. I even thought about proposing it as a RETS extension.
In his letter, Don mentioned FeedForAll as a tool that could possibly add RSS. I have looked at tools like this yet. This is probably due to the fact that we are an Open Source shop.
[Update 8/29: Interesting thought. I thought I would stop at this point and listen to what others have to say.
http://support.open-realty.org/showthread.php?t=6202
The idea is not new but I still cannot point to an implementation.]
The big tech buzz of the day is Google unveiling their new instant messaging (IM) service Google Talk. Google Talk requires that you have a GMail account to be able to sign in. Like some of the other IM services, you can do voice chats over Google Talk if you’re using their windows client.
What makes Google Talk different than some of the other IMs out there? The fact that it is built on open standards. Google Talk is built on the Jabber/XMPP standard. XMPP stands for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol.
Right now, Google only has a client they produce for Windows based computers. If you’re not using Windows, and I’m not, there are number of other clients that already support Jabber that you can use. I’m using Gaim on Linux with great success. Unfortunately, with these non-Windows clients you don’t get voice. However, according to their developer FAQ they’ll be documenting the protocol they use for the voice chat so that others can implement it.
I did download the Windows client and install it on one of my test boxes here at the CRT labs and tried a few things out.
The client is very nice and minimalistic. It doesn’t have any extra features you really don’t need in an IM client in my opinion. Some of the other IM clients from the big IM services have a lot of extra functionality you may not want. Examples of these features are integrated web searches, skins, icon collections, news tickers. It is missing one feature that is very useful to me: multi-party chat.
The voice support just blew me away. I have to admit, I haven’t used other voice chat services like Skype, so I can’t do a comparison. The audio was clear, full duplex, and I had a great quick conversation with a buddy of mine since we were both at work. It sounded better than my land-line at home. It should be noted that we’re both at businesses that are well connected to the Internet. I’d be curious to see how the sound quality is over lower speed connections like modems or entry-level DSL.
In any case Google Talk looks like a good first step for Google into the IM arena. Its in beta now, but it looks like they have grander plans than what we’re seeing today. I’ll be using it, but I might not always be voice available. If anyone wants to say hi, I’ll be on as kgarner.crt@gmail.com
CRT runs WiFi Hotspots at all of NAR’s yearly conferences. At the latest conference (The Leadership Summit in Chicago) we had a great setup. Excellent location- adjacent the ballroom, a great view of the Chicago river and tasteful decor. Because the area looked so nice I made an extra effort to keep our already small form factor technology hidden.
Our display table had our brochures, full page hand-outs, 22″ LCD display, Mac Mini with Bluetooth mouse/keyboard and a white tablecloth to complete a clean functional look. I was feeling very satisfied.
Next, I had to place the most important technology used at our Hotspot; the WiFi access point. Unfortunately the network drop was right near the elevator. This meant the access point was going to be in full view. All of my careful design work was for naught! Thankfully Humphrey, a tech manager at the hotel had an idea. They would run a cable from the drop to a large potted plant. I could hide the access point under the fluffy mulch! Design faux paus averted. Now all I had to do was settle in and provide support for the Hotspot (which requires very little as our members are becoming quite adept with the latest computer technologies).
The first two days went well. We had many users and there were few problems. I showed up the third day expecting the same. But it wasn’t the same, our access point was off the air! I quickly changed gears and donned my super tech sleuth hat. I don’t actually have a super tech sleuth hat, for some reason I can’t get Mark to approve the purchase. Anyway, I first checked my laptop for problems because it had been acting up.
Everything seemed fine. Then I walked over to someone in the Hotspot seating area pecking away at his laptop and asked if he was able to connect; he wasn’t. Hm, I thought, I really need that hat. Ah ha! I’ll see if NetStumbler (a software tool that detects wireless networks) can detect it, It can detect anything. No luck.
Finally I trudged over to the plant to see if the access point was plugged in. it was. I visually inspected it and low and behold no lights! I picked it up and water poured out. It had been watered. Apparently the gardener failed to notice the multiple cables and flashing LED’s and poured a large amount of H2O on our Access point and its companion plant. Thankfully I had a backup access point and the Hotspot was back up in no time, plus I learned a valuable lesson. All of my technical knowledge and preparation are useless against a gardener on a mission.
I had the pleasure to visit Metrolist Inc. last week while on other business in Denver. Brett Cutcliffe was my host.
It was refreshing to find a staff dedicated to providing member benefit by focusing on needs. They use a broad and comprehensive program across all of their departments to bring down call volume and increase the information available to members. They have found that this effort results in higher satisfaction across membership. Although this should be no surprise, I was taken by the attitude that demonstrated by each person I met.
They have some exciting projects underway which will really set them apart from other MLS operations across the country. I’ll let them reveal these when they are ready. With the communication program that they have in place, I could not do the topic justice.
Denver should be proud of Metrolist Inc.
What if you have an accident and are seriously injured - how does emergency or hospital personnel contact your loved ones, family or friends?
Who do they call In Case of Emergeny?
The idea is to use “ICE“. Store the word ICE in your cell phone address book and enter the number of the person(s) you want contacted in an emergency.
In an crisis situation, emergency and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find a number for your spouse, next of kin or close friend and have a number to contact them.
ICE -it’s as simple as that. If you want more than one contact use ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.
Just returned from attending the NAR Leadership Summit. It is the gathering of state and local Association Executives and the incoming (2006) elected association Presidents.
Friday morning’s sessions were insightful and stimulating. Terry McDermott gave a great review of the goals and opportunities for the association.
David Lereah, NAR’s Chief Economist, did an excellent job of explaining the current condition of the housing market and I heard for the first time the term ‘rolling boom’ to describe it. I think you’ll see a lot more of this term. The attendees I spoke to afterward about his presentation were excited they could take pieces of it and use it in their local markets.
Lorette LaRoche gave a humorous presentation on how to deal with stress. She gave some examples that I’ve seen first hand at the office and home. At the end it was fun to see the entire room of 1200+ attendees holding hands and signing ‘That’s Amoré’
CRT assisted the Commercial Information Exchange (CIE) Work group in putting together a demonstration of the interoperability of RETS and OSCRE data standards. The demonstration was performed with the Variman RETS server with data supplied by the work group.
The demonstration effort resulted in OSCRE winning a 2005 Digie for Most Innovative Technology - Transaction Technology. In a class move, OSCRE sent us a copy of the award. In a letter from Andy Fuhrman (OSCRE) and James Marelli (NAR-Commercial) they said that the copy “is intended as a testament to the extraordinary effort that [CRT] made to complete the data standards demonstration project”.
Boy, there are times when all of us need days like this.
