At this time of year, it is appropriate to both reflect back on 2005 and look forward to 2006. One great thing about technology is that it is constantly changing. If you are one of those that is looking forward to a time when it will all stabilize, well dream on. Search Engines have become a fixture on the Internet, but the space will be experiencing pressure. Pressure is a good thing because it drives innovation. I thought I would look at one creative application in the web world that is very intriguing called Tagging.
Everyone is reasonably familiar with bookmarks (I hope!). You simply organize places on the web you want to remember in a folder-like structure and they are there when you need them again. If you have a lot of folders, the trick is to remember where you stored the bookmark. Tagging is a way to not only store your bookmarks, but to annotate them with descriptors and share the results with others.
Continue reading ‘What’s after Search Engines?’
A few weeks ago I attended the RETS committee meeting in Las Vegas. The meetings were in the Westin Casuarina hotel. While staying there, I discovered that Las Vegas is truly on the cutting edge of technology. Since I found no other way to describe it, I called it RAISH.
Yes, RAISH. Similar to the RAID systems we all know from our machine rooms, RAISH stands for a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Shower Heads. Both shower heads worked and there was a good pressure on both.
Since its only two shower heads, its either RAISH 0 or RAISH 1, I just can’t deceide which.
(Thanks to David Riggs for the photo. He snagged it with his digital camera. My cell phone camera was/is on the fritz.)
PolicyPage is a new application from the Center for REALTOR® Technology. It is an MLS display policy compliance tool. PolicyPage is licensed under an open-source license.
PolicyPage reads MLS member websites and compares them to rules (defined in PolicyPage.) It notifies the MLS and optionally the member when tests are failed. PolicyPage’s initial focus will be to deliver rules that allow checking NAR’s IDX model display rules.
The 0.9.6 beta release supports :
- Terms of Use statements
- Disclaimers
- Copyright statements
- If required links are present on the member site
- Required graphics
The 0.9.6 changes include:
- Additional instructions for installing PolicyPage installation using SQLite with PHP
- Enhanced rules to check for presence and size of images
- Additional rule to perform case insensitive text searches
We continue to look to the MLS community to guide future development priorities. We invite and welcome your input.
PolicyPage comments (and bugs) can be posted to the project mail list.
You can download PolicyPage application by visiting the project site.
Because it was so cold (0°) in Chicago today I did not ride my bike to work but instead took the subway. I grab the free Redeye newspaper that is published by the Chicago Tribune. The paper is a quick read and great for my 15 minute ride.
Today edition featured an article on differences in generations and how the generational styles vary while on the job. The generations and approximate ages were:
- Baby boomer - born 1946 -1964
- Gen X - born 1965 to 1977
- Gen Y - born 1978 to 1989
- Millennial - born 1990 +
These groups have more then different taste in TV, music and clothes. The way they interact with one another, communicate and work styles play a role in how you the REALTOR can best connect with them. One size does not fit all. A colorful marketing brochure may fit one groups’ need while another may want to gather opinions on a possible new neighborhood from others already living there by visiting a blog. And each is likely looking in a different sector of the market.
Many baby boomers have reached their peak earning years. They are now thinking of the house of their dreams, an empty next or a second/vacation/retirement home. Gen X is in the midst of family years - so many are moving up to accommodate their growing families while many Gen Y’ers are purchasing their first home or condo.
So, not only are their housing needs different, their approach to purchasing real estate is also different. More later on methods to different generational groups.
In an effort to help you better understand the CRT, I point you to the Wikipedia article on Metasyntactic Variables.
I point this out based on a conversation I had with Todd this morning where he asked me “What is this foo you keep using when you talk.” I often use many of the metasyntactic variables listed in the examples section without even thinking about it. I suspect other computer people do as well.
After my explanation (helped by wikipedia) Todd said he would use the word widgets instead of foo. This is a wonderful illistration of the difference in his business-oriented background vs my tech-oriented background.
If nothing else, the wikipedia entry is a very interesting read that I think can help you understand us better.
