Hello all! I’m Andrew Tillman, a new addition to CRT. I’ve been here for a little over a 2 months and Keith told me that to get a Blogger ribbon here at midyear I need to write a blog post. Please bear with me, as this is my first blog post….ever.
The current topic I have on my mind is the debate over desktop applications vs. web-based applications. It seems that as the technologies that have driven the resurgence of internet companies (aka Web 2.0) improves, that web based applications are becoming more and more viable. Google is the most well known of these companies and offers a full range of web-based applications such as Gmail, GCal and many others. It seems that not a day goes by that Google doesn’t create or acquire a new way of doing online what was once done solely by desktop applications. Is the desktop going to evolve into a dumb terminal that solely provides internet access? Or is there another approach that can be taken?
The desktop application has several advantages; offline access, better user interface and integration with other desktop applications. However having all you data on one computer is asking for a hard drive failure and can be annoying when you need to get to you data/applications but don’t have access to your computer. Web applications address a lot of these short comings; they can be used anywhere, you don’t need to worry about hard drive failure etc, but you are hosed of you don’t have internet access. There is also the concern of having your data solely in the hands of another company.
I think in the end I prefer what I call a hybrid solutions. Hybrid solutions are ones that store the data on a server on the internet, but allow access to it through both desktop applications and a web interfaces. I get the advantages of a desktop applications; offline access, better interface and integration with other applications. I also get the advantages of an web application; access from anywhere computer, data sharing between multiple computers and easy recovery of data after a hard drive failure. Also, since the data is stored locally as well as remotely I still have my data available to me if my service provider experiences a catastrophic failure. The biggest drawbacks to a hybrid solution is that it is more complex and if you have privacy concerns about someone like Google having access to your data they are still not addressed by the hybrid solution.
To that end I use Fastmail for my personal email, they have IMAP access as well as a very good web mail client. I use Spanning Sync to sync my Google calendar with my Mac’s iCal. I use del.icio.us even though it doesn’t quite qualify, however if I cannot get to the internet, cannot use my bookmarks anyway. I am currently looking for a similar server for my address book as well as one for iPhoto, and iTunes (the size of the files involved make this more problematic). I have also started to look into getting the Vienna news reader integrate with Google Reader.
How do you address this issue? Are you solely desktop, all web apps or somewhere in between?
I’m thinking about getting this Ogio backpack as a new laptop backpack. Anyone have any experience with them? I’m having a hard time finding one in a store to check out. http://www.ogio.com/product.php?product=128
CRT has just released their annual REALTOR Technology Survey. It is available to be viewed at www.realtors.org/crt. Some interest findings are:
• 54 percent of real estate brokers, sales associates, and managers who responded spent more than $1,000 on business-related technology in 2006. Not surprisingly, brokers were the big spenders, with half spending between $2,000 and $3,000 on tech in ’06. Half of all sales associates (agents and associate brokers) spent $501 or more last year. Spending was at approximately the same levels as in last year’s survey.
• 65 percent of respondents have their own business Web site.
• Respondents’ favorite Web sites to display their listings are REALTOR.com, the associate’s personal site, and the company’s site. Those responding found the Internet more valuable than open houses or floor time for generating leads.
• 64 percent communicate with past clients quarterly or more often. Phone and e-mail are the prime tools to stay in touch with active clients. Mailings and market updates top the list of ways to reach former clients.
• 94 percent use a CMA in their listing presentation, mostly relying on CMA software programs furnished by their local MLS. About 35 percent were either somewhat or very dissatisfied with the CMA program available. The ability to personalize design was again the area “needing to be improved the most.�?
• 72 percent used some electronic mapping application for business. The most useful applications for respondents were driving directions and outlined maps of neighborhoods and subdivisions.
• 38 percent of respondents’ companies have a written network security policy for staff, and 43 percent have a written policy for clients and consumers. About one-third of respondents did not know whether their company had written network security policies in place.
I love a good API! Add a two litre of diet coke, some frustration, and a couple free hours (since PCD ended my tuesdays haven’t been the same) - and who knows what I can come up with.
For a while now, I have been using an RSS reader to be more addictivly efficient with tech news, blogs, and random sites of interest. One site that it has made an exponential impact on is Digg. I can see the headlines and pick and choose articles much quicker. For the same time I have been using their RSS feed, I was also frustrated with the need to do a click-through to get to the actual article and not the Digg commentary. So last night, using the power of the Digg API I solved that problem, and in doing so created a nice little example of a mash-up. Introducing R2-Digg2 the Digg RSS Alternative.
Stop by the Bloggers Lounge in the Forum room at the Omni Shoreham. Show us your blog and we will give you a CRT Blogger Ribbon. Be cool like Todd Tarson of the MOCO Real Estate News blog.
“I love things that are great!/ Good things are fantastic!” Tony Bennett(as played by Alec Baldwin)
Only a week until the grand opening of the Blogger’s Lounge at the swinging Omni Shoreham Hotel. Come for a visit or hang out and write a post to your blog.
We’ll be serving beverages and snacks along with some terrific free gifts. CRT staff will be on hand to answer tech questions and talk about what we’ve been up to.
Dates and times:
The Lounge will be open May 15th through the 18th from noon to 8pm.
Thank Heavens for RSS! CRT is able to stay in touch with the outside world much more efficiently because of it. We wind up IM’ing, emailing, yelling over the cubes to have each other check out something techie, amazing or bizarre. We feel like we are leaving everyone else out of our fun. So starting this week, we will have a Deep Link Recap. These are links that we found informative, thought provoking or maybe even got a little chuckle out of.
Last Saturday, Chad Curry from NAR Government Affairs and his wife, Julia, organized and hosted an art exhibit to raise funds and awareness for the conflict in the Sudan. They enlisted local Chicago neighborhood businesses to help sponsor and support their event. To highlight the participating establishments, Chad stumbled upon a new(ish) feature of Google Maps, My Maps.
Once he plotted all the points of interest, he showed it to the local Chamber of Commerce. Their reaction was one of awe as to how easy and useful something like this could be. I think the real kicker came when he told them that it was free!
So what exactly is My Maps? Well, the embedded map shows a bare bones overview of what Chad made.
