The Internet is great but there’s still a long way to go before some traditional boundaries are broken down even more. I’ve been thinking about what it means to be New Zealander online recently - especially after meeting Lee Lefever on his world trip - and a after some recent-link-ups to posts on this blog. Perhaps there are solutions out there, already, for either of these two main issues I often face online.. if so, please let me know!

• Location - while we’re all brought together online and location isn’t such a set back as it used to be for rapid communication, many web services are still US-centric. Some recent examples which were frustrating me: Google maps, iTunes (yes, while it’s elsewhere, it’s not here…really) and Google Video. I guess main reasons for these not being developed for elsewhere are economics, demand and copyright.
  • A couple of notes on copyright: iTunes is still a legal saga here where the law does not allow for any format shifting - i.e. it’s technically illegal for me to make a back-up copy of my CDs, copy CDs I own onto my computer or MP3 player. In fact, if you see a person listening to their iPod here in NZ, they’re most likely breaking copyright laws.
    Secondly, territory is still guarded fiercely in many areas. DVDs cannot usually be released here until after the TV networks have finished screening the series (unless it’s shows like Alias where they’re a few seasons behind and perhaps they don’t care about the impact of a DVD release). So the Desperate Housewives DVD came out here the day after the final episode screened here - less than a week before Christmas and even though the DVD had been out for months in the US, let alone about six months since the season finished airing in the US. Phew! Oh yeah, no legal TV/movie/video downloads here unfortunately.
• Language - the trend for a while was having multi-lingual sites. This is fine if all your content is pretty much static - you set up multiple language files with the variables sitting in them, then change the library to use based on the user’s preferences (or browser language settings).
  This gets a lot tougher when it comes to blogs. Having had a bit of a break from writing a personal blog, one thing I’ve been amazed at are the number of non-english bloggers/sites linking up to my posts. I’ve even had a few IM conversations with non-native english speakers as a result of my blog recently. Babelfish is helpful, AJAX Translator is nice but they both require you to open a new tab and either enter in the URL or text to be translated. It’s a bit of a hassle and interrupts your flow. Translate Firefox extension is the best thing I’ve found so far - it combines the Google and Babelfish translation engines and provides a “Translate” option under the Tools menu.
  There’s a couple of improvements that I’d love - not having to guess the language I’m translating from (saves a couple of guesses) and automatic translation to my preferred language while I surf the net. Is that too hard to ask?
  The current situation is a bit better with IM - thanks to this YahooTranslatingProxy. I’m sure more and more IM translation services will make foreign language conversations seamless - hopefully one for MSN Messenger shortly.
• And others… e.g. format - “sorry your browser is not compatible” is not so common as it used to be (thankfully).

As a follow to my recent blog design trends post, I just found a tongue-in-cheek tutorial which shows you how to make a Web 2.0 layout.

Under the humour are these trends - which ends up being a very similar list to mine:

• Keep the design simple
• White background
• Arial
• Horizontal navigation with coloured background
• Links invert on mouseover with a coloured background
• Large font size for headers
• Subtle yellow highlights for selected text
• Gradients
• Tag clouds

Here’s my personal concept of Web 2.0, a Web 2.0 site usually fits into one of the following types:

• Community as the content - social networking: members share information, the community decides the value of that information and the community benefits. A two-way open sharing of information.

  See: The Cluetrain Manifesto, Web 2.0 diagram, Oreilly Web 2.0 Article.
  Examples: Digg (share tech links), 43 Things (share to do lists) and del.icio.us (share bookmarks).

• Rich online applications - easy-to-use applications which take software which may have once been found on single desktops to a shared online space, independent of the computer you are using.

  Examples: Flickr (photos), Writely (Word processor) and Backpack (organiser).

AJAX enables richer online user interfaces.

When we use desktop packages, like Word or Excel, we can drag, drop, click, sort, and so forth - all without having to wait around for your screen to reload. AJAX brings this sort of functionality to the web.

AJAX is a term used to describe a combination of four key elements:

• Javascript - for the programming
• CSS - for the style/layout
• DOM - for the page elements that Javascript will change
• XMLHttpRequest object - for retrieving data from the server behind the scenes without refreshing the page

A few years ago, DHTML was all the rage - it combined the first three of those AJAX elements. It enabled rich user interfaces, but the problem was that you still had to refresh the page each time you changed something significant.

Examples

• Google Maps
• Google Suggest

Footnotes: I have a number of tech skills I want to develop this year - two of them are AJAX and Ruby on Rails.
To help get me going, I’m taking notes and my writing up my thoughts on the topic while reading this book:

Ok, well not quite yet but Zoomin is the next best thing and it’s my new favourite map site for New Zealand. While there’s currently no businesses listed, it’s so handy for quickly finding street addresses. I used to use NZ Maps - but that only covered Auckland.

So much has changed in the five years since NZ Maps was created.

Zoomin offers the following advantages:

• Intelligent search - while I type in a street name, possbile matches appear (each with its suburb) with quick links for me to click.
• Just enough information - rather than listing each street name on a map (like traditional paper-based maps), only main roads are shown until I zoom in closer. The address I’m looking for is conveniently marked - rather than having to try and spot the street, then guess where the number might be on it. This makes map viewing seem so simple. When I’m at the street level, I’m provided with a list of other street numbers below the map which I can quickly click on.
• Quick to respond - as I zoom in or out, scroll up or down the page usually doesn’t need to reload - thanks to some handy AJAX behind the scenes. As a result, I’m waiting around less.
• Informative URLs -
  http://www.zoomin.co.nz/auckland/auckland/princes+street/36/
  URLs follow the pattern: Region - City/Town - Street - Number
• Nice design - I firmly believe simple is beautiful.

Great to see a Kiwi company producing useful web products.

(Geek speak: contains AJAX and is almost valid XHTML)