As recently announced, yesterday we released the final bits for Community Server 2008. With this release, we've nearly doubled the capabilities of CS adding support for Amazon S3, Friends, Groups, Media, Messaging, Widgets, WebServices and more!

One of the key differences between CS 2008 and previous versions is our focus. Previous to CS 2008, content was king. With our introduction of rich profiles (announcements, comments, activities, files, ...) we've focused on keeping it social. In fact, once you've logged into a CS site, instead of seeing reasons to join a community (of which you're already a member), you'll instead be presented with a dashboard displaying recent forum/blog/media posts, single click access to your friends, groups, and private conversations, and a list of what your friends have been up to. With even more support for RSS, you can get to all this information offline as well.

Finally, the introduction of a new integration layer, built as a set of RESTful web services and a C# wrapper, will make system integration and 3rd party tools even easier than before.

If you haven't seen it in action, you owe it to yourself to download a copy or just visit our updated online community.

We recently updated communityserver.org to the latest bits. While we're not ready to call it Beta 2, we are certainly getting closer. The Beta 2 milestone is our target for being feature complete, including changes to the user interface. As such, we're busy putting final touches on features, finding/fixing bugs, and going thru much of UI with a fine-toothed comb. We're also writing samples and documentation for our new web services layer that will ship with Community Server 2008.

Now that user profiles support micro-blogging thru profile "announcements", and those announcements include support for rich content (html, images, video, ...), I'm planning on "dog-fooding" the feature and talking about many of the new features in CS 2008 from my profile. So if you're looking to hear more about what's new, you may want to visit my profile page (or just subscribe to my announcements feed). My plan is to post to it a couple times a week.

Over the past couple months, things have been changing...

1. It started with Christmas and a Wii for the boys. While I still play the 360, I'm hooked on Wii Sports...especially bowling.
2. Soon after the holidays, I found myself on the other side of the PC vs. Mac war as the proud owner of a MacBookPro. While I'm not using it 100% for day-to-day work, I'm enjoying the simplicity and plan to move to the Mac exclusively over the next couple months.
3. Earlier this week, with our recent product launch, I switched my blog from CommunityServer to Graffiti. I still think CommunityServer is a great product (and I'm working hard on the 2008 release), but for a single blog Graffiti is a better choice.
4. With the move to Graffiti, I decided to change urls as well. So now I'm bloggin here at http://joselema.com instead of http://tankete.com. When I get some free time I'll migrate old content and setup the proper redirection.

If you had told me a year ago that I'd be playing a Wii, using a Mac (and an iPhone), blogging at a different url and with something *other* than CS, I wouldn't have believed it. But in just two short months, my world has turned inside out. You'd think so much change would feel awkward, but to quote my good buddy Cosmo Kramer, "I'm lovin' every minute of it".

Tonight I figured I'd give a brief walkthru of how to use both the Graffiti Marketplace website and the integration of the marketplace into the Graffiti Control Panel.

In order to see the details, I chose not to shrink the 1024x768 video within the post. It's only three-minutes long, but worth it!

http://www.screencast.com/t/gXcBLdV9goB

In case you've missed the announcement, today we are happy to announce the immediate availability of Graffiti 1.0. Available under a couple different licensing options (including a free edition), you can now purchase and/or download a copy of the latest product offering from Telligent (creators of Community Server).

I'm especially excited about the integration with the new Graffiti Marketplace. Not only is the marketplace a website where you'll be able to download, purchase, and share themes, widgets, and plugins, but it's also *directly integrated* into the Graffiti Control Panel (as previously discussed). So as we (and the community) continue to build up new items (themes, widgets, plugins), you'll be able to browse, download, and install many without ever leaving the product!

...and I almost forgot...I recently decided to set up a new site, running Graffiti 1.0, over at http://joselema.com. So be sure to stop on by!

Now that we're ready to push Graffiti v1.0 out the door, I've finally put up a new site here at http://joselema.com/. While I still haven't migrating my existing blog over from http://tankete.com, I expect that will happen shortly.

That said, even with Graffiti getting lots of Telligent love, a majority of *my* time is still spent helping a great team make Community Server better each day. But this post isn't about CS :)

Graffiti is in the house!!!

While I have been looking forward to the latest upgrade to the Zune 2.0 software, I didn't get a chance to download it until today. After reading Joe's review (and Jim's rebuttal, see the comments) I figured I'd make my own conclusions.

Part of the update to "The Social" is the concept of a ZuneCard. So, before even downloading the software, I created an account online at zune.net and then was asked to "personalize" my ZuneCard. Now, to be fair, my beef isn't with the Zune software (yet), just the website. But what I found was absolutely ridiculous. First, regardless of which file I picked, I wasn't able to update my picture. But even worse, when I tried to set my ZuneCard "status", this happened:

"Zune" is a *restricted* word? Are you kidding me? If they can't get *that* right, dare I even open the software?

This past week, I took a couple days off (plus the weekend) to attend the Fall Men's Conference with some guys from my church up at Hume Lake. I took quite a few pictures and had a great time and will blog about that soon. But if you follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or IM, you may have noticed something interesting. Since I've been getting questions all week, I figured I'd write it up sooner than later.

Throughout the conference, we were given the opportunity to buy raffle tickets, the proceeds going to send kids to summer camp that couldn't afford it. Like most of the guys in attendance I bought 10 tickets for $20. On the final day, 10 tickets were selected as "potential" winners (from at least 1000)...and *two* of mine were selected! In fact, two of another guy, Larry "something", were also selected. The eight of us got up on stage and our tickets were placed in a new box. At this point, if your ticket was pulled from the box, you were out (as there was only *one* prize). One by one, people were eliminated and at the end, *both* of my tickets were left in the box...making me the clear winner!

So, what did I win?

• Transformers DVD [HD] - 2 disc set
• Toshiba HD DVD Player
• WireLogic Cables (similar to this)
• Vizio 42" Widescreen TV

Can you believe it?

Another season of soccer has ended, and Noah and I are already missing Monday/Wednesday night practices. Since I wasn't going to be able to attend the final game (I was presenting at the Community Server Developer's Conference), we managed to have our season-ending pizza party a week early. Each of the boys got a trophy, cake, and a goody bag (in addition to pizza and drink). We also took a team photo (below).

To my surprise (and delight), I was offered the team banner at our last practice. After the final game, the team mother gave it to Noah and now we just need to figure out where to put it. I think my office has plenty of white walls that need covering. I had a really good time this season and can't wait until next year. Go Blue Thunder!

Of course I may be biased, but our first Community Server Developer's Conference was a huge success! Folks from around the world (at *least* four continents) came out to Texas (on a weekend) to hear more about where we are at and where we are headed. If you missed it, our own Kevin Harder live-blogged the entire event.

I had the opportunity to give two talks at the conference. The first was about Community Server 2008 and how we'll be expanding the platform. During this brief presentation, I also ran thru our new Groups functionality and improved Permissions work. The second talk was about Shared Membership (aka Morpheus). Here I was able to demo how easy it is to bring two separate CS installs under the same membership system. The feedback from both talks was positive and I look forward to hearing from attendees about what can be improved.

The other presenters (Ben, Wyatt, Dan, Scott, Kevin, Nicole, Jason, and Rob) all had great presentations as well. We were able to show off a bit of Graffiti, Enterprise Reporting, Web Services, Chameleon, Extensibility, and had time for lots of questions, tips and tricks. We also discussed our new Partner Program. In addition to the presentations, we had a good time just meeting our customers/partners face-to-face over food, drinks, and games. If you missed it this time, be sure to be on the lookout for our next event as it promises to be even better.

Since we taped all the sessions, you can expect us to post the videos, slides, and demos in the coming weeks. (Just give us some time to get it all together). At that point I'll be sure to post the location of all this great content.

 

So today was my lucky turn to go into the "puffer" at the security checkpoint. For whatever reason...I was selected and got to stand in a phone booth sized enclosure while pounded by six puffs of air. When I asked what is was, the agent told me it would blow air on me releasing any explosives on my person.Hmmm...I *knew* I should have shaved this morning! :)Sent from my iPhone

So Jason tagged Scott and suddenly I need to spill my guts...is that it?

Since I'm the proud owner of an iPhone, I was going to answer that I've got The Princess Bride, a couple episodes of Seinfeld, some audiobooks, some music, pictures of the family, and more, but it appears the real question is targetted at which *websites* I've got bookmarked on my phone. Ahhh...

Here goes:

1. Facebook (http://iphone.facebook.com/) - While I don't use it all that frequently, it's just too perfect to not have at the top of the list.
2. Meebo (http://www.meebo.com/) - In the rare cases that I've left my IM status improperly updated (like a lunch appt), I tend to hop on to correct it. Also if I'm looking for a quick IM with a work buddy...since SMS seems too...whatever...
3. Hahlo (http://hahlo.com/) - My favorite client for twitter updates
4. Google Reader (http://google.com/reader/) - I don't use it too often, but with their recent update, i probably will. Regardless, it's bookmarked.
5. iPhone Sudoku (http://www.iphonesudoku.com/) - I haven't played in a while, but during the initial weeks, I found it to be quite the past-time...okay, just an excuse to the use the phone.
6. Community Server (http://www.communityserver.org/) - I've replied to couple forum posts (I know...we need a better mobile experience) and checked on some of the store reports.

Also, the night the power went out, I tried to blog about it from my iPhone, but I had some kind of issue logging in, otherwise I would have bookmarked this site by now.

So, what do Kevin Harder, Ben Tiedt, James Shaw, Joe Morel, and Kyle Beyer have on their phones? We'll see if they'll tell...

 

Recently, someone pointed me to this video on YouTube and it got me thinking about my gaming history...  

In my early years, I was never a big arcade game player. My parents just didn't believe it was a worthwhile way to spend my time. (Sadly, we had neither an Atari nor an Intellivision, so I didn't get to play those cool Activision titles.) My limited exposure to arcade games was at my weekly bowling league or at pizza parties, after soccer games...but I mostly just watched...since quarters weren't in large supply. Also, the games that were around at that time were most of the "classics": Space Invaders, Asteroids, and a new game called Pac Man.

So while I got to see, and play a bit, my real love and exposure to gaming came when our family got our first computer, an Apple II+. It was primarily for "educational purposes", but after 30 minutes of typing I got 30 minutes of gaming. I played games on a green screen for hours upon end.

Games like:

• TaxMan (a pacman clone)
• Hard Hat Mack (the first game published by Electronic Arts)
• One on One (another EA classic)
• Olympic Decathlon (killer intro graphics, huh?)
• Flight Simulator (the original MSFT version)

Still, with regards to the arcade, things didn't change for me until I walked away with a *full-size* Donkey Kong machine from a raffle at the local bowling alley. (And just so we're clear, Scott/Kevin, I didn't just walk away with it, I was the actual winner.) Sure, it wasn't the newest game by the time I got my hands on it, but it was *huge* and it was *free*! (And it had a cool cigarette burn near one of the buttons.) New friends came out of the woodwork to just come over to the house and play DK in the garage. (If you're wondering if I still have the machine, the answer would be a disappointing "no". I "sold it" to a family friend who was moving out of state...in order to help his kids make new friends...for only $100...boy do I miss it...)

So, fast forward to today, and it should come as no surprise that I absolutely *love* XBOX Live Arcade (XBLA). Not only is my chance to "get back" at mom and dad, but it's also just good clean fun (without utensils). In fact, I didn't even realize how much I liked it until I had to re-download all my purchases to my new Elite system. And the final count ended up at more than 25 games! Not only have I purchased some great oldies (still no DK), but some of the new stuff is pretty original, and *all* of it is amazing compared to the "standards" set in the seventies.

All that said, I'm still looking for my DK fix, but I doubt it's coming anytime soon to the XBOX. I guess this is always an option...yeah...right!

A couple months ago, I "bumped into" an old friend on Facebook. After chatting about our families, where we're at, and what we do, he said something like, "As a designer for Fox Sports, I share the building with another group here that does something similar to you...MySpace." At that point I remember almost replying, "MySpace? Cool! They're planning on using our software for their forums...and then blogs", but held back.

So, as you have probably heard by now (or here, or here), MySpace chose Community Server (Enterprise Edition) as the basis for their recent forums upgrade. (And no, it's not just an out-of-the-box install.) And while we, Telligenti, have known about this for quite some time, we haven't really been free to discuss it much.

So while I'm pretty sure you won't see "Powered by Community Server" in the footer anytime soon , we are super excited about their choice and looking forward to their rollout of blogs on the platform in the future.

While on the topic of Apple gadgets, I had a pretty big scare just last night. Just before dinner I was watching a Seinfeld episode on my iPhone. And so when Linda called, I set it down, assuming all would be well. But after dinner, when we I went back to pick it up (and check email before a movie with the wife), it was *completely unresponsive*.

I tried everything (holding buttons, charging, connecting to my computer)...all to no avail. As the tears began to stream down my face ;) Linda noticed and asked what was wrong. I quickly explained that I was the owner of a new iBrick and no clue what to do. She assured me that it wasn't the end of the world...ummm...yeah it is...but then left me alone to wallow in misery.

After a few more silly attempts at CPR, a light came on...the Internet!!! I hopped onto my laptop, did a couple quick searches and finally landed here.

My iPhone and I have been reunited...and it feels so good...