Spotlight

Technology:

Flashbase Forms

Five years ago, if you could create a Web form capable of taking input from a user and storing it into a database to be searched and displayed in a browser window, you were clearly an Übergeek. Then came the flood of middleware (Tango, Lasso, ColdFusion, Drumbeat, etc.), that lowered the required skill level quite a bit. Now comes Flashbase Forms, an online tool that makes this once arcane task so easy, that it should be called "3D: Dynamic Database for Dummies". What's most amazing is that this simplicity does not come at the expense of so called "power", i.e. the range of features available to the user. Sure, those of us developing database applications for e-commerce sites or corporate intranets better stick with more sophisticated tools, but I'm sure that for most of us Flashbase Forms may be more than enough. Especially, if we don't have big bucks required to run a ColdFusion or similar environment.

It is yet another example of the exploding ASP (Application Service Provider) trend, which means that there are no hardware and sotware costs for the user, only a subscription fee. This, of course, may be quite an obstacle in situations, where the privacy of data or long-term perspective are important issues. Other than that, it is one of the best tools the Web has to offer. Oh, and it's free. A quick, painless registration gives your browser (4th generation or better) access to a number of useful templates that you can modify to create online forms for your own needs. If you don't find a suitable template, you can start from scratch, building your form one field at a time. For that, you get quite a choice of field types, from text boxes, to radio buttons, to pull-down menus, to file submission. You can make them hidden or visible, have them validate data, or enter default values.

When you are happy with your form, you make it available to the users. That may mean everybody on the whole wide Web, people who know the generic password, or a number of predefined individuals, identified by their user names and individual passwords. The decision is yours. You may also have the form send you an e-mail message every time new record is entered. The data you collect is stored on the remote servers, but it can be exported as a text file and imported into your local database or spreadsheet. You may also leave it where it is, taking advantage of such built-in features of Flashbase Forms as sorting, searching, custom displays, generating reports and graphs.

Flashbase forms is free, if you don't need more than 500 forms or don't generate more than 1,000 responses per month. Otherwise, you'll have to pay $25 per month - a ridiculously small fee, considering what you're getting in return. For a small increase in this fee you may also get SSL protection for your forms, to protect sensitive data such as Social Security or credit card numbers. Best of all, you may now throw the thick ColdFusion manuals in the recycle bin. :-)

Flashbase Forms (click on a thumbnail):

Form template	Creating a form

For more information please visit the Flashbase Forms site or search the ACT database of Groupwork Tools.

Conference:

9th International World Wide Web Conference

The Web: The Next Generation
Held May 15 - 19, 2000 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
"Leaders from industry, academia, and government will present the latest developments in Web technology, and discuss the issues and challenges facing the Web community as it moves into the 21st Century."
It is horribly expensive, far away (8 long hours inside a plane!), and its Web site is strangely amateurish, but it may well be this year's best conference devoted to the Web in all its facets!
Keynote speakers include: Lawrence Lessig from Harvard Law School, Charles W. Davis from Psion, and Egbert-Jan Sol from Ericsson
Five topical tracks (Hypermedia, W3C, Web & Industry; Web & Society, Culture) will cover: Performance, Security, E-Commerce, Querying, XML, Mobile, Storage, Hypermedia, Measurement, Modeling, Searching, Architecture, Caching, Data Mining, Tools, Online Learning, Accessibility, Collaboration, Legal Issues, Metadata

Initiatives:

Community Information Organizer

Supported by W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Alliance for Community Technology, this School of Information initiative has organized computer skills workshops and helped develop a number of teen projects, listed in a directory on its Web site.

Its stated mission is to: "Explore how underserved communities can use computer technology to help build individual and community capacity, and to foster connections among people. The program specifically focuses on helping teenagers both create and become information resources for their whole community. Though the program emphasizes the role of technology, computer skills are not its goal. The objective is instead for participants to work together to find productive applications of this technology that serve their own communities."

For more information contact the principal investigators: Joan Durrance (durrance@umich.edu) or Paul Resnick (presnick@umich.edu), or the research assistant Kelly Garrett (garrettk@umich.edu).

Online reading:

College Online by Daniel McGinn. Newsweek.com, April 24, 2000

"The Internet's Next Big Thing just might be going to school. Are the new online programs digital diploma mills or the future of education? With a new generation of students logging on, traditional colleges aren't waiting to find out."

[This is a slightly shorter, online version of an article that appears in print in the most recent issue of Newsweek.]

She said, he said:

"Although there may not be many reasons for my refrigerator to talk to your refrigerator, but the possibility will exist." -- Vint Cerf