From the Editor

AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo Kicks Off in New York City

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EDT

In the tight economy, front-end engineers and front-end engineering can play a conspicuous role: good user experience, as the iPhone spectacularly demonstrates, means good business. At the 7th International AJAX World RIA Conference & Expo which opened Monday in New York, the speaker lineup is as usual dripping with real-world expertise. So here we bring you an A-Z of Front-End & RIA Engineering in the form of the sessions we're serving up today and tomorrow.

AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo 2009 West: Call for Papers

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:30:00 EDT

The conference theme of the 8th International AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo, to be held September 22–23, 2009 in San Francisco, CA, is 'Good User Experiences Are Good Business.' The Call for Papers, which is now open, welcomes submissions from exceptional speakers with high-quality use cases of investing in user experience (UX) design to provide strong return on investment (ROI). Case studies from companies that have chosen to invest in UX and UI, with measurable benefits, are especially encouraged.

Social Media Terrorists

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:00:00 EDT

"Mass psychology" scientists study this kind of phenomena and the "mass psychology of fascism" is of course the most famous lab case. The extraordinary experience SYS-CON Media lived through became part of a Forbes Magazine investigative cover story called "Attack of the Blogs" that found that "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo." The lies, libel and invective we are living through today is another such episode. Our partners, readers and the industry in general know the facts and what's going on but in a rare example like the email below, we can't be sure if everyone is on the same page as the rest of us.

The Future of the Web: I Disagree

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Tim Bray, a Distinguished Engineer and Director of Web Technologies at Sun Microsystems has been interviewed by InfoQ about the future of the Web. With all my respect to Sun’s engineers, I have to disagree with some of the statements Mr. Bray made.

Moving Beyond AJAX: 2008 Is the Decision Year For RIAs

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:30:00 EST

Is AJAX fit to serve as spear carrier for next-generation Web technology? That question, asked by the San Diego Business Journal in March 2007, was answered by the sheer scale of the last two AJAXWorld Conference & Expos, in March (New York) and September (Santa Clara). The undisputed answer is 'Yes!' So many companies have jumped aboard the AJAX train that when we wanted to do an informal survey the other day on upcoming Web and Internet technology trends, I was able to quickly compile a list of 800 different companies that are leaving the station.

AJAX Hasn't Just Taken Off, It's Gone Into Orbit

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:00:00 EDT

Pablo Picasso was on to something when he declared that computers are useless 'because they can only give you answers.' Conferences, on the other hand, can also give you questions.

'The AJAX Moment' Mushrooms into the Web 2.0 Movement

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:30:00 EST

Early in 2006, before the general Internet-using public was aware of what I began referring to in editorials, blog entries, and SYS-CON's Internet TV Webcasts as 'The AJAX Moment,' there was a strong sense among industry insiders that AJAX-like approaches, if not actually AJAX itself, were a shoo-in as the new paradigm for the development of Web 2.0 and the fulfillment of the software development community's long-held dream of complete freedom from operating system or runtime environment dependent technologies.