Konductor Software

The latest episode of Duane Nickull’s TV series has gone live, and it contains a very comprehensive feature on Konductor. Check it out…

http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1537v1001

Thanks for coming by to check us out Duane!

In order to show you higher quality videos, we decided to start hosting our videos on motionbox, in addition to YouTube. We also uploaded some new videos that demonstrate some of the features we are working on. Behold…

Image optimization

Image optimization is one of the most requested features we get from both users and designers. In order to upload a large image to a CMS these days, users are expected to resize the images themselves. This takes time, and if they are not tech savvy, it takes training too. In most cases, though, the image tends to get uploaded as is. The image just gets scaled, not resized - this takes the user a long time to upload, and visitors end up downloading huge image too. So here is what we have done:

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee99d9bc1519e664

Form Builder

Another highly requested feature is an easy way to build and manage forms. This is often more complicated than it seems on the surface, as database storage, result aggregation, email responses and the like all have be managed too. This one is still a bit of a work in progress, but here is what we have so far:

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee99d9bc1b17e664

More videos are on the way! Plus if you missed our initial platform demonstation a couple of months back, you can check it out here (a lot has changed since then though): http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee99d9bc151ce364

Last year, Konductor (then known as “Project Argebam”) went to the Adobe MAX show in Chicago. This year we are sponsors! We are extremely excited to be part of the amazing event that Adobe puts on and believe that this is the perfect place to reveal to the design and development community what we have been working on for the past 2 years. We are also sponsoring an invite only after hours rock show with Adobe Evangelist Duane Nickull’s band, 22nd Century, to perform. If you are going to MAX (who isn’t?), drop us a line for some free  tickets. See you in San Fran!

Due to the overwhelming response to the pre-release program, over 500 in 7 days, we have decided to keep the doors open to 500 more. We will be breaking up the users into groups of 50 to 100 over the next few days, with first group of users being sent the AIR application as early as next week. Thanks to all for the amazing response!

The wait is over - kind of. Well at least we have an orderly line forming now.

As of yesterday, Oct 5th, Konductor announced that it is now giving away 500 pre-release seats for FREE to the Web professional community. Within 8 hours we had 109 sign-ups from Designers and Developers all over the world! The Adobe Dreamweaver Extension to allow Designers to easily work with Konductor from right inside DW is coming soon.

If you are interested in test driving the future of content management sign up at the top right of this page now!

This is the name of Duane’s most recent post. I figured this might be about investigating buildings, but it’s actually way more interesting - the process of software architecture in the real world. He nicely compares the idealistic method of architecting software versus what actually happens in the world, and uses some great examples to illustrate this.

Duane is also co-authoring a book on Web 2.0 Patterns. The fact that a group of very smart authors are putting together some guidelines on designing Web 2.0 applications based on years of real world experience should be of interest to pretty much anyone managing a Web 2.0 project, and anyone involved in developing one.

January 2009 people!

Designers have several options for content management, yet few of them encourage a seamless and efficient workflow. Adobe’s Contribute is often used requiring a time consuming server setup process for the designer, lacks both database integration and menu management , and comes with a learning curve. Both open-source and proprietary CMS’s exist - but are often difficult to setup for an average user and even harder to skin, learn and maintain. Customization often requires a custom development solution with a hefty price tag. Finally, a user can go the self-sufficient route- avoiding a CMS altogether by training the client in basic HTML.

What is a solution for content management?

Konductor.

Konductor is a new content management platform that combines an extendable service with a Dreamweaver plug-in and an AIR based content editor that creates a seamless workflow from site designer to content owner. The designers workflow remains intact and uninterrupted - Dreamweaver can still be the tool of choice for creating the website and its templates.

The model for content management is SaaS - Software as a Service. For the average user this means there is no complicated server side set up or maintenance. Third party developers can easily add functionality as the Konductor service includes a REST API.

Clients can manage their content using the Konductor desktop AIR application. The application allows for wysiwyg editing, real time image optimization, and offline content editing. Clients can now do the work of content management without the learning curve with an easy to use, dedicated desktop application.