Two elements that immediately set good content apart from the crowd are stunning design and typography. It can get the reader to quickly comprehend the content, build the right perceptions and leave lasting impressions. Glossy catalogs or National Geographic magazines are examples of creative designs in the paper form.

A good WEB page is created by the joint effort of an artist and content author. The content author provides the intent and concept at a high level. The artist uses imagination and creates the best possible layout to express it. Or, the artist provides templates and the author plugs in the content. In the current approach an artist uses desktop tool and creates templates. A WEB developer combines content with the template and makes available as WEB pages. This process can be improved a great deal by WokiDoki application described in the following section, bringing in benefits of better quality, higher efficiency and cost savings.

WokiDoki is a hosted application on the WEB for content design, distribution and collaboration. It empowers artists and authors to work together online for creating quality content quickly. Artists create WEB-ready templates using its online designer. Authors customize these templates online and publish them on WEB or social networking sites. The online designer has all commonly used features of a desktop application. It can also integrate the output of desktop tool. Therefore it can deliver WEB-ready templates without compromising quality. The artist can publish these templates in a public gallery organized by category and searchable by tags. A content author selects a template and customizes it using a simplified version of the online design tool. In simple mode, the design tool is so simple that anyone can use it. WokiDoki further streamlines the workflow of WEB content creation by letting artists and content authors exchange messages and tasks. For example, someone has a need to create a catalog for jewelry. Searching for template itself can be a daunting task; or customization of the template may be needed. In such cases, the artists and content author can interact with each other by sending messages, sharing folders, designs and templates.

As an example, the author publishes a message on the public message board of the application:

“I am looking for 4-5 different templates for a jewelry catalog. We standardize on blue theme. Here is the link to our WEB site for the color scheme. Any suggestions are welcome?”

The artists who are already well versed with their creations can offer their templates through private responses. For example:

“Here are templates that will work great for you. I will be glad to discuss any customization need”.

The new process described above is illustrated in the figure below(Fig 1)

Fig 1: New Process- Online Design, Customization and Collaboration

Recapping the discussion in the preceding paragraphs, the new process streamlines the collaboration among artist and content author. It results in improved quality of content on the WEB which in turn results in engaging user experience. It lowers the cost of content creation. Templates are not only a wonderful way to build quickly and amazing looking content; they can also motivate authors for writing articulate content. Authors with passion for a subject can focus on content for effectively conveying the message across. Artist can focus on creative designs without having to worry about HTML, CSS syntax. Overall, the new approach enabled by WokiDoki offers several benefits over the traditional method.

The subsequent sections discuss the following aspects of WokiDoki with screen shots.

a) Advanced Design Mode for Template Creation

b) Easy Design Mode to Customize a Template

c) Template Gallery

d) Image Gallery

e) Collaboration between Artist and Author

f) Integration with Social Networking Sites

Advanced Design Mode for Template Creation

WokiDoki online designer provides Photoshop, Illustrator or Publisher like free page layout and is WYSIWYG. The templates created using it are directly usable on the WEB (referred as WEB-ready). It assists the user in the complex operations like image editing, cropping, rotating, shading; complementary color scheme computation; object properties such as color gradient, paddings etc. It provides all basic editing features such as drag drop, resize, multi-level undo/ redo, text-font, text-styles, colors etc. For certain kind of content, special fonts are useful. The problem with the use of special fonts is that they are not available to the browser. Therefore, it supports advanced typography by displaying text in image form through server side Fonts. When required, it can integrate with the output of desktop applications.

Fig 2: WokiDoki WYSIWYG Online Designer in Advanced Mode

End User Customization Mode

In end user customization mode, a user quickly flips thru templates. Once the end-user selects a template, she/he changes the content such as text, images in minutes and publishes on WEB. Off course user can always switch to advanced mode to leverage the full power of the online design tool.

Fig 3: Designer in Simple Mode for Template Customization by an Author

Template Gallery

WokiDoki provides a collection of a wide variety of pre-built base templates. These templates can be used by content author to publish content. These can be further customized and re-published as new templates. Fig 4 shows template gallery using fast flipper.

Fig 4: Fast Flipper for Template Browsing

Image Gallery

WokiDoki provides Image Gallery with a rich collection of images arranged categorically into folders based on theme, intent, subject, etc. The images are made available by WokiDoki. They can also be made available by other photo stock providers. Other members can also provide images for public use for free or fee. Fig 5 shows screenshot of an Image Gallery. Images are categorized and stored in folders. The interface is as simple as windows explorer interface.

Fig 5:Gallery of Images

Collaboration

On WokiDoki artists, authors can collaborate by sending messages, links to designed pages/ templates, file attachment, sharing folders or assigning tasks. It is provided within the same application therefore easy and convenient to use.

Fig 6:WokiDoki Collaboration Message

Fig 7:WokiDoki Tasks

Fig 8:WokiDoki Files Sharing

Integration with Social Networking Sites

WokiDoki pages or collection of pages (called books) have a URL. User can publish these URLs anywhere on the WEB. WokiDoki will soon provide integration with popular social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook to publish content directly without having to cut and paste the URL.
Conclusion

WokiDoki is an application with Online Design Tool that works like Photoshop or Publisher, a template publishing framework and a collaboration platform. It is integrated with social networking site.

One question we are normally asked, how is WokiDoki different from the Blog, Google Page Creator, Yahoo WEB Hosting or Ning. WokiDoki is used for creating one page or a flip through book of pages that have layout different from the WEB site pages. WokiDoki pages are like a flier, brochure, card, catalog etc. These pages have arbitrary placement of images, text in them; they can be dragged around and placed anywhere. WokiDoki also helps in making pages viral through social networking WEB sites. There are situations where it is useful to create one page than build a WEB site pages and distribute. Examples of such cases are advertising an event, special menu of the day, coupons, special promotion offer, real estate listings and advertisement page of Yellow Pages etc. It is also useful for creating Flip Through Digital Catalog that can be linked to the WEB site.

WokiDoki is an online content creation, publication and collaboration platform integrated with social networking sites. WokiDoki can also be deployed and used by enterprises inside firewalls.

Utilizing the Web to connect people and small businesses, if both are considered to have individual identities, can be quite intimidating. Even with search engines and “go-to” websites, the average person and small business can get overwhelmed. The person could search endlessly for what they’re looking for, the small business could search endlessly for the people they’re trying to advertise and sell to. Many small businesses have resorted to social networking sites, like Twitter and facebook, to advertise and sell. A problem with this is the crucial capital of attention. On Twitter, people are bombarded not only by “tweets” about other interests (politics, hobbies, etc). Basically, the small businesses must compete not only with other online businesses, small businesses, but also other attention grabbing content. On facebook, there is the same problem. The members are caught by all this other content. This can include events, groups, other profiles, etc. From a psychological perspective, it can be quite cumbersome for the small business to wade through the sea of content and sell. Another problem with this is that the people aren’t actively looking to be advertised to on social sites; they are more concerned with what is going on in the world, or what their friends are doing, etc. So the only dynamic segment in this arena is the business. The web is an intimidating place for the searcher and shifting from location to location, makes it more overwhelming.

            So, problems need solutions. First, there should be a “go-to” location for small businesses and people. What this does is ensures that there are no competing factors for attention beyond a certain geographical community. This also ensures that both sides are on the same page and have the same mindset. So what if there is a go to site? Does that mean that people will automatically go and do the same laborious task of searching? This is what happens on most search engines when only one side is actively searching for something. Sites like Travelocity, PriceGrabbe.com and Shopping.com etc have become “go-to” sites but still require constant searching by only one segment, the people. So, Secondly, there should be a place where both sides are actively searching, and can actively discuss. There should be a place where businesses and people are on the same field, can “friend” each other, and mutually ease the process of searching. What this is basically taking the idea of a social network, but not having the businesses compete with the social lives of people.

Many services such as Yammer, Cubetree etc. leverage micro-blogging to boost the efficiency of the collaborative process within the enterprise. Most of these websites provide a very clean and friendly workspace.
The inherent function of these sites is to use the power of personal updates and commenting to ease the flow of work
Just like Facebook, an employee can join groups, discussion groups, give status updates, and reply to status updates.

But just like Facebook, the employee can get overwhelmed by the information/attachments/updates/groups and there is no clear distinction of an actual hierarchy. For example, if the executive/manager of a project needs some way to “hand out” work, the process of doing so can get very hectic. It can be posted on someone’s profile, a group, etc but the process will depend on the employee looking at his/her profile consistently. With students, this works out because Facebook is a component of socialization and not team-work. A note from one friend to another doesn’t really require immediate responses, but from an executive to employee, time is a factor.

Another problem with this kind of approach, when it runs a framework of an enterprise, is that it can create a “culture” of the profile. That is people might fixate on their own profile and some other profiles. What this does is creates many circles that don’t flow well with the surrounding circles. People will also tend to wait for notifications and become less focused if there is no activity on their profile. What basically happens is that the inbox gets replaced by a cleaner looking “profile”. Other than the advantage of knowing what other employees are doing and a centralized exchange of information, the much needed hierarchical order/organization and real time exchange of info is lacking.


So how can one still leverage the power of micro-blogging in the enterprise arena to actually benefit, rather than fill holes to reveal new ones?

Information must flow in real time and must be ordered. Enterprises have many separate projects, and spilling all those projects on one centralized location creates added disorganization. It is like if there are many round tables; and people are allowed to go to another round table on a whim. Nothing would get done. Same goes for the profile method, people would float around the enterprise and their personal profile. Collaboration gets hindered. The social groups don’t help the problem either. Let’s say, for a project, a group was created. Now, not only does the employees have to deal with their own profile being updated and having a delay. They must also wait for the group. It gets worse if a certain segment and their assets are grouped. What this does is cut off supervision of a group and basically creates consolidated chaos. It is like when cliques occur at a school. The enterprise can suffer the same situation if using the profile and status update method. Yes, micro-blogging can help, but the subtle and more important factor is the real time flow of information and where the “round table” is not distracted by the occurrences of others. So what if the manager could start a project page, and the employees subscribe to that project page, the most important aspect being that the project, not the profile, is highlighted. So when the page loads, the employee’s projects are loaded and information is exchanged based on those projects rather than profile to profile.

I have seen many comments and discussion on i4i patent. The big question in the mind of people is – “Does it make every use of XML for data representation illegal?” I think it does not. If it did it will be earth shattering and qualify for some kind of bail out. The lighter side aside, the patent is about storing metacode (tags) separate from the document. Metacode and metacode-map are terms used in the patent. As an example, you have an invoice represented in XML as follows:

Original Document:

<Invoice>

<company>ACME ABC Inc</company>

<amount>$50.0</amount>

</Invoice>

This is a simple XML format likes of which are used in several programs across the globe. Does “storing the original document as it is” violate patent? My reading is, it does not.

Now, let us say, you break up this in two documents as follows:

Document 1 is for the actual content as a large line (or may have linefeed).

ACME ABC Inc $50.0

Document 2 defines a metacodes map as follows:

It is easy to process document 1 and document 2 together, insert tags at the specified position and construct back the original document. If you are storing the Original Document as Document 1 and Document 2, then you will stepping on the patent’s claim.

The breaking up of the Original Document in Document 1 & 2 may be a kind of optimization. Is it silly to award a patent on this? May be. We all do some kind of optimization during the course of development. The reality is that there are many optimizations which may be called more innovative than i4i’s patent. If we had patented all of them, there will be a patent war.

WokiDoki is an application on the internet through which the end users can interact with multiple businesses on a single page. On the other hand for businesses, it is an application to let them setup own business centers and interact with the customers.

People may not want to provide any information about them when interacting with businesses, especially in the early stages. Therefore we allow users to register using arbitrary screen names of their choice. It is like using a phone without caller ID.

Why WokiDoki?

All of us deal with many businesses. We interact with large businesses by accessing their WEB sites. Whereas the interaction with small businesses is still by phone or email at the best. On the other hand, the main priority for a business is to attract customers, remain connected with them and keep them happy. In this regard, an interactive WEB site (WEB 2.0) helps both parties. But it is not cost effective for each small business to build an interactive WEB site. Even if all of them have built interactive sites, it would be impractical for the end users to manage interactions through different sites.

WokiDoki delivers a business center and people-business collaboration tool in a single application. On WokiDoki, businesses can setup an online center with ad publishing, collaboration and task management functions. People, who are customers, can interact with multiple businesses using a single WEB application.

What is WokiDoki?

We started with a simple goal of enabling work-related-collaboration using task oriented messages. The central idea of WokiDoki is simple. A user sends another user a message which could be a short inquiry, a more detailed message or a request to do some task. They eventually follow the conversation with more messages back and forth. As a part of the message they may create pages, add photos or documents. It is analogous to email except that it is even simpler and tuned to work-related interactions. The interacting users may be friends, project team members or a business and consumer. A user can use the most common functions from a single page. The interaction is also simultaneously organized on different pages in case user needs to look for some past information. Users can start using other pages once they become familiar with the application.

WokiDoki for People

People sign up with WokiDoki using a simple screen name. No email, no phone number or even your name is needed. This gives the user a private page where user can see all interactions with any business. A user can send message to other users they are friend with using their screen names.

Facebook users’ can login using their Facebook accounts. These users automatically have their private pages setup on WokiDoki.

To begin interaction with a business, a user looks up for a business in the directory using “Search a Business” link. A user can get an overview of the business on the search page and click on “Send a Message” link to begin a new interaction. When the business responds, the user sees it on own private page. The user can interact with many businesses, schools, doctor’s office, any other organization or institution from the single page. All messages are nicely listed with choices to hide finished interaction, reply etc.

WokiDoki for a Business User

The term business has a broader meaning in WokiDoki and not limited to registered businesses. A business means an entity or individual providing services to many people. It could be a person advising on natural care, a school, a non-profit organization, a shop in the town or a corporation.

Any entity or person delivering any kind of services can have a presence on the WEB and interact with its customers using WokiDoki. Registering with WokiDoki is real simple. If you are a registered business, it is very likely that your information is there in our directory. You can access it by your phone number on the registration page. Once you register, simply provide few lines of information on a simple form that tells people what you do. If you have a business logo image then you can upload it. Following that, simply choose a template that you like to use for advertising your business on WokiDoki. This gives you your own business center on the WEB.

When a customer sends you messages it will be delivered to your business center. You can respond to the customer’s message and begin interaction. It is as like answering a phone call but now you have WEB presence to interact with the users who are moving towards new ways of doing things.

WokiDoki also provides advanced functions that allow a business to manage its internal work items. For example, an inquiry can be assigned to an employee as a task or work item. A business can also maintain internal document flow using WokiDoki. Each employee of the business can create his/her own account to interact with colleagues.

Example Applications of WokiDoki

WokiDoki is very generic and enable all kinds of interaction. Here are a few examples, how people are using WokiDoki.

A teacher delivers education related services to kids and their families. She signs up as a business user. The parents of kids follow her (interact with her) using WokiDoki. The teacher can control who has permission to interact. This builds a secure message board for them to interact.

A contractor and suppliers register with WokiDoki. The customer, contractor and suppliers can interact with each other, say for a kitchen remodelling project.

A doctor’s office registers with WokiDoki. The patients can send inquiries to set up appointment or remind to call pharmacy to confirm refill orders.

WokiDoki v/s Yellow Pages?

We are always asked one question, is WokiDoki similar to an online Yellow Pages? The answer is “No”. Although we have an inbuilt business directory, we go much beyond finding a business. A business uses the directory to register itself and build its own business center. An end user uses the directory to find a business. Beyond that the application is all about letting them interact and track the information. A business does not have to be in the Yellow Pages directory in order to use WokiDoki. They can create an entry for themselves even if they are not in the Yellow Pages.

Is WokiDoki free?

WokiDoki is free for the end user. The basic services which include listing, one page advertisement of the business and all collaboration functions are free for businesses. Eventually we will provide value added services for the businesses such as lead generation, publishing more marketing material. We will charge for these enhanced services.

Technology behind WokiDoki

WokiDoki is built using J2EE technology and AJAX. We use AJAX extensively. This allows us to deliver a user experience similar to native applications. Our core platform has been tested in few real life applications in last three years. It is robust and quite smooth. The data driven architecture allows us to incorporate new features quickly.