I feel so…plugged in! First impressions – interesting how distinctly alpha it is. For example, the initial profile page is workman-like rather than slick. The background is a rather muddy beige texture. You can upload a banner but it’s non-resizeable and simply sits there on the default page. That’s actually very un-Redmond, though not disconcertingly so. After a decade of uninspired slickness, a few blatantly rough edges are positively welcome. And besides, this
is what we’re here for. Oops, I haven’t installed Silverlight. I’m running a Mac, by the way, so this could be interesting.
Recently, I ranted at length on some unfortunate luminary’s blog about the need to route around high-spec requirements and deploy building blocks that any user can pull together to deliver useful tools and applications. So the philosophy behind Popfly is altogether marvellous – to provide a platform for non-coders to pull together mashups of their own (there must be a parody of a thirty year old Clash song in there somewhere).
The interface provides a list of ‘ingredients’, blocks you can drag and drop into place.
To start pulling things together you need…Ah, API keys.
OK, this is going to need a part two. But the concept is marvelously empowering and I can’t wait to get back to this tomorrow. My utterly empty Popfly page, by the way, is here. But I’m sure I’ll pull together some Heath-Robinson contraption for it soon.
Filed under: Silverlight, Web 2.0, mashups, microsoft, popfly
