Project Talk

One of the reasons I've been a part of CRT from the start has been CRT's open source software projects.  While I am now leading the CRT, at my heart I'm still a coder.  That coder inside me made me realize we've been pretty quiet about what is going on with our projects.

This has been a rare year where we haven't started any major new projects.  This is due to a number of factors.  The first factor being the reboot/restaffing of CRT.  The second reason is we've been put on an internal project by our CTO.  This is the first time in CRT's history we're doing something this way, and its been an interesting ride.  However, this doesn't mean we've left our existing projects to wither and die.

Beware, the project updates below sometimes delve into some technical details.

EzRETS, the ODBC driver that connects to RETS servers, released version 2.1 on August 29th.  The big features of that release was official support for Mac OS X, along with the already supported platforms of Windows and Linux.  ezRETS 2.1.1 will be our shortly with fixes for people
trying to build ezRETS on x86_64 based Linux and fixes for people using Lotus Notes as an ODBC client.

LibRETS the RETS abstraction library, will also do a release soon.  It will primary be a minor bugfix release, with some changes to help ezRETS with its x86_64 based Linux fixes.  libRETS continues to be used by more and more developers, with the .NET bindings being the most
actively used.

VieleRETS the php-based bulk downloader, released a beta of its version 1.1.6 on October 13th.  This version brings the much user-requested feature of disk-based logging as well as some user interface performance enhancements.  Assuming no major bug reports come in, 1.1.6-final will be released soon.

All of our other projects haven't had recent releases.  For some of them, this doesn't mean they aren't up to date, there's just been no need to update them, they do what they are supposed to do and no major bugs have been reported.  The Variman RETS Server is among those.  Although, Variman has a planned upgrade for 2008 to bring it up to RETS 1.7 compliance.

For others, our user community was small and our attention drifted to other projects and we no longer consider them active.  However, because we do everything as open source, another developer can pick up one of our non-active projects at any time and run with them.  (Not to
mention, we're always available for questions should the need arise.)

One of the long term goals CRT has always had was to facilitate a community of real estate open source projects, similar to SourceForge, but focused on a single topic.  This year we've taken the first step by hosting a project that is open source, but has been driven by an external entity.

The Web Single Sign-On project is hosted on CRT's code server, but is "benevolently dictated" by Clariety Consulting.  For this project, we host the wiki, code repository, and bug tracker.  Clariety, and any other developers who want to contribute, have worked on the code.  You
can see the result of this partnership at http://code.crt.realtors.org/projects/websso

As we go forward and more real-estate focused open source projects
want to take advantage of our hosting capabilities, we'll be looking
into setting up GForge to make it easier.  (GForge is a project that forked off of SourceForge years ago.)  Once we get gforge set up, we'll slowly migrate the CRT projects there, and hope others take us up on the offer of hosting their project here.  As we move into the next year, watch for some announcement around this.

Keith Garner
kgarner@realtors.org

NAR’s upcoming Las Vegas conference is loaded with innovative tech ideas that make sound business sense.

These days, virtually every business activity—whether it’s marketing, transaction management, or accounting—relies on technology. Unfortunately, there is often a disconnect between a company’s business direction and its IT support staff. This lack of communication sometimes results in business decisions that cause unnecessary IT expense. Or IT staff may make technology decisions that don’t really support the company’s goals. Either divergence creates inefficiencies and causes headaches and frustrations across the company.

At the upcoming REALTORS® Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, the Center for REALTOR® Technology will help you bridge this gap with our 'Tech Intensive'  track of education sessions. CRT’s goal is to help IT staffs who support the brokerage industry get a better understanding of the business aspects of real estate. We also want to expose real estate tech professionals to new high-tech options for business enhancement that they can take back and share with brokerage and association executives.  

The seven sessions will give your IT staff a fresh perspective on the digital real estate industry. Offerings run the gamut from evaluating your online competition to creating a RETS-powered brokerage Web site. We’ll hit the ground running and dive right into the technology that is changing the face of the real estate industry and pushing the Web to new levels. The sessions are probably too technical for all but the most tech-savvy brokers, but we guarantee your IT staff will walk away with a dozen great ideas and the understanding of how to translate those ideas into applications that serve your company’s business objectives. For a list of all the CRT sessions during the annual conference, please visit the CRT Website.

 If you’re part of an IT staff or are considering bringing your IT staff along to Las Vegas, it’s not too late to register online. http://reg.itsmeetings.com/its/0711narlas/choices.aspAnd if you are coming to the Conference and want to find out what other technology events are going on during the week, please e-mail us your contact at info@crt.realtors.org. We look forward to meeting the representatives that work behind the scenes to push technology for our members. 

!! We don’t want to let them know about the event – that will be madness !!

Chris McKeever
cgmckeever@crt.realtors.org

Online networking is expanding beyond social interaction to business contacts

 
Online networking has become a hot commodity over the last few years. Ask any teenager or twenty-something what their most-visited Web site is and the odds are extremely good they’ll say “MySpace”  or “Facebook.”  These social networking sites got their starts by focusing on music and college campus life, respectively. But they’ve grown well beyond their original goals. Today, businesses as well as buddies find these sites useful places to meet and promote to young Internet users.   

Online networking has also given rise to more business-oriented sites such as Linkedin.com. All of the networking sites provide both a way to build your business network and market yourself online. I’ve heard both positive and negative feedback about the value of this type of promotion, but I think it’s hard to make a blanket statement. Like most marketing, what works for some may not work for others.

A variation on the online networking theme is forums.  At a forum, visitors post questions, thoughts, and opinions under specific categories determined by the Web site’s host. Additional comments and questions are then posted in any of the existing categories by other visitors to create what is called a thread.  Some popular real estate forums are ActiveRain, Trulia Voices, and RealTown.

A positive aspect of forums is that they attract a wide range of individuals focusing on a particular topic. So you’re more likely to be talking to someone you might want to get to know and do business with.  The variety of answers and opinions posted can also be a great way to shed light on a topic or raise new questions.

On the downside, forum comments can sometimes be negative, misleading, or even false. Most forums require some form of registration to make posts and have a moderator to uphold rules of the site. However, since people can often post anonymously, you never quite know if you can trust a particular piece of information. Still, it’s important not to monitor a site too strictly. Eliminating slander and swearing is one thing, but since most readers go to forums for open discussion, you’ll soon lose credibility quickly if you make every post that doesn’t agree with your point of view disappear.

Ericka Luba
eluba@realtors.org

Tagging the Web 2.0 way provides an effective way to sort through the mound of information from the Internet

One of the big ideas that has emerged from the rise of Web 2.0 is tagging. All the hot new sites, from del.icio.us to  YouTube use tagging.  Google Apps such as Gmail and Documents also allow for tags (they call them labels). So does Apple's Mail.app, with the help of a plug in called MailTags.  Microsoft’s  Vista and OS X operating systems also allow you to tag files for better searching.  Online you can tag photos, blog posts, or newstories you want to reread. Tagging is everywhere.

The reason tagging is so widely used is because it’s so useful. The tool will help you categorize all the online data that’s flying at you on a daily basis so you can find it again. In its basic form, tagging involves identifying, or tagging, e-mails and other electronic documents with key words. You can then search all your files for the tags you’ve assigned. 

If you’re like me, you have a lot of e-mails and files on your computer. Filing all this stuff in folders works for a little while, but what happens when you have an e-mail that can easily be filed into more than one folder?  Tags allow you to get away from the one file concept entirely. In effect, they allow you file your data in multiple places. Then, you can just search on the tag and quickly find the information you need.  For instance, I have tags on my computer for things like "conferences" and "presentations."  If I want to find all the items on my computer that are related to a presentation I gave at a conference, I can search on those tags.  I use tags so much I rarely look things up through the file system anymore.

On the Web, tags serve much the same function of finding things easily. For example, on YouTube you can search on videos tags to see other videos with similar content to one you found hilarious.  On del.icio.us, you can see what other people have bookmarked under the same tag to located sites with content similar that other users have bookmarked. Let's say I have a del.icio.us bookmark tagged "RETS."  I can search for bookmarks with the same tag to do a very efficient search for other articles on RETS. The added value is that unlike a Google search, these tagged sites were selected as valuable by other viewers.

Tags are a powerful tool for finding the data you need, Make use of them to be more productive on the Internet and off.

Andrew Tillman 
atillman@realtors.org

Online media provides the interactivity to connect you to consumers

Technology has fundamentally changed the way we use audio, video, and print media. In the past, media was essentially a one-way communication tool—created by one person and sent out to be consumed by others. With modern online media technology, however, anyone can create content and publish it at very low cost. Technology also makes it easier for both the author and the consumer to reproduce and modify content. This interactivity makes it possible for the consumer to participate in the creative process rather than being a passive observer of static media.

Blogs, online video services, and social networking Web sites are all examples of interactive online media. Using blogging software, an author can write content and then publish it with a push of a button. Consumers can comment on the content just as rapidly, giving praise, pointing out errors, and offering suggestions. This interconnection makes the consumer a partner in the creative process as well as an audience to the result.

Content creators can also combine different media to add depth to their communications. Author can create videos or audios and easily embed them into text communications. Bloggers can link to other related text content. Adding content from other websites provides more information to the author’s posts and benefits the content originator by increasing traffic to their site and improving  SEO (Search Engine Optimization) through increased links to their site.

For real estate professionals, online media advances offer some real business benefits. Online media makes information distribution fast and inexpensive—ideal for sending out listing data to peers and consumers. Another benefit is immediate feedback from customers. You can communicate directly with current and prospective customers through their online comments and gauge their interests and level of satisfaction with your services or marketing materials through their online comments. Interactive media is also ideal for building the sense of community that helps real estate professionals attract clients and gain referrals.

Bypassing traditional media outlets and providing content directly to the consumers, allows real estate professionals to easily create content for niche markets, and gives consumers a platform to communicate. What are you waiting for?

Ian Smith 
ismith@realtors.org