The other day I heard someone define iTunes as a RIA. I started to correct them because, until then, I had only thought of RIAs as being built with AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, etc; with these new RIA technologies. That comment though, got me to thinking. What does really define a RIA? Is it the technology that is used to build the application or how it leverages the power of the Internet (via SOA, etc.)?

After a bit of consideration, I have to say that an RIA is any application that leverages the power of the Internet to enhance the application. An RIA is not simply an AIR application, a Flex application, an AJAX application, or a Silverlight application. Any application that uses the internet to leverage new user experiences is a RIA.

So, that being said, iTunes is probably one of the best examples of an RIA out there. It changed the game when it came to music applications, adding the ability to subscribe to podcasts, share your library, listen to Internet Radio broadcasts, and the iTunes store itself transformed iTunes into the most ubiquitous and indispensable RIA we've seen yet. All that and it wasn't even built in Flex, AJAX, OpenLazlo, Curl, or Silverlight. It was built in Objective-C.

In the coming months and years as we see RIAs and the influence of SOA proliferate through ordinary desktop applications, we're going to have to take a long hard look at how we, as a community, define a RIA. I think we're heading towards a point where we really do define a RIA as any application, regardless of the development language, that leverages the Internet to deliver new user experiences to the end user. In the end, it would seem, we are all RIA developers.

I updated my bookshelf page the other day.  I added 10 more books which, as an RIA developer and consultant, I find very useful.  Click through and take a look, then buy from Amazon, or your favorite book store.

My Bookshelf

Today, Universal Mind unveils SpatialKey. SpatialKey represents the latest cutting edge Information Visualization, Analysis, and Reporting; all powered by Adobe Flex. The heart of what SpatialKey does is that it enables you to quickly visualize your data over both space and time. Allowing for playback, map comparison, aggregate mapping, and visualization via heat index, SpatialKey lets you see your data as never before.

Compared to other mapping and visualization applications, SpatialKey is lightweight, yet still leverages a powerful set of advanced temporal tools. You can filter data with the histogram/timeline widget and modify your view of the data with the advanced heatmap component, just to highlight a few features. You can render data in to heatmaps, heat grids, and graduated circles with all datasets imported into SpatialKey. Each visualization can help your discern complex patterns and trends from your dataset as never before.

Whether you initially realize it or not, everyone's data has both a spatial and a time component to it. Where are your customers? Where are your suppliers? Where are your assets? When did your transactions occur? Where did the occur? When is delivery expected, When did it actually happen? The combination of any of these questions, plus many more not mentioned, becomes much clearer when visualized through SpatialKey. Time components as general as years and as precise as milliseconds are supported. SpatialKey also has a powerful, built-in geocoder that will automatically geocode addresses (or even just city names). You can also supply your own latitude/longitude pairs, if you have them.

So, who is this for? Well, there are three versions of SpatialKey to fit your needs:

• SpatialKey Personal: SpatialKey Personal provides the ability to import multiple datasets from Excel or a CSV file into the SpatialKey client. This data can be used with several different visualization templates and reports. Where other Internet-based solutions are limited to hundreds of points on a map, SpatialKey Personal uses advanced rendering techniques to visualize thousands of points on a map. Additionally, it provides multiple approaches to visualize your data with heatmaps, grids, and graduated circles. Instead of providing a one size fits all interface we provide specific, unique, visualization templates. Each template has its own capabilities allowing you to view your data in different templates and see it in different ways. One template will allow you to filter your data by date, location, and other parameters, then allow you to drill down into the data. Other templates will allow you to compare with two different maps. Another will allow you to playback the data over time. SpatialKey will continue to improve by adding new templates as we develop new features. There will be no need to import your data again just open it with a new template. With the current technology preview of SpatialKey Personal, users are limited to only viewing our sample data sets. If you are interested in a visualization of your own data, you can upload a sample data set. Also, you can sign up for the beta and be notified when the full release SpatialKey Personal is available with import capabilities as well as an expanded set of visualization templates.
• SpatialKey Enterprise: While the personal solution can provide visualizations and reports for thousands of data points, the enterprise solution can provide real time interaction with millions of data points through a unique architecture and data handling capability developed by Universal Mind. Complex data sets can be collected, analyzed, and navigated through using a number of approaches, including the ability to zoom into and out of geographic areas with automatic data clustering that ensures relavancy at different zoom levels. SpatialKey Enterprise combines the features of the SpatialKey Personal client with a Java based server side architecture that integrates into your existing systems through an SOA/component based architecture. This enables easy integration with a wide variety of data types including structured and unstructured data as well as custom maps exposed through ESRI ArcGIS Server. SpatialKey Enterprise includes a data publisher/importer service that allows SpatialKey to plug into nearly any existing system within your environment. One example of a SpatialKey Enterprise implementation is SpatialKey Law Enforcement.
• SpatialKey Custom Solutions: SpatialKey was created by the Universal Mind consulting team. Universal Mind is a recognized leader in developing Enterprise Class RIA Solutions, Application Frameworks, and Legacy Integration and Optimization Architectures that change the competitive game in the markets into which they are deployed. The Universal Mind consulting team can develop a custom solution based on your specific requirements using the SpatialKey Framework. If you are interested in a custom solution contact us to provide a quote.

SpatialKey has been a big Universal Mind initiative for a while now. My contribution was in the data importer service for SpatialKey Enterprise. It gave me a good chance to architect a very scaleable, flexible J2EE solution. We did some really cool, cutting edge work that I feel we can all hang our hats on and be proud of the job we've done, as a team, in getting this ready for prime-time. Big ups to the whole team who worked on this: Doug McCune, Ben Stucki, Brandon Purcell, Reggie Willbanks, Mike Connor, Zach Johnson, & Tom Link. There are a long list of other people within the Universal Mind Family who have put in blood, sweat, and tears as well and they all deserve a big hand for their role in this great achievement.

Are you really excited to start using SpatialKey? Well, head over to the new SpatialKey site and you can look at some of the sample templates we have up. You can also sign up for the beta and be notified when you can download SpatialKey Personal for use with your own datasets. Comments are open.

There are less than 50 360|Flex tickets for the Aug. 17th-20th Conference.  It is, by far, the best value for your money.  Go, register now.  You can come see me and all my UM colleagues, plus the best of the best from the Flex community.  Consider it the Top Gun of Flex.

I've been getting a curious response from some of the people I've told about the latest addition to my skill set.  When I tell them that I've taken the dive into Ruby on Rails (RoR), the first question they've asked is "Why would you want to do that?".  Well the answer is quite simple.  Around the middle of the year each year, I make a concerted effort to learn a technology that I'm not familiar with yet.  Last year I got into Spring/Hibernate, Flex was the year before.  This year, I've decided to double my efforts.  This year, I'm committing myself to the dual challenges of learning RoR and Silverlight.

I have long contended that any developer, as long as they have a solid background in a structured language (Java, C++, etc) can easily pick up any other programing language once they get past the rudimentary syntactical differences.  I believe this fact (I learned in C++ back in the day) has allowed me to pick up languages quickly and add to my value as a developer and a consultant.  This foundation has helped me professionally because I have been able to increase my value to my employer, year over year.  It has also helped to keep me sharp as I often find myself switching between 3-4 different languages in a given work day. Without this challenge I'm sure I'd grow complacent and my skills would drop off at some point.

So, am I bragging?  No.  I am challenging you, the complacent developer, to take the time, take the plunge, choose something you don't know but have been wanting to learn and dive into it head on.  It can be Flex, C#, Java, Ruby, PHP, whatever.  Just choose your target and go after it with passion and a desire to make yourself better and make yourself a better developer.