Well it’s finally here! The velvet ropes are coming down! The long awaited first official release of Spinscape is here!

As of July 1st, you will no longer need an invite to get into Spinscape. We appreciate the patience of everyone in the Spinscape trial community while we sorted out the features that were most important to our customers. If you’ve been one of our private beta testers, you no doubt have seen quite the evolution…

At this point, maybe a little journey down memory lane would be appropriate…

We started with little more than an idea….

…but we came in with the committment that we were going to use Scrum and agile software development to continue evolving Spinscape.

So we started with some rough prototypes…

And we quickly learned what worked and what didn’t work.

It turns out it is difficult to make sense of information when it looks all tangled!

So then we decided to go with more of a radial approach. Which made info much easier to see.

Issue here is that when maps get big, or there is a lot of text in the nodes, everything gets thrown out of whack!

We went away from the circle nodes. This was some of our early Zoom prototype work…

Now we started working on making the nodes prettier…

From here we made a giant leap and made everything look good. We used the accordion on the right to house information. It was an improvement, but we really wanted to treat nodes as more abstract containers and the accordion wasn’t going to let us do that.

Now we mocked up the container idea where you basically zoom into the information. Here was my super crude depiction of the inside of a node. Warning: For the squeamish, you may want to look away…you are about to see the early innards of a node.

Note there is the beginning of the dock over on the right. Sure it ain’t pretty yet, but we were evolving!

Now the elite members of our closed beta should be familiar with the image below. It was what we were calling the Cartman release. (long story…actually, not long just boring. )

There were some really good nuggets in here! I was going to insert an image from a map I created, but our dear friend Aliza Sherman from www.webworkerdaily.com made this killer map so I thought I would paste it in here.

We couldn’t leave it there, after all, Spinscape is always Evolving! So, this brings us to where we are now. Another stop in the evolutionary ladder of an application that set out to make life easier for the masses. Behold…Spinscape has arrived!

Again much thanks to those brave souls that have been helping us test this bugger, and for those of you that have offered insights as to how you are using Spinscape, we are eternally grateful! Please continue to participate in the Spinscape community. We have a lot of ideas for the future and we will be bringing them to you one month at a time!

We want this game to be as easy as possible for you to get in on and enjoy. So, here are the oh-so-simple step-by-steps to getting your Invite Code of the Day from spinblackbelt on Twitter.

1. First, to Twitter we go, to get a clue and guess the code. Go to www.twitter.com.
1. Log on. If you are new to Twitter, create a user :
1. Click on Get Started – Join!
2. Enter a User name, Password, and E-mail address
3. Enter the security words and click “I agree. Create my account.”
4. Voila! You have entered the world of Twitter
2. Search for and follow spinblackbelt
1. At the top of the page you’ll see a search field
2. Type, or copy and paste: spinblackbelt
3. Click Search
4. You will see an awesome picture of spinblackbelt himself on the left. Go ahead and click it.
5. It’s obvious you’ve come to the right place, so click the Follow button located right under the little guy himself. (Sorry, spinblackbelt—no offense.)
3. CONGRATULATE YOURSELF! You are ready to get a clue…and figure out the invite code of the day
4. Read the current clue and guess the code word. REMEMBER, the invite code is only one word—and is only good for one day.
2. Next, go to Spinscape at www.spinscape.com and enter your guess
1. Guess the code word of the day and enter it in the New User, Invite Code field
2. Click Submit
3. Did you guess right? Well, if you did, you’ll be the proud new user of only the best web application on the planet (not yet open to the public).
4. Did you guess wrong? If you get the “Invalid Invite Code!” message, please try again: see Part 1, Step 4. Can’t guess the code today? Try again tomorrow! Every day from May 5th until we go live, we’ll have a new clue and invite code—your backstage pass to Spinscape.
3. TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!! Have them go to Twitter and help you guess the invite code. Or, if you’re in, have them get their free passes to join you in the collaboration of a lifetime!

While you only have to do this once to register, we think you’re going to have so much fun that you will want to play along every day!

Ah yes, if you missed Web 2.0 Expo and you’re interested in getting an invite you’re in luck!

To help ring in Cinco de Mayo properly, we are going to blast out invite codes starting on May 5th every day until we go live…only the invite code won’t be explicit. You will have to decipher a series of clues…each one more fiendish than the previous one. To get in on the fun, check out twitter and follow spinblackbelt. He will surely show you the way.

Hint. Each invite code will only be one word.

Good luck…and…we’re all counting on you.

Soooooo, as we get ready for the grand revealing of Spinscape chock full of its new GUI goodness (notice I didn’t say launch), a few things come to mind.

Scrum has really been a beautiful ally in the development of this product. I hate to personify something so inanimate as a software development methodology, but I can’t help it. The idea from the beginning was to create Spinscape so that it could evolve organically from the development side (read as architecture) based on the needs and desires of our customers. The question was how to accomplish this approach from a development, project management, and business side. The answer (I bet you already guessed it) was Scrum.

Now I have used Scrum a bunch in the past with awesome results. In fact, I think I have to be one of the only people (if not the only one) ever to use Scrum in a US Army development project. The point is, things change, so as Kent Beck says EMBRACE IT! (Sorry to mix methodologies here, I just like Kent and don’t get to write his name enough.)
We are so stoked about the Scrum/Spinscape nuptials that we have created a template and a plugin that will be introduced in an upcoming sprint that helps Scrum teams do their Scrumming!
The concept of “Evolving Beta” is a concept we are embracing completely and Scrum is the vehicle that helps us get there. In fact, knowing that an application will constantly be upgraded and improved is a very exciting sales point to me.
Damsel in distress: “You mean I don’t have to upgrade my application?”

Spinscape: “Why of course not madam! This is a web application that always has the latest features and bugfixes already installed. Let me untie you from the railroad tracks before the upgrade train runs you over!”
Damsel no longer in distress: “You mean, as new features are developed, I get them right away?”.
Spinscape: “Yes maam.”
(Cheesy? Possibly, but the visual made me laugh! It was a great excuse to ask the art team to create an image to go along with the blog too!)

For those of you scoring at home…Spinscape is currently only available with an invite. If you are attending the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco later this month, you will receive an invite code that will let you in to peruse a swanky new app. If you won’t be attending, fear not, you will get to indulge in the sweetness that is Spinscape a couple weeks later. Stay tuned for more info on when/where/who/how/yadda yadda Spinscape will be open to everyone.
I’ll give you a hint, the first iteration will have a 30 day free trial.
Ok, so I know the title of this is Scrum, Evolving Beta, and Creative Quips…so, I know I hit the first two, I’m just going to have to owe you on the Creative Quips! More info soon, the “I’m not going to call it a launch” is coming in a few days! Stay tuned!

Our developers are scurrying about like Santa’s Elves the day before Christmas Eve. What are they doing you ask? Well I’ll tell ya.

They are coding their little fingers off to put some very cool new features into Spinscape. We have applied for several new patents that will rear their heads at the Web 2.0 Expo show in April.

One of the exciting things we are doing is creating an open API/specification so that Spinheads (sound too much like pinheads?) can write their own auto-discovery plugins. Yes, that’s the plan, let us do the heavy lifting on the visualization and collaboration side and you can write a little code and reap the rewards of our sweat and snack abuse. Not a bad deal huh?

This is the part where we need your help! While our elves…er…developers are working on the API/spec, it sure would be nifty to have some people that are interested in writing plugins actually use the API besides us.

It would be very cool to get some perspective from other people on the types of plugins they think will solve real problems. In return, you will get the API/spec first to write/sell your own stuff.

So, if you are interested, email us at api@spinscape.com with the the following text in the subject line: Hook me up with the API yo!

We’ll take it from there and add you to a very special new list of API developers.

I think I hear the elves staging a revolt for more Mountain Dew. Better go get the tear gas and tazer ready.

Thanks to all our ravenous fans, our marketing site was severely crippled today by a ton of hits!

Never fear, we’ve added more servers to make sure this doesn’t happen again! (I hope it happens again!)

So thanks for showing the love, and please continue sending the awesome supportive emails!

Yes, you read it right! The hype is true! Spinscape has entered its closed beta phase for all the attendees at Vizthink 2008!

The conference has been great so far! We’ve met some amazing visual thinkers who have taken the Spinscape plunge and are using the app for productivity, fun, and of course their own creative antics.

The etch-a-sketch contest has been a complete success. Stay tuned for pictures of the entries.

Just to give you an idea of some of the grooviness that took place, here are a few pics. Caveat…we’re not photographers! Be kind!

Attendees of Vizthink will receive an invite to get in to the closed beta of Spinscape. Don’t forget to stop by the Spinscape (BossDev) booth for more info!

This is what the suits say about Spinscape:

Spinscape is a collaboration tool that introduces a completely new way of gathering and managing information. This tool provides a compelling solution to the problem of finding, visualizing, organizing, and sharing information by enabling individuals to collaborate and navigate over the web.

With an easy-to-use interface, users have the ability to auto-discover information from multiple digital sources, create meaningful relationships between nodes of information, and then securely share and collaborate over those nodes with selected users.

Us common folk think its cool…

For more information, visit us at Vizthink ‘08. It is being held January 27-29th in San Francisco, CA. Check out www.vizthink.com

Since Al Gore invented the Internet years ago, several fads have emerged. Maybe fad is too strong of a word. Let me rephrase, let’s call them movements. Hmm…now it sounds a little to much like something you do in the morning after your cup of joe, your newspaper at your side.

Let’s just point out some examples and we can name it later.

A little history first…as I remember it. Caveat: I have trouble remembering yesterday sometimes, so the accuracy of my timeline here may be suspect. Regardless, all the following did happen. Just not necessarily in this exact order.

So, the Internet gets kicked off with predominantly text based sites. Colors, images, and animated gifs made for what was considered a rich user experience back then.

Businesses set up static sites to advertise there company. At this point, businesses use the site as a static billboard. Simply listing the services or products they offer. If someone wants to purchase a product, they have to call and place orders over the phone, fax, or through a mail or delivery service.

There are news sites too, but everything at this point is pretty boring.

Search engines become very important. After all, there is some real content being developed. At this point, people are really starting to think about searching content although for the most part there isn’t a standard way to go about finding content. The first two search engines I felt loyalty to were webcrawler.com and excite.com.

Then things started to get a bit interesting. Dynamic CGI pages with database interaction gave people a way to use sites for more than just a personal homepage. Perl was my CGI language of choice back then.

Java adds to the wow factor of what can be done on a web site. Eventually people even learned how to use Java for something other than a scrolling ticker across their page.

E-commerce gradually gets introduced and businesses figure out that they can actually make some money by setting up an online storefront. This is good news for women everywhere…aw relax, I’m just kidding. A host of companies are bourne out of the E-commerce wave.

Portals start to be used…Yahoo defines the portal game and becomes the gold standard…for a while.

At this point the Internet is really starting to take off…(by the way, I’m starting to realize that I’m not writing a book on the history of the Internet, so I’m going to try to get to the point a bit quicker…)

Dot com hilarity ensues…

Enter a smattering of technologies in no particular order…

• Java
• PHP
• Javascript
• DHTML
• XML
• Ajax
• PHP
• Ruby
• Flex
• Flash
• etc.

Sometime in the middle of all this we were introduced to web-based email clients such as hotmail. Of course when the grand daddy of them all Gmail came on the scene, they one upped the other email venders by offering a ton more storage space.

So, to review…we had static content, then images, animated gifs that said the site was under construction, then the dynamic stuff hit, we started buying online, and then emailing via web browser.

Sites like…

• Google
• Amazon
• Yahoo
• Hotmail
• Ebay
• Slashdot
• Craigslist
• etc.

Then things start getting a bit more interactive with…

• YouTube
• Wikipedia
• flickr
• MySpace
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• blogger
• etc.

People start to realize that they too can have a voice…even though most people don’t care to listen to it (or more likely read it).

The next best thing to talking to George Glass your imaginary friend is to start blogging. Content grows and grows. In some cases, people learn to write intelligently about activities that are going on in their country such as war or strife. Others use their experience to write about technology. Some just write about whatever fancies them at the moment. Again content grows.

Because talking on cell phones to keep in touch isn’t enough, social networks led by MySpace.com hit the streets. Kids all over who I’m guessing are barely passing in grade school suddenly can customize a MySpace page.

(I guess it would be turning a blind eye to the obvious to leave out that many technological advances in the Internet have been fostered by porn and gaming, but that will be left for another rant.)

We have Web 2.0 now with people talking about Web 3.0, semantic web, and enough buzz words to fill up the rest of my Gmail quota.

So at this point we have tons of static content, we have video, audio, rich clients, news, dictionaries, online encyclopedias, Instant Messaging, and collaboration. We also have many programming languages. We have tools for making web pages, applications, web applications, and browsers to view them. We have information everywhere. In fact there is so much information these days, that people are becoming sedentary from sitting at their computers playing games and looking at cool stuff all day.

The issue is, since there is so much information, often hitting you at once, it is becoming more and more difficult to track the important stuff. Sure, when we want a particular thread of information, it is easy to just look up that bit in Google. A couple turns of the Google crank and out spits your results. But I want more.

I want something that can create, discover, organize, collaborate, and annotate a Body of Knowledge. Interesting? Confusing? In comes Spinscape.