Using Collaborative Media Services with Flash in University Applications

USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS presented by Joseph Labrecque Adobe Education Leader Institute - San Jose, CA July 28, 2010

Joseph Labrecque Flash Platform Developer Multidisciplinary Digital Artist Adobe Higher Education Leader • University of Denver  Senior Multimedia Application Developer  Center for Teaching and Learning • Fractured Vision Media, LLC • An Early Morning Letter, Displaced JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 2

About the University of Denver • The oldest and largest private university in the Rocky Mountain region, the University of Denver attracts thought-leaders who are committed to academic rigor, community engagement and global responsibility. In this active, intellectual environment, you'll discover unbounded opportunities to affect change in our growing global society. • We enroll approximately 11,600 students in our undergraduate and graduate programs. • The Carnegie Foundation classifies DU as a Doctoral/Research University with high research activity. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 3

About the DU Center for Teaching & Learning The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offers a variety of faculty development opportunities including workshops and seminars, grant funding for faculty-initiated projects, and support and development of technological applications that advance teaching and learning goals. Two Units: • Teaching and Learning Support • Grants and Teaching Support • Application and Services Support • Research and Development • Application Development (ColdFusion, Flash, Flex, AIR, Java, PHP) • Technology Advisement and Forecasting JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 4

The Adobe Flash Platform Multiscreen Content and Applications TOOLS FRAMEWORK SERVERS SERVICES CLIENTS FLASH PLATFORM Flash Flash Flex Flash Media Flash Flash Player Professional Catalyst Server Family Platform Services Flash Builder LiveCycle AIR Creative Suite ColdFusion Analytics & Optimization JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 5

Intro to Flash as a Collaborative Platform • Many, many 3 rd party ActionScript 3.0 APIs for connecting to various public services: Twitter, Facebook, et cetera… • Adobe Flash Platform Services: Social and Collaboration • Flash Media Server and Stratus. • Use Flash to interact with University services. • Sometimes services with Flash will involve a proxy layer. • AIR applications do not have this concern. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 6

A Word About Social Connections • Nothing is set in stone – there are no real rules. • A social connection can be very simple or quite complex. • Third party services can change overnight. • Third party services can disappear overnight! • Don’t bet on anything – lots of risk involved. • Should not be core unless you can deal with the fact that your entire system is reliant on someone else’s. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 7

CourseMedia™ • Web-based video clip generator • Per-object narrative recorder • Embed code generator for Blackboard • Integrated media viewer • Installation kiosks • Content can be copyright-protected or public • Content providers can generate embed codes for external, public videos • Media streamed (audio, video) and verified (images) through Flash Media Server • Integrated media viewer with complete teaching and learning toolset JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 8

Internal Example - coursemedia.du.edu Tagging Users help us improve searching by tagging media objects. Tags are words or phrases that will be added to the information available about this object so when someone does a search, this object will appear as a result. Sharing Instructors can suggest an item to others to be used in their teaching. Object Embed Code Instructors can make the entire gallery with full toolset available outside of CourseMedia through a standard embed code. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 9

CourseMedia™ - Tagging JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 10

CourseMedia™ - Sharing JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 11

CourseMedia™ - Object Embed Code JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 12

CourseMedia™ Code Example JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 13

Facebook “Facebook's powerful APIs enable you to create social experiences to drive growth and engagement on your web site.” - http://developers.facebook.com/ Facebook is pretty far-reaching in that you have a number of different points of interaction: • Connect with Websites • Facebook Applications • Mobile Applications JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 14

AS3 Client Library for Facebook Platform API http://code.google.com/p/facebook-actionscript-api/ The ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform API, fully supported by Facebook and Adobe, makes it easy to build applications that combine the strengths of the Flash Platform and Facebook Platform. • Share: Create rich interactions for users to share with friends. • Have fun: Make games social; let users compete against their friends. • Connect: Let users connect to your RIAs with Facebook Connect. • Solve problems: Build RIAs that harness the power of community. • Reach people: Reach millions of Facebook users through social distribution. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 15

Facebook Example - volunteer.du.edu JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 16

Facebook Example - volunteer.du.edu JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 17

Facebook Code Example JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 18

Twitter “Create cool applications that integrate with Twitter” - http://dev.twitter.com/ Twitter provides lots of different options for creating applications, authentication between apps, and consuming Twitter data. • Authentication • REST API • Streaming API • Search API • @Anywhere JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 19

Twitter - Tweetr Tweetr is a simple to use AS3 Twitter API Library. As of 1.0b, the Library supports all current Twitter API features and fully supports Basic Authentication and OAuth. Also included is a simple and easy to install PHP Proxy Class (requires PHP5) that allows the Tweetr API to be used for flash content that is supposed to be deployed on the web. Effectively circumventing the twitter crossdomain restrictions. http://wiki.swfjunkie.com/tweetr JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 20

Twitter – VideoTweet Conference Widget JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 21

Twitter Example - VideoTweet JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 22

Twitter Code Example JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 23

Adobe Social • A simple ActionScript 3 API, which can be implemented in Flash or Flex and aggregates the different social network APIs, including Facebook Connect. • The service adapts to social network changes so you don't need to recompile your application. • Plug-and-play widgets that use the social API for login, share, invite, select friends and other commands. • Dashboard analytics for reviewing and optimizing your social performance. • Commercial use is not free. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 24

Adobe Stratus • Stratus is a beta, hosted rendezvous service that aids establishing communications between Flash Player endpoints. • Unlike Adobe Flash Media Server, Stratus does not support media relay, shared objects, scripting, etc. So by using Stratus, you can only develop applications where Flash Player endpoints are directly communicating with each other. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 25

Tracking and Analytics • Can be achieved through both internal and external services. • Useful for monitoring user activity and individual object usage. • Can be implemented in such a way that user behavior is monitored. • Most internal applications have some sort of tracking mechanism. • Those which do not, can use something like Omniture or Google Analytics to perform tracking and analytics. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 26

Internal Example - coursemedia.du.edu • Track when an object is viewed in any of our tools. • Allows us to know which objects are used frequently and which are not. • Let’s us track which tool is used to view which objects. • Useful to track if objects are no longer being used, if certain tools are no longer used, et cetera. We can use this to investigate “why”. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 27

CourseMedia™ Code Example JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 28

Omniture • Acquired by Adobe late 2009. • Many Adobe CS5 applications have tight Omniture tools integration. • SiteCatalyst Extension for Flash Professional and Flash Builder. • Test&Target Extension for Dreamweaver, and Flash Professional. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 29

Google Analytics - Tracking For Adobe Flash http://code.google.com/p/gaforflash/ This is an ActionScript 3 API for Google Analytics data collection. • analytics_flash.swc – Special visual component for Flash Professional. • analytics.swc – Code library for Flash or Flex. • Tracks page views and custom events. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 30

Google Analytics - Video Event Tracking Custom Events / Custom Data • Play [RTMP URL, Seconds] • Pause [RTMP URL, Seconds] • Scrub [RTMP URL, Seconds] • End [RTMP URL, Seconds] Can be used as a supplement to normal FMS Logs. Won’t interfere with other Google Analytics data such as standard Page Views. Provides a lot more detail. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 31

Google Analytics - Audio Event Tracking Emergent Collective One iWebTunes – Lee Fernandes http://blog.leefernandes.com/ Custom Play Events record how many times a specific track is played by visitors to the website. These events can be sorted by date for accurate reporting. Let individual artists know how their tracks are doing. Forecast interest in potential future endeavors. JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 32

Google Analytics - Page Views vs. Event Tracking Instantiate Tracker Pass in a DisplayObject, Web Property ID, Mode, Debug import com.google.analytics.GATracker; import com.google.analytics.AnalyticsTracker; private var tracker:AnalyticsTracker; private function init():void { tracker = new GATracker(this, "UA-1156XXX-xx", "AS3", false); } Track Page View tracker.trackPageView(“http://somewebsite.com/somepage/"); Track Custom Event tracker.trackEvent(“Category", “Action”, “Label”, “Value”); JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 33

Video Event Tracking - Code Example JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 34

Q &A JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 35

Closing… Blog: http://inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com/ Twitter: @JosephLabrecque Email: Joseph.Labrecque@du.edu Thank you… JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 36

Emergent Collective One – Free Download Download the complete community compilation: http://bit.ly/FVM005 JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 37

Using Collaborative Media Services with Flash in University Applications

by Joseph Labrecque

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