Video Collection

Just an update at the 6 more months mark. Things are going slower than I hoped, but the site is growing in google PR ranks.



Virtual Robot Plays Online!


I am putting up a new project every month minimum.

This Will be a Year To Remember

We have a new president, so far he seems OK, but he's only been in office for 8 days. The site is running now and doing well as far as reliability is concerned. We are beginning to get a smattering of traffic, and our videos are getting some traction now. We have reached the moment of slow growth while we work out the financial deals and partnerships. Else, this site is going to end up a glorified blog...

Our goal for this year is to go "Public" and to be able to have our creators start to generate some income through partnerships or whatever. Considering the state of the economy, a good how-to website should do well, especially if the projects are fun, cheap and easy. And for the most part, that's what we'll be doing, building up the site projects and getting our accounting software melded into the framework.

Here we come 2009!!!

It Isn't Beta, But it is Open

True, we didn't hit the goal of Beta Release by Thanksgiving,

but it is a Public Alpha. No, I didn't get a design like I hoped, but we are ready. The site itself works just fine. You still need your own YouTube and/or google account and Picasaweb for images, but that is not much of an impediment. As yet, you cannot edit your parts list, only delete and replace. But I believe those are the only two bugs.

Before I call it Beta,

I need to hookup the whole "connect to CwhatIcanDoProjects on YouTube, googleVids, and picasa", so users take advantage of You Tube positioning as a group. And you need to be able to edit the Parts List AND the e-commerce piece needs to be hooked in.

But, there is plenty to do while in Alpha.
Tell a select group of known hackers, modders, and roboteers about the site and solicit their input.

Make our first deals with distributors, we have a "partial" deal with SparkFun to allow me to populate some projects, but there is only permissions for using SparkFun IP, we can't do a distributorship with them (yet). I'm certain I want at least one SparkFun like company, a small 'specialty' online distributor and my sights are on something like electronic goldmine or equivalent, and I really would like to get one of the bigs like Jameco.

SparkFun offers PC board production as well as 3-D modeling, done by batching, on the cheap. Perfect for creators with brilliant ideas to make into products. It's hard to find an equivalent to SparkFun, so I'll just hang with them for a while even though there is no current financial relationship. It's just one of those things with timing not quite right for SparkFun's business plans. We appreciate their contribution to the site. It will work out. Of this I am certain.

And, most important of all, I will take this time to focus on soliciting directly the best possible already published creators from around the internet. Look for a lot of kits of parts, and a chance to split commisions, if I am successful in this part of the effort. These folks can benefit the most directly right now, so they are logical pioneers for the site.

No. I can't yet call it Beta, but It's open for limited business, and subject to basic redesigns, but ready for those who are already on the leading edge.

CwhatIcanDo

Open For Public Alpha Testing

Open for Public Viewing (and participation) go to C What I Can Do now and you are permitted to operate the site and to freely come and go.

This is the time, before official Beta release - Where the design is likely the only major thing that will change - I hope.

From TrakBot: Build Your Own Track Drive Robot

Now is pretty much your last chance to get involved with CwhatIcanDo and become a contributor to the site's purpose and functions. You may just take a look around at the framework and some of the great projects. If it seems like mostly robot projects, that's because it is right now... Lot's of robot projects and a few little scraps here and there of placeholder projects.

I hope you enjoy your interaction with CwhatIcanDo.com!!
(No. I mean I REALLY hope you enjoy it!)

PS: Read the bug list in the previous post for outstanding bugs and the easy workaround.

Sneak a Peek!!!

Site Goes to Full Alpha

From TrakBot: Build Your Own Track Drive Robot

It is outrageous I know... I am offering a sneak preview of the new C What I Can Do website... That is correct earthlings, we are coming out of friends and family testing and I'm ready (though still in Alpha Testing) to open the site to more people. This is a chance to become a contributor on a brand spanking new website.

I'm taking the Site From Friends and Family only to a more generic level of Alpha Testing. There are still some bugs. I'll list the known bugs so if you decide to play around, you won't break anything or get frustrated. Remember, it's an Alpha WQebsite. It's not guaranteed to be bug-free. But the Alpha Testers, like you, get a chance to play around and make suggestions and help improve the site.

If you decide to give it a spin, remember you can't go through the "front door" yet, but you can go into the side entrance and have a look around.

YES! I wanna see this new website! I may even have a project or two in mind. I want to help you make it work better, so I'm coming in to the Alpha Test Site!!!

------------
Known Bugs

• You will have to have your own YouTube, google Video, or PicasaWeb account for now, we haven't hooked up the interface to CwhatIcanDo's accounts yet.
• You can't edit the parts list, if you mess up you have to delete the whole thing and start over with correct information. Sorry, for the inconvienience.

That's it! You were expecting a long list like Microsoft has when it comes out with finished products?

Andrei and I aren't Microsoft, so we are shooting for the fewest possible bugs by release time. I'm hoping we can open for Beta Testing around Thanksgiving...

So far so good...

Website Update: October

We are still fixing bugs in the friends and family alpha release.  I have a few videos up on CwhatIcanDoProjects on YouTube. This will provide a sneak preview...  Enjoy the videos...

Web release update

We are in process with the alpha testing of Rel A 1.0 CwhatIcanDo website. We have a few who have signed up, but only one or two people are actually uploading a video and instructions. Anyway, I've budgeted two months in this limited alpha test model. I started out by applying to some of my friends and family to jump on and give feedback. I've gotten only a little feedback and about a dozen testers.

On the other hand, I've personally uploaded a couple of projects and will do some more over the next two months. Also, I'll be making our first distributor "deals" with some of the websites which sell robot and robot-related parts.

I'll keep you posted. Things are pretty quiet right now.

Alpha Testing Begins

Wheeee!

And I mean it! This has been the most fun I've had building a website. Now it is open for inspection and positive creative contributions by a horde of Friends and Family, followed by a select group of do it yourselfers of various kinds and flavors.

We already had a couple of web builder/designers take a sneak preview of the site. Their feedback was positive enough to stop me in my tracks. The site is nice. It's the best Andrei and I could crunch together. It's pretty complete, complete with it's own list of bugs which we are using the site to keep track of. At the first of August, the bug list was pretty significant. A few events went on between our various families and it took a while. But I realized one day, the bug list only had two bugs. Neither was a real bug, just a feature that needed to be hooked up...

We did it. And now, and maybe for a couple of months of testing, we are opening the doors for Creators. Some we want to give us design ideas and others a technical checklist, but we also want people to use the tools to create projects. And they are coming too... I can't wait to send the invite email! Gonna Happen!!!

Alpha Release Candidate 1 AlphaRC1

While we ended up a little off the bulls eye, our vector is still aligned and we are moving in the right direction. Our Target Was to be Ready For Alpha Testers by the end of July. It's the beginning of August, still in an acceptable range, true, but while I already am Alpha Testing, it's not quite ready for our Friends and Family Alpha release. I do have a few web developer friends and they are being very helpful, so we really are in Alpha Testing.

I wish I could show it to you, but it has taken four complete functional frameworks to get here, where we're all pretty happy with our choices. Of course integrating it all together for the Release Candidate and our friends and family surfing around in there, they can forgive the color scheme, but the navigation has to work. It drives me crazy when navigation spins me around. So in a little while now, we will go into stealth mode tests. In reality, this blog entry will probably be long lost by the time you run into C What I Can Do, or C what I did... So even as I'm writing it, it is an historical document. Just like from one moment to the next. It can all change...

Here is the state of this project:
1. As mentioned we have a design in place that is A Release Candidate. Target, around the middle of the month.
2. CwhatIdid.com opened it's potential and we are re-thinking of it as more of a Sister Site as much as a part of CwhatIcanDo.com Right now the logo is CwhatIcanDo with a pale version of CwhatIdid behind it. But as some others have been introduced to the concept, I may have discovered another use altogether for CwhatIdid and the potential is high.
3. We have many things to do before the site will be available to web surfers, bullet-proofing everything making sure our agreements with Creators give them the Intellectual Property Protection we promise. Dotting i's and crossing t's, plus the mechanisms for a lot of the features that will put the dazzle into the site that will make it a cool place to hang out with your creator friends you get here.

I'll keep you posted occassionally here. I have a few notes to myself I need to be able to look back on and regain my bearings. Not that I'm floppin' around just busy.

Architecture

CwhatIcanDo.com

This is the root of the website.

From here we branch out into the website pages. We decided on a blog-like interface to create the projects and by actually building several versions of the website. We were working our way to choosing the optimal combination of videos, photos, weblinked pictures with step by step instructions.

This format allowed users to create projects based on ideas. Just hit Create New Project and scratch in your project idea. Now CwhatIcanDo serves as a place for you to create a new project.

If you've already built something, then you might not want to put in the steps of how to build, but rather the elements of the experiments that led you to the actual project. So we wanted flexibility for the creator...

This led us to develop the feeder URL: cWhatIdid.com, a place where finished projects are displayed and the user can dig deeper to see the Steps to Build, or the Experiments that led to the project, whatever someone wants to expose is shown on cWhatIcanDo.com. Say you're a carpenter who installs cabinets, you'll want to put your projects on CwhatIdid.com so you can send perspective clients to see what you did, or how you do a typical installation, or whatever you do that people might want to see your finished products.

So CwhatIcanDo was designed for multiple purposes, but the core of it is a way to show people how to built simple robots, or robotic drives or how to sense IR and use it to add obstacle avoidance to any robot project. The list goes on and on. The architecture of CwhatIcanDo must be able to support a wide range of possible applications. Who knows what the users will do with this website?

Thus the architecture of the website(s) functionally looks something like this:

CwhatIcanDo.com Collects and formats the steps or elements or chapters of a project, be it a story, an experiment, or even a robot.

CwhatIdid.com AND CwhatIcanDo.com Peruse Complete Projects (and steps)

SEO optimizing server optomize.CwhatIcanDo.com Controls optimization of website on Search Engines.

Create and Edit Your Projects create.CwhatIcanDo.com A super-blog, if you will. Allows the creator to control all the aspects of what is displayed for a project. And that includes all the monetizing potential.

Essentially then, we would build two websites both using web2.0 technology.

One site will focus on speed. Promptly loading and allowing quick perusal of the project and the video showing the project in action in the real world.

A second website where the concentration of the technology is on ease of use and tools to create. It would load slower and not show up in too many search engines, but it would make the best and easiest to use Creator Tools on the web today.

We divided up our work. Andrei would be responsible for building the tools and I would be responsible to build the optimized for speed part. At first I was in a learning curve, but with Andrei's help I got my arms around the encompassing technology and together we created the architecture for the site.

At some point we would merge the two together and call it our Alpha Release. We are on schedule for having the Alpha Site completed by the end of this month - give or take... OK, probably actually it will be a little later, but our goal is to launch the site as Beta by fall of this year.

Then we will be about the business side of the site, establishing vendor status with any of the Alpha Tester's projects that need it. And ready to establish a commissioned sale when you get to your project's parts list.

• Who knows what it will look like when we open for business in the fall, we will have built and tested the site technically, but expect a lot of feedback and refinements during Alpha Testing, so it's a little hard to predict, but soon Everyone will be able to C What YOU Can Do...