Infinite Possibilities

Christopher Allen and I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Robert Scoble to talk about Infinite Canvas, an iPad app he refers to as “mind-blowing”. Robert Scoble is a blogger, technical evangelist, and the Startup Liaison Officer for Rackspace.

We kicked off the conversation with HyperCard, a hypermedia system created by Bill Atkinson that predated the World Wide Web. It was included on early Apple Macintosh computers and provided programmers and non-programmers alike with tools to build stacks of information, like a deck of cards, and add hyperlinks to connect the information.

Inspired by HyperCard, Infinite Canvas aims to provide people with the program and tools, to create projects that have multiple directions, hyperlink buttons, annotations, and unique ways to organize information, regardless of their level of programming knowledge.

In the interview with Scoble below, we explore the various use cases of Infinite Canvas, including examples in retail and education. The possibilities for Infinite Canvas are wide and varied. One of our most exciting challenges and opportunities with this product is to help focus it’s applicability to a variety of industries. In our Showcase we offer some examples, like a virtual real estate tour of a mansion, a new look at presenting comics, showcasing photographs, an enhanced educational storybook, and more. However we have only begun to scratch the surface of Infinite Canvas’ power to present content in a dynamic and engaging way.

Watch this video and let us know what your ideas are for using Infinite Canvas. We’re all ears

Infinite Canvas 1.1.3 was just released in the Apple App Store!

This version should address many bug fixes associated with iOS 6 and other miscellaneous issues.

There is still one problem with Dropbox Sync we are investigating. If you would like more technical information on the issue, keep reading.

Recently we’ve heard from a lot of people about issues with Dropbox Sync not working properly in Infinite Canvas. After some amount of digging, we’ve tracked the issue — or one of them, at least – down to rate limiting on Dropbox side.

Basically, Dropbox limits the amount of API calls an app may make on a per day basis. This is a good thing, because you don’t want apps to go haywire sending millions of Dropbox requests from your device for no reason. It will use up bandwidth you could probably use for better things (or worse, it may even cost you money if you’re charged for bandwidth usage), it will make your device(s) sluggish due to the misbehavior, and it will ultimately result in Dropbox’s servers getting hammered for no reason, slowing them down, and similar.

In the case of Infinite Canvas, the unusually high amount of API calls is the result of the nature of the app itself. It’s quite media intensive, and syncing is a rather tricky process where a good number of API calls are made to determine which files to up- or download.

We’ve contacted Dropbox and are currently discussing what can be done to avoid the rate limiting, and will hopefully have the issues resolved within a few days. We will post an update as soon as we have more information.

In the meantime when you run into a crash in Infinite Canvas, please let us know the nature of your crash so we can fix it as quickly as possible. Thank you!

As Co-Founder and Content Evangelist I was proud to represent Infinite Canvas at GigaOM’s Mobilize Conference LaunchPad 2012! Check out the video of my presentation below.

GigaOM, a global technology media company, officially announced their LaunchPad winners for the 2012 Mobilize conference happening in San Francisco, California September 20-21, 2012. Entering its fifth year, Mobilize “features the mobile industry’s most innovative business thinkers and technologists”.

Ten up-and-coming startups were selected for their “groundbreaking technologies and business models that represent the future of the mobile industry”. We are so excited to share that Infinite Canvas was one of the ten they selected from hundreds of applicants! This is an incredible opportunity for Infinite Canvas to present our view of the future of mobile technology and discuss our mission to empower content consumers to become content creators. As the GigaOM staff say, “The Mobilize LaunchPad companies are definitely the exceptions. They give us a glimpse into the future of mobile apps and services.”

Our co-founder and content evangelist, Katelyn Lyster, will be presenting on stage to a (hopefully) sold-out audience, and a panel of venture capitalists, journalists and mobile executives.

It is an honor to be in the pool with the other nine startups:

• Dashlane mobile apps enable instant checkouts, registrations and logins across the web without any merchant-side integration, operating on a top-notch security and privacy platform.
• Eyeona reinforces the relationship between retailers and shoppers by enhancing the consumer buying experience through price transparency awareness.
• InTooch is the smartest and most thrilling way to build and maintain social connections.
• myERP Intelligent Business Assistant lets customer run entire businesses, from CRM to accounting, by simply speaking to it naturally.
• OneTok allows developers to add voice controls to mobile apps quickly and easily so consumers can interact with them in a natural, conversational way.
• Phroni, created by Studio Ousia, automatically extracts keywords from texts using a machine-learning algorithm and enables users to tap the keyword to perform an instant search of Google, Wikipedia, Twitter and more.
• Restlet offers APISpark, the first PaaS to create, host, use and manage web APIs from a simple web browser.
• Snappli is a smartphone app that compresses data to deliver a faster and cheaper mobile experience that is secure and reported in real time.
• Thirst leverages proprietary natural language processor technology to search and index millions of tweets in real time to build a new interaction and experience.

Stay tuned for more information and a video that will be posted on our site after the conclusion of the event.

Take a look at our new video called “Navigating Infinite Canvas”! It gives a good preview of what Infinite Canvas is and how it works.

This video was created by Jessa Lewis: Jessa is venturing into the arena of filmmaking and marketing while finishing her MBA at Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Katelyn Lyster, Content Evangelist, Katelyn@InfiniteCanvasApp.com, 510-239-7893

Infinite Canvas Revolutionizes Media Creation On The iPad

Bay Area startup unveils powerful next-generation media toolkit.

Berkeley, California / August 19, 2012 — Both experienced and novice iPad users now have unparalleled resources for conveying a message, building high-impact presentations, and creating branching stories that encourage readers to explore on their own.

This cutting edge iPad application provides an elegantly simple and intuitive space for authoring and delivering media. Readers can swipe through tiles to travel up, down, left, and right through the content at their own pace and as their interests evolve. Infinite Canvas can be used to create storyboards or virtual tours; catalog and display product and service lines; map conferences; or link interrelated visual, audial and written content into a single presentation.

Infinite Canvas lowers the barriers between spectator and and creator. It allows content creators to build tantalizing non-linear multimedia that they can quickly share with others in a way that is unhindered by gatekeepers or service subscriptions.

Infinite Canvas 1.1.0 is available for public download from the Apple App Store at bit.ly/infinitecanvasapp. The Infinite Canvas authoring feature set makes its debut in this version, allowing users to create their own small 12-tile canvases for free. Unlimited tile creation and Dropbox publishing support is available as an in-app upgrade at the low price of $1.99.

Join in the conversation with Infinite Canvas:
twitter.com/InfiniteCanvas
facebook.com/InfiniteCanvas

For more information about Infinite Canvas, please visit www.InfiniteCanvasApp.com

Attention World! The authoring version of Infinite Canvas is NOW AVAILABLE in the App Store!

This version is free to download* and offers some of the best examples of this innovative medium to date in our Showcase Gallery. This gallery will be updated as more of our designers submit canvases. One of our newest submissions is “Albert’s Universe”, a fun and educational story about a young boy learning about the fundamentals of the Universe. The story is just one example of how to re-imagine media on the iPad. As the (optionally narrated) story unfolds, it is accompanied by additional scientific theories that add robust dimensionality to storytelling.  Check out the rest of our Showcase Gallery in Infinite Canvas to see more examples of how a story, presentation, tour, or educational content, can be portrayed using Infinite Canvas.

Want to be an Infinite Canvas designer? We are looking for more canvases! If you, or someone you know, might be interested in displaying your creative works for the world to see, please contact our Content Evangelist at Katelyn@InfiniteCanvasApp.com.

We are so excited about the possibilities of content that can be created using Infinite Canvas and we want to hear what you are passionate about! Whether it’s a storybook you create with multiple endings, a photo tour of a house, a training manual to use at your company, a journal of a recent family vacation, or whatever else, we want to give you the tools to piece it together the way you want.

Upon download, you have the ability to create your own 12-tile Infinite Canvas. Creating more is a cinch with an inexpensive in-app upgrade that will offer unlimited tile creation and Dropbox support!

We look forward to adding even more of your canvases to the Showcase Gallery!

*Free for a limited time in honor of HyperCard’s 25th Anniversary.

Helping to Ignite the Creative Movement

When is a tool more than just a useful piece of hardware or software? What products have become — or empowered people to be — change-makers?

In a recent blog post by Infinite Canvas’ co-founder Christopher Allen, he discusses and elaborates on the larger creative collaboration movement, talking about his own “tools for ignition” — a phrase he uses to describe innovative products that have empowered people and created movements. As Allen’s budding startup Alacrity Software continues to take shape, it is clear one of its first tools of ignition is Infinite Canvas.

In his post, Christopher describes the success of an early ignition experience helping to create open standards, the first of which was MacBinary. Programmers came together to create something new, “enabling them to share information and work together despite being written by different people in different programming languages”. The results of this creative collaboration rippled out into communities everywhere and impacted every Mac owner at that time.

As Christopher continued to participate in open standards efforts over the years, it led to what he would consider his biggest success as a facilitator and co-author of the SSL Standard, the world’s most widely deployed security standard. At the time Christopher chose SSL because he strongly believed security on the internet should not be limited to internet commerce; it should also protect privacy and freedom. Twenty years later during the Arab Spring, it was SSL that helped to ensure freedom of communication between protesters. This tool for ignition helped ignite a regime change.

Today, as we continue to see significant barriers between spectator and creator, we think it is exactly the right time for a disruptive technology like Infinite Canvas to emerge.

Our goal with Infinite Canvas has never been solely to sell a product. Rather than dividing up another piece of the proverbial pie, we want to make a whole new pie — offering tools for ignition to the marketplace. We want to continue to inspire the creative movement and arm people from programmers to painters to grandmothers to techies with the ability to create on the iPad, unrestricted by gatekeepers and unhindered by proprietary file formats. (Our data files are in open xml format and are transparent and modifiable by any text editing software.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Katelyn Lyster, Content Evangelist, Katelyn@InfiniteCanvasApp.com, 510-239-7893

Join Infinite Canvas for an Evening Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Hypercard with Creator Bill Atkinson

Sunday, August 12, 2012, 6:00-8:00 pm at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, California

Bay Area–based Alacrity Software is sponsoring this special event in honor of the upcoming release of HyperCard-inspired iPad app Infinite Canvas.

Berkeley, California / August 10, 2012 —  Before the World Wide Web, HyperCard was the first popular hypermedia system. Creator Bill Atkinson described it as “kind of a construction kit that lets normal people make their own software.” First released in 1987, the program combined a user-modifiable graphic interface with a database for storing information. Users were able to create “stacks” of virtual index cards that they could fill with text, sound, and images. The intuitive interface allowed all sorts of users to become software developers. As Atkinson said, “A lot of people are going to get opened up, enabled, empowered to control their computer. That’s really what we’re trying to do.”

So when Christopher Allen and his team at Alacrity Software set out to develop their newest project, Infinite Canvas, they drew inspiration from Hypercard. The Infinite Canvas app gives iPad users tools to create a wide variety of rich content  — comics, graphic novels, creative portfolios, magazines, photo journals, children’s stories, art gallery tours, travelogues, tutorials, and more. Just like those early Hypercard users, Infinite Canvas creators will be able to build tantalizing non-linear multimedia content that they can easily share with others.

The Infinite Canvas Viewer will be available for public download from the Apple App Store on Friday, August 10, 2012 at bit.ly/infinitecanvasapp. There will be a library of canvases available which can be downloaded for free using the app. Users will be able to create their own canvases in the near future when the Infinite Canvas authoring tool makes its debut.

To help celebrate Infinite Canvas’ heritage and the groundbreaking work done by Bill Atkinson with Hypercard, Alacrity will be sponsoring this Sunday’s Berkeley Cybersalon featuring a special appearance by Atkinson himself. The public is invited to attend this event at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley on Sunday, August 12, 2012, 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Bring your HyperCard stories (and your stacks!)

Alacrity also invites people wherever they might be to share their own stories of how HyperCard inspired them. Join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter at the URLs below and use the hashtag #hypercard25th.

• facebook.com/InfiniteCanvas
• twitter.com/InfiniteCanvas

For more information about Infinite Canvas, please visit www.infinitecanvasapp.com.

The Infinite Canvas team headed off on the plane to Austin this morning for an exciting week at South By Southwest. Hope to see you there!