Using Collaborative Media Services with Flash in University Applications
1. USING COLLABORATIVE
MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH
IN UNIVERSITY
APPLICATIONS
presented by
Joseph Labrecque
Adobe Education Leader Institute - San Jose, CA
July 28, 2010
2. 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
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3. 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.
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4. 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
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5. 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
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6. 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.
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7. 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.
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8. 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
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9. 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.
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10. CourseMedia™ - Tagging
JOSEPH LABRECQUE - USING COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SERVICES WITH FLASH IN UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS 10
11. CourseMedia™ - Sharing
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12. CourseMedia™ - Object Embed Code
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14. 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
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15. 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.
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16. Facebook Example - volunteer.du.edu
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17. Facebook Example - volunteer.du.edu
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18. Facebook Code Example
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19. 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
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20. 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
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21. Twitter – VideoTweet Conference Widget
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22. Twitter Example - VideoTweet
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23. Twitter Code Example
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24. 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.
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25. 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.
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26. 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.
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27. 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”.
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29. 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.
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30. 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.
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31. 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.
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32. 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.
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33. 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”);
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34. Video Event Tracking - Code Example
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35. Q &A
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36. Closing…
Blog: http://inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com/
Twitter: @JosephLabrecque
Email: Joseph.Labrecque@du.edu
Thank you…
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37. Emergent Collective One – Free Download
Download the complete community compilation:
http://bit.ly/FVM005
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