The second keynote the first morning of Open Web Vancouver was presented by Tim Bray - The Future Face of the Web

The future of web technology, including standards and XML, with reference to the wide range of technologies encompassed in Open Source.

Tim began his talk by asking how many in the crowd were developers, designers, managers, or communicators. He followed up by taking another survey of which frameworks attendees are using for their projects - PHP and .NET seemed to rule the room.

“Contributors to the web” are various people with ranging knowledge of the internet and technologies that make up the most every day of applications. He then went on to describe various languages such as PHP (an example of a PHP application would be WordPress, which is the platform for this website and blog) and then spoke about Rails.

Tim’s feature of Rails was a sheer love-fest, which was really great seeing as how it’s the foundation of E-xact’s Realtime Payment Manager. Two assertions in Rails are DRY (dont repeat yourself) and COC (convention over configuration). He also proclaimed Rails as “a good choice for your next project,” and that reading a Rails book will have a very positive influence on the way you design things for the web. Tim believe that Rails is picking up steam for several reasons including the fact that unit testing hard to avoid, it has incredibly compact code, it’s clean, object-oriented, and well-designed.

Moving on from frameworks, the keynote addressed social media tools like blogs and Twitter are part of the new culture of contribution which is good for business as it encourages the flow of information and communication. Here are Tim’s words of advice:

1. Listen
2. Don’t Lecture
3. Be intense:
4. Be human:
5. Correct yourself
6. Be brief:
7. Update often: With of all your projects for the “short attention span generation” have something new to bring people back and keep them interested in what you have to say. This applies to content AND software, “release early, release often,” and take an agile approach.
8. LINK: Link from your community, corporate website etc. if you put something on your piece of the web and don’t link anywhere else, “then you’re saying you know everything - and you’re wrong and your audience will know this,” suggests Tim. He says make people happy by sending them away ie. you only spend maybe 3 seconds on the Google home page but it’s the page you may visit most in a day.
9. Look good : Have a talented designer

Whether it’s with your website, blog, clients, customers, employees and your team at work, create a conversation. There will be more to come from Open Web Vancouver over the next two days.

Read the other blog posts in this series: First Keynote at Open Web Vancouver…

This morning hundreds of developers, designers and communicators sat in on the opening address and kick off of Open Web Vancouver 2008. Several E-xact developers were present as the core of our business, our Realtime Payment Manager (RPM), is built on open source technology - Ruby on Rails.

Attendees were treated to two keynotes, the first from Zak Greant and the second by Tim Bray.

First Keynote:
Zak Greant - The Age of Literate Machines: A Visionary Look at Open Source

Free Software and Open Source are understood to be reshaping technology. What is less understood is how critical FOSS is to the future of free societies. During this session, we’ll examine the past, present and future of our freedoms, stopping along the way to visit ancient god-kings, hacker heretics, long-dead muftis and our first computers.

Zak took a look at “free” software, that’s “free” as in freedom. He went through a comprehensive history of language technology through the ages how it aided society, science, changed business.

Speech, communications, and technology become fluent for the masses through simple activities - being calculations that need to be solved. Starting as early in our civilizations as rudimentary symbols or stones which were precursors to modern accounting practices.

Zak asserted that “Language is the Great Tool”, in the way that folks use code to create applications and to communicate in all aspects of society. Another point of focus was free speech. Zak reached all the way back to the days of the Stationers Company Monopoly and how it relates and translates to today’s proprietary software companies. Having one group of individuals control production and supply and demand was strangles an industry and progress.

Continuing on through the ages we were given a look at technologies that were expensive to begin with (telegraph, telephone) progressing to revolutionary innovations like the phonograph and the radio. The first era of this history dealt with developing/inventing the language then improving on it. The “vision” is what comes next.

There was a quick show of hands for those that used to use a Commodore 64.

What I got out of Zak’s talk was that everything has a start, an invention and an innovation. It’s what we do with these technologies and how we make them available to the masses that solidifies them in history as another great stepping stone.

Open Web Vancouver is taking place today and tomorrow at the Vancouver Exhibition and Convention Centre, check the upcoming schedule for times and session information.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA- E-xact Transactions Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:EXZ) (www.e-xact.com), a leading provider of advanced payment gateway solutions, is pleased to announce that it has once again achieved full compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).

Being PCI compliant assures that E-xact can offer payment solutions for merchants to manage their transactions online with our Realtime Payment Manager application, RPM.

PCI DSS was developed globally to ensure merchants and service providers adopt best practices to enhance their payment account security. For more information about the PCI DSS visit www.pcisecuritystandards.org.

“It’s encouraging to once again be recognized for our efforts; we’re very committed to our secure solutions along with our application’s non-storing capabilities. It’s because of these valued features that we endeavor to maintain compliance within an industry where data security is paramount,” Peter Fahlman, President.

E-xact Transactions Ltd. is one of the largest Rails-powered financial services developers in the world. RPM handles over 30 million transactions each year from over 7000 users, worth $3 billion. With offices in Vancouver and Beijing E-xact is using Ruby on Rails to power payments everywhere. Watch for E-xact at the upcoming RailsConf in Portland, Oregon.

For more information on E-xact and its product offerings, visit www.e-xact.com.

Peter Fahlman, President

About E-xact Transactions Ltd. (http://e-xact.com)

E-xact is a fully PCI compliant provider of fast and secure online transaction solutions. Since 1998, we have been at the forefront of the emerging world of online exchange, with solid and secure transaction processing systems and superb customer service. E-xact specializes in real-time, secure movement of financial information through IP-based point of sale interfaces, providing quick, easy and affordable transaction solutions for merchants and corporate businesses.

The statements which are not historical facts contained in this release are forward–looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. E-xact Transactions Ltd.’s actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include but are not limited to competition, general economic conditions, currency fluctuations and other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Several E-xact representatives will be attending this year’s Open Web Vancouver, April 14-15 at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Open Web is a movement by organizations and individuals for “open standards, open source, and a web whose major content formats are not controlled by a single vendor” (Brendan Eich)

An Open Web Technology is any technology based on open standards and open source software that is used for web development, including (but not limited to) Linux, MySQL, PHP, Rails, Drupal, jQuery and Firefox.

I hope to report back throughout the day about what our delegates have experienced in terms of sessions and talks, as it should be well worth sharing. Registration is still open for the two-day event that kicks off April 14th @ 9:45am - watch for our liveblogging coverage!

The spring season is a busy one when it comes to conferences and tradeshows. E-xact is proud to get out and about in the various communities its products and services represent and spread the word about our exciting application. This month, Peter Fahlman, Geoff Flamank and Pardeep Farwaha will be in attendance at the Electronic Transaction Association show in Las Vegas:

“From sales reps to CEOs, this event is guaranteed to provide today’s payment professionals with insight into the critical issues shaping the industry and ways to leverage this knowledge to build your business, increase sales, strengthen compliance, and protect customer data.”

“ETA’s Annual Meeting and Expo gives you the networking contacts and access to the latest information to ensure success. You’ll discover exciting products and services, learn about new technology and business practices, and exchange ideas with industry leaders. This premier event is the largest gathering of electronic payments professionals and provides endless opportunities for building new relationships and connecting with experts.”

What: 2008 ETA Annual Meeting & Expo
Where: Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas,
When: April 15-17, 2008

More information can be found on ETA’s website and you can also Registration online