[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiakCvGXMZQ&hl=en&fs=1&]

Here’s another OpenTransact demo. Last time, Nubux, a simple reference implementation, was the financial service provider. This time, OsCurrency is the FSP.

Comments

Author: Guillaume Lebleu

Date: 2009-07-27 23:05:53

Great Tom. Was wondering where the translation from “credits” to hours happens? If I remember correctly the OpenTransact spec, you post to a currency-specific URI. Do you have a /hours for OSCurrency?

Author: herestomwiththeweather

Date: 2009-07-28 02:44:24

That's right. Assuming the FSP site only has one kind of asset type, then it can just use /transacts (spec draft) like the demo did. However, in reality, demo.opensourcecurrency.org allows members to create their own currencies so i need to make friendly urls for each currency.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvlPTPUhHGU&hl=en&fs=1&]

There’s been some good discussion on the Agile Banking list which includes simple web payments. This is like what we did on the previous screencast but simpler (mostly because we’re not using oauth).

The use of the callback to confirm the payment can be trouble. The callback could timeout or maybe the merchant is inside a firewall for some reason and can’t be contacted from outside the firewall. In either case, If I’m selling pizzas, I’m not going to make the pizza if I don’t get the callback.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r-1MiN3lY4&hl=en&fs=1&]

OAuth support with the OsCurrency API was first demonstrated in January. Ruby on Rails developers may have noticed that I didn’t use ActiveResource with OAuth. Instead, in both the January screencast and the Twitter OAuth Consumer screencast, we coded in raw JSON. This was a bummer because, as easy as it is to write JSON, it is difficult to test, maintain and support. It would be much better if we could use ActiveResource.

Like the last screencast, this one is a result of a feature request. About 9 months ago to the day, I met Johnny & Eva Barnett at Spiderhouse Coffee through Karen Gifford, a board member of ATEN. Johnny suggested a groups feature be added to oscurrency. This happened one week after Rich and I presented the idea of using insoshi for a currency server at One Web Day Austin and first started checking in code. Multiple improvements made to oscurrency have been a direct result of Johnny Barnett’s help.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOBWhVe68os&hl=en&fs=1]

Life Incorporated via BoingBoing

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R71jjP_0NR4&hl=en&fs=1]

The Columbia Exchange Circle was on TV yesterday…

“The idea of the exchange circle is to connect community members and get people to share the skills and resources that they have in a way that does not rely on the current economy,” said Maggy Rhein, another organizer for the C.E.C.

And members say that taking the program online is the easiest way to connect.

“People can post the request and people can see it instantly,” said Vince Foley, another organizer for the group and the Web site manager.

The previous five screencasts have been experimental. Anyone who knows Ruby on Rails can install the code and, since it is open source, anyone can make improvements to it. We have seen how the application programming interface (API) allowed for an independently developed killer app to be built. However, until today, to my knowledge, none of the new features shown in these “Stupid Currency Tricks” screencasts are actually enabled on real systems. Why? Because real people in real communities have not asked for them!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtIiECRbHqs&hl=en&fs=1]

3/27/09 Update - Twitter announced today a new method that apparently allows one to follow someone in one-click from another website but it is a negligible step forward. It seems to take two clicks and doesn’t return the follower back to where he came from as is done in this screencast with OAuth.

Twitter recently started rolling out OAuth support in a private beta for developers. Previously, as described in the Twitter Development Talk group, there was no way to automate a member of your website to follow your website’s twitter account, for instance. Now, with OAuth, today’s screencast shows that this can be done in a usable manner.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2u8sSqwkqU&hl=en&fs=1]

In the last screencast, requests were posted to Twitter and members were automatically followed when they associated their Twitter ID with their OSCurrency account. In this episode, we see how minimal changes to the code allow us to do the same with Identi.ca instead of Twitter.

Besides all the advantages of being open source, Identi.ca also accepts OpenID. So does OSCurrency (since it is derived from Insoshi). Wouldn’t it be great if microblogging messages could be routed like email messages?

Staying with the same theme as the previous screencasts, this one again shows how you don’t have to navigate back to the portal site to participate.

Sometimes requests are very time sensitive so it’s important to contact others ASAP about a need. This is a perfect application for Twitter or Identi.ca. When someone creates a request, either through the main website or through another site using the OsCurrency API, the request can immediately be sent out to Twitter.