A friend and I explored JamJar yesterday and it is a very nice example of the power of flex2.
JamJar is a collaborative online workspace for small groups that allows people to share files, ideas, events and other information. When you load into JamJar you can create a workspace (either from a template or from scratch). To this workspace you can add components such as a slideshow, discussion thread and message box. You can customise the size, colours and transperency of each instance of a component and even add drop shadows and rounded borders.
You can then invite other users to the workspace as either another author, participant or guest. Another author has full control of the workspace and can add and edit components. I don’t know the limitations of the other two. There did not seem to be a lot of lag but we did not really test timing.
You can zoom in and out of the interface and also place viewpoints at key places. This means you could set it up to just click on a viewpoint to drop down to the bottom of a large workspace where there is a collection of files for reference and then click a discussion viewpoint to jump back up to the discussion. This saves you to zooming in and out or scrolling across to relevant information.
All items on the stage are tracked and you can see the item, and when and who by it was last modified.
There are some really nice UI thought processes that you notice and many that you don’t, because nobody ever really appreciates a nice UI. One of the features is that you can easily drag an item of the workspace and the workspace expands instantly as you drag.
There are some other nice things about it.
– There is a google search bar.
– It links into a flick gallery though I don’t have one so couldn’t test
– You can upload files and then others just double click them to download/open them.
– The slideshow lets you upload pictures from your desktop and creates a slideshow. (I think a great idea for demonstrating interface ideas)
– The interface sounds are cute
You are allowed to have multiple workspaces. You can also log in later and your workspace still exists.
It is still only a technology demonstration and so has a couple of errors every now and again but it is definitely worth checking out. You will need flash 9 to view it.
