Quote:
Originally Posted by big_smile 
Garret, I was not able to attend either, can you elaborate on your impressions of the Web 2.0 and Social Networking stuff w/ v5.5?
Also, did Chardon say anything about dropping the cost for use of the API??
Sure,
Web 2.0 and the Social networking in my eyes are two separate item.
The Web 2.0 discussions were great and not limited to just one session. Andrew Mosawi's session really encompassed everything Web 2.0. What I think the key is that Blackbaud is talking this much about Web 2.0. This to me illustrates a change in their direction to more forward thinking when it comes to embracing new web concepts. I think thats a good sign. The Web 2.0 concept isn't new by any means but Blackbaud seems to be demonstrating that there are business opportunities to be had in things like Social Networking, Wiki's etc for non-profits. They also seem to be demonstrating a willingness to begin to incorporate some integrating with Web 2.0 applications. Again this is all big picture.
Social Networking stuff was really neat. Tim Wolf has been designing a Social Networking platform for BBNC. It is looking really good. It embraces all of the standard social networking stuff like friends, PMs, Groups etc. It mght not initially be a Facebook but he made it clear that their motivation wasn't to compete with Facebook or MySpace but to allow clients to create their own closed networks with bits that can connect back to things like Facebook.
It's important to remember that including social networking in a business model for any company is a relatively new concept. This is a piece of BBNC that I think will evolve rapidly once it's released.
Ok, now my favorite one the API.
First off the API is free for BBNC. It always has been. What you have to pay for is the VBA/API module for RE. But you don't need that to do customizations.
There seems to be much confusion here so I'll try to clear it up.
Marc Chardon answered a question in the first General Session about Open API. It's just a buzzword that people are throwing around the industry. An Open API is an API that you can consume outside of the core product. Guess what guys you have been able to do that with BBNC at least since 4.0. I have done it for over a year.
You can easily consume their PIA dlls (in RE) and party on those in your code or you can grab their RE7Service web service and do some cool stuff with that. That doesn't cost anything and its all there you just have to know how to use it. Blackbaud will not support it currently. They have never prevented clients from making customizations by requiring you to pay for an API for BBNC.
Btw, I heard that documentation for API in v5.5 is going to be better.