Terms of Use   View Full Page

An important goal we established when we first started Cozimo was to foster creative collaboration through many different forums. In developing the Cozimo system, we specifically designed it in an a modular fashion so that we could readily deploy and offer our real-time Image Collaboration Environment (what we call “ICE”) not just through our own applications, but also through the many different products, websites and services that could benefit from it.  Last year we worked with CGarchitect to enhance their showcase galleries with collaborative capabilities. Later in the year we introduce our WordPress plugin for integrating a collaborative image or video as part of a blog. And most recently we introduced our “Collaborate Now” tool and Firefox extension that allows people to instantly capture any web page and collaborate on it.

Over the past few months we’ve completed some significant upgrades to our backend collaboration server as well as enhancing our API so that we now have even greater functionality and flexibility to support these type of collaborative projects.  In the coming months you’ll be hearing more about a number of partnerships we’ve recently undertaken as well as new product options that will make this API available to individual companies wishing to enhance their existing CMS or intra/extranet.   If you have a specific project that you would like to pursue (commercial, educational or cultural), please feel free to contact us to discuss it. This is the type of collaboration we enjoy most!

When it was first introduced, the iPhone immediately intrigued us as a potential platform for collaborating on rich media. With its larger screen size, support for Safari (the “real web” as Apple puts it) and touch screen interface, it seemed like it would be the ideal convenience for creative people on the move. Now with faster Internet access of the new version, the device is even more compelling.

Unfortunately, our initial enthusiasm for the iPhone was somewhat dampened by the lack of Flash support which forms an important component of our collaborative interface (not quite the “real web”). Depending on who you listen to, this omission is simply a temporary limitation of the platform/software (the party line) or else it’s a strategic move on the part of Steve Jobs to thwart the wide adoption of the Flash format as mobile standard in favor of their own solutions.

In any event, we’ve always made the effort with Cozimo to be technology agnostic and so we continue undeterred with our efforts to develop a unique collaborative mobile solution. We only use Flash to collaborate and for multi-file upload so most of Cozimo worked out of the box. As a second step, it is now possible to review images together with their annotations and notes (which are displayed in a format better suited to the smaller screen size). This means that you can now review the feedback you receive while on the go and also respond using the built in messaging system. Moving forward we will next introduce functionality for uploading images from the iPhone (perfect for dealing with on-site problems) as well as provide basic annotation tools so you can collaborate in real-time with your team members.

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a special Technology Day at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. The theme of the day was the “Teaching and Learning in Four Dimensions” and focused on the impact that emerging 3D prototyping and immersive technologies are having on the world of fashion and education. The Keynote speakers were W. James Au and Janine Hawkins. James gave an engaging presentation about the principles of Second Life (SL) and how the various user groups interact. Janine is the Editor of Second Style in SL and spoke more specifically about the top designers in SL and how many talented international, especially Japanese, designers are using it to gain recognition and promote their work. I was really struck by just how quickly and profoundly the virtual and real worlds of fashion are converging in the design, commercial and educational realms. You can find an excellent summary of the day’s events on Elaine Polvinen’s Virtual Fashion Technology blog.

The event was organized (exceptionally well, I may add) by Beth Harris, a professor of art history at FIT and a leading proponent of technological innovation in education. Beth originally discovered Cozimo through the web and contacted us to learn more. Since then we’ve developed a close relationship and Beth has shared her considerable experience and passion on the needs of educators. Dealing effectively with rich media is one of her primary concerns and she immediately jumped at the opportunity to experiment with Cozimo’s new WordPress plugin on smARThistory, a blog she maintains with her colleague Steven Zucker.

Thanks to Beth’s invitation, I had the opportunity to meet educators from FIT and other institutions who attended Technology Day. We’ll be setting up full Cozimo accounts for a number of courses in the upcoming semester and we’re looking forward to supporting other educational initiatives they are working on.

This week we’re very excited to unveil a new collaboration project that we’ve been developing with Jeff Mottle of CGarchitect.com, a leading online magazine that caters to CG artists and production companies who do architectural design visualizations and rendering. One of the more popular features of the site is the gallery section, where CG artists can show off the latest examples of their work. In the past, these galleries have always been something of a one-way show but now we have added a whole new dimension to the experience by integrating Cozimo’s real-time collaboration tool directly into the gallery itself. Now visitors can actively engage and collaborate on any image, leaving markups and comments or even interactively discussing the work in real-time with other online participants. As far as we know, providing this level of collaboration is a first for any online magazine. We’re hoping this will be the first of many such efforts on our part to help promote and support more collaboration in creative online communities. We also make functionality like this available for integration into private websites and client extranets. If you’re interested to learn more about this feature please contact us.