I created a sample app to demonstrate how this works. To try it out, call the Kynetx Demo number: (801) 895-4878

The code for this application is below. It receives the phone call, asks for input, and upon input reads the user's calling area and the weather via a lookup from the NOAA weather service.

Kynetx is free to get started, and the good folks at Twilio have some free credit when you sign up. Free + Free = (wait for it...) FREE! You have NO EXCUSE not to try this out.

This endpoint is new among the endpoints supported by Kynetx, as it lives entirely in the cloud. No configuration is necessary, and you can begin using it immediately. Our documentation for the Webhook Endpoint shows the format of the webhook url and the KRL necessary to respond to webhook requests. We'll be posting an example of these new abilities shortly.

Ready..... Go!

He also describes a cool Kynetx app called WALLet that takes your Facebook Wall off Facebook and onto other sites where you might want to see what your friends are up to.  Just want to take a quick peak at your wall without going to the Facebook site? Just tap the tab on the side of your browser and a tray slides out with the most recent posts. It even removes the posts about games so you don’t have to waste your time seeing who’s gathering eggs or needs fuel. Check it out.  Powerful stuff here.

You can also access documentation for this Facebook integration in the Kynetx docs at: http://docs.kynetx.com/index.php/Facebook

Kynetx Impact Dev Day - Sept. 18, 2010

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

This all-day intensive training is designed for all levels programmers from those who have never touched KRL, to those who've been using it for months. Learn, brainstorm and create with some of the greatest app developers in the world (and in Utah).What You’ll Learn:

Track 1 – Beginner

• Using AppBuilder to create Kynetx Apps
• Understanding the KRL gem and how to use it.
• Basic KRL syntax
• Writing rules
• Using web events
• Understanding Intrinsic Date

Track 2 – Intermediate/Advanced

• Using Explicit Events
• Event Domains and KRL
• Building Interactive Apps using KRL

Agenda:

9:00 - Welcome by Stephen Fulling, CEO

9:15 - Opening session by Phil Windley, CTO

“Programming the Internet: Why
Coding with KRL, Events and Rules will change your future.”

10:30 - Workshops

Track 1 – Beginner - Basic Programming in KRL

Track 2 – Intermediate/Advanced- Events and Cross Domain Apps

12:00 – Lunch (provided)

1:00 - Workshops

Track 1 – Beginner – Building Apps that use Data

Track 2 – Intermediate/Advanced – Beyond the Web

2:30 - Working Session

4:00 - App Showcase

5:00 - Wrap-up & Goodbye – Stephen Fulling & Phil Windley

Location:

Kynetx HQ

3098 Executive Parkway, Lehi, UT
84043

Get ready to participate in the KRL Challenge during the Dev Day. Everyone that builds an app that day wins!

Never been to a Kynetx Developer Event? Check out the photos from our last conference (Kynetx Impact Spring 2010).

Seats are limited so register today!

To show you where we are going, I've put together a demo app called InsultMe. To give it a try, send an email to insultme@kynetx.com and look at the response. Go ahead--do it right now before you read the rest of this--it will make more sense if you do.

There are three components to this demo:

1. Kynetx Network Services

The KNS cloud hosts and runs the app code for this demo. I'm using the regular production system available to all Kynetx Developers today. No man behind the curtain or unreleased features.

2. Email Endpoint

The endpoint connects contextual systems to KNS. In web land, the role of endpoint is usually played by a browser extension, a bookmarklet, or a proxy. The endpoint I've built connects to email accounts, detects email, publishes events to KNS, and processes the directives returned by KNS. The email endpoint is not yet ready for public release, but will soon be released as open source.

For this demo, the email endpoint has been configured with the credentials to the insultme@kynetx.com email account and the RID of the Kynetx app that has subscribed to the events for this account.

3. The InsultMe Kynetx App

This app runs on the KNS platform, and directs how the system processes any email it receives.  Here's the KRL code.

ruleset a8x50 {
  meta {
    name "InsultMe-Email"
    description <<       Delivers insults via email.     >>
    author "Sam Curren"
    logging off
  }

  dispatch {
  }

  global {
    dataset insult_page:HTML <- "http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/" cachable for 1 second;
  }

  rule handle_bounce is active {
    select when mail received from ".*DAEMON.*"
    email:delete();
    fired {
      last;
    }
  }

  rule send_reply is active {
    select when mail received
    pre {
      insultlist = insult_page.query("body center p font[size=+2]", 1);
      insult = insultlist[0];
      mailmessage = <<
#{insult}
-------------------
You have been insulted by the InsultMe Demo App, powered by Kynetx.
Insults provided by http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/
>>
    }
    email:reply() with
      message = "#{mailmessage}";
  }

  rule email_delete is active {
    select when mail received
    email:delete();
  }

}

There is nothing special about the meta block and the dispatch block currently doesn't apply and can remain empty.

The global block contains an HTML datasource, which is simply an HTML page that contains random Shakespearian Insult. It's cacheable for one second in this example which allows a variety of insults. Setting the cache time to an hour would cause every email processed within the same hour to have the same insult.

The handle_bounce rule is important for an email bot of this nature. Because this account sends email, it may receive error responses from other mail servers. When the from address matches the regex provided, it will simply delete the email. The fired { last; } postlude ensures that no further processing occurs for any emails that match this condition.

The send_reply rule performs the primary function of the app. Using the query operator, the text of the insult is extracted from the DOM element on the source page. The query operator returns a list of matches, so we extract the first item of the list, and compose that into a message. We then call the reply action, with the message we created.

The email_delete rule is our final rule, and unconditionally deletes the email from the account.

This example is simple, but shows the power of rule-based email processing. Of course, Kynetx isn't the first rule-based email processor. Systems like procmail have been around for a long time. But it is the first rule-based email processing system that is in the cloud and incorporates rule-based Web processing as well. Imagine the possibilities.

Let’s talk about explicit events. No! Not what you did at that party last Saturday, but what an explicit event is KRL. In KRL you have the ability to react to specific events in the browser like page views, click. Now we have the ability to raise our own events and react to those events. We can also pass data associated with those events.

So, in this example app, running on example.com, I’ll show one rule that reacts to a page view and raises an explicit event. Then I’ll have another rule that reacts to that event and shows the passed data in a notify.

Here in the raise event rule, we are selecting on any page view, and on any page view we’ll run a noop action. Once that has fired we’ll raise the explicit event named ‘mustafa’ with two variables. One named ‘expression’ with the value of ‘Will using Old Spice make me smell manlier?’ and a variable named result with the value of ‘Yes’ wrapped in HTML tags.

Now our second rule will react to this mustafa event. This rule is named ‘react’. We are selecting when explicit mustafa. Now the name of the explicit event can be anything you like, just like with your variables. So, the way we get the passed data with the event is in the pre block using the syntax

event:param("[variable name]");

So, now we are grabbing the expression variable and the result variable associated with the mustafa event that was raised.

Then, I simply take those saved values and show them in a notify. So let’s go to our browser and run the application and we’ll see a notification with the answer of ‘Will using Old Spice make me smell manlier?’.

There you have explicit events in KRL.

When: Tuesday, August 17th at 6:30 pm

Where: 3rd floor conference room at 3098 Executive Parkway, Thanksgiving Point Business Park in Lehi. http://bit.ly/9miqrq

Why: Great info, networking and FREE FOOD!

What: We’ll be talking about a ton of new stuff that will make your KRL apps rock.

Including…

· Integrating with GData (Google Calendar) to create features that are driven by dates, times, appointments, etc. Find more info at http://bit.ly/a73GGu.

· Integrating with Facebook (this is NEW!) leverage posts, friends, events and more. More info at http://bit.ly/dlxd73.

· Use the new email server endpoint functionality. (Don’t forget to try Sam Curren’s new “Insult Me” app that uses this feature. Send an email to insultme@kynetx.com and receive a Shakespearean insult in return.)

Also, If you’ve got a cool Kynetx App to show-off, or have a problem you’re struggling with—bring it. We wanna see it and/or help you solve it!

See you then!

R.S.V.P to qwb@kynetx.com so we can make sure to get enough food & drink for your belly.

Start Time: 1330 MST on 8/7/2010

Stop Time: 2200 MST on 8/9/2010

Duration: 02:08:30 (DD:hh:mm)

Severity: Sev2 - Degraded Platform Performance

Incident Summary:

KNS application users began to notice slowness on the platform which got worse over time.

Services Impacted:

Initialization Servers

Evaluation Servers

Log Servers

Root Cause Analysis:

The root cause was determined to be caused by a infrastructure change, This change introduced a new class of KNS platform server to replace an older class of KNS platform server.

Recovery Steps:

Once the root cause was identified, the servers were pulled out of rotation and the original servers were put back into service. Currently the platform is in a "last known working state" and will remain there until the new servers have undergone further analysis to pinpoint the failing component(s). Once they have be certified and tested, they will be put into service in a "rolling migration" fashion where they will be slowly introduced and allowed to soak in.

Start Time: 1630 MST on 8/6/2010

Stop Time: 1141 MST on 8/9/2010

Duration: 02:19:15 (DD:hh:mm)

Severity: Sev2 - Internet Explorer users experienced an error which prevented KNS applications from firing inside the browser.

Incident Summary:

During a routine code deployment, a runtime was deployed which contained a syntactical error which prevented Internet Explorer from executing the runtime. This condition prevented KNS applications from firing because the runtime could not be executed.

Services Impacted:

Initialization Servers

Root Cause Analysis:

The root cause was determined to be a syntactical error within the runtime code which was deployed into production late Friday (8/6/2010) afternoon.

Recovery Steps:

Once the root cause was identified, a new runtime was developed, tested and promoted to production as a "hot fix". Furthermore, it has been determined that the current automated and manual testing processes do not provide sufficient code coverage for Internet Explorer. These processes are under review and will be augmented to close the coverage gap so this issue will not repeat.

There’s a new trend emerging in app programming. Software apps are burgeoning, in spite of a challenged economy. New jobs for developers are exploding: as a category, new jobs for developers will increase by 32 percent from 2008 to 2018 according to the newest US data. The number of independent app programmers is booming as well.

One of the most intriguing aspects of these trends is the explosive growth of young programmers. The fastest rising growth is among the youngest developers. A surprising number of the world’s new apps and mash-ups are the work of programmers who are in their early-to-mid twenties and younger—a tier of programmers Kynetx is calling the “App Generation.”

"App Generation" programmers use tools like Kynetx to build apps that re-shape the Internet.

Kynetx believes much of the future of internet use will be driven by the creative minds of these new thinkers. And Kynetx is intent on supporting and driving this trend.

Kynetx is the creator of KNS (Kynetx Network Services), a platform and programming language that creates apps that can span multiple URLs and devices. Apps built on Kynetx provide users with unique Web experiences incorporating features of numerous programs in response to their needs and desires. The language is simple to use, providing connections and ready-made templates for apps that allow users to control their internet environment in ways never before seen. The brainchild of technology expert Phil Windley, Co-Founder and CTO, the Kynetx Platform has been extolled and heralded by some of the most renowned icons in the technology industry including Doc Searls, Steve Gillmor, Craig Burton and Jon Udell.

The platform is also fast becoming the new rage for young developers. The reasons make sense: they represent a demographic that is fully accustomed to using apps from mobile devices such as their cellphones. And now with Kynetx technology, they are perfectly aligned to imagine a future in which they can create and connect apps that span a myriad of sites and devices. If they can think it, they can probably create it on Kynetx—and often create it in a matter of minutes or hours. Of the more than 900 apps that premiered within a few months of Kynetx’ emergence in Fall 2009, the company estimates that more than half have been created by programmers younger than age 25.

Kynetx has been putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to company hires: nearly one-third of Kynetx’ staff are teens, college students, or new college grads. Three of the company’s young developers are still in high school; the youngest, a high school senior, is just 17.

Kynetx "App Generation" programmers pulling the future of apps into the present.

“We’ve built the foundation for an entirely new generation of apps,” says Stephen Fulling, Kynetx CEO and co-founder. “And we’re realizing that quite often it’s the very young programmers, who aren’t ingrained with thinking about the Web’s limitations, who come up with some of the greatest inventions to put that foundation to work.”

Fulling has even coined a phrase to describe the new App Generation: “It’s all about Holden Page.” At the company’s recent developer conference he launched a viral campaign to acknowledge the youngest visiting participant in the Salt Lake City conference: a 17 year old high school junior from Minnesota--Holden Page.

Obtaining a programming job is just one of the ways Kynetx is launching the App Generation. Another is the ability to join the Kynetx developer program...it’s free to create apps young people can use to build careers on their own. One of the primary ways they can market their new applications is also free—The Kynetx Marketplace. Kynetx does not split profits (they charge a small usage fee for hits to the server) and listing requires no up front payment.

Kynetx’ “App Generation” is making waves on the national technology stage. An app developed by the Kynetx programmer Jessie Morris was recently named to the list of top new Bookmarklets by Maximum PC. At age 18, Morris has been working for Kynetx for about a year. His program, "Sweetter," was the result of his desire to see the most recent Tweets for each web site as he surfed the web.

“I looked around to see if there was any program for this and there wasn’t. So I created one, and made a bookmarklet you can click to bring the recent Twitter-stream from any website you’re visiting directly onto the screen.”

“I showed it to Phil Windley. He thought it was cool. The graphic artists finished it up – Phil blogged about the application – and the next thing we knew, Sweetter was being covered as a top application in Maximum PC.”

Now a high school graduate, Morris programs for Kynetx full time. Although his educational plans are far from finished, he is a full embodiment of the App Generation, having created a nationally acclaimed app before even beginning his college degree. Another of his popular programs is called “ClearPlay”—an app users can invoke at any time and from within any program to see at a glance which of the movies on popular sites such as NetFlix and ImDB have filtered versions available. (Users can download Jessie’s ClearPlay and Sweetter apps free of charge from the Kynetx Marketplace.) And he has ideas for more.

Jessie Morris talks through app ideas.

Mike Grace, of Rexburg, Idaho, is a senior in college. He estimates he’s participated on some 280 new applications since joining Kynetx six months ago. His goal? “To change the world,” he says with confidence. “I’m no stranger to owning my own business—but the chance to work with executives running a company this profound is teaching me that I have much more to learn. Working at Kynetx has been the chance of a lifetime.”

Kynetx employee Alex Olson is admittedly an exceptional student: at age 18, he completed both his high school diploma and an associate in science degree. In four more semesters, he will have a bachelor’s degree. “I’m one of the luckiest teens I know,” says Alex. “I wake up excited to go to work every day and I want to stay here late just because it’s so fun. I’d love to have a permanent career at Kynetx, but no matter what happens, the things I’ve learned here will stay with me wherever I go.”

Software development isn’t limited to just computer science majors—nor is it only for boys. Two of Kynetx’ budding young programmers are women. Programmer Tamela, age 17, was approached by Kynetx Founder Phil Windley for an internship after he watched her make a presentation on robotics.

“I would love to become a robotics engineer, but I’d never thought about doing anything in software programming, although my mother is majoring in web page design,” Tamela says.

So far, Tamela has had the chance to participate in the programming of an application for a Kynetx contest entry. “I didn’t realize it was possible for someone to actually invent a new programming language,” she muses. “This has been a really cool experience for me.”

The App Generation is a National Trend

Kynetx is not alone in recognizing that many of the best programmers come young: Says Joel Spolsky, programming expert, “The good news about our field is that the really great programmers often started programming when they were 10 years old. While everyone else their age was running around playing “soccer,” they were in their dad’s home office trying to get the Linux kernel to compile. Instead of starting a band in their garage, they were implementing a cool hack so that when their neighbor stole bandwidth over their open-access WIFI point, all the images on the web appeared upside-down. Unlike the fields of law or medicine, in software development, by the time these kids are in their second or third year in college they are pretty darn good programmers.”

Software expert Eric Spiegel agrees. In the May 16 issue of Datamation he notes that young programmers are not only very competent programmers, their unique abilities can make them some of the best: “Many youngsters start writing code as a teenager because they’re fascinated by technology. By the time they graduate with a computer science degree they have many years of experience. Not just any experience, but relevant experience with a great grasp of the latest technology trends.”

“They are very open to new ideas and aren’t tied to a particular design or coding approach,” Spiegel continues. “Youth often equals flexibility.”

By providing the right technology, Kynetx believes it has created the environment that will act as the catalyst to propel the App Generation to its full potential. If the response to the nearly 1000 new apps on the Kynetx platform is an indication, the market clearly agrees.

About Kynetx

Founded in 2007, Kynetx is a private company that provides the first Context Automation Development Platform. This platform, powered by Kynetx Network Services (KNS), provides easy-to-use development tools to create context-sensitive, cross-platform apps that can stretch across any web site or web-enabled device. Kynetx apps help build relationships between companies and customers (users) by offering more relevant experiences in the places that matter most.

Contacts:
For Kynetx
Snapp Conner PR
Cheryl Snapp Conner and Matt Stubbs, 801-994-9625
cheryl@snappconner.com and matt@snappconner.com