Labs

The “labs” at Cyber Sprocket Labs is the Research & Development efforts for the company.   Every week we set aside time to work on internal software development projects.  Some of the development projects we’re playing with are mentioned here.   Not every labs project will be brought to market, but we do learn something from each concept we play with.

CSS Manipulation

We have been playing with a self-built application for manipulating CSS styles based on general color palettes instead of specific CSS entries.   This tool is under development and is showing promise.  It lets us do things like “change the site from bluish to redish” and retrieve a viable exported stylesheet in the process.    When we get further down the path of refining this nifty little tool it may very well end up a commercial product.

Social Engine Multiple Profiles

One of our recent client projects has us working frequently in Social Engine.  One of the projects we’ve been working on is a way to separate data fields for the users of the Social Engine platform based site in such a way that they can have different privacy settings for different groups of data.   You can let your friends see your “insider info” tab, like where you live and your phone number while the general public can only see your “public info” tab.  People in your dating pool are allowed to see your “dating info” tab with your likes, dislikes and what you are seeking in a relationship, but your family and friends are left off that list.   We’ve got a lot of work to do outside of the pieces we’ve worked on for our client in order to bring this to market, but with your extended knowledge of Social Engine coding an plug-ins we feel like we may have a viable product that other Social Engine based sites may find useful.

GoCart

The core engine behind a prior enterprise of Lance Cleveland, GoCart is a complex eCommerce engine.  It is way more than just a shopping cart.  It manages customer history information, consumes vendor and supply chain data in a myriad for format, and exports data to numerous Internet marketing channels.   It speaks EDI, CSV, web forms, and more.   It also runs the storefront like any other shopping cart and website system.    However, the business logic engine that drives pricing, availability, “ship from nearest vendor to customer”, and other rulesets is the true power behind this engine.   The only problem – it was custom built for the last business.    However, we are looking at knocking off some of the rust, upgrading some of the pieces, and modernizing the interface.  It is going to take a TON of work, but it may well be the biggest & best SaaS system we bring to market if we put in some elbow grease!

About the Author

Mr. Cleveland started his high-tech career in the early 80's, starting as a computer technician at Cognos, lead engineer at Recital Corporation, and on to ProActive Web Marketing - his first technology start up. During his career he has served as a consultant for Data General, Kimberly Clark, Kraft, Philip Morris, Rich Foods, and Telefonica. He has appeared as a keynote speaker for the USVI Economic Development Summit, been a lead interviewee for Microsoft's Clicktrade infomercials, and has been a cited expert in Wall Street journal on performance advertising, Internet retail, and cybercrime. His recent activities include launching several successful start up companies including Time Magazine award winner The Lobster Net. He currently serves as CTO of 3DChat, CTO and co-founder of Model Locate, and founder of Cyber Sprocket Labs. Mr. Cleveland can be reached at the Cyber Sprocket Labs office as well as on Linked In.