Zenji Web Development : The Tumblr Blog

Announcing Zenji Mobile

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:58:29 -0800

This week Zenji is launching the “exploratory” spinoff service Zenji Mobile (www.zenjimobile.com), to gauge interest in iPhone, Android and other mobile platform development services.

Looking out for iPhone and Android app UI designers and junior engineers. Contact me if interested!

Where's Cool? - now in public alpha

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:17:06 -0800

Been wondering what we (aka “I” aka Ron) have been up to here at Zenji? Check out www.wherescool.com - travel advice your mom probably wouldn’t like.

This has been under construction full time since July and is currently available to view and add content to. Check it out.

Announcing Zenji Open Projects

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:07:41 -0700

Announcing Zenji Open Projects:

Today Zenji Web Development LLC is announcing the creation of Zenji Open Projects, a wiki created for the incubation of open standards and open source software projects related to Zenji’s products and client work.

Most of the projects are aimed to solve “big picture” problems encountered while developing the web site CommuterFeed.com.

The most prominent project of this endeavor has been dubbed “Fire Signal” an open specification for a distributed micro-blog API protocol and an open application server to support it.

Also included are the beginnings of an open transportation alert data format.

If you would like to contribute to the Zenji Open Projects, feel free to visit http://open.zenjiweb.com or add to discussion related to the site at http://groups.google.com/group/zenji-open-projects .

Zenji Website 2.0!!

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:38:00 -0700

Zenji Website 2.0!!:

Finally, only about 10 months behind schedule the new Zenji website has finally been launched! Still a lot of little things to work out (admittedly, I’m not thrilled with the project pages), but I wanted to release it now, the wait has just been too long.

Much thanks to Ollie Relph, who did most of the design work and the good people at WordPress who have made such an awesome blog engine that its pretty much capable of being used as any type of CMS you want…

Enjoy.

-Ron

EduFire's on Techcrunch

Wed, 28 May 2008 21:14:47 -0700

EduFire's on Techcrunch:

Always like to give a link to Techcrunch articles about projects we’ve worked on. Good job EduFire!

Shopflick

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:23:50 -0700

Shopflick:

Shopflick is now publicly accessible. We’ve lifted the invite-only restrictions so that everyone can shop away. Enjoy and make sure to tell your friends. http://www.shopflick.com

Commuter Feed - Unveiling Pownce

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:52:28 -0700

Just wanted to let anybody who’s interested know we’re officially supporting Pownce as well as Twitter on Commuter Feed.

We love Twitter, but understand there’s a lot of people trying out Pownce as well. And their API was so damn similar it was almost too easy..

But the main reason we did this: Commuter Feed won’t be just a Twitter mashup for long…

Ron

Shopflick Beta Invites

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:02:55 -0700

Shopflick Beta Invites:

To friends of Zenji, we’ve scored some VIP invites to Shopflick. (Shhh.. don’t tell anybody where you got ‘em…)

Shopflick on NewTeeVee

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:38:21 -0700

Shopflick on NewTeeVee

Shopflick on Techcrunch

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:48:00 -0700

Shopflick on Techcrunch:

OK, cat’s out of the bag (finally). The embargo has ended and Shopflick is no longer in stealth mode. We’ve been working on this sucker for 6 months now pretty much full time so its a big deal.

For those who want to know, yes we here at Zenji were responsible for the design of the site from top to bottom, inside and out. (But we didn’t do any of the code).

So read the Techcrunch article, check out www.shopflick.com and sign up for the beta.

UI Candy

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:52:00 -0700

UI Candy:

Josh, our frequent design collaborator (Commuter Feed, Shopflick), has just released a really sweet icon pack at http://www.uicandy.net/ if you are a designer, you should definitely check it out…

Commuter Feed - Blog Launch Imminent

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:30:54 -0700

We now have a dedicated Commuter Feed blog up: http://blog.commuterfeed.com

Part of this “blog” (aka using Wordpress as a CMS) is to house all our supporting pages, such as About, FAQ, etc. So if you want to read up on all the Commuter Feed goodness, make sure to check the blog.

We also now have a Commuter Feed mailing list signup form. You can sign up here http://zenji.wufoo.com/forms/join-our-mailing-list/

And just want to give a little hint about what’s coming very soon: Pownce

Enjoy.

More Commuter Feed Success

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:49:00 -0800

Haven’t even had a chance to post this in the “Press” section of the Google group (we’re working on pulling pages out of there and giving them a classier home).

CNet’s WebWare: http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9877147-2.html

ReadWriteWeb: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/commuter_feed_twitter_mashup.php

Mashup Awards - Mashup of the Day: http://mashupawards.com/commuter-feed/

Chris Brogan (who’s also posted to the site a bit and given some feedback): http://chrisbrogan.com/commuter-feed-twitter-as-a-platform/

KillerStartups: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/CommuterFeedcom—-Live-Traffic-Updates/

CSS Mania: http://cssmania.com/galleries/2008/02/21/commuter-feed.php
(They wrote us a special email to tell us how much they loved the site)

ThinkVitamin (Currently on their home page in the News Blog, that’s only accessible for linking by RSS): http://www.thinkvitamin.com

There’s a ton more, but I’ll save them for linking from a new Press page..

Twitter is down again...

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:16:00 -0800

Interesting, on Commuter Feed we’ve started getting behavior of people who get accounts on Twitter just to use the site. So we’ve already broken through the “Twitter-novelty” boundary in 3 days, which is something we thought would take months to achieve.

In a few of these cases (notably in Bangkok, Thailand), we’ve apparently been attached to existing automated commuter feeds via some sort of Twitter bot.

And then Twitter crashed. Wonder if that has anything to do with it?

Sorry, Twitter!

Commuter Feed is blowing up (in 48hrs)

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:59:03 -0800

Amazing - yesterday, our first official day, Commuter Feed got over 10,000 page views. And without a dime spent on marketing. Not bad ;)

Conclusion: people really get it. I always thought it would be useful, and apparently I’m not the only one. Awesome!

Lots more press, too. Good things everywhere. I’m starting to collect positive Twitter snapshots.

The blog articles keep rolling in and traffic’s going up exponentially. Every few minutes I find more and more blog posts, completely organic. Never expected this.. Wow.

-Ron

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/02/commuter-feed-t.html

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:50:00 -0800

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/02/commuter-feed-t.html:

CommuterFeed’s already getting some press!

Commuter Feed

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:05:00 -0800

Commuter Feed:

Commuter Feed is now live!

Commuter Feed is a free service that lets you see reports on traffic and transit incidents in your local area using Twitter.

We have been working on this site in stealth mode for the past 4 months and we now bring it to the masses. Zenji’s first home-grown app.

How was your commute today? Tell us at www.commuterfeed.com

Firing the engines of Tumblr

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:24:00 -0800

While working non-stop on the client and home-grown projects of Zenji, its difficult to keep up appearances.

If you haven’t noticed, the old “green” site is in disarray, with bits of content supporting legacy business models chopped off, leaving its scarred surface for all to see. With little time for internal work, the repairs and redesign are ever on the horizon, but rarely fulfilled.

And so, here arrives the new Zenji tumble-log to apologize for such defficiencies and keep the Zenji fans, team, and alumni up-to-date on how we’re doing.

Zenji now has just over a year under its belt as an entity. In that first year its done quite well, now worth over 15 times its value at startup and pulling in some great talent. There are also some surprises and great things in the works.

Lets hope that from now on future accomplishments can be logged for everyone to see, without having to rely entirely upon a crumbling excuse for a portfolio site…

Enjoy

-Ron