{"id":1049,"date":"2014-12-28T11:35:19","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T16:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.agilityfeat.com\/?p=1049"},"modified":"2014-12-28T11:35:19","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T16:35:19","slug":"the-best-real-time-blog-posts-of-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agilityfeatpanama.com\/en\/blog\/2014\/12\/the-best-real-time-blog-posts-of-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"The best real-time blog posts of 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2014 has been a very interesting year in the real time development space.  WebRTC has started to take off, with some major announcements confirming that it\u2019s more than hype.  The WebRTCHacks team showed that Google <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/webrtchacks.com\/hangout-analysis-philipp-hancke\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hangouts is based on a modified version of WebRTC<\/a><\/strong> through network analysis, Microsoft announced a web version of Skype using WebRTC, and the video codec debates in WebRTC finally reached a resolution of sorts.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of WebRTC, many other things also happened.  Socket.io version 1 was released, and Google acquired Firebase.  New versions of the Raspberry Pi abounded, and new IoT devices continued to emerge.<\/p>\n<p>Since <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.agilityfeat.com\/realtime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AgilityFeat<\/a><\/strong> is a team of real time developers, we\u2019ve been closely monitoring all these advances through our weekly newsletter <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.realtimeweekly.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RealTimeWeekly<\/a><\/strong>.  Membership has been growing and we expect 2015 will be another interesting year in the real time space. <\/p>\n<p>Based on the \u201cvotes\u201d of our readers (via their clicks on newsletter articles), we provide this summary of the most interesting content and blog posts from 2014.  If you\u2019re not already a subscriber to RealTimeWeekly, go <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.RealTimeWeekly.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sign up<\/a><\/strong> so you don\u2019t have to wait until the end of 2015 to see another list like this!<\/p>\n<h2>WebRTC<\/h2>\n<p>I would say that 2014 has been a tumultuous teenage year for WebRTC.  We\u2019ve learned a lot about what WebRTC will look like when it grows up.  Tsahi showed us <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bloggeek.me\/implement-screen-sharing-webrtc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how to do screen sharing<\/a><\/strong> and gave us <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bloggeek.me\/webrtc-data-channel-uses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ideas for how to use the oft-forgotten Data Channel<\/a><\/strong>.  <\/p>\n<p>Early in the year, there was still a lot of uncertainty around WebRTC.  Irwin Lazar pointed out on NoJitter that while <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nojitter.com\/post\/240165861\/webrtc-two-steps-forward-one-step-sideways\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">adoption in unified communications is growing, the video codecs were holding things up<\/a><\/strong>. Rachel Ramsey summed up <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.webrtcworld.com\/topics\/webrtc-world\/articles\/373584-10-things-need-know-the-future-webrtc.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">themes of the Enterprise Connect conference<\/a><\/strong> with speakers reminding each other that WebRTC is a technology, not a solution, and the real value will be in the applications we build around it.  \u201cIt\u2019s not just hype\u201d became a regular refrain among WebRTC proponents, and as I heard Cisco\u2019s Cullen Jennings say at Enterprise Connect <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.agilityfeat.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/4-key-webrtc-insights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cSomeone in your company should at least be playing with this!\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There remained a lot of \u201cbuts\u201d about WebRTC though, and David Michels pulled no punches laying them out when he wrote that <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nojitter.com\/post\/240166836\/webrtc-is-for-losers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cWebRTC is for Losers\u201d<\/a><\/strong>.  The video codecs and browser inequalities loomed large, and others like Alan Percy were also pointing out <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nojitter.com\/post\/240168527\/webrtc--the-good-and-the-bad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Good and the Bad of WebRTC<\/a><\/strong>.  Dean Bubley wondered if we were just <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/disruptivewireless.blogspot.com\/2014\/07\/webrtc-applications-are-we-expecting.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">expecting too much from WebRTC<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Which made the end of the year interesting.  While there still isn\u2019t WebRTC support in IE and Safari, there is finally consensus on video codecs!  <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tokbox.com\/blog\/the-eternal-webrtc-video-codec-debate-consensus-finally\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vendors<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/andreasgal.com\/2014\/11\/16\/vp8-and-h-264-to-both-become-mandatory-for-webrtc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">browser companies<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bloggeek.me\/winners-losers-webrtc-video-mti\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">developers<\/a><\/strong> alike celebrated this resolution, even if it\u2019s not perfect.  WebRTC even made the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/news\/technology-quarterly\/21603235-new-piece-technology-makes-it-possible-use-browser-video-calls-youre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">print edition of the Economist<\/a><\/strong> in 2014, which has to be a sign of something.<\/p>\n<p>With a maturing of the ideas around WebRTC, comes more tutorials and knowledge sharing.  <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/alanquayle.com\/2014\/12\/summary-webrtc-paris\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alan Quayle\u2019s summary from WebRTC Paris<\/a><\/strong> showed a shift by some to less hype and more implementation details.  And that was evident across the web in 2014 too, as there were a number of great posts helping to explain WebRTC better:<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.sococo.com\/news-and-events\/webrtc-signaling-here-be-dragons.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WebRTC Signaling: Here be Dragons (Justin DuJardin, Sococo)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/andrewjprokop.wordpress.com\/2014\/07\/07\/a-webrtc-security-primer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A WebRTC Security Primer (Andrew Prokop, SIP Adventures)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bloggeek.me\/free-webrtc-report-and-whitepaper\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A Free WebRTC Report and a Whitepaper (Tsahi Levent-Levi, BlogGeek.me)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.avaya.com\/blogs\/archives\/2014\/08\/introduction-to-webrtc-signaling.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Introduction to WebRTC Signaling (Andrew Prokop, Avaya Blog)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.appear.in\/post\/98246095350\/what-hell-is-webrtc-an-introductory-talk-by\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Video: What the hell is WebRTC? An Introductory Talk (Dag-Inge Aas, appear.in)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.carbonfive.com\/2014\/10\/16\/webrtc-made-simple\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WebRTC Made Simple (Tommy Fisher, Carbon Five)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bloggeek.me\/signaling-vs-transport-protocol\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What is the Difference Between a Signaling Protocol and a Transport Protocol? (Tsahi Levent-Levi, BlogGeek.me)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>The Future of the Real-Time Web<\/h2>\n<p>Besides WebRTC, there\u2019s a lot more to real time web development.  The use of socket and real time messaging technology has become widespread and is changing the way we build applications.  There were a number of excellent conference talks this year that highlight those trends and the technologies you should be thinking about:<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VENVNimklWg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Video: Choosing your Realtime Web App Tech Stack (Phil Leggetter, FutureInsights conference)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infoq.com\/presentations\/rest-websocket-iot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Video: Evolving REST for an IoT World (Todd Montgomery, Kaazing)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_8CykecwKhw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Video: The Future of Real-Time (Guillermo Rauch)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.leggetter.co.uk\/2014\/09\/29\/real-time-web-2014-beyond.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Video: The Real-time Web in 2014 &#038; Beyond (Phil Leggetter, Pusher)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>WebSockets<\/h2>\n<p>There were many interesting posts around WebSockets in 2014, including <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@garychambers108\/realtime-bandwidth-156fec012593\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">high volume messaging<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thoughtworks.com\/insights\/blog\/playing-websockets-fun-and-profit-debugging-remote-machine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">debugging remote machines<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/developer-blog\/2014\/oct\/14\/websockets-and-angularjs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WebSockets and AngularJS<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Firebase<\/h2>\n<p>The next most hyped thing in 2014 after WebRTC may have been Firebase.  <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/2014\/11\/why-google-acquired-firebase\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google\u2019s acquisition of Firebase<\/a><\/strong> certainly fueled that.  There were many popular Firebase tutorials out there as well, such as building <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/code.tutsplus.com\/tutorials\/creating-a-web-app-from-scratch-using-angularjs-and-firebase--cms-22391\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AngularJS and Firebase apps<\/a><\/strong> and how to use <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firebase.com\/blog\/2014-09-22-realtime-iot-dev-with-firebase.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Firebase for the Internet of Things<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>IoT and Node.js<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking of the Internet of Things, there were many popular posts about IoT topics too.  Including this <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pubnub.com\/blog\/arm-powered-wireless-platform-for-iot-connectivity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wireless IoT platform<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.programmableweb.com\/\/news\/why-node.js-ideal-internet-things\/analysis\/2014\/07\/31\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">why Node.js is ideal for the internet of things<\/a><\/strong>.  <\/p>\n<p>Node.js in general is a popular topic among real time developers, so these <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/codegeekz.com\/15-best-node-js-frameworks-for-developers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">15 Node.js frameworks<\/a><\/strong> were of interest to our readers, as were <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.andrewmunsell.com\/blog\/introduction-to-realtime-web-meteor-and-nodejs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cReal Time Web Development with Metor and Node.js\u201d<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/markrabey.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/05\/real-time-analytics-with-node-js-socket-io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cReal Time Analytics with Node.js and socket.io\u201d<\/a><\/strong>.  <\/p>\n<h2>Analytics and Big Data<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking of analytics, not everything in real time development is a glamorous chat application or buzzing drone copters and internet of things.  Sometime we just need to use it for business, and that\u2019s where <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.agilityfeat.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/5-real-time-data-dashboard-ideas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Real Time Data Dashboards<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infoq.com\/articles\/stream-processing-hadoop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Streaming Big Data with Hadoop<\/a><\/strong> come in.  In that space, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pubnub.com\/blog\/quick-word-cloud-from-a-chatroom-with-d3js\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D3.js charting and PubNub Data Streams<\/a><\/strong> are also important tools to consider.<\/p>\n<p>When Big Data is also real-time things get complex.  We had several interesting posts from big companies on how they deal with this.  Twilio\u2019s engineering team wrote an interesting summary of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.twilio.com\/engineering\/2014\/06\/26\/how-we-replaced-our-data-pipeline-with-zero-downtime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how they cutover their messaging services with no downtime<\/a><\/strong>.  Twitter uses a framework called Tsar for <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.infoq.com\/presentations\/tsar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201ccounting billions of daily events in real-time\u201d<\/a><\/strong>, which made for an interesting presentation on InfoQ.  John Ryding also put together a good read on merge and fill operations for <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.johnryding.com\/post\/89055480988\/eventual-consistency-in-real-time-web-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">creating eventual consistency in real-time web applications<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>The One Post to Rule Them All<\/h2>\n<p>I just watched the last installment of the Hobbit movies, so with apologies for the overused LOTR reference, I\u2019ve still got Tolkien on my mind.  It\u2019s also the holidays, so we had a number of recent popular posts in our newsletter about <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.itpro.co.uk\/mobile\/21862\/raspberry-pi-top-15-projects-to-try-over-christmas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pi projects<\/a><\/strong>, and I also just came across this one about <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/Raspberry-Pi-Minecraft-Server\/?ALLSTEPS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">using a Pi as a Minecraft Server<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But there was one post this year which I have to give the RealTimeWeekly Editor\u2019s Choice award to.  It\u2019s a cool project that combines WebRTC, hardware control using a Tessel microcontroller, a rover, Node.js, video recording, Twilio, socket.io, and even a child\u2019s SnapCircuit set.  It has almost everything!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For my favorite post of the year, check out Chad Hart\u2019s post on webrtcH4cKS about <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/webrtchacks.com\/javascript-dog-trainer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cHow to Train a Dog with Javascript\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>2014 has been a great year, but I\u2019m excited about the future of the real-time web and what it will bring in 2015.  Keep sending me your blog posts, and I\u2019ll keep sharing them in <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.RealTimeWeekly.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RealTimeWeekly<\/a><\/strong>.  And don\u2019t forget to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.RealTimeWeekly.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sign up for the RealTimeWeekly newsletter<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realtimeweekly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">follow RealTimeWeekly on Twitter<\/a><\/strong> so that you don\u2019t miss out on all the great real time developments in 2015 and beyond!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2014 has been a very interesting year in the real time development space. WebRTC has started to take off, with some major announcements confirming that it\u2019s more than hype. The WebRTCHacks team showed that Google Hangouts is based on a modified version of WebRTC through network analysis, Microsoft announced a web version of Skype using [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[108,114,124,117],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The best real-time blog posts of 2014 - AgilityFeat Panama Software Test Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agilityfeatpanama.com\/en\/blog\/2014\/12\/the-best-real-time-blog-posts-of-2014\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The best real-time blog posts of 2014 - AgilityFeat Panama Software Test Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"2014 has been a very interesting year in the real time development space. 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