Klango Network

After a while of silence it’s about time to report you how far we have gone with new Klango 2.1.

Let’s start from the beginning.

• We started working on new Klango in December, almost four months ago. After two months of work, at the beginning of February, we started presenting new features to selected group of users. Closed beta tests started.
• Why the tests are closed? Although it was not easy to select the first group of testers, we decided to walk this way, because features and changes we’re introducing are system-wide (Klango Groups in particular). Such features have to be thoroughly tested. We simply don’t want to risk global mess because of overlooked bugs and do want to release a bug free, balanced final version of the program.
• During the beta tests, we’re analysing testers’ reports, fixing bugs and still working on not-yet-released features of Klango 2.1. So, we’re mixing tests with regular developing process, which means the fact that Klango is under testing doesn’t automatically translate to “Klango 2.1 is finished”.
• Here’s some current data:
  • There are 60 registered beta testers who form the Klango Testers Group. Yes, we’re using new Klango Groups mechanism to organize the tests and discussion. It works fine and proves to be valuable groupware solution.
  • Forum of the Group contains 150 discussion threads and 1000 posts
  • A new kind of Klango Polls is used to gather bug reports, suggestions and opinions from the Group. There are 12 such polls already, and they contain 200 descriptions of tester tasks and descriptions of new features. Yes, the Klango 2.1 is not a simple, regular update, at least from our point of view.
• Almost two months of tests have passed, and we can easly say that lot of things have already been tested and fine-tuned. However, there are still areas which require our (testers’ and Klango Crew’s) work. Beta tests of new Klango have been divided into three stages: CORE, APPS and BANG. Today, we’re at the end of the APPS stage.
• Here’s a brief status report which should show the place we are in:
  • Klango Groups work and seem to be stable. We use them every day. A web-based interface for creating group Mini-Klangos should be launched soon. It requires mainly an inspection and probably some minor bug fixing.
  • Several new social features are on-line and work flawlessly. Statuses, brand new contacts listings, contact descriptions and so on.
  • New blogs work, however, there are some minor problems which will be solved soon. An user interface for comment moderation is now under developement.
  • Klango Prompters work. They can be played in the Player and they can be created in the Prompter Creator application. Some testers say that they are similar to MS PowerPoint.
  • Klango Typist, a “keyboard trainer”-like application is ready, has been tested and currently, testers’ suggestions are under analysis.
  • Access to RSS feeds works in its very basic form, but hasn’t been released yet. Still there is some work to do here.
  • Klango Chat and new low-level audio features of the Klango Player require some coding before they be released to testers. Although the Klango Chat application has been released already, we decided to rewrite substantial parts of it and redesign some parts of our peer to peer networking system.
  • Many stability problems have been solved, and generally, Klango works much better now. Unexpected crashes, previously frequent on some systems, are tapering off.
  • The last thing to list here is that the “Big Surprise” announced earlier, i.e. Klango Terminals, are under developement too. The first version of terminal for Symbian based cell phones is close to become available for testing. We will start recruiting testers soon. We’ll inform you about this, of course.
• The most frequently asked question is “when a final version will be released?”. The short and only answer is “no one knows any precise date at the moment”. We’re doing our best to finish coding and beta testing new Klango as soon as possible, but we’re also going to give you a tested and stable product, much better than previous versions of Klango. All is matter of a balance between these two directions. We decided that we wont announce any release dates until the BANG stage of testing and coding be finished.
• If you can’t stand waiting, and want to catch a whiff of the new Klango, we invite you to listen to Trenton Matthews’ podcast episode called “Klango 2.1 Sneak Peak”. Just search the Open Media Catalog for Trenton’s Klango Castle podcast.

We will publish the next status report somewhere in the middle of the BANG stage of testing.