CogHead Is Made For Business Geeks
by
on April 23, 2007,
Coghead is another one of those exhibitors at the Web 2.0 Expo that was impressive but did not perhaps receive its just due from the blogosphere. Coghead is a revolutionary tool for business people to create and deliver Web based applications. The service targets the need for flexible and quick Web based business solutions.
Coghead boasts over 17,000 registered developers already, and series B funding totally $8 million has just been secured this month. Users rely on a completely Web based - browser powered platform with a simple drag-and-drop graphical UI. Developers can start ground up problem solutions or chose from a range of pre-designed templates.
The secure Coghead service requires no download and because of its web-based deployment can be utilized from anywhere outside the workplace. Some of the recent developer creations range from "Muscle Fatigue Analysis" in the workplace to financial services allowing interactions between investors. The list of applications is simply too long to list but spans everything from asset tracking to recruiting manager and beyond.
Beyond the long list of "starter applications" CogHead is infinitely flexible in the hands of the tech savvy business person. Rafe Needleman of CNet's Webware selected Coghead as one of the top 5 out of the Web 2.0 Expo, and I tend to agree on the basis of just how much work a user can get out of an application.
I worked on my new Coghead account for a bit until I figured out how woefully inadequate my technical business skills are, and that the detailed tutorial might have been of great help. Given this scrap of information it appears that users of Coghead should spend some time in familiarization and perhaps watch the help tools or either be the tech savvy business people targeted by Coghead.
The Coghead UI seemed rather complex to me, though obviously simplified compared to even the easiest business software available. Coghead is for the serious business developer. It is hard to say "I like it" when business applications are not exactly my forte, but from experience I know the utility and innovation of the service.
Web based services are perhaps one of the greatest innovations on Web 2.0. They reduce development costs and allow for collaboration not afforded by traditional software. Combined with open source applications and the growing network of businesses interacting online, services like Coghead add new dimensions in productivity and network development. Would I ever use it? Not likely, but I hope my friends in manufacturing and finance do. Maybe I can get better prices and services if they save some time and money.
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kalipso
Mav
Orient expresS
Zagreb
Opensource 
Michael Fidler 
Ever being the curious one I just had to check out Coghead after reading your article. After reading their presentation in depth I realized that while it had no value for me at present, but I did bookmark. It(coghead) did have merit in my eyes for some of my colleagues to whom I sent the link.
Thank you for sharing that little treasure.
Wherever we go
whatever we do
we’re gonna go through it together
I took a look at Coghead and that’s the first thing that came to mind. Show tunes and development — who knew?
The beauty of Coghead is it seems to be a collaborative type of candy store for small businesses or nonbusiness groups, like a fantasy baseball league or sorority alumnae club. Keep track of members. Filter out by only the addresses in town, or only the people who said they could meet on Thursdays. Keep stats. Look at trends.
In these respects, it has great potential. However, like any set of apps that’s more or less out of the box, it’s got limitations. The idea of “collections” appears to be essentially a less scary way of saying “databases”. My vision of Coghead is developers doing their thing but with very little feedback from users, as any feedback would or at least should translate into bucks for developers. After all, why custom tailor something if it’s for free? Hence the business side (or sorority side or fantasy league side) might not get what they truly need, or might have it but not really know how to extract the right data — and neither too much nor too little.
My experience with the business side (I’m a database professional) is that the general look and feel of reports is often readily grasped, but the quality of the data, or its completeness, is less well understood. It’s very easy to generate a Cartesian product if you’re unfamiliar with an application and/or don’t know what you’re doing. And so counts can easily (and incorrectly) balloon. If too much dependence is made upon this information, I don’t have to tell you how much of a disaster can loom. If it’s just a fantasy team losing, it’s minor. If hiring decisions are based upon it, then that’s a whole other issue.
My advice to users is to enjoy Coghead but recognize it for what it really is — a stepping stone to a better system. A savvy user should not only understand that but should also be saving up to buy a real data analysis tool, like MS Access or Oracle or MS SQL Server, and a real developmental management tool, like Rational Rose. It’s free and that’s great, but here, as everywhere else, you get what you pay for.
I appreciate you guys helping me present this application to our readers.
As I said, I knew Cog was a significant innovation but felt rather inept as doing more than presenting it. I too wonder how video will be utilized effectively. I am sure that video will be a huge element once business figures out exactly how to fully integrate it, but for now that aspect seems rather specialized.
Thanks again for your great feedback.
Janet, thanks for checking us out. You mention that you are a database professional. One thing that I would mention is that we (Coghead) have many professional developers using the system who have years of experience creating Access or SQL Server apps for customers. We have a model (called our Affiliate model) that enables developers to create applications that they sell to their customers on a subscription basis. The web-base delivery model changes everything. You can offer your customers all the benefits of a hosted model (zero infrastructure, centralized management, security, failover, backup, disaster recovery, etc.) while maintaining an ongoing, subscription based relationship with your customers. And, the web-based model allows you to reach and manage customers on a world-wide basis.