taciónJS is an open source presentation framework for mobile devices that is built on top of jQuery Mobile.

The framework allows the usage of any HTML content, has full support for jQuery Mobile UI's widgets + themes and, besides the slides, it is possible to define sequences inside each slide.

Probably, the most exciting part of taciónJS is its real-time support which can keep everyone connected to the slideshow in "sync" by following the actions of the admin.

The "sync" feature requires Pusher as the communication engine and the presentation server uses Node.js.

Balloons.IO is a very impressive and open source chat application that is built with node.js, Express, Socket.IO and Redis.

It has support for multiple rooms where users can join any of them, chat with other users and send files to each other.

Also, there is an option for users to create their own rooms and set their statuses (available, away, busy)

The application is simple-yet-solid and requires users to login with their Twitter accounts (which is good to keep the quality "up" but can be limiting). It also automatically fetches the avatar and uses is with every message of each user.

Ospriet is an open source web application, built by Twitter, that enables audiences to post and vote on questions/comments for talks, presentations, events, etc.

The application works with a dedicated Twitter account and anyone can send a question/comment by simply posting a @-reply to that account.

This tweet is then retweeted by Ospriet so that other users can see/favorite it and they will be presented as a list of most favorited entries in Ospriet's front-end.

It is built with Node.js, uses MongoDB for storing the data and uses Twitter's Bootstrap for the interface (which is responsive).

Substance is an open source and web-based application for authoring and publishing documents.

It offers a MS Word-like-yet-simpler and easy to use interface for creating, editing and organizing content.

Any number of other users can be invited for collaborative editing where it will be possible to view which user created which parts of the document.

Users can subscribe to document for getting notified about the updates and comment on any parts of the content (and they can be seen in a nice toggled view).

The "table of contents" are created automatically and helps browsing long documents faster.

Also, an export feature can convert documents into many other formats including PDF, ODT, RDF, EPUB, HTML, Markdown and more.

Even if the Substance is not used as is, the modules (document editing, exporting, etc.) of the application are very handy to be used/integrated in other apps.

Some of us are already familiar with Node.js and for some others, it is probably "another new development tool/language/standard that is getting popular but what the heck..".

Node.js is really getting popular + being used more and more each day and it deserves this attention with the flexibility and performance if offers.

What is Node.js?

In a single definition: Node.js is a server-side JavaScript environment that uses an asynchronous event-driven model.

JavaScript is mostly ran/rendered on the client-side, in the browsers. However, Node.js is a server-side JavaScript interpreter and allows us to handle and make requests via JavaScript.

It is so fast as the engine is powered by the Google's V8 JavaScript Engine, runs under a single thread and every I/O operation is asynchronous which means no waiting for I/O operations of other requests.

A Node.js application can handle thousands of concurrent connections with minimum resource usage

Also, the ability to share code between the server and client-side is another plus. For ex: you can easily run the same form validation code on both sides.

It is not alone in the world of server-side JavaScript as there are other solutions like Aptana Jaxer, Ringo, Narwhal or EJScript. And, running JavaScript in the server is not something new as well considering classic ASP with IIS can do that too. But, things running asynchronously changes many things.

How to learn Node.js?

There are already a good number of tutorials and (e)books on Node.js. Here are some great ones to start with:

• The official Node.js documentation
  
• Mastering Node (an open source e-book)
• The Node Beginner Book (an open source e-book)
• Up and Running with NodeJS (an open source e-book)
• Felix's Node.js Guide (a detailed guide)
• How To Node (a blog on Node.js)
• Node Tuts (podcasts on Node.js)

There are many modules and resources to easily get going with Node.js. Also, some great open source applications built with it. Here they are:

Node Development

npm (Node Package Manager)

The popular package manager for Node.js which can be used for installing and publishing Node programs.

Also, it can manage dependencies and the website has a package-search-engine.

Socketbug

A remote debugging tool built with Node.js and Socket.io which enables your mobile application to send/receive messages from other connected devices (mostly mobile in this case) to your desktop browser.

P.S. It was previously mentioned at WRD.

Socket.IO

Socket.IO brings WebSockets real-time communications to every browser whether they support it or not.

It has several transport methods like WebSockets, Adobe® Flash® Socket or JSONP Polling and the best method for the client's browser is selected automatically.

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Developing mobile web applications is not so different and harder than developing standard websites. Even, considering the better support for the new HTML and CSS tags, it is sometimes easier.

However, debugging them is pretty hard as many features for that process doesn't exist like viewing source code or JS errors generated by the mobile browser.

Socketbug, a remote debugging tool built with Node.js and Socket.io, brings a working solution to this issue.

It auto-determines what communication transport to use and enables your mobile application to send/receive messages from other connected devices (mostly mobile in this case) to your desktop browser.

The usage is not so complicated as well, you just need to setup the Socketbug server, connect to it (a console exists for connection) and insert a JavaScript code to your mobile application.

Cloud9 IDE is an open source application that aims to provide a powerful and focused IDE for JavaScript developers.

It is powered by the Ajax.org platform + makes use of HTML5, node.js, socket.io and many other projects.

The application has a pretty fast text editor with bundled syntax highlighting support for JS, HTML, CSS and mixed modes.

Cloud9 IDE has integrated debuggers for node.js and Google Chrome which can be started, paused and stopped from the IDE.

Using WebDAV, it can connect to remote workspaces too and has a plugin system for improving it further (already has several bundled plugins).

P.S. The application is still in early development stages, can be a little buggy but improved continiously.