September 2020 Summaries

Virtual events have become a permanent fixture, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with platforms like Stream enhancing their functionality to support this trend. Stream offers a Live Video Streaming API that facilitates live chats during events such as political rallies and virtual concerts, enabling real-time viewer interaction through features like dynamic reactions and AI-powered moderation. The company has introduced several new features to improve user experience and maintain performance, including block lists for moderating content, slow mode to control message frequency, and feature throttling to prevent performance issues during high-traffic events. Additionally, Stream's new virtualized message lists component optimizes performance by displaying only a fraction of messages at a time, ensuring smooth operation even on slower devices. As digital events continue to grow, API-focused companies like Stream are poised to play an essential role in shaping and sustaining these online experiences, a shift that, according to Stream's CEO Thierry Schellenbach, was long overdue.

The tutorial provides a comprehensive guide on setting up notifications for AWS S3 events using Stream Feed in conjunction with various AWS services like CloudTrail, CloudWatch, and Lambda. It outlines the process of creating a timeline to display events such as uploads, downloads, and views of assets from an S3 bucket. Since AWS does not natively offer notifications for file viewing or downloading, the tutorial demonstrates how to create custom notifications and integrate them with Stream's Notification Feeds. The process involves configuring AWS services to monitor specific S3 events and using a Lambda function to post these events to an app that displays them in a notification feed. Additionally, it includes steps for setting up a Stream client on the frontend using React and Express, allowing users to view these notifications in real-time. The tutorial also touches on how to extend this setup to monitor events from other cloud storage services like Google Drive.

Stream, a leading provider of API-driven Activity Feeds and Chat, has completed its SOC 2 Type I audit, marking a significant step in its commitment to information security and transparency. Conducted with the assistance of Secureframe, the audit adheres to the Service and Organization Control (SOC) frameworks established by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), which independent auditors use to verify a company's information security systems and controls. This accomplishment aligns with Stream's ongoing efforts to safeguard customer data through measures like data encryption, penetration testing, least-privilege access controls, and compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA standards. While SOC 2 Type I compliance is a new achievement, Stream has a history of employing robust security processes and is now working towards SOC 2 Type II compliance and ISO 27001:2013 certification to further enhance its security and compliance standards.