Looks like I've now officially spent too much time blogging.
Sure. they've been spread out over 861 days so I'm certainly no BlankBaby (yo. Scott. 'sup?). but even my minuscule rate been hard to sustain.
To think it all started during a MAX keynote...nothing like setting up BlogCFC over a wireless network on the fly!
(make that three hundred and ONE time-wasting posts...)
(heh...a self-referential post...I even tagged it with "blogging" :-)
Tomorrow will mark 2 years of blogging here at "steve's blog". It's really amazing to look back at where I was in November 2004 - where the company was - and think of all the things that have happened since then. Even though CMS is about 2 months older than the blog. I'd have to say that they grew in parallel fairly effectively.
I've learned a lot about myself and (perhaps just as important) a lot about choosing the right people to work with. None of what I just listed would have happened without Matt. Dayne and Chris pushing to learn. to code. do build and deploy something that they are proud of.
We've managed to keep our focus. stepping slightly off the path when the skills we'd develop or contacts we'd make would help us down the road. Defining your work too narrowly or too broadly is deadly. so we've been pretty careful about who we say "yes" to. We'll see the wisdom (or foolishness) of those choices in the coming years for sure.
I have a great feeling that all of our work is starting to come together like an odd little software singularity. It's just a matter of getting some good marketing behind our already outstanding work so that more people can improve their workplace using our talents.
(steps off soapbox...thanks for reading!)
Once again I must tip my hat for Ray Camden...
At 9:33PM I downloaded the "fresh" release of BlogCFC 5.1.
It's now just after 11PM and i've sent live a fresh look and totally swapped out the backend of a site i've maintained since 2001. Much needed too. The new one vs. the old one.
The clincher? The pages feature! Now any of the site editors can maintain the entire site in one place. Much easier.
I'm going to drop in tinyMCE for a rich text editor control and i'll be done!
Great job. Ray. as always!
It really is both: watching a "professional developer" meltdown over the course of a week on his blog. firing progressively baseless accusations at a well-respected community member.
Ray (Horn): You represent all that is sad and pathetic about the internet and sofware development and geekery in general. Your whining. misrepresentations and character assassination will not win you any friends here. The ColdFusion community isn't all that large. so your continued harassment of Mr. Camden is doing you no good. If you're going to rant. at least be correct in your assertions! So far. you've been repeatedly proven wrong. and so I laugh at you - and nod my head disapprovingly.
Ray (Camden): Way to stay above it. Ray. My respect for you. both personal and professional. has increased even further. I hope. for your sake. that this unnecessary distraction departs from the blogosphere soon.
It seems like every blogger goes through a phase where their posts slow down...then...unexplainedly........stop. Then about 2 months later. the "mea culpa" post - "been busy" "had a kid" "major project" "releasing soon" "index finger removed by rabid aardvark" - then everything gets back to normal.
Here's mine.
December 2005:
We're working towards releasing our second major Ajax-enabled application. The due date (immovable!) is December 13. Matt is working his tail off on this and in the process has become quite the god of DOM manipulation and character encoding. Eeks...never really meant for it to get that bad. but i'll make it up to him once the "open" season was over.
I'm working on a mass email application. Dime a dozen functionality. but additional features that are client-specific. Since we're trying to deploy to a fully Mach-ii powered intranet. I decide that we should roll our own. Coding goes well for the most part; not everything is done (and i'm still picking at it as of this post) but i'm nice and busy.
December 13 comes and things are cool for a few days. but then we start hearing from the end users that there are things they don't understand and a few minor bugs that needed to be killed off. Also. the reporting engine needs some attention - CFDOCUMENT is devouring parts of the PDF. We fix the minor stuff quickly. sometimes within a half hour. and figure things should calm down considerably before we hit our self-prescribed "R&D period".
Yep. we were supposed to not be doing any deployments or actual client work for the last 2 weeks of the year. Ha! I'll know better in 2006 to not even attempt this one unless we deploy at Thanksgiving so the hubbub dies down sooner.
Due to certain users who shall remain nameless (though they all have nicknames now) not reading the very nicely illustrated and critically acclaimed user guide. we find ourselves answering the same email over and over again.
Christmas week comes. No meetings (horray!). Productivity on the other app skyrockets. Matt gets a little bit of time to start messing with Flex 2. as we have plans to start developing some stuff in the 2nd quarter of 2006. But not the full 2 weeks. and hardly without interruption.
I'm more than a little upset that my planning didn't allow for us to really dig in to Flex more. But we've got a lot of stuff on our plates right now. Blogging is important. so i'll be working towards getting back to my "every other day" pace starting now.
So i'm back. just like Jack Bauer. Enjoy!
Well. that should take care of a few things ;-)
All updated to version 3.9 and life is good.
Now. on with the real updates!
I've slacked off on the posting because we're too busy coding (a very good problem!) these days. but I did want to share a blog I stumbled across.
Not even sure how I got there...
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/
Just some great stuff that's key to making our products the absolute best they can be. I ran a focus group on Wednesday night (more on this when I get time) and wish I had found this before going in to the room. We had great results. but some of the more slick tricks I read here would have driven an even more creative session.
Looks like another blogger is doing an 18 part series on "Six Blind Men and the Offshoring Elephant"
Parts 1 and 2 are up now...i'd add the RSS feed to your feed reader of choice and keep an eye on it!
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/bi/entrepreneur/archives/003957.asp http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/bi/entrepreneur/archives/003980.asp
The writing is more substantial than most blog posts (mine especially included) but I think there's a lot of value here.
You've read my rants on resistance to blogging several times before. I'm happy to report that we finally had a breakthrough on one of the most interesting blogging efforts i've proposed so far.
The site is up for testing and review right now and will be 100% live on Friday.
Until then. I just wanted to share with you what happened and how we managed to "win" just in case you ever encounter this:
* hold a roundtable with ALL of the key stakeholders in the effort.
* take time to explain blogging. the difference between posting vs. commenting. controls and moderation.
* address every single concern point for point. during that meeting. This wears them down :-)
* Stress that "this is an experiment. we can shut it down if we have to."
* remind them that if there's no audience. we didn't fail and it's safe to try again. if there's a large audience . we're doing a great job of communicating and the effort was worthwhile.
* solicit the rules and policy guidance of the communications folks and legal if necessary. We avoided legal by repurposing the rules of GM's blog.
* Put yourself in the sights of the shotgun. I'm going to be they guy monitoring this and will recommend pulling the plug if things get too hot.
* Always. always remind them that turning it off is just a keystroke away. Also remind them that there will be repercussions of doing so. but nothing permanent.
I'm glad we made some progress here. It'll be interesting to see what kind of interest this blog attracts. It's part of a larger project but i think it's an important step forward for the institution to take.
Communication is messy. sloppy. sometimes inaccurate and frequently misunderstood. It's hypersensitive to the bias of the communicator and the receiver.
Yet. we (from individuals all the way up to the UN) expend a ridiculous amount of time pretending it isn't. We "mange" our message. we tailor our pitch. we filter our words through our "don't say that" filter.
The irony is. we *live* for controversy! The success of Bill O'Reilly. Crossfire. A Current Affair. and so many other shows and radio broadcasts is sufficient proof. So is the continued popularity of op-ed pages in the daily newspaper. They all lob a given perspective out into the public and start a feeding frenzy of comments and comments on comments. which draws people in and actively engages them. What is wrong with that?
Well. institutions don't like controversy. They don't like being questioned. doubted. dissected. and they sure as heck don't like having criticism leveled in a public manner.
BUT... Times are changing! Even General Motors is blogging! Bob Lutz has a widely read blog that allows. incites. and EXPECTS feedback both positive and negative on the things that they are doing as a company. Microsoft. a relative latecomer to blogging. is doing a similar thing. Sure. they both filter out any "defamatory" posts but this doesn't mean it's sanitized.
Imagine yourself as an executive. Think of the value of the "voice of the customer" being delivered right to your inbox every day. Think of value of the opportunity to respond directly to them! This is what GM. Microsoft. Oracle. and *countless* other companies have done. If they see the value of engaging their customers (and enemies!) in such a public manner. doesn't that prove my point?
Blogging is an opportunity to get out of the corner office and stand on the corner with the people who consider purchasing your products. It's a cheap and effective way to connect with the customer and involve them in improving your product or at least diffusing their criticism.
Forgetting for a moment that if you're reading this blog. you probably already know the value of blogs and blogging in general...
How would you convince them that it's *good* for an institution to engage their constituents through as many avenues as possible. specifically through blogging?
Steve Rittler is the President of CounterMarch Systems and former manager of both the Philadelphia ColdFusion User Group and the Philadelphia Developer Network.
You can connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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