Organic Cotton Thanks to Internet

December 13, 2009

I have been looking forward to telling my readers about our client Coyuchi.com ever since we were first approached to develop their Web store.  The new store launched just last month.  The story is about how the Internet enables a boutique style, socially conscious store, located in a quaint California coastal town, to reach beyond the foot traffic of people getting away from the city for the day.

Coyuchi sells organic cotton products including linens and clothing that are produced following the best practices for certified organic and fair trade products.  You can read more about them on their Web site here.

We have a set of Coyuchi organic sheets for our bedroom and we love them.  My wife is a serious linen shopper.  The bed is always covered with the softest cotton sheets and a warm down comforter in natural patterns.  We live in downtown Napa and our bedroom looks out at green hills and, right now, red and yellow colored maple trees. Every morning we share a cup of fresh ground brew in bed with our dog Huck at our feet.  Getting the picture that the quality of the sheets is a big deal?

Socially conscious living is important to us and to Open Mountain.  Here’s a post about company efforts to be more green.  Finding a company like Coyuchi is such a score because it allows us to be eco-friendly without necessarily sacrificing creature comforts.  Sure, we’ll make compromises to support the environment.  Give up our morning coffee experience?  That’s a tough call and I am glad I now don’t have to make it.

Coyuchi could make a small profit catering to locals and out-of-town guests visiting Pt Reyes on the Northern California coast.  The store is an hour or two drive from San Francisco and the town has an eco-friendly feel to it.  Two things happened that set Coyuchi on a different course.

First, people started to care about the planet.  They started to recognize that irresponsible consumption could have serious consequences in the not so distant future.  Second, the Internet provided a means to share information.  The availability of global information brought communities together and informed them about what was happening in the world.  We’re all much more connected now and I think we can agree this has been a positive change.

Coyuchi uses the Internet to expand their reach, sell to even more customers and increase their revenue.  They provide a nice solution for people looking for quality in their linen that also want to support the environment in a socially responsible way.  Best of all, I can tell my sister in New York or family in Los Angeles about the company just in time for Christmas (wink wink nudge nudge).  This is exactly what the Internet was supposed to be about among other things.

The new Web store looks great.  The design is clean and friendly.  We built the site on top of the open source product osCommerce for e-commerce.  Using open source tools fit with the spirit of the project while also providing a cost-effective way to launch an online store without re-inventing the wheel.  In truth, we prefer to use open source tools as much as possible so long as we can meet the needs of our customers.

You’ll have to see for yourself what you think of the result.  The store is live now at Coyuchi.com.  As for the sheets, I can only tell you that we are very satisfied customers and we look forward to more and more products coming online.  Until then, I’m off to my post-morning, pre-lunch nap on my comfy organic sheets.  Huck, hey Huck, time for a nap…

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Understanding Development from a Day In the Life

November 23, 2009

Monday morning is the time when our teams interact the most about projects and the coming week.  I’ve decided to capture events typical of Monday to provide insight into our work developing products for clients.  I’ll do my best to include everything warts and all even if that means sharing something I would not normally share.  In support of full disclosure, I took sparse notes over a period of time and came back later to clean up the text and add commentary.  Here goes nothing!

Our high-tech revolution has plunged us into a state of continuous partial attention.

iBrain by Gary Small, M.D. and Gigi Vorgan

- A typical Monday starts by pulling my canoe out into the various communication streams.  Logging on to Skype is the watershed event.

- Skype is running.  Firefox is open with tabs for email, calendar, several Google docs, WordPress for this post and YouTube for a side project I am working on.

- I check in with my lead on Skype.  I have the same guy across a few of my projects.  This certainly streamlines the communication.  He’s in Costa Rica.  When I worked at Adobe, we used IM all the time as people worked on different floors and at different locations.

- I am acting as the product owner for one project and I clarify something about a feature we are implementing.

- On another project, our client provides detailed specifications and we review the documents to make sure we are in sync.  We are, which is good.

The new promise of collaboration is that with peer production we will harness human skill, ingenuity, and intelligence more efficiently and effectively than anything we have witnessed previously.

WIKINOMICS by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

- Our newest client jumps on Skype to validate the release, our testing and the schedule.  There is a lot to discuss so we move to a Skype call. He does a good job managing his business to create an active and valuable community.

- Another issue comes in about how a feature should work that requires some thought.  I ignore chats and emails for the next 30 minutes and open specifications in Google docs and mock-ups in Preview.  We clarify the issue.

- By late morning, the major communications have been completed.  Projects are moving forward and our teams seem to understand what needs to happen this week.  I am responsible for a couple of releases that are in full swing.

No matter how clever the idea or great the implementation, an invention typically lives or dies depending on how well it can be integrated into a larger social or technological context.

Juice by Evan I. Schwartz

- The marketing text for our Web site update is long overdue.  Some tasks on the docket this week are for corporate business.  But I decide to focus on that side project and YouTube.

- I started a project called ReachGivers.org to help charities and non-profits get their message out over the Internet.  ReachGivers.org uses Ruby on Rails and has Twitter integration.  I added a poor man’s blog a while back as well.  This week I want to add video support.  Side projects help me stay connected with technology.

Economics is above all a science of measurement.  It comprises an extraordinarily powerful and flexible set of tools that can reliably assess a thicket of information to determine the effect of any one factor, or even the whole effect.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

- Off to Starbucks for a Mocha and a blueberry scone.  This happens so often that people know me by name there.  The Ethos water billboard reminds me I wanted to blog about that on ReachGivers.org after finishing the video work.

- My brain stumbles on some concepts for the marketing text and I jot down some ideas.

- I was working on a product a while back and was not that impressed with the end user documentation.  I sent a book proposal out to a technology book publisher, which turned into a series of titles, and I have been writing every since.  I love it, I really do.  I even enjoy working on marketing text and ads.

Execution is not a one-time event.  Nor is it a process where you check off goals as if your sixth-grade teacher were looking over your shoulder.

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki.

- Shorty before noon we get a curve ball. Mid-cycle, our client needs to shift direction on a project to change the prioritization and the release date.  I’ll spend the next few days updating user stories and validating the new plan. Sometimes I feel like we’re actually better at hitting a curve ball.

- The Agile software process, which is intended for flexible development, actually advocates against this type of mid-cycle change.  Release cycles are purposely shorter so that a direction shift simply influences the next cycle.  For start-ups, next month can be years away.  We have to be more flexible.

- A site we monitor generates an alert right before I can escape for lunch.  I used to get a little rush on these mini-emergencies like working as an EMT. Now I am the ambulance driver who knows that most pick-ups are not at all like the show ER.  Still, up-time is important and so we resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

- It occurs to me that this post demonstrates why people Tweet.  Expressing myself effectively with 140 character didn’t work well for me.  I decide to try it again because I am enjoying creating this running dialog.

- We’re trying to send large Photoshop files with mock-ups.  Some days technology just seems to work against us.  We’re hitting proxy issues and time out issues.  Eventually we solve the problem and remind ourselves yet again we should standardize on an approach.  Problem is, email and Skype are so convenient and work well enough most of the time.  I guess this would be one of those warts.

Agile software development methods should be able to survive in an atmosphere of constant change and still emerge with success.

Agile Management for Software Engineering by David J. Anderson

- After 40 plus years of eating sandwiches, I still love a good sandwich.  The best sandwich in town is from the deli in Vallergus and the people at the cash register all know me by sight.

- I never get back to the post after lunch.  Clients and partners all eat at different times and issues were waiting for me when I got back.  That is definitely a typical Monday.

- I didn’t finish the marketing text either.  The text I came up with was not remarkable.  I made some small updates to our corporate site instead and also finished my changes on ReachGivers.org.  Perhaps I will think of something while winding down for the night.

- My iPhone sits by my bed.  With several releases in play, there is always a chance a developer is still working and will fire off a question.  Of course, I can’t just let the device sit there, now can I?  I pull my canoe back out into the stream and see what else I might have missed during dinner.

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Integrated Outsource Partners

November 16, 2009

Open Mountain software projects succeed because of our tight integration with our primary development partner Avantica in Costa Rica.  This connection sets us apart from most other outsource providers.  After all, who can provide a local contact with significant career experience in the US and also deep experience with cost effective resources in another country?  You need two partners who spend the time and effort to remain tightly integrated.

How do you know for sure we are as integrated as we say?  Have a look at the photos below from some recent trips with us going to Costa Rica and our partner coming here.  Open Mountain and Avantica work well together because we make the effort to become familiar with each other.  We know the teams in Costa Rica and nearly everyone in the Avantica has been on one or more of our projects.

Leaders GG bridge

The leadership of our partner Avantica at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Better Leaders Napa

The Avantica team at Rubicon in Napa.

Teams Napa Improved

Open Mountain showing Avantica engineers one of the oldest wineries in Napa.

Team Costa Rica

One of our newest clients meeting with Bob and the team in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica

Where Bob and Tom stayed over the weekend in Costa Rica.

Napa

Avantica and Open Mountain enjoyed wine over lunch with this view of the vineyards.

After you look these over, you’ll have to tell us who visits the better location.  I do like my Costa Rican beaches and Imperial beer.  But how about the Golden Gate Bridge and wineries of Napa?  It’s a tough call that I am glad that I don’t have to make.

Thanks to all the travelers who donated images for this post! – Cheers.

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The Funny Side of Web Development and Multiple Languages

November 9, 2009

I was adding a few features to a product the other week when I contemplated that often times the simplest change takes forever and adding major features can be a snap.  The inconsistency comes from the complexities of Web development.  To illustrate the point, I am going to borrow material from one of my favorite comedians Robin Williams.

Robin did a routine a few years back about the invention of golf by the Scottish using a conversation between the drunk Scotsman who invented golf and an interested player:

Drunk: We’re going to make a game.  We’re going to make you put a ball in a gopher hole.  It will be really fun. (hiccup, burp)

Player: Sort of like bowling?  We roll the ball into the hole?

Drunk: Heck no.  We’re going to make you hit a tiny ball with a stick.

Player:  I guess if we are not that far away from the hole-

Drunk: Heck no, we’re going to put you a couple of hundred yards away.

Player: Hopefully, you’ll at least make the thing straight so we just-

Drunk:  Heck no, we’re going to curve holes left and right.

Player: Just don’t put anything in our way.

Drunk: Heck no, we’re going to put water and trees in the way and even sand.

Player: We can try it once to see-

Drunk: Heck no, you’re gonna do it 18 times…

I think you get the point.  Different holes and sand traps certainly make the game fun, but these obstacles also make golf challenging to learn and harder to master.  Web programming feels the same way to me.  There are many reasons why it has become so complicated from humble beginnings.

Just for your edification, the essence of any Web site is a URL which looks like this http://www.openmountain.com/hello.html.  Somewhere on a server, there sits a file named hello.html.  All the other stuff on the URL before this file name helps the Web browser on your laptop locate this file on a central server and download it to your laptop for display.  I know, I know, this is so 1997.

The file hello.html contains HTML which is a simple display language.  The browser understands this language and can turn HTML code:

<html><head></head><body>

Hello <b>Robin</b>! How <i>are</i> you?

</body></html>

into this:

Hello Robin! How are you?

If only Web programming was that simple.  Here now a conversation between our fictitious Web creator Lee and our programmer Marc:

Lee: I have created the Web for you so you can put all your information and data on a central server and everyone can share it.  To display your information, you just need to create HTML files for people to download.

Marc: That’s fabulous!  I love it.  Can’t wait to start.  Can I add If statements and For loops so I can do real programming?

Lee: Good point.  OK, I will add Javascript in the file.  You can code loops and stuff using <script> tags and do display with HTML.

Marc: That works.  But wait, if all my data is on the server, do I have to download all of it all the time?  How do I get only the data user’s want?  Use Javascript on the server?

Lee:  Heck no.  We need a completely different language for that.  It will execute on the server where your shared data is.

Marc: OK, we’ll execute all the code on the server.  We don’t need HTML and Javascript anymore.

Lee: Heck no.  The output of the code on the server will be HTML and Javascript.

Marc.  So our code will output code?  Seems complicated.  Well at least the server side language can collect data and do processing all in one language.

Lee: Heck no, you have to use SQL language to extract all the data and then another language to process it and create the HTML and Javascript.

Marc: Wow, that’s a pain.  I guess so long as there is only one server side language in addition to SQL that’s not too bad.

Lee: Heck no, there’s Java or PHP or Ruby on Rails or Python or-

Marc: I get the point.  So let me get this straight.  I have to learn 4 languages 2 of which execute on the server and produce output that is comprised of the two other languages that run on the client.  Is that right?

Lee: So far so good.

Marc: I was expecting another response.

Lee: Which was?

Marc: Never mind.  OK, so now my users want more interactivity and less download times.  If I pull down all the data they want at one shot, then every time they request something else I have to go collect a bunch more stuff, right?

Lee: Heck no, but this “heck no” is one you’ll like.  You can use something called AJAX to go back to the server and just pull a little bit of information.  Users love it and it uses Javascript and the server side code you already have.

Marc: Finally!  OK, that’s cool.  So I just have Javascript, my server language and SQL and I am set.

Lee: Well…

Marc.  Don’t say it!

Lee.  Um, well, hmm, heck, um, no.  See the X in AJAX stands for XML.  Now XML is a lot like HTML so it’s not exactly a new language.

Marc: Lee, did you ever think about what would happen if I had a bug in my code?  Like a user clicks a link that does an AJAX call and it does something wonky?

Lee: That could be a problem.

Marc: Yes it could.  The bug could be in the server side code in the SQL or the server side language that is executed when I first download the page.  Or it could be in the client side code in the HTML or Javascript that is generated.  Or it could be in the server side code that gets executed when AJAX is called which also has the server language and SQL.  Or it could be in the result that comes back from the AJAX call which has HTML and Javascript and XML.

Lee: Did I show you how easy it was to create a page to say hello to Robin Williams?

In case you were wondering, the feature that inspired this post was your standard geo map integration.  Creating a map on a basic HTML page should take you no more than an hour at most.  Our product uses toolkits with the Rails framework and the nuances from using both combined caused the delay.  In the same amount of time later that week, I created user profiles with custom fields and modified the product to show the thumbnail of the user’s photo with comments.  I guess some holes you par and some holes you double bogey.

Web development truly is comprised of server side code operating on shared data and client side code running on your local computer.  The client code is primary about presentation and analysis.  Server side code manages shared resources and data.  If you think about it, optimizing languages and development processes for each scenario seems like the correct approach for creating a well-functioning solution.  The complexities of engineering are a necessary outcome of distributed systems and data.

Although, we think it is entirely possible to create a single integrated development environment that separates organically upon deployment.  You should then be able to standardize languages and processes.  We’ll add that to the list of other ideas we may never get to.  Would it be cheating if your golf club used a robotic arm with laser sighting?

You can find Robin’s original routine at the link below.  I am warning you that it is filled with tons of profanity.  This should be no surprise to Robin Williams fans.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/8e441c0a24/robin-williams-drunk-scotsman-invents-golf-from-dirttron

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Apple Likely To Overtake Microsoft

April 18, 2009

I am convinced it is just a matter of time before Apple will over take Windows as the dominant operating system on personal computers.  Let’s look at the facts:

- I am doing my taxes on my Mac this year for the first time.  I have years and years of Windows Turbo Tax data files from at least 3 generations of computers.  Having the history helps me get through the experience each year.  Installing Turbo Tax this year, however, has rendered my Windows system useless.  I can only boot safe mode to access my files.  Big thanks to Intuit for giving me the Mac version to complete my taxes.

- We have a family laptop that is stuck with Windows Vista.  The machine is slow and cumbersome.  We constantly lose the wireless connection and are forced to re-boot often to get Blackberry active sync working.  My iPhone works with my iTunes as if they were developed by the same company.

- We use Google docs and other online tools at work for 80% of our document creation.  Graphics work is most of the remaining 20%.  We do this work offline but guess what, Photoshop, Fireworks, and the lot, run equally on Mac and Windows.

- My Windows machine was turned off for a week.  A whole week!  This is a big one.  I use a computer more than anyone I know for many things such as contributing to community sites, writing this blog, and developing software.  A week for me is like a year for everyone else.  Monday morning the other week I turned on my Mac and started working.  By Friday, we were both looking forward to the weekend while my Windows desktop was cold to the touch.  I still can’t believe I never had cause to turn it on.

- My office TV is Windows Media server using the second monitor as the display, but I rarely use it anymore.  All my favorite shows play episodes on the Web after the initial TV run.  NetFlix offers movies online.  I don’t even have to DV-R Heroes.  YouTube and FunnyOrDie are great distractions if I want something new.

- I am totally addicted to Spaces on my Mac.  I have multiple work spaces running all the time that I flip through so quickly people watching me get motion sickness.  There is no chance of getting motion sickness with Windows.

Let me summarize.

The Mac OS is easier to use and more reliable than the Windows.  It’s fast and fun.  The applications I depend on are no longer OS specific.  Rich content is readily available online.  The files I created on Windows over the last 10 years are in my Mac documents folder.  I really don’t need the Window machine much for anything anymore.

All the strangleholds and monopolistic software plays that made Windows what is it today are gone.  For example, MS Office was once required at work.  Now, if it doesn’t come with the machine, people don’t need to buy this expensive software.  I am struggling to find just one example of something I must have Windows for.  The fact is I am several hours into my Monday as of now and I still have not started Windows (to be honest, that’s because the first thing I know I have to do is fix the problem I am ignoring).

Windows continues to go head-to-head with Mac and people are taking a good hard look at the merits of each.  Most of the people I know are going Mac.  The transition happened over the last 5 years to the point where I don’t know anyone raving about the Windows laptop they just bought.  Did I mention I am doing my taxes on my Mac for the first time this year?

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Posted by bbenedict

Near Shore Development Enhanced by Travel to Exotic Lands

March 6, 2009

We recently returned from another trip to visit our development partner Avantica Technologies in San Jose, Costa Rica. The trip was fantastic as was meeting with our teams to discuss what went well, what they liked about the products they worked on and what could be improved.

The picture below shows our CTO Tom Johnson meeting with the Avantica team that we have working with us on the solution for our client Brightstorm. I actually know all these engineers from a previous project, my last role as a company VP, and specifically requested them to work with Open Mountain.

blog-team-photo

We tell all of our clients they should plan at least one visit because meeting directly with the team enhances the understanding of the work and leads to a better unified solution. Ironically, clients take that part almost for granted and often ask us about the country and what we have seen. So far we have enjoyed the active volcano at Arenal, the wildlife of the Monteverde reserve and the warm beaches of Tamarindo (pictured below) among other places. But there is still more of the country we would like to see.

blog-photo-beach

I have to admit that I didn’t start down this path of near shore development to see an exotic land. I just happened to have a long time friendship and rewarding working relationship with someone from Costa Rica. Mario Chaves, Avantica’s CEO, and I worked together at many different companies and even went to the same college although we graduated different years.

The first time I worked with engineers from Avantica was at a small startup in the advertising space about 10 years ago. The lead was an engineer named Henry who is currently the Director of Development at Avantica. Henry is as smart as they come. I went to San Jose once to meet with him and the team. We spent the entire day collaborating on different aspects of the product.

I knew then that Henry and the team were up to speed on the latest technologies and as capable as teams I had worked with in the US. I could describe a problem and know by their questions and solutions that they understood the essence of the problem. That to me is the difference between true collaborative development and remote outsourcing. I want my team to have a stake in the product, to understand what problem we are solving, because that will drive the best result.

This last trip, as always, I stopped in to see my friend Henry. He was playing with a new Google Android phone and we caught up a bit. Henry is in the picture below along with some of the others we have worked with at Avantica.

blog-company-photo

Had I not had that first positive experience, I might not have centered Open Mountain around near shore development. I had high expectations based on my experiences as a US developer. Software developers work fast. We like to throw our ideas and brain storm. Some of the best product ideas come from engineers discussing a problem and shooting off on a tangent. This type of collaboration happened on my first trip to Costa Rica and has become a repeatable experience throughout the years working with the teams of Avantica.

I go back again and again to the country for the purpose of direct team interactions. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I also go to see one of the most beautiful countries in the world. After all, who would you rather be? The person reading this blog or someone in the photo below? How about both? Cheers!

blog-photo-sunset

Click the photo so see more pictures from our trip!

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Helpful Information About Near Shore Development

February 27, 2009

We have collected a series of links from sites that offer helpful information about near shore development. We hope you find this information useful and relevant. Just a note before we present the links. Many of these sites are companies looking for business. Please filter out the company promotion material and also recognize that our listing a company here is not an endorsement or acknowledgment of a partnership with the exception of course of our development partner Avantica. Enjoy!

Here are the links:

Avantica’s country brief about Costa Rica which presents information on education, intellectual property, and other helpful topics.

Avantica’s brief about Peru development that provides information about education and other topics as well.

Matt Perez’s extremely entertaining and informative Flash movie about near shoring (although we’re not in agreement with the last 30 seconds or so as we think Costa Rica is an equally viable choice for California).

A Total Cost of Engagement tool from Scio. The tool is helpful for understanding the costs of outsourcing although the actual costs for any one project may of course vary.

A first hand account from someone visiting Costa Rica to understand their capabilities with a nice mention of Avantica’s CEO.

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Was 1980 the Most Important Year for Computing?

February 17, 2009

I was working on a story and needed to find out what personal databases were available in 1982. I Googled top personal computer database 1980 thinking that a product launched in 1980 was a likely candidate. I came upon the Chronology of Personal Computers by Ken Pollson and this post about 1980. I actually remembered reading this from before and even offered to contribute a little to his excellent summary.

1980 was a very interesting year. pfs:file was launched which was the first flat file database for people. Before then, most databases had been huge systems that only data specialists interacted with. The product was created by Software Published Corporation, which is a company I worked at in 1988.

There were other notable events that happened that year. Read the post and you’ll see tons of computer lore about early role playing games, people connections that lead to early behemoths of industry, and many new product launches. But do you know what else happened in 1980?

November 6 – Microsoft and IBM sign a formal contract for Microsoft to develop certain software products for IBM’s new microcomputer. Microsoft will receive US$200,000 to adapt the operating system to the IBM PC, and US$500,000 for DOS, BASIC, and compilers.

You can find many books, articles and posts about how Gates and company licensed an operating system they in turn sold to IBM. Their lock on MS-DOS and IBM was the key turning point that morphed a leading software company into one of the top companies in the world. That was 29 years ago and the rest is history (pun fully intended).

In honor of this unexpected find related to a book I hope to finish someday, I thought I would list my top events in computer history. And to make it challenging, I am going to limit it to 5 and only 5. I challenge you to come up with your own 5! Please put your lists in the comments. Here’s my list:

- Netscape goes IPO and starts the hype based cycle which ironically may be ending right now as we speak. This has to be the top event as it launched basically everything we do now

- Jobs and Woz launch the Mac in 1984. Here’s that famous commercial. The Mac opened our eyes to the idea of modern computing using intuitive interfaces.

- Gates, Ballmer and company at Microsoft license DOS and enter in agreement with IBM. Clearly, Microsoft was the most influential software company before the Internet and remains near the top today along side Google and a few others. Maybe that will be another list some day.

- James Gosling and the folks at Sun create Java. The Internet explodes on the back of the development community.

Limiting this to just 5 is really rough. If I had to pick, my 5th is the following:

- Claude Shannon publishes “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” in 1948, which defines how to reliably communicate information over an electronic wire.

Even I can’t meet my own challenge. Here are 3 honorable mentions:

- Launch of the iPod by Apple turns the MP3 fad into a must have device.

- MySpace allows everyone to be on the Web.

- Palm Pilot launched in 1996 and PDA’s entered the mainstream.  I am guessing a few of you would debate this one, and perhaps I am influenced by working on Pocket Quicken for Intuit at about this time.

I have to stop now before I spend as much time on this as I have thinking about my top 25 things people don’t know about me on facebook. Enjoy!  And try it!

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Ideas for Small Businesses to Go Green in 2009

January 15, 2009

We asked a group of executives if our company made an effort to be more green would that influence their decision to use our services. As individuals and as a company, we have been pro-environment for some time. We do our best to minimize waste and reduce our carbon foot print. Our efforts make us feel better, but have also increased productivity and reduced expenses through efficient use of resources. Why make a pot of coffee when you just want a cup, for example. How about a fresh cup of tea?

In posting our question, we were considering what impact being green could have on the revenue side of our business. As we had hoped, several executives indicated that they would look favorably on companies making a green effort. The responses were definitely encouraging. Considering our environmental impact is now even more of a factor than before. Making your company more attractive to customers, saving money at the same time, while contributing to a global cause, all sounds like a win-win-win to me.

We haven’t implemented everything we planned, but here are a few things we did to be more green:

Limited office space – We moved our office to San Francisco as part of our company growth. Instead of renting a large space with extra common areas, we procured a smaller space with room for people to work. We’ll rent larger conference rooms, which we need far less often, from a nearby company that offers meeting rooms and other amenities. This is a win-win-win for us (sound familiar). We’re keeping our fixed costs low, reducing our impact on the environment, and yet not reducing our ability to work collaboratively or meet with clients.

Virtual corporation – We fully support working at home. We use online software tools such as Google docs and a virtual PBX so that the working location of the employees does not impact productivity. We have agreed upon times when we’re in the office together. We reduced our commute with these decisions, and at the same time, increased productivity, improved our green-ness and improved employee satisfaction. Wait a minute, is that another win-win-win?

Email PDFs – We try to use as little paper as possible. Email and shared online documents cut our usage significantly. But then, contracts often require a dreaded signature. When a real signature is needed or when we must start with paper, we scan the final document into electronic form as a PDF so that the document can be emailed. For most recipients, an emailed PDF they can print is no different than a FAX. We bought an HP scanner which has a very convenient PDF button right on the top.

e-faxing – We use myfax but have heard eFax is good choice as well. You can send faxes via email attachment and incoming faxes come in as electronic documents. When combined with the previous point, you really can do most of your document handling sans paper. The recipient will still be printing on paper unless they are also using an e-fax solution. I guess we only have a win-win this time.

We’re not done yet, but we feel we have made a good start. We have some new contracts to sign with clients and partners. We’re going to look at using an electronic signature service such as EchoSign. One of our existing partners used the service with us and the process was straight forward. We need to review with our legal team how binding the signature is for legal matters.

We’re still using printed business cards. Maybe someday the infrared technology will be prevalent enough where we can just beam our details to a contact standing a few feet away. Our mobiles have this ability, but the recipient does not always.

In the end, we’re happy we made the effort. Being green feels good and is a strong motivator to re-evaluate business processes. We like obtaining more customers. Saving money in this economy is also good. We’ll see over the course of the year what impacts our actions have on our business

Feel free to let us know what else we could be doing!

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Posted by bbenedict

Technology Should Enable Your Fun

September 29, 2008

I used a GPS on a recent trip to Costa Rica and it allowed me to really enjoy exploring the rural country side. I was the most relaxed I have ever been despite spending a weekend driving on roads with few road signs and even less pavement. This story will help you appreciate just how the GPS can transform global tourism and make traveling in exotic places really, really fun.

On my recent trip to Costa Rica for Costa Rica Insight 2008, I did something I have never done in my many trips to this amazing country. I rented a car alone and drove in the country.

I am definitely not a novice renting cars to explore at my own pace. I have driven back roads in Ireland, at high speed on the Autobahn, throughout the Loire valley in France and deep in the Louisiana bayou in a borrowed, beat up truck. But something about unmarked roads and inconsistent paving had made me hesitant to go out entirely on my own.

I have always, always, always wanted to see an active volcano in Costa Rica. I was determined this time to do it. Care to see the prize of this venture? Look here! Arenal is amazing. Check out the photo from my room that was right at the base of the mountain.

Getting there and back was the challenge, but my friend Mario who was born in Costa Rica convinced me that I could do the drive. It’s just a few turns and will take about 3 hours, or so he said.

Right.

At the conference, I shared my plan with my friends and the reactions I got ranged from “are you crazy?” to “of course Mario could do it!” Another friend originally from Argentina told me about his first experience driving to visit companies in Costa Rica. In his words, there are not street signs, addresses or mailboxes. Most directions are given based on reference points like a tree or blue house. After 300 meters, make a left at the tire and drive on the dirt road. I am not kidding you!

Maybe I should have started to worry???

This friend continued as I wondered about my decision. He recanted an experience where he was late to a meeting after getting completely lost. Over the phone, it took him 5 minutes just to explain where he was. After that, they told him to head down a road until he “smelled the cookies.” That’s right, the conversation as repeated back to me under the guise of rolling Argentinian r’s explained the key to the directions was the smell of a bakery making cookies.

Sure, no problem, just a few turns and you are there. Was I crazy or just insane?

Turns out, GPS has finally arrived in Costa Rica. Talk about a gift! In all my adventures, I never had a more relaxing drive as I did this time.

The route confirmed my original impressions that I would be forced to navigate random turns that could just as easily put you on a mountain path as in the center of town. Yes, I turned once and found myself on a dirt road heading up a mountain (turns out this was an optimization made by the GPS that took me off the main road). Yes, I turned another time and the freeway became a town (this was NOT an optimization). Throughout the day, with my handy Garmin GPS, I was actually able to enjoy these nuances that otherwise would have forced me to stop the car and check my map.

Did I say that everyone else was relieved that I had a GPS as well :)

I just love technology that enables and that is easy to use. I use my GPS from TomTom at home all the time. I rarely get lost looking for office buildings anymore and I always know if I am going to be on time. That’s the way software and the Internet should be as well, helpful in an unobtrusive way.

I figured my experience would make a great ad campaign for Garmin. My trip had everything including unpaved roads, towns in the middle of the main road, and a bridge that had been washed out. And so, I created this short photo album of the potential ad. Make sure you read the comments!

I went to the Garmin website and it turns out they have a form dedicated to testimonials. I guess the idea of unique GPS enabled experiences is not so unique. For me the experience was fan-tas-tic! I posted it anyways, links to photo album and all.

Oh, and I told a small fib at the beginning of this post. I actually rented a car in Costa Rica on my honeymoon in Punta Islita a few years back. Driving on the only road in town for just a few miles is not the same as a weekend journey to a volcano. No turns means no GPS required.

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