basemint.

College and Friends Said I Couldn't, So I Did.

Maybe someone can clear this up for me but it seems as though people love telling others what they can and can’t do. Years ago, I was told I couldn’t do what I was doing or make what I am making without first going to college and getting an ever illusive degree. Sadly I tricked myself into believing this for the longest time. But I will be credulous and say college is an irrelevant necessity.

The perfect example of this is a co-worker at my day job. He has a degree in some form of high-level science and yet he’d rather move around pixels on a web page all day. Its a wonderful accomplishment to graduate college, but rarely does it’s relevance make sense in the real world.

College as Elective

We’ve put colleges and universities on a pedestal. But no one will ever tell you that college is all about connecting. In short, its more or less a really expensive networking tool for those trying to make it in whatever career they’re pursuing. But maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have to learn about the American Revolution or understand the basics of European economy just so we can do what we love.

Personally colleges and universities should be seen as electives that are only as valuable as you need them to be.

Barnes & Noble University

I’ve been at this university for years. It’s low cost and I can read as much or as little as needed. My knowledge will always be relevant and necessary as the materials never go out of date.

For the most part, I learned all the important stuff from $30-$50 books at Barnes and Noble. Heck, I even bought some of them chuckles. Don’t let my distaste for “higher-level” education discourage you. If what you love is hindered by the absence of a college degree, then by all means. But if not, college is rather worthless.

If everything else fails, you can always deal drugs to get by. lol.

Morning View

I got up at 7:30 am today and definitely felt great. However, I left my patio door cracked open which turned my apartment into an ice box. Aside from that I was running on no sleep the day before, so that could have something to do with the wonderful sleep.

Waking up early definitely has benefits with the first being 3 hours of utopia. At 7 AM I have nothing going on except the fact that I’m able to exist for one more day. Hehe, I just thought of a wonderful analogy.

Life is like a supporting actor in a sitcom, you’re grateful for every season, but you never have true certainty that you’ll be invited back.

All in all waking up early is more wonderful than I could ever imagine. But there is catch amongst this cavalcade of joy and that is the task of repeatedly waking up early every day from now on. Lets be honest here, thats like asking our current president to stop the war in Iraq. Not saying its impossible, but don’t expect results for at least 5 years. Cheers.

Needing To Be A Morning Person

I seem to have locked myself in the little box called, “I can’t be productive unless its 2 or 3 in the morning”. You have no idea how unfortunate this is for me. Nights like those send me into a tailspin of disparity and weariness that only the stars can attest to. So there needs to be a change.

I need to start off by saying no to this stupid machine (aka my computer) when the clock strikes 7 pm. Work, Halo and Call of Duty 2 will simply have to wait until the next day.

The rule from now on is to hit the bed at 10 or 11, wake at 7 or 8. Sounds pretty easy, but we’ll see how strong my will power is soon enough. lol.

Small Churches and the Price of Web Development

Small churches all over suffer from poorly designed and or rarely updated websites. The barrier in which to solve these problems are very high considering the premium being charged in the web industry. Here in Minnesota the average cost of a website for smaller organizations and businesses quote somewhere between $3000-$5000. Not only larger web firms charge this, but individual contractors as well.

Change the Approach and Business Model

Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to ditch convention and pursue unorthodox solutions. In the case of small churches who can’t afford typical costs for a redesign or completely new website, it’s a matter of changing the pricing model. It’s not so much that small churches can’t afford typical costs, instead its more or less how much of the cost they’re willing to afford.

I could go at length about the pros and cons of hourly vs. fixed rates but I will not. With small churches fixed rates are always better. However, the impact this can have on a church’s budget can be fairly detrimental depending on how you approach it. Charging 50% up front and 50% when done doesn’t work. Nor does letting hours rack up and then sending one big bill.

Subscription Based Services and Pricing

One thing that web 2.0 has taught us is that a solid business model is important if not critical to the success of any service or product. In the case of small churches its important that your business model can sustain a comfortable bottom line while not scaring away new clients. In order to keep things comfortable and sustainable for both yourself and the small churches, aspects of your product or service must be automated. In other words, process, process and more process.

For example, lets say that we’re redesigning and building websites for small churches. What we know already is that small churches need the ability to update their content at least a few times a month. We solve this problem by implementing a web-based content management system. From there they can add, edit or remove content anytime and anywhere with an internet connection.

Another example is web hosting. Most small churches who do own and maintain a website have to manage their own hosting costs and administration. This typically means that their website is subject to lacking knowledge to get the job done right the first time. The best way to solve this is to manage their website and server administration for them keeping the interaction points for the church practical and lean.

A balance must be struck between what is the church’s and service provider’s responsibility in the process of web development. The faster you can get things done in terms of building, marketing and maintaining a church’s website the lower the barrier will appear.

Later on in part 2 I will tackle some thoughts on what to actually charge and when to charge a small church.

Fluid.app on OS X Leopard

I’ve been using Fluid for a month or so and the experience has been pleasant with the exception of rough edges while in beta. There is one little delightful patter I noticed while using Fluid, it focuses my web browsing.

Fluid takes any website and turns into an application on OS X. Currently it only runs on Leopard 10.5.x. First breath with Fluid was that of uncertainty that it was going to continue to be useful. But as time moved on, my personal web browsing was conflicting strongly with my work-related browsing (css layout debugging, etc).

After much slaving to manage 15+ tabs concurrently, I needed something to change. I began to take highly frequented web apps and drop them into Fluid. For example, I work with the folks at Assembla.com and at times in addition to my personal web adventures, I could have as many as 20-25 tabs open throwing my computer into temporary shock. After dropping my frequently used web applications into Fluid, my whole perspective on how I use the web changed.

A rather amazing shareable feed reader known as Cullect is one my most frequented web app hot spots. I use it to manage all the blog and news feeds I care dearly about. When I click on links that a blog or news post is referencing, it keeps the “app” centered around Cullect.

With Fluid you literally dedicate a website as an application, so doing anything else but Cullect-related things would be silly and rather uncomfortable. Fluid does well by letting me feel comfortable about focusing my browser. Normally in an all-purpose web browser, you feel your attention must be given to everything, but not with Fluid!

Yay Fluid!

On Ticket Systems and Designers

Had a discussion with a colleague about the use of ticket systems by designers in a team environment. They’re wonderful. But they don’t work. The difference in needs between designer and programmer are too great.

What more does a designer need from a ticket other than what the client likes and doesn’t like and what needs to change? Once requirements start falling past that point you’re clouding the design process of which is hardly ever a constant integration of features like programming is.

Web designers generally work alone or in some cases there may be an art director present, but by large designers work alone in terms of who is actually working on a specific design project. This makes ticket systems valueless. Ticket systems were built for the sole purpose of letting multiple resources approach the same issues and problems via one point of entry. This isn’t necessary in the design space simply cause its always a one-to-one (or many) interaction between client/manager and designer.

Being a designer, I can’t see the need for something like Trac to aid in collaboration.