You may know it as "Pantha Rei"
Mar 12, 2010via kickstarter.com
Technology and passion. Story of my life.
Advantages of a distributed company
Mar 10, 2010This morning, I worked on the business plan for my new business, doing a SWOT analysis. One aspect in assessing strengths and weaknesses of a new business is its location. But if you're offering your products and services over the Internet, location doesn't matter much to your clients. It may still matter to your employees in terms of moving house or commuting. That is, if you're not building the company in a distributed manner.
So just when I was pondering this aspect, I got a link via @jkleske that fitted perfectly. In his blog, Toni Schneider from Automattic (of WordPress fame) lists "5 reasons why your company should be distributed":
- Your employees will love it
- You can hire great people wherever you find them
- You will use better communication tools
- You can still be social
- Your offices will be more fun
Go read the article for his explanations, and read the comments as well.
I'm convinced that building myself a distributed company is the way to go. On the technical level, the Internet and especially Cloud Computing prove that virtual, distributed systems are superior to monolithic ones. It doesn't matter any more where a server is located if it's well connected, so you can choose simply by price and performance.
Since my company will take advantage of those principles, it's only consequent to apply them to the company itself, isn't it?
Weeknote #-5 (week 9, 2010)
Mar 8, 2010
Perl online training, open source development
At the beginning of the week, I decided to offer our “Perl Meisterkurs” online seminar from now on in regular intervals. I planned three courses for April, July and October, created their registration pages, and sent informational posts to several blogs and social networks. Training is the most intensive and time-consuming work I do currently, but it helps getting in some cash that will be needed when we have to expand our IT infrastructure.
Side note: Maybe it was organizing a Perl online training that triggered some
sleeping Perl development enzymes in me. On Tuesday, I picked up my old
project
CGI::Session::Auth,
a Perl Module I published as free software many years ago. I fixed a few bugs
and finally implemented suggestions I got back in 2008 for improving
the documentation. Because I now use Bazaar as my version control
software, I moved the project from BerliOS to
Launchpad where I’ll hopefully maintain it a
bit better now.
Website building
On Saturday, we got the finished design for our new Drupal hosting website. We’re now working on the site content to get it online ASAP.
Communication infrastructure
Now that first business contacts are forming, telephone communication becomes very important. I tested and chose Sipgate Team as our virtual PBX system. We got a set of phone numbers that we’re able to distribute among our VOIP accounts by single user or by team. Voicemail is integrated and delivers incoming messages via email; new message notifications are sent as SMS. The system is easy to configure and has a good cost structure.
Family
Carolin and Amalia will return home next Wednesday, so the days of my all-day quiet home office are coming to an end. It’s a real challenge to balance work and family life if both happen at the same place, but to me it’s a challenge worth taking on.
Weeknote #-6 (week 8, 2010)
Mar 3, 2010Monday last week, I attended a founders seminar sponsored by the Work Agency. I already knew most of the seminar content, but the exchange among the participants had been interesting. I even could talk a bit about my experiences from my former shots at self-employment.
When my new tax consultant told me on Tuesday what amount of tax return I can expect for 2008 (cough), I could not help but wonder why I didn't get help with my taxes earlier.
Many hours this week went into my talk titled "Drupal in the Cloud". I held it at DrupalCamp which took place in Essen over the weekend. Judging from the questions I got from the audience, I hit an interesting topic. After the talk, I had conversations with several Drupal service providers that I had start thinking about moving their hosting to us. This and the praise I got for my presentation made the journey worthwhile. If only the storm on Sunday wouldn't have disrupted train traffic so thoroughly that I ended up at my brother's place at midnight because I just couldn't make it all the way home.
Weeknote #-7 (week 7, 2010)
Feb 22, 2010Regarding my new business, the last week was quite short because I went to visit my girlfriend and my daughter at their health resort at the Baltic Sea on Wednesday.
I've decided to change our web meeting service provider. Up until now, I'd used GoToMeeting to do webinars and online trainings. It worked okay; only an audio problem that made people sound like the Chipmunks when I used an USB headset on the Mac had been annoying me for some weeks. Not until Acquia recently switched from GoToWebinar to WebEx, I realized that an important part of our customer base couldn't join our webinars in the first place: There's no Linux client for GoToMeeting. It didn't take me much more time to decide to switch to WebEx, too.
For starters, we won't incorporate. I discussed my plans with my tax consultant and she advised me not to incorporate early on but start lightweight as a sole proprietorship company.
Venomous Porridge: A conversation I have every month or so
Feb 21, 2010
Hilarious but true:
A conversation I have every month or so
Me: (tries to visit a local restaurant’s website via iPhone)
Restaurant website: I require Flash. Fuck off.
Read the full post on venomousporridge.com
Going Freistil
Feb 16, 2010I've been very busy working over the last weeks and months. Busy working on a new (ad)venture: My own business. I decided to pull my old freelance business from the back burner and go full-time. Because I thought that the experiences I'm making along the way could be interesting to some people, this will be the first of (hopefully) many articles about my starting up.
What happened
How did it come that, amidst a recession of all things, I decided to leave my corporate shelter to start my own business?
One could assume I got tired of commuting every day for more than two hours. But the opposite is true: My one-hour train ride to and from the office often was more productive than double the time in the office. I have noise-blocking earphones, so on the train I got interrupted at most once an hour. Try this sharing an office with two other people. Salary reasons then? Well, there certainly are people getting paid a lot more for doing less work and having less responsibility. But no, I got enough to get along fine, and money isn't my top motivation for sure.
The real reason is that I felt I wasn't growing any more, speaking in a professional sense. I realized that certain conditions to further develop my skills and talents had vanished over time. (Maybe I'll describe those conditions a bit more at another time.) I felt a growing incompatibility with my work environment and when I had the opportunity to sign a dissolution contract in October, I decided to take it.
Since then, I've been doing a bit of freelance work from home (or my "office desk" at Starbucks). More importantly, I caught up on the paternity leave I didn't take when Amalia was born. It feels so great to have quality time with my family and at the same time enjoy the freedom to work on the things I have a passion for!
I've thought hard about my next steps. Shouldn't I look for another job providing me and my family security? Oh shoot, it's 2010 and job security a thing of the past. Going into another employment has virtually the same risk as starting your own business nowadays.
But working hard in IT management would at least grant me a decent salary over the next few years, wouldn't it? Yes, it probably would. But why work hard for other people's wallet when I could do the same for my own -- and towards my own goals and to my own rules?
After reading an informative book on how to properly start a business in Germany, I read "Crush It!", "Escape from Cubicle Nation" and "Meconomy". And then I decided to go on a new journey of personal and professional growth by starting a full-time business.
Going freestyle
Now, what kind of business? I've been thinking hard about that question and also talked about it with some friends. I still haven't finished my business concept yet, but it'll certainly involve the things I'm passionate about: high performance information technology, open source software, consulting and training services.
It'll also be about finding new ways of doing things. That's why I chose "Freistil Consulting" as the company name.
What lies ahead
As I said, I'm working on the business concept. I've done a rough business model, but the detailed business plan sketching out all the strategic and financial points will still require some effort: exploring my strengths and weaknesses, checking on chances and threats, talking with my tax consultant, my financial advisor, and, most importantly, with potential clients.
The number one condition is already met, though: I have the official support of my family, for which I'm very grateful.
At the same time, I'm working on the technical side of things, writing concepts as well as building a basic IT infrastructure. I finally understand the general enthusiasm for Amazon EC2.
From now on, I'm going to write regular posts about my experiences growing (with) my business. Having just discovered Weeknotes, it'll probably be in a weekly format. Is there something you're especially interested in? And please tell me your thoughts in the comments, I'll highly appreciate it!
My thinking tools
Feb 16, 2010Just like "good writing comes from writing and not from good writing tools", good thinking doesn't come from good thinking tools. But tools can help you concentrate on the task at hand instead of the environment you're doing it in.
The creative congregation of the Church of Mac seems especially interested in which tools help in getting things done. Summing up many conversations I had on blogs, IM, Twitter and in real life (gasp!), I put together this mind map of the tools I use to collect ideas, thoughts as well as important documents I need to refer to.
In another article, I'll describe my work and data flow when I use those tools.
Take a look and please tell me in the comments what tools we have in common and what your recommendations are!
Understanding Multi-tasking on the iPad: What is it really?
Feb 2, 2010Instead of holding on to your old notions of how computers should work, take a look at what the new offers. The iPad is a half inch thick device, with multi-touch, forever connected to the internet, simplified, focussed, affordable, and most importantly, can be superbly productive. Sure it won’t be just as efficient and productive as your desktop or laptop, and that’s why they will continue to remain production machines, but given the iPad’s size and mobility, I think the lack of traditional multi-tasking is anything but bad design.
Found Footage: The Story of Macintosh
Jan 24, 2010I found this VHS cassette while cleaning my office this week. This "Found Footage" comes from a video tape I received from Apple back in 1984 when the original 128K Mac was introduced. It was part of the authorized dealer training videos given to each store to help them become familiar with the Macintosh. You will see a very young Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Phil Gibbons, Mitch Kapor, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
via tuaw.com
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
Jan 6, 2010I enjoy a good presentation that makes it easy for me to learn new things or that transfers a message in an entertaining way. And noone I know of does it better than Steve Jobs. His keynote at MacWorld 2008 where he introduced the MacBook Air is legen... (wait for it) ...dary!
Carmine Gallo even wrote a book about his presentation style named "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs". And in this SlideShare presentation, he summarizes the key points which push Steve's presentations from good to great.
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
View more presentations from Carmine Gallo.
Interesting, right? I recommend you take the time to watch his MacWorld 2008 keynote (again) and learn how he not only gets his message across, but how he really hammers it home.
Merry Christmas!
Dec 24, 2009
(Image courtesy of Dr. Hemmert)
Another year comes to an end, and it’s been a good one. So I say Thank You to all my friends and readers and to everyone who I met and had a good time during this year.
May the blessing of Christmas be upon you! Enjoy the holidays and have a good start into a new year called 2010.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.
Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.
Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.
Bohemian Muppet Rapsody
Nov 26, 2009via beissholz.de
Videoconferences tend to be not very productive.
Tips for using Google Wave in client projects
Nov 25, 2009
The media hype around Google Wave seems to fade a bit, and since invitations to the service spread, people start looking for practical applications.
What's getting clear is that Wave isn't a replacement for email as the Google I/O premiere presentation suggested. Because Wave's more of a mix between web chat and collaborative document editing, it's more likely to replace my team chat on Campfire some day than it's going to replace Google's own GMail.
Will Kelly tried Wave for a bit of client collaboration and posted his findings on 6 Tips For Using Google Wave On Your First Project. To the people that want to try Google Wave with a client, he suggests:
- Set suitable expectations.
- Do a dry run with a Wave.
- Take control of your Waves.
- Use folders and tags.
- Consider whether to use live editing or attachments.
- Have a Plan B.
Since Google Wave still is a preview version, I'd be careful using it for serious project work. The service still has got many rough edges and misses some extensions and gadgets to add useful functionality. But if your team or some of your clients are open for some early adopting, give it a try! It's fun!
(BTW, if you've been sitting under a rock over the last days and/or noone shared an invitation with you so far, I've got some left. Just leave a comment with your email address if you'd like one.)
Business is not only about the model
Nov 25, 2009I just came across Johannes Kleske's recommendation
and so I took a quick look at the web site of his recommendation, "Business Model Generation". The header says:
Because I highly trust Johannes' book taste, I immediately ordered it. But after going through the PayPal transaction process, I got:
What's the lesson here? Business model is only one part of the equation. The most important part, though, is business execution.
Your claim and your message may be as great as it can be. If you fail at delivery, you're out. (Not that I didn't have to learn this the hard way myself.)
I hope that I'll get the book anyhow and its content trumps their transaction handling.
Another use for Evernote: Collect conference material
Nov 22, 2009Before I'll leave for DrupalCamp Vienna on Thursday night, I'll have some preparations left to do. Where should I gather all the stuff — the hotel confirmation, the train reservation, links to places in Vienna I'd like to see? While many items land inside my email inbox, there also are website snapshots and other documents. And then, there's the material I'll collect at the conference itself: photos, notes, slides etc.
It's great timing that Michael Gray just published his article,
How to Use Evernote to Create the Ultimate Post Conference Reference Guide.
Although I'm already an Evernote premium subscriber, that's a use case I haven't thought of until now. But of course: Evernote will willingly store all the stuff I drop into or email to the notebook "DrupalCamp Vienna" that I just created. With my iPhone, I can shoot snapshots of presentation slides with my iPhone and have them made searchable through the Evernote text recognition mechanism. I'll even be able to record sound snippets to transcribe later. This really makes sense.
Thanks for the tip, Michael!
Inside Rackspace
Nov 21, 2009This short clip takes a peek into the Rackspace Hosting headquarters. They've just opened the 120,000 square foot second phase of their headquarters facility within a former shopping mall in San Antonio.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mZcuY0I_yQ&hl=de_DE&fs=1&]
(via DataCenterKnowledge)
