Press F1 for Help…
Finding the answer in a sea of solutions.

For me RTFM* is not my SOP**.
I’m your typical guy… “I don’t need no stinking manual” and I don’t particularly care for the F1 key either, it’s a waste of my keyboard real estate.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against a “good” manual. However a lot of technical books are filled with tons of regurgitated verbiage and very little real world examples. Same goes for “online help” and the MSDN library. These methods of help are fine to get you started and headed into the right direction, provided you’ve got time to research them.

As for the rest of us… those of us who work on a deadline, those sifting through the muck searching for that small chunk of useful code that will bring our stress level back down into the black... there’s a better solution. It’s called “Social Networking”.  No I’m not talking about your buddy's MySpace page. I’m referring to online communities of people who share the same interests.  Sites like The Code Project and DevX .NET Zone.

Community based sites are driven by its users. These types of sites provide a wealth of real world examples, examples you will not find in any book. They provide forum for discussion, collaboration, and it’s users are not afraid to let you know that “dude, this code sucks” .

Honestly, how many times have you been knee deep in Google results only to find the solution sitting right there on The Code Project the whole time? It’s happened to me on many occasions. Often enough that I make many of these sites my first line of search. I subscribe to their RSS feeds, I engage in online discussion, and even giving back by uploading my own solutions to problems that plagued myself.

These sites were developed by people like you and me who are sick and tired of sifting through the muck. And believe me, we can all use a little less muck and a lot more solutions.


* Read the <Expletive> Manual
 ** Standard Operating Procedure

[Web 1.0: Old Habits Die Hard is part two in a series of blogs that will summarize a presentation I delivered at the Northwest Arkansas Marketing Summit on September 20th concerning using technology to grow your business.  Part one can be read here.]

I graduated from college in 1995 with degrees in Communications and Political Science.  I typed my papers on typewriter and did my research in a library.  After graduation I moved to Dallas.  It was during this move while listening to the radio in the U-Haul that I heard a story on the news that peaked my interest in the Internet.  Not long after I joined the 16 million other people who were online in 1995. 

Early innovators like Jeff Bezos recognized the value of the Internet as a platform for buying a selling merchandise.  Ebay came along and helped us get rid of the junk we were buying online and didn’t really need.  AOL helped us get online in a safe and easy manner, and Jerry Yang started Yahoo to help us find stuff online.  These companies were having IPO’s and serious money was being made.  Investment bankers and VC’s were throwing money at any idea that ended in .com.  The world was good with the Internet and by 2000 more than 361 million people were online!

So, what went wrong that led to the .com crash in the early part of this new millennium?

Web 1.0 was characterized by an extreme rush to simply have a website.  Most sites were focused on content or commerce.  The revenue model for content sites was selling advertisement and the model for ecommerce sites was about owning the customer which would eventually, or so it was thought, lead to profits.   Sites that sold stuff paid the sites that put content online to send people to their sites so they could sell them stuff – many times below cost and without charging for shipping.

In other words, the television model of advertising was carried over to the Internet where content was paid for by advertisement.  The low barrier to entry in getting a website online and the rapid growth of the Internet escalated a problem that we are now seeing played out in television.  The collapse of Web 1.0 could be summarized by the following problems that now plague television:
 

1. The number of sites and people online increased dramatically lowering the value of an ad impression (If you advertised online during this period you’ll recall that pricing was based on the number of times your ad was viewed).
2. People are extremely un-loyal to a site.  It was very easy to find lower priced sites for the same item by doing an online search.  In other words, there was no such thing as “owning” the customer.
3. When we have too many choices and limited time we ignore stuff – especially advertisement.  (How many of you record your favorite TV show and watch it later so you can skip the commercials?)

The Internet business model that assume people would pay attention to their advertisements and remain their loyal customers forever crashed miserably.  But, even before the Internet crashed, some companies had already seen the light and were laying the foundations for what we now refer to as Web 2.0 – the topic of my next post.

A business recap is a formal document that clearly and concisely recaps a meeting for both attendees and non-attendees. The overview below is the recap style I have adopted.  For a template example, see Part 2b: Meeting Recap Template or download a MS Word version of my template here.

There are 5 main sections to a good business recap.  I will highlight each section with an explanation and example.

Section 1: Set the Stage
Your reader will usually be a supervisor or colleague.  They may or may not have attended the meeting, so they need to be brought up to speed quickly on what the meeting is, when it took place and who was in attendance.  Lay it out in a consistent and clear manner.

Team:

This recaps the Donutville Web Scoping Meeting on September 28, 2007.  Attendees: Reagen Kirkland (Donutville) and John Scott Bull (Rockfish Interactive). 

Section 2: State the Purpose
Clearly state the purpose of the meeting in one sentence.  This sets the stage for the details that follow.

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss details related to the development of Donutville.com. 

Section 3: Content and Details
This is an area that should ALWAYS utilize bullets and lists.  They are easier to read and easier to organize.  Title this section to draw attention to it because it is what the reader is most interested in.  Below, I have titled it “Subjects Discussed”.  Subtitles are also utilized to further organize the content.

Subjects Discussed:
General Items:

• The site development will move in phases by component. 
• Rockfish is to move forward with the following components:
  • Redesign of Homepage
  • Development of custom sprinkles component 

Homepage Redesign:

• The site will have an intro with an exploding donut that levels the town. 
• Donutville would like to feature 4 colors of sprinkles on the exploding donut.

Custom Sprinkles Component:

• Donutville has a problem with crying children destroying their stores with jelly guns because their sprinkles are not the preferred color. 
• Custom colored sprinkles need to be ordered via the website in advance so children do not injure any more Donutville employees with the jelly guns.  

Tip: when writing a recap, I type each of my notes as a bullet point, and then I go back and organize them into sections.  This gives me a clear view of needed subtitles and helps produce a more organized document. Another thing that helps is to categorize notes while you take them by using special markings.  For example, I always use a star to highlight a ‘next-step’ in my notes.

Section 4: Next Steps
Aside from the content, this is the most important section.  Be sure to recap next steps prior to leaving the meeting so that all parties are on the same page.  Following the meeting, restate the next steps in your recap as confirmation. 

Whenever possible, assign items to individuals and give due dates to set clear expectations and keep the group on schedule. 

Next Steps:

1. Reagen Kirkland to specify sprinkle colors for homepage by October 4th.
2. Reagen Kirkland to specify sprinkle colors for homepage by October 4th.
3. Rockfish to complete revision of current site with homepage animation by October 31st.
4. Next meeting set for October 15th at Rockfish office to review progress.

Section 5: Closure
I always close recaps with the following sentence because it leaves an open invitation for follow-up with the client and colleagues.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

John Scott Bull
john.bull@rockfishinteractive.com
www.rockfishinteractive.com

Next Time: We are going to tackle the lost art of Thank You notes.  Your mom may have taught you, but I’ll offer a great refresher course on this terrific business tool that is extremely underutilized.

Below is a Meeting Recap Template that I have prepared.  I have also made a MS Word version of the below template available for download here. 

I have highlighted the areas you need to replace with blue text.  If you copy and paste this template into an e-mail editor, it may format strangely.  Just review to be sure it matches the format below. 

Team:

This recaps the Meeting Name Meeting on Month Day, Year.  Attendees: Attendee 1, Attendee 2 and Attendee 3 (Company 1); Attendee 4 and Attendee 5 (Company 2).  

The purpose of this meeting was to state the purpose. 

Subjects Discussed:
Subtopic 1:

• Bullet 1 
• Bullet 2

Subtopic 2:

• Bullet 1 
• Bullet 2

Subtopic 3:

• Bullet 1 
• Bullet 2

Next Steps:

1. Next Step 1
2. Next Step 2
3. Next Step 3
4. Next Step 4

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Your Name and Signature 

I'm not here to debate how Firefox dominates Internet Explorer or vice versa. No I'm here to talk about the silent battle we as web developers face each day as we strive "to make this look easy".

To put it simple… developing for the web is like dating multiple people at the same time and trying to please them all.  Anyone who develops applications for the web knows immediately what I am talking about. Those who do not… well this post is for you!

Nothing breaks our workspace silence like "what in the @!&$"... this sound usually means one of two things.  My frogs are barking again (yes I have a frog terrarium behind my desk)... or someone just pulled up their beautiful design in (insert your favorite browser here) and it looks like total crud.  Ah yes, what looks great in one browser will almost always look slightly different in another.

So how do we as developers deal with this? Well, while we try to make it look easy... truth is, that is not always the case. All of our developers have a minimum of 3 browsers installed on their computers with another 3 installed on test machines just down the hall.  So that's a minimum of 6 browsers to test on for those of you that were not counting.

I'll summarize:
• Internet Explorer 6
• Internet Explorer 7
• Firefox for Windows
• Firefox for Mac
• Safari for Windows
• Safari for Mac
• I'll throw in Opera just for fun (and a laugh)

Now you would at least think things would remain consistent between OS versions right? Not always the case.  So what do we do? Well since we can't force the general public to switch to Firefox (as much as I would like to) we TEST, TEST, and TEST again. Then test some more.

As we strive to maintain a perfect balance of "Production vs. Perfection", exceptions will always be there to bite you. Web technology is constantly changing and we as developers remain in a perpetual learning process.

So as you leave from work at 5:00 to head home to your family, just remember... there's a nerd out there banging his head on his keyboard all night, just to make your website look great.