December 11, 2009
Back (way back) when I first started developing an interest in computers, I took an intro to computers class at a local junior college near where I lived in Arlington, Texas. What really got me going was learning how to use flowcharts to help write simple programs using the Basic language. Why was that such a motivator? Because I could actually see how each command connected to the other commands to make the program work.
That was a long time ago (a really long time ago) and I’ve seen time and time again how explaining a technology process to a non-technologically inclined person was always a lot easier if I could help them “see” the connections. This morning, when I was reading one of my daily technology newsletters, I read a blog post by Toni Bowers, one of my favorite bloggers at Tech Republic, about how important it is to be able to explain a technological topic in non-technical terms. I invite you to read Toni’s article and let me know what methods you, as an IT professional, use to educate non-technological end-users or what methods you, as a non-tekkie have found to be the most effective in helping you understand technical topics.
Posted in Hardware, Internet, Podcasting, Tech Tips, blogging, software, training 
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August 25, 2009
I use 2003 and have probably used every version of Word previous to that one. If you use an earlier version of Microsoft’s word processing program and are thinking about upgrading, you may need to get that upgrade before October.
Judge Leonard Davis has ruled in favor of Toronto-based i4i, Inc. in it’s patent infringement suit against Microsoft. The company claimed, and Judge Davis agreed, that Microsoft “unlawfully infringed on i4i’s patent through the use of a built-in XML editor.” Although Windows Vista and .NET Framework were also named in the suit, they were not included in the ruling. What this means for Microsoft is that they’ve been enjoined from selling or supporting new copies of Word 2003 or 2007 in the United States and have also been ordered to pay i4i, Inc. $240 million in damages and costs.
For complete details about the ruling and Microsoft’s impending appeal, read the article on Information Week.
UPDATE August 24: Judge grants Microsoft’s request for an appeal hearing
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August 3, 2009
In this, the final part of our series on business trending in 2009, we discuss tips for not only effectively incorporating social media into your business, but also how to avoid mistakes.
DO:
- establish relationships with your followers
- provide excellent customer service to your social networking clients (and ALL clients)
- provide regular updates to your followers
- acknowledge your followers
- follow other people who provide updates on topics in which you are interested
- establish a dialog with other Tweeters
- put the “social” back into Social Media
- Re-Tweet information you see that may be interesting or helpful to your followers
- Search groups on Facebook and LinkedIn
DON’T:
- be afraid to jump in and explore social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
- create a social networking account and be inactive
- SPAM
- use your social networking account as a forum for yourself only
- Follow somebody just because they’re following you
Today’s show was a great example of social networking. We had several visitors to our chat room and a caller on the line who all joined us because of a Tweet about the show from one of us.
Join Kim and me to wrap up this series by sharing our favorite social networking tools and what we’ve learned from using social media. Once again, our intro/exit music is from The Podsafe Network and the artist is William Saunders. Kim, hope you enjoyed your very first Rooster song!
Posted in Views From The Coop No Comments »
July 30, 2009
On this show, Paige and Kim welcome back Jerrilyn Thomas to discuss incorporating social media into your business.
Do you Twitter? Are you on Facebook? Do you stay Linked In? If you can answer “YES!” to any of these questions, you’ll be glad you listened to this episode, especially if you’re struggling with how to incorporate these social media tools into your business. In Part V, we introduce various social media tools and what to do to successfully integrate them into your business efforts. In Part VI coming up, we’ll be talking about ways NOT to incorporate social media into your business.
Posted in Views From The Coop No Comments »
July 9, 2009
I just read a thought provoking blog post by Alan Weiss, consultant, speaker, author and owner of Summit Consulting Group. Alan asks the question:
“If a client is best served by a problem being remediated quickly, or an innovation being implemented rapidly, or an improvement being installed momentarily, then why isn’t the consultant charging for the velocity of the work rather than for the duration?”
- Alan Weiss of Contrarian Consulting
This is a question that’s been in the back of my mind (and sometime it’s WAY upfront) ever since I went into business for myself. If you provide a service rather than a product, it’s not always easy to put a price on that service. Most of us just end up charging an hourly fee. That brings up several questions:
- How do you decide what your time is worth?
- How do you justify providing the same results to different clients and charging them different amounts because it took longer to achieve those results for one than it did the other?
- If I can do something for a client in 15 minutes that gives them a better value than something it takes me 3 hours to do, why should I charge less for the more valuable result?
- If it takes me 3 hours to do something that provides very little value to my client, is it ethical to charge them for my time?
My personal struggle has been with clients who request constant revisions throughout the course of website development. They tell you they want one thing but then they decide they want something else. If I charge a straight hourly fee, these clients end up frustrated because it seems like it takes them forever to get the results they want and I’m frustrated because I don’t like charging them a whopping fee for what I could have provided for them in a lot less time if they hadn’t been asking for constant revisions. What to do? What to do?
If you’re a service provider or consultant (especially if you’re a web designer/developer) I’d like to know how you bill your clients. Do you charge like a lawyer, or like FedEx?
Posted in Business Resource 4 Comments »
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