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• TheNextWeb.com - Tech News & Insights

  

  I found TheNextWeb while looking for information about wearables (great seo by the way) Wearables are technology devices that you wear.  I discovered a passage called Wearables Reach Employees in an article by JT Ripton titled 6 Technology Trends for 2016.
  
  My interest in wearable is in how they can be useful and monetized in the private sector.  Clearly, the applications for police, fire rescue and military are needed and in the future may be looked upon as how could we have ever done without them.  But, other than convenience what applications do they really hold?  Now after reading the article, from a psychology viewpoint the the possibilities are endless.  Here's an exert:
  
  Some companies are giving wearables to their employees on the ground for second-by-second inventory updates.  Others are using them internally to see how their corporate employees interact.
  
  Read the full article here at TheNextWeb.
  
  I am surprised I had not come across TheNextWeb.com sooner.  Their site has the best layout and quality of articles that I've had the pleasure of reading in a long time.  I strongly recommend bookmarking it and check out the Insights and Offers sections.  It's at the top of my reading list now.

• Brand Building and Web Development

  Brand Building is Web Development
  
  When setting out to develop a new website for a client the first thing to consider is their brand. Defining a brand is a lot like writing a business plan for an organization. Who's their customer, what is their demographic, current corporate culture and visibility across all media along with consistency regarding these representations. Sometimes a client expects development of a website to be just stamping out code, but it's much more artistry and expertise than that going on to get it right. I wouldn't just start nailing boards together if I were a builder, the site, direction, watershed, parking, permits and a 100 other items need to be considered before breaking ground. The same holds true for web development and I would recommend reading up on these sites listed below about building your brand before developing the wrong site for your business.
  
  First, have or get the right domain name. Brandgy.com can clue you in as to why that's so important. Learn about branding your business with these no nonsense guides available through HowToBuildABrand.org These folks out of the UK know what they are doing and it's explained in a way that you can see how it effects other facets of your business. SearchEngineJournal.com puts the technical edge on your brand strategy. Their site maybe a good read for the more technically inclined, but getting found is what it's all about going forward into 2018 and beyond.

• Population Growth - Part Deux

  
  A little more on the challenges of population growth in this article going from 2011 on to 2050.  Solidia Tech recognizes the CO2 emission problem that is present and growing.  Focusing just on the housing that will be necessary for 9.3 billion people, we need to start building now in all sectors, residential commercial and don't forget the prisons.
  
  Not only do the building processes needs to make changes for cleaner manufacturing, where are these people going to go?  If you understand the impact, building single family homes seems like wasting precious space and any new construction should be at least 15 stories tall.   As a species on this planet, we, all nations, need to be united in building and designing mega-cities worldwide now.  Your grand kids will thank you.
  
  Imaging cities like Birmingham, AL in 30 years getting as large as Sao Paulo Brazil is today.  And, this will be the new average worldwide.  China is building islands in the sea now.  Add a comment below, you do not have to be member to post.  All posts are moderated.
  
  
• My COVID-19 Policy - Work Harder

  
  
  By now you have probably gotten an email from every company that you have ever visited on their COVID policy.  No need to rehash washing your hands and social distancing here.  The point that I want to stress is that we are all in this together, locally and globally, and it's going to take all of us to beat this thing.

  I work for the government in my day job, maintaining transmitters along the coast of South Carolina.  The government is just people.  Some very hard working people that perform jobs that in the private sector usually pays much more for the same work.  But, boil it all down, and it's just people helping people.

  In times of crisis's past, like the hurricanes we've had, we didn't get extra pay or bonuses, just a good feeling at the end of the day that we made a difference.  Getting through this is going to be difficult, but not something we can't do.

  There are always two options you have in any situation.  One is to do nothing.  With COVID doing nothing is actually a good thing.  Stay at home and you're not part of the problem.  The second option is to try harder.  I have to credit my father with that one.  He was part of what they now call the greatest generation, but the greatest generation is really yet to come.  We are all products of these generations, we are the hybrids.  Let's try a little harder and figure this out.  Figure out what you can do to help.

  Sure it's scary, we see exactly how fragile our world is.  And, the big brains say it's going to get worse before it gets better, but we will get through it and come out stronger. Helping others is really the name of the game.

  Check on your neighbors, have empathy and employ compassion.  We are all going through a lot.  I want to be able to reflect back at the End of the Plague party and know I had a hand in making the world a better place.  I may not invent a miracle vaccine, but I help keep emergency communications online over here, inspire hope and I lend a helping hand.  I am very grateful for the medical, fast food, grocery workers and everyone involved in all these chains that keeping us moving forward.

  Do your part and work harder. Patience, courtesy and humor go along way, act like you've been somewhere.  Maybe this will spark a spiritual revolution when we finally realize that we are all the same, and that we are all connected.

• Business Blunders - Don't be a Blockbuster

  
  Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, but this one I just can't see how the management team didn't see the future of their business.  Back in 2000 the internet was more than thriving and Blockbuster could have bought Netflix for a mere 50 million.  As of today Netflix is worth over 128 billion, down from and all time high of 180 billion.  In the summer of 2000, Blockbuster CEO John Antioco said "The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown".  His council went on to state how the business models of Netflix and just about every other online business were not sustainable and would never make any money.  That statement couldn't be any more wrong then than it is now.  Read the full article here on Inc.com
  
  How did these guys not see that by delivering their product online would eliminate all of their overhead, shipping and logistical nightmares.  Yes, management and vision are two different things, but they shouldn't be.  Doesn't matter what business you are in either, not only do you need a strong online presence, there is an evolution going on of how your customers will interact with you and not just on social media.  Developers are building virtual realities to showcase products.  Imagine if your customers could experience your products before they buy.  This will be very popular with the gaming generation as they become the most powerful purchasers of consumer goods in 10 years.
  
  If you haven't read the worst business blunders in tech history I would suggest Googling that phrase and see what you get.  Branding blunders are even more common and they happen all the time.  Avoid a brand blunder and start with a great domain name.  A strong domain name is the foundation for enticing and retaining customers with a memorable name.  Your domain name also attracts B2B partners and lays the ground floor for building supplemental income streams.  Streams turn into rivers and maybe even into a whole new business model for your companies' survival.  Have some vision and get creative.

• Writing is the Core of Web Development

  Writing is a huge part of building a great website and also the point where most sites fall short. Writing content isn't easy for most developers, they are good with the technical end and years ago with Visual Basic, I remember contests where it would challenge developers to write a function with less words last guy. Kind of like the show Name That Tune, where contestants had to identify a song within a few beats. Writers do a similar thing with landing the hook in the first sentence of a book. The challenge is can you grab the reader's attention and hold it with the first sentence. I've come up with a great one for a book I'll finish someday so I'm not going to reveal it here. One of my favorite comes from British historian and author Stewart Colette in his book Mumba. Here it is, "When you fall in love after the age of thirty, it's usually with someone else's wife." And, the Snoopy classic, "It was a dark and stormy night".

  I enjoy writing without all the syntax and code sometimes, simply just to paint the picture with words is a true art, almost a lost art. Programming is art form, too. It's satisfying building a site and seeing it all come together, both form and function. The only drawback to coding is that the language changes often and web programming is an incorporation of many languages. For people outside the industry this would be like having to do your job in Russian and Italian starting next month. It has stabilized in the last 7 years and that's made development very productive.

  There's a lot to learn in web development, you have to be a designer, graphic artist, software developer, marketing professional and author to make something worth going to.  I am a one man band that enjoys getting it all done. If you're looking to have some work done, I'm looking for a good client.  Feel free to call or send a message and let's see what you have in mind.