Our very own Steve Zehngut has a presentation up for consideration at SXSW Interactive this year and we’d love to have it chosen.

Steve’s presentation focuses on breaking down the communication barriers that can make working with a developer more difficult than it needs to be. The presentation will cover Interviewing Your Potential Developer, Planning & Project Managment, Using A Version Control System, and Bug Reporting. The session will give the audience a reality check on how to go about working with a developer to get a custom WordPress site (or any digital project) built on time and on budget.

Questions Answered

• What questions should I ask when interviewing a developer?
• What are the communication pitfalls that I should avoid?
• How can clients get involved in project management?
• What is version control and how does it benefit me?
• What is the best way to handle bug reporting?

So, help  Steve out. Click Here To Vote

Of course, I could make excuses and say that this visual clutter is the reason for my consistent lack of consistency in writing here. But I won’t.  Those are demons to exorcise another day. Suffice it to say, we need to eat our own dog food and stop putting our site last on our development list.

So, today I submitted my ideas for how the site should be organized to our designer. I must have changed these wireframes 20 times over the past few weeks, but I think I’ve finally settled on something that will remove the clutter, get us focused and make Steve and the rest of the team happy at the same time.

For those who want to play along, I thought I’d share parts of the process with you. The first step – wireframes. For those who are unfamiliar, a wireframe is “a basic visual guide used in interface design to suggest the structure of a website and relationships between its pages.” A designer (in this case, our designer, Kiran) uses this basic visual guide to direct her efforts when laying out her interpretation of the graphic elements. What she delivers back are three or four beautiful graphics that are based on this UI direction.

The graphics in this post represent the home page and one inside page structure and were created using Omnigraffle. I hope you enjoying taking a look into the process. I’ll be back when I’ve got some comps to share.

While there is cognitive recognition of this by most of the clients we work with, this is not a concept that is quickly internalized. In the early phases of many projects, we find that even the most sophisticated and educated of clients find themselves distracted by the lure of pretty graphics way too early in the process. When bidding on projects this is particularly true. A heavy emphasis is placed on visual design and the critical  issues of function, how the site is built, special software requirements, and where and how the site will be hosted often take a back seat.

The most creative aspects of site design are often unable to be seen in the browser.

Creative design is subjective. Whether a site can handle a traffic spike created by a link from a highly influential website, like The Drudge Report is not. The design of the hosting services, the architecture of the content management system, and the way different pieces of software work together to insure that a site stays up and working can and should be as as creative as the visual design.

One of the mistakes we see a lot of clients make is basing the decision about what company should build their site on the look of the visuals in a portfolio. If impressive visual design is not backed up by equally impressive programming skills and system knowledge, your project may look good and not function in a way that supports your business objectives.

Design plays an important role in whether a site will be used properly by those who visit it, this is a fact. Great visual design makes a site simple to navigate and leads the visitor to the pages you want them to spend time on. But it is just one of the factors you should be considering when choosing your site developer.

Here are some other factors you should consider.

• When your developer describes your project, are they leading the technology brainstorming or merely reacting to features that you have requested?
• Are they using a home baked platform to build your website? If so, this may lock you in to working with that developer to make what would be minor changes with someone else.
• What open source platforms is your developer familiar with?
• How involved is your developer in the open source community?
• What kinds of “pet” projects is your developer working on?
• Is your developer showing you multiple possibilities to help achieve your goals?
• Is your developer sought out for their opinions?
• What associations is your developer actively taking part in?
• What conferences do they attend?

Feel free to add to our list in your comments.

“We don’t get things wrong because we are uninformed and lazy and stupid and evil. We get things wrong because we get things right. The more scientists understand about cognitive functioning, the more it becomes clear that our capacity to err is utterly inextricable from what makes the human brain so swift, adaptable, and intelligent.” via The bright side of wrong.

It aligns with a concept I first heard uttered by Margaret Wheatley in Leadership And The New Science; “Nature loves order, but gets there via chaos.” I believe this is an undeniable truth.

It makes me want to make more mistakes.

Greg Meyer, from Gist, does not. We received this in the mail today. It was a followup to our face-to-face meeting at Buzzre Portland and conversations about their upcoming API release. We’ve had several digital conversations on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, email and even a GoToMeeting session, but in the midst of all that, this handwritten note stands out. It cuts through the noise like a knife.

We now have “design a card we can use to send handwritten notes” on our to do list. Thanks, Greg.

I put together some Wordle-based illustrations after REBarcamp Charlotte and they were well received, but I decided to do something a bit different with the data collected for REBarcamp St. Louis. The video below was triggered by two things. First, I lost most of the morning data by accidentally closng the Tweetgrid.com/irc window, so much of the data was lost for the day. Second, so few people were sharing information and so few tweets were created that it made any valuable analysis impossible. The truth, we need better listening tools.

The Prezi used for this video can be found here: #rebcstl prezi

And for the most part, the UI changes they’ve made in the upcoming iPhone software, iOS4, are major improvements. And since I use a lot of apps, the ability to group applications by type is one of my favorite new features. However, what I think is missing is the ability to select an application icon or category icon to represent the grouping when viewing an unopened folder. While there is a tremendous overall improvement in the speed with which I can find any specific app, the ability to quickly glance and understand photo content without having to read the folder names would be a huge help.

I’ll take this iOS4 UI over the old UI any day. I’m very happy. The video below will help explain why I could be just a little happier. And don’t we all just want to be a little happier?

9:20 am: The crowd is beginning to gather. This wine bar makes an interesting location. We’ll see how it works out for the sessions

9:43 am: @Andykaufman talked me into leading a session with him on mobile… hard to lead and live blog, but I’ll try.

iPhones, EVO’s & Droids, Oh My!

9:50 am: Andy asked how many iPhone users were thinking about switching phones. Vast majority of group is using the iPhone.

9:59 am: “I think the next gen iPhone is the perfect RE tool. The ability to edit video is a key” – @jerrykidd

10:07 am: “As a broker, creating content on the fly creates real opportunities for mistakes.” – @genariede

10:12 am: The crowd at the mobile session is highly participative.

10:13 am: @jerrykidd recommends “print n share” for the iPhone.

10:23 am: Interesting discussion about the relative value of testing vs talking on the phone, accuracy, conveying emotion, etc. I feel like the balance of the crowd is leaning toward higher levels of texting.

10:25 am: There are real dangers in the ubiquity of access to data via mobile technology. Andy asked how many have considered a communications policy to limit access. Interesting question.

10:26 am: How many have a communications policy to limit access?

Automated Social Media Marketing Systems via @pkitano

“My background is in developing media companies. So this is going to be a completely different approach to real estate social media.”

11:07 am: “First engage your community.”

11:08 am: “Local advertising doesn’t work because a cpm model doesn’t work.”

11:11 am: What works in local advertising? 1. Immediate discounts. 2. Making it easy to find a place to find a local service. “You need to become the local media for your community.”

11:14 am: “All local news will be user generated at some point.”

This is more about @pkitano’s product than an REBarcamp session, but he’s raising some interesting points.

11:22 am: Groupon – what makes it interesting is the deep discounts they can offer. They sell at deep discount and take 50% of the gross. They are now segmenting their market even smaller to access deeper local involvement. There are now at least 10 Groupon imitators in San Francisco alone.

11:24 am: Local ad power – “I rarely go to any restaurant without a coupon now.”

What Pat is suggesting is that real estate agents use an automated system to become a local media channel and create value for their community by creating local advertising outlets. Focus is on creating on a specific location and providing an aggregation point for user generated local content.

What is the need for a revenue model via advertising if the goal is to sell real estate? “It’s to create quid pro quo opportunities for the community.”

“From my experience, with over 4000 followers, I only average 40 clicks on any link on Twitter.” @jerrykidd

11:46 am: Pat is making a connection between automated local news Twitter streams and the 365 Things Facebook page ideas and the consistency of the content and ease of creation.

Twitter: Fad Or Effective Marketing Tool

If I were to base an opinion on what I’m hearing in this session, I’d say it’s was fad. I find that Twitter conversations that focus solely on broadcast tactics woefully miss the mark.

2:22 pm: Fad Or Business Tool?

2:32 pm: Relative to business, I think Twitter is one of the most misunderstood social sites.

2:49 pm: I do like the way this Twitter session has navigated… Lively conversation. Thanks @christellez

The End

3:05 pm: Tamara And Laura Close It Out

Building An Online Marketing Strategy by @garrons

10:43 am: “Consider using the Internet.”

10:46 am: “Before you blaze out of here with all of these tool ideas, take a step back and look at ‘the moment’ when new appointments are set. If you understand what drove that moment, you’re way ahead of the game.”

Garron is talking about three sites, for three different agents that are archetypes of conversation points. Each one represents each agent’s “moment” points.

1. Showing requests prospecting DB.

2. Sphere referral, direct inquiries, prospecting sign ups.

3. Sphere referral, IRL meetings.

10:57 am: @garrons is talking about blogs that are designed to support real life relationships, not Google. clairewidmark.com is not designed to attract search engines, it’s designed to support what Claire actually does each day to get to the moment.

10:59 am: “Realize when you find something interesting & ask, ‘how can I share that?”

11:00 am: Garron getting animated.

11:02 am: “I want my website to reflect me in a way I’m proud of. I want to be proud to share my site because it reflects who I am.”

11:06 am: “Take a look at your online presence. If it does not reflect YOU and how you connect with clients, you will not be as succesful in your online marketing efforts.”

11:08 am: “Utilize supportive tools. Understand your community & use tools that work.”

I want more on “the moment” concept from @garrons

Creating A Successful Real Estate Hub By @tyr

“Your real estate business comes from your ‘sphere’ and yet most tools are direct to consumer and doesn’t play to your existing skills.”

11:14 am: The agent business cycle.

11:17 am: “Tools fall into 3 areas, lead generation, client management & sphere building.”

11:18 am: Building your sphere: Facebook, Twitter, Blog

11:21 am: Keys to Facebook success: 1. Super easy. 2. Awesome referral marketing tool. 3. Focus on status updates.

11:23 am: 365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA is a great example of a Facebook fan page that has impact in increasing sphere of influence. Created by @dalechumbley

11:25 am: Facebook tracks the “influence” and interaction on your fan page. The greater the level of interection, the more Facebook promotes the page.

11:27 am: “You need to have a solid hub for your social media activities, a place to lead people to.”

11:28 am: “A blog is just a series of emails to the world.”

11:29 am: Lead generation has to happen from your hub. The first step is having a hub you’re proud to show off.

11:30 am: “Your hub has to have dynamic content. The content must change!”

11:31 am: “Your hub must have home search.”

11:32 am: “You really need to be able to prospect against the database you create.”

11:33 am: CRM –> Conversion

CRM Keys

11:36 am: 1. Get them into the CRM! 2. Observe activity and track behavior. 3. Know when to ask for business, understand the trigger.

11:37 am: “Most important: make your blog the hub of your agent business cycle.”

11:52 am: Dale Chumbley & John Payson close the morning w/ a discussion of their strategies.

Afternoon Breakout Sessions

1:17 pm: mugtug.com <– had not heard of this one. @1000wattjoel is detailing apps that help you move to the cloud. This one is an online photo editor.

1:19 pm: blacktonic.com allows you to tell a story with your slides. Entirely web-based.

1:22 pm: Joel Burslem presents the cloud.

1:24 pm: notableapp.com is mostly designed for websites, but will work for any document or image to notate changes you’d like made to the document. Entirely browser-based.

1:30 pm: @1000wattjoel thinks mailchimp.com is the best email marketing site.

1:33 pm: squarespace.com is being discussed, but it’s “cool” features have been replicated in themes like Headway for WordPress. It has lost it’s luster for me.

1:36 pm: Note to self: take a look at kissinsights.com

Lifestyle Branding: Why It Matters by @bhgre_wendy

Shifting gears. Wendy will be focusing on strategy. Pointing out the differences between traditional and lifestyle branding. This is a shift away from commodity features to values and aspirations and vehicles for self expression.

1:47 pm: Wendy Forsythe

1:48 pm: “Informed consumers & pervasive technology = consumers in control.”

1:49 pm: There are 73 million echo boomers… the next generation of agents and consumers driving change.

1:51 pm: “The traditional business model of real estate is old fashioned & broken.”

1:53 pm: How do we fix the model?

1:55 pm: “RE brands were built on ego & status quo.This won’t work going forward.”

1:57 pm: “Leave the past behind.” The focus needs to move to value, quality, design, innovation and relationship. Relationship is the glue that holds it all together.

2:00 pm: “C-Level Life – Complete Consumer Control” What does today’s consumer want? Simplicity, speed, scrutiny, customization, innovation, freedom, entertainment, collaboration, transparency.

2:01 pm: “Brand interaction is a dialogue -requires integrity, authenticity, performance.”

2:07 pm: “One of the mistakes we make in building our brand is being to generic.”

2:15 pm: @bhgre_wendy is using @tboard & @locoheather’s blogs to illustrate community focus.

2:17 pm: Recommendations: 1. Focus your branding on neighborhoods and communities. 2. Focus your branding on lifestyle.

Traditional branding is out. Lifestyle branding is in.

Why Your Name Matters Most – @barryhurd

“We’re all Big Foot to people searching for us online.” They’ve never seen us, all they can learn about us must be pieced together from what they find online. What will they find?

2:42 pm: “48% of searches on Google are based on names.”

2:45 pm: “If I know people are searching for me, I may as well manage my appearance.”

2:51 pm: Barry Hurd

2:55 pm: Interesting ideas about putting ads for yourself on searches for your name. I’ve never looked at the ads associated with my name results on Google.

2:57 pm: “One reason why tweeting matters: it occupies search results quickly.”

2:58 pm: Video matters for the same reasons, especially on YouTube.

3:03 pm: Showing Webmynd’s Firefox plugin to move Google ads out of the way to get quick snapshots of someone your searching for information on.

3:07 pm: www.SocialMention.com allows the export of search results to an RSS feed and excel spreadsheet.

3:09 pm: Note to self: take a look at addictomatic.com

Barry’s presentation is available at slideshare.net/123socialmedia

Implementation Without Procrastination, Frustration or Complication by @darinpersinger

Darin is discussing the fears that keep us from making a choice and moving forward. Began his discussion with the MIT Door Study on fear of loss.

3:30 pm: Darin Persinger

3:34 pm: Encouraging action –> “You’re already ready.”

3:36 pm: rescuetime.com monitors how much time you spend on web sites and shuts them off to you if you’ve exceeded preset limits.

3:37 pm: Identify and focus: “What is the one thing that I will start doing tomorrow morning.”

3:38 pm: Motivation: “Is this something I really want to do?”

3:39 pm: Focus: eliminate, delegate, don’t complicha

3:45 pm: Implement: hesitation is a productivity killer. “Just do it.”

The Future Of The Real Estate Brokerage

4:19 pm: Great conversation:

Click here to download the plugin immediately.

…

This video will walk you through the process of exporting your ActiveRain XML file and importing it into your WordPress blog. This is for self-hosted wordpress blogs only.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bug Reporting

Problems are going to occur. The way your developer handles problems is what sets good developers apart from bad ones. I have never found a website that was 100% bug free; not even the largest websites. Knowing this ahead of time may help you handle problems more rationally.

Do your best to keep emotion and drama out of the situation. When a problem arises, take a deep breath and count to 10. Most emergencies are usually resolved very quickly. What may seem like a major problem to you might actually be a minor technical problem that your developer can fix in 5 minutes.

Your bug reporting procedure should be established during the planning phase of your project. You and your developer should agree on how emergencies are handled as well as non-emergencies. You need to agree first on what constitutes an emergency. Typically on our projects, an emergency is when any part of the site is not accessible by the public. This happens when either a page fails to load or the server is acting slow for some reason. For all other situations, we have our clients submit a ticket to our project management system.

Developers do not like guesswork. When reporting a bug, don’t send an email to your developer with something like “My site isn’t working.” Lack of detail is very frustrating for you developer and the “hunting” time can cost you extra money.

Good bug reporting is an art form that can take some practice to master. To report a bug, you need to give as much detail as possible in a concise document.  Start by giving a brief description of the issue in plain English. Don’t try to analyze any technical issues.

Then, give the exact steps to reproduce the problem. Tell your developer exactly what you were doing at the time the problem occurred. Also, include your operating system, browser version and any virus or firewall software you might be running.

An easy way to send your system details to your developer is http://supportdetails.com. Our customer service people at Real Estate Shows use this site extensively. When a customer reports a problem, they have the customer send an email from that site.

VERY IMPORTANT! When reporting problems, make sure you specify the priority. Be realistic. Is this a mission critical problem? Can it wait a few days? A week? If you don’t regularly specify a priority, your developer should get into the habit of asking the priority.

If your site is inaccessible, check out http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com before contacting your developer. This site will let you know if the problem is limited to just you or if the public is experiencing it as well.

A Few Additional Tips

Brainstorming is a good thing, but there is a fine line between brainstorming and feature creep. As you see your project being built, your mental wheels will start to spin. You will be thinking of additional enhancements to these features. However, if you want them added in your current working phase, be prepared to revise your statement of work. There will be an impact on the schedule and/or budget.

Many developers speak in languages that sometimes I don’t even understand. You will hear them refer to technology using terms and acronyms that will make your head spin. And they will rattle them off like you are supposed to know exactly what they are referring to. When this happens, make Wikipedia and Google your friend. Jot down the terminology and look it up later.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that many of the horror stories that I hear could have been avoided with clear communication. While there are a few bad seeds, I believe that most developers are not maliciously screwing up projects. Several factors may have contributed to projects that went wrong. If you have a developer horror story, I encourage you to look back at what could have been done differently to avoid the problem(s). Learn from it so that you don’t fall into the same trap next time around.

6:46 pm: And the crowd begins to gather for the OC WordPress meetup.

6:56 pm: Just another photo test.

Let’s Get This Party Started

7:01 pm: @zengy is explaining the Live Blog app. This will be tweeted.

7:04 pm: The crowd is much larger tonight.

WordPress 3 Beta 2

7:09 pm: WP3 Release candidate 1 should be “any day now” according to @jefferyzinn

7:12 pm: The big update in WP3 beta 2 was an update to the menus customization. Allows custom creation of different menu types and positions inside the appearance panel. Top. Sidebar. Wherever you like.

7:13 pm: The menu types and nesting features in WP 3 are hot.

Installing WordPress

7:26 pm: Start by creating a new, empty mySQL database, then install a clean version of WordPress in the new directory. Then in wp-config.php change your mySQL host location, name and password.

7:29 pm: Once installed simply visit the site, give it a name and… It’s hard to live blog and answer phones and let people in doors at the same time.

7:34 pm: When you set up a WP blog, are there plugins you use by default? “Yes, one of them is Vipers Video Quicktags.”

7:36 pm: Photo-

7:39 pm: @mac_boy recomends seeing if a plugin author is respondingb2 comments on download site.

7:41 pm: Feed WordPress, WP Print and WP EMail are other plugins @zengy will install by default.

7:43 pm: Crowd advice: if you can’t preview a WP template, don’t activate. Bad things happen.

8:01 pm: Feed WordPress is a plugin that allows you to syndicate any rss feed into your blog. To use Feed WordPress you have to update to their recommended version of rss.php. The instructions are contained in the plugin warning.

8:24 pm: Looks like something I did in last update freaked out the Live Blog app.

8:25 pm: It may have been the ampersand. We’ll check that out.

8:33 pm: Just seeing how this handles a panoramic shot.

8:43 pm: Anton recommends css-tricks.com for great WP training videos

8:57 pm: Speed up WordPress w/ caching plugins – WP Super Cache, Squid and W3 Total Cache.

8:58 pm: WordPress is very data intensive. Caching dramatically reduces the database calls.

9:07 pm: Great crowd at OC WordPress tonight. Thanks!

Testing from the iPad version of the app now. (no timestamp)

Version Control Is Critical

Version control is critical! In case you missed it, I will say it again. VERSION CONTROL IS CRITICAL!!!

So what the heck is it? Simply put, version control is a system that saves each iteration of your code. The code is stored in a central repository and all code changes pass through that central repository. Multiple developers are able to simultaneously work on the code and the system aggregates the changes. Version control also gives your developer an easy way to quickly “roll back” code to previous versions if something goes wrong. For a more detailed explanation, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version_control.

Your developer needs to implement a workflow where the code has to pass through version control as a way to push changes live to your server. We typically work on all code locally and then push it through version control to a live server. On larger projects, this workflow may include pushing to a staging server first and then to a live server. Either way, the code always passes through version control.

So why is all of this important to you? I am glad you asked. Your version control system protects you if your developer drops the ball. You will always have access to the latest version of the code. If your developer bails, you don’t have to hunt down your code or worse, start over from scratch. You should be able to simply grant access to a new developer.

Three popular version control systems are svn, git and Mercurial. At Zeek, we use git.

It is important that you have access to the code repository for your project. Your developer needs to grant you access if they are hosting the repository. Better yet, host it yourself so that there is no confusion down the road.

There are services that offer inexpensive version control hosting.

• Beanstalk (http://beanstalkapp.com) offers hosting for SVN and git.
• Bit Bucket (http://bitbucket.org) offers hosting for Mercurial hosting.
• Some sites offer free repositories, but your code will typically be public if you use a free system.

Note. If your developer does not currently use a version control system, insist on it. If they refuse to use a version control system, find a new developer.

Up next: Part 4 – Bug Reporting.

Planning

As the old adage goes, “Bad planning on your part doesn’t make it an emergency on mine.” This is exactly what your developer is thinking when you make last minute feature requests that were not in the original work scope.

Planning is about setting expectations. If expectations are spelled out up front, there should be no surprises. This is an ongoing process and expectations will need to be revised as you move forward. Your developer may lack the skills to proactively set expectations, but you can take on this responsibility. The developer will probably thank you for doing so.

The Statement Of Work

The most critical document you need for any size project is a Statement of Work (SOW). The SOW needs to contain a detailed description of the project, the milestones, a timeline and payment terms. Depending on the complexity of the project, your SOW may need to contain specific details about each feature and how that feature is supposed to operate. Include as many specifics as it takes so that little is left to interpretation later.

This is the time to address code ownership. Who owns the code that is generated as a result of the project? Different developers have different points of view on this subject so it is important establish this early. In my work for hire contracts, our clients own the iteration of the code that we develop for their site. This means that we are able to re-use our routines on other projects, but we cannot re-use an entire project elsewhere. If you want to own the code, then you will need to negotiate this in advance and the SOW is a perfect place to do this.

Take your time creating the SOW. Your developer should not write one line of code until this is finalized and agreed upon. When I create an SOW, it typically goes through several drafts. I will submit a draft to my client for their review and then they will make edits and submit it back and so on until we both agree that it is final. You can use Word, Pages or Google Docs for this process. Whatever software you use, make sure you use the “Track Changes” tool so that you can see the progression.

Once the SOW is complete, both parties need to sign a copy of it to signify that they agree. For larger projects, my SOWs get attached as an exhibit to the work for hire contract.

A couple of important notes:

• You can never over-plan! Good planning and documentation reduces the guesswork as your project gets developed. Anything you can do to cut down the margin for error will save you money in the long run.
• Always try to avoid doing anything as a rush. You are always asking for mistakes when rushing.

Project Management Site

Your developer should use a project management tool like Basecamp. This will allow you to track your deliverables and project schedule. The site needs to have a good commenting system so that your conversations around a particular task are centralized in one place.

DO NOT use email or instant messenger to track tasks! These conversations tend to get lost in the shuffle. I have found that important parts of the conversation get lost when someone accidentally forgets to cc the group.

The SOW should become a road map for your project management site. All of the deliverables from the SOW need to be converted to tasks on the site. This can be done by you or the developer. In addition to task tracking, your project management site should be used as a central place to post feature discussions, technical notes and design comps. Your project schedule and major milestones should also be tracked on the site.

At Zeek, we use a site called GoPlan. GoPlan is similar to BaseCamp, but we switched because it has a good bug tracking ticket system built in.

Take an active part in the project management, but be careful not to micro-manage your developer. And when possible, ask your developer to use a screen sharing site like GoToMeeting.com to explain when you don’t understand something their saying. So many communication issues can be solved if a little extra time is taken at those critical moments in the project.

Up next: Part 3 – Version Control

My session was appropriately scheduled as the last session of the day. The title was “How to Speak Geek – Communicating with a Developer.” The sessions leading up to mine were about WordPress techniques, creating meaningful content, and some primers on how to dive into code. My goal for the session was to give the audience a bit of a reality check on how to go about working with a developer to get a custom WordPress site (or any digital project) built. It was also well received, so I’m turning the content into a series of posts, broken into these parts:

Interviewing Your Potential Developer
Planning & Project Managment
Version Control
Bug Reporting

Much of what I am about to write refers to boutique developers. These are typically smaller shops or freelancers where you will be dealing with the same people that are working directly on your project. Larger firms will typically have a project manager that acts as your point of contact. The project manager is responsible for overseeing the schedule to make sure deliverables are met on time and on budget. However, even some larger firms are guilty of the problems I am about to describe.

I asked the audience to share some of the problems they may have encountered working with a developer in the past. The answers were thrown at me fast and furious. Here are some of the common threads that I jotted down:

• “My developer delivered something that was not exactly what I had in mind. I then had to pay them to change it to match my expectations.”
• “My developer missed the deadline.”
• “My developer has gone AWOL. They refuse to return my phone calls and emails.”
• “My developer does not communicate effectively.”
• “The costs are spiraling out of control with no end in site.”
• “My developer takes suggestions personally.”
• “I found out my developer was outsourcing my project to another resource. They felt dishonest.”
• “My developer does not understand my industry.”
• “My developer does not have the core competencies to complete every aspect of my project.”

While the audience had a good laugh at some of these responses, none of them surprised me. I have heard them all before. The good news is that many of these problems can be avoided up front with proper planning and a bit of leg work on your part (as the client).

Interviewing Your Potential Developer

Developers are a rare breed. At the risk of stereotyping, I have found that hardcore technical people are lousy business people. The best firms that I have worked with in the past have on board technical people as well as business people. Knowing this ahead of time should help you to communicate better with a developer. Be prepared to listen with a different ear. The developer may not offer up details about your future working relationship so ask a lot of questions. Here are some important questions that you should ask when interviewing a developer:

• What is your hourly rate?
• Will my project be billed as hourly or as a flat rate?
• Once my project launches, is there a maintenance fee?
• Where does my project rank with the other projects on your production schedule?
• Do you have the bandwidth to give my project the attention it deserves?
• What is your procedure when something goes wrong?
• What is your process for bug reporting and bug fixes?
• Are you using a project management system, like BaseCamp or GoPlan?
• Who will be my day-to-day point of contact within your firm?
• What kind of turn around time should I expect?
• What version control system are you using?

These questions are best handled in a face-to-face meeting if possible. If a face-to-face is not possible, conduct the interview on a conference call. Avoid handling the interview over email. When you are asking these questions, it is important not just to hear the developer’s answers. Listen to their tone of voice. Study their body language. Are they uncomfortable giving their answers or do they sound confident? Do they speak in “double talk” or do they seem like a straight shooter? This should give you an indication as to how they will handle themselves in a working relationship.

Make no mistake – if you hire a developer, you are entering into a relationship with this person. Take the time to find someone you can trust. If you need to interview a dozen developers until you find the right fit, do it! Finding the right person will save you a lot of headache and money in the long run.

Reality check moment. I am sorry to have to break the news to you, but no one will ever be as passionate about your project as you are. Most developers get off on creating cool technology. It’s a bonus if that can be married with cool content.

Feel free to post any additional questions you might have about interviewing a potential developer in the comments below. Part two in this four part series will cover planning and project management.

No, seriously. Name your price. A small group of independent game developers, fronted by Wolfire, have banded together to offer five games for whatever you feel they are worth. They call this the Humble Indie Bundle, and they guarantee that whatever money you pay will go straight to the developers, and to two charities: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, those super-nerds who fight for our Internet freedom, and Child’s Play, a charity that donates toys, games, books, and funds for sick kids all over North America and the world. So, not only are you buying games for yourself, you are also helping small game developers, entertaining sick children, and fighting for freedom! That’s quite an accomplishment with just a few mouse clicks.

So, what do you get? Well, I purchased the bundle myself so that I could tell you just that. As you can see from the picture above, you get five games: World of Goo by 2D Boy, Aquaria by Bit-Blot, Gish by Cryptic Sea, Lugaru by Wolfire, and the first chapter of a three-part game called Penumbra by Frictional Games. I’ll try to give you my first impressions of these games to give you a better idea of what you will be getting for your money. Oh, and did I forget to mention? All the games are cross-platform (Mac, Windows, and Linux), and DRM-free, which means you can download them as many times as you wish and install them on all your various computers.

Building a bridge of Goo...

World of Goo

This game has you creating structures in a Tinker Toy like fashion using the Goo Balls as points that are connected by strands of…goo, I guess. You grab a Goo Ball, stretch it out, release, and your structure grows accordingly. World of Goo uses a physics engine to determine the balance of the structure, and your goal is to use just enough Goo Balls to build the needed structure – usually something to enable the remaining balls to navigate past an obstacle and make it to a pipe. With amusing sound effects and graphics, and I’m sure some more gameplay elements to come, this looks like a promising puzzle game.

2D Boy says, “World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game. The millions of Goo Balls who live in the beautiful World of Goo don’t know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious.”

I haven’t tasted any of them, but I’m sure that last cryptic phrase will become clear in time.

Just hanging out with the jellies.

Aquaria

There is much to explore in this game. In my initial brief swim in the waters of Aquaria I played with jellyfish, opened various plants to find food and recipes for making helpful treats, sang a song of shielding to protect me from the more aggressive wildlife. The story so far is very mellow, and more based on exploration and navigating the underwater tunnels. There have been the occasional dream-sequences that have hinted at possibly darker aspects to this tale, but I don’t want to give too much away.

Here is what Bit_Blot says about their game: “A massive ocean world, teeming with life and filled with ancient secrets. Join Naija, a lone underwater dweller in search of her family, as she explores the depths of Aquaria. She’ll travel from hidden caves, shrouded in darkness, to beautiful, sunlit oases, all lovingly handcrafted by its two creators.”

My daughter enjoyed testing this game with me. We both liked how Naija’s singing blended so well with the ambient background music.

What in tarnation are those spikes doing there?

Gish

It’s a Mario-esque storyline, with the stolen girlfriend and all (why does a ball of tar have a girlfriend?). But the physics of this sidescroller are the fun part. As a ball of tar, you can squish down through pipes, stick to surfaces, even bounce up and down, building up the power for a jump. The controls take a little getting used to, and there are quick transitions where you have to go from jumping to sticking to sliding and so on. But the squishy dynamics are a fresh take on an old genre.

Cryptic Sea says, “Gish is a one of a kind 2d sidescroller with a twist you play as a totally physics based ball of tar. Find out why the media has been calling Gish the independent game of the year!”

I tested this on my Mac, and I had to install Rosetta which was a little annoying. However, it was a small download and was located automatically, so it wasn’t all that bad. I was up and playing in mere minutes.

It's like being the Easter Bunny on steroids!

Lugaru

This game started up nicely, and was very similar to WOW in controls for movement – WASD for movement, mouse for view, space bar for jump. It got a bit trickier with the combat, but that could be because I’m mentally-challenged. Going through the tutorial had me befuddled fairly quickly, trying to remember when to hit the space bar to jump. when to hit Shift to crouch, and when to click the mouse to attack. Various combinations of these controls, plus movement, all create different styles of attack. When weapons were introduced I could tell that I needed much more practice.

Here’s what Wolfire had to say: “Lugaru (pronounced Loo-GAH-roo) is the predecessor to Overgrowth. It is a DRM-free, third-person action game available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. The main character, Turner, is an anthropomorphic rebel bunny rabbit with impressive combat skills. In his quest to find those responsible for slaughtering his village, he uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy involving the corrupt leaders of the rabbit republic and the starving wolves from a nearby den. Turner takes it upon himself to fight against their plot and save his fellow rabbits from slavery.”

Hopping right into the campaign, I could tell that this was much more than I could burrow into at a single sitting. I have a hutch I’ll be nibbling on this for days to come. (Rabbit puns FTW!)

I've got a bad feeling about this...

Penumbra

After getting through the initial story introduction, I found myself on a ship. With a little experimentation and some hints from the game I was able to figure out the controls to pick up objects, add them to my inventory, and so on. I picked up a few things – a flashlight, some extra batteries, and a notebook, and left the ship. I found myself in a snowy ravine. In-game hints prompted me to pick up a rock and throw it, so I did this for a while. Then, on a wild hunch that this information was not given to me at random, I carried a rock along with me. Sure enough, I came to a port door set into the ground, and the wheel to open it had been frozen shut. I threw my rock, the ice shattered, and I was able to open the door and climb through. Unfortunately I promptly fell to the bottom of a shaft. Not sure if that was due to some mistake of my own, or if that was an intended part of the plot. But whatever the case, there was no way back up. I found myself in a small system of caves, with mine-like supports and doors. One door was stuck shut and would be the puzzle that I would eventually give up on for lack of time. This was a promising beginning for what appears to be a much longer game.

Frictional Games says, “Penumbra is a first person horror adventure focussing on story, immersion and puzzle solving. Violence and combat is hardly an option – the player has to use wits to guide Philip through his final test, and this makes the series unique in offering a truly dangerous and terrifying experience.”

I like that this isn’t just another first-person shooter. I’m looking forward to spending some time playing this, though I have to figure out how to open that door first!

So that’s it for my quick glimpse of the games in this bundle. If you want to get them at this fantastic price (whatever you want to pay) you need to act quickly. As of the day I’m writing this, May 5th 2010, there are only about 6 more days left on this offer, after which you would need to buy them at their original prices.

What this app does is generate a “trending topics” list from JUST the people you follow on Twitter. You can sort for words or hashtags by timeframe. If you find a tweet you want to respond to or retweet, you can do that right from that app as well. This is all Friend Trend does. That’s it. And I like it.

I like it because it’s another tool that allows me quickly focus on what might be signal and ignore whatever I’m considering to be “noise” at the moment. As you can see from the screen shot to the right, it presents me with a list of the top trending words or hashtags. When I click on the individual listing, I see all of the tweets using that word or hashtag. Nice. You can see more screen shots below.

Where does it fall short?

Well, first of all, tools like this will likely fall short for you at some point based on the limitations of the Twitter API. Unless your storing the data off to your own server for analysis, you’ll be limited to what Twitter will feed the apps. You won’t be able to look back very far in time either. Friend Trend has that same limitation. Also, Friend Trend doesn’t give you the option to see the trends within one of your Twitter lists. I follow many lists that contain people that I don’t follow. If you’d like to see how that works,  that filtering feature can be found in Cadmus. Connect your twitter account to Cadmus and it will analyze it and spit back the triends for your friends and your lists. Be prepared for a wait, however. That kind of data crunching takes some time.

Friend Trend is a free app, with this one limitation. In the free app, trends 2-5 are invisible until you pay $0.99 to unlock them. Download it and give it a try. You can decide for yourself whether 2-5 are worth the buck.

This is a post about REBarcamp Nashville, but it’s not really about REBarcamp Nashville. Nothing I’m about to say has anything to do with the quality of the 51 sessions that took place during the day at REBCNASH. From everything that I’ve heard from people who were actually in attendance, Brian Copeland ran an excellent REBarcamp, filled with great information and attended by many who were new to the Web 2.0 space. One of the speakers I spoke with mentioned that he was pleasantly surprised by how attentive the audience was. He said that many were taking notes on actual paper, with actual pens.

Signal vs. Noise

I decided to monitor the Twitter Stream for REBCNASH based on a conversation I had the previous day about the volume of noise that was coming from conferences and how hard it was to find valuable content in what was being shared via Twitter. The claim was that these conferences were becoming polluted with noise. They were echoing the feelings Matt Stigliano had while trying to listen to the content being generated on Twitter at SXSW. And I remembered clearly watching his cry for people at SXSW to do more than just broadcast their Foursquare data. You can read about it here: Two Weeks of Social Media Hell.

This is no scientific study, but I did want to be as accurate as possible. So, I cross referenced my main monitoring, using Tweetgrid.com/irc, with Twazzup and Twitter Search,. Luckily, the Twitter gods were kind and the search stream was consistent between the three tools. In total, there were 184 tweets that used the hashtag #rebcnash that day. Those tweets were generated by 77 different people. I don’t know how many were in attendance. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that 77 people decided that they wanted to use the hashtag on Twitter to share something about the event with the rest of the world.

So what did they share?

To analyze the content, I brought the tweet stream for REBCNASH into a spreadsheet and categorized each broadly. A tweet was either “signal” or “noise.” Since REBarcamps are learning conferences, I defined signal as any tweet that gave a piece of information that contributed to learning, or a provided a link to something that might. Everything else was considered noise.

Out of the 184 tweets, I only considered 8 to be signal. And when you see the 8, I think you’ll agree that I’m being generous. Here are the 8 “signal” tweets:

• 8:10:49 am MauraNeill: Google loves WordPress (via @kdrewien) #rebcnash
• 8:16:30 am MauraNeill: WordPress is industry standard – @kdrewien #rebcnash
• “8:27:04 am DawnGrizzell: “”love is a killer app”" with @RealEstateZebra. Learn to be a better agent. I’ll be reading the book! #rebcnash http://twitpic.com/1j4e64“
• “8:42:26 am shabsxu: @serkes you can add “”/rss”" to any WP url and it will give u a feed! #rebcnash”
• 12:50:01 pm JeremyHelton: #rebcnash social fusion autofeeds, interesting stuff.
• 12:55:23 pm MauraNeill: Facebook ads – for the first time we can create laser-focused ads that pinpoint a very specific group of people. #rebcnash
• 1:03:28 pm MauraNeill: Good read 4 REALTORS-check it out! RT @kleighcreative: BLOG POST: If You Bum Rush Me, We’ll NEVER Do Business http://bit.ly/aBPbRQ #rebcnash

Again, I think I am being VERY generous here. Example, I included Jeremy Helton’s tweet because it might cause me to go take a look at Social Fusion. So, I counted it as signal. I could debate the “signal worthiness” of several of the others, but this should give you a sense of how low I set the signal bar. Retweets of these signal tweets (only a few) were not counted as signal.

A Closer Look At The Noise

So, the math is pretty simple. If only 8 tweets were signal, 176 were noise. Example: “no sweet tea here at #rebcnash yet but always hope. Had some awesome sweet tea the other day though. Must have more ” Which is a perfectly fine tweet, (I’ve said similar things on twitter while at a barcamp) just not signal by my definition. There were, in fact, almost as many tweets about tea, 6, as there were tweets that contained any real content.

My next step was to categorize the noise. I wanted to get a feel for the kinds of things people felt were important to throw out into the twitter stream. So I put the noise into one of five categories; praise, questions, statements, location, and photos.

Praise: these were tweets that simply praised some aspect of the conference without really providing any insight. An example of a praise tweet: “Can’t wait to line up the rest of the afternoon at #rebcnash.” These tweets contained the most used word at REBCNASH, which was “great.”

Questions: these were tweets that were predominantly coming in from outside of the barcamp itself. There were 17 questions asked. Only two of them were answered using the hashtag, one of them by me. An example of a question tweet: “Which is the best Twitter app for a Palm Pre? #rebcnash.” This was never answered.

Statements: these were tweets that simply made a statement, often seemingly random. An example of a statement tweet: “Learning more about twitter at #rebcnash” and “Is hanging and sponsoring #rebcnash today. Loving ‘Love is the Killer Ap dude’s jacket!” The last one could easily have been put into praise or even location as well.

Location: these were tweets that simply let people know where someone was while they were at REBCNASH. An example of a location tweet:  “Second half of #rebcnash has started! (@ REBarCamp Nashville w/ 10 others) http://4sq.com/ai3HWT” The majority of these were not Foursquare posts, however, just people letting us know what session they were in.

Photos: these were tweets that contained photos. An example of a photo tweet: “#REBCNASH Schedule is Revealed! http://post.ly/dmq4″ Many of these also contained praise or a location or both, but were only counted in the photo category.

How Do We Increase The Signal To Noise Ratio?

I’m not here to debate why so little content was placed into the Twitter stream during this REBarcamp. There was no WiFi at the event, so a livestream was not possible and computer access was limited. I get it. And once again, just to be clear, those who actually attended are saying emphatically that the information shared in the sessions was excellent. Clearly, however, desire plays a role. First and foremost, you have to want to create valuable content or want to consume valuable content to make any of this work. And you certainly have to be able to identify what valuable content looks like in either case.

Personally, I’d like to do a better job of sharing valuable information. So, for those who have the desire and the ability to recognize or create good content, how do we make it easier to get more signal into the stream and get more signal out of it as well.  @jazzychad has done a good job with Tweetgrid.com/irc and an even better job with Madch.at, but even those miss the mark on many levels. In this specific case, if you were interested in gleaning some knowledge from the REBCNASH stream, having the very best listening tool in the world would still have only netted you, at best, 8 potential nuggets.

And having the best tool for sharing great content only works if people actually share. From my own experience, I know I am more diligent to present quality information if I know it has some legs. It’s one of the reasons why we’re creating the Live Blog app. When I know the information I’m tweeting at an event is going to live as content on my blog, I’m more careful to make sure it’s good content.

Some Questions

• When you listen in on a conference via the “official” hashtag, what are you hoping to find?
• Do we have any obligation at all to share the quality content at free conferences with the community at large?
• Should conference organizers play a larger role in the distribution of the targeted content coming out of their events?
• Is Twitter even the best place to share that content?  If not, what is?
• What tools are needed to make relevant content easier to create and consume?

I’m not sure I have the right answers for most of those questions, but one thing I do know for sure is this -  I’m personally going to give more thought to the content I’m sharing at the next event I attend. I’m going to shoot for more signal and less noise. I think everyone will benefit. Including me.

His first presentation was entitled, “How To Speak Geek – Hiring And Managing A Developer.” In that presentation he broke down the common communication problem areas the average business person faces when dealing with a developer, and how to fix them. His second presentation was aimed directly at the developers in the audience. “Real-Time Plugin Development” gave Steve the opportunity to get into the nuts and bolts of building a WordPress Plugin. He wrote the plugin, which focused on a more intelligent use of a post’s gallery of images, while at the Wordcamp, then demonstrated the building for the audience.

Below you’ll find the entire real-time plugin presentation. (56 minutes)

Cool as a cucumber, the Fool writes to meet his deadline.

A few weeks ago Jeff asked me to take a look at an online game called “CoverGuess” and to write something about it on my Fool’s Manifesto. I clicked on the link, not knowing what to expect, and it brought me to a website called “LibraryThing” – a clumsy name for a website apparently devoted to the written word. I was also not very impressed with the site itself. It was plain and primitive – stark, and difficult to navigate. To my annoyance I discovered that I had to create a profile in order to play the game. I don’t like signing up for Spam, but this site did not require my email address so I grudgingly acquiesced. This was not a good start, and I was not in the mood to be charitable.

I wasn’t charitable.

I wrote a reply to Jeff’s email. “My initial reaction to this “game” is fairly negative. The game, in my opinion, is nothing more than a company’s transparent attempt to get people to tag images to build their database. They even address that complaint in their help file, which should be a warning sign to them. The game is boring.” I went on to complain about various aspects of the game, why I didn’t really consider it a game, blah, blah, blah. I expressed my concern about writing a review for  a game that I obviously didn’t like. I have nothing against writing a negative review; but I didn’t feel right about dumping on this pathetic game on this pathetic website. It felt more like abuse…like kicking a puppy. Jeff just told me to be honest and write what I thought. That didn’t help. The game was a dud, and apparently I was the designated hit man. Luckily, other work got in the way and I was given more time to think about it.

Time gradually gave me perspective and I came to realize that my initial reaction was not born only out of the game itself. I am used to writing about topics that stir some sort of passion in my heart. And I am used to playing games that I choose. If I don’t like a game, I don’t play it. If I like a game – really like it – then I am driven to tell others about it. And I am certainly driven to play it, often to the point of obsession. But when Jeff pointed me to the link to CoverGuess and asked me to write a review, it was not a game at that point – it was a job. And that, I think, is where the trouble started. I was looking for a game, and I found work, and my initial reaction was born out of the contrast between my expectation and the reality.

This is what I have been pondering lately – the division between play and work, diversion and drudgery. What creates our reactions to those two constant elements in our lives? Is it something that we can control? Manipulate? It is hardly an original thought (Hello, I’m the Fool, remember?) but it is certainly worth pondering. We all feel victim to the drudgery in our lives now and then, and we all long to play in whatever way we can. But the division between the two is not so easy to define. It blurs and shifts. It is subjective to our whims and our moods, and yet sometimes feels out of our control.

I love playing with my daughter. She has the unfettered imagination of a child, but is now old enough to really communicate her ideas. Our best games are the ones that happen spontaneously, with jumps and shrieks and giggles. But like a child – like anyone, actually – she likes to try to recreate those moments of play that she remembers fondly. They bring her comfort, and if I forget a detail or deviate the slightest bit from the script written on her memory, I am quickly brought back into line by her stern reprimand: “Daddy, that’s not how it goes!” It ceases to be a game. It’s a job – a ritual performed for an audience of two. I will admit, to my shame, that there are days when I am so tired that I am not up for these rituals, when I greet a cry of “Let’s play pirates!” with a groan and a promise of “Later!” (I’m hearing Harry Chapin singing “Cat’s in the Cradle” as I write this) I’m glad to say that those times are rare. As I said, I love playing with her. My point is that, sometimes, the play becomes work and ceases to be fun for me.

I love the MMORPG genre. I am lucky that these games were not around when I was a kid or I would have flunked out of high school. I’ve played World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and Lord of the Rings Online to name a few. I love to create characters and watch them grow, to explore the lands and interact with other players. But at some point, each of those games stopped being fun for me. I would find myself running from place to place trying to mine metal to increase my Blacksmithing craft, or battling the same group of trolls over and over again in the hopes that one of them would drop the special rare weapon that I wanted. Or I would just be grinding away at some task or another. Logging on would become like clocking in at a job, and eventually I would simply stop playing. Again, the game has become work, and the enjoyment is gone.

It works the other way, however. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the scene in Mary Poppins where she sings to the Banks children about how a “spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” as they clean up the nursery. Of course, cleaning would be much more fun if we could snap our fingers and make our clothes march into the hamper. Snow White also sang about how if you just “whistle while you work” then it will make your job much easier. Again, having a group of woodland creatures helping out doesn’t hurt either. (Part of me has always wondered if those upbeat ladies would so chipper if they didn’t have animals or magic to help them!) But the point is a good one – work becomes easier if you can even pretend that you are having fun.

I used to go to a Summer camp when I was younger. Part of what made the camp affordable is that all the work was done by the campers. We cooked, we cleaned, we all worked hard. It doesn’t sound like a fun time when I put it that way, but it was great. One of my favorite chores was washing the dishes. My friends and I would put on aprons, and we would sing as we washed. We sang as loud as we could, whatever songs came into our minds, and it was even a little disappointing when the washing was finished. Hey, what do you know? Snow White was on to something there.

So what makes a job a game?

And what makes playing a game into a chore? Is it just our attitude? That conclusion seems dangerously simplistic to me. I don’t believe that a spoonful of sugar is guaranteed to make anything and everything palatable. But I also don’t think that the dividing line between work and fun is entirely out of our control, either. I don’t have any answers. It is something that each person must explore on his or her own. But it is certainly worth thinking about. Especially when you are faced with your next dreaded chore.

I went back to LibraryThing this morning. I added a few beloved books to my library. I uploaded my photo. My username is “wylkyn” if anyone wants to look me up. And I played CoverGuess again. I was annoyed at a few gameplay aspects that I thought should be changed to make the game better: if you are the first one to tag a cover you only get one point no matter how many tags you create; and if only one person has tagged a cover with an inappropriate tag that you fail to match, it doesn’t matter how many great tags you think up – you get zero points. But I found myself tagging cover after cover, and looking forward to seeing how my tags matched those who had played before me. I was suddenly having fun, and what had seemed a chore before was suddenly a game.

Go figure.

Chris is on a private Twitter list called “influencers.” I keep that list private because I don’t want anyone asking me, “why aren’t I on that list.” It’s always the last thing I look at before I head off to bed. His tweet, which I can’t find in his stream now, was: “What Is the Focus and Purpose of Your Blog http://bit.ly/cswlic.” I didn’t make the time to go read it before heading upstairs, but the headline made me immediately say, “Forget that. What is the focus and purpose of my life.” Yeah. I take things too far sometimes.

And then I went to bed.

But all night long that headline haunted me.  I tossed and turned most of the night and went in and out of coherent thought. And I woke up with a moment of clarity. I rolled over and hugged my wife and said, “We need to change Mothers Fighting For Others.” She bit. “How?”

I had already told her about my day in San Francisco at New Marketing Experience. I had also shared my mid-event takeaway from the event in a tweet. “We need a better, more consistent content strategy at http://mffo.org.” As I read it now, I realize how much I still didn’t get it at the time. I’m way better at giving great advice than I am at taking it. But after my sleepless night, I told Rocky that I finally “got it.”

“We need to do three things,” I said, still in bed. “We need to simplify our message, we need to answer just one question, and we need to do it more often.”

When I got out of bed, I took a look at Twitter and there was a mention waiting for me from Susie Blackmon. “RT @chrisbrogan What Is the Focus and Purpose of Your Blog http://bit.ly/cswlic [Ironic post for me and @respres gets photo credit.]” Since I hadn’t read the post, I had no idea Chris used one of my photos. Thanks, Chris, but you should know that I still haven’t read the post. I immediately took Susie’s tweet as a sign that I needed to write.

Simplify The Message

When I read the tweet, “What is the focus and purpose of your blog?” I found I couldn’t answer it quickly enough. And it forced me to ask a different question. What does MFFO do?  So, I asked Rocky, as she lay there half asleep, to answer that question. She did, but with long paraphrase of the paragraph that appears on the home page at MFFO.org.

“Mothers Fighting For Others is dedicated to providing orphaned girls with opportunities their parents would have provided, if they only could; a loving and nurturing environment and a quality education, so they can learn, thrive and achieve their highest potential.”

That’s accurate, but it’s not simple. Since  it’s not simple, it’s also not memorable. For anyone… including us.

What is the simplest way to describe what MFFO does? My feeling is that if we find the simplest way, we’ll also find the most powerful way. Let me try.

MFFO helps orphaned girls become powerful women.

That may not stick, but it’s simple. It’s memorable.  It’s accurate. As a result, it’s also powerful.

Answer Just One Question

One of the tweets I sent from NME10 seemed to resonate with people. It was retweeted a great deal. It was something Natanya Anderson said on one of the panels. She said, “Good content starts with ‘What do they want to know? Not what do I want to say?’” So, I asked Rocky, “What do people want to know when they come to MFFO.org?” She said, “Who? What? When? Where? and Why?” I said, “No. They want to know this: ‘Why should I give you my money?‘”

What do they want to know? That’s the one question we all need to answer for ourselves. In the case of MFFO, people who come to the site want to know what we do, where we do it and why. Sure, absolutely. But what they’re really asking when they land on the site is,  “why should I give my money to you and not to the thousands of other charities they have to choose from?”

And every blog needs to answer that one question… first and foremost. Without doing that there is no possible way to know what the focus and purpose of your blog is or should be. No possible way to harness that power.

Answer The Question More Often

Saying, “I need to write more,” is not a motivating statement. It’s a fact, but it’s not motivating. What I should be saying is this, “I need to figure out more ways to explain why people should support MFFO.org.” And I need to do it with sounds and images… not just words. If I concentrate on that, the ideas will come.

If I focus on answering that one question, that IS motivating. Why? Because I want to explain how we help give young Kenyan girls a voice, how we help them get an education, how we help them grow into productive members of their community, how we provide a home that nurtures and cares for them.

I WANT to do that! The ideas will come. The writing will flow. And then more people who care will be able to answer the question, “why should I give my money to you?” That’s motivating.

Simplify. Explain. Repeat.

And I need to go through this exercise for Zeek Interactive as well. And for Real Estate Shows. And for Stop Child Slavery. And probably for my life.

Do you know the focus and purpose of your blog? How will you find it?

photo credit: me

12:03 pm: “Alternative Reality” Live > Mobile > Online How do we drive those online to offline?

12:05 pm: Tim is telling a Foursquare story about a recent trip with his wife in the wine country and how a friend made a recommendation based on her experiences. It altered his behavior.

12:07 pm: “It’s the little things, small little things, that the audience is doing that is lifting up brands.”

12:08 pm: “Everyone is a blogger.”

12:09 pm: “People in other countries are using their phones in a more utilitarian way than we are. The Hispanic market may skip owning a computer with the advent of the smart phone.”

12:10 pm: “The more that we’re connected, the more accountable we become.”

12:11 pm: “online = offline”

12:13 pm: “90% of all word-of-mouth takes place offline.” We trust our friends more when we can communicate with them face-to-face.”

12:15 pm: “How do you make your live events unique? Dialogue. Suspense. Intrigue.”

“With the web in our pocket, events, retail experiences and other offline media dictate how and when we connect online. Amplify these efforts, reach the audience who could not be there in person, and improve your lead prospecting and other goals by taking the experience to other physical touchpoints.”

12:24 pm: “Give your audience a reason to show up. A payoff.”

12:26 pm: “At the end of the day, experiential marketers must be held to the same standards. Are we driving sales?”

12:27 pm: Looking for the research on Hispanic smartphone useage.

Good stuff.

One of the unique features is the ability to selectively tweet content. The last paragraph was sent to Twitter, for example, but this one will not be. Todd Carpenter will be the first person to test it outside of Zeek next week at the Real Estate Wordcamp in Denver.

9:23 am: Finally arrived. Sessions start in 40 minutes!

9:59 am: Let’s get this party started!

Photos And Flickr

10:09 am: “Why are you here? What do you want to learn?” – @ drubloomfield I like thus kind of session. Pure barcamp format. No real presenter.

10:10 am: Many of the people in the room have never really used Flickr.com

10:14 am: “I started taking photos to use in my blog. I started using Flickr and realized my photos were ending up in other people’s blogs. I’m touching people I would never have touched before.” – @ drubloomfield

10:18 am: You should be taking photos of more than just houses.

10:22 am: “You really need to be accurate with your tags and be detailed with your tags on Flickr” – @phxphoto

10:27 am: “And remember to join groups, local groups, that match your interests. You’ll be rewarded with views and relationships.” – @juli_red

10:35 am: “Don’t post a thousand photos to Flickr and then try to go back and tag. Painful.” – @phxphoto Good advice.:)

10:45 am: A discussion of Zemanta WP plugin was mixed.

10:54 am: Great group discussion.

Altos Research

Just spent some time talking to Scott, @altosresearch and it was one of the best conversations I’ve had at an REBarcamp in a long time.

How To Blog Without Blogging

11:13 am: “Confused people don’t buy.” – @altosresearch

11:15 am: “If you’re new to blogging, one of the best things you can do is just google, “how to blog” and you’ll uncover a ton of information” – @JulieZiemelis

11:16 am: “ActiveRain is the 7th most searched website on the Internet” – @JulieZiemelis (really?)

11:19 am: Blogging without blogging requires repurposing content. @jimmarks calls it “DJing content.”

11:20 am: “Here’s an interesting article I just found and this is what I think.”

11:23 am: Don’t forget YouTube. When in a rut, put a comment around a video with relevant information.

11:24 am: Your opinion is the original content. Use others to form the base for your jump-off point.

11:26 am: The lovely @locoheather just got a shout.

11:33 am: “When a buyer is googling a specific neighborhood, they are closer to buying than if they are googling a city.”

11:36 am: “Use you sent emails as a source for content for your blog.” – @altosresearch (let me add the hat tip to Ardell Dellalogia @Ardelld )

11:45 am: “Once you start focusing on blogging, the ideas will appear.” – @julieziemelis

This Is An Amazing Venue

So sad to have to leave #rebcphx early. Thanks to all for your support of mffo.org and your frienship. @headmutha and I are honored to know you! Now, let’s hope we make our flight. We just got on the bus from rental cars and our flight lifts off in 36 minutes. We might be here a bit longer.

1:59 pm: At Phoenix International Airport.

2:08 pm: We made it!

The End

That’s not breaking news. What may be breaking news is what I found them playing an hour later. It wasn’t RealRacingHD, a great first-person perspective 3D racing game. It wasn’t ESPN Pinball, the most realistic pinball game I’ve seen in a long time. It wasn’t Labrynth 2 HD either.

It was Checkers. RealCheckers HD to be exact.

And I couldn’t have been happier. They had the iPad on the coffee table between them. One was sprawled on the couch under a blanket and the other on the floor, taunting his little brother with his skills, “I own you!” They were laughing, taunting, being boys. They were engaged with one another.

The size of the iPad, the realistic 3d board graphics and the ability to move the checker pieces with your fingers make this game feel like real checkers. And it is real checkers. It’s “real” because it enables the exact same user experience that a board made from paper and checkers made from wood or plastic would allow – Face-to-face engagement. Only there were no pieces to put away.

This is what I hoped would happen with my iPad. How about you?