Christopher Bazin – Developer and Analyst

Here Comes Everybody – Comment 1

[caption id="attachment_80" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Everyone!"][/caption] Thank you! I am thrilled that the book of required reading for this class happens to be recent and relevant. After all, this program (APOC), is designed to get you ready for now--and not a history lesson which so many classes are. I said it before and I will say it again, reading is not my favorite thing to do. However, I find myself reading this book and relating to so many of the points the author has presented. The idea of management, cost of management, higher-archaical struggles, organization and the real cost of these new trends. "Loosely ...

Those Shoes Don’t Fit!

[caption id="attachment_199" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="It does too much!"][/caption] I was actually surprised when I asked last night's panel about their experience with choosing a technology or platform that didn't fit. The panel's no response indicated that they always picked the right one. This can't be the case! To clarify, I mean that the software/platform/web application didn't do everything you wanted it to do or discovering that it just did too many things. The response that "I am sure it is just a simple database thing" to move from one to another system is not a good one. First of all, I don't want ...

Where do Online Communities go to die? Facebook?

[caption id="attachment_21" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Online Community Closed?"][/caption] My Monday mornings started as any regular work-morning except I received an email with a subject titled "ASPCA Community Closing January 31, 2010." Closing? How do online communities close? This is strange...<sip coffee> In case you don't know what the ASPCA stands for it is The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. After getting this message I began to think about how Facebook, Twitter and other social media vehicles are in competition with themselves. In fact the email sent by ASPCA was in good spirits and really just directed their community of approximately 35,000 ...

Groupon. Why not?

For the past couple of weeks my partner and I have been heavily involved in using Groupon.com. If you have not heard of it yet then use this link to sign up it is free and I get $10 if one of those referrals makes a purchase. Here is how it works: a person gets an email with the Groupon almost every day. If you like the group coupon then you sign up and put in your credit card. If enough people sign up for the deal then the deal goes through and all the people that signed up will ...

So you want an online store. Now what?

[caption id="attachment_232" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Not so fast."][/caption] It is no secret that many small businesses and hobbyists look at the online store as the holy grail. But before you jump on that band wagon there are a few things you need to consider. Will people be able to find you on the web? Take a look at whether you are one of about a million people with the same idea or are you one of ten? Many times having a unique or niche item can make or break your online store idea. Having an existing site and customer base is a great ...

Community Step 1 – Be Passionate

[caption id="attachment_164" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Passion."][/caption] Last night's class on online communities was enlightening. I was able to ask many questions that were very important to me. There is still a little mystery involved in what is deemed an "online community manager" and also what an actual online community is. My impression is that it can be anything from a forum format to a blog with comments. My general feeling is that there is a lot of room for interpretation. The determining factor is that there is interaction between users and the manager. It was interesting to hear how some of the speakers shied ...

Verizon Rumored to be New Carrier for iTablet

[caption id="attachment_54" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="What does it look like?"][/caption] So the iTablet (if that is even what it is called) is presumably days from a formal release announcement and part of the fun is looking at all the artist renderings of what the iTablet is going to look like. I am not even sure if the actual product has been seen by man! Regardless one of the interesting items that was announced on Fox News is that Verizon may become the new carrier for this product. There are so many different market variables that will change with the release of this project ...

There are more BLOGS than people in Canada

[caption id="attachment_76" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="LOVE DATA"][/caption] I love data. There I said it! There is nothing like true hard facts to make me feel comfortable. In a feed from Techmeme, Pingdom.com crunched the numbers for 2009 with regard to the internet and the trends are not surprising but the numbers are! As of December of 2009 there are now over 200 million websites. Of those websites there are 126 million blogs currently exist (I'd be surprised if 10 people read this!). No wonder clients harp on being lost in the "cloud." This is all more reason to look for alternative promotion and publication ...

iPad a lot of flash, but no FLASH!?

[caption id="attachment_142" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="No Flash!"][/caption] Seriously? No flash content on this new device. I doubt it is a technology problem even thought that is what Apple claims. Why can't these vendors kiss an make up? What is so difficult about displaying this content? Many people don't realize that a lot of video content is in Flash format. Developers have a lot of control when it comes to video and using the Flash platform. If Apple really wants users to buy into this device they not only need to make it do most of the tasks an iPhone can ...

Featured Topic

iPad – Looks good, tastes O.K.

Can you love it? This week our office purchased an iPad for research purposes. By that I mean that we are thinking of using...

Whisperings of a VC

Is that me? “Let’s face it, most of us are mediocre!” Perhaps not the exact words our guest lecturer uttered,...

SEO Tactics – Which Ones Work?

Wanna be on top? If you are unfamiliar with the term SEO it stands for Search Engine Optimization. If part of your business...

Go On, Take a Bite of bit.ly 101

I love me some bit.ly. So you have a few followers and you have a few friends. But who is really listening? What if you...

What Would Jesus Do? Would You Friend Him?

Be a fan of Jesus. I just finished watching Bill Maher’s Religulous which, if you haven’t seen it, is an in-your-face...

The Groundswell

Groundswell! One of our reading assignments for our Introduction to Online Communities class is Groundswell, written by...

Comcast is Coming for You

Comcast has a plan. Net neutrality is something we take for granted. It gives us the freedom to download and browse sites...

Putting your Ear to the Ground

Are you talking about me? All great social media campaigns begin with the concept of listening. Whether it is because you...

Becoming an Entrepreneur

Where is my partner?Last night in class we had guest lecturer Brian Norgard who came in dressed in flip-flops, a t-shirt...

Superpowers

My Superpower. As a child, we all hope to be blessed with some superpower we can use to help other people, defend ourselves...

More Posts From Featured Topic

Earthquake – Youtube Witness

Social media is everywhere, happening all the time and, at times like this, act as a witness producing a byproduct. This video of a girl recording her solo guitar/singing debut (we have all seen this on youtube) began her recording session when the Mexicali earthquake hit. The shaking lasted for almost 50 seconds.

Christopher Bazin - Developer and Analyst