"Dark" workplace environment

This post was provoked (in a good way) by Robert Scoble. Robert wrote a post about something that he was impressed with when he passed the Rackspace Headquarters. He found a department there that was completely dark.

I wrote him a small comment but I also promised him that will blog about it. For one or another reason (lots of work, new WordFrame customers, new trials, ICAEW community grew to 80,000+ users and a vacation) I could not write earlier. I am back on track now and I am posting everything that I had on my mind for some time now.

So, back to the main idea … For the last 13 years (since 1996) ITBrix development offices were on two locations. We spent 10 years in two large apartments which we converted into one office where we initially started with 4 people in 1996. At one point we were over 30 people on about 2500 sq. f. !

It was in 2001 when 3 of our guys started to completely block the sun and put thick paper on the windows. When we talked about the dark room idea it turned out that they feel more comfortable, work more concentrated and generally feel better. We did not need to talk more about it and we made two rooms very dark, just the light from the monitors.

When we moved to our new own office which we purchased in 2004 and completely renovated by 2005 we already had the idea that one of the main halls will be a “dark” one. We did install two types of blinds, external roller plastic blinds and internal Hunter-Douglas type blinds on all the office windows. We now have 7 people working in the dark hall with two guys feeling “left on the bright side” as they were in the dark rooms in the old office. One of them is the WordFrame Product manager – Rumen Yankov, but he manages to get a similar effect using the blinds we have on the windows. Plus the fact that Rumen has to be around his 10-people WordFrame development team on one hand, testers and support people on another and close to the CTO Hristo Serafimov.

So here is how the "dark" hall in our office looks like:

You can see that the light is from the camera flash and all the office lights on the ceiling are off.

So, Robert - not a new idea, and I am certain this “dark work place environment” can be observed in many offices or home offices all over the world.

Three WordFrame partners and 5 WordFrame powered sites on AllTop.com

It is a great thing to see your product getting the recognition it deserves.

We have been following AllTop.com, the latest venture of Guy Kawasaki, closely and we are happy with the way it goes. We are even happier to see three of our partners listed in the Social Media Category as well as 5 WordFrame powered sites. Des Walsh and Social Media Today have their separate section and most of the sites listed on those sections are powered by WordFrame Community Platform v1.0.

We are really eager to see what will be the case when we have the WordFrame Enterprise 2.0 up and running later this year as WordFrame 2.0 will be the real “killer” social media platform.

Some update ...

I have not written in the blog for over two weeks now but I was extremely busy with a new product we are releasing – a brand new .NET based CMS plus I finally managed to squeeze a week of vacation within the very very busy schedule these days. So, I am almost back on track with all the things that happened in and around WordFrame and the super new products we are releasing this year. Whatever plans we had to do some new product releasing in 2009 are already changed – we are moving everything ahead. The WordFrame Enterprise Platform will start its test runs somewhere in Autumn 2008 guys …

Well, I am starting to post some stuff I had ready for weeks now – like the posts I did over three weeks ago and that were provoked from a couple of articles written by Robert Scoble (thanks Robert, you are always an inspiration) …

Official WordFrame Community Platform Demos Schedule

This one looks more like an official announcement rather than a post in our WordFrame Corporate Blog.

There will be three official demos regularly scheduled during any given week.

The first Demo is directed for our prospects in Australia and Asia. The time for this demo is Every Friday at 1AM GMT (London time) or 12:00 at noon in Sydney, Australia.

The second Demo is directed for our prospects in Europe. The time for the European demo is Every Friday at 2PM (14:00) GMT, London Time.

The third Demo is directed for our North American prospects and is scheduled for Every Friday at 2PM Eastern Standard Time (New York).

We have made a table with the respective time readings in 5 different time zones so our prospects and customers can choose which of the three scheduled demos to choose and participate.

Suzie Cheel, David Terrar, Des Walsh and I have came up with the following times for the WordFrame demos that we are presenting on weekly bases:

Every Thursday (US), Australasia and China Demo

Before April 6th 2008 After April 6th 2008

Sydney,Australia (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
12 Noon, 12:00 (Friday Morning) 11 AM, 11:00 (Friday Morning)

Beijing, China
9 AM , 09:00 (Friday Morning) 9 AM , 09:00 (Friday Morning)

London, UK (GMT, International Standard)
1 AM, 01:00 (Friday Morning) 2 AM , 2:00 (Friday Morning)

New York, USA (Eastern Standard Time)
9 PM , 21:00 (Thursday Evening) 9 PM , 21:00 (Thursday Evening)

Denver , USA (Mountain Standard Time)
7 PM , 18:00 (Thursday evening) 7 PM, 19:00 (Thursday evening)



Every Friday, European Demo

Before April 6th 2008 After April 6th 2008

Sydney,Australia (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
1 AM, 01:00 Saturday Morning, 12 Midnight, 24:00 (Friday Evening)
(Daylight Saving time)


Beijing, China
10 PM 22:00 (Friday Evening) 9 PM, 21:00 (Friday Evening)

London, UK (GMT, International Standard)
2 PM , 14:00 (Friday Afternoon) 2 PM , 14:00 (Friday Afternoon)


New York, USA (Eastern Standard Time)

10 AM , 10:00 (Friday Morning) 9 AM , 9:00 (Friday Morning)


Denver , USA (Mountain Standard Time)

8 AM , 10:00 (Friday Morning) 7 AM , 7:00 (Friday Morning)



Every Friday, US and Canada demo

Before April 6th 2008 After April 6th 2008

Sydney,Australia (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
5 AM, 05:00 (Saturday Morning, 4 AM, 4:00 (Saturday Morning)
(Daylight Saving time))

Beijing, China

2 AM , 02:00 (Saturday Morning) 2 AM , 02:00 (Saturday Morning)

London, UK (GMT, International Standard)
6 PM , 18:00 (Friday Evening) 7 PM , 19:00 (Friday Evening)

New York, USA (Eastern Standard Time)
2 PM , 14:00 (Friday Afternoon) 2 PM , 14:00 (Friday Afternoon)

Denver , USA (Mountain Standard Time)
12 PM , 12:00 (Friday Noon) 12 PM , 12:00 (Friday Noon)


Guys, I have to tell you it was a challenge to coordinate the proper times and the business activities in the different time zones so we can accommodate as many prospects and customers as possible. We were doing those calculations by hand and with the help of a couple of planning apps we had, online ones too.

Part of the problem is that the US moved its Daylight saving time almost a month before Europe and a month before Australia and then … we forgot, Australia will just switch to normal time, as the Winter will be over there in a week, so they are removing an hour, not adding one as we did here, in the Northern Hemisphere. Oh, boy!

Anyway – the table with the three regularly held demos is up – please take a look what suits you best and write a small note to sales@wordframe.com or just fill out the form available in this post so we can get in touch with you regarding a demo.

WordFrame Dynamic User Profile Management - part 1

WordFrame Community Platform released a completely new User Profile management module about a week ago. The new module gives the WordFrame administrators the unique capabilities of customizing the User Profiles the way they see fit.

This useful upgrade was implemented because a couple of our customers have requested specific changes in the User profile section. Having in mind the diversity of the companies and their users and audiences, it was clear to us that a unified profile setup will not do the job and cover the needs of all those guys.

We had Social Media Today and JustGetOut.net as one of the first requestors in December 07 and January 08 and then a couple of British customers and trial accounts followed with a set of customization requests concerning mainly and only the type of data gathered, stored and requested in the WordFrame User Profile. The latest request came from the Bahamas Tourist Network. We have made many conference calls and exchanged a series of e-mails with all our customers regarding the exact results and functionality they wanted to see and here it is, we are ready.

The User Profile management is done by the Dynamic Profile Management Section under the Users tab in the WordFrame Administration module.



The Dynamic Profile Management section gives the opportunity the administrators to create and set the desired number of sections in the User Profiles and manage them. The User Profile can contain unlimited number of sections.

Each section can contain unlimited number of data fields. The data fields can be chosen from the preset field types in the system. Those preset field types cover all the possible data or selection gathering field types.




A very important portion of the fields selector and user profile section creation is the ability for the administrators to set the required fields in the profile. Once a data field from the User profile is set as a “required” field, it automatically becomes part of the initial registration process. In the even when a new required field is introduced towards an already existing user base (users that are already registered and filled out their profiles ) the system cleverly asks this missing data to be entered by the existing users the next time they try to login.

We will be more than happy to show how this works in any of our regularly schedule demos of the WordFrame Community Platform.

Complete User Profile management and setup in WordFrame Community Platform 1.0

ITBrix / WordFrame is proud to announce the release of a completely new and functional upgraded User Profile Management Module under the Administration Section in the WordFrame Community Platform. The new features in the User management Admin module allow the administrators of any WordFrame community to manage, define and set the types of the user profiles and the data contained and gathered by the Community members.

I will post two articles today about this new module in the WordFrame administration. The first article will be short will have only two screenshots and will present really general information about the new WordFrame Profile management capabilities.

The second Article will be a bit longer and is directed towards current and future users of the system that are heavily interested in the Social Networking and User profiles building features of an extensive Social Media and Collaboration tool such as WordFrame Community platform. The second post will have more than 7 screenshots displaying the new management of the user profiles, the User Profile sections creation, the field selection and settings in each profile section. I will also specifically point out the way the “required fields” are set up. What happens after the User Profile is initially created or User Profile Edits are saved, how the registration process depends on the selected profile fields and how the newly created and set “required fields” are applied towards the existing WordFrame user accounts and profiles.

WordFrame Weekly demos, schedule and info

Des Walsh, our Australian partner and I had a small discussion today in regards to the WordFrame Community Platform weekly demos. I realized that we do not have this properly announced on the WordFrame website and nor have I blogged about it. I will now try to fix the mistakes on our side.

We have a scheduled weekly demos every week, Friday at noon, 12:00 PM, Mountain Standard Time. This is respectively 2:00 PM Eastern or 11:00 AM Pacific time. The demos are done either by me or David Terrar. We do them online with either a skype conference or a Conference call number. The visualization is done via LiveMeeting.

David and I already planned another regular weekly demo for the rest of the world as this one is convenient for the interested in WordFrame on the North American continent. The other demo time and day will be announced later next week when we finish the planning and coordination for these regular events with David Terrar and Des Walsh. Our Asian prospects and customers seem to grow rapidly and we have to take care of them too. So, we will inform you guys about that next week.

The European and the Asian oriented WordFrame demos will be done on GoToMeeting as David is not very big fan of LiveMeeting.

We will post the demos’ details both on the Blog site here and on the WordFrame product site.

PS. Des would be mad at me calling him our Australian partner because the proper term, is Australasian. Sorry Des

Ornithologists in Siberia

This has been in my mind for some time now and I was wondering how to start it. I was thinking to start it with the unique look at life from Hughes “What happens to a dream deferred …” but decided not to. I think that I should be as straight as I can be, as I saw too many people twisting their moral values only because they do not want to be honest enough to call events and people with their proper names and definitions.

What happens when you lie to your colleagues and friends? You either get fired or get very, very lonely…. What happens when you stand in front of the people that helped you become someone and offend them? Well, what happens when you do it more than once and keep doing it on different occasions over and over again? What do you do then?

What do people that forget where they have started from, who has helped them and how small and insignificant they actually are - what those people do when they are left all alone? When any sense of reality and trust is gone? What happens when they are exposed and they are also lazy and moreover: have never managed to learn how to work in a team? I do not know. That is why I am asking that question to all of you, because being a part of such a great team and organization as ITBrix / WordFrame makes me unable to comprehend how the not-being-yourself part works.

My partners and friends gave me the proper answer to that question of mine about three months ago. When all this happens and you are that type of person - arrogant, lazy, hypocrite and your lies eventually get exposed, you can become only one thing for sure - an Ornithologist in Siberia. That is it. Period. That is what you can do!

Interesting, I wanted actually to write about how happy I am with the guys and girls around us and the introduction turned bigger than the punch line, no problem, my guys know me. Well, I am happy with the clear results on the sales and the development sides for the last three months – I can not be happier for the WordFrame project and venture. Thank you guys and girls!

Thank God and Faith our growing team has managed to save itself from people like the ones above and we happily move ahead for 14 years already. The interesting thing is that when we hire new people to work in ITBrix / WordFrame or we partner with new individuals and companies we do spend the time to see how will the bond work and what are the responsibility levels the both sides are willing to cover. Simple… and very productive. I am so happy that we have great people and teams around us.

Boz, Svetlyo and Ivan are doing the team pages on the WordFrame site later next week so our visitors and customers will be able to actually match a name to the faces of those great and hardworking people

As I have a small celebration today, I would like to make a toast for all our colleagues, partners and friends all over the world and to all the past, present and future Ornithologists in Siberia!

Demo and first testing of the latest version 2.0 of the ITBrix CMS

It has been great 10 days although I was traveling the whole week and neglected the blogging and the tweets. David Terrar and I had a demo on the latest version of the ITBrix CMS (Content Management System) this weekend and we were pleasantly surprised. At least I was … The demo was done by the CMS project manager, Mitko Dyulgerski and took about an hour.

I must admit that I was very, very surprised as our own CMS Project has always been in the second priority level for me. That is a product/service we are maintaining since 2001 and we usually build between 20 and 80 sites per year depending on the type of the customers and the industries they are into.

The ITBrix CMS is a very important part of the future of the company as this product will be an important part of the WordFrame Enterprise Platform we are developing at the moment. The CMS part is really what’s missing in the WordFrame Community Platform and this addition will give us a really competitive edge compared to what else is available on the market.

I will include a couple of screenshots here in this post while I am describing the product. I will start with some retrospection and show you what we had and have until now because the ITBrix CMS version 1.0 is still powering well over 300 sites built by us between 2001 and now.

The ITBrix CMS v1.0 is a PHP /MySQL based product and delivers quite some functionality in regards to simple and medium-functionality level websites building.

(I apologize for the poor quality of some of the screenshots but I am trying to show bigger screens taking quite much more real estate on their original locations so the images are a little condensed. I am sorry)




You have general management of the menus, pages, news, image galleries, administrators, roles and a lot more.

HP Blogging Code of Conduct

I will put the HP Blogging Code of Contact as one of our final materials regarding the Corporate Blogging Policies of various companies. We will be updating the WordFrame Blog regularly with similar documents and they will always be in the Corporate Blogging Resources category

Original Document available at:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/blogs/codeofconduct.html
______

HP Blogging Code of Conduct

Spanning a range of topics from servers to marketing excellence. HP blogs chronicle the unvarnished thoughts of HP employees. Find out what company leaders, topic experts and guest bloggers think about the technology landscape of today - and tomorrow. Become part of the conversation by reading and sharing your comments with us.


HP blogs are written by a variety of employees at different levels and positions in the company, so you can expect many viewpoints. You can also expect the following:

1. We will strive to have open and honest dialogues with our readers.
2. We will correct inaccurate or misleading postings in a timely manner. We will not delete posts unless they violate our policies. Most changes will be made by adding to posts and we will mark any additions clearly.
3. We will disclose conflicts of interest.
4. Our Standards of Business Conduct will guide what we write about — so there are some topics we won't comment on such as information about financials, HP intellectual property, trade secrets, management changes, lawsuits, shareholder issues, layoffs, and contractual agreements with alliance partners, customers, and suppliers.
5. We will provide links to relevant material available on other blogs and Web sites. We will disclose any sources fully through credits, links and trackbacks unless the source has requested anonymity.
6. We understand that respect goes both ways — we will use good judgment in our posts and respond to you in a respectful manner. In return, we ask the same of you.
7. We trust you will be mindful of the information you share on our blogs — any personally identifiable information you share on a blog can be seen by anyone with access to the blog.
8. We will respect intellectual property rights.
9. We will use good judgment in protecting personal and corporate information and in respecting the privacy of individuals who use our blogs.

Comments:

1. Comments will be reviewed by bloggers before they are posted on our blogs.
2. We will review, post and respond to comments in a timely manner. We welcome constructive criticism. We can't respond to every comment, but will read all of them.
3. We will not post comments that are spam, inappropriate, defamatory, use profanity, or otherwise violate our policies or Terms of Use.
4. Because our blogs focus on material of general interest to all our readers, we ask that you direct customer support inquiries through our traditional customer service channels or use our IT resource center forums. Using these channels will allow you to get your issues to experienced HP support representatives in a timely manner.
5. Our bloggers will not respond to customer support issues and will not post these comments to their blogs.