Jon DiPietro is Domesticating IT

We all know intuitively that it has never been easier or cheaper to do “x” than it is today.  In fact, statements like that are boring and pedestrian to the point that you may already be considering moving on to the next article. What if I told you it’s possible to build a web site today for $0 in one weekend that would likely have cost over $100,000 and taken several months just three years ago?

After launching the web site Truemors, entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki posted a presentation titled “How I Built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail Social Media Site for $12,107.09.”  And he did so in 7.5 weeks. Closer to home, I received a RFP to build a web site for a local association on a Friday afternoon last year.  By Sunday morning I had the entire site built with nearly double the functionality that was included in the RFP.  These two anecdotes illustrate that it has never been easier or cheaper to build web sites, communicate, collaborate, reach out, or network.  In fact, almost all of the tools I’ll discuss in this article are FREE.

Domain Registration

The first step in leveraging these tools for your organization is not free, but it is very inexpensive.  In order to gain full leverage from many of these tools, it’s important that you own and control your own domain name.  Domain registrars can be found online and include services like GoDaddy, Register.com, and Network Solutions.  Depending upon the domain level type (i.e. com, net, org) the annual registration cost ranges between $10 and $15 per year.

Web Hosting

Next, you need to select a hosting service and it may or may not be through the same company that is your domain registrar.  Selecting a hosting provider should be done on the basis of a) the operating system you intend to use (i.e. Windows or Linux), b) any applications or frameworks you’ll be installing (e.g. WordPress, Drupal, DotNetNuke), and c) promotions that various companies may be running from time to time.  In most cases, you should not have to pay more than $4 to $8 dollars per month for shared hosting.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Free, open source web content management systems have obliterated most of the barriers to entry that have existed from the early days of the web until very recently.  I typically use the analogy of an “instant web site – just add water” to describe them.  In fact, many hosts offer one-click installations of these frameworks as part of their service offering.  Most CMSs share the following benefits:

• Ability to manage content without web or programming skills – no more relying on web masters to make changes.
• They are FREE.
• They are powerful, flexible, and scalable.

They also share most if not all of the following characteristics:

• Template (or skin) driven layout and design
• Group-based security and membership support
• Easily modified content
• Web standards upgrades
• Third party extensions

The most popular open source CMS systems are DotNetNuke, WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.  A comparison of these systems is beyond the scope of this article, but my take is that WordPress is the easiest to install and use, while the other three are more powerful and flexible with a longer learning curve.   Of the four, DotNetNuke is the only Windows-based CMS; the others are all LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP).

Google Apps

Google has a free service called Google Apps that provides a whole laundry list of FREE, powerful services including email, shared documents, shared calendar, shared contacts, web analytics, and more.  It’s quite easy to create an account and configure these services for your organization and they deliver powerful collaborative features.

Newsletters

Many organizations still send email newsletters to their customers or members using standard email.  This is dangerous for several reasons.  First, many of these home-made newsletters violate the Federal CAN-SPAM Act.  Second, if enough of these emails are sent you could be violating your Internet Service Provider’s terms of service.  In addition to these dangers, they also have several shortcomings compared to dedicated e-newsletter services like Vertical Response or Constant Contact, like the lack of advanced reporting and analytics or attractive HTML-format emails.  Plans start at $10 per month, but Vertical Response if FREE for non-profits.

Networking and Outreach

A full discussion of Social Networking is also outside of the scope of this article, but it bears mentioning.  Facebook recently introduced the “Fan Page” feature that is becoming more and more powerful as a tool for organizational outreach.  LinkedIn is a more professionally focused networking web site whose “Groups” feature is an effective means for connecting together groups of like-minded professionals.  There are many others that have their own virtues and vices associated with them, but they all have one thing in common; they are FREE.

How to Keep Up

The world is changing and although this article can get you started, the landscape is changing quickly an you will need tools to keep up on the latest trends.  Here are a few suggestions:

1.       Stay up to date by finding relevant blogs and reading them regularly, using an RSS reading tool to subscribe to news and blog feeds, and use social networking sites like Twitter and LinkedIn.

2.       Ask questions about current and emerging technologies.  Again, social networking sites are great for this particular approach.

3.       Spy on other organizations similar to yours.  What technologies are they using?  How are they leveraging social media?

4.       Network with others in your space.

5.       But DO NOT simply accept the status quo and keep following the same old plan.  Technology is always changing, so keep an ear to the ground and be a “heretic.”

Whatever you do, don't do this...

We’re Talking Techno-DIY

Leveraging these technologies is similar to a “do it yourself” project at home; you don’t need to be a plumber to replace a faucet, but you may not want to install a new sink yourself.  The trick is to find your comfort zone and ask for help when you’re outside of it.  The take-away from this article is that you should, at the very least, be aware of the vast array of low and NO cost technologies available to solve problems today and you should vigorously challenge the assumption that “more expensive is better.”

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Or perhaps more importantly, should you? I want to explore the very common situation of a manager or small business owner who does not “speak geek” and needs to outsource a software or web development project. I was recently asked by someone in such a position what the “best way to talk to a web developer” would be, since their requirements discussions were ending up in what he described as “Babylonic confusion,” hoping to find a book or course he could take in order to be able to better communicate his needs to the developer.

I don’t know that anyone has found a real live Babel Fish yet, so you’d better figure out another way to get your point across to the geek(s).

It’s Not Me, It’s You

At a moment like this, it’s time go and get yourself a new developer. The project is doomed to fail. While it is your responsibility as a project manager to clearly articulate your requirements, it should only have to be done so in your own comfort zone and business terminology and not involve learning a new language. Here are some inherent problems with taking this approach:

• First, this assumes there is a single language to be learned. There are typically multiple technologies involved in any project (e.g. database, server operating system, programming language(s), scripting language(s), hosting platform, external API’s, etc…) and hoping to become conversant in all of them is going to take an incredible effort at best and is futile at worst.
• Second, merely speaking the language is not enough and could, in fact, exacerbate the problem. The reason is that there is such a thing as “knowing enough to be dangerous”. Without experience in architecting a solution, talking about the technical aspects of a solution is premature. It would be like specifying what type of tires you want on a new car before even deciding whether it will be a sports car, sedan, or SUV!
• Third, this leads to the real possibility that you will end up with what you asked for and not what you wanted. This is quite common in software development. It’s something like asking for a “kick ass” sports car and then getting a car with a mechanical arm on the front of the car with a boot mounted to it. It may be what you asked for, but it’s not what you wanted.

Tell Me What You Want, Then I’ll Tell You What You Need

I’ve sat down with users many times in requirements meetings and asked them what they want the system to do. Often, they find it very difficult to answer because there have not been any boundaries or parameters established for them. It’s like when my wife asks me, “What do you want for dinner tonight?” When I’m feeling particularly sarcastic, I’ll say something inflammatory like “How about Peking duck with an orange glaze and chocolate soufflé for dessert?” and then run for cover. What I’m actually saying is, “What are my choices? What are the parameters? Are you going shopping or do we need to find something in the fridge? If so, what do we have? What about take out?” You get the picture.

When you alter this scenario and instead put a prototype or screen shots in front of users, then you’ll get bags and bags of feedback. That’s because the parameters have been set and they can visualize the inputs, the manipulations, and the outcomes. In the end, that’s what information technology is; stuff goes in to a box, something happens to the stuff, and new stuff comes out the other end. It’s all about defining the inputs, the manipulations and the outputs. But that still doesn’t answer the fundamental question here. How do you deal with a contract developer who doesn’t get it? I’ve already said you go and get yourself a new one. But how do you make sure the new one will work out differently?

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

Developing a software application is a lot like building a house; it’s the design, architect, build process. You’re the designer and ideally you’d like to find the architect and builder in the form of one person. As a last resort, you are better off hiring both if you can’t find one person to do both jobs. And remember this – you’re a designer, not an architect and certainly not a builder!

The bottom line is to try to find someone with experience in the business arena in which you operate. If you’re the owner of a small chain of sandwich shops, don’t just hire someone who’s developed a web site before, try to find someone who’s developed a web site for a restaurant. And not just one restaurant; a chain. Experience is golden here and there is one rule of thumb that I also mentioned in an earlier blog (Yes, Virginia, You Need a Web Site). When or if you find a developer who can tell you something non-technical about your business that you didn’t know, then you know you’ve got yourself a winner.

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