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Moving Files to the Cloud

December 27, 2010 By 3 Comments

dropbox-logoI have every source file from every web project that I have worked on for the past 10+ years stored on physical drives inside my office connected to my network. I also have backup media (CD’s, DVD’s) of these files also cataloged in an enormous library as a redundant backup system.  This has served me well over the years as I have always been able to put my hands on files when I needed them, albeit not as convenient as it could be sometimes.

Faced with needing to purchase additional storage for the new year for my library, I have made the decision to move my vast life’s work to the cloud for storage.  I am very familiar with Dropbox because that’s what we use at Pleth but while it’s extremely convenient, there are certain aspects of Dropbox’s service that I am not 100% happy with.  I basically have 3 machines that I work from, my DEV-001 Machine, my DEV-002 Machine (which is a test server), and of course my MacBook Pro. I also have a very specific method in which I store files on my machines. It’s a method that suits my OCD tendencies well and allows me to locate files quickly.

I have several directories in which I store files that I would like to synchronize across all three of my machines and I also have directories that I would like to store versions of, like subversion.  I know that doing this is probably possible w/ Dropbox, I have seen some creative uses for Dropbox’s service, but for some reason I decided not to go that route.

Instead I decided to go w/ a solution provider that Pleth already has a long-standing relationship with and opted to try their cloud storage solution.  My partners and I have played around with the idea of adding online storage to our repertoire of solutions in the past and hopefully my experiences with this solution can help further that process along.  I see cloud storage as a service businesses will one day view alongside email in terms of importance.

So far so good w/ this solution, I am able to do exactly everything that I have wanted to do in terms of setting up synchronization and versioning directories.  As soon as I get a little further into this solution I will likely blog about it.

In the meantime I was wondering…

  • What do you use for your personal / business backup solution?
  • Do you use Dropbox or another Cloud Based Solution?
  • Do you primarily use Cloud Storage as a Network Drive or do you Synchronize & Version?
Filed Under: Web Hosting Tagged With: , ,

Let’s Make History in 2011

December 27, 2010 By 1 Comment

pleth-logo-new[1]Usually this time of year everyone starts setting goals or resolutions for the new year. Some of these goals we reach, or at least come close enough that we feel good about them. Some not so much.  This year I am keeping it simple, instead of just saying that I want to be successful in 2011, I want to make history in 2011. If you share this mindset for the coming year I wish you all the best…

Shameless Plug: Let Pleth Help You Achieve Your Dreams! If your goal for 2011 is to follow your dream and open your own business, I wish you nothing but success.  If your business goals consist of an online presence, I encourage you to reach out to our team at Pleth so that we can assist you from the ground floor in bringing your dreams to fruition. We have offices in Batesville, Jonesboro, and Conway and would love to be a part of your project. You can reach us toll free at: 1-888-276-0848…

Filed Under: Current Projects Tagged With:

Thoughts on Net Neutrality

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Image2I have had a couple of people ask me about Net Neutrality lately so I figured I would do a post on the topic to educate those who might not be familiar. When the internet was created, it was created to be this free and open area where users could share information and interact with other users as they choose. When we use the Internet we typically assume that we will be able to access any website, application, or service that we want to.  For the most part this is how it works today, and what makes that possible is net neutrality…

However, as the Internet continues to develop into this vast frontier of opportunity for large corporations consumed by profit, some applications are not as open or accessible as they once might have been.  A good example was when Comcast decided to restrict access to some popular P2P (peer to peer) networks like BitTorrent because users on their networks that connected to this network were using up large amounts of bandwidth and causing overall slowdowns for everyone on their network. BitTorrent isn’t the only bandwidth intensive service out there either, you might have heard of Netflix, their streaming service has also been mentioned a lot as another popular service that ISP’s might look to restrict access to in the future to reduce the demand on their networks.  The idea behind net neutrality is that users on any ISP should have the same level of access to popular websites, networks, or services as someone who is using another ISP (Internet Service Provider).

There are also some other factors to consider, let’s say that Comcast decides they want to create a social network that will compete with Facebook (hypothetically). Let’s say that Comcast decides that they want to force their users to use their network instead of Facebook so they block access to Facebook for their users. This would also be something that falls under the umbrella of net neutrality.  This might sound like a far fetched idea but as the industry continues to be invaded by large corporations with their eye on profits and no passion for the principles in which the industry was built upon, it could happen.

Let’s also say that an ISP who has managed to monopolize a rural area and there are no other ISP’s competing for their clients.  Well, the ISP w/ the monopoly could easily overcharge for service that has subpar performance when compared on a national scale. The standardization or regulation of service packages would also fall under net neutrality.

Hopefully I have painted a pretty good picture as to what net neutrality is and what it covers.  Well, here’s the part that scares me a little bit.  The FCC will be getting involved to regulate our industry.  No one really knows right now what the involvement of the FCC will mean, but bringing a government agency into a situation isn’t always the best solution to a problem, history has taught us that…

The FCC did provide us a little bit of an overview the other day…

Transparency: Does your ISP slow down its network at peak times? Does it have a usage cap? What about roaming fees? The transparency requirement basically requires broadband providers – fixed and wireless – to be more transparent about their activities. They need to be upfront about how they manage their networks, how well (or poorly) their networks perform, as well as details about their plan options and pricing. Most ISPs would argue that they already do this, but if you disagree, you could conceivably take it up with the FCC.

No Blocking: Much of this net neutrality debate started in 2007 when Comcast was accused of blocking access to P2P networks like BitTorrent because people using BitTorrent on Comcast’s network were slowing down the experience for everyone else. Comcast denied cutting off access completely but said it did delay access to P2P sites during peak times. Under the FCC rules, an ISP would not be able to pick and choose apps or service to block in order to improve network performance. Your ISP would not be able to block access to Netflix’s streaming service, for example, or Xbox Live just because a select few people were clogging the system.

The rules differ slightly on this for fixed versus wireless. Fixed providers cannot block lawful content, apps, services, or “non-harmful” devices, or charge providers of these services for delivering traffic to and from their networks. Wireless providers, meanwhile, cannot block access to lawful Web sites or block apps that compete with their own voice or video telephony services. It does not apply to mobile broadband app stores.

No unreasonable discrimination: A key term being thrown around this week is “network management,” which basically governs how an ISP like Comcast or Time Warner Cable runs their operations. Under the FCC rules, ISPs can manage their networks, but it can’t be “unreasonable” or discriminate against specific applications. In other words, Comcast could slow down its entire network to handle an influx of users, but it could not cut off a specific, bandwidth-hungry service – like BitTorrent or Netflix or Hulu. The FCC acknowledges that network management is necessary to block harmful things – like malware and child porn – from making its way onto ISP networks. Blocking child porn and spam? Good. Blocking Netflix or BitTorrent because it competes with your own service or eats up bandwidth? Bad.

Again, we haven’t seen the actual text of the rules, so what makes something “unreasonable”? In a press conference after Tuesday’s meeting, an FCC official said the agency has included specific language in its rules to define unreasonable network management.

“Generally if there are practices that are targeted for specific use – like controlling spam or malware – [that] would be reasonable,” she said. “Certainly things that appear to be discriminatory would be a red flag.”

Among those things that would probably be unreasonable? Paid prioritization. The whole idea behind net neutrality is that everyone has equal access to the Web; a wealthy company like Amazon should not be able to pay to have their Web site load faster than a mom-and-pop e-commerce site. While this practice of paid prioritization is not strictly banned in the net neutrality rules, the FCC said yesterday that it would likely be deemed unreasonable. “It’s a very dynamic marketplace … so everything would have to be evaluated,” the FCC official said. “I think there’s significant concern about paid prioritization … but it’s not ruled out.”

Can I Report a Violation? If you think your ISP is violating these rules, you can complain to the FCC. The agency has two types of complaint processes: an informal consumer complaint and a more organized formal process.  Going forward, consumers can go to the FCC Web site and file their complaint at no charge. This is mainly for those who suspect that something is going on and possibly have a certain amount of proof, but lack the ability (or funds) to pull together a more formal complaint. As Free Press did with its original complaint against Comcast, larger, more organized groups can band together and file a formal complaint with lawyers and fees and affidavits.  When asked yesterday if formal complaints would take priority over individual consumer complaints, the FCC said it would evaluate everything individually on its own merits. The agency will also keep tabs on individual complaints to watch for trends that require a larger investigation, the commission said.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374638,00.asp

I think this whole debate is something that we should definitely keep our eyes on closely and make sure that our rights as citizens aren’t trampled on and that we don’t start seeing companies like Comcast with a team of lobbyists planting crazy ideas into the minds of our elected officials. We have to stand up and let our voices be heard in order to protect our freedoms to download music or visit any website we dang well please.  After all, that’s why Al Gore invented the crazy thing to start with…

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With:

Rohrscheib Christmas Blog 2010

December 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

For those of you that are close to Donna and I, you already know that 2010 has been a year of ups and downs for us.  With that being said, this Christmas letter might not have the same tone as ones you might have received from us in the past.  I have been instructed to keep this short and sweet, so here goes…

Dealing w/ Setbacks & Moving Forward

phtoWe found out early in 2010 that we were pregnant again, but a few weeks later we had our second miscarriage.  A few months later we found ourselves pregnant for the third time and thinking that surely the third time was the charm, and in the beginning that pregnancy looked viable, but a little later on we found out that this one wasn’t meant to be either.  For those of you who have experienced this before, you have some idea as to what we went through times three.  It just hurt, and hurt bad.  We received countless cards, letters, flowers, and meals from our friends, and it still chokes us up when we try to describe everyone’s kindness and generosity. We couldn’t have pulled through this slump w/out you guys (you know who you are).

Looking back on this low points in our lives there were 3 positive things that happened for us. The first being that it brought us even closer together as a couple, and we learned that no matter what life throws at us, we can endure it together.  The second positive for us we would learn later, after we had endured all that we endured on this journey it would have been easy for us both to lose hope but the opposite happened, our faith was strengthened.  We now believe more than ever that our future includes children, and that leads me to our third positive from this experience. We have decided to pursue adoption and have left all doors open for God to build our family the way he wants.  Starting this next year we are enrolling in parenting classes, learning CPR, and having all of the home study work prepared that is required for us to get into the DHS system to adopt.  Seeing as how we have completely turned this over to God we sure would love to have each of you agreeing in prayer w/ us regarding this situation, and pray that the entire process will be a positive one.

Saying Goodbye is Hard…

This past year has been a year of great loss to Donna and I both.  We lost her Grandmother Bakie this year, who we were both very close to.  I picked up Donna for our first date at Bakie’s house and from the first moment we met we had a unique relationship.  It was hard for everyone to watch her as the Alzheimer’s rapidly worked on her mind, and in her passing I think we all found comfort in knowing that she was no longer confused, and was reunited w/ her true love.  One thing that Bakie always took a lot of pride in was her delicious Apple Pie, one day she sat down and shared that recipe w/ me, along w/ her BBQ Sauce recipe.  We made sure that everyone who attended her memorial service received a copy of her Apple Pie recipe so that her memory would live on with us each time we all sat down together for special occasions.

This year has also been tough on my side of the family as well.  I lost two Aunts who had been big influences in my life since the day I came into this world.  My Aunt Mary was one of the sweetest ladies in Phillips County, and probably one of the sharpest too. Aunt Mary served as the vice president of Helena National Bank, a bank she had been with for 50 years.  She was the first face you would see when you walked through the front doors of the main branch downtown, and for good reason, Aunt Mary was one of the prettiest women in the community. Even through her last days struggling with complication after complication, she handled herself with such grace and dignity that even the nurses and doctors that came in contact w/ her were impacted by her life.  A short time after Aunt Mary’s passing we all attended her grandson Tripp’s wedding, it was a bittersweet event for everyone but one that we all felt her comforting presence as she smiled down upon us from heaven.

I also lost another powerful influence in my life this when my Aunt Linda passed.  I can’t count the times that my cousin David and I would call her from the office while we were working late on a project and she would have dinner made for us by the time we got home.  I also can’t count the times that Aunt Linda and I would just get on the phone to discuss life, she had a unique perspective that was not only wise but contagious. One of her favorite things to say was that when life gave us lemons we had to make lemonade.  She also taught me that you can’t always control your destiny but you can always bloom where you are planted.

Some High Points from 2010

While we are eager to put 2010 behind us we can’t say that the year was a total loss.  We did have some good times.  On vacation this summer at Hilton Head Island we had a wonderful time w/ Donna’s parents traveling across the country. One highlight from the trip was a chartered fishing trip that I coordinated w/ a local fishing guide who took us out to fish for sharks.  The fishing trip was a huge success, there’s a great rundown of the fishing trip on my blog, you can find that post here…

Businesswise 2010 was a great year for Pleth. We added several new faces to our team this year and opened a new office in Jonesboro.  We will also opening an office here in Conway after the first of the year, but I will probably continue to do most of my work from home where I am the most productive, and where Donna can stand over me w/ a flyswatter when the ADHD starts kicking in…

My partners and I also purchased some investment property this past year and have been getting educated real quick on the fine art of being landlords.  We also traveled out of state for some eventful conferences and meetings that renewed our corporate vision and helped us pinpoint new areas of opportunity for Pleth.

Ending the Year on a High Note w/ Bogey Sinatra…

bogey_sinatraGiven all that we have endured this past year I really wanted Donna and I to end the year on a high note.  After several months of pleading, I finally gave into the idea of getting a dog.  Something she had passionately campaigned for since we got married.  Her initial thoughts were that she wanted a Pug puppy but after we did some thinking we decided that we wanted to adopt a puppy from the Faulkner County Animal Shelter.  We both felt great about what we were doing, even got to the pound about 20 minutes early to pick up the puppy we had picked out.  We got the puppy to the vet to get its shots and have some tests ran and the vet told us that he was sorry and that the puppy wasn’t going to make it. It was too sick.  We had owned this puppy 25 minutes, I looked at my watch.

I glanced over to Donna who had the most heartbroken look on her face when the doctor shared the news with us and I knew immediately what had to happen.  We walked out of the vets office and got on the phone w/ a breeder in Mayflower who just so happened to have one Pug puppy left out of the litter she was selling.  We immediately punched her address into the GPS and headed that direction.  When we got to her farm she met us in the driveway and handed us this tiny ball of fur that we immediately fell in love with.  We went through several names but finally arrived at Bogey Sinatra Rohrscheib for our newest addition to the family.  My only remark after getting this puppy home, after our second vet visit of the day, was that the next living creature we brought into our home had to one day walk upright!

All in all though, I think it’s safe to say that we are going to leave 2010 on a high note and with great expectations for what 2011 holds.  We hope that each of you reading this Christmas blog has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and a Blessed and Prosperous 2011.

Now, for the best part…

Click on the video below to watch our animated Christmas Dance…

Donna and I both wish everyone of you that reads this post a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Blessed New Year!  If you would like to stay up to date with our everyday adventures feel free to connect w/ us on Facebook: Cotton’s Facebook, Donna’s Facebook, or on Twitter: Cotton’s Twitter, and Donna’s Twitter.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: ,

Green Cart Deli Hot Dogs FTW!!

December 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Img_0437One thing that I always like to point out on my blog are cool brands or businesses that I run across who are using social media to grow their business and to communicate with their base.  I didn’t have to look very far to find the topic for this post, instead I ran across this guy right here in Conway by way of recommendations from my friends on Twitter!

Brad Kossover who owns and operates Green Cart Deli makes the absolute best hot dog that I have ever eaten, but aside from that, he has an awesome business. In a nutshell he has the first “green” hot dog cart that I have ever seen. By green, I mean that his entire cart is solar powered and even the paper products he uses are recyclable, biodegradable, and compostable.  You can read an interesting article about Brad’s cart on the Log Cabin Democrat website.  One other thing that makes Green Cart Deli really cool in my opinion is the fact that he uses Facebook and Twitter (in addition to his website) to let his growing number of Central Arkansas fans know where he will be located each day so they can track him down for their hot dog. You can find his twitter page and his facebook page to be pretty two way considering he has a full time job managing the cart everyday!

If you are ever in Conway, Arkansas and don’t have lunch plans, I highly recommend you track Brad down, he’s also a really nice guy to talk to.  I am a purist when it comes to hot dogs so I mostly get a plain dog w/ mustard and celery salt, but if you are brave you should check out something from the menu.  Steven Trotter, was in town this weekend and he had the Chicago Dog and raved about it.

Green Cart Deli (Mobile Cart) on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Funny, Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: , ,

Understanding Influence w/ Klout

December 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

klout-logoI have known about Klout for a while but only recently did I start using it frequently and recommending it to clients as a tool to track their social media efforts as well as gain insight into their network, etc.  The fact that Klout now pulls in Facebook in addition to Twitter makes it a really nice tool for metrics. 

One thing that I really like about Klout from a business perspective is the fact that it allows you to see who your most influential customers are.  Another tool on the market that is very similar to Klout, but not as impressive is Peerindex.  I just think Klout is a lot more usable and easier to understand. 

What is a Klout score?

The explanation for Klout scores found on their website is: 

The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100. Network score indicates how influential your engage audience is and is also on a scale from 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.

We believe that influence is the ability to drive people to action — "action" might be defined as a reply, a retweet, a comment, or a click. We perform significant testing to ensure that the average click-through rate on links shared is highly correlated with a person’s Klout Score. The 25+ variables used to generate scores for each of these categories are normalized across the whole data set and run through our analytics engine. After the first pass of analytics, we apply a specific weight to each data point. We then run the factors through our machine-learning analysis and calculate the final Klout Score. The final Klout Score is a representation of how successful a person is at engaging their audience and how big of an impact their messages have on people.  (excerpt from the Klout website, http://klout.com/kscore)

I recently read an article that asked the question, what if we were paid based on our klout scores?  That’s pretty interesting when you think about it.  Recently I have even seen perks for users with a high Klout score.  Klout even has “Klout Perks” listed on their corporate website from Virgin Airlines, Dove, Starbucks, Danone, and Covergirl.

What is Your True Reach?

One of the factors Klout uses in it’s scoring process is True Reach.  True Reach more or less is the size of your engaged audience.  Klout takes into consideration the value of each individual relationship and takes into account whether an individual has shared or acted upon your content as well as the likelihood they saw it in their stream. According to Klout’s website, True Reach is broken down into the following:

Reach & Demand: (excerpt from the Klout website, http://klout.com/kscore)

  • Are your tweets interesting and informative enough to build an audience?
  • How far has your content been spread across Twitter?
  • Are people adding you to lists and are those lists being followed?
  • How many people did you have to follow to build your count of followers?
  • How often are your follows reciprocated?

Some of the factors measured include: Followers, Mutual Follows, Friends, Total Retweets, Unique Commenters, Unique Likers, Follower/Follow Ratio, Followed Back %, @ Mention Count, List Count, List Followers Count.

What is Your Amplification Probability?

klout-amplification

Amplification Probability is the likelihood that your content will be acted upon by your friends / followers. How often do your tweets get retweeted? How often do your Facebook Statuses spark conversations? Having the ability to create content that compels others to respond and having your content spread outside your own network is a key component of influence. According to Klout’s website Amplification Ability is a composite of Engagement, Velocity, and Activity. Here are some factors listed on Klout’s website:

(excerpt from the Klout website, http://klout.com/kscore)

  • How diverse is the group that @ messages you?
  • Are you broadcasting or participating in conversations?
  • How likely are you to be retweeted?
  • Do a lot of people retweet you or is it always the same few followers?
  • Are you tweeting too little or too much for your audience?
  • Are your tweets effective in generating new followers, retweets and @ replies?

Some of the factors involved include: Unique Retweeters, Unique Messages Retweeted, Likes Per Post, Comments Per Post Follower Retweet %, Unique @ Senders, Follower Mention %, Inbound Messages Per Outbound Message, Update Count.

What is Your Network Influence?

klout-network

Network Influence is the influence level of your engaged audience. Engagement is measured based on actions such as retweets, @messages, follows, lists, comments, and likes. Each time a person performs one of these actions it is a testament to the authority and the quality of your content. Capturing the attention of influencers is no easy task, and those who are able to do so are typically creating spectacular content. Network Score looks at the Klout score of each person who interacts with you to determine:

(excerpt from the Klout website, http://klout.com/kscore)

  • How influential are the people who @ message you?
  • How influential are the people who retweet you?
  • How influential are the people who follow you?
  • How influential are the people who list you?
  • How influential are the people who follow the lists you are on?

Some of the factors measured include: List inclusions, Follower/Follow Ratio, Followed Back %, Unique Senders, Unique Retweeters, Unique Commenters, Unique Likers, Influence of Followers, Influence of Retweeters and Mentioners, Influence of Friends, Influence of Likers and Commenters.

The Klout Dashboard

One thing I really like about the Klout Dashboard is the way they have this set of graphics outlining your Klout score for you and breaking down your individual achievements.

klout-achievements

  • Do you use tools like Klout?
  • What other tools do you use for tracking your social metrics?
Filed Under: Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: , ,

Tech Conference in Arkansas?

December 16, 2010 By 2 Comments

arkansas-tech-conference-technology-state-graphicThis past week I was asked to submit an idea to the Arkansas Times magazine for their “Big Ideas” section of their publication.  I basically threw out the idea of having a technology conference in Arkansas similar to South by Southwest Interactive or Tahoe Tech Talk, you can read my idea on the Arkansas Times Website. They had to edit it down for size but the point I was going for was that we basically have the network or backbone to support the conference in place through various groups like the Central Arkansas Refresh and similar groups in Jonesboro and Northwest Arkansas. We also have some experience in putting together tech related events, I referenced Barcamp Conway, Barcamp Jonesboro, and Wordcamp Fayetteville in the article.

Since the article ran I have had several emails and phone calls from individuals and organizations wishing to get involved in bringing this idea to fruition.  I don’t think that there is any doubt that a lot of people are on board with the idea, I have had this discussion with Steven Trotter, Brant Collins, Arlton Lowry, and Keith Crawford a hundred times, but I guess the next question is what’s next?  I have given this a lot of thought and even bounced the idea off of several friends within the community that I know are on board and I think the next step is to form a steering committee that will help define the idea and put together a business plan that can be shopped around for support. 

One thing that I do not want to happen w/ this idea is for a lot of people to put in their time and hard work and there not be enough support in place to do it up right.  Granted, the Barcamps that we had this year in Jonesboro and Conway were awesome but I envision this event to be something that will attract a large crowd from around the world to Arkansas. I would also like to see an all-star roster of speakers and thought leaders from throughout the industry headlining this event.  I also have some ideas that are unique in format that could help the Arkansas Tech Conference stand out.

I would love your input, drop your thoughts / comments below.  I have several phone calls and people to follow up with this next week regarding this topic so as things come together I will post updates here…

  • What are your thoughts on a Tech Conference in Arkansas? 
  • How do you propose we get the ball rolling? 
Filed Under: Central Arkansas Refresh, Current Projects, Miscellaneous, Social Media / Web 2.0, Web Development

My Yahoo / Del.icio.us Rant

December 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

delicious_logoI haven’t ever been a huge fan of Yahoo or anything they have ever introduced w/ the exception of Del.icio.us, which is a social bookmarking service similar to Digg or any other social bookmarking service but a lot more organized and simplified.  You can see my delicious page here.  Well, I learned today on Mashable that Yahoo was planning to kill delicious. Honestly I can think of about a hundred other things that Yahoo could pull the plug on before Delicious, one of them being “search” but no one called to ask me about it.

Long story short, since I am a Picasa fanboy and could care less about Flickr I can pretty much live out the rest of my days completely Yahoo-less. By the way, if you are upset about the Del.icio.us departure I recommend checking out Diigo, which is a very similar service that Keith Crawford turned me onto a while back.  It performs very similarly to Delicious and you can import your info from Delicious. 

I know Yahoo’s reason for dropping Delicious but it looks like to me they could have at least made it available as a premium service or possibly tried to monetize the thing so those of us that have become embedded could have continued life as normal. Just goes to show you that Yahoo is a wacky outfit…

Filed Under: Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: , ,

Arkansas Times Big Idea…

December 15, 2010 By 5 Comments

cover1Last week I was asked to present an idea to the Arkansas Times magazine for their “Big Ideas” section related to technology. I chose something that several of my friends (Brant Collins, Steven Trotter, Arlton Lowry, and Keith Crawford have discussed quite extensively, and that’s bringing a large tech conference to Arkansas similar to SXSWi.

The article is running in this weeks edition (December 16, 2010) of the Arkansas Times and you can find it here or I have reposted my part below:

Each year thousands of tech insiders, thought leaders and celebrities flock to Austin, Texas, for SXSWi (South by Southwest Interactive), a huge tech conference that sets the tone of the industry for the year and gives the Austin economy a huge shot in the arm. Why can’t we pull off a similar event in Arkansas?

Already, we’ve got a strong foundation. Last year, I helped launch Central Arkansas Refresh, a monthly discussion group of locals who make their living working on the web. In a little more than a year’s time, we’ve registered 200 members. The inaugural BarCamp Conway and BarCamp Jonesboro — free, user-generated tech conferences where attendees vote, collectively, on topics to be presented — were unmitigated successes earlier this year. Each had more than 100 attendees from all over the region and more than a dozen sponsors, including big players like Adobe and Microsoft.

With municipal and corporate support, we can build on the infrastructure already in place and host a major conference that attracts attendees — and attention — from all over the country.

If you think that Arkansas would be a great host for a tech conference like Tahoe Tech Talk or South by Southwest I would love to hear from you, drop a comment below…

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Press Releases, Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With:

Faulkner County Biz Interview

December 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

faulkner-county-business-journalThis past week I was interviewed for the Faulkner County Business Journal that ran in Sunday’s edition of The Log Cabin Democrat here in Conway.  Since the Business Journal doesn’t run online I am posting the transcript below for anyone that might have missed it.

I want to thank Jamie Gates from the Conway Chamber of Commerce for choosing me to do this interview.  The folks at the Conway Chamber do an excellent job promoting technology firms like Pleth and supporting tech related events like Barcamp Conway in Central Arkansas.

What is Pleth:
Pleth is an interactive agency co-founded by myself, Greg and Stephen Smart of Batesville.  We offer web design, application development, graphic design & print, social media consulting, and business class email outsourcing solutions. We have offices in Batesville, Jonesboro, and Conway.

How many employees do you have:
We presently have 8 people on our team, 2 of them are part time.

How long have you been in business:
I have personally been involved in this industry for over a decade.  We formed in 2004.

What technology trends are you seeing in small-medium sized business:
It’s hard to ignore the fact that social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter, have completely changed the way that small-medium sized businesses interact with their customers.  I think that trend will continue to evolve as more and more businesses and consumers adopt social media.  I haven’t seen recent statistics for social media usage in the United States but based on earlier usage statistics that I have seen you would be surprised how much time the average web user spends inside Facebook as opposed to surfing the rest of the web.  I think the important lesson to be taken from this trend is that not only does a business need a web presence, they must also have a social media presence as well as a strategy for management and interaction.  Another aspect of social media that is starting to really catch on is Geo-Social. Geosocial check-ins occur now on several social networks and in a nutshell they basically allow users to check in at venues, business, or any physical location on their wireless devices to share their locations with friends in their network.  This has huge potential for businesses moving forward and I feel that it is something that should be on all of our radar screens right now.

Another big trend that I am seeing from an insider standpoint is how interaction with the cloud has grown.  In the old days web content existed on corporate servers or co-located server farms, but when virtualization of server resources became a buzzword we started seeing a lot of content providers moving in the direction of the cloud to store and deliver their content in a more cost effective manner.  I have seen everything stored in the cloud from Email and business critical data to Digital Content like e-books, movies, etc.

What is “the cloud?”
I like to explain the cloud as internet based computing. Instead of having a single server with limited resources for storage, etc., the cloud presents an endless amount of scalable storage and resources on demand through virtualization.  Cloud usage is typically metered by usage so it can often times cut IT costs for small-medium sized businesses dramatically. Business critical data storage and Email Hosting are examples of two applications that we see a lot of businesses transitioning to these days to cut IT Overhead and increase their resources. I think the days of having an in-house server are probably limited.

How can a small business use Geo-Social?
There are tons of ways that businesses can interact w/ Geo-Social.  I have seen Fortune 500 companies leverage services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places to run some incredible promotions. I have even personally won items for checking into businesses in Central Arkansas.  I have even seen a hot dog vendor in Central Arkansas build a network of followers and alert them on a daily basis as to where he is located.  In my opinion, location based services present the most opportunity for small businesses to promote their business and build a community around their products and services.  My advice is to every small business I speak with is when they are putting together their strategy for social media that they spend a lot of time investigating the geosocial aspect as well. One other thing that I think is important to emphasize that as social media continues to grow in popularity and usage, having a presence alone is nothing without interaction, it’s for this reason that my company, along with several others in Central Arkansas provide social media consultation and coaching more or less to get businesses up to speed with the proper ways of interacting socially.

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