Web Development - Exploring Our Potential Together
As a web and mobile developer I am part of a large and growing network that is changing how work gets done by everybody else. As an Ottawa based developer I have been an advocate for several development groups in Ottawa that have grown to have memberships in the hundreds. It is awesome to live in a friendly little city like Ottawa, yet be able to boast about having the same kind of development groups found in cities like Toronto and Vancouver.
My favorite tools are generally open source. I use CodeIgniter as my main framework and for CMS I use Expression Engine, PyroCMS and Wordpress which are either build on top of CodeIgniter or integrate seamlessly (Wordpress plays well with others). Sometimes I repair Joomla and Drupal sites but only out of pity. I am also a big fan of Android and use Eclipse for native mobile apps. Other favorites include Twitter Bootstrap with jQuery and LESS. PhoneGap is also looking promising but I haven't done much with it yet.
My Mobile Modus Operandi
April 22, 2012
Internet surfing replaced channel surfing in my vocabulary a long time ago when I discovered a world of knowledge was at my fingertips.
There was still something was missing with all this information and that was mobility. There was a need to use this amazing information to make decisions in the real world, in real time.
After much waiting, along came Smartphones. It seemed revolutionary and I was sure that it would be the end of laptops and desktops. I was totally wrong.
After countless hours of analyzing web analytics and simply observing people in the real world I have found that people have a different perception of information when they are on the move and it is because they have a different modus operandi.
Simply put, shoppers, partiers, or just boring business people rushing to see clients want information that can be quickly absorbed. When at home or an office there is more time to read 2 page company mission statements.
As a mobile website developer helping clients plan their information architectures, I discourage them from simply trying to make their desktop sites "mobile friendly". These types of CSS hack approaches rob them of the opportunity to build powerful and engaging presences on a platform that is growing 8 times faster than the rest of the Internet. I encourage them to plan navigation, and most importantly, think about what not to show on a mobile website based on modus operandi.
Digital Samurai
Jan 25, 2012
What the hell do Samurai have to do with coding? Well .. nothing really, but they were misunderstood in their time much as programmers are today.
What many people don't know about the Samurai is that they were not thugs or goons. They were loyal to their lords above all but their training included the arts and philosophy. They idealized the arts and aspired to become skilled in them. They were also great thinkers, even if they though it was cool to slice watermelons with a flick of the wrist, which I think is pretty cool.
Fast forward to ummm ... right now ... and we have programmers referred to as hackers, nerds and whatever you can think of as you're reading this. It is not as glamorous a typecast as that of Samurai but all the same a result of misunderstanding.
Great programmers are great artists, much as great Samurai were great artists.
Any advice I can give to other developers is simply to take time to think about work, whether a simple blog or an enterprise application on a philosophical level. Profound ideas are the positive energy what moves us forward and present us with ever greater challenges. Great programming takes years of practice, the development of a strategic mind, and a firm stance. Being lazy and giving into fear is the path to irrelevance (or death for Samurai).
How Open Source Works
Over the years I have worked with senior managers and several CEOs who have difficulty understanding what motivates software developers and why open source projects are often better choices than commercial ones. It flies in the face of what many of them have been trained to believe about HR management. I think this fun video based on a study sponsored by the Federal Reserve will help make it clear.
You're worth ...
You may feel your work isn't valued despite working longer hours, taking more chances and spending more energy than your peers. Unless you make a concerted effort to get noticed, you will not stand much apart from the guy who fondles a red stapler all day. Unless you MAKE people know how valuable you are, your will have no value. Scott Belsky describes an experiment to clearly demonstrates this point. If you feel unfairly sidelined, take a couple of minutes for this talk.
Find Me
I am a developer and strategist at Acart Communications in Ottawa. If is a great pro-social agency and we have fun working every day to change and improve how good ideas can spread.
You can often find me at local Ottawa cafés talking with other developers or at Chapters in Kanata (with my dog) reading development books that I actually buy from time to time. I have many Ottawa based associates specialized in several areas of web development so if I can't find a quick solution I can likely refer you to someone who can help. I am a regular participant and occasional host for developer events in Ottawa.
Aside from being a web developer, I try to enjoy everything Ottawa has to offer as a city and as a recreational area. During the summer I am an avid Ottawa river sailor, hiker, camper and canoeist. In winter I am a cross country skier and snowboarder.
As a web and mobile developer I am part of a large and growing network that is changing how work gets done by everybody else. As an Ottawa based developer I have been an advocate for several development groups in Ottawa that have grown to have memberships in the hundreds. It is awesome to live in a friendly little city like Ottawa, yet be able to boast about having the same kind of development groups found in cities like Toronto and Vancouver. 
