development

INTERVIEW: Joseph Scola of ABID Technology

INTERVIEW: Joseph Scola of ABID Technology

It takes a tremendous amount of creativity, innovation, and dedication to build your own company, even if it’s a small one. Creative Village wants to showcase how individuals went through the process of beginning their own businesses and perhaps inspire you to do the same.

We talked with Joe Scola of ABID Technology, an interactive tool that lets you click on things that interest you while you’re watching videos online. It’s a very neat idea — check it out on their site!

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Tell us a bit about ABID and what prompted you to start a company like it? Every entrepreneur wants to change the world, and ABID is our way of trying to do so. Our goal is to transform the way viewers will interact with their video content for years to come. We believe people are in constant search of accessing information, and we’re aiming to deliver that experience through an added layer in video content. We see this as one small piece in the future of information exchange. We’re still a young company, and although we’re very pleased with the goals we have accomplished, there is still a long list of milestones in front of us. But that’s the exciting part.

Can you describe your past positions and how they led up to the creation of ABID? I’ve always been attracted to the visual arts, this led me to a BS in Film and Video at Drexel University. After Drexel, I fell into a sales and marketing position with a fortune 100 company. This experience had opened me up to a brand new side of myself. I wound up building new skills and excelling in the industry, but the limitations of working for a large corporation had slowly started to rub me the wrong way. I had ideas, so did my colleagues, none of which were being heard. It was during this experience I had met my future business partner, and we decided it was time to take action.

“If we couldn’t make change through the company we were working for, then we would create our own. Six months later, ABID was born.”

What’s one golden piece of advice you’d offer a young company? I would say, be prepared to work harder than you imagine. Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Be passionate about whatever it is you’re aiming to create, building a company comes with many ups and downs, you’ll need that passion to get you through the challenges that lie ahead.

How do you imagine ABID Technology and Creative Village could work together? Creative Village has some incredible resources, I especially love their blogs and the inspiration they provide.  It would be wonderful to attend some of the networking opportunities and exciting events they’ll be hosting. They’re a company that seems to have a deep understanding of entrepreneurship, startups, and they’re providing new tools for guidance in those arenas, and that’s something close to home for me. I would also imagine that when it’s time to expand ABID, our recruitment process would be made much easier working together with Creative Village.

What’s next for ABID? We’re currently wrapping up an incredible internship program we created and hosted in Philadelphia, and we’re extremely proud of all the students who participated. In the next couple months we’re planning a soft launch with release-1 of our product. The product is something we’ve kept tightly under wraps, and we’re very excited to begin testing it with partners.

If you knew you were about to eat your last meal, what would you have and where would you have it? I would start with some grilled calamari salad, followed by homemade manicotti with my Great Aunt Elda’s famous sauce. After the main course, a Saint Joe’s cake would be my dessert of choice, and would of course be accompanied by a double espresso. A light digestive of sambuca in a snifter glass with 3 coffee beans would polish off the perfect meal. I would enjoy this final palatable goodness overlooking the Mediterranean from the town of Aquavella in Salerno, Italy. It’s where my grandfather was born, a place of humble beginnings and true beauty.

Thanks to Joe and ABID Technology for giving us a peek into the life of an entrepreneur! Keep checking back for more interviews like this and find out the different paths there are in starting a business.

Diane Ly advice, business, career, development, education, inspiration, Interview, technology, videos 0 , , , , , , ,

How to Use Your Time Wisely

How to Use Your Time Wisely

In this new technology era, everyone is busy and complains they don’t have enough time. We all wish that there were 48 hours a day. However, time cannot be changed. Time never stops or even slows. We can only change ourselves — to form good habits to make the best use of our time. Time is precious. We should know how to use it wisely and carefully.

Make a Daily Plan

The foremost thing to do is to make a detailed plan. Having a plan in mind helps you manage your time efficiently. Break your ultimate goal into pieces and integrate them into your daily plan. Make the plan feasible and devote the same amount of time everyday to it. Once the work becomes a routine, you will find yourself making progress easily and will eventually reach your goal.

Do Not Overthinking the Past

We all have that moment. If we did something wrong or would have done it better in a different way, we will keep thinking about it, consciously or unconsciously. However, think about how much time we can have to spend focusing on the past everyday? The past is past, and nothing can be changed. If you can’t do anything about it, let it go, and focus on now. Don’t waste your current time on the past. Live in the present.

Do Not Work on One Task for a Long Time

If you work on one single project for too long, it might decrease your productivity. You might end up spending more time than you should. Say, you may take four hours to finish a task that can be normally done in just two hours. If you feel that you can’t focus or you become less productive, take a break. Go exercise or work on other projects. Remember that time passes quickly. You need to concentrate and use the time efficiently.

Use the Fragment of Time Smartly

It is easy to find some pieces of time here and there everyday. It could be a 10-minute coffee break, a 15-minute gap between meetings or a 30-minute ride on the commute. Do not overlook those little chunks of time. Use it wisely and you will make a big difference. Some recommendations include reading a book, clearing your mind, following up the news, or even networking. Do not waste it.

Sacrifice Leisure Time for the Good

After a hard day’s work, we all want to watch TV and relax for the rest of the day. However, if you have your own goal and wish to achieve it, you’d better give up your leisure time. We surely need to rest once in awhile, but you have to push yourself if you want to do something more. Time is limited, so use it for the most important things. This is not easy, because you have to constantly challenge yourself. But if you make it, you will find yourself in a better life.

Finally, a quote I want to share with all of you:

“Dost thou love life? Then waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of.” – Benjamin Franklin

Cathy Qiu advice, development, inspiration 0 , ,

Content First!

Content First!

Last month, I was invited to “Reasons to be Creative”, a design and tech conference held at the SVA theatre in Chelsea. While I ended up having to cut my time there short, I managed to see two sessions I had planned on.

Up first was Content First!, A lecture by Jeffrey Zeldman. The talk addressed the need for a new approach to web design by putting the viewer first and using small screen or mobile web design as inspiration.

As an example of content “don’ts”, Zeldman pulled up a screenshot of the homepage of the East River Ferry, notifying passengers of delays. He pointed out that the site, intended to aid the viewer, was oversaturated with unhelpful content; including the phrase “East River Ferry” displayed about 4 times in various heading weights while the actual delay notice was small and buried beneath.

Another example offered was that of a movie review site that used the same text size for all its content, including its long list of links; which could be found on every page. Zeldman explained that not only was this a problem in content hierarchy, but also an unnecessary amount of links. Maybe this was helpful as far as SEO marketing was concerned, but a headache for the actual target – the viewer.

But the viewers are learning to fight back against this anti-user behavior; changing text size or colors for legitimate concerns (e.g., bad vision, color blindness) or people using apps like instapaper for easier mobile readability.

So does that mean the web is dead as we know it?

Praising minimalist web design (like the famous “Minimal” Blogger template) and new techniques like responsive design and progressive enhancement, Zeldman says it doesn’t have to be. A company may want a page overrun with SEO content or a few camouflaged ads, but this will only hurt them in the end. At the end of the talk, Jeffrey boiled down the talk into four major points (pictured above) as well as his this parting advice:  put content first and scrubs away the unnecessary extras – the result is a more enjoyable experience for everyone involved.

Morgan Sobel advice, career, design, development, education, mobile, technology, trends, UX/IA 1

Want a Mentor? 4 Steps to Follow

Want a Mentor? 4 Steps to Follow
Are you thinking about having a mentor? When you graduate from school and enter a new industry, it’s always helpful to have role models to follow and learn from. A mentor could be someone in the industry with years of experience that is willing to offer advice and guidance on your career choices or your work life. Having a mentor is extremely valuable for both personal growth and career development. Follow these 4 steps to find yourself a great mentor.
Step 1: Know what you want
Before you start looking for a mentor, ask yourself what you want to achieve from this mentorship? What is your goal? Take some time to think about where you would like to be in your career. Only by having a clear vision of your goal and expectation can you find the right mentor.

Think about what type of mentor you want. Do you want a senior experienced person or a young leader? After all, you are seeking someone you can have a great conversation with. Don’t just go with the big names. Industry gurus might be good mentor candidates, but they might not be the best one for you. Look for someone who shares your values and is compatible with you in terms of personality, communication style or interest.

Step 2: Search for a mentor
After identifying your goal and the type of mentor you want, it’s time to look for the right person. Start with your current company. Some companies have their own mentoring programs. You can also choose someone in your company that you admire and contact them on your own.

Many industry associations offer free mentor-mentee programs for their members, such as  International Association of Business Communicators and Public Relations Society of America. At professional conferences or networking events where a large number of industry practitioners are present, there is also a great chance to find people to be your mentor.

Have you thought about social media? LinkedIn, for instance, is a perfect social platform to find potential mentors. Since you can see a person’s professional experience and work history on the LinkedIn profile, it becomes easier to identify someone you like.

Look to your network and search from the people you have known. It could be your childhood friend, college classmate, or even your older family member or your neighbor.

Step 3:  Secure a mentor
When you find an ideal person to be your mentor, ask smartly. Don’t just open up with the “will you be my mentor?” invitation. Be sincere and first explain why you want a mentor and why that person is the perfect fit, as well as what you expect out of the mentorship.

It’s also a good idea to begin with some casual conversations or meet up a few times until you feel comfortable with the person. Once you build a closer relationship, it would be easier to bring up your request on the mentorship.

If you get rejected by a potential mentor, don’t take it personally. It might be they are just too busy. Thank them for their time and move on to the next one.

Step 4: Start a mentorship
Once you secure a mentor, you and mentor can sit together and make a concrete mentoring plan. Make sure to set a mutual goal of the mentorship, and discuss in details of how the mentorship work. Scheduling a regular meeting time. Also, keep in mind that mentoring can take a variety of forms, including a monthly formal meeting, weekly phone call, or lunch meetings, etc. Talk with your mentor to find the best way that works for both of you.

Once the mentorship starts, be truthful and show your appreciation of any advice your mentor offers. Also, be open-minded and don’t be afraid to give feedbacks if you feel anything needs be improved. Maintain a positive attitude and a healthy relationship with your mentor throughout the mentorship will surely benefit you and your career life in the long run.

Cathy Qiu advice, career, communications, development, how-to, inspiration 0 , ,

Behavior by Design Talk

Want to gain users for your next big product or service? First, you’ll have to understand how the human mind works.

Watch Nir Eyal — start-up founder, lecturer, entrepreneur — explain his theory on How to Manufacture Desire. In his video (which is based off an article he wrote explaining the topic) Eyal discusses how big companies like Facebook and Twitter gained so many users through creating a habit-forming product.

If you’re trying to build something that will get people hooked, take a look for valuable information.

Diane Ly advice, career, communications, development, inspiration, resources, startups, technology, videos 0 , , , , , ,

What’s your Social Media Image?

With the advancement of social media and expansion of the data on the internet….. there’s a fine line now between our business image and our personal image.  There was a time not too long ago where we could separate different aspects of our lives.  We didn’t have to be too concerned with cutting loose with our friends on the weekends because moments we’d soon wish to forget becomes memories and just old stories of the past.  Our professional image could stay intact because nobody really cared what you did Sat. night as long as you produced during your working hours.

Nowadays our every moment is captured and documented for all the world to see.  In essence, we may even feel more connected than ever before.  Every morning when I check my Facebook feed, in 10 minutes I would know what Sally had for dinner, my cousins new girlfriend, a new apartment on the market and what my girlfriend living halfway around the world is having for breakfast.  We get a peek into their lives and really, if you think about it, their minds and what values they have……  because what you choose to feed for others to see is a choice…. it’s the Image you put out.

No longer can we really separate our professional image and our personal image.  So it may be time to evaluate who we really are and how we want the world to see us.

JudyMae Chao advice, business, career, development, inspiration, social media, testimonial, trends 1 , , , ,

Responsive Design: More than just a trend

Responsive Design - Progressive Enhancement example

Web development is a lot like the Fashion industry. No, I’m not crazy. There are always new technologies and trends. We have to think and work 6 months ahead of everyone else, instead of catching up with current thing.

What is a trend? The oxforddictionaries.com defined trend as:

A general trend in which something is developing or changing.

A current trend in web development is responsive design. George Chaney of SEOKing.com wrote that it was THE trend of the year [1]. Many creatives in our industry are currently creating responsive sites or want to do it. There is something about responsive design that sets it apart from other trends.

Take parallax scrolling effect as an example. This is something everyone wanted to replicate after nikebetterworld.com. It looks awesome and I’ve seen great application of this effect on many websites. What purpose does it serve? The parallax trend is less prominent now then it was last year.

Responsive design is a solution for developers and designers to accommodate a website for multiple devices. We all held on to the 960 standard for many years and just worried about how a website would look in each browser. Now we have to think differently. Responsive Design isn’t just a trend, because it is changing the way we design and develop websites. Designers must stop thinking of websites in pixels and the pixel perfect ideal. It’s about designing in terms of proportions and looking at all of the elements of the webpage in relation to one another. Web developers must focus on core functionality and take advantage of new technologies that comes with mobile like geolocation and touch events.

A lot of the responsive work has been done for us. Responsive frameworks are great building blocks for designers and developers to utilize. I’ve been experimenting with the Bootstrap framework. LESS framework and Foundation are very popular. If you haven’t played with one, then I suggest you start immediately. Present this to your agency or client and explain to them why they should develop responsive websites if they aren’t doing so already.

[1] Chaney, George. “Trend Of The Year – Responsive Design.” SEOKing. N.p., 03/024/2012. Web. 3 Apr 2012. .

Elif Bayrasli design, development 0 , , , , ,

Don’t know Objective C? No problem. Start making mobile apps with PhoneGap

PhoneGap

Don’t hesitate to start creating your own mobile app. All you really need is a healthy knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

I recently attended Matt Rogish’s (@MattRogish) “PhoneGap 101” presentation hosted by ZocDoc. This was my introduction into PhoneGap, despite the fact that I’ve know about it for a while. I’m ready to dive into the mobile development world!

PhoneGap is an open-source development framework taking advantage of the mobile webview allowing people to develop applications in HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Develop your app on an SDK, then upload your files to the PhoneGap Build. It’s a web interface that compiles your web assets (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and packages it into an app for ios, android, blackberry, webos, wp7, symbian, and bada.

PhoneGap Build diagram

The thing that appeals to me the most is the ability to create cross-platform apps with the skills that I already have. PhoneGap.com suggests a few tools to work with like Sencha Touch, XUI, EmbedJS, and Dojo Mobile. Between the two the JavaScript framework tools, Matt Rogish suggested in his presentation the benefits of using Sencha Touch over using jQuery mobile. It appears Sencha Touch has a bundle of UI components, a robust theming system, data library for AJAX, iPad support, HTML5 offline storage, and more.

There are tons of tutorials on how to begin working on PhoneGap if you’re not familiar with working with this framework.

PhoneGap | Get Started Guide
http://phonegap.com/start/

PhoneGap has posted its own “Get Started” guide for the average newbie.

MobileTuts+ | PhoneGap from Scratch
http://mobile.tutsplus.com/series/phonegap-from-scratch/

MobileTuts+ began a series of PhoneGap tutorials at the beginning of the year. The series will cover some feature in PhoneGap like accessing the device camera, local storage, and geolocation.

.net Magazine | Get Started with PhoneGap
http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/getting-started-phonegap

.net Magazine posted an excerpt from the PhoneGap beginner’s guide. The article goes into installing Xcode, Android SDK, Blackberry SDK, and building PhoneGap for all three platforms.

Sencha | A Sencha Touch MVC application with PhoneGap
http://www.sencha.com/learn/a-sencha-touch-mvc-application-with-phonegap/

Sencha posted a tutorial on how to work with the sencha js framework with PhoneGap.

I’ll be creating my first mobile application this weekend. You’ll know the results very soon.

Elif Bayrasli apps, development, events, mobile 2 , , , , , , , ,

I hate to break this to you, but education doesn’t stop after you graduate

Especially if you’re a web developer.

You may be at the top of your class, but the truth is whatever you’ve learned up until graduation isn’t enough. All of the classes that you’ve taken are only building blocks for learning. Get ready to be humbled when you start your internship or first full-time job.

Learn to grow

Technology is always changing. Before I graduated, I learned to use Flash and write a little bit of ActionScript. Now, I work full-time at a digital agency writing HTML5, CSS3 and catching up on my JavaScript skills. I still find myself staying home on the weekends, studying tutorials or researching new frameworks.

Be flexible and open. There are always new technologies to learn. The worst kind of developer to be is the kind stuck coding websites in tables for the rest of your career.

The key is to learn from the people in your development team. They’ll introduce you to new technologies, a new way of thinking and different techniques in coding.

I’m really lucky to be working with talented people. A senior tech member took me under his wing when I first started working at RAPP. He showed me some of inefficient ways I was coding CSS and taught me new techniques. I gained knowledge of useful development tools that I can’t live without. I’ve learned more with my experiences with my team at RAPP than any class I took at school.

I don’t want to scare development hopefuls away. There are plenty of development resources available at your finger tips:

Videos:

MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

MIT had posted a whole collection of lessons from different MIT deparments. OpenCourseWare is absolutely free with no registration required.

Academic Earth
http://academicearth.org/subjects/computer-science

Academic Earth is the Hulu of academics. This is a free online resource that brings together lectures from all the top colleges.

Webcast Berkeley
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/

Webcast Berkley is a collection of all of Berkley’s courses. You can find many videos dealing with web development from the professors who work at Berkley.

O’Reilly School
http://www.oreillyschool.com/

The O’Reilly School brings together various online certificate programs ranging from Python programming to web programming. Check out the website for available courses and pricing.

Treehouse
http://teamtreehouse.com/

Team Threehouse streams over 600 training videos about web and iOS development. Pricing starts at $25 per month.

Interactive Learning:

Codeacademy
http://www.codecademy.com/

Codeacademy is an interactive website to learn programming basics. You’re first course is to learn JavaScript through different exercises. Creating an account is easy and its all free.

Codeschool
http://www.codeschool.com

Codeschool follows the principle of learning by doing. Their courses involve watching 10 – 15 minute videos called CodeTV and coding each exercise. Current courses involve Ruby on Rails, HTML5, and jQuery. Codeschool is $25 per month.

Tutorials:

Nettuts +
http://net.tutsplus.com/

Nettuts is a tutorial resource for web developers and designers who already have an established skill set in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, or Ruby on Rails.

Codrops
http://tympanus.net/codrops/
Codrops is a development blog that offers tutorials on new technologies in HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery. The best tutorials involve creating complex animations using CSS3 and jQuery. It takes development to the next level and proves that you don’t need flash anymore to develop sites or ad banners.

CSS Tricks
http://css-tricks.com/

Created by Chris Coyier, CSS Tricks is one of the more popular development blogs. CSS is the main specialty, but Coyier has branched out into doing some wonderful WordPress and jQuery development tutorials.

Elif Bayrasli career, development, education, technology 0 , , , ,