Technology Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Tendenci Blog | Tendenci

2012-08-062014-11-02

Congratulations to NASA and @MarsCuriosity for a Perfect Mars Landing!

If you’ve been busy watching the Olympics news on Twitter, you might have ran across another trending tweet stream @MarsCuriosity has been trending over the weekend as the Mars Lander “tweeted” the details of its last few days in space preparing to land on Mars.

The Curiosity Mars Lander successfully touched down at approximately 12:14am central time Monday morning. At 12:32am central time, the lander tweeted its safe landing to over 600,000 followers.

Curiosity also has around 147,000 Facebook Fans cheering on its mission on Mars. That’s a pretty impressive online fan base for a robot that’s millions of miles away. Do you think @AstroRobonaut is wondering how @MarsCuriosity managed to more followers than he did?

I’m known at Schipul as the resident “Space Geek” but all of us were excited to hear about the safe landing, and we want to share our excitement for NASA’s incredible work with this Mars Lander mission.

Two Extraordinary Accomplishments for NASA!

Smooth Landing for MarsCuriosity

Landing a robot on Mars is no easy task and comes with the added challenge of a 14 minute communication delay. And NASA made it look so easy this morning when Curiosity Mars Lander touched down on the red planet’s soil. Curiosity is the first Mars lander since the Phoenix mission in 2008.

Curiosity is carrying some pretty advanced equipment to assist it with the mission objectives that include 17 cameras, an infrared lazer to vaporize small rocks, and x-ray vision plus many other advanced scientific equipment.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be getting more images and analysis of the Martian Landscape courtesy of Curiosity. The mission objectives for Curiosity include:

Try to determine if there was ever life on Mars
Study the Martian climate and geology of Mars
Bring back data to help with planning a human mission to mars.

Watch the Mars Lander Curiosity Landing on NASA Television’s YouTube:

Social Media in Space

In addition to successfully sending this Super Robot to Mars, NASA should be commended for its successful use of social media marketing to help revitalized the organization’s PR and community awareness. In addition to MarsCuriosity’s astounding number of followers and fans, @NASA has over 2.5 million fans, has had its YouTube videos watched over 33 million times, and has photographs that you can’t find anyplace on Earth on the official NASA photographer Flickr.

NASA has used social media to grow a huge following of space enthusiasts and has integrated social media throughout their website and other media outlets. If you head over to NASA’s Social Media Connect Page you’ll find hundreds of accounts for various projects and NASA employees across a dozen different social platforms including Google, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, and more.

If you’re struggle with managing your organization’s social media marketing and staying on top of what’s being said about you and by whom on the internet, you might take a cue from what the digital media team at NASA is doing because they are doing it right.

Learn More about NASA and Social Media

NASA at the Houston Social Media Breakfast Club August 31st, 2012

Learn how NASA turned reluctant employees into social media stars to enable NASA to expand its digital marketing efforts on August 31st at the Houston Social Media Breakfast Club.

Amiko Kauderer, NASA’s Social Media Lead and Web Manager at the Johnson Space Center, will share her strategy to engage employees to become active social media users to build your brand, balance employee participation with management concerns, and more… (we’re hoping she might tell us who is behind @MarsCuriosity’s twitter persona). Amiko has over 14 years of experience in digital marketing and communications, and among her many responsibilities at NASA, she manages multiple NASA social media accounts, including the @NASA_Johnson twitter account and teaches the astronauts how to tweet.

RSVP for the Social Media Breakfast Club’s August 31st event online at: https://www.facebook.com/events/399530253444671/

NASA Johnson Space Center Hosts Ragan Conference

Johnson Space Center will be the host for the Ragan Conference “Social Media” for Government Communicators this September.

The conference will focus on social media strategies specific to those in government roles that involve public relations, marketing, and communications. Learn more and register on the Ragan conference website.

Mars Shadows

Mars Lander Curiosity took several images upon landing and my favorite is the one with the lander’s shadow in the image:

Good luck, Curiosity! We are excited to see what you’ll send us next.

2012-06-212014-11-02

Make the Most Out of Your iPad at Work

Recently, I added myself to the list of iPad owners. I own Apple products, but not a tablet, so I was excited to put this new technology to productive use. These apps aren’t free or cheap ($1-2) like a lot of other productivity apps, but they are well worth it. Here are my top 4 recommended iPad apps to help make your workday more productive.

1. Note Taker

Price: $4.99

If you need a place to doodle, take notes, or annotate PDFs, Note Taker is for you. It isn’t cheap, but you will get much more functionality than something like Penultimate ($.99).

Note Taker lets you create folders of documents and store those in other folders so it’s extremely organized. It also conforms to your style of note taking. Whether writing, note taking or doodling, you can:

Insert text via the keyboard
Insert shapes (Note Taker has 65 built in) or pictures from both your photo library and your camera instantly
Change the color and size of your pen

ipadblog-notetaker — Zoom Writing and the Wristguard are what make Note Taker great for writing notes.

Zoom Writing

The zoom writing feature allows you to write accurately as large or as small as you’d like. When you want to advance: tap the right arrow to continue on the same line and the left to go to the next.

Wristguard

The gray bar is the wristguard feature. When most people write, they rest their hand on the writing surface. In Note Taker, the wristguard makes sure you don’t mark or mess up the line you’re writing on. You can toggle it on or off in zoom tools.

My Favorite Feature

My favorite feature is the ability to annotate PDFs. I needed to fill out some forms for an online class I was taking and had left my computer at a friends house. I downloaded the forms (as PDFs) I needed, filled out all the subject fields, and sent them in from my iPad.

Note Taker Tips and Integrations

Note Taker has a lot of features and is extremely powerful, but it has a bit of a learning curve, so you have to be patient with it. To read a comprehensive Note Taker user’s guide click here.

Note Taker is compatible with CloudOn (mentioned later), Evernote and Dropbox and you can send your notes to any of these apps using the output button in the tools section.

Overall, this app rocks. Plus, its only $5 for one killer note taking platform.

2. Scanner Pro

Price: $6.99

Scanner Pro is a dream: powerful and simple. Once the app is open, you can either scan using the camera, or upload from your photo library.

Scanner Pro Tips & Tricks

For scanning documents, the sky’s the limit. You can scan almost anything and use custom sizes.

I use “Select All” to choose which part of the document to save, but you can adjust it using the blue dots in the corners.

Once the document is scanned, you can edit the contrast and brightness then export as a PDF or JPEG. Scanner Pro syncs with Dropbox, Google Drive (previously Docs), or Evernote.

Scanner Pro is powerful, so if you don’t need an app of this caliber you can try Genius Scan which is free but has limited capabilities.

3. CloudOn

Price: Free

CloudOn’s claim to fame is being the first to bring Microsoft Office to iPad. It’s great for editing your PowerPoint, Word, and Excel Microsoft Office documents on the go. CloudOn’s downside are the limitations with creating new documents or doing heavy re-structuring.

Capabilities

The keyboard responds to commands like cut, copy, paste, and undo. All of the buttons in the interface are click-able but not all of them work.

I use CloudOn for minor editing and changes like font family, size, and type.

It’s especially helpful in PowerPoint because you can easily edit, add, or delete slides and save to the cloud.

CloudOn links with Box, Google Drive, and Dropbox. You can save, edit and access your files anywhere with Internet.

CloudOn is great for the price and offers on-the-go editing for the on-the-go person who needs to make quick edits to their Office documents.

4. Pocket Informant HD

Price: $14.99

Pocket Informant HD is expensive compared to some other apps in the App Store and is the most expensive app I’ve included in this review. However, if I had to choose one app as a must have, Informant is that app.

At Schipul, we use Google Calendars for scheduling and Informant syncs seamlessly. It also syncs with Toodledo, Google Tasks, and iOS Calendar.

The beauty of Informant is that it does everything. It has a calendar (with customizable views much like Google Calendar), tasks & events, notes, and contacts. Each item is tabbed and color coded.

Features that Make Informant Worth the Extra Cash

With Informant, you can call anyone (via FaceTime) straight from the contacts tab.
Informant also enables you to link contacts and send them invite via Google sync or the iPad’s email client when creating tasks/events.

One or more of these features come standard in every scheduling app, but Informant effortlessly puts them all in one place, for you to use. For the same price as a good notebook planner, you always have it, and it integrates digitally.

Increased Productivity for Just $26

I use these apps daily and I strongly recommend all of them. Together, they make your iPad more than just a portable toy for playing Angry Birds by giving you a suite of tools to increase your productivity at work.

Informant is a stand alone app and the other three apps integrate with each other. I’ve found it is pretty easy using Note Taker, Scanner Pro and CloudOn in unison.

You can get all of these apps from the iTunes iPad App Store for just $26 dollars (less than dinner and a movie)!

While You Are on Your iPad…

Come check out some of Schipul’s recent mobile responsive sites from your iPad! Responsive design gives your website the cool ability to display an optimized user experience based on the size of each site visitor’s screen. Come see how these sites look on your iPad compared to your desktop and smartphone:

http://rig.net

http://cmhouston.org

https://www.tendenci.com

2012-04-26

Gary Hoover On How to “Think Like an Entrepreneur” and Succeed in Your Business

This week, I had the distinct honor of hearing Gary Hoover present at the Houston Technology Center on how to “Think Like an Entrepreneur”. Gary Hoover is a successful entrepreneur having founded companies including Bookstop and Hoovers.com and he’s spent the last year as the “Entrepreneur in Residence” at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Austin.

Gary’s presentation was described as an “intense, information and idea packed presentation… [that] will be like drinking from a fire hydrant.” That description was spot-on.

I took over 5 pages of notes, mostly trying to type as fast as I could and catch the great and inspiring quotes of wisdom plus the recommendations for books and specific, actionable items Gary said we could do to change the way we thought and be more successful and innovative in business.

Gary began his presentation by personally handing everyone in the audience his business card and shaking our hands. On the back of Hoover’s card are the top 8 things he believes are keys to making great enterprises. Download a larger photograph of his business card with the 8 tips to keep and view more photos from the evening presentation in the Tendenci Photo Album I’ve created.

If you are interested in a full copy of my notes, leave a comment below or send me an email at sworthy@tendenci.com and I’ll gladly send them to you.

I was inspired by how much of what Gary recommended for being a more successful entrepreneur also applied to the work we do at Schipul for our clients in web development, website design, and web marketing. In learning to think more like an entrepreneur, you also learn to see different perspectives, understand the ‘bigger picture’ of your business, and receive lifelong benefits personally and professionally.

Probably the most profound statement of the evening from Gary was when he said:

‘I define entrepreneurship as getting great personal satisfaction from serving others… you have to love it and others have to love [what you are giving them].

The people who are most happy with their lives at my stage are the people who have spent their whole lives working to make the world a better place.”

Here are Gary’s recommendations for learning how to “Think Like an Entrepreneur”. My goal is for you to find the same inspiration and ways to relate them to your daily life as I found.

Practice the Habit of Wisdom

‘These are people who just cannot be anything but an entrepreneur. They may fail a lot’ because it’s hard to get them to sit still, hard to get them to focus… but ultimately they are going to succeed because they just don’t stop.”

As Gary states, some people are born fundamentally entrepreneurial and others are born to be bureaucrats, while the rest of us fall someplace in between the 2 extremes. If you want to become more entrepreneurial, then you will need to change by developing better thinking habits.

To develop these habits, you’ll first need to master the 3 things Gary calls his working definition of wisdom :

Knowing what matters and what doesn’t matter.
Knowing what changes and what doesn’t change.
Knowing what you can change and what you can’t change.

These are three easy concepts to understand and yet, very difficult to master. As Gary put it, “There’s no rocket science here, but you’ll spend your whole life trying to figure out what matters and what doesn’t.”

Be Curious

“Study the great entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell and so on, and you’ll find an intense curiosity.”

Gary explains the importance of doing your research before starting a new business venture. The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who ask the most questions and really understand the marketplace, the customers and competitors, and gain insight into the future of the business environment.

Ask the managers and owners of similar businesses questions like:

What do you like about your job, and what don’t you like?
What is the best day you’ve ever had… describe your worst day?
What do you look for in an employee and how do you hire and train new people?

By asking questions and being curious, you can begin to gain perspectives from other people and understand the why’s and the how’s and the what’s…

When you begin to understand these different perspectives beyond your own, you can make better decisions and you are more equipped to solve problems as they are thrown randomly at you.

Read Every Day

“The key question is do you see yourself in a box or not in box?”

The greatest thought leaders in the world are also the most avid readers. Read daily, Gary recommends, books and business journals… the beauty of the internet is the availability of so much free and great reading material.

Here are 2 books Gary recommended Tuesday night:

“The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators” by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton M. Christensen

The Innovators DNA describes 4 skills required for innovation:

Observing
Networking
Experimenting
Questioning

“Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol Dweck

Mindset describes the importance of not locking your children or yourself into a set way of thinking. Gary recommended this book and said “It’s not about being smart or being stupid: people who think they’re smart are locking themselves in a box just like people who think they’re stupid.”

Entrepreneurship is not About the Technology

“Entrepreneurship is a lifelong process of self-understanding: learning about yourself .”

As I listened to Gary’s presentation, I found myself mentally replacing the word “entrepreneurship” with “Marketer” and “Schipulite”. We’re passionate about providing great service to our clients. We’re constantly asking questions and inviting our clients to come hang out with us so we can get to know you. We never stop trying to innovate and find better ways to help your business increase online and offline revenues through your website and web marketing.

These quotes from Gary’s presentation were my favorite because they gave me new perspectives on creating a better user experience through our Tendenci CMS for you, your staff, and your website visitors:

‘When I use the word technology, I mean any way of doing better things… Technology is only relevant to the extent that it makes people’s lives better!â€

“Step back and look at the big pattern’ and the big pattern here is that ALL MEDIA has been digitalized, it’s all been turned into 0’s and 1’s.”

“Be obsessed with your customer and making great products for them and you will succeed’ be passionate about it. It is about making it good for the user!”

I would love to hear how we can make our products and services better for You and anything else you want to add! Please tell us below in our comments or Come Hang Out With Us and get to know us. (And I promise to ask you lots of questions!)

2012-03-042014-11-02

Who’s Houston’s Best at SXSW Interactive This Year?

Who’s Hou Promotes Houston’s Best at SXSW 2012

Each year, a team of Schipulites converges upon the capital of Texas for South by Southwest. This year, Schipul is also a sponsor of Who’s HOU – a new creative project with the mission to share and promote Houston’s best music, film, and interactive talent at SXSW.

I wanted to share all the incredible interactive and technology professionals and events that are heading to SXSW from Houston and I encourage you to add these panels and events to your calendar.

Want to Learn More? Who’s HOU also has the full schedule for all the Houston tech, music, and film at SXSW on the website plus will feature daily videos, photos and more content throughout SXSW. If you’ll be at the conference, make sure you stop by Who’s HOU booth at the trade show and meet everyone!

Panels, Core Conversations and Solo Presentations

Building a Jewish Presence Through Social Media

Friday March 9th, 3:30pm to 4:30pm

Hashtag: #Jewish

Description: This panel’s discussion will focus on three key issues around communications within the Jewish culture: ( 1) Targeted Update Messages; (2) Bridging technological gaps between community leaders/communicators and social media experts; and (3) Community Engagement.

Waste 2.0: 3 Ways Tech Is Making Waste a Resource

Friday, March 9 3:30PM – 4:30PM

Hashtag: #waste

Description: This panel will discuss three ways technology is making waste a resource and how knowledge sharing and collaboration across the enterprise and even competitors can create new and innovative solutions to environmental problems.

The Secret Lives of the Brain

Friday, March 9 3:30PM – 4:30PM

Hashtag: #BrainLives

Description: If the conscious mind–the part you consider you–is just the tip of the iceberg in the brain, what is all the rest doing? Neuroscientist David Eagleman, author of the New York Times bestseller Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, shows that most of what you do, think and believe is generated by parts of your brain to which you have no access. Here’s the exposÃ© about the non-conscious brain and all the machinery under the hood that keeps the show going.

Reflections of a Zen Digital Nomad

Saturday, March 10 11:00AM -12:00PM

Hashtag: #ZenNomad

Description: If you’re curious about the digital nomad lifestyle and wonder if you could live for a year or more “homefree”, this is a presentation you don’t want to miss.

Big Social Media Results at Small Organizations

Saturday, March 10 11:00AM -12:00PM

Hashtag: #sm4orgs

Description: This presentation will help small organizations think through developing, implementing, and measuring an effective campaign by sharing details of success stories from professional organizations and health advocacy groups when you don’t have the big staff and resources of bigger companies.

Exploring the Top Startup Accelerator Programs

Saturday, March 10 3:30PM – 4:30PM

Hashtag: #accelerate

Description: This panel will explore the global startup accelerator explosion and share the latest quality rankings you can use to determine the right startup Accelerator for you.

Publishing Models Transforming the Book

Sunday, March 11 9:30AM -10:30AM

Hashtag: #pubmodels

Description: Learn how the publishing industry is changing dramatically and the new business models that locate talent and package content in new ways. Is the book dead? Noâ€”it’s being re-imagined and redefined by these very people.

Internet Power: After Cyber-Optimism and Pessimism

Sunday, March 11 11:00AM -12:00PM

Hashtag: #NetPower

Description: In the annals of citizen empowerment and institutional vulnerability, democracy and anarchy share an interesting paired history in the digital environment, this panel intends to address how the global system may handle this latest disequilibrium.

How to Win Friends and Influence Space Exploration

Sunday, March 11 12:30PM – 1:30PM

Hashtag: #spacetweep

Description: While established membership organizations struggle to survive, Internet-enabled groups are flourishing with new members from far outside traditional demographic lines that are creating large-scale activities. Learn why people came together to become a ‘Space Tweep’ and got so passionately involved in space, how they became good friends over the Internet, and what they’ve created to make measurable change toward a more awesome tomorrow.

SpacePoints: Space Outreach at Ludicrous Speed

Monday, March 12 12:30PM – 1:30PM

Hashtag: #spacepts (This is also my panel and you can follow @sarahmworthy on twitter throughout the week for all the SXSW action!)

Learn how a group of “space geeks” consisting of web developers, aerospace scientists and engineers, and people who have a dream of living in space started meeting up and designed the rules, developed the application, and are sharing SpacePoints to increase public awareness about space policy, increasing funding to aerospace-related research (commercial and government), and having fun playing to win!

How One Will Change the World

Monday, March 12 3:30PM – 3:45PM

Hashtag: #ONE

Description: This panel discusses the creation of One, a mobile application that notifies you when there is someone right next to you with similar interests and how One helps you form meaningful connections with people who would otherwise be strangers using technology.

What’s So [Bleeping] Hard About Social ROI?

Monday, March 12 3:30PM – 4:30PM

Hashtag: #SMROI

Description: This penel of the best and brightest authors, brand-builders and marketers aims to provide some real answers, honest talk, and genuine experiences on social media ROI.

Race: Know When to Hold It and When to Fold It

Monday, March 12 5:00PM – 6:00PM

Hashtag: #techdiv

Description: This panel seeks to change the conversation from ‘What can technology conferences do about diversity?â€ to ‘What can attendees do about diversity at technology conferences?â€ Panelists will share how individuals can contribute to making technology conferences more inclusive.

Transforming Social Media for the Senior Community

Tuesday, March 13 9:30AM -10:30AM

Hashtag: #sm4seniors

Descripton: This panel addresses what vendors need to begin to design for all ages to enable a connected living and social aging experience for older consumers, and discuss how entrepreneurs and the venture community need a more dynamic relationship with this huge and underserved growth market.

American Copyright: Will Government Go Too Far?

Tuesday, March 13 3:30PM – 4:30

PM Hashtag: #AMERCOPY

Description: This panel will address the different concerns around government legislation versus the rights of consumers around copyright related policies including the PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Events, Parties, and Lounges

SXSW is well known for having great speakers and even better known for the non-stop action that goes on outside the Austin Convention Center. Here are my top picks for SXSW events that I’ll be sure to attend this year. If you want to meet up with me and the rest of our team heading to Austin for SXSW, you’ll most likely us here:

HATCH Pitch Competition

March 11, 2012 From 9:30 AM’ 1:30 PM
SXSW Interactive Startup Village

HATCH is debuting at the new SXSW Startup Village this year. HATCH will be featuring 15 revolutionary startups certain to change your world. Come hear them pitch to investors. And when it is done, tell your friends you heard about the next big thing at HATCH.

C2@SW!

March 12, 2012 From 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM

C2xSW 2012 will showcase Houston Film/Music/Tech through “The Official Unofficial All of Where the Wild Things Are Interaction Packed Adventure Extravaganza!â€ orbiting the SxSW conference in Austin.

Beaconfire Lounge

March 9th through March 14th From 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM Daily

The Beaconfire Lounge returns for the 4th year in a row with the theme: “With a Conscience” and is known as THE spot for cause-focused people to hang out with the best and brightest non-profit Geekerati. The WiFi will be speedy, the noms and drinks plentiful, the couches comfy and the do-gooding vibe pure awesome.

2011-12-062014-11-02

The art of the online press release

Organizations have long communicated through press releases to their public and the media. Organize your official thoughts in a single document, snag a couple of relevant quotes for someone in leadership and go – it works.

But in the days of the Social Web, how relevant are one-sided blurbs of self-focused content? That’s where we thinking tempering your official messaging with two-way, less formal communication (like great Facebook updates and blog posts) come in.

But the press release beat goes on… here are a few resources and links to know and utilize when sending your organization’s news across the Interwebs:

Start at the very beginning, tweak those headlines!

Of course you can get super geeky on just headlines alone to help maximize your online press releases (like some of these tips from this great PR Newswire blog post):

Length‘ Keep things short, sweet and Tweetable (stay under 90-120 characters)
Keywords‘ Put your most important keyword at the beginning of the headline’ within the first 65 characters.
Informative – Readers like data, include numbers that are interesting and relevant (of course)
Subheads – Share more detail (and keywords!) by using a subhead below the main title of your press release – or use it to break up a really long headline.

Use Social Media monitoring tools to help you gauge your impact

When sharing a press release online, know your network’s audience for greatest impact. If you know that the majority of your likes, shares and comments happen in the morning – post then! If your Twitter followers are more active on the weekends, share your content when they are awake and ready to chat.

Online monitoring tools like Sprout Social and Crowdbooster actually look at your follower base on different networks and tell you the best time to post for optimal engagement. And be sure you are actually engaging – not just throwing a press release in the room and not hanging around to answer questions or provide more info. It goes back to that whole ‘relating to the public’ thing you signed up for as a PR rock star.

Another handy Social Media tool to use is a link shortner like bit.ly or tinyurl.com to more easily track links you include in your press release. Change them up on different press release versions (ie: one you link to from Facebook versus Twitter) so you can more easily track what tools get you the most clicks.

Don’t forget to optimize, optimize, optimize!

Online optimization isn’t just for your website text. Use your Search Engine Optimization basics and apply them to your online press release postings too, with special consideration for the power of internal links to your website and featured projects. This press release optimization tips blog post has some good ideas to help you out too.

Need help creating an online press room or optimizing a press release for the Web?

Our Creative Services and Search Engine Marketing teams are pros at helping you get your messaging out to the masses in actionable and meaningful ways. Contact us today and let us get started on broadcasting your awesomeness on the Internet!

2011-11-232014-11-02

Gadgets, tech + inspiration we’re thankful for in 2011

It’s nice to have (at the very least) one day a year that we can all slow down and give thanks for the people, things and opportunities that make our lives run, leap and rock!

Given that the Schipulites are driven by technology, we’ve got some geeky tools and tech that makes our everyday just that much better. Check out some of the technologies and online sources of inspiration that the Schipul team is thankful for this year!

Robyn Riley
The Avant Garden Houston website from design to development confirmed my love for what I do here at Schipul. It’s gorgeous, it’s incredibly functional in Tendenci and its the perfect example of how easy it is to use. And (Mariana) as the perfect client always helps!!

Katie Laird
After suffering through cars with a vendetta against my savings accounts (guess how many mechanic’s children I’ve helped put through college!?), I bought an awesome Kia Forte with Bluetooth wireless phone connection. While having a safe and non-breaking down car is beyond dreamy, that wireless cell phone feature is the best thing since sliced marzipan (I’ve always hated those wireless ear pieces). Love, love, love. Never realized how much I needed it until I had it!

Erica Bogdan
The site that I’m really obsessing over right now that I discovered in 2011 is Pinterest! Before Pinterest, I was scouring the internet for images I loved and then just dumping them into a folder on my desktop, never to be seen again. With Pinterest I can still have those amazing images then categorize them into whatever I want for easy viewing. My images and ideas are then shared visually with my friends & family and I can discover even more great ideas from the plethora of photos that Pinterest has stored. Just by searching “nail polish” I found nails painted like hamburgers, sneakers, apples, etc. For anyone who loves DIY crafts, cooking, or even wedding planning – this is an amazing site to find ideas and store them easily to share and inspire others!

Lyndia Makol
I would have to say my favorite tool would have to be hands down the right click to inspect and element you get with the developer tools you get in Google Chrome 🙂 So simple yet infinitely awesome. It maintains my sanity i tell ya. 🙂

Katrina Kokoska
I think that the new guy I use the most this year is “InstaPaper.” I’ve used Evernote for awhile to archive articles I know I’ll have to reference again, but I like to reserve Evernote for things I’m really going to need in the future. I run into an issue when I get a chance to glance over my social media accounts and the like and see links to what might be really cool articles, but I don’t know, and I don’t really have the time to read them on the spot. With Instapaper’s “Read Later” button that I can add to my browser bar, I can just archive the article, read it later, and if it’s worth it, archive it to Evernote at that time. Now, I don’t have to add whatever site I’m linked to to my Google Reader, I don’t have to give an article I haven’t even read yet Evernote status, and I don’t have to keep that tab open on my browser for three days till I find time to read the article.

Felicia Bates
I am most thankful for these three amazingly helpful sites:

http://pinterest.com/ – gives me ideas for EVERYTHING!
http://www.thebestdesigns.com/ – gives me ideas for web design
http://w3schools.com/ – gives me the answers I need when my brain doesn’t want to work.

Jenny Qian
We’re using GitHub to managing our code repository. GitHub, launched in February 2008, is an online source code hosting service using Git as a version control system. It is a great collaboration tool for developers in terms of good user experience. Some of the features I really like including network graph, activity feeds, online edits and being able to comment on commits, etc.

April Kyle
I’m thankful for my Garmin Nuvi 3790 that I bought when I moved to California. Years ago my father had bought me my first GPS, a thoughtful gift based off a late night frantic phone call he received from me, begging for step by step guidance through downtown Houston. Direction has never been my strong suit. That GPS was super handy, but often frustrating because it took so long to boot up. When I was about to move, I knew I’d need something a little more responsive for learning my way around Silicon Valley. Enter the 3790. It’s super slim and light, you can talk to it, it can function as your phone (helpful for California’s hands-free laws) and the best part – is always ready for a new navigation, no boot time needed. I’ve learned my way around fairly quickly and don’t use the Nuvi much anymore, but it’s great to have it ready for those times when you swear you know where you’re going and then get totally turned around. Not that that happens to me. (Yesterday.)

David Stagg
Just released this month, I think I’ve finally found my music library solution in iTunes Match. Being able to organize your library at home, download other songs at work, organize them independently and have them all sync up in the cloud? Throw in the fact that it can sync with your iPhone as well, and it’s virtually the perfect solution for those of us who obsessively categorize and clean meta data. Twenty-five dollars a year is easily worth not having the hassle of transporting mp3s or keeping two libraries in sync.”

Brian Potter
Some things I’m thankful for:

Square – I LOVE having my square anywhere I go. Recently I used it so a lady who was buying something from us on Craiglist could use her credit card. I’m also stoked that Square has released Card Case which allows you to check in to vendors, open a tab, and pay there or at your leisure. Really cool technology :).
Reddit – I visit this website multiple times a day. In fact there are only few sites I visit on the web. Reddit is my #1 site because it’s a great community, has great content, and contains a huge sub-reddit culture so I can find whatever I’m interested in. Example: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming, http://www.reddit.com/r/filmmakers.
MailChimp – MailChimp is SO amazing. I run a bunch of mailing lists for churches, non-profits, various ministires, and my Flashmob group, all with the FREE service level that MailChimp provides. The interface is excellent, it’s easy to use, provides excellent analytics and has a killer free plan. Not to mention the hilarious culture and light-hearted approach to their brand, MailChimp is one of the best things to come along the web in a long time.

Jordan Schipul
It may sound cheesy coming from a website design company employee, but I am so thankful for WordPress. It’s user friendly and so adaptable to themes, plug ins and content. I use WordPress outside of work for my blogs and love it. Having something readily available for my thoughts and also showing me other blogs to gather inspiration and knowledge from reminds me why WordPress is one of a kind and so AWESOME.

Katrina Esco
All The Pretty Birds is a blog by fashion photographer Tamu McPherson. Tamu’s content is inspiring, but I’m most fascinated by her ‘approachability.â€ Her blog is lovely and friendly’ so much so that I’m likely to click on any link she shares. Visiting her site feels like reading letters and postcards from an old friend.

Dharol Tankersley
I am grateful for: The democratization of information, the capacity of facts to empower the weak and customizable keyboard shortcuts in MS excel.

John-Michael Oswalt
Github – Github manages all of our code. It makes using git a bit easier and it provides an interface for awesome features like blame and tracking our commits. Through their APIs we are able to deploy our code from a central place quickly and easily. We are able to all stay on the same page, so code conflicts occur rarely. We get more done faster because of Github.

Will Hilliard

Monster Rehab – Whether you are rehabilitating from a serious Red Bull habit, or you just got nauseous brushing your teeth, this is the drink for you. It will give you the caffeine you need to start a day or just remember last night. It has 10 calories, tastes like an Arnold Palmer Gatorade, and best of all, it’s not carbonated. Cause the last thing you should do right now is burp.
Android portable Wi-Fi hotspot – The best thing about the smart phone was the ability to have internet in your pocket. Turn on an Android hotspot, and your phone acts like a portable wireless router. Speeds on my carrier are fast, and it supports up to five connected devices. Use it to connect any wireless device to the web virtually anywhere. Or let your friends connect with their smartphones. Then brag about how awesome you are.

Jonti Bolles

BuckyBalls: Thanks to my roommate for snagging these on a gift while on layover in an airport. Now, nearly the entire office is addicted to creating engaging Buckminster Fuller designs with the rare earth magnets. Productivity, zero. Mind rest in Quadrant 4, awesome.
Kindle Fire: Color ebooks from Amazon on an affordable device that fits in my handbag. More readable than my phone, and easy, easy consumption of digital ‘stuffâ€ when I want it.
Evernote: I totally underutilize this, but the quick synching and sharing of a note or list across multiple devices or people is just insanely helpful, especially during the holidays! Did you really think I would remember to pick up 3 different types of cinnamon, apricot filling, and sour cream from that recipe I saved back in July? Thank goodness for portable files.

Aaron Long
I am thankful for the Up Experience and one of their amazing speakers in particular, Benjamin Zander. He shows through ‘The Art of Possibilityâ€ how to make the most out of a situation. At the Up Experience not only did he share his views on creativity and how to bring out excellence in others, but he also showed us passion and understanding for classical music. A truly motivating day. Thanks to Ernie and Sheryl Rapp for putting it together.

Sarah Worthy
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for Tendenci and our Programming Team who created it. I am on a lot of association committees and am usually the geeky one on the committee so I always get the job of managing internet, website, and communications. I see at least 1 new software tool every single day if not multiple. To me, Tendenci is to websites what WordPress is for blogs.

Jennie Lane
The YouTube beauty community has been an inspiration to me for years now, but especially in 2011. I started my own beauty blog in January 2011 after watching YouTube ‘beauty gurusâ€ on a daily basis. I am pretty much addicted to watching makeup, hair and nail tutorials as well as clothing hauls from all of my subscriptions. The best part is connecting with people who have similar interests as you, but may live in other states or countries.

I’ve even had the opportunity to live chat with some beauty gurus through BlogTV (not as addictive as YouTube, but neat none the less). If you are into makeup and fashion you really need to check out the YouTube beauty community.
Here are some of my favorite beauty gurus:

Garrett Thomas
I’m thankful for Siri, she’s officially my new bestfriend and tells me where the hottest places are. I asked her if she could find me a girlfriend and she searched for escort services around the city of Houston, now that’s what I call a ‘wingman’.

I’m also thankful for the Shoe Box App because it allows me to take pictures of my parent’s photo albums and share them with the world and my family. It also is great for quickly forwarding Christmas and Thanksgiving photos to extended families who may have forgotten a picture existed.

Alex Ragsdale

Instapaper for keeping my mind from being idle at anytime
Twitter for broadcasting the revolutions better and faster than traditional media
The AV Club for exploring not only the best and worse but also the hows and whys of pop culture
FFFFOUND! for encouraging creativity
5by5 podcasts for making my commute bearable.

Caitlin Kaluza
I am thankful for online inspiration in 2011 from the blog Zen Habits. A blog about productivity, creativity, and embracing what’s really important. The gadget that has changed my life in 2011 is my Logitech Harmony all in one remote – we have all of the devices in the house programmed, including the fan! I am obsessed.

Courtney Pemberton
Chuzzle ‘ This is an iphone app game that I am completely obsessed with. You do not need to be tech-smart, nor do you need to be over the age of 1 years old. All you need to know is how to connect the same colored Chuzzles (adorable, googly-eyed balls of fur) and prepare for non-stop explosions.

Sound pedestrian? Well, it is. But I am forever thankful for this little gem because it helps me fall asleep in less than 5 minutes and takes my mind off of everyday stresses. And here’s a fun fact: Scientists believe that Chuzzles discovered cinnamon.

Derek Key
One of my favorite things that I’ve used so far this year is the Flipboard app for the iPad. It is kind of like an RSS reader that allows you to customize feeds of content from different sources (Wired, Cool Hunter, etc.). It also connects to your flickr, Facebook, and Twitter so you can flip through your friends’ updates and see images they post or go to links so it makes the user experience much better.

Radames Ortiz

Kindle Fire: I’m thankful for my new Amazon $200 Kindle Fire which isn’t just a book-reader that happens to have web browsing capabilities and can run Netflix. It is also an important video game platform. With the usual games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, it runs the sci-fi horror game Dead Space with absolutely no effort.
Xbox 360: I’m grateful for my Xbox 360 not only for the games but mostly for the Netflix and Hulu Plus apps. There isn’t a time at home when I’m not logged into Xbox Live. Nowadays, I never miss an episode of Modern Family or Parks and Recreation.

Kerry Gayle
I’m thankful for in-ear thermometers. They are so easy to use and allow me to take a hot baby’s temperature in seconds compared to minutes with a non-in-ear thermometer. Speed of use is critical when you have a wriggly grumpy feverish baby. Each in-ear thermometer also allows you to share usage with other folks because they come with disposable covers that go over the part that you stick in your ear. Another favourite feature is the memory store that they have for previously taken temperatures.

2011-11-052014-11-02

NetSquared Connects Techies and DoGooders in San Francisco Bay Area

While Silicon Valley and the Bay Area can at times be a whole world apart from Houston, there are still many things the two areas have in common – tech, geeks, startups, non-profits, and people passionate about changing the world through technology. If you’re in the Houston area, hopefully you’ve made it out to one of the Houston NetSquared meetings that Schipul hosts. They’re always fun and informative – a great way to bounce ideas of others working at the intersection of technology and do-gooding. Ed & Katie started the Houston group back in 2006, and have kept it going strong since.

I was excited to check out the San Francisco NetSquared group when I moved to this part of the world, but unfortunately couldn’t make the meeting that took place right after my move. And then summer hit, which those of us in the Bay Area know, is traditionally a quiet time for groups and activities. At the end of summer, the NetSquared community managers sent out word to group members that the previous organizer was no longer able to run the group, and asked if there was any interest in taking over those duties. Being a NetSquared fan girl, I threw my hat in the ring and offered to take the reins. I was lucky enough to have a very enthusiastic community that offered support, and fortunately two awesome folks – Regina Walton and Dave Theriault – stepped up to serve as co-organizers too. Together, the three of us are totally awesome. And no, I’m not biased at all!

I am super excited to get things kicked off with the November Meetup. Young Han from GoVoluntr will be speaking to the group about how he got started in the technology startup space, and what challenges non-profits have today and how technology can help solve them. Young is an amazing guy; I first met him at a Mountain View Chamber event hosted by our friends at Westminster Promotions. Bonus points went to me for immediately understanding what he was trying to go with GoVoluntr; we hit it off from there and have since had several great conversations surrounding do-gooding in technology. Young’s philosophy with GoVoluntr matched the Schipul Core Values so well; it was clear we’d be friends!

GoVoluntr has had an exciting fall, being asked to join the 500 Startups class. They’ve moved in to the group’s space in Mountain View (bonus to being just down the road from us in Sunnyvale – closer for coffee!) and Young and his team are getting their brains crammed with all sorts of amazing training and knowledge. Check out the recent post about their class from TechCrunch, and if you’re a Bay Area non-profit or do-gooder (yes, that’s totally a word) be sure to check out GoVoluntr!! Young and his team have built an amazing tool for connecting volunteers with those who need them, and giving volunteers a way to share and track their activity.

If you’re in San Francisco or the Silicon Valley area, we’d love to see you at a NetSquared event! If you can’t join us on November 8th, no worries – we’ve got speakers lined up for December and January, so join us then! And if you’d be interested in presenting to the group, or know someone who might be, please do let me know! We’re always on the look out for new ways to geek out over tech.

2011-10-132019-09-09

Drupal and WordPress at SchipulCon: One Stage, One Open Source Love

Open Source Discussion with the Founders of Drupal and WordPress from Schipul – The Web Marketing Co.

“People being told what to do and working for money are never going to match people working for passion and a community.”
~Matt Mullenweg

“With every cell in my body, I believe that Open Source is the way forward. Especially when it comes to websites, but also beyond just websites.”
~Dries Buytaert

We were beyond honored to host Drupal founder Dries Buytaert and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg at our SchipulCon 2011 event.

Guided by David Stagg, the open source conversation survived ~~epic microphone turmoil~~ years of open source competitiveness to showcase the true brilliance and passion of these open source leaders.

Around Designers vs Developers Flocking to WordPress and Drupal (Respectively)

Matt: “I learned a ton about code and programming and back end systems… mainly because I had sort of a vision of something that I wanted a user to realize…. and so we made certain design choices from a technical view that to me are more intuitive.

There were two big pressures early in WordPress’ life: 1) everyone wanted us to adopt a templating system because everyone at the time had one and 2) they wanted us to go a strict object oriented model. So you could extend everything WordPress does through classes essentially.

We took an action oriented plug-in approach… which is perhaps not as correct from a programmer’s point of view, but easier for beginner users.”

Dries: “When I started Drupal, I was in college to get a computer science degree – almost an engineer. So I wasn’t too concerned about user experience – more obsessed with the architecture and the right APIs and all of these things.

When I finally released Drupal as open source, it really attracted an audience of developers. The initial community was a developer community and began to expand to more and more developers. That emphasis on architecture was reinforced. [We’re] trying to change that and it’s slowly starting to work – it’s very much historical.”

>>> Cool side notes: Matt has been a Drupal member for 8 years and one week. His interests on his profile include typography and simplicity (the only person to include this in their profile). Years back, Matt gave a credit to Drupal and reminded Dries that he had some code in WordPress very early on — time for Matt to contribute to Drupal!

What Do you Wish you had Done that the Other Did?

Dries: Matt did a lot of things right, he started his company sooner, WordPress.com is a tremendous asset to get more people involved and his focus on design and usability is key – a very important thing to do very early on. In a way, Drupal is paying the penalty for not doing this early on.

Matt: When I look at the Drupal community, the thing that I like is that the software runs the community itself. The bug tracker is Drupal, the forum, the issues – everything is Drupal. Also the 3rd party developer community – even though WP has more websites, we have fewer of the large consulting firms. Drupal has a lot more large development firms building these giant websites, that’s not as common with WordPress.

How Do you Benefit from the Other Existing?

Dries: If WordPress wins, Drupal wins. Because that means Open Source is winning.

Matt: Competition is good. Anytime any firm or product does something amazing, the bar has been raised.

Want more SchipulCon brain candy and memories?

We’ve got some great SchipulCon speaker videos going live in the next couple of weeks, just be sure to keep an eye on our SchipulCon video gallery! Matt and Dries chat photo album has lots of great photos of these great guys and be sure to find yourself in all of our albums from the event.

Thanks again for being such a special part of SchipulCon!

2011-08-18

Let’s Talk About Spaceships Tonight with SpaceUp Houston

Everyone here at Schipul loves hi-tech, geeky things like robots, iphones, and rockets. That’s why we are super excited and honored to be helping SpaceUp Houston with tonight’s Commercial Spaceflight Panel where I will be helping as a volunteer in my usual tasmanian devil fashion, (imagine the whirling dust devil everywhere at once).

SpaceUp Houston provides an engagement platform to nuture new and radical concepts, help develop partnerships, and wants to help you create a future worth living in.

Their next event is tonight, August 18th and features a Commercial Spaceflight Panel with representatives from several aerospace companies including Virgin Galactic, XCOR, Armadillo Aerospace, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and United Launce Alliance. These companies will be talking about their company’s objectives and where they currently stand timeline-wise for spaceflight projects, research and employment opportunities, commercial crew and their barriers to success, and other related topics.

The panel will be held from 7PM to 9PM tonight at the Lunar Planetary Institute in Clear Lake, TX near Johnson Space Center. Tickets for the commercial spaceflight panel are sold out and luckily, SpaceUp Houston has arranged to live stream the evening’s discussion.

After the panel, the audience will be invited to meet the panel members and mingle in the main lobby until 9:45pm.

Come join us tonight on SpaceUp Houston’s uStream and I’ll be the one behind the uStream chat so say Hi and let me know what questions to ask our panelists!

2011-07-22

HOWTO: Keep your cell phone safe and secure

Time to put the smart in smart phone!

With news updates of phone hacking scandals splashing headlines the world over, we’re hearing lots of cell phone security buzz – and for good reason too!

While a major news outlet may not be interested in your cell phone activities (or we sure hope not!), this is still a great time to make sure you are practicing some solid cell phone security practices.

Keep that cell phone close by!

You are far more likely to misplace / lose a cell phone than to get hacked, so be sure your little handheld buddy doesn’t stray too far.

Beware of keeping your phone on your table at busy restaurants, leaving your phone in the car (even just for a ‘second’), etc.
Find a ‘funky’ cover or skin to make it super easy to identify your iPhone – avoid an accidental mix up easily (I’m a big fan of the Infectious skins) when at a networking event or dinner with 7,000 other iPhone / Blackberry / Android users
Password protect your phone to keep your logins, contacts, email and notes safe from undesirables – also great for making sure any kiddos in your life don’t make random calls to Japan

For safety purposes, use an emergency app like smart-ICE to not only store your ICE info (‘In Case of Emergency’) for paramedics to be aware of medical conditions, insurance details and contact info, but add ICE info to your locked screen (in addition to your quirky-cool smart phone wall paper).

Install a phone location / security app on your phone, a few examples:

iPhone users: Find My iPhone
Android users: Mobile Defense
Blackberry users: Smrt Guard

Beware of public Wifi + ‘Evil Twins’

Yay for public Internet access! But boo for public Wi-Fi security. Extra emphasis on that ‘boo’ when using a credit card or login, as not all Wi-Fi connections are as secure and innocent as they seem. Learn more about the ‘Evil Twin’ phishing scam here.

As cumbersome and slow as it might be, opt for your 3G / 4G network connection over a public Wi-Fi connection to stay secure. Or pick up your own piece of the Internet and invest in a MiFi card.

What’s up with hardware and software security?

Not all apps and phones are created equal. As an iPhone user, Apple has a more stringent vetting process of apps that helps weed out *most* malicious programs. Android’s app community is far more open and has had some security exploits in early 2011.

Use common sense when purchasing apps and accessing certain sites (like your bank account, for instance) on your smart phone. Beware of ‘look alike’ apps that might be masquerading as a Chase banking utility and think twice about depositing checks using a phone app – and learn the safe ways to bank on your phone here..

Photo thanks to Flickr user GwenFlickr