There are 100s of PHP frameworks out there, but I have been so frustrated with so many of them; they are either too complex, not well designed, not well documented, buggy, or all of the above. Also, there is a lot of great technology for PHP that are notfull frameworks. It’d be nice to have a framework that does not try to do everything but, instead, allow easy integration of “best of breed” technologies. And a much more subjectively, only a subset of frameworks out there (though growing) embrace object design as typical of traditional, non-web programming using C++, Java, C#, etc. PHP 5 allows that kind of programming, but not all framework developers have embraced that approached it yet. I’ve spend a non-trivial amount of time with the following (well, I haven’t spend enough time with Kohana, yet): Read the rest of this entry »
Facebook f8 Conference Live Stream
We are excited to watch the Facebook developers conference live stream. Last night we started experiencing programmers pain since they’ve rolled out some changes prior to updating the documentation. The Hand Things Down app which is launching this weekend has broken so we are anxiously awaiting updates to the documentation. We are hoping to stay on our release schedule and will likely have to work night and day to hit our deadlines. Hurry up Zuck!
Related articles
- Spotify prepares for Facebook F8 by making it easier to share tracks (thenextweb.com)
- Facebook Music “Listen with your friend” leaks (slashgear.com)
Journey to Extreme Pitch
I recorded this video after coming home from Extreme Pitch. I wanted to give advice on what to do to calm yourself before a pitch. I think I managed to say don’t drink too much coffee and go to yoga, that advice probably won’t work for most people. Sorry guys! Read the rest of this entry »
I Think, Therefore I Tweet #twitterjunkie
I am addicted to Twitter. There, I said it, admitting it is the first step, right? Over the last year, posting to Facebook has diminished, especially as I became more and more fascinated by Twitter. The biggest attraction is real-time news whether it’s what’s trending locally, articles about technology or startups, or conversations about my favorite topics. I love reading and consuming what’s going on, even if I do most of my reading late at night and into the wee hours of the morning.
I love sharing information and the conversations around various hashtags opens my mind to different ideas. During the work day, I limit information consumption so I can power through my to do list and have productive meetings. Yet the minute I get a free moment I’m compelled to check the feed to see what’s going on. Does anyone else feel this way? Hidden obsessive-compulsive tendencies?
It’s ok, if you don’t follow me. I tweet up to a hundred times a day which can be overwhelming to a casual user or anyone new to Twitter.
This is what I post:
- Content from startup or social media events.
- Content I’m reading, using Twitter to “bookmark” since it’s automagically backed up on Backupify.
- Conversations on the following hashtags: #startup, #leanstartup, #smcphx, #socialmedia, #UFC, #phxlatenite
- Random thoughts throughout the day.
- Checkins on Gowalla/Foursquare/Facebook/Google+
Here are the mobile Twitter apps I use for iPhone:
- Echofon – my favorite for browsing the feed and having twitter conversations.
- Smartr – to read articles tweeted by people I follow without the noise of the conversations.
Hootsuite – to schedule articles and shorten links.
- Tweetdeck – to post tweets longer than 140 chars, it’s laggy on my device so I use it very rarely.
- Twitter – I use this the least and can’t figure out why I haven’t deleted it.
What are your favorite Twitter apps? Who else is addicted to Twitter?
Image credit: Steve Rhodes
How to Trash Your Klout Score
I’ve been following a social experiment with great interest over the last couple of weeks. Merlin U Ward challenged himself to become influential over #futzing in Klout in 10 days. He chose a word that wouldn’t be used in normal conversation for his “scientific” experiment. At first, I ignored using the #futzing hashtag on Twitter, hoping it would go away because I didn’t know what it meant. I also had no desire to accidentally have #futzing attached to my name. When I realized I can hide word in Klout I decided to join in on the fun, as a by product my own Klout score raised 4 points over 30 days, even going up 1 point in the last 5 days.
I thought this was interesting since social media junkies are all slightly obsessed with raising Klout. I’ve never been one to follow the pack so why not do the exact opposite for 10 days?
In an effort to see the results of influence within Twitter, I disconnected my Facebook account which resulted in an immediate 2 point drop in Klout. Then I disconnected Linkedin to receive a 4 point drop in Klout to 52 points.
10 Day Plan
- Last tweets before going silent is to moderate the Social Media Club Phoenix Chat on how to separate your professional and personal life online on July 8 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm using the hashtag #smcphxchat
- Respond to @mentions on DM to reduce the number of tweets from my account to nearly zero over the next 10 days. This will be hard since I’ve recently switched to using Twitter to replace instant messaging and text messaging. Most of my conversations are public, I have no secrets.
- Don’t post any content I’m reading to Twitter, post directly to Linkedin.
Report back in 5 days with a screenshot showing the Klout score at that time.
If you want to follow this experiment, don’t forget to sign up to get it delivered to your mailbox or RSS reader. You can also follow on Twitter @CherylMarquez.
Klout score after disconnecting Facebook and before disconnecting Linkedin.
Klout score after disconnecting LinkedIn.
Note: This entire post was written on my iPod Touch in Evernote, then pasted into the WordPress app. This is why the screenshots of Klout are from an iOS device instead of the web.
Startup Weekend Chandler Day 1
Normal people look forward to the weekend to relax and hangout with their friends. Entrepreneurs, go to Startup Weekend and decide to get involved in another exciting project. Friday morning, I woke up, got ready, and packed my purse with everything I would need to work for the day. My gear included; netbook, power charger, phone, iPod, extended battery, headphones, mouse, notebook, pens, makeup, extra t-shirt with geek logo, webcam, mouse, and USB hub. Yes, I did pack all of that in my very stylish black patent leather purse that I had to use because they matched my shoes.
I stopped by Gangplank to drop off the stuff for the Women 2.0 Founder Friday happy hour. Hand Things Down was hosting this networking event for the ladies attending Startup Weekend. Then drove to the Chandler Public Library to attend Startup 101. Startup 101 was a chance to get a primer before the weekend for anyone new to the world of being an entrepreneur. They had panels talking about creating a team, product development, and execution.
I thought the best talk was about building teams and resolving conflict given by Derek Neighbors and Jade Meskill. Here are some of their key points.
- Create a team with a common vision.
- Look at the vision and use that to help guide decisions and conflict resolution.
- Read “Core Protocols” to learn about conflict resolution.
- Ask people at the beginning about their level of commitment.
- You should NOT compromise, negotiate for the best of each idea.
- Teams of developers and business people should sit together to discuss direction as the weekend progresses.
As the evening kicked off, the ladies of Startup Weekend got together for Founder Friday happy hour to get to know each other before we joined the guys. There was some good discussion and an exchange of Twitter handles so we could follow each other during and after the weekend.
When Startup Weekend kicked off, we heard about 28 pitches and then the mayhem of self-forming teams commenced. Two teams stood out for me. One of them was Chow Locally who is creating a locavore website to connect local farmers with consumers and delivering the farm fresh veggies and fruit to the Phoenix Public Market. The second team I was interested in was called Surpriz.es and this is the team I joined for the weekend. Surprizes collects birthday freebies and presents them to you on your special day with Facebook and Twitter greetings. Now you can feel the birthday love all day as you go out and collect your freebies.
So that wraps it up for Day 1. Tomorrow I will be writing up birthday related blog posts for Surprizes and greeting people for their birthdays on Twitter. Sign up for your birthday Surpriz.es.
Getting Press for Your Startup
When we were in the Founder Institute at the beginning of the year, we had weekly milestones for customer development, market research, competitive analysis or product development to keep our business moving forward. The biggest aspiration we had at the time was to graduate. We worked our butts off to polish the pitch deck and get the 0.1 version of the Hand Things Down mobile app done during our last three-week sprint.
We naively thought, once we graduate we can get back to a normal life. Then as you hit each milestone, you take a breath, maybe catch up on a little sleep and start charging towards the next goal. Startups usually go into beta, then start scrambling to get press for their big launch. We were very lucky to receive our first mention in a Mashable article by Jolie O’Dell on the “5 Ambitious Social Good Startups Created in a Single Weekend” while we were busy with the private beta for Hand Things Down.
Before you begin tackling the tactics below to make a splash with your web startup, make sure you create a compelling story to make people want to share what your company’s story with their friends. Then give them a product they can’t live without so they keep telling their friends about it.
Top 7 things you need to do to launch a web startup, according to Robert Scoble on Quora:
- Get a LaunchRock site or create a landing page from WordPress using the LaunchPad theme to collect email addresses.
- Make a blog.
- Make a YouTube video channel.
- Start Tweeting.
- Get a Facebook Page.
- List your company on Angel List (and StartupLi.st, CrunchBase, etc).
- Figure out the 10 journalists you want to have seen your product before you launch.
- Be lucky…added by me
If you are creating your startup team, the ideal combination is to have one person focused on business and marketing while the other founder focuses on development. My primary focus has been on creating content for the blog, writing guest blog posts on websites that our target customer regularly visits and of course social media. Social media includes tweeting regularly on the company Twitter account, posting questions and content on the Facebook page and commenting on Facebook pages our target customer might read AS THE BUSINESS FACEBOOK PAGE. Do all of these marketing activities even before your company releases the product to build your online brand. Social media marketing takes a long time to gain traction. If you don’t have time to create your blog, create a landing page where you can collect email addresses of interested customers that you can market to when you start your beta.
I added number 8 because luck will play a part in how hard or easy it will be to get your company in the news. Since we participated in Startup Weekend, Founder Institute – Seattle, and continue to be active in the startup community, we are sometimes listed on their websites under the Hand Things Down brand. Being listed in the Startup Weekend company directory got us included in the social good article on Mashable.
Lastly, guest blog and begin developing relationships with 10 journalists you would like to feature your company before you need press and establish yourself and your company as a thought leader in your space.
Image credit: Chlorine-lim
I Just Want to Submit a Frickin’ iPhone App to the App Store! (Part 3)
Way back in in “I Just Want to Create a Frickin’ iPhone App! (Part 1),” I walked you through the logistics of joining the developer program (no, you didn’t miss “Part 2,” I have not written it yet). Fast-forward a couple of months and it’s time to submit to the app store! For a company that has built a reputation on simplicity, Apple has concocted an arcane process and made it worse by not providing any complete nor accurate information to help with the application submission process. Apple’s minimalistic approach is of no help… you often feel like your flying blind as you try to make your way through the process. I’ll try to give some heads-up and clarity if you, too, are going through this for the first time.
So, let’s hope I can remember all that I went through.
.plist
file, so you can access its “CFBundleIdentifier” (aka “Bundle identifier”) explicitly. The value in the app should be the reverse domain name, for example, “com.handthingsdown.htdmobile”; do not prefix the “Bundle Seed ID” to the bundle identifier in the app.Resources
Posted in Commentary, Technical