Working at a small company (Found Line), there aren’t as many opportunities to talk with and learn from a diverse set of co-workers as there might be at a larger organization. This is part of the reason why I organize our local PHP Users Group and am involved with other community events (VAGUE, Vermont Code […]
August 17, 2009 – 6:35 pm
A little while ago I read Richard P. Gabriel’s talk on Models of Software Acceptance [PDF]. I couldn’t find a date on this talk but I think it’s rather old, at least in terms of technology. However, there is very little in there that seems dated and much of it is very relevant today. From […]
February 5, 2009 – 5:53 pm
Our meetings with potential clients tend to be pretty informal. We’ve never done a “pitch” presentation to a prospective client. Taking care of our existing clients is more important to us than putting tons of effort into wooing new clients. This has worked well for us since the vast majority of our business has come […]
October 20, 2008 – 5:48 pm
We recently made the strategic decision to license all software developed by Found Line under the New BSD License. This is a free/open source software license meaning that our clients will have the four freedoms as outlined by the Free Software Foundation. Basically, this means that clients are free “to run, copy, distribute, study, change […]
October 13, 2008 – 8:13 am
Peter Saint-Andre (Executive Director of the XMPP Standards Foundation) has pointed out the Free Software Foundation’s recent addition of a “Free software replacement for Skype” to its list of High Priority Free Software Projects: Skype is a proprietary Voice-over-IP program that uses a proprietary protocol. Skype is seducing free software users into using proprietary software, […]
September 29, 2008 – 3:56 pm
My customer service experience with Google rivals my experience with Verizon Wireless for winner of the “worst customer support possible” award. Verizon Wireless would not let me pay them more money for a service with more minutes without forcing me into a contract. After many phone calls I finally got the privilege of spending more […]
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an article about the Dalai Lama’s comments during a panel discussion at the recent Seeds of Compassion conference. The audience was a group of business and policy leaders. The article takes a compassionate look at doing business. One interesting quote when asked about competition in business: “If your colleague (is a) […]
Cal Evans has a post talking about his experience at the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC). Just like many small businesses, especially web development shops, open source software is a critical tool for us at Found Line. However, I’d like us to be more then just consumers of open source software. It seems like most […]
