Growing Venture Solutions - GVS - Technology

Example Sprint Burn Down Chart: Excel, Google Spreadsheet, OpenOffice.org

Greg — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:35:03 +0000

I've written about the Burn Down Art site before. One unexpected result of the site is that people are visiting it based on a variety of different search terms and a few aren't getting the data they really need.

Template Burn Down Chart - Excel, Google Spreadsheet, OpenOffice.org

One thing that a lot of people have been looking for is an example or template version of a burn down chart that they can use for themselves. I won't claim that this is the best chart, but it's simple and it works pretty well.

A couple of suggestions:

It counts your stories and sets them for number of stories to burn down
It will count the days in your sprint and decrement the expected stories remaining row by that amount
There is a row to show how to add a story mid-way through the sprint
Some people like to add more columns to the raw data showing the priority and the status
Some people like to add formatting to the 0/1 cells to show when it became a 0 as a more visual indicator on the data sheet.

Regarding the Google Spreadsheet - I created both of these documents using Google Spreadsheets and then exported them. But there's no way for me to share the current burn down spreadsheet from Google Docs to the rest of the world to use as a template. Bummer! However, you can import either of the attached documents and it will work just fine. Enjoy!

Attachment	Size
Sample-Burn-Down-Chart.ods	4.47 KB
Sample-Burn-Down-Chart.xls	8 KB

Better Screencasting with Screenflow Pro

Greg — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:35:34 +0000

Nearly four years ago I created my first screencast about using iCal calendars in Google Calendar. At the time I used Wink (free) which is a fun tool and has some interesting features, but it's also a bit limited and time consuming to build the videos. Then I started using Camtasia from TechSmith (~$800), which is also a decent tool but is only compatible with Microsoft and isn't particularly fun to use.

Life with iShowUHD Pro

When I moved to a Mac a year ago I started using iShowUHD which costs $30 or $60 (I went for the $60 version) but has a lot of different options that are pretty confusing. I used iShowUHD to do a few short screencasts and then used it to record a live webinar so that we could share the webinar after the fact. It's impossible to redo a webinar - you've got people on the line who don't want to call back in, etc. And unfortunateley, iShowUHD failed to record the video. The audio was recorded fine, but the video stopped working after 10 minutes. I mailed support, upgraded to a newer version and the problem persists. So, I decided to look around for alternatives.

Screenflow: Screencasting Nirvana

I tried out the demo version of Screenflow ($100). The interface is drastically simpler than any of the other tools. It records everything and lets you zoom, rotate, re-arrange, etc. in its editing tools. The editing tools are perhaps one of the best features. They are enormously simple and yet very powerful. I've long wanted to do slow-motion and fast motion in iMovieHD, but it's simply not possible (this depends on your version of MacOS/iLife).

And now screencasting is fun again. I've got some of my favorite old tools from Wink that I can use, an easy recording and editing environment, great simple effects and I'm churning out videos for Mastering Drupal. If you've got suggestions on other tools, please let me know! As this story has shown, it pays to look out for new software.

Denver/Boulder New Tech Meetup - August 2008

Greg — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:51:26 +0000

This was my second New Tech meetup (review of July meetup) and it was much better than last time, which is saying a lot because last time was pretty good. Perhaps that was because this was the 2 year anniversary, perhaps it was because all the demos were from TechStars, perhaps it was because I got there earlier so I could partake in the beverages and announcemens (like the wifi username/password).

Once again I'm keeping track of presentation software, browser, operating system, and this time I'm also keeping track of any software used to build their website and what their YSlow! rating is for their homepage.

EventVue Providing "community" Features to Conferences

Used Keynote and Firefox on mac osx. Blog: WordPress. YSlow: "C" (73).

EventVue participated in TechStars2008 and presented about a year ago at the NewTech Meetup. 2 weeks after they presented at the NewTech Meetup, they closed $250,000 in venture capital (they were very proud of this and challenged this year's crop to do the same).

In the past year, they've supported 28 conferences with their software (~2 conference signups per month). They signed up 9 new conferences in the last month.

The point is to make your time spent at the conference more valuable by helping you connect with conference attendees you already know or should know. They did a demo on the Defrag 2008 site where you can click on "who from my network is going" and also "invite people who aren't going" based on your LinkedIn network.

The cost is $4 per attendee. Personally, I would simply build the conference registration site with a richer application that already includes features like this or where it is easy to add features like this. However, their integration to 3rd party social networks is truly valuable (at least until we get things like OpenSocial out into the wild).

Ignighter - "group to group" dating.

Firefox on Mac with some sort of demo/reply software that was typing things in for them. Blog WordPress. YSlow: "F" (37 - and it shows - painfully slow!)

They feel that Match, eHarmony, etc. are a bit more targetted at "old" people. Group dating is safer, less awkward, more fun. Provided a relatively funny (though sexist) presentation.

Business Plan:
1. Get users dating
2. ?
3. Profit!

Serious revenue streams: Advertising, premiums memberships, venues. They started as a Facebook application, thinking of integration with other systems. Will soon provide a "Post your plans" feature. Since this is not an official "date" this feature will help reduce the pressure and awkwardness.

Occipital - Automated Photo Tagging/Organizing with Immersive Gallery Visualization

Powerpoint and IE on Vista. Blog: Wordpress. YSlow score (for blog): F (53).

This was the evening's only non-web presentation. They started with a history of photos culminating in the point that modern photographers take hundreds of photos and spend too much time organizing them. Occipital organizes photos for you using your vast computing resources.

The software starts by churning through your photos for a long time looking at the pixels in the photos for patterns. The real fun, though, is in an immersive photo gallery experience where you can alter your views of your photos. You can cluster photos by time - which is a great first step. Then, if your camera can geo-tag at least some of the photos, it can show them by geo-tag & time to plot the photos on the path where they were taken (this would be awesome for a hiking trip, skiing, or walking tour of a city).

Finds similar items between photos and automatically groups those photos together. So, every photo where you wore that one favorite shirt could get grouped together, or perhaps every photo of your mom. Based on geo-data and partial pixel matches on the edges of the photos it can also creates automatic panoramas of photos.

Frankly the demo was totally unbelievable. I loved this software and can't wait for it to be widely available.

To participate the pilot program send them an email @occipital.com

What about Photosynth? Photosynth takes thousands of photos of a public place and merges them. Occipital brings this and more to you individually.

PeoplsSoftwareCompany / WhozAround - Local to local, non dating.

PowerPoint / Firefox on Vista. Blog: Wordpress. YSlow: D (62).

Started with a 4 box matrix showing availability information (calendar) and awareness(?) (twitter, IM). Guess what? They're in the top right! It is not YASN (yet another social network). Instead they integrate with your existing social network/twitter to help match you up with people who are or will be near you and help you invite them to meet up and manage their invitations to you. Provides an iCal, e-mail, rss feed of your appointments or an integrated web page with a stream of potential invites.

It is local to local, but not dating specific meetings. Wanted to thank Techstars and Boulder who helped a Silicon Valley/Boston women get together and start a company. Also, their presentation included lolcats. Well done.

Foodzie Yet Another e-commerce Platform! (for artisan food producers)

Presented with Safari and Keynote on Mac. Blog: Wordpress. YSlow: C (72).

Bring food from artisan food producers -> you.
Not just e-commerce. Producer/Consumer community and filtering. Filters will provide for "foods within X miles" or "organic" etc. to help you find exactly what you need.

Gyminee Exercise/Nutrition tracking + social network

Keynote and Safari on Mac. Blog: WordPress. YSlow: B (84).

When I heard "Fitness Tracking + Social Networking" I initially thought that this was going to be bad. The recent trend of "anything" + social networking is a little too much to stomach. However...this was one of the more polished business ideas and more successful implementations of the night. Their site provides valuable exercise routines, goal monitoring, fitness tracking and advice, and the social networking is well integrated: you can create group challenges like your own private "Biggest Loser."

Currently have 35K registered users and 100K monthly visitors. Their revenue model is currently based on a direct to consumers "pro" subscription for enhanced features, but also weighing options for gym partnerships and ads.

No device integration for things like Nike running monitor, pedometers, gps monitors, but are considering it.

Should I use the www in my website address?

Greg — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:36:15 +0000

I recently received the following email and thought it would be good to share my answer.

To your knowledge is it acceptable to drop the use of www. before your web site?

This is not only acceptable, there are some people who feel that it's valuable to stop doing it in general.

However, the answer really depends on the context of the question.

Using www. in Email Clients

Send an email to yourself with the following text:

1) example.com
2) www.example.com
3) http://www.example.com
4) http://example.com

For me, the third and fourth are automatically formatted as clickable links but the first and second are not. So, the third and fourth are more likely to be noticed and clicked on by users of email software like mine. This is, of course, dependent on how and where people read their emails and varies wildly.

Also, as your eye scans through a body of text the second one is easier to recognize than the first one. However, some people feel that for emails the third format is disruptively long.

WWW or not For Search Engines

Another consideration has to do with search engine performance. If you have some links to your site that point to both versions this can confuse the search engines about your site. Most search engines have figured this out or provide tools to tell them which one is the "right" one, but it's best not to have the problem at all. You can use a "301 redirect" to forward the users (and search engines) to your preferred version and prevent the problem in the first place. If you are unsure how to do this, your website developer should be able to help you.

Final Decision on WWW or not?

Basically it's a personal preference. My preference is not to use the www. So, when I write emails I use the http://example.com format to link to the site and I have created the redirect so that a visit to the "www." version of the page will forward to the "non-www" version of the page.

Hive Live Podcast Transcript - Social Publishing for the Enterprise

Greg — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:18:10 +0000

This is a pseudo transcript I took of the Hivelive podcast from ColoradoStartups.com. When I read about HiveLive I was really curious because they are basically a hosted provider of a "social publishing platform" and it just so happens that I'm a developer who uses an Open Source "social publishing platform".

John Kembel's history:

design consulting firm (like ideo)
dodots - thin client browser/widgets before Dashboard was cool
hivelive: "enterprise social software"
- tap into power of social networks
- marketing communication vehicles
- amplify lead generation, insights, support
- flexible, cost effective, on demand, platform

2006 Founded Hivelive

Existing solutions are social software packages (blogs, wikis, forums)
They were either overly generic or inflexible
They didn't allow sharing
HiveLive is a unified platform - permissions and content richness "not just blogs/wikis/forums" for sharing

Existing Solutions vs. HiveLive

One common approach is to stitch together lots of technologies
People take a blogging platform, a separate wiki, a separate forum, social networking and try to build build unified package
The results are not good
So, don't staple together a bunch of solutions
HiveLive: Start with social networking, add on "hives" to share information

Why is social networking important to businesses?

humans are social
communities where socialization is part, but rather than being the focus, the business is the focus
tie business to customers - delivers lead generation, loyalty, insights, support all in one trust based relationship

HiveLive Competitors?

Hivelive is different in that they use building block rather than integrating point solutions
Configuration is via "clicking not coding"
Note: he basically dodged the question by not naming any competitors - in fact there are hundreds if not thousands

What about hosting?

It's completely on-demand

HiveLive's VC Funding:

Gruntech - east coast VC
The money is used for sales/marketing (launched at defrag)
Will also continue R&D in software

Who are the target users:

High tech - shared knowledge or practice around technology
Consumer brands with "depth" [i.e. Patagonia] where customers share values with company

The value proposition isn't all that strong, in my opinion. I think he ignores "social publishing" platforms like Drupal which not only enable a very similar feature set but do so in a way where you can have it hosted, or host it yourself, but most importantly there is no vendor lock-in and your data is always yours. I'd love to be able to see more about how the hives actually work, but the demos are kind of hard to get into.

In a review from November 2007 Anne Zelenka of GigaOm points out:

HiveLive claims to be “the first community platform to seamlessly integrate social networks with information networks” but they’ll compete in that space not only with Jive’s ClearSpace but also with Drupal, Ning, and even Microsoft (MSFT) Sharepoint. But Drupal requires coding for customization, Ning doesn’t offer the fine-grained permissions that HiveLive has, and Sharepoint will be mostly of interest to those with Microsoft-based infrastructures.

I'm not so sure about the "Drupal requires coding for customization part". Perhaps now that the GigaOm folks are using Drupal for OStatic they'll get more experience with it to know just how much you can do with so very little coding.

Howto: Create Screencasts

Greg — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:32:22 +0000

I was recently asked how I create the screencasts on this site. This has been an evolving process.

Wink from Debugmode

I used a piece of software called Wink to create the screencasts. It has the benefit of providing the "next/previous" widgets which are nice. A drawback is that it creates snapshots of the screen in bitmap and then merges them together into flash. So, you can only use the Wink editor to edit the screencasts.

CamTasia - Full Featured, Full Price

For a Drupal Dojo Session about CVS I used the CamTasia recording system. It was pretty good, but is quite expensive. I don't think the price is justified in the features that it offers. CamTasia is basically an all-in-one solution which is great in a lot of ways, but, as often happens with all-in-one solutions, it isn't the best in many ways.

Krut - Cross platform Java Recorder

For my own projects, I now use Krut which is cross-platform and creates regular movies/sound files which you can then edit using standard movie editors. The drawback to standard movies is the lack of "next/previous" navigation - but most movie players will give you a progress slider which is good enough.

Voice Recording

I had been using just a plain old headset/microphone combo unit which I used also for VOIP calls. I now have a Rode Podcaster and use a pop filter which makes it super easy to provide high quality sound.