Rick Savoia

Vinyl record sales up, CD sales down and here’s why

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Computerworld reported today that vinyl record sales doubled in 2008 , setting a record for records that hasn’t been broken since the turn of the century. In contrast, CD sales are down. Way down. According to the article, the primary reasons for this are two-fold: vinyl records have better sound and the album art is in great demand.

This article went on for three pages quoting “industry observers” about how music enthusiasts are rediscovering vinyl records as a source of warmer sounds and cover art that “you can hold in your hands”. They tout how a new generation is discovering vinyl for the first time for the same reasons.

Sure, there is some validity to the two reasons given. The music does sound warmer, fuller, and richer, an argument many purists have given to justify their resistance to the more sterile sound of a digital recording on CD. This is also why a few recording studios still use older equipment to capture the sound.

No doubt album cover art is just that – art. I will admit I purchased an album or two in my day more for the cover than the music enclosed within.

However, nowhere in this article does anyone mention the most obvious reason for the uptick in sales of analog recordings.

Oh, come on now, seriously. I think everyone knows the REAL reason vinyl is making a comeback. It’s DRM free.

You can say what you will about the reasons CD sales are down and the big labels can believe what they want, but the primary reason CD music sales are dying is because of DRM. People pay through the nose for music these days and for all the money they pay they want to feel as though they really own them, not like they are standing at a Jukebox every time they want to hear their favorite tunes.

Which MP3 tunes sell better, those with DRM or those without? Apple knows this. Independent artists know this. The RIAA still doesn’t get it. They think everyone is a criminal. In reality it is the recording industry cartel who are the criminals, because they are trying to squeeze every penny they can from music fans in the name of the copyright and in so doing are choking themselves.

Until the recording industry figures out a way to lock down music on vinyl records sales will continue to rise.

If that does happen, don’t be surprised if the 8-track makes a comeback.

 

 

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A New Year’s Resolution: Diversify

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I was reading a post in the computerbusiness group on Yahoo! this morning by Brad at Aspen Computer Services called The Economy and Elephants. He was discussing Steve Kaplan’s book Bag the Elephant!: How to Win and Keep Big Customers. The “elephant” in this respect is the large client. The concept is that obtaining a couple of these big spending accounts will provide a steady revenue stream for your business, allowing you spend less on administrative overhead such as marketing to new clients, invoicing and collections.

In the past this was every small computer consultant’s dream: land a couple of big ones and your business is set. But times have changed.

The current situation with the economy has created uncertainty in the marketplace; even the largest elephants are no longer immune to its effects. Layoffs are occurring everywhere within large corporations and many companies in the enterprise are scaling back or cutting tech spending in 2009. If you rely on two or three large companies to keep yours profitable and you lose revenue from one, how would that impact your business? Unless you have alternate streams of revenue, it could be a serious blow to your bottom line.

This is where the old adage of “putting all of your eggs in one basket” rings true. While ‘bagging the elephant’ is always a great boost to your business, to rely solely on the elephants to make your hunt a success is risky business.

This is how a lot of investors lost their life savings. They relied solely on the stock market, their 401(k) or their pensions for their retirement nest egg instead of diversifying their savings in a number of different venues. When the stock market took a nosedive and the banking industry began to meltdown, many of them lost it all. Those who diversified were hurt as well, but they were able to take the blow.

In these uncertain economic times, we need to be ready for anything. Bagging the elephant won’t necessarily help much anymore. If the elephant is becoming lean it could be more trouble than its worth and if it is sick, lame or even dying, instead of an asset, it could even become a liability.

In his post, Brad considered this himself and suggested that diversification may be a better alternative. I agree.

We are currently running a four part episode of The Force Field podcast on The State of the IT Industry. While the discussion primarily centers on how the current economic situation is affecting IT service providers and how they think it will impact their businesses in the coming year, we do talk about how to deal with the prospect of a downturn in business.

In Episode 29 Patrick Palmer told us what he was doing to market his services to a broader client base. In Episode 30 Kris Crispell stressed the importance of keeping up with the latest technology with continuing education in IT. The guests made suggestions in each interview that I think are good ideas to consider, but the one thing they all mention is the possibility of diversifying.

There are many new and emerging technologies entering the marketplace and  this translates into new opportunities for staking a niche in the delivery and support of new products and services, and possibly creating a niche in new areas of IT.

Even if you are not particularly interested in entering these new arenas, it is still advisable to check them out for possibilities. The truth is that in this day and age, under current circumstances, sticking to business as usual may not carry you through the rough spots to come. Sure, the more clients you do have for a specific product or service the better, but as the economic climate changes and consumers react to it, their needs and priorities may change as well. If you are not prepared to meet them, they will find someone who can.

 

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The Force Field Premium Edition now available

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Ever since the first episode was released in the summer of 1996, the Force Field has been a labor of love for me. A lot of time and effort goes into the production of each show and almost as much time and effort goes into the promotion and distribution of it. Although it has been over two years since the initial launch of the show, the topics discussed in the early episodes are still discussed among IT service providers in forums and news groups today and are still relevant to current issues and trends in the industry. Even the very first shows are still downloaded and listened to frequently.

Of course, all of this costs money. I have been producing the show on an advertising model and although it does help, it really isn’t enough to justify the long hours that take me away from my family and provide for them. Realizing this, I decided to do two things.

 First, I am going to revise the format and distribution method of the show. Second, I am going to re-release the older shows to follow this new format.

Beginning February 2009 the show will be released in two versions. The first version will be as you know it now, with news, views, reviews and interviews in the same format as before. It will also remain FREE, supported by advertising.

The second version will be a premium edition with added content, longer segments and NO commercial advertising. It will be available in MP3 and higher quality audio formats for download at .99 cents per episode.

During the last two months I have been working on a project that launches today. Two months of  planning and six weeks in production and deployment have culminated in the release of The Force Field Podcast Premium Edition Volume 1 , a collection of the first six episodes of The Force Field podcast.

This premium edition includes:

 

  • Original archived News and Comment segment

 

  • three to six minutes of additional content in each episode

 

  • A brand new segment produced specifically for each episode

 

  • Remastered audio

 

  • No ads

 

The Premium Edition is available in mp3, Ogg Vorbis and WMA formats your listening pleasure. This episode is also available for purchase on CD mastered from the original show master (not compiled from mp3 release recordings).

There were some recorded phone calls and interviews in these first episodes that were not the best quality due to poor connections and limited resources for recording some telephony transmissions. However, the audio on these recordings were edited and remastered for acceptable quality under the circumstances.

One particular remastering that worked out well was with Episode 3 in which I talked with Dave in Alaska. I had a lot of trouble with the interview in post production due to the poor connection and when the show was originally released had to be pulled and re-released again because the  audio levels were so weak listeners simply couldn’t hear Dave. Even after several reworks it was still very weak. This always bothered me.

I now have tools to “fix it in the mix” somewhat and when I was working on the Premium Edition used the technology now at my disposal to give it another try. You can only do so much with bad audio but the call is much more audible and cleaner than it was before. You can now hear Dave without fiddling with the volume throughout the show. I was impressed with results.

To launch and distribute the new compilation we also launched The Force Field e-Store . The e-store was part of the original concept for the portal and a very basic version of the store was tied to CafePress for The Force Field Official T-Shirt, mugs and other gear but the full shop was never actually implemented. While it is still in beta and isn’t fully branded (I simply haven’t had the time) it is functional. I will tweak it in time.

The Force Field Premium Edition Volume 1 is now available. individual episode tracks can be purchased for .99 each per format and the complete six episode volume in mp3 format should be available within the next day or so for $4.99. You buy five and get one free in that deal.

The CDs should be available shortly and will be sold both individually and as a full 3 CD set. Each CD contains two episodes. The CDs are $4.99 each and the complete volume is only $9.95 plus $2 shipping within the continental US.

While the Premium Edition is not free, it will have value added content that is not present in the free, ad supported version. The Premium Edition is also commercial free. Did I remember to say that The Force Field Premium Edition has no ads? Yes, I did. So before I get lynched by my listeners let me tell everyone that The Force Field podcast is still free and it will be free. All I am doing is offering another version with extra toppings for just a little extra. Ninety nine cents isn’t much but it could help keep the lights on.

You can visit The Force Field Official e-Store here .

IT Marketing icon finally discovers Twitter

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Yesterday I received an e-mail from Robin Robins with some exciting news. She just discovered a new form of marketing in the world of web 2.0 that is surely to become big. Really big. So big, in fact, it could be THE next big thing in internet marketing.

Robin Robins discovered Twitter.

Now, if you don’t know who Robin Robins is, she is what some VARs and others in the IT Managed Services and consulting business would call “an IT marketing guru”. Robin is president of Technology Marketing Toolkit, Inc., which sells, of all things, The Technology Marketing Toolkit , a nicely structured and pricey system to help IT service providers market their IT businesses.

In the world of marketing for IT, Robin Robins has become a familiar name. Google her name up and you’ll find links for Robin and her company all over the page. Mention her name in a professional IT forum or newsgroup and most respondents will at least have heard the name, which is a good thing, since it proves she does know something about marketing. After all, if you can’t market yourself successfully with your own system, how can you sell it to anyone else?

Okay, now, that just made me go “hmm”.

I met Robin at an ASCII conference a few years ago. The day long event was an introduction to Managed Services and Robin conducted a seminar on, of course, marketing Managed Services. After the seminar I spoke to her about marketing for IT service providers and invited her on The Force Field to discuss the topic with listeners. (It was just after I launched the show and I wanted to expand on the topic covered in Episode 5 – Marketing Your Business ). She was very gracious but I never heard back from her after that so it is likely she probably forgot all about me and The Force Field as soon as we finished talking at the ASCII event.

She and her staff do bombard me with e-mails about her latest seminars and other events. I have responded to these e-mails on occasion at what is supposed to be the official e-mail address for responses, but they are never acknowledged. She may be a guru at marketing but she needs to work on those responses if she wants to market with Twitter.

I am not dissing Robin at all. There is value to what she has to offer, although what she charges for it is way out of my budget. She also recognizes the marketing potential of something when she sees it, as she said in her e-mail to me below:

 

“Hey Rick,

Have you heard of Twitter?

This is going to be BIG in the online web 2.0 marketing world. If you want to see what this is all about, check out my “tweet”:

http://twitter.com/home

To find me, type in my name…

“robinrobins”

While you’re there, set up a free account and join me!

Robin”

 

Now that Robin  has discovered this new form of communication and its potential as a marketing tool, Twitter has officially arrived.

Okay, I’m kidding.The truth is, it’s been here for awhile. A lot of companies use it already.   Small businesses like mine know it. Even a few large corporations that are normally slow on the uptake know it. The odd thing is that some of the marketing experts whose services people pay a lot of money for and who are supposed to stay on top of all this stuff are just now starting to figure it out. For a marketing guru that’s not good karma. 

Robin, where have you been? “This is going to be BIG”? It’s already big. I’ve considered you a bit of an IT marketing guru but as far as recognizing Twitter as a tool to market your business and network with clients, you’re late to the party.

Poor Microsoft, no soup for you

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I have to stop reading ComputerWorld. I used to get some relevant information from the articles. Sometimes they still make me go Hmm. But more and more they just make me frustrated with the whole business and, particularly, some of the players in it.

Take Microsoft, for instance. Please.

I ran across Shane O’Neill’s article tonight entitled Microsoft to handle managing three operating systems in ’09 . While he was essentially discussing the challenges Redmond faces in the next year trying to recoup market share with Windows 7 that was lost due to the problems with Windows Vista while at the same time trying to sweep Vista under the rug, Launch Vista and phase out Windows XP, all he really did was annoy me. Perhaps I took it the wrong way. It just came across as an attempt to make me feel sorry for Microsoft.

The title sounds like “managing” three operating systems is some big deal for Microsoft. Are we supposed to feel sympathy towards Microsoft here or something? So what? They “managed” multiple operating systems at one time before. Remember Win 95, Win 98 and NT4? 98, 2000 and XP? Hey, they just released 2008 Server. This is their business model. This is what they do. Where’s the beef?

It’s really only two operating systems anyway, if you want be technical. XP and Vista/Windows 7. Let’s cut the hype and be honest, Windows 7 IS Vista. You think Mojave was just an “experiment”? It was a marketing test.

If Microsoft can redress Vista and fool a survey group, then it shouldn’t be difficult to sell it to the public.

Windows 7 will be nothing more than Vista in a new outfit. Sure, they’ll tweak it a little here and there, but it will be just as bloated, just as clunky and just as expensive as Vista (and maybe more so). It may have a new face and new name but will still be Vista under the hood.

What Redmond really needs to do is completely rebuild Windows from the kernel up. They need to cut the fat, streamline processes and improve overall performance.

Just because computers today have the resources to run a huge piece of code doesn’t mean the resources should all be consumed by the operating system. On the contrary, the OS should have the smallest footprint possible in order to reserve those resources for all the applications and data.

Remember DOS? It was there because it had to be there to run the programs. It wasn’t THE reason for owning the computer. That was the first and only OS that Microsoft got right, because it was there to perform a function, not BE the whole show.

Years ago a computer purchase was made based on the customer’s requirements for applications needed to perform duties and the duties they needed to perform.

Today, forget the jobs and applications. Now we purchase a computer based on the needs of the operating system. There’s the problem.

So, if Microsoft is “managing” three operating systems in 2009, they get no sympathy from me. They’ve done it before, they can do it again. Poor Microsoft, no soup for you.

Is CE the way to go in 2009?

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Consumer Electronics, or CE, seems to be a hot area for field service technicians these days. The volume of warranty repair work for this niche, which includes the installation, maintenance and repair on items such as home theater, security systems and HDTV displays seems to be rising and, according to the OnForce Services MarketPlace Index for Q3 2008, released last month, this area pays some of the highest hourly rates in the industry.

This makes sense considering that the market for many CE products hasn’t peaked and is not likely to do so in the near term. Considering that new products in this category are constantly being introduced to the marketplace, that is no surprise. What is surprising is the fact that the service business in this area remains strong in spite of the downturn in the economy – at least for now.

Why? You would think that with the financial woes the consumer is facing such as bank failures, rising unemployment and tight credit that the little luxuries of life – the big flat screen TVs, wireless devices, security systems and the like – would be the first thing consumers would cut back on in favor of more basic necessities such as food, fuel, clothing and shelter.

Apparently, such is not the case. Why? Are we, as consumers, in a state of denial? Are we so addicted to technology that our priorities are misplaced? Or is it because we have become so dependent on technology that these products are no longer merely a luxury for diversion, but a necessity for daily living?

Perhaps the correct answer is D – all of the above.

The current recession is indeed somewhat depressing and no doubt there are many who try to ignore it to protect their interests and their sanity. Also, we have more than one generation that subscribes to the concept of materialism and craves the latest and greatest inventions on the market. Then there is the dependency factor. Some of it is sublimely market driven, but to some degree it can be forced upon us.

Take the HDTV displays, for instance. According to OnForce, service calls for HDTV LCD and plasma displays are up and are expected to remain steady through the next year. There are several reasons for this. First, these displays are now less expensive than they were even six months ago. As the prices drop, sales rise. Second, the market for these displays has not reached saturation. CRT displays are still being phased out and millions of households are yet to adopt flat panel displays.

Third, and most significant, is the government mandate that all TV broadcast signals go digital by February 17, 2009. After that, anyone who is still watching TV on an analog Cathode Ray Tube will be watching snow. We all know how much fun that is. So, if whether we want our MTV or to keep up with the local news and weather, we are basically being forced to upgrade. Isn’t government wonderful?

So, yes, there are a number of reasons why the consumer electronics market is still relatively stable and why CE installations, maintenance and repairs are hot. How long this will last is anybody’s guess. I would imagine the trend would continue at least until the current demand for items such as HDTV displays reach a tipping point.

Whatever the reasons, if you’re in the IT service business and things are a little slow, perhaps you should look into CE as another source of revenue, especially during these difficult economic times.

 

 

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Getting in the business? Gotta have a plan

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Last week we posted an announcement from Palo Alto software promoting a small business webinar. At the time I thought it something to pass along to anyone who would be interested. But a while ago I started thinking about it and it occurred to me that for some techs getting into the IT business, such a webinar, while promoting the company’s products, might actually be a good first step toward opening up shop.

The thought came as I glanced over my shoulder at the bookcase behind me in my office and my eyes fell on the retail box for Palo Alto’s Business Plan Pro 2005, which I purchased a few years ago to update the business plan for Savoia Computer. I had used an earlier version of Business Plan Pro and felt compelled to upgrade for some of the newer features. I had also prepared a business plan with BPP for a client as a paid consultant and wanted to be able to update his as well. I hadn’t used it for awhile and after I  built a new computer for myself last year I just never reinstalled it.

It isn’t that I didn’t want it on my system, it’s just that I had been thinking about getting out of the computer business to do something else and felt that I really didn’t need it anymore. But so far the other pursuits have not paid off as quickly and easily as I thought they would and I haven’t been as organized and focused as I should be in reaching those goals.

I watch a lot of techs get into the business without a business plan. When asked, they say that they know what they want to do and how they are going to get there. They say they aren’t planning to get a loan from a bank, so why go to the trouble of creating a business plan? Apparently they think that a business plan is something you create as a formality to impress a loan officer in order to convince them that your idea will work so they will lend you the money. It isn’t something you actually need to run a business.It is just part of the process of securing a loan.

Actually, that isn’t the purpose of a business plan at all. Sure, it’s needed for a loan and required reading for potential investors, but it isn’t something created solely for that purpose. It is a document bankers and investers refer to that is supposed to already be there – a living, working roadmap for building your business.

The business plan isn’t a marketing piece for investors, although it can be one. It is a blueprint for starting and managing your business. It is a tangible layout of your idea, a method of putting your ideas on paper to flesh them out and ensure that you have a clear vision of how you will proceed in your venture and what turns you expect it to take. It is a timetable for your business project and a roadmap of your goals for success. It isn’t something to doodle up on a restaurant napkin and toss out with the dinner tray, it is something to write down, reference and follow. It is your plan of action for success.

My client is a perfect example of someone who did not understand the purpose of having a business plan. I spent a considerable amount of time and effort preparing a business plan for the client only to have it come to naught. Sure, he paid me for doing it, but his sole purpose for the plan was to obtain a business loan. Yes, he got the loan and as soon as he did, the business plan was put away and forgotten.

If there was anyone who needed a business plan to follow, it was this guy. He is the type who tends to come up with an inspirational idea one day, implement it on day two, then decide it isn’t really what he wants to do on day three and by the end of the week has changed his mind completely, abandons it and comes up with something else.

He had some good ideas, some of them had great potential, but he wouldn’t really see them through.  He would start projects before he really thought them through and drop them before they had a chance to really develop. Needless to say his business isn’t doing very well at all. In fact, he still owes me money for another venture.

This is not to say that a business plan has to be followed to the letter. On the contrary, you need to be flexible and change your plan as you go along. As I said earlier, it is intended as a living, breathing document that changes and grows according to the needs of your business.

However, without a solid plan, you risk becoming like my client, forever struggling because you have no real sense of direction.

So, while attending a webinar on business planning isn’t mandatory, I highly recommend it. 

AVG flags Windows file as Trojan, cripples systems

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(TheForceField.Net ) November 11, 2008 –  AVG issued an update for its populare anti-virus scanner November 9 that tagged a critical file in the Windows operating system as malware and deleted it, crippling an unknown number of systems.

A error in a virus definition update issued Sunday caused a false positive during a scan that indicated the Windows system file user32.dll was infected with a trojan called Generic9.TBN and deleted the file. Once the file was removed, users could not boot into Windows. Windows XP running AVG versions 7.5 and 8.0 were affected.

The solution was to boot to the Recovery Console from a Windows CD and restore the file to repair Windows and perform a restore installation of AVG. The company acknowledged the issue in their forums and posted a repair procedure and a fix tool on its support site. 

AVG apologized for the snafu in a press release on PRNewswire. "AVG sincerely regrets the inconvenience users have experienced", the release stated. "We are working to remedy the problem and ensure that any other potential vulnerabilities are identified and eliminated before they can impact users."

Windows Vista was not reported to be affected by the issue.

 

The Force Field Investigates: LAN/WAN Professional.com

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I received an invitation today to receive free training to be a LAN Administrator as part of a “LAN/WAN Internship and Placement Program”. “Woo hoo!”, I thought to myself. “free training. You can’t beat free.”

The invitation was sent under the guise of “newsletter@lanwannews.com”. Immediately the red flag went up.

Now, I subscribe to dozens of tech newsletters so that in itself wasn’t cause for alert, but I know what I subscribe to and I don’t recall subscribing to this one. On closer inspection, it wasn’t really a newsletter at all, it was an unsolicited e-mail offer. Spam.

The first line said it was an “official e-mail” and said that I was “authorized” to receive a $2,995 training program gratis. Well, I thought, I guess I had better read the entire e-mail and find out just how free this offer is.

As it turns out, it wasn’t as free as they claimed. In fact, it wasn’t free at all.

The word “free” means just that. FREE. No strings attached, nothing to buy, no conditions. It is something given without clauses, without any charge, without supplemental fees. It costs absolutely, positively nothing, zero, that is why It’s called “FREE”.

The training program is offered by a company called LAN/WAN Professional. Although the first paragraph of the e-mail stated that I would receive the “LAN Administrator Remote Training” free of charge, it later states that the offer is limited to “Stage 1” of the training only.  Further down it adds that this “free” training requires a $95 application fee, a $195 registration fee (aren’t “application” and “registration” generally the same thing?) and a $29 materials shipping and handling fee. Excuse me, but aren’t we are missing something here, the “r” in “free”?

So it isn’t free, it’s fee.

The e-mail went on to spew out starting salaries for IT professionals and statistics about how job growth in the industry is expected to be 53.4% over the next ten years. Considering that figure is spread out over ten years, which is a long time in the IT industry, that margin of growth isn’t too impressive, but it sounds great in a sales pitch to someone who isn’t already in it.

They even set a deadline for application of November 13. That is only five days away. “Well, I’d better get busy then”, I thought. There was a contact name, phone number, fax number, e-mail address and URL to a web site. I decided to give them a call.

The name of the contact was Patrick Pule, Director of Client Relations. It was a 949 area code, which was California. It was around 9:15 AM when I called and Mr. Pule wasn’t in, but he had voice mail, so I left him a message. Of course, I had no intention of signing up, but that wasn’t why I was calling. I wanted to check them out and find out if they were legit, or just how reputable they were. Since he wasn’t available, I decided to Google around. What I found out was very interesting. I feel it is important to post it on The Force Field, in case anyone else gets such an e-mail and is in the market for certifications.

First, the company now called LAN/WAN Professional was previously known by another name, Tech Pros Group. Apparently this company, also known as TPG in some forums and web sites, has quite a shady reputation. The company was allegedly founded by Eric Choi and operated by Choi and his brother, Ray. According to the company web site, their guaranteed success of the IT professional is somehow tied to or dependent on the “financial success of the company”, A strange statement for an organization that purports to train applicants for IT certifications. What does the financial success of the company have to do with how successful an IT professional becomes after he is trained and certified? Is this marketing double speak or an indication of the company’s real objectives? One has to wonder.

But that was only the beginning. As it turns out, a number of techs and techs in training signed up with the company for the alleged “free” training that was pitched to me. The results of this training, depending on who you talked to, were mixed.

Complaints were posted and logged on a number of web sites. TechRepublic had the longest and most controversial discussions on the company and I only had time and patience enough to wade through about half of the posts about LAN/WAN Professional.com . One notable and ardent supporter of Tech Pros Group/Lan/Wan Professionals was Steve Copeland, allegedly Vice President of Business Relations at Tech Pro Group, both defending his company and blasting dissenters for their posts.

Consumer complaint site complaintsboard.com seemed to corroborate at least one of the stories posted by members of TechRepublic.The Better Business Bureau also had something to say about Tech Pros Group, saying that the company “failed to respond to complaints”, “their advertising is grossly misleading”, “they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements” and gave the company an F rating.

The company marketed itself heavily on CareerBuilder.com until complaints and bad publicity prompted CareerBuilder to suspend their accounts in August. This may have been, at least to some degree, due to a series of postings in a blog by Brad Reese on NetworkWorld called Brad Reese on Cisco , in which Reese investigated complaints against TPG/LAN/WAN Professional and its questionable tactics in July 2008.

Among the controversies circulated in several of these venues was a concept that brought into question the validity of the training program itself. Despite the claims by TPG that their internship and placement training program was “proven to fast track you to a professional level position as a LAN/WAN administrator, engineer, analyst or project manager”, the company  was not actually an accredited school or training center for IT certification. For instance, TPG had advertised Microsoft\Cisco paid internships on CareerBuilder that were actually marketing pitches to recruit applicants for their training programs. Reese posted an official statement on his blog August 1 from Fred Weiller, Director of Marketing for Learning@Cisco, in which Weiller said emphatically that TPG/LAN/WAN Professional.com had no affiliation with Cisco.

“Cisco has no relationship with them, and Cisco does not endorse their programs in any way”, Weiller was quoted as saying. “Eric Choi is not registered as a Certified Cisco Systems Instructor CCSI.”

As for the actual certification, CertGuard, a company that validates IT certification testing sites and certification integrity, advised users in its forums to check out the company thoroughly before giving them any money for training programs.

While it is possible you may not receive an e-mail from TPG, LANWAN Professional.com or LANWANProfessional.net (there were links to both a .com and .net domain, so beware), It is likely you will receive similar solicitations for other IT training and certification programs from time to time. There are many of them out there and this industry is just as prone and vulnerable to solicitation from companies, individuals and organizations with questionable intent as any other.

Just because we are in a field which requires us to be aware of all manner of schemes, scams and fraud against our customers doesn’t mean we are always on guard against such things ourselves, as evidenced by complaints and lawsuits lodged against companies like TPG. As such, I will include such companies and organizations in the IT Business Resource Directory from time to time in the future, not as an endorsement, but as a red flag to those who are solicited by these companies and want to know more about them before they get involved.

FireBoard – an open source project not so open

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If you have participated in the FF forums you probably are aware of the current bugs and performance issues. If you are new to the site, this is the primary reason the forums are not as active as they were in the beginning and the top complaint among users who stick it out and still post in the threads. They are terribly cumbersome and slow.

 There are good days and bad days, but overall, the current forum software we are using, FireBoard, just isn’t cutting it. To add to the problem, the developers of the FireBoard forum software are not very communicative and seem to get on the defensive even when approached about the communication issue, which doesn’t help.

I have looked at migrating to other forums but doing so would either risk losing some features, require a bridge to the site that would necessitate separate forum memberships, possible loss of existing topics and posts, or all of the above. I really don’t have the time or resources to deal with it, either.

The developers of Fireboard promised a new, improved, completely rewritten, compatible and faster version of this forum component. The downside to all this is that they won’t tell us when. All we know is it is “90% complete” and that it will be released “soon”. Apart from that there is no updated roadmap, at least not one that is publicly available to view.

So, that left us with a very difficult decision. Do we go ahead and migrate to something else that will require a separate database, membership, with no guarantee that we will be able to keep our posts or do we just sit and continue to wait indefinitely for a better version of the current component that may or may not arrive this year?

At first I decided to wait it out, however doing so has definitely affected participation in the forums due to current issues with slow performance. However, during the past few months I decided to stick with my decision on the promise that Fireboard 2.0 would be released “soon”.

Recent events have caused me to reconsider.

While some may think we as users can’t complain about the development and shortcomings of an Open Source component (unless we contribute code or $$ to it ourselves) we still invest a lot of our own time and effort learning it, working with it and supporting it ourselves. It is easy to say the users have no cause to complain but I think some forget that without users there is no one to fully test the component in a real world environment and without users there is no point to development in the first place.

Awhile back I wrote a long diatribe in one of the FireBoard community forum threads about support and community. I was frustrated with the lack of response to queries by the developers of FireBoard and attempted offer some insight as to how communication with the users and keeping them informed would help get the community more involved. I returned to find that there was less communication than before.

It seems like there is a we/them attitude between the developers and the members of the FireBoard community. That is exactly what hurts any Open Source community. I kept up with a lot of the FireBoard forum discussions and I found that many members of the FireBoard forums support each other and the product as best they can. They help each other find fixes, patches and work arounds to code they didn’t write and are struggling to understand themselves. That takes real dedication and loyalty. It also takes work. Collectively, the community is the support arm of the project. For this reason they are as much a part of the development of the FireBoard forum software as the developers are.

For this reason, in a sense, they do have a right to complain. At the very least, they certainly have a right to be kept in the loop, and not in the dark.

I went  there in search of answers. Instead I found a site with more ads than answers and other users of FireBoard just as frustrated as me. If there was more communication between the developers and the users there would be a lot less frustration. Why? Because a strong bond of communication bonds the community. Users would feel like they were a real part of the project and would become more involved themselves, they would understand what the developers go through better and would be more patient with the development process (especially when there are delays) and they would be less prone to complaining because they would have a greater sense of what is happening and why. They would give the developers and FireBoard more loyalty, support and sympathy. There would likely be more donations. This should be a symbiotic relationship, not a we/they conflict.

Okay, it’s an Open Source site, but can you blame some of us for our frustrations?

Yesterday I visited the FireBoard forums again in search of an update on its progress. Instead, I found a thread started by someone else in search of the same. Unfortunately, he was “silently” told to take a hike.

So I posted. Again I explained the importance of keeping the users in the loop and again I explained the importance of community to the health and survival of an open source project.

Today, I finally received an answer.  The entire thread was removed.

At first it appeared we were censored. Several members who had posted and monitored the thread started another one to inquire about the missing posts. By the afternoon the missing thread was restored, with an apology from one of the mods and an explanation that it was removed accidentally while moving around the forum categories.

I wonder if it was done as a reaction to the new thread. (Supplemental Note: I published this blog post and linked to it in the new thread an hour or so before the missing posts were restored; whether this post had anything to do with it or not is debatable, but the timing was interesting). I will add that the entire thread was restored, but locked to prevent further posts. The act of locking the thread says volumes.

This is very disappointing. Instead of acknowledging the problem and rallying developers and the forum community together, they didn’t like what they heard and chose to “silence” us. I suppose if they could have they would have simply shot us in the middle of the square instead?

This does not build community. It only serves to alienate members more.

Well, I guess this was their answer. So much for community. I guess it really is “we” and “they” and they want it to stay that way. I guess they really don’t want us to meddle in their project.

I was planning to just try and stick it out until the release of FireBoard 2.0 and I was defending this decision in discussions with the members of The Force Field because I believed in the FireBoard project. It is now clear I made a very poor choice installing and supporting FireBoard on our site and I should have just listened to our members. I apologize to each and every one of you.

I spent a lot of time and effort writing numerous posts in the FireBoard forums during the last year on this one topic of communication and getting the community “involved” by keeping it in the loop. Removing or deleting the thread was a slap in the face and very disrespectful to the very users who could help propel FireBoard to the top of the heap of Joomla! components – the FireBoard fan base.

Well, I’m done. It is clear there is no real community there or the developers of the FireBoard project have no interest in building one. If there really is a FireBoard 2.0, they can have it. Until the attitude from the FireBoard team changes, FireBoard will receive no more consideration from me and no further endorsement.

All right, I’m ticked. I trusted the FF forums to an open source project and got burned. It’s my fault, really. I trusted the site with a project that showed promise but really wasn’t ready to fulfill it.

Then again, it does go against the mantra that Open Source is supposed to espouse, that of building free and open software by building a community.