Back in July, I joined a team of developers working on a large-scale rapid-development project. After about six frantic weeks, my contribution was complete, but the site has just gone live:

http://www.indianabizcafe.com/

So, for all of you who asked me what I was working on during that time and I said that I couldn’t tell you, now you know! Although I didn’t do the majority of the work on this project, I still think it’s a Good Thing and I’m proud of my contribution. And if you want to get more connected to the Indiana business community, here’s your chance!

The MCCSC School Board met last night, and for the first time ever the entire Board Packet (the agenda and all of the associated materials) was available to the public online before the meeting.

In December, they asked me to work on a system for them to manage the transition to “paperless” Board Meetings. I was impressed with their paper consumption, they showed me a stack about a half an inch thick, and said that right now they were producing about 90 of those stacks for each of their semimonthly meetings. One half inch times ninety copies times 24 meetings a year, that’s an annual consumption of a stack of paper the height of a nine story building! Well over a ton of paper, with a retail value of $2000 (@ $3.70/ream)! I’m all for reducing paper consumption, of course, but the benefits go far beyond that. Most exciting to me is the public’s access to information. Upcoming, recent, and (in the long run) historical information, all without having to leave your home computer. Democracy loves the Internet.

Needless to say, I was more than happy to work on the project for them. We agreed on the framework in December, I did most of the development in January, gave some presentations and got feedback in February, and March 4 there it is, available to the world. The public interface is nice enough, but most of my work went in to developing an easy way for them to prepare these documents. I’m pleased to say that Janet, the secretary responsible for preparing the Board packets, required almost no training and is excited to be letting go of the system that had been in use for decades.

It’s available from now on paperless.mccsc.edu. Try it out and let me know what you think!

I was at the MCCSC the other day, working on an exciting new project that I’m hoping will be unveiled within a month. But, while I was there, I saw that they had, on their front desk, cute little business-card-sized ads for the businfo site that I built with them. I also bumped into the person who coordinates the buses, and he says that he’s receiving even more positive feedback than I was aware of. I love to see these things living, breathing, and doing what they were intended to do!

I thought it might be worth a quick note that this “News” section is a place for me to blog about interesting goings-on in my professional world.  Perhaps that’s obvious, but it’s easy enough to write about, so why not say so?

Well, as I enter the 18th month of being self-employed in the world of Web development, it’s about time that I actually have a website for my business, eh? It’s always felt strange that I didn’t have one before, but I’ve been spending my time actually doing work for clients rather than trying to establish my marketing materials. Of course, at some point, one just has to admit that one should have one’s own website.

So, it’s like I hired myself to make a Website for myself!

I’m excited about my decision to use WordPress to manage my site. That should make it easy to keep content updated and looking reasonably good. I figured that if I were consulting with my own business about a web site, I’d recommend a CMS for myself. So, why not take my own advice? Besides making my life easier, I can use it as an example of how helpful a CMS can be. So, there ya go.