One major thing that has stuck out to me across these three platforms is that Apple and Microsoft have relinquished nothing to the carriers, whereas Android, by it’s very nature, is completely bound to them and suffering as a result.

When I first fired up my Galaxy S I was presented with a choppy, pixelated Vodafone logo animation. Once running, Vodafone were rife across the phone with their own music store, app store and other horrible apps that had clearly been thrown together with various greed-led deals with third party service providers. It instantly made the phone feel like it was several years dated on first usage. Fortunately, I’m a massive geek and within the first month I’d rid myself of this hellish experience and installed a custom rom on the phone which made things immensely superior. It ran faster, had a significantly improved battery life and actually worked. But I’m a massive geek. How many Android consumers aren’t and wouldn’t know a custom ROM if it slapped them in the face? I’d wager most of them, in fact in my experience the majority of my non-geek friends hate Android and still crave the iPhone. I know, from experience, this is the carriers fault, which makes it Google’s fault for not managing this well enough.

When I fired up my new Windows Phone, still on Vodafone, there was a single solitary Vodafone app. Which I was able to immediately delete. Microsoft have retained quality control in the same way Apple have with the iPhone. So yes, iOS and WP7 are closed, proprietary walled garden platforms, but they’re performing significantly better to the majority as a result. Android really needs to stamp some authority on how much carriers can butcher this otherwise amazing platform. This has been explained in much better, more informed detail by Siegler.

In my opinion, the carriers business today is old-fashioned and totally holds back innovation in the mobile space. They are driven entirely by greed and for some reason there just seems like no need to innovate and compete. Every year mobile contracts get more restrictive and expensive and tactics of the operators are becoming ever more underhanded and dishonest. Unfortunately we’re somewhat at ransom to these few giants which is why it’s all the more important the likes of Apple and Microsoft retain their control. I would love to see Google impose some UX restrictions on what the network carriers can do to their phones.

2011

New company website

At the beginning of 2011 we finally launched a new website for Moov2, accompanying it was a blog on business software for sharing some more company related thoughts. To be honest, from the outset things were a little slow on our part for keeping it up to date. This was down to the usual poor excuse of being too busy. However in recent weeks we’ve made a real effort to add regular new content and I’m fairly happy with where its going. We’ve also been putting a bit of time and effort into Google Adwords, SEO and Analytics. The purist in me really dislikes those terms but they are paying dividend and there are genuine approaches to these things without resorting to underhand tactics and falsified pointless copy.

Silverlight

In February, I dived into Silverlight and I was very impressed with the platform. Unfortunately I don’t think Silverlight took off as much as it could have and the outlook for it in its original guise is now somewhat limited. However Windows Phone 7 does leverage Silverlight and the development approach for the upcoming Windows 8 Metro apps, while not Silverlight, is looking to be very similiar to it (I.e. c# and xaml). So I’m still pleased to have familiarised myself with it.

Blog

In November I declared that I was going to increase how much I’m blogging here. It’s only been a few weeks but so far I’ve upped the amount of blog posts I’ve been writing (although not really frequency or consistency). It’s hard to pinpoint the benefit of doing this but it definitely feels better to be documenting my thoughts more. Another benefit of doing so helps me better get in the mode for writing which helps with content on the Moov2 site too.

Upset in Flash world

Adobe made a few PR blunders with some mixed messages about the future of Flash, Flex and AIR. This did cause me some minor annoyance purely by having to first decipher these messages and then explain them to some of our clients (summarised here). However it doesn’t cause me any great concern. I think the Flash platform still has a strong future in gaming, cross platform mobile and brownfield projects. That said, I am fully on board with HTML5 and standards based development and can definitely see this as a unified development approach. So whilst the announcements from Adobe (and similar from Microsoft) may not have been handled as well as we’d like I do think they’re doing the right things by putting their focus into HTML5.

Personal

Outside of work and geeky interests I started a blog on mountain biking which has been my main non-tech interest and healthy activity in 2011. I’ve not put too much effort into the blog but Mountain biking is definitely still holding my interest and has had a definite positive effect on my waistline. I’ve done some amazing rides and made some great new friends as a result.

At the very end of 2010 Andrea and I moved into a new house on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire. After a tough few months trying to sort out a mortgage we were very grateful to finally move in. The novelty has still not worn off, I love living so close to the forest for biking and the general lifestyle of the area is great.

2012

Championing a new approach

I’ve been running a software development company since 2003, it’s often still terrifying and I know I still have a lot to learn. However, I have learned a thing or two along the way. One of those is that no matter how meticulously planned a software project is change is inevitable. This was always traditionally referred to as scope creep but that puts the onus on the client to not deviate from the original plan. Fact is, change comes about not because clients just change their mind but because the change presents itself as the obvious thing to do. I will post more on this in the future but going forwards our approach will be to be open to and expect change. This will be managed by tackling the obvious problems and opportunities first and reviewing at regular intervals (or even constantly). Each project will be broken down into multiple smaller projects and we will have the agility to change direction at any point without loss of investment for our clients and wasted time for ourselves.

Systemisation

Another benefit of having been running a software development agency for nearing a decade is that we have encountered and solved many problems. We’ve identified processes and procedures for dealing with them and have been constantly looking for new more efficient means of doing so. However, this hasn’t always been particularly controlled, more of an ethos than standardised practice. I’ve recently read a great book, The E-Myth Revisited in which the author describes the process of creating a system (a defined, documented approach for exactly how to tackle something) for each and every process within your business. Whilst at first this seemed like a ridiculous undertaking the more I thought about it the more I’ve entertained the idea. There are so many aspects of running a software business that could be easily summarised into a documented procedure which could then effectively be undertaken by anyone (within reason), reviewed and improved upon over time. This essentially creates a path for improvement and also reduces friction when delegating and sharing tasks.

In 2012 I intend to systemise as much of what I do as possible with the intention of being able to easily alleviate tasks that are currently tied to myself or whomever currently undertakes them. This will also set a starting point for improvement from which slicker and more efficient processes will hopefully evolve.

Continue to play

Finally both in work and in my own time I will be encouraging ‘play’. It’s become somewhat of a skill at Moov2 now to be able to investigate and review new technologies as they come about and where appropriate integrate them seamlessly with our workflow. This has many obvious commercial benefits but also is a lot of fun. Going forwards I hope that we’ll be able to share some of our thoughts and findings with the wider development community in the form of blog posts and open source projects.

So that’s my wrap up of last year and some objectives for this coming year. To anyone who has read all of this (and I don’t expect that to be many, I’m writing this more for my own benefit really), I wish you a very happy and successful 2012!

… on a mission to convince the web design community that working with clients can be enjoyable, constructive and creates outstanding websites.

One of his key messages is that the traditional approach for building a website is essentially “big bang” development. Every few years a website is overhauled and redeployed to great fanfare and significant expense only to immediately begin slowly rotting and be forgotten about until the cycle begins again some years later.

Now this is all remarkably familiar to software development and typical complaints with waterfall development methodologies. A familiarity by the way, which is particularly understandable considering the line between “website development” and “software development” is now well and truly blurred (more on this in a future post).

Perhaps we should be doing away with major version numbers. There should be no MassiveProjectX to be delivered by DeadlineY. Throw that door-stop of a requirements catalogue out of the window and spend some time actually empathising with the businesses we’re trying to help. We should be building open and on-going partnerships with our clients focusing on providing smaller, more frequent deliveries which are solving the most obvious and important problems first.

Agile approaches (inspired by the agile manifesto) have been widely adopted by many developers to help with many of these issues which is great, but it is still a largely developer adopted practice. More-so than involving business people as per the original manifesto principles. More effort needs to be made in getting on board with our clients and working together to enable the best solutions which work out better for both parties.

Paul’s mission is set for full steam ahead in 2012 and I intend to follow a similar path focusing on more effective client relationships. I highly recommend reading the first chapter of Paul’s upcoming book Client Centric Web Design which is available for free. I’ve found it a real eye opener and will be posting more thoughts along these lines soon both here and from a more professional capacity on our company blog.

The problem I see with this strategy is a matter of perception. I challenged Chris on this asking what he thinks the outcome would be if I went out and randomly asked 100 under 25 year olds “what do IBM do?”. Chris answered by stating that during some research they found 99% of people had heard of IBM but very few could name something they are known for. So an issue they have researched and acknowledged.

Great, however IBMs approach to resolving this is to start a campaign of ‘educating’ young people about what they do. They’re going to be visiting schools and telling students about the wonderful things IBM do in the hope that when they leave school, they’ll be so enamoured by IBM that they want to seek employment from the glorious mega-machine.

Herein lies the flaw, the great young minds that are graduating currently are not simply just ‘unaware’, they’re plain disinterested. The exciting opportunities being sought by the top talent are with the exciting companies doing exciting things. The obvious targets I would suspect for young people are the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, [insert other new and rapidly growing tech company here] and the real hot talent are likely even sold on the prospect of their own startup.

This isn’t an issue faced solely by IBM, I’m sure Microsoft, Oracle and many more of the old guard have a similar challenge to face. Unfortunately simply telling people how great and exciting you are isn’t going to cut it. You have to BE great and exciting.

The event was a smallish affair held at the Double Tree Hotel in London and consisted of two days of presentations covering content from marketing to project management techniques all focused around the objective of delivering and selling software. The target audience is the ISV/MicroISV (independent software vendor) and there was some great networking and chat. It was great fun to get to speak to a number of ISVs and find out about their different products, niches and varying success levels. Overall though everyone was there to seek advice, share tips and generally help each other out.

There were some great presentations from speakers ranging from experienced individuals with successful software projects to representatives from large corporations such as Microsoft and IBM. As well as being informative there were some good ‘food for thought’ presentations on topics such as Facebook credits, daily deal sites, the arrival of the software ‘marketplace’, dealing with piracy, patents and many others.

I definitely hope to attend next year (which is being held in Munich) and strongly advise anyone else interested in the business side of software development does so too. Check out more information on the ESWC website.

The event was organised and presented by Nick Jenkins, founder of Moonpig.com which sold to photobox in July 2011 for £120 million, there and then you realise this guy has got to be worth listening to. Alongside Nick were other Prince’s Trust fellows and entrepreneurs Tim Roupell (founder of Daily Bread, sold in 2008 to Hain Celestial) and author of a great looking book, Andrew Dixon (former VP at Goldman Sachs and founder of ARC InterCapital) and Claire Locke (founder of Artigiano, sold in 2006). We also had a flying visit from Mark Prisk (Minister of State for Business and Enterprise). A pretty stellar line up if you’re looking for business advice!

The day started out with a presentation from Nick, taking input from the other entrepreneurs, sharing stories and advice garnered from their various journeys to the successes they have today. The focus was on the path to investment, but a lot of the information shared made sense as just plain old good business advice. Some key points raised that stuck with me:

• If you’re seeking investment, make sure it’s for the right reasons. Floundering sales is not one of those reasons
• 5x return in 5 years is a reasonable expectation of an investor
• The most likely point for return on investment is the exit but consider: Will you really want to sell?
• What investors are looking for:
  • Good people
  • Good business model
  • Strong growth potential
• Disadvantages of equity investment:
  • It is expensive if you are successful
  • Investors may have the right to interfere and you could lose control
  • There is a likelihood you will need to sell at some point

This was a really good introduction for someone like myself who was not at all familiar with the process, I had a lot of queries and the information covered addressed all of them. Something I was unsure of which was addressed is if, other than funding, angel investors got involved with the business. It turns out in many cases (not all) they do and that can of course be a good or bad thing depending on who is getting involved and to what extent. Having a well connected domain expert invest in your business could be hugely valuable and help you realise significant new opportunities. Equally however someone investing significantly in your business has a right to want to look after their investment and may make demands you might not agree with which could cause friction and steer you down avenues not in line with your own vision. Also the distinction was drawn between Angel investment and Venture capital investment, the former typically being smaller investments by perhaps more interested or involved parties whereas VC funding is more of a finance only arrangement.

As well as the presentation we got to spend some time with the entrepreneurs querying them for advice and experiences. The point that really hit home with me here is that these people were really nice human beings. The media tends to make out that in order to be a successful entrepreneur you have to be some sort of hard-nosed ass-hole. I’ve always maintained that it should be possible to build a strong successful business being reasonable, understanding and fair (but of course not to be a complete walkover). Nick, Tim, Andrew and Claire are real testament to this and it was very refreshing to speak to people whom I consider a true inspiration and demonstration of what can be achieved with some hard work and determination.

However, before I knew it things started kicking off, with every step in the right direction came more things on the to-do list, more emails that needed tending to, more meetings and more actual work that needed doing. So the motivational business interactions slide, stepping aside for more important stuff. This is no bad thing of course, after all, I was by no means under the impression running a business was easy and being busy is better than being bored when you’re fending for yourself.

What I hadn’t realised though, is how the aforementioned important stuff had over time, taken its toll on my passion and enthusiasm for what I do. No business-related networking, no seeking advice, no overly ambitious discussion with like-minded individuals and no top-ups of enthusiasm. I hadn’t realised it but running a business had become my job. I never wanted a job, I wanted to run a business.

Fortunately, a series of seemingly unrelated events have recently opened my eyes to the above realisation and at the same time addressing it:

• I attended a local digital innovation event where there were some excellent inspiring speakers and I got to catch up with some old faces from my early days in business.
• I had a brief chat with Josh Russell whilst I was at Flash On The Beach who was on the cusp of launching his then unannounced startup BonfireIM. He didn’t let on what they were up to but his excitement was bursting out of him, he was desperate to talk about what he was working on but obviously couldn’t share too many details and his level of enthusiasm was both intriguing and contagious.
• I recently attended an investment workshop organised by Nick Jenkins (founder of Moonpig) for the Prince’s Trust, I’ll share more on this in an upcoming post but it was a really fascinating day where attendees had the opportunity to soak up some great advice from angel investors.
• This weekend I attended the European Software Conference after a recommendation from new found friend and advisor Dave Collins who was presenting. I had reservations about the event mainly derived from the website but it turned out to be truly excellent and I intend to be back next year. What ESWC lacks in website finesse it more than makes up for in community spirit and knowledge sharing. Again I’ll provide more details in a future post.

So, all these disconnected events have led me to discovering a new pet interest that is resurging my almost forgotten passion for business: the world of startups. I say new interest but really it’s simply the rediscovery of the excitement and adventure of running a business. The term “startup” is a somewhat shiny new coat for what is essentially the same thing that interested me back at the dawn of my own company. There are some new players, new approaches and new tools and toys. But don’t be deceived, the “startup” part is really just another label as far as I’m concerned. So far, I haven’t read a single bit of “startup” advice that can’t be applied to any business of any age and any size.

Here’s a few links that are worth checking out if you want to re-energise your own enthusiasm that I’ve been enjoying lately:

• startup success podcast (I met one of the hosts, Patrick at ESWC) who introduced me to a number of these links
• A smart bear
• On Startups and their stackxchange Q&A site
• Techzing
• Startups for the rest of us

I’ve been taking an increased interest in the “tech startup” trend that has been occurring over the past few years and this concept is especially pertinent for anyone trying to make a success of a startup. If your startup is going to take on Goliath corp. then feature parity should absolutely not be the goal.

I’d even argue that if it’s possible to compete on a single key feature and ignore everything else (which is likely to be falling somewhere within Pareto’s principle) then you’re very likely to be able to offer a far simpler, far superior product.

Of course there is a lot of context dependence on such a statement but certainly for a startups consideration then it’s much easier to compete on a single feature than many. I’ve written similar thoughts on the Moov2 on Business Software blog in the past but it’s recently returned to my attention.

We love playing with new technology and strive to stay on top of the latest and greatest. We also regularly attend industry events and user groups such as FOTB, Droidcon, 360Flex, DDD, NxtGen and LFPUG and always looking for the next great event.

You’ll get to work with the likes of me, @andreablack, @peterkeating and @colinl along with occasional input from great talents such as @nwebb, @getrichhull, @amw7 and others to help us build world class RIAs.

We get all sorts of interesting projects ranging from sales tools for one of the worlds largest toy manufacturers to really cool audio slow-downers to help people learn to play music. We like to consider ourselves ‘platform agnostic’ which means we don’t get caught up in the “my tech is better than your tech” arguments. We focus on learning as much as possible and using the best tool for the job. This is great fun for us, we don’t get stuck using the same old technology and means our clients get a better result from experienced and unbiased opinion.

If you’re a developer with good OOP experience, familiarity with Flex and/or .Net and a genuine passion for building amazing user experiences and writing great code why not check out our openings and drop us your CV/portfolio.

That said, it definitely feels like it might be a bit of a second class citizen to Adobe. As I mentioned I’ve been using Buzzword for literally years and witnessed it evolve considerably since it’s earlier days. However, that evolution appears to have slowed. The only notable feature to have been added in the past few months is Workspaces. Other than this I know of a long list of feature requests that are as yet, unfulfilled. To be fair, this is more a rant about Buzzword specifically and not Acrobat.com as a whole as I haven’t fully checked out the presentation or ‘tables’ software and they have added support for conferencing with Adobe Connect so maybe that’s where efforts are being spent.

Workspaces is however, a great feature which I would love to make full use of… but can’t:

This has been the case for a long time now and several other aspects such as Connect are restricted by this. Whilst I appreciate there are legal and corporate considerations here that argument only stands for so long, what year is this?! I’ve been a fully-paid up user of a lot of SAAS services who have managed to figure this out. I did moan about this on twitter a while back to which I did get a response from the acrobat twitter account informing me to sign up to be notified when they worked this out, however I have been on the notification list for a long time now and have never had even an update from it.

Talking of SAAS or cloud based software, I’m a techie and a businessman, probably the ideal target audience for Acrobat.com I’m not afraid to be an early adopter of technologies and am comfortable signing up to such things. Which is why I also use Google Chrome as my current browser of choice… which is why this is also annoying:

I appreciate Chrome is a new browser and I don’t expect every new technology that comes along to be instantly fully supported. However before they blocked Chrome it did work, it was glitchy but then a lot of sites are and that’s what you expect in early release software. A much more welcome approach would have been a note saying Chrome wasn’t fully tested yet so an alternative browser is recommended but you’re free to carry on if you choose.

UPDATE: see Bob Treitman’s (Adobe QA engineer – I believe) comment below explaining the above is an FP10.1 issue.

Anyway, I will continue to use Buzzword for now (not to mention stop moaning and get some work done) but I am getting increasingly disheartened by the lack of new features and restrictive US-only availability. I will also have a look at other similar services, I do use Google docs but it still feels like a webpage as opposed to a word processor, feel free to suggest alternatives in the comments.