Joaquin Lippincott's Blog

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Programmers: To be considered a professional, you need to act like one.

by , President & Founder

Being a programmer is a profession. It is a high-skill job that demands a large initial investment of time as well dedication to continuing education to stay at the top of your game - much like a doctor. Yet, programmers often lose sight of the fact that the skills we bring to the table are only part of the equation; like a medical professional, our "bedside manner" is incredibly important to our overall professional success. Why is that? Read More…

What's in a Brand?

by , President & Founder

People often ask me where the name for my company came from. Lots of brand names have no meaning or names that have little in a modern context. Coke, Nike, Intel are all good examples. Reflecting on this left me thinking about what is in a brand and why do we care about them? Read More…

Open Source is the New Microsoft

by , President & Founder

When I was starting out in the web industry back before the turn of century, open source options were available but were often ruled out as risky business investments. At the time, they were relatively feature poor (compared to enterprise solutions) and a bet on the wrong technology could potentially cost someone their job. It was around this time that I heard the phrase "no one gets fired for choosing Microsoft", but times have changed. Read More…

How to Improve Your Reputation as an Open Source Provider

by , President & Founder

If you are as open source service provider (Drupal, etc) you have a distinct advantage over many peer in the web development arena. With open source you are leveraging tens of millions of dollars worth of software and bringing that value to bear on even the smallest project you work on; you are part of a vibrant community that has drawn (and continues to draw) both amazing development talent and high-profile customers, who look for your services by name. All of that said, there are some things a CMS like Drupal doesn't bring to the table, and those elements are critical to improving your reputation in the field. So what are those elements? Read More…

How (and Why) Google Needs to Invest in Open Source

by , President & Founder

As more and more people start using the internet, and as websites get increasingly full featured Google continues to see growth in its userbase. Open Source CMS platforms (Drupal, WordPress, etc.) are increasingly the go-to technology for many companies with over 800,000 sites using Drupal or almost 60 million on WordPress. As big as these numbers are, they are a drop in a bucket compared to the 4+ million Google searches that occur each day. So why should Google care? Read More…

Gender Diversity in Tech Requires Applicant Diversity

by , President & Founder

I would love our company to show more gender diversity, but where are the female applicants? From what I've read women make up 17% of the Drupal community - though there is some question as to how many of those women are actual developers. Even in speaking with women in the Drupal community, it often seems that the women working in Drupal tend more to be in marketing positions than in highly-technical jobs. Read More…

How to Jumpstart Your Programming Career

by , President & Founder

If you've felt yourself stagnating as a programmer recently, I have a cure for you. That's right, a ticket out of the back room or cubicle you've been stuck in for the past few years, into an exciting world that is changing daily. The secret is joining an open source community. This is a step-by-step path to making more money AND having more fun at the same time. It may not always be easy, but doing something worthwhile almost never is. Here's how: Read More…

How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Work From Home

by , President & Founder

So you want to work from home? Well, you have to convince me first. Ok. Maybe not me exactly, but I am a business owner and for years I successfully ran my business with the mom-and-pop mentality that if I could see my employees in their seats, they must be working. If I sent employees home, who knew whether they would goof off or not? Most businesses start with this mentality and many never get past it, however, at our company we changed course and have not only improved morale, but also gotten more efficient as a result. This is a post on how we did it, and (more importantly) how can you convince your boss to let you work from home. Here's the five-step process: Read More…

A Company Organization Chart You Can Believe In

by , President & Founder

As our company has grown, we've had to think about the way we can support a larger organizational structure. This meant creating things like a Corporate Values Statement and even a company Org Chart. When first setting out on this task, I started with a traditional tree. We have people in management positions, so why not? For me, there are two big problems with this representation Read More…

How to Become a Web Developer

by , President & Founder

So you want to become a web developer? Smart move. The web is a growth industry and I don't know of any university curriculum that adequately prepares people for this career. A good web developer can pull in well more than the median annual wage and job benefits and promotion opportunity are great. So what do you need to know? Read More…

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