Pleasant surprise today as I was browsing through my emails. We are now in the Silverstripe Developer Network
I’m glad because even though we built probably around 10 websites already with Silverstripe, NDA agreements doesn’t allow us to “publish” or market those projects, so it’s a bit strange to tell we are Silverstripe experts but we can’t show you why!
Actually we can show you, but not in public. You’ll have to contact us for this ; )
A big thank you to the Silverstripe guys for being understanding.
Here is our entry: http://www.silverstripe.org/silverstripe-developer-network/?BrowseByCountry=Thailand
In the previous post I mentioned bigger projects. Well this is one of them.
We won the complete re-design and development of a video/audio sharing platform for a large organization in Paris, France. Basically members (mostly public radios and television stations throughout the world) can order, upload and share television and radio programs through this platform.
The challenge is (because it’s still in progress) to build everything from scratch using Zend, namely:
rebuilt all the databases- create a CMS for content, news, events
- create a catalog and shopping cart, with different type of “products”
- create a membership module with full capabilities (my orders, my uploads, etc…)
- create a back-end to manage all of this
And the last part but still crucial, create a user-friendly website which looks good. Thanks to our regular art director, Dan Mireault, I think we’ve got something pretty nice going on. Here’s a preview of the catalog page. What do you think?
The website is scheduled to be launch in July, with a mini site before that for the World Cup in South Africa.
Sorry for the lack of posts lately, it’s the same old boring excuse….too busy working
To keep you up to date, in the last few months we hired 2 more people, one to help our front end team (html/jscript/design) and another one to boost our Zend framework capabilities. And we’re happy to tell you it makes a difference. We can take more projects now! (is it really a good thing, i don’t know….haha)
On top of this, we’ve made a big leap in terms of projects, taking bigger and more complex jobs. I’ll tell you more about one of them in the next post, but let’s just say our choice of platforms is really paying off a year later. The decision to go with Silverstripe for our CMS, Magento for e-commerce and Zend for all custom development looks like a good choice now.
Finally, the other exciting thing for us is the diversity of clients we signed, not only in regards to industry but also geography. We now have clients in Paris France, Sydney Australia and New York City. Our Canadian clients still provide the majority of projects but it is shifting slowly and surely to a more diverse and global portfolio. Which is something always fun no? It would be nice to have a “local” Asian client too. We’ve been trying but the stars have not been aligned yet
Next step? Find a new office. 8 Months later our “new” one is already too small. After the move we think we will have a good balance now (projects, people, revenues, enjoy what we do) so our objective will be to keep it going like this for a while.
That’s what we said 8 months ago.
Rock and roll!
We are looking for kick-ass PHP developers, preferably Zend framework people.
If you are a passionate PHP Web Programmer looking for a chance to make your mark in a company in Chiang Mai with outstanding growth opportunities, one2crowd is the place for you!
We work in a truly collaborative environment where every individual is equally important. We value exchange and constant communication. We work hard but play hard too. No employee has ever left the company so we must be doing something good no? (Probably because we pay well too eh eh…)
Please submit examples of work so we can judge your expertise, send us your CV and portfolio/examples to jobs@one2crowd.com
Very interesting article in ZDNet Asia on working with Chinese web developers
Interesting because we could pretty much apply the same to our own experience here in Thailand. People are different, think differently and work differently. Let’s try to apply a bit of humor here (in no way we are saying westerners are better….we are simply different, and we really mean it)
Here are the 3 main elements of the article:
Different definition of “work completion”: For westerners, a project is completed when the final copy is approved, when the final pixel is aligned, when the size of the page is optimized (and when our developers roll their eyes 6 times a day at us). In China (and Thailand), a project is completed when it’s running and doing the job. The rest are technicalities and details.
Developers decide what final software should be: “Ok why do you input this function?” “Because it’s better”. ” “Hmmm….but it’s not in the requirements” Blank stare. “Why didn’t you ask me before doing it?” Blank stare….”Ok thank you”. (Note to self: I’m a Zen master, I’m a Zen master, I’m a…..)
Keeping quiet about problems. Nothing to add here ; )
How do we solve these issues? We use the oldest trick in the book.
We talk.
And guess what, it works. We’re 2 French Canadians working with Thais, using English to communicate between ourselves, and it works. It took a bit of adjustment but we can honestly say we’re on par with any Western companies now. Jing Jing
We love the 37signals guys. We don’t agree with them all the time but at least they bring so much more in their blog or books than the usual PR/buzzword BS we usually get.
A simple phrase from their latest book, Rework, out in March.
“The best are everywhere”
We couldn’t agree more. If you have the right people, it doesn’t matter where your company is located or where you come from.
Not anymore.
We are very proud of one of our latest project with Yellow Pages Canada. Our mandate was to create a new section called Video Channel, where users can browse through more than 10,000 videos according to different categories and their preferred location. In other words, Yellow Pages but with videos.
The main challenge was to figure out how their huge databases worked (geo-location ,videos types, etc…) and create the most efficient solution to handle all the requests. Remember, we’re talking about a website that gets millions of visits everyday, and gets a very large number of searches. Our solution had to fit in nicely. Any significant delays for the user would simply mean abandoning the project.
Obviously we delivered on time and I’m glad to say it now, above expectations ; )
And we were happy to count on Dan Mireault, our favorite art director, to create a clean and efficient interface once again. Thanks Dan
Please check it out here: video.yellowpages.ca
We get a lot of requests for Magento. Not only building a whole site, migrating an old one but also simply doing “PDS to Magento” jobs. And then we get back to the client and they’re always surprised at the time (and dineros) it takes. “But it’s just a PSD?”….Well, yes, but Magento is not just HTML. Really
Here are the main differences:
- Magento uses mostly blocks for its modules and components so you have to understand how they work and how they fit with your HTML and the overall code. It’s not plug and play and it takes time to figure out. Even after several projects.
- You have to take into account in your evaluation and work all the pages beyond the home page and product pages, like account log in, checkout, shopping cart, wishlist and so forth….
- Don’t forget the “communication” pages like transactional emails, newsletter templates, etc…
- Finally you’ll probably be using javascript to make things a bit more user-friendly, like an accordion menu, or a gallery, so you need to take into account as well.
Overall, creating Magento templates are easily twice or triple the time it takes for a normal “PSD to HTML” job so be careful before you quote anything if you don’t want to lose your shirt. There a lot more pages and templates to play with than the home and product pages
Have fun!
Really good article that came out a few months ago by Paul Graham and got picked up by Boing Boing again.
We could not have said it better ourselves (some points are not relevant, like investors….). Here are the main points for those who are too lazy to read the whole thing : )
1. Be Careful with Cofounders
2. Startups Take Over Your Life
3. It’s an Emotional Roller-coaster
4. It Can Be Fun
5. Persistence Is the Key
6. Think Long-Term
7. Lots of Little Things
8. Start with Something Minimal
9. Engage Users
10. Change Your Idea
11. Don’t Worry about Competitors
12. It’s Hard to Get Users
13. Expect the Worst with Deals
14. Investors Are Clueless
15. You May Have to Play Games
16. Luck Is a Big Factor
17. The Value of Community
18. You Get No Respect
19. Things Change as You Grow
