NathanHJones.comjust thinking outloud

The other day I read Justin Levy’s post on going mobile with WPtouch and just had to experiment.  I haven’t previously had a mobile specific version so it’s definitely an exciting move. Here’s a quick round up of my experience.

Installation

Installation was a breeze.  WPtouch is a WordPress plugin, all it took was downloading the files, uploading it to my server and activating it from the dashboard.  Once activated we were up-and-running with the vanilla install.  Now on to customizing…

Setup

WPtouch offers a wide array of customizing (sorry, this is a word I’ve gotten way too used to in the SAP world) options from enabling AJAX comment posting to custom CSS/Javascript inclusion.  I kept my install fairly simple but there were a couple things I changed.

1. I call myself a developer so I went with a snazzy App Store icon as my mobile banner image (see end of the post). WPtouch has a pretty good selection of images although they’re mostly centered around the iPhone.  If nothing meets your needs you’re more than welcome to upload a custom file.
2. Linking of my AdSense and Analytics accounts.  Must haves…AdSense to collect those occasional pennys and Analytics to obviously to continue to understand how people flow through the site.  Adding both was EXTREMELY easy to do with a custom section for each.

WPtouch gives you the option to display a ‘desktop’ (i.e. non-mobile) version of your website to users on their first visit and include the ability to toggle mobile vs. desktop in your theme footer.  I get the potential draw but if you’re going to go mobile, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t always default mobile and allow them to switch back if they want.

Anyways, you can also change what icon is used for each post and how much information about the post is shown (e.g. just the title, title and a teaser, tags, categories, etc).  I played with the settings a bit but I think that’s really more of a personal choice…at least until I get time to test and study analytic data.

Additions and Suggestions

For a donation supported plugin I can’t really complain.  It’s easy and relatively robust but there are still a couple things I would like to see enhanced:

1. I understand it’s a mobile device and landscape is limited but a second ‘title’ (under NathanHJones.com below) would be ideal.  Obviously, each blog owner would need to be smart about how it was used.
2. Better AdSense rendering.  This may be slightly out of the WPtouch developers hands but I noticed that AdSense ads show up very boxy compared to the smooth WPtouch design.  I don’t know if that’s anything they can fix or perhaps me just being new to AdSense mobile but it didn’t exactly flow together.

If you’re mobile version is powered by WPtouch leave a comment and let me know what you think!  Finally, here’s a fullscreen shot of NathanHJones.com…the mobile version…from my iPhone.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of publishing my personal resolutions for 2010 for a couple weeks and just decided to pull the trigger.  My thoughts, what better way of pushing myself to follow through than to publish them on the web for all to see.  I’ll try to take a couple checkpoints throughout the year to let you know how I’m progressing.

So, without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2010:

1. Develop and iPhone app.  I have a few ideas but I won’t reveal those just yet.  Look out for the announcement when the app is ready though
2. Blog more – 3-4 times per month is my target.  I plan on blogging about my iPhone development experience as well as about some topics I’ve been hoarding from my day job on implementing SAP SRM 7.0.
3. Clean up my resume and create a web-ready version (linked on this blog obviously).
4. Develop a new website – I suspect this will likely be to complement the iPhone app but I would like to build a custom WordPress theme for nathanhjones.com.
5. Reach 500 followers and 1,500 tweets on Twitter.  I hover between 140 and 150 followers and just hit 600 tweets today.
6. Exercise more – 4-5 times per week.  Throughout the last couple years I have been working out 2-4 times a week but I would like to raise the bar a bit at 4 to 5 times to help get in better shape and shed a few pounds.
7. Lower my golf score.  Notice I didn’t say handicap there .  Over the last few years I’ve only been able to play a couple times a year because work has consumed so much of my time.  My goal for 2010 is to play more and get my average score consistently in the 90’s (high 90’s is ok by me for this year).

I wanted to list 10 (for some reason that sounded like such a nice, even number) but this is all I could muster today.  If I manage to achieve all of this with time to spare in 2010 (unlikely, unless you find me a new job)…I’ll add a couple more.

By the way, how does everyone feel about the fact that years will now almost always be prefaced with ‘twenty’ instead of ‘two-thousand’?!?

Well, 2009 has come to an end.  With that, I’m publishing my third annual ‘by the Numbers’ (here is 2007 and 2008) post that chronicles my travels.  Most travel is for business but there were a couple personal trips that made the list.

So, in 2009 I…

• Flew 7,482 miles (I’m happy to say I didn’t have many bad airport experiences this year!)
• Traveled through 5 airports (RIC, IAD, PHL, ORD, AUA) – PHL is still a nightmare
• Stayed 133 nights in hotels
• Stayed 3 nights in a corporate apartment
• Rented 1 car – Hertz still has a questionable selection
• Drove 8,505 miles – DC and back…a lot
• Visited 3 states (NC, IL, PA) other than VA. Oh, and one island – Aruba!!

It looks like my travel for at least the first half of 2010 will be on par with 2009.  We’ll see what the new year brings though!!

A couple weeks ago I was given access to the 12sprints.com Beta program (thanks @12sprints for listening).  12Sprints is SAPs answer to Google Wave for the enterprise that they’ve deemed a “Virtual War Room”.  It seems to be part of the Business Objects division (based on information from emails I’ve received).  In short, I’m VERY impressed with the service and opportunities I see it leading to.

I’ve held off publishing my review to ensure I gave my self ample time to review the different aspects of the service.  I will say that my final experiment (before publishing my review, that is) was performed on a Mac in the Google Chrome browser. I was greeted by a warning message that was essentially ‘browser not supported, proceed at your own risk’ but found no significant issues.  There were a few overflow errors (likely just CSS) but the service worked splendidly which excited me since Chrome is my browser of choice.

How I’m Looking at 12Sprints

So, I entered the experiment with limited exposure to Google Wave (I have an account but haven’t been that active) looking at 12Sprints purely from an enterprise operations standpoint.  How can the average enterprise use 12Sprints to succeed or make themselves better?  Four areas immediately popped into my mind with instant thoughts of SAP backend integration – purchasing, customer service, engineering and, of course, the executive suite.

Purchasing and customer service is probably at the top of everyone’s list.  The ability to collaborate across a multi-national corporation on large purchasing decisions or bounce a customers complaint around to different people in an organization with ease has incredible potential for the business and the consumer.  Combine the collaboration aspect of 12Sprints with integration to SAPs backend and the possibilities for process improvement are endless.  Ideally, I see purchasing and customer service being integrated with SAPs Records Management and Case Management solutions.

Engineering is something that may not make it to the typical list of use-cases but I think it’s important to call out.  An organizations ability to design products and reduce the overall time to market is a competitive advantage that I see 12Sprints impacting for the better.  Couple the collaborative nature 12Sprints with SAPs cFolders solution and I think you have a very interesting solution that will help reduce the time it takes for companies to hit the market introduction stage of a product.

Feature Set

12Sprints came loaded with a solid set of features for the typical enterprise.  Actions within 12Sprints are organized into what is called an ‘activity’.  Each activity can have any number of ‘tools’ such as agenda’s, responsibility matrices (ARCI, RACI, DACI and RASIC), Cost/Benefit and SWOT analysis, Pro’s and Con’s and even a decision tool that requires that you ‘lock in’ what was decided.

I think one of the really cool features is 12Sprints integration of the online note tool Evernote.  The process of adding content from my Evernote account was seemless and a huge draw for me personally.  I question it’s reach at the enterprise level right now (none of my clients are currently using Evernote) but at an individual user level I find it very useful.  User’s can also post content from their computers such as Excel spreadsheets,  PowerPoint presentations or that recently completed White Paper.

Missing Features

I think the biggest feature missing was the ability to chat with other members of an activity or your organization.  Collaboration on documents, decisions and the like is key (the major use-case here) so I don’t understand exactly why an embedded chat feature was left off the list.  My guess (hope) is that it is in the works for a future release.

Another feature that I’d like to see made more prominent is the services integration with various SAPs services.  Understandably, 12Sprints is still in beta (and I don’t have an SAP environment linked) but I couldn’t find any clues of it’s potential integration with an SAP backend system.

They do, however, have a call for developers looking to partner on the product so perhaps they’re attempting to build that ‘app store’ ecosystem where enterprises can purchase miscellaneous extensions to enhance the service.  I think it would be a great move to drive innovation and reduce the time it takes for 12Sprints to exit Beta.  It’s obviously too early to tell but given that the apps are the flavor of the day for platform roadmaps I wouldn’t be surprised.

All-in-all – two thumbs up so far and expect additional reviews as the 12Sprints team continues to enhance the service.

So, I’ve seen mixed reviews of Gary Vaynerchuk’s newest venture, ObsessedTV.com.  Some love it and a couple hate it, but I’m not sure they’re really giving it a chance.  I must admit, when I first loaded it up I was a bit shocked at the direction he took but I think it’s a pretty solid play.  I mean, it’s different than we’re used to from Gary (hell, it’s not even 100% Gary) but he’s expanding his empire…what did you want him to do another wine show?!?  Perhaps something dedicated solely to Cabernet Franc, Gewürztraminer or Burgundy?!?  What gives!  He’s been there and clearly conquered that and while it will take time for people to adjust, I think it’s a step in a great direction.

Now, onto the show – I watched the Mark Bittman interview.  I’m not really their target demographic which is why the “set” probably wasn’t what I expected.  I can’t really take it to them for that though, it’s what I would consider a pretty standard set for interview format shows.  Overall, the episode seemed pretty “early stage” to me in that Samantha didn’t feel totally at ease, maybe even a little nervous.  Maybe it was the new setting but some of that may have been Mark who, in my opinion, seemed a bit snarky.  I think he’s earned a little of that right and I still think he’s a very interesting man.  Anyways, I look forward to future episodes as they just off the jitters and I can’t wait to see what kind of guests they can swing.  Knowing the little I do about Gary I’m sure they won’t disappoint.

In closing, I think it’s great idea that has real potential and it’s a bold move into a new demographic for Gary.  I want to see how it plays out but like I said earlier, he’s conquered wine and is making a play to expand his media empire.  For that my friends, you have to respect him.  As Gary would put it, he’s hustlin’ and you can’t get down on someone for that!  Keep up the great work Gary and I look forward to the other stuff you plan on bringing us.

Well, we’ve wrapped on another year and in keeping with what I started last year I’d like to do a rundown of all the travel I got to do – mostly work but some pleasure.

So, in 2008 I…

• Flew 70,000 miles (let’s not discuss how many canceled/delayed flights)
• Traveled through 10 airports (RIC, CLT, IAD, PHL, ORD, SEA, BDL, SFO, BOS, DFW)
• Stayed 123 nights in hotels
• Rented 38 cars (comment still holds true about Aveo – I like the Mazda 6)
• Visited 8 states (WA, NC, MA, CT, CA, IL, TX, PA) other than VA
• I also stayed in a corporate apartment for 15 nights of 2008

It looks like my travel for 2009 will be quite a bit less.  I’ve taken a project that will have me only a couple hours drive from home.