…in English, it’s a team. Either way, it’s tough to build.
This Inc. article covers the things XPLANE has done to connect our global offices.
To make communicating easier, XPLANE switched to Web-based phone service; now, co-workers dial only four numbers to call one another instead of 13. [CEO Aric] Wood set up a wiki with pictures of employees from all three offices. [Project manager Stephen] O’Flynn became an unofficial ambassador to the U.S., going out of his way to call colleagues in Portland and St. Louis for input and urging his office mates to do the same. “I did a lot of brokering to get people talking,” he says.
The technology has improved communication, but it’s no substitute for face time, Wood says. Instead of spending money on a one-off team building trip, Xplane started a year-round employee exchange program. Last year, the company rented apartments in Madrid and Portland and spent $20,000 flying employees back and forth for weeklong visits. About 16 employees have crossed the Atlantic. “We tried to close the gap through technology,” Wood says, “but ultimately we had to buy a lot of airline tickets.”
“In 2005 The Royal Mint announced a competition to design six of the eight kinds of coin in circulation in Britain, the first full redesign of the coins since decimalisation in 1971. Open to everyone and with a top prize of £30,000, they received 4000 designs from 500 people, and I just saw on the news that the final designs have been completed and the first coins ready for issue. Not only that, but the £1 coin is now included in the redesign, and somewhat appropriately becomes the uniting element of the set.
You can tell they were done by a graphic designer; even with the complexity of the Royal Arms, the designs are clean and sparse, with pleasing variation in placement of the inscription…”
“A short documentary on the designer Stefan Sagmeister.” (Thanks swisssmiss!)
“A ONE-DAY CONFERENCE on DESIGN, ENTREPRENEURSHIP and INSPIRATION: Learn about taking control of your own work by seeking out methods to inspire new thinking and adopt unconventional ideas about collaboration and business via six presentations and discussions led by 37signals, Segura Inc, Coudal Partners and friends.”
“Al Jaffee’s fold-ins for Mad magazine, from the 1960s to the present, in interactive form.” And here’s the full article: A Veteran Mad Man Remains in the Fold.
“Most designers would have heard of the term ‘CSS Frameworks’, for those who don’t know or aren’t sure, here is a brief description from: Wikipedia:
A CSS framework is a library that is meant to allow for easier, more standards-compliant styling of a webpage using the Cascading Style Sheets language. Just like programming and scripting language libraries, CSS frameworks package a number of ready-made options for designing and outlaying a webpage.
Sounds great doesn’t it, something that is going to make designing and developing a website that little bit easier. It will take away the repeating of the same old boring stuff and if you write your framework correctly you will be guaranteed your code will meet W3C recommendations. That will leave you plenty of time to design your site, the fun side of the job!”
“Let me get this straight: The company will side with petulant, unreasonable, angry, demanding customers instead of with me, its loyal employee? And this is meant to lead to better customer service?”
“Within minutes of riding on the first trains in Japan, I notice a significant change in advertising, from train to television. The trend? No more printed URLs. The replacement? Search boxes! With recommended search terms. It makes sense, right? All the good domain names are gone.”
