Skyreader Media Children’s eBooks

- web site here (on itunes)

Mine Blast

- web site here (on itunes)

MarketScan

- web site here (on itunes)

We are a group of experienced programmers specializing in mobile, embedded and web development.

We are familiar with all mobile platforms:

• iPhone/iPad/iTouch
• Android Phone and Tablets
• Symbian Java
• Intel MeeGo
• Linux Netbooks

We will work with you in all stages of your project, from concept, to development, to marketing and sales.

We will help you design the best mobile application, suited to your business, your market and your sales model.

But wait, you just noticed the other 500,000 apps in the App Store!

Where is your app?

Why is no one downloading it?

Well, just like in all other aspects of business and marketing if no one knows where to find it, or they don’t even know it exists why do you think they are going to buy it?

Selling your app is all about exposure (marketing), but marketing does not have to mean dollars, if you use a bit of common sense and are willing to put in some effort you should be able to get your app noticed and convince a few people to download it. Don’t fool yourself though, if your app sucks people will figure it out and then all the marketing in the world will not earn you another dollar.

Provided below are some helpful pointers here to help get your app noticed, and hopefully turn that interest into sales.

The first step though is building the app correctly and that requires…

Focus

Focus, can’t say this enough. Keep the app focused to a specific function. Mobile computing, including the iPhone, is all about casual usage and impulse purchases. No one sits down to use the iPhone for two hours, or even 10 minutes. They bounce in and out of apps, games, texts, phone calls. One function at a time, easy, immediate access to the function is key, no searching through menus will be tolerated.

The mistake some developers make is in trying to differentiate their apps by adding extra features, hoping those extra features make their app more appealing to the end user. But remember how the iPhone is used, if your users have to search for a feature inside your application they will get frustrated and stop using it (the Settings app created by Apple is a perfect example of how not to develop something).

Hint: If you have 10 distinct functions in your app why not build 10 apps, which will create 10 times the exposure to your users, 10 times the chance they will buy one or more of the apps.

Buff don’t polish

Developers smarter than me have proposed the idea of putting just enough effort into an application to allow it to be useful without pissing their users off. I whole heartedly agree with this, especially given the other advice we provided earlier to the iPhone developer regarding focused functions.

Draw the line in the right place though, make the app professional and make sure it works. Nothing turns people off more than an app that crashes or loses data.

Hint: Be careful not to over polish; you do not need to be a perfectionist. As long as it does what you say it does you are good to go, get it into the market and see if anyone cares. If it is really popular then you can add polish.

That being said, make the app complete; help pages and about screens make the app look professional and provide extra information that lets your users know you are serious about maintaining the app. It also provides a location to advertise you, your development company and your other apps.

Make sure your graphics and icons are professional and clear, especially if this is a game or graphic application. Be inventive; many users make decisions simply by looking at the icon or the promotional images and screen shots in the app store. Make them flashy but also representative, no one likes to be misled. When users have choices (and the likelihood of yours being being the only app of its type in the app store is almost zero) they will go with the app that looks more professional, even if it is not as good.

Release Early; Update Often

The final piece of advice in the buff don’t polish vein deserves its own heading. You are releasing your app early to get feedback from your customers (exposure), use it. They are a fickle bunch and demand attention, give it to them.

If good ideas are suggested incorporate them and release an update. If there are bugs reported, fix them and release an update.

WARNING: If the bug (or bugs) are a show stopper and you take too long to respond it could kill the app forever, it will drop in the ratings and it will never recover.

By updating often your users will develop loyalty that you can use when you release the next version or your next app.

Quick Note: Updates no longer take your app back to the top of the Release Date list, so you cannot use this as a way of getting more exposure, but you should respect your user base and make the appropriate changes.

So your app is ready now what?

Getting Your App Approved by Apple

Apple is fairly clear in their instructions about what they want you to do before you submit. They control the process, there is no use fighting the system. Do what they ask and make sure all of their criteria are met.

Here is the biggest one…no crashes.

There is zero tolerance for crashes and I am sure this does not need explanation.

That being said your app should also do what you say it does. The testers are not stupid and have seen lots of apps, if your app does not perform the function it is designed for, if there are buttons that are not connected, if there are links that do not work it will get rejected.

Another big one…read the Developer Program License Agreement (Linked Here) and make sure you are not violating anything in it. Apple is very clear; if you violate anything in the license agreement your app will be rejected.

Follow the Human Interface Guidelines (Linked Here). Apple is all about user experience, if you try to do anything that deviates from the expected usage of the iPhone they will reject your app. You are investing a lot of time in the development of your app, take the time and read the guidelines, make sure you follow them. If you are concerned ask Apple the question, they would rather tell you in advance than waste the testers time and reject your app.

Fill out the device list; as part of the app submission Apple asks you to identify the device list and the operating system versions that are compatible with your app. Make sure you fill this out properly and make it as inclusive as possible. You want to be exposed to as many devices as you can.

WARNING: Don’t stretch the truth, if your app isn’t tested on a platform assume it doesn’t work. Apple will test it and will reject your app if it fails on a platform you say you support.

Apple actually provides a FAQ detailing important tips to remember when submitting your app, read them (Linked Here). Remember even if it only take a few days to get your app approved, each time it gets rejected is a delay in getting into the market and results in lost revenue.

Here is a short summary of some of the other items that will get you rejected:

Keywords: Part of the submission process is providing keywords to assist in the search for your app. The keywords must be accurate and applicable. You can not use copyrighted or trademarked names from other games.

Sexual Content: ’nuff said, if you really want to go there you are treading on thin ice with Apple.

Easter eggs: Apple understands the appeal of hidden gems within your app, but they insist on the developer identifying them, if you do not and they stumble upon them they will reject the app.

Error Messages Make sure you tell the user exactly what is happening at all times, if something fails, tell the user, if the network is offline, tell the user, if there are any erroneous conditions, tell the user. This goes back to user experience, Apple does not want the user frustrated in the use of the “Apple” device.

Copyright Infringement: This is not just an approval issue but a legal obligation. Make sure you are not using copyrighted images or ideas. Make sure you are not using trademarked names. Even if it slips through Apples filter you do not want to be served with a cease and desist order. The easiest place to get caught out is images and sounds, if you are not sure where you got the image or the sound assume it is not yours to do with as you please. There are plenty of locations on the web (Creative Commons is a great one) where you can get free content, use these resources.

Linking to private frameworks The Apple API does not give you unlimited access to the internals of the iPhone or the iTouch. You may find yourself scratching your head wondering how to do something, and in some cases Apple may have decided that you just aren’t allowed to do it. There are plenty of “private frameworks”, libraries that provide access to the lower layers of the iPhone hardware. If Apple detects that you are using these they will likely reject the app.

If you are interested, there are web sites that provide a forum for venting about reasons, real or imagined, justified or unjust, that apps were rejected by Apple. Check them out, it never hurts to find more information (apprejections.com)

Free versus Paid Versions

One method that developers use to attract attention and to get people to try their app is a free but limited version. Traditionally this has worked extremely well, especially in the PC gaming world.

The theory goes like this…get your customers to try and enjoy the free version and they will like it and then pay for the full version. This still doesn’t solve the problem of how to attract the customers but it does remove the reluctance to try the app in the first place.

We will discuss the marketing of the app in the next section but I wanted to provide a few pros and cons of using free version before we started.

Pros
- Allows your customers to try the app and determine if they like it.
- You can advertise your paid version and other apps inside the app.
- You can upgrade them automatically with in-app purchases.
- If they like your app they will upgrade to the paid version.

Cons
- They may decide they don’t like it and not upgrade.
- You may put too much functionality in the free version and they don’t have to upgrade.
- Your customer didn’t have to pay for it, they may not even have tried it properly, but they are allowed to leave comments and ratings, and they may decide to trash your app in the ratings.
- You may actually reduce your paid sales.

The decision to do a free version may very well hinge on the cost of your paid app. One dollar (or $0.99) is not a huge barrier to entry and most people will just pay the dollar and try your app. In this case you are better off forgetting about the free app and just hoping for the casual sales. On the other hand if you intend to charge $5 or $10 for you app then you should seriously consider a free version, most people will not spend $5 on a whim and will want to get a sense of the capabilities of your app before paying.

Apple puts limits on what you can and can’t do in the free version. Basically it must look and act like a real app, no grayed out buttons, no obviously restricted functionality, no nag messages about upgrading. You can do the in-app purchase of the paid version but you can not do this with annoying pop-ups. Make it a nice experience and your customers will want to upgrade.

Where Do I List my app in the App Store?

I am not sure if you have ever looked but finding new or specific apps in iTunes is a brutal experience. The main sections on the front page are all controlled by Apple. Unless your app is on one of the top charts (and if you are you don’t need this article anyway) you will never show up on the front page. Navigating to the various categories is hard, so assume user will have to stumble across your app and act accordingly. They might find it in Search so make sure your key words are good.

List your app in the App Store category that makes sense. Apple will not let you list in an invalid category (i.e. putting a game in the GPS section) but they do let you move things around a bit. Try placing your game in a sub-category that has less items…Dice Games is always a good choice. There are fewer apps there and you might end up on the front page, the down side is that fewer people bother to look in that sub-category, so on average you will likely see just as many views regardless of were you are listed.

On the iPhone and iTouch App Store you will be visible on a front page for a bit longer. One page in each category is sorted by release date, so for at least a day you will be on the front page. Apple use to move your app back to the top of the list every time an update comes out, but they found they were flooded with updates, so they now only list the app on the top of the list the first time. this causes an interesting side effect, program options being used to create different apps. As of the writing of this article there are 20 version of Tic-Tac-Toe, each in a different colour or with different icons. Each one got to the top of the list the day it was released. Did this help sales of the app? Only the developer knows, but I assure you Apple will close that hole eventually as well.

Some people claim that you can “game” the system. Manipulate your app, your preferences, your keywords; change the price, make the app free one day, paid the next, run holiday specials; all in hopes of getting a different place on the App Store lists. I am not a big fan of this, go ahead and try it, doesn’t really hurt, but do your homework and try the various viral marketing ideas shown below, you will get much bigger return on your time investment.

OK, so your app is approved, now comes the hard part, how do you let people know about it?

Create a Web Presence

You are going to be telling people about your app (advertising) so you need a landing pad for them. The App Store is an obvious choice for this landing pad but it is embedded inside iTunes. It is good to have as many other locations for your customers to find your app as possible.

Create a web page to advertise your app. Depending on how prolific you are (how many apps not kids) you may decide to create a web site dedicated to all of your apps, your choice, but create a destination for your app, somewhere to send people when they ask about it, somewhere you can post information and notices.

Every little bit of extra exposure helps and it makes you look that much more professional. Submit the web site to be crawled by your favorite search engines, do not assume this will happen automatically.

Create a Facebook Page for your app, it doesn`t cost anything and provides a different location to advertise the app. Open all the privacy settings, you want everyone to know about it. Use this as a destination for all of you in-game status updates (see below), in addition to posting on your users Facebook pages.

Same goes with Twitter, if you are going to integrate Twitter updates into your app (for games especially) then create a page where people can go to see all of the information. Create a Twitter feed for all your apps, allow your users to post information there, helpful tips, upgrade requests, create a community around your app.

If you are creative, or know anyone creative, create a marketing video and post it on YouTube. Using iMovie and a simplescreen capture tool and the iPhone simulator you can easily create a video that highlights the features of your app and make it visible to everyone who wants to stumble across it.

Tell People

You have created the marketing presence and now you need to tell people about it. I am not going to talk about banner ads and other traditional marketing mechanisms. If you have a marketing budget that is definitely the way to go, you need to get your app in front of your potential customers, banner ads and google ad words is a fairly normal avenue. If you don`t have a budget then you need to be more creative.

Tell your social circles about the app, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (does anyone use that anymore?). Send them links to the your web page, your web page, your twitter page. Encourage them to tell their social circles. Tweet about your app, invite people to become friends of your Facebook page. Don’t be afraid to post links to any reviews that are posted online, be proud of your app, tell your friends about the success.

WARNING: Don’t become annoying. Your social circle will be happy to heard about your app once. But if you spam them every day they will tune out

Get your App Reviewed

As much as you might be reluctant to submit to someone else’s review, comments and critisisms get your app submitted to specialty app review sites. Each one will require you to fill in a submission form talking about your app. Be aware it might not get reviewed so submit as many as you can. Even though the iPhone is geared towards casual usages and impulse downloads some users will always read the reviews to learn about new apps and new ideas.

Be happy with any review you do receive, read it, absorb it, take the comments and update your app if required. All publicity is good publicity. Each time the app is mentioned it will generate a few more hits and a few new downloads. If the app is good it will slowly become popular.

Every time you get reviewed Tweet about it, post to your Facebook status, let people know.

Here are some of the more populate review sites:

Touch Arcade (for games obviously)

The Portable Gamer

Slide To Play

148 Apps

Reaching Out from Within Your App

In keeping with the mantra that you need to keep telling people about your app and your happy users it is possible to automatically, from within your app, allow people to post to their own Facebook or Twitter pages and tell their social circle about your app. This is what eventually generates the exponential interest that makes the app highly successful.

Both Facebook and Twitter have APIs that allow you to embed this capability in your app. For example, I have posted high scores for various games to my Twitter page as well as posted a GPS description of my lunch time run. Maybe no one really cares where I ran at lunch but they know what app I used to track it and I am sure that generated a little bit extra interest in that app.

For a little bit of extra work in building the app you can add in the “Post to Facbook” button and allow your customers to reach out and do your advertising for you.

Facebook API
Twitter API

There are no guarantees that your app will be successful, especially if you are doing this as a hobby but with a little bit of extra effort you can make sure at least some people know about it and maybe put a few dollars in your pocket.

Share

—- original message —

Subject: iPad Sucks

Cartman,

I bought an iPad and it sucks.

I cannot reply to an e-mail and add an attachment. That is a nursery school feature. Steve Jobs sucks. Bill Gates rocks because he figured out how to reply to an e-mail and attach a file. He must be a genius.

Anyway, I hope all is well with you!

Ned

— Ned’s reply —
Subject: re: iPad Sucks

Hi Ned,

I’m writing this on my iPad and it’s not letting me agree with you due to it’s highly advanced autocorrect features, so I will try to explain why what you see as a deficiency is actually a benefit.

The reason that you can’t attach a file in an email on an iPad (or iPhone) is that there are no ‘files’. While technically there are applications and associated files on the device, this is all hidden from the user for simplicity and elegance. It is up to each application to store it’s DATA (photos, notes, songs, drawings, etc.) and allow the user to interact with it. There is no centralized file system that the user has access to where he/she can browse and do something with a file. All interactions have to be through applications, and applications only have access to their own data
(there are some limited exceptions to this like the photo store and the address book where the data can be accessed by multiple applications). What this means for email attachments is that you have to use the application that manages the data that you want to send in order to include the data in an email. For example in the Photos App you can select photos to send, write the email and send it. Similarly other applications may provide a means to send their particular type of data as an email attachment.

All this means simplicity for the user, which you should be able to appreciate if you have ever had to give technical support to a non-technical person, as I have many times for my mother and mother-in-law. They don’t want to deal with files!

In addition the iPad is not meant to be a full computer. It is primarily meant for consuming content, simple content creation, and web browsing. However the move from focusing on files to focusing on data is also happening in other areas such as Cloud Computing where you don’t know or care where the physical file is located as long as you have access to the data. Google is a big proponent of these ideas.

Cartman

— My reply —
Subject: re re iPad Sucks

Cartman,

Ned forwarded me your thoughtfully worded response to his infantile whining, I must however respectfully disagree with your explaination.

The problem, really, is that you have your nose so far up Steve Job’s butt that you simply go in the direction that he tells you because you can’t see the path in front of you due to his flapping butt cheeks.

I agree with your basic argument, that there really are no files, only data. But it is in the application of this basic principle that you are mistaken.

People work on data (photos, songs, documents, maps), applications work on data, data is the thing, data is the object that moves around from place to place. Restricting the movement of the data in any way causes problems, much the same way having to remember where you put the data causes problems. The iPad and iPhone assume the data is owned by the application and that is where they have failed. The data is the thing and must be allowed to move freely and be manipulated anywhere. I should be able to receive a document, manipulate it and re-attach it to the original email, preserving the context of the original conversation but adding the updated data in the form of the document, nothing in these operations violates the “data is the thing” paradigm.

Applications don’t OWN your data, they OPERATE on it, they manipulate it, big, big difference. Sure they can have their own private data but any data that is intended for transmission to a remote location is not private. I must be able to have multiple applications, in multiple locations, that operate on this same data

When I receive a word document from a colleague and then open and edit that document in Pages on my iPad I now have two copies, one in my email application and one in my word processor application. That is good you say, but you have eliminated one problem, a file system, and created a new one, a version control problem. If I now open the original document from the email in a new application, say Engineering Workbook, I have three copies, which is bad, what if I really wanted to open the second copy from Pages…do I have to email it to myself just so I can preserve changes?

Interestingly enough, some applications on the iPad support the “Open In” paradigm, allowing a second application to open the document and alter it after it have been altered by first application. But all this does is perpetuate the version control issue. The data isn’t being preserved it is being cloned and in being cloned it is magnifying the problem.

To make it all worse if I want to send the modified document  I need to open the final application to send it and in doing so I am operating on the manipulated data (the document) but I have lost the original context (the email thread) and actually destroyed data (the email thread), this is not a solution, this is a bigger problem!

And why make a special issue of Photos and Songs and Address Book entries? This is just a copout from Apple. They realized that people really can handle centralized storage and organization of data but don’t want to deal with the larger security and resource allocation issues of generic file/data storage.

What the iPad should have is a centralized “data” storage capability, tracking items as data, not as files. Applications are associated to data types and can operate on these data types but must store the data back in the data store where it can be accessed by other applications. Sure the iPad is a simple platform, but why make it too simple.

You are right that the cloud allows centralized virtual storage, they don’t want local storage at all, but this argument actually demonstrates the fallacy of the iPad solution. I don’t need to know where my physical data exists in the cloud but I need to know how to get access to it. I want to know the data lives…I don’t want to have to remember which web service I used last to manipulate that document. I need to know where my document is so I can attach it to my email and send it to my boss. I can access my data from anywhere in the cloud, from any application, the iPad should permit the same thing.

Centralized, online storage, with temporary local storage, with automatic synchronization of data, across platforms, with built-in version control, that is the solution, not some simple minded restriction of local storage that is more to do with technological limitation that a proper approach to the problem.

Apple dropped the ball on this…sorry!

P.S. I am writing this message in gmail (a cloud application), in Chrome on my MacMini, while I use my MacPro laptop to edit a photo that I retrieved from the cloud. The photo was uploaded to the cloud using DropBox from my iPad. I then attached the modified photo to this email after I retrieved it again from the cloud. None of these applications stopped me from accessing the file directly where it existed in the cloud.

—

Every once in a while an article sweeps across my desk that I feel needs some commentary. You may not agree with what I have to say or even care to listen but sometimes I just can’t keep my mouth shut.

Embedding sensor and computing technology into everyday items has been a fascination of mine for many years.

The idea that the computer is an extension of our existence and not a tool that we consciously need to invoke is becoming a reality whether you realize it or not. In all likelihood, the less you know about technology the less likely you are to notice, or even care, that technology is working it’s way further and further into our lives. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not here to tell you to be afraid, just the opposite, I am here to tell you sit back and let it happen.

The article on ExtremeTech about embedding tech into our clothes brought me back to an argument I had 10 years ago with the board of directors at a school that my children attended. I had been asked to help set up a computer lab and to help establish guidelines for the use of computers in the classroom. My position was, and remains, that the computer is a tool, nothing more. It can help us achieve goals but it not an end in itself. This flew in the face of the “educators” that were convinced that starting in grade 1 children should be taught the skills of “keyboarding and mousing” because they would need it when they were older to survive in the technology age.

I put forward a number of arguments against this position that basically fell on deaf ears:

1. Kids will pick it up naturally, why devote class time to something they will learn as needed, spend the time working on core skills like multiplication and spelling.
2. People need cars to get to and from work. Driving is an essential skill but we don’t teach it until kids are 16, why would keyboarding be any different.
3. By the time these kids are in their 20′s the computer will have changed so dramatically that any skills they learn today will be next to useless.

It was this last statement that totally flustered them. They could not envision a “computer” without a keyboard and mouse.

My argument was that computers would be embedded in everything; touch screens, voice recognition and new input devices would make the keyboard and mouse obsolete.

Needless to say I lost the argument, but the projections are coming true…which was not prescient on my part but a fairly obvious extension of everything I had observed in my 30 years in high tech, obvious to me anyway!

Think about it, the iPhone contains more computing power and memory than desktop computers from 10 years ago. The first PC I worked on in 1985 had 640K bytes of memory and one 5 1/4 inch floppy drive that held 512K of data. My phone…let me say that again…my phone…is 1000 times faster and has 100,000 times the memory capacity.

It is hard to imagine which direction technology will go but it is easy to predict that it will shrink and become much more embedded into our lives. My kids can type faster on the thumb board on their phone than on a keyboard at a computer. For that matter they can type faster on the computer than I can, even though they have never taken keyboarding and have only been typing for 5 years as opposed to my 25.

Voice recognition is getting better and better every year, soon manual entry will disappear all together.

Interestingly enough it will be the children of today that dictate what technology is used to access data in the future, not because they are going to invent it but because they will do it…they will decide if it is the most convenient way to access information..they will be brutal in their adoption and rejection of technology…no amount of hype will make them use a technology that is not slick and easy to use.

Get used to it, technology is becoming more and more embedded in our lives, and it will become harder and harder to tell where it is and what it is doing!

Have Fun!

Privasoft Web Site…on You Tube…

Share

Making the Transition to an Open Government Through FOIA

—

Open government is a major focus of the current administration. From the start, President Obama has encouraged implementing more transparent government practices and policies. In his January 21, 2009 “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies,” President Obama encouraged all government agencies to make the necessary preparations to offer a greater degree of transparency for all government activities.

Many government agencies are delaying the implementation of systems to handle the demands placed on them by President Obama, in part due to a lack of direction for achieving these goals, a lack of funding and a fear of change. The impact on the FOIA industry as a whole is yet to be seen, but it is hard to dispute the need for new FOIA processing systems.

Due to the increased volume of FOIA requests across the nation, FOIA automation has become a big issue for government agencies. Establishing efficient handling methods for FOIA requests is a top priority for agencies that deal with a high volume of requests, as evidenced by President Obama’s memorandum on “Transparency and Open Government.”

Privasoft (http://www.Privasoft.com/) has been delivering software solutions to government agencies for nearly 20 years. Their AccessPro Suite allows agencies to easily implement FOIA automation to comply with President Obama’s open government memorandum. Through workflow integration, Privasoft’s AccessPro Suite allows agencies to adopt a more streamlined and efficient process, while preserving their current procedures. Privasoft’s approach to FOIA automation has been one of adaptation, working with new clients in order to integrate the AccessPro Suite FOIA automation software into the agency’s daily operating procedures. This approach allows for minimal downtime, as typical agency processes remain unchanged.

Privasoft’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Stephen Davis, spoke with me about how Privasoft’s AccessPro Suite not only addresses agencies’ current needs, but also ensures future innovations. In our interview, we discussed how Privasoft can be integrated into current workflows, as well as what the future holds for FOIA automation.

Automated FOIA processing is something I expect all agencies to adopt in the near future. How will this impact the FOIA industry as a whole?

SD: “Automation, by its nature, is a mechanism for improving the efficiency of a process. The FOIA industry is a perfect candidate for this process improvement. A large percentage of the US FOIA offices have little or no automation. The idea will be to apply technology is such a way that all offices can be brought up to a consistent level of automation and thus make the FOIA experience consistent and efficient across the government. As a public requester, why would I expect different treatment from one agency to the next? Legislated timelines need to be met and compliance to legislation needs to be demonstrated all while protecting the sensitive and private data contained in the responsive documents. Consistent, secure, timely processing of requests is the benefit of automation.”

In addition to currently existing FOIA automation software, what technological advances are on the horizon that will affect this industry?

SD: “The technology involved in the FOIA processing pipeline is very well understood and the various pieces are, for the most part, seeing slow but consistent technological advances. The biggest change that the FOIA industry will see, in the short to medium term, will be the integration of these technologies into a streamlined, end-to-end process, with appropriate checks and balances. Extending the FOIA offices out into the Internet in a reasonable way will be a huge change for this industry. Not just in a “type your request here and hit submit” kind of way but in an integrated requester-centric model.

With this, requesters will submit their requests online. Prior to submission, they will be able to search for existing release packages or proactively released documents that satisfy their requests. Once a request is submitted they will be able to pay online, receive feedback, respond to clarification questions and view status directly from the FOIA office. Once the release package is ready the requester will be notified electronically via email or SMS and the package will be downloaded directly for viewing. This is the future of interactive FOIA.

But what good is an Internet portal to a FOIA office that has no internal automated workflow or efficient document handling? It simply increases their intake without providing any tools to handle the increased workload.

The biggest advances these offices will see is in tying the pieces together and making them work in a way that actually increases the efficiency of that office.”

Automated FOIA processing will not only make filing requests easier, but will also make things easier for requesters. How will the volume of requests be affected by these new systems?

SD: “As I mentioned previously, automated filing is only one piece of the puzzle. The volume of FOIA requests could actually increase for a period of time once an Internet presence is established.

If the Internet presence, or portal is truly interactive it can provide a location for the requester to check the status of their requests, interact with the agent handling the request, pay any required fees and ultimately receive their responsive documents. Very few FOIA portals do this today but it is possible with the technologies that exist today.

A reading room provides a location that can be used to post documents before someone requests them; documents that have been previously requested or documents that are pro-actively disclosed. By providing a location where the public can search for information prior to submitting a FOIA request it is possible to actually reduce the number of FOIA requests using the same piece of technology that was put in place to improve the speed and handling of those requests. If the information is already available they don’t have to ask for it.”

Could this have an overall negative effect on the industry if new limits are not placed on FOIA requesters due to the high volume of requests? If so, how can this be addressed?

SD: “Mechanisms are already in place to address frequent requesters. Fees are charged based on volume of information, spurious requests are rejected, overly broad requests are clarified and simplified by talking to the requester and duplicate requests can be identified with content searches and streamlined.

The reality is, if you are going to have open government and promote open government you need to believe in it and put the processes in place to handle it. Technology can improve efficiency, pro-active disclosure can make documents available so a request isn’t required, but the volume of requests must still be handled.

An integrated FOIA automation solution can speed up request turn around time while helping to ensure and demonstrate compliance with the legislation. The result often translates into backlog reduction, as staff can be reallocated to this effort. The benefits of automation go beyond request handling and present themselves in administrative aspects. This includes making filing the Annual Report a push-button activity, as opposed to the hundreds of hours analysts have spent putting this together in the past. Operational performance metrics gained through automation provide insight into the bottlenecks that could be causing backlog. “

Privasoft’s software was created by industry experts; how has this affected the development of the software? What features does the AccessPro Suite contain that individuals in the FOIA industry will find invaluable?

SD: “Based on a depth of understanding of the industry, the AccessPro Suite offers value for all users, from the new FOIA hire to the power user. The software has become very comprehensive and feature rich as it has changed over time with the realities of open government. Privasoft has been in this business for nearly 20 years; we know what our customers need but we continue to learn every day as the industry evolves and our customers evolve.

AccessPro Suite provides a case processing environment for FOIArequest handling. Collaboration is core to this; teams working together, with different job functions and levels of responsibility, can easily co-exist and complement each other using this software. The focus is on compliance to FOIA legislation. The software is designed to ensure cases are handled promptly and accurately, and includes built in safeguards to ensure no sensitive information is disclosed unknowingly. Push button reports detail compliance levels so that the FOIA office can demonstrate that it is doing what it is tasked to do.”

Privasoft seems to be at the forefront of eFOIA processing, especially considering the flexibility of the software and its ability to be custom tailored to any business flow. Can you tell us more about this, as many businesses are afraid of change due to their desire to keep the same work flow?

SD: “Even though all FOIA offices are performing functions that respond to the Open Government Act they all have slightly different internal processes and workflow. Across federal, state and municipal boundaries, we see an array of different legislation. AccessPro Suite can be configured to match exactly what each customer requires. We offer extensive, process analysis prior to installing any system. Upon configuration of the system, we match the process flow to the exact workflow that is currently present in the offices, or implement on recommendations we make to improve operational efficiency.”

How long does the workflow analysis typically take, and how have customers responded to the result of process configuration?

SD: “The process experts in our professional services group are available to every Privasoft customer. In situations where it is felt that a customization effort is required, a detailed engagement is scheduled. Starting with a process review which is approved by the customer our process experts can customize the workflow in the software to suit an individual agency’s needs. The length of this engagement varies with the complexity of the process and change required. The result is a software installation that meets the exact requirements of the end user situation and business process. Our customers have always responded very enthusiastically to this engagement and we feel this is a key value-added service to our approach.”

How will the AccessPro Suite software change in the future?

SD: “Our primary focus at this time is developing products that help to address every stakeholder in the FOIA office. Not only are we enhancing our case management and redaction capabilities but we have introduced technologies that reach out to the field offices, directly to the record holders to facilitate document retrieval. We are enhancing our Internet portal to allow agencies to directly connect their internal FOIA automation process to the Internet and to the requester, along with supporting reading room and proactive disclosure initiatives.”

Currently, many agencies use Adobe to redact their documents. It has widely been publicized that documents redacted with Adobe products can easily be un-redacted, exposing sensitive information. What advice could you give to agencies currently using Adobe products, and what are the dangers associated with this false sense of “security?”

SD: “There are well documented methods for securely redacting information from documents, using many easily available desktop tools. Anyone following these methods can be confident in the security of the document when it is released. Some tools, such as ours, have built in safeguards to prevent the accidental release of sensitive information.

A false sense of security comes from not understanding the process, the requirements and the risks. Regardless of the tools used it is critical that anyone who finds themselves in a situation where they are required to release a document that contains sensitive information, information that needs to be redacted before it is release, understands exactly what they are doing and applies the known good redaction mechanisms.”

With President Obama’s Presidential Memorandum regarding FOIA, on January 26, 2009, why has there been such a delay for most agencies in pursuing ways to fill requests in a timely manner. Overall, do you feel agencies have put the priority needed on changing the way FOIA requests are handled?

SD: “Change takes time; people are resistant to change. They feel they are already doing a good job (and they probably are) and procurement of technology is an “interesting” undertaking in the federal government.

If they are planning properly then they are looking at the proper ways to apply technology to make their process more efficient, but this takes time. If they are not planning adequately then they may have purchased tools and are unable to wedge them into their existing process or are not making efficient use of them. In either case change takes time.

I think that the agencies and the FOIA groups in them are doing their best. These groups always put priority on meeting the legislated timelines. We do not have a lot of exposure to their internal decision making or priority setting but we are seeing more and more agencies looking at tools that are available to help them streamline their operations.”

What do government agencies need to do to prepare for the changes to the way FOIA is handled?

SD: “The first thing is to embrace technology. But plan, like the old saying, measure twice, cut once, this is equally applicable in software as in carpentry. Get advice from industry experts, find a vendor you can trust with a good track record for customer success and execute.”

What does Privasoft do to ensure that their software meets the needs of their customers, both now and in the future?

SD: “We are a very customer driven software company. The best ideas come from conversations with our customers, they live in this world, and they know what capabilities they need to be more efficient. Our product management group spends a good deal of time interviewing customers, analyzing the market and determining what is next for Privasoft. Our engineering group constantly assesses new technologies and design techniques to determine what is good, what is bad and what are the best technology investments for the long term. By marrying these ideas we come out with product that meets our customers’ requirements and is applicable to the entire market.”

While the shift towards a more requester-centric, automated approach to FOIA requests is on the horizon, agencies need to be taking a proactive approach to making the transition. Contacting vendors and discussing how their products will affect individual office’s workflow, as well as how easily they can be integrated are the steps agencies need to be taking now. Making the right decisions when adopting a new way of doing business is crucial.

Thanks to Stephen Davis for talking about FOIA automation.

Share

Truth be told startups drive innovation in high-tech. Progress would be slower if garage entrepreneurs, home coders, open source proponents and other “not-for-profit” developers were not so incredibly active in the high-tech industry.

I stumbled across this essay by Paul Graham (local pdf copy here) that had me laughing and crying and nodding my head in self-deprecating acknowledgement all at the same time. It feels like I have a story (or three) for ever point that he makes. Given that I get asked about once a week whether I think an idea is worthy of investigation and/or eventually turning into a startup I thought I would add my two cents to Paul’s essay.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have never taken a startup all the way to a billion (or even million) dollar takeout by a larger company. The most successful I have been is running (with a partner) a small consulting company for 5 years that kept 6 techies gainfully employed. I have started, either alone or with other people 4 companies. I have been involved at the early stages of at least 20 others, a few of which became viable corporate entities, most of which ended after a few conversations at the same coffee table in the same coffee shop where they started.

I know I have become jaded by failure and burnt out by the endless hours and “wasted” effort but I know that each new idea creates an enthusiastic and optimistic rush of excitement and desire to jump right into it. I like to think I am maturing as an engineer and becoming more deliberate in my assessment of each new idea.

I have probably invested $150K…real cash dollars…in various initiatives, I don’t even want to think about the total value (cost!) of salary I have deferred in return for shares or options in various start ups.

I have spent countless hours trying to convince investors to put money in to various ventures and even more time trying to come up with rational arguments to use to convince said investors to part with their hard earned money.

I have spent innumerable other hours trying to convince normally intelligent engineers and programmers to throw logic and their better judgement to the wind  to come work for the startup of the week for considerably less than they are worth on the open market.

Both types of conversations always leave me feeling a bit dirty and this leads me to my first point about startups…

1. Get down on your knees and thank anyone who is kind enough to give you money, time, advice, equipment or even free coffee and bagels for your startup. Given that 9 out of 10 venture funded startups eventually fail, 99 out of 100 self funded startups fail and probably 999 out of 1000 startup ideas die on the vine, anyone who gives you anything is making the equivalent of a charitable donation without the benefit of a tax receipt.

The easiest way to fund a start up is to do it yourself. If you are lucky enough to have an existing venture that you can use to kick it off or you get a nice severance from another company or your domestic partner is filthy rich or you have a nice nest egg stashed away and are willing to roll the dice with it…off you go. But remember the failure rate for startups, remember that the money you spend is far safer buried in the backyard or hidden under your mattress until you regain your sanity.

This brings me to my second point…

2. You had better have an incredibly understanding domestic partner. They are watching you burn, not only cash but time, potential salary, hard earned saving and southern vacation opportunities. Think about the strain on your domestic relationship that not working will cause. Most of us can afford to miss a paycheck or two…can you afford to miss 10, 20, 100? Not only are you not getting a salary but you are likely spending money as well, a little bit here, a little bit there. This type of behavior is not something that most partners are comfortable dealing with, not for long anyway.

It is no coincidence that most of the people you meet in startups, the ones you see in the Google and Microsoft ads are young and single, they are the people that start ups hire. These people will work 100 hour weeks on the chance the startup will be successful. These people will take less salary because they have less to lose than the 35 year old with two kids and a mortgage.

Third point…

3. It takes a long time to get the revenue rolling in. It takes even longer before you are in a position to pay yourself. And you can always convince yourself that the first real revenue is just around the corner and that your first real paycheck is following soon after. But it rarely is, it is always much, much farther away that you think. And your investors and other companies you have to deal with know you are small and desperate and will take advantage of that fact to get you to do more work and wait longer for cash than normal companies. If you are one of the main founders you are likely to get paid last and be the first to be asked to defer salary (if you are even getting one). You and your founding partners had better be aligned on this, nothing creates tension in a startup faster than differing needs and attitudes about money.

Fourth point…

4. Pick your startup partners well. Nothing creates tension in your startup faster than differing attitudes…about anything. Remember you will be working close beside this person 8, 10, 12 hours each day, weekends, nights, traveling together, probably sharing hotel rooms (depending on your finances), you had better be aligned. Ask yourself, do I have the same goals, the same needs, the same work ethic as my business partner?

Ask yourself, do I need a partner?

I remember telling an associate in a startup (two in fact) that someone had to be king. Someone has to make the decisions and someone has to be responsible for the ultimate success or failure  of the venture. By all mean surround yourself with good people, ask their advice, actually take their advice but make a decision and stick with it. My feeling is that it is better to strike off in the wrong direction for a while, see where you end up, see what you discover than to sit, mired in indecision while your employees begin to question your leadership ability.

One of the great engineering tenets is that you learn more from failure than from success….and I would add…as long as you eventually succeed

Here is my Top Ten list, for people starting companies.

Top Ten List – Things to Think About When Starting a Startup

1. Make sure you can live without a paycheck for at least a year…seriously 12 months…no income..trust me you will need the runway.

2. Pick you business partners well…you will be married to these people, you will see them more than your domestic partner and family…you better trust them with your new venture.

3. Figure out your idea…tell people about it…patent it if possible..but tell people…accept their input, their critisism…be rational…if this idea doesn’t work there will always be another. My patent lawyer (who is also an angel investor) told me that he will refuse to talk to you if you feel you can’t talk publicly about your idea. If your idea is so simple that telling him about it will put the entire venture into jeopardy then it probably isn’t that good or unique an idea. Tell people, judge their reactions, practice your pitch, you will need that pitch to raise awareness and raise money…you better be ready with the money shot when you get your 30 seconds in the elevator with Bill Gates.

4. Surround yourself with smart people, hire them, put them on an advisory board, have lunch with them, get drunk with them…know you are not going to do this on your own…there is just too much to think about.

5. Find an office where you can be together as a team. Everyone wants to start a company in their basement or in two or three basements, communicating using email and MSN but there is nothing to replace the interaction that comes from being face to face, talking in front of a white board over stale pizza. That is where the magic happens. You will be asked to consider off-shoring especially if you are taking any investment from VCs. Resist the urge…if you can’t sit beside your guys and help them solve issues you are asking for problems, you have lost control, it is not your baby anymore. Outsourcing will come, once you are bigger and successful…when you are little you need to be close to your idea, to nurture your idea and make it grow.

6. Treat your people well. There is no conversation I hate more than the “let see if we can sweat the guys” conversation I always have with founders. These people are making your dream happen, share the dream and it is not always about money, be creative and get them involved.

7. Options are worthless, do not try to use them as incentive programs. Unless you are a well funded, rapidly expanding company with actual sales in a growth market (biotech perhaps?) the probability that the options in your company will ever be worth anything are almost zero. Your employees know that and will laugh at the offer. If they don’t understand  the options are worthless then shame on you for making the offer.

8. Get your idea into the market…polish it only as much as necessary to make your customers want it. If it is a good idea it will take off, if it is a bad idea the polish will not fool them for long. Let the market decide if the idea is good and do it before you run out of money. If you give yourself a year it is always better to find out after three months whether the idea was good or not…give you time to adjust, to refine or to stop…if you polish the apple for the entire 12 months you only get one shot.

9. Market your idea. Too many technical people create something and then expect the world to come calling. If no one knows about your new gadget how will they know they need it. Why would you spend $1m building something and then spend $10K trying to tell people about it. Gaming companies sometimes spend more on marketing than on development. Marketing can make a bad idea successful, not marketing will never make a good idea successful. I am not suggesting you throw money away frivolously, but understand this thing is not going to sell itself. Hire a sales guy, hire a marketing gal, tell your friends, ask them to tell their friends, do a late night TV infomercial but get the word out. Be creative, you need to rise above the crowd, stand out from the herd.

10. Have fun. That what this is about people, a startup is not a job it is a calling. You are doing it to create something special…enjoy the ride.

(reposted on Associated Content)

He poured an amazing amount of effort into it…I am very curious to see how it does.

With millions of apps sold every year (2.5 billion to be exact) there is still room for the little guy to play. With sales expected to grow from $4.2 billion in 2009 to $29.5 billion in 2013 the market is attracting more and more players.

But this is still the wild west, it is the garage development of the 1980s, anyone can do it…this is literally where Apple came from.

If you have an iPhone or a iTouch download Mine Blast, try it, comment on it, send the link to a friend, reward the little guy.

I am not suggesting that coming up with a concept and implementing it is easy, I saw what went into this idea, the learning, the revisions, the testing….

The marketing…www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUQwSORLcM

You have to really want to get it done, you have to have a good idea and you have to be talented…but…there is no barrier to entry. Sure the companies that pay to get on the main page the Apple App Store will get some initial attention but do the get real return on investment?

In a market where all hardware is made in Taiwan and all software is expected to be free, this is still a chance for the little guy to make something fun and get paid for doing it.

It is a puzzle game in the same genre as MineSweeper for the PC but with much more intelligence and depth. The basic premise it that you are trying to dislodge gems from the walls of mines using various explosives. You need to place the explosives so that each gem is impacted only once. You need to clear all of the gems to clear the mine.

As gems are cleared and more mines exposed the difficulty increases.

To increase the difficulty more gems are added. New types of gems are added, these ones requiring two or three explosions to dislodge.

More explosives are added that cover wider areas, pre-placed explosives are added that are triggered by your explosives. Each mine is unique. I have been playing it for a while and am still only on the second level.

The concept is simple, even my 6 year old was able to grasp the game play in a couple minutes but actually solving each level is much more involved. Solving the mines requires spatial perception, problem solving skills and patience. Forget Brain Age, Mine Blast is definitely a good exercise for your mind.

This app is very well developed in all the areas that count. The graphics are polished and clean, the navigation is simple, direct and error free. The gaming concept is focused, simple to understand yet hard to master completely. The increasing difficulty keeps you coming back but it never strays too far from the basic concept.

The help system is animated using the actual game engine allowing you to understand, as more options are added, what each items does and what is expected of you.

If all games on the AppStore were this polished it would be much harder to decide what to buy and what to ignore.

Let’s hope there are many more apps like this to follow.