R|com Creative Blog

If you listen to the “experts” in technology media, we’re all headed to the cloud. Don’t believe it. Software as a service, or SaaS (also called the cloud) is growing. We use it all the time. But it isn’t the only emerging factor for applications use in the 21st century.

Cloud-based computing offers tremendous upside opportunities for developers. By offering a subscription rather than a disc or download local solution, a relationship with the client is created. Renewal marketing is reduced. Packaging and shipping are eliminated. Service options are increased.

But all of this predicts the user will always have access to the Internet. And, that such access will be of a high quality. Before that happens, the quality of Internet connectivity must not only improve, but stabilize. Mobile companies in particular must put on big-boy pants and recognize their clients for what they are: users of technology, not dependents without choice or options.

There is a group of people who believe we’ll all be living in the clouds fairly soon. A recent survey by Elon University of more than 900 Internet and technology experts found that 71% predicted the majority of people will use web-based and mobile apps by 2020. Working in conjunction with Pew Research Center, the experts predicted that entities like Google will own the airwaves not only as a conduit, but as a destination for personal and business users.

Make no mistake, we’re very strong supporters of Software as a Service. At the same time, the ability to utilize applications on a local level remains equally important. It isn’t a game of lessor or greater – it’s an apple to an orange.

One of the areas where we spend the most effort is website security. It is an expense that goes beyond staffing and equipment. It is never ending. It is to some extent, not winnable. It is likely in fact, that if you have a website, you will suffer through an outage. It will crash.

Overall, our record for keeping websites up and running is excellent. We average 99.958% up-time during the past eight years. That’s high. But it isn’t perfect, so why does this happen?

Website security is so challenging because there are a tremendous number of variables that can affect a site’s performance. The Internet itself, access to the Internet, the health of the hardware in use, the switch, the routers, the cables, the power supply (direct and indirect), the performance of the applications, the impact of users visiting the site, hackers trying to kill the site, etc. We work diligently to ensure we keep all of the above in balance, and it is that balance that provides the greatest degree of comfort and security.

Most clients want their websites to work, and they don’t care how that happens. If something does happen to their site, it is never their fault. We try to encourage that level of responsibility, but internally, we are always studying ways to improve. We’re in the midst of an upgrade, in fact. A new switch system, upgraded cables (we replace them over time, not when they fail), updated OS installations, and continued testing of the network are just a few of the activities under way at the moment. And all of it designed to ensure that the most important thing happen to your website when hosted with us. Nothing.

We’re continuing to make changes to our suite of web tools, including our content management system. The key for us is to keep our software both evolving and in line with current server solutions. To that end, we’ve added some additional security features, and have upgraded the system software capabilities (database, Apache, etc.) to ensure ease of installation or upgrading.

One of the things that always concerns me is the constant nature of web evolution. It always seems to be a matter of tossing what you had in favor of what’s new, and the relative costs that go along with that. We would prefer that our customers evolve as their needs to – but also based on their usage of the tools they’ve engaged us to provide. The net result is that upgrading with our team is painless, fast, and often involved additional capabilities as well.

On multiple occasions each year, we go through all of our servers, review the software being used, and work to ensure there is a solid solution in place to meet the needs of our clients. While we charge our clients for annual maintenance support for their installed applications, there is no requirement for us to maintain the latest versions (or most stable versions) of software for each box. But, as a matter of course, we keep that issue on the table and review our systems on a quarterly basis. It keeps us busy, but it also provides our clients with some confidence that we’re involved in their success.

The back end of this blog entry

This is a question that comes up more often these days. Several years ago, when blogging was becoming popular, most blogs were just that: personal web journals, or web logs (hence blog). People would share their thoughts with friends and as that led to politics, religion, sex, automobiles, etc, a marketing medium was born.

Today, many personal blogs are now tweets. Twitter is today’s quickie blog. And, there’s a reason, too. Blogging has become time consuming. And, if you’re successful, it can be a lot of work. Of course, many people want to make money from their blog. That’s a different story, but one we’ll cover soon.

Setting up a blog can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days, depending on the software used, the design implemented, plug-in support, and so on. But, once the blog is in place, content is king.

The act of creating a blog entry is pretty simple. This blog, for example took 27 minutes to create. Here’s the breakdown:

• authoring: 15 minutes
• tagging: 1 minute
• adding links: 5 minutes
• editing: 5 minutes
• publishing: 1 minute

What took time for this blog was the research and “thinking” part of the entry. And, come to think of it, the many conversations that led up to the writing of this entry. So, maybe this entry had a day of my time invested in it. And that has nothing to do with managing the site. Oh, and when you’re busy creating an entry, time flies. I really thought this took me ten minutes. Ack!

Aside from writing and publishing, we do a lot of other things related to the blogs we work on. For this blog, here are a few of the things I do each day that I work on this blog:

• read related blogs: 1 hours
• manage our stats: 10 minutes
• respond to comments, questions: 20 minutes
• research content, photos, etc.: 15 minutes
• discuss blog content with team: 10 minutes

So, not including the authoring part, I personally spend at least nearly two hours a day on this blog alone. Thankfully, I don’t personally work on a lot of blogs, but just this one requires a lot of attention, which is why I don’t post every day. There are just so many hours in the day.

And, this is not a high-traffic blog (yet) either. As your blog becomes more popular, the need to post daily and even more than daily will increase as well. As you begin to add Google ads, other resources, and art to your blog, your day will disappear before you realize it. Wham. It’s dinner time. Or worse, it’s Letterman time (for you oldsters). For me, I often forget to go to sleep and it’s almost time to get up. Whoops!

If your blog is to become successful, there is a lot more than just creating entries. Tags are hugely important. And, it’s not just the tags themselves, it’s knowing (and learning) what people will type into search engines.

Titles are also huge. We’ve done a lot of experiments with titles and not only does that affect the amount of traffic your post gets, it impacts the overal popularity of the blog. Titles must describe the content of your post, and in such a way as to answer the question: do I want to read this?

And, a good blog entry won’t be too long. So, I’ll wrap this entry up with a reference to another blog story that’s related, and although it’s two years old, it’s still valuable. Read on.

The new LAFD Museum website uses the Rcom CMS solution.

The Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial has launched a new website, created using the R|com Web Manager Pro solution that we provide. This was a big step forward for the LAFDHS, which previously had relied on a combined Moveable Type and static-page solution.

We developed the site so that minimal engineering effort would be required when working with news and updates for the museum. Many of the volunteers are not computer-savvy, so giving them a solution that permits easy access and word-processor simple content creation was key. In addition, the organization hosts a number of events, has photo galleries, and is eager to promote history related to the fire service. The Rcom CMS solution gives them the ability to quickly and easily implement any event details or other content they might like to publish.

Every time an organization takes advantage of a solution like this, it makes me smile, as the ability to clearly take charge of Internet-based communication is so important in today’s hectic social environment. And, since the introduction of the system last month, the museum’s website has had more traffic than it had in the previous ten months. A good step forward.

Our team provided design, engineering, installation and now supports the site with hosting and content publishing. We enjoy supporting the organization and hope you get a chance to check them out: www.lafdmuseum.org

Our crew is pleased to announce the release of a new release of our content management system (CMS) software. This is a significant upgrade from our previous release and offers a host of improvements and new features. Called R|com Web Manager, it is a fully featured content solution, allowing for the management and publication of content without the need for a web engineer to assist you. There is no requirement for previous experience with web design, illustration, or IT management. If you can use Microsoft Office or iWork from Apple, you can use our CMS.

Kerr Corporation uses our R|com Web Manager Pro CMS solution - one of scores of installations.

There are a lot of CMS solutions in the marketplace. Some are very expensive, with an installation cost in the mid-six-figures. There are others in the open source arena, but those typically require more self-management capability, although some are pretty good and well supported.

Our solution provides the ideal mix of capabilities. The license fee is very reasonable, and we provide the option for a single installation or a full server filled with multiple installations. The range of options is extensive, as are the add-on capabilities.

The trick for any CMS is having it set up properly and designed for proper support and use. This is where a solution such as R|com Web Manager is idea for a small to mid-size business. Our team will not only install and support the application, but we’ll create the proper publishing environment for your stories, images, videos, etc. And, we’ll help you maintain the solution, ranging from simple hosting and support to full maintenance and content delivery. We have designers, videographers, and journalists who can all help create the best possible message for your audience.

Another advantage of our Content Management solution is that it is  written in the PHP programming language and powered by the Apache web server and MySQL database. This means we can install it on a variety of servers, ranging from a Windows box to Linux to the latest Mac OS X Server solution. Versatility is very important, and the time and effort put into our solution will prove useful to you when you’re considering a new CMS solution. We work to eliminate roadblocks – and it shows.

R|com Web Manager Pro works with IE6+, Firefox 2+ and Safari 3 and runs in either PHP 4 or 5, Apache 1.3+ and MySQL 4+.

The new release of R|com Web Manager Pro adds support for the following capabilities:

• Multi-lingual website support
• Much improved and better integrated WYSIWYG editor
• Auto-save for browser crash recovery
• Safari browser support
• New search add-on based on the Zend Framework
• Improved security, form spam prevention and session hijacking prevention
• Improved performance through delayed loading of certain components
• Improved internal workflow messaging
• New setting controls for modifying all aspects of the system
• Improved search engine optimization (SEO) options
• Over 150 other enhancements, bug fixes and usability improvements

With installations all over the world, and access to engineering expertise anywhere, our CMS solution isn’t tied to or limited by our boutique firm, either. While we’ve been around for a long time and continue to grow and evolve, you can have confidence that your investment in our CMS solution will be usable and effective for years to come.

You can learn more by visiting our website and checking out our CMS page.