Nashville’s Top 30 Under 30 recognizes the city’s most active young philanthropists while benefiting the CFF. Honorees were nominated by co-workers, friends and family for their charitable and professional endeavors. The top 30 honorees were then selected by the Top 30 Under 30 selection committee during the month of June.

“This honoree class has once again shown that Nashville is full of young professionals that care about their city. We hope the community will help the CFF congratulate and honor them by supporting the Top 30 Under 30 celebration in September,” said Top 30 Under 30 co-chair Anne Elizabeth McIntosh.

Nashville’s Top 30 Under 30 will be on Sept. 11, 2010, at Public Square Park downtown. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $50 or $75 for VIP entry. Evan will be selling tickets to help this great cause. If you are interested please email him at evan@centresource.com

Visit www.nashvilletop30.org for more information.

I came across this tool tonight: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/

Basically, drag the bookmarklet to your bookmark bar, log into Facebook, and then click the bookmark.  It will run some tests to see where you’re protected, and where you’re potentially exposed.  I was surprised even how much I hadn’t protected, despite trying hard to be extra cautious.

Many people are altogether shutting down their Facebook accounts… I haven’t gone that far, but I do think that using Facebook with the default privacy settings is outright insane.

Happy (and safe) Facebooking!

Photo by Chuck Bryant

As you may have seen in the national news, a series of storms over the weekend have caused the worst flooding in Nashville in decades. At least six people in Middle Tennessee have lost their lives, and countless more have lost homes and businesses. More than 2,000 people stayed in storm shelters last night. We are truly blessed to report that all of our team is accounted for and is safe, but our hearts and prayers go out to those who are not as fortunate.

This morning, CentreSource CEO Nicholas Holland (@nicholasholland) has asked our team to get out and support the volunteer efforts that are underway in Nashville. Groups are organizing in various parts of the city to be ready with food, bottled water and other basic needs.

Here are a few of the service opportunities that we are aware of right now:

• Hands on Nashville (partnered with Metro Davidson County)
• Nashville Red Cross
• Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee

Our Germantown neighborhood office remains open with only minor damage, and our staff will be available via e-mail to help with any of our clients’ needs. If you need assistance with your project, please contact your Strategist.

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

As both developers and consumers, CentreSource is affected by this decision in two ways.

While we’ve traditionally been a PHP shop, we have developers who are versed in JavaScript, ActionScript, Ruby, ASP .NET, Perl, and even a little Python.  When the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) was originally released two years ago, we played around with it, but the learning curve of teaching ourselves Objective C (the language required to use the SDK) ultimately led us to make the decision to explore utilizing a third party development tool called Titanium to create our iPhone apps.  Titanium is an application that allows you to write in a simpler/unified language, and then the tool recompiles the code to the Objective C required by Apple.

According to the new changes, applications like Titanium — or the about-to-be-released Adobe Flash to iPhone converter — are a no-no.  Why?  Commentators and speculators say it comes down to two main reasons:

1. Apple wants complete control.  In order to develop for the iPhone OS, you have to use Apple’s tools… On an Apple computer… With an Apple developer’s license…  Apple controls the entire development environment from the moment you start writing your code (on your Apple computer) to the point you start making money through releasing your app in the App Store.  Apple is able to dictate how, where, and when your app gets created and distributed.  While some see this as a monopolistic abuse of power, I see this as directly benefiting the fact that…

2. Apple has complete control.  By controlling the entire development environment, they are able to provide the tools and resources to allow app developers what they need to create applications that maximize the potential of the iPhone OS.  If they release a brand new set of features to their SDK (as they did last week), they are able to immediately integrate these features into their toolset for the developers to use.  When using tools like Titanium, developers are forced to wait until the 3rd party company changes their tools to be compatible with the new SDK before they can start using them.

Similarly, many argue that by “neutralizing” the tools used for creation, you’re not able to fully utilize the specific features for the end product. Think of any application that was created for a specific platform — Mac or Windows — and then think of applications that were “ported” to the other platform. No one will argue that Office on a Mac or Handbrake on Windows are anywhere close to the application on the platform it was originally written for.

From a development perspective, we’re not tremendously affected — primarily because we’re already fairly cross-versed in development languages. Adding Objective-C to our arsenal — while an inconvenience and time consuming — is by no means a deal breaker for us, especially given the benefits that Apple provides.  For most of us, we’d have to learn another language / SDK of some kind in order to develop iPhone OS apps — why not just go right to learning Objective-C.

From a consumer perspective, I believe this is great news. Imagine the scenario that Louis Gerbarg of /dev/why!?! presents:

Imagine if 10% of the apps on iPhone came from Flash. If that was the case, then ensuring Flash didn’t break release to release would be a big deal, much bigger than any other compatibility issues. Since Apple doesn’t have access to Flash CS5’s runtime library code or compiler frontend, they might be put in a position where they would need to coordinate with Adobe to resolve those issues. Shipping a new release where Apple breaks any specific application, even a top seller, is not an issue if the release is compelling, most apps work, and Apple has the option of working with the vendor to help them fix their app. Shipping a release where they break a large percentage of apps is not generally an option. Letting any of these secondary runtimes develop a significant base of applications in the store risks putting Apple in a position where the company that controls that runtime can cause delays in Apple’s release schedule, or worse, demand specific engineering decisions from Apple, under the threat of withholding the information necessary to keep their runtime working.

Clearly this is not an ideal scenario for Apple or for their consumers. Apple’s imposing restrictions are a protective move for themselves and their consumer — ensuring the high level of user experience that Apple has come to be known for, and not letting 3rd party vendors effect their reputation.

Is this bad news for Adobe? Youbetcha. They are increasingly grasping at straws to stay relevant in a marketplace that is leaning more towards HTML5, and turning “Flash” into a bad word. I agree with some of my colleagues that Flash still has an appropriate place on the web, and heavens knows how many ActionScript developers are bummed about this decision that effectively eliminates them from developing on a platform that accounts for 45% of mobile browsing.

At the end of the day, when the dust of iPhone OS 4.0 finally settles, there will still be a plethora of apps (good and bad) in the iTunes App Store. This decision will be long forgotten by all those involved (well, except maybe Adobe), and the consumers will remain happy and buying phones.

As for CentreSource? Bring on Objective-C!

** Note: my opinions may be a bit biased… This whole post was written on my Apple iPad — which is awesome by the way… But that will be a saved for a separate blog post!

As such, Google has been busy releasing various tools to help with user’s experiences on the web:

Google Chrome

Ok, so this technically came out for Windows in 2008, but was released fully cross-platform in 2009. Chrome (and its subsequent big brother “Chrome OS”) is an open-source browser that borrows components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox (both open-source projects) and aims to “add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.” As of January 4, 2010, Chrome had officially passed Apple’s Safari browser to become the 3rd most popular browser behind Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Real-Time Search

As Twitter has grown in popularity, it has quickly become the first source for breaking news, mostly due to the ease and speed with which you can post information. In Q4 2009, Google signed a deal with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and FriendFeed (among others) to allow search results from each of their sites to be propagated into the Google search result page. The benefit of this is that one can get to-the-second results of what they’re looking for — all in one place.

Webmaster Tools

While improving the end-users’ tools can greatly improve usability and performance, Google acknowledged that individual site optimization is key to a successful user experience by releasing a variety of webmaster tools to help web developers identify slow parts of their site, and provide tips on how to improve those areas. One group of tools was added to Google Analytics under the new “Site Performance” section, that gives an analysis of your site’s performance relative to the rest of the web, as well as particular suggestions on improving page speed. This is particularly helpful in identifying over-arching tips and tricks that can improve the loading speed of your site as a whole.

The second tool is a Firefox extension called “Page Speed” that takes the analysis provided in the “Site Performance” section, and moves it to the browser, allowing you to view specific recommendations on a page-by-page basis. This is particularly helpful in identifying very specific ways to improve the speed of a particular page that might be loading slower than others on your site.

The third tool is a Chrome extension called “Speed Tracer.” This tool is more geared towards the performance of web applications, focusing less on the initial load time, and more on the strain that using the website itself puts on the user’s browser. Using Speed Tracer, you can pinpoint exactly what scripts, actions, or files are causing your website to appear to slow down.

Public DNS

The nerdiest most technical tool that Google announced was their hosting of a Public DNS server. DNS, or Domain Name System, is an essential part of the web that helps translate domain names (”blog.centresource.com”) into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computers where the website files live. By providing a Public DNS, Google plans to not only optimize the hundreds of DNS requests that the average user makes every day, but also to gather data about user’s browsing patterns “to improve the browsing experience for Internet users globally.”

Capping off months of on-again, off-again work (Hey, we’ve been really busy!), we are proud to announce that the new CentreSource.com is finally available to the world. The new site invites you to meet our team, learn a bit about our process, see why our clients are the best and to chat with us about your undying love of cupcakes (or anything else you want to talk about).

Have a look!

It will be LEGENDARY!

CentreSource is once again sponsoring the midstate’s leading tech-driven “unconference,” BarCamp Nashville. This free event will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, October 17 at the Cadillac Ranch on Broadway in downtown Nashville (map). At last glance, there were more than 60 presenters that had created sessions on topics on everything from Web development to entrepreneurship. We are also very proud that several of our team members will be presenting at this year’s event:

• Nicholas Holland - From Cave Walls to Facebook Walls
• Chip Hayner - Choosing the Right Tool for the Job
• Brent Shaffer & Travis Roberts - Test Your Might: Symfony vs Rails - Framework Combat
• Nicholas Holland (again!) - iPhone Development … or “Welcome to Crazyville, Population YOU”
• Jared Scheel - Whoa! Creating Engaging User Experiences
• Aaron Briggs - Getting a Pants-Free Education: E-Learning and Instructional Design

Visit the BarCamp Nashville Web site to register today!

In each of the mediums mentioned (and I’ll throw in SMS, blog comments, and forums), the person leaving the message is able to post directly to you — the biggest difference is that some of the messages are public and some are private.  Ironically, the items that are private (direct messages in Twitter / Facebook, SMS, email) seem to be the ones that I feel most obliged to respond to, whereas it feels “ok” to leave the public comments hanging without response.  I’m not sure if I think that “someone else can reply for me,” or if being public is less personal, and therefore less necessary to respond.

On the flip side, there is a particular expectation that we set whenever we send a message to someone.  I may not expect Sally to thank me personally for the birthday greeting I posted on her Facebook wall, but if I post a public message to @SouthwestAir or @ComcastCares, I have an expectation to get a response.

What do you think?

• Which social obligations do you feel?
• How do you feel when you post a public or private comment to someone and they don’t respond?
• If your company or business is on Twitter, do you respond to every public or private message?

Over the history of CentreSource, we’ve worked hard to choose the perfect CMS to be able to meet the individual needs of each client and project that comes our way.  There was always a balance that had to be struck — it couldn’t be too cookie-cutter, or else we wouldn’t be able to do everything that the client was asking.  Conversely, it wouldn’t be cost efficient if we had to custom build a CMS for our clients each time.  By focusing on the outcome  (the client’s goal of an easy-to-update website), we decided that the best single CMS option was not a single option at all, but instead a “toolbox” approach that would allow us to use the appropriate tool for each unique job.

WordPress

For basic blog / news sites with a few “static” pages, there is no better option out there than the open source platform, WordPress.  WordPress has a simple, intuitive administrative interface, and is designed and built around the concept of two types of content: posts and pages.  Thanks to their fairly extensive documentation and an incredible user community, there are thousands of WordPress tutorials, examples, and plugins available that can help you to maximize the capabilities of WordPress to it’s fullest.  Although there are some plugins out there (one in particular called Flutter) that allow you to expand WordPress into a more feature-rich CMS (with multiple content types, for example), we have found that doing so is like pushing a boulder uphill.  It can be done, but it’s more work than it’s worth — especially with other, more feature-rich CMSes out there (see below).  All in all, though, WordPress is an excellent basic tool for basic websites.

Sitemason

Next in our toolbox is a local company that CentreSource has used since we first open our doors, and has never let us down since.  Sitemason is a proprietary CMS that has expanded over the years to allow its users to edit pages, news, forms, polls, photos, and calendars.  Once you’re trained on their administrative interface, adding and editing content is a breeze, as heavy-hitter clients like Vanderbilt University, ABHOW (American Baptist Homes of the West),  Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, or TrustCore Financial can attest to.  Their team of developers are constantly refining and adding to their tools, taking guidance and recommendations from the users and developers that use their system.  As a result, Sitemason has proven to be an invaluable tool for our low- to mid-level sites.

Drupal

Over the past few years, Drupal has taken off as the de facto CMS for open source developers.  Advertising itself as not only a CMS platform, but also a CMS framework, Drupal has an extensively flexible core that can be used to build modules to do just about anything you might want.  Drupal’s bread and butter is its ability to create custom content types (a piece of content with defined custom fields), and then a system to view the content in many different ways (lists, grids, tables, blocks, etc).  Additionally, Drupal specializes in social-based tools, making it a perfect platform for bands, politicians, or churches.  For any high-level content-based site that is too demanding for WordPress or SiteMason, Drupal is the perfect tool for the job.

Symfony

While not really a CMS, the Symfony framework allows us to custom build anything that can’t be done with the tools above.  Symfony is a PHP framework that provides an architecture for developers to build complex web applications faster.  Using Symfony allows us to build the exact tool that our client is wanting — something that is necessary in circumstances where the workflow is just as important as the final outcome.  Using Symfony, we’ve been able to build complex order and shipment fulfillment systems and social-based file sharing and recommendation systems — sites that would not have been able to be found “out-of-the-box,” but that were needed based on our client’s goals.

We have been a proud sponsor of ERFA for the past three years, specifically offering our web design and development services for their website, http://www.elliesrun.org.  This year, we were able to add a brand new system for accepting online registrations, donations, and volunteer sign-ups, including their “ERFA Heroes” system that allows people to sign-up to raise money, and then get people to donate in their name.

This year, ERFA has an ambitious goal of 1,000 event participants and raising $100,000.  It won’t be easy, but by teaming together, anything is possible.  As the ERFA slogan says: “DREAM BIG. TAKE ACTION.”

We’re asking that you Dream Big and Take Action with us.  Please consider donating to Ellie’s Run for Africa — only $25 helps put a child in school for a year!

http://www.elliesrun.org/teams/centre-source