centre{source}
INTERACTIVE AGENCY
Company News
Operations
Symfony 2 Conference Hub at the Castle
When the Symfony Live Online conference was first announced, Brandon came up with the great idea to get the entire Nashville Symfony/PHP community to watch it together at centresource. “It’ll be an amazing gathering of nerds the likes of which have never been seen!” he says.
Well, Sensio decided to steal our thunder by suggesting Symfony 2 Conference Hubs a few days later. Hey Sensio, we still take credit for the idea. We thought of it first. And now that’s off my chest, the sales pitch:
Clean East Nashville with Pepsi’s help!
As an Operations Manager at CS, I spend most of my time trying to figure out how to make our internal processes smoother, so we can spend more time creating amazing applications. All that to say I don’t get to explore the web too often. However, sometimes our developers will tell me about cool new technology or web ‘initiatives’ that I have to check out. Such was the case with the Pepsi Refresh Project.
Where Will the Web Be in 10 Years?
In our weekly Wednesday company meeting, we typically talk with each other about what we’ve learned in the last week and the projects we’re working on. This week, however, Nick threw us a bit of a curveball.
We split into two groups to answer a big question: where will the web be in 10 years? Each group was required to deliver 5 concepts. We talked for 15 minutes, and neither group was short on ideas. The hardest part was whittling it down.
Awesome Open Source Software
In preparation for my presentation (Try some Open Source…. Everybody’s doing it), I’ve compiled some of the best offerings in the land of OSS.
Utilities
Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com) - Browser
Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net) - BitTorrent
FileZilla (http://www.FileZilla.com) - FTP Client
CLAMWIN (http://www.clamwin.com) - Open Source Anti-Virus
TightVNC (http://www.tightvnc.com) - Remote computer control
Welcome to the team, Shaun Jackson!
This week, we’re happy for a few things: spring weather, some great new projects tearing through the dev department, and new team members. That’s right, this week we welcome Shaun Jackson to our team.
Shaun is a long-time friend of the firm — several of us have known Shaun for a while and respected his leadership skills and passion for interactive. Shaun actually comes to us from the other side: he’s been a client of CentreSource many times over as the Director of Online Marketing for Word Entertainment. He has the unique perspective of knowing our processes from the other side.
centre{source} Named in 10 Most Dependable Web Designers List
We’re proud to say that centre{source} was named as one of the ten most dependable web design firms in the southern US in the April 2008 issue of Entrepreneur magazine! This is our second year to be selected in this list, which is compiled by Goldline Research.
We always strive for excellence in delivering results to our client, and we’re thrilled to be recognized for our work.
Homework for an Interactive Strategist…
Since we’ve been doing more strategy, it has become more and more necessary to formalize our ‘ramp up’ process for new strategists. Our strategist typically herald from the marketing side of the world & combine their knowledge with practical elements of technology. This dual-combo makes for a powerful strategist.However, there is a BIG difference in doing one interactive project during a marketing career & actually being a qualified Interactive Strategist. As such, we put together “homework” for our planners and strategists to answer that at least give them some basic familiarity into combining traditional business with the world of interactivity. Here are the questions we ask…
If you bill time & materials, you deserve to hear this…
History has proven to me that it is very difficult for clients to understand time & knowledge as an actual currency. If you’re in the time & materials industry, you’ll appreciate what I’m talking about. My wife, who’s a lawyer, was kind enough to send me a song that really helps me bridge the gap with my clients :) [Remember, this is meant to be funny - don't get your feelings hurt!]
centre{source}.com Announces Name Change
NASHVILLE, TN, United States, 04/01/2008centre{source}.com is now ZENtre{source}.com. Nashville’s interactive strategies firm has renamed its company name to reflect its core competencies.
Since the beginning, ZENtre{source}.com, formerly centre{source}.com, has become a fountain of knowledge for progressive clients looking deep within their online persona for a user relationship that goes beyond casual clicking.
Read the full press release of centre{source}’s name change here
[ Update: For those that didn't already figure this out, April Fools! ]
Bad PayPal! - When security becomes ridiculous
Want to know the perfect formula on how to create a frustrating system, provide terrible customer service, and manage to drive a loyal customer to hate? Just take lessons from PayPal - they are doing a great Job at really screwing up.
Here’s the magic combo:
First, PayPal created some security restrictions that ‘automatically’ triggered on my account. While they won’t say, I’m guessing its because I accepted 20-30 payments before I attempted to make a full-withdrawal. Regardless, this sparked their security system and it asked that I certify my account (this is different than verify). To do this, I have to ADD MY PERSONAL CREDIT CARD to the account ?@?#$@#$# I also have to verify my SS#. The first step takes 1 week for the transaction to show on my personal CC#… The second step fails because they say that I’ve used my SS# at some point in the past.
