Zady Makes Me Think Of 3D Printing Somehow

I came across Zady across various social media platforms and streams I peruse regularly when it first hit the "airwaves." Today I looked it up on Google News. It is an interesting twist. Clothitarian? This is like Mark Zuckerberg killing his own meat. What's the source? You want to know the source. It is kind of like blogging. The best bloggers are not professional bloggers but people who are extremely knowledgeable in their domain. They are the source. You should link to them, not just quote them up. Fast food, fast clothing. Fast fashion. Kiva and Etsy.

I kept thinking 3D printing. In that in an era when connectivity is plentiful, information is plentiful, the least you should be able to know is who sewed it up, right? I think it is interesting, I hope it is scalable.

Looks like Soraya Darabi's hibernation is over. She had half a million followers on Twitter. And you thought that was a fluke. And Google Plus launched and she had half a million followers there as well and pretty fast too. How does that work?

And who knew Zady was available as a name! I thought all two syllable names were long gone.

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Finding Software Projects

Image via CrunchBase

Places to find free software projects who need developers/project managers?

It's absolutely true that FOSS projects also need tasks completed that normally fall under the category of 'Project Managment', but I'm aware of no FOSS project actively looking for a person to fill specifically and only that roll. I think the perception of it being a separate beast from coding is largely a paradigm of the corporate world, which doesn't hold as true for FOSS.

How to find leads for outsourced software development projects?

There's also contracting web sites (my preferred as an employer is ODesk), but the competition is very high on those..... Aside from basic lead generation such as websites, blogs, and social media, I would try monitoring developer and tech communities for individuals/companies who may be looking for a developer. It always seems to me that there's someone "looking for a developer" to help them build an application, or at least give advice. .... The competition is large. Sites like Odesk, Elance and Guru have thousands similar to you. .... I would look for a way to make friendships or partnerships with western companies. .... Hanging around at answers.onstartup.com and helping others with useful answers might be one good strategy. Go where your potential customers are and make yourself useful. Get a reputation and leads will follow.

How do I get software development projects?

Sites like guru.com focus mostly on small websites ..... joining the local user groups, meeting the other nerds in your area, and making a significant effort to find local folks with interesting development projects in your area .... local nerd meetup, linux meetup, etc, will help you network. Check out meetup.com for your area. ..... you need to anticipate being extremely busy (sometimes) and extremely worried about the mortgage (pretty often). .... you might need some of those small projects to build your client base. If you do a good job on a small projects, they're more likely to call you back for help with a bigger project ..... I've found all my clients but one through word-of-mouth. The one not through word of mouth was through craigslist. Craigslist has been pretty good for me, though ..... Most of my contracts come from former co-workers who have moved on or word of mouth from those folks, so maybe you need more time to network (as suggested above) but also to have a larger pool of colleagues to call upon. At points I've had way more work than I could do (and have passed on to other former colleagues) all from work contacts. ..... Make sure you have a well-tended profile on sites like linkedin.com. Linkedin is the professional side of facebook-type networking ......... In my own freelancing career I've found that a lot of companies like to outsource work to people in their local area with whom they can meet face-to-face. It's worth researching the businesses of all sizes within easy travelling distance that do the kind of work you'd be interested in pursuing. Call them for a chat if you can, and arrange to visit when they're not too busy. Explain that you can bring in additional expertise if necessary. A face-to-face meeting is your chance to impress these people with your professionalism. Leave them with a comprehensive resumé/CV and follow any meeting up with a call a week later. A lot of businesses seem very reluctant to farm out work to unknown individuals on the internet - that fear can be used to your advantage. ........ Make sure you have a professional-looking web presence - not necessarily to bring in work, but to add to the overall appearance that you're a serious, professional freelancer/contractor. ..... the briefest glance at the going rates on bottom-scraper sites like elance, rent-a-coder, etc should instantly confirm that they're a waste of your time. ..... the vast majority of my work still -- even a decade after I went freelance -- comes at least indirectly via people I worked with back when I worked in an office. This is by far your best bet, especially if you want to be working on larger projects than are commonly available on job boards. ....... enterprise-level work tends to go more to contractor agencies than to lone freelancers. (And IMHO working for a contractor agency is not dissimilar from just working directly for the corporation.)

AuthenticJobs
Projects2Bid
Outsource Software Projects
How to Get a Software Development Job

Seek available software development jobs on company websites

How to Get Freelance Software Development Jobs

The easiest way to find software development jobs is to search freelance jobs websites. Most of the major job boards include a category for software development that you should bookmark and check every day.
Softdevjobs (www.softdevjobs.com)
IFreelance (www.ifreelance.com/Freelance-Jobs/Software-Design-Freelance-Jobs/)
GoFreelance (www.gofreelance.com/software/)
Flexjobs (www.flexjobs.com/jobs/web-software-development-programming)
Indeed (www.indeed.com/g-software-developmepnt-&-Design-jobs.html)
Freelance BBS (www.freelancebbs.com)
You'll also be more competitive if you can include a link to your online portfolio for employers to view. Don't procrastinate with submitting an application when you find jobs, because your competitors may get jobs for being among the first qualified job candidates to apply. ...... Make and establish contacts at large corporations, and ask for work. It's easier said than done ... Use social media to engage in conversations with those who outsource work
Attend a local seminar or lecture put on by the corporation and network with employers
Send a letter of introduction and a business card and ask for a telephone meeting ...... Don't expect them to give you work the first time you ask, but you'll be top of mind if you stay in contact, when there's a need for your skills.

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A Welcome New Feature In Gmail

I began this day by seeing a welcome new feature in my Gmail account. Having multiple Gmail inboxes is going to make life easier. Otherwise my first instinct when I log into Gmail at the beginning of a work day is to pick messages to delete. It should not be that way. My first thing to do should be to read and reply to important emails.

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Ingress: Many Many Teams But Only Two Global Teams

There are some basic premises.

(1) This is a game. It is supposed to be fun. This is not a corporate project. There is no boss. Much of the fun in the game comes from the human interactions and the human frailties.

(2) The number one rule in Ingress leadership is you can't tell anyone what to do. But with their consent you can suggest things and share tips and wisdom.

(3) There are only two global teams possible. That is just the way the game has been designed.

Both sides already have started with city teams. The city teams on both sides all over the world cropped up pretty much independent of each other. So the challenge is not what you do when more than one team shows up. The challenge is how do you bring about communication and coordination among teams across a country, a continent, perhaps to span the globe.

There is room for multiple Resistance teams in New York City. I think team building should be encouraged. First of all it is a scalability issue. A G+ group past 500 members does not make a lot of sense. Maybe 200 is a healthy number. Beyond that a group, any group, should do an amoeba split. When you move from 500 to 2,000 agents in the city, some neighborhoods will qualify to have their own groups. Borough groups will no longer be enough. I know I want a Greater Jackson Heights group.

I have met many agents whom I have told, "My team is not the right team for you, you should join the other team." The Squad is not for everyone.

There is a cross faction hangout that popped up in my Gmail yesterday, and most of the usual suspects showed up, chief among them the Keyser. Maybe there is room for a cross-faction squad, and there is room for The Squad to coordinate with the existing organized Resistance team(s) in the city.

At some point the city might graduate to having rival L8 farms sitting side by side, permanently, because we want to seek new challenges other than building and killing L8 farms. Similarly the teams in the city will perhaps graduate to thinking team building is a welcome phenomenon. It is just like farm building, or home territory building. The goal should be communication and coordination, not name calling on the COMM.

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Alibaba And Amazon

alibaba (Photo credit: Anna Kipervaser)

We are not used to thinking of Alibaba in the same vein as Amazon, but looks like we should.

Alibaba: The world’s greatest bazaar

Big Data, Big Confusion?

Big Data (Photo credit: Kevin Krejci)

The Problem with Our Data Obsession

however objective data may be, interpretation is subjective, and so is our choice about which data to record in the first place. While it might seem obvious that data, no matter how “big,” cannot perfectly represent life in all its complexity, information technology produces so much information that it is easy to forget just how much is missing..... life is messy, and not everything can be abstracted into data for computers to act upon

There are obvious limitations to Big Data, but overall it is a force for good. The solution to Big Data blind spots seems to be even more Big Data. No?

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