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By Stefan Sojka

I just read this article about the Physics of Angry Birds in Wired Magazine on-line:  http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/physics-of-angry-birds/  It made me think about how such 'simple' looking games are programmed and the maths and geometry built in...

Programming is generally fairly unmathematical – sure, it may seem like a similar type of activity that similar types of people might perform, but without the maths component, programming is quite limited to instructions and functions devoid of physical behaviours – motion, shape and change over time...

The better a programmer understands maths as well as programming, the better the motion is going to be, which is why a lot of programs and games seem to have rather clunky motion... the programmer simply wasn't that good at maths.

Any good coder ought to have a pretty good maths qualification to complement their programming abilities.  Ask for their resume.  Look for the evidence of mathematical genius. :-)  We have used a couple of maths genius coders over the years – and it makes a huge difference to how their finished work turns out.  Everything is smoother, and their ability to get things done is far better than programmers who only learned programming code.

Most animation and video programs, such as Adobe After Effects or Flash have the ability to key in mathematical formulas, outside of their standard presets (which are largely mathematical in foundation as well).  Anyone who knows how to get in and tweak the formulas is going to have a whole new level of control and ability to perform what you might require.

Programming is powerful, but throw in some pure maths and you make magic happen.

By Stefan Sojka

There is often a grey area surrounding computer programming as to who owns the rights to any intellectual property involved.  Before you enter into any Web development project, make sure you and the Web developer are very clear about the rights surrounding the project.

Some programming is provided with a limited single-use licence, since the code itself is owned by the programmers or the company the programmer works for.  Some programming may be owned by you, if you enter into the development under that arrangement – that you will have complete ownership and full rights to the code and any intellectual property.

Sometimes it becomes a legal and ethical minefield, because, while you may own the rights to the business process you are asking a programmer to develop, you may still not own their code.  This makes it very difficult if you want to take your business elsewhere.

Don't forget also that any Website or computer application depends on a whole range of third party software to run, such as server software, operating system, security software, firewalls and many other products.  Almost always your application will be dependent on all these tools to operate and you will be leasing, sub-leasing them or perhaps taking advantage of open source products.  Either way, you will not be in full control nor have full ownership of the entire ecosystem of products and services that you will be depending on.  Much like you might own a car but depend on roads, traffic lights and street signs to get around, owning or using a computer program puts you inside a much larger infrastructure that you can't always control, much as you would like to think you can.

In all matters of this nature, we recommend consulting a lawyer before taking any action.  As part of our digital media and technical consulting process, we can provide you with the range of considerations you need to be aware of.

Internet copyright law is still very much an evolving topic, so it is very helpful to have an experienced company working with you to highlight any issues that could potentially arise.

By Stefan Sojka

While it is common knowledge that many people use overseas companies to take on programming jobs, due to the lower wages and costs, what they often forget are the issues that may arise:

• Communication barriers may exist, not just with language, but with time zones and different business practices or standards
• Sometimes a local ‘agent’ might take on a job, then outsource it overseas without the client knowing or having much say in it.  Then, when the project hits a stumbling block, things can get very difficult, even to the point of the agent losing control and the project failing completely
• It can be difficult to deal with any disputes or legal issues, since the outsourced company may operate under different national laws.  The channels of resolution that we are very fortunate to have in Australia may not be available
• It can happen that the overseas company may quote very low to get a job and then introduce all kinds of additional costs as the project unfolds, once they know you are powerless to take the project elsewhere
• Projects can be developed with proprietary code that you don’t own and can’t take elsewhere, so you are stuck with the development company no matter how badly the project turns out
• It might be difficult to get even the basic specifications of the job right, if you are not able to meet with the programming team in person to work it all out.

If you are considering outsourcing overseas, keep the above points in mind.  In the end it might be cheaper to pay higher local rates in order to guarantee that the job is done right first time, with peace of mind, the security of knowing you can deal directly with the company involved and the protection of our strong local laws, regulations and insurance.

If you want to take advantage of the many benefits of outsourcing programming overseas, it is often advisable to go through a local contact or company with an overseas office where the work is done.  This way you may pay a bit of a premium to cover the local costs of managing the project, but because you are engaging a local company, you will have more protection for fair trading, a local person to deal with and the extra confidence of working with a company that you have a better chance of assessing and determining their credibility and credentials.  Just be sure to do your homework before getting started.

It can work out very well indeed, so long as you are prepared and aware of the risks.

By Stefan Sojka

The following questions were sent via email to a range of digital media consultants, Stefan included, for an article about social media marketing in NETT magazine.  The answers were combined and edited to create the article, which took the form of a round-table discussion.  Here are Stefan's un-edited responses, as sent via email:

1. Across different companies, there’s a wide range of people responsible for social media marketing, such as PR firms, marketing departments, IT departments, executives, HR departments, ad agencies or even the receptionist who has a lot of friends on Facebook.  Who do you think should be in charge of social media marketing, and why?

Social media marketing must originate at the executive level, with the formulation of policy and guidelines founded on a deep understanding of the medium.  The traditional boundaries between personal and corporate communications do not exist and you will never control every single posting on every Website by every staff member, customer and potential customer.  Accepting this as the fundamental ‘Rule #1’ might force you to rethink your policies and guidelines considerably.

In a way, no-one is in charge of social media marketing – it’s a bit like the mechanical bull at the local pub that everyone is taking turns having a ride on.  The complaints department should go first, then customer support.  If customer complaints and issues are dealt with swiftly and comprehensively and a company posts as much helpful information as possible on-line, your ride will probably last a lot longer than the company spruiker.

In the end it will be a complex mix of players that will affect your social media marketing, from opinion leaders you’ve never heard of (who might already be working for you without you knowing) to the professional PR firm whose role it is to find out what is going on out there, make recommendations and orchestrate a diverse range of strategies, to be undertaken by whoever suits the role.  This is a world of networks, Google searches, videos, blog posts and comments.  You have to be active across all of it, with as much honesty and integrity that you can muster.

2. Should managers try to control what their staff say on social networks?  Should they allow them to access social networks during work hours?

You can’t control it, and you can’t ever expect to – the more you try, the more it will probably backfire.  However, employees need to realise that their own behaviour can easily backfire, too. What is a potential employer going to think if she/he reads what you are writing about your current boss?  What managers can do is encourage good communication skills, positive attitudes and lead by example.  What you give is what you get.  The more enlightened and constructive your social media contributions, regardless of what people say back, the better off you and your business will be.  You can build a successful business and a big following online, simply by blogging helpful, educational, informative material.

Access during work hours is controversial.  I allow it in my office, but I remind my staff how easily distracting and time-consuming it can be – and I also make sure I keep them so busy that they don’t have much time!  Chat is a nice relief in between work tasks and some of my team use it to source instant professional advice from their learned friends.  However, blogging, FaceBook and YouTube can become full-time occupations on their own.  There is a never-ending stream of material to view, read and respond to, so it is generally best left to after hours.

3. Do you think it’s acceptable to use the following techniques  – and why?
a) ‘Trusted avatars’ – pretending to be a real person not affiliated with a company to spruik that company’s products/services

This can work, but is quite risky, since it is difficult to do well.  I would rather be up front, make connections with integrity and hope for positive responses than get caught out and end up the victim of a humiliating public ‘outing’ campaign in a popular forum.

In small business, I think it is quite reasonable to participate in any conversation and admit that you own a business – it’s usually the first question anyone asks me – “What do you do?”  That is if they don’t already know, because they can read my profile.  So long as I can maintain a conversation that doesn’t always revert to me offering special discounts on selected products if they buy before the end of the month, most people will accept that I am a business person and be okay with that.  If they want to do business with me, they will ask.  There is no need to pretend.

b) ‘Seeding conversations’ – posing questions about a product and then answering the question using trusted avatars or sock puppets

This depends on the context, but this can work.  Kevin Rudd does this very well – he loves posing questions and answering them himself!  There would only be certain situations on-line where it would not appear contrived.  You can always point people to your Website's FAQ page.  Better to engage real people to ask real questions and provide genuine answers.  This can also backfire, if it looks and sounds like you have brought a ‘plant’ into the audience with you.  You might both get outed.  Larger companies can get away with this more, because it is more believable that many people would be out there asking and answering questions about their products.  Still, the answer should come from a genuine employee, like someone from customer support who identifies themselves and has a genuine reason for being in the conversation.  Seek out relevant existing conversations and blogs and participate as a genuine contributor.

c) Buying lists of ‘friends’ on social networks

We have done this in the past for clients with mixed results.  If the ’friends’ are sourced with a high likelihood of actually being interested in your products or services, it can work well, as you may get a proportion of them remaining friends and responding positively.  Chances are, however, that most of these kinds of ’friends’ are scammers and spammers anyway, looking for overnight Internet stardom by collecting thousands of random followers.  You might just end up wasting a lot of time trawling through all their spammy posts when you could be concentrating on your own valuable communications with a genuine audience.  Collect friends by all means, but be careful which circles you mix in – just like in the real world.

4. If you’re marketing a product, how do you introduce yourself into someone else’s conversation?  How should you declare your interest when you do?

I see two ways of achieving this.  The first is to ensure your profile/avatar information is honestly and accurately filled out.  That way, anyone can immediately click on it and discover what you are all about.  The second way is to bring it up at whatever time is appropriate, either by mentioning it in your post, or by answering truthfully when asked.  Be prepared, however, that the other person may then go off and Google you.  Also make sure that whatever you said prior to your self-interest being declared will not harm your reputation or credibility, once your identity is revealed.

By Stefan Sojka

This blog is about how you can boost your keyword search ranking in Google.  It is also actually helping to boost ranking of this Website at the same time as it is telling you!

Blogging is a great way to add content to your Website – good, relevant, helpful content.  Search engines like to index more content on a Website, as it helps determine if your site is better than the next one and so should be higher up the ranks for the certain keywords your site or blog might be about.

Since I want to get found for, say, 'Website design Sydney', or 'Web design Sydney', it makes sense that I should blog about this topic and related topics.  It is an opportunity to tell people what you know about your business and your industry, which in turn lets people see that you are knowledgable and authoritative, and helps Google and other search engines index you better.

The best way to do this is to make sure that your blogs are topical and relevant – so this blog posting is about how to get better ranking in Google – by writing blogs!  It’s ironic, but by blogging about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for ‘Website design Sydney’, I am informing my readers and boosting search engine ranking at the same time.

So, like your blog, which will be all about your business, the posts in this blog covers many topics related to Web development, Internet marketing, business Websites, Internet culture, marketing tips and technical advice.  All of these add content and information, and help Google decide that this site is worth putting up the list a little more – in other words, is worth visiting.

If you do it right, chances are that other Websites will start linking to your blog articles.  This further increases your on-line footprint and lifts you higher up the listings.  It also boosts the overall quality of your industry’s presence on-line – because someone like you has taken the time to write something helpful and informative for your fellow industry members and customers.

Blogging is a great way to communicate and is also a really good way to add value to your Website in more ways than one.  Information, advice, expertise, link-building, search engine ranking – everything is given a little boost every time you post a blog.

Happy blogging, and if you are based in Sydney and are looking for a Web developer who understands Website marketing and internet business, give us a call. :-)

By Stefan Sojka

About 13 years ago I made a big mistake.  I bought a PC.  There I was, a true Apple Mac devotee, surfing the net, making music, building Web pages and running my business, when it was time to upgrade.  At the time, Apple Macs were relatively quite expensive, compared to PCs, and a friend offered me a second-hand Pentium 90 for $500.  Compared to the three or four grand a new Mac was going to cost, I jumped at it.  I crossed to the dark side.

PCs are cobbled together Frankenstiens, built from a terrible collection of misfitting parts, all with different protocols, standards, compatibilities, etc.  And their operating system is one made by a man whose primary objective was not to make the best operating system in the world, rather to just get his operating system into as many computers in the world as he could.  Windows, an overlay to MSDOS, is a mess.  No wonder the 'blue screen of death' became such a well-known phenomenon.  Clunky, buggy, insecure... and that's just the software – the hardware – with all its associated third party software just adds exponentially to the complexity, and in turn, to the problems.

Since that fateful day of purchasing the PC, I have become a slave to the system.  Endless patches, upgrades, re-boots, blue screens, error messages, downtime – so much down time!  Not only that, but I was set on a path of never-ending spending on new bits and pieces.  My Apple was a single unit – the PC was a box full of junk, each piece of junk requiring replacement at regular intervals.

All of this is fine, if you are a boffin – boffins (nerds, geeks, whatever) love pulling things apart and replacing things.  They love the latest gadgetry – they even love it when things crash, because it gives them a chance to prove how much of a boffin they are as they join newsgroups and search technical documentation in their quest to resolve the problem.  I am not a boffin – I use computers because I want to get things done.

I might have saved three grand on that fateful day I bought my first PC, but I think over the last 13 years, I have probably wasted at least $100,000 in downtime, lost productivity, fees paid to boffins, lost focus (as I spend half my life talking to boffins) and my environmental footprint, with all the wasted junk I have bought, re-bought and thrown away, is about the size of King Kong.

It's time for me – and the world – to wake up.  We don't need PCs – we never did – Bill Gates only made us think we did – because he wanted to control the world.  PCs will always be poor imitations of real computers.  They will always be cobbled together, they will always be ever more complex as each operating system upgrade adds layer upon layer of disguise to try to look like an elegant machine.  All you get is a window to a vista of sophistry.

Looking forward I have decided to replace most of my PCs with Apples.  Apples are not perfect, by any measure, but at this point in time, their elegance, design, reliability, performance and productivity outstrips the PC.  Those funny adverts are true – that's why they work so well.  Microsoft are running scared.  The era of forcing people to bend to your will and hand over all their money for something that will give them more trouble than it's worth is over.  This is the Apple/Google era.  Software in clouds, not shrink-wrapped.  The Internet is complicated enough – managing our lives these days is hard work – the last thing we need is for the devices we use continuing to be the bane of our existence.

I'm switching back.  I'm going home.  Apples are good for you.

By Stefan Sojka

It's like... the numbers never added up.  When average house prices went up by more than an average person could earn in a year, something was terribly wrong.

If everything is over-priced and everyone over-borrows to pay for it all, the only way to keep up is to rip the resources of the planet off.  No-one factors what nature provides – they just take it for free.  Nature is the only real input that feeds the system – minerals, human toil and animal/plant harvesting.  But even pillaging the planet can't be done fast enough to cover the ridiculously stratospheric numbers conjured up in financial circles.

The worker is not much better off than the planet – the debts can't even be covered working 20-hour days, 7 days a week.  Not even interest payments on the house can be covered at that rate, it seems.

You can't dig enough tin ore fast enough to feed the beast of the stock market, no matter how many guns are pointed at the poor Congolese peasants.

So of course the system will collapse.  Thankfully it was the financial system first, not the natural system – you can't eat money.

New models must arise – and are arising.  It's just that governments, business and the general public are hypnotised into thinking "this is the best system we have."  The faulty logic being that communism failed, therefore we must have the best system in the universe.

Just because we have Mac and PC operating systems, doesn't mean there is not a far better way to run a computer than both of them.

That's my socio-political rant for the day! :-)

By Stefan Sojka

Can you believe that it is nearly Christmas – AGAIN??!!

Here we are half-way through November.  The Christmas decorations are up – the parties are being planned – and some have already been held!  Is it just me, or is time really speeding up?  We have a bunch of Websites on the go right now – and of course everyone wants everything finished before Christmas – so we can all sun ourselves on the beach, sipping cocktails, knowing that our Websites are working!

Fortunately we have a new Website building and management system, with Content Management, CRM, blog, news, FAQs, statistics, templates, newsletters – everything a business needs in a single Website to get up and running, attract new business and manage existing business really well.

So, yes, Christmas is fast approaching, but we are steadily working away on designing, building and managing a number of great new Websites, ready for a huge 2009.

By Stefan Sojka

We operate in an industry that is built on an incredibly complex array of technology.  One of the most frustrating aspects for us and our customers is just how many different opportunities there are for technology to go wrong – on or off-line – with computers.

There are literally thousands of links in any chain between people on the Internet – even inside a single computer!  There are dozens of service providers.  Some we know about:

• Your ISP
• Your domain name registrar
• The company who built your computer
• The company who built your Website visitor’s computer
• Your Web developer – us

…and some we don’t:

• The owner of the submarine cable or satellite
• ISP installation contractors
• Server maintenance company
• Domain name authority
• Browser software developer community
• International Internet standards bodies
• Network router suppliers, like Cisco Systems
• The list goes on and on.

Besides all of the above, a successful Internet experience depends on the people at either end of the exchange.  Here are some issues that can and do happen along the way:

• Sound is used, but the end user doesn’t have speakers
• Visitors to a Website run an ancient browser, so the site doesn’t display correctly for them
• People run security software with settings that disrupt even safe activity
• An ISP’s DNS server has issues, causing some sites to be inaccessible
• An ISP like Telstra can get a massive surge of Spam and slow everything down
• Software gets installed and causes a conflict
• Website hosting software gets upgraded and some functions stop working due to a different configuration
• This list also goes on and on!

Over the past 12 years we have seen it all.  One day we will probably write a book about it.  Suffice to say we have come to accept technological issues as part of day-to-day life in the computer world.

When things go wrong, we are often the first people to hear about it, even if it is not our fault.  Sometimes we are not informed, when we should be – as customers think that perhaps their ISP is to blame.

What we would like to say about all of this is that we hope you understand a little about the scope of the industry we are all participating in.  We hope you accept that it is in the very nature of something so complex that things will go wrong.

In saying this, we are always here to help.  If you need advice or are becoming frustrated with a technical issue or service issue, please let us know.  We might just be able to help you work out where the real problem lies and who the real culprit is.  Sometimes it is something we can fix.  At the very least we can point you in the right direction.

If after we investigate a problem, we find it is our fault, we are bound to sort it out for you at no charge.  If it turns out to be one of the other many links in the chain beyond our responsibility, we will either recommend a solution, or arrange to fix it for you.  In these cases, we will charge a service fee for our time.

As one of your business service providers, we are here to help you manage this very complicated maze of technology that impacts – and helps – your business.  Nobody likes the ‘issues’ part of the equation – it certainly doesn’t seem very productive.  However, by effectively managing these inevitable problems, we do get to enjoy the huge benefits of the technology for all the times things are running smoothly.

With your understanding and our support, we can all move forward in this exciting digital world.

By Stefan Sojka

For those who don't wish to invest in the Internet but still want a small business Website that makes a lot of money...

This was a letter I wrote to a client who wanted to arrange a meeting to discuss the possibility of us building them a one-page Website for as cheap as possible – with the intention of having that Website bring in a whole lot of new business

Dear Prospect,

Hope you had a great weekend.

I am sorry to let you know that I can’t make the appointment today at 11.30.  We might make another time, but I need you to consider this email first.

I had a good think about it over the weekend and really we are a little outside the boundaries of the scope of work you said you were looking for at this time.  This being said, I think you might like to consider expanding that scope, with the following in mind:

We offer a much higher level of Internet marketing and development service which generally achieves excellent results for our clients.  Many of them have turned over $1 million and more as a direct result of the work we do.  The investment required to achieve these results these days is tiny in proportion to any other form of marketing/media.  However, the work is highly specialised, using a mix of senior developers, writers, search engine specialists, etc. and the costs to achieve the intended results necessitates us charging accordingly.

A typical investment for Internet marketing and business development might be $10K–$30K a year, and the work includes:

* Complete business assessment, covering all aspects of the business and the potential for growth
* Development of a detailed proposal, plan and quotation
* Design and development of initial Website, with complex programming devices designed to create new business
* Develop and implement a search engine marketing strategy
* Provide ongoing assessment of the results of the marketing efforts
* Modification of site and marketing strategy as results are analysed
* Ongoing consulting

The reason for all of this is because the landscape of the Internet has changed significantly in the last few years.  There is big potential for growth for any business, but it is a more complex and competitive space now.  It is no longer sufficient to put a page up and wait for the phone to start ringing.  Google is setting the pace and expecting people to pay for every click they receive to their Website.  They do offer some traffic through their free searches, but that is mostly limited to the top 5 or 10 sites.  So, one has to be a lot smarter and proactive, leveraging numerous marketing techniques, including Google’s own systems, to reap the financial gains offered by the Internet.

We can do this for you, but we can’t afford to do it without a reasonable allocation of budget to the project by the companies we work for.  The ones that realise this are benefiting greatly from our expertise.  The ones that don’t invest enough, idle along like everybody else.  It is costly work for us, with very high wages and other expenses (software, hardware, service providers, etc.), and we operate on minimal margins.  For those who are prepared to go the distance and budget accordingly, the rewards are there.

We have many success stories – all in proportion to the amount of in-house effort they put in and the amount they invested in our services.

I hope this explains things enough.  Please consider the fact that a reasonable budget would really benefit the business.  If so, I would be more than happy to set up a time later in the week for a full assessment of your needs.

Kind regards,

Stefan