The DOMITECH blog

New project

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:07:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

Exciting things in the works here at DOMITECH... we have a new project that will be taking our focus for the next few months (our other projects are being put to the side for now, but not abandoned).

We're building a web-based computer game. I can't give any other details, since we're in stealth mode until we are able to bring the game to market.

Since we use agile/extreme programming methods here at DOMITECH, we'll be releasing the first, very basic version in a few months. We'll start out offering invitations to select folks for testing the alpha version.

We'll keep the blog up to date as we make progress!

Announcing the redesign of SaneLiving.org!

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:32:00 +0000

One of our projects over the past two weeks has been the redesign and re-launch of www.saneliving.org. A pet project of mine, SaneLiving.org, with the motto "set yourself free," is designed to inspire people to make simple lifestyle changes that improve their lives in fundamental ways. It's also the health-and-wellness intranet (except that it's not an intranet ;)) for our independent contractors.

The site has been up for a couple of years, but now that it's been relaunched using our CMS, it's a dynamic site that makes it easy for us to add new articles, as well as a few products and such.
This is our second site to use our fledgling (version 0.2!) CMS, and it is really fantastic from a developer's point of view. Setting up the site took only about a day's sustained effort, and deploying it took about the same amount of time. Now the real work is in writing articles - that's the part I like! :)

Check it out if you have a chance and let us know what you think!

And now City-dweller.com is live

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:04:00 +0000

www.city-dweller.com is now live with a basic informational website.

If you haven't been there before, houston.city-dweller.com offers recommendations of local businesses by regulars. City-dweller.com is where we explain how we'll be expanding the Houston site to be used in other cities.

The new site explains how City-dweller.com is a franchise opportunity offering a legitimate work-at-home online business, and explains the proposed pricing structure and other details. Please check it out and help us spread the word about it while we finish working out the details of the franchise contract!

houston.city-dweller.com goes live

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Our www.living-in-houston.com site has just been rebranded as houston.city-dweller.com as we prepare to extend the site to other cities nationwide.

www.city-dweller.com is just a placeholder at the moment, but a new site is in the works that will explain the pricing plan and business model for the franchise.

Check out houston.city-dweller.com and let us know what you think of the new logo!

iContact screws up perfectly

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:40:00 +0000

I just had to point out how beautifully iContact, the permissions-based email marketing service we use, messed up yesterday.

What I mean by that is this: While they had a couple of technical glitches (one minor, one double-plus-ungood) plus a human-caused error that all hit simultaneously (and that IS impressive), they handled it just the right way.

They posted many times that day & the next (today) to their public blog with updates and information. They included their real-life details, down to the pizza they were ordering for the folks working through lunch and the shouts and cheers that erupted at their offices when they figured out the biggest of the issues. They had folks working on the problems well into the wee hours this morning, and they told us about it. As soon as they knew what the problem was, they explained it. And finally, they explained that a full post-mortem is soon to come and their take-home messages shared with their customers.

They clearly already knew the message I read most recently in The New Rules of Marketing and Public Relations by David Meerman Scott: When you're under attack or when you've blown it, stay in communication and stay transparent. Pretending that everything is fine is not the way to do business anymore (if it ever was).

Despite the snafus, because of how iContact handled this crisis, I'm not worried about remaining one of their clients. And that is the kind of transparency DOMITECH also aims for.

tentative company values

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:54:00 +0000

Tracey, Billy, and I met last night and talked (in part) over our company values. I'm waiting to get input from Andrea before I post them officially, but here is the rough draft of what we came up with:

Freedom
DOMITECH exists primarily to assist its people in obtaining freedom from wage slavery. This means allowing work from home/anywhere, separating wages from hours served, not confining people to narrow job descriptions, rewarding initiative, and having as few corporate policies as possible. It also means achieving high profits and sharing them with all of our people.

Effectiveness
We do what we set out to do, with focus, clarity, and a reasonable degree of efficiency. We avoid getting sidetracked or paralyzed by corporate politics, policies, or status quo. We are adaptable, and reward initiative and efforts to make our processes and projects better.

Ownership
Everyone, no matter how mundane their role may appear to be, is personally invested in the success of the company and has a rightful sense of ownership, backed by financial incentives. We take personal responsibility for any aspects of the company we would like to see changed, as well as for our collective success.

Cooperation
We all work together with a decentralized management style, where everyone has a voice in decision-making. We freely and transparently share information to this end, and willingly train one another to learn new roles.

Fairness
We are honest and fair people, and good citizens. We deliver on promises, and we are accountable for our errors. We have no business-related secrets. We have the courage to stand up for what we believe in, and we champion the ideals we want to see become reality. We treat one another with respect and kindness. We work towards the wellbeing of ourselves, our workers, our communities, and our customers.

Fun
We try to make earning a living fun. Fun includes play, as in social events, jokes and games, but it also means having the authority to make important contributions to projects you think are cool in the ways you find most exciting. Having fun as a value also precludes massive levels of stress!

Creativity
We aren't calling it "revolutionary web dev" for nothing. We get creative, approaching our "work" as "play" so that we are free to experiment and try new things. And we try to make working for DOMITECH a creative outlet, not drudgery or monotony.

Individuality
Our people are encouraged to be themselves with all their eccentricities and diverse interests; we are "out of the closet" in whatever ways are comfortable & appropriate for us. We are not afraid of knowing each other as real people. We are free to show off our individuality in our appearance & attire.

We want our values to be ALIVE, to live within the company and serve as its soul. If we don't practice these, if we don't all have them memorized and refer to them during our daily work, then they're of no value.

Our profit-sharing plan (tentative)

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share our tentative profit-sharing plan in order to get feedback and thoughts about it.

I believe that the plan we've come up with is pretty radical and pretty generous.

A full 50% of our net income achieved through our web-based businesses will be shared out - no cap or limit.
Anyone who contributes consistently (even if part-time) for 12 months will automatically receive permanent profit-sharing points, which never expire or go away, even after they leave the company. Though, if the person stops contributing while others continue to contribute, their share will gradually dwindle due to the math (because their points remain static while others' points go up).
Because cooperation is one of our key values, all DOMITECH people will cooperatively assign profit-sharing points and the profits will be divided accordingly each month.
Points will be assigned in accordance with actual contributions to the company. This means no worries about "face time." It's not being at your desk that matters. (We don't have offices anyway!)

Here it is in a more friendly visual layout (click on the image to view full-size):

I really want to hear feedback on this... let me know what you think! Would you be willing to work under such an arrangement? If not, why not? What do you like about it?

Welcome to Andrea Garcia!

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:11:00 +0000

Andrea Garcia is now on board as well with a 6-month commitment to write web content and program in Ruby on Rails for DOMITECH.

See, writing AND programming... that's what's fun about 'Joy at Work' - no getting pigeonholed in a narrow job description!

Like Tracey, Andrea is happy to get free training in programming - she says, "that in itself is worth real currency!"

We're very excited to have Andrea on board! :)

Tracey Clark on board!

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 02:16:00 +0000

We are very excited to announce that Tracey Clark has accepted our invitation to come on board with DOMITECH! She's made a 6-month commitment to be a part-time developer on our CMS project in exchange for future profit-sharing. She's fairly new to programming, and considers the training we'll be able to give her to be a fair trade even if future profits don't meet our expectations.

We welcome Tracey and look forward to our shared success!

New focus for our website

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 04:40:00 +0000

Hi folks,

We just changed almost every page of our website a few minutes ago, after working on the new content for a couple of weeks.

Thanks to a brief business lunch with a couple of colleagues (hi guys! you know who you are...), we realized that we needed to focus our communications more clearly when it comes to what we're doing and how.

I also realized that this site needs to be a recruiting tool for DOMITECH much more than a sales brochure for potential clients. Our change in focus from client-centered to project-centered is significant and needed to be reflected on the site. Not that we aren't still happy to do client work, but our primary interest is in creating income-generating websites that our own people find of interest.

Speaking of our own people, we still don't have any other than us, your humble founders ;) And on that note, I realized, also due to our mystery colleagues mentioned above, that we need to extend more specific invitations to people we'd like to have involved. Those will be going out over the next couple of weeks, and as we get people on board, we'll announce it here.

If you read our new content and like what we're offering, and you fit the profile on the "Get Involved" page (www.dom-itech.com/getinvolved.php), then by all means drop me an email - hilary.catherall@dom-itech.com.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the coming year will bring us here at DOMITECH!

Update: www.living-in-houston.com

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:02:00 +0000

Hi all,

I know we've been quiet lately - we've been focusing a lot of attention on one of our "pet" projects - http://www.living-in-houston.com/.

Living-in-Houston.com offers recommendations of the best local businesses & other spots in Houston.

The site has been live for a while now as a static website, but we just relaunched it with a new design as a dynamic Ruby on Rails website.

We love Ruby on Rails so much now that we're contemplating becoming an exclusively RoR shop when it comes to web development.

So, while you're surfing the web anyway, check out http://www.living-in-houston.com/ - at least, if you're a Houstonian :)

Our first press release!

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:14:00 +0000

Our very first press release went out over the wire less than an hour ago. It's titled, "New Houston Technology Company, DOMITECH, Aims for Joy At Work."

The release announces our decision to formally adopt Dennis Bakke's Joy at Work management approach (see www.dennisbakke.com) and explains why we're so excited about it.

A PDF version of the press release can be found under the Media link on our website.

rant about cubicles

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 22:57:00 +0000

Today I read the "business case" for "open workspace arrangements" (translation: cubicles) from one of the world's largest and most profitable companies.

Their argument was two-fold: one, that cubicles were more cost-effective, and two, that they allowed for better communication.

So far as cost goes, they said that cubicles allow for more efficient use of space. Apparently, large companies calculate how many square feet they're currently giving each employee, and aim to whittle it down as much as possible, step-by-step. What this translates to is this: "If we pack you in like sardines, we save money." Also, they said (though in much fancier words) that it made moving people around all the time cheaper. Hm. Well, I'm sure they're right about the cost savings, but I have my doubts about whether it's worth the trade-offs.

Moving on to their second point, they claimed that cubicles facilitate "natural mentoring relationships" and better informal communications and teamwork. The first bit sounds like nonsense to me. I've worked in cubicles for years, and I got much more "natural mentoring" at the companies where people had real offices, though in all honesty I think that relates much more to other aspects of company culture than it does to office layout. So far as facilitating communication and teamwork, I think that's a fine idea that when a team is working together on a given project, they should sit in the same room as much as possible so they can freely discuss it as they go. At EVERY other time, cubicles facilitate only one thing: irritating interruptions and distractions.

Then there's the total lack of privacy and the distinct feeling that you're being treated like something less than a responsible adult who can be trusted to work without a supervisor's eye right on him. And the fact that pretty much everyone universally hates cubicles. I think that kind of fact should be extremely relevant to a "business case."

For these reasons, DOMITECH will not have cubicles. First of all, we won't even have offices until we absolutely have to. We love the idea of people working from home whenever possible. Secondly, when we do have offices, they'll have two kinds of workspaces -- communal ones, with groupings of computers where the teams can sit together to work on projects they are working on together, and private offices for those times when someone needs to be uninterrupted for a while. Even then, most people will work from home most of the time. No one will "own" their own space, unless they're on a team project that's long-term and then the spaces will become theirs for the duration.

Let me clarify, too, what I mean by "teamwork." Teamwork is NOT a group of people working in parallel. If me and five other people are all working on separate parts of one large website and we don't need anyone else's input on what we're doing, that's not teamwork. On the other hand, if we're working on related and intertwined parts of a website and we need to make sure that everything's coming together properly hour by hour, that's teamwork. That requires close communication without walls.

"Joy at Work"

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 03:02:00 +0000

I've just finished reading "Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job" by Dennis W. Bakke and I am absolutely delighted by it.

Mr. Bakke has spent 20 years figuring out how to make workplaces fun, primarily as the CEO of energy megacorp AES.

It's a relief to discover that someone else has already paved the way, and on a large scale (AES had 40,000 employees and operations in 31 countries while he was CEO).

I am definitely going to take his experiences to heart in shaping DOMITECH.

The basic idea is one of radical decentralization, utilizing an "advice process" instead of the approval of supervisors; Mr. Bakke found that people get the most fulfillment and enjoyment from work when they have the freedom and authority to make decisions and accept responsibility for the results. The structure blurs the line between managers and workers, with everyone on salary and entitled to the same bonuses. Everyone becomes a "business person" who makes a real contribution to the company's success in whatever way best suits them.

This approach also requires a transparent organization where employees are given access to all information about the company (so that they are empowered to make decisions), and it requires a sincere commitment from everyone to the company's values and purpose that are not tied to profit (focusing on profit nullifies all other measures of success and undermines the employees' sense of contributing to something meaningful).

I knew most of this on a sort of instinctive level, but it's great to have details from someone who's been there.

Now that I've really grokked this, I don't think I could ever stomach working for a standard hierarchical, paternalistic company again.

Salespeople needed

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:39:00 +0000

Now that our website is finally presentable and I've hammered out our branding concept, we're ready to bring in some salespeople and create some other marketing collateral (like brochures).

I just posted this on www.craigslist.com:

DOMITECH, LLC is a new company with the vision of becoming the most effective, admired, and trusted technology consulting company in the world, by solving important problems with ingenious technology solutions and earning the loyalty of the world's best technology consultants.

You will work independently, earning only commission, 8% of gross receipts for projects you bring in, with no maximum or cap. And we (the owners) will come in to help you close the deals. There is a lot of potential here, limited only by your ability to bring in the projects.

We want to work closely with you to develop our sales strategy, including creating marketing collateral.

Interested? Contact us today! Call Hilary Catherall at 281-224-6152 or email hilary.catherall@dom-itech.com. Please review our website before contacting us: www.dom-itech.com.

DOMITECH
We do things differently.

New website goes live!

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:33:00 +0000

I'm pretty happy with it and excited that our site finally looks nice. It's designed using CSS (no HTML markup for design) and XHTML. I used www.istockphoto.com for images; I love that site.

I'm not completely finished with the site; I want to add more/better images, and add a lot more content. I already have a lot of information about our employment philosophy, which I need to balance by adding more about our work philosophy for the benefit of clients. I'm also going to make the leftnav dynamic so it indicates what page you're on. (That's why they're PHP pages.)

Please, send me your thoughts on the site... I would love to get any and all (constructive!) criticism and comments.

Careers at DOMITECH

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 02:31:00 +0000

DOMITECH has two things going for it: one is that we're providing elegant, integrated, truly useful solutions to important problems, and the other is that we're helping lead the way in the workplace revolution -- providing a fantastic place to work.

Though we aren't able to do this currently, ultimately all consultants will be permanent staff with benefits, and it will be our responsibility to keep you billable.

We will offer the following benefits:

A standard 30-hour work week, with full benefits paid for employees who meet that standard (working longer hours is fine but optional)
No mandatory overtime
Telecommuting encouraged
Overtime paid for all employees, whether technically exempt or not
Paid vacation, holidays, and sick time
Full standard benefits (dental, medical, vision, 401(k), etc.)
Generous quarterly profit sharing
Merit raises
No worries about piercings, tattoos, colored hair or mohawks, as long as you look clean and carry yourself in a professional manner

We are excited about creating a company where the best people in the industry are dying to work for us.

why another technology consulting company?

noreply@blogger.com (theskyling) — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:16:00 +0000

Because the world needs one that doesn't suck (that's the technical term ;)).

If you've ever worked on a tech project with a consulting company, you know this.

The world needs a tech company that provides the best solution for the particular job, produces quality work done by enthusiastic people, and handles everything smoothly.

Equally important, it needs a tech company that values people over profits and wants to see everybody involved having some fun. None of us is getting any younger, and it's past time that we stopped the "all work and no play" routine.

Don't hire us just because you think we can do the job... hire us because you agree with our philosophy. :) That'll make us really happy.