Meet the Geeks Minutes
November 16, 2011
Attendees: Al Brown, Ward Davis, David Keoning, Greck Cannon, Bill Schlanger, and Frank Koenen
- Call to order
- Introductions
- Request for Proposal Dropbox — need quotes to create one for the Geeks site — Bill S. has volunteered to develop a form after the first of the year. He is booked until the end of the year with projects. Frank recommends Contact Form 7 and he volunteered to configure it. Stacy will install the plug-in and contact Frank.
- Membership Directory
- Darryl Brown found that creating a LinkedIn API interface with WordPress is very time consuming. We would like to simplify the process now and create a member database and a search based on skill sets. What should the profiles contain and what skill sets do we offer that we can search by? — Frank has volunteered to work on this. Possibly Frank would create a custom plug-in for this directory. Stacy will contact Frank via e-mail.
- Business shorts — NACET would like to do a business short for each Geek to go on your member profile and to be used for your marketing. Stacy and Jeff would like to do 2 shoots per month to highlight your brand. Frank and Bill will be our Guinea Pigs.
- Volunteers for Lunch and Learns — First to be held in February. Al B. and Ward D. were talking about “Diagramming” at the last meeting such as message sequence diagramming, state machines, mockups in Firefox.,RDF, XUL, Description frameworks, Capturing Android Apps, Apple Apps, how to structure, etc. They are also interested in imaging data capturing. Best Practices for Description Frameworks and RDF Data. Frank may be able to turn this into a talk and Al B. may be able to start a simple introductory class. Al Brown will get back to Stacy if he can do an introductory course. Stacy will follow up with Al. The conversation then geared to speak about Bill S.’s project work working with the language “Spin” on his propeller chips. Bill S. and Al Brown are using it for displays in electric cars. Bill could give a decent overview of his Propeller and Spin in February. Idea– Have a lunch and learn that is a demo day of products that Geeks have created.
- Start-up Weekend — NACET has contacted the Kaufman Foundation to see if we can have a weekend in Flagstaff. Please look for interest since we need about 50 people to express interest to move forward.
- Meeting opened to discussion. Jeff S. started talking about his new iPhone. Jeff feels that his productivity is higher on his new iPhone. He feels that the applications run smoother and more seemlisly on his iPhone than his DROID 2. Eric N. is curious to do research on what devices are most popular in Flagstaff. He feels that Apple excels because Steve Jobs decided to focus on customer experience. NACET could set up a student research team to answer the question of what device is most popular in Flagstaff. A discussion ensued regarding AT&T vs. Verizon. What is your favorite app on your phone. Greck C. is a huge Foursquare fan. Jeff mentioned the “Social Dispensing” that he, Bill S. and Garrick B. created for Brookside Chocolate. Eric N.’s most utilized app is Facebook. Ward D. mentioned how iPads are being used in schools and how they are revolutionizing education. Greck C. mentions Photosynth project. Software that allows you to construct a 3D representation. Aaron built an app (Fast Customer) that allows you to talk to any customer service representative by navigating to a CSR instead of having you work through the phone tree and then calling the consumer when a CSR is on the line. Aaron has developed 2 iPhone apps. Aaron is beta testing Siri integration currently. Jeff asked if it was difficult to get Aaron’s product in the Apple Market. It took awhile for review, but it is was not difficult. The Fast Customer app took Aaron’s company about three weeks to develop. The company’s goal later is to no longer have surveys taken after call, but to develop analytics using Fast Customer so that the company the client is calling can see how the call influences client perceptions. They want to improve analytics. Final discussions involved what a student research team is and what they can accomplish after Eric N. asked about NAU and student involvement in NACET and in the Meet the Geeks group.
