Quick reminder that The New New Internet: Web 2.0 for Business conference is happening this Thursday in Reston, Va.  The speaker line-up has come together really well, and there are several talks and panels that I’m especially excited about.  More than 600 people have registered so far.  You still can too, and the promo code “viget” will save you $100.

The night before (yes, on Halloween) we’re planning on an informal happy hour (no costumes, please) from 6-8 pm at McCormick & Schmick’s (Reston Town Center, near the hotel).  There will be a bunch of Viget folks there that night and/or all day at the conference, including me, so please say hello.

We’re in the middle of Startup Weekend DC, which we’re hosting here at Viget HQ in Falls Church.  Here’s a relatively the last recorded live shot of the main room (teams are spread out in huddle rooms):

What’s Startup Weekend?  Read the official about page here, or my earlier post here.  In short:

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of small business entrepreneurs to build a community and company in a weekend. The founders decide what to make as a team, and earn an equal share of stock in the developed business. Attendees are responsible for bringing the desire and passion to the project and walk out of the room with a brand new business, in a short 54 hours. Sound intense? It is

We had about 75 people show up last night to hear the pitches, debate the concepts, and select the one idea that we want to rally around and launch by Sunday night.  This wasn’t an easy process.  The group had pre-selected 3 concepts, but another 10 or so were pitched last night.  In the end, 2 ideas had a lot of support, so the room was certainly divided.  A simple vote settled it.

With the high-level concept selected, teams split out on a quest for clarity and focus, and for a while it seemed neither was in the cards.  There were hints of mutiny and even the a group vote about 2 hours in to make sure everyone wanted to keep charging ahead (vs. falling back on idea #2).  By the time the Lab cleared out around 1 am, spirits were high again and there was a general sense that we had a specific enough idea that we’d be able to get it done.

Today, we continue to have a great turnout.  We also have a name and the start of a site. 

The big idea?

Be a part of your community, help plan events, share important information, and meet the person next door. 

For hour-by-hour coverage, head over to dc.startupweekend.com and catch Micah’s updates.  You can also see the photos on flickr.  At this moment the Lab is humming and lots of great work is being done.  Stay tuned to see how it all wraps up.

Our Durham office recently launched Refresh the Triangle, a new chapter of the international Refreshing Cities network.  There are many compelling reasons to participate in and contribute to Refresh, but it takes significant time and energy to get a new group off the ground.  Peyton put a lot of hours into that juicy design! 

So why have we committed the effort to getting Refresh the Triangle going?  For the same reason we’re doing things like hosting Startup Weekend at Viget HQ.  We know that an active, connected community of web professionals is good for everyone.  When we announced our plans to open an office in Durham, Brian said we wanted to get involved and “shake things up” in the community.  This is one of the things we’re doing to that end.

We think Refresh has the potential to be a great thing for the web community in the Triangle area, but it’s not about us.  We’re just kick-starting the group and providing some space to meet, and we look forward everyone contributing to make it a big success.

Our first meeting is today, October 25th, at our office. We are thrilled to have Jackson Fox as our speaker and close to 30 people planning to attend.  If we can meet our short term goals (no technical difficulties, tasty refreshments, active Q&A after Jackson’s talk), I think we’ll be well on our way to meeting our long term goals. If you’re in the Triangle, I hope you’ll join us!

In early July, about 70 people got together to try to launch a web business in one weekend. VoSnap didn’t launch on time, but those involved deemed Startup Weekend a big success, so Andrew Hyde decided to take the show on the road. I was fortunate to meet Andrew in Colorado and got to see some of the weekend go down in person. I told him then — let’s do this in DC. Now we are.

Will, Matt, Andy, and I — along with a bunch of other people (including Martin) – have been coordinating to make Startup Weekend DC a reality.  Our primary contribution will be hosting the event at our new office space. 

Several other weekends have happened since Boulder, and we’ve been watching them to see what works and what doesn’t. Pre-selecting the technology is clearly wise, which we’d done (Ruby on Rails).   Narrowing the project ideas down before kickoff has also happened.  Limiting the size of the group also seems like a good idea, but since more than 150 people initially showed interest, we felt compelled to keep it as open as our space would allow (we’re currently at about 1/2 that number).  I’m excited to see how the large group works together — with the right mindset, we can get a lot done.

As I said, for me Startup Weekend is about getting a bunch of smart people together to share knowledge, collaborate, and try to accomplish something. It’s more about the experience than the outcome.  If you’ll be nearby, stop in for a visit and see how it’s going.

Alex Iskold has a great post on Read/WriteWeb about The Future of Software Development. He does a good job of quickly summarizing the evolution of software development, and why older methods don’t work. In my view, his post title is misleading — he’s really describing the current state of software development for web applications.

Our work with start-ups over the years has pushed us to apply agile methods because requirements change constantly in an evolving business. As we meet new clients, we often go through a similar description of the way software development practices have improved over the years. Some key points from Alex:

The Old: Waterfall Model

“The idea was to construct systems by first gathering requirements, then doing the design, then implementing it, then testing, and finally getting it out the door in one linear sequence.”

“We have come a long way since then and learned a lot about making software. The Waterfall Model is now considered a flawed method because it is so rigid and unrealistic. In the real world, software projects have ill-defined and constantly evolving requirements, making it impossible to think everything through at once. Instead, the best software today is created and evolved using agile methods. These techniques allow engineers to continuously re-align software with business and customer needs.”

The New: Agile

“First, software has to embrace change. Today’s assumptions and requirements may change tomorrow, and software needs to respond to changes quickly. To meet the challenge, agile approaches advocate focusing on simplicity. Make the simplest possible system that satisfies today’s requirements and when tomorrow comes, be ready to adapt.

“The software systems created using agile methods are much more successful because they are evolved and adapted to the problem. Like living organisms, these systems are continuously reshaped to fit the dynamic landscape of changing requirements.”

Small Teams

“With a bit of discipline and a ton of passion, high quality engineers are able to put together systems of great complexity on their own … ust a handful of great engineers can now successfully build systems of great complexity. Craftsmanship has finally come to software engineering!”

Alex also explains refactoring and testing, practices we apply here at Viget.

Agile isn’t perfect, particularly in a consulting environment, and I would stress lean teams over small team (though they’re often both). The future of software as Alex describes it is here now, and the best web products being built today apply these methods effectively.

It often comes as a shock to me; but, there are times when I can’t use the web to find out what I need to know. Sometimes I learn my way around using environmental cues. And, sometimes, those cues have been placed there by some very thoughtful people.

Last week, I attended the IDEA Conference in NYC. This was a single-track, two-day conference organized by the Information Architecture Institute on the topic of information design and experience. While most of the attendees were web folk, the presenters were often information designers working in a more physical space. They were creative problem-solvers working across media to make sense of a system or provide an innovative service or experience. They helped patients find their way to and around a city hospital, analyzed the New York Taxicab system, planned and implemented a city services helpline, and conceived of ways for people to share and experience oral histories.

Each presenter described discovery and problem-solving methods that apply equally as well to both virtual and physical spaces. There was assessment through interviews, observation, and audience grouping. Interaction models mapped out how different users might make their way through a system. Branding and signs served the same reassuring, location-marking purpose in the physical world as they do online.

None of this is groundbreaking news — we’ve always leveraged physical metaphors to help people make sense of online spaces (sites, pages, visits), and of course information and experience design pre-date the web. It was helpful, though, to take a step back and reexamine the approaches that we use in designing web sites and online experiences from that broader, physical context. And to remind me that while web sites are powerful tools and while I may forget at times that the world doesn’t exist entirely online, the sites we build are usually only one part of a total experience.

Our square footage in Virginia doubled when we moved, and our Durham office is still a few people short of a kickball team.  Accordingly, I’m spending a lot of time recruiting for both offices.  I love this part of my job in part because I get to tell people how cool it is to work at Viget and they get to tell me what appeals to them about the opportunity. I gush, I learn, and we all feel inspired.

Awhile ago Cindy posted 5 informative tips for how to get our attention as an applicant.  All 5 tips are timeless – more than a year later they are just as true.  I wanted to expand on her first tip to reiterate the importance of making a strong first impression.  Here are some more suggestions:

• Reference the job title and job description. If you are specific, we know you are attending to the details and not sending a form letter.
• Make a few explicit connections between the job description and your resume. Explain to us how your experience is specifically relevant.  Yes, this is time-consuming; but, it’s a chance for you to demonstrate that you are intelligent and diligent. Think of it as a bit of homework.
• Make reference to our web site, our clients, our work, our culture – anything! A general statement about admiring our company is nice; but, a specific comment on something you saw or read will mean a lot more to us. Tell us what you like and why.
• Be distinctive.  Make it easy for us to remember you (for something positive). If you do the first three things right, you won’t have to do anything extra to be distinctive.
• Proofread. Sending an email with typos and sloppy grammar is like coming to an in-person interview with a milk mustache and flip-flops. Proofread and save yourself some embarrassment!

Those of you thinking, “That’s nothing new – of course I’d do those things when  I apply for a job,” I hope you’ll apply for one of our openings. We need more applicants like you!