viewpointr’s blog

When I tell people about Viewpointr they immediately say "that's very interesting" (most people I talk to, anyway). 

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Today, we've released Viewpointr Preview 2.0 with some cool new features.

   

Click here to download:

Viewpointr_Preview_2.0_Release.zip (107 KB)

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(The Helping People Series: Part 2) Click here for Part 1

Why its important to help people.

1) Reciprocity

2) Connectors

Reciprocity

Help someone out and they owe you one. It’s an unwritten law. It’s reciprocity.

Put two people you know in touch with each other, and you’re a lifesaver (first) and a connector (second but also important).

Reciprocity isn’t defined by the old adage “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”, but more by way of mutual exchange; when someone has gone out of their way to do something for you, you too will subsequently do the same when called upon, naturally. Without getting too technical its classic psychology/understanding human-behavior stuff!

Ok let’s have it right! By now you’ve grown out of your old self and have acknowledged that there are new rules in the “NOW”. You can either create your own or follow the new community rules (either or, depending on the kind of person you are…?).

To throw down with entrepreneurs, hustlers, go-getters, philanthropists, bosses (and any other inspirational folk I’ve missed) you gotta get out more. Be vocal, contribute to the happenings of the people you encounter everyday (the web lets you reach even further, that’s a major plus!). Play the productive game with your peers to make a name for yourself or don’t! (and be forgotten).

Connectors

Connect your people to your “people”.

Despite us all maintaining a social presence, we’re still so choosy about who we interact with in our “network”, and that’s not the “way” forward. Sure we interact with a handful of people (and literally I mean a handful) on a daily, but we could and should be more involved with the happenings of the timelines and live-feeds of our friends and their friends. We’ve already committed. Preferential treatment is unfair and actually lazy on your part!

I’m not saying get personal with everyone; I’m saying be a connector. Volunteer your support and extend a hand to your contacts (if and when you see a “cry for help”).

Why connect friends?

1)    You know people your friends want to know (and vice versa)

2)    Friends rely on each other for help and support (you included)

3)    Community involvement (to be seen/known as an influential figure)

4)    It doesn’t cost you anything (and there’s no conflict of interest)

5)    It’s expected of us! (HELLO social networking!!!)

Start using Viewpointr today!

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(The Helping People Series: Part 1)

Why its important to help people.

When Andre (CEO) said “dude lets do a blog about helping people?” minus the swear words I was like YES!!!! Then we got over-excited about putting this blog post out here. HOWEVER L as I started to write this post, it hit me, hard! “this is gonna be a loooooooooooooong read”. So I’m giving it to you in a series (how many? Not sure yet haha) of posts centred around “helping people”.

There’s a number of terrific reasons to help people which is why I opted for a series, but we’re kicking it off with “Why its important to help people”.

1)    Karma

2)    Mentality

3)    Collaboration

Karma. What goes around comes around so get involved with society. Be a nicer person, a better person and help those people around you. Set a good example to others and let society do you right!! Putting people on will not only make you feel good about yourself, but it will result in good karma. It doesn’t cost you much at all.

Mentality. As we get older we start looking at things differently. More aware of what’s going on around us, keen to succeed and make sacrifices in order to get ahead, appreciative of the smaller things. We value our friends more, and if you value yours you wouldn’t think twice about helping a friend in need. Most if not all of us are working on something with great potential, trying very hard to get our individual projects off the ground.

Collaboration. Who can we rely on? Who do we trust?? People we know! Working with people we know to achieve a common goal (big or small, fun or professional) is gratifying and frankly easier than finding a complete random to get to know and trust. Collaborate with friends when pursuing dreams, starting ventures and taking on passion projects.

Viewpointr wants to capture you helping others. So that people around you know who to reach out to for help, because often times we just don't know who to approach.

When someone asks for help it puts us on the spot. What does this person want from me? I have my own stuff to deal with and so forth. Actually most of the time we call on our friends when we need something low-hanging (something small): Do you know anyone who wants to buy my car? Can you speak to your mate who does websites and get me a quote? etc. Its literally just to be introduced or put in touch with someone we need to track down. No big deal! Friends help each other out; that’s what we do; its part and parcel of being a good friend.

It doesn’t hurt to be a good person either. Take us at Viewpointr. We’re a lovely bunch of blokes; always on-hand to help people around us. Its gratifying first and foremost that people request our help and value us enough to come to us in the first place. Furthermore if a friend vouches for someone we don’t really know, then we extend our friendship out to our “mutual friend”, because we never know where or how opportunities will present themselves. One thing is for sure though. Networking is the only way to increase your chances of making things happen. Cold-networking (with strangers) is a different ball-game. Networking amongst friends and mutual friends is where its at. We rely on referrals and recommendations to enable us to make our choices and decisions. We trust people we know (and who know us). Yet we don’t really utilize our friendships to network, instead we just browse profiles and hang out with our mates, keeping friends and productivity separate.

Surround yourself with positive people. Network amongst those who can pull a few strings and help you out, but be prepared to do the same. There’s a word for that: RECIPROCATION. The only way to succeed in this day and age.

Start off by making a request. Invite some friends to help you on your way. Friends should (and will!) be able to help you by way of pointing you in the right direction and getting you traction; positive feedback whatever your request may be.

Whether you know us or not, helping people is the REAL meaning behind “POINTING REQUESTS” and ultimately the vision of Viewpointr, heck we’ve built a business around being approachable and helpful. We live to inspire people, to encourage them to believe in the things they do, to never give up and always go for glory! Some people may call us dreamers, but our users, you guys are the living proof that we are indeed living the dream!

Now go help some friends out!

JW (community g-man)

http://viewpointr.com | http://facebook.com/viewpointr

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We saw off a terrific 2009, in some respects we're sad to leave it behind, but you know how it goes right... Forward motion.

2010 is the now, we're living it so -not much to say apart from wicked sweet festive times, now back to work ready willing and able to handle what this year has to dish out, but overly excited about what we can do for 2010, what we can do for us and team Viewpointr and most importantly what we can and will do for our users.

Good times ahead guys! Stay tuned for more info on featured updates, releases, community driven initiatives and MORE. It's definitely gonna be a 2010 explosion and I mean that in a good way. 

Success and nothin less. Happy New Year all.

The Viewpointr chaps.

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Seasons greetings Viewpointr community!

A quick announcement from us to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We love this time of year because we get to be with loved ones, and we also get a nice break to chill out and soak up the festive cheer, although I can tell you now -we will be working over Christmas. Not because we want to or because we feel we need to prove some CRAZY point about being serious entrepreneurs who wanna work on Viewpointr, even if its over Christmas, heck Christmas isn't that important to us anyway!!! NO! Its simply because we are nerdy like that, so its likely we'll be doing a spot of Viewpointr stuff when friends and family aren't looking.

One thing is certain you'll have some free time to play around with Viewpointr.

I'm gonna be sending a few questions too, like:

1) What are you doing for New Years?
2) How was your Christmas dinner?
3) Did you like your Christmas presents?

Anyway not to turn this supposed-to-be-quick post into a marathon, we wish you all a splendid Christmas, and a marvellous New Year. Celebrate, chill out, do what you gotta do, and we'll touch base in the 2010!

Spread the Christmas love people.

From the Viewpointr guys => (http://viewpointr.com/the-team).>

PS. You can follow us on Twitter, or get down with the Facebook crowd.

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Have you ever asked a question that you wanted a particular type of person to provide you with their opinion?

Many of the questions we ask on a daily basis require a specific person to answer, otherwise, it's less meaningful to us. This is where Viewpointr comes in -- it helps you get specific viewpoints from people outside of your network by going through your trusted friends.

We ask you to structure your question like this:

WHAT do you wanna know?
Subject:
Question:

WHO do you wanna hear from?

***

Here are some example questions that you could use Viewpointr for:

Get advice regarding personal issues
Subject: Marriage expectations
Q: "I'm getting married soon, and I don't have any friends who are married yet. Anything that I should expect?"
I wanna hear from: just married folks, young people who are married, married for a few months now

Get answers from people in a particular profession / industry regarding work related questions
Subject: Investing in Media / Entertainment
Q: "What is your opinion on the current investing climate of the media and entertainment space in emerging markets such as Africa?"
I wanna hear from: media and entertainment professionals, money managers

Get recommendations for products you need
Subject: Website Demo Reel
Q: "I need a demo reel for my website. Does anyone have a good referral?"
I wanna hear from: someone who just got a demo reel done for their website, tech guys

Find people in careers you aspire to be in
Subject: VC Career Path
Q: "I'm applying to business schools in 2010 and I'm interested in pursuing a career in venture capital. I'm struggling with the non-linear career path to becoming a VC. What is the path to becoming a VC?"
I wanna hear from: VCs, people who took non-traditional paths to becoming a VC, business school students

Network to get a job
Subject: Architectural Internship
Q: "I am looking for an internship at an architectural firm in San Francisco. Any ideas?"
I wanna hear from: people in the design industry, someone who has had an internship at a design company, recent graduate

Get recommendations for places you're traveling to
Subject: Traveling to San Francisco
Q: "I'm going to San Francisco next week and have never been. What are the must see places that I should check out?"
I wanna hear from: people who recently traveled to SF, people who are native San Franciscans, people who currently reside in SF

Compare viewpoints from a wide range of people on a specific topic
Subject: Hedge Funds
Q: "Future of Hedge Funds?"
I wanna hear from: someone who is invested in a hedge fund, bankers, money managers, traders, people in government

Recruit candidates for positions you're trying to fill
Subject: Job Opening
Q: "My company is building an ambitious new offering in the online food space and is currently seeking a Lead Developer."
I wanna hear from: ruby programmers, worked in a startup before, boston-based, tech savvy, computer science

Make personal decisions
Subject: Professional Designation
Q: "MBA vs. CFA or both?"
I wanna hear from: MBAs from Canada and US, CFAs from Canada and US, and people who have both

Get feedback on other people's personal experiences
Subject: Private school
Q: "We're thinking of sending our kids to private school, however, we don't know anyone who has gone and we would like to get some insight into the private school system."
I wanna hear from: folks who attended private school in the US and Canada, parents who didn't go to private school, but sent their kids to one

Get advice on a first time experience that you will undertake
Subject: Writing a book
Q: "Writing a book for the first time? Need some help thinking through the number of ideal drafts and maybe some tricks to organize thoughts and structure of layout, as well as shed some light on the process post transcript and publishing."
I wanna hear from: someone who successfully written and published a book, amazon best seller authors

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Hey all,

In reconnecting with a friend, I was recently asked about how we handle some of the deployment / development related things at Viewpointr and I figured I would share it with everyone.

In the old days...

Not too long ago in the days of Prospectlinker we were a little more hap hazard about our development cycle.  We would typically use something like Basecamp and Google Docs to keep track of what we were doing and what we had left to do.  Basecamp worked well for a while, but it really wasn't designed as a bug tracker / feature planner so we tried Lighthouse.  It's a great app, but we found it to be more geared for open source and decided to abandon it.  For a little while we stuck with Google Docs and email but eventually moved everything over to Pivotal Tracker.  Pivotal Tracker is bar none the best bug tracking / feature planning software tool out there.  Seriously, like nothing even shakes a stick at it.  If you haven't checked it out I would do so now, here it is again... http://www.pivotaltracker.com. Oh and by the way... it's free.

Each week Pivotal tells me what stories are on the board, and working as Agile like as I can, I pick the ones that I want to work on first.  I typically pick the hardest ones on Monday and then move to the easier ones as the week goes on.  As long as all the stories get done throughout the week we are happy. 

However, we are proud to admit that we are obsessed with feedback and add stories that our users have requested even if that means pushing back what we had planned to do that week.  The key is finding a balance between keeping your users happy and having a clear sense of what you want the application to be.  We can't add every feature that gets requested, but we can treat each user as an intelligent and unique point of view that adds perspective to planning, design and evolution of product.  Since the whole team gets invovled it really works well.  It's a lot of fun :)

Day to day

We use Git and GitHub so I spend most of my day in the command line.  I typically make a new branch for each story that I am working on.  This is considered a best practice as it really helps to encapsulate each feature in case you decide to ditch it, or in case you need to jump back to the production branch to push a hotfix.  The Pro Git book by Scott Chacon is a great resource for Git best practices.  I highly reccomend it.

I practice TDD / BDD; currently using more Shoulda than RSpec but I like to mix it up.  I find Shoulda better for models and controllers, but use RSpec for functional tests with Cucumber.  For example, some of our Pointing logic can get a little hairy as the numbers get big fast, so I have a handful of scenarious and specs for those critical parts.  Admitingly, I find myself sometimes having to go back and write a test but this is getting less frequent.  I have been trying to stay disciplined over the past few months and it has paid off.  Besides, there is this other developer named Kent who seems to think it's a good idea ;)

When a feature is done, it is merged into a dev branch where more tests are run.  Once it passes dev, it gets merged into master.  We don't have a continuous integration server but plan on having one soon.  Instead, we push to a staging site and test there until we are happy.  Then we move it over to production.

Deployment

We use Engine Yard Cloud to manage our deployment so this part is very easy.  I remember the good old days of Capistrano and Vlad the Deployer but Engine Yard takes care of all that now.  Using a service like Cloud allows me to focus on development rather than system admin stuff which is great.  Besides they have Jason Vantuyl and Ezra Zygmuntowicz behind them... sorta hard to compare my sysadmin skills to theirs :)  Engine Yard worship aside, we have also had a great relationship with OCS Solutions and would reccomend them too.  The Cloud isn't for everyone and we are even noticing some draw backs particularly as we are heavily invested in email but every great problem has an even better solution and we are working towards that end as we speak.

I live in Toronto so we typically deploy every night at 11:00pm EST.  We will probably change this in the new year and move to a bi-weekly or weekly deploy, say on Sunday night (after football) but I'm not sure yet.  Stay tuned for updates.

In conclusion...

I hope this little look into how we do things at Viewpointr has been helpful.  We are passioante about what we do and try to use the best tools and practices to make sure that we can provide our users with a high quality and engaging site.

Let me know if you have any questions and make sure you keep giving us feedback.

Next week, we will talk useability... but for now, I bid you adieu.

Thank you,

Kent

++
http://twitter.com/kentf
http://kent.ewakened.com

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Rad on The Web is an online show hosted by two geeks. They cover the latest in community web innovations and we just got wind that our beloved Viewpointr was featured.

Its cool because it was our first broadcast plug AND we witnessed a spike in new users --signing up asking questions. In our warm fuzzy world, we totally SMILED, ear to ear, maaaaad cheezy! LOL.

Watch live video from Rad on the Web on Justin.tv

Besides a really cool plug the show is watch-able. You start watching and don't even get the urge to skip (even though you can't skip anyway). The two presenters Carlos and Neha bounce off each other and in a not too technical way they cover "rad" products and services --so you find yourself laughing and wishing you had a cool basement show distributed online to an audience of nerds... Its rad duuude!!!

About 15 minutes into the show @ http://www.justin.tv/radontheweb (about half way) they talk about Viewpointr so check it out (http://viewpointr.com), give it a try and let us know what you think! 

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