Posted
7 days
ago
On Monday and Tuesday last week Sig and Pete met Lee Tong at ALGIM 2012 in Roturua. This offered a good opportunity to catch up and exchange experiences and ideas.
Lee works as web developer and administrator for Napier City Council and
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maintains 21 council websites, databases and the corporate intranet. Since Lees time with the Napier City Council, he has taken their website from a static site to dynamic user interactive site. He has built many sites on the SilverStripe CMS and is an experienced user. He came to ALGIM to talk about SilverStripe and share his work regarding the “Website Standards and Guidelines for Web architecture, Design and Content” for the Napier City Council. The Napier City Council site has won ALGIM Web Awards in 2006, 2009 and 2011.
How did it come that you started looking for a new content management tool at Napier City Council?
We only had a CMS system that was built by me and it was not allowing our users to change everything that they required, it also did not give us the flexibility to design and build sites really quickly.
How many other CMS's did you evaluate?
I had look at a few CMS systems before deciding on SilverStripe, we looked at Joomla, Sharepoint and sitecore.
Do you think there is an advantage for government in using an open source tool?
I am a big believer of government using open source. The information available and the rapid development that you get from open source is amazing, you can’t get it from anything else, I don’t think.
Was the fact that SilverStripe is ‘Made in New Zealand’ a reason for you to choose it over other content management systems out there?
It was not really a consideration but it is certainly a benefit for getting questions answered and having the ability to be able to visit staff if we need to, and it is good for NZ to help a local business.
You created Website Standards and Guidelines for Web Architecture, Design and Content. What was the purpose of the document?
The purpose of the document was to provide a way for the facilities to understand how we could better work together as one organisation. It allows us to build on one platform and spend money more wisely. The document also allows us to work with other companies very easily as they know what is required.
What do you think are the most significant advantages of having such guidelines?
Faster website re-builds, saving council money and advancing our facilities with the latest web technology.
How is this document different from the New Zealand Government Web Standards?
It is more about creating a way to handle the large workload that most councils face with the large number of websites they look after, rather than actually what the standards are for the website.
Who uses the guidelines document you created?
All council facilities and contractors that are doing work for us or one of the facilities.
Does that mean that all Napier City Council sites have to run on SilverStripe in order to integrate with each other?
It does not mean that all facilities have to use SilverStripe but it is shown through the document what the benefits of using it are. So far we have only had great feedback and more facilities wanting to come on board.
What’s the most exciting thing for you when you think about using SilverStripe?
How easy it is to customise. [Less]
Posted
15 days
ago
Gisborne District Council is a client of ours and their website has just been named the top council website in the country at this week's local government web symposium. ALGIM, who organised the event, produces a list ranking the country's 80 council
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websites on a variety of criteria including web standards and accessibility. Gisborne has done particularly well given their size and resources are considerably less than major urban councils. Karen Hadfield (pictured with me below), won a ticket to Webstock 2013 for her hard work!
ALGIM has also released a report into council websites this year, which continues to show council sites typically run on a closed source Microsoft .ASP-based platform, for example SharePoint. SilverStripe CMS is the second most popular platform used overall, and is well ahead of any other open source choice in local government. Lee Tong from Napier City Council initiated a user group at the symposium event, which will enable users of SilverStripe CMS in local government, such as Gisborne and Napier, to more richly collaborate.
At the symposium, I gave a presentation about current themes for council websites. This provided both a retrospective into ideas we spoke about two years ago (video), and what's new in 2012, such as using responsive design to present content better on smartphones within a modest amount of budget and energy. It's also clear that, for the most part, councils are getting their content under control, and can increasingly focus on the services, online payments, and consultation processes they can offer online. If councils can collaborate on approaches and platforms more than they have in the past, these complex offerings can be created without cost duplication and be built to be user friendly and to a much higher calibre.
In the two days of talks, a common theme surrounded social media and engagement with communities. This was either in the context of consultations, but also around disasters and emergencies that councils have faced recently in New Zealand. Amelia Loye was one such example, who discussed connected government (video). As a consequence, I changed my other presentation, which was at the end of the day, into an open panel that generated great discussion that would have productively lasted for hours.
ALGIM do a great job at getting council staff from all over the country talking with each other. We thank them for putting on the event and look forward to supporting them and another initiatives that support collaboration and progress across government. [Less]
Posted
3 months
ago
It was a leap year, the year 2000, that saw 29 February become the day that CMS history was written and SilverStripe officially incorporated. Two years ago we did a little retrospective to see how it all began with Sam, Tim and Sig. There were three
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fearless young guys fresh out of college who knew the world was their oyster; the world was waiting for them to create something awesome. Tim’s life savings were spent on some equipment, they built their first website with ASP 2.0 from their bedrooms at mum and dad’s, and named their company Totally Digital, which is today known as SilverStripe. Luckily they soon discovered the beauty of PHP and matured into serious businessmen who today have the trust of some multi-million dollar organisations.
Last week, I met with these, still fearless but slightly older, guys to speak about the beauty of being young, innocent and taking advantage of opportunities.
How did it all start?
Tim: At the beginning, Sam worked with ASP from Microsoft as a technology. Then Sig introduced PHP to the game.
What was the biggest challenge you faced when you started your business?
Sam: Going from hobby to business. We were young and had no experience. Coming fresh from college we had no experience from previous jobs. And sometimes we had to make expensive learning curves.
Did you start with a big vision?
Sam: We were focused on the technology, making the business side of it up as we went along. We pretty much did what was in front of us.
Tim: At the time it was dotcom boom, all the hype and craze and a lot of energy and passion, but it was unfocused.
Sam: We saw the case by case individual needs and a client needed to be looked after in a certain way. So building them a website and a CMS from scratch was mostly in response to individual needs.
Sig: We had the idealism of doing something really wonderful with the web, but really; we had no plan.
Tim: We knew we wanted to take over the world, but we didn’t really know how. We saw and took the opportunity to build the tools that would eventually shape the future of business.
Sam: It’s much easier to be idealistic when you’re young. We had no sense of limits, and were arrogant enough to think we could achieve anything. We started very broad - we did everything from building databases to websites and CMS’s, right through to building a scoreboard system for an indoor sports centre.
Sig: Then we found what we liked doing and what we could make money on. We had no mortgages or kids; so we had nothing to lose. It was low risk. Some monthly income in the early days allowed us to experience and dabble in what was going on in the Internet.
What’s the advantage and disadvantage of starting a business when you are quite young?
Sam: The younger you are, the bigger risks you can take. You might not have money, so you don’t have to worry about losing it. One of the good things about the software industry is that the amount of capital you need is very low. This enables young people to start out and gives them that extra opportunity, especially those trying to start out with skills in the IT space.
Is there anything you would do differently today if you could start over again?
Sam: I would choose carefully what I want and focus more on that. We went in many directions, and it helps a lot to focus on what’s important, and really hone in on that.
Tim: We had a good lot of lessons learnt. We had a lot of bad experiences and bad clients. So you should really define for whom you want to work. But in saying that; you learn from bad experiences, too.
Sig: Either direction, it probably would have just been a different set of mistakes. Something we could have done is actually set our sights higher, set the goal and really channeled that.
Can you name a couple of lessons learnt?
Sig: The matter of funding your business through cash-flow, as opposed to taking large investment, is a worthwhile process that constantly refines everything you do. You can’t go the wrong way for too long, or you get into trouble. But focusing on the cash-flow helps you to quickly learn if you’re heading the right way.
Sam: Aim to create a company you’re proud of and passionate about. Its not enough to follow a good idea; you need to deeply care about what you are doing.
Tim: The range of different personalities and opinions among the three of us has been a learning curve in itself. We have our conflicts, but it is always constructive and we always come to an agreement.
Is it difficult to be friends as well as business partners?
Tim: The business was first, the actual friendship came later.
Sam: I met Tim around the time that we started the business. The most significant similarity in your relationship is that you’re doing business together. It becomes the substance of the relationship, and although it doesn’t necessary diminish the other side of the friendship, it by sheer volume it can come to dominate it.
Tim: It would be difficult to work together if you didn’t like each other...
Sam: ..you are sort of getting married, you’re spending half of your life together, your deeply reliant on each other, and if you were to leave, the others would be screwed. You’re committed, and tied to each other in a meaningful sense. You can’t just hand in your notice.
Sig: There needs to be an element of loyalty and respect, too; we try to row in unison. We need to be in sync and heading in the same direction.
What do you like most and least about your job?
Sam: I like watching this company growing into something that is bigger than every one of us. It stands alone. The tough part is when you have to make a decision that is best for the company, but you know you will disappoint someone. But I have to take the responsibility of the consequence of my decisions.
Tim: I like the ability to indirectly touch half a million businesses, then all of their clients too. That’s the beauty of the net. What I don’t like is to see so many opportunities out there and not to have the time or resources to take advantage of them.
Sig: I see web as the major medium in which the world’s humanity is interacting. It is rapidly changing and rapidly increasing its influence in the world. It’s a fun area to be in and to even contribute to. My dislike is the same as Tim’s; all those missed opportunities. How often have I thought: “If only someone built this iPhone app”.
How much of SilverStripe is driving revenue and how much is ideology?
Sam: It is both; ideology and profit. Have your cake and eat it too. We see open source as that opportunity.
It is important to create a business that makes money, otherwise it won’t last. I like Tim O’Reilly’s analogy: “Profit in a business is like gas in a car. You don't want to run out of gas, but neither do you want to think that your road trip is a tour of gas stations.”
Tim: We commercialise the open source tool by using it for our clients. The CMS and Framework give us the USP we need to be ahead of the competition. This is how we grow and why we have an international brand.
Sig: It really is a strong mix of both. If it were just one or the other, we’d either have no customers or no community.
Sam: I would say that we’re socially conscious capitalists.
What’s special about SilverStripe?
Sam: We are kiwis, we’re not very good at listing the reasons that we are special. (laughs)
Tim: We have a good, fun work environment.
Sam: SilverStripe has a culture that focuses on the things that matter; like giving people the freedom they need to create great work. We don’t want to create a bunch of prima donnas. People here are talented, they listen and learn. We are problem solvers, we help businesses and we need our knowledge and talent for that.
What is open source for you?
Sig: It’s partially creator of good will, marketing, and deriving satisfaction for our developers, as well as a billboard for our customers, so that prospective customers are able to fall in love with something real. They can try it before they invest any money. Broadly, its a much improved software. Without open source, it’s too easy for a software to get stuck in the hands of one vendor.
Sam: We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t open sourced. Industries that focus on capitalising intellectual property directly are struggling. Open source in the software space is an attempt to grow a software businesses without locking down IP, and in that sense, I see open source as the future.
Tim: We give value away for free. We make good profit, but not mega profit. We are not capitalised like other companies, which keeps the playing field level. Software is a way of codifying ideas and thinking. Ideas get more actionable, and open source keeps that knowledge on the table.
What would you do if Google knocked on your door tomorrow?
Sam: What is the outcome going to be? What we’ve created is pretty special. If someone was going to help make that even more special, then maybe we’d consider. But if it was to be swallowed up and consumed by another big ecosystem, then we wouldn’t be keen on that.
Tim: Our vision for SilverStripe was always to create long term value rather than something we’d sell overnight. We’ve had offers in the past, but we never seriously considered them.
Sig: Buying a company usually means buying the customers and sunsetting the product. That is entirely against the idea we had when we founded the company.
Thank you very much for this interview. Congratulations to 12 years at SilverStripe! [Less]
Posted
4 months
ago
Guest blogger Sandy Mamoli:
This is part two of my three-part interview series about the adoption of Agile and Scrum at SilverStripe.
Last week’s interviewee was SilverStripe’s CEO Sam Minnée, and today I will talk to Scrum
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Master and Project Manager Aleksandra Brewer. Alex works with one of the Agile teams at SilverStripe and has likened working with me with a visit to the dentist.
Alex, what was the most surprising thing that happened during the transition?
Some of the surprising (although maybe obvious) things were that (1) it's possible for more than one person to work on the same user story, (2) work goes faster when people collaborate, (3) sprint planning that results in greater understanding of stories and tasks necessary to complete them really speeds up the work during the sprint - everyone knows what needs to be done and can pick up a simple task and complete it.
What's different now?
I love being able to see the day to day progress of the team - it's so visible on the board, plus the work seems to be going faster, with several people going through small tasks all the time. With the acceptance criteria being defined and discussed before the start of a sprint, and with the Product Owner being available to answer any additional questions and provide feedback throughout the sprint, there is virtually no possibility for any team member to go off on a tangent.
What are you more confident about now?
Talking to clients is easier now, as they are much more involved and ultimately responsible for making decisions about priorities. We (the team) make recommendations, share our knowledge and inform the client about pros, cons and consequences of the different options, but in the end it's up to them to make a final decision.
All along the course of a project clients know exactly where we're at, what's being built, etc., which they love. The transparency of Scrum, although scary at the beginning, is really beneficial for both the team and clients.
What did you have to learn? What was the hardest to learn?
The hardest thing to learn was to give up the control over what the individual team members were doing from day to day.
How do you think you benefitted from working with a coach?
Working with you has been a bit like going to the dentist - painful at times, but all along I knew it was good for me, and I'm in better shape now than I was before. It's been good to have you keep us on track, and point out things that now seem obvious, and yet were not at first.
Would you recommend Scrum and Agile to others?
Definitely. I couldn't imagine going back to the old ways, negotiating "resourcing" among Project Managers, developers being on several different projects at the same time, and not knowing when a project would end because of the uncertainty of developer availability. [Less]
Posted
4 months
ago
After talking to Sam and Alex, the final post in my series about SilverStripe’s adoption of Agile and Scrum, will be a conversation with developer Mateusz Udowski.
We will talk about how the changes have affected him and why he thinks
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SilverStripe is now more intelligent as a whole than it was before.
Mateusz, what was the most interesting thing that happened during the change? What was the most surprising?
I was expecting we would have problems with completing less exciting tasks such as testing, but that didn’t happen. Shifting the responsibility from individuals to the group gave space for everyone to work efficiently.
Also, we needed some structure and after we started working as a team we began to collaborate and everything seemed to fall into place. I think the main reason for our success was that the team members regarded each other as peers.
What's different now?
The biggest change is that there is no penalty for helping each other out anymore. The budget is relevant on the team level, but not on individual level, which means we can share problems and solutions.
One can clearly see what to work on now, and what needs to be worked on next. Tasks and impediments are clearly visible and are not being swept under the carpet.
Reducing the size of the team from 40 (whole company interacting semi-randomly) to 7 (Scrum team) makes it easier to work together, mainly because we get the chance to learn about and respect each others’ strengths, weaknesses and habits.
What is your day like now versus before?
Less stressful. It's possible to get more work done because we can focus on tasks and clearly see at any moment where we are in the sprint and in the project.
Folk wisdom has it that when you force a person's brain to focus on many things in parallel, their IQ falls considerably, and that's how it feels now - less chaotic, more intelligent.
What are you more more confident about now?
It's easier now to apply creative solutions and "refactor fearlessly". We have shifted from delivering at all costs to delivering high quality products up to capacity. Peer reviews, test coverages and testing by many people all contribute here.
It is possible to enhance how the team works both technically and from a process perspective. We can now build on top of what we have achieved in previous iterations because there is a "we" - a stable team.
What did you have to learn? What was the hardest to learn?
Not to tell people what to do and how to do it. It never worked well anyway. The other important ability is to be able to discern when is the time to say "no" to factors that would break the Scrum process.
How do you think you benefitted from working with a coach?
I've seen many of these Agile elements previously in different combinations and contexts, but never all put together.
A good coach will give you the confidence to apply all these principles now, immediately, and to a achieve good result. Otherwise we would probably be stuck in the step-by-step approach which would stop halfway through and ultimately fail.
Pointing out the future possibilities is also helpful, showing that it's not the end of the road.
What's been in it for you?
There is more room for error and to try things out, hence more is possible. Short feedback loops and peer reviews provide a platform for learning and a cushion for failure.
Would you recommend Scrum and Agile to others?
Yep, without hesitation.
This has been an interesting and valuable coaching experience for me. I know that Silverstripe will reach new levels of excellence through Agile and Scrum and their commitment to team work.
I am proud to have been able to contribute to their success and to have been part of SilverStripe’s journey.
I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing more great results in 2012. [Less]
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