{"id":102,"date":"2007-11-17T16:42:14","date_gmt":"2007-11-17T23:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/17\/forward-getting-real-about-fwdlabscom\/"},"modified":"2016-05-16T19:04:18","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T02:04:18","slug":"forward-getting-real-about-fwdlabscom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/forward-getting-real-about-fwdlabscom\/","title":{"rendered":"Forward: Getting Real about FWDlabs.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Part of a series of posts about the updates and upgrades of the quick iterations and new features at FWDlabs.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" class=\"imageframe imgalignright\" alt=\"fwd_getting-real.jpg\" id=\"image103\" src=\"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/fwd_getting-real.jpg\" \/>FWD:labs&#8217; self-service web application <a href=\"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/27\/blog-launches\/\">kick-started<\/a> in November 2006. You might not know it, but a lot has happened since. The quick iterations and new features have not been communicated as transparently, directly or clearly as I&#8217;d like. Time to get real about how it&#8217;s getting real.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d like to share the additions, fixes and efforts toward the web application and the discoveries, actions and receptions of self-starting a small, niche collective for creative artists in cinema.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the behind-the-scenes activity in the last 3 months:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>11\/17: E-mailed all artists who use FWDlabs.com<\/li>\n<li>11\/13: Received feedback on 11\/12&#8217;s goals from a FWD:labs member: &#8220;I just read it. It is good. Very nichey.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>11\/13: Received Q Collective&#8217;s e-mailer <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.howdesign.com\/dc\/features\/bizcards4.asp\">highlighting<\/span> their business card. &#8220;Love the sticker concept.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>11\/13: Found <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.camerajobs.net\/\">camerajobs.net<\/span> and thought, &#8220;Wow, this was painless. But will it be useful?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>11\/13: Heard about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ActorsAndCrew.com\/\">ActorsAndCrew.com<\/a> marketing e-mail via YouTube and spoke with a collective member about it: &#8220;Interesting approach (to highlight one member&#8217;s showreel). Good for one active user and maybe good prospective active users. Bad for everyone else?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>11\/13: <strong>FEATURE<\/strong> Added text only export of resume, easy for copy-and-paste to e-mails, other sites, etc.<\/li>\n<li>11\/12: Revised a new PDF &#8212; big, bold words on FWD:labs&#8217; goals, which needed re-aligning<\/li>\n<li>11\/9: Sad but inspiring <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/la-et-writershaven9nov09,1,75162.story?ctrack=1&#038;cset=true\">to find out<\/a> about The Office in Santa Monica, a member&#8217;s only retreat for screenwriters, and its hit from the WGA strike<\/li>\n<li>11\/4: <strong>FUNCTIONALITY <\/strong>Added e-mail privacy preferences &#8212; now database driven and self-service<\/li>\n<li>10\/31: <strong>FEATURE <\/strong>Added database listing, grouped by role (standard titles) &#8212; now a way to show off every entry in the cast and crew database, across all projects<\/li>\n<li>10\/30: Found a <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nycupa.org\/past_events\/playfulness-2009-25-19.pdf.pdf\">killer presentation<\/span> (PDF): &#8220;No Time For Games: Playfulness in Interaction Design &#8230; Kevin Kearney, User Experience Director, Avenue A\/Razorfish&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>10\/28: <strong>FEATURE <\/strong>Added cast and crew database, complimenting the project database, with add\/edit multiple with sorting, and mini-mailing list; updated project views, links, messages about cast\/crew &#8212; now another reference and aggregate of collaborators<\/li>\n<li>10\/27: <strong>FUNCTIONALITY <\/strong>Removed a middle step in updating a project; if it&#8217;s got errors, you&#8217;re back to the form with the usual highlighted note; if it&#8217;s problem-free, you&#8217;re congratulated back on your list of projects<\/li>\n<li>10\/27: <strong>FUNCTIONALITY <\/strong>Added a visual calendar to select the date of a project, rather than typing in YYYY-MM-DD format.<\/li>\n<li>10\/21: Revised the CSS style guide to re-align the clean image for FWD:labs<\/li>\n<li>10\/21: <strong>FUNCTIONALITY <\/strong>Fixed the intranet profile page; think it&#8217;ll be best to put all modules into different PHP files, depending on their privacy issues (i.e. one for intranet, the rest pulled from the other side of the wall)<\/li>\n<li>10\/21: <strong>FUNCTIONALITY <\/strong>Fixed the date from being year only (2007), to year\/month\/day (2007-10-21), for more intelligent sorting on the automated resume<\/li>\n<li>10\/21: <strong>FUNCTIONALITY <\/strong>Fixed the hit counts from stopping at 127, a particular MySQL column limitation<\/li>\n<li>10\/21: Added ThinkVitamin.com&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thinkvitamin.com\/training\/webapps\/web-app-form-design\/\">forms article<\/a> to our Basecamp<\/li>\n<li>10\/17: Found NPR&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thisamericanlife.org\/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=245\">This American Life &#8211; The Allure of Meanness<\/a><\/li>\n<li>10\/13: Contacted a friend (print designer) about hiring interns: &#8220;You had some luck posting a job for an intern? I could use one myself. What was your ad like? Where did you post it? How&#8217;s the deal work &#8212; unpaid, hourly, or flat rates?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>9\/30: Found a traffic spike from Google <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?num=26&#038;q=we+need+girlfriends\">result #26<\/a><\/li>\n<li>9\/29: Re-evaluating the invite process w\/ community developer<\/li>\n<li>9\/23: Back to basics &#8212; shot &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fwdlabs.com\/film\/Scubaman\/\">Scubaman<\/a>&#8221; with a FWD:labs member<\/li>\n<li>9\/21: Contacted a FWD:labs member about salon gathering venues: &#8220;IFC Center would be perfect but I believe the bar section is closed now\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6 isn&#8217;t crazy loud music \/ dancing, you can sit, talk, drink and its off 6th Ave and easy to find.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac?<\/li>\n<li>9\/17: Re-visited several chapters of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/gettingreal.37signals.com\/\">Getting Real<\/a>,&#8221; from 37signals, to reinforce kicking butt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>FWD:labs is alive and well, but it&#8217;s time to pick up the pace. I&#8217;ve held back from e-mailing our members and the consequences have meant sleepy users, missing out on what&#8217;s happened in the last 365 days.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m ready to share the activity and evolution of the collective and energize the base to blossom and grow. I believe this web application solves real problems, exhibits well a handful of best practices in self-marketing, and lets members do extraordinary things for themselves care of FWD:labs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part of a series of posts about the updates and upgrades of the quick iterations and new features at FWDlabs.com. FWD:labs&#8217; self-service web application kick-started in November 2006. You might not know it, but a lot has happened since. The quick iterations and new features have not been communicated as transparently, directly or clearly as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fwdlabs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6314,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/6314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwdlabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}