Tag Archive: research


Unbelievable initial research

Unbelievable initial research

The past month has been fairly quiet online for “The Project”

There’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes. I suppose the scenes would be the people following the blog. Last weekend was the first major on site research done. There’s been a lot of pre-planning and idea development. Last weekend went very well.

So to bring readers up to speed here’s what the last three weeks have been:

Software:

The backend system seems to have a fairly finished “Proof of concept” in place. The back end is the database and the JSON/REST APIs into the data for consumption. All data seems to be going in and coming out as expected. The entire system is also currently locked down behind Tomcat’s firewall system. The backend is also now protected via a VPN for my alpha testers.

Data Entry: There is now a client that works to more easily enter data than creating hard data and importing or worse composing SQL. Currently this client is native to the desktop systems that we are using but enhancing this to a web based system should be a fairly trivial next step.

User client: The client is now working in a very rough form. It is pulling about 70% of the data we want from the backend and displaying it quite nicely. There is more to be done there, but it is beginning to move more quickly again.

Business:

This was my primary focus of the past two weeks. Over this time we have secured the name, the web domain, a post office box and other electronic contact information. This week we have ironed out a lawyer and filed the DBA as well as the LLC. Currently the Business plan is under development and going along well. We received initial seed funding through about the middle of 2014Q2 so we’re getting close to the grand announce and pray for support. A kickstarter for phase 1 is under development and there’s a very promising logo design (for what little that is worth)

Research:

Last weekend a survey was opened in the name of the business. So far we’re up to about 40% of the respondents we’d like to see. But this is again not even a week in on a 3 week survey. So I think things are going well. The responses so far have been absolutely what we were hoping to see to validate the business idea. Some fantastic first contacts were made for potential partners/contracts for our opening foray.

 

So, what does this all mean?

Next week we’ll be lifting the veil on the initial part of the project. This will also include priming people for a Kickstarter. This of course is an early warning to tell readers to help us plug the fundraiser.

Please help out “The Project” as you hear more and subscribe to the blog, give us feedback, and tell others to subscribe as well.

Thanks for reading. The vague ends on Monday!

longRoadSo far I’ve had 2 of 3 meetings that I need to have.  I have two colleagues that I initially wanted to discuss the idea. These conversations went well. One of my colleagues is technical and has been asking me when I’d go on my own for quite some time. The other is a business expert to help me understand the needs from a business point of view. It’s very easy to have an idea. It’s very difficult to codify it into something that people other than a few of us believe in.

Meeting two was with what I could define as ‘an angel.’ This is someone I utterly trust with our finances and wanted to outline our plan. It is obvious that we will need financial support if only to get this process started. We don’t need a lot, but more than the average person can handle. So this part is always stressful. I have one other person I need to discuss our finances with. Again. More stress.

This week I am collecting tangible research. This includes

  • Clarification of our vision statement.
  • Initial product timeline
  • Interview research data
  • A serious look into competition
    • (To test our mettle when we see how rocky that is)
    • To see how we can differentiate
  • Further refinement of our initial target audience

All-in-all it’s a daunting process.

My spouse asked me if there was a risk of Depression. I said I wasn’t so much slipping into depression as walking outside after a rainy day trying to carefully avoid puddles of potential depression and then dealing with getting the damp out of my shoe for a few hours when I accidentally trip into a puddle. I know that the road ahead is difficult and going to take some navigating and is going to have some hard pain along the way. Fortunately, her love and support has been the driving thing to keep me out of the puddles. Further she’s been the first one to notice when I’ve gotten a little wet and has been ready with a towel.

Obviously, once I have the first bit of planning done, then we pull the blanket off the drawings and turn to crowd funding to help us get rolling on this. We’re going to need help and faith. I don’t know what kind of a return we can offer. But we will assuredly be tracking every drop of support that we get.

People seem interested, we seem to have an original niche and approach. Now it’s just a question of time and making it happen. Before funds and support runs out.

 

(Preface: this post is seasoned with a bunch of links. I recommend taking the time to look at the links because it helps explain and compliment the post)

Occasionally, I post strange fun facts that seem to come out of absolutely nowhere.

For example: The term “Pediddel” (Meaning a car missing a headlight) in fact originates to a 1984 episode of “Not Necessarily the News” with its usual segment of Rich Hall’s Sniglets.

Some of you may think… What the hell is ‘Pedidel?’; Some might think, “Pedidel was a sniglet?’

The real question is, “This is the sh&# that Andrei researches?”

So… If you’ve ever seen the episode of Pinky and the Brain where the response is, “I think so, Brain, but what if the hippopotamus won’t wear the beach thong.”… or even if you haven’t…

Here’s where my brain came from.

I was flipping thru youtube videos and saw a shot of a young girl. Maybe 13-15. It made me think of the one young girl I’d seen on TV that I’d really like to see again. Mary Lou Retton in 1984 taking a perfect score of 10 on the vault. Well, from there it was Torvill and Dean skating to Bolero. This got me wanting to find “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”… I knew I’d see “Agony of Defeat” but… I actually wanted to see the whole thing.

I found it, But it was part of an interview with Jim McKay concerning “The agony of defeat.” This took me to WikiPedia to look up more about Vinko Bogataj, the man known to most Americans (Over 25) as “The agony of defeat.”

This is where I felt inclined to make one of my posts. Talking about the famed “Agony of defeat.” A man who received a standing ovation at a high class banquet for the 25th anniversary of ABC’s sport show. The ovation confused him, because in his native Yugoslavia he never really got a lot of notice. In the States on the other hand… living legend.

It turns out that Bogataj’s mishap is commemorated with a sniglet “Agonosis” meaning, “The syndrome of tuning in on Wide World of Sports every weekend just to watch the skier rack himself.”

Well, okay.. an accidental click there in wikipedia on Sniglets and there it is. “Pediddel”

My first thought was, “So that’s how it’s spelled.”

I think it was one of those driving games I learned by rote… And by an ironic twist was a word I discovered that until now, I’d never… um… “Wrote”.

The next thought was, ‘So it actually started as a sniglet. That’s kinda cool.’ Well, cool from my point of view.

And this is what I do when sick on the couch.

So, despite the name change and estrangement from my family, I do continue to do research into my family’s origin.

I am building a fairly extensive website on our families.

Today, I got mail from the Ellis Island organization. They have put a new search mechanism together.

Well, my Great -great grandfather (dad’s dad’s dad) has always been elusive. To this day, I’m not sure how he got into the country. But I tried again to find his wife.

Today I found something.

Line 2 of the Manifest of the Pretoria (Please note this is a big jpeg)

fiannaharpar has been helping me read the horrible hand writing. shimmeringjemmy really helped by fixing the contrast on the graphic.

So… if anyone wants to take a stab at helping us read this… I’d be more than happy.
Of most interest are columns 2, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 16

Comments concerning the details are in the comments section. Feel free to try to interpret before looking at the comments so as to not be influenced on initial interpretation. 🙂