Boise, Tallahassee, and Books

[Daniel Bowen]

  Hello world, my name is Dan Bowen.  I am a Data Analyst for Novel Projects (BookLamp), and have been with Aaron and crew for about a year now.  Things in Boise seem to get busier by the day, so Aaron has asked me to pick up on some of these posts.

  Currently, I am in Tallahassee, FL and plan to be living and working full-time in the Boise office by the end of the summer.  I have a bit of a different perspective on things being at a distance, but I will do my best to tell it how it is.  This post will serve as a bit of an introduction, with a few updates; so here goes...

  Being so far from home base has its downsides.  Particularly when it comes to communication.  Skype has been my daily commute since last September and it's great (very enabling), but not like being in the office where I can throw a comment to someone, without distracting everyone else.  First, I can't be sure how loud I am in the room through Skype, so I have less control over the volume of my comments and conversation.  Also, my voice is coming through speakers, so I can't really point my comments at anyone; the whole office gets the pleasure of hearing about everything I have to say, whether they like it or not... so I try to keep quite most of the time, unless asked.  PLUS, now that we have the "fishbowl" (where my skype screen is - the Developer room) and the "anthill" (where my skype screen is not - the BizDev room), there's quite a bit I feel I end up missing out on.  BTW, the anthill and fishbowl separate the conversation of BizDev goings-on from the quiet focus of those coding up the latest from Novel Projects.  Those BizDevers can be quite distracting, I hear.

  No worries though... Skype has been a necessity for the past year and things would not have turned out so well without it.  The times that I have been in the office have been very productive, but working at a distance has allowed me to develop some of my own thoughts, which have been a focus of mine this summer.  My research question has beenthis: "What sorts of tools can we develop from the rich data we collect?"

   Well, I'm excited to say that I have at least three answers.  I'm reluctant to summarize them because they really haven't been through the BizDev gauntlet yet, but each presents a potential avenue for development at BookLamp.

  I plan to be in Boise living and working full-time by the end of this summer, which looks to be culminating in a fashion that I had hoped.  I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but things are turning out better than I'd've imagined.  We've been working with a professor of business statistics from Boise State University for a couple of months now.  I'd like to introduce a one Dr. Phil Fry.  Phil has been providing us with statistical backup and a very handy outside perspective.  The relationship is budding and has been a very helpful one.  On a personal note, the piece of mind that Phil has provided me has allowed me to be more decisive with my tasks, and relieved much of the stress that presents itself.  We are very grateful to have Phil working with us so closely.

  Business as usual.  Right now, Boise is prepping for meetings coming up in NYC, and most of our resources are to that cause.

One step at a time.

To be continued...

[Paul Kreiner]

Dan is the man. 

And BTW, I've been holding my post count at 42 this whole time, just so I could have it be ... 42.  But Dan is so cool I had to dust off the ol' keyboard and post this.  Glad that it's only down to a few week until you're in Idaho, Dan!

_PK

[Stephen Rollins]

D'oh, way to break your 42-post streak, Paul. 

Nice to get a formal introduction from you.  I've already seen enough of your posts all around the forums that I never really thought about the fact that I hadn't seen one...  XD

I've never been to Florida, but I've lived in the Boise area for long enough to say that I'm sure you'll enjoy it here.