This is What!

This is a follow up to "Well... Now What?"

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Image by El Negro Magnifico via Flickr

So now that I am free to pursue new interests, what should I do? I have been doing FileMaker for a long, long time.  But in the past fews years I have been actively pursing other technologies.  I dove deep into PHP, MySQL, Flex, Drupal and some others. I spent some time leaning how the Cloud Computing world and getting up to speed with Ubuntu Linux.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for, but I thought I was constrained by the tools I had, so I went looking. 

I have also been involved in a few other endeavors, like my wife's new public school, and even a little political activism.  As a result my perspectives have shifted in many areas, and I have been drawn back to my roots in others.  After a week of asking myself, Now What? I have answer. Here is how I got there.

After years of being held back by the authoritative top down management style of the local school district, my wfie, Lori Peters, said, "ENOUGH!"  She inspired a group of parents, educators, and event students to form their own public school.

The charter school law in California gives them the right to do just that.  But it is not an easy process. The school district fought them every step of the way. They were condescending, arrogant and even abusive in some cases. The teachers union reviled them. Some of my wife's former colleges and friends refuse to even speak to her now. The School Districts basic attitude seemed to be "don't worry about all this new school stuff, you really can't handle it. It is way too hard for you. Let us handle it."

But that didn't stop them.  Why? Because they knew what they were doing was right for their kids and they new the had the right to do it!

Watching all of this unfold taught me that the most important thing you can do is give people the freedom and the power to make their own choices. This is good for them and good for society as a whole.

I realized that this is what attracted me to FileMaker in the first place. It gave me a lot of freedom and power to do what I wanted to do with the data, even though I had almost no programming experience at the time. Even after years of exploring other developer tools I have found nothing that is as easy for people to learn and to use. FileMaker gives people the power to do it themselves. It makes it much easier to get stuff done!

So I have decided that the focus of my new endeavor will be to help people, companies and groups, get technology done!  FileMaker is the perfect tool for that and will certainly be the first tool in my belt. PHP/Mysql will be next. Both of them play well with FileMaker. Drupal will certainly be in there, because if you want to give some one a powerful website they can manage, it is tough to beat.

The focus will be on empowering my clients so that they will be able to get stuff done with out having to go through a long complicated process.  If their work flow needs to change that shouldn't require 6 meetings a 100 page SOW. Ideally they should be able to do it themselves. If they need help, I will be there. The result should always be more power and more freedom for my clients.  If not I am screwing up!

Because this blog has served as much as my personal blog as my tech blog, I will be announcing a new website/blog focused on the products and services I will provide in the next few days.

FileMaker released FileMaker 11 the day after the startup I was working at died.   Coincidence? No such thing! I am going with it!