Summersault Blog

If you read my previous post about 10 Reasons to Work at Summersault, you may have noted Reason #5: In-depth performance reviews provide you with concrete professional goals and feedback on your successes. As we wrap up our Fall review cycle for staff here, I thought I’d say a little more about just what that process involves.

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This article was originally written for publication in a trade magazine about the BSD family of operating systems; it’s been updated slightly since then.

When a friend and I started our technology business 11 years ago in 1997, we didn’t choose FreeBSD, it chose us.  But we’re sure glad it did, and we came to build our company on FreeBSD.

We started out with a focus on graphic design and website development.  We were small, starting out in a college dorm room, but with high aspirations about what we could do for the world.  It was only after a few projects that we realized we needed a place to send our clients for hosting the websites we had just built for them.  When we asked a friend who was involved in running a small local dial-up Internet Service Provider where to host, he offered us some space on one of their servers, where they were already hosting a number of websites.

We got our FTP username and password, and we were off and running.  We eventually co-located with that local ISP, and partnered with them enough that they gave us shell access on that shared web hosting server, and eventually even root access.  It was a FreeBSD box running version 2.1 of the operating system.

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Richmond, IN – The story of Summersault’s evolution from an idea in the minds of its founders to a successful technology company will be told here tomorrow as a part of a conference about and for entrepreneurs. “What’s the Big Idea?” is a day-long event offering the opportunity to capitalize on the successful experiences of entrepreneurs and professionals in the areas of starting, funding, growing and managing a business. The event is presented by Main Street Richmond Wayne County.

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Ten reasons to work at Summersault:

1. Our mission is to build and sustain communities using the technologies of the Internet. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
2. We offer flexible scheduling, so you can arrange your work around your life, instead of arranging your life around your work.
3. We’re always working with interesting tools and technologies.
4. We pay 100% of health insurance for full-time staff and competitive premiums for spouses and dependents, including vision and dental benefits.
5. In-depth performance reviews provide you with concrete professional goals and feedback on your successes.
6. We have a volunteer and community service program that compensates you for being active in the community.
7. Our employee wellness program helps you to stay healthy.
8. We offer paid vacation time, up to four weeks per year.
9. We regularly recognize outstanding contributions that our staff make, in the office, to our clients, and out in the world.
10. We’re locally owned, and we give back to the community.

Interested? Check out our current openings.

I’ve been waiting for a while now to see what Google was going to do with their acquisition of JotSpot, the collaborative wiki site that a number of non-profit organizations I’m involved in has used to organize our internal information. In my opinion, the long wait was a big risk to take on Google’s part…I used to send people to JotSpot all the time. when Google acquired it and stopped accepting new accounts, I still sent people there, saying “I’m sure it will reopen soon, it’s worth it.” Eventually I stopped sending people there at all, and encouraged them to use other tools or to go to the trouble to set up their own intranet with software like Mediawiki, the tool that powers Wikipedia.

Well, as of today, I’m pretty sure I know where to send people for creating free, powerful internal websites: Google Sites, the new incarnation of what was JotSpot.
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No matter whether you have a huge advertising budget or you’re a one-person marketing department, viral marketing can play a significant role in helping you get the word out about your company or organization.

Viral marketing…
1. Gives away products or services
2. Provides for effortless transfer to others
3. Scales easily from small to very large
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviors
5. Utilizes existing communication networks
6. Takes advantage of others’ resources

What are some examples of viral marketing? Blogs, e-newsletters, files that can be downloaded and YouTube videos are just a few examples of current viral marketing vehicles. Be creative, be useful and be interesting and your message will be shared - free of charge.

As the Internet continues to grow and change at a rapid pace, new and innovative website design possibilities become a reality everyday. For our company that means keeping up with the newest innovations in website design and programming, and for our customers it means a broader spectrum of opportunities to reach their target audience.

But more than that, this is a crucial time to understand and support Net Neutrality. Without the guiding principals of Net Neutrality to protect us and our customers from crippling restrictions imposed by large telecoms and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), today’s innovations in web technology may soon be out of reach for companies and individuals without industry connections or deep pockets.
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In a service business, it can sometimes be difficult to measure the true level of satisfaction that our clients experience. The testimonials they offer say a lot, and even after all these years its still surprising that so many of our clients consider working with us to be a relief from the norm of some poor customer relations practices in the technology industry.

Even so, it’s nice to be able to turn to cold hard numbers to see how we’re really doing, and one area where we do have those figures handy is in the customer satisfaction survey we ask every person who contacts us for technical support to fill out. Here’s what the numbers say from recent months:
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RICHMOND, IN – Summersault, a leader in database driven website solutions based here, marks its 10th anniversary on Aug. 15 with a $10,000 donation to support technology education and sustainable business practices.

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In October 2006, I received a postcard at Summersault asking us to try out a new web-based wage reporting system run by the Social Security Administration, that would hopefully save on paperwork and related costs. I don’t necessarily like what the Social Security system represents (as an individual and as a generator of paychecks), but I did try it out, and had an unimpressive experience with the site. As a web developer, I appreciate getting feedback about the tools that I help to build, so I thought I would do the same for the SSA. I guessed the e-mail address of the official whose name was signed at the bottom of the postcard, and sent him a note:
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