Helping to Promote Aware IM...

If you have questions or if you want to share your opinion about Aware IM post your message on this forum
BenHayat
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Helping to Promote Aware IM...

Post by BenHayat »

To AwareSoft & Developers:

Anytime I see a great application, my first thought is, "What tools were used to build this app". As they say, "The proof is in the pudding".

Everyday, I get more amazed with the richness and deep architecture of Aware, and I always feel like sharing this amazing product with friends and others. The best way to promote a product, comes from word-of-mouth and customers.

I'd like to suggest to AwareSoft to design several nice looking "Powered By Aware IM" logos in different designs, sizes and in JPEG/PNG format that we can use in our applications.

Thoughts from AwareSoft staff and developers are welcomed.
kklosson
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Post by kklosson »

I work in IT contracting in the federal market space. This is unrelated to my personal development initiatives. I work for a company in the $50M annual revenue range. We staff federal agencies with varying aspects of IT services, including application development. I am constantly amazed at what they spend on application development and maintenance to achieve paltry results, and often times, spectacular failures.

I see applications using essentially the same technology stack, i.e., Java app, Sencha UI, etc. Rarely are these applications as complex as anything I've built myself. The projects involve some number of coders, a database administrator, a configuration manager, a technical writer, etc. Annual maintenance for a single app will typically cost $1M plus for those services. When building from the ground up, it's completely crazy.

The root of this is basically just the inability of an organization to innovate, take acceptable risks, and generally get out of their own way.

I am looking for the opportunity to propose using AwareIM as a solution in this space. If/when I hit it, heads will turn.

While this is a bit off point, I think the larger problem is organizational. A lone developer will easily see AwareIM's instant value and ROI. Organizationally, it's harder to do.
BenHayat
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Post by BenHayat »

kklosson wrote:I work in IT contracting...
In my years of consulting for different companies, most decision makers go with Buzz words in the market place.
Market awareness is the key and the starting point.
People say "Show me, don't tell me!". And that's why I'm saying it's up to us, the developers to spread the word that will come back to us in the future.
aware_support
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Post by aware_support »

Thank you for your thoughts and kind words, Ben.

SPREAD THE WORD AROUND if you think Aware IM is useful.

We will be launching new logos, web site etc after version 6.0 is released.
Aware IM Support Team
BenHayat
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Post by BenHayat »

aware_support wrote:Thank you for your thoughts and kind words, Ben.

SPREAD THE WORD AROUND if you think Aware IM is useful.

We will be launching new logos, web site etc after version 6.0 is released.
*IF*??? :) Of course it is...

Please be sure to create Logos that says "Powered by Aware IM". I see AwareSoft has it's own logo, but we might need a logo for Aware itself too.

The more companies find out, the more opportunities will open up for Aware developers.
customaware
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Post by customaware »

Anything to promote Aware IM is good Ben and encouraging the existing Developer base to engage in spreading the word around is always positive.

However, as I have seen with other great but niche products, many developers seem to take the view "I need to keep this quite because it gives me an edge over my competitors that I don't want them to know about"

I struggle with that mindset. To my mind, the bigger the Developer base then better the product becomes, the more accepted the product becomes and the most valuable the skill set of someone who is competent in the product becomes.

The sharing of ideas, knowledge and being part of the Aware IM Tribe is a fundamental part of the success of the product. The upcoming Aware IM Developers International Conference is being held purely for this reason. Is is not JUST for experienced Aware Developers. It is not JUST for beginning Aware Developers. The program is for ALL Aware Developers and is designed to bring Aware Developers from all over the World together for the sole purpose of helping everyone to make better use of their time by learning how to do things which otherwise they might struggle with back home by themselves.

In fact, there are quite a few people who have never used Aware IM before that I am encouraging to attend just so they can gain an understanding first hand of what the product is about, how good it is and the level of Aware community support there is available.

You will notice that there are a large number of people on this forum that are using Aware but never ask a question. I am sure they have many question but maybe are to shy to ask. So they struggle away by themselves and run the risk of not getting the best out of the product.

There are currently 682 registered users on this forum.

258 of those people have never posted a single question.
77 has only ever posted a single question
156 have posted between 2 and 10 questions

The question that springs to my mind is, are all those people still using the product or did we lose them? If we lost them, why was that? I am sure there are a huge number of reasons why someone would try it out and not continue but I am guessing but would think that if they immediately felt part of a supportive community in those first few weeks after they download the trial... then they would continue. If they don't, then they leave and look for something else never realising that they just missed a fabulous opportunity to be involved with probably the best tool they will ever come across.

I always find it interesting how private many developers like to be. I am always interested in what others are doing, how are they using the product, where are they from, what successes have they had, how did they overcome problems when they arose..... to me, hearing and seeing what others have done and are doing is inspiring.

Have a look at the Member List on this forum and see how many people choose not to include where they live, not to include even their first name. While I can understand people want to maintain a level on anonymity, surely knowing that your name is Jeff from Idaho in us USA rather than devman1 from nowhere is not an invasion of privacy and provides others an opportunity to answer you courteously with a Hi Jeff!

Just my two bob's worth.
Cheers,
Mark
_________________
AwareIM 6.0, 8.7, 8.8, 9.0 , MariaDB, Windows 10, Ubuntu Linux. Theme: Default, Browser: Arc
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BenHayat
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Post by BenHayat »

Mark, I'm very happy you made this post. You covered many grounds that I don't need to repeat them. So I agree 100%.

Back in early 80's, when dBaseII, then Clipper, then FoxPro emerged. Although, dBase was backed by AshonTate, however Cliper and FoxPro, were made by a couple of guys. What made them so popular were the developers and see how well developers were doing with so many jobs.

At the same time we had DataFlex, Clarion, Progress, Infomix and latter on Magic. The developers from these camps had the mentality of keeping it secrete to themselves, because they didn't want competition. And now we see, where DataFlex, Clarion, Magic or Informix are? Barely alive and all developers left the Products.

Aware V6 is very mature and complete and it really IS our job, each one of us to do a bit of promotion to push it into the market. The more people use it and becomes popular, the more plugins will come out, the more samples will come out and etc.

Let's make 2015 the year of promoting Aware and let Vlad and his team do their magic. That's all!!!
tford
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Post by tford »

Agree 100% Mark & Ben!

I do everything I can to promote AwareIM as a solution to business challenges whenever I can. When I came across AwareIM in 2007, it was after Google searching and doing a trial of product after product after product. Each of the other products I tried had major limitations. When I tried AwareIM, I quickly realized I had found the answer!

Not only did AwareIM allow me to leverage my outdated programming skills and focus on solving business problems ... my strength.

I reached out to Pete (pbrad) via the forums to help understand a few concepts I was struggling with. Pete very graciously helped me via both email and phone a few times. I am indebted to him for his time investment.

I also quickly learned that if I took the time to clearly define a suspected bug or an area where AwareIM could improve, that I actually got a response from support that showed me they care and wanted to listen / improve their product. Eventually that caring turned into a friendship with Vladimir from half way across the globe.

So yes, count me in to help promote AwareIM to other professionals. To be most effective, I believe it's best to give new folks who are looking at AwareIM a road map to get their mind around both the capabilities and the ultimate ease of use. I've found that the online demo applications are the best place to start. Getting under the hood of those BSVs allows you to quickly see the power of AwareIM and how you can leverage your time and talents to achieve remarkable results.
Tom - V8.8 build 3137 - MySql / PostGres
BobK
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Post by BobK »

eagles9999 wrote:Just my two bob's worth.
That's saying a lot :lol:
Bob
pbrad
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Post by pbrad »

Thanks for the tip of the hat Tom, I hope that you are well.

I doubt that you will find many developers that are as big a supporter of AwareIM as I am although I haven't been able to contribute in this forum as much as I would have liked over the past year or two as I have been developing AwareIM applications like a madman.

With respect to promoting AwareIM, just a thought but since awareness is key (no pun intended) and internet visibility=awareness it occurs to me that several hundred users spread around the world are in a position to help out with search engine visibility of awareim.com globally. Would it be an idea for the AwareIM team to produce a single html page with the graphics pointed back to their site for ease of installation and then make this page available for developers to make this page accessible on their respective websites? I'm sure that I could place this page on 20 or 30 domains that I have control over at least. Would that help? If not, please ignore the ramblings of a tired man.

Anyway seasons greetings to the AwareIM team and the entire user base.

Cheers,
Pete
Pete Bradstreet
Contract developer of commercialized applications

AwareIM Ver. 8.2
BenHayat
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Post by BenHayat »

I'm surprised to see only a few responses to this thread. I'm hoping more seasoned developers share their thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks!
tford
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Post by tford »

Pete's idea has a lot of merit from an SEO point of view. Perhaps some of the testimonials from other developers that AwareIM has accumulated could be placed on some of these pages as well.
Tom - V8.8 build 3137 - MySql / PostGres
BenHayat
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Post by BenHayat »

tford wrote:Pete's idea has a lot of merit from an SEO point of view. Perhaps some of the testimonials from other developers that AwareIM has accumulated could be placed on some of these pages as well.
I had mentioned to Vlad about this subject but from a different point of view. I had told him, we should have "Case Study" of different projects done by different developers with some videos to showcase their products on the website. I also like Pete's idea from SEO point of view.

I feel in 2015, we (Aware developers) should create a group where we can collaborate and push the Aware into marketplace via education, Product showcase and etc.

I think support should create a new section in the forum for this type of discussion and products made-by-Aware.
tford
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Post by tford »

we should have "Case Study" of different projects done by different developers with some videos to showcase their products on the website. I also like Pete's idea from SEO point of view.

I feel in 2015, we (Aware developers) should create a group where we can collaborate and push the Aware into marketplace via education, Product showcase and etc.
I have a couple of areas that I might be able to contribute some screen shots and a mini case study.

Kentico - http://www.kentico.com/ - Kentico is a content management system to build websites. Our school site at http://www.LutheranWest.com is managed via Kentico. I've connected AwareIM to the Kentico SQL database to manage the scores & stories in the athletics section of our site much more efficiently & effectively than Kentico functionality would allow.

RenWeb - http://www.renweb.com/ - RenWeb is our school management system. Through ODBC access to RenWeb's database, we are able to pull certain info into an AwareIM CRM system that I built to manage areas certain aspects of the school.
Tom - V8.8 build 3137 - MySql / PostGres
ACDC
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Post by ACDC »

My take on this is somewhat different:

Sorry guys, I don’t agree with any of the above, why would I want to place a Powered By AwareIM logo in my application, that just does not make sense to me
I would prefer to build my own brand and have "Powered By MyOwnBrand".

As a businessman I hold my cards close to my chest. The tools and methods of how I do business are trade secrets to the business, If you expose these you do this at your own peril .. you will soon have another competitor in your way.

When it comes to disclosing the platform setup I talk about MySql, TomCat and Java backend with Sencha and Javascript and that’s it.
The rest of the presentation revolves around the business and capabilities of meeting functionality and deadlines (and therein lies the AIM secret)

So I believe there are two sides to the coin, if you are a Businessman/developer driving your own business then the above should apply
BUT if you are employed as a developer in a company working on someone else’s product where you do not have ownership, then I can see reason why you would want expose and build on the AwareIm element as described in the previous posts. In the end it’s all about building recognition and support base for the next project to be employed in.

AIM is an absolute formidable tool, it’s my secret weapon, and linking up with like-minded developers is definitely something I am interested in.

I have always said “Give me 10 experienced AIM developers and we can take on the world” In fact I have often thought of the concept of mustering up a team of Aimers into an alliance of some sort where products are developed by the Alliance partnership and taken to the market under a single Alliance Big Brand. This way one can be elevated into BIG business MORE money. BUT that’s for another discussion.
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