Carsonified

Our meeting room is full of bean bags. We decided to get rid of the tables and swap them out for something more comfortable and relaxing. I can’t tell you how glad I am that we did this.

The problem is that when we interview people for new positions on the Team, we don’t have anywhere to sit. We could go to the local coffee shop, but I specifically choose to do the interviews in the bean bag room.

Why?

There’s nothing that levels the playing field like two people sitting on bean bags. You can’t act ‘professional’ on a bean bag. You can’t use big words and marketing speak. You just have to act like a normal person. I love that.

It’s awkward and funny sitting down and getting up from a bean bag which is great for putting the interviewer (me) on the same level as the interviewee - I’m not the high-and-mighty boss, I’m just a normal person like you. I also like it because it immediately says “we’re not your normal company” to potential Team members.

I’d love to hear any of your tips for interviewing or being interviewed.

Future of Mobile 2008 is up and running. The conference takes place on 17th November at Kensington Town Hall, followed by a day of workshops on mobile business and technical development. There is also a prelude event being developed by the Carsonified stealth operations team, more on this in due course. We think the new look site looks fantastic, hope you’ll agree.

This year we spent a great deal of time and effort consulting some of the movers and shakers in the mobile industry to get ideas and themes for this years content. Many many thanks to all, for the kindness and help received along the way. There are some very interesting speakers confirmed already and we are still talking to several organisations to secure some more great content over the next month or two. There is a lot of very intelligent comment on matters pertaining to the mobile industry coming from the UK. It is a great pleasure to welcome six of the UK’s most interesting technology bloggers to FOM for the 6X6 session. This will provide some strong and occasionally contentious opinions to stimulate the conversation at the event.

A conscious effort has been made to broaden the horizons of this conference to ensure that the future of mobile is examined across much more than the mobile web and in a worldwide context. We are building a programme designed to inform and inspire people from all walks of the mobile industry. It is never going to be possible to cover all the important topics and please everyone in just one day though. There is still a little room for more so please go ahead and comment here once you have looked at the event, or contact me directly.

There are great early bird discounts available now and student tickets for less than the cost of a decent evening of binge drinking.

I recently installed Greasemonkey and I noticed a really nice touch that they’ve used when you turn it on or off.

When you click the monkey’s face in the status bar, it switches from a color smiley face, to a black-and-white frown face. I love that. Instead of saying ‘On’ or ‘Off’ they chose a simple and clever visual indicator.

Touches like that show that you’ve taken the extra time to be creative and will in turn, delight your users.

Has anyone else seen something similar that you’d like to share?

We’ve just moved our email, calendar and documents over to Google Apps (thanks Keir!) and it’s amazing. The migration of our email wasn’t too bad (besides the fact I deleted my entire ‘To Respond’ folder by mistake - oops).

However, Google Apps isn’t news to any of you. What is exciting is the way we’ve rolled out ‘Single Site Browsers’ (SSB) to make using them much easier.

We’re using Fluid to turn Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar into stand-alone apps which sit in the Dock. If you’re on a PC, you can use Prism to do the same (although it seems a bit slower than Fluid).

Why is that cool? Two reasons:

1. It looks gorgeous
2. It makes using them much easier

Why is it easier?

Mainly because people are used to their email and their calendar being stand-alone apps. Going to a browser tab and typing in a URL just doesn’t flow naturally (also it’s too easy to mistakenly close the tab). Clicking on an icon in your Dock or Start Menu is natural. Also, you can add these SSBs to your Start folder so they load every time your machine starts.

How?

It’s super easy. Just download Fluid or Prism and tell it what URL you want to turn into a SSB. The problem is it’ll choose the site’s favicon for the app icon, which usually looks crap. Instead, download these icons first and then tell Fluid to use them for your app. Beautiful.

If you have any other tips for integrating Google Apps into your desktop, please share in the comments below.

FOWD NYC 08 is finally here….well nearly! As one of the newest members of the Carsonified team, i have been a busy bee getting ready for my first event as a fellow Carsonite!

Myself and the team have been preparing to bring you some of the top names in the design world and you won’t be disappointed. I can honestly say we’ve got some top speakers for you with more to come over the next few months…. It will be well worth the wait when FOWD arrives in November :)

So get ready for the launch tomorrow…that’s Thursday 24th July at 5pm (UK time). Tickets sold out really quickly last time so make sure you are the first to get yours when registration opens. Early Bird tickets are available until September 18th where you can get an amazing £100 off!

As you will soon see from the brand newly designed Future of Web Design site (thanks Mike) - this year we will be at the Roseland Ballroom which is in New York’s theatre district. It’s a really cool venue and a bit different from your run of the mill conference center (not that there’s anything wrong with conference centers:)

Unfortunately, for those of you that enjoy your ballroom dancing, there isn’t anything planned yet…but you are more than welcome to get your groove on at the after show party which from what i’ve been told, are always a blast!

Lots more to do before the launch tomorrow so adios for now.

Louise :)

Oh yes, Diggnation is back at FOWA to film a live episode right from the main stage!

Those of you who attended last year will remember how amazing this was, so prepare yourselves for more, and those of you who didn’t attend what are you waiting for? :)

Register here, but move fast to grab your early bird discount, these are only available until 4th August.

To finish FOWA with a bang, Diggnation will be taking place from 7pm on the last day of FOWA followed immediately by the FOWA wrap party/Digg meet up! Join Kevin, Alex, all the fab FOWA speakers and of course the Carsonites at Fox for some free beers.

As if that wasn’t enough the lovely guys at Media Temple are throwing another party on the 9th Oct, so after the first day of FOWA sessions be ready as these guys know how to throw a party!

For more details on all the FOWA parties and Diggnation click here and keep watching for more updates.

At Carsonified we hire smart creative people. With that said, I’d like to say a big welcome to Louise, Mike, Dominic and Elliott - the newest members of the Family.

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