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Predictions and tips for 2012

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On the last few hours of 2011 I want to make some predictions and tips on the technology field for 2012 (particularly for Guatemala but I guess they can be applied to some other similar countries)

  • eCommerce is going to get bigger and better. Additional services like delivery, gift wrapping and warehouse renting are going to be needed. Improvement on marketing, SEO, merchant services and other areas are going to be crucial and the companies getting there first will have lots of advantages.
  • Social Networks will personalize companies more than they already have. Careers on internet branding, PR consulting and social network management are going to be required more than ever.
  • Personal Branding will start to become a must. Companies are outsourcing and downsizing more than ever. If you want to be hired or if you want to be able to sell your services you will need to be known.
  • Telecommuting and freelancing will get more popular. Companies outside Guatemala keep looking to hire talented people or to outsource to reduce costs. Workers are looking for jobs where they can spend more time with their families and generate better income.
  • eLearning will turn more popular. The need for more techy teachers is going to increase. People want to be educated for less and educators want to reach more students. Webinars and LMS are going to be the perfect combo.
  • SaaS will appear on our market. Buying personalized software can be very expensive, some companies don’t even have a budget to go that way. Some others did the investment 10 years ago and still use that software. The improvement of the software and the customer service has gotten worse and worse over the years. New companies offering easy to implement software, for cheap monthly fees will find a very welcoming market.
  • Legal IT services, consultancy and other will be needed specially to offer digital goods and services outside Guatemala.
  • Internet security will be more than a must. In order to offer services out seas, customer will have to be able to trust our security.

2012 will be full of new opportunities in the midst of our economy. If the new government supports any of the previous topics we shall see a good tomorrow for our country. The more we develop a culture of quality, hard work and customer service the better we are going to be prepared for the local and global market.

Happy new year, may 2012 be more productive than ever!

Moving to WordPress

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I’m moving to WordPress. I used to write on tumblr and later on moved to Octopress but there are two reasons why I’m moving again:

  1. When using tumblr I got used to the idea of being able to write anywhere I wanted. Octopress is a little limited about that.
  2. WP is the tool that we sell our customers at Scream. We truly believe is one of the best CMS out there and I want to know the tool the best I can in order to know what our customers are experiencing.
I’m also expecting this change to be help me be more productive with my writing.

Owning Rails Master Class: Know Your Tools and Increase Your Productivity

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There is one thing I can assure you: Don’t mix too much sugar and an Owning Rails master class. You might experience side effects like brain numbness, a mayor headache (a good one that is) or spend a night deprived of sleep thinking how are you going to use your lately acquired super powers.

About my background

I’ve worked on Web development and Business Intelligence for the past 5 years. Most of the coding I do is written in PHP, javascript and SQL. I started using frameworks about 2 years ago and though Rails is my framework of choice, I still use other flavors more often for customers who aren’t ready to enjoy the sweet ride on Rails yet.

What was I expecting from the class?

Most of what I wanted was to get a better idea of how Rails works. I’m positive that if you understand things to its core, you have a better chance on using them the right way and increasing your productivity. Marc was very good at explaining this by showing us how to develop a mini framework that models RoR on the first day of his class.

How was the experience?

Marc provided us with a cheatsheet, some pdf’s with his presentation, videos of the actual class we saw live and a super special gift (a copy of his book). All of the material was very well prepared and accurate. His explanations very professional and his coding top notch. He would kindly resolve all of our questions and never rushed anything in the class. We had to put in practice everything we learned and got to see him solve all of these problems line by line.

Why I think the class worked for me?

It simply defied me. I think there is no better class than one that forces you to think. Even though all of the exercises were very simple, they all forced me to think on how to improve my programming. There were also very good tips and most important my expectations were met.

What I liked the most about the experience

One particular reason that made this class very exciting for me is that I see programming the same way I see playing an instrument. You enjoy it the most when you get to jam with other players that are better than you. When you see another player/programmer do something pretty cool, you get inspired and if you loose yourself enough you get to go with the flow and do some pretty neat things yourself.

Conclusion

If you want to perform better and increase your Rails productivity I definitely recommend Owning Rails by Marc-André Cournoyer, can’t wait to repeat the experience!

original post: AUG 17TH, 2011