Good Bosses Like Carol Bartz Grow People

I used be heavily involved in local Northwest Florida business scene. I still am involved some, but in the last few years I've been traveling too much for Super Technologies, Inc., and when I say I am going to do something, I want to do it. Just read a quote from Yahoo!'s CEO, and it made me remember.

Some of my favorite work was as an ambassador for the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, chairman of ITGulfcoast and participating in Downtown Toastmasters and the Pensacola Bay Area Advertising Federation.

As ambassador, I got to personally meet each new member of the Chamber, usually at their business during their ribbon-cutting. As chairman of the technology group, I gained immense satisfaction by working with Maria Weisnicht, Alan Aldermann, Victor Rojas, Craig Hitpas, and Patrick Rooney in rounding up the hidden technology talent in S.E. USA to showcase at monthly meetings. The P.B.A.A.F.'s meetings were creativity-inducers. Ask my husband Michael Bowen about that.

At one of the last Downtown Toastmasters' meetings I was able to attend, I met a guy who owned a Subway franchise. What I will never forget that he said was, "We are in the business of growing people. We hire them to clean, cook, create, communicate, teamplay, and improve things at our Subway. We mold them. They mold us. We become better people. They become the best, leave, and start or get involved in something even cooler that us, or at least different. It doesn't upset me. I smile about it."

I remember the people, teachers, preachers, parents, and bosses in my life... the ones who suffocated, freed, nudged, squashed, pushed, and/or noticed me. Today, there is one I want to thank that I have not thanked publicly, Dr. Larry Morris, the oral surgeon, who brought his team to Pizza Hut every day for lunch, always asked for me to serve their table and then he hired me as an oral surgeon's assistant because as he said, "You've got people skills like no one I know. You'll brighten up our office. We'll train you. Don't worry."

Thank you, Dr. Larry Morris. I was only 17 years old and those words and your integrity throughout the time I've known you, still inspire me.

"There is a real difference between managing and leading. … Managing winds up being the allocation of resources against tasks. Leadership focuses on people. My definition of a leader is someone who helps people succeed.”

–Carol Bartz, Yahoo! CEO
 
... browse some of our team's other blogs and services at http://blogs.didx.net/ and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/, http://www.didx.net/podcast, http://www.techistan.com/. Find out how to get your telephone company to offer phone numbers from around the world. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

IPhone Application Development with ITGulfcoast in Pensacola!

ITGulfcoast's JULY 22 MEETING -

PENSACOLA, FL – ITGulfCoast, an Information Technology Association for the Gulf Coast, will hold their regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at PJC Downtown. Charles Armour, an entrepreneurial consultant , will discuss Apple's iPhone Ecosystem.

Presentation Abstract

With an almost perfect combination of features and marketing the iPhone has been taking the mobile market by storm, selling over 30 million devices to date. However, bringing an iPhone App to this profitable market is an involved process with many caveats and pitfalls to avoid. Charles Armour, an iPhone App developer and consultant, will lead the audience in building a simple iPhone App while discussing the iPhone ecosystem and its relevance to your business. Topics will include development cycles and costs, monetization from sales and advertising, design and style considerations, common pitfalls, and the iPhone 3.0 platform.

The presentation, source code, and more information will be available on http://www.charlesarmour.com/itgc-iphone following the event.

Presenter

Charles Armour is an entrepreneurial consultant with a strong background in systems integration, distributed computing, mobile applications, and web technologies. Having successfully launched three technology companies here in Pensacola, Charles is now independently consulting with area firms to address their needs in mobility, big data, and integration. For more information, please visit the CWA Consulting website at http://www.charlesarmour.com.

Meeting Details

This meeting will be held at PJC Downtown (4th floor) . The meeting starts at 11:30 am and ends at 1:00 pm. The cost for lunch is $12 per person. Cold box lunches will be provided from Aegean Breeze. The fee to attend without lunch is $5 per person.

Register for this event online at itgcjuly2009.eventsbot.com. Payment can be made by cash or check (made out to ITGULFCOAST.ORG) at the event or during registration with Paypal. No-shows should send payment after the event via Paypal to payments@itgulfcoast.org.
The meeting is open to all ITGULFCOAST members, guests and to the public. If you are planning on attending, please register in advance. We may be short on lunches if we get too many "drop-ins".

Sponsors of ITGulfcoast include:

Bit-Wizards
CED Technical Services
Cox Business
General Dynamics IT ASD
H2 Performance Consulting
Spherion Staffing
Super Technologies (DIDX and Virtualphoneline)
TECHSOFT

You can become sponsor, too.

Subscribe to future newsletters.

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

ITGulfcoast Meeting IPhone Applications

JULY 22 MEETING - IPhone Application Development in Pensacola, Florida!

PENSACOLA, FL – ITGulfCoast, an Information Technology Association for the Gulf Coast, will hold their regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at PJC Downtown. Charles Armour, an entrepreneurial consultant , will discuss Apple's iPhone Ecosystem.

Presentation Abstract

With an almost perfect combination of features and marketing the iPhone has been taking the mobile market by storm, selling over 30 million devices to date. However, bringing an iPhone App to this profitable market is an involved process with many caveats and pitfalls to avoid. Charles Armour, an iPhone App developer and consultant, will lead the audience in building a simple iPhone App while discussing the iPhone ecosystem and its relevance to your business. Topics will include development cycles and costs, monetization from sales and advertising, design and style considerations, common pitfalls, and the iPhone 3.0 platform.

The presentation, source code, and more information will be available on http://www.charlesarmour.com/itgc-iphone following the event.

Presenter

Charles Armour is an entrepreneurial consultant with a strong background in systems integration, distributed computing, mobile applications, and web technologies. Having successfully launched three technology companies here in Pensacola, Charles is now independently consulting with area firms to address their needs in mobility, big data, and integration. For more information, please visit the CWA Consulting website at http://www.charlesarmour.com.

Register at http://itgcjuly2009.eventsbot.com/.

... browse some of our team's other blogs at http://blogs.didx.net and http://blog.tmcnet.com/monetizing-ip-communications/. You're welcome to comment, contribute, and collaborate any time.

Car Wrecks, Qik, And SIP in Pensacola, Florida

Time 5:50 PM, Tuesday, Jan 27, 2009. I'm reading Facebook statuses of hundreds of friends, laughing, being educated, and/or feeling empathetic. Michael's driving us to run the Emerald Coast Racing Team workout.

Boom! Airbag, smack! My progressive eyeglasses crushed... Michael's saying he's okay. I can't see to get to Qik to stream this shenanigan.




We open the doors of our Chevy Tracker (which doesn't look totalled but later we find out it is). We huddle in the ditch. I take pictures of anything I can and change my Facebook status to "Michael and i just got into abig car accident. A guy coming out of a bar hit us. We.re both bleeding but able to stand outside the car. i.m shaking."

I forget about Qik. We didn't catch on video a very peculiar situation that I will not discuss online. Hindsight. Michael's mid section is pretty banged up. My head, oh my big head.

Steve Fair shows up after he sees my Facebook status. Then Steve Cayona shows up, same reason, with Michael's insurance papers. Bless you both. I sit on the ground and read my Facebook friends' words of encouragement on my wall while hugging Michael close and crying silently.

Next day, the neck, shoulders, head, and right eye are throbbing. Can't see to work on my computer. Progessive lenses shot.

Steve Cayona, my Super Technologies' colleague, calls and says, "Quit feeling sorry for yourself. You and I are going to the ITGulfcoast meeting. Why would you want to miss John R. Bartoszewicz, Managing Partner of Business Communications & Data (BCD), discuss Sessions Initiated Protocol (SIP) in little old Redneck Riviera Pensacola, Florida?"

Watch some on Qik starting with http://qik.com/video/934968 and 3 more videos* after. (It's a bit sloppy because I just can't see that well. I'm feeling very sloppy.) He mentions that Cox Communications will be providing SIP soon. (Cox and Super Technologies, Inc. are sponsors of ITGulfcoast.)

John also mentions the fact that his company will be using an IP PBX hosted by Commpartners (who btw, are the ones who manage http://www.voip-info.org. We spent some time with them at PTC in 2007. John explains SIP so well and so simply.

You make me proud of Northwest Florida, John.

I'm going to work now with my face as close to the Dell as possible. See you at the Super Bowl party on Sunday in Miami and most of all ITEXPO East / 4G Wireless Evolution / Digium | Asterisk World, all 12,000 or more of you. Get your passes here at www.itexpo.com now.

* I'll get the Qik videos titled, etc. soon.

Need 14 Laptops for One Week: Linking Arms' Telethon in Pensacola

See more details about the Linkingarms.org Telethon in Pensacola, FL at http://blogs.didx.net/2009/01/open-source-folks-help-linking-arms.html.

We'll be at Jan 28, 2009 ITGULFCOAST meeting to give more information and gather help. Meet with us there at 11:30 AM at the Pensacola Junior College Downtown Campus. Please register for this meeting if you plan to attend here --> http://www.itgulfcoast.org/Events/ITGULFCOAST-Jan--Meeting.aspx.

VoIP and Volunteerism, Leveling the Playing Field

Is Asterisk... volunteerism? I'd rather you talk about that.

And what about the V word? A few weeks ago, an IT group I chair (www.itgulfcoast.org) held a Business Continuity Forum composed of community leaders in utilities, government, military, and media*. Pensacola, Florida, I mean, think "Ivan," "Dennis," "Rita," "Charlie," and more.

Never one to talk and no show, we go from there to implementing the NERD (Northwest Florida Emergency Resources Database Information Technology volunteers), sparked interest in open source Linux and Asterisk, and Buzz Ritchie, Allan Alderman, and General Bob Kennedy's repeated references to the benefits of "clusters."

I read a news clip where Pensacola City Manager Tom Bonfield (one of the panelists) recommends reading The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. Muy interesante! John Dosh, Lisa Newell, Buz Eddy and J.T. Young all spoke of businesses collaborating in advance to volunteer in disaster-preparedness and post disaster help, now, not later.

Oh, and a huge thank you to Jay Massey who attended one of our meetings where the E-commerce speaker didn't show up. He was Jay-on-the-spot. We thank him tremendously. (http://www.cocodesign.com/)

Back to VoIP and Volunteerism. SIP, DIDX, Skype, Inveneo... different types of volunteerism (freebies, open source, leveling the playing field).

Closing the digital divide... Whether it's open source code, free API on a DID exchange, free calls, or Internet run by human movement, it's refreshing. Finally, even the scrawniest kid in a most remote area of the world with a great idea can bat a home run in VoIP.

I noticed that Pulver's Von.com is offering VON attendance scholarships to university students. Very nice. www.itgulfcoast.org awards IT scholarships to University of West Florida and Pensacola Junior College students. Sponsors include General Dynamics, Super Technologies, Inc.; Bit-Wizards, J&J Webpages**, Cox Business Services, Adaugeo, TechSoft and Tech Advanced.

* Notice that the media doesn't talk much about one of the globe's worst collaborative atrocities. Read Electric Beach by Joe Hilley.

** Its CEO is also the executive director of the Disability Network and will be the September 2006 presenter for www.ITGulfcoast.org.