But here’s something new! At the end of the day yesterday I spent some time in conference with the organizing team for this year’s Cleveland GiveCamp. We already have bunches of eager volunteers, a floating venue, some early sponsorship interest, and a decently clear idea of what’s going to happen next.

What you need to know

GiveCamp is a bunch of designers, admins, software developers, and business people who pitch in for a weekend to create websites and software applications for free for nonprofit organizations.

This year in Cleveland it’s the last weekend in July, starting the evening of Friday the 29th and rolling through the afternoon of the 31st.

We haven’t decided which agencies and organizations are going to get new websites and software applications this year, but we will probably start accepting applications around May 1st.

We are already taking volunteer commitments! If you can design web graphics, or can lead a project, or know something about content management systems (especially WordPress), or write software, or are good at organizing, or if you just want to help–please sign up now!

We are also working on a sponsor packet, for companies and individuals who might consider donating money, materials, food, T-shirts, or services. That should be available within a couple of weeks. GiveCamp runs cheaply, but we still need a lot of food, caffeine, and supplies to keep it going all weekend.

Last year

Cleveland GiveCamp was a huge hit. We used all of the LeanDog boat plus half of Burke Lakefront Airport (thanks everyone!), had about 110 volunteers who worked on 21 projects, and left charged up to do even more this year! I personally know three people who got hooked up with new jobs as a result of the connections they made at GiveCamp, and everyone had fun. Also, the food was far better than at most tech conferences.

So.

If you’re going to be anywhere near Cleveland at the end of July, here’s what you can do:

• Volunteer for the big GiveCamp weekend of July 29-31.
• Start planting some mental seeds for sponsorship at the places where you eat out, work, or shop.
• Talk to your friends and associates in nonprofit organizations–do their current websites suck? Are they looking for some kind of new software program that doesn’t already exist?
• Watch this space, and ClevelandGiveCamp.org, for more in coming months!
• Are you in for this year? Were you there last year? Drop a comment and tell us how it went.

I promise hard work, nice people, and lots of fun. See you in July!

Specifically, I love the way Rails lets you do database access. The simplest way to hit a database table with Rails is to run a generate scaffold command that creates the table for you and writes all the code for a super-basic CRUD (create, update, delete) web application. You can edit the generated “scaffold” to make it prettier or to add functionality.

When you go just a little farther, you find that the ActiveRecord class does most of the boring database work for you. Every table (“Model” in MVC parlance) is set up to inherit from ActiveRecord, and you don’t have to write out (in your code) what columns it contains because ActiveRecord figures it out for you at runtime.

Better still, you can add lines to your Model code such as :has_many x or :belongs_to y to indicate relationships (joins) with other tables. Again, Rails works out the details. You really don’t even have to know what database software is being used; ActiveRecord takes care of the vendor-specific differences.

Those are some specific things that make Rails so nice for web and database development. One of the hardest things for some people is getting used to NOT writing so much repetitive code.

That’s at the top of my list. What do you love about Ruby and Rails? Comments are open.

It’s time for a conversation. Who’s in?

As a possible starter… affirm, deny, or qualify the following statement: “The cost of adopting Agile development methods is primarily not paid in cash out of pocket.” What do you think?

I’m excited about this!

A couple of very different items that I’ve been working on for a long time have finally reached a state of substantial completion. I’m ready to get them into a market-friendly state that will enable me to help more people, in a very sustainable way that everyone can afford.

The first thing

The first thing is a Windows application that was custom-made for a local nonprofit organization. They’ve implemented a very successful environmental health program (one of many) that works with families to identify home health and safety hazards, remediate those hazards in a cost-effective manner, and educate the family on ways to maintain the healthy state of the home. There’s a lot of “workflow” involved, and the reporting issues are fairly intense because of federal grant requirements, and it’s further complicated by the need to support an offline distributed database because the inspector with his Tablet PC doesn’t have remote access in the field.

The new application has been in a solidly usable beta state for about six months. Now we’re calling 1.0 done!

The main screen looks kind of like this.

The next step

So consider this a pre-release announcement. If you’re working with HUD Healthy Homes or any similar program, and manual recordkeeping is making your quarterly reports a nightmare, or if you just want a better way to schedule all those inspections and followups… we should totally talk. Get in touch with me now and we can arrange a preview.

The other thing

The other thing, which I’ve been talking about on Twitter a lot recently, is my new Startup Booster series for entrepreneurs whose software projects do not yet suck, but might! If you’re starting a company, and particularly if it’s not a software company, the last thing you want is a software project that costs too much, takes forever, and doesn’t solve the problem you had in the first place.

Isn’t it hard enough to get your idea off the ground? The software part of your strategic plan has to help, not get in the way. That’s why I’m building the Startup Booster. It’s a series of super-accessible information products that show you a really clear path to making stuff work even if you aren’t a software person yourself.

Right now, I’m putting the finishing touches on the first module, Buy or Build? It addresses the first and most important question that a lot of entrepreneurs miss: “Do I need to do a software project at all?” In it, I show you a really simple and thorough eight-step process (with a flowchart!) to help you decide whether to buy an existing package, get set to develop something custom, or skip the whole thing.

That’s the perfect implementation of my favorite rule of thumb: the only bug-free program is the one you don’t have to create to begin with.

Here’s what you get

The first module, Buy or Build? delivers a PDF and an MP3. The PDF includes an overview of the whole process, the aforementioned flowchart, and a super-simple workbook that you can write in as you go along. The MP3 is half an hour of my soothing voice, giving you background on the buy/build decision and explaining all the steps with real examples and a few bigger insights.

Here’s when you get it

At this moment, Buy or Build? is in preview. You can buy it at a special discount price of $17 if you’re on my free keep-in-touch eZine list. Otherwise, you have to wait until next Wednesday to join in the fun.

Of course if you now buy the preview, which is honestly kind of rough around the edges, you’ll get the tidied-up finished version for free next Wednesday. Like duh.

The rest of the series

But wait! There’s more! Future Startup Booster installments will help with topics like these. (Not all will be separate modules though.)

• Can you do the software project yourself? Is that so crazy?
• Figuring out what kind of help you need… how to get it… how to manage it… and when to fire people.
• Is Open Source or Free Software right for you?
• Deciding on a platform (e.g. Mac OS X, Windows, Web) and tool set.
• How to know when your contractor is snowing you.
• Protocols for problem-solving.
• Measuring return on investment.
• Can you turn your project investment into a profitable product of its own?
• When to upgrade.

I haven’t worked out all the pricing, but each module will be pretty similar to the first in terms of content and bulk: a half hour of audio, a workbook, an overview, and a visual aid. There will be a really good no-regrets bundle price if you decide to get the whole series. (By “no regrets” I mean the bundle price is discounted by what you’ve already paid for individual modules, so you won’t have to go “Dang! I should have waited for the bundle!”)

Next up:

I’ve already started on the installment that addresses getting help with your custom software project. I’m hoping to get that preview out to friends as early as next Monday and releasing it to the public in mid-February. This is an ongoing process, with new content at least every month or so.

So there you go.

You can get on the keep-in-touch list right now and order the preview of Buy or Build? at a pretty cheap price with the free update, or you can hang around until Wednesday and pay a bit more for the flowered-up product.

Up to you though. I really hope you decide to check this stuff out, because if you’re trying to get a startup going this stuff can really cut out a lot of the cost, hassle, and stress of software projects gone bad–and so much more affordably than figuring it out with a consultant!