GORGES January 2011 Newsletter

In This Issue

New at GORGES
First there were Ecards, now there is Unvelope.
GORGES Ramps Up for Online Video
Making Mobile Apps

Also This Month

GORGES on the Ropes

In October we engaged the Cornell Team & Leadership Center for our annual retreat. We spent an afternoon at the Hoffman Challenge Course, located just a few miles outside of Ithaca. The weather could not have been better.

Jim Volkshausen, Paul Louis, and the other Cornell Outdoor Education staff were great. They led us in team building exercises as we pushed ourselves through new challenges.

The first was to add one person at a time to a giant teeter-totter. It took a while, but we were able to get our entire team on a seesaw platform without tipping. As you can imagine, it took planning, communication, coordination, and (you guessed it) teamwork.

We moved on to other challenges, such as having four of us climb a tall pole separately and then stand together on a very small platform while team members on the ground managed our safety ropes. Once we were up, there was only one way down – trusting the rope team and just jumping!

The Cornell Outdoor Education staff helped us understand our “high-functioning” team behavior. Every event challenged our communication and problem-solving skills. And, it was all great fun.

Other activities included climbing the 64-foot-high tower wall and shooting down the zip line.

Our toughest moment wasn’t physical but emotional – Rasmus’s wedding ring flew off during a high-pole maneuver. We could not find it in the wood chips and leaves, but Chris and Paul succeeded the next day with a rented metal detector and video enhancements from a video Alex shot.

Alex caught the ring’s descent on video camera, and was able to send the movie to Chris’s smartphone to direct the search. It had flown much farther than anyone thought, and without the video help it could have been lost forever. Hurray for high-tech gadgets!

We love the Cornell Outdoor Education crew, and hope to keep going back. Jim and his crew were quick to point out that we had only touched on a few of the many activities that they offer.

View our photo slideshow.

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Monday January 10, 2011

New at GORGES

JIM TSE

Jim Tse is the newest application developer at GORGES.

Jim has been working with GORGES on a freelance basis for several years. He has proven his worth on many challenging projects so we were delighted when the opportunity arose to have him join our team full-time.

He has a wide variety of experience in application development, having written programs for psychology experiments and research, as well as e-commerce and other business web sites.

Jim has been passionate about the smart use of technology all his life, applying innovative software solutions in many environments throughout his work life and school.

First there were Ecards, now there is Unvelope.

Jane and Steve, Owners of Unvelope.com, wanted to take their extensive marketing and branding experience online with the world’s most beautiful and sensitive eCard service. After false starts with less capable companies they came to GORGES. The challenge was two fold, creating a graphically perfect website and developing an easy-to-use interface for customers who have other sites to choose from.

Using a process that included much consultation, GORGES built a website based on the substantial Yii php framework. Nearly all the modules had to be custom built.

The draft website was placed online for Client use very early in the process. This was critical for the extensive graphic review, and for placing and testing the hundreds of eCards.

Check out the site!

GORGES Ramps Up for Online Video

Video is expected to become predominate in many types of websites. We are already seeing this and participating in it. Nearly all recent GORGES projects present some video. According to Pew Internet surveys, “The growing adoption of broadband combined with a dramatic push by content providers to promote online video has helped to pave the way for mainstream audiences to embrace online video viewing." In web technology video is a valuable component of “multimedia”.

Responding to our clients’ opportunities with video, GORGES has three activities.

As in all aspects of all our projects, GORGES staff plans and advises clients about the use and economics of online video technology.
We work daily in the implementation of video technology.
Saving the best for last, we have formed an alliance with an excellent video production studio, Moving Box Studios, just around the corner from us in Ithaca.

The word “video” is somewhat loaded. To some it means a full-length film – to others a glimpse of little Courtney hugging her brother. In practice it is many things. GORGES’s new website for Unvelope has much animation and audio. It is very effective.

Find out more about our Video approach and successes.

Making Mobile Apps

GORGES is now having fun making mobile apps for YMCAs. It is half business and half charity – started from a Matt Clark, CTO, family connection. In any case, it’s valuable to be so active in this burgeoning technology. You may download the iPhone version of the Rye YMCA app at the apple app store.

Our current method simultaneously creates iPhone and Android apps. We have also made “mobile-friendly” websites of smart phones and just about every other type of mobile app.

As with the video technology GORGES service includes planning and advice about the use and economics of mobile technology. Don and Matt are available to help with mobile app development decisions.

Schedule an appointment with us for an initial consultation.

Find out more about our services, view a list of recent projects, or schedule your free meeting.