Blogging Semantic

Two of the best days of my life!

22 April 2008

Thursday 17th, 6.15AM. My alarm clock goes off. I don't think I have got out of bed quicker. I was so excited. After weeks, months and even a year or so of eMails (maybe 2 years), I am finally going to meet the people that do all of the web-design magic.

In the shower, two pieces of toast and nagging dad to hurry up (God these old people are so slow)! Finally we are on the road to Semantic and you guessed it we got lost. We stop to ask someone for directions only to find it's Nick! Dad came in to meet the rest of the team but I can't wait for him to go - he's cramping my style and ruining my street-cred! Look on the bright side at least mum's not here! (only joking).

Nick started me of with some XML which Chris (the Flash genius) helped me with, I've never done any of this before so it was great to learn a new skill. I continually stared at it all day as I really wanted to learn as much as possible, and to generally understand what was going on. When everyone in the office had started talking I stopped. Silence. Looked around to find Nick, Chris and Neil working on their projects for their clients. I said to myself in my mind; this is where all of it happens. I couldn't believe that I was in the same office with the people that make all of those really cool sites.

5:00 Was near. We all powered down and went home. I was staying with Chris, which was a great opportunity to annoy the king gentleman with some Flash tips :-)

Day Two

The next day soon arrived. I woke up and thought, this is the life. Waking up every morning, about to go to Semantic, meeting new people, playing un-real tournament at lunchtime, picking up tips from the Semantic team, couldn't get any better than that really could it? Soon arrived at Semantic HQ. Said morning to Nick and Neil and got straight to work. It was great. I was asked to make a change to the Chessington website, add a picture and some text, which I did successfully which was great.

I then had a look at some other Flash that Mike and Chris had done. I looked at one piece of animation and learnt so much like: Attaching a movie clip to the stage in ActionScript, Shape tweans, XML with Flash, Gaming and other animation. I learnt so much just by looking at it. I am using some of the tips and tricks from my two days at Semantic. I have never felt so good about myself.

All too soon both mum and dad arrived to collect me. I really don' t want to leave... so much to learn and I have never felt so happy inside. Can't wait to practice all my new skills.

I've said it before but THANK YOU SEMANTIC YOU REALLY ARE THE BEST.

Thanks to our guest blogger, David O'Hara, for this post... and a very enjoyable two days.

Posted by Nick Warren at 2:15 PM 0 comments

Semantic's simple guarantee

21 April 2008

Ever since we started Semantic, way back when, our clients have enjoyed an implicit guarantee. Now, just to be clear, we are making it explicit. Here it is: "If we don't make you smile, you don't pay".

This simple position has always made perfect sense to us, both as business strategy and point of principle. It's a decency thing. We ask our clients to invest healthy chunks of money in us and our ideas... and often this investment is a leap of faith.

Because of that it's always seemed reasonable to us, not to mention good business sense, to give people a bridge back if, for whatever reason, the leap doesn't work out.

We only want happy clients, and we'll do everything we can to make that happen. But if, in the end, it doesn't work out we'll bow out with a handshake.

No invoice, no hard feelings.

Posted by Nick Warren at 2:41 PM 0 comments

Lend a little, do a lot

18 April 2008

I can't help it, whenever I think about doing stuff for "Charrrriteee" I think about Smashie and Nicey. They ruined it for the rest of us :-)

But stuff it. The way I see it it, we are doing a little bit for charity, and the very best thing we can do is talk about it... at least a little.

It's been a real pleasure to donate some money to good causes over the last couple of Christmases. With the agreement of the team, and on their behalf, Semantic has made donations to the Starlight Foundation, Cancer Research, Shelter and other charities. Hey, it helps us feel good while we play on our Playstations!

But that's Christmas, and the high wears off pretty quickly once you realise how lucky we are in comparison to so many. So for a while now we've been thinking about how we could extend Semantic's "do gooder" programme through the year. Enter Kiva, a not for profit organisation that makes it easy for you to feel good about yourself.

If you haven't heard of Kiva I'd recommend you check them out. They are in the business of micro-finance, allowing rich people (that's us... if you are reading this) to lend money to people in the world who can do something with it.

As the term "micro-finance" suggests we aren't talking big bucks here. In fact most of the loans requested are tiny, a few hundred pounds at most. At Semantic we've decided to put a modest pot of money into Kiva... and I mean modest, and have invested in four businesses.

These include a food seller (and father of two) in Tajikistan, a beauty parlour & cyber-cafe in the Dominican Republic, and a transport business in Cambodia. In each case we've contributed part of the money requested, along with other donors from around the world.

And when, as we expect, the loans are repaid, we will re-invest to make a difference to other peoples lives. It's true that the returns will be measured in "feeling good about ourselves" rather than money, but that's fine. If things go well we will increase our "investment" over time - we are capitalists, after all... even when it comes to feeling happy.

Try it for yourself. You'll like it.

Posted by Nick Warren at 2:28 PM 0 comments

The SECRET is out... well nearly.

17 April 2008

Last December 2007 we got the opportunity to think about something unusual and interesting. Our friends at Usborne Publishing have a new book out next month, a wonderful adventure story called... well, I wish I knew... but I don't... in fact The name of this book is SECRET.

It's a great story, full of adventure, mystery, secret codes, shadowy organisations. Usborne wanted to do something online to promote it, and of course we jumped at the chance.

Can web sites have plot?

And rather than building a web site about the book, we built the story into the web site... well several sites actually.

Can web sites have plot? We think so... but have a go yourself, and tell us whether you agree.

www.thenameofthisbookissecret.co.uk


P.S. If you registered for the site after my last post you'll get an email in the next week or so, to start off the adventure. If you sign up now, you'll get straight in :-)

Posted by Nick Warren at 9:16 AM 1 comments

Welcome Patrick!

Remember Patrick? A while ago I mentioned him in a post about helping people out. Then later, I revealed that his real name was David, and why had become so impressed with him.

Well David's stuck around, kept asking, kept learning... frankly kept at us... and I'm pleased to say that he will be here with us for a couple of days on work experience... at least the experience of how we work here at Semantic.

We'll let you know how he gets on :-)

Posted by Nick Warren at 7:05 AM 0 comments

Searching Semantic... BETA

31 March 2008

In the name of research we have decided to use our site to test Google's Custom Search Engine system. What is it? Basically, it's a way of harnessing the awesome power of the Google search algorithm and presenting the results within the design and structure of  your own web site. It's a 'paid for' service but we think it could be very beneficial for some of our customers - so we're testing it out with our site. 

Posted by Mike at 8:55 AM 2 comments

Leckie and Leckie 2008 goes live

18 March 2008

Phew... after a good deal of work the new Leckie & Leckie web site is now live. Here's the launch homepage for your delectation.

Thanks to Sarah and the team at Leckie for making this such a fun project for us. We've had a great time... and look forward to building on the site in the coming months. Well done all.

Posted by Nick Warren at 2:57 PM 0 comments

The name of this post is secret...

27 February 2008

Whatever you do, don't visit www.thenameofthisbookissecret.co.uk, there's nothing to see there...

Posted by Nick Warren at 5:10 PM 0 comments

Bullies

08 February 2008

A couple of weeks ago I got a friendly call from a New York salesman who wanted to sell me some shares in something or other. At least it started friendly... it ended up with me putting the phone down.

I'm not proud of it but I'm big enough to admit I enjoyed it. The guy was a bully, and while cutting him off feels like a failure of communication, the truth is we weren't really communicating anyway. He was just shouting at me, silly man.

My new theory is that a salesperson's confidence in their pitch is inversely proportional to the speed and volume at which they deliver it... and this fella was very loud and very fast! I didn't get a chance to say "no thanks" until about 25 seconds into the call... which is when he accused me of being "rude".

We get calls like this, and the one described in When Cold Callers Attack, from time to time. They remind us why we do what we do, and why we don't need loud sales people.

Bottom line. If you are good people will seek you out. If people aren't seeking you out you have three choices; get better, hire louder sales people or go find another gig. What are you doing?

Posted by Nick Warren at 9:31 AM 0 comments

The Lewin Update

07 February 2008

A quick congratulations to Neil, who survived January with us and will now be sticking around until at least the end of April. Well done Neil, and thanks.

Others thinking about working with us should note Neil's three critical skills:

1. a friendly and positive approach to the work
2. ability to feign amusement as necessary - mostly at Mike's jokes
3. successful pretence of being worse at Unreal Tournament than Nick

With these hurdles successfully cleared we are expecting Neil's face and profile to appear on this site soon. In the meantime, as they say on the news, the trial continues.

Posted by Nick Warren at 5:41 PM 0 comments