[fireworks-project:315] Report for April, 2010.

[Kris]

For the month of April, 2010
============================

Members and advisers,

This is a report of completed work, work in progress, and financial
statements of
The Fireworks Project for the month of April, 2010.

This report marks our fist anniversary! The Fireworks Project has been
incorporated for 1 year. W00t!



Finances
----------

Our financial spread sheet (balance statement) can be found at
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AqaYslezw-VQdHFWZjJCblUyMG5jbGZNS0JkM1hoRXc&hl=en

We have not had any financial activity in March.

However, I have personally been holding our domain name registration
as well as paying the domain hosting fees for Google Apps, which is
required to host a domain on Google App Engine. This amounts to almost
$200 per year. I'll be transferring this responsibility over to The
Fireworks Project corporation later this year, as well as billing the
corporation for this service up to that point.

Anyway, this got me thinking, since our bank account only has $324 in
it, we may need a cash infusion soon. Depending on how many users our
first customer (Crown Construction) signs up for, and at what monthly
rate. This is not urgent, but I thought I'd bring it to our attention.

Last year my wife and I loaned the corporation $2,000 at an interest
rate of 9% per year. The balance with interest is due on June 4th of
this year. Obviously the corporation does not have the cash to pay
this off, so we will be refinancing the loan again in June under the
same terms for another year.

I bring this up, not only to keep you in the loop, but also to get you
thinking about loaning to The Fireworks Project corporation yourself.
Loaning money to the corporation is the only means of investing in the
company financially, and it is that way by design. It is obviously our
preference to only accept loans from our members. Since it would be so
difficult for us to get a loan from any other party, we pay the
generous 9% annual rate. Just something to keep in mind.


Work In Progress
----------------

* The Crown Construction pilot program is being implemented as a
Firefox extension along with many of our JavaScript modules for Kixx.
This is my absolute top priority. It has blown past the deadline I set
for it by 29 days at last count. It's been a real grind for me to get
this thing ready to ship. I've encountered some big challenges working
with a single page application in the browser and ended up building a
couple of small JavaScript modules to help me out. I've also uncovered
some blocker bugs in both the DCube JavaScript client library and the
server code on Google App Engine. In one case it took me two weeks to
fix it and get everything running again.

I know this does not bode well for rapid application development.
However I'm convinced the lessons learned and the libraries built will
drastically reduce the time taken to build complex applications in the
browser. I'm also convinced that when these lessons and libraries are
ported to the Kixx browser development platform, rapid application
development will be a reality.

* Website face-lift. We're working on 're-messaging' the content on
our website to more accurately communicate who we are and what we do.
Please take part in the discussions.
http://fireworksfactory.basecamphq.com/projects/3775079/posts/31834068/comments

* Kixx, our client application delivery platform. The next hurdles to
overcome are module mashup security and a redesign of the dynamic
module loader to go along with new thinking in the CommonJS community
called 'ensure()'.
http://wiki.commonjs.org/wiki/Modules/Async/A

* DCube, our distributed data service. We're working on version 0.2 of
the HTTP API. Authentication and authorization has taken a front seat.
In particular, we're thinking of OAuth and OpenID. There have been at
least two developers who have indicated they would like to work on
this, but I've yet to hear any progress reports from either of them.
http://fireworksfactory.basecamphq.com/projects/3775079/posts/30445248/comments

* Two week projects. We're holding a brainstorming session to
consolidate possible ideas for applications we could quickly build
this summer to establish momentum for our 'crew', gain a small victory
or two, and hopefully get some traction with users. Please take part
in the discussions.
http://fireworksfactory.basecamphq.com/projects/3775079/posts/31996217/comments

* Trademark. Our logo, the rocket, was accepted as a trademark on the
condition that we narrow the scope of the description of the business
activities associated with it. The name 'The Fireworks Project' was
flat out rejected because it infringed on two other technology
companies, namely Adobe's Fireworks application. Again, if we narrow
the description of our business activities to differentiate ourselves,
we might be able to get the name accepted on the second try. Mike is
currently working on this. Any thoughts or ideas should be posted to
Basecamp.
http://fireworksfactory.basecamphq.com/projects/3775079/posts/31224453/comments

* Interacting within the programmer community to build connections and
relationships with an eye toward recruiting talent.
We've been going to unconference events and meetups quite a lot lately
and I think it's been really great. One of my favorites is the jQuery
meetups and web development talks at Bocoup in Boston. If anyone else
has any ideas for conferences and meetups we should try to attend,
please post up.

* The second draft of our business plan/member pitch. I have not
touched this in a while but wouldn't mind if somebody would be willing
to give me an editorial critique on it.
http://groups.google.com/group/fireworks-project/web/member-introduction
http://groups.google.com/group/fireworks-project/web/strategy-to-define-the-future
http://groups.google.com/group/fireworks-project/web/revenue-plan

* Our collaboration software project is still on the back burner.
Currently our priorities are to get a production version of DCube and
Kixx up and running before we start work on this project again. We
are also evaluating Basecamp and Wave for possible ideas.



Completed Work
--------------

* I finally finished the DCube JavaScript client library.
http://github.com/kixxauth/DCubeJS

* Mike and I also made the time to attend several unconferences. I was
lucky enough to get to speak at both of them.
http://www.barcamphbg.org/
http://cloudcamp.org/westernmass


Points Allocation
-----------------

Mike, Igor, and myself are eligible to vote points for April 2010 and
should do so by posting to this discussion thread.

The current points standings are here:
http://spreadsheets0.google.com/ccc?key=t_vDzdTb3whkkeFnLnvsgPw&hl=en


Thanks everyone,
-- Kris

[Kris]

My vote breakdown for this month:

Erwin Atuli: 2000,
Didiet Noor: 2000,
Joan Piedra: 2000,
Thomas Hintz: 2000,
Igor Petrov: 2500,
Shawn Davis: 2500,
Mike O'Hara: 8000

With a couple of notable exceptions, I'm basing my votes on what I see
on our Basecamp discussion threads. I vote the most points to the
members who make the most valuable posts. In my book a valuable post
is opinionated. I like to see disagreeable disagreement. It's a sign
of a healthy discussion. In the future, I'll be sending more points to
people who are not only the most active contributors to Basecamp, but
also those who bring ideas and a point of view to the discussions.

One notable exception I know of is Mike, who has been going to
technology conferences in Boston and Pennsylvania. This kind of
activity is really valuable to us, and the value of it doesn't really
show up on Basecamp, but I've tried to recognize it with the points
I've voted to him.

If anyone else is acting on behalf of The Fireworks Project outside of
Basecamp, in the real world, please post your experiences to Basecamp
so we can learn about it. I would also like to acknowledge any
members who are blogging about us or what we are working on. Please
post links to your writing on Basecamp as well.

-- Kris Walker

[Michael O'Hara]

My votes for this month:

 Erwin Atuli: 1000,

 Didiet Noor:  1000,

 Joan Piedra: 1000,

 Thomas Hintz: 1000,

 Igor Petrov:  2000,

 Shawn Davis: 2000

 Kris Walker 11,000

Erwin, Didiet, Joan and Thomas for adding ideas for the 2 week project.

Igor and Shawn for the same and contributing ideas to OpenID

Kris for working continued work on Kixx, DCube and Crown as well as leading networking and leading discussions at Barcamp and Cloudcamp (even though you were called out for pitching your product by a woman who was hell bent to make order at an unconference).

--
Mike O'Hara
The Fireworks Project
www.fireworksproject.com
@pappyo
617-778-4858

[Igor Petrov]

My votes for April 2010:

Erwin Atuli: 2000,
Didiet Noor: 2000,
Joan Piedra: 2000,
Thomas Hintz: 2000,

Shawn Davis: 2500,
Mike O'Hara: 8000,
Kris Walker 11,000.

Igor Petrov

P. S. A most humble suggestion: could not we deflate the points on a
1000:1 ratio?

[Kris]

OK, that wraps up voting for this month. Thanks Mike and Igor.

I should mention that I had to clip Igor's votes to Mike and myself to
4000 points to follow the points capping rule. Igor had 4000 points
when voting began, so that is the most he could vote to any other
member.

I'm also going to take a moment to answer Igor's suggestion.

Yes, it is possible to see *huge* deflation in points. However, what
really matters is your valuation percentage. How big is your portion
out of the total pile of points? That is the number you should watch.
The system is designed with deflation to encourage members to stay up
to date and remain involved. If I don't stay involved, I presume my
valuation will decrease because the other members will not vote points
to stagnant members.

Also, you'll notice that those hardest hit by deflation are the high
value members like Mike and myself. Despite being the largest points
earners, Mike lost over 1% of his valuation while I lost 6%. This is
also by design to help new members get a toehold in the organization.
While it is tempting for high value members to withhold points to
avoid deflation, they must also understand that they cannot do
everything themselves and need to use their large point valuations to
encourage new members to join and help the most productive members
become high value members or risk losing them.

Erwin, Didiet, Joan, Thomas, Shawn, and Igor all earned 1 -2.3% of the
company just by posting once or twice to the Basecamp mailing list. As
time goes on, only the members that show consistent involvement and
increased commitment should expect to gain valuation at that rate.

Igor suggested we write a point voting guide and I think that's a
great idea. I promise to have this done by next month's voting.

So, anyway, here is the valuation spreadsheet after this months
voting:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AqaYslezw-VQdG5yR0lCXzFWMkRPUWV5VDRZazJHR0E&hl=en