Congrats to all at VendAsta Technologies who have helped create such an exciting and innovative company

MyFrontSteps, Homebook (for the hundreds of millions of Facebook and MySpace users), StepRep (for the millions of home service providers) are all exciting to see as they lift off

VendAsta’s consulting work has been immensely rewarding as we help big companies take advantage of modern technologies to solve today’s business challenges

This year, VendAsta’s very own CTO, Jason Collins has the honor of joining this elite group of presenters. Those of you that have been fortunate enough to have seen Jason speak before will know not to miss this presentation titled:

Code Free or Die Hard

Free content. Free application hosting. Unprecedented access to customers eager to use your application – and promote it to their social networks, for free. Multiple frameworks, APIs, and development tools jostling for your attention. Users are on the move, their phones know where they are and where they’ve been, they’re connected all the time – but their interactions with technology are faster, more fleeting, lighter on content but heavy with context. What does this all mean for developers? It means being able to operate in multiple environments simultaneously. It means writing smaller amounts of highly functional code. It means keeping pace with a consumer-facing software sector that is frantic, kinetic, and creatively destructive – now more than ever.

The event is open to all and is posted on the University of Saskatchewan’s website .

2008 P.G. Sorenson Distinguished Graduate Lecture

Code Free or Die Hard

Speaker: Jason Collins

Date: Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Time: 7:30 pm

Room: Arts 146

Everyone is welcome.

Congratulations to our very own Jason Collins – He’s kind of a big deal!

I suspect that in most work environments people have gone through the experience of having new team members simply show up. A new team member suddenly thrust upon them as the result of some decision made from on high. Personally it is something that I have always hated. I guess it is okay if your definition of a team is “Two or more draft animals used to pull a vehicle or farm implement”. But when your definition is as ours; ” a group of individuals who interact dynamically, interdependently and adaptively to achieve specified, shared, and valued objectives in an environment of respect and trust”, then it is ludicrous that the team shouldn’t have a say in it’s own composition.

At VendAsta we are changing our hiring process to truly value the team. Applicants will start with an initial screening and generally there will be a second Interview with an HR team unless the employee is an obvious hire and is known to the team. So once the HR team approves the applicant they will then face the real test. Lunch with the team of people they will ultimately work with.

The team will arrange a lunch or dinner with their potential new team mate. The reviews, opinions and general sentiment of the team will ultimately decide whether or not a formal offer is extended. This is good for the team and good for the applicant. Nobody wants to work with people they are not compatible with.

For the record, it’s not all just a free lunch. The team has to complete a confidential review. What they like about the applicant, what they don’t, how they see them fitting, potential conflicts or anything else they want to point out. When 90 days are up the team will revisit the hire and make recommendations.

“You know, VendAsta. Those guys are really good.”

I thought to myself, “Hey, that’s pretty cool.”

As I eavesdropped some more, it became apparent that he was referring to foosball.

Oh well, I guess reputation has to start somewhere…

We also have a third arrival – Allan’s new Macbook Air. In Saskatoon, at Vendasta, software developers are encourage to participate in choosing their environment. There are lots of different opinions and views on the Macbook.

Here is a little video of the arrival of Kevin, Ryan and the Macbook.  Oh, and the video has a twist.  If you watch it you will notice the first part is music and video and the second part is the audio track as recorded with the video.  As a viewer you might find it interesting how different the actual words and thoughts behind the music are compared to what you might have thought they would be.