Megan Holbrook 18 Sep 05

…well, it’s not represented by a great website, in that it’s quite difficult to see exactly how the software works from the screen shots. Without having signed up for an account, my impression is that you’d get what you pay for it….

We already use openair.com for our invoicing, and are /extremely/ happy with the service.

JF 18 Sep 05

I removed the first comment because it looks like comment spam. If you want to post a note about your product, sign it with your name, not a spam-bot-like search-engine-friendly name.

Megan Holbrook 18 Sep 05

Good idea - but then you may also want to edit out my response to that posting as well… ;)

Jim Jeffers 18 Sep 05

Hmm I’m curious to see what the 37 signals assessment on that product would be.

I don’t know what the business model of sidejobtrack is as I don’t see how they are making money unless they intend to steal marketshare by offering the product for free but eventually charging. Very interesting.. the site looks very professional so I would say it’s worth a look.

P.S. your comment sort of looks like spam no offense.

Wesley Walser 19 Sep 05

I hope svn doesn’t review side track job, please done tell us why yours is better, just don’t. We already know straight forward, less, ajax, ror, less some more.

Ryan Mahoney 19 Sep 05

I think the Side Job Track is not necessarily a business, but an experiment of sorts. I think the author has created some PHP framework for building websites and this application is an early implementation of that framework for something useful. Hopefully the author will correct me if I’m wrong about this! I’ve looked at it, I found it very interesting, especially some of the information design on the forms and lists…

R. Marie Cox 19 Sep 05

For the record I had nothing to do with any comment spam and I hope that anyone excited (or otherwise) about Side Job would keep their comments on their own respective websites, not here.

Please delete any and all comments from anyone using the side job URL. Thanks.

Brian Breslin 19 Sep 05

Why do these conferences have to be so freakin expensive. $2800! Wow! If it were $800, I would be hopping on a plane, but unless you have your VC funding already, or got your IPO, $2800 is absurd.

JF 19 Sep 05

Brian, I agree with you. It’s insane that these conferences cost so much — especially when they aren’t paying the vast majority of the speakers OR paying for their travel OR paying for their hotel.

ek 19 Sep 05

Hey JF, maybe part of your rant on “less” should note this thought — i.e. that conferences really ought to cost less. I think most probably also ought to have fewer speakers and fewer sessions, but that those sessions should be longer and more meaningful. Seems like organizers often try to compensate for the astronomic price of their conferences with quantity instead of quality, but I think less can be more.

Speaing out on this might be viewed as biting the hand that feeds you, but if they’re going to ask you to present, I figure they can’t begrudge your right to speak your mind.

(I also have to wonder how, with all those sponsors, the cost to attendees could still be so high — if it’s because they’re paying Mark Cuban big bucks to speak, I would call for a boycott! ;-)

Step 1 of 9 19 Sep 05

I will never know if SideJob is a good app because after creating my account I am presented with the first of 9 steps. Interest instantly wanes… would read a review from others though!

JF 19 Sep 05

Yeah, EK, I might just do that.

SideJob is Focused 19 Sep 05

Step 1 of 9 -

I signed up, set up a couple projects, created a client, and an invoice.

I’m not going to critisize or praise (this comment stream is probably not the best place for this post anyway), only say that from my brief exposure, it has a specific purpose and focus; managing paid work on projects for clients that you may wish to invoice. It presents nice screens with nice forms and tells you why to fill them. Personally, I need something a little less rigid in purpose. It’s very well build (it seems) though and the menus are presented nicely as well.

b.

Brad 19 Sep 05

I think Web 2.0 is expensive because conferences are always expensive. Most attendees I would imagine are paid for by their companies. I couldn’t afford $200 right now given the travel involved.

I think these conferences should be as innovative as their subject matter. Create an online environment for participation. Charge $5 to listen in on a presentation (either live or recorded). Make the Web 2.0 Conference Album (or podcast) and sell it on iTunes with each speaker as a seperate track or podcast. This would broaden the market and provide statistics (based on downloads) for what different people feel is important. And I don’t think this would canabalize the live attendees given that meeting JF in person would be draw enough for most people. Mark Cuban can kiss my Canadian Ass. He still hasn’t returned my email!

Come to think of it, this is a great idea and I want a piece of the margins when it actually happens!

Jim Jeffers 20 Sep 05

Do students get in free? ;)

joe 08 Nov 05

lame.