Salomon Snowboard & Bonfire Apparel
Salomon Snowboard and Bonfire Apparel recently teamed up with Frank Creative and Cascade Web Development to give their respective websites some much-needed revamping. For those of you familiar with Salomon and Bonfire, you know that their brand is built around producing quality products geared towards an active audience. Projecting these qualities on the web was an absolute necessity, and the development team at Cascade Web Development did its part to ensure this result.
Perhaps the singularly most defining feature of these projects is the creative integration of Flash and Evergreen, our Content Management System. Although Flash is often considered to be one of the most effective tools for creating beautifully interactive web environments, in terms of development and management, it can pose quite the headache for nontechnical individuals. Our goal was to take the skillful design work submitted from our project designers (Frank Creative for Bonfire Apparel, and Daniel Julien for Salomon Snowboard), and develop the websites in a way that the Flash pieces could be updated and edited in a seamless process through the use of a content management system. Take the following Athlete Highlight section for example:
What you see when you open this page is a row of Salomon-sponsored athlete ‘heads’. Each one is linked to a bio page where the visitor can read up on that athlete’s interests, recent activities, and random personal facts. Like the rest of the site, this feature is entirely presented in Flash--a component usually requiring the concentrated attention of a professional developer for its maintenance and management. However, being that the client required that their nontechnical staff have management capabilities over the content in this section (as well as all the other content populating both sites), Cascade Web Development needed to build a solution that could serve as a user-friendly intermediary. Allow us to introduce you to Salomon/Bonfire’s Evergreen.
Following our company code of always delivering custom solutions to every client, we dedicated our efforts on this dual-project to developing a version of no-technical-experience-needed, interface. Now with the Bonfire Apparel and Salomon Snowboard sites 
complete, the client can celebrate the fact that they not only received some of the most visually (and functionally) sophisticated web solutions out there, but that they’ve also been equipped with the tools to manage their websites themselves. As for us (Cascade Web Development), well we can now pat ourselves on the back for pushing the limits of our own expertise, and adding just one more set of skills to our continually evolving repertoire. (Pardon the chest bumping and high fives, we’re simply just that excited!)
All in all, what we hope you’ll gain from this article is that no matter how seemingly challenging your web-based vision is, with the right team on your side, anything is possible. Call us today to see how we can help you through your own personal web challenges.
Visit the Official Cascade Web Development Website
Visit the Bonfire Apparel Site
Visit the Salomon Snowboard Site
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Fusion of Flash and the Evergreen Development Platform
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
ShiftWise
More noise over here at Cascade Web Development. The CWD team has just launched ShiftWise’s newest website following 12 weeks of heavy development.
ShiftWise works in partnership with hospitals to develop and implement a strategic staffing plan to attract, hire, deploy and retain a flexible workforce. They advertise themselves as delivering their software as a service (SaaS) and have already become an established resource for hospitals nationwide.
Here’s a set of screenshots for comparison’s sake. The first image is where ShiftWise was before coming to us. The next one is where we’re at today.
One of the first things you’ll notice with the new site is its clean look and feel. We’ve done our best to make navigating through the site intuitive and easy. No more distracting aesthetics and chaotic layout. We’ve tried to calm things down a bit and create a look and feel commensurate with the level of professionalism ShiftWise operates with on a daily basis.
Besides the obvious visual changes, a lot has changed for ShiftWise under the hood as well. For one, they’re now working with Evergreen, our Content Management System. The Shiftwise project utilizes two custom modules within Evergreen.
Prior to making the move to Evergreen, the ShiftWise editing process was a complicated system of communicating and tracking the implementation of ideas between Marketing, Management, and IT. Now, the department with the need can hop right into the driver’s seat and bring their idea to life. Management and Marketing are now being supported by IT, without being dependent on them.
ShiftWise works in partnership with hospitals to develop and implement a strategic staffing plan to attract, hire, deploy and retain a flexible workforce. They advertise themselves as delivering their software as a service (SaaS) and have already become an established resource for hospitals nationwide.
Here’s a set of screenshots for comparison’s sake. The first image is where ShiftWise was before coming to us. The next one is where we’re at today.
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One of the first things you’ll notice with the new site is its clean look and feel. We’ve done our best to make navigating through the site intuitive and easy. No more distracting aesthetics and chaotic layout. We’ve tried to calm things down a bit and create a look and feel commensurate with the level of professionalism ShiftWise operates with on a daily basis.
Besides the obvious visual changes, a lot has changed for ShiftWise under the hood as well. For one, they’re now working with Evergreen, our Content Management System. The Shiftwise project utilizes two custom modules within Evergreen.
- Training Calendar Module: Prior to working with Cascade Web Dveelopment, Shiftwise training staff managers were working with raw HTML and a legacy Front Page file to create the training calendar. Admins required IT support to upload new files when the calendar was ready for publishing. With the Evergreen Training Calendar Module, Shiftwise staff now completes a simple input form. The system captures the key data points, including Paypal integration, and everything is displayed for the user in a seamless and predictable layout. The application has already saved a great deal of time and money!
- Home Page Calls to Action: Shiftwise wanted to create a dynamic experience for their users. However, extensive use of flash technology to display critical information was not going to work. Load times, lack of flash plug-ins in hospitals and content management drove this decision. We leveraged our extensive experience in AJAX and JAVA script to build a very dynamic experience on the home page. Calls to action in the footer expand to display an array of applications: A form calculator, network search utility, compliance drop down menu and dynamic content.
Prior to making the move to Evergreen, the ShiftWise editing process was a complicated system of communicating and tracking the implementation of ideas between Marketing, Management, and IT. Now, the department with the need can hop right into the driver’s seat and bring their idea to life. Management and Marketing are now being supported by IT, without being dependent on them.
Click here to visit the new ShiftWise site!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Trying New Things, Generating More Success
Just recently, T-Mobile announced the release of the newest version of their most popular cell phone, the Sidekick. Cascade Web Development is proud to have played a part in this rollout 
process. No, T-Mobile didn’t come to us seeking advice on how to create the next best cellular phone, but they did ask us to develop a critical web application for training their national salesforce. 
Whenever a new product is released within a major corporation, information regarding its specifications, features, and maintenance all needs to be distributed to those responsible for selling it. Otherwise, what you get when you walk into your favorite electronics store is a bumbling sales clerk who knows less than you about the product you’re after. No one likes that, and its an outcome that successful companies would like to avoid at all costs. That’s why when T-Mobile decided to begin the process of developing the newest Sidekick model, they contacted Cascade Web Development for a custom web application capable of achieving these desired results. Our development team set to work, and 4 weeks later, the project was finished!
If only it were that easy…
Actually, what really happened involved the strategic implementation of various tools that Cascade Web Development had never truly needed to work with before. These included the use of SCORM in an LMS, and the software program Articulate. The application needed to walk the salesperson through the various aspects of the product, quizzing them along the way. The salesperson would be prohibited from progressing through the training program until he/she had completed the required quizzes.
But developing the base solution was only the beginning. T-Mobile needed to manage and track things like user accounts, user activity, and program scores and statistics. Evergreen, our Content Management System, met these challenges head-on by integrating a series of targeted modules. Every user could be tracked, managed, and have their scores reported, so that eligible participants would be entered into various sweepstakes for their own T-Mobile devices.
By harnessing the power of the web, and implemented an incentive-based training system, T-Mobile is continuing to experience success in bringing their sizable salesforce up to speed with the newest installment of their hugely popular product, the Sidekick.
If you think your company would benefit from this type of training application, contact us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts. As a relatively young firm, we’re continually striving to remain on the cutting-edge in terms of what we’re doing on the web.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Internets, Intranets and Extranets, Oh My!
Some of you are already familiar with these terms. Perhaps you’ve been introduced to them through your place of employment or maybe you’re just more informed than the average Joe. In either case, most of you have probably never fully understood what all of these terms mean and in what ways they can differ. This article is purposed to remedy that lack of understanding and to give you some ammo to impress your coworkers with at the next company BBQ.
Internet(s)
While most of us are familiar with the term “the Internet”, few of us recognize that the Internet (also known as the World Wide Web) is simply the largest in its class. Actually, an “internet” is just a “network of networks” where computers are connected to each other through the transference of data. For instance, an internet could be set up such that only two corporate networks were in contact with each other outside of “the” Internet.
Intranets and Extranets
A website can take many forms. Nowadays, many companies and organizations are finding it more and more important to segment the structure of their website to provide two additional forms: the semi-public (extranet) and the private (intranet).
An extranet is that section of a website which is made available only to a limited crowd outside of the organization itself. Extranets are often created to offer secured environments to suppliers, vendors, partners, or other exclusive-rights customers. For instance, you might setup an extranet for your company’s website to allow affiliated businesses access to semi-private data. Or you might create a section of your site where suppliers can view your current inventory levels and respond with shipping you a new order. In either case, these sections are often highly secured and restricted in access.
An intranet is almost the same as an extranet but with a different group of users. Instead of making itself available to outside members, an intranet is often used to connect internal staff. A growing trend in web development these days is the rise in demand for company intranets. More and more businesses are recognizing the value of connecting their employee base across departments and/or branch offices. Intranets can offer employers a platform through which company announcements can be broadcasted, where employees can connect on work and extracurricular topics in a variety of ways, and where secured internal business processes can be conducted. Some aspects of a company intranet might include forums, staff profile sections, and secured file transfer. The intranet is essentially the “staff room” of the public-facing website.
Cascade Web Development has felt the rise in demand for both intranets and extranets and has responded by producing successful solutions for a variety of company objectives.
One of the leading causes of merger and acquisition failure is the inability to reconcile differing cultures. This observation lead AKT to pursue a solution that would allow its employees—both new and old—to make their merger and acquisition transition as seamless as possible. From the installation of an employee directory, complete with staff profiles and photos, to the staff highlight section where exciting news about recent birthdays, staff events, and new births were reported on a daily basis, AKT and Cascade Web Development worked together to overcome the obstacle of cultural incompatibility.
If you think your company could benefit from this type of web-based communication and coordination, contact Cascade Web Development today to discuss creative ways to handle your specific company situation.
Internet(s)
While most of us are familiar with the term “the Internet”, few of us recognize that the Internet (also known as the World Wide Web) is simply the largest in its class. Actually, an “internet” is just a “network of networks” where computers are connected to each other through the transference of data. For instance, an internet could be set up such that only two corporate networks were in contact with each other outside of “the” Internet.
Intranets and Extranets
A website can take many forms. Nowadays, many companies and organizations are finding it more and more important to segment the structure of their website to provide two additional forms: the semi-public (extranet) and the private (intranet).
An extranet is that section of a website which is made available only to a limited crowd outside of the organization itself. Extranets are often created to offer secured environments to suppliers, vendors, partners, or other exclusive-rights customers. For instance, you might setup an extranet for your company’s website to allow affiliated businesses access to semi-private data. Or you might create a section of your site where suppliers can view your current inventory levels and respond with shipping you a new order. In either case, these sections are often highly secured and restricted in access.
An intranet is almost the same as an extranet but with a different group of users. Instead of making itself available to outside members, an intranet is often used to connect internal staff. A growing trend in web development these days is the rise in demand for company intranets. More and more businesses are recognizing the value of connecting their employee base across departments and/or branch offices. Intranets can offer employers a platform through which company announcements can be broadcasted, where employees can connect on work and extracurricular topics in a variety of ways, and where secured internal business processes can be conducted. Some aspects of a company intranet might include forums, staff profile sections, and secured file transfer. The intranet is essentially the “staff room” of the public-facing website.
Cascade Web Development has felt the rise in demand for both intranets and extranets and has responded by producing successful solutions for a variety of company objectives.
One of the leading causes of merger and acquisition failure is the inability to reconcile differing cultures. This observation lead AKT to pursue a solution that would allow its employees—both new and old—to make their merger and acquisition transition as seamless as possible. From the installation of an employee directory, complete with staff profiles and photos, to the staff highlight section where exciting news about recent birthdays, staff events, and new births were reported on a daily basis, AKT and Cascade Web Development worked together to overcome the obstacle of cultural incompatibility.
If you think your company could benefit from this type of web-based communication and coordination, contact Cascade Web Development today to discuss creative ways to handle your specific company situation.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Gas Saving Web Applications
I hate idling on the highway. There are few things I hate more and a ton of things I hate less. Not only is it an absolute time-suck to be sitting in my car going 2 miles per hour, taking what should have been a 20 minute ride from work to home and stretching it out to almost three times that amount, but it wastes a ton of gas—and fast.
Neither of those two observations is satisfactory. That’s why I’ve committed this article to helping you empower yourself with some online applications that will give you and your gas tank, some much deserved relief.
Traffic Monitors
Traffic monitoring services have recently been adopted by Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft in their continued efforts to attract a wider audience. These traffic reports are being piped to and delivered through their respective free, online mapping utilities. I’ll save the in-depth comparison of the three services for a later post, but for now, suffice it to say that Microsoft Live Search Maps is the most up-to-date and accurate free traffic reporting tool out there. For a sample of evidence, here’s a series of images taken of the highway I frequent to and from work every day. The images were taken within a five minute period of each other.
While online traffic reporting is generally still limited to covering freeways and highways, if your commute to work passes through one of these areas it can seriously cut down on your travel time.
BeatTheTraffic.com
Another useful tool comes from BeatTheTraffic.com. While the site works to promote the subscription version of its services, the free tools and information it provides may be sufficient to give you the insight you need to plan the best route.
One feature I like is the travel time chart.
One of the most interesting features of this chart is the 3 to 4 pm interval where traffic congestion almost reaches the highest rate of acceleration of the day. This tells me that if I can hit the highway as close to 3 as possible, I’ll minimize my traffic time.
Another interesting, though arguably useless feature, is the ability to see updated photos of traffic along a highway.
I say useless since its fairly difficult to judge from a photo how fast traffic is moving. For me, this tool is nothing more than a novelty.
Gas Price Index
Interested in finding the lowest gas prices in your area? Try PortlandGasPrices.com. Powered by GasBuddy.com, PortlandGasPrices.com is a powerhouse of information. It will display a multitude of gas prices in your area from all types and sizes of gas stations. One useful feature is the ability to search by gas category (regular, midgrade etc.). Not everyone uses regular, and for those people, PortlandGasPrices.com is an especially excellent resource.
If PortlandGasPrices.com happens to overwhelm you, trot on over to MapQuest for another great resource. Click on the Gas Prices button near the top left and enter in your location. MapQuest will then spit out the lowest gas prices in your area along with their destinations. MapQuest will also sort by gas category.
So that was a primer on how you can tap into some great online resources to help you save on gas and time in your weekly routine. After using these services and fine tuning them to my own schedule and route, I was able to cut my average commute time down from 45 minutes to 23!
Neither of those two observations is satisfactory. That’s why I’ve committed this article to helping you empower yourself with some online applications that will give you and your gas tank, some much deserved relief.
Traffic Monitors
Traffic monitoring services have recently been adopted by Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft in their continued efforts to attract a wider audience. These traffic reports are being piped to and delivered through their respective free, online mapping utilities. I’ll save the in-depth comparison of the three services for a later post, but for now, suffice it to say that Microsoft Live Search Maps is the most up-to-date and accurate free traffic reporting tool out there. For a sample of evidence, here’s a series of images taken of the highway I frequent to and from work every day. The images were taken within a five minute period of each other.
While online traffic reporting is generally still limited to covering freeways and highways, if your commute to work passes through one of these areas it can seriously cut down on your travel time.
BeatTheTraffic.com
Another useful tool comes from BeatTheTraffic.com. While the site works to promote the subscription version of its services, the free tools and information it provides may be sufficient to give you the insight you need to plan the best route.
One feature I like is the travel time chart.
One of the most interesting features of this chart is the 3 to 4 pm interval where traffic congestion almost reaches the highest rate of acceleration of the day. This tells me that if I can hit the highway as close to 3 as possible, I’ll minimize my traffic time.
Another interesting, though arguably useless feature, is the ability to see updated photos of traffic along a highway.
I say useless since its fairly difficult to judge from a photo how fast traffic is moving. For me, this tool is nothing more than a novelty.Gas Price Index
Interested in finding the lowest gas prices in your area? Try PortlandGasPrices.com. Powered by GasBuddy.com, PortlandGasPrices.com is a powerhouse of information. It will display a multitude of gas prices in your area from all types and sizes of gas stations. One useful feature is the ability to search by gas category (regular, midgrade etc.). Not everyone uses regular, and for those people, PortlandGasPrices.com is an especially excellent resource.
If PortlandGasPrices.com happens to overwhelm you, trot on over to MapQuest for another great resource. Click on the Gas Prices button near the top left and enter in your location. MapQuest will then spit out the lowest gas prices in your area along with their destinations. MapQuest will also sort by gas category.
So that was a primer on how you can tap into some great online resources to help you save on gas and time in your weekly routine. After using these services and fine tuning them to my own schedule and route, I was able to cut my average commute time down from 45 minutes to 23!
Monday, July 07, 2008
What is a CMS?
CMS stands for Content Management System and represents one of the most essential tools for updating and managing your website.
All websites are encoded at some level in a programming language. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t versed well enough in these languages to use them effectively in managing our websites. That’s where a CMS comes in. A CMS provides a gateway between the non-technical individual and his/her website which can require little to no familiarity with programming languages. If you are able to use a computer, you are able to work a CMS.
Whether you know it or not, you’ve probably already used a CMS. Social networking sites like facebook and MySpace implement their own versions of a CMS. When you access the control panel of your facebook account to change your Contact Information or ID Photo, you’re accessing the backend of your personal webpage through their CMS utility. While their CMS tools are relatively inflexible compared to the types of CMS tools being discussed in this article, they still reflect key aspects of Content Management Systems.
Say you’ve decided to launch a website from scratch and say you’ve found a CMS that you believe will be effective and simple enough to use. Once you’ve logged in, you now have the ability to create new pages instantly, add text and images with just a few clicks, and implement a complete navigation system reflecting your dynamically developed information architecture. And now for the best part: it took you just 20 min and little to no technical experience.
That’s the beauty of the CMS. It’s designed specifically to make these tasks fast and easy. Successful developers cater the composition of their systems to your needs—instead of demanding it be the other way around.
We here at Cascade Web Development are successful developers. Our in-house technical team has created what we believe is the most intuitive, easy-to-use Content Management System on the market. We’ve titled it Evergreen, and have proudly garnered a significant number of followers in our clients.
The strength of Evergreen lies in its simplicity. Instead of bombarding our users with unnecessary features and superfluously glitzy packaging, we’ve focused on improving and fine-tuning those aspects of web development that have proven to be truly critical to the content manager (You). We’ve done our best to streamline the process as much as possible and create the most intuitive user experience imaginable.
If you think you’re interested in reading more about our CMS solution, feel free to browse the Evergreen section of our website. Decide for yourself whether you think Evergreen is right for you, then contact us if you’re ready to discuss specifics. We regularly make ourselves available to our clients and interested individuals for technical assistance and general support needs.
So this has been the first in a series of articles discussing the various aspects and capabilities of Evergreen, our Content Management System. Keep a lookout for future articles where I will be highlighting various tips on how you can more efficiently implement Evergreen in your web development routine.
All websites are encoded at some level in a programming language. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t versed well enough in these languages to use them effectively in managing our websites. That’s where a CMS comes in. A CMS provides a gateway between the non-technical individual and his/her website which can require little to no familiarity with programming languages. If you are able to use a computer, you are able to work a CMS.
Whether you know it or not, you’ve probably already used a CMS. Social networking sites like facebook and MySpace implement their own versions of a CMS. When you access the control panel of your facebook account to change your Contact Information or ID Photo, you’re accessing the backend of your personal webpage through their CMS utility. While their CMS tools are relatively inflexible compared to the types of CMS tools being discussed in this article, they still reflect key aspects of Content Management Systems.
Say you’ve decided to launch a website from scratch and say you’ve found a CMS that you believe will be effective and simple enough to use. Once you’ve logged in, you now have the ability to create new pages instantly, add text and images with just a few clicks, and implement a complete navigation system reflecting your dynamically developed information architecture. And now for the best part: it took you just 20 min and little to no technical experience.
That’s the beauty of the CMS. It’s designed specifically to make these tasks fast and easy. Successful developers cater the composition of their systems to your needs—instead of demanding it be the other way around.
We here at Cascade Web Development are successful developers. Our in-house technical team has created what we believe is the most intuitive, easy-to-use Content Management System on the market. We’ve titled it Evergreen, and have proudly garnered a significant number of followers in our clients.
The strength of Evergreen lies in its simplicity. Instead of bombarding our users with unnecessary features and superfluously glitzy packaging, we’ve focused on improving and fine-tuning those aspects of web development that have proven to be truly critical to the content manager (You). We’ve done our best to streamline the process as much as possible and create the most intuitive user experience imaginable.
If you think you’re interested in reading more about our CMS solution, feel free to browse the Evergreen section of our website. Decide for yourself whether you think Evergreen is right for you, then contact us if you’re ready to discuss specifics. We regularly make ourselves available to our clients and interested individuals for technical assistance and general support needs.
So this has been the first in a series of articles discussing the various aspects and capabilities of Evergreen, our Content Management System. Keep a lookout for future articles where I will be highlighting various tips on how you can more efficiently implement Evergreen in your web development routine.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Business' future on the web
It has been interesting to watch the trends of the web flow between business applications and personal entertainment. The two have in many ways driven the technology overall. Web 2.0, a buzz word by most people's standards, was a way to talk about all of the websites created around social networking for individual use. Enterprise 2.0, a way of talking about how web 2.0 is applied to business cases, represents a much larger mindset that business managers must understand to be successful.
For example, let's say your company is in an M&A situation. Why do most M&A's fail? Culture! Connecting people and their cultures is no simple task. An Enterprise 2.0 intranet created for the culture can really make a difference. Knowledge sharing, another major corporate challenge, can also be facilitated with enterprise 2.0 applications.
To learn more about Enterprise 2.0 click here
Friday, February 29, 2008
Google Sites Debate
This is a very interesting article exploring the new Google Sites Application. The application aims to help teams and companies collaborate. The same thing CWD does. However, there are things to be cautious about with Gsite. The basic debate is around IT, content protection and features. Read some of the comments (the 3-4th one) in this article. I see a niche in the middle between totally open google sites and IT bogged down feature rich applications.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
AMA Max Awards: Moon Boot Give Away
At the AMA Max Awards, CWD offered up a free pair of Moon Boots for booth passers by. It was a hit! Obviously, this must be one of the best Swag items ever created!!
Winner:
Karen Gibson, Creative Director from Orange
Karen can't resist anything orange! It seemed almost fate that her card was pulled out of the Moon Boot by a passer by from Angel Vision. Have a look at this attached image. Most marketing campaigns don't integrate this well!! On top of it all, Karen does great work. It was a pleasure getting to know her and the Orange Creative work when she dropped by the office last Friday.
Karen can't resist anything orange! It seemed almost fate that her card was pulled out of the Moon Boot by a passer by from Angel Vision. Have a look at this attached image. Most marketing campaigns don't integrate this well!! On top of it all, Karen does great work. It was a pleasure getting to know her and the Orange Creative work when she dropped by the office last Friday.
The AMA Max awards was a blast for us. The Vibrant Table Event application, nominated for Best Web Campaign, created a lot of buzz. The depth and functionality of this tool blew most people away. It is amazing how these tools can transform a business process!
The AKT brand and web project was also a huge success for Cascade Web Development. We would like to publicly thank our partner YRG Communications for doing such a pro job on the message and brand design.
Visit our website or contact us for more information about Cascade Web Development or Evergreen Content Management!
The AKT brand and web project was also a huge success for Cascade Web Development. We would like to publicly thank our partner YRG Communications for doing such a pro job on the message and brand design.
Visit our website or contact us for more information about Cascade Web Development or Evergreen Content Management!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Web Applications for College Students
Last week I gave 2 presentations at the Art Institute of Portland. The first to a project management class, the second to a technology class.
The talk went something like this: What is software as a service? Think about it as running the same software as you use on your computer at home, but faster and better because the computer you have at home is nothing like Blue Genie or the servers companies like VMware are using these days. See how much more you can do if you harness the power of web applications? As college students you are using web applications every day. Google docs, Facebook, Del.ic.ious (which none of them used by the way), Blogger, IM, and many more. These are all forms of SAS or hosted applications. Now what does that mean to help you communicate and collaborate with others? Let's think about it from a business perspective. As project manager, I need to work with people in remote offices, I need to find a way to bring everyone on the same page. Make sure they know what is happening and have access to information they need.
As students you can start to use these tools in class projects. Use google docs rather than passing a word doc around with a crazy version code. Use del.ic.ious to store links and resources to project research. If you put these tools to use, then once you get into the business world, you can create and use these same tools, but in a closed business extranet or intranet.
Then I exposed them to web project management applications to see how this was implemented. MS sharepoint, Basecamp, Whitepass from Cascade Web Development, and Vibrant Table Events. I think it really hit home when they saw how similar these tools can be. In the end it is all about working with people, finding opportunities to make them shine.
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