Dean studied Communications and graduated from Miami University of Ohio, with a B.A. in Arts and Science. Before joining the Hannon Hill team, Dean worked for the governor of Indiana. Dean’s past business experience includes sales with a flourishing Chinese Outsourcing company in Indianapolis called Golden Beam Technology. Dean is from Indianapolis, IN and currently lives in Atlanta.
Dean is a sales consultant at Hannon Hill Corporation. He spends most of his time prospecting and maintaining current client relationships. Dean takes part in leading product demos of the Cascade Server on a weekly basis.
A year after the storm, how are things going to look?
I had seen pictures of the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, but I had no idea what to expect.
My college roommate called me up one day and asked if I would take a week off help the people who have met this storm 1st hand, and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity. Living in Atlanta and working in a high tech industry, it’s easy to feel removed from the situation, even though New Orleans is not that far away.
Upon first arriving in the city, all I could think was... Are we still in America? I have traveled all over the world and I have seen my share of poverty, but to me the city looked like it had just been set aside for people to fend for themselves. I felt very uneasy in the Big Easy.
We spent the first few days cleaning a nursing home in the lower 9th Ward – one of the worst hit places during hurricane Katrina. Even one year later, I felt like I was entering a war zone. Furniture was strewn everywhere and there was a smell that I will never forget. Clothes in the closets were still wet even a year after the storm! The kitchen was stocked with molded food that had never been cleared out, and yes, that brings cockroaches. Large colonies of them lived in between the walls in their own cockroach heaven. My job was to remove every inch of that building so that only the wooden beams were left standing. Black mold was rampant. Sorting through other people’s belongings is an eerie feeling. I was throwing away parts of people lives... photos were the only remains of these people who once lived here.
Once the nursing home was stripped bare, we moved on to clean up a woman’s house that was located in heart of the city. We met her at her doorstep, and realized it was her first time back since the storm. Can you imagine what she was going through? All the emotion of seeing all of her belongings completely destroyed? Walking into the house I could see a large dark brown water mark about 6 feet up the wall.
After a couple of days of backbreaking work, we managed to make our way to the very back of the house where the kitchen was located. The refrigerator was lying face down, meaning that food had been in rotting in this refrigerator for over a year. The smell was unbearable. There’s no way to salvage a fridge like that, so we duct taped it shut and hauled it out. A few hours later we were finished, with just the skeleton of the house remaining. Depressing as it sounds, it was really great to see – a sign of rebirth. It means this place is ready to start fresh with a new family who can start building new memories.
The last day of my trip was the most memorable. We spent the entire day sweeping up some of the most dangerous areas of New Orleans. We were able to talk to people who survived the storm, and the stories they had to tell were incredible – so far removed from what my life is like. One man lost his son to Katrina; another woman we met experienced the Super Dome first hand.
At a nearby corner market we met some guys hanging out outside. They said that they really appreciated the hard work that we were doing and they believed that the storm was a positive thing. Before, they told us, there were so many racial barriers in the city, but now people are coming together to help out anyone in need – no mater who they are and regardless of the color of their skin.
Now that we’re about to celebrate Thanksgiving here in the States, I’m happy to have the chance to step out of the content management world for a moment to share my experience with you. This trip really opened my eyes to how fortunate I am and how when situations in life go bad, you should always be thankful for what you have been given.
Kirsten: Hi! You’re listening to Meet the Team and I’m Kirsten Eidsmoe. I’m here with Syl Turner who is one of our Software Developers.
Syl: Hey Kirsten, it’s nice to be on the show.
Kirsten: So to get us started, why don’t you tell us where you grew up and how you ended up in the field of content management?
Syl: Well, I moved to Atlanta when I was about ten. So, I’ve lived here for quite a while now. And I guess my start in content management goes all the way back to when I was much younger and I was playing with my Apple2 – playing around with video games and whatnot. Then I moved on until I got to websites, and websites were a lot of fun to build. But, whenever you started getting more content, it was hard to manage it all. So, you needed some content management. I started writing my own little content management here and there for certain websites I was doing. And then eventually I got into doing some serious content management here at Hannon Hill with their award-winning Cascade Server.
Kirsten: Well, we’re glad you ended up here. What made you apply for the job? What attracted you to Hannon Hill?
Syl: I saw the ad on Craig’s List and it sounded very interesting; it sounded right up my alley. It’s a company that has a strong web development background and I’ve been doing web development for a few years now; it’s been something I really wanted to expand on. And Hannon Hill seemed like it was right up my alley.
Kirsten: So, I understand that you worked for a few companies in web development in addition to freelance work. What’s the biggest difference that you’ve found between working here and other places that you may have been?
Syl: A lot of the other places were pretty small companies and they didn’t really plan anything ahead of time. So, a lot of our projects would end up being somewhat messy. One of the things that I really like about here is that things are planned; things go through a process in order to get the job done. That’s one of the biggest differences I see here from a lot of the other places where I’ve worked. Here, things are organized, things are planned out ahead of time so that we don’t just rush right into a project. We plan it all ahead of time. And that’s one of the things I’ve noticed, even when I do stuff by myself – freelance work – I would end up not planning it very well and then I have a bit of a mess on my hands.
Kirsten: So, as a web developer, do you see any trends on the horizon? Anything that’s particularly exciting that you’re looking forward to?
Syl: Well, the Web 2.0 boom is very exciting. And, I know you guys have already seen MySpace – the most popular website in the country, at the moment. And if you look at the pages – everybody’s MySpace profile – they’ve got music, movies, animated pictures, all kinds of stuff – backgrounds with static images so you can’t read the text. I think that is the future of web design – make it look as crappy as possible and people will love it.
Kirsten: I’ve been on MySpace and I know exactly what you’re talking about. Switching gears – how do you feel about pizza?
Syl: I love pizza. It is probably my favorite food and you know why?
Kirsten: Why?
Syl: I’ll tell you why.
Kirsten: Oh good.
Syl: I would say that pizza is my favorite food because I could eat that for every meal, every day for the rest of my life and probably be okay with it.
Kirsten: I don’t know what to say to that. Do you have any other hobbies, other than pizza eating?
Syl: Well, that’s about it. No, I’m just kidding. I’ve actually started getting into brewing my own beer, which is actually quite an interesting and exciting hobby for the beer connoisseur that I am. And, it’s economically sound. It costs less to brew your own beer than to buy beer that is equally as good.Kirsten: Is it really good?
Syl: Yeah, it’s all right. I mean it’s good, but it’s not great – not yet, I’m still working on it.
Kirsten: Well, be sure to keep us posted. One last question – if you didn’t work in software, what would you be doing?
Syl: Is money an issue?
Kirsten: It doesn’t have to be.
Syl: Well, if money’s not an issue, I would probably play video games all day. But, if money’s an issue, then I would probably play video games all day.
Kirsten: Well Syl, thank you for your time and thank you for sharing yourself with us.
Jamilla: Hi! You’re listening to “Meet the Team” and I’m Jamilla Murray. We decided that we would start our “Meet the Team” sessions with the person who created the team. And so today, I’m here with David Cummings, CEO. Hi David, how are you?
David: Great, thanks for having me on the show.
Jamilla: Why don’t we just jump right in? What made you want to start a company?
David: Well, I got started about ten years ago building websites for different small businesses. And then after I’d build the website, I would turn the site over to them and then they would promptly ask, “how do I change the pictures,” and “how do I update the texts and create new content.” So, I had a simple idea one day, which was “lets make some software that makes it really easy and efficient for [businesses] to manage the site themselves.” The idea is to put the content ownership back into the hands of the subject matter expert and that’s where Hannon Hill was born.
Jamilla: Wow! So, tell me, where did the name, Hannon Hill, come from?
David: Hannon Hill is actually a street name in Tallahassee, Florida; it’s the street my family lives on. And I was looking for something simple and non-descript, something that had a little bit of alliteration in it. And of course the domain name, the dot-com name, needed to be available.
Jamilla: Is that where you grew up?
David: It is; I grew up in Tallahassee, Florida.
Jamilla: What college did you go to?
David: I went to Duke University in North Carolina, and I studied Economics. That was the closest thing Duke has to a Business major.
Jamilla: Any hobbies? What do you do when you’re not working at Hannon Hill?
David: I’m an active tennis player. I play in a singles and a doubles league. I actually play in a mixed doubles league with my wife as my partner; that’s a fun exercise. And I’m a sports car enthusiast; I enjoy cars and generally I just like the internet and the web. I’m a big fan of reading as many different technology websites as I can. Learning as much as I can about different software, hardware programs. I recently just got a new Mac book; so, now I’m a tinkering Mac aficionado. And one day I hope to be a better enthusiast of the Mac.
Jamilla: Wow, that’s really cool! So tell me, what is the most exciting thing coming up on the horizon for Hannon Hill?
David: Well, we’re really excited about 2007. Right now we have a lot of good features and changes we’re working on for the product. We’re working on some new marketing campaigns that’ll be coming out in the next few months. And of course we’re excited about the market place and we’re always happy to see the success that our customers have with our product. We’re really just excited about all the different pieces that are coming together for 2007, and we think that it’ll be a great year.
Jamilla: Lastly, if you hadn’t started Hannon Hill, what would you be doing?
David: Oh, I’d definitely be doing some other software company – something that’s Internet or web related. It’s what I’m going to be doing the rest of my life.
Jamilla: Well David, thank you for your time and thank you for sharing yourself with us!
I know it’s been a while since I last blogged, but I think it’s long over due for me to share some more of my thoughts with you again. I started working at Hannon Hill towards the end of June 2006. As an English Literature major, you may think that it doesn’t make any sense for me to be working at a Content Management Software company – that thought occurred to me too (along with the hope that the C++ programming class I took in high school would be of some use). But, instead of being overwhelmed by being in a mostly unfamiliar arena, I decided to look at it as a great way to learn, not only about Content Management Software but also about the Software Industry. And while there are times that I may be using or working on something totally unfamiliar – the rest of the team is so awesome that I can just ask them for help, and I get the chance to learn something new all the time.
When I first started working here, I had to go through all of the Technical Intro Guides and User Guides for Cascade Server (like everyone else who works here had to do). The guides were immensely helpful in learning how to navigate through Cascade Server. But, there are times when I need to use Cascade Server and I may not feel like looking through the Guides or the Knowledge Base to figure out how to do a specific project. It’s at these times that you realize how easy it is to use Cascade Server. It’s so user friendly that I can easily figure out how to accomplish almost any task that I need to do on my own. I’m still learning through my use of Cascade Server and I'm able to soak up so much information from this great team. My goal is to be able to navigate through Cascade and various other aspects of working at a Content Management Software Company as if they were second nature to me, the English Literature Major.Elizabeth graduated with highest honors from the Atlanta College of Art with a BFA in Digital Video Production. She also participated in the internship program at Partizan in Los Angeles, during which she had the opportunity to work with such directors as Olivier Gondry, Chris Applebaum, and Casseus. Her short films, music videos, experimental sound pieces, and mixed media art have appeared in a number of film festivals, venues, and publications, including Paper Magazine, Southeast Performer, and Spin. She continues to produce, direct, and edit independent films and music videos in Atlanta. In addition to her interests in visual arts and film, Elizabeth studies the art of improvisational comedy at Whole World Theatre and the art of excellent baked goods via her own kitchen.
A number of Elizabeth's independent productions can be found on YouTube as well as on her personal website.
I am pleased to present my first major project for Hannon Hill: video documentation of our recent User's Conference. The videos are available in both Flash and QuickTime format and can be viewed on the Hannon Hill Knowledge Base. If you missed the Users conference, the videos provide a great opportunity to learn more about Cascade Server. If you did attend the conference, you can relive the experience again and again via your web browser.
Currently, our video inventory includes the following:
Advanced XSL Training Parts 1 - 4
These videos, hosted by Sean Sawyer, cover advanced techniques through the example scenario of constructing an intranet for XML Cafe. Topics include alphabetizing, grouping, search and replace, and emulating a while loop.
Client Spotlight Parts 1 - 4
Amy Liu discusses Cascade Server in relation to our client, Servigistics. This session is great for Cascade beginners, because it breaks down and describes the main elements of the software.
Getting the Most out of 4.x Parts 1 - 3
David Klanac presents the latest features of Cascade Server. These videos touch on the new site wizard, bulk change, and the visual workflow builder, among other topics.
Roundtable Parts 1 - 4
Brandeis University, Beacon Technologies, and Silverpop Systems participated in our panel on Cascade. They had some excellent insights to share, and we're very pleased to present such genuinely positive feedback from our clients.
Using Web Services with Cascade Server Parts 1 - 3
Collin Van Dyck leads this very technical and informative presentation, putting web services into perspective through a demo application.
And as an extra bonus...
Search Engine Marketing Panel Parts 1 - 4
This knowledgeable panel, which was hosted by David Cummings at Macquarium about a week after the User's Conference, describes some very interesting and useful information for more effective marketing for search engines.
There will be plenty of additional videos available very soon. Most notably, Emily and Brock are hosting video versions of the current Cascade Server Business and Technical Intros. I would love to hear your feedback on the videos and your suggestions for future productions.
I'll see you on the other side of the camera...