Website in a Week : Jobless And Proud
February 19, 2009 at 9:51 am
An experience of how Irish people still have it in themselves to give. A reminder to all that while the Celtic Tiger might be over, our traditional generosity is still alive.
Background
David Jones lost his managerial position in a furniture factory. He was given one week’s notice and had his company car, laptop and mobile removed from him. In the immediate aftermath, he couldn’t find the information he needed. It seems this time the Interweb failed!
Returning home, unable to sleep, David sat down and wrote a book about his experiences. “Oh No I’ve Lost My Job What Am I Going To Do”. He wrote the book in 4 days and 4 nights.
Some days later, I heard David being interviewed on Newstalk. He mentioned that now he had the book written, he needed to find a publisher and get it up on the internet. I texted the show and said I could help. The next day I met with David and I gave myself the challenge that if he could write a book in 4 days and 4 nights, then I could create a website for him in the same time – and for free!
Tapping In Through Twitter
I blogged about it. Then I put a shout out on Twitter about it. Chopped up the project into its component parts and listed the skills we’d be needing.
- Web designer
- Book cover design
- Coder
- Blog skinner
- Hosting
- Photographer
- Podcaster
- PR people
Within 2 hours I had the team that I needed.
Everyone jumped on board and were really happy to give. Not only that but the offers kept coming!
- We had business coaches offer to coach David in finding a new job
- A media coach offered to prep him for TV and radio interviews
- He even had a super hairstylist offer to do hair and make-up for any TV appearances!
In a week when there was a lot of bad news about job losses in the Irish economy, in my little world there was nothing but abundance. Generosity of spirit. Sharing of talents.
Resultarama
The website went live on 17 February - and David went back on Newstalk to tell the nation! Exactly one week after he had been on before, he was now the owner of a brand spanking new site. There were 1,300 downloads of the book on the first day. Since then the numbers have reached 4,000. Clearly there are many people out there who need this information.
The site itself is rather impressive. It’s not just a rush job, but a very contemporary ‘one page website’ style. It’s got a blog that David has been trained up on and he regularly posts to it.
I found Twitter to be invaluable in terms of mobilising the message. My initial call for help was retweeted many times. The project team was located all over Ireland and in the US – we found 37signals’ Basecamp to be a great way of keeping everyone in touch and files/messages/tasks clearly communicated. I use Basecamp for everything, it is my most treasured business tool. More so than email!
As a 57 year old man who has worked all his life, David Jones could have thrown his hands in the air and proclaimed that the sky was falling in. He could have felt sorry for himself. But that is not what he did. He embraced everything that came his way. He went from one week of not knowing what a blog or a podcast was, to becoming a blogger and being part of a podcast! He took to media like a fish to water. A last minute request to appear on the TV3 lunchtime show saw him hop off the bus he was on, make his way to the studio, and sit with the Editor of the Evening Herald and other guests looking like he was born to it!
David is now pushing ahead with his idea to form a Job Seekers Union. Helping workers to help themselves. You can find out more here.
I am very interested to hear how people use the tools of the web to help themselves. The last recession in Ireland was in the 1980′s, so none of this greatness existed. If you have any stories of people using the web to help others and themselves, please let me know.
Tags: david jones, jobless and proud, Website in a Week
Website in a Week : Fin
February 17, 2009 at 12:13 am
This is it. It’s alive! Jobless And Proud.
One week later and David Jones will be on Newstalk tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 7.40am. Do like the Angeles and stop whatever you’re at to listen!
UPDATE – switch on TV3 Tuesday lunchtime and you can see David Jones being interviewed. You’ve heard the voice, you’ve read the words, now see the man!
This Story Has Changed
This story has altered from being one of a man committing himself to paper and sharing his experiences… to one of people supporting people. At a time when I fear this country is being over-run by the new creed of ‘cute-hoorism’ it’s restored my faith and shown that there are a great many people out there who don’t subscribe to that. Who give.
My Observations:
- Efficiency. With very little time, there has been no messing around. But truly this project has run in the smoothest most efficient manner possible. I’m not praising myself there. I believe it ran so smoothly because everyone on the team believed in what we were doing. We were given free rein to unleash our creativity and show off how good we can be. There were no agendas about things, so sign off and agreement was reached pretty quickly.
- Everything seemed to be in tune with this little project. While all of this was going on, I was hearing news of friends losing their jobs. No, not 15% pay cuts. But job losses. It made the words of David’s book all the more meaningful. I’m hearing too many tales of people down the dole office being treated badly; the staff who work there don’t seem to know how to deal with people with MBA’s and former six figure salaries. I got to listen to the inspiring Lucy Gaffney speak on Thursday and she was telling how Newstalk (and other stations in the Communicorp group) now have a positive editorial policy. And all the time people were coming out of the woodwork offering themselves and their services for free.
- Exhausted in Dunshaughlin. All the while we’ve had David up and down (by bus) between Dublin and Dunshaughlin. We’ve done most of the web work remotely, ranging from Belfast to Cork, but David had to be photographed, recorded for podcast, and interviewed. The poor man is exhausted – but I know, exhilarated too! He’s a 57 year old who didn’t know what a blog was this time last week and has just now published his first post! He has shown a remarkable ability to learn so quickly, to take everything in, and importantly – not to knock it. Too often I’ve come across people who don’t get the web and they knock it because of that. But David has taken all things www in his stride.
I wish David Jones well in this next chapter of his career and yes I know that was a very poor pun indeed. I also wish these fine people lots of joy and success and I say thanks for being so generous, quick to respond, and for taking that asking call!
- Mega talented Rachel Earley for coming up with a kickass design, for putting her own portfolio site on hold to do this, and for being there for all the little iterations.
- David McDonald, the only one amongst us who has a clue what book design is about. His mention of ISBN numbers at an early stage instilled confidence in me!
- Gordon Murray for quietly answering every request that was asked of him.
- David Duignan for managing to capture the real David on digital film.
- Alex Gibson for recording him and making him feel at ease.
- Seamus from Corkmedia.net for making some intro’s.
Now goodnight, I have to be up early to tune in the wireless to FM 106 for the launch of Jobless & Proud.
If you have a blog, please link to the new site. If you have a spare fiver buy the book. It’s a good read.
Oh and we’re still looking for someone to skin the blog. If that’s you, please get in touch.
Adding an international dimension to this project, we’ve just got our blog skinner upper – Dennis Deery.
Tags: Jobless & Proud, Website in a Week
Website in a Week : Day 4
February 16, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Where We’re At:
Much running around. Plenty of phone calls. But the upshot is we’ve now got a site, it’s up and 99% there. Hope to make it live tonight. A few finessing details being looked after by Gordon right now.
We had another extremely good offer of help from Seamus at Cork Media. He’s meeting David today and is going to help him out with some media introductions.
We’ve also got confirmation that David is going to be back on Newstalk tomorrow morning to give them an update. So set your radio’s for 106fm and your clocks for 7.45am and if you like you could even text the show and tell them what a great story it is!
What We Need:
UPDATE: 3.40pm
We need someone to skin the WordPress blog. We’ll give you the styles, the thanks and the blog’s already installed. You will also earn yourself a place in the hall of fame – be down as the WordPress Skinning Expert.
We need you to tell your friends about the site when it’s up. If you have a blog, please can you write a post about it and link to it. If you hear any coverage on the radio, text in to the show and say what a good idea it is.
Good ideas need to be supported. Just like this one has been.
Triumphant media frenzy… and unveiling of the new site…
Tags: Website in a Week
Website in a Week : Day 3
February 13, 2009 at 11:31 am
Lots and lots of stories of people and friends losing their jobs. Across the board, many sectors. Yesterday was a grim day in North Dublin, my thoughts go out to all of the 1,300 families affected by the closure of SR Technics.
Meanwhile, offers of help keep pouring in.
Where We’re At:
- Design is being cut up
- Photo session taking place
- David is going to be interviewed on Alex Gibson’s show The Persauders today at 1pm on Dublin City 103.2 FM
A friend of mine from the Independent has offered to get us some coverage in the weekend Indo’s. I’m bashing together a press release now. So make sure you buy The Independent or Sunday Independent this weekend.
What We Need:
We’re pretty sorted actually! We don’t ‘need’ anything – some guaranteed mee-ja coverage next week would be great. Will post an update at the end of today.
Here’s how we were getting on the next day….
Tags: Website in a Week
Website in a Week : Day 2
February 12, 2009 at 11:02 am
I’m awed by the generosity of people. Check out the comments from yesterday and see how quickly we’ve got photography, hosting, podcasting! Thanks to everyone.
Where We Are At
- Registered .ie and .co.uk domains
- Set up paperwork, bank account, paypal etc.
- Design briefing complete – design is taking place today. Go Rachel!
- Copy is in – copywriting will take place today.
- Calls to national media underway. Possible great coup – I just attended a business breakfast in which Lucy Gaffney was speaking (watch this space for a separate post on what she had to say). The CEO of Today FM, Willie O’Reilly was sitting at a table near me. My eyes bored into the back of his head for the duration. As soon as the speeches were over, I popped up, introduced myself to him and in 90 seconds gave him what we were doing. He agreed that this is most definitely a story for Today FM to take up – especially given that one of the policies of Communicorp Group is to have a focus on positive news stories. He’s locked away in AGM today, but hopefully he’ll give this some attention tomorrow.
What We Need:
Time.
Update towards end of day:
Content has been done. We’ve just seen initial designs (real cool!). Book cover brief is done. New ideas are flowing. And we’ve had two offers of coaching from business coaches.
The word that’s coming to my mind is ‘abundance’. There is an abundance of talent and generosity out there. There’s also an abundance of bad news stories – people being laid off in not very nice ways. Dole office staff are not clued in to dealing with former Solicitors, Executives, Managers, and Bankers.
Find out what happened next? Day 3.
Tags: Website in a Week
Website in a Week : Day 1
February 11, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Early yesterday morning, while wiping the sleep from my eyes, I heard an item on the Breakfast Show on Newstalk that grabbed my attention. They had a guy on called David Jones. David was laid off from his job as Manager of a Furniture Factory a couple of weeks ago. He was given one week’s pay and told ‘see ya’. That night, when he couldn’t sleep, David got up and started to write. Four days and four nights later, he had written a 15,000 word book. Newstalk hooked him up with a publisher and he mentioned that he was going to set up a website to distribute this book.
That’s where I came in.
I knew I could help him. And in those early foggy hours of the morning, my head was hatching a plan – if he can write a book in a week, then we can deliver a website in a week!
And that’s what we’re going to do.
Pulling in the talents and generosity of some people I know, we’re going to deliver an ecommerce-enabled website that David can use to promote his book next week when he’s back on air.
I’m going to blog the progress of the site right here, so if you want to tune in to a Good News Story of people helping people, then stay posted.
Day 1 : Planning
Met with David in Dunshaughlin. They took his company car so I drove to him. Received my own copy of the manuscript of the book. Have had a quick read and am impressed. It’s a good buy. Discussed the steps of how to get the site up and running – in double quick time.
Got on the phone to Cillian Fennell to pick his brains re. suitable news outlets to get the story into. On the spot, he gave us free advice. Follow up calls are being made right now.
Back to Brightspark HQ, all the while mulling over the most suitable web designer to invite to join us. The newly available for work Rachel Earley came to mind. Up to quite recently she has been looking after Blastspace, so I knew I could rely on her to come up with the right type of non-corporate irreverant but cool design. One telephone call later, she’s on board. We’re meeting to discuss design ideas later.
I use Gordon Murray in Cork for all of my paypal related work. A shout-out on Twitter to find him, followed by a quick call, and he’s in too. Gordon’s going to integrate paypal, install the WordPress blog, and take care of the podcast too. So now we’re a national team spanning Dublin to Cork.
What We Need Now
- Graphic Designer for the book cover Davy Mac Graphic Designer
- Podcaster to record a short intro by David – he’s got a great voice, so it would be a shame to not use it Alex Gibson Award Winning Podcaster
- Photographer to take a shot of David for use on the site and in publicity material David Duigan has kindly offered.
- Hosting Digiweb are providing free hosting.
If you are skilled in any of these areas, please let me know. You will be guaranteed link love from the site and a panel to promote your business. You’ll get big upped on here, and hopefully if some other bloggers take up this story? You will be name-checked in the promotional material that’s going out to press, TV and radio. Most of all, you’ll score brilliant karma.
UPDATE: 1 hour 45 mins after posting this, and we have graphic designer and podcaster! Thanks Alex and David.
Read on to see what happened on day 2…
Tags: Website in a Week
