Ok, technically our company has not been around since 1801 but something that happened in 1801 that influenced many aspects of our business and maybe even the economic development of the area we live and work in. One of my favorite series of documentaries growing up was Connections hosted by James Burke and this tale of how an innovation in the early days of the 19th Century basically made us who we are today.

Jacquard’s Web by James Essinger tells the story how a hand loom led to the birth of the information age. The book covers a lot more than just one man’s attempt to automate the fine art of spinning silk but also chronicles the birth of the information age in a time you may not have thought any serious computing was going on. No, it wasn’t electronic computing as we know it with circuit boards and wires but this was a time when computer programming was born. On the left you will see a photo of the Jacquard loom with the early 19th century punch cards that made the automation of spinning intricate designs possible.

This is fascinating to me as a Greenvillian because at one time Greenville,SC was known as the textile capital of the world. A place where a lot of “computer programming” was going on and most people did not even realize it. I’m proud that our company name is somewhat inspired by this innovation that occurred over two centuries ago. This area of the United States is not only home to many web developers but we are a budding center of innovation and technology. I’m thankful we have a great networking and educational group like the GSATC to provides many opportunities to network and learn from other technology professionals and innovators. While textiles is not the prominent business in the Upstate that it once was you will discover that Greenville is even more of a technology center with such companies as BMW and Michelin as well as centers like ICAR.

If you are the least bit interested in either the history of computing, textile or innovation I encourage you to read Jacquard’ Web. What are some surprising things you have learned about your industry? What lessons of innovation and inspiration can you glen from the historical ties to what you are doing today?

One of our core business slogan and commitments is, “Committed to creating, organizing and delivering compelling content.” However I’m learning more and more that a better strategy is to not say everything or as the poker players say, “Lay all your cards on the table.”

Sometimes the greatest impact in a piece of music is the rest right before the big notes. Anyone remember the time of silence right before the movie Star Wars started? Before you heard the loud majestic notes of the theme song as the title scrolled across the screen you were presented with a still frame with the words, “A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far, Far, Away…. ” and then Boom! To me that we an excellent transition from the “real world” and the fantasy world of Star Wars.

If you look at this web page you will see a significant amount of white space. Without it it would be hard to digest the words you are reading.

Think about photographs you view. What has greater impact? A scene where you see a lot of stuff or a focused subject and a blurred background?

In conversation with clients we may know a lot of technical facts but more often than not it’s best to keep our mouths shut and our ears open. What are some examples you have encounter in media and working with companies where receiving too much information was a problem? I’d love to hear your stories.

That was the question someone asked me the other day as I was standing in the order line at the Subway restaurant near my office in downtown Greenville,SC. The reason I was asked that by a complete stranger was I was wearing my black golf shirt that had our company name and logo on it. Actually it was the name of our “portal domain” - SpinningSilk.com and our old logo but regardless of the specific details the name caught the eye of someone as something slightly unusual and out of the ordinary. When I told him we provided web design services the initial reaction was; “I’ve noticed the are a lot of those around.” reminding me that we definitely have a lot of competition in the market. This opened up the door to say we also provide print design, audio and video services. This was definitely an elevator speech moment.

In the world of textiles silk is finer, stronger and more lightweight that a lot of the other materials out there. While silk is used for a lot of delicate things it is probably the least wimpy of fibers. For those of you readers outside the Greenville, South Carolina area it might be worth noting that Greenville was once known as the Textile Capital of the World. I know at least two other competitors who have textile themed names. Neither have nothing to do with web design or other new media services. It’s just a guess but while the current technology is exciting and fun to use I would bet the idea behind out company name is anchored in a concept of visual imagery instead of focusing on one product or service. Just as Apple, Inc. was not called “Cupertino Computers” we decided to brand ourself in a similar manner.

I didn’t excel in the way I would have wanted to but I did learn a few key things from that brief encounter. The other person was expecting something different and remarkable from our company name. Did I let him down? Should I have even mentioned we provide web design services when in his eyes and and in the eyes of many it doesn’t seem so unusual anymore, at least in the Upstate of South Carolina? I place where textile creations were also common place.

In my next encounter I will meet or exceed the expectations of the inquisitive person standing next to me in line. More than likely I will down play specific services and address the “pains” that are out there. Speaking of spinning silk my next post will look back on the year 1801, a famous silk spinner and he help usher in the computer revolution. A computer revolution that made complex designs in textiles using silk a reality.

Are you using your company name to capture the attention of people you meet? How?

We have received the comment more than once that we do a lot of different things and people have commented that we appear to be a “jack of all trades”. That not quite true. Our name is SpinningSilk Multimedia and we do employ different form of media to help our clients get the word out about their products and services but we have definitely boundaries.

I remember as a child I would visit the home of an aunt and uncle and across the street a man had a sign in his yard the advertising Tax Preparation and Lawn Mower repair. To this day that sticks in my mind as one of the oddest combination of business services I have seen. Maybe the guy was very skilled at both lawn mower repair and tax preparation but advertised together it looked very odd and naturally I would have a hard time trusting the same person who repairs my lawn mower with also preparing my taxes for the simple fact they are two very diverse disciplines. This doesn’t mean a person can’t be good at two completely different things but they should certainly advertise them separately if nothing more than on two separate signs.

I have to admit however when we first started out business we verged on doing exactly what the guy who did taxes and fixed lawn mowers although not at those extremes. Originally we did everything through the SpinningSilk.com domain and promotes two different things; web site design and piano and voice lessons. We were just starting out and both services were very part time but since we have gone full-time in the past few years we split up our business into three active divisions; SpinningSilk Multimedia which is our core business featuring web, print, photography and other business marketing tools, SpinningSilk I.T. - covers the more technical end of our business however most of the business through that is outsourced or residual income through selling service. It’s technically not a lot of stuff we “do” in the sense we don’t provide services where we will fix your computer or come to your place or business but we are working with other contractors in the area who we feel provide the best service in the arena. Finally my wife who was a music education major/graduate from Furman University teaches piano and voice lesson as well is available for performing at events. You can find out about those services through SpinningSilk Music.com .

For the sake of argument, why would someone come to this web site and think we were a “jack of all trades?” The services we offer on this web site include, web design, print design, photography and podcasting. It does sound diverse but in reality it isn’t. Web design alone is all about being multi-disciplined, that is if it’s done right. A web design should know about back end programming of web development, graphic design, SEO, usability, e-commerce as well as various forms of visual and audio media. It’s just a fact of life. Maybe designing print documents vs. web documents looks very diverse and at one time it would have been but with software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign those skill barriers have narrowed. The important thing is knowing what is media needs in terms of graphic quality, fonts, document dimensions, etc.

Are we a jack of all trades? In the area of media production we provide a lot in terms of our services but we definitely are disciplined in “all trades.” Here is a very short list of things we don’t do in terms starting with things people think we do but don’t;

• Repair computers
• Fix printers
• Setup Quicken finance software
• repair lawn mowers
• prepare taxes
• Windows (neither the kind on your building or the operating system)
• groom pets
• paint your house
• clean viruses of your computer
• mow your lawn
• cut down trees

Their is a reason we offer the services we do and believe it or not that are very connected to each other and conform to our motto, “Harmonious New Media.”

One of my very first paying gigs for doing Internet work was a project a co-worker called Internet Resources for Christian Growth. This site combined an e-mail newsletter and an archive of the newsletters. This was in the very early days of the World Wide Web and some of the original features and aspects included;

• It was on free service without it’s own domain
• each archived issue was created as a static page using the formatting in the original e-mail
• Their was no search feature
• The images were not original or ideal for the job

If I could change things today I would definitely make sure that the project had;

• It’s on domain name - the shorter the better
• I would set up the site primarily as a blog so that each issue could be sent by RSS and e-mail
• Include a search feature and also categories
• Take custom photos to get the message across better

In a lot of ways I have learned from these experiences over the years. Of course I have always been an advocate of having your own domain but at the time (about 10 years ago) I wasn’t aware of how one could have been redirected to another space. I see a lot of bloggers registering a domain name and redirecting it to a free blog service and at that time for that particular project that may have been ideal. I mentioned custom photos and I have set up a set on my flickr account dedicated to this project I was working on way back then. I hope to continually post new versions of the photo I wish I could have posted on the site way back then.

to spur innovation it’s always good to look back on past projects. Can you think if things you would have said differently? Different images you would have used or different technologies you would have used? Sometimes we want to kick ourselves when we wish we could have done something a different way but how often have you gone back and looked at past work and developed new strategies and workflows? We’re you ever afraid of investing in a new technology because you were worried about the cost only to look back and wish you had taken the leap to explore and use the technology? What will change today?