BigBlueHat

Last month, BigBlueHat had it’s 7th anniversary! It’s hard to believe that we’ve been building web sites and applications for so long. Two years ago, we threw a little shindig for our 5th anniversary. This year, we’re celebrating a bit differently: we’re expanding!

First, the Past

Seven years a go, Benjamin Young (President of BigBlueHat), started out to build a web design and development company that would make life easier for his clients and friends. The early years were focused on building simple sites for small companies on Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS’s) such as Mambo and Joomla!. As our client’s needs changed, so did we. The Open Source CMS’s of the day didn’t provide the flexibility that we all wanted and needed–and they all lacked the usability Benjamin cares so much about. So, we built BlueInk–our very own “over the top” CMS that lets editors view their sites while editing. You may have seen it, used it, or heard of it. If not, we’d love for you to check it out http://blueinkcms.com/ To date, we have now built over 100 sites on BlueInk! We’re pretty proud of the little guy…

Second, the Present

Open Source has played a huge roll in everything we’ve done for the past 7 years, but our contributions to Open Source were mostly small lines of code, the occasional documentation paragraph, and general promotion and support in various forums and mailing lists. A few months ago (does that count as present?), we made a decision we’d put off too long. We decided to jump into the Open Source world full tilt by building a rewrite of BlueInk as an Open Source project on a relatively new database called CouchDB. If you’re into this sort of thing (as we obviously are!), you can checkout the code at http://github.com/BigBlueHat/BlueInk

This was a huge decision for us! Building something as broad as a CMS is rewarding and challenging. Doing it with a world-wide community of like minded developers extends the reward (and the challenge) to an even greater level. Open Source is a strange and exciting world and we’re excited to now be more completely a part of it.

Third, the Future

These past seven years have shown us that “going it alone” ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Open Sourcing BlueInk has introduced us to the power of community and the powerful other people can play in our business, products, and ideas.

Today, we’re announcing that BigBlueHat will be transforming into a new, stronger company! We are forming a partnership with a long term, local affiliate, Exact Solutions. This new partnership will be known as Exactly, Inc. and will combine the BigBlueHat ideas, products, and services with Exact Solutions’ fabulous and experienced support and management team.

In the short term, hosting and technical support will be improving (due to the additional hands on deck). We’ll also be releasing some long awaited BlueInk documentation. Beyond that we’ll be making new product announcements, upgrade opportunities, and hosting package improvements.

We’ll be making more detailed announcements over the coming weeks as we form the partnership and role out the new products and improved support.

Last, the Thanks

Each of you have played an important role in BigBlueHat’s growth over the years. Thank you for being a part of this business, choosing our products, and helping us grow through your feedback, ideas, and purchases. We look forward to many more years of service to you, our clients and friends.

On a related note, Benjamin Young, BigBlueHat’s founder, has recently accepted a full time position with CouchOne–the company started by the creator of CouchDB. The Open Sourcing of BlueInk created more opportunities than we’d first imagined! Benjamin will still be an active part of Exaclty, Inc. working primiarily in a consulting and planning role–think Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. He’ll still be very much around, but will primarily be in the background cooking up crazy new inventions and charting BlueInk’s continued growth.

If you’ve made it this far, you have our thanks. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to write us. We’ll be sending out several more e-mails over the coming weeks to introduce you to the new team, services, and products.

Thank you again for all you’ve done with and for us over the years.

Your’s very truly,
BigBlueHat

This morning FastTracSC sent out their periodic Connections newsletter that included a nice right up of BigBlueHat:

Benjamin Young admittedly hates computers, but in 2002 he launched BigBlueHat, a web design and information management company.  Why?  Because he wants to provide people with solutions for the same problems that annoy him about computers.  This idea and BigBlueHat’s customer-centered mission to “make the web a better place” helped the firm to enjoy enough growth over the years that in 2006 Young decided to expand is own “freelance gig” by bringing on web developer Brad Garrett.  Together, they provide web design and development services, as well as content management and project management systems, all of which can be customized to fit their different customers’ needs.

Hoping to grow his company even more, Young enrolled in a FastTrac GrowthVenture class in Greenville facilitated by Kim Williams in the fall of 2007, an experience he would gladly repeat.  Looking back, Young said that his only regret is that he did not know about the program when he started the company.  He explained, “I gained insight into business management essentials I’d overlooked, shared experiences with other small business owners, and learned from leading local entrepreneurs. In many ways, it changed the course my business took.”  Find out more about the course BigBlueHat has taken and where it is going at www.bigbluehat.com.

I really did enjoy FastTrac, and would do it again. If you’re in South Carolina and are looking to start or grow your business, I recommend you check out the FastTrac programs. They’re worth every penny.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 24 June 2008

Contact Information:
Benjamin Young
107 East Park Ave.
Greenville, SC 29601
Tel: 864.232.9553
Website: http://www.bigbluehat.com/

Greenville, SC —This week Tyler Minard of Duncan, SC joined BigBlueHat for his 3 month internship. Tyler is a recent high school graduate with an interest in web development and computer networking. For the first several weeks, Tyler will be adding to his knowledge about HTTP, HTML, and other web technologies.

While at BigBlueHat Tyler will have the opportunity to work on the BlueInk Content Management System and several client projects. His work will include adding new features written in PHP, working with the front-end interface of BlueInk, and helping BigBlueHat migrate much of its code to the REST-based architectural style.

“It was good to find that Tyler already knew so much about HTTP and Web Technology,” said Benjamin Young, President of BigBlueHat. “The initial survey showed he’s very capable of getting involved with our projects quickly.”

Tyler’s internship will last for approximately three months, after which he’ll begin his first term at Spartanburg Community College. From there, he plans to transfer to the University of South Carolina Upstate where he will pursue a degree in the Information Technology field.

BigBlueHat is a web-manufacturing company that creates custom web sites and web-based software for clients around the world. Its chief product is the BlueInk CMS, a proprietary content management system that accommodates both the designer and the end user with an easy-to-use interface.

This year has been full of blessings at BigBlueHat. From new employees to segways and other gadgets, we have a list of gratitude we’d like to share. To those of you directly or indirectly involved with the items in this list, you have our thanks.

First, Brad. This year would not have been possible without the addition of Brad Garrett. Brad came on full-time at BigBlueHat in January. He’s been an invaluable asset and has allowed us to move more quickly into the world of web software by adding many improvements to BlueInk and becoming the programming lead for a new software project due next month (more on that next month).

Second, many new web sites. As our recent porfolio update shows, we’ve done several new sites, all of them built on the BlueInk Content Management System. We’re thankful to the clients who have used us to build or revamp their web sites. The feedback on BlueInk has been helpful, and we look forward to serve them and others with more BlueInk enhancements in the coming months and years.

Third, the Greenville Lion’s Club New Vision Car Show. We are working with the Greenville, SC chapter of the Lion’s Club to create a web site for the club and for their annual New Vision Car Show. In exchange for our help, they gave us the privilege of marketing space at the car show. We had a great time, and look forward to next year.

Fourth, Sara. Sometime in September we found a need for some help. Sara is now working part time for BigBlueHat keeping things running smoothly, providing her word crunching editorial skills to our clients, and bringing more dry humor and appreciation for simplicity to the office. We look forward to working more with Sara in the coming months, and seeing the writing on the web sites we serve improve exponentially.

Last, FastTrac. Benjamin finished the FastTrac GrowthVenture class last week. Ten weeks of very fast, focused entrepreneurial goodness is already beginning to pay off. We’re thankful to the SC State legislature for helping make it possible for us to be apart of FastTrac this year. We recommend it for any new or growing company in South Carolina.

Thank you to everyone who’s helped make this year possible. We look forward to serving you with what’s left of this year and all of next year.

Thank you again, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

The Donut Shoppe, our source for everything good about donuts, has closed their doors. I was forced to buy donuts from a franchise this morning. It’s sad to see a seemingly successful small business suddenly disappear.

I wish the owners well as they pursue their new career options.

If you know of another local donut shop in the area, I’d love to hear about it. Something about franchised donuts just leaves something to be desired (probably just saturated fats and the like, but it’s still missed all the same).