Dan’s Blog

• http://twitpic.com/83a8v - testing #
• http://twitpic.com/83aev - take me out to the ball game! reds vs white sox in cinci; reds won!! #
• studying the impact of neuralmarketing on the human brain’s decision making process. #
• if u live in greater Cincinnati area & love the Bible, plz join me 4a live video webinar Thursday evening http://wurl.ws/Jf8V #
• life lesson - if u want 2b famous when u die, don’t do it the same day a more famous person dies! vanity of vanities! #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

A good friend of mine, Ken Ham, of the ministry Answers in Genesis, recently hired a marketing company to answer the question “Why are young people leaving our conservative, bible believing, Gospel proclaiming churches?” The results of their 20,000 phone survey of 20-somethings is effectively presented in his book Already Gone, now in its 3rd printing within the first month of being published!

This Thursday evening, June 25 @ 8PM EDT, Ken is presenting the results of this survey in the first ever live video webinar from The Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio. Being the computer guy that I am and friend of this strong biblically based apologetic ministry, I’m heading up this afternoon to be part of this event tomorrow evening. Here’s my request for those who are involved in a local church ministry or some other aspect of Christian education

• if you can join us for the live webinar, please call 800-778-3390 and let them know you will be there - they would like to have a large studio audience - it helps Ken raise the level of his passionate communication rather than speaking just to a camera!
• for the majority of you outside the greater Cinci area, consider tuning in Thursday evening @ 8PM; just go to CreationMuseum.org and there will be a link to the live webinar
• buy the book and read the results for your self
• attend the Creation Museum during your summer travels - you will not be disappointed; it will challenge your thinking in all areas of biblical authority, not just creation; bring your family; spend the day!!

If you are a pastor, please share this event with your people during your mid week prayer service.

Here I go, on the road again to Cinci - my car now goes in auto pilot! Go Reds!

• excited about this beautiful Lord’s day & the opportunity 2 share a project w/my church that promotes biblical authority http://wurl.ws/xkim #
• contemplating network security jack bauer style …. #
• army ranger chaplin tells of his group recently taking out #2 terrorist in the world! wow, a real battle out there! pray 4 our military! #
• chicago river http://tinyurl.com/6n6apk #
• chicago rumor-old downtown post office going on the auction block 4 $300K-could b the real estate deal of the century! #
• @daveruse yep, gonna make it the worthwhile tower - hey trump, move over! #
• touring oriental institute in chicago - museum of ancient iraq - tons of really old stuff! #
• had great time taking pastor & family 2 @CreationMuseum! biblical authority is very liberating! #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

In my “9 qualities of worthwhile software“, I refer to user-friendliness as one of the qualities which makes software worthwhile. I ran into a morning battle with the bathroom faucet in my hotel room this morning which got me thinking more about the role interfaces play in the things we use all the time. All things we use have interfaces, and software is no different. These interfaces come in all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. Some seem to be easier to use than others, usually because they are more intuitive. Interfaces help hide the functional details that make a device do something useful for the user.

A faucet is one of the more universal and simple interfaces most of us interact with several times a day. In terms of functionality, they provide the user with the following

• turn water on and off
• control the amount of water flow (some might only allow on or off and no level control)
• select between cold and hot
• control the combination of cold and hot

Some “high tech” faucets might also provide the following

• auto on/off via a sensor which senses the presence/absence of the user’s hands
• specified length of time to be on in order to reduce the amount of unnecessary water flow, these are especially popular in high traffic areas - rest stops, airports, etc

So while all faucets provide pretty much the same functionality, the way in which they deal with this functionlity varies. For example

• push, pull, twist, press, turn
• separate the cold and the hot
• continuous lever which combines cold/hot and volume flow at the same time

The one in my hotel was a single handle through which I could select hot/cold and volume. The challenge for me was knowing which way to move the handle to get the hot water I wanted. So what’s the big deal? It was labeled with an H (presumably for hot) and C (presumably for cold). My challenge was I turned it in the direction I assumed was hot, waited a few seconds, wasn’t hot, so I moved it the other direction, waited a few seconds, it wasn’t hot. I repeated my test of the interface and waited a longer period of time. Still not hot and didn’t seem to be even getting warm! Being the patient person that I am (NOT!!) I went to the other sink and turned on the hot water immediately. Before leaving the questionable faucet, I decided to extend my test by leaving it run in the position I assumed was most likely hot (don’t report me to the water usage department!). When I came back, several minutes later, behold, I had hot water! So now I know which direction is hot and which is cold. 

I stood there a few seconds analyzing the situation to determine if this was the fault of the interface design. Perhaps the interface could have been improved by adding a couple of directional arrows to the H and C? But in this case I believe my challenge came not from a poor interface design, but from a performance problem! The hot water took way too long for me to be able to quickly tell if I had gone the right direction. 

My point for bit building is this - don’t focus on a single quality of worthwhile software, they must all be taken into account together. The software interfaces must be intuitive, but the software must also perform well - not too fast, not too slow. Can software perform too fast? Absolutely, for certainly classes of functionality. Error messages are good example Users get very irritated if a program’s error messages appear and then disappear too quickly. 

So when looking for good software, be sure to consider all of the qualities, don’t just focus on a single one. My job @ Worthwhile is to teach our bit builders how to balance all of the qualities into a single software product. Its sort of like putting together a great orchestra - all the stuff must be in balance with the right timing. So interface doesn’t make ALL the difference alone. It has to be properly combined with performance, security, correctness, etc. For a complete list see 9 qualities of worthwhile software.

• meeting to discuss the needs of widows in my local church-wow, so many needs! need to start visiting our widows! #
• @foxandfriends joe montana is the answer! #
• @foxandfriends hate crimes - ck this 1 out http://wurl.ws/aK3r #
• @theBigLou & great were those donuts! gotta luv a guy like that! #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• @foxandfriends stop playing with words! the govt cannot own anything-we the people now own the sunken GM ship! #
• now that “we the people” are major stock holders in GM, can we write off tax loses should our stock decline in value?same for our bank stock #
• lookin for a hot business - selling for sale signs in south florida! #
• @PastorHobbins great to have the pastor of the local church I came to Christ thru & grew in the Lord on Twitter! I love you guys!!! #
• reds vs cubs @ great american ball park on ohio river w/my sweetheart & friends - summer evenings were designed for this! #
• @creationmuseum love the huge 1/2 inning ad @ great american ball park! keep up the good work!! #
• baseball+fireworks+lovely evening = great time in cinci; thanks for the tix @creationmuseum; luv u guys! #
• help me celebrate my birthday today; put meaning into the D in D-Day http://wurl.ws/MSq9 #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

As Americans, we are so very proud and thankful for the sacrifices which have been made on our behalf. Today we remember D-Day. A day which turned the tide for freedom in World War II. I have always wondered what the D stands for. After a little googling, it appears no one is really sure. When I was a bit younger, I would say “well of course the D stands for Dan, it’s Dan’s Day because it is my birthday!”. As I’ve gotten older, I have realized that was perhaps an insult to those who sacrificed the greatest of all, their lives. I certainly didn’t mean it as an insult. I’d like to suggest that each one of us needs to find meaning in the D in D-Day. Of course we all not all called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice, however sacrifice seems to me to be at the center of the meaning of this day.

We all have issues that we are willing to sacrifice for - our time, our interest, our attention, our money. For me I’m interested in doing whatever I can to help the cause of Christ; the spread of the Gospel; communicating to folks the that having a relationship with our Creator is the greatest achievement of all. One of the organizations I love for the great work they do in helping to spread the Gospel in a culture which has become very non-Christian, is Answers in Genesis and their Creation Museum. I am enjoying my birthday today because I am here @ the museum taking some friends for their first visit. I love this place because of the focus it places on biblical authority and its impact in all areas of life.

I would like to suggest than one of the ways you might consider celebrating D-Day is to make it Donation Day by helping me accomplish my mission of spreading the news about the Creation Museum along Interstate 75 by making a donation. For details go to http://wurl.ws/XkIM.

The short of it is that I am trying to raise an initial $7500 to put museum brochures in rest stops and hotels along I-75 leading into and out of Cincinnati Ohio, the home of Creation Museum.

• go to AIG’s online donation page
• make your donation with credit card
• in the comment field, specify Museum Ad-Rack

If you love the Gospel and want to do something memoriable for D-Day, please go make a donation. Any amount will be a big help. The Creation Museum is a result of the small donations of thousands of supporters! To God be the glory!

• after a week in the desert I sure do enjoy all the trees & rain & clouds! amazing what a change of scenery can do for an attitude adjustment #
• delta flight 1936 from atl to chi. rt engine goes out @ 15K feet! we do a 360 bak to atl w/emerg vehicles all over.cheers break out 4 pilot! #
• cubs game almost strikes out for father&son http://woosters.org/dan - forgive the typos, they want me to turn my phone off! #
• bad storm;power out @ half time;generator on to watch cavs beat magic-gotta luv technology when it works! #
• getting things ready for the big sbb cookout; making sure my network is locked down! #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

I’m pleased to be the first person to blog on Ironwood’s very own blog site! This was a result of IronGeekWeek. We first did this event 4 years ago (May 2005) and decided it was time to do another one. The first time, Georg Zimmer and I, from The Worthwhile Company, came for a week & helped our good friend Dennis Mollet with the camp’s IT infrastructure. We also helped Sam Brock, camp director, improve the hosting of his website and email.

This year we brought an additional member on the team, Ian Wagner. Ian is one of my computer science students and is spending his summer interning @ Worthwhile in our growing Summer of Bit Building experience. Ian has proved to be an outstanding member of the team, allowing me to avoid the 2 all nighters the team has done so far this week! We also had another one of my students, Jaclyn Ong, from Chino Hills, join us for a day. It was a huge learning opportunity for this relatively new member of the geek squad from BJU!

A Day in the Life of IronGeekWeek gives a good overview of what we do.

Here is a summary of the hightlights of the week. We post this mainly for our benefit, for unlike most camp volunteers which paint and build buildings (all very atom-based activities), our work is done almost exclusively with bits. We post this list so we can look back and “see what we did”.

1. setup a vistor portal that will give camp visitors filtered internet access w/o having to involve Dennis’ time helping them with all the bit settings needed to provide this safe, filtered access - Ian was primarily responsible for this
2. installed a virtual host on the camp’s main server and virtualized their existing Business & Exchange Server - Georg was primarily responsible for this and it ended up requiring 2 all nighters in order to minimize the impact on the users
3. analyzed the cost/benefit of leaving all the computers on at night in order for Dennis to be able to automate nightly updates for OS & antivirus upgrades - Dan did the research on this and we all agreed that the additional $26/year was a small price to pay for the massive time savings for Dennis!
4. implemented to Windows Server group policies needed to keep users from shutting down their computers at night, forcing hibernation instead, so the auto updates could take place
5. created an online virtual hosting environment to provide a home for a growing number of web-based applications
6. created Ironwood Online as a place to put digital documents for Ironwood customers to download easily - showed Beth and Sam how to fill the shelves of this digital store with bit-based products
7. created Ironwood Wiki to facilitate an easy to use online mechanism for posting employee related stuff - Dan used it to store the instructions on how to manage Ironwood Online
8. created Ironwood Blog to allow Sam & others a place to easily communicate the blessings of the Lord in the lives of campers - Dan was privileged to create this first official blog here!
9. moved the existing proxy server into a VM and created a new one for the visitor portal - Ian did the googling need to figure this out and the entire team had a hand in making it work.
10. increased the storage capacity of their server from 1 to 3 terabytes, maintaining the reliability via RAID
11. resolved some existing email issues with Exchange Server
12. helped Larry the BBQ guy (and great provider of food - see photo below) get his email working properly on his iPhone - and now Dan has been hooked on iPhones!!!
13. resolved several DNS issues
14. built and setup a new backup server and installed RSnapShot to keep the growing number of valuable bits insured - Georg and Ian worked on this
15. created a script to restart IIS everyday @ 3AM to save time and frustration for Dennis - Georg did this one
16. helped Dennis install 2 new flat panel monitors which suspend above his desk!
17. gave Dennis some worthwhile computer lessons on topics of his choice - firewalls, ports, TCP/UDP/GRE and basic network and application security
18. spent 14 hours trying to get a donated backup server to work; finally gave up and built our own in just a few short hours! Lesson learned - beware of donated computer equipment; it may not be worth the time it takes to assess its value to the ministry.

All in all we had a great week! Here are a few photos to help us remember the blessings of God in allowing us to serve him thru this great Gospel ministry which is changing hearts for Christ out here in the high deserts of California.

my son Jonathan & I were aboard delta flight 1936 out of atlanta to chicago to join his girl friend amy baus’ family for our very first chicago cubs game tonite. we had a most uneventful first leg from ashevill earlier in the morning. the plane was heading toward its crusing altitude of 30K feet, the flight atttendant had just imformed us we hadpassed thru the magin “ok to use electronic devices” barrier when all of a sudden we hear & feel some sort of explosion liike we hit something. the flight attendant made some stange remark, then silence for ahilw. finally the pilot comes on, after doing 180 banking turn, and says the right engine went out & he was returning us to atlanta. he further informed us not to be alarmed at all the emergency vehicles that would welcome us back! he finally lands us after what seemed like forever! it was a rougher than normal landing as it felt like the plane kept wanting to bank to the right. the entire group of very tense passengers broke out in cheers & applause for the pilot! it was quite the addition to an otherwise boring trip to the ole ball game! just another day in God’s sovwreigny designed world!

• new age of air travel-in line;cell rings;delta;flight delayed;knew it b4 delta agents!bits r sweet! #
• @ChrisRackley hey, don’t liken me to algore! in reply to ChrisRackley #
• @rundle what was the security lesson I shared from jack bauer? in reply to rundle #
• building secure software is a game of wit & mathematics! #
• 1st day of quintenial #IronGeekWeek! lovely sunrise in high desert of CA! good morning @ianthetechie #
• 1st day of the quintenial geek week @ ironwood is now officially over, terminated by a great western steak dinner! #
• thot4day: when we msg too much, we begin to lose intimacy with others, the natural world, the Creator, and even ourselves - quentin schultze #
• ending a great #IronGeekWeek in the high deserts of the wild west http://wurl.ws/bi0H #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Take 5 computer geeks + 1 camp in the desert + 50 computer users + lots of computer problems and out comes IronGeekWeek. It began 4 years ago @ Ironwood Camp, located in the high deserts of southern California. Georg (aka Worthwhile #1 bit builder) and I came out to help Dennis Mollet, Ironwood’s IT guy, solve several IT related problems (and probably introduced a few knew ones, unknowingly of course!). The goal is find ways to use computer technology to help the camp achieve its mission more effectively. We did some server & workstation upgrades, setup a backup system, setup an e-commerce store & migrated their major business application from Access to SQL Server. In short, a bunch of bit stuff.

We are back again this year, with some more resources - Georg Zimmer, Ian Wagner & Jaclyn Ong. Ian and Jaclyn are a couple of my computer science majors, just finishing their sophomore year. It is interesting to watch the reaction of the non techie people as they try to understand what in the world we are doing! They can see what the painters & construction crews do. They understand the benefits of the teams that come to help get the camp stuff ready for another summer of campers. But what are these geeks doing here for an entire week? And will my computer be the same after they leave!

Here’s an overview of what we are doing, without all the technical mumbo jumbo.

• listen to the IT related problems they have been having, looking for patterns, cause and affect, related problems, things that will save the most time and positively impact the most people
• for each problem identified
• 1. google for possible solutions
• 2. analyze each potential solution, looking at pros and cons, costs, maintenance, etc
• 3. presenting the solution(s) to each other & deciding which one(s) are worthwhile
• 4. test driving the worthwhile solutions
• 5. choose a final solution
• 6. install the solution
• 7. discuss the maintenance required to keep the solution going
• move on to the next problem

The challenges are many. The opportunites are exciting. The search for solutions is invigurating. By the end of the week our hope is that we can walk away knowing that we solved more problems than we created!

Last week I posted a blog on “9 qualities of worthwhile software“. Today I’d like to expand on #9, security. A good piece of software should “protect the information it is responsible for”. It should “secure the bits”. I have found one of the best ways to gain insights into computer technology (the bit world) is to look for parallels in the “real world” (the world based on atoms). Once one understands the major differences and similarities between bits and atoms, it is much easier to understand how to live in a world filled with bits.

As a husband and father, I take seriously my job of protecting my house and those in it. I’m protecting things made of atoms. I can see them. As a bit builder, I take seriously my job of protecting my clients’ information. In some sense, they cannot be seen nor felt. They are intangible, though in many cases are extremely valuable. One of the major differences between bits and atoms is that atoms can be seen and for the most part, bits cannot be.

Why do I say “for the most part”. Bits cannot be seen by the “naked eye”, the untrained eye. But with the right tools, a trained individual can sort of see the bits. In my 28 years of teaching computer science, I have noticed those that are inherently good with numbers can usually see the bits in their head. That’s because they are good with numbers. Securing bits has everything to do with understanding numbers. Its a “numbers game”.

In the atom world, we secure things in layers. The number and strength of each layer is determined by the value of the item being secured. For example, most of us secure our money in a bank. The bank secures it in a vault. The vault has layers of protection and so on. Now one thing worth noting in the atom world, which is also true in the bit world, the tighter I secure atoms (i.e. the more layers), the more difficult it becomes to access them when I need them. For example most of us use keys to gain access to our cars. Without the keys, accessing the car’s functionality is made considerably more difficult. Not impossible, just more difficult. If I live in a neighborhood in which car jacking has become a way of life, I probably also want to install other layers of security on my car - steering wheel locking bar and LoJack come to mind. An interesting thing to note about the locking bar, it is fairly easy to find something that will “hack through” this layer of security, such as the BUSTER - removes steering wheel locking bars (which, btw, I found in the same google search I used to find a locking bar, so take note - even the crooks use google!). Which brings up an important point about information security - any bits I can secure, can be made insecure by someone else.

Rule #1 - securing bits is a mathematics game

Rule #2 - any bits that one person can secure, can be made insecure by another person willing to put enough effort into it- beware of anyone telling you they can guarantee 100% security!

Rule #3 - increasing security decreases usability (makes things more difficult even for the honest folks)

Rule #4 - like securing atoms, securing bits is best done in layers

Rule #5 - it is harder to know that something you cannot see is secure or not (corollary is - It is easier to secure things you can see)

Rule #6 - securing stuff (bits or atoms) requires being able to think in advance of all the bad things that can happen

It is rule #6 I find to be the most challenging. Consider the events of 9/11. Prior to these events, not many people considered the extreme vulnerability of tall buildings! Now everyone is aware of this. In the early days of web sites which had databases on the backend, not many people considered the extreme vulternability of SQL injection. This is a technique whereby someone can do unexcepted things to your bits in a database - change them, get a listing of them, or simply delete them! Now any developer worth his/her weight in bits is well aware of this problem. In addition, a growing number of tools we use to build web-based software takes this into account to help the developer create systems which avoid this vulnerability. There are hundreds of these types of vulnerabilities to which web applications can be exposed. If you want more details, I recommend CWE/SANS TOP 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors.

In addition to being concerned about the security of the software, to be totally secure (or as close as the laws of the bit business will allow) the software must be running on a secure network. This topic will be discussed in a blog post coming soon to your browser …….

Last week I posted my “9 qualities of worthwhile software“. Today I give an example of #1 - correctness.

I use PayCycle.com to do our company payroll. This pay period I forgot to include one employee’s vacation time. He received the paystub email and notified me. I deleted the paycheck and reissued the corrected one. So far so good. Then came the “will it do the right thing?” question! I had already processed the mandatory state and federal tax withholding payment so I was concerned about what would happen next. Would it do the right thing and pay only the difference between the 2 checks or would it do the wrong thing and pay the entire amount for this employee again. To my pleasant surprise (after testing of course, a topic for another day) it did the right thing.

It is so very nice to enjoy using good software as opposed to enduring to use software! Our TexSoft Team @ Worthwhile is committed and passionate about creating software that is enjoyable to use.

• how vulnerable is your private stuff? http://wurl.ws/UNw4 #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

At the heart of computer science is of course the computer, but at the heart of the computer is SOFTWARE. To be an expert in the field of computer science, one must have the most in depth knowledge of software. What is it? How does it work? How is it created? How does it interact with the computer? What makes one piece of software superior to another?

Software, in my opinion, is the most valuable intangible product in the marketplace today. Everyone needs it. Everyone is impacted by it. And very few people know how to create it. And no one is able to create it with perfection! To emphasize the intangible nature of software, the term I like to use the process of creating software is “bit building“. At its most base level, software is nothing more than a string (a very long string, millions and billions) of binary digits. Ones and zeros. I am in the business of training and developing “bit builders”. To help motivate the thoughts of my bit builders, here are 9 qualities of worthwhile software. If one is going to excel in the process of bit building, one must have a clear vision of what makes one set of software bits better than another. While I don’t claim that this list is exhaustive, I have found it to help me analyze and think clearly about the quality of a piece of software.

1. correctness - does the software do what it is suppose to do (according to the design specs)?
2. robustness - how does the software respond to unexpected conditions (wrong input)?
3. user-friendliness - is the software easy to use by users from the intended audience?
4. adaptability - how difficult is it to modify the software to adjust to an ever-changing world?
5. reusability - can parts of the software be easily reused to build other software systems?
6. interoperability - does the software interface with other software systems?
7. efficiency - does the software make good use of its resources (memory, disk, CPU, network)?
8. portability - can the software to easily ported (moved) to other operating system (or in today’s world, browser)?
9. security - does the software protect the information it is responsible for?

My goal is to provide examples of each quality issue over the next few weeks to help users understand how to select good software and help bit builders learn how to create such worthwhile software - bits that are enjoyable to use.

• detroit tigers pitcher just gets out of a bases loaded no outs jam-great lesson for business! #
• rain, rain stay in town, helps me get my grading down! #
• today @ bju we launch the next release of computer science graduates for the glory of God! #
• bju grad + furman grad + mothers day weekend = NO MORE RESTURANT SPACE! #
• Happy Mother’s Day to the greatest Mom - my Mother! Just booked our trip to Jensen Beach Florida! #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• Help me send 18,562 visitors to Creation Museum this summer! http://wurl.ws/XkIM #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

One of the highlights of my BJU MBA e-commerce class is to have the students take a tour of Worthwhile. I just get out of the way and let several members of the Worthwhile Team (several of whom are products of the BJU MBA program) present our business. They do an outstanding job! Here are some of the comments and lessons learned from this year’s group of 23 bit business up and comings!

• The Worthwhile trip opened my eyes to the nuts and bolts of website development.
• I learned to love the industry more when I met the employees
• I was taken aback by the level of professionalism
• I never imagined a setting staffed with well dressed office workers, a high-end presentation area, and complimented by a hostess that would greet potential clients and communicate with existing customers.
• the tour helped me learn the importance of the bit business and just how valuable the bits and data are to consumers and local firms.
• Worthwhile demonstrated the need for and value of attractive office space, in which significant investment was obvious.
• Encouraging community involvement by the employees was something I had not seen modeled before.
• This seems like a great way to generate leads and generally engender goodwill.
• Chris’s description of Worthwhile’s web strategy process was very enlightening; it provided some concrete, useful concepts to replace a fussy sense of “that should work” or “that looks cheesy.”
• Chris’s Chick-fil-a example was particularly insightful.  He was right when he said, “Chick-fil-a gets it!”
• Sick Amount of Testing:  Although I have enough first hand experience (much of it less than pleasant) to know the importance of testing—and that “enough” testing is never actually enough—I had never heard this phrase before.  I love it.
• my first impression was that of a highly professional, friendly, and knowledgeable company
• It was easy to see how Worthwhile integrates its talents to take raw information from a business and turn it into a state-of-the-art website that provides attraction, functionality, and marketability in a secured and reliable setting.
• I found out what SEO was and did
• The two biggest lessons I learned during the tour was about knowing your customers and doing your best.
• the amount of excitement they had over every customer they told us about was amazing!
• “Do your best” is something we have heard since we were young, but the employees at Worthwhile showed me this applies all through life and is a good business policy to follow.
• The Worthwhile tour coupled with our homework exercise of making our own website, reiterated to me the importance of outsourcing web hosting and design.
• From search engine optimization to drive viewers to your website, to the aesthetic design and practical functionality to keep viewers at your website, to the hosting to keep your website running, outsourcing your website is by far the best, and in most cases, the only way to go.
• Probably one of the more key items that I learned was that the clients tend to want a trip to the moon for the cost of a subway fare.
• The presentation was top-notch, and so the discussion of the first impression team was also very important. If I ever own a company or am a partner in one, I think a first impression team will be something I want to set up as soon as possible because that team can really make the difference for clients’ willingness to go with one team above another.
• The Worthwhile tour was informative, but it was more than a discussion of technology. The Worthwhile team is a unit that works together to implement a successful website or service to every client that they serve.
• One of the best discussions our group had was during the Search Engine Optimization presentation which was lead by Leslie Ciesielski. As she gave her presentation she outlined how she had driven traffic to a company that sold windows in the upstate. I could not believe that SEO was important to a window company, but the traffic statistics which she gave to our group were amazing.
  they desired to pass on and teach us the basics of an e-business and the importance of customer service and implementing SEO with our e-business.
• I could tell they loved what they did and loved partnering with businesses in this way.
• Leslie explained SEO very clearly to us, something I had never really thought about before. I always thought that companies just paid Google a higher fee for having their site ranked higher, but in reality doing things such as targeting key words, linking to other sites, and having relevant information will all boost search engine rankings.
• The tour of Worthwhile greatly enhanced my understanding of what a bit business really does. There is a lot more that goes into web designing than just the creation of the website. People need to be focused on not just creating the product but giving a packaged service of support and design to the customer.

Since its opening almost 2 years ago (May 2007), the Creation Museum has stood as a strong and clear testimony to God’s Word. Since that time I’ve had the privilege of taking approximately 100 people from Greenville SC to visit the museum in order to be blessed, challenged and strengthened in their faith. The Museum presents a powerful apologetic display of the absolute authority of the Bible and is challenging thousands a day to consider what God’s Word teaches about the history of the world. Using the best in modern, museum technologies, it presents “The 7 C’s of History” – Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation.

While I have enjoyed this opportunity, as a business man and computer guy, I’ve realized their might be a more efficient and effective way to get more people to experience the clear Creation and Redemption message of the Museum! So I started digging into the travel industry and discovered Ad-Rack. They distribute tourist brochures in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Georgia in hotels, motels, restaurants and the all important American interstate rest area!

I’d like to try a marketing experiment that I believe has the potential of sending at least 18,562 first time visitors to the Museum this summer. This would be folks who travel the interstates in and around Cincinnati, Ohio, but have never heard of or at least never taken time to attend the Museum. Here’s how it works:

• the highly creative folks @ Answer in Genesis will create an attractive, visually pleasing brochure to invite new comers to the Museum
• we will hire Ad-Rack to place these brochures in 225 commercial travel locations and 15 interstate rest areas in Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington, the major cities within an hour’s drive of the Museum
• Coke will provide an incentive to offer folks a free Coke to all who present the brochure at the Museum
• There will be a bar code on the brochure to track the effectiveness of this campaign - as a builder of websites and one very focused on generating traffic to those sites, I’m a strong advocate of tracking traffic!

Here’s how I arrived @ 18,562 visitors.

• 15 rest areas for 3 months
• 2500 people per day visiting each rest area
• Total number of rest area visitors = 2500 X 15 X 30 X 3 = 3,375,000
• 225 commercial locations for 6 months (Ad-Rack only offers 6 and 12 month contracts)
• 100 people per day visiting each location
• Total number of visitors = 100 X 225 X 30 X 6 = 4,050,000
• Assuming a success rate of .25% (that’s only ¼ of 1 percent) that would be 18,562 people visiting the museum as a result of this campaign

Cost

• 225 commercial locations = $3090 for 6 months
• 15 interstate rest areas = $1800 for 3 months
• Total Ad-Rack cost = $4890
• Brochures = $2500
• Total = $7390

In order to prime the pump and demonstrate my desire to get more people to receive the Gospel message so clearly presented at the Museum, I’ve seeded this campaign with $2500. Would you consider helping me raise the remaining amount? If you would, here’s all you have to do

• go to AIG’s online donation page
• make your donation with credit card
• in the comment field, specify Museum Ad-Rack - yes, in the future we hope to have a more worthwhile online donation module that better supports this type of project giving

If you love the Lord and want to see as many people as possible be exposed to the clear and uncompromised message of Creation and Salvation that is so effectively presented at the Creation Museum, please pray about taking part in this campaign for the glory of God and salvation of souls!!

Note:

• should we exceed the $7500 we will expand the campaign to more locations via Ad-Rack
• I googled for some realistic stats on this, but was unable to find any; if any of you know where I can find such data, please let me know and I’ll update my estimates
• I realize I didn’t take into account first time vs repeat visitors, but I also didn’t take into account word of mouth that will be generated from the visitors this generates so I think my 18,562 is conservative
• a map of Ad-Rack routes