The Freelancers' Union Building a Team for mutual benefit and

[kimochitim 0]

I hope that you tell me that the bonsai in the picture is a stock image.

it's a stock photo!I think I got it from wikipedia, since this is the logo (the start of one at least) I did research on it. This is a Japanese/English Company, it needed to be totally relevant (which it actually isn't exactly). This bonsai image grows in the northern part of JP. The company serves people on the southern side, the southern pine tree is not as pretty, lol. I don't think it's that much of a big deal.

EVERYONE:

We can talk about who has what task after we learn everyone's skill set. There are so many components of a website... This is an idea I had, not a constructed system. It's wonderful that momentum has been growing however the actual development of this idea will be built by us, together.

Naturally the first project will be our own design site, and we all will be individually in charge of finding clients.
Edited May 8, 2009 by kimochitim (see edit history)

[kimochitim 0]

Forgot to mention... This is similar to another site?? If you know the URL could you post it for me? As usual I dig around all kinds of websites for inspiration and ideas but, I thought this was original... .

Edited May 8, 2009 by kimochitim (see edit history)

[sonesay 7]

Its nice that this idea is getting a lot of attention. I've seen suggestions for groups based work to start in the past in these forums specifically game development but most all just end with a dead thread and no more interest. I think this idea of people working together in a team would be beneficial to all members as it would no doubt give experience or opportunity to fine tune skill they already have. As I am an unemployed full time student I'm struggling to handle assignments and look for a job at the moment but I would try to contribute as best as I can because I love the Web and Programming. I think everyone brings skills into this and a project does benefit from having people skilled in different areas. I respect people for skills they offer to a team no matter technical or otherwise.

 

I've been working in a team based projects now for almost a year at university and I do have to admit there's a lot you learn its just remembering them all and doing it all that is the hard part. This is why I would like to work in a team environment. You have to deal with people and learn how to work together. You learn skills from this by doing not just reading..

 

I understand the goal of this is to eventually work on jobs where we get paid from clients. We all need to make money to survive right? How ever I have an idea that I would like to propose. Since we are going to be working in a team I think it would be great if our first project is to come up with a design and then build a website for our selves. This website will showcase our work, team, skills, and serve as a management system for running our team. There is potentially limitless ideas one can come up with but I think if we try and be as original as we can we will gain more attention. Set us apart from the competition you know. This can be a flash based site or not but what we choose to include will be determined by the team. I think if we put our heads together and come up with a unique idea for a website we can come up with something brilliant.

 

As for my skills I would consider myself an all rounder, not an expert in any field as of yet and certainly not as strong as I would like to be in design or programming but what I want to get out of this is working in a team and being able to help manage it. I would like to also be able to share what I know so that others will not have to suffer my mistakes in the past. I would like to learn how others do things so that I can maybe learn new ways of doing things.

 

Let me know what you all think about a team website for our first project. Oh yeah if we do desicde to go ahead we need a cool name too lol. Team Trap 17? TT17

[onscreen 0]

it's a stock photo!I think I got it from wikipedia, since this is the logo (the start of one at least) I did research on it. This is a Japanese/English Company, it needed to be totally relevant (which it actually isn't exactly). This bonsai image grows in the northern part of JP. The company serves people on the southern side, the southern pine tree is not as pretty, lol. I don't think it's that much of a big deal.
EVERYONE:

We can talk about who has what task after we learn everyone's skill set. There are so many components of a website... This is an idea I had, not a constructed system. It's wonderful that momentum has been growing however the actual development of this idea will be built by us, together.

Naturally the first project will be our own design site, and we all will be individually in charge of finding clients.

Ah my bad, the bonsai image you used is so frequently used now.

[Fractured.Logic 0]

Well I think Kimo is saying that we need to each establish our personal websites first. However, for a collaborative project, I think you've got a great idea there, Sone. What I would see us doing is, after each creating our personal websites, we connect them all together with the team website... like a literal web. Everyone understands that a network connects things together, so take it to a whole new, virtual, worldwide level; a world-wide network of talent with the team website acting as the hub, and everyone's personal website as the cords. The potential is truly limitless.

[kimochitim 0]

Hey Gang,

 

You guys brought it up before I did. We most definitely should build our own site as a group. I think with our collective strengths would should create something beautiful.We got a good sized group of people here. I think it's about time we all started working.

 

Here is a good task/project manager program that we all can use. I am not saying that we are going to ditch Xisto (no way) this is where we will communicate. We just need another system to send and receive tasks. I like rememberthemilk.com because:

It's free

you can send and receive tasks

get reminders via email or on your phone

work online and offline.

Of course if there is something you use that you think would work better, let us know.

-------------------------------

 

PLEASE PM ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS! THIS IS HOW I WILL INVITE YOU!

Edited May 11, 2009 by kimochitim (see edit history)

[kimochitim 0]

hey hey hey,

look what I found right here on Xisto!!!

http://forums.xisto.com/topic/65480-any-flash-gurus-in-the-house/

fresh fish $$$. I am thinking, 4 people - $50 bucks a piece, pocket change, I know but a great place to start. I told him we will be available in 2 weeks or so.

[onscreen 0]

Hey Gang,

 

You guys brought it up before I did. We most definitely should build our own site as a group. I think with our collective strengths would should create something beautiful.We got a good sized group of people here. I think it's about time we all started working.

 

Here is a good task/project manager program that we all can use. I am not saying that we are going to ditch Xisto (no way) this is where we will communicate. We just need another system to send and receive tasks. I like rememberthemilk.com because:

It's free

you can send and receive tasks

get reminders via email or on your phone

work online and offline.

Of course if there is something you use that you think would work better, let us know.

-------------------------------

 

PLEASE PM ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS! THIS IS HOW I WILL INVITE YOU!

I am going to share abit of my view about this. a task manager is good but not up to what a group needs. In general, an art group, needs the following :

 

1. A commonly used instant messenger. Be it iChat, MSN, Yahoo etc.. just make sure its the same protocol used. For large discussions etc.

 

2. Project Manager. Like what you mentioned, but with a much more options, log files on download / uploaded / updated files, time scheduler also a storage space for project files that allow you to retrieve it at anytime you see fit.

 

3. A shared test server. A server for you to run websites and test run on database and everything else. This is vital as working in a group, you must see the problems on the run in order to fixed it as a team as well.

 

4. Flickr account. Everyone needs one. Creativity isnt only in the designers blood but in everyone. When you have an A-HA moment, sketch it or digtally sketch it and post up to Flickr.

 

Since there is no budget fixed for the group, I would suggest this method, buy a hosting package off Xisto, make it a test server and also a project files upload area. The file managing will be all manual so labeling of folders and files is vital here.

 

Start using rememberthemilk.com for time scheduling. If the creative team is about to finish a layout for a site, put up task for coding team to start working on the backend and implementation of frontend to their backend.. etc. Still its all manual here, put in tags like [iMPORTANT], [uRGENT], [bUGFIX], [uPDATED] before any task title.

 

Make up meetings in instant messenger every week. Discuss on issues, new ideas.. still, dont keep it till the very end on this. Progress speak for itself all the time.

 

IF you plan to have a budget to spend on to boost the productivity in the team in near future, you can consider using https://basecamp.com/ . That is what i am currently using.

[kimochitim 0]

I'M SORRY!!! Email again please. This time email it to me. Link is at the bottom left of my profile page. Thanks and apologies! Edited May 12, 2009 by kimochitim (see edit history)

[kimochitim 0]

Just letting people know... We are 7 members strong now. If you are interested in joining please drop me a line. Everything is still being organized but I am building another business too feed some clients our business. If you are a member or a interested in joining please do the same. Think of how we can get clients.DON'T MAKE ANY AGREEMENTS, CONTRACTS OR PROMISES YET! Just think of ideas of how we can get some biz. We need to talk and organize ourselves before we advertise our biz...of course .

[Len 0]

@kimochitim: I sent the request.For managing tasks remeberthemilk.com would be nice as kim told. Onscreen has some nice suggestions too. For IM group chat, we can setup a gtalk group chat. There's a perl script out there. This basically sends out the chat you send to all of the members who are online and subscribed to the group.Here's a brief overview on what I can do and know:* XHTML + CSS coding using div layouts.* Extensive knowledge in photography.* Good knowledge in PHP, MySQL, SQLite, AJAX. Can quickly build up specific skills in these.* Forums administration experience.I am a quick learner. I am a beginner to the world of image manipulation programs like photoshop. So right now, I can't offer much help on graphics side.About getting clients, I think we can get some freelance projects which pays well and requires broad range of skills.Regards,Len

Edited May 19, 2009 by Len (see edit history)

[frozen.fish 0]

Well there are softwares built for managing teams like that.. this is cool lets see how it turns out..Im in too, but still committed working full time works for some freelancer too.

[inverse_bloom 0]

Hi everyone, after an hour search on the net i've come up with following list which could be useful to us -

http://www.highprog.com/
https://www.upwork.com/?r
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites
https://www.upwork.com/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Please be mindful that I've only given these a passing glimpse before posting here. Most of them are focused on providing work for individual freelancers, but i'm sure if we get our hands a little dirty we could find jobs that can serve our purposes. Just generating ideas..... What do you think? No/Yes.

[k_nitin_r 8]

@InverseHi!I've spent some time with a few similar websites before and here's what I think of the ones I've used from the list above....CraigsList: A good classifieds site, but most of the non-US visitors visiting are sellers. I haven't met anybody who bought a product or a service after looking up an ad on CraigsList. The website is quite popular for it's simplicity and ease of use, but I don't see how much commercial value it would have.oDesk: They've got a pretty good model going there for per-hour jobs and that's definitely a plus. In addition, you can form a team and can get paid as a team... it's then up to the creator of the team to distribute the earned funds.I think I've used eLance and ScriptLance, but can't remember much about my experience with them.You've got the idea moving in the right direction - there are websites out there that have done what we seek to accomplish, but the difference in what we would have to offer is an online portfolio of work. Most members in this thread have a Xisto-hosted website showcasing their work and that speaks for their professionalism.Regards,Nitin Reddy

[kimochitim 0]

Whew... Unbelievable. I have been away for about 2 days now and we've grown a lot! I think that it is absolutely need to get on a messenger immediately. Our network has grown to a point where ideas are flying! Someone has posted a messenger option a few replies ago and I am gonna check it out.I will add the new members to my contact list (it seems nearly every other day there is someone new to the union). So far I think we are at 8 or 9 members strong. Though, I haven't started anything yet, I may have to switch this to my main project. People are joining! lol. I will email you all before the day ends in Japan.Thanks all. Tim