The people of Australia vote tomorrow for many reasons the dominating parties hook on their lines. And not surprisingly, the future of technology in Australia is a major part of it. I will be honest, if the progress of technology is on the federal agenda, I'd be an obese fish feeding only on 2.4GHz frequency waves a nearby wireless hotspot would reverberate. I will not introduce the concept behind The National Broadband Network (NBN) because if you're reading this, you're obviously very familiar with what's involved. I make this confident assumption because it's a significant move for Australia. A significant move that can hugely increase the potential coreDNA can...

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Each month I am going to dip into the functionality fountain that is the coreDNA's module range and shine the spotlight on particular functionality. This month, we have the Product Catalogue 2.0 . We are all pretty familiar with the first installation. We all, over time, generated new and improved ways of handling products after using the first installation. Now, this just obviously means that the second installation makes it the manifestation of all our dreams because we've heard that feedback and taken it on board. We have included a Product Review system to jump onto the social networking bus. Users can rate products with customised options and it can be...

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We're going to kick FY11 off with a pretty hammering start with three serious upgrades. Yes, I'm calling it now... here it is: 1. coreDNA Administration User Interface Changing the skin of an application is like putting on a new pair of underwear... It's going to feel friendly, fit right and more importantly, look great! 2. Increase in database performance by 1000% You wonder how? Well we have the best DBAs in the world (no exaggeration!) on our side... We'll show you how. 3. A major Infrastructure enhancement with focus on Disaster Recovery, Availability, Redundancy and Scalability ...

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2010/11 will be exciting times for coreDNA! We have revised our vision, set our objectives, restructured our team and further defined our individual roles. I now see the coreDNA development team as a well trained soccer team entering one of the few world cups they'll be a part of during their careers. Not the most accurate of analogies but the underlying context rings true. Ultimately, coreDNA has great expectations, optimistic ambition, and now a team that is geared to deliver. Attitude must always be positive and spirits high for our vision to eventuate. We are team focused, you know why? Because coreDNA doesn't build itself, people do - and this time around we are...

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I am now getting close to my first full year with year with coreDNA. My views on website development are constantly evolving and my approach to prospective customers is far removed from my early days. A few things to consider that have resonated with me over the journey: 1.  Never underestimate what people type into Google! If you have a structured website with a couple of key features, you can certainly drive 'back-door' traffic. You will just need to contact me to find out how. 2.  If you are releasing a new website this week, you are probably one of many thousands being...

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I am now getting close to my first full year with year with coreDNA. My views on website development are constantly evolving and my approach to prospective customers is far removed from my early days. A few things to consider that have resonated with me over the journey: 1.  Never underestimate what people type into Google! If you have a structured website with a couple of key features, you can certainly drive 'back-door' traffic. You will just need to contact me to find out how. 2.  If you are releasing a new website this week, you are probably one of many thousands being simultaneously released. Asides from handing...

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After stepping out of knee deep code and leaving behind shell commands to line the coast of Australia, I took a deep breath and gaze around this technology driven world. This is what I saw in cyberspace: Online Application Development o Life Cycles are shorter, Development is iterative o Location based services with the use of mobile devices o A market place for mobile apps o Accessibility: iPhones, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Palm o User Experience is EVERYTHING Industry leaders: o Google vs Facebook o Search vs Discovery o Link vs Like o SEO vs NFO (News Feed Optimisation) ...

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Thank you, Jeff, for that welcoming introduction :) As part of living and breathing coreDNA from a technical perspective for the past, oh, how many years now, I am now excited to establish my place as the voice of the development team in this new home that is www.coredna.com. Now, the role I describe as "the voice" is definitely no reflection on that eighties mullet wonder Johnny Farnham, purely for one distinct reason: "The Voice" as he stood, was singular; our "voice" is plural. Here within the coreDNA team we have a number of vibrant, intelligent and dedicated souls committed to seeing coreDNA be more than just a website engine. With the amount of...

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Welcome back to 2010. In a 'cyber sense' I have defected from bwired to coreDNA, though physically, I'm sitting in the same chair. 2009 was a 'watershed' year for our coreDNA Internet platform as we gradually emerged from a strong client base to now include some of Australia's leading brand name institutions. There will be more on this in future blogs and a new coreDNA eNewsletter, which will be more specific to our channel partners and major corporations. For much of the latter part of 2009 we vested significant time and resources introducing coreDNA to the Ad Agency / Media network in Melbourne, which will extend to Sydney in...

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Knowledge is power, and a comprehensive analytics package used wisely can turn the meek into the mighty. Most have been quick to jump on the analytics bandwagon (who says no to detailed insight into target audiences and more informed decisions regarding website strategy?), but many are still unaware of the valuable research statistics packages such as coreDNA Statistics, Google Analytics and SiteCatalyst Omniture can provide. If you haven't taken the plunge yet, try Google Analytics first to see what it's all about- it's relatively...

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As a dedicated online shopper (particularly at this time of year when time is scarce!), I've noticed our overseas counterparts have become much more affordable than they were this time last year. What was once extortionate has now become quite reasonable. The Aussie dollar was hovering around 65c in December 08. One year on we're looking at approximately 90c, making purchasing from overseas much more viable. Ainslie Chandler's recent article in the BRW " Online Sells Itself " only highlights what we already know- global competition in the retail sector is fierce....

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Of the many key success factors we have identified for best practice online, usability may well be the most important, playing a critical role in the creation of a positive online experience. So....what does a positive online experience mean to you? According to Forrester Research , for many of us it's the ability to retrieve the information, product or service we want as quickly as possible. Forrester Research recently released a report identifying loading times as a major frustration for users, with half of all visitors abandoning sites if they perceive a page or feature takes longer than a...

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Rupert Murdoch doesn't appear to think it's the season to be jolly. Paying for our news online? Switching search engines to access that news? Sounds a bit like bah humbug. There may be viewers that will pay for original, valuable content (unless all news sources become paid) - but I think some of the companies engaging in these transactions might be biting the hand that feed them. Are they missing the big picture? Charging users for visiting will certainly reduce website traffic, decreasing reach and advertising spending with it (which in all likelihood would more than cover the costs of subscription!). And then there's the competition- with the growing number of widely...

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Last week we saw the introduction of EC2 be established as an alternative for the bold system admin. This week, we are here to give you an understanding of how and where the challenges for change can occur. Note: Amazon EC2 terminology are highlighted in bold Challenges: Now this is where my opinion steps in. I spent a good couple of weeks playing with this service (and, mind you, racking up a decent bill!) and here were the challenges I faced... 1. Persistent Storage I started off using a publically available Instance and as you do with any operating system, you...

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Lately, Amazon EC2 (Elastic Computing Cloud) has been one of the most exciting faces in the Cloud Computing world. The media hype and general chatter of what is now considered the future of hosting infrastructure incessantly tickle those technologically perked ears. But is it all that it's built up to be? This two part series the summarises the features and discusses challenges you will be presented with when jumping on the AWS bandwagon. Note: Amazon EC2 terminology are highlighted in bold Part 1/2: Features Features: EC2 allocates the hardware resources not to a virtual...

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