Sunday, December 14, 2008

Experience the Infinite with Helena Bongartz

Although I've listed Helena on FindItByMe.com, I have to say more about her here. I want to thank her for her encouragement, her creativity and for being a truly interesting person to talk to. She struck me as being supremely unassuming, but that is how genius often expresses itself. I think that if you have an evening free, do yourself a favor and drive out to the little salt-flat house (Longitude -115.7247, Latitude 34.4728) near Amboy and get inspired. Seeing what she has done and talking to her is many orders of magnitude better than watching TV or most anything else. If nothing else, visit her web site(s) at poplight.net and/or cosmogenetics.com. I never want to know how she does what she does, just enjoy it. Thank you, Helena!!!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

From the Beginning up until Now

This is a record of experiences and thoughts relating to my web site www.finditbyme.com. First of all, I would like to dedicate this record to the memory of my dear mother who passed away January 9th, 2008 at the age of 89 after a brief bout with cancer. I called her the Mugs, and if she were a sparkplug, every engine in the world would have run perfectly. She alone offered to invest in my company. She alone could see clearly when everyone else was in the fog; not bad for a lady almost 90 years old. Well Mugs, I just want to say thank you for all your encouragement and high spirits. This company is dedicated to your memory and energy!

A little about me before I start: I'm 49 years old and live in Fallbrook, CA with an orange cat called "The Pug". I relax by heading to the desert, especially Death Valley National Park, to enjoy the unique solitude of a unique place. Ive taken over 3,000 pictures of all my travels starting in 1982. The desert is an oasis where you refresh yourself with solitude. However you do it, getting away to recharge your batteries is always a good thing.

I've been a programmer, IT manager, systems architect and independent consultant. I've developed seven complete systems end to end in my career (wholesale distribution, document management, sales lead tracking, cable rack management, personnel management, produce inventory and sales and finally this location based search engine).

In 2001 I made the mistake of thinking that I could use the Internet to find anything I might be interested in within a certain distance of me. I soon found that then, as now, there is no authoritative list, geographically speaking, of any area. I realize everyone has tried Google Earth and other such products, and I think they are very good. But authoritative information requires a lot of effort and dedication, and a drive-by in a van with twelve cameras to give you a street view falls short of what I wanted to see.

So, when tried to find a place that carried HO model trains within five miles of my house, I was out of luck. So I thought I might start working on it. It turns out that this is really a colossal task. It is so big a thing to do that I had to do it part time until earlier this year, when I started doing it full time. I had to become passably proficient in a lot of disciplines I knew nothing about. I had to learn how to listen to what people needed. And I had to discern by asking questions what people really felt was of value to them.

What exists now, at this moment on December 10th, 2008 is my website, www.finditbyme.com. It is a work in progress, and far from what I envision. But even now, it will give you an idea of where I'm going with this site. I want to make it easy for the public to find something they need that is nearby. I want to make it easy for the small business to be known, to be on the map, affordably and easily. Right now the site is centered in Fallbrook, CA, but even as that is the center of the site's universe, it's true nature is to expand and offer the same benefits to anyone anywhere. Yes, I know that you can self-report your listing to any number of search engines that are cell-phone enabled right now. I know that I am one guy vs. an army of developers spread all over the globe, funded by companies with billions in spare change. I still don't see that these folks are going to have a personal relationship with the small business owner like my organization does. They are not going to go there in person, or even call them on the phone. But that is what is called for in my opinion. Small businesses employ the majority of Americans. I think they deserve another option for letting the public know they are there and provide personalized service and products that the big companies are not designed to provide. It comes down to two things: make it easy for a small business to be found, and make it easy for the public to find them.