Text and Hubris

Now here’s the thing.

I believe in privacy. I believe that tracking where a person goes and what a person does and then using or sharing that data is a violation of privacy. I also believe that creating a web site or some connected device that gives the appearance of privacy but which, in reality, leaks data all over the place is also a violation of privacy. These actions occur often without user knowledge and can be potentially serious.

I tend to think it silly, though, when people want to post publicly and then expect that the data will not be tracked. The Internet does remember. That is its nature. Anything you post publicly will remain and can be found and tracked. I don’t find this some egregious violation of user privacy. Rather, I find this to be the fact of the medium.

It is easy to find radicals on all sides of the privacy debate. Right now, I have been reading the heavy pro-privacy groups. While I agree with a huge portion of what they say, it is easy to leap from practical personal privacy to something bordering on the bizarre. That’s a place that I don’t want to go to. There has to be balance between privacy and sharing. After all, most of us post online in an attempt to communicate and share.

I suppose my ultimate belief is in full disclosure. I believe a user has the right to know, in clear terms, what is being tracked, what is accessible and by who, and what rights they give up by creating the account. After that, it is purely buyer beware. Yes, we need better education when it comes to privacy risks online, but let’s not pretend that the medium isn’t any different from our other mediums. We need to find ways to live with the technology we have and still protect user privacy in practical ways. It can be a fine line sometimes, but I think finding that balance is a far better option than any of the alternatives.

I am supposed to start moving tomorrow. I am supposed to move to a small farm just outside of Grinnell, Iowa. It’s beautiful land with a large spacious house. My family lives nearby and the price can’t be beat. In other words, it is perfect.

Well, it was perfect. Now, it looks like we can’t go.

Simply put, the telecommunication companies don’t think that this area is valuable enough to provide service to it. To them, the people who live out there are not worthy of internet access. Those companies that do offer some sort of access, via satellite or wireless, enforce such stringent data policies that it is impossible to actually use the modern internet in any meaningful way. From a business perspective, perhaps the cost of providing connectivity is too much. From a practical perspective it eliminates possibilities and it furthers the digital divide in a very real way.

My family requires real internet connectivity. This means that a very nice house will have to find other occupants. There is no other way and, believe me, we have searched. Luckily, we can choose where we go. It’s just a real shame that this had to be the deal-breaker.

While in the midst of the moving and job scrambling that has begun to define my first few weeks of life post-graduation, I found myself working on implementing a shopping cart program for another website.

The project is still ongoing but I wanted to share the briefest extent of my experience thus far and give a few suggestions to those who must follow in my footsteps.

First, make sure you know what you are doing. The plugins that are available provide a great starting point, but unless you’re going with a stock build on a fresh site expect to modify some code. This is why development builds are so important. You need someplace to test what you are doing before you implement; otherwise, things can get rough. No matter what, always make sure you have a backup. Of course, this is good technique for anyone with a web site. You can develop and store your site on a flash drive these days (see Mowes for an example). There is no excuse not to have a backup.

Today, we’ll cover what to know before you start.

Things to know:

1. What you are selling: Defining your products is key. Make sure you have product descriptions and images ready to go before you even start work on your website.
2. How much you are charging: This is more than simply knowing how much you are going to charge for the product. Are shipping fees involved? Are taxes? If you are a nonprofit, are these tax-deductible or minimum donations? The more you know before you start, the better off you are during implementation and the more everyone on the back-end will thank you.
3. Inventory and Inventory Control: Customers are rarely happy to hear that the product they paid for is no longer available. How much of a product do you have and how are you managing that inventory? Many cart plugins include an inventory control mechanism. If you plan to use that, then make sure you understand how your plugin manages inventory and that you are tracking it carefully. If you do have another system handling inventory then you need to manage how that data is fed to your WordPress store. This often requires separate coding to implement.
4. What payments do you accept: If you have a merchant account with a specific provider (something like www.authorize.net), confirm your cart software can interface with it. Most provide payment options for Paypal, but always check to make sure and make sure your Paypal information is ready to go. If you plan to take money in other ways (Cash on Delivery, Check/Money Order) make sure you plan for that ahead of time.
5. How are you delivering your product: This is a key concern. If you are selling a digital product, there are specific concerns that need to be resolved. The product cannot be publicly accessible but needs to be available for the software after a purchase is made. If you are selling serial numbers for software, then you need a system in place to generate those code and deliver them. Some cart software plugins can do this, others may need to connect to another systems. How you go about this should be guided by your long term plans and your inventory and production management systems.
6. Define your customer communications: Most of the plugins include default prompts for emails and products. Check these over carefully and make sure they reflect the type of image you desire for your web store. If they don’t, change them to suit your needs. These communications are your voice to your paying customers. Make sure they reflect you and your company.

Sometime next week, I will cover some of the plugins and talk about the choices I made and why. As always, feel free to chime in with your own lessons and suggestions. Maybe, I’ll even add a few of them to the list as we go.

As I have been shifting from school back into professional life, I have been looking heavily at freelance work. It is the style of work that suits me and this is the best possible time for me to pursue it. So, I started to look for jobs. I am a strong technical writer but I realized that my available content as a technical writer or even a technical blogger is all hidden behind corporate firewalls. Most of my technical work was done for specific platforms or companies. I don’t have much a portfolio.

This site primarily focuses on literature and new media but it is supposed to include to include some technical information as well. So I’m going to start doing that. It might help a few people, it gives me something to write about, and it gives me something to show prospective clients. If this is my face to the world, I better make it worthwhile.

Oh and if you know anyone in need of my services, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m available!