Yoo-hoo, are you out there somewhere?

When I sell a web site system to a client, I like to be clear on the fact that what I’m selling them is not a closed-source proprietary solution. I think this is important for everyone but especially for non-profit organisations. Too many times I’ve helped out an organisation whose domain name and hosting are inaccessible to them – they are locked into a system with one developer, typically at a large cost, and have no way of changing hosting, changing developers, or getting their data out without starting from scratch. In the worst case one group couldn’t even update their site and the developer was not answering the phone.

Some people might look at that and think that it’s smart business on the part of the developer – but in my view, it’s an outdated way of thinking. Your customers should be coming back to you because they’ve always gotten great service and they love what you’ve done for them. If you’re not looking after them anymore then they deserve better.

Anyhow, what this comes back to is that one of the systems we push for larger, more complex sites is FarCry. A few times people have called me out on my statement that there are developers actively working with the system all over the world and ask for examples – and usually they are only interested in Australia. I can point to a few obvious ones – Daemon themselves, for example, and a few other organisations I’ve worked with in Perth – but I figure there must be many more that I simply don’t know about.

Sharing this information about where the developers actually are can only benefit the entire community, in my view. I actually think this is information that should be published on the FarCry web site. But we can start by outing individual companies, I think.

I’m happy to share the list I compile with anyone who wants it and I’ll even publish it here if no one on it objects. So leave a comment or send me an email – kay@smoljak.com. I know you’re out there!