Alan and Shari O. joined our server meeting today. Wayne was reporting on the server settings and new corp-wide setting object code. Both he and Alan have been working on that project. It is getting really close to being launched here in the next couple of days.

Wayne was also talking about a different data export project and doing some validation and text normalization. Basically, a way to check for special characters and then replace them (the special ones) with a normal or standardized character. For example: take different spaces as a sample - there are big spaces, narrow spaces, thin spaces, non-breaking spaces, special width spaces, etc. - all of those would just be converted into a normal space vs the special characters. The same is true for double quotes, single quotes, bullets, dashes, spaces, and all kinds of other special characters. Wayne got a new library from Ben Nadel to help standardize some of those special characters. All part of keeping good data that can be used by us and by other parties (for example - in the data export for a specific client).

We talked about moving and combining servers and sites to save money. This is mostly dealing with clients who have one or more dedicated boxes. If they shrink or close some of their locations, they don't want to pay for multiple boxes (servers or VPS's). Wayne was talking about some possible hybrid type solutions and being able to configure and setup multiple datasources and folders (sub sites) per box. This is a prep step for the datasource project or world building stuff that we would like to get to eventually.

This topic lead us into some talks about different clients and options for data storage and archiving data. As a side note, Cory was being very careful about trying to protect us and make sure that we are covering our costs. Just because we can do something, doesn't always mean that we should. There is a balance between time, money, effort, and promises made. It also plays into - what are our future plans? We talked about billing, value, perceptions, and making sure that we really cover our true costs.

Alan and Wayne got into talking about the new settings and changes on that side of the fence. We really want to keep moving that project forward but may need to wait a couple of days so that Cory can help with the testing and tech support side of new releases (system wide changes being released to all servers). Towards the end of the meeting, they were talking about dates, times, and coordinating deployment and rollout of new changes. That is awesome.

Everybody except for Steve, Cory, John, and I left. At that point, John gave us a small report on what he has been doing. He reported that his billing was in, times had been recorded, he is working with Dustin on some server training, doing other server maintenance, and working on other projects. Cory is really trying to make sure that communication channels are up and going between Wayne and John. Trying to make sure that we aren't duplicating efforts and everybody is on the same page.