Info

Because Sidewalk Designs has so many clients in so many different industries, we often find ourselves acting as a conduit for networking these various clients with each other. One client will mention a particular challenge that they're experiencing and we'll recommend another one of our clients for the solution. So it's seemed only natural for us to develop an online community for our clients to network with each other - we have the skills and the technology - why not put them to work for our clients and for the community? So we did just that - we spent about a year developing an online community using the latest in Open Source Content Management Technology. Why did it take so long? Well we did this part time, in the background while at the same time working hard for our clients on projects large and small. This was a huge undertaking, but we knew it would pay off. Challenge: To develop a website that will be highly interactive, that will provide communication tools for users to network with each other online, that will cost us nothing but our time and expertise, and that will be visually engaging to our viewers. To that end we researched and tested many of the Open Source software solutions now available. While some had one or two features that we felt we couldn't do without, they were lacking in other features that we wanted. Finally we settled on one solution and worked towards customizing it heavily to create the end product that we envisioned. We developed our own components and features and we continue to improve on our work, adding features and "tweaking" areas that we find less than intuitive. During this time we allowed a young developer named Ben Ambroso to work on the site. His resume stated that he was a U.S. Marine about to finish his tour of service. He passed himself off as a knowledgeable PHP developer, he even had references (bogus of course) but we found this out much too late. By the time we uncovered his scam, he had managed to destroy much of the work we had started. His stay with Sidewalk Designs cost us a great deal both in dollars, in faith and in time. He set this project back more than four months. The one thing I'm grateful for is that I never put him on a client project. This tought us a great deal about the nature of people and they were lessons truly hard learned. Result: Finally in April we launched the completed www.longislandbiz2biz.com website. After only two months online, the longislandbiz2biz.com has outgrown it's servers and needed to be upgraded and enhanced to carry the weight of the more than 10 new members per day that it is attracting. It's becoming a useful tool for Long Island businesses and professionals to link up with others in the area who are like minded . Check out the site, whether you are a past, current or future client of Sidewalk Designs - or even if you're not affiliated with us at all - the site is Free and you'll be able to: Create a profile for yourself and your businessMarket your business, products and services online to the Long Island CommunityRegister for the upcoming Speed Meet - where you can meet members face to faceInteract with other Long Island businesses with private messaging and in custom networking forumsGet the latest Long Island NewsSubmit content, coupons, music, videos, etc...Plus much, much more.... with many new features in development. arrowarrowSidewalk Designs - Long Island Website Design, Marketing and Advertising | Home Case Studies Long Island biz2biz