February 21, 2013 10:57 a.m.
Recently I was invited to participate as a member of a technology panel for the annual conference of the Illinois chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association. There were four panel members and a moderator. Each panel member did a 15 minute presentation and the audience had the opportunity to ask questions. The title of the session was "Technology and Law Firm Practice Management/Marketing". The purpose being to highlight how technology can help small practices better market their services and manage their offices.
The other panel members utilized PowerPoint and spoke eloquently about their products and services, why they ...
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Updated 02/21/13 @ 10:57AM CST by ric
Categories:
Business Marketing Sales
November 15, 2011 11:37 a.m.
At Imaginary, we believe in a strong work-life balance. We always tried to have fun at work, whether at our annual holiday party that features an entire room dedicated to the Wii game Rock Band, or a fun and unique company benefit that always seems to get attention.
Most recently, Imaginary announced a no-pre-set-limit on time off for staff. This is a rare benefit - according to a recent WorldatWork study - with only 1% of surveyed employers offering it. However, it is a benefit we wanted to offer, to better compete with some of the larger organizations with bigger bankrolls than ...
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Updated 12/12/11 @ 11:37AM CST by brian
Categories:
Business
September 21, 2011 10:22 a.m.
Today the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, in collaboration with the non-profit Center for Democracy & Technology, released the report:
Account Deactivation and Content Removal: Guiding Principles and Practices for Companies and Users
The report provides a framework for managing violations to a website's terms of use and how best to handle the process, up to and including account deactivation.
From the press release:
This report explores these dilemmas and recommends principles, strategies, and tools that companies and users alike can adopt to mitigate the negative effects of account deactivation and content removal. Through case examples, we ...
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Updated 09/21/11 @ 10:22AM CDT by brian
Categories:
Business Web News
Last week, Imaginary Landscape launched a redesigned site dedicated to the technology side of our business at chicagodjango.com. Django is the Web application framework we use to construct interactive websites.
Generally speaking, purchasers of Web development services fall into two audience groups - tech and non-tech. For example and again, generally speaking, Web-related decision making remains largely the purview of marketing. This is a traditionally non-technical audience. Their concerns include brand continuity, aesthetics, ease of use and user-facing functionality. These are all extremely important to a Web-based experience.
This site, imagescape.com, speaks to this audience. It was designed with ...
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Updated 07/18/11 @ 05:01PM CDT by brian
Categories:
Business Design Technology
As a small business, we are constantly looking for ways to make our employees feel valued and make Imaginary more attractive as a place to work.
Not too long ago and at the suggestion of Imaginary's Operating Partner, Ric Lee, we began researching a low cost, high value new benefit. Shortly thereafter, we implemented it.
Now, every Imaginary employee receives a free Netflix account.
So far, it's been a great success. It's relatively low cost and pretty much everyone participates. We prefer to have the company pay directly and avoid staff having to expense it. This leads ...
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Updated 05/25/11 @ 12:13PM CDT by brian
Categories:
Business Fun
We were happy to see the May 9, 2011 profile of Ifbyphone Inc. in Crain's Chicago Business. Ifbyphone is a Chicago-based startup created to bring big phone system features to small companies.
Imaginary Landscape has been a customer of Ifbyphone since 2009. The service allows us to provide callers a choice of different voicemail boxes and have specific actions tied with each box.
As a small technology firm, we do not staff 24 hours a day. However, we wanted to make sure that our clients could contact us during off hours. Before Ifbyphone, this was no simple nor affordable ...
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Updated 05/11/11 @ 01:50PM CDT by brian
Categories:
Business Chicagoland Technology
January 17, 2011 1:16 p.m.
Search Engine Optimization Tips for the CMO.
We often receive requests for search engine optimization services. It's an area in which we specialize, and it would be easy to leverage the recent SEO hype and sell into this desire without questioning its motives. But many of the people convinced they need SEO services, don't. Or more specifically, they don't need them yet.
This week we received an inbound inquiry which is a good and typical illustration of this misplaced prioritization.
What is SEO, really?
"We are interested in an aggressive SEO program and possibly a facelift to ...
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Updated 01/17/11 @ 01:16PM CST by brian
Categories:
Business Marketing Research
This week, Crain's Chicago Business published their list of Chicago Web developers and Imaginary Landscape is there, one of 52 companies. Already, I've begun receiving congratulations.
I'm reticent to say that the list isn't a "Top Web Developers" list, but just a directory. The cover charge for making the print list is, "Offices in the 6-county area with more than 5 full-time consultants."
There is an online version of the list with 80 companies. It seems there is no 5 full-time consultant minimum to make the online version as there are several with one employee.
Times ...
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Updated 07/21/10 @ 03:17PM CDT by brian
Categories:
Business Chicagoland Marketing
Over the past couple weeks, we've had a number of prospective clients contact us to have an initial conversation. Always a good sign. Most are coming through a microsite that focuses on our specific technology. Many are start-ups.
Each one presented a non-disclosure agreement for signature.
I have great respect for the entrepreneurial spirit. As a business owner myself, I have an appreciation for the struggles involved in taking an idea to market. The Web world moves fast and today's innovative idea is tomorrow's old news. Start-ups need protecting while they explore partnerships with companies like Imaginary ...
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Updated 07/14/10 @ 10:05AM CDT by brian
Categories:
Business Sales
November 03, 2009 10:35 a.m.
Today, Imaginary Landscape launched chicagodjango.com. This is a microsite that allows us to promote our use of a specific Web development technology. Specifically, the Python programming language and the Django Web development framework.
Granted, the idea of a technology microsite isn't really a barrel-of-monkeys kind of thing, but we have had a ton of fun with it. The reason? Mascots.
The mascot for Python is, as you might guess, a snake. The mascot for Django is a pink winged pony.
Really.
With the specific purpose of having fun, I sifted through the Web in search of two stuffed ...
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Updated 07/14/10 @ 10:35AM CDT by brian
Categories:
Business Technology
Imaginary Landscape
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