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Damian Barrow "From ASP for Dummies to MS MVP" <Next>
Ronda's Success Story from AspFriends.com “Pay it Forward” to discuss this or your experience, please join our [review-help] list from family of review lists)
Have you seen the movie “Pay it Forward”? It wasn’t exactly a great hit at the box office but it leaves you with a strong sense of community. I really enjoyed the movie, as I was watching it I couldn’t help but think about Charles Carroll’s listservers. A utopian philosophy; that people will do nice things for one another with no assurance of reciprocation, really works well on these lists. [editors note: once you see the film, I do have to re-assure you the end result of joining our lists works better in reality than the film's conclusion] My lifetime work experience was centered around real estate, management and graphic arts when in the fall of 1998 I decided to enroll in a junior college HTML course. By the end of the semester I was building static HTML pages on a contract basis for anyone who would give me the opportunity. I looked at many sites in an attempt to learn as much as possible in the fastest manner, and determined if I was to move forward in this industry I needed to supplement my HTML with database technologies or more explicitly the ability to communicate data to the browser (ASP).
"I can’t recall exactly how I found the LearnAsp.com site in the fall of 1999 and frankly the volume of email lists offered (for free) was a bit overwhelming. Many of the lists had terminology that was foreign to me at the time, confused as to which to sign up for I bypassed them all save for the [aspTexas] list."
I can’t recall exactly how I found the LearnAsp.com site in the fall of 1999 and frankly the volume of email lists offered (for free) was a bit overwhelming. Many of the lists had terminology that was foreign to me at the time, confused as to which to sign up for I bypassed them all save for the Texas list. Having no history with programming or computer languages my sole intent in joining the [aspTx] list was to procure some type of local person to teach me or at the very least help me get started. The Texas list had been deafeningly quiet until I ventured a brief post: “I would like to have someone spend a few hours to help me learn ASP. Please let me know when you are available and what you will charge”. ASPTX came alive! There were at least a dozen replies both on and off list with rates ranging from $25 to $80 per hour as well as several offers to contract out my project.
"From the moment I joined the [aspfreeforall] list I was perhaps one of the noisiest posters and Charles later remarked that he was amazed at my tenacity. With an employer who bought domain names like some people buy sodas I never lacked for something new to learn from the lists. By the end of the year I had 4 ASP, database driven (Access) sites complete with a B2B private area, club log-in, session utilization and was teaching myself Access and Javascript along the way."
I was fortunate in my choice of tutors; David Morgan worked for EDS and was an astute and patient tutor who was in the midst of a nasty custody battle thus came in cheap at the $25 hr rate. We spent a few hours a week for the next couple of weeks working on a project and perhaps the best advice he offered in parting was that I should join the aspfreeforall list. I had been hired by an employer who had several hundred domains and only the 3 or 4 html sites I had developed in a live state so the timing to learn ASP was urgent. From the moment I joined the [aspfreeforall] list I was perhaps one of the noisiest posters and Charles later remarked that he was amazed at my tenacity. With an employer who bought domain names like some people buy sodas I never lacked for something new to learn from the lists. By the end of the year I had 4 ASP, database driven (Access) sites complete with a B2B private area, club log-in, session utilization and was teaching myself Access and Javascript along the way. Due to the phenomenal success of the assistance I had achieved from the freeforall list I quickly joined up with the [aspAccess] and [aspJScript] lists as well. I had already began to acknowledge that it was a successful way for me to learn new technologies and I still regularly explore the lists as I evaluate the direction I am moving with my career.
"I own dozens of books but have never achieved the same kind of knowledge from a book as I have by posting relevant, specific questions to the lists. The range of responses still amazes me. Responses from a variety of people with years of experience, explained in layman’s terms could never equate to a chapter in any book."
I own dozens of books but have never achieved the same kind of knowledge from a book as I have by posting relevant, specific questions to the lists. The range of responses still amazes me. Responses from a variety of people with years of experience, explained in layman’s terms could never equate to a chapter in any book.
Try it! Post a question to the [aspAccess] or [SQLServer] list and you will quickly see what I am talking about. The quality of responses is phenomenal. Ken Schaffer of Adopenstatic.com will most likely be one of the first to reply with clear explanations typically followed up with a not so subtle suggestion on how to speed up the process, generally supplemented with a link to his site where he has speed tested everything but a Porsche. [editors note: Join Ken's fanclub here when you want to thank him for helping you] Right behind Ken you can almost always expect a reply by the typically brilliant David Penton with very concise clear answers. David is a SQL server guru and would have been well suited as a professor due to his painstaking care in constructing his explanations of even the simplest database problems. [editors note: Join Dave's fanclub here when you want to thank him for helping you). Or try a ‘what are regular expressions?’ question on the freeforall list and watch the answers flow. I would expect you would see people like Ryan Trudelle-Schwarz of Manamanze.com who emanates a passion for reg-exp and you will begin to see why the lists could never compare to any other learning method you could ever pay for. [editors note: Join Ryan's fanclub here to thank him for helping you) I’m just getting started in XML and VB and could not ask for better company on the XML lists than Mitch Denny [editors note: Join Mitch's fanclub here to thank him for helping you) who must <eatdrinksleep>XML</eatdrinksleep>. And all of this is free. I shudder to think what kind of tab I would be looking at if all of these people charged for their posts like they must charge for consulting fees.
"I shudder to think what kind of tab I would be looking at if all of these people charged for their posts like they must charge for consulting fees."
Access worked fine for us but after spending some time on the lists I got engrossed in database performance issues and as we were growing quickly. I propelled our company to take the plunge into SQL Server. This of course necessitated the subscription to yet more lists. I joined...
...just to name a few. The story goes on but I think you get the idea. To date I handle over 150 live sites including 10 e-commerce stores generating in excess of a million dollars a year for our company. I was at the home office in California last week and overheard my boss speaking to his CPA “We’ll have over 100 stores by this time next year” so it looks like I better get busy!
And if you are here for a while, you may notice you have an ASP project that has no relevant list. 9 of our sites are 'Yahoo Stores' which I replicate across to our SQL Server. I am delving into utilizing XML to more smoothly handle the transition of data to the SQL Server. I am exploring what it takes to automate data between Fedex, UPS and USPS shipping information to our stores. So Charles started a whole family of commerce lists at my request where I share what I am learning, and hope people with more experience will join these lists and share their expertise with the community.
<sidenote>I could never thank all of the people who have helped me on the lists and most especially Charles who donates the space, time and labor to put it all together. But I’ll be around to ‘pay it forward’.</sidenote>
Ronda Pederson