John K. Davis, Executive Director

A New Business Model

I love coaching people, both individuals and business teams, to learn new ways to get organized, be productive, stay connected and have fun by using various technologies. But I do not seem to be able to find the time to send invoices. I would much rather assist a client or charitable organization or do research about a new device or software application or read a book or learn something new than to go through the drudgery of keeping track of my time and sending an itemized bill to the many people I assist.

I have been feeling overwhelmed lately because I'm busy, having a great time, but I am over three months behind on sending invoices. Well, I am not going to worry about it anymore. So, do not expect an invoice from me; I've decided to stop sending billing statements. I will assist you for whatever you think is fair and can afford.

Some people pay me well and I enjoy working with them and I will prioritize my schedule so that I will be there when they want me. I also assist a few non-profit organizations without any expectation of payment--doing volunteer work has always been an important part of my life and I will continue to make contributions to causes and institutions that I believe in enough to donate my time and energy and sometimes even my financial resources.

Friends and family have not received invoices from me in the past, so this is nothing new for them. A number of my friends have sent me a check or funds via PayPal and I appreciate their support. In fact, it is their support that has inspired me to work this way with others.

I have billed $60 an hour in the past for my services. I suppose that is what I think I'm worth. But from now on I will accept whatever you want to pay me.

You can send me a check via snail mail (my mailing address is available by clicking on the "About" link under my Webcam image at the top of this website's left column), or you can transfer money to me via my Tip Jar.

You do not need a PayPal account to make a payment via the Tip Jar with a credit card, but you will need a PayPal account to make an electronic transfer from your bank account. In either case you can initiate Tip Jar payments to me by clicking on the Tip Jar icon at the top of this website's right column.

When you send me funds via the Tip Jar, I get an email notification of the transaction that contains the payer's name and a short message (the message is optional). No other information is given to me.

If I have assisted you in the past few months you will get a personal email message from me about this change in my "business model" soon. I hope everyone will respond well to this change--it is a big relief for me and I suspect that the pay-whatever-you-want arrangement will work out fine for me.

Gmail Filters

I have been using Gmail a lot lately. The reason I am steadily increasing the use of the service flows mainly from a unique feature of Gmail: filters.

Gmail filters can be used in many ways. I’m using them to identify the source of email messages that are sent to me. Whenever I register online when I purchase something or I want to use an online service, I use my Gmail email address when completing the registration form. When I enter the address I add an identifier. Then, whenever I get an email message using that identifier, I know where the sender got the email address.

So, let me give an example. I recently rented a car using Priceline dot com. When I registered at the site, I used "jkdmail+priceline@gmail" dot com for the email address. The "+priceline" is the identifier. Then I went to my Gmail account and added a filter I called “Priceline.” This filter captures every email message coming into my inbox that has the +priceline identifier. I can view new and archived messages using the filter.

This works great, but I have run into an occasional problem. Every once in a while I register at a website that will not allow the identifier in the email address. For many months this has not been a big deal, I would just email the company and asked them to change their validation criteria so Gmail, with an identifier added, would be accepted. Everyone was glad to do so. The new Glide dot com website is an example of a site where I got this kind of quick response.

There are companies that will not change their email validation criteria. One such company is DHD Media, a company that provides website registration services, credit card processing and billing, streaming media and DRM, and managed hosting for a number of companies. When they refused to change their email address validation criteria, I sent them this message: