First released in 2002 by Australian-based Element Software, Copper is a web-based project management software tool used by creative teams across the globe to manage their clients, tasks, projects, contacts and files.

With a loyal client base, Copper is utilized by leading organizations such as Sony Pictures, Apple, Mercedes Benz USA, Novell and Redken – to name a few.

As the business moves in to an exciting new phase of growth, the opportunity has arisen for an experienced and talented Web 2.0 Software Developer to join this independent company on a contract basis.

Working from the comfort of your own home or studio, this role will see you, the successful candidate, taking technical briefs from clientele in order to diligently and effectively develop & self-test intuitive solutions.

As the successful candidate you must possess:

• High level proficiency with PHP, MySQL, AJAX and CSS
• Experience with Actionscript / Flash / Rails a bonus
• A strong focus on usability and user interface
• An active interest in web 2.0 products, web sites & technologies
• A sense of urgency about your work
• A very strong focus on providing long-term solutions
• A pro-active and disciplined approach to your work

This is your opportunity to work with a leading Australian Web 2.0 product with offices in Melbourne & San Francisco – without leaving your home!

Daily/hourly rate commensurate with technical expertise & experience.

To apply, please forward your current resume and covering letter for consideration to info@copperproject.com.

– Ben Prendergast

This week I thought I’d blog about some of the tech that’s floating my boat at the moment.

Solar Panel Roof Tiles

Let’s kick off with this from Springwise: Solar panels build right into roof tiling, just genius, and a truly interconnected grid of power generation is something sorely lacking in Australia.

http://springwise.com/weekly/2009-09-16.htm#solepowertile
Link: http://www.srsenergy.com/

Wireless Electricity

Witricity uses magnetic coupling to transfer power safely and wirelessly. Check out this demo where Eric Giler demos a wirelessly powered iPhone and TV. The tech is still at 45-50% efficiency (a few thousand time more efficient than a battery), but coupled with solar tiles above, we may just have ourselves some awesomeness!

http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity.html

Honda unveils a Segway thingy

Minimallisimo, the sexy one-shot minimal digi camera

Just because it brings back the surprise element of not knowing how your shot is going to come out until you develop it.

Link: http://minimalissimo.com/2009/09/oneshot-camera/

– Ben Prendergast

I received this question today via email, and thought I’d post up my response:

Q. How does copper compare to MS project software? Why use copper, what are the costs and how does it work better than MS project?

A. The biggest issue with MS Project is that it is simple a single user repository and having come from a PM background I often found that it dictated how I work. I also found when I did use it within a team environment that MS Project did nothing to assist in the management of the politics of a project, and tended to make me focus more on the technical side of the timeline than actually getting things done (and the more I focussed on that, the less work that got done, and the more I’d have to update my schedule!)

With Copper, we turned that on its head. We still provide great project setup tools like the flash gantt timeline view and drag and drop subtasks in the project creation screen, but the real power of Copper comes with its multi-user platform, which assists in the collaboration component of all your projects.

Once you’ve allocated your users to tasks (or even gone the extra step of committing their available time, if you want finite resourcing), they then go ahead and provide a running commentary of the work they do along with how long it takes them and their subjective impression of how complete a task is. This is an easy process for them, and provides a natural update mechanism, removing the pain associated with timesheet tracking, and ensuring if one member is away for whatever reason your team can pick up where they left off. This is to say nothing of the other areas of Copper like the document management module, contacts module, reports, and group calendar functions within Copper. Being available anywhere anytime, I don’t hear of may customers going back to MS Project once they’re on board with Copper

The net result is that over time you can review how your projects have tracked and we’ve found teams become more cohesive the more they use Copper. In a recent survey we found that over 80% of our customers save between 10-20 hours per week, and 20% save more than 20 hours a week just by using Copper.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any specific questions on functionality, or anything else for that matter!

– Ben Prendergast

Two videos that give a glimpse into the ‘future’, one from what looks like the mid-late 80’s and the other from 1993. The latter is scarily accurate, I want that futurist on my staff!

http://www.core77.com/blog/videos/before_there_was_sketchupalias_upfront_14675.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8

And ergo we see the birth of I.T. archaeology.

– Ben Prendergast

For the full email see http://www.copperproject.com/mailouts/2009/09/

Version 4.01 Features and Fixes are here!

• Page optimization and Quicker UI. Enjoy quick-fire editing/saving/deleting/sorting of tasks and comments in the Projects and Springboard views. And we’ve sped up all pages in some cases by 700%!!!.
  Here is the challenge: Create a new project with 10 tasks in under 30 seconds. 32 seconds is the record!
• Formatting options. Set your own header, logo, and login image options for your Copper
• Rollup Project Details. You can now roll up project details for neater project presentation
• Bug fixes! Yes, we’ve fixed a number of annoying little glitches, and we’re happy to announce 4.01 is here

Our Annual Survey is back! Complete it here to go into the draw for an iPhone 3GS.

Every year we undertake a survey to understand our customers, products, and services a little better. The results from this survey directly affect which new features we develop, how much we charge, and generally where we direct our next 12 months of effort. It is a crucial step in making Copper and other products as good as they can be.

Being crucial for us, we offer a prize to the most honest answer. Why most honest? Because we can’t afford to have anything other than total honesty from our customers, so in the past the most frank feedback has won, and at other times the most inspired idea has secured the booty!

So, if you’d like to help us shape Copper by having your opinion heard within the hallowed halls of Copper HQ, and would like to go into the running for an iPhone 3GS 8gb, click here to complete our 10 minute survey.

Click here to take the Survey. It only takes 5-10 minutes, and really really really helps us out a lot.

– Ben Prendergast