Forem: Will Morgan

Guide to finding a killer new brand name

Will Morgan — Wed, 20 May 2020 00:15:54 +0000

Coming up with a strong brand name is no easy feat. This article will introduce you the process we used to end up with the expressive brand name of Liteflow

Check out the original post here:

The challenges of finding a strong brand name

When you're creating a new company, finding a good name will probably be the step that is the most difficult. You don't want to end up with a name that another company already uses, with a meaning completely different from what you thought or even worse a name that nobody can pronounce (hello Ikea's furniture). Not spending enough time brainstorming a brand name, or going with the first choice that feels 'ok' will be a big mistake. You're risking having to change your brand after months of work, and once your communication is already on track. You will lose time and money, for sure nobody wants to be in this situation.

Why is it the most difficult step?

You will find quickly that most of the names you already thought are already taken. Every year it's thousands (if not more) businesses that are created. And they all have the same issue: finding a name.

So after thinking of some fancy ones that you will likely find are already taken, you will start trying to find some that describe your business. After that, when you will have no hope left, you will try to invent one to be sure that at least this one will be available.

And even after that desperate move, you will probably run to the closest bar with the other founders to try to find the inspiration inside a refreshing and cold glass of beer. Or alone if you are the only founder, that's way sadder.
Let me tell you a secret, your process sucks. There are way more techniques than just guessing that you should add in this complex equation.

Before making the mistake to jump into this leap of faith, let me introduce you to the process we used with our team. I created it after spending hours gathering information on the subject.

Our magical process

When I got ownership of creating a process for our team to find the name of our new company, I was not sure where to start.

Because of the Covid-19, our team was working remotely and split between different countries and time zones. That's sucks when you have to organize a brainstorming session and being able to exchange feedback on proposals quickly.

To be able to do so we needed a simple, strong, and efficient way to exchange ideas, give feedback, vote, keep track of the proposals, etc. So forget about a chat system, terrible idea... We also wanted to include everyone into this task, and not just a few people or only the founders, so the brand name will be something meaningful for everyone.

Also, we didn't want to spend months to find our new brand name, and we all had a lot of work to do on the other hand. So each of us was having only a few hours here and there to work on the task.

Our goal: find a name in a week. SPOILER, we nailed it!

1- The list of resources

I started by creating a list of a few resources to provide context and inspiration to the team members who didn't use this exercise.

Here is the list:

Great article on how to create a brand name:
- How to create an amazing brand name - by Clicked Studios
List of the best Global brands per years:
- Best global brands 2019 - by Interbrand
- Best global brands - by Interbrand
Interactive Thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words:
- Visual Thesaurus
Free Thesaurus (not interactive):
- Thesaurus.com
The power of sound symbolism:
- The power of sound symbolism in your business name - by Brandroot
The story behind Apple brand name:
- How did apple computer get its brand name - by Branding Strategy Insider

2- Spreadsheets are your best friend

The second step was to create and fill a spreadsheet about what's describe the company and what the company wants to share and represent.

Everyone collaborated on this, it helps us to make sure that the company values and core concepts were clear. That was very helpful for the next step of this process as a list of inspiration and guidelines.

Check out our spreadsheets, and finish the 6 steps on the Liteflow blog

Integrating Firebase analytics in a Vuepress website

Will Morgan — Mon, 11 May 2020 23:58:26 +0000

Today I wanted to add some analytics to the documentation. At Liteflow we are using Firebase. One of the great features of Firebase is the support of multi-platform analytics allowing us to visualize data from any website related to liteflow (the website, the documentation, the console and this blog).

Any business needs to gather analytics on its audience to optimize the user experience and, of course, maximize profits from this audience.

We will see now how to add the support of Firebase analytics into a Vuepress website (that we use for the documentation and the blog).

Create a new Firebase application

The first step is to create an application in your Firebase project to have specific credentials to track this particular application.

Go to your Firebase dashboard, in the settings of your project and click on the button "Add app".

Once completed, you should have the configurations for your application that should look like:

const firebaseConfig = {
  apiKey: "__API_KEY__",
  authDomain: "PROJECT.firebaseapp.com",
  databaseURL: "https://PROJECT.firebaseio.com",
  projectId: "PROJECT",
  storageBucket: "PROJECT.appspot.com",
  messagingSenderId: "__MESSAGING_ID__",
  appId: "__APP_ID__",
  measurementId: "__MEASUREMENT_ID__"
};

Create a Vuepress plugin

The documentation is using Vuepress, which is a fantastic framework to create documentation, but there is no plugin yet for Firebase analytics.

Create a directory .vuepress/plugin/firebase with the two files:

index.js
enhanceAppFile.js
#index.js
const { path } = require('@vuepress/shared-utils')

module.exports = {
  name: 'firebase',
  enhanceAppFiles: path.resolve(__dirname, 'enhanceAppFile.js')
}

A few things to note here: Do not use require('path') to load your file and/or do not use an array for the enhanceAppFiles. For some reason, it messes with other plugins that cannot load anymore.

#enhanceAppFile.js
export default ({ router, isServer }) => {
  if (isServer) return
  if (!window.firebase) return
  window.firebase.initializeApp({
    apiKey: "__API_KEY__",
    authDomain: "PROJECT.firebaseapp.com",
    databaseURL: "https://PROJECT.firebaseio.com",
    projectId: "PROJECT",
    storageBucket: "PROJECT.appspot.com",
    messagingSenderId: "__MESSAGING_ID__",
    appId: "__APP_ID__",
    measurementId: "__MEASUREMENT_ID__"
  });
  window.firebase.analytics()
  router.afterEach(() => {
    window.firebase.analytics().logEvent('page_view');
  })
}

Make sure to skip the analytics on the server-side and also add a safe test for your Firebase instance. If you don't, Vuepress throws an error while compiling. The parameter in the initializeApp is the one from your Firebase application.

Use the plugin

Now that the plugin is ready, we can see how to add it.

Edit .vuepress/config.js

module.exports = {
  ...
  plugins: [
    require('./plugins/firebase'),
    // other plugins
  ],
  head: [
    ['script', { src: "https://www.gstatic.com/firebasejs/7.14.2/firebase-app.js" }],
    ['script', { src: "https://www.gstatic.com/firebasejs/7.14.2/firebase-analytics.js" }]
  ],
  ...
}

See the full tutorial on the Liteflow Blog

Build Easier, Ship Faster: Why We Built Liteflow

Will Morgan — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 22:47:53 +0000

What’s Liteflow?

Liteflow is a new open platform for application processing that helps developer-entrepreneurs launch projects easily and quickly.

It reduces duplicated code by basing applications on reusable, customizable components, and makes it really easy to transfer data between components. Liteflow also helps developers avoid steep or unpredictable expenses by running applications on your behalf at a pay-per-execution rate.

But why launch a new platform?

Liteflow is built by the creators of the MESG atop MESG technology. The goal of the MESG Foundation has always been to increase development efficiency and empower open-source developers economically, so Liteflow is the natural progression of this original mission.

While MESG is easy to build on, understanding how it works under the hood has been a challenge. It also became increasingly clear that while blockchain technology carried a lot of interest and promise, the same could not be said about cryptocurrencies, which many have now grown to fear.

We now see that cryptocurrencies are not an ideal foundation to base application frameworks upon. The complexity of implementation and highly-fluctuating prices were a big concern for the risk they posed to an otherwise-stable building platform.

MESG vs Liteflow: what's the difference?

MESG’s complex, blockchain-based technology will remain intact, along with its grand vision of incentivizing development through a network of services.

Liteflow is the user-facing product built on top of MESG. It simplifies the user experience of building applications, allowing you to focus only on what’s essential.

With MESG, anyone can deploy their own public or private network. We used this feature to build a controlled, private environment for Liteflow.

Liteflow boasts a newly simplified UX with features including:

A simple onboarding process including a free trial, pay-per-execution, and easy payment methods.

Optimized organization of applications and projects
A credit system with a native utility token for automatic monitoring, so nothing happening on the network is missed.
Automated key management for users
No more scary cryptocurrency knowledge required

What does this mean for MESG?

MESG will remain an advanced development tool with the same goal of promoting an open economy of application development and executions. Meanwhile, all of the tools made to simplify the development experience have moved to Liteflow.

As part of this transition, the current CLI is replaced by the Liteflow CLI npm i -g @liteflow/cli, and services need to require the new @liteflow/service library (no breaking change on the API). Also, other libraries such as compiler/API, etc. have also been moved to Liteflow.

Documentation detailing how to create applications will also be moved to Liteflow. MESG documentation will remain focused on the technology and its complexities and will include things that end-users don’t necessarily need to know, like full API documentation, data structure, hashing methods, etc..

Also, a new CLI for MESG, focusing on generating a genesis, creating networks, interacting with low-level APIs, etc., will be released soon for those looking to build with the underlying technology.

We will soon be launching a brand and website for Liteflow. In the meantime, you can register and start building for free.

A refreshing development experience awaits...

Will Morgan — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 22:20:12 +0000

The developer-entrepreneur’s dilemma:

Application development is slow, it’s inefficient, there’s high overhead, customization & maintenance are a mess, it’s hard to scale, tough to secure, a challenge to avoid vendor lock-in, and you’re dependent on the success of the platforms you build upon.

That’s all about to change...

Coming soon: a new light platform built atop MESG.

Streamline your development experience, launch high-quality projects faster, keep the ownership in your hands, and run applications without managing anything.

And that's just the beginning.

Open platform of reusable microservices

Will Morgan — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 20:37:15 +0000

It's time consuming to build applications: a lot of code is duplicated, and the business application represents only a small percentage of the codebase.

It's also expensive and unpredictable, You either deal with lots of overhead and limited scalability, or give up control of your application and processing.

The MESG Network aims to solve this through a platform that runs your app's microservices and processes, and allows the reuse of existing components so you can focus entirely on the business logic of your applications.

Apps run on local machines or on a distributed network, allowing you to pay only for the processing that you use, and scale up or down effortlessly. Income goes directly to those on the network who process and validate the executions.

MESG is a free, open source tool: you can start building and reusing services right now:

https://mesg.com/get-started

Great time for a virtual hackathon 🧑‍💻💰

Will Morgan — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 21:32:18 +0000

While many more of us are finding way more time and space on our hands with all the social distancing, and others looking for more ways to earn cash, seems the time is right for an online hackathon.

The MESG Foundation is throwing a hackathon online at Devpost, where you can connect with like-minded devs and build killer tools, services and/or processes.

MESG will be giving away $9,000 in prizes for the most inspiring and creative submissions.

There's just over a month left to submit, with submissions due on April 26th. Time to hack and win some cash!

Join us over at Devpost! → https://mesg-ecosystem.devpost.com/

Save cash by running business applications on a blockchain

Will Morgan — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 21:16:07 +0000

Building and running business applications is expensive, time-consuming and unpredictable.

It's critical that your business stays secure but, but that usually comes at the cost of being at the mercy of hosting or integrated solutions.

Likely, the best solution is to use a platform for running your application's business that allows you to stay in control, and only pay for what you use and nothing more.

The MESG Network is built as an open-source platform for running application's business, secured by a blockchain of executions.

By running your applications on a blockchain, you can pay per application execution, rather than investing in and maintaining servers. Your application can always be running and available on the network super cost effectively.

The MESG Network is open to any processes or services, using nearly any technology, making interoperability between difficult to reach technologies like blockchains or even legacy software much easier.

It's free to build, check it out:

https://mesg.com/get-started

Up your DAO UX game with webhooks

Will Morgan — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 22:53:56 +0000

Hey everyone!

We recently built an app on Aragon, which allows any Aragon DAO application to connect to any webhook.

Connecting webhooks to Decentralized Autonomous Organizations opens the door to features like:

Notifications

Get notified of any (or every) event happening within your DAO without needing to actively check.

Synchronize existing tools

Synchronize your existing tools outside the blockchain, such as invoice systems, issue trackers, communication channels, etc..

Set and forget

Be reactive instead of active on DAO decisions. Either be lazy or just avoid thinking about it when you don’t need to.

Expand your DAO

Open up endless possibilities of Aragon integrations to applications and technologies in the outside world.

How does it actually work?

When a new webhook connection is added to this application, a new MESG Process is created based on requirements. The process is then published on IPFS.

Engines on the MESG Network then listen for every event on Ethereum that shows the creation of a new MESG Process. The new process is then fetched from IPFS, and deployed on the same network (currently the MESG testnet).

For each process deployed, the MESG Network autonomously triggers the action when the events listed in the process occur.

Check out the app and how to install it. It's out now, built using MESG's open platform for business applications. Have at it!

MESG Ecosystem Hackathon

Will Morgan — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 20:46:27 +0000

The MESG Foundation is throwing an online hackathon, and are looking for awesome services and processes, and also tools like wallets, explorers process builders or debuggers to interact with the MESG blockchain built using Tendermint.

Details

The MESG Ecosystem Hackathon runs from March 1st to April 26th, 2020, online at Devpost. Developers of all skill levels are more than welcome to join.

$9,000 in prizes will be given away to those who build tools, services and/or processes that show exceptional quality, originality, creativity, impact and usefulness.

See the full details and rules on the MESG blog.

Decentralized microservice execution economy now enabled on the MESG Engine

Will Morgan — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 11:02:41 +0000

The MESG framework recently received a huge upgrade that has significant implications for the future of software development.

Now creators of services, in addition to actors in the network, like block producers, executors, emitters or validators, can receive token payments for their work.

This means that developers can now delegate decentralized processing power to others on the network to run their open-source services and processes so they don't have to deal with paying for servers.

Also, service developers can charge a token micropayment for each execution on their services when they are reused by others on the network. All services and processes on the MESG Framework are highly resuable and interopeable, so it opens the opportunity for OSS devs to earn royalties.

There is also no middle men, restrictions or centralized authorities, including the MESG Foundation itself, so payments go directly from those outsourcing work, to the workers themselves.

I see a bright future for projects like MESG which encourage open-source development and efficiency while providing the opportunity for fair compensation for open-source developers.

See MESG CEO Anthony Estebe talk about the new execution economy in the decentralized MESG Engine here: https://blog.mesg.com/community-update-late-february-20/

Free, open-source Stripe-to-ERC-20 process: Leverage events from smart contracts

Will Morgan — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 09:11:29 +0000

The MESG Foundation launched its testnet last month, along with the testnet Explorer for the visualization of data on the testnet.

What's it good for?

All services and processes on the testnet and Explorer are reusable by anyone, in any application, and are easily deployable with a single line of code.

Plus, when services or processes are used by others, token payments are sent back to the service's developer. Check out all of the actors in the MESG Economy in this article: Token Utility in the MESG Economy.

Stripe to ERC-20 Process

Just today, a reusable webhook-to-ERC-20 process was just posted on the Explorer that allows anyone to connect to any ERC-20 smart contract to a webhook, with two-way interaction. It has been connected to Stripe as a dem. Feel free to play with it here: http://stripe-erc20.demo.mesg.com/

Reuse it, fork it, do whatever you want!

Developers! Feel free to reuse this process with any ERC-20 smart contract, fork the application, or even reuse the individual Stripe, webhook or ERC-20 services in combination with any other service on the testnet to build whatever you'd like. Get started here

How open-source developers can earn income each time their microservices are used by others

Will Morgan — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 05:23:10 +0000

Actors on the network

The MESG Network is an open network where anyone can join and participate in the economy. Each actor has a different role with different incentives in order to maintain a balance within the network. There are no limitations to the number of actors that the same node can have. You can either have a single actor per node, or have all actors on a single node.

Users

Users can execute any task from any service without worrying about the hassle of maintaining a server or using online services that require monthly fees. In this case, the user would pay on-demand using MESG Tokens and would only pay for what is needed when it's needed.

To guarantee that the service is running correctly, the user can run a Runner and execute the task directly. With this configuration, MESG is used as a traditional server, but still passes through a network, providing fallback in case of server issues.

Developers

Executions on the network are based on the services that are created by developers. Like any software, maintenance is required to ensure its quality. To incentivize developers to maintain their services, the developer receives rewards based on the use of their service.

Every execution on the network rewards the service's developer, ensuring a reward that's proportional to the use of the service.

To guarantee the availability of their service, developers might want to run their services on their own, ensuring that the network can always process executions related to this service.

See all the ways to earn tokens, including all the actors on the network, in the full article