Tzetze Fly

I had originally titled this “Installing Ruby on Rails on Mac OSX”, but as I typed, it gradually became about this other, more general, topic.

I saw this a little too late, but next time, I’m going to try RM-Install from Five Runs. Looks like it installs a very comprehensive Ruby on Rails stack from one place in minutes.

This is also an interesting look at an open source business model. Notice that they are offering you the free Ruby on Rails stack that you need, in a value added package, in exchange for lead information. You must enter an accurate e-mail address because they are delivering the actual download link to your inbox. To be clear, everything they are giving you is open source and freely available from different sites, but they are combining it into a single package so that the customer can save time and increase compatibility.

Five Runs also currently offers a Rails management solution called RM-Manage (very cool, watch the demo video) for which they charge a monthly subscription fee. From the looks of it, these two offerings are just two pieces in a much larger suite of services they are building out to ride the wave of Ruby on Rails as it washes into the enterprise space.

This model relates to real estate in so many ways:

• What can you package up and offer potential customers, at low cost to you and free to them, that are still valuable enough for them to give you valid contact information?
• What are you doing to ensure you contact that lead ASAP to find out further needs, establish a real relationship, and move them on to your other offerings that will generate real revenue?
• Traditionally for real estate agents, that real income is in the form of commissions, but what can you learn from an open source based software company about generating revenue from suites of related products? Maybe on a subscription or per use basis?
• Note how simple and professional, both the site in general and the lead form in particular, are. They make it very clear, in a subtle yet direct way, that “mickey@mouse.com” will not cut it here. If you want the value, we want the real you.

How long do you think it took me to get an e-mail from Five Runs? Yep, about thirty seconds. Of course it was automated, but if I now proceed with the download and the install goes smooth, I receive true value and I now have a positive relationship established with this company.

How long do you think it will take before someone actually calls me on the phone? I’d bet this week I’ll hear from someone.

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I’m doodling around with a new idea. Since it’s goal is to produce several standardized web feeds (Atom, KML, HTML) of a data set over the web, I’ll be using Ruby. Since it makes sense for this to be a REST web service, I’ll also be using Rails. Mike asked about Rails yesterday, and I just read a GREAT introduction by the Softies on Rails guys called “REST 101“. It’s split into five parts (start reading from the bottom), with the first being a pretty non-technical overview of HTML, HTTP, REST and understanding their differences, and the last being technical code samples to show why Rails is a very clean way to pull this off. It’s very well written and I encourage even non-technical people to read at least the first section. Others can read until their eyes glaze over.

BTW - these guys put on a two day “Essential Rails” seminar in Chicago which I attended this past January. I see another is coming up Sept 21-22. Highly recommended.

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