Reflections of 2012--and What a Year It Was…

What a difference 10 years makes! iD8-TripleSSS celebrated its 10^th anniversary in October of this year. There are two words that encapsulate the year for us--technology and people.  They may seem like polar opposites, but it is the advances, innovations, and expectations in educational technology and the people with whom we worked on our digital journey that have made 2012 memorable.

Technology changed our processes, and services, and advanced our skills and services in ways that we could not have dreamed of even one year ago. We used to set up FTP sites, and transfer files through yousendit and related sites. Now we set up a Dropbox folder for each project, and we check the files on our phones and tablets. We ask our clients whether we should provide mapping documents or author online. Flash has given way to HTML 5 and social media has become as important as a website.

Print marketing materials? Nonexistent. Tablets? They are crucial to our clients and to us.  For years we’ve written some content for online courses. Now we are often asked to write the entire online course, thanks to the wonderfully qualified professionals we employ.

Rather than developing postsecondary content for only print or online courseware, we began developing content for multiple media and platforms. We recently completed a successful foray into app content development for the K-12 space, and we now create builds for proof of concept work and beyond . We learned about keeping our footprint “light” so we do not take up band-width. The amount of new buzzwords we now employ (not just read about) could easily comprise a short dictionary.

We studied best-practices in K-12 and assessed our  strategy in this entire market-space and made some investment decisions accordingly. We watched and acted as content become personal, and adaptive-learning  became the expectation at all levels. While content became more personal, access to resources continued to open-up, and OER (open educational resources) grew world-wide and became less of a threat (maybe) to the copyright world.

Finally, what made 2012 most memorable for us is the people. The loyalty, skills, and growth of our writers, developers, project managers, and creators inspire us each day. We have learned together and helped each other through challenging projects and times.

We suppose anyone with an organization claims to have the best people, but we will always argue that iD8-TripleSSS truly does have the best.  We do not settle for less than the best and are thankful everyday that each of these excellent professionals chooses to work and grow with us.

A client once said we are “transparent,” complementing us deeply and something we take to heart. “It’s personal” was our original mission when we opened our doors 10 years ago. “It’s still personal.”

Thank you! May your New Year be Healthy, Happy, and Prosperous-- from all of us at iD8-TripleSSS Media Development, LLC. 

Reflecting on 10 Years in Business Serving the Educational Market Space

Mid-October marks the 10-year anniversary of iD8-TripleSSS Media Development, LLC. Although we officially came together only 2 years ago, we worked in partnership for many years leading up to our official merger. Thus, our 10-year anniversary feels like “our” anniversary. While we celebrate our 10-years in business, we also look back at the industry evolution and ours since we started in publishing and since we became a service provider.

When we began our educational publishing careers in the mid and late 80’s, we were lucky if we had access to a computer. Manuscripts were mailed as hard copy, sometimes with large floppy discs included. Those employees who knew how to work with Wang discs were eagerly sought out. If someone simply dropped an unnumbered manuscript a crisis could ensue trying to piece it back together without the benefit of a back-up copy.

Before a decade had passed, everyone had email, ftp sites, Blackberries, and had gotten rid of such things as X-Acto knives-an old necessity in publishing. And with the amount of new skills and services required, the publishers began to use quality outside vendors. With that mind, our company was born in 2002—serving these wonderful educational publishing companies by providing research, development, and writing services for this last decade.

We have been very lucky the last few years, and we never take that for granted. We were wise (or lucky) enough to recognize that no matter what the educational media might become, there will always be a need for excellent content. We therefore focused our efforts on building up the writing side of the business. Our collective experience as a student and an instructor in online courseware environments gave us the confidence to translate those skills into courseware development for clients. Together, we were able to explore web opportunities early on initiate what has now become the heart of our business-digital content development. We are now digital content providers and courseware creators to well-known publishing groups and several start-ups in the app and open source world.

Please make no mistake--iD8-TripleSSS Media Development’s growth could not have happened without the excellent freelancers that have worked with us through thick and thin as well as loyal clients that have been with us the entire 10 years thus far. To say we are grateful for their hard work and loyalty would be an understatement. As we grow as a company and continue to learn we hope you share our excitement about publishing and education. This is the best time to be in our industry; monumental shifts are re-defining every aspect of our business and with these changes are opportunities.

Marion and Susan