Sensei

10 June

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K9 Friends United

Posted by Dawn Baird, Partner in blogging,entrepreneurship,learning,social networking

k9friendsunited

After reading an article online about K9 Friends United, I was impressed with the ingenuity and sheer grit that must have been involved and asked Diarmuid Scullin, Creator of K9 Friends United, a few probing questions.

What was the connection between seeing dog-owners walking their dogs and deciding to set up a website for them? It doesn’t seem an obvious choice!

I don’t have a dog, I haven’t any formal training in computers or web design, I spent the first 3 months sorting my web site out on note books and bits of paper (I still do) I bought a second hand lap top that took me ten minutes to work out how to open it and my office is the cab of the lorry where everything is run from. I suppose it’s true when they say that sometimes the most creative ideas can come from the most unexpected sources and they don’t come anymore unexpected than me.

It all started a couple of years ago on my long haul journeys throughout England and Ireland, I began to notice time after time as I drove through towns and villages, that dog owners who were out walking their dogs always tend to be on their own, very seldom did I ever see any of them walking together or stopping to talk to each other. I used to think, why they don’t organise a meeting place where they could meet up and go for their walk together?

One night I was parked up in a lay-by near Kidderminster in England, I was listening to a programme on the radio about the internet and web sites, which I found really interesting, they were discussing social networking sites like facebook, bebo and you tube, at the same time listening to the radio I was watching a few people walking past the lorry with their dogs, some on one side of the road and some on the other side. I wondered then if there was one of these social networking web sites for dog owners.

When the programme ended it got me thinking if there was one of those web sites for dog owners they could use it to meet up and chat to each other the way people use these other sites. I just took the idea into my head that I should look more into this, instead of lying in the lorry at night doing the usual boring nothing, I could start learning about computers and web sites and maybe through time I could try and make one of these sites for dog owners.

The only thing was I hadn’t a clue how to start, where to start, who to talk to or how to go about it, not a notion. So right there and then in the cab of my lorry I got my wee note book out and started making a list of things of what I was going to do. This is basically how I started and I just kept developing the idea from there.

How long have you been a lorry-driver?

I have been a lorry driver for the past 12 years.

Have you any previous programming/development experience?

Absolutely none.

If not, how did you go about getting the new skills?

I put my heart, my soul and every bone in my body into finding out all there was to know about the workings of computers, the internet and web sites. I talked to web developers and explained what I intended to do. To some it was a no, no, some laughed at the idea, and said it would never work, some asked for thousands of pounds, some wished me well and some just thought I was nuts. I thought how people like this can be so dismissive of me when they won’t listen to what I was saying.

I trawled through libraries read books, magazines and studied everything I could get my hands on till my eyes nearly fell out. I remember going into a book store once and coming across a book called, Web Sites for Dummies, I lifted it up looked at it and said quietly to myself they must have known I was coming.

It has been a real long hard difficult road and a mind bending struggle, there was many a day when I was going to leave my laptop in the middle of the road on the M25 during rush hour… but I honestly have to say it was an absolute brilliant learning process.

I am more determined than ever to accomplishing what I set out to do and that is to make k9friendsunited.com the worlds No.1 social networking site for dog owners.

For the geeks out there, what language or tool did you write your website in?

It’s a modified phpfox framework with vbulletin and v3 messenger integration.

Have you plans for any other websites?

Yes, one maybe two.

Have you had requests from anyone asking to design websites for them?

No, but I have been asked advice from a few who were thinking of starting their own site.

What was the best thing about your project to design a website for dog-owners?

There were two things:

First, my core principal was to unite all dog owners who shared a passion and a genuine interest in dogs by bringing them all together on k9friendsunited.com, a place where they could get to know one another, talk to like minded people, make new friends, and show off their dogs
Secondly it was very important to me right from the very start to make my site as simple and as user friendly as possible, I thought if I could use it then anybody could use it, I hope I have achieved both aims.

What advice would you give anyone else who’d like to take on a project like this?

First and foremost you have to have a very strong belief in yourself and what you are trying to achieve. Along the way you will encounter big hurdles, big problems and a dose of negative people. There will be days when you will want to bin everything, forget all and walk away but then again, think about it, isn’t that what a loser would do, ask yourself everyday are you a loser or are you an achiever.