"Future Shock", 40 years later....and more moderate predictions for 2011.

The book "Future Shock", written by Alvin Toffler was released for publishing 40 years ago this month (in 1970). The main thesis of the book is that millions of otherwise psychologically normal people will experience an abrupt collision with the future. Regularly educated citizens will fall victim to the disease of "change". Unable to keep up with the supercharged pace of technological and social change, many people will become disconnected and suffer from "shattering stress and disorientation". A docudrama by Orson Wells in 1972 (see it on YouTube here ) outlined the book in dramatic fashion, as only Orson Wells could do. I watched the video again the other day and remembered seeing it back when I was a kid and being concerned about "Future Shock". It was funny watching it again and seeing the things they predicted for the future. Some things they got right...they predicted big things for the "computer". No mention of "Facebook" or "Google", however. No specific mention of the "smart phone" or Apps for the smart phone either. I particularly like the part about going to the airport and getting your boarding pass from a "robot" that looks like a person. The documentary seems to assume that we would have to make future "robots" look like people because humans might not be able to adjust to getting a ticket from a machine that looks like a computer. Funny stuff...they got that dead wrong, at least for me. I prefer the machine, it's faster. If you have 45 minutes, I would suggest watching the video. It's interesting to see the things they project as futuristic that we now look at as antiquated and antique. Origin of SampleServe Speaking of technology shock, let me tell you how I started SampleServe.com back in 2001. I have told this story to many people in person so if you have heard it before you can skip down to the next section. The idea of starting a company that specialized in sampling and web based data reporting came to me in 2001. I was working at another company and one of our clients there was trying out a data system developed by a company on the East Coast. This system could keep track of their underground storage tank information and other basic information about ground water impact associated with the USTs. My exposure to the data management system intrigue me about the potential power of it. The actual data management system we used back then was somewhat cumbersome compared to what we have today, but none the less impressive for its time. I left the company in 2001 and struck out on my own to work on other things including furthering the concept of this "sampling and reporting company". I developed a relationship with that same software company out East and we began to further develop the software. I spent a couple weeks out East working with their programmer. Months later and hundreds of e-mails and phone calls later we had a product that we could demonstrate (not fully functional but something we could show). So I set out on the road to try and "sell the concept", having been told "until we had some customers" no further development time would be spent on the project. It's hard to look back at the past and remember  Original SampleServe.com logo in 2001 what life was like before the age of the internet, e-mail and cell phones, because we have all become so accustomed to using these technologies. However in 2001 and early 2002, most people, in my estimation, where still not using the internet for communication or information gathering on a regular basis. I estimate only about ½ the people I was trying to sell on the concept had a "work" e-mail. Many people had yahoo or hotmail e-mails, but not a dedicated work e-mail. I remember one meeting while trying to explain the login process and data protection concept to a potential client, being asked "What's a username?" Many people liked the concept of us doing the sampling for them, but were not very interested in having us manage data.  The concept of web based data management was...well it was "Future Shock", too much too fast for most people. So after about 6 - 8 months of trying to sell the service and having no success, I quit trying. It was in early 2008, while having a conversation with a girl that I had met that worked for a company that did web based management of drug shipping data for pharmaceutical companies (this girl later became my wife), that I decided to re-visit the idea of a "sampling and reporting company". Maybe the future had arrived. First thing I did was try and get back the "SampleServe.com" domain name I had registered in 2001. You see, I had let it lapse because I figured "why keep it"? Well my search showed it was available and I liked the name so I picked it up again. I then called the company I had been working with out East. It seemed the individual programmers I had been working with were no longer working there and hadn't for a long time and no one seemed to know what I was talking about. So after some consideration and a recommendation from a friend I hired a local company with programmers and we started over from scratch. Not being a programmer myself, I've now learned this was probably necessary because the code used in 2001 is nothing like the code being used now. After about six months and many, many, many meetings and checks with lots of "zeros" on them we had a product that was ready to go to market. The experience of selling the service now is much easier than it was back then. The concept is recognizable to most everyone. Once outlined, most clients can draw the connections and see the value and savings and future potential of the service. Although there is lots of work behind us, much work still needs to be done.

The Future, Now and 2011 - Software We have been working on a new version of our software for about 1 year now.  As you might imagine, developing software is not easy and it's not cheap (think checks again with lots of "zeros").  However, we are very close to completion.  Essentially, it is complete and we are just putting it through its paces to make sure there are no glitches before going live.  I've included a couple of screen shots (below) for those that are interested.  It will have many more features and more functionality.  The reports will also look better and have more versatility.  The most popular feature I suspect will be the ability to compare site data to multiple types of regulatory criteria.  That's the feature that most site managers seem to want to have. Automated Sampling We are also working on an automated sampling machine.  Basically this device will be able to sample the typical monitoring well automatically.  It will control the pump flow rate and record water elevation data.  It will also record water quality information and calculate stability according to pre-set criteria.  Once stability is attained, it will notify the operator and maintain a steady minimal pumping rate until the sample is collected.  All data will be collected electronically from the machine via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technology to a central laptop and be directly uploadable from there to the SampleServe.com website.  Lots of development work to be done here and much equipment to be purchased.  Anyone with business experience knows that rapid growth usually brings with it time limitations and cash flow issues.  Then add also R&D costs......well, you get the picture.  The idea here however is to have one individual have the ability to sample multiple wells simultaneously while maintaining quality of results.  Because labor is our biggest cost, automating the process will actually allow us to lower costs and increase reliability and data quality.  Doing more, faster.....that's the future we are working on.