jcutrell · August 26, 2012 19:06
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 <h1>The Fridge: A Startup Cultural Catalyst</h1>
 <p>At Whiteboard, we are about culture. We're about family. We're about living <em>with</em> one another, as opposed to simply beside one another.  For that reason, we recently took some time to create an internal tool.</p>

 <p>There are plenty of tools available for companies like ours. Tools like project management systems, ticketing, digital SCRUM boards, etcetera.</p>

 <p>And sure, we've used a good number of those kinds of tools, and we rely on them.</p>

 <p>But this tool is completely about culture. It's completely about family. We call it The Fridge.</p>

 <p>Think back to when you were 12, and wanted to go out with your buddy to ride bikes, but knew your mom would be upset with you because she didn't know where you were. What did you do? Stick a note on the fridge.</p>

 <p>Perhaps your mom also left to-do lists for your dad, or you kept track of family chores and responsibilities. Just little notes and scratchy scribbles here and there.</p>

 <p>Oh, and don't forget - plenty of pictures, strange magnets, and memorabilia that make up this strange yet effective communication central in a family home.</p>

 <p>So we, as a company, decided it was time to centralize our cultural communication. And what came of that effort is The Fridge. At the heart of the Fridge are "scratches" (akin to status updates on your favorite social network). These posts can mention another user, sending them a notification. They can also contain a "#location" or a "#focus" hashtag, which will be saved onto that person's profile and displayed in the user sidebar to the right. At any point, the other users can look at the user sidebar and see where another team member is physically located and what they are focusing on. If the post comes from cl.ly (our favorite screenshot sharing solution), it will go grab the location of that uploaded image and bring it right into the scratch. If it is a link from JSFiddle, it will bring the IFrame in. We can also post straight HTML/JS/CSS (since we know the system is controlled) in case we want to post an IFrame to somewhere else, or an image from somewhere else.</p>

 <p>Beyond this, we also have started to implement automatic time tracking on focuses. We do this by saving clients into the database, along with a comma separated list of keywords we use around the office. This is another cultural leverage point for us; we use acronyms to refer to clients, so if our focus says "Working on a design for BAC", we know that the keyword phrase "for BAC" points to Build a City.</p>

 <p>The time tracking mechanism, which we refer to as a "ticket", stays open until you post another focus.</p>

 <p>So why, you may wonder, would we recreate what seems to be a social networking platform for our internal business?</p>

 <p><strong>Culture.</strong></p>

 <p>Our business thrives on culture. We are highly collaborative. We take greate measures to be in touch with one another constantly. The Fridge was already fun in its VERY early stages. It became a place for us to share thoughts, quotes, jokes, memes, and anything else we wanted to with the team. And by opening our team up to a social, open, blank slate for collaboration, we increase comfortability and excitement to be connected to one another.</p>

 <p>So how does this turn into good business?</p>

 <p>In short, we likely won't see any direct external return from Fridge. (Shocker, right?) Who would have thought that an internal tool wouldn't produce directly quantifiable monetary value?</p>

 <p>Now that we have that out of the way...</p>

 <p>By opening lines of communication and expression, and breaking from the idea of potential corporate inaccessibility, we work from a perspective of transparency and knowledge. As long as we are opening lines of communication with each other and increasing our internal knowledge about our team, all while giving a home to our collective thoughts business culture, we are investing back into Whiteboard. We are giving value to our work experience. We're making work fun. We're investing in our internal relations, and we are exploring the landscape of collaboration. Beyond this, we are using a product we are proud of on a day to day basis.</p>

 <p>It's important to note that this is quite different than us just being friends on Facebook. It's different in that I can be Mark Zuckerberg's friend on Facebook. More accurately, Mark Zuckerberg can be MY friend on Facebook. But Mark Zuckerberg can't be on our Fridge. He's not a part of our home. And neither are the rest of my Facebook friends. But the people who work at Whiteboard have specific access to this internal culture, and it's exciting. We open up our laptops in whatever corner of the world we are in, not just to clock hours writing code or copy, designing a print piece or strategizing a media campaign. We are excited to do those things because the things we do are often the vehicle for change, innovation, and connection for the companies we work with.</p>

 <p>In conclusion, The Fridge is not directly about being productive. It's not about time tracking or eliminating email chains. It's not about process design or turnover rate. The positive impact The Fridge has isn't quantifiable.</p>

 <p>The Fridge is about celebrating and participating in Whiteboard's culture.</p>
 </div>
 </body>
diff --git a/style.css b/style.css
 body {
 font-family: "Source Sans Pro", sans-serif;
 font-size: 13px;
 }

 #container {
 width: 80%;
 max-width: 600px;
 margin: 0 auto;
 }
 p {
 margin: 20px 0
 }
	<doctype html>
	<html>
	<head>
	<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,700,400italic' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
	</head>
	<body>
	<div id="container">
	<h1>The Fridge: A Startup Cultural Catalyst</h1>
	<p>At Whiteboard, we are about culture. We're about family. We're about living <em>with</em> one another, as opposed to simply beside one another. For that reason, we recently took some time to create an internal tool.</p>

	<p>There are plenty of tools available for companies like ours. Tools like project management systems, ticketing, digital SCRUM boards, etcetera.</p>

	<p>And sure, we've used a good number of those kinds of tools, and we rely on them.</p>

	<p>But this tool is completely about culture. It's completely about family. We call it The Fridge.</p>

	<p>Think back to when you were 12, and wanted to go out with your buddy to ride bikes, but knew your mom would be upset with you because she didn't know where you were. What did you do? Stick a note on the fridge.</p>

	<p>Perhaps your mom also left to-do lists for your dad, or you kept track of family chores and responsibilities. Just little notes and scratchy scribbles here and there.</p>

	<p>Oh, and don't forget - plenty of pictures, strange magnets, and memorabilia that make up this strange yet effective communication central in a family home.</p>

	<p>So we, as a company, decided it was time to centralize our cultural communication. And what came of that effort is The Fridge. At the heart of the Fridge are "scratches" (akin to status updates on your favorite social network). These posts can mention another user, sending them a notification. They can also contain a "#location" or a "#focus" hashtag, which will be saved onto that person's profile and displayed in the user sidebar to the right. At any point, the other users can look at the user sidebar and see where another team member is physically located and what they are focusing on. If the post comes from cl.ly (our favorite screenshot sharing solution), it will go grab the location of that uploaded image and bring it right into the scratch. If it is a link from JSFiddle, it will bring the IFrame in. We can also post straight HTML/JS/CSS (since we know the system is controlled) in case we want to post an IFrame to somewhere else, or an image from somewhere else.</p>

	<p>Beyond this, we also have started to implement automatic time tracking on focuses. We do this by saving clients into the database, along with a comma separated list of keywords we use around the office. This is another cultural leverage point for us; we use acronyms to refer to clients, so if our focus says "Working on a design for BAC", we know that the keyword phrase "for BAC" points to Build a City.</p>

	<p>The time tracking mechanism, which we refer to as a "ticket", stays open until you post another focus.</p>

	<p>So why, you may wonder, would we recreate what seems to be a social networking platform for our internal business?</p>

	<p><strong>Culture.</strong></p>

	<p>Our business thrives on culture. We are highly collaborative. We take greate measures to be in touch with one another constantly. The Fridge was already fun in its VERY early stages. It became a place for us to share thoughts, quotes, jokes, memes, and anything else we wanted to with the team. And by opening our team up to a social, open, blank slate for collaboration, we increase comfortability and excitement to be connected to one another.</p>

	<p>So how does this turn into good business?</p>

	<p>In short, we likely won't see any direct external return from Fridge. (Shocker, right?) Who would have thought that an internal tool wouldn't produce directly quantifiable monetary value?</p>

	<p>Now that we have that out of the way...</p>

	<p>By opening lines of communication and expression, and breaking from the idea of potential corporate inaccessibility, we work from a perspective of transparency and knowledge. As long as we are opening lines of communication with each other and increasing our internal knowledge about our team, all while giving a home to our collective thoughts business culture, we are investing back into Whiteboard. We are giving value to our work experience. We're making work fun. We're investing in our internal relations, and we are exploring the landscape of collaboration. Beyond this, we are using a product we are proud of on a day to day basis.</p>

	<p>It's important to note that this is quite different than us just being friends on Facebook. It's different in that I can be Mark Zuckerberg's friend on Facebook. More accurately, Mark Zuckerberg can be MY friend on Facebook. But Mark Zuckerberg can't be on our Fridge. He's not a part of our home. And neither are the rest of my Facebook friends. But the people who work at Whiteboard have specific access to this internal culture, and it's exciting. We open up our laptops in whatever corner of the world we are in, not just to clock hours writing code or copy, designing a print piece or strategizing a media campaign. We are excited to do those things because the things we do are often the vehicle for change, innovation, and connection for the companies we work with.</p>

	<p>In conclusion, The Fridge is not directly about being productive. It's not about time tracking or eliminating email chains. It's not about process design or turnover rate. The positive impact The Fridge has isn't quantifiable.</p>

	<p>The Fridge is about celebrating and participating in Whiteboard's culture.</p>
	</div>
	</body>
	body {
	font-family: "Source Sans Pro", sans-serif;
	font-size: 13px;
	}

	#container {
	width: 80%;
	max-width: 600px;
	margin: 0 auto;
	}
	p {
	margin: 20px 0
	}