Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

The Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

The Book	What we thought
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell offers a compelling theory into what makes ideas, products, fashion trends, crime waves, or in fact any phenomena in society, transform into wide spread epidemics within a short amount of time. For example, Gladwell explained how the American Revolution was started literally overnight by one man on horseback spreading the news across the country that the British were coming.

read more »

The Book	What we thought
“Living the 80/20 Way” by Richard Koch

In 1906 the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80% of Italy’s wealth came from only 20% of the population. This principle has since become known as the 80/20 rule. In Living the 80/20 Way, the author Richard Koch explains how this rule can be applied to many different areas of our life.
read more »

If the thought of working 9-5 until you’re over 60 scares you even a little, then don’t panic because Timothy Ferris presents in “The 4-hour Workweek” an alternative lifestyle option. Using both himself and friends as examples, Ferris explains how to create your ideal lifestyle and become a member of the so called ‘New Rich’ – where your currency is not gold, but time and mobility. read more »

While I was overseas in Europe on a three month backpacking holiday, I decided that I didn’t want to go back to university this year. I wanted to do something real in the world of IT and get some practical experience during my final year. I was either in Madrid or Barcelona when I received an email from the Information Technology and Electrical Engineering school at UQ that was offering exactly what I was after. When I arrived back home in Aussieland, I applied for the Professional Information Technology Placement Scholarship (PIPS) and before I knew it I was sitting at my own desk (not in a lecture theatre!) at Global-Roam.

For the next three months I was in charge of my own project. I was given the task of building a system that automated the building and distribution of a report for the National Electricity Market (NEM). After scoping out the project with my supervisor at Global-Roam, I spent the first three weeks here researching, trying to find a tool or API that could put together a detailed report. Once I had found a suitable tool, I started designing and implementing each component. I built a database, two data processing applications, a secure website, and a console application that builds the report. In the final weeks of my project I started to pull together all of these components and after much testing and debugging the system was actually working! There are still a few loose ends to tie up but it shouldn’t be long now before this new product is revealed to the world.

When I started at Global-Roam I knew nothing about the NEM and nothing about the .NET framework and the C# programming language. I appreciated the fact that Global-Roam was willing to take me onboard and was actually looking forward to absorbing all this new material. The guys working at Global-Roam always found the time to listen to every annoying question I had and send me off in the right direction. In the beginning I spent a lot of my own time reading a great book they purchased called Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition (Windows.Net) by Andrew Troelson. I also spent some time reading the NEMMCO website to gain a basic understanding of the NEM.

The interesting thing about working at Global-Roam is that everyone is their own boss. Therefore, the company is run not so much by an individual, but by a team of people that collectively make decisions on a weekly basis. This was a fantastic experience, and one that I did not expect to come across. read more »