It is with deep regret that I have today to confirm that I have
just attended the funeral of George Szubinski who died on the 14th
April 2020 of coronavirus aged 73 years. His 74th Birthday would
have been on the 21st April 2020. He was my partner in ZigZag
Digital Associates where David Bannister had the handle Zig and George
Szubinski was Zag. We worked together, often over enthusiastically, on a number
of digital projects. None of them commercially successful but we really enjoyed
working together on the challenges of digital innovation and creation.
To illustrate our odd ZigZag thought processes. We particularly
liked using the “xyz” Top Level Domain (TLD) because we thought we were
aligning ourselves with the Google parent Alphabet who used “abc.xyz” for their
corporate website. We thought as our business grew we would be listed alongside
Google on any Top Level Domain sorted listing. But also not surprisingly “xyz”
was not well publicised and therefore they were very cheap to buy but they did
the job just as effectively as any other TLD’s. In fact often more effectively
because there were fewer of them to search through so the latency time to find
our sites was very low.
Listed below is a brief resume of our work together that started
in both our retirements on Monday 9th January 2017.
Resume of
ZigZag Products
eFlow (was
eTube)
Large process maps had been an interest for David Bannister over a
number of years. The challenge was to allow this map to be viewed through a
“digital viewer” much as Google views their geographical maps. Technically the
task of segmenting and then stitching them together again within the internet
browser to scan over the map was beyond our technical capability. So a
compromise solution had to be found. After a lot of experimentation we created a
product we called eTube.
We looked to purchase the IP for the trademark “eTube” but
unfortunately London Transport threatened legal action and all reference to
“eTube” had to be removed from the internet and our marketing materials. We
renamed the product “eFlow” and apart from George accidently using an eFlow
graphic with IP licensing attached to it we proceeded with our marketing.
George setup a website called eflow.xyz which included a YouTube marketing
video and then added in examples of eFlow Process Maps that David had created.
It was an effective solution to Process Mapping and we proceeded
to market it but with little success. We failed to get any business interested
in it as a Process Mapping Product. David went on to use the eFlow mapping
structure in two books he published through DMB Publishing. One called
Traditional Project Management and one called Agile Project Management.
MyButcher
George talking to a local butcher (MeatShack) found out he was
struggling with an eCommerce package he had purchased from a computer company.
George offered to help and ended up taking on the development of
the MeatShack eCommerce website. The first challenge for George was getting the
existing supplier to hand over the website to ZigZag. The software was an Open Systems
solution authored by an Englishman living in Hong Kong and it was used
throughout China. George learnt the package and managed to get it working. The
butcher then wanted it developed to support back office processes. George
specified the changes and then got a programmer in Romania to code it for him. He
also interfaced it to an Open Systems Report Writer package. The whole system
was made live in October 2017 ready for the Christmas trade. Unfortunately
there were many problems. The hosting company moved it to a new server that
lacked the infrastructure to support it so it was off line for 3 days. Then all
the banking interfaces accepting payments failed because they had made changes
to the API which they had not communicated. Then the email software that sent
order confirmations was changed by the provider and that interface also failed.
Somehow George worked through all these problems managing to keep the system
live and successfully running through the busy Christmas trading.
This tenacity and determination was truly amazing. These were strengths
that George had that could only be appreciated by someone working closely
alongside him. Listening to his telephone conversations to numerous Support
Desks when he was told “Your problem is logged as Number 10472 with our investigation
promised within 3 days.” was an experience in itself. Patient but very very firm.
He often could see the problem technically and the solution but obviously the Support
Desk operator was not a technician often being what is known in the trade as
First Level Support. He would demand to speak to a technician often without
success.
George continued to work on the MeatShack system through 2018 and 2019 until they ceased wanting to use it. George then created a more generic product
he called MyButcher. He attempted to market this through 2019 without success. This
had been a huge investment in George’s time and effort. It was a real testament
to his skills and tenacity that he kept this system live and functioning. But
it was a lesson in the difficulties of maintaining an Open Systems solution. In
hindsight too much of George’s effort went into this one product. Had his
energies been focussed elsewhere on other products we maybe have had more success. But that is
the software industry.
Tiltyard
During 2017, whilst George was working on the butcher’s eCommerce website, David used the ZigZag tried and tested eFlow technologies to create a website for the Tiltyard Public House in Kenilworth. George ran the conversions and installed it at the Internet Service Provider (ISP). It was a real success and we got paid for the development and for the hosting. It was a basic website with clickable hyperlinks. It offered none of the gesture controls required by Smartphones. It was dated technology and it could not be marketed into the new Smartphone world. So this was a one off.
MyTim and Ourstories
These were George’s products. MyTim was to be a website where “Tim”
stood for “This is me”. It was essentially a timelined digital biography. David
Bannister designed a user interface for it but it never got created as a software
product. Ourstories was a way of telling stories through video’s hosted on
YouTube with importantly music that matched the photographs or video’s. George
became an expert in using the Cyberlink PowerDirector video generation software
particularly in using special effects. George created many family video’s and
many others for anyone that crossed his path through life that he then gave
away. Weddings, parties, holidays in fact anything where a video communicated and
captured the atmosphere of the event. With the sad loss of his son James in
2007, aged just 34 years, George worked on websites telling the story of Jame’s
life. In fact “Ourstories” became a way of recording his life with his wife Janis
and daughter Jo and her husband Dave. The growing up of all four grandchildren also
formed part of Ourstories. Ourstories became a YouTube channel.
Adcard, Advideo
and Adstore
Adcard had been designed in the later part of 2017. But David Bannister left ZigZag in November 2017 because the direction of travel being taken by George towards eCommerce business (myButcher) was not what he wanted. Mainly because it was high risk and very demanding to support 24/7. So David returned to working on his book publishing projects under his DMB Publishing imprint. For 2018 and 2019 we both worked separately on our own projects. George continued developing the MyButcher website and worked on Ourstories. David continued to develop DMB Publishing but we met socially in 2019 to catch up on each others progress. Memorable was a drink and curry in Henley in Arden on a Thursday night the 28th February 2019 where we compared our notes on each others projects.
But George had also continued to work on Adcard but without any commercial success. But the ease with which it could be created and the way it could operate as an effective “hub” linking a whole variety of web resources make it a very attractive proposition. So in December 2019 David decided to return to ZigZag part time but it was now to be an informal Partnership not a Company. George had ceased with having to support an operational eCommerce system.
We made the first item on the agenda the relaunch of Adcard.
The big push started in January 2020. George created an Adcard for my Stratford -Upon - Avon book and it was a masterpiece. He did a similar Adcard for another book called Fat Cat. Then a flurry of activity. The separation of the Adcard from the video calling it Advideo then the decision to create a virtual “magazine” of the products we called admag.adcard.xyz and admag.advideo.xyz. Then the decision made whilst down at Gloucester Docks on the 8th February 2020 to allow people to order and purchase Adcard’s with a free FaceBook marketing package thrown into the price.
Business Cards were produced and distributed. We were on a roll through February and into March 2020.
George looked at using an eCommerce Package owned by Wordpress to create our own Adstore capability. He was working on this the week before he died. Everything came to a sudden end. Suddenly on the 14th April 2020 it was all over. ZigZag had lost its Zag.
The Future
The plan is that David Bannister will continue the ZigZag Digital
Associates entity linking it into DMB Publishing. The concept of digital
innovation and creativity behind ZigZag will be continued by David Bannister
working alone but he will always be inspired by the thoughts and memories of his
dear mate George Szubinski.
He once had a logo (which I cannot find) which helped me remember his name. The only part I can clearly remember is it had a “bin” and a “ski” within the logo and for the life of me I cannot remember what he used for the “Szu” part.
He once had a logo (which I cannot find) which helped me remember his name. The only part I can clearly remember is it had a “bin” and a “ski” within the logo and for the life of me I cannot remember what he used for the “Szu” part.
George Szubinski (1946 - 2020)
ZigZag Digital Associates
