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Memories

by Volker Weber

Looked through my press releases today and had to think about this one:

Die KEIPER GmbH & Co. KG hat das Content Management System WebGate der Ratinger Innovation Gate GmbH als unternehmensweiten Standard für sämtliche Webauftritte eingeführt. Der Zulieferer für die Automobilindustrie wird mit der Software sowohl Intranet, Internet als auch ein Extranet für Zulieferer einrichten. Von der Einführung der Software verspricht sich KEIPER eine erhebliche Verbesserung des Informationszugriffs und der Informationsverteilung für die über 4.000 PC-User in rund 40 Fachbereichen und zehn Ländergesellschaften.

This is a typical press release that tells you that KEIPER will be using WebGate from InnovationGate for all their websites serving customers and 4000 internal users. While I would recommend you take a look at webgate if you are looking for a good CMS, this press release brings up some of my very own memories.

During my studies of business administration and engineering at the Technical University in Darmstadt I worked as an intern for KEIPER in their three people IT department in Battle Creek, MI and rewrote one of their off-the-shelf business applications. At that time they actually had the source code for the application and I was able to significantly enhance their cost explosion reports which lead to more reliable controlling data and a lot more transparency. I learned a lot during that time about requirements analysis, development, testing and the importance to lead and listen at the same time.

I also learned to understand Americans as you could never do it by living in New York City, let alone from a distance. This was a completely different planet for me. People got out of college at 21 and married, had kids and a dog and lived in a really small world. And I have nothing but very fond memories of that time.

Oh, yes, and we had a lot of snow in the winter of '81. :-)

2003-05-26 :: email :: twitter :: facebook :: google+

Comments

I grew up in rural Minnesota, so I know what you mean. The Midwest is a cozy and pleasant, but small, world.

A few years ago an acqaintance in Hamburg had the chance to study one year at either Columbia or the University of Michigan. I tried very hard to convince him to go to Michigan, that he would see there a side of the US that is much more typical than New York and not shown so much in the German media, and would also have a lower cost of living. But he chose Columbia anyway. And he loved his year in New York. Oh well.

Scott Hanson, 2003-05-26 20:33

Well, B.C. kids... What would you expect of kids who grow up in town where the main traffic axis is the 69 (inofficially called "the penetrator") which takes you out to a little place called "Climax"?
And by the way, there really is Kalamazoo ;-)

Ragnar Schierholz, 2003-05-26 22:40

I know. Been there, done that.

Volker Weber, 2003-05-26 22:44

That's a marvelous thing about America -- the variety. I live in Florida, and the culture here is nothing like New York or LA, not to mention, say, Arizona.

Actually, we invented New York so Europeans would think that we're so-phis-ti-ca-ted. ;)

Keith Nolen, 2003-05-27 16:17

Keith, we in Arizona are glad our culture is different from Florida. [grinning and ducking]

Esther Schindler, 2003-05-27 17:07

Actually, Arizona and Florida have something in common. Both have lots of beaches. Ours just have water with them. ;)

Keith Nolen, 2003-05-29 22:26