Is .com better than the rest? Not really — not with Google!
Mike's ability to immediately comprehend a desired result communicated by the lay person is paralleled only by his technical virtuosity. However what makes him special is his patience and generosity, making him a pleasure to work with on any project.
As an instructor at an art school I can testify that Mike Gobbi has extraordinary abilities as a creative thinker, programmer, and teacher. Artists tend to push the boundaries of their media and the two projects Mike has assisted me with: "The Canada Ear" and "CreekQuilt" are no exception. Each of these projects required exceptional skills in thinking through ways of making the programs do what I needed them to do; in each case Mike proved up to the challenge. Mike's knowledge of the computer world is seemingly vast and detailed. I would be happy to recommend him on his programming skills alone but that he also has tremendous patience, a keen sense of humour, and demonstrates impeccable integrity in all aspects of his dealings with clients is a bonus. For any kind of creative work you won't find a better person than Mike Gobbi.
Writing articles is the fun part of my work. Before hiring Mike, for every hour I spent writing, I had to spend about another hour or two getting it reading for publication on my websites — computer tasks that often had me tearing my hair out, or just bored. Technology had made it possible for me to make my writing available to a global market — which is still pretty amazing when I stop to think about it — but it certainly didn't make it easy. Not even on a Mac! Fortunately, for about the cost of a new transmission, a cost that I will easily pay for itself, Mike built several different "tools" for me that took the drudgery out of publishing and freed up my time for doing the work I really want to be doing. Now for every hour of writing I spend only about twenty minutes getting it "web ready." When we started creating these tools, I hardly even knew what I needed, just that I was desperate. Mike made countless suggestions, offering solutions I didn't even know were possible, not only building custom software from scratch, but making invaluable suggestions about my work methods and how to use the software I already have. Best of all, I can use the tools and the extra time I'm saving not just to write more, but to write more creatively than ever before. This is what Mike can do for you!
Thanks for making my marketing project a really fun experience! I am thrilled with the finished website and so thankful for how easy you made it for me.
I was especially impressed at your time management. I noticed that you often had to move between people — I saw you one day managing five of us!! You got us quickly to defining our objective, gave us a time estimate — separated out what you could help with in the time available — then did it. If I started to go outside the scope of the task at hand, you gently but firmly got me back on track. The end result was that I would leave with that question answered, and a hands-on experience.