Awhile back I posted a little overview of organizational democracy in Democracy at DreamHost. Now, less than 5 months later, we have the honor of appearing on the WorldBlu Most Democractic Workplaces List for a second year in a row.  WorldBlu’s entire purpose is to educate people about organizational democracy and encourage organizations and companies to adopt it.  It’s a great list and we’re happy to be able to be part of it.  Now that we have been on this list for two straight years, we’re going to let a few of our workers tell you in their own words what it means to be democratic.  These comments come from all parts of our organization from recent hires as well as from people who have literally helped us build the company.
Some people like it just because it feels more relaxed:

“I think that working in a democratic work place like DreamHost makes it an easier environment for me to work in. Specifically, the rules and regulations are more relaxed and that makes it easier to do my job.”

We still have rules, but when everyone has a say in the rule making process it doesn’t feel like the rules are there for no reason.  That in turn makes things feel more relaxed overall.

Other people really appreciate being able to make their voices heard by the top management:

“To me,  working in a democratically run organization is about being valued by your leaders. It’s not about the majority always getting their way; it’s about  being heard, and considered, even if you are in the minority.”

Another person elaborates on that idea:

“The great thing about working at DH is that at all levels the employee’s voice is heard. From the front line techs to the founders of the company, everyone is able to open a line of communication with anyone else.

Coming from other places where I’ve fought my way up the ladder and still had no real voice to speak of, it’s a refreshing change of pace to be able to talk to anyone in the company without any of the red tape that so often stymies a thoughtful suggestion or a more efficient mode of working.

It’s been my pleasure to work in an environment where change is never negated by a lack of open discussion and work flow is never relegated to grandfathered, outdated methods.
By empowering each employee with his or her own level of input, DH has created a comfortable atmosphere where all elements of the company are integral.”

One important aspect of organizational democracy is that workers have a high level of control over their jobs.  The job needs to get done, but when a person has a say over how that job is handled, that person will take more personal responsibility for the outcome.  The result is more quality work from everyone.

“A democratic work place means you as the worker can have more of a say over how your own performance is rated, and that can help increase your productivity. For a while we had a floating quota system for tech support tickets. The more tickets you completed each day the higher your quota would go. Normally that sounds like a great idea as it pushes you to continuously improve your output. However in reality it was actually causing people to stall at what they felt was a moderate number so as not to trigger the increase. Some tech support members suggested that they would do more tickets if they weren’t penalized by having their daily quota increase and management put an end to that system. Thus through feedback and open communication on all levels of the organization there was an overall net increase in productivity.”

And:

“Working in a democratic environment makes me feel more connected to the work that I do because I feel like I can take ownership of the tasks that I do.  I know if I have a better way to do something, I can do it instead of mindlessly doing something the way someone thinks it should be done.”

In a similar vein, this system programmer takes advantage of the personal freedom we provide whenever possible.  He does have one complaint, though.:

“The sheer amount of trust afforded to each and every employee in the company is what amazes me. I can go forward with an idea on a small scale without having to jump through bueraucratic hoops to do so.  We try hard not to get in the way of people doing their jobs.  We basically hand everyone the keys to the company and trust them to do the right thing.

If I don’t like something about how we’re doing something I have the ability to change it, or at the very least make my opinion heard.

My only real complaint is that nobody listens to my suggestions!  I’ve put in the suggestion box that we need more license plate frames a million times and Brett just won’t order them! :(”

I think we may have to get some more license plate frames ordered!

Several people told me how much they love the sense of teamwork and communication they get from our democratic processes:

“We have a very open workplace in terms of social interaction – while there is a necessary hierarchy in place to keep things going everyone has an open door policy and is accessible, friendly and helpful. This results in employees feeling that they can talk to their supervisor about pretty much anything and empowers them to tackle all sorts of challenges – help is available just down the hall or over instant message. It also creates a strong social bond – employees tend to be friends outside of work without any deliniation along lines of rank/power in the company. It makes for a very satisfying work experience!”

I work with many of my best friends, and we’ve managed to stay best friends for the last decade so I totally agree with that sentiment.

“Having worked in other companies in which you are merely an employee number, it’s refreshing at Dreamhost to know that you are valued first as a person and then for your work and input.  It’s not just the numbers you produce.”

We treat everyone as individuals and value their input.  We actually expect input as part of everyone’s job.  To make that process easier we added question/suggestion boxes a few months ago.  It’s a good old-fashioned paper and pencil anonymous way for anyone to say anything or ask any question of the management.  It’s already been really insightful and we’ve made a few significant changes that were requested.

“I really appreciate the fact that not only is there usually an open forum for discussion (i.e. venting) about problems facing the company (even from the “grunts” on the front line), but that suggestions are listened to, and even if not implemented, are responded to in a thoughtful way.  That makes me, as an employee, feel my concerns are being heard and addressed.

I don’t expect everything to be done my way, but I do know that people are listening, and if I make a suggestion that doesn’t involve a rubber chicken it will be honestly considered.  Also, the suggestion box has blown me away…the sheer amount of suggestions that are not only considered, but actually implemented without hemming and hawing is amazing to me.  I almost feel guilty when I see how far out of their way management will go to keep everyone happy. Dreamhost has truly ruined me for any other employer.”

Aww, now you’re just making us blush!

To sum things up, I’ll leave you with one choice quote:

“Working at a democratically run organization means I can respectfully proclaim “(BLANK) blows donkey c**k because…” without fear of retribution or political backstabbing.”

Well put!

Just a reminder, the first open house is this Sunday, March 1st, from 1 to 3 pm at 718 Broadway, #6B!

FREE WEB HOSTING FOR LIFE could be yours!

Phase 2 of beta is ready to go. Adding 10,000 new accounts will give us data on how the system scales. Head over now and hope that El Diablo deems you worthy of mercy!

Somewhere along the way (I think it was shortly after the fat checks showed up) we developed a conscience and decided – No fat checks!

For us it wasn’t enough to just not be evil – we realized that the only way to really feel good about ourselves was to lose money hand over fist, and just hope that we broke even somewhere along the way…kind of like a non-profit!

We took a multi-pronged approach to Operation Money Loss! We resolved to:

• Provide our employees the most comprehensive health insurance package we could find, free.
• Give away free hosting to non-profit organizations.
• Match customer donations to selected charitable organizations.
• Offset our carbon footprint through the purchase of renewable energy credits and carbon offsets.
• Provide financial support to open-source projects that we use ourselves – Jabber, MySQL, Linux-VServer, and grsecurity to name a few!
• Consistently offer ridiculous coupons that, even now, seem like a bad idea.
• Keep all our company cash in the stock market.

I’d call that a good start, but it’s just not enough.

Today we’re announcing DreamHost Apps, a completely free hosting service for web-based applications.

Well, it’s free for now anyway. We’re flirting with the idea of a $50 yearly fee once it’s out of beta…but if you sign up RIGHT NOW to help us test things out we’ll let you use DreamHost Apps for free for ever!

But wait! If you’re reading this and you’re already a DreamHost customer (and why else would you be reading this), you don’t need to worry.. you can already log in to DreamHost Apps with your same DreamHost Web Panel login!

For you, it’s really just an Ajax-ified way to manage your easy one-clicks and any domain registrations. But, for the hundred or so people out there who’ve read this blog and aren’t DreamHost customers… but do want some free hosting of a WordPress Blog, Drupal Site, Zenphoto Gallery, Mediawiki Wiki, and/or PhpBB Forum (plus Google Apps and Gmail) and aren’t afraid to do a little “beta testing” (and unlike some other web shops, when we say beta, we mean it), today must be your BIRTHDAY!

Right now usage of DreamHost Apps is by invitation only. Lucky for you I like your face and I’ve posted about 100 invitation codes in the comments of this post. If a code doesn’t work, it’s already been redeemed – try another one! When the codes run out, I may even post more!

If you’re a current DreamHost customer you’ve already had access to DreamHost Apps for months! That’s because the exact same functionality (minus the free part) can be found under “Easy Mode” in the “Goodies / One-Click Installs” section of your account control panel. There’s no need for you to sign up for DreamHost Apps because you’re already living the dream!

DreamHost Apps customers do miss out on a few perks that paying DreamHost customers take for granted, though. Apps users can just forget about FTP access, SSH access, email, and even technical support.

DreamHost Apps is provided ‘as-is’, and unfortunately technical support is not part of the ‘is’!

You try providing tech support for a free service and let us know how that works out.

For all intents and purposes, DreamHost Apps are entirely self-contained.

You can install and delete any number of apps through the DreamHost Apps management interface, and you’ll use each Apps’ own web-based interface to make application-level changes. Upgrading to full-featured hosting is just a click away!

DreamHost Apps was assembled over the course of a few months by a small team of four hardworking DreamHost Employees, Pete V, Mike P, Joshua H, and me, Brett D. In fact, this is the first major DreamHost project that Josh Jones hasn’t been personally involved in writing in a very long time, so rest assured that your data is safe and your credit card won’t be charged more than it should be!

If you find any bugs, please post them over in our DreamHost Apps discussion forum.

We’ve been working on this for a while, and we’re kind of tired. We’re just gonna take a quick little nap if you don’t mind…

Please enjoy DreamHost Apps!

I was recently digging into our database collecting some information on PHP usage by looking at how many people were using our One-Click Web App Installs.  Nearly all of our One-Clicks are PHP so it was a quick way to estimate total PHP usage by our customers.  While looking at the data I noticed something strange, though.  Our users are using our One-Clicks less and less!  ”Weird”, I thought.

I collected this data by looking at every currently active account of ours and counting up the ones that have installed at least one One-Click (not the total number of One-Clicks in use!).  I also tracked the year each account was first made active in our system.  It doesn’t count people using PHP apps they installed themselves, and it does count people who may have set up a One-Click and then abandoned it. This is not a scientific analysis by any means, but any clear trends should still be pretty reliable.

The clear trend we see is a mostly upward trend with a spike in usage by accounts signed up in 2006, and then a pretty quick drop-off over the last couple of years.  I was expecting to see a continuous upward trend over the entire time and was surprised to see that drop-off there.  The graph shows percentages so the number of actual accounts isn’t a major factor.

I have a few theories about the slowing of One-Click Install Usage…

• Our users signing up over the last two years are more tech-savvy than those in earlier years and more of them are choosing software other than what we provide and installing it themselves.
• More people are going back to the days of static HTML.  (Seems unlikely.)
• Increased interest and awareness in more ‘hot’ tech like Ruby on Rails has resulted in users moving away from PHP itself, and our One-Click Installs along with it.
• More people are finding their Web App needs met by ‘Web 2.0′ websites like Flickr and Facebook.  (But then, what are they doing with their websites instead?)

The number of new users coming on board has not slowed at all so people are definitely still finding a need for tried and true, full power web hosting.

So… Tell us why you do or do not use DreamHost One-Click Installs for your website, and WHY!

Gutenberg was a German goldsmith who pioneered mechanical printing in the 1400’s. His inventiveness took the power of the pen – for good or for bad – and amplified it, fostering a spread of knowledge that, ultimately, resulted in a burgeoning Renaissance.

The impact this had on science, business, technology and the overall democratization of knowledge that come with it cannot be overstated, even though Gutenberg himself would benefit little from it personally in his lifetime.

This is, of course, not to compare DreamHost itself to Mr. Gutenberg – we’re just a web hosting company with a penchant for free pizza and off-the-wall jokes that people sporadically find amusing.

And, when you get down to it, the reality of the situation is that most of our customers opt to use the power of the ‘printing press’ that we offer to publish pictures of their cats, indulge in navel gazing or publish rants embued with varying degrees of coherence. Among, well, other things.

The beauty of this, though, is that each and every one of these things is important to somebody, somewhere, for some reason. Even if it’s just the author and a select handful of readers.

Taken at their face, this may not seem like much – but I believe it is actually pretty important.

• While most people couldn’t care less about someone else’s cat, forever will there exist a memory of a beloved pet that can be looked at years later. Self-publishing has caused people to treasure the little things that enrich their lives – and, from time to time, enrich others as well (the rise of digital photography owes a lot to the fact that people can now so easily share their creations with others, for instance).
• While the web’s penchant for facilitating so-called navel gazing garners criticism at times, I believe that this, too, serves a purpose. The more we explore our own thoughts and ideas and allow others to peek into our world, the better our relationships with those people will be. I, for one, am happy to see the web evolve into a tool to connect people. It has become a humanizing technology.
• Those rants that annoy so many also serve as an outlet of sorts. For many, writing is in itself a way to explore ideas. It links people with similar ideas and – yet – exposes people to a vast marketplace of ideas. If nothing else, we could always use more ideas.
• As for those “other things”, well, I’ll leave those to someone else. We’ve hosted some pretty weird stuff over the years.

Picture of my cats – because I can…

While we at DreamHost are ultimately a commercial entity and benefit in kind, I like to think that we’ve played a small but important role in facilitating the free-flowing transfer of ideas and creative expression across the Internet. Good ideas, bad ideas, those that are well thought out and those that could use a little refinement.

I’m quite proud to have been even just a small part of all this.

It’s for that reason, really, that I’ve had mixed feelings in the weeks since deciding to leave the company for other pursuits. When you’re proud of what you do and you’ve been doing it for nearly a decade, that’s a tough decision to make.

And now, finally, I’ve reached the last few hours of my employment here. While I’ve got some personal projects in the works that I’m excited about (shameless plug: one of which may be of particular interest to Spore players, once it’s ready: PanSporea) – and I’m certainly looking forward to sleeping in – it’s going to take me a while to get used to not being a part of it all.

While I’ve already thanked most of the great people whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with, I would like to again express my gratitude toward the DreamHost Honchos (Dallas, Sage, Josh and Michael) in particular for their support and for building this great company in the first place.

I also want to thank my fellow co-workers, both past and present, who made the experience so much fun. I’ll miss you all.

Finally, I want to thank our customers for filling our servers up with all sorts of interesting and peculiar things and generally making the web as a whole a more entertaining and useful place. I still get a huge kick any time I run across a really cool site only to scroll down and find a link to DreamHost (something that has become increasingly common in recent years). We’d be nothing without you.

Nor, for that matter, the inspiration of a certain Mr. Gutenberg.

PS: For those of you in or around southern California, you can see an original Gutenberg Bible at the Huntington Library in San Marino. It’s definitely worth the trip (the botanical gardens are also pretty impressive).