Roxio Labs welcomes guest blogger Dave Habiger, CEO:
As the CEO of Sonic Solutions, I find that my To Do list grows at an exponential rate. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly challenging for me to find the time to use all of our software products as well as those of our competitors. This can be frustrating as one of the things I really love about my job is the technology. Specifically, I enjoy using the products we create and, working directly with our talented group of engineers, actively participating in the process to refine them.
Over the years, my daughters, Carolyn and Hannah, 10 and 8 respectively, have begun spending more and more time on the computer - mostly playing games. So my wife and I did the logical thing and put some time limits on PC use…blasphemy! I also decided that we would allocate a specific amount of time on the weekend to create something using Sonic applications and deduct that time as “computer time.” Initially this was met with some resistance; after all, could working with Dad ever be as appealing as thwarting an alien invasion?
Funny thing happened though, working with Roxio’s photo, video and audio products became one of my daughters’ favorite weekend activities. Using PhotoSuite to morph peoples’ faces quickly became a crowd pleaser (recently a picture of my head on the family dog found its way onto the fridge). We also used a video camera and some footage captured from the TV to do a good old fashioned mash-up and retell a story. An interesting side-effect to this was that we became far more aware of the techniques directors and film editors employ to craft a story.
Carolyn and Hannah now see working with digital media as being on par with playing a video game. They also provide a fresh perspective on using our software and tend to find usability issues that might not be obvious to me. I find the time spent creating with them is a perfect way to blend quality family life with my working world - it's a great way to combine my passion for digital media software with family time - all while keeping that To Do list from growing out of control. Now if only I could find a way to get them excited about doing my expense reports.
Dave Habiger
As the CEO of Sonic Solutions, I find that my To Do list grows at an exponential rate. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly challenging for me to find the time to use all of our software products as well as those of our competitors. This can be frustrating as one of the things I really love about my job is the technology. Specifically, I enjoy using the products we create and, working directly with our talented group of engineers, actively participating in the process to refine them.
Over the years, my daughters, Carolyn and Hannah, 10 and 8 respectively, have begun spending more and more time on the computer - mostly playing games. So my wife and I did the logical thing and put some time limits on PC use…blasphemy! I also decided that we would allocate a specific amount of time on the weekend to create something using Sonic applications and deduct that time as “computer time.” Initially this was met with some resistance; after all, could working with Dad ever be as appealing as thwarting an alien invasion?
Funny thing happened though, working with Roxio’s photo, video and audio products became one of my daughters’ favorite weekend activities. Using PhotoSuite to morph peoples’ faces quickly became a crowd pleaser (recently a picture of my head on the family dog found its way onto the fridge). We also used a video camera and some footage captured from the TV to do a good old fashioned mash-up and retell a story. An interesting side-effect to this was that we became far more aware of the techniques directors and film editors employ to craft a story.
Carolyn and Hannah now see working with digital media as being on par with playing a video game. They also provide a fresh perspective on using our software and tend to find usability issues that might not be obvious to me. I find the time spent creating with them is a perfect way to blend quality family life with my working world - it's a great way to combine my passion for digital media software with family time - all while keeping that To Do list from growing out of control. Now if only I could find a way to get them excited about doing my expense reports.
Dave Habiger
Tags: Creator