Kenneth Jackson – ITK

25 Words About Me

I start things. I solve problems. I tear things up. I fix things. I organize Information. I Build Beautiful Systems. How can I help?

My Interest

I am a technologist and a perpetual student. I study hi-technology, art, architecture, and history. I like to take long walks with my dog. I would like to do more educational travel like to say Florence, Rome, and Shenzhen for work. I am funny, I am fair, and I am honest.

• Science and Technology
• Architecture
• Art
• History
• Photography and Video
• Cooking
• Gardening (If I had time!)

Where Did ITK Come From?

One of my favorite clients used it for my contact name on her phone.

Computer Skills

And pretty much every major computer technology in the past 30+ years.

• macOS
• Linux
• Windows
• Google Cloud
• WordPress
• Swift
• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Security
• SEO
• SEM
• Social
• Final Cut Pro X
• Fusion 360
• xCode
• And pretty much everything else since COBOL.

Kenneth Jackson Biography

I am a systems integrator, systems administrator, and developer. I specialize in small business computing, e-commerce, and Internet Marketing

I have worked with computers since 1981. My first computer (which I still own) was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A with 16k of RAM given to me for Christmas one year by my Mother and Father. While the Evel Knievel action set I got one year was my favorite gift ever. The TI was probably the best gift I ever received. The TI-99/4 series holds the distinction of being the first 16-bit personal computer. It retailed for $525.00. 

I started out doing work for my dad’s insurance office. I went on to work for Texas American Bank in 1987 as the night computer operator processing correspondent DDA banking transactions. On the day Texas American Bank was shut down by FDIC, I got a job with Texas American Bank – Fort Worth as the Corporate Trust Systems Coordinator. We were transfer agents for many major corporations and government bond issuing authorities such as Tandy Corporation, Justin Industries, Pier 1, and Tarrant County Housing Authority. My job was to produce large securities transactions such as new issues of stocks, warrants, and bonds, managing stock splits, bond calls, dividend and interest payments, production, and distribution of proxy voting material. During this period Texas American Bank became Team Bank and was later acquired by Bank One and later JP Morgan Chase. I worked directly with vendors and other financial institutions such as EDS, Bank of New York, Ameritrust, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Reserve.

I honed my technology skills further at Bank One Trust Company and its predecessors in Fort Worth, Texas during the period of bank failures and mergers in the late ’80s and early ’90s. I participated in mergers and systems integration projects in Trust Accounting, Trust Securities, and the Trust Oil and Gas divisions of Bank One Trust Company. During this time I worked on many accounting, securities management, bank general ledger, and oil and gas systems integration projects.

I built my first website if you could call it that on CompuServe in 1992.

After leaving Bank One in 1994 I formed Connections Information Systems. Our motto was “We Bring Fortune 500 Style Computing to Small Business”. We provide complete end to end computer and networking systems sales, service and support in accounting and finance, manufacturing, medical, and a wide array of small business.

Around 1996 I moved into the offices of Amarillo Online and started building websites that interacted with databases. I built a few sites for customers but most of my business was in service and support. I was asked by a friend at church to build an e-commerce site. At the time I ran a Microsoft shop so we built it as cheaply as possible on Microsoft tech. Of course, it sucked and didn’t last long. They went on to build a site on Yahoo’s e-commerce systems and were very successful. They were an early adopter of pay per click advertising. After a while, the pay per click campaign was extremely was expensive and the whole system needed heavy optimization. They sent me to Search Engine Strategies conference Chicago in 2006 where I learned I didn’t know shit about websites. I was sitting in a conference room waiting for a session on data-driven websites to start when in walked a funny little man wearing a bright red Versace suit. My first thought was “Now I know where to find hookers”. And he was white! His name was Mikkel deMib Svendsen from Denmark. He gave a brilliant presentation entitled “Why Flash Sucks” and I was captivated by just how much I didn’t know about the sites I had produced (I had several Flash sites including mine!). 

Since then I have been up to my eyes in web development and have gotten a lot better. I have my own “Why Flash Sucks” presentation. I no longer use any Microsoft products in my business. My personal devices are all Apple and my servers are all cloud-based Linux servers. I use WordPress as my primary content management system. I still provide corporate service and support but my primary business focus is on eCommerce and Internet marketing.

Connections Information Systems has developed two primary internet platforms.

Connections WPplaces is our WordPress based content management platform.

They are both designed to be the systems my clients can’t afford to build themselves. Both platform s are completely state of the art!

“We bring fortune 500 style computing to small business”, No! Our stuff is usually better than what the Fortune 500 has!