tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53640582011-10-13T11:20:21.092ZA collection of stuff on making information useful, covering information architecture, writing, information design, user experience, intranets, content management, knowledge management, social networks and other related issues...Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.comBlogger2631100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-75315501221155214342011-03-10T23:10:00.000Z2011-03-10T23:10:56.243Z

I'm really finding evernote is hitting the sweetspot: I've dumped reading and linklists in, and started tracking some task and TODO lists and it works pretty well. My only issue is that I'd like to use it at work (where we have no admin rights), and the web interface is somewhat clunky and slow (particularly when the corporate network performance is pokey), so this is hampering my take up and use

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-54979841816252381252011-03-10T22:02:00.001Z2011-03-10T22:03:56.841Z

I've been working a reasonable amount of late in dealing with considerations of software defect management and metrics to indicate "software reliability". Personally, I always think that reliability is a continuum (like trust), and that a software is only as reliable as its last failure. Software which predictably fails big and often is obviously "unreliable", but much software runs fine most of

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-91201307029192300132011-02-26T13:21:00.000Z2011-02-26T13:21:26.916Z

I was just looking through my O'Reilly digital bookcases and wondering whether it is possible to have too many tomes from this publisher: (NB: I think the answer is no...) Here is the list of what I found: 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know Beautiful Data Beautiful Visualization Data Analysis with Open Source Tools HTML5: Up and Running Learning Rails Making Software Making Things Happen

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-74960267973471966082011-02-24T15:28:00.000Z2011-02-24T15:28:47.385Z

As part of the fallout of the Yahoo thinning out (and hoping that delicious finds a buyer), I just received the following mail: Yahoo! Dear MyBlogLog Customer, You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue Yahoo! MyBlogLog effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the Yahoo! MyBlogLog, will terminate on

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-68635422557691773892011-02-06T14:37:00.000Z2011-02-06T14:37:51.082Z

I am not the worlds greatest "Getting Things Done" guy (only got half way through the book, and just could not get around to putting it into place). In a quest for lightweight but useful "To-do" managers and "Do not forget" managers, I have been through the full gamut: I even bought Bento (and have not really done much with it). The one tool I really loved and do use is delicious, but I have the

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-15451384822264018462011-02-04T23:09:00.000Z2011-02-04T23:09:56.682Z

So, I've started on the first chapter of "Mining the Social Web" proper, and realise it will involve much side reading, as 1) you really do need to know python (although this is already installed in OSX, joy!) 2) you really need to read all the APIs and 3) it looks like the book is going to look to install a large number of python packages. Still, using the twitter package and pulling down the

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-21455530485672951182011-02-04T02:44:00.000Z2011-02-04T02:44:16.518Z

Those nice folks at O'Reilly have started a Blogger Review Programme, and kindly let me be a part of it. Essentially you commit to write a review of an O'Reilly tome in return for a digital review copy - just like I remember it from my real journalism days! I've been insomniac the past couple of nights (it is 3:45am in Geneva), mostly churning some Measurement & Analytics annoyances in my head,

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-25544282756388602752010-02-22T12:19:00.002Z2010-02-22T16:03:32.168Z

Sitting at home, feeling sorry for myself as I am off work sick, I thought I might write a short blog post on using Behavioural Driven Development (BDD) for Requirements work with clients - a technique which I am starting to use with some (note the qualification) success. I'm a big fan of use casing "As is" models and "To be" models to get a really nice sense of the contexts in which a system is

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-91108017310508082032009-11-22T17:15:00.001Z2009-11-22T17:15:27.369Z

Originally submitted at O'ReillyIs your site easy to find, simple to navigate, and enticing enough to convert prospects into buyers? Website Optimization shows you how. It reveals a comprehensive set of techniques to improve your site's performance by boosting search engine visibility for more traffic, increasing con... Website OptimizationDiverse, related topics in one

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-40611748394831492512009-10-06T17:22:00.003Z2009-10-06T17:34:34.285Z

I've worked for a number of blue-chips for a number of years, and am continually surprised by the fact that - since online is not a primary or secondary revenue base - sensible, value-driven approaches to managing a Web portfolio are few and far between.Many larger companies play lip service to the concept that the Web is (or can be) a hugely important component in the process of "doing business"

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-32919287421406601702009-02-22T11:33:00.002Z2009-02-22T11:38:20.432Z

Having just been working on a project where workforce and audience acceptance of a mix of new hardware, software and content needed to be assessed & tested, I'm keen to find out the best way of gaining a blended system acceptance view without confusing the feedback for the separate elements. I know this should focus on asking precise questions, and directing users to complete specific targeted

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-50245102491923821972009-02-08T13:49:00.003Z2009-02-08T13:58:24.429Z

...just.Having just logged into Blogger, I now realise that it is only a week shy of a year since I last posted to my blog.In case anyone is still out there occasionally reading the blog (it's been a while since I checked out the analytics also), the main reason behind this has been moving countries, and then trying to move house.While this isn't inline with previous post content, I suppose it

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-60743006949385758252008-02-13T17:43:00.003Z2008-02-13T17:54:01.216Z

Over the past couple of years, I've dabbled around the fringes of agile programming/project management mostly looking at XP, but I have to confess that I've always struggled to reconcile agility and the structured control delivered by PRINCE2. I've always erred towards early, hands-on prototypes (whether paper or digital), prioritised requirements lists, and facilitated, collaborative meetings,

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-37231493577931400832007-08-25T16:28:00.000Z2007-08-25T16:46:25.875Z

I'm on holiday and paternity leave at the moment, enjoying the French Alps, and learning to live without sleep (I'd love to know when babies biorhythms start to match those of their parents). A couple of days before departing, a colleague in our Human Resources department asked me to deliver a presentation on the corporate intranet (as a communications and knowledge management tool) to our

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-16317543303193367602007-07-11T16:03:00.000Z2007-07-11T16:08:25.238Z

I haven't had the opportunity yet to write up my thoughts on KCUK, as my wife and I have been busy with our new son, Theodore, who chose the auspicious date of 07/07/07 to mark his entry into the world.There are very few "Thristan"s in the world (obviously not including the Christian name), so I think Theodore may take us up to a count of about 15 worldwide.I will blog on KCUK and other things

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-84530915325021903462007-06-29T15:26:00.000Z2007-06-29T15:36:24.790Z

I was over at Ark Group's Knowledge and Content UK this week, along with a colleague, and will try to write up a lengthy post regarding this within the next few days. However, given that it's my wife's due date tomorrow, and she has already been having contractions, it may take me a few days to find time to gather my thoughts and reflections and get them up on the blog.My presentation went pretty

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-13625772162273667002007-05-26T20:31:00.000Z2007-05-26T20:49:39.113Z

Idly meandering through the Yahoo Developer Network, I clicked on MyBlogLog - which I signed up for ages ago, but never did anything with. It's an interesting conceit - so if you do read my blog, feel free to sign up to say you do...Likewise, I'm trying to sort out a Wink profile as I like its use of MicroID - again, feel free to engage!

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-34013940293280061802007-05-14T14:36:00.001Z2010-03-11T19:17:22.445Z

I was contacted to take part in an e-consultancy review of Online Project Management a short while ago, and received a link to their report on best practice in this area today. [UPDATE 16/05/07 - Linus Gregoriadis, Head of Research at e-consultancy, let me know I was pointing to a link for survey participants only, so - just in case you have bookmarked this, the link has now switched.] I have

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-69992143013202155712007-04-16T14:27:00.000Z2007-04-16T14:36:13.096Z

I'll probably write this up in more detail when I have two minutes to myself, but reading a recent copy of Wired last night on the plane from Geneva to London, I was just very aware of one very major strength in the human psyche, and another - related - weakness. It's not a surprising revelation, but I feel that sometimes it is worth stating the obvious: people are great at recognising patterns,

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-88478337132063787192007-03-09T13:02:00.000Z2007-03-09T13:13:16.267Z

Via Mike Kuniavsky, here's an interesting toy which allows you to interactively project drawings in real-time. I know the intended audience is for kids, but this is a very cool way to make a big drawing in real-time when you don't have a whiteboard available. Just project on the wall.This very much reminds me of a play of a Neil Gaiman book called "The Wolves in the Walls" which my wife did some

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-66048102898956037392007-02-27T17:08:00.000Z2007-05-26T20:28:45.670Z

Via Bim Egan of the RNIB, and passed on to me by my colleague, Sonia Carter, is this nice little accessible solution to multiple checkbox selections and saving space (i.e. "making it look good") at the same time.This was, as pointed out by Bim, discussed on the webaim discussion board a while ago - to be honest, I was stuck back in the days of thinking that CTRL+ multiple option selection was

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-32707780967926423222007-02-07T17:01:00.001Z2007-02-07T17:01:50.671Z

Having trialled Techsmith Camtasia Studio as well as Adobe Captivate (both great tools, fully featured, but costing $200 plus), I've been on the look out for lower cost replacements for a while. While I haven't fully trialled this yet, Blueberry Software's Flashback Express looks like it could be a useful alternative (at $49) if you're interested in recording .swf or .avi demos. It's been pretty

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-87428424774455750762007-01-22T07:34:00.000Z2007-01-22T19:44:13.905Z

In a perfect example as to how to make the best of a bad deal, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambrige (UK) - my personal favourite museum - has launched a jigsaw postcard. "So what?" you may be thinking to yourself: well, the genius behind this is that the two priceless Chinese vases (I forget which dynasty) were accidentally shattered into hundreds of pieces by a clumsy/unlucky visitor. This

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-21336371479632095632007-01-16T13:51:00.000Z2007-01-16T14:08:18.692Z

Via Headshift and via Marc's voice, I came across Social networking: Time for a silver bullet, which comes to some similar conclusions that I came to a couple of years ago. Namely, personal profiles (secure, of course) to represent a changing "you" and XFN or some other standard to establish the connections (or "predicates" in RDF speech, "verbs" to the rest of the world!) between them. It would

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-28060867706472829772006-12-23T22:48:00.000Z2006-12-23T22:57:30.957Z

I'm still at home in London, having been supposed to be flying out with my wife to Geneva on Thursday to visit her mother for Christmas. Personally, I blame the fog! But, seriously, I have been fairly unimpressed with the airline and airport integrated communications systems: airport sites held rudimentary messages pointing you to airline sites for more information, unfortunately, Swiss (

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-54134975302310456772006-12-14T19:21:00.000Z2006-12-14T19:31:37.670Z

I'm an inveterate fiddler with online tools - I sign up for betas when I can, and have a fiddle and a play, and - to be honest - a number of online applications have worked their way into my everyday way of working. Some of these I've mentioned on my blog, and others I just get on with and use.Just recently, I've been thinking that I ought to review all the social software and online applications

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-84310590296401010482006-11-20T11:51:00.000Z2007-05-26T20:29:59.533Z

Via the Web Standards Project, I just discovered Douglas Crockford's "Theory of the DOM" (this is part 1). I've just sat down and watched part one, and it's great - succinct and clear, and helps to clarify a number of issues in your mind.

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-56124093689533724432006-11-14T15:03:00.001Z2006-11-14T15:03:42.604Z

I'm just having a fiddle with Windows Live Writer to post a message to my blog. I have used a Word plug-in occasionally (and have never bothered with emailing in posts - I always figured it would be useful if I had a Blackberry!) but usually stick to logging in directly through Blogger (or Blogger Beta as is the case at the moment). It hasn't managed to download my styles, but hey - it doesn't

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-75920325968933931172006-11-10T19:17:00.000Z2007-05-26T20:30:21.547Z

I haven't posted in a while, partly owing to some major problems in getting a broadband connection to my new flat in Blackheath. The nub of the problem appears to have been an LLU marker remaining on the line for the previous tenants broadband/phone package. I have discovered in the process that there is major confusion between service providers and BT , not helped by the division of BT into

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-92000283287027110132006-10-12T08:39:00.000Z2006-10-12T08:44:44.203Z

After looking decidedly in need of some attention for several months, the look-and-feel of this blog, has just had a 30-second overhaul care of the new Blogger Beta. In the spirit of Bertrand Russel's In Praise of Idleness, this involved using one of the Blogger pre-packaged templates! I'll be playing around with this to make the site a little more unique when I get the chance, so do expect a few

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1160493821683042782006-10-10T15:15:00.000Z2006-10-12T08:45:01.782Z

I haven't played about with this too much, but this set of Wordpress meets Yahoo UI comments from Jack Slocum is simply too cool for school. I like it because it gets away from the web page as a document model - and moves towards content chunking ("I'm interested in this bit, thank you")...

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1159439962102537122006-09-28T10:16:00.000Z2006-09-28T10:39:22.123Z

I'm still trying to find the ideal note taking tool that can hold all my thoughts together. I tried TiddlyWiki for a while, until it lost two separate sets of conference notes (despite a rigorous saving routine), and am now having a fiddle with Google Notebook - which looks like it is great for online research, but very specific to that. But I was surprised that I had never heard of Microsoft

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1159285261606640012006-09-26T15:36:00.000Z2006-09-26T15:41:01.650Z

I'm probably slow getting to this, and doubtless this has been blogged already, but I noticed in today's Financial pages of The Guardian (I've noticed a few things in its hallowed pages today) that the article "bulking up in the drugs industry" contained blue, underlined keywords which were then further defined in a call-out box. I think it's really interesting that a print publication is using

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1159268926151635472006-09-26T10:59:00.000Z2006-09-26T11:08:46.220Z

From today's Guardian Education Supplement somes Improbable research: a catalogue of errors, an article highlighting the need for knowledgeable, experienced library staff. The problem: foreign language books being mis-filed and therefore "languishing unfindable in libraries". The example: Gaelic books being catalogued under "na" ("the" in Irish Gaelic), for instance "Na fir" ("The Men") not being

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1159198676302263122006-09-25T15:33:00.000Z2006-09-25T15:37:56.303Z

While it's not quite standards compliant, I have been enjoying scratching the surface of Adobe's Spry - which seems like one of the easier Ajax frameworks to use.Perhaps I am attuned to it because we have been working with FLEX 1.5 (not 2.0 yet - shame!!!) and the two approaches seem like close cousins. Likewise the controls and effects available seem to ape the core FLEX items.Anyway, I used the

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1159198388532425792006-09-25T15:32:00.000Z2006-09-25T15:33:08.546Z

Via Tim’s Weblog – here’s Joseph Scott’s edit in place: you too can have Flickr type user entry fields!

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1152798156058876572006-07-13T13:36:00.000Z2006-07-13T13:42:36.073Z

I'm working on redeveloping our company best practice knowledgebase, but - as with much knowledge - feel that all of the focus has been on codification, with little emphasis on the more human aspects, namely idea generation, capture, ongoing best practice discussion and amendment (lifecycle), and transfer for validation through use (a.k.a. knowledge replication). I'm trawling through as much as

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1148817545710429162006-05-28T11:40:00.000Z2006-05-31T18:03:38.166Z

I don't generally write much about "Design" (with a capital "D") and Art in my blog - as it has always been information-focused, but this weekend has inspired me to temporarily expand my remit.First, to the Tate Modern on Friday night for Walter Ruttman's 1927 silent opus, "Berlin, die Sinfonie der Grossstadt" (or "Berlin, Symphony of a great [sic] city" as it seems to be referred to in English)

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1147204488366867162006-05-09T19:28:00.000Z2006-05-09T19:54:48.383Z

I've been busy over the past few months at work, and somehow have let the blog slip into a state of disrepair. I desperately need to change a whole bunch of design and functonality, but don't ever seem to have the time. I promise to sort the crud out soon... (that's a promise to myself, so I may not keep it!)In my defence, I've been busy beavering away, including looking at standards-based design

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1140736669246381212006-02-23T23:10:00.000Z2006-02-23T23:17:49.256Z

I just wonder how often there is a crossover between construction architecture and information architecture? On the receiving end of a presentation today about a new method of construction better practice approach, I was struck with how closely the aims and techniques matched with those of IA and user-focused design. I suppose this is not strange, in that, generically speaking, the more early

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1138915466913238002006-02-02T21:05:00.000Z2006-02-02T21:26:54.393Z

The rash of "isn't blogging cool" stories is really beyond the pale now. Please, get over yourselves, people can be journalists too, you know. My annoyance was stimulated by "Unhappy, then it's time to begin a blog" in the Evening Standard this evening. Frankly I've had enough.So, read my lips - blogs are to websites as journals are to books: regular, direct, unmediated communication by

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1138373987464534202006-01-27T14:54:00.000Z2006-01-27T14:59:47.480Z

Following the lead of lots of other people, here's my 2005 in cities, and then 2006 so far.2005Geneva, Switzerland Glasgow, Scotland Edinburgh, Scotland Dundee, Scotland London, England Budapest, Hungary Dubrovnik, Croatia Savannah, US Washington D.C., US Charleston, U.S. (Probably a number of others I can't remember)2006 Geneva, Switzerland Glasgow, Scotland London,

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1138228309040507012006-01-25T22:26:00.000Z2006-01-25T23:06:54.353Z

I realy liked the following comment from a colleague recently. I had been along to Microsoft in SOHO to see Louise Ferguson speak on "Ethnography and how it can inform design", and was asked: "What's ethnography?...Isn't it just a posh word for sitting around watching people do things?"Well, that's my pomposity well and truly pricked!Technorati tags: ethnography | usability | london

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1138227990926815132006-01-25T22:16:00.000Z2006-01-25T22:26:30.936Z

I hadn't realised until the other day that there are issues with ASP outputting valid XHTML strict. Apparently ASP 2.0 can do it, but 1.0 has a couple of interesting quirks that can cause issues that are rather tough to work around. Owing to time constraints, I'm considering switching our doctype to Transitional just to allow for the fact that ASP is throwing up a input of type hidden, and giving

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1136835569455271442006-01-09T19:37:00.000Z2006-01-09T19:39:29.466Z

Check out Retrievr - it works best if you draw blocks of colour rather than trying to draw "things". Great fun, and a nice way of thinking about object recognition and visual search.

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1134069673545572652005-12-08T19:12:00.000Z2005-12-08T19:21:13.556Z

I don't seem to have had very much time to blog recently, which is a shame, as there has been much that I have wanted to blog about concerning planning, requirements elicitation, devising KPIs and metrics for non-financial benefits, as well as thoughts on how not to launch a knowledge management initiative.Today, however, I was (among many other things) setting up Macromedia FLEX 1.5 on my laptop

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1132490779491843612005-11-20T12:43:00.000Z2005-11-20T12:46:19.506Z

I got my usability professionals association (UOA) membership through the other day, so am now looking for meetings to attend in aand around London with other UPA members. Any UPA members let me know who you are and I'll say hello at some stage.Technorati tags: membership | usability | upa

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1129723109355700212005-10-19T11:41:00.000Z2005-10-19T11:58:29.363Z

A few weeks ago, I read a scintillating article (which I have unfortunately no record of) with an advertising guru, where he spelled out the lazy archetypes of advertising - the only one of which I can remember is the "literal metaphor" of which the Guiness Fish on a Bicycle ("a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle") is an example.Last night I was reminded of another lazy archetype that

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1129721171341999732005-10-19T10:16:00.000Z2005-10-19T11:26:11.346Z

Owing to the large volume of comments spam I am receiving at the moment, I have switched some options to restrict comment posting to "registered users". If you have a valid comment, and are unable to post using the comments, send me an email instead and I'll maybe put it on the site as a posting.

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1128520390636806402005-10-05T13:42:00.000Z2005-10-05T13:53:10.643Z

I am involved in a project at the moment, where we are looking to develop an online application using (for us) a new technology. The company has an outsourced technical team (not first-language English speakers) who will be doing the development, but none of them have experience of this technology.I've been looking at mitigating the experience risk by getting them trained up, ensuring that they

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1128079900371794912005-09-30T11:31:00.000Z2005-09-30T11:39:52.580Z

Via Jon Udell, here’s gmail on steroids: zimbra. Zimbra is a beta, but looks like it does all the things I wish gmail would let me do – online calendaring and contact management (which, to be fair, gmail handles OK already) all integrated into the one interface, much like Outlook. Nice to see as a next-generation online tool; personally I hope the guys at 37signals hook basecamp into it, then I’d

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1126814208237907952005-09-15T19:44:00.000Z2005-09-15T19:56:48.243Z

While visiting an immense project today, the following exchange was held between someone based at the project, another colleague, and myself (this exchange is not verbatim):"Sorry, did I hear you say you used Documentum for Document Management?" (me)"Yes, but not everyone uses it. It isn't really that user-friendly: when you start, the next page takes a minute, a minute-and-a-half to load up, and

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1126702158615409172005-09-14T12:49:00.000Z2005-09-14T12:52:59.116Z

While looking for something else focused on rich internet applications, I came across the following link to A Venture Forth’s list of the top ten Ajax apps. The Periodic table is very nice!NB: True to my promise, I used the Blogger Word plug-in to post this & it seemed to work fine.Technorati tags: ajax | ria | blog

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1126528532497322962005-09-12T12:31:00.000Z2005-09-12T12:35:32.503Z

The wonky title is deliberate, since - as part of its Europe-focused (?) re-design - The Guardian has gone all compressed and lower-case. I can't really comment too much as I have yet to swing by the news-stand and grab a copy in the flesh (apologies for the mixed metaphor), but, via Tom Coates, here is Dan Hill's cogent view on the branding exercise. I particularly like the use of Flickr

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1126267785166947042005-09-09T12:04:00.000Z2005-09-09T12:09:45.166Z

I've not been too experimental with my blog recently (or particularly assiduous in writing posts), so I am going to endeavour to add technorati tags to relevant posts, think about actually re-designing the blog ("re"-design is a bit of a joke, as I didn't put too much effort into look-and-feel in the first place!), and fiddle about with posting direct from MS Word. If anyone has any suggestions

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1126203023039479092005-09-08T18:04:00.000Z2005-09-09T12:03:58.836Z

I was just reminded of a presentation I gave last year on the role of online communication in crisis communication by the following quote from an article called "Brand Rehab: How Companies Can Restore a Tarnished Image" from the Knowledge at Wharton newsletter:"The rise of the Internet poses new problems for post-scandal communications, adds Blythe. "Blogging can kill you. Before, when we had a

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1126128591944797132005-09-07T21:17:00.000Z2005-09-07T21:29:51.953Z

I've recently had feedback complaining that I haven't written anything in a while - for which I apologise, only citing the pressures of moving and starting a new job. Real life sometimes gets in the way of blogging, I suppose.Something which caught my eye today was an article in the Evening Standard pointing out that The Guardian is changing its format to a more tabloid, Berliner style, is

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1125572722017374202005-09-01T11:00:00.000Z2005-09-01T11:05:22.023Z

While I love the collaborative authoring aspects of Wikis, I've always thought that wiki markup, while nicely concise, acted as a barrier to their uptake in "the real world". Via socialtext, I've come across Wikiwyg, a JavaScript-driven wysiwyg editor for wikis (designed to integrate into existing wiki s). I just tried out the demo, and while double-clicking to reveal in-context editing is a bit

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1125520221625986162005-08-31T19:25:00.000Z2005-08-31T20:30:21.630Z

My colleague, Karl Pickering, repeated a real gem of an expression again today, while talking about establishing a new brand:"You don't get a second chance at a first impression."I like the simplicity of this statement as well as it's 2:1 ratio, which reminds me of my favourite phrase for project planning, the carpenter's proverb:"Measure twice, cut once."I'd love to hear some more 2:1 phrases I

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1124309403510183752005-08-17T20:05:00.000Z2005-08-17T20:10:03.516Z

After a few months of independent consultancy work, I've moved back to London to start a new job (which I can't say too much about for the time being, but it's very interesting). I'm not likely to post all that much over the next few weeks as I can foresee myself being exceedingly busy.However, one thing that has struck me recently is the following: even in companies that approach project

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1122025307221100172005-07-22T09:30:00.000Z2005-07-22T09:41:47.226Z

A reminder from The Times Career supplement (back-to-back articles, pps 3-4, 21/07/2005) that it takes effort to be inspired as well as to build (or in this case, restore) a reputation. A short article ("Ideas plucked from a blue sky") on innovation strategy pointed out - quoting Saj Parwani, MD of ?What If! - "Innovation is a science," in other words it requires time, study and effort. A similar

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1122024612706478122005-07-22T09:12:00.000Z2005-07-22T09:30:12.713Z

I was in London yesterday, and was approaching Angel Tube at 12.45 just as it was being evacuated and the Northern Line shut down - as the bus I needed did not appear to be running at that time, I instead enjoyed the opportunity to take a longish walk through London, walking first to Clerkenwell for an appointment and then on to Borough, then back up to Fleet Street for a drink with my friend,

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1121356061326533112005-07-14T15:38:00.000Z2005-07-14T15:47:41.333Z

I am always surprised at how little attention is paid to page footprints (size) on many websites and intranets (especially now that everyone seems to have a fat connection). Page footprints are not just about how fast the page loads for the user, they also offer fantastic savings in bandwidth.This came to my mind last week - as I went onto the BBC site in search of news about the London Bombing

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1121353196272520462005-07-14T14:51:00.000Z2005-07-14T14:59:56.273Z

Governance and guidelines are the essentials of a sound website, portal, intranet or extranet, and all too often neglected (nobody appears to enjoy documenting good practices, workflows and checklists in a company, let alone sticking to them) in my experience. Via James Robertson, I read this succinct and interesting article on portal governance, much of which relates to intranets and websites

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1121258318790865432005-07-13T12:27:00.000Z2005-07-14T14:48:00.840Z

I came across this post via the E-consultancy E-business Briefing newsletter: a forum post asking site managers to stop relying on Bobby automated testing for accessibility. I was quite surprised, as I had assumed accessibility had reached a "critical mass" in terms of industry perception.It's simple: automated tools can point you in the right direction, pick up on issues you might not have

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1121100466067227232005-07-11T16:37:00.000Z2005-07-11T16:47:46.073Z

About a week and a half ago, I read a very small story in a newspaper about the Belgian government's Kafka red-tape cutting initiative (here's the ABC coverage, The Guardian website was timing out while I wrote this). I think this is a great piece of collaborative "knowledge management" that delivered huge savings - about £150mn, I think, just by getting user-focused and asking the populace what

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1120381744922564472005-07-03T08:58:00.000Z2005-07-03T09:09:05.226Z

My wife and I marched on the Make Poverty History demonstration through Edinburgh yesterday. What a magnificent site it was to see so many people (over 200,000) - in particular large numbers of the very young and old - gathered together for one message: "Make Poverty History". I do not for one minute expect the march to live up to its slogan - this would be a naive mis-reading of its purpose -

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1119097914198715972005-06-18T12:23:00.000Z2005-06-18T12:34:49.223Z

Via Jeff Veen *, here's Rico, "a suite of rich internet components, behaviors and effects for the web application space." - I've not explored it very much at all beyond a cursory look, but its an open source resource of Ajax RIA effects. The demos are very nice with drag n' drop and resize functionality.*(and its worth reading the comments below his post - particularly the reference to Macromedia

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1118918154805043482005-06-16T09:52:00.000Z2005-06-16T10:45:33.823Z

Via the Knowledge@Wharton newsletter comes an interview with Philip Evans (Boston consulting Group), Janice Fraser (Adaptive Path) and Ross Mayfield (Socialtext): "Wikis, Weblogs and RSS: What Does the New Internet Mean for Business?". I don't think that the article says anything new about the collaborative software space, but what I did appreciate was the attempt to explain the shift in

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1117796625870529022005-06-03T10:54:00.000Z2005-06-03T11:03:45.876Z

I've written about the hormone oxytocin and its role in trust before, but here (via The Guardian, via Nature) comes interesting corroboration as to howit influences our decisions as to trustworthiness:"Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich and colleagues tested 194 healthy male students in a series of sophisticated games of risk and trust: the players were given notional currency and could

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1117569491757986432005-05-31T19:53:00.000Z2005-05-31T19:58:11.763Z

Lee et al at Headshift have been playing assiduosly with BBC backstage it appears, and have hooked up a little Ajax tagger which allows you to free-tag BBC news stories. I played around with some stories about the French "no" vote to the EU constitution and de Villepin's promotion, and found it worked a treat. Well worth a fiddle for five minutes...

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1117456103871642702005-05-30T12:17:00.000Z2005-05-30T12:28:23.876Z

The UK is famously a nation of shopkeepers, but increasingly (since Mrs Thatcher's push for wealth for the individual and release of the nation's social housing stock) a notion of homeowners also. Watching a few TV programmes recently, I have become annoyed with the way in which this has meant that estate agency culture is starting to influence language (and hence the way we think about housing).

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1117455435221328192005-05-30T12:08:00.000Z2005-05-30T12:17:15.226Z

My wife was just on the phone to one of her best friends, she recently married a Swiss guy (also a very good friend) after having been a couple for very many years, and moved to Geneva. Despite several years experience as a Product Manager for an international pharmaceutical company in France, she has had no success in finding a new job. One factor in this is certainly the fact that she doesn't

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1117126994304194222005-05-26T16:03:00.000Z2005-05-26T17:05:34.466Z

I think I'm behind the times on this one, but I via Tom Coates plasticbag, I found this story on Coop's corner pointing out that a French Commission wants "blog" to be replaced by "bloc-notes". I checked this out a bit more and found a Le Monde article from the May 21 (not April 1!) which appears to corroborate this (look at the call out or see my loose translation below. I'm not really sure of

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1117108975395856322005-05-26T11:55:00.000Z2005-05-26T12:02:55.400Z

I was delighted yesterday to discover that I passed my PRINCE2 practitioner exam, and can now call myself a qualified PRINCE2 practitioner. At the moment, I am working on a project that uses a related (very very close cousin, I would say) simplification of PRINCE2 called PRIDE/PRIDElite, and am just trying to get to grips with the differences (mostly these are terminology and/or quantities of

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1116877576825793032005-05-23T19:42:00.000Z2005-05-23T19:46:16.830Z

I think I got to this via Lane Becker and Adaptive Path, but I can't remember: LukeW writes the nicest, simplest Ajax piece for communicating to non-techies that I've seen so far, and the lovely little file upload progress monitor from Home Made. Go on, try it, you'll like it...

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1116593561761287222005-05-20T12:47:00.000Z2005-05-20T12:52:41.766Z

While watching Trade Secrets on BBC2 today (a 5 minute show of top tips from industry experts - in this case theatre dressers), I suddenly realised what a great piece of knowledge management it is. I think video is often under-used by companies, and this sort of top-tip format could work beautifully in companies either for induction training or broken out into clips (with nice descriptive

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1116529976087694502005-05-19T19:04:00.000Z2005-05-19T19:12:56.093Z

Something about this post from 37 signals resonates (and not just because I am having fun trying out backpack at the moment): "Getting Real: Copywriting is interface design". I said earlier on in posting called "Choice Theory" that I would have a think about how editorial voice informs information architecture and lo and behold, I haven't got around to it yet... Anyway, Jason's piece is a nice,

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1116363626286053672005-05-17T20:58:00.000Z2005-05-17T21:00:26.290Z

I've just had a read of a few postings on Ajaxian Blog, but there are some nice wee Ajax demos, including an Amazon diamond search with accuracy sliders. Worth a quick peek.

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1116351209597056032005-05-17T17:16:00.000Z2005-05-17T17:33:29.603Z

As a callow undergraduate (I think that you only ever get to use the word "callow" in conjunction with "undergraduate"), I lived downstairs from Nigel Spivey, so it was with interest that I tuned into "How Art Made the World" on BBC2 last night. While I'm not sure I entirely agree with the very Platonic theory of Art having [entirely] stemmed from stone age hallucinations being cast onto grotto

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1115640106120055382005-05-09T11:57:00.000Z2005-05-14T09:30:31.406Z

I'm on holiday in Dubrovnik, which GB Shaw apparently called a paradise on earth - we've come over from Budapest (Hungary) which is now part of the EU. Croatia is also looking to join the EU, and in the square in Old Dubrovnik today I picked up an ABC lexicon to the EU in Croatian (not that I can understand Croatian): it made me realise (looking through the entries) how little I actually know

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1114634290506788482005-04-27T20:29:00.000Z2005-04-27T20:38:10.506Z

I haven't posted anything in a while, and am mulling over a couple of issues before I add anything to the blog. I'm really thinking about two concepts and how they could relate to IA. The first is choice theory, which - I must confess - I did not realise was a branch of economics until I started to read about it (in fact if anyone is interested there is an interesting article about bounded choice

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1113249231626912302005-04-11T19:40:00.000Z2005-04-11T19:53:51.626Z

I have been using a slightly bastardised version of the Delphi technique recently for some rapid requirements gathering and prioritising. Rather than the usual standard version where disonnant views are retained and ranked and re-ranked until stability appears (fine if you have plenty of time to build consensus), I've gone for a quick fix - send out a focused, open-ended questionnaire, retain all

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1113247213053042442005-04-11T18:58:00.000Z2005-04-12T16:01:08.836Z

I haven't posted for a while as I've been focusing on consultancy work (to keep the home fires burning now that I've left my job with my previous employer) and taking PRINCE2 project management training and exams, but I noticed this really nice video overview from CMSWatch (via StepTwo) showing some Ajax techniques in CMSs - sometimes IE does rule...UPDATE - 12/04/2005Just trawled through a few

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1111432776764545852005-03-21T19:07:00.000Z2005-03-21T19:19:36.766Z

I've been looking through a bunch of Information Architect job roles recently, and noticed that a number of the ads are placing a great deal of stress on the production of deliverables, and specifying experience in specific "IA" tools like Visio and Omnigraffle.I know that job ads can be reductive, but I do worry about the emphasis being placed on deliverables rather than skillsets: some of this

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1110542803847376572005-03-11T11:59:00.000Z2005-03-11T16:39:57.053Z

From brukaropplevingar.com a write-up of comments on Folksonomy from IA luminaries at the IA Summit. I agree with many of the reservations, but I reckon that in a controlled, corporate environment tagging could pay dividends:1) it connects personal concepts with more social concepts (including organisational);2) it offers a path for emergent terminology to be added to a more controlled vocabulary

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1110541494491762082005-03-11T11:25:00.000Z2005-03-11T11:44:54.493Z

Via Jon Udell, I have come across the very cool looking Mark Logic Content Interaction Server (CIS). From what I've gathered so far - without reading the white paper yet, so this might be not 100% on the ball - this acts as a repository for content of different formats, which it stores as XML and then, using a mix of XML querying and search logic, is able to deliver more targeted and granular

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1109587164493090222005-02-28T10:36:00.000Z2005-02-28T10:39:24.493Z

IBM has just released Home Page Reader, a new, accessible "talking Web Browser", which is being targeted at the corporate environment from the looks of things:"The latest version of Home Page Reader is particularly geared to companies and organizations whose employees use the Internet to gather information they need for their daily work, and to communicate with customers, suppliers and other

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1109179091376865232005-02-23T16:25:00.000Z2005-02-23T17:36:07.413Z

Another good folksonomy overview on The Community Engine: Using mapped folksonomy to break corporate silos...very much my opinion as expressed in earlier posts, a viewpoint also taken up by Javier Velasco in his comment on Lou's Bloug post: Damned Addiction."Hybrid Classification …?Wouldn't user tagging be a great way to fill a hierarchical classification… or many?(...) Keyword-only systems allow

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1109071256512591882005-02-22T11:16:00.000Z2005-02-22T11:20:56.516Z

Via Alex Gault of Collaboration Cafe comes this very cool sounding technology from BT, SWORD. BT is pushing small world social networking within corporate environments to boost company directories:"SWORD works by putting the user at the centre of his or her own universe, updating their personal contacts profile according to the frequency and number of calls they make to colleagues. So as they

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1109067651845060152005-02-22T10:05:00.000Z2005-02-22T10:20:51.846Z

Another comment via Column Two: William Hudson - who I know from his usability work for the Intranet Benchmarking Forum - has come up with a neat idea to get around some of the difficulties surrounding card-sorting, those being:1) analysis is repetitive and time-consuming for a human;2) it's generally easier for people to sort with real cards than onscreen;3) none of the existing tools seem to

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1109066520022052002005-02-22T09:50:00.000Z2005-02-22T10:02:00.023Z

Within our intranet - owing to lack of resource at present - we delegate the task of structuring sets of intranet pages lower down the hierarchy to our content authors. In some cases, this means the content authors come back to us and request IA help, in others it means they go ahead and architect the sites themselves, with results verging from the reasonably well ordered and user-focused to the

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1109001249785385452005-02-21T15:48:00.000Z2005-02-23T11:55:17.516Z

Jesse James Garrett has an interesting article on what Adaptive Path are calling AJAX, essentially the model that uses DOM and standards to provide richer internet applications (think Gmail, Google maps, Google suggest - think Google, I suppose.) among other things through the retention of state. All I want to know is what's in the Ajax engine?UPDATE 22/02/2005A little more on this from Mr Veen:

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1108561313808065032005-02-16T13:21:00.000Z2005-02-16T13:41:53.813Z

I've just been keeping my eyes on the folksonomy pros and cons discussions (there's a nice overview article on Burningbird) - obviously I'm in complete agreement with regard to flat social categorisation replacing classification systems, but think that it is all a question of value judgement: the folksonomy approach combines personal information retrieval (my tags) with social information

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1108240953625350202005-02-12T20:30:00.000Z2005-02-12T20:42:33.626Z

I reckon some whiz-kid out there has probably implemented this somewhere already, but I was pondering multimap-style directions and google-map today, and thinking about the mental model that map-type views force us into. Personally, I look at the world with a horizon-point rather than from above, and find the easiest directions to follow are those which give me clear, visual reference points at

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1107869328712807312005-02-08T13:24:00.000Z2005-02-08T13:28:48.713Z

I strongly suggest that you read the Wired article Scientific Method Man that I came across via a SIGIA discussion on expert systems and expert-level knowledge. The technique appears to be a form of knowledge gap analysis to try to find new, possibly untapped directions for research, and seems inherently common-sensical: define the known territory; analyse assumptions; find under-explored areas (

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1107348291998866252005-02-02T13:38:00.000Z2005-02-02T12:44:51.996Z

There's an interesting post from urlgreyhot on RSS newsfeeds, as I was contemplating the issue of a company knowledge aggregator in the context of intranet news feeds the other day. Apparently the MSN Search Beta and Yahoo News offer RSS feeds (which I must confess I didn't know about - note that there is no news available about me, surprise!) on specific search queries - which is particularly

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1107265166631647222005-02-01T13:00:00.000Z2005-02-01T15:15:36.350Z

Not a particularly scintillating title, I know, but I'm just trying to ponder the different information clouds, their interaction and utility from a knowledge management perspective. What sparked this line of thought was a) more thinking about "folksonomies" (or as Peter Merholz points out - collective categorizations/group taggings, as they are flat not taxonomical - i.e. define the

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1107180348017796212005-01-31T13:50:00.000Z2005-01-31T14:07:45.030Z

I'm soon to attempt version three of our intranet CMS user guide - we have a good handle on what our users want and need to know, as they are pretty good at providing feedback, and I tend to act as the coalface for this. My issue is more in supporting the various different modes of learning that our users have (they range from the technically not knowledgeable to the technically very

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364058.post-1106774172152882002005-01-26T16:00:00.000Z2005-01-27T11:59:44.640Z

I haven't posted for a while, but like many out there, I've been thinking about services like delicious which can offer the benefit of developing a folksonomy (a.k.a. free-tagging, ethno-classification, distributed tagging) within a corporate environment. On the wicky wacky world wide web, the benefits seem obvious - flat metadata categories which help you to easily identify useful information (

Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870416406574109081noreply@blogger.com1