Archive for June, 2007
June 30, 2007
My Wikipedia Contribution Lives On
Deane at Gadgetopia recently discovered the Unconference entry on Wikipedia. This is a topic I created on Wikipedia back in November 2005. It caused a bit of a kerfluffle with Dave Winer at the time, who slammed me indirectly for getting the attribution on the term wrong.
Since I created the entry, it has been edited hundreds of times (only a few by me) and is a nice comprehensive, yet concise, article now. This is one of the reasons why I love the Internet and the Web.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | One Comment
June 27, 2007
Ah, Modern Yearbook Anxiety
This story in the Washington Post brought back memories of being a yearbook staffer (I was even co-editor in chief my senior year!):
From Facebook To a Yearbook, Teens Get a Jolt – washingtonpost.com
This story is about how the yearbook staff of a high school lifted a bunch of pics posted by students to Facebook without permission. Not smart. They don’t mention a yearbook advisor in the story, but I see it as a failure of the the high school staff to inform and monitor the yearbook students. Looks like they are moving on the ethics education piece, which is good.
What they ought to do next year is create a yearbook group on Facebook and use it to get photos submitted by the students for the yearbook. Leverage the trend, don’t fight it!
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Comment
June 20, 2007
Marc Andreeson on Facebook’s API
Marc Andreeson, founder of the original Netscape, has posted his thoughts on Facebook’s new API, which has created quite the storm of attention since it launched. This observation is quite interesting:
Analyzing the Facebook Platform, three weeks in
The implication is, in my view, quite clear — the Facebook Platform is primarily for use by either big companies, or venture-backed startups with the funding and capability to handle the slightly insane scale requirements. Individual developers are going to have a very hard time taking advantage of it in useful ways.
In short, creating a Facebook application with the API requires that you provide your own server resources to power the application. Facebook’s super-viral distribution of popular apps leads to crushing load on your web servers in a very short amount of time if you are (un)lucky enough to create a popular application.
The capacity to rapidly scale up server capacity is probably beyond even some large corporation’s ability unless they have specifically prepared themselves to do so. Your web application needs to be designed for scaling up the number of servers as well.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | 2 Comments
June 20, 2007
Microsoft’s Hammer
Is it just me or has Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) mania taken over the IT world?
I have heard lots of buzz about this package, especially in the association industry, but I’ve yet to see the overwhelming value in MOSS’s interfaces and services over previous versions of SharePoint. MOSS is nice for collaboratively managing documents and searching but beyond that basic project work I think its interface gets in the way. It is a horrible community platform compared to many of the open source and low-cost solutions already available.
Not to mention the organizations that are diving in head first and planning on using MOSS (with MS CMS rolled in) as the total solution for their intranet and public web sites. There is a good reason that different classes of solutions have evolved for public and intranet sites: they have vastly differing requirements for most organizations.
My advice is to bide your time and carefully consider which nails you ultimately decide to whack with the MOSS hammer.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | One Comment
June 15, 2007
Interfaces Matter
As Nick Senzee points out in devastating detail, interfaces matter. In this case, a registration system creates negative vibes for ASAE’s big show, which has prided itself on good conference vibes the last few years.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Comment
June 5, 2007
Association Management Meets Content Management
I’m facilitating a panel today at the Gilbane DC conference today that discuss the intersection of association and web content management.
Here is the handout for the session that I am posting for attendees to find as well as readers of the blog. It provides a brief overview of the cases we will discuss today.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Comment
June 1, 2007
Generational Writing
ASAE received a letter from a member of the millennial generation, Brynn Grumstrup Slate, in response to an article they published about millennials. An excerpt:
As an engaged ASAE member and a member of the Millennial generation, I appreciated the column “Preparing for the Millennial Tsunami” in the May issue of Associations Now. The article would have been even more effective, however, if it had integrated the voice of a Millennial in addition to the experienced views of Bruce Butterfield and Susan Fox and shared a first person perspective on the work habits and career goals of this emerging group.
I’m right there with you, Brynn. The same thing always made me uncomfortable as a Gen X’er myself. There are still speakers and authors talking about how to work with Gen X even though some of us are now over 40 years old. They should start having sessions on “How to work FOR Gen X” soon. :)
My suggestion for Brynn and other Millenials (and any other generation for that matter) who feel cut out: start your own blog or other web site and express yourself. Formal publications are easily routed around these days.
Ben Martin had nothing to do with this post but I’m linking to him anyway.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | 7 Comments
June 1, 2007
A Second Opinion on Webmaster as a Title
Jeremiah on Webmaster as a title:
Did I tell you I hate the term “Webmaster”? It’s so reminiscent of the sys admin in your IT department that built your first corporate website with flashing graphics.
I couldn’t agree more.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Comment
+1 (410) 742-9088 | david@highcontext.com
Copyright © 2010 High Context Consulting
Privacy Policy: HCC will never share your information with anyone without your permission.