Gone for a short while, traveling to work with my peeps in California. Here’s some destinations more worthy of your time:
Author: Victor
-
Cheerleaders and Search Engines
Looking at my referers I see people often find their way here by searching Google for ‘noise‘ where I’m currently result #9. While this is like warm massage oil on my ego, it confirms what I used to rant about (see March 12) that popular doesn’t necessarily equal better (or more relevant). Does a person searching for ‘noise‘ really want my content? I doubt it.
The same search on Teoma actually brings up a bunch of pages about noise: noise pollution, the Institute of Noise Control, noise and hearing loss…those are quality results. And while this is an isolated example, the difference is striking. For pure relevancy, I’m starting to look into Teoma.
-
MoinMoin
Jim recently taught me the phrase ‘MoinMoin’ which is a greeting used throughout the day in northern Germany. It’s derived from ‘Guten Morgen’ (‘Good Morning’) which gets shortened to ‘Morgen’ which somehow became ‘Moin.’
Only days later I stumbled upon MoinMoin, a Wiki clone made with Python. They say the name was chosen for its WikiWikiNess.
-
The Morning News
As it re-launches I just discovered The Morning News, a ‘broadsheet’ of headlines and fiction. With writers like Paul Ford, Joshual Allen, and Michael Barrish it’s the Boxes and Arrows of writing on the web. Link courtesy of Maggie.
ooh, and they have a review of the new Death Cab for Cutie album, currently on the infinite repeat setting of my headphones.
-
Writer’s Workshop Critique Format
Looking for a Lighweight Way to Receive Peer Feedback
In the past I attempted to improve the quality of information architecture work on the department level using heuristic analysis. It’s relatively easy to do, but in reality I found analysis sessions difficult to run because 1) the presentation and feedback process is time consuming due to the scope problem: IA covers a large problem area, and 2) heuristics alone are unstructured, possibly causing blank-sheet-of-paper syndrome.
I tried accomplishing similar results using a format borrowed from writing groups, described below. We used it at the design patterns workshop at CHI 2000 and it was very successful.
To address the scope problem, we’d only review an approach instead of an entire architecture. An approach could be summarized by touching on
- the users
- the business scenario
- one path, one use case, or one blueprint
…and be expressed in under 20 minutes (figuring the entire exercise could run about an hour). The idea is that suggestions on an approach should help guide the IA through the rest of the architecture.
Writer’s Workshop Format
This version contains my modifications to include heuristics
In preparation, all critics have familiarized themselves with the IA approach before the workshop. One of the critics, the facilitator, provides an initial welcoming, the author first reads a part of her work to the authors, to remind everybody there’s a person with feelings behind the work. After this introduction, the author fades into the background and attends the following discussion without interfering (called a fly on the wall). One of the critics now summarizes the paper in his own words and the others can add to this summary. Next, the critics refer to the heuristics and offer positive comments on the submission, and subsequently constructive suggestions (what could be improved) are collected. The discussion ends with a summary of the good points of the paper (this sandwich technique avoids a negative lasting impression). After this, the author is welcomed back into the group and allowed to ask questions if some comments were not clear to her, or if she wishes to see another aspect of her paper discussed. She is not allowed, however, to defend her work at this time. As this whole discussion can be a bit harsh at times, the author is finally applauded for her work (and courage to submit it), and, to round out the activity with levity, somebody closes the session with an entertaining unrelated story.
In summary, the steps are:
- Preparation
- Welcoming
- Author reads, then becomes a fly on the wall
- Summary
- Positive comments
- Constructive comments
- Summary of good points
- Author’s questions
- Applause
- Unrelated story
I’ve tried it a couple times with limited success. I’m interested to know if others have used it or if it could work in an online critique format.
Thanks to Jan Borchers for sharing this format with me.
-
New User Roadmap
The DAML (The DARPA Agent Markup Language Homepage ) site has a nice variation on the usual site map – the new user roadmap. They list some of the primary users:
- software developer
- XML enthusiast
- logician
- WWW standards junkie
- program manager
- Semantic Web researcher
- military user
- reporter
and each is a link to a set of pages for that user type to explore in order to learn about DAML:
Logician
- About DAML
- DAML+OIL walkthru
- DAML+OIL axiomatic semantics
- DAML+OIL model theoretic semantics
- www-rdf-logic@w3.org email list
- subscribe to the HotDAML Newsletter
And since these are metadata folks, I wouldn’t be surprised if these categories are populated dynamically using metadata.
-
Flying Chickens
I received an answer to my can-roosters-fly? question. I’m sure you were all waiting on the edge of your seats for that one.
-
Powermate Volume Knob
Last year I wished aloud for a hardware volume knob for my Mac. Griffin Tech has released what may be the coolest volume knob ever, essentially a function-assignable rotary USB controller. The Wired article has more. Links courtesy Jerry Kindall.
Combining the Powermate’s software with the Oxygen 8‘s USB controls could result in a whole new interface into multimedia authoring.
-
Bridget’s Google Hacking
Bridget is experimenting with how to improve Google’s ranking of a particular site. A little bombing and tweaking of the title tag did wonders.
Historical note: years ago I submitted this blog to Bridget’s portal and she was nice enough to note me in her blog, and the link popularity spread from there. So perhaps I can help return the favor by helping her cause: santa cruz real estate :)
-
Visio for Sale
I won a new copy of Visio 2002 Standard, but can’t use it. Valued at $199,
it’s yours for the low low price of $50.Sold.