Noise Between Stations

The [[37Signals]] Getting Real book is now available free online as well as in PDF and paperback formats. With a focus on building web apps, it’s a great perspective on using an agile/craft way of working. It’s also a clever publishing strategy, analogous to the traditional hardcover/paperback progression: Test and then build crazy excitement around [...]

Here’s a small but important lesson about getting field research done in a corporate environment. If you propose research, folks may hear that word and think R&D, and that’s not capitalizable, i.e. the cost can’t be allocated against a particular product/service. That means the cost can’t be delayed and counted against future revenues (delaying costs [...]

In HBR this month is a rare, methodical (and free) look at the financial effect of online communities via a study of eBay Germany… Over the course of a year, we compared the behavior of community enthusiasts and lurkers with that of the control group. The differences were astonishing. Lurkers and community enthusiasts bid twice [...]

The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that seeks to empower citizens to capture, post and share photographs of democracy in action. By documenting their local voting experience on November 7, voters can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.

Dr. Michael J. Norden, a University of Washington professor of psychiatry, found a correlation between playing ultimate frisbee and success in university. He explains: Students not known for athletic prowess “can show up at college having never played” and be good at it by year’s end. The game calls for “spatial aptitude” (“to ‘read’ the [...]