MiramarMike - Blog

Ha ha ha ha - much like the First Life parody the Concerns that 'in-person' social-networking could corrupt children NewsBiscuit article is classic: A controversial new teenage social-networking trend is emerging across the country, causing alarm amongst parents and community leaders. Rather than using the safety of computers or mobile phones to talk to each other, young people have started meeting up in person to chat, listen to music, share photographs and even form relationships. Read the whole article >>

A large part (85%+) of my work involves communication/change management and one* of the methods I use is to supply stories of where certain behaviours/features have worked at other organisations. The knack is to use stories that are current, relevant and have an "Aha!" moment within them. So where to find them. On the Web. Yeah, ok ... but where? One of my discovery mechanisms I am finding very useful and extremely focussed is to use del.icio.us . In practice what I do is: Find someone I respect that is working in a similar field Find them on del.icio.us Add them to my network Subscribe to my network RSS feed Watch the sites they bookmark It does feel a wee bit like looking over someone's shoulder but I can live with that. Some people not only bookmark the sites but add comments and use del.icio.us as a sort of blog - this is extremely useful and I will try and do the same from now on. Give it a whirl yourself and see what you click through to - the hard parts are steps 1

Whilst I am deep in it (technology) and I even enjoy the use of it (technology - computer stuff) I generally can't be arsed with the internal workings of it. In fact I don't care that Google uses Linux, that the project I'm running at work is based on MOSS or that Firefox is a better browser because it's open source. I care about passionately and with increasing frustration is HOW it betters the world! I mean that. For instance, I use Google Docs because I can access MY information from anywhere I want and don't have to lug around a laptop or wait until I'm at home on my PC. That's it! Now there might be subsidiary reasons that keep me with Google Docs and away from, say, Zoho ... but really, I don't care - it's doing it for me. And I'm happy. And therefore the happiness of the world is raised a wee bit. This view is, I think, the majority view. It's how my father sees the world*, it's how Liz sees the world, it's how Jack sees the

Tacky phrase, I think, "user experience". Having said that though, it is true - it is all about the "user experience". One of the key points to the project I am running at work is that the interface IS the product. The way it looks and feels (old way of saying "user experience") IS what the person remembers. If it works with them the product is good, if it works counter to what they believe then it doesn't. For instance - MOSS (latest release of SharePoint) doesn't seem to offer drag-and-drop capability to uploading files. If you are emailed an attachment then you want to have it put into a document library (whatever that is?) - should be drag-and-drop. And this isn't a case of Microsoft forgetting to implement it - there are ways of doing it and so the feature is supported! However the interface doesn't work WITH me. It makes me think. And that's the key, or maybe just one of the keys, to a site/product that people use. To further educ