MiramarMike: Blog

http://io9.com/5157008/why-does-bruce-sterling-hate-web-20#c10987795 (excuse the title, it's how we early adopters tweet  ;-)

It struck me that a lot of you will be reading this via the RSS feed and therefore won't be getting the most out of the blog. Don't get me wrong the real guts of me, the real value, the real stuff is mostly* held in the blog posts but there is a stream of valuable and very pertinent information that you RSS readers may not be getting, namely ... Shared Google Reader articles ( link | feed ) It's rare that I actually post an article about an article unless it is so good that I am blown away (eg "saving time on your intranet is a bad metric" - YES!!! ) or that it encapsulates exactly what I was thinking (eg, It's Not A Blog If You Don't Have Comments ) So how do I share the great reads that pop up in my reader (about 3-4/day) - by popping on a special "enterprise20_share" tag and letting you all see them: Right-hand menu of the blog Whole special page just for my shared reads Subscribe to the articles as I share them @miramarmike tweets (f

Google is known for it's search engine, a search engine that no-one had to sign up for before using - it just worked. However, it doesn't work quite well enough - if it did it would return just one result, the one you were looking for. To do that Google needs to know more about you as this famous quote from the Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, highlights: We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion. You see, relevancy - the more relevant they can make the search (& therefore adverts) the more you and I will see them as "useful information" and therefore click on them upping the ante for other search providers AND ultimately keeping the $$$s rolling into the Googleplex bank account. Yep, they're in this for the money folks! Relevancy ... it's the key to all information providers be it a worldwide search engine or your team wiki. Make the information relevant to

I was talking with a fellow "intranet person" quite some months ago and she was describing how she was endeavouring to make her Intranet a "sticky place". By that she meant that it was somewhere where her companies staff would want to go and stay. Her ideas included topical polls, use of cartoons (no doubt copyright laden Dilbert) and social connectors such as a "buy/sell bulletin board". I told her that I thought that the idea was fundamentally flawed (I think the word I actually used was "crap"). I explained that she was viewing her Intranet through the classic metrics of 'page hits', 'bounce rates' and 'time on page' which works well if your site (be it Intranet or Internet) is one of dispensing information that must (MUST) be read, internally digested and acted upon. Within most companies there is very little that can truly be said to be of such importance ... no, really, ask your staff what they really think of the

So, there we have it, Webstock 2009 is over and yet another success from the team - well done! What did I think of it all, well there's really only two questions that people seem to want to know the answer: Wow, what did you think of Ze Frank? Crickey, what did you think of Bruce Sterling? Ze Frank made me cry and I'm still not sure why. He made a difference deep within that is still being worked upon. Bruce Sterling made me laugh and think. His talk was provocative but nothing that surprising as it's what he does. I was more surprised by the tweets flying around that were obviously challenged by his views and approach ... but that also made me laugh. For actual write ups of the full conference you can do no better than any one of these: Kalena 'webstock' posts Ben's CloudAve 'webstock09' posts Ben's Idealog posts matt.geek.nz webstock '09: day 1 webstock '09: day 2: when sterling attacks Robyn's  I went to Webstock and I all got w

[Updated: 23-Feb-2009] As you've all probably read/seen the NZ Government has delayed the implementation of Section 92a. I'd like to congratulate Bronwyn and Matthew as well as all their CreativeFreedom.org supporters for an amazing effort. Read more at many news websites , here's the low down from Radio New Zealand : The Government has announced it will delay the introduction of a controversial new copyright law due to come into effect this week. Last week the Government was presented with a petition signed online by more than 10,000 people against Section 92A of the Copyright Act. It requires Internet Service Providers to disconnect users accused of illegally downloading copyrighted material, and opponents say people will be disconnected without evidence or court scrutiny. Prime Minister John Key says the implementation of Section 92A will now be delayed until 27 March to give the industry time to agree on a voluntary code of practice. Mr Key says if there has

Wow, Stephen Fry , Leo Laporte , VodafoneNZ and many MANY more are changing their online icons to a black square in protest of the New Zealand Government bringing in Section 92a ( my previous posts ). The protest is being lead by two totally separate groups: CreativeFreedom.org and ... wait for it, Peter Dunne MP . Here's the opening stanza from CreativeFreedom - http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html : ---------- Join The New Zealand Internet Blackout to protest against the Guilt Upon Accusation law 'Section 92A' that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny. This is due to come into effect on February 28th unless immediate action is taken by the National Party. Join thousands of New Zealanders already against this law by blacking out your Facebook photo, your websites, your Myspace pages, your Twitter account, in protest against this unjust new law that

If you intend going to this years most awesome Webstock - really, have you seen the most awesome speakers , seen how to write a business case for it and generally got your a-into-g and sort out a ticket! ... anyway, if you're going to Webstock ( Wellington Town Hall , NZ) this year then please PLEASE don't hesitate to come up to me and say kia ora/hello as it's always a pleasure to meet those of you that take time to read this blog (thank you). For those stalkers*** out there I'm gonna be at: Damian Conway's, Presentation Akido workshop all day Monday 16th (booked in for my 5 minutes of "constructive feedback" already, golly) Michael Lopp's, Managing Humans and Projects workshop on the morning of Wednesday 18th Conference proper , Thursday 19th & Friday 20th Not sure what actual sessions yet** Post conference 'cup of tea and a slice of cake' at The Embassy Theatre There is also the Official Unofficial Webstock Before Party at the

( further in the ongoing series of, "Don't forget all this shiny technology isn't actually doing anything new" ) Collaboration seems to be such a buzz word at the moment that you'd think it was invented 2 years ago ... um, no! The foll lowing two great phrases from the recent past highlight such a belief: I remember the old working days, before all this damned collaboration :-) Said in jest but displays an underlying seriousness. More worrying was this from a self-confessed technophobe at a client site: Don't get all techie on me in this preso by using words like 'blog' and 'collaboration'! Crickey! But remember everyone, collaboration has been around since the first human needed to kill an animal larger than themselves. Also, collaboration can be good or bad  and is not a goal in itself - WHY are you collaborating, what is the desired outcome*? Collaboration needs nothing more than good information , clear communication and active co