still i love taxonomy, but not as much as you, you see

Taxonomy. It’s the word on everyone’s lips these days. No, it’s not the study of 1040 Forms. Nor does it have anything to do with stuffing and mounting small animals. It’s the art of writing down words on index cards and then shuffling them until they are ordered into a controlled vocabulary.

Amy J. Warner, in “A Taxonomy Primer” (2002) (from Lexonomy via The Information Architecture Institute) says taxonomies, thesauri, classification systems and synonym rings are all “controlled vocabularies: organized lists of words and phrases, or notation systems. They are used to tag content and then to find it through navigation or search.”

The reason you need a controlled vocabulary is to develop a navigation and/or search scheme-so the user can find your website’s content. Here’s an example: suppose your user is looking for a recipe for zucchini. Natural language tagging simply won’t suffice. You need synonym rings, so that all your recipes for courgettes will come up too. See?

“The next level of organization of your terms is to arrange them in some way. Usually, a hierarchy is used,” says Warner. “This level of organization is generally what people are referring to when they use the term taxonomy…. Hierarchies also show the relationships among content items.”

Vegetables / Squashes / Zucchini is one path. Relating terms across hierarchies (associative or related term relationship) is the most complex level of control, according to Warner. That’s how you arrive at Main Courses / Vegetarian Dishes / Zucchini Parmesan.

When all this taxing taxonomying is done, you’ll probably be hungry. Just search for Zucchini Parmesan-and voila!-you’ll find those tasty courgettes.

The good news is that you can apparently buy these vocabularies as there are “literally hundreds, if not thousands…floating around.” Warner suggests shopping around first to see if there are any you can adapt to your website, but more than likely you’ll end up building your own, “so that you can create a stock of structured terms to organize as you wish.”

One final word of caution from Warner: “Make sure that the results you get from developing, using, and maintaining a controlled vocabulary [taxonomy] are worth the investment…. Otherwise, it may not be worth the effort.”

mashup era

Thinking about what happens to “authorship” in the new mashup era reminded me of the credits you see when you launch an application (like Photoshop). The new Firefox 2.0 was released this week. Here are the credits:

Our Contributors

We would like to thank our contributors, whose efforts make this software what it is. These people have helped by writing code and documentation, and by testing. They have created and maintained this product, its associated development kits, our build tools and our web sites.

A

Matti Aarnio, Josh Aas, Robert Accettura, Jason Ackley, Carl Adams, Tobias Adamson, Christopher A. Aillon, Juan Pablo Alcaraz, Jo Daniel Aleksandersen, Sam Allen, Warwick Allison, Matitiahu Allouche, A. Ambrose, Nicholas Ambrose, Andrew Anderson, Mark Anderson, Ryota Ando, Mike Ang, Hiroshi Annaka, Peter Annema, Edwin Aoki, Vidur Apparao, Carlos Araya, Smokey Ardisson, Koichi Ariyoshi, Kevin Arnold, Akhil Arora, Justin T. Arthur, Marc Attinasi

B

Ninoschka Baca, Ariel Backenroth, Ryan Bacon, Rodrigo Bado, Ralf Baechle, Bradley Baetz, Péter Bajusz, Jeffrey W. Baker, Jerry Baker, Kirk Baker, Mitchell Baker, Jay Ball, Stuart Ballard, John Bandhauer, Mark Banner, Jens Bannmann, Jason Barnabe, David Baron, Jason Bassford, Ricardo Batista, German Bauer, Michael Bayne, Patrick Beard, Glen Beasley, Nick Beaudrot, Nicholas Bebout, Adam Becevello, Neal Bedard, Christine Begle, Geoffrey Beir, Stephen Beitzel, Artem Belevich, Ruslan Belkin, Kevin Berkheiser, Uri Bernstein, Juraj Betak, Pete Bevin, Gayatri Bhimaraju, David Bienvenu, Christian Biesinger, Jatin Billimoria, Eric Bina, Alex Bishop, Marlon Bishop, Colin R. Blake, Jessica Blanco, Joaquin Blas, Christopher Blizzard, Garrett Blythe, Chuck Boatwright, Brian Bober, Travis Bogard, Bozhan Boiadzhiev, Mark Bokil, Nelson Bolyard, Phillip Bond, Chris Booton, Mauro Botelho, Robert E. Boughner, Joey Bowles, Norris Boyd, Kathleen Brade, Justin Bradford, Don Bragg, Ryan Brase, Daniel Bratell, Daniel Brickley, David Brittain, Eric Broadbent, Sarah Broadwell, Tomas Brodsky, Daniel Brooks, Germaine Brown, Jeremy Browne, Erik Bruchez, Ben Bucksch, Leston Buell, Simon Bünzli, Eric Burley, Edward J. Burns, Jonathan Buschmann, Grace Bush, Angela Butler-McDonald, Marc Byrd

C

Jeff Caldwell, Conrad Carlen, Bjorn Carlson, Laurel Carlson, Jan Carpenter, Evan Carter, Andrew Cassin, Ryan Cassin, Sudhakar Chandrasekharan, Gary Chan, John Chang, Wan-Teh Chang, Milind Changire, Steve Chapel, Christopher S. Charabaruk, Serge Charapaev, Andrew Chatham, Paul Chek, Ginn Chen, Ray Chen, Tao Cheng, Alexey Chernyak, Troy Chevalier, Pascal Chevrel, Lisa Chiang, Hankin Chick, Sean Chitwood, Joe Chou, Howard Chu, Robert Churchill, Ashley Clark, James Clark, Steve Clark, Richard Cohn, Lorenzo Colitti, Pete Collins, Scott Collins, Don Cone, Mike Connelly, Mike Connor, Alex Converse, Chris Cooper, Catherine Corre, Simone Cox, Donnie Cranford, Tim Craycroft, Neil Cronin, Todd Crowe, Jim Crumley, Crysgem, Nicholas Cull, J. Shane Culpepper, Stacey Curtis

D

Steve Dagley, Denis Daly, Magnus André Damli, Bruce Davidson, Angus Davis, Anthony Davis, Paul Davis, Michael Dayah, Mo DeJong, John Dee, Javi Delgadillo, Tom Dell, Vince DeMarco, Prashant Desale, Crutcher Dunnavant, Harish Dhurvasula, Matthew Dillon, Patrick-James Dionisio, Steve Dobbelstein, Jeremy M. Dolan, Simford Dong, Clayton Donley, Stephen Donner, Thomas Down, Rick Downes, Asa Dotzler, George Drapeau, Chris Dreckman, Bert Driehuis, David Drinan, York Du, Alvin Duan, Micah Dubinko, Jean-François Ducarroz, Suresh Duddi, Jim Dunn, Michael Dunn, Karsten Düsterloh, Jeff Dyer

E

Jason Eager, Ali Ebrahim, Rafael Ebron, Sean Echevarria, Brandon Ehle, Brendan Eich, Jan Eldenmalm, Rick Elliott, Steve Elmer, Joseph Elwell, Dawn Endico, Hans-Andreas Engel, Kai Engert, Jean-Jacques Enser, Beth Epperson, David Epstein, Harish Kumar Epuri, Ken Estes, Ramiro Estrugo, Matthias Ettrich, Jim Everingham, Christian Eyrich

F

John Fairhurst, Gilbert Fang, Darin Fisher, David Fisher, Matt Fisher, Greg Fiumara, Werner Fleck, Alec Flett, Bret Ford, Robin Foster, Hugues Fournier, Marc Fraioli, Joe Francis, Andreas Franke, Simon Fraser, Jonathan Freeman, Alan Freier, Noah Friedman, Michael J. Fromberger, Chris Fuchs, Koji Fujimoto, C. Fung, Igor Furlan, Scott Furman, Ryoichi Furukawa

G

Niccolò Gallarati, Jeff Galyan, Bruce Gao, Sean Gao, David Gardiner, Jeff Garzik, Stephen Gates, Prachi Gauriar, Serge Gautherie, Claudius Gayle, Samir Gehani, Jim Gellman, Henrik Gemal, David Gerard, Rick Gessner, John Giannandrea, Bill Gibbons, Rob Ginda, Daniel Glazman, Mike Gleeson, Jennifer Glick, Joshua Go, Esther Goes, Eli Goldberg, Sol Goldfarb, Ben Goodger, Fenella Gor, Paul Gorodyansky, Jonathan Granrose, Jarrod Gray, Joseph Gregorio, Tague Griffith, Steven Groginsky, Patrick Gu, Karl Guertin, Ramanathan Guha, Arnt Guldbrandsen, Georgi Guninski, Pat Gunn, Sanjay Gupta, Gábor Lipták

H

Derkjan de Haan, Dave Haas, David Hallowell, Mark B. Hamby, Mark Hammond, Paul Hangas, Henrik Lynggaard Hansen, Stefan Hanske, Jennifer Hao, Lawrence Hardiman, Stephen Hardt, Cyrus Harmon, Matthew Harmsen, Warren Harris, Hirotoshi Harunaga, Brad Hart, Mark Harvey, Achim Hasenmueller, Amancio Hasty, Jasper Hauser, Adrian Havill, Terry Hayes, Leif Hedstrom, Prabhat Hegde, Michael Hein, Brian Heinrich, Jason Heirtzler, Thorsten Heit, Robert Hencke, Richard Henderson, Patrick Hendriks, Andrew Henry, Stefan Hermes, Tara Hernandez, Daniel Rodríguez Herrera, Richard Hess, Joe Hewitt, Kipp Hickman, Ian Hickson, James Hicks, Ralf Hildebrandt, Chris Hill, Tim Hill, Ludovic Hirlimann, Stanley Ho, Eric Hodel, Grey Hodge, Andrew Hodgkinson, Chris Hofmann, Martin Honnen, Vera Horiuchi, Max Horn, Waldemar Horwat, Naoki Hotta, Chris Houck, Chad House, Dora Hsu, Candice Huang, Dave Huang, Kevin Huang, Bert Hubert, Markus Hübner, James Huff, Karl Ove Hufthammer, Dan Hugo, Roman Huy-Prech, David Hyatt, Marco S. Hyman

I

Miguel de Icaza, Benito Infantino, Jaagup Irve

J

Dave Jagoda, Darshan Jani, Neeti Jain, Jamus Jegier, Rob Jerdonek, Randell Jesup, Henry Jia, Jack Jia, David Joham, Jason Johnston, Alan S. Jones, Brian Jones, Jeffrey Jones, Dainis Jonitis, Jonas Jørgensen, Ani Joshi, Rick Ju, Michael Judge, Bob Jung, Choi Junho, Gerard Juyn

K

Dai. K., Shotaro Kamio, Christian Kaiser, Takuomi Kagaya, Aaron Kaluszka, Edward Kandrot, Tetsuya Kaneishi, Paul Kanz, Ryuzi Kambe, Blake Kaplan, Michael Kaply, Phil Karlton, David Karlton, Chris Karnaze, Suresh Kasinathan, Masaki Katakai, Makoto Kato, Koike Kazuhiko, Joe Keane, Chris Keating, Michael R. Kedl, R.J. Keller, Oliver Klee, Juergen Keil, Miodrag Kekic, Lina Kemmel, Todd Kennedy, Jason Kersey, Masatoshi Kimura, Brian King, Jerry L. Kirk, Christopher Kline, Marcia Knous, Kit Knox, Jeffrey S. Kobal, Teruko Kobayashi, Paul Kocher, Yannick Koehler, Kurt Kohler, Dmitry Kohmanyuk, Greg Kolanek, Justin A. Kolodziej, Stephen Koren, Greg Kostello, Chiaki Koufugata, Mike Kowalski, Daniel Kraft, Ori Kravitz, Nick Kreeger, Ramesh Krishnamagaru, John Kristian, Christopher Kritzer, Eric Krock, Jan Kroken, Scott Kronick, Radha Kulkarni, Rethi Kumar, Igor Kushnirskiy, Gerardo Kvaternik

L

Dirk Laessig, Steve Lamm, Tom Lane, Todd Larason, Sharon Laquinta, Alexander Larsson, Chris Lattner, Ben Laurie, Bill Law, Roger Lawrence, Chris Lawson, Martin Lawyer, Thaks Van Le, Jeremy Lea, Antoine Leca, Elliot Lee, Kevin Lee Hoa Lee, Taek Lee, Michiel van Leeuwen, Jan Leger, Michelle Lei, Thomas Lendacky, Attila Lendvai, Jonathan Lennox, Jake Lentz, Mike Lenz, Tomi Leppikangas, Michael Leventhal, Aaron Leventhal, Clayton Lewis, Jessie Li, Richard Li, Shanjian Li, Shuehan Liang, Dan Libby, Sarah E.V. Liberman, Nicolás Lichtmaier, Kurt J. Lidl, Pontus Lidman, Mark Lin, Frank van der Linden, David Lindes, Srinivas Lingutla, Peter Linss, Betty Lipkin Zach Lipton, Luigi Lira, Calvin Liu, Mindy Liu, Vladimir Livshits, Richard K. Lloyd, Adam Lock, Syd Logan, Robert Longson, Michael Lowe, Charity Lu, Harry Lu, Robin Lu, Xiaobin Lu, Peter Lubczynski, Bill Lynch, Gregory Lynn, Chris Lyon

M

Braden McDaniel, Scott MacGregor, Paul MacQuiddy, Ere Maijala, Wade Majors, Waqar Malik, Daniel Malmer, Klaus Malorny, Charles Manske, Steve Mansour, Giorgio Maone, Brent Marshall, Neil Marshall, Owen Marshall, Stephen Martin, Gervase Markham, Joonas Marttila, Kazushi Marukawa, Tsukasa Maruyama, Allan Masri, Jordi Mas, Matthew Mastracci, Daniel Matejka, David Matiskella, Taro Matsuzawa, Chris McAfee, Mike McCabe, Kevin McCarthy, Don McCasland, Tim McClarren, Kevin McCluskey, Mike McCool, Patrick McCormick, David McCusker, Ian McGreer, Dan McGuirk, John McMullen, Tim McNerney, Bob Meader, Tim Meader, David Meeker, Rich Megginson, Myk Melez, Hovik Melikyan, Ralph Mellor, Don Melton, Jim Melvin, Jordan Mendelson, Mark Mentovai, Ben Mesander, Eric A. Meyer, Felix Miata, O’Reilly Michael, Steven Michaud, Bernd Mielke, Malini Minasandram, Bill Mitchell, Eric B. Mitchell, Frank Mitchell, Bruce Mitchener, Jon Mittelhauser, Peter Mock, Soren Juul Moller, Katsuhiko Momoi, Simon Montagu, Lou Montulli, Stuart Morgan, Dan Morrill, John Morrison, Steve Morrison, Steve Morse, Dan Mosedale, Adam Moss, Egota Motohiro, Srilatha Moturi, Thomas Mueller, Constantine A. Murenin, Kevin Murray, Spencer Murray, Brian J. Murrell, Alex Musil, Akira Mutsuro

N

Geetha Nagarajan, Noriyuki Nakajima, Glen Nakamura, Masayuki Nakano, James Lewis Nance, Chris Nandor, Chak Nanga, Shashi Narain, Antti Näyhä, Christopher Nebergall, David Nebinger, Chris Nelson, Dru Nelson, Bryce Nesbitt, Brad Neuberg, Dave Neuer, John Neystadt, Giao Nguyen, Hoa Nguyen, Thu Nguyen, Vuong Doan Nguyen, Andrew Niese, Martin Nilsson, Tristan Nitot, Takashi Nobsawa, Michael Noe, Greg Noel, Aleksey Nogin, Eoin Norris, Leonard Norrgård, Mike Norton, Daniel Nunes, Pam Nunn

O

Ian Oeschger, Eric Olson, Zaw Oo, Wei Tsang Ooi, Serge Orlov, Tina Ornduff, Rick Osborne, Hideo Oshima, Brian Ostrom, Andreas Otte

P

Shawn Packwood, Isriya Paireepairit, Harrison Page, Wladimir Palant, Raju Pallath, Marcus Pallinger, Mats Palmgren, Bill Panagouleas, Par Pandit, Simon Paquet, Tom Paquin, Steve Parkinson, Stuart Parmenter, Varada Parthasarathi, Davide Pasetto, Balazs Pataki, Dhiren Patel, Curt Patrick, Akkana Peck, Javier H. Pedemonte, Julian Pellico, Reinhold Penner, Christopher Petersen, Phil Peterson, Frank Petitta, Loan Pham, Pierre Phaneuf, Thom Phillabaum, Paul Phillips, John Pierce, Julien Pierre, Martijn Pieters, Paul Pietromonaco, Mike Pinkerton, Tom Pixley, Rich Pizzarro, Michael Plitkins, Erik van der Poel, Philip Pokorny, Eric Pollmann, Rick Potts, Roozbeh Pournader, Harshal Pradhan, Larry Prall, Christopher Pratt, Andreas Premstaller, Terri Preston, Jane Prusakova, Scott Putterman

Q

Florian Quèze

R

Bhuvan Racham, Amarjeet Singh Rai, Nisheeth Ranjan, Keith Rarick, Samphan Raruenrom, Neil Rashbrook, Sheela Ravindran, J. Paul Reed, Oleg Rekutin, Bob Relyea, Hervé Renault, Lisa Repka, Markus Rex, Carlos Reyes, Tim Rice, Sean Richardson, Victor Riley, Tom Rini, A. Daniel Roberts, Brad Roberts, Tony Robinson, Fred Roeber, Greg Roelofs, Brian Rogers, Andrei Romanov, Dan Rosen, Doron Rosenberg, Jim Roskind, Blake Ross, James Ross, Catalin Rotaru, Tim Rowley, Steve Rubinstein, Jesse Ruderman, Steve Rudman, Torsten Rüger, Philipp Rumpf, Terje Runde, Brian Ryner

S

Chris Saari, Masaaki Saitoh, Gagan Saksena, Joseph Samake, Wilfredo Sanchez, Pradeep Sanders, Jukka Santala, Montserrat Sanz, Pierre Saslawsky, Masatoshi Sato, Greg Scallan, Dylan K. Schiemann, Phil Schwan, Peter Schultz, Morgan Schweers, Will Scullin, Chris Seawood, Adnan Selimovic, Isan Selimovic, Raffaele Sena, Dimi Shahbaz, Berkley Shands, Wen ShaoHua, Bindu Sharma, Gavin Sharp, Mike Shaver, Hubert Shaw, Dylan Shea, Doug Sheppard, Gordon Sheridan, Gia Shervashidze, Jayesh Sheth, Roby Sherman, Jungshik Shin, Jonas Sicking, Roger B. Sidje, Samuel Sidler, Chris Siegler, Robert Sim, Andrew Simmonds, Franz Sirl, Henri Sivonen, Rich Skrenta, Henrik Skupin, Brandon Smith, Kyle Smith, Mark C. Smith, Miloslaw Smyk, Reed Snellenberger, Hoi-Sheung Wilson So, Henry Sobotka, Josh Soref, Jes Sorensen, Rod Spears, Seth Spitzer, Jim Spring, Sudharshan Srinivasan, Kenneth Stailey, Mark Stankus, Dale V. Stansberry, Rainer Staringer, Jacob Steenhagen, Brian Stell, Johnny Stenback, Mitchell Stoltz, Urs Streidl, Sean Su, Kartik Subbarao, Hani Suleiman, Adam Sulmicki, John Sun, Keiki Sunagawa, Fredrik Sundberg, Kurt Swanson, Aaron Swartz

T

Lloyd Tabb, Hidetoshi Tajima, Mark Takacs, Jerry Tan, Yung-Fong Tang, Andrew Taylor, Owen Taylor, Tim Taylor, Arshad Tayyeb, Takayuki Tei, Raman Tenneti, David Tenser, Dean Tessman, Siyuan Tian, Huynh Trinh, Namachivayam Thirumazhusai, Chris Thomas, Matthew Thomas, Andrew Thompson, Rob Thorne, Heikki Toivonen, Asko Tontti, Chris Torek, Henri Torgemane, Nathan Torkington, Rüger Torsten, Chris Toshok, Aleks Totic, Joan Touzet, Michael Toy, Archimedes Trajano, Peter Trudelle, Jeff Tsai, Doug Turner, Mahesh Tyagarajan

U

John Unruh, Jonas Utterstron

V

Judson Valeski, Peter Van der Beken, Peter VanHelden, Jan Varga, Zoltan Varga, Eric Vaughan, Dan Veditz, Rodney Velasco, Andrew Veliath, Matthias Versen, Romain Vignes, Alistair Vining, Keith Visco, Sjoerd Visscher, Frank Visser, Andy Vogel, Andrew Volkov

W

Håkan Waara, Steven Wagner, Ronan Waide, Jeff Walden, Stephen Walker, Cathleen Wang, Philip K Warren, Andrew Wason, Chris Waterson, Robert Watkins, Matt Watson, Jonathan Watt, Nate Weaver, Dieter Weber, Peter Weilbacher, Dan Weinstein, Jeff Weinstein, Tom Weinstein, Terry Weissman, Mark Welch, Morten Welinder, Christian Wenz, Gail White, Derek Wickersham, Duncan Wilcox, Brian C. Wiles, Ian Wilkinson, Simon Wilkinson, Steffen Wilberg, David Williams, Steve Willis, John Wilson, Matt Wilson, Daniel Witte, Taco Witte, Andrew Wnuk, Shirley Woo, Simon Woodside, Andrew Wooldridge, Edwin Woudt, Mike Wynholds, Paul Wyskoczka

X

Joshua Xia, Ying-Lin Xia, Antonio Xu

Y

Satoru Yamaguchi, Kazu Yamamoto, Jay Yan, Koichi Yasuoka, Christopher Yeh, Prasad Yendluri, Bolian Yin, Roy Tetsuro Yokoyama, Eric York, Kyle Yuan

Z

Richard Zach, Vadim Zaliva, Matthew Zahorik, Jamie Zawinski, Boris Zbarsky, Pete Zha, Leon Zhang, Louie Zhao, Philip Zhao, Silvia Zhao, Kevin Zhou, Sam Ziegler, Jiri Znamenacek

---

This is a list of people who have contributed significant code, documentation or Quality Assurance effort to the Mozilla Project. Any such contributors who wish to be added to the list should send mail to credits@mozilla.org with your name and a sentence (citation) summarizing your contribution, something like this.

congrats to our Prof.

for this article (which was picked up by MediaBistro)

 http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?%20id=z6xht2rj60kqmsl8tlq5ltqcshc5y93y

journalism in crisis

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061113/alterman

cyberjournalist.net

http://www.cyberjournalist.net

why google didn’t buy the nyt

http://media.seekingalpha.com/article/18193

B.G.: Before Google

I read Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think last year; I’m a big believer in his theories on web site design and usability. As the descriptive “brochure” style of first-gen sites is increasingly replaced by Web 2.0 makeovers, his emphasis on ease-of-use is more relevant than ever.

There’s only one problem with this reading-and the other one from 2001 on usability testing: neither mentions Google once. (Well, OK, the University of Buffalo case study does mention Google once, in citation #15.) And while not surprising (Google hadn’t swallowed the Web yet), Google has since then, of course, changed everything.

Recently, I was called in to consult with a major publishing company contemplating a site revamp. Their main page, like that of the U. of Buffalo Library, was a mess: too much explication, too many choices. They had a century’s worth of great content in their database, they just had to get out of the user’s way.

They asked me how they could make their homepage THE destination for professionals in their industry. My answer-and it was one they didn’t like-was: You can’t. Google is your homepage-and everyone else’s too.

I really do believe it. So much so that as I paged through the screenshots accompanying the Buffalo Library story, I kept Xing out the multilayered schemes and drawing in a single horizontal box with the word SEARCH.

Some other passages from Krug resonate with where my thinking is on Web 2.0 now:

Links and buttons must be obviously clickable: I favor those big shiny glassy or brushed metal buttons you see nearly everywhere now.

Cut out the busy-ness and background noise: “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left” is another Krug chapter.

Keyword functionality: “They just look at what you type and do whatever makes the most sense,” says Krug. I call this “letting the user drive.”

Making pages self-evident is like having good lighting in a store: it just makes everything seem better…. If Web pages are going to be effective, they have to work most of their magic at a glance.

Or, as Malcolm Gladwell puts it, in a blink.

We scan, we satisfice, we muddle through, says Krug. As I put it: your site must be “plug and play.”

And, as the Buffalo Library case study demonstrates, do whatever Jakob Nielsen says about testing (including signing up for his Useit.com Alertbox newsletter)

Krug touches on the issue of “delight” only briefly in this chapter-“Oh, it’s a _________. Neat.” This reminded me of the Mobile Phone UCD selection we just read: “Users need to be able to touch the buttons and see software that feels like it is actually working” [Kangas and Kinnunen, 2005].

It’s the positive reinforcement that comes from making those guesses Krug tells us users make-and having those guesses turn out to be right. There’s something deeply satisfying about having your intuition proved right. It’s what keeps the user engaged, what keeps a site “sticky.”

Of course, you do want to throw in some curves from time to time, to keep the game interesting-though not as often as Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun. In this game, the player (and not the house) must win.

Job Lead: Dir of Wireless Web Content Development

I got this from a recruiter:

One of our clients in the greater
Stamford, Connecticut area is currently seeking a Director of Wireless Content Development for full time employment. The primary responsibilities of the position are as follows:

Produces wireless content by overseeing and coordinating; content creation, formatting, and design requirements Works closely with Business Development on creating and implementing new wireless content programs both on and off portalCreates, manages, and monitors day-to-day wireless content needs including but not limited to: alert programs, sms programs, audio, and video products

Collaborates with Web Content team to create synergy between web and wireless content plans

Uploads wireless content by entering and optimizing content in the content management system

Creates, edits, proofreads, copyedits, and reviews a variety of content types, for wireless distribution, ensuring all content meets style, tone, and message requirements

Uses strong group facilitation skills to manage content approval processes

Gets things done through formal channels and the informal network

Establishes new processes and improves existing ones

Updates job knowledge by participating in wireless educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations; and attending key industry events

Position Requirements

5+ years experience developing web and/or wireless content, as well as other related digital multimedia

Able to write clearly and succinctly for the wireless environment; able to follow style guide

Familiar with a variety of wireless concepts, best practices, and procedures

Experience with content management systems

Works well both independently and in a team environment

Proficient with Microsoft Office software suite

Bachelor Degree or equivalent experience If you would like to hear more, please forward a Word format copy of your resume and a convenient time and phone number for me to call.Thanks very much.Tim Hammack

Senior Technical Recruiter

Edge Technology Services

866-334-3874, ext.228

THammack@edgets.com

Sphere’s first SL clip

Gordon Needs a Wife

“Gordon returns home from a business trip”-so begins the (perhaps unintentionally) humorous opening scenario of Digital Memories in an Era of Ubiquitous Computing and Abundant Storage [Mary Czerwinski et al, 2006].

By the time he had finished downloading his conference photos, sharing them with friends, accessing related email, noting his elevated temperature and finding his missing hat-all through the use of ubiquitous computing-I could not escape the thought: Gordon needs a wife (or if you prefer, significant other).

That happy day might arrive a lot sooner than the article’s “vision…not yet fully realized [but] becoming possible as a consequence of making everyday objects computationally enhanced and networked.”

While it is true that embedded processors and network connectivity are being added to many of the objects that surround us, we still seem very far away from having even the most basic of them function reliably enough. Servers crash, sophisticated networks like Second Life are under frequent attack, and my GE Monogram freezer keeps icing up near a leaky gasket.

But it is certainly fun to speculate, as the authors do here, about “what we might do with a life’s worth of digital memories and the applications that might prove useful.” Memory, shared personal experience, personal reflection and analysis, time management, security-these are all legitimate areas for development that might prove especially helpful to the aging Baby Boomer generation.

Also interesting are some of the countervailing factors cited as reasons why “we may not want a complete and objective memory of the past”-including the potential for self-incrimination and the possibility of a “privacy crisis.” Personally, I found the authors’ assertion that “security is not an issue” to be somewhat disingenuous. Recent highly publicized breaches of government and commercial data demonstrate that in a digital, networked environment there simply is no security. (My advice: pay your hate-group membership dues in Krugerrands.)

Nevertheless, as this article notes, “convenience often trumps security concerns… [and] it is clear that the growing availability of low-cost storage, coupled with improved technology for recording multimedia data and the ubiquitous use of sensors has stirred researcher (and public) interest.” But I also agree with the authors’ conclusion that “difficult technological, legal, and social issues must…be solved to make lifetime recording valuable.”