technology

LinkedNotSoIn?

Jay Small — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:55:45 +0000

Anyone else had issues getting into LinkedIn the past few days? I've received a couple of invitations I wanted to act on this week, and both times, from two separate places, with access to other sites working fine, I've been unable to get there.
That includes attempts in the past few minutes (writing this Friday afternoon at 2:55 p.m. Eastern time).

Maybe I should be thankful, but LI is the only social network I've ever felt met any practical expectations.

Update (11 a.m. Eastern time, Sunday, 5/4): LinkedIn is back as of this morning. I didn't check before now, so I don't know when service was restored or why it was down in the first place -- assuming it was down for anyone else but me.

Can we all go home then?

Jay Small — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:25:47 +0000

CNET reports the folks at AT&T (I was about to say "the eggheads" or "the boffins," but the spokesman quoted is from legislative affairs) claim the Internet will hit its capacity by 2010 if big bucks aren't invested in infrastructure.

Makes me think of that home broadband commercial from a few years back, where the guy browses all the way to the "end of the Internet." Hmm ... was that an AT&T commercial? A self-fulfilling prophecy, perhaps?

All I can say is, if we get to that point where we really have filled up all the pipes, you all can panic if you choose. I'd prefer to just pull a Forrest Gump, stop and say: "I'm pretty tired ... I think I'll go home now."

Open-source leadership at its best

Jay Small — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:06:06 +0000

At their worst, I'll admit, open-source software communities can breed flame wars, ugly breakups and needlessly forked development roadmaps. But at their best, you have to admit, open-source crowds share ideas, solve practical problems and tip hats at each others' successes.

Witness the Drupal community's post congratulating the developers of Joomla -- arguably Drupal's biggest competitor for mindshare -- on their new release.

Funny thing. We didn't see that from Microsoft when Mac OS X Leopard came out, or from Apple when Windows Vista came out, or from Intuit when the new TaxCut came out, or ...

What's up, DOCTYPE?

Jay Small — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:56:02 +0000

Advocates of Web standards now warn that a heavily used technique for switching between standards-based browser rendering and, well, everything else -- called the DOCTYPE switch -- is broken.

OK, so that last sentence is meaningless to you if you don't work often in Web design or development. Even more meaningless would be any attempt I make to explain it for general audiences.

So, my advice:

If you're a Web developer, check out Aaron Gustafson's description of the problem, consequences and possible solutions at A List Apart. Then read Eric Meyer's take on it, with lots more background and debate over solutions.

If you're not, but know someone who is, refer that someone to the articles. This stuff will matter to him or her sooner or later. Then you can return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Nielsen: Move away from the bright light

Jay Small — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:34:02 +0000

Jakob Nielsen's latest Alertbox article, Web 2.0 Can Be Dangerous, reminds us that fancy trick plays in site development don't always bring the same great benefits as good old blocking and tackling.

Nielsen calls out Ajax, rich interfaces, mashups, so-called "user generated content" and online communities -- noting they can be valuable in proper context, but can also distract Web teams from more important user experience objectives. One example:

"Facebook has much drama that makes for good press coverage, but most of its features are worthless for a B2B site that, say, is trying to sell forklift trucks to 50-year-old warehouse managers. Instead of adding Facebook-like features that let users "bite" other users and turn them into zombies, the B2B site would get more sales by offering clear prices, good product photos, detailed specs, convincing whitepapers, an easily navigable information architecture, and an email newsletter."

I know Nielsen has a rep in corners of the design community as being too curmudgeonly, but I read this piece twice and can't find fault in it. In my "day job" and in consulting, I find myself practically begging site and product managers to focus on the basics of their businesses, and divert their gaze from faddish bright-shiny-objects of Web development.

I'm reminded of the current IBM commercial with an interactive developer showing a product manager a digital avatar of himself.

"Can you make money?" the manager asks. "My avatar doesn't know how to do that," the developer replies.

Scripps papers now (almost) all Ellington, all the time

Jay Small — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:01:12 +0000

This is a milestone day. As of 1:30 a.m. Eastern time this morning, Scripps Newspapers Interactive Group and our many local sites completed the main phase of their 18-month content management system rollout.

All of these newspaper sites and affiliated niche products now run in Scripps' version of Ellington, the content system built atop the Django framework and Python programming language. In no particular order:

Albuquerque Tribune
Boulder Daily Camera
San Angelo Standard-Times
Redding Record-Searchlight
Rocky Mountain News
Evansville Courier Press (Our first conversion, June 2006.)
Knoxville News Sentinel
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Abilene Reporter-News
Wichita Falls Times Record News
Naples Daily News (Our latest conversion, just this morning. Naples had already been in a version of Ellington, but the overnight move put the Florida sites in the Scripps-managed version.)
Scripps Treasure Coast newspapers
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Ventura County Star
Kitsap Sun
Blount Today
Anderson Independent-Mail

The project included much more than a systems conversion, though that alone represents a very heavy and difficult workload. All these sites took on new designs and new features, such as a video player/playlist platform, in the process.

Mind you, we still have some local niche sites and other projects to move into the new CMS in the coming year. But this list includes every site we set out to move in the main project, and a couple that we added along the way.

It took a cast of hundreds, on site in local markets and within the corporate team, to get this done. The teams' work, as manifested in these sites, speaks for itself. Mine was a bit part, and that allows me to be extremely proud of the fine creative and development work of the whole organization. Thanks, gang!

Simplicity over features -- usually

Jay Small — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:55:44 +0000

Jakob Nielsen pretty much validates application development practices from the likes of 37signals when he writes, "Most users have low commitment -- especially to Web sites, which must focus on simplicity, rather than features."

Less really is more, it seems. The usability maestro puts the dilemma into terms every content-site designer should take to heart:

"Users' willingness to learn is the most important factor in how much complexity you can allow in the user experience. If people are extremely excited about a user interface, they'll welcome more features and will spend the time to figure them out.

"Mostly, though, users have a low engagement level with user interfaces and just want them to get out of the way. People don't want to spend time learning, they want to spend time doing -- a well-documented effect called the paradox of the active user."

On a content Web site, maybe it's a reach but I consider blocks of categorically organized links to be, in effect, user interface features. As such, the advice might apply to the numbers and groupings of links a site might provide on, for example, its home or index pages. It's worth debating, anyway.