The ABCs of VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or phone calls over the Internet is steadily going mainstream. Any technology that enables people to connect easily and cheaply is worth following. Just take a look at the phenomenal adoption of Skype. So, this VoIP primer is a must read no matter which business you're in.Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, September 22, 2004
In defense of small talk
David Weinberger on the benefits of small talk: "in small talk, we express ourselves in the details of what we talk about, the words we use, the ones we don't, how far we lean forward, how tentatively or aggressively we probe for shared ground. Because all of this is implicitly presented, it tends to give a more accurate picture of who we are and what we care about than big, explicit conversations."Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, September 21, 2004
User Experience Resource Collection
Just bookmark it!Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Informational Cascades in Online Learning
A nice in-depth look at informational cascades and their impact on online discourse. "In an informational cascade, individuals make decisions based on the decisions of others, discounting (or failing to develop or address) their own private information or judgment..."Add tag Permalink | Monday, September 20, 2004
Less is more for university websites
Universities, heed this finding: "Many university websites are poorly organized, and filled with out-of-date content that has been directly published from print. Delivering a better service to students and staff faces challenges because of decentralized management structures and concepts such as academic freedom."Add tag Permalink | Monday, September 20, 2004
User Research Abroad: Handle Logistics in Four Easy Steps
Nice list to points to take note of when conducting non-directed interviews by telephone with audience around the globe.- Send an interviewee brief
- Send a translator brief
- Record an accurate story
- Send a gift certificate
research Add tag Permalink | Monday, September 20, 2004
Mobile Learning Attracts High School Students
This was just waiting to happen: "Starting this month, high school students preparing for the college entrance exam will be able to use personal gadgets to study instead of textbooks on the bus or subway." [via SmartMobs]school Add tag Permalink | Monday, September 20, 2004
Trust-building for a virtual team
Peter Andrews on how trust is built in virtual teams: Basically, it comes down to team members being able to answer three questions about each other in the affirmative:- Do you have anything to offer me?
- Can I count on you?
- Will you get it straight?
Add tag Permalink | Thursday, September 16, 2004
Making Personas More Powerful
George Olsen has written a very nice article on using personas for design purposes. He makes a distinction between his strategy and Alan Cooper's strategy, which he says, focuses on garnering empathy. This article provides a nice background to his persona toolkit [PDF].personas Add tag Permalink | Thursday, September 16, 2004
Making a Market in Knowledge
Good in-depth article on the 'knowledge marketplace' and how to make it work. This includes paying attention to knowledge objects, exchange mechanisms, competitive force, standards and facilitators. "In short, effectively exchanging knowledge on a company-wide basis is much less a technological problem than an organizational one: encouraging people who do not know each other to work together for their mutual self-interest. There is, of course, a well-known, well-tested solution to making it possible to exchange items of value among parties who don't know each other. We call it a market." [via mopsos]Add tag Permalink | Thursday, September 16, 2004
What Steve Wozniak Learned From Failure
An excerpt from Juice: The Creative Fuel that Drives World-Class Inventors "But there are different kinds of failure. Sometimes, failure tells you to give up and do something else entirely. Other times, it tells you to try a different approach, a new route to the top of the mountain. Or it may tell you to make a detour. Sometimes, it tells you that you need help. Sometimes, it doesn't seem to tell you anything."innovation Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Journal of KM
During this week (13/09/04-19/09/04) Emerald Journals (JOTW) is providing free access to the Journal of Knowledge Management. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/jotw/ [via Denham Grey]Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Grammar and Punctuation for the Web: What
Practical tips from Amy Gahran on writing for the Web: "Most of us were educated to believe that there is oneAdd tag Permalink | Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Less is more for government websites
Gerry's advice on designing for government websites: "Many governments have done great work on the Web, but in order to create a genuine knowledge society and economy, they need to reverse "the more the merrier" approach and focus on a "less is more" strategy." Now all we need is a good pitch to sell this to the government.Add tag Permalink | Monday, September 13, 2004
The Best of Eyetrack III
"InAdd tag Permalink | Monday, September 13, 2004
You Don’t Know Me, but… Social Capital & Social Software
Archiving this for a weekend read: "Social capital analysts have debated the implications of the Internet for some years now. But this debate has recently been joined from the opposite side, as software experts and developers are showing an increased desire to understand and improve social networks, both offline and online. This report introduces some of the core ideas of this new unified debate, and outlines possible directions for the future." [thanks Stephen Downes]Add tag Permalink | Friday, September 10, 2004
MSc E-learning Project Survey
Kate Wilcock is doing her final research project onAdd tag Permalink | Friday, September 10, 2004
Organization in the Way: How decentralization hobbles the user experience
Another perspective on the difficulties of working with certain organizational types (see Why e-learning is so difficult to eat for more on such problems on the e-learning front). "Right now, the biggest obstacle to good design is poor organizational structure. The fundamental makeup of most organizations runs contrary to producing quality designs, and as organizations get larger, this becomes increasingly apparent."Add tag Permalink | Friday, September 10, 2004
Universal Accessibility
Roger Hudson's presentation slides on the adoption of Web Standards to cater for accessibility issues.Add tag Permalink | Friday, September 10, 2004
It’s Not Just Usability
Very entertaining post by Joel Spolsky on the design of the social interface -- interfaces for social networking, e-mail, discussion boards, etc. "Whereas the goal of user interface design is to help the user succeed, the goal of social interface design is to help the society succeed, even if it means one user has to fail."interface, usability Add tag Permalink | Thursday, September 09, 2004
Best practices in online captioning
Joe Clark's fantastic work on online captioning is listed here.Add tag Permalink | Thursday, September 09, 2004
Why e-learning is so difficult to eat
Nice post by Patrick Lambe on the difficulties in implementing an e-learning project. He focuses on the different perspectives of the two major stakeholders in such implementations: HR teams and the IT dept. "To do enterprise e-learning really well, beyond the technical competencies present already in HR and IT, you have to be able to marry deep understanding of the operational needs at the front line, strategic direction, consulting and change management skills, quality and performance metrics, information architecture and usability design, workflow analysis and process redesign, culture influencing, and superb communication and negotiation skills."information architecture Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Big tech on campus
A nice commentary on the benefits and pitfalls of having too much tech on campus: "But campuses are also beginning to resemble consumer technology marketing labs, with school-backed programs pushing gadgets and services that may have only a tenuous connection to the classroom."Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Intranets look vainly to knowledge management
Good advice on managing organizational knowledge: "Sharing knowledge takes effort and skill, even between two people talking face-to-face. You don't create that by writing stuff down; you create it by creating robust relationships that give people the confidence to ask questions and learn from each other, and by encouraging the disciplines of asking questions without wasting people's time, and of answering questions with clarity and power, of telling vivid stories within a shared value system. These are the things that matter, the things businesses need to be good at."knowledge management, intranets Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, September 07, 2004