links for 2009-06-28

• on dot-gov: 7 Listening Tools: Getting from Asking to Listening
  P&G and Nielsen are trying to understand how learning gleaned from “listening” to online consumer conversations compares to survey-based findings (”asking”).

  What we learned was surprising and important. Findings from “listening” and “asking” were largely consistent. Most importantly, in every case, “listening” added to our understanding in important ways, meaningfully enhancing insights, and sometimes suggesting a different course of action. For example, a survey on cloth diapering identified cost savings and sustainability as key reasons for using cloth diapers. Listening took this further, revealing the passion cloth-diapering moms have for “CD’ing,” and connecting it to core values around parenting. This led to a fundamentally different, more holistic understanding of cloth diapering than was available from survey results alone.

  (tags: usability blogs conversation listening)

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links for 2009-06-27

• TimesPeople – The New York Times
  TimesPeople is a new way to discover what other readers find interesting on NYTimes.com — and to make recommendations of your own. With TimesPeople, you can share articles, videos, slideshows, blog posts, reader comments, and ratings and reviews of movies, restaurants and hotels.
  (tags: socialnetworking community news social tools NYT)
• 10 Common Mistakes In Logo Design | How-To | Smashing Magazine
  (tags: design logos mistakes)
• User Experience Design @ MindTree: How to create a Style Guide with ease
  (tags: webdesign ui style-guide experience wireframe reference web)

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links for 2009-06-26

• How to Be a Better Photographer When on Vacation – Gadgetwise Blog – NYTimes.com
  (tags: photography)
• Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) – Home
  "For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action."
  (tags: Videos trends education design)
• Jonathan Heiliger on Web Performance, Operations, and Culture – O'Reilly Radar
  We were honored to have Jonathan Heiliger, Facebook’s VP of Technology Operations, as our opening keynote speaker at Velocity. Jonathan is one of the most accomplished leaders in our field, and is a master of the craft.
  (tags: performance facebook Video presentation scalability conference)

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links for 2009-06-25

• 10 Tools to Improve Your Site’s Usability on a Low Budget | Webdesigner Depot
  (tags: usability testing webdesign costsaving)
• StartupNation Blog » Blog Archive » The Mid-Year Website Checkup
  We’re approximately halfway through the year. Do you know how your website is performing? Do you know the site visitor trends? Do you know the most important site fixes or upgrades that need to be made?

  June and July are great times of the year to review and evaluate your website’s performance, and to give your site a boost heading into the second half of the year.

  (tags: webdesign traffic)
• The Day Facebook Changed Forever: Messages to Become Public By Default (UPDATED)
  (tags: facebook socialmedia privacy)
• Malaysia-Today.net – No Holds Barred, Corridors of Power and more @ mt.m2day.org – Good governance the foundation for effective e-government
  1. Transparency, accountability and incorruptibility
  Successful e-Government requires a culture of transparency, accountability and incorruptibility. Mr Goh said it is the inefficiency and lack of transparency in the issue of government licences and permits that enable many in the bureaucracy to reap personal gains. "E-government literally threatens their livelihood based on contrived inefficiencies and bottlenecks. Without the buy-in of these civil servants who will be implementing e-government, the right hardware and software alone cannot boost efficiency much."
  (tags: transparency goverance egovernment)

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links for 2009-06-22

• Know your audience
  6 profiles of government customers
  (tags: writing audience web customer)

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links for 2009-06-21

• Customers given too many choices are 10x less likely to buy | Derek Sivers
  (tags: design webdev business psychology ux choice)
• Free Tool for Gov't Agencies to Communicate Public Safety Alerts Online or Via SMS
  A new SMS and email notification service is helping local government agencies reach citizens when and where it will do the most good: As soon as possible, and wherever that citizen happens to be.
  Depending on whether agencies in a selected location are participating (currently, nearly 1,000 agencies have signed on since the company's launch in March), users can sign up at the Nixle website to subscribe to emails, web alerts, and text messages about community issues from tornado watches and traffic accidents to local robberies and fugitives on the loose. Nixle moreover provides a painless way for local agencies to transition into modern times and notify community members of critical details in ways that will have an immediate impact.
  (tags: government sms)

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links for 2009-06-19

• Top 12 Free Content Management Systems (CMS) | Spyre Studios
  (tags: cms web webdev free php)
• squeakland : resources : books : reading list
  (tags: alankay booklist readinglist smalltalk)

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links for 2009-06-18

• Ton's Interdependent Thoughts: Open Government Data Netherlands Update
  (tags: data open government planning)
• Enable tethering on iPhone 3.0 – Too easy… (WORLDWIDE carriers) | richardlai's Xanga Site – Weblog
  (tags: WS_blocked iPhone)

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links for 2009-06-17

• HubLog: Dealing with election results data
  Dealing with Election Results Data — taking the raw UK European election data into Google's Fusion Tables to try and make sense of it. More cloud-based tools for the data scientist within. (via Simon Willison)
  (tags: data google visualization democracy europe)
• TED Blog: Q&A with Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran
  I caught up with Clay this afternoon to get his take on the significance of what is happening. HIs excitement was palpable. Q. What do you make of what's going on in Iran right now. A. I'm always a little reticent to draw lessons from things still unfolding, but it seems pretty clear that … this is it. The big one. This is the first revolution that has been catapulted onto a global stage and transformed by social media.
  (tags: twitter internet politics society)
• 13 Tips for Great Photography in a Developing Country | Cashewman
  After living a few times in Africa, and thousands of shots, I’ve figured out some ways to capture some of what makes places like Senegal and Ethiopia spellbinding. Here are some of those techniques. If you’re a Senegalese or Ethiopian, lucky you! You know already then that it’s much easier to do this than it is for us visitors. These tips are for us Toubabs and Fenenjis.
  (tags: photography travel howto photos development photojournalism)

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links for 2009-06-16

• [June 16] Cluetrain at 10: So How's Utopia Working Out for Ya? | Berkman Center
  The Cluetrain Manifesto, posted in April, 1999, immediately became a touchstone in the digital culture wars. Its four authors – Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger – denounced the mainstream media's portrayal of the Web as an extension of business-as-usual into a medium cheaper than paper and TV time. No, said Cluetrain in 95 "theses" (a number chosen for its resonant overstatement), millions of people weren't flocking to the Web simply because they so loved online catalog shopping. The Web was a place where each individual had a voice, and each of those voices could connect with any and every other voice. The Web is a conversation. And — in Cluetrain's most famous formulation — so are networked markets.
  (tags: webcast events cluetrain)

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