links for 2009-09-29

• 6 must-have features for top-flight Web sites — Federal Computer Week
  Here are six goals that agency Web sites should shoot for if they want to be among the best. 1 – Transparency; 2 – Collaboration; 3 – Searchability; 4 – Engagement; 5 – Archiving; 6 – Better services (USPS, HHS, State of Utah)
  (tags: gov2.0 web2.0 goals planning)
• Official Google Blog: Jump to the information you want right from the search snippets
  Normally, a search snippet shows how a page, as a whole, relates to a your query by excerpting content that appears near and around where your query terms show on the page. But what if only one section of the page is relevant to your search?

  That's where these new features can help, by providing links within the snippet to relevant sections of the page, making it faster and easier to find what you're looking for.

  (tags: google search webdesign searching serps)

Filed under: delicious

links for 2009-09-28

• One Big Fluke
  PubSubHubbub Presentation at FaceBook Slides
  (tags: PubSubHubbub information_management)
• Los Angeles City Hall becomes tech giants' battlefield
  Microsoft and Google are vying for a $7.25-million contract to replace an outdated e-mail system. As Google and Microsoft battle for dominance in technology, a skirmish in Los Angeles City Hall is offering a rare public glimpse into a rivalry that could help determine the fortunes of both companies — and, quite possibly, how workers in the future will communicate.

  The two tech giants are clashing over a $7.25-million contract to replace L.A.'s outdated e-mail system. The stakes are high enough that both companies have fielded teams of lobbyists and executives to press their case in City Hall.

  City officials have also been told that Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Google CEO Eric Schmidt "would be more than happy to come and visit with you," said City Councilman Tony Cardenas, who chairs the council's information and technology committee.

  (tags: government email google microsoft)

Filed under: delicious

links for 2009-09-27

• Women in Technology and Networking by Dr. Caroline Simard,Vice President Research and Executive Programs | Advancing Women in Technology | Fast Company
  The main goal of this technical conference is to provide women in technology with broad opportunities for increasing their visibility, networking, breaking feelings of isolation, role models and building community.

  Previous research has shown that women in technology are less likely to have access to social networks at work and more likely to feel isolated. Yet, these networks ties are essential for career advancement.

  (tags: network technology women)
• Official Google Blog: Google climate change tools for COP15
  In December of this year, representatives from nations around the globe will gather in Copenhagen to discuss a global agreement on climate change. The objective is to reduce global warming emissions sufficiently in order to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change and to support the global community in adapting to the unavoidable changes ahead. Denmark will act as host for this fifteenth Conference of the Parties under the United Nations’ Climate Change Convention, known as COP15.
  (tags: google climate cop15 climatechange earth data tool)
• Project 10 to the 100
  Why this project?

  Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life. Yet at the same time, so many people, of all walks of life, could use so much help, in both little ways and big.

  In the midst of this, new studies are reinforcing the simple wisdom that beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people.

  (tags: google community project social)
• We are Colorblind » Patterns for the Color Blind
  About 8% of the male population has some sort of color blindness. The color blind have the inability to clearly distinguish different colors of the spectrum, they tend to see colors in a limited range of hues. Because of this, the color blind have trouble with a lot of websites.
  (tags: accessibility color colorblind webdesign patterns ux)
• Coolest power tools of some top geeks | Socialmedia.biz
  This time around there was more emphasis on social media services like Twitter as well as multimedia apps. Among the tools in the Geeks’ arsenal: Zemanta, Tweetdeck, HootSuite, PeopleBrowsr, Mindjet, Shopstyle and Friendfeed (Twitter and Facebook are givens). Remember, this is a partial, on-the-fly list of useful tools — intended to introduce readers to some apps they might not be using — and not a comprehensive list, and it also doesn’t take into consideration any of the startup apps’ we were introduced to in the UK.
  (tags: tools socialmedia geeks webapps online)
• OpenWebCamp – a set on Flickr
  (tags: openwebcamp photos 2009 Stanford)

Filed under: delicious

links for 2009-09-26

• 10 Tools to Improve Your Site’s Usability on a Low Budget | Webdesigner Depot
  Testing the usability of your site is one of the smartest things you can do. Usability involves making a website’s interface easier to use and simpler to understand, so that the user’s experience is as enjoyable as possible.

  The more usable a site is, the more satisfying it will be to interact with it — and happy visitors translate into happy customers.

  (tags: usability tools UI webdesign)

Filed under: delicious

links for 2009-09-25

• Open Data and Application Contests: Government 2.0 at the Peak of Inflated Expectations
  Government 2.0 is rapidly reaching what we at Gartner call the peak of inflated expectations.
  (tags: Gartner government government2.0 opengov)
• Government Employees on Social Networks: Reversing the Burden of Proof
  I felt it was time to provide some more structured advice to Gartner clients on three main areas:

  * What are the different attitudes that government organizations take vis-a-vis social networks, i.e. deny, replace or embrace.
  * How to establish a roadmap to allow employees to create value from participating in social networks.
  * What are the main issues to tackle besides establishing or enforcing codes of conducts, such as defining the boundaries between personal and professional profiles, ensuring effective monitoring, measuring impact.

  (tags: government2.0 socialnetworks)
• The New How: Rough Cuts Version – O'Reilly Media
  Once in a generation, a book comes along that transforms the business landscape. Company strategy typically has been planned by corporate chiefs in annual meetings, and then dictated to managers to carry out. In The New How, Nilofer Merchant shows corporate directors, executives, and managers that the best way to create a winning strategy is to include employees at all levels, helping to create strategy they not only believe in, but are also equipped to implement.
  (tags: strategy)

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links for 2009-09-23

• 57th Session of the International Statistics Institute | Space-Time Research
  Space-Time Research is proud to support the The 57th Session of the International Statistical Institute, August 16 – 22, 2009. This is the preeminent statistical event of the year, attracting well over 2,000 attendees and the best statistics speakers in the world.
  (tags: data mashup government2.0)

Filed under: delicious

links for 2009-09-22

• Google Chrome Frame – Google Code
  (tags: browser chrome internet javascript)
• Dog Friendly Restaurant Dining in San Francisco Bay Area
  Our goal at Dining With Sophie is to create a comprehensive list of dog friendly restaurants and shops in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using Google Maps, we are plotting the location of restaurants that have outdoor seating areas where pets are welcome.
  (tags: travel dog)
• When the URL breaks: The difficulty of changing identities online
  Cool URIs don’t change, right? But uncool URLs certainly do. For over 7 years, I blogged at blisspix.net and as was the way at the time, my URL was both a handle and identity. Whenever I signed up for a new service, my username was always blisspix. Lately, this has become less popular. I’ve noticed a sharp trend towards using real names, whether on Twitter (where I’d estimate well more than half of those I follow use their real name or some version of it) and Facebook, where many I know who chose a vanity URL chose their own name, myself included. The concept of handles and nicks seems to be dying off. I’m glad I didn’t keep using handles from the IRC and chat days of my youth, but blisspix was not much of an improvement and finally, it is time for it to go. I would be interested to hear if anyone has researched this change.
  (tags: web w3c usability standards design webdesign architecture)

Filed under: delicious

links for 2009-09-21

• Maya Baratz: Women in Tech: The Silicon Ceiling
  (tags: women technology siliconvalley)
• If You Printed The Internet … | CreativeCloud
  (tags: sustainable green paper)
• Google Wave: You need to pay attention to this. – Jason Kolb re: the Future of the Internet
  (tags: XMPP)

Filed under: delicious

links for 2009-09-20

• A List Apart: Articles: Prettier Accessible Forms
  It can be time consuming to make web forms both pretty and accessible. In particular, laying out forms where the form label and input are horizontally adjacent, as in the image below, can be a real problem. We used to use tables, which worked well in this scenario—but forms don’t constitute tabular data, so it’s a semantic faux pas.

  I’ve tried to create a form-styling solution that is both accessible and portable (in the sense that I can move the code from one project to the next). Floats have often provided a solution to my problem, but given the complexity of some layouts and the numerous float bugs associated with Internet Explorer, it’s not always easy to reuse a float solution. I wanted to create something that anyone could easily reuse on any project: a style sheet that, when applied to a correctly marked up HTML form, would produce the basis of the required layout.

  (tags: css forms webdesign accessibility)
• The 7 signs your UI was created by a programmer
  Do you suspect a programmer may have put together the terrible user interface on that “enterprise” software you’re forced to use every day? There are some give-away indicators. Look out for them in your software, hunt down the developer and force them to read a book about user interface design. If you’re suitably senior, force them to a) improve it, or even better b) get someone with real UI experience to fix it.
  (tags: UI design usability development funny ux)
• Chief Information Officers Council: Guidelines for Secure Use of Social Media by Fe. Dept. and Agencies v.1.0
  The use of social media for federal services and interactions is growing tremendously, supported by initiatives from the administration, directives from government leaders, and demands from the public. This situation presents both opportunity and risk. Guidelines and recommendations for using social media technologies in a manner that minimizes the risk are analyzed and presented in this document.

  This document is intended as guidance for any federal agency that uses social media services to collaborate and communicate among employees, partners, other federal agencies, and the public.

  (tags: socialmedia federal government gov2.0 security guidelines policy)

Filed under: delicious

Elsa

Elsa on the grass

Originally uploaded by bhaven

September afternoon. not much to say

Filed under: Uncategorized