Month: September 2007

Co-Scripter Tool is Amazing

I’m very excited about using the IBM CoScripter to simplify my life when it comes to repeated web forms. This reminds me of the applescript record option or the new Automater application.

The basics are that you hit record while filing out a series of web forms. It records your activity as a repeatable script that can be rerun. The script can also be shared with others.

For more details:

Thanks to Selena for pointing this out.

links for 2007-09-10

links for 2007-09-08

Link Love on My Birthday from PR 2.0

Brian Solis of the incredibly insightful PR 2.0 blog sent some link love to this blog on Wednesday. This recognition was gratifying for a couple of reasons.

First, Wednesday was my birthday which explains why I’ve been too busy to see Brian’s post until now. So Brian, thank you for the birthday present.

Second, Brian has written two blog posts recently that really stand out:

  • Social Media is About Sociology Not Technology
    There are many good points in this, but my favorite quote is:

    The conversations that drive and define Social Media require a genuine and participatory approach. Just because you have the latest tools to reach people, or have played around with them, doesn’t mean you can throw the same old marketing at them.

  • Crisis Communications 2.0 – The Skype is Falling
    This is a great examination of the differences between the way Skype and Zoomer responded to recent outages.

The second article is particularly fascinating to me. While I’ve spent most of my professional career in web site development, my degree was in Journalism with an emphasis on Pubic Relations.

I selected Public Relations because I believed in Public Relations theory in its purest form which is the belief that PR both tells the public the view point of an organization and also helps an organization understand the viewpoint of the public.

A few years ago, I noticed that the geeks and nerds were intuitively grokking, practicing and evangelizing the pure form of public relations. However, most public relations professionals were still trying to control the message and avoided engaging in true conversations.

This is why I follow the work of people like Brian Solis and Steve Rubel. These voices are the ones that can help public relations professionals understand not only the technology that is impacting their lives, but as Brian puts it, the sociological changes that PR practitioners must embrace for PR to continue to be relevant and effective.

If you are interested, here are some more articles on the challenges that public relations faces:

Thank you again Brian for your link love and the kind words. It’s nice to be recognized by a blogger whose ideas I’ve enjoyed reading.

It’s a Mobile Web. We Just Don’t Realize It.

After Apple’s iPod and iPhone announcements, Dave Winer wrote of Steve Jobs, “It’s Steve’s world, we just live in it.”

I think Dave has very interesting take on Apple’s announcement. I encourage you to go read it. When I read Dave’s short summary on Twitter, a variation on his turn of phrase came to mind:

It’s a Mobile Web. We Just Don’t Realize It.

I’m astonished that the press coverage so far has focused almost exclusively on the iPhone price drops and the upset customers. When the coverage extends past the price drop, people seem content to handicap whether or not the iPod Touch will sell enough to meet Apple’s forecast.

No one seems to be talking about the fact that we now have another major platform for the mobile web. Additional news such as the likely Google and Yahoo phones, Microsoft’s recent comments about a Zune phone, and Nokia venturing into mobile web services have me convinced that the tipping point for the mobile web in the U.S. is right around the corner.

2008 is shaping up to be the year of the mobile web. The year when companies finally get serious about their mobile strategy.

With 2.7 billion mobile devices in the world and so many new mobile web devices hitting the market, the mobile web has arrived, but most of us just don’t realize it.

Amazon Redesigns, Removes Trademark Tabs

Amazon unveiled a new design today that removes its trademark tabs in favor of left navigation with flyout submenus. They’ve documented their redesign and the reasons for it.

The amount of content on the site has long outgrown its tab structure, but until now, Amazon has found creative ways to retain the tab structure while growing their store. I know Amazon does extensive usability testing so this new design is a vote of confidence towards the usability of flyout navigation and primary navigation on the left.

You may not see the new design when you visit the site. The FAQs on the new design explain:

Why do I see the new design on my home computer but not at work?
We’re still in our testing phase, and you may not see the new design all the time.

links for 2007-09-05

Women in Technology

OReilly has a new series on Women in Technology starting today. I’ve been reading quite a few articles in this space because I’ve been following my friend Selena who has been doing research on these topics. It’s great to follow her delicious bookmarks because I get to read the best stuff she’s found without having to do all of the legwork to find the articles.

So I’m very pleased that Selena is also going to be writing an article in the Women in Technology series for OReilly. For that reason alone, it is worth reading. As I mentioned previously, Selena is very, very smart.

Another notable local author in the series is open source and community expert Dawn Foster whose blog Fast Wonder is one that I’ve been enjoying over the last few weeks.

I’m really looking forward to the series. Please take a look at it.