Form of the Week: Registration at Odeo.com

Props to Odeo.com for making our lives a little bit easier:

Mayor Daley at UIC

 

Chicago's Mayor Daley came to speak at UIC today. While some of his talk seemed to ramble on and was, to be honest, less than inspiring, it was clear that Education is a big deal for him. He literally said it came after God and Family.

A funny moment came (at least for me) when he was talking about how even prison inmates needed vocational training and then as an aside, said something along the lines of:

"The unions used to be against it [work done by inmates] but that's when we made everything here. Now you've got things made in China so why not in our jails?"

I'm sure the mayor wasn't advocating prison labor and maybe China wasn't the best example to pick for comparison but it sure had me tittering in the back row.

Metrics of Success for Library 2.0?

When I read posts like this, I really have to ask myself what is the measure of success for incorporating new technology: the fact that it's been incorporated at all (nice) or that it's actually being used (even better).

"[S]ocial software, Weblogs, linklogs, folksonomies, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, and Web services" are definitely advances in the Web as we know it. I routinely use many if not all of these myself. But their simple inclusion (whether real or imaginary) into a library's website doesn't by itself constitute a "success".

It's important when trying to incorporate the tools of Web 2.0 that we don't forget the lessons of Web 1.0: you don't shove technology down the throats of your users simply because you've become enamored by it. Rather it's your users who define what your priorities are and whatever they want, you'd better be in a position to deliver on -- big time! That's the measure of success that counts.

Everything else is bupkis.

UPDATE: Apparently this has been on the minds of a couple of people. Have a look at Sarah Clark's "Dark Side of Library 2.0"

Washington Post Issues Correction on Fairfax County Library Story

The original story that appeared in the Washington Post about Fairfax County's weeding of classics from its collection raised a nationwide "firestorm of outrage".

Now WaPo Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, reports that the weeding wasn't perhaps as sweeping as orginally suggested:

The story said that "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" are among the titles that hadn't been checked out in two years and that could be eliminated. Those books have been checked out; it would have been better to say that some copies of those books may not have been checked out in two years at some branches and could be weeded out. Kirkpatrick and Clay say there was never any intention of weeding out all copies.

Complete article here...

New ALA Wiki: Read Write Connect

Bill Drew (SUNY Morrisville) posted a link on Web4Lib to the American Library Association's new Wiki, 'Read Write Connect'.

The Wiki brings together many of ALA's online services loosely defined as 'Web 2.0' (i.e. Podcasts, flickr, etc.) This is one of a series of new online products, the most successful of which, IMHO, is the electronic newsletter, AL Direct.

TECH cocktail 3 (Chicago)

I had a great time at TECH cocktail 3 last night. It was held at Amira in the NBC Building and the place was so packed at times that you could hardly squeeze in.

Chicago Mapped Out in Flickr Tags

This is neat: Chicago mapped out in Flickr tags courtesy of the ZoneTag Project (Yahoo! Research).

Zoom in and move around and you'll see different tags show up. Click on the link, 'View on World Explorer', for a larger map and a photo browser. (h/t O'Reilly Radar)

Link of the Day: Only Human

 Website 'Only Human' is the True Confessions of social networking sites.  It bills itself as a "community where people share stories about mistakes they've made in life and their advice to others."

A glance at some of the most recent 'mistakes' includes, "focusing on my studies and not getting a job", "getting in trouble with the cops" and "bringing along/almost finishing 2/3 a bottle of rum". Based on these experiences, authors can include one-line 'words of advice' that are then prominently displayed with special highlighting. Readers in their turn can leave comments and rate posts by clicking on a box marked "I learned from this".

Fun idea. Up there with Twitter. (h/t Mashable)

Drupal Turns 5

The popular CMS, Drupal has just announce the release of version 5.0. There are a number of enhancements particularly in administering the software. This site runs on Drupal so I guess I'll probably be upgrading soon.

Meanwhile in France: The Ségosphère & Disco Sarko

The tools of Web 2.0 are available not only to Americans but to anyone on the planet fortunate enough to have a computer and access to the Internet.

In France, a country with 3.6 million "bloggeurs", the "presidentielles" are coming up in April and all the online manifestations of a political campaign that we became familiar with here during our own election in November -- the websites, blogs and videos -- are popping up in France as well.

SÉGOSPHERE

Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal not only has a campaign blog, SegoleneRoyal2007.net, but she's got a page on Blogspot, Ségo Blogs, telling people how to set up their own blogs in favor of her.

They've even got a videoclip of her greeting bloggers that ends with the stirring words, "Aux Claviers!":

DISCO SARKO

Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy has a more boring web presence at Avec-Sarkozy.fr (yuckie URL!) but some of his supporters made up for this by putting together the fun Flash site, Disco Sarko, which features the candidate dancing in various user-determined disco moves all to the beat of "Staying Alive" and "Shake Your Booty". Yes, even you can "fais groover Sarko sur le Dance Floor"!

Follow Your Users (Because They Sure as Hell Aren't Going to Follow You)

Jon Alper, the Director of Technology at WGBH Interactive was asked at a conference by a j-school teacher (of all things) how to coax students away from MySpace.com and towards the school's own blog instead.

Alper's answer, as reported by Carleen Hawn from PaidContent, was essentially that posting on MySpace.com was bad because it abetted free content to the detriment of traditional (legitimate) content like newspapers and broadcast media.

It's hard to know where to start with such an approach. As Hawn herself points out, "...Isn't the idea of New New Media to leverage as many entities as possible?"

At a more basic level, the students are no dupes. They're simply following the crowd -- the market, the popular choice. Myspace.com is where they perceive their postings will have the widest and most significant audience.

And who's to argue with them? Instead of trying to rope them back in, the teacher should be working on how to get out there himself -- how to use their tools to his instructional advantage.

This stuff isn't rocket science.

We Prefer the Barnum & Bailey School of Web Design

 It's great to highlight the wonders of technology but we serve our users best if we first acknowledge what they're coming to us for.

Whatever that is -- and in the academic world, I'm assuming it's articles and books -- that's what we have to build our websites around. Indeed, the whole success of the operation depends on how well we deliver on these core functions.

Anything less and we've got a problem on our hands.

That's why I've got to wonder about all the talk of transforming our websites into social networks. Is this what our users, particularly in the academic world, are really coming to us for?

Are the ones coming to us for articles and books going to be satisfied if we throw a wiki at them?

Are they coming to participate in a "conversation" -- or do they just want to grab something quick and get the hell out?

We want to open up our data to the widest possible audience. We want to establish a presence, where appropriate, in every social network and widget that we can.

But simply because we want to use social networks and various other technologies to extend our footprint, doesn't mean that they're the only models to follow. In some cases, they may not even be the most appropriate.

-------------

Cultural Note to Extraterrestrials: Barnum & Bailey were famous for the adage, 'Always give them what they want'.

State Ethics Test Itself Raises Ethics Issues for Illinois Academics

If you work at a public college or university in Illinois you may already have heard of this. In fact, your Faculty Senate may be gearing up to lodge a complaint as we speak. There's also been articles about this in both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-times. [earlier version on archive.org]

Above is a copy of one of the letters the State Inspector General has been sending to a number of participants in last Fall's online State Ethics Test. The letter tells participants that their "certificate of completion" for having gotten the answers right is no longer valid because it took them less than 10 minutes to complete the test.

Now to a normal person, successfully completing a test, in this case on Ethics, in record time might indicate a special aptitude for the subject. However for the state of Illinois, this indicates instead an unwillingness to "meaningfully engage" with the material.

The "Noncompliant Employee" is then instructed to go though an included brochure, to sign the final page and send it back in -- under penalty of "disciplinary" action including being fired.

So naturally no one wants to be called "noncomplaint" particularly when it comes to ethics and many are refusing to sign the thing. The Tribune reports over 2300 offenders from U. of I. alone.

It would have been nice if they had mentioned the time requirement at some point during the test itself. Things aren't helped by the fact that Deputy Inspector General Gilbert Jimenez is going around "wondering" if people used a "cheat sheet" to finish up so quickly. Jimenez's statement to the Tribune implying that full-timers (i.e. people working "8 hours a day") had ample time to devote to the test is inaccurate if not altogether misleading since part-timers were required to participate as well.

Podcast: David Platt on 'Why Software Sucks'

"It just works", repeats author David Platt almost as a mantra in this Podcast from IT Conversations. That's what software is supposed to do.

Users aren't interested in what goes on behind the scenes. All they want to do is accomplish their goals with the least amount of hassle.

An obstacle to this is software that's afraid to make assumptions -- even when doing so saves time (i.e. is valid) for the vast majority of users.

"Don't let edge cases complicate the mainstream", Platt pleads.

While the Podcast could use some editing (it goes on for over an hour) and while Platt's apparent familiarity with Microsoft products seems to narrow his perspective at times, still the thing is worth listening to.

Captcha of the Day

Hoo Baby! I caught a live one! No less than 10 characters long that you have to input perfectly in order to create an account at Myspace.com!

Fear of the spambot creating too many accounts? Is that the problem? Not that I'm complaining -- this one's worth it. Hello, 'mhhh5h7D7J', nice to meet you! (Though naturally I blew it on the first try.)

Semi-Annual Message to ScienceDirect About Its Atrocious Registration System

Dear ScienceDirect,

This is my semi-annual message to you explaining how awful, frustrating and ultimately self-defeating your registration process is.

As I explained in my message from four years ago [see below], having your system automatically generate a user-name for someone as part of your registration process is a complete disaster. No one on the face of the planet is going to remember what your system has assigned to them.

There is no other website -- none -- that forces machine-generated user-names down the throats of its users. Just look around. The only reason I can imagine you have such a system is as a way to guarantee that the least amount of people actually use your service.

But don't believe me, just look at your own stats!

Sincerely,

Leo Klein
Chicago, IL

P.S. Making the machine-generated user-name case-sensitive(!!!) only adds insult to injury.

The Usability of Logging In

Emre Sokullu writes about the "big barrier" of logging in to a site and what companies do to make things easier:

"Almost all the internet giants, like Yahoo, Google and MSN, use single sign-on across their properties to lower the threshold of accessing their services and to create a competitive advantage. The reason they do this is that signing up is actually a big barrier to entry for users of web apps. Users feel more comfortable when they don't have to sign up to use an app - it's much easier to give it a try and it's less time-consuming to start using it."

Great Interfaces Look Alike:

"Big Barrier" is right. Most sites keep records of people signing in. All you have to do is go through these records to get an idea of the difficulties people have remembering their personal information even with relatively "standard" login requirements.

STANDARD LOGIN

So what's 'standard'? Well, glad you asked. It's whatever everybody else is doing: email address or user name plus password.

The further you veer from 'standard', the more likely your user will have absolutely no idea how to access your site.

In libraryland this is something of a challenge since most of our systems work by a person's "library number". It's hard to emphasize how user-unfriendly this is -- how unlike any other authentication system the user is likely to encounter. The problem is only compounded by the fact that we're generally running multiple systems which in turn require multiple logins. No "single sign-on" here.

That's why the login on the Queens Borough Public Library Site is so fantastic: all you need is your username and password. Just like any site!

When developing systems, we need to work off of our users' strengths, building around things they're familiar with. Anything less should be a red flag.

Keep It Fields!

 As anyone familiar with Chicago knows, changing the name of "Marshall Fields" to "Macy's" by Federated Department Stores is a sore subject around here.

Now the Chicago Tribune reports:

Wall Street is concerned that the loss this fall of some longstanding retail names such as Field's in the changeover of some 400 stores to Macy's by parent company Federated Department Stores Inc. has hurt sales at some locations.

Apparently they didn't get as much business as they anticipated over the Christmas holiday. And why would they? It was the name that brought people in -- and Federated went and changed that. So now they've fired the store manager but it's hard to see how that'll help. They've really driven the entire chain into the ground.

Best & Worst of the Internet - Circa 1994

Slashdot has a link to Internet World's "Best and Worst of 1994 and Predictions for '95"

A number of people were asked to contribute and we're brought back to the pre-Netscape days of Mosaic when the 'Net was in transition from a preserve for academics and government employees to a more general and commercial audience.

Here's are some of the remarks:

BEST:

Best public display/demo of the Internet: The Shoemaker-Levy comet vs. the planet Jupiter. [NASA had put up pictures of the comet hitting Jupiter on its nascent web-site. This captivated people as an example of how visual information could be accessed.]

The proliferation of the World-Wide Web. Unlike other areas of the Net, once you access the Web, it makes no difference whether you're a new user or an old pro. The Web graciously accommodates all. [the Web was WYSIWYG!]

Media coverage. Sure, some of that coverage seems clueless, and some of it focuses; foolishly, but not surprisingly; on the seedier side of the Net (such as pornography and electronic stalkers). But 1994 saw the Internet finally hit the mainstream. Time and Newsweek now routinely print letters received through e-mail, and more importantly, it's no longer a novelty. The coverage in magazines on the supermarket check-out line has helped make the other "best" things possible.

Governance. It's been engineers; rather than lawyers and legislators; that have run the Internet. It would be nice to keep it that way.

WORST:

Hordes of users from commercial on-line services such as America Online CompuServe, and Prodigy have come onto the Net. This has burst the Internet open beyond the borders of a relatively well-trained and well-mannered few, and is the first major step toward diluting the Internet into a sea of hostility and miscommunication, much like the real world. While this did not happen solely in 1994, this year has seen the floodgates simply trampled over, as it were, and the clueless newbies are a-stumblin' in!

What is it about the World-Wide Web that makes everyone want to stick 100-K pictures on their home pages? [Originally only 'Gif' images worked on the Web. Jpegs came a year or two later.]

The organization of the World-Wide Web. I love the Web, but finding something specific on it is a nightmare. And because the Web is growing by leaps and bounds, I just don't see things getting easier anytime soon. [Search engines anyone?]

Hype. Is there anyone who isn't carsick from the phrase "Information Superhighway?"

(image of a NASA Web Page on Jupiter circa 1994 courtesy Byte Magazine)

DRM Down the Drain?

'DRM' stands for 'Digital Rights Management'. It's a way for content owners, particularly in the music industry, to control the way a product is used after it's been sold to the consumer.

Needless to say, for most consumers this really means 'Digital Restrictions Management' and most don't like it. Nevertheless, the music industry has seen fit to shove it down our throats no matter what. Apparently their approach isn't working:

Revenue from digital downloads and mobile content is expected to be flat or, in some cases, decline next year. If the digital market does in fact stall, alternatives to DRM will look much more attractive. (Reuters 1/2/07)

So what's the solution? Things are getting so bad for the music industry that they're actually thinking about dumping DRM and releasing their music as mp3's! Yes, the single most popular digital format on the planet and the recording industry is only thinking of embracing it now -- and then only as a form of market capitulation. Oh brave new world!

When Is TV Not TV? (When It's IPTV!)

In order to get its proposed merger with Bell South approved by the FCC, AT&T has agreed to abide by Net Neutrality at least for its DSL service. Initial reaction to this was largely positive echoing the conclusion of Tim Wu:

What is clear is that this agreement marks a critical moment in the recent history of Network Neutrality and big step forward for its supporters.

Unfortunately what isn't covered in the agreement -- in fact, it's specifically ruled out -- is AT&T's next generation internet service called "Internet Protocol television", or 'IPTV', for short.

This exception apparently doesn't faze Wu who, listening to the Siren Call of "TV", dismisses it thus:

These [IPTV] services are IP in name only. They are in practice and architecture a direct competitor to cable television services. These services use only the private infrastructure built by AT&T, and do not rely on the public Internet as described by IP addresses. Hence the exclusion of private IPTV services should be considered less controversial.

So the new service is just like Cable TV! Nothing to worry about!

Susan Crawford on the other hand, will have none of this. In a post titled, "The Day the Internet Became Cable Television", she lambasts the agreement:

AT&T is effectively saying, "We'll keep existing 'broadband' access neutral. But when it comes to our new super-duper 'AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet U-verse Enabled,' well, that's not up for negotiation. We need to make money there. 'Enabled' and 'broadband' are not the same thing."

She points to a press-release announcing AT&T's new 'U-verse' service. It describes three levels or "packages" to choose from:

• Elite: Downstream up to 6.0 Mbps, upstream up to 1.0 Mbps.
• Pro: Downstream up to 3.0 Mbps, upstream up to 1.0 Mbps.
• Express: Downstream up to 1.5 Mbps, upstream up to 1.0 Mbps.

Even Guglielmo Marconi could tell you this isn't "TV". With "TV", you don't need an "upstream". The TV station simply dishes it out and you sit there and take it in. That's TV!

You only need upstream, when you want to build feedback into the system -- when you want to make it "interactive" -- sort of like we now have using... DSL.

So the moral of the story is, the moment they start talking about "TV", ask them if they're building any interactivity into it. And if they say yes, ask them how it's any different from what we have now. Just making it faster and slapping a new name on it doesn't make it different.

U.S. Military: HTML Email Is a Security Threat

The Department of Defense is automatically converting all formatted email (aka 'html' email) to plain text:

The [Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations] mandated use of plain text e-mail because HTML messages pose a threat to DOD because HTML text can be infected with spyware and, in some cases, executable code that could enable intruders to gain access to DOD networks, the JTF-GNO spokesman said.

Attachments like Powerpoint "used for briefings" can still get through. Article here... (h/t ZDNet)

All Things Ruby on Rails

Justin Williams has a good primer on Ruby on Rails (AKA 'RoR') called 'Ruby on Rails for the Rest of Us'. RoR is a "rapid development framework" for creating online applications. It's generated a lot of interest recently because it's a handy way to develop database-driven sites.

(I was surprised to find out that Twitter of all things runs on it.)

In any case, the article also provides a number of links for further information including the main RoR site, rubyonrails.com

For a taste of Ruby, the programming language that RoR is built on, have a look at 'Try Ruby!'

Social Networking Awards from Mashable.com

Having trouble keeping track of all those new social networking services? Well, Mashable.com has put together a handy guide as part of their "2006 Social Networking Awards".

The list reads like a Who's Who of social networking services with everyone from MySpace and YouTube to Flickr and Digg having made the grade. There are also popular picks ("people's choice") and best bets for the coming year.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Klein & Friends to you and yours!

Bob, Regie & Leo: At the salade stage of the meal.

Aaron & Mr. Levitz at our dinner in Chicago.

Adobe Icon Controversy

Nothing like a graphic design controversy to brighten up the day!

If you look at the Mac taskbar above and can figure out the difference between 'Lr', 'Ps', 'Ai' and 'Id', maybe you'll have no problems with the application icons in Adobe's new Creative Suite 3 currently in Beta.

For many designers however it's been thumbs-down.

Dave Shea has a wonderful analysis of the icons called 'Icont'. His reasoning reads like a basic lesson in graphic design:

They fail because there is no shape variation. Every icon is contained within an identical square. Nothing breaks the silhouette, the only shape variation occurs inside the square, in the form of the letters. But using a common typeface, stroke weight, and posture across every icon means the various letters have more in common with each other than they differ, and at a glance they all blend together. Since this is the sole shape differentiator, it’s a big, big problem.

Comments by designer Jason Santa Maria also merit a read.

I guess for me the bottom line is, the icons are pretty generic and drab. I'm not a great fan of the current icons but frankly, when I saw a shot of them all together, I had abolutely no idea what they were for. They looked like a bunch of Color Samples for choosing a bucket of paint.

You'd think Adobe could do better.

Current Cites for December 2006

Current Cites for December 2006 is out. I've got three citations. You can find the issue here...

Usability Report on ALA's Website

I find usability reports fascinating. I went through the ALA's "Usability Assessement Report" and my favorite part was "Appendix F – Usability Testing Notes".

But the entire report is worth a read. The people who put it together did a good job. I mean, who can argue with a recommendation like this:

Organize information according to content. Except for the information specifically about ALA or the divisions, do not categorize the information — especially information of interest to the general public — according to ALA’s organizational structure....

What quibbles I have are minor. That said...

"Meaningful" URLs?

The report recommends that URLs should be "meaningful and reasonably short" (p.13). While I'm all for "reasonably short", I think trying to make them "meaningful" as well is hoping for too much.

Sure there are obvious examples of meaningful URLs that have become almost standard: '../about' for 'About Us' and '../contact' for 'Contact Us'. On a site like ALA.org, you might also expect '../divisions', '../publications', etc. But you can only take this so far.

Even the example they use in the report, "Prods_Pubs" for "Products_and_Publications", doesn't seem particularly intuitive or meaningful to me. I think for most of the pages, just being "short" as in 'ala.org?p=123456' is about as much as we can hope for.

No Division Acronyms for Navigation?

The report argues against using division acronyms like 'ACRL' or 'PLA' as part of the navigation. I don't see why not.

As someone who's paid annual fees for a couple of these Divisions down through the years, the acronym is just about the only thing (other than the location of the annual convention) that I know about ALA. If new people are having trouble deciphering these acronyms, maybe it's an indication that the landing page for the Division Section isn't all that findable.

One way or another, I'm not sure a navigation scheme based on their full names would be any better. It certainly would be a whole lot more crowded.

Butt Ugly Site!

Okay, I said these things were minor. But only in a few places is there even an intimation that the visuals suck.

About the closest you get is in this user comment:

"The website design ... is extremely unprofessional in appearance. It's like it was designed back in the 1990s before librarians were so internet-savvy, and no one has bothered to update it since then." (p.10)

The color scheme is unattractive. Graphics aren't used in a particularly optimal way to enhance text and navigation. And of course the thing looks like it came out of the 1990s: There's absolutely no use of layout or typography beyond the most basic "three column display"; Everything is just one "river" (or "flood") of content; And the content itself is nothing more than '<h1><p><p><p>', rinse and repeat.

They're going to have to get a whole lot more sophisticated than that to break out of the 90's look.

I'm confident they will. There's no reason why a site that represents the ALA can't be a bit more user-friendly -- and appealing to the eye. (h/t Shifted Librarian)

Podcast of Alan Cooper

Alan Cooper is the author of two absolute classic books: "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum" and "About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design".

In this podcast by Gerry Gaffney, Cooper talks about personas, interaction design and other aspects of User Centered Design (UCD).

Interesting quotes include:

"Personas are not something we make, they're something we discover."

Appropriate focus:

"Even though you have a broad constituency of users, you should have a narrow selection of goals. By definition, a product serves a narrow spectrum of goals, even if it serves a broad spectrum of demographic."

Difference between 'marketing segmentation' and interaction design:

What Interaction Design does is, we go directly to that motivation -- not why someone would to buy but why someone would be satisfied using. That's a deeper thing.

Listen to the whole thing here... (h/t infoDesign!)

Book: 'Getting Real' by 37signals

This came out in March but it's still worth a mention -- particularly in the context of the "Kuckoo for Features" approach discussed here earlier.

It's a book called 'Getting Real', written by Chicago-based web development firm 37signals. It applies a provocative 'take-no-prisoners' approach to software development: Cut out the fat, narrow your focus, keep it as simple as possible.

The entire book is available online. It's pretty brief and worth a read. One of my favorite lines: "More isn't the answer. Sometimes the biggest favor you can do for customers is to leave something out."

Time Person of the Year: 6,965,000 Pieces of Mylar

That's a lot of Mylar:

The 2006 Person of the Year issue—the largest one Time has ever printed—marks the first time we've put reflective Mylar on the cover. When we found a supplier in Minnesota, we made the company sign a confidentiality agreement before placing an order for 6,965,000 pieces. That's a lot of Mylar.

Self-Publishing at $7 a Pop

We're so focused on Digital Libraries and other forms of online communication that we often overlook how profoundly the Web has changed the delivery of ordinary goods and services.

We've had self-publishing (sometimes called "vanity publishing") since the dawn of printing. But it's only recently that we could upload the information and within a certain amount of time, receive a finished work in the mail as good as from any publisher.

But here's the real significance, beyond the convenience, the technology has brought down the cost to where a B&W work might cost no more than $7 a copy and full-color works no more than $60!

Kevin Kelly goes over two online services, Lulu and Blurb, on his Blog 'Cool Tools'. If you've got a manuscript at the bottom of your desk drawer, now's the time to pull it out and get the thing into print! Read more here... (h/t xBlog)

Browser War Redux

I spose I'm showing my age by using 'Redux' instead of '2.0' but, boys and girls, I remember the first round of browser wars as if it were yesterday!

Essentially Internet Explorer booted Netscape off the face of the planet not because of any particular advantage it had over the competition but simply because it was part of the Windows OS and lock-in trumped all.

Well, since then, Microsoft has sat on the thing (so much for 'Freedom to Innovate') while an offshoot of Netscape, Mozilla, refined its own product, the open-source FireFox. Now finally MS has woken up and released IE7.

So it's the IE-Firefox Browser War all over again. But, but, argues Read/WriteWeb, what this really is is a proxy war between Microsoft and (who else?) Google with nothing less than the "multi-billion dollar advertising industry" at stake. How so, you ask? Well, read the rest of the post...

The Gift to Be Simple

It had to happen.

First there was the period of experimentation on the Web. Websites were meant to be "explored" we were told -- even the more mundane ones. When that didn't seem to work out, the pendulum swung the other way in favor of clean and simple design. The search screen of Google comes to mind.

Now the question is, are we experiencing a backlash to the backlash?

First, there's the article by noted design theorist Don Norman entitled, 'Simplicity Is Highly Overrated', which concludes:

Yes, we want simplicity, but we don’t want to give up any of those cool features. Simplicity is highly overrated.

Next we have Joel on Software arguing that simplicity "will not work as a good long term strategy". I'm reminded of the librarian discussing his new website who said users only understood the search box on every page when there were three search boxes to choose from.

Don Norman asks us rhetorically,

"Haven’t you ever compared two products side by side, comparing the features of each, preferring the one that did more? Why shame on you, you are behaving, well, behaving like a normal person.

I admit it. I'm looking for a phone at the moment that does everything but light up the driveway when I get home. I love features as much as the next guy.

But it's important to realize a simple fact: people want the features but they don't want the complexity. Furthermore, they'll prove extremely reluctant to try out a site, if in order to accomplish their goals they've got to master every feature on the thing. If this weren't the case, 'Advance Search' would be the first stop of even our most neophyte users.

FireBug : Geek Tool of the Month

Here's something that just made the life of anyone involved with CSS or Javascript a whole lot easier. FireBug is an "extention" for the Firefox Browser that allows you to see the CSS of a web page and change it in real-time.

The Webdeveloper extention does some of this, but FireBug is far more elaborate and hence more helpful. The Screencast explaining the features talks about FireBug being a help for remembering your own CSS. That's true but I can also imagine it being extremely helpful when trying to figure out a website or template originally done by someone else. In any case, it's a great product for thems that need it. You can download it here... (h/t mezzoblue)

ChillingEffects.org

While googling for pictures of failed technologies for my post on eBooks, I came across a strange note at the bottom of Google's search results. It read:

"In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 2 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org."

eBooks are from the Department of Bad Ideas

Someone asked about eBooks on one of the library lists I'm on. They wanted to know what the prospects were. I responded on the list but I thought I'd share my opinion here as well.

I've never really understood the rationale behind these devices. I mean, I already have something that reads "electronic books" -- it's called a laptop. If I wanted something even more mobile, I'd get a smaller laptop -- or maybe use my PDA. The advantages of using my laptop -- besides the fact that I already own it -- is that I can play most formats on it, and not just one.

Furthermore, my laptop can do more than just "read" the thing -- I can cut out parts, re-use it, send it to friends and colleagues. I can link to the file, 'digg it', list it on del.icio.us. In other words, I can do everything I've become accustomed to do on a computer in a networked environment. Why would I want something that could do anything less?

I think if the sole purpose of a device is simply to serve as a platform for a proprietary format, it's doomed. This kind of "lock-in" is not popular with consumers. Just ask Sony how its own version of the iPod is doing.

Hallmark of Failed Technology: Sony Memory Stick Walkman (NW-MS7)

Sony launched this unit amid much fanfare and expectations on the auspicious occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Walkman. Forget the iPod, which didn't even exist at this point, this player was supposed to be the successor to the fabled Walkman. Unfortunately because it only played Sony's proprietary format and showed more innovation in Digital Rights Management than Features for the users, it never got off the ground.

Sony showed it hadn't learned anything when four years later it released the Network Walkman NW-HD1, its 'iPod Killer' that also failed to gain any market acceptance.

Domain Registration While Drunk

Friends don't let friends register domain names while drunk. Unfortunately, no one was there to stop Robert Scoble. He went ahead and did it. Now he's the proud owner of 'somethingfuzzy.com'.

In the same spirit of candor, I confess to the following transgressions:

• Draft-Al-Gore-2008.com
• DemocraticBarfly.com (+ .org, .net & .us!)

Zillow Has A Wiki

It's always interesting to see how other organizations apply technology. It can often be a source of ideas. Here's an example of the popular real estate site, Zillow, deploying a Wiki. (h/t TechCrunch)

Current Cites for November 2006

The belated issue of Current Cites for November 2006 is now available. You can find it here...

Wonderful World of Widgets

Widgets (also called 'badges') are like small windows of information about you and your institution that people can put on their own sites.

The information can be about anything: events, news, hours of operation -- anything that you can pull from a database and list on people's sites so long as they embed the pieces of your code in their HTML.

The Widget featured here (actually a screenshot) comes from a company called "ChipIn". It shows a realtime progress bar for a fundrasing campaign along with a link for site visitors to donate or "ChipIn!" themselves. Anyone can go to ChipIn and create one of these things. Up to $9,999 in contributions and there's no fee. Payments are handled through PayPal. (More on Widgetbox...)

Is Library Culture an Obstacle to Change?

When harshly criticized for the huge disconnect between his words and actions, Charles II defended himself by saying that the actions were his ministers's and that only the words were his own.

I was reminded of that quote when reading "Disconnects Between Library Culture and Millennial Generation Values" by Robert H. McDonald and Chuck Thomas" (Educause Quarterly, 23:4). The authors harshly criticize research libraries for not meeting the needs of their users due in part to a rigid adherence to "old values". This in turn leads to "fundamental disconnects" between libraries and their users in the areas of "technology, policy, and unexploited opportunities".

Site of the Month: Queens Borough Public Library

The Queens Borough Library Website is so good that it made me want to do this review. It practically cried out for it. The developers have done a fantastic job. They've taken features we routinely find on other sites -- features like creating accounts, specifying preferences and grouping information -- and applied them to a library context.

In so doing, they've upped the standard of what a library website can do -- and what the public can expect from one. They've also provided a good model for other libraries to follow.

OVERALL DESIGN AND LOOK-AND-FEEL

This is a bright, colorful, well-designed site. The overall presentation is busy without being cluttered. Everything has its place. Even the foreign language options -- all six of them -- are comfortably parked near the top of the page.

Also near the top are two items, 'My Account" and "My Queens Library" that work very much like people have come to expect on other sites. They're built into the system and not part of some vendor-provided separate utility. More on these later.

The navigation is clean, easy to use and robust. Materials are listed on the tabs on top while all other information including user-groups and services is on the left. This left navigation expands and contracts revealing subcategories in an easy-to-use, consistent manner. Running along the bottom is more "institutional" information such as "About Us", "Contact Us", etc.

DYNAMIC, INTEGRATED INFORMATION AND SERVICES

Probably the most noticeable aspect of the site once we get beyond the graphics and layout, is just how dynamic and integrated the information is. We don't have separate applications running various aspects of the site -- one system for web pages and another for events. Rather they're integrated into a common interface and can be arranged in any number of powerful ways.

How branch library information is presented is just one example.

Most large metropolitan areas have branch libraries. So how the information about them is presented and accessed is an important consideration. At the Queens Borough Library site, you select a branch from a dropdown menu that's part of the left navigation. Once you've done this, the information below the menu immediately changes to that particular branch's hours and location -- and the system remembers your selection as you move from page to page! There's also a link for more extensive information about the branch below the hours and location.

But what if you don't know which branch to pick? In that case, you can search for one using a map or zip code. A particularly nice touch is the "Open Late Tonight" link which lists all branches open late according to what day it is. A feature like this would be unthinkable in the days of hand-coded library websites.

We've come a long way, baby!

Even more impressive is how events are handled. The function is completely integrated into the site. You can look events up by date, branch or user group. Each branch has its own calendar which is a subset of the larger institution-wide calendar. Once you've found an event to your liking, you can add it to your "My Events" list and sign up for weekly email reminders listing the events you've selected.

Presto!

PERSONALIZATION

The "My Events" feature is just one example of personalization. The first thing you notice about it is how easy it is to set up. It's just like setting up an account at just about any other website on the face of the planet. You don't need to come from Queens or even have a Queens Borough Library card!

You just enter your username, password and email and that's it. From there, you can begin making your own list of events, designate your "home" branch library and do a number of other things that on other library sites -- if at all possible -- might require pulling out ye olde library card and typing in a long string of numbers.

Of course, you'll eventually need to enter those numbers if you want to take advantage of borrower services, including remote use of subscription databases, but the first step is entirely painless. What's more, once you've set up the preliminary account, called a "Web Membership', you can link it to your library card number.

Also well integrated into the site are suggested reading lists on about a dozen different topics (e.g. Biography, Fiction). Each topic has its own newsletter which people can subscribe to online. The library also offers various other forms of recommended materials (music, movies, etc.) all of which link directly to holding information in the OPAC. Bookmarks for this kind of material would be a logical future extension.

Integration with the OPAC itself is a bit quirky. At least on my copy of Firefox 1.5 running on Mac OS X, text and navigation near the top of each record was smooshed together.

Nevertheless, the initial search box that figures so prominently on each and every page managed to pass my "Treasure Island" test: type "Treasure Island" in the search box and hope that a book by that name actually turns up on the first page of results (not always a given, believe me).

Design-wise, the OPAC carries over the color scheme and navigation of the site as a whole. That's important. No reason to step into an entirely different interface just because the function, in this case finding books and other materials, has changed.

BUGS? COMPLAINTS?

And yes, there are bugs. On occasion, I'd clicked on a link and this caused a database exception of one kind or another (read: ugly error page). The whole system looks like it was homebuilt and that's a good thing because all the pieces work in an amazing way, but on occasion there are loose strings that need to be fixed.

Besides that, there's not much to gripe about -- other than the aforementioned minor formatting glitches due to OPAC integration.

CONCLUSION

In the early days, you'd look at a library website and wonder exactly want kind of ramshackle organization put it together. The sites in no way reflected the role, oftentimes enormous, that the institution actually played in the community.

This is no longer the case. Increasingly we're getting websites that compare favorably with the competition at every level be it graphic design or functionality. The Queens Borough Library web site is an excellent example of this. We don't have to be first on the block with every new feature but it makes sense eventually to incorporate good ideas when we can.

Slightly Less Than Mature Reaction to Inclement Weather in Chicago

 Yippie! It's Snowing!!! (For more shots, check out the Flickr feed...)

US GAO Report: No Competition in ISPs

 

Competition in the area of Internet Service Providers? Fugeddaboutit!

That's basically the conclusion of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its new report entitled, "FCC Needs to Improve Its Ability to Monitor and Determine the Extent of Competition in Dedicated Access Services".

Drupal 5.0 Beta

I've been doodling around with the latest beta of Drupal 5.0.

I was thinking of implementing it here [on earlier website] but it's just not far enough along for me to use. Also, most of the modules, which are the true glory of Drupal, haven't been updated yet. (This site's running 4.7.)