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This year is the 50 year anniversary of the creation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(ARPA) in the US in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite.
ARPA went on to create ARPANet - the first computer network and the genesis of the internet.
It is also the 15th anniversary of Mosaic, the world's first graphical internet browser (there was no 'world-wide-web' before Mosaic).
Vanity Fair has published an article drawing from interviews with some of the pioneers of the internet entitled, How the internet was won.
It's an interesting glimpse of how the 4th mass media came to be and a great read for anyone who wants more context on why the internet has developed as it has.
I also found it very interesting that this article was in the Entertainment and Culture section of Vanity Fair NOT in a Technology section.
Here in Australia - particularly in the public sector - I've noticed the tendency to consider the internet and websites as a technology tool or IT application.
In the US thinking has progressed further and the internet is recognised as a communications and interaction medium that enables communities and cultural development.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Happy birthday Mr Internet... | Tweet |
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 coming in August | Tweet |
It's always been my view that organisations needs to ensure that their websites are fully usable and accessible in the most commonly used web browsers.
This makes it critical for online professionals to keep a weather eye on developments in the web browser market - particularly on the market leaders, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
Microsoft has just announced when the second beta of Internet Explorer 8 will become available, making this a good time to begin preparing your organisation's external websites to be compliant.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Set the data free! Mash it up! | Tweet |
Mashups are, in my opinion, a fantastic tool for allowing people to creatively use data to solve problems or create value.
For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to situations where individuals or organisations combine (mashup) data from different sources, often in real-time across the internet to provide hybrid applications.
Some of the more interesting mashups I've seen have involved adding real-time public transport, job vacancies, photos, house sales or rental data from one or more websites to maps stored on another website.
Some of the better known mashups include:
- Flickrvision - photos on maps,
- Bikely - cycle routes around the world,
- HousingMaps - drawn from Craig's List and Google maps to create a location-based view of properties for rent or sale,
- Twittervision - tracking real time 'twitters' (mini blog posts) around the world - I find it a very zen experience to watch, and
- WAPetrol - a mashup showing the cheapest places to buy petrol in WA.
There are plenty more listed at the Google Maps Mania blog.
The only recent example I've seen even nominally in the public arena within Australia was Google's Australian election mash-up last year. This was a world first, combining electorate information, news stories, video and Google maps into an interactive picture of Australian politics.There's an introductory video to this mash-up at YouTube.
I expect we'll see an even more slick version for the US election this year.
The Bureau of Meteorology does makes its data available to third party websites for use in mashups. While I was at ActewAGL we used this data (with their permission) to provide weather information about the ACT - though it functioned more as a feed than a mashup.
We were also working towards creating internal mashups of our sales and customer details to gain a better picture of the demographic spread, effectiveness of location-based marketing and to give us another axis with which to develop customer insights. I do not know if this project has progressed since I left the organisation.
There's plenty of other private sector mashups emerging - some used for commercial purposes, such as the maps in RealEstate.com.au, but the public sector is strangely silent.
I'd love to see the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) mashup some of its data, or make data available in a form usable in mashups. I'm sure it would stimulate some interesting uses which in turn might lead to new insights.
I've also been slowly moving my Agency towards using some of our publicly released data, together with Google maps, to provide a basic social picture of Australia. This is information is already provided in list form so it's an easy first step.
Unfortunately there's plenty of more important activities on our radar, so we're not there yet - though I did manage in my own time to create an electorate map of Australia and embed some of our public data within it.
Over in the US there's a lot more activity, dating back several years. The mid-2006 article Emerging eGovernment mashups provides an early look at some of the uses the US public sector is developing for mash-ups.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Lean forward not back! | Tweet |
This is a great Alertbox article from usability guru Jakob Neilsen regarding writing for the web versus the print medium….
Writing Style for Print vs. Web
In summary:
I've spent many columns explicating the differences between the Web and television, which can be summarized as lean-forward vs. lean-back:
- On the Web, users are engaged and want to go places and get things done. The Web is an active medium.
- While watching TV, viewers want to be entertained. They are in relaxation mode and vegging out; they don't want to make choices. TV is a passive medium.
This doesn't mean that you can't have entertaining websites or informative TV shows. But it does mean that the two media's contrasting styles require different approaches to entertainment and education.
The differences between print and the Web may not seem as strong, but to achieve optimal results, each requires a distinct content style.
eMetrics primer | Tweet |
eMetrics is a personal interest of mine.
Being able to measure what actions people take and what information they use is, in my opinion, one of the key differentiators between the online channel and other communications mediums.
I find that the insights into customer and staff behaviour gained through eMetrics provides a solid basis for improvements to websites and intranets. It's also hard evidence that can be used to bring others onboard.
However using the wrong eMetrics can lead to all kinds of problems. I feel it's vital to understand what you are measuring, and why you should be using it.
Below is a brief primer using slides from a presentation I gave at a conference in 2007.
