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One of the challenges with the Web 2.0 phenomenon is to gather an effective picture of what Web 2.0 actually is, and how it can be applied for the benefit of your organisation and customers.
It's often a case of the Blind men and the Elephant - the view people take away is based on which part of the elephant they encounter.
So I'm please to see that Steve Collins of AcidLabs is bringing Web 2.0 University to Australia and New Zealand, with the first Executive Bootcamp to be offered at Web Directions South.
Web 2.0 University provides a leg-up for business leaders seeking to explore, understand and use Web 2.0 business techniques and technologies to improve an organisation's effectiveness.
It was founded in the US and has been extensively used by Fortune 500 companies as a business education solution to bring senior executives up to speed on what they need to know about Web 2.0 methodologies.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Web 2.0 University coming to Australia and New Zealand | Tweet |
Friday, August 22, 2008
Website/intranet redesign or realignment - is there good reason for change? | Tweet |
My team's web designer forwarded me the article Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign from A List Apart earlier this week.
It looks at the justification behind design decisions - whether to change the design, layout and information architecture of a website or product - dividing it into two camps.
Redesigners - who base their decision on emotional responses to aesthetics.
It’s been 2 years since our last redesign.
Our current stuff just looks old.
A redesign would bring new traffic to the site.
Realigners - who based their decision on strategic objectives and user needs.
Market trends have shifted. Should our website be adjusted accordingly?I don't believe the line is ever that clear cut, sometimes aesthetics are used to sell strategic changes and sometimes vice versa. I also do not agree that realigners are 'better' designers (for whatever value of 'better').
Our users’ needs have changed. Do we need to adapt?
We’ve added 3 new sections and a slew of new content to the site over the last 12 months. Are we presenting content as effectively as we can?
Our current website does little to convey the strength of our product offering.
Does our online presence enhance or devalue our overall brand perception?
However I do feel the article does touch on a key factor for management, of websites or any other system or people, perceptual versus objective truth.
Often as web managers we are the closest to our own sites, seeing blemishes that are less visible to others. On the other hand we may also accept and overlook fallacies and faults that others perceive as major flaws. It's a little like being in a relationship. We often simultaneously see more and less in our partner than others can from an external perspective.
Therefore when deciding whether to make design or IA changes it is crucial to step outside our own emotional engagement and seek the views of our audiences, our peers, management and neutral parties.
Otherwise we may - knowingly or unknowingly - be primarily driven by our own personal views or emotional responses, while publicly justifying changes based on organisational goals or audience need (or simply on the ultimate reason that 'it looks better').
I can think of times in the past where for personal or organisational reasons I've redesigned a website or intranet simply due to aesthetics. I can think of more times when there were reasons driven by audience needs or organisational realignment.
I can also remember times when I made aesthetic choices, but justified them as strategic decisions.
These are the decisions to be guarded against as they are, in my view, the most likely to lead to errors of judgment.
It's about being honest with yourself and understanding your own drivers.
Do you operate as more of a realigner or redesigner?
What would your peers say?
The first 5,000 days of the web, and the next 5,000 days | Tweet |
There are a lot of perceptions and assumptions about what the internet is - or isn't. All of us make them - drawing conclusions about our world, often in the absence of reliable current knowledge, is part of being human.
Personally I feel the need, from time to time, to get out of my own headspace - cast aside my preconceptions and judgements - and look as objectively as possible at what is really occurring around us.
I find TED talks a fantastic way to achieve this, and recommend the following talk by Kevin Kelly about the first 5,000 days of the web - and the next 5,000 days.
We've come so far, and there is so much further we can go.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Merging government intranets | Tweet |
With regular changes in departmental structures across State and Federal government, there's significantly greater need for public agencies to have the skills to manage the merger and demerger of intranets and websites than is faced in most sections of the private sector.
The NSW Department of Primary Industry has taken the step of sharing some details of its intranet experience during the merger of four government agencies.
With the kind permission of Kate Needham's team, I've linked to their presentation, which provides some insights into the challenges faced and the lessons they learnt through the process of developing a world-class intranet.
Good examples of organisational blogging | Tweet |
There's still limited activity in the Australian corporate or government blogging area, however in other parts of the world this channel for customer or citizen engagement is growing rapidly.
However not all organisations appear to be using the medium well. In July the Wall Street Journal reported on a Forrester Research study of 90 blogs run by Fortune 500 companies. The study found that Most Corporate Blogs Are Unimaginative Failures.
The article stated that,
...most B2B blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” Seventy percent stuck to business or technical topics, 74% rarely get comments, and 56% simply regurgitated press releases or other already-public news.It went on to say that this isn't the death knell for corporate blogging,
Forrester doesn’t recommend that businesses give up on blogging, however. Instead, it suggests that they spice the blogs up. Most B2B bloggers publish irregularly, don’t stick to it for very long, and rarely inject personality into their posts. That’s a formula for failure. In order to make a blog lively, a business has to offer visitors something more – musings from an executive, insight into how a product decision was made, something funny. Forrester cites Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog and Tibco’s “Greg the Architect” videos as good examples of B2B blogs.Forrester's study recommended for strategies for corporate blog success,
- Strategy One: Be A Conversation Starter, Not A Spoiler
- Strategy Two: Make Blog Content Entertaining, Easy To Digest And To Use
- Strategy Three: Connect The Dots Between Events And Community Involvement
- Strategy Four: Invite Thought Leaders, But Coach Them On Community Etiquette
There's some excellent examples of blogs that bring personality and relevance to organisations, without being disrespectful towards customers or the brand.
