At 4.50pm yesterday - just 10 minutes from the end of Boot Camp '08 - a massive power outage struck south Dublin. Despite the sudden loss of lighting and overhead projectors, our resouceful iQ presenters managed to wrap up successfully.
Drinks in the Long Hall and Hogan's pubs then helped to soothe my throat - sore as it was after 8 hours of lecturing.
iQ Boot Camp 2008 begins tomorrow in the SAS Radisson in Dublin. While my colleagues apply a final polish to their presentations, here are some thoughts on what you can expect if you come along.
With a only few days (& places) left, the powers that be up at iQ Towers have decided to spread a little love. I can now offer readers of this website a 20% discount on Boot Camp attendance!
This year I'll be presenting on (my fave) Web Governance and Web Content Strategy. So, don't miss the boat. Contact me now and you can then get me a drink at the "Après Boot" event next Wednesday.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Web Governance at iQ Web BootCamp 2008
Shoestring budgets, ad-hoc administration and insufficient support.
Sound familiar? Too many websites and intranets fail because the management systems on which they rely are totally inadequate. It is almost as if they were supposed to runs on fresh air!
Why governance is so poor on many websites and intranets.
How to recognise a site with poor governance.
The activities of successful governance.
Finding the right balance – enforcement versus persuasion.
What’s happening outside your organisation and how it can affect your governance approach, e.g. the law, new technology.
What you'll get out of it? After attending this course, you will:
Have a practical model for managing a successful website.
Be able to evaluate the suitability of your existing governance systems.
Know what governance model works best for your website.
Know the responsibilities and activities of governance and how to do them.
Know the people, processes and structures you need to manage your site.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Web content: more sizzle, less sausage!
Do airlines persuade you to fly with them because of the sophisticated engineering of their airplanes?
No. They do so by telling you what a great weekend you could have in Madrid and how easy it is to get there.
Yet many websites get it the wrong way around. They whine on and on about the technology, processes or people that support a particular service - without ever telling you why you should use it!
It reminds me of an old saying in copywriting - "Sell the sizzle not the sausage". Web managers would do well to remember that.
We also want to hear from you if you live overseas and want to move to lovely Dublin. Be-jaysis and begorrah. Sure, 'tis a fine place to live, says I!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Obedienta Civium Urbis Felicitas
"The obedience of the citizens leads to a happy city"
So reads the motto of Dublin City. And now with their new website just launched, the city should be happier than normal!
My colleagues and I in iQ Content have worked with Dublin City Council for the best part of a year to redevelop its public web presence. This involved a root-and-branch redesign as well as a significant reworking of content.
For my own part I spent about 4 months onsite helping the web team to re-examine all their online messages. We then re-wrote many parts of it to ensure it would focus on the needs of citizens - not the preferences of internal departments.
To a large extent we have been successful. While many challenges remain, there is no doubt the new site represents a transformational change on what was there before.
I am considering buying a car (since my bike has not turned up - see below). So one of the first things I do is to visit the websites of major insurers to see how much it'll cost me.
During this research I try several online "Quote Calculators". All is well.
"We continue to increase the numbers of people we insure in Ireland on a daily basis and we have found that we can best meet your needs by speaking with you directly and tailoring the cover and price that best suits you."
Which translates as...
"We couldn't really be bothered making it easy for you to get an online insurance quote. So, just give us a call and then we can do things just the way we prefer. Thanks!" Is this really how one of Europe's biggest insurers tries to attract customers online? Not only is it naive, it is ugly. It doesn't even have any of the branding stuff that marketers usually fret so much about.
At first, I didn't read the text. I clicked 'back' because I thought it was a HTTP error message or something. I had to reclick 'Get Quote' 3 times to convince myself it was a real page.
Unbelievable!
Looks like they don't get the web as a means of doing business. And guess what? They don't get my business either.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike! But, I can't. Some sod has stolen it!
If you see a very nice Swedish Kronan 3-speed bike (brown in colour) with the number plate "IM216" on the streets of Dublin, please contact me.
I am lost without it. Getting around is so much more difficult.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Chapter 2 (abridged) now available for free
In my Xmas video I promised to make an abridged version of The Website Manager's Handbook available for free. As a first step, Chapter 2 Website Maintenance is now ready for download.
Well, I want to help Website Managers, Webmasters, Editors, etc. to improve the administration of their sites. To this end, I decided to make my advice and research into the core concepts of Website Management available to anyone who wants it.
Of course in an effort to keep things short I have had to cut out a lot of detail, examples, illustrations and discussion. If after reading the free version you decide you want to learn more, you can buy the book to get a complete overview.
Next up, Chapter 3
My next move will be to redo Chapter 3 Website Development. However, as that chapter is quite long, it may take some time for me to prepare. If necessary, I will publish it in sections depending on how busy I am.
Following that I will be Chapter 4 Website Governance and finally Chapter 5 Website Infrastructure. As a rough guess, I hope to have it all done before the middle of this year.
Closing comments including developments on "The Website Manager's Handbook" (3:37 to 4:31).
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Credit where credit is due (tax credits, that is!)
Fair play to the Revenue Commissioners! They allowed 279,020 self-assessment customers to post their tax returns online - without the website crashing!
A journo from ComputerWorld chose to hang out in SecondLife for a while just to see what all the hype is about.
In particular he found that the 'islands' of major corporates such as IBM and Cisco were less like Ibiza, and more like that frequented by Mr. Crusoe. Basically, they were empty and almost devoid of information or services.
"If some friendly and attractive avatar at the Cisco center had approached me and said, 'Yes, sir, how may I help you?' and then had given me useful answers to my typed in questions about training, employment opportunities or products, I would have fallen out of my chair with amazement and delight." Second Life: Is There Any There There?. ComputerWorld. November 2007.
For our children's children. Website archiving A website archive prevents the loss of your hard-won online experience. It also preserves your site as a working model for the rest of eternity!
Webmasters! Feeling ignored, undervalued or downhearted?
Fret no longer. Max Ehrmann's famous motivational poem "Desiderata", has been rewritten - just for you!
Use it as a source of inspiration and hope for rebuilding a sense of belief in yourself. For as the text says...
"Your site is a child of Berners-Lee, No less than YouTube and Facebook; You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, No doubt your online objectives are unfolding as they should."
"Reading The Website Manager’s Handbook is therefore highly recommended for professionals. But they should also recommend it to their managers to help them to get a good overview of what managing a website involves."
Called the Adobe Media Player, according to Melissa Webster, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based IDC "it will will fill a hole in the company's so-called rich Internet application (RIA) strategy"*.
Of course, it means that we - the humble Website Manager - must decide what role it could/should play on our sites. Do we continue to deliver video via QuickTime, Media Player or RealPlayer or shift to this new option?
My advice is to wait and see what impact it makes.
*ComputerWorld. "Adobe releases media player beta, boosts business tools" Elizabeth Montalbano and Eric Lai. 4/10/07
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Pastures New - Shane Diffily departs ESB to join iQ Content
In mid-September I joined one of Europe's leading web consultancies, iQ Content, as a Senior Analyst.
It was a tough decision to leave my job in ESB, where I worked as Corporate Webmaster for nearly 5 years. During my time there I was fortunate enough to work with some highly skilled people, from whom I learned a tremendous amount.
However, the chance to work with a firm of the reputation of iQ Content was not to be missed. I felt I had to take this opportunity when it arose.
So, while I must bid a fond farewell to my friends in ESB, I can also say a big "hello" to my new colleagues!
(As a result of my move, many of my future blog entries will be made to the iQ Blog.)
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Video from my Summer Holiday Over the course of my long summer holiday this year, I recorded a small amount of video on my mobile phone. Below is a selection that gives some taste of the places I visited.
Note, All these clips are in MPEG4 format. I believe this format is compatible with the latest versions of most popular video players, e.g. RealPlayer, QuickTime, MediaPlayer, etc. Click a link to open a file.
(If prompted, save the file to your computer and then open it using your chosen video player.)
Lake and glacier, Finse, Norway (1.4Mb) This video shows the lake at Finse and a closeup of its accompanying glacier. Even in late August a huge amount of snow remained on the ground which made walking and cycling rather difficult!
Midnight sun, Arctic Circle, Norway (3.2Mb) This video was recorded aboard the 'Finnmarken' under the midnight sun at about 2.30am. It shows the dramatic Norwegian coast as we glide slowly by.
Aboard the 'Finnmarken', Arctic Circle, Norway (1.6Mb) This sequence shows the headland that stands at Europe's most northerly point (approx. 450 kilometres above the Arctic Circle). After this, it was south all the way to Murmansk.
Solovki Monastery, White Sea, Russia (3.4Mb) The beautiful Solovki Monastery is one of the most revered in Russia. The island on which it stands is also the location for Solzhenitsyn's book "The Gulag Archipelago".
Aboard the ferry, White Sea, Russia (1.3Mb) Seagulls follow the small boat that takes visitors to-and-from the Solovki Islands. The birds are quite bold and will pick food from your hand as they glide alongside.
Train journey, Northern Syria (3.2Mb) The train from Latakkia to Aleppo has an open back from which you can survey the dramatic mountain countryside.
Wild Tortoise in Qal'at Si'man, Northern Syria (1.9Mb) Whilst wandering among the ruins of Qal'at Si'man I stumbled upon a wild tortoise. He wisely chose to hide in his shell before attempting to make good his escape (they can move faster than you might think)!
Gunfire echoing around the Qadisha Valley, Lebanon (1.7Mb) Listen carefully and you can hear automatic gunfire from the Lebanese Army. This was fired in celebration of their victory over Fatah Al-Islam at a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli.
Wild boars, Ehden Forest Reserve, Lebanon (613Kb) This is the moment I stumbled upon several wild boars rooting among the trees. The previous day I had accidentally disturbed a sleeping male boar. His enormous size and large tusks henceforth encouraged me to keep my distance!
"Spider's Nest" exhibition, Beirut, Lebanon (794Kb) A multimedia presentation at a Hezbollah-organised exhibition in South Beirut. Called the "Spider's Nest", it celebrates their successes against in Israel in the Lebanese war of 2006. This sequence shows a destroyed and captured Israeli 'Merkava' tank.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Mix n' match: Content features & formats
Why do we use the content we do? For example, why does the website of University College Dublin use a proprietary 3-d image format for a "campus tour" feature? Why not simple images, Flash or video?
To answer this question, we need to define what we mean by content "features" and "formats".
To explain the lack of site updates, you should know that I am on extended leave. I will not return to the office until mid-September. In the meantime if you live in any of the following places, you may have already seen me as I passed through:
"Children of Men" by P.D.James. A good start but a poor end. The recent film adaptation is better.
"Homo Britannicus" by Chris Stringer. A somewhat plodding but nevertheless interesting history of human & proto-human habitation in Britain.
"My Life as a Fake" by Peter Carey. A dark and bitter story of schizophrenia and unintended outcomes.
"The Great War for Civilisation" by Robert Fisk. A lengthy but compelling insight into the horrors inflicted on the people of the Middle East by foreign powers and home-grown despots.
Here is an unsurprising piece of research from Silicon.com.
They have found that a whopping 45% of online retailers in the UK actually IGNORE customer feedback/queries received via email. Only a pitiful 47% of those who bother to check their inboxes provide anything more than cursory replies.
No surprise
I have to admit that my own experience matches these results.
Some time ago, I had the opportunity to compare the email customer service procedures of Ireland's top 3 mobile communications providers.
To each of these companies I sent the following email: “I have a 12 year old daughter. I wish to get her a new phone and put her on a network. Which of your phones and plans would suit best? Regards”
(Note, I only pretended to have a daughter for the purposes of research!)
The email was sent on a Sunday afternoon at 1pm.
+24 hours The fastest response was received within 24 hours (quite acceptable) and the information provided was very good. So top marks there!
+72 hours From the next company, I received an automated reply to say I would get a full answer within 1 day. Unfortunately, they did not quite hit the mark.
I eventually received a reply after 3 days (although they did apologise of the delay).
However, the reply itself was not great. It mainly consisted of a cut-n-paste of some web pages with no particular focus on my question.
+3 months and counting I am still awaiting a response from the third company. I guess that nobody really is home!
The lack of attention to web ROI is one of the main reasons for the persistence of poor online management.
When nobody cares about the return generated by a website (intranet or extranet), nobody respects it. And when nobody respects it, neglect and abuse soon follow. Websites like this are either left to stagnate or become corporate 'playthings' with no sense of purpose.
What a waste of effort! What a waste of money!
How much better it would be to have 1 or 2 key targets against which web value could be evaluated.
And, by this I don't mean "hits".
Although high levels of traffic are generally welcome, they must translate into something more concrete for success to be proven.
For example, some of the ways in which ROI can be measured include:
Leads: How many extra sales leads have been obtained via the web?
Revenue: By how many has the number of abandoned carts been reduced as the result of a site redesign?
Costs: By how much have admin costs decreased as a result of putting customer self-service on an extranet?
These figures can then be gauged against the effort involved, e.g. money, time, people, meetings, etc.
Only when this effort is exceeded by the resulting return, can you demonstrate that the investment was worth it.
For a long time, the design of website navigation has been fairly standard. Most development teams have chosen one (or more) of the most common navigation systems in use and built their sites around that.
Among the most popular of these are:
Horizontal lists: For global navigation, e.g. Diffily.com
Vertical lists: For global (e.g. Comhaltas.ie) or sublevel navigation (e.g. GE.com)
Breadcrumb trails: To allow visitors to see their location within the site structure, e.g. IQContent.com
Bookmarks: For returning visitors, e.g. YouTube.com
In many ways, this commonality is welcome. It means that visitors don't have learn another system of navigation everytime they visit a new website.
AJAXify yourself
However, recent times has seen something of a resurgence in the creativity given to navigation design. For most part, this is being driven by AJAX and its ability to provide highly responsive interaction.
For example, go to Microsoft.com and click on a link in the top right-hand corner of the page, e.g. Downloads & Trials.
Instead of the usual screen response (i.e. bringing you to another page), the next level of navigation appears within a layer over the homepage. Within this layer, visitors can scan their options and even select a preference for how the navigation will appear, e.g. as page thumbnails, or as plain text.
Other sites that make similar use of AJAX for navigation include Amazon.com, Marks & Spencer and many others.
All for the good?
Whether all this creativity will work for the benefit of user is yet to be seen. However, some time ago I attended a workshop with Jesse James Garrett (author of the excellent "Elements of User Experience"). In that session he lamented the loss of the creativity of the early internet. He suggested that many great interface and navigation models were thrown by the wayside, simply because things were moving too fast.
Perhaps now is the time to rediscover those lost ideas.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Ark Group Reviews "The Website Manager's Handbook"
UK Knowledge Management & Intranet journal "Inside Knowledge" (published by ArkGroup) has published a positive review of the "The Website Manager's Handbook" in this month's issue.
The editor (Graeme Burton) describes it as "...a sound, all-round framework that will help many organisations, either to benchmark their own website-management systems, or to establish a better management structure, regardless of the strategic use that they make of the web."
Recently, myself and my brothers travelled to Sardinia for a cycling holiday. During our visit we stayed in a small, family-run hotel in the northern city of Alghero.
While the accommodation was of a high standard, we were left both baffled and amused by an English translation of the house-rules pinned to the bedroom doors.
Can you make any sense of this?
Click this image to read the hilarious house rules.
"Kindly, verified the corrected closing of the taps of the water, and the points light it is by day, it is of night"
Or
"We pray you not to insert the key in an inner part of the toppa of the main door of the house, neither the soprastante manual block the same one"
Huh?!
As well as being hilariously funny, this also has a serious point. It shows what could happen to your website if you put too much faith in an online translation tool.
(Names and telephone numbers have be obscured to protect reputations.)
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Local Boys Done Good
For some time I have been using Statcounter to monitor traffic and activity on this site. Statcounter is an easy to use and comprehensive Website Analytics tool. Best of all it is free!
Only yesterday did I discover that it is an Irish company. In fact, it is located just down the road from where I work. Statcounter was started 5 years ago by two students and has since grown massively. It now has a worldwide customer base of over 1.3 million sites.
Well, some clients are just not ready to listen. They need to learn from their mistakes before they will give us their attention.
However, if we can give them a glimpse of the horrible future that waits them (if they ignore us), perhaps this will encourage their attention? One way to do this is to put a price on their ignorance.
That is, tell them:
"You can ignore me if you like. But if you do, you may miss something important. That creates the risk that you will do something stupid, e.g. use inappropriate technology, forget about the law. Such risks can usually be translated into a financial loss of some kind, e.g. legal penalties, lost revenue.
So, now I am going to give you a glimpse of such a future, in which you fail to consider the necessary web decision factors. It may scare you!
While I admit that the risks/costs associated with some factors are worse than others - if you aren't familiar with them, how will you know which to concentrate on?
Now, do you still want to ignore me?"
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
My Article "Educate Your Stakeholders" is published on AListApart.com
I am delighted to report that the respected design journal AListApart.com has accepted an article of mine for publication in the latest issue, No.237.
"Who decides what’s best for a website? Highly skilled professionals who work with the site’s users and serve as their advocates? Or schmucks with money? Most often, it’s the latter. That’s why a web designer’s first job is to educate the people who hold the purse strings." Read this article in full on AListApart.com
Many thanks to Erin Kissane at Happy Cog and my brother, Ronan Diffily, for their useful pre-publication advice.
Yet, I am willing to bet that (after a 'taking of stock' and a 'back to basics' campaign) the debate will end up where it began. That Social Networking, User Generated Content, Blogs, etc, are useful web features within certain, but not all, circumstances.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Traits in the Struggle for Life (on the Web)
Peter Merholz has given his view about how the web is evolving. The most interesting of the 3 trends he identifies is that "the web is moving away from big 'sites' with lots of 'pages', towards applications with interfaces". This seems to reflect the fact that people are now happy to use the internet in a much broader way than heretofore.
Not only is the web seen as an information repository (for news, books, articles), it is used as a genuine lifestyle support. Many behaviours that formerly could only happen offline, are now done online.
Given how the environment is changing, only those websites that are suitable, or are able to adapt, will survive. What Peter is doing is pointing out the traits that such sites are likely to possess.
Should it really be called "Web Design Survey"? This catch-all phrase is used for every type of web activity, e.g. coding, techical support, online marketing, content production - as well as design. indeed, the survey questions themselves show that it is not focused exclusively on design.
Something like "Web Activity Survey" or "Web Management Survey" would be better, methinks.
Big, Busy and Complex: Digg.com's Web Infrastructure
Digg.com is a peer review community whereby site subscribers submit and vote on interesting web articles. In order to cope the huge demands of its 1.2 MILLION users, Digg now runs over 100 separate servers. This includes 30 webservers, 20 database servers, as well as several search servers (the rest are used for backup).
The article reveals how important decisions about infrastructure management are for the performance of a large and busy website.
Apparently, more and more hacks are reskilling to acquire new technical abilities. This is in response to an Editorial demand for interactive news material.
For example, in addition to the plain text of basic newspaper websites, many are acquiring multimedia and Web 2.0 expertise. The guess is that journalists who can be "producers" as well as "writers" will have the brightest future.
The opposite is also true. Techies with good writing skills can get in on the act. Matt Wells of the Guardian considers that such people will be brought ever closer to the act of news production - previously an exclusive domain. He reports that this is already seen on sites like the Washington Post and San Jose Mercury News.
What journalists have recognised is that they need to be familiar with these technologies in order to understand how they may be incorporated into news production. They have probably also guessed that in the not-too-distant-future they may also be asked to file reports using such devices, e.g. to post a story from a Blackberry along with video taken from its built-in camera.
However, despite these changes, the role of the professional journalist should remain steady.
Why? Well, we still need someone who can sniff out a good story and write compelling content with correct spellings and grammar. The challenge for the news room is manage this transition.
Monday, April 23, 2007
2 things you cannot escape: Taxes & Dead Websites
"HTTP 500. Server Busy"
As the most obvious of all web errors, it gets disproportional attention. But when the website of a major tax-filing company crashes under high levels of traffic, it can seriously dent consumer confidence in the web.
"One thing's for sure: I will not be E-filing for another 10 years, not with TurboTax or any other software or E-file service," says a user of TurboTax, a popular tax-preparation service.
Planning for such spikes in traffic is one of the hardest parts of web infrastructure maintenance. In some cases it is simply not possible to cope with the huge demands that users can place on a site at very short notice. It is akin to 10,000 people marching into a small Post Office at 4.55pm on a Friday evening to demand that their parcels all be expedited before 5 o'clock. Not very fair on anyone!
But who said you need to play fair yourself?
There are some sneaky techniques for managing such demand. An attentive technical team should be able to track web activity real-time. In extreme circumstance, they could decide to allocate processing time based on some agreed guidelines.
For example, if the visitors from one particular country need your services more than others - you could start to deny access to everyone else. In addition, users who appear to be simply browsing the site (as opposed to using applications) could be disconnected.
Various other mechanisms exist - many derived from security procedures used to identify hackers and crackers. Of courses, none are ideal. It would indeed be best to have some extra processing power on standby. Happily, such resources are now becoming available. Recall the item below about the Amazon and its online services.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Blogging Code of Conduct: Netiquette Rebadged?
Have I missed something? Where did all this talk about the need for a Blogging Code of Conduct come from?
While O'Reilly certainly has a point, the hullabaloo he has created is pretty astonishing (even the Guardian newspaper devoted its editorial to discussing the implications of his remarks). Yet, from a website management point of view there is nothing new in his comments.
Any site that is host to a public discussion forum (whether based on a blog or not) should already have a set of published rules about what constitutes acceptable online behaviour. This idea has been in place since the very dawn of the web. Remember 'netiquette', i.e. 'etiquette for the internet?
So, let's calm down people! O'Reilly's comments do no more than remind us of our existing duties.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Sneak Behind the "Great Firewall of China"
Remember all that stuff about the law I wrote about recently? Well, as you know the law is more restrictive in some countries than in others (which explains why there are so few blogs in North Korea). A practical example of how law can affect the ability of a business to offer services via the web is illustrated on a site called The Great Firewall of China. This site allows you to test if your content is banned by the Chinese authorities.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Freddie Mercury once said "I want it all and I want it now!"
Senior executives often say the same thing to their Website Managers.
What these executives fail to realise is that great sites cannot be built without adequate resource. The challenge for webmasters is to explain how to get maximum quality from limited funds. One way to do this is to use the concept of Website Scale.
According to a new article in ComputerWorld , "Vendors’ rush to build Web 2.0 technologies reminds some observers of the wild run-up to the Internet bubble during the late 1990s. However, users and analysts say there is a significant difference this time". Phew!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Fear of a Paddy H-Bomb?
Last night, I attended a live broadcast of the BBC Radio 4 programme "Any Questions" which was hosted in the National Gallery of Ireland. As the audience arrived, we were invited to submit questions for the panel. Guess what! My question was chosen as one of the 10 to be asked! However, as my question was allocated number 8, the programme ran out of time before it could be asked. Pity!
(My question? It was "Given the recent vote in Westminister to renew the Trident missile system, and the desire of Iran and others to acquire nuclear weapons - is it time for Ireland to create its own nuclear deterrent?" Somewhat tongue in cheek, of course)
Nevertheless, the show was very entertaining. It included Michael O'Leary of Ryanair and John Redwood of the Conservative Party. Michael of course was on top form and delivered some great one-liners. Indeed, the quality of debate from the British members of the panel highlighted to me gain just how poor the members of our parliament (Dáil Éireann) are at informed, intelligent discussion.
One only has to compare the lively confrontations that occur during Prime Minister's Question Time in Westminister, with the agonising and miserable squabbling of Leinster House.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Comhgairdeas le Breandán Knowlton
Fuaireas amach gur eisean a bhi i gceannas ar an togra idir Chomhaltas 's Happy Cog. As he reveals on the website of Rob Wychert: "I certainly considered several Irish firms when I was thinking about the project (knowing that I had to walk into Leinster House to defend my choice!) but these guys were just the best at building what I wanted to build."
Happy Cog and founder Jeffrey Zeldman, are leading exponents of the idea that beautiful and usable websites can be built with Web Standards (XHTML, CSS, DOM). I am very pleased to know that they have an Irish client. I can now use that to leverage adherance to Web Standards even more strongly. If Comhaltas can do it, anyone can!
Friday, March 02, 2007
Web Governance Service
I recently found out about Hewlett-Packard's "Web Governance Service". This is a QA system for scanning your website at regular intervals in order to isolate quality problems. Find out more about it in an update to my Website QA article from December 2005.
What four people living or dead would you invite to dinner? Find out my answer to this conumdrum in an interview I did recently for the ESB staff newspaper, Electric Mail.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Publisher Changes Online Price
I am sorry to report the publisher of The Website Manager's Handbook informed me yesterday that they are increasing the price of all their books:
"Any title you have that is currently in retail distribution via Published by You or Published by Lulu will be temporarily removed from the Lulu Marketplace, and the price of that title will be set to match the retail price you've already set for distribution."
Unfortunately, this means that the previous low price of $19.99 is no longer available. I am investigating how this can be reinstated. It may be that I need to create a new edition specific to online sales with a different ISBN number. I will let you know.
Last week, the organisation that co-ordinates student placement into Irish universities (the CAO) experienced a major cock-up. It seems it seriously underestimated how busy its website would be during the last week of college applications. As a result, many applicants were unable to access the site, causing significant anxiety and distress.
As website managers know, the most important aspects of website infrastructure performance are:
Availability. This means the percentage of time that the website is up and running.
Reliability. This means the number of unplanned outages that occur on the website.
Responsiveness. This means the efficacy with which the website responds to traffic.
To have a website that scores well on each of these, you need to build an infrastructure that is appropiate to the scale of the website that you operate.
For example, a site that expects to attract significant traffic needs to have:
Many high specification servers
Lost of storage space and memory
Robust hosting software
A very fast link to the internet backbone
Good back-up and maintenance procedures
Etc.
The trouble is that some sites (like those of the CAO) experience huge spikes in traffic at particular times. How to cope with such non-linear demand? Well, it is not easy but there are answers.
Besides investing in a lot of hardware/software that will remain underused for long periods, the best approach is to rent spare capacity from other organisations, e.g. related govnerment departments. Indeed, this type of capacity can now be bought online, for example at Amazon.com, who now offer surplus production power off its own servers.
Let's hope the CAO get's its act together for its next big test. That occurs in August this year when the first college offers are made. At that time tens-of-thousands of students will all try to log-on again to see how well they have fared in the great 'race for a place' in university.
(More about the basics of designing an appropriate Website Infrastructure are explored in my book, "The Website Manager's Handbook")
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Aréir chonaic mé an clar déireanach de chuid 'No Béarla' le Manchán Magan. Ag tús a thurais dúirt sé gur shíl sé fein nach bhfuil moran áma fágtha don Ghaeilge mar teanga labhartha. Le linn a chámcuirte is léir nár tháinig sé ar aon rud chun an dearcadh diultach sin a athrú. Caithfidh mé a rá go n-aontaim leis. Is cuma le cuid mhór muintir na tire seo leis an teanga. Cé go bhfuil an-dúil ag corr-duine intí, is trua nach mairfidh sí go ceann glúine eile.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Jakob Neilsen has just released his 2007 Intranet Annual, in which he nominates the ten best intranets of the past year. Having read several of these reports, I have come to the conclusion that almost all intranets contain exactly the same content.
In fact, my analysis suggests that there are just four pillars of intranet content: Work content, HR content, Corporate content and Social content.
Although individual sites differ in terms of specifics - the core themes are almost indistinguishable.
Another update to my spasmodic series of literary reviews.
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins It may seem like an odd selection for the time of year, but in the weeks leading up to Christmas I became an avid reader of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion". I was attracted to it because I thought it could build on the tiny bits and pieces of philosophy I have read over the past year. Well, I was somewhat mistaken. In fact, the author makes a specific point of NOT treating the matter of God's existence as a philosophical matter- but as proveable (or disproveable) scientific question. As such, much of the book dwells on scientific arguments for reducing the probability of God's presence.
Yet, this is not the author's central thesis. Dawkin's real polemic centres on the expression of faith through religion and his fury at the division it creates. Indeed, his tirades against religion become so paramount, that the idea of deciding whether God exists or not takes second place. But perhaps this is only right, for it seems that - for all his anti-God fame - Dawkins would be quite content to reside in a universe where God exists and religion is absent, than one where God is absent but religion dominant.
Never Let Me Go by Kasuo Isiguro This work was recommended to me over the past year of so by various friends. Indeed, I bought a copy of it in Poland during the summer with the intention of reading it while travelling there. Alas, I left the book on a train one evening and never even got to start it. As a result, I was determined to obtain a fresh copy and finish it before the year was out. My initial impression was not good, as it took an unusally long time for the plot to emerge. However, when it did I truely began to enjoy it.
Although the text is infused with sadness and silent outrage, the manner of the telling is light and never weighed down with despair. Indeed, it is the near total absence of judgement that defines the narrative - despite the injustice of the society it describes. The idea that such a status-quo could emerge and be so condoned is fascinating. It also tempted me to be a bit more questioning about the received wisdoms of our own world - in particular our treatment (and mistreatment) of animals.
Disgrace by J.M.Coetzee Anti-heroes don't often figure in the novels I read (with the exception of Zoe Heller). Yet, if I ever felt the loss of one I need have looked no further than David Laurie in "Disgrace" by J.M Coetzee. That is not to say there are things about Dave with which I cannot sympathise - it is just that he is not a very likable guy. Although 'manipulative and arrogant' may be too strong, but he is anything but humble. Particularly in his dealings with women. Strange then that it is his daughter - the most important person in his life - who manages to negate his will most forcefully. The fear that David carries with him throughout the book - that his powers over women are in decline - finds its ultimate conclusion in her. That facts that he cannot alter her trauma and subsequent decision, signals the end of his reign.
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne This should have been right up my street given that is fictionalises an area of history with which I am reasonable well familiar (Nazism). Unfortunately, it was not. Although the plot is compelling, the author's style was irritating at times. For example, the repetition of certain phrases ("my best friends Karl and Gunter and Fred") and the fleeting changes in principal narrator were annoying and disorienting. Overall, a bit disappointing.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
"The Website Manager's Handbook" is now available on www.amazon.com. However, prospective purchasers (especially students) should bear in mind that the exact same book is available at a 30% discount from www.lulu.com. I know which site I would use!
Friday, December 22, 2006
"And so this is Christmas and what have we done?" Well Mr.Lennon, it has been a fairly packed year. A mixture of highs and lows - but enjoyable all the same. Probably the best moment was the launch of my book back in September. I don't expect to do that many times in my life! Some other highlights include my brother's wedding in Poland and the time Alistapart.com contacted me to say they wanted to publish an article of mine.
This year I will be spending Christmas with my folks at home in Portmarnock in Dublin. It is nice to visit there every so often - it is so quiet and relaxing. Following that I will head north to Donegal for a few days on Cruit Island. My brothers and I started a tradition there some years ago, whereby we partake of a short swim at midnight on New Year's Eve. It is always freezing but a lot of fun.
Finally, to all visitors of this website - have an enjoyable Christmas and New Year. I'll see you again in 2007.
Nollaig Shona agus ath-bhliain faoi mhaise dhaoibh go leir. Guim buiochas ar gach cuairteoir a thainig anseo i mbiana. Ta suil agam gur fhoghlaim sibh giota! Slan go dti an bhliain-ur.
Jealousy is a green eyed monster, or so said Othello. Well, my eyes burned a deep forest green this week when I heard that two of my colleagues were invited to hear Neil Armstrong speak at the launch of Microsoft Vista in Dublin. Had I known he would be there, I would have found a way to wangle myself onto the guest list.
My enthusiasm stems from the books I have read this year. In mid-summer I read Andrew Smith's excellent "Moon Dust" followed by "A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts" by Andrew Chaikin. Both books left me in thrall of that enterprise. It really was a breathtaking accomplishment and one that is utterly unsurpassed.
Chaikin's book was best for getting to know the missions beyond Apollo 11. Without doubt, my favourite must be Apollo 12. Just listen to the chatter between (commander) Peter Conrad and (pilot) Al Bean as they bobble around on the lunar surface. Bean regularly calls his boss 'Babe' (You've got it, babe!) while Cernan hops around whistling "Dum de Dum de Dum" to himself! Their genuine friendship and happiness at being part of Apollo stands out so clearly.
And think, in about 10 years time somebody will step onto the moon again. I bet all the test pilots, scientists and astronauts in America are furiously jockeying for position!
Indeed—although a mission to Mars is years away yet—it is just possible that the first person to visit that planet is already alive in North America. Having said that, he or she is probably more interested in Sponge Bob Squarepants at the moment, than Orbital Mechanics!
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Gerry McGovern was on top form last night at the launch of his new book, "Killer Web Content". If you have ever seen him speak, you will know why he is consistently listed as one of the web's most influential of commentators. Not only are his ideas simple and compelling, his delivery is incredibly entertaining! Take his example of a well known electrical manufacturer. Gerry convinced them of the misunderstandings that could arise from the homepage slogan 'Find a dealer'—could we buy a TV and LSD from these guys?!
The key advice I got from the session last night was to bring website customers as close as possible to the content creation process. Indeed, it occured to me afterwards that perhaps readers should be asked to write the website text themselves.
For example, would it make sense to invite random (or regular) visitors to a site to suggest better homepage text via some type of online survey? I wonder if anyone has tried it before? Although a lot of trash might be received, some real gems could also emerge. These are likely to be much better than anything marketing can come up with. For one, such users would be entirely unconcerned with 'brand integrity' which—as Gerry described—can be massively obstructive to good content.
Anyone familiar with my own views on website management will know how strongly influenced I am by Gerry's writing. A regular part of my weekly routine is reading Gerry's email newsletter 'New Thinking'. It is rare indeed that it does not to contain ideas of direct relevance to my job.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Recently, I nearly broke my #1 rule for website management - "Don't Overstretch". Well, we all make mistakes from time to time! I must also pay more attention to rule #2, "Don't forget Rule #1"
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
I could never figure it out. Why couldn't the browser on my old phone view anything better than basic brochureware sites? I suspected it the operating system's fault - "not new enough", I complained! But, all along it was "the battery wot done it"! Apparently, JavaScript requires a lot of power to operate. Although batteries are getting better all the time, they still have problems coping with the demands of dynamic and transaction websites that rely heavily on client-side scripting. Too bad. I was looking forward to getting adventurous with web 2.0 on my new smartphone!
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Blíanta ó shin bhí cuid mhaith de na téarmaí teicneolaíochta Gaeilge faoin idirlíon ar an eolas agam – mar shampla, gréasán, suíomh idirlín, bunachar, nasc, srl. Ach, is léir anois gur thit mé cineal as-data le deanaí. Mar shampla, go dtí an tseachtain seo thart níor chuala me riamh faoi 'bhlagadóireacht' no 'podchraoladh'! Sin samplaí de na focail áisiúla úra a d'fhloglaim mé le gairid ar chúrsa Ghaelchultúr i mBarra an Teampaill. Ach d’aithnigh mé nár thainig an téarma ‘Web 2.0’ chun tosaigh le linn ar ndíospoireachaí. Mar sin cruthóidh mé féin é : 'Gréasán 2.0'. Anois! An chéad focail Gaeilge a chum mé riamh!
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Last Friday I spent the day at a Neilsen Norman Group usability workshop in London. The topic for which I subscribed was "Designing Complex Applications and Websites" hosted by Lynn Pausic. The key theme that emerged during the day was the accelerating convergence between websites and web applications. Web 2.0 and Flash are forging a new type of online experience and we are now a long way from the simple brochureware sites of the 1990s. The task for website designers is to ensure such functionality remains both easy to find and easy to use. Quite a challenge, I assure you!
So who are the leaders at addressing this complexity? Well, you won't be surprised to learn that sites such as Flickr and Basecamp lead the area. Indeed, I am using one of this new generation of websites as I write. Blogger.com have just released the Beta version of a new interface to which I have upgraded (it is lightning fast compared to the old site). Yet, even though Blogger is reasonably complex, it is childsplay compared to what other sites have to do. Anyone familiar with the volumes of content and functionality contained within a corporate intranet will know the scale of the challenge they face. Indeed, this was a key reason for my attendance.
Although Lynn provided a good overview of the challenges of complex design and suggested a structure for addressing such projects, she was light on solutions. I guess I was looking for more specific guidelines. For example, should the language used in complex application change and if so how, what interface features work best in large applications, what should I avoid, etc? There were a few things I can take away but as she said herself solutions depend on the problem, so it is really a case of tailoring the design for your audience.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Some things simply don't make sense. Just look at all the hoopla and razzmatazz that greeted the launch of Internet Explorer v7 and Firefox v2—while the best browser on the market remains virtually ignored.
Since I first used Opera back in 2000 (when an Irish language version of it was released), I have kept a close eye on its progress. Although I am obliged to use Internet Explorer for all my work related activity, about 6 months ago I switched to Opera for home browsing.
Why? Well, it has a very attractive and intuitive interface, it is lightening fast, it follows W3C style rules, it allows me to easily check rendering on mobile devices and, finally, it is really simple to change configurations.
Yet, obviously the market does not feel the same way. Opera remains virtually unknown among the general populace and is similarly ignored by most corporations. Indeed, I have just read some new research from Forrester Inc that suggests less then 0.4% of corporations have any Opera browsers in use! That is truly a shame.
But maybe—just maybe—there is cause for hope. Given the rapid growth in handheld devices with web access and the fact that the Opera Mobile browser is just so damn good—perhaps, this excellent Norwegian product can succeed on phones where it is been sidelined on the desktop.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee (blessed be his name) worries that it could be used to spread "misinformation and undemocratic forces". By the way, the very first web page created by Sir Tim can still be viewed on the website of the W3C.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Last night I returned from a weekend trip to Gothenburg in Sweden (thank God for holiday weekends!) As a northern European city of average size, it pretty much fit the bill. Not a place for a raucous weekend on the tiles, but very pleasant in itself. It is impressively clean, easy to travel around (by tram, bus or bike) and very welcoming.
It is also host to some high quality attractions, such as the Varldkulturmuseet (Museum of World Culture) and the Universuem - a sort of eco-dome. My personal favourite was the Konstmuseum which has a display of some superb Scandinavian art (as well as an numerous canvasses by Monet, Van Gogh and various other 'Galacticos').
The building itself is also something of a museum piece - with several rooms laid out in an overtly Edwardian-style, i.e. mixed displays of sculpture and painting, luscious velvet hangings and stucco plaster. The best part is a corridor that contains the self-portraits of several dozen artists. They all seem to have the same expression - a sidelong gaze with the hint of a smile - like they are sharing a joke about the viewers who walk past.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Brian Donohue (of IQ Content) has posted a review of my book on the IQContent blog. While Brian is positive on many points and makes some useful suggestions, his main concern is the lack of depth given to some topics.
When producing this book, my aim was to cover the full spectrum of activities that website managers need to be familiar with. The idea was to equip them with the knowledge needed to discuss site administration in a meaningful way with Designers, Coders, Techies, Marketers, Directors, etc. As a result, the book is very comprehensive though sometimes lacking in depth*. This trade-off was necessary, otherwise it would be unfeasibly long!
But don't despair - detailed literature is available on many of the topics that are introduced. A recommended bibliography is included in the appendices.
(* Among the topics that are explored in detail are the processes of maintenance and governance. The areas I tend to avoid are associated with technology or other specialised/emergent disciplines.)
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Anyone who has seen the Danish film 'Festen' will know of the shock of disbelief it can induce. Last Saturday night I had the opportunity to observe several dozen people going through this same trauma during a stage performance of it in The Gate Theatre. As the critical scene occured, many in the audience reacted just as those in the on-stage dinner party did - quizzical laughter, realisation and silence. How relieved we all were it was only make-believe! Imagine trying to cope with something like that in real life?!
Monday, October 23, 2006
A class of 25 'Multimedia Management' undergraduates hosted me as a guest lecturer today in Dublin City University. The topic of my presentation to them was 'Website Management'. The hour-long talk focussed on my role as Webmaster in ESB, as well as on many of the concepts outlined in my recent book. Many thanks to the class for their attention and to Davorka Naletilic-Quinn (lecturer in Multimedia Studies and film-maker) for the invitation.
IQContent have posted highlights from last week's Boot Camp on their blog.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Many thanks to Morgan and AnnMarie on the IQContent team for my invite to their excellent 'bootcamp' yesterday. I was delighted both to participate and to listen to the other speakers from VHI, NCBI and Daft.ie. The Daft.ie story was particularly interesting, given that it is one of the few Irish websites to have grown organically from humble beginnings and succeeded in the face of stiff competition. (Think two young students, a 'how to do HTML' book and a clever idea). If those boys had been born in the states, they would probably be millionaires by now!
Today I am speaking at the annual IQContent 'Boot Camp'. The bootcamp comprises a series of intensive sessions on various aspects of website development. To close the last day of workshops, myself and some other guests have been invited to speak on topics related to the web. The subject of my own presentation is "The Principles of Successful Website Management".
Friday, October 13, 2006
Now that my own book is finished I have had the chance to catch up on some reading.
The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis Although this book provides a good overview of the themes of the Cold War, I was somewhat disappointed at its lack of anaylsis of the main protagonists. Figures like Stalin, Kennedy, Mao, Gorbachev get less attention than I would like. Yet on the upside, the author presents in clear and objective language his own opinions of the factors that first led to (the desire of the west to limit Soviet influence in Western Europe) and ultimately what ended (economic contradictions and social pressures in the Soviet Union) the Cold War. The clearest lesson to me was that - no matter how bad the international situation seems now - we certainly do not face the same existential threat as existed in the latter 20th century.
Imperium by Robert Harris As a true fan of Robert Harris, I was inevitably underwhelmed by his latest novel. Imperium simply fails to ignite the same moods of empathy and suspense as used wuccessfully in Fatherland, Pompeii or Archangel. I also feel that by telling the story through a narrator who is one step removed from the main character, we stray from the point of the book - to get inside the mind of the Cicero. That said, Harris does a typically superb job of building his fictional world. I could almost smell the streets of Rome. The deliberate parallel drawn between Pompey the Great and George W. Bush, and their joint desire for extended power, is also very entertaining.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Last Monday I stepped down as chairperson of Cantóirí. The two years I have spent at the helm have been fun but it is definitely time to hand over to someone else. Our glorious new leader is Maria Williamson (neé Nahua), the first Finnish chairperson! I have no doubt that her good Scandinavian sense will ensure the choir continues to prosper over the coming twelve months.
I downloaded Netscape 8.2 and have noticed a new feature that allows you to render the layout of a webpage as if the browser was Internet Explorer or Firefox. A button on the bottom left of the browser allows users to toggle between Explorer and Firefox. Quite weird! I have created some screengrabs to show what it looks like. I suppose it could be handy as a development tool.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Following on my last post, I note that Jakob Neilsen says pretty much the same thing in Chapter 3 of his new book "Prioritizing Web Usability". He refers to the document "Guidelines for designing user interface software, ESD-TR-86-278" created by the US Air Force in 1986. He says that he retested 60 of these guidelines in 2005 and found 54 that continued to be valid! A strong vote in favour of recycling and reuse. Indeed, I remember how the Flash designers in my last job relied heaviliy on those guidelines for creating e-learning applications.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Today I spent some time skimming through a book called 'Intranets - a guide to their design, implementation and management', lent to me by a colleague. I was happy to find several useful ideas in it that I can use in my daily work. What surprised me was that this book was published 'way back' in 2001 and so I had thought that much of it would be out-of-date. After all, intranets were quite new back then and we must have moved on in the meantime. Well, yes we have, but the manner it which this book so clearly described the reasons for which intranets should be built was quite refreshing. Perhaps rereading such 'original texts' at annual intervals would be a good idea in order to remind ourselves of the first principles that drive such developments.
'Intranets - a guide to their design, implementation and management' by Paul Blackmore. ISBN 0 85142 441 4.
Monday, October 02, 2006
In his latest newsletter Gerry McGovern discusses methods for organising the Information Architecture of an intranet. Given that I work for a company that has a fairly sizeable such site, this issue is close to my heart. In summary, I agree with Gerry's argument that a task-based system of organisation is more highly preferred than one based on an organisation-chart. Indeed, this is strongly borne out by other literature, e.g. the Neilsen-Norman Group Intranet Annuals. It is my own experience that the many staff have no idea how their business is structured or what divisions carry out what functions (except for their own). I hope to return to this subject in the coming months to share some of the experience I have had in managing an intranet.
Friday, September 29, 2006
I came across a new forum for Irish webmasters in the last few days. The format and style seems similar to that of Webmasterworld but with a local perspective. I'll keep my eye on it for a few weeks—it could prove useful for discussing governance issues specific to companies operating within Ireland.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Happy birthday Orla! (Orla runs her own business, UpfrontPR in Tralee, Co. Kerry)
Previous visitors will notice a fairly dramatic change to the design of this site. This was necessary for a number of reasons. First: to ensure the site presented well on the browsers actually being used by visitors, in particular Firefox (which accounts for 43% of all activity). Second: to improve my use of semantic MarkUp (which had been deployed, though not extensively enough). And Third: to 'modernise' the visual design. The old look&feel had a become a bit dated and I wanted something fresh. The biggest difference is that the site no longer uses liquid-layout techniques, but is optimised for 1024x768 screens.
Monday, September 25, 2006
No friend of self-indulgence, Gerry McGovern lays into SAS Scandanavian Airlines who have committed the worst of sins - self-promotion! Anyone taking bets on how long it will be before SAS remove the video from their reservations page? I think about a day.
Friday, September 22, 2006
A new report into the use of intranets in Ireland was launched today in Dublin. For someone like me who spends most of his time administering an intranet, publications of this nature are truely valuable. Indeed, the document provides a good overview of the state of intranet development in this country. For me, the most interesting conclusion was the fact that most firms believe they are not taking full advantage of their intranet investment. This is not very surprising. While the technology of intranets is relatively straightforward to implement, educating a business about how to use it in order to assist objectives requires much more time. Finally, one gap in the report (promised for next year) relates to systems of intranet governance, i.e. team structures, skills, assistive technology, etc. Benchmarking practices like this is an area that is only now beginning to get much attetion.
Friday, September 08, 2006
"The Website Manager's Handbook" was launched last night by a happy gathering of family, friends and colleagues in Dublin city centre. Some good wines and tasty finger-food ensured a good evening was had by all. Particular thanks to my friend Ecardo, who was co-opted as official photographer for the night. However, his task would have been a lot more difficult without Ann who (despite being late for the presentations!) did an amazing job of mustering everyone into place for the pictures.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Nina and her flatmate (both German) are cheering for Podolski, Balack, Schweinsteiger et al. Myself and Chris (both Irish) are not amused. Wait! What the..! Nooooooo!!! Germany just scored. Germany 1-0 Ireland. Well, at least I am using her wireless broadband to post this note.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Friends and colleagues will be joining me for the launch of the "The Website Manager's Handbook" on Thursday 7th September in La Cave on South Anne St at 7.30pm. I am looking forward to it, as it will give me the chance to thank those who have contributed to the book. I am also looking forward to some nice wines and tasty canapés!
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Cantóirí choir (of which I am a member) is lucky enough to be have been asked to perform in the Spiegeltent during this year's Dublin Fringe Festival. The Spiegeltent is an old circus-like structure that tours festival venues around Europe and - as the name suggests - is covered on the inside by walls of mirrors. To make sure we are on top form, we have had to schedule four additional rehearsals in September. Here's hoping all our tenors and basses turn up, as we are desperately short of men!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
My article about the "Three Types of Website Content" attracted some comments from David Lee King. David writes that "nothing on [his] library’s website is persuading, selling, or reassuring. It’s all about providing information and providing access to that information." In order to clarify my ideas I have posted a response on David's site.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Alleluia! My book is finally finished. After eighteen months, in which it transformed itself from a casual project into my constant companion - The Website Manager's Handbook - is now available for purchase. Thanks to all those who assisted me during that time. Particular gratitude is due to Ronan Diffily (my brother), Conor Clarke, John Carton, Ann Fitzpatrick and Gerry McGovern. Thanks also to my girlfriend Nina for her humour when listening to me proclaim (umpteen times) "Just one more draft and I'm done". Nina, now it is for real!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
I am happy to report that I have received the final printed draft of my new book "The Website Manager's Handbook". The next few days will be spent on one final proofreading session. All going well it should be ready by August 11th, which means the book will go on sale on Monday August 14th. In the meantime, you can whet your appetite by downloading a free chapter.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
During our holiday in Poland this year, myself and my girlfriend visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. The sun was bright and hot, trees rustled in the breeze and birds sang at intervals. We stood in the tall grass that surrounds two sunken ruins and were conscious of the ashes literally underfoot. Nina made a video of it (WMV 1.9MB)
Friday, July 21, 2006
"Well everything has a personality, whether it wants to or not. Studies by Byron Reeves and Clifford Naas in the Media Equation show that we even ascribe personalities to our TVs, computers, and other forms of media. Since the Web is another type of media, you can bet the web sites we create have personalities as well." Read more about this at Where Visual Design Meets Usability
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
You CAN get your site on Google without selling your soul. No need for 'black hatting' or any other fiendish methods of Search Engine Optimisation. Mike Cherim explains how.
Monday, July 17, 2006
A good list of methods by which a design task (not just web design) may be completed. This is great stuff. Sharing information like this can make life so much easier for so many people.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Moondust: : In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth. Andrew Smith. ISBN: 0007155425. Three things have stayed with me from this book. The first is how ordinary the men were who participated in the most inspiring (and stupifyingly dangerous) of all journeys. The second is how inaccessible Neil Armstrong is. Although he haunts almost every page of the book, he never emerges. This is no fault of the author's - Armstrong is simply incapable of fulfilling the role that has been foisted on him. As such, he ignores it. The third is how sick every astronaunt must be of listening to 'Also Sprach Zarathursa' (the famous musical sequence from '2001: A Space Odyssey'). It is played at almost every event they attend, like a demented theme tune.
A good article about how to write a website style guide from UK design studio, Pebble Road. A style guide is a document that tells developers/designers/authors how to create content for a site. In some ways it is similar to a website standard, however in the traditional sense a Style Guide usually focusses much more on language and writing style than look & feel.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
SMEs too busy to manage own websites "A report from analyst house Yankee Group says that because small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often lack in-house technical and marketing expertise -- and lack the time to learn about these areas -- they are more and more likely to hire an outsider to design and build their web presence for them." (From electricnews.net).
9th July 2006
I am now back from my holiday in Poland and can concentrate on getting my book finished. To this end I have set up a section on the site called 'Website Handbook' and made changes to a few others. The old section called 'Reading' has now been changed to 'Blog'. This is because I have not had the opportunity to read a lot recently, plus I need somewhere to write additional notes and messages. The 'Websites' section has been moved to within 'About Me'. Finally, the order of tabs in the site's primary navigation has been changed around bit. Apologies for any confusion this has caused, but it was necessary.
June 2006
I have just heard from A List Part that they wish to publish an article of mine on their website (for which I am very grateful). The article covers the elements to be considered when planning the manpower requirements of a web team. Much more about this topic (and many others) is covered in my forthcoming book "The Website Manager's Handbook" to be released in July '06. Subscribe to my newsletter or RSS newsfeed to find out when it is available.
As luck would have it, I am away on holiday in Poland at the moment, being pleasantly distracted by the lovely weather and wonderful cities (I recommend Gdansk very highly). As a result, I may be slow responding to any emails.
January 2006
As you can see, I haven't been reading much recently. In fact, I have been writing for the most part (some of which appears on this site)! However, I have a few books lined up. In particular, my girlfriend Nina has recommended a new book that has been a bestseller in Germany. Originally published as 'Glenkill', it is to be reprinted in English as 'Three Bags Full'. From what I can understand it involves a mysterious murder and some investigative sheep in a sleepy Irish village!
November 2005
The Innocent. Ian mcEwan. ISBN: 0385494335. A definite precursor to "Atonement", many of the same themes are evident. For example, the determination to descend into self-destruction. Also, the tragedy that can arise from misunderstandings and uncoded signals. The reality of the characters makes their personal catastrophes all the more unbearable. Things need not have been so strident and cruel! In fact they weren't, but they couldn't know that until much later.
October 2005
The Fabric of the Cosmos. Brian Greene. ISBN: 0375727205. A superb overview of the main themes of modern theoretical physics. As well as being a leading academic in String Theory, Brian Greene is also an excellent author. The metaphors and examples he uses to explain concepts as varied as relativistic time-dilation, quantum entanglement and classical gravitational effects are both accessible and illuminating. That said, this book is hard work at times. However, this is mainly due to the strangeness of the phenomena he is reviewing.
September 2005
Amsterdam. Ian McEwan. ISBN: 0385494246. While the endgame of this novel somewhat defies believability, as a portrait of the disintegration of friendship it is fascinating. As always, the author explores the essential human flaw of self-involvement in unflattering detail. While neither character is particularly endearing, there is a certain equity about the misery they cause.
Everything is Illuminated. Jonathan Safran Foer. ISBN: 0060529709. Initially confusing, then slightly amusing and finally simply annoying - the overall style and narrative of this book is infuriating! Furthermore the overly-stylised and downright weird histories it describes are simply too much work. I bought it because I was travelling to Ukraine this year for holiday - I need not have bothered.
August 2005
An Béal Bocht. Myles Na gCopaleen. ISBN: 1856352846. Tá an leabhar seo ar an mhárgadh le blíanta agus tá sé éasca le tuiscint cén fáth. Tá sé an-ghreannmhar agus mar cur síos ar lucht na Gaeilge i méan an cheid seo thart, tá sé suimiúil go leor. Ach caithfidh a rá nach maireann dearcadh diúltach mar sin a thuilleadh i measc an phobail ghinéarálta, d'àinneoin góide a deir corr Gallgóir suarach.
Enduring Love. Ian McEwan. ISBN: 0385494149. This author seems to be suggesting that uncertainty and unforeseen tragedy are easier to deal with than those which are expected. It also seems that certainty is less believable and less tolerated by those who are unaffected, than a nagging doubt would. The exasperation and anger of the principal character as he attempts to convince his dismissive wife of the danger he is in, is palpable. Even more infuriating is her final polemic that his own certainly of doom made it more likely.
At 4.50pm yesterday - just 10 minutes from the end of Boot Camp '08 - a massive power outage struck south Dublin. Despite the sudden loss of lighting and overhead projectors, our resouceful iQ presenters managed to wrap up successfully.
Do airlines persuade you to fly with them because of the sophisticated engineering of their airplanes?
The company I work for (iQ Content) is having a hell of a time trying to find experienced staff for a number of senior and junior roles:
"The obedience of the citizens leads to a happy city"
In my Xmas video I promised to make an abridged version of The Website Manager's Handbook available for free. As a first step, Chapter 2 Website Maintenance is now ready for download.
Fret no longer. Max Ehrmann's famous motivational poem "Desiderata", has been rewritten - just for you!
'Happy Content Manager' reviews my book
Mix n' match: Content features & formats 
Here is an unsurprising piece of research from Silicon.com.
“Whoever isn’t measuring ROI on their Web site is crazy, because it is measurable,” says David Schoonover, online and CRM marketing manager, Kia Motors to Computerworld.
For example, go to Microsoft.com and click on a link in the top right-hand corner of the page, e.g. Downloads & Trials.
The editor (Graeme Burton) describes it as "...a sound, all-round framework that will help many organisations, either to benchmark their own website-management systems, or to establish a better management structure, regardless of the strategic use that they make of the web."
For some time I have been using Statcounter to monitor traffic and activity on this site. Statcounter is an easy to use and comprehensive Website Analytics tool. Best of all it is free!
This is a survey all website managers should complete. The collated data will give us a much better idea of what it is we all actually do, how much we like it and what we want to do next!
Digg.com is a peer review community whereby site subscribers submit and vote on interesting web articles. In order to cope the huge demands of its 1.2 MILLION users, Digg now runs over 100 separate servers. This includes 30 webservers, 20 database servers, as well as several search servers (the rest are used for backup).
Each Monday the Guardian publishes figures for newspaper circulation in the UK. Last week's poor year-on-year results led to some navel gazing about what is in store for the "traditional journalist".
As the most obvious of all web errors, it gets disproportional attention. But when the website of a major tax-filing company crashes under high levels of traffic, it can seriously dent consumer confidence in the web.
Have I missed something? Where did all this talk about the need for a Blogging Code of Conduct come from?
Senior executives often say the same thing to their Website Managers.
Last night, I attended a live broadcast of the BBC Radio 4 programme "Any Questions" which was hosted in the National Gallery of Ireland. As the audience arrived, we were invited to submit questions for the panel. Guess what! My question was chosen as one of the 10 to be asked! However, as my question was allocated number 8, the programme ran out of time before it could be asked. Pity!
I am surprised, happy and humbled by the fact the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann are aware enough to hire Happy Cog to redevelop their public website. Fairplay to their webmaster for persuading the Comhaltas board to get Happy Cog involved!
I recently found out about Hewlett-Packard's "Web Governance Service". This is a QA system for scanning your website at regular intervals in order to isolate quality problems. Find out more about it in an update to my Website QA article from December 2005.
Do you know the legal contraints of the web? If not, you better find out before someone else's lawyers do! Read more about the law as it applies to the internet in this new website article. This feature includes a list of relevant legislation and a commentary on how they could affect the activities of website management.
Aréir chonaic mé an clar déireanach de chuid 'No Béarla' le Manchán Magan. Ag tús a thurais dúirt sé gur shíl sé fein nach bhfuil moran áma fágtha don Ghaeilge mar teanga labhartha. Le linn a chámcuirte is léir nár tháinig sé ar aon rud chun an dearcadh diultach sin a athrú. Caithfidh mé a rá go n-aontaim leis. Is cuma le cuid mhór muintir na tire seo leis an teanga. Cé go bhfuil an-dúil ag corr-duine intí, is trua nach mairfidh sí go ceann glúine eile.
Jakob Neilsen has just released his 2007 Intranet Annual, in which he nominates the ten best intranets of the past year. Having read several of these reports, I have come to the conclusion that almost all intranets contain exactly the same content.
It may seem like an odd selection for the time of year, but in the weeks leading up to Christmas I became an avid reader of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion". I was attracted to it because I thought it could build on the tiny bits and pieces of philosophy I have read over the past year. Well, I was somewhat mistaken. In fact, the author makes a specific point of NOT treating the matter of God's existence as a philosophical matter- but as proveable (or disproveable) scientific question. As such, much of the book dwells on scientific arguments for reducing the probability of God's presence.
This work was recommended to me over the past year of so by various friends. Indeed, I bought a copy of it in Poland during the summer with the intention of reading it while travelling there. Alas, I left the book on a train one evening and never even got to start it. As a result, I was determined to obtain a fresh copy and finish it before the year was out. My initial impression was not good, as it took an unusally long time for the plot to emerge. However, when it did I truely began to enjoy it. 
Anti-heroes don't often figure in the novels I read (with the exception of Zoe Heller). Yet, if I ever felt the loss of one I need have looked no further than David Laurie in "Disgrace" by J.M Coetzee. That is not to say there are things about Dave with which I cannot sympathise - it is just that he is not a very likable guy. Although 'manipulative and arrogant' may be too strong, but he is anything but humble. Particularly in his dealings with women. Strange then that it is his daughter - the most important person in his life - who manages to negate his will most forcefully. The fear that David carries with him throughout the book - that his powers over women are in decline - finds its ultimate conclusion in her. That facts that he cannot alter her trauma and subsequent decision, signals the end of his reign.
This should have been right up my street given that is fictionalises an area of history with which I am reasonable well familiar (Nazism). Unfortunately, it was not. Although the plot is compelling, the author's style was irritating at times. For example, the repetition of certain phrases ("my best friends Karl and Gunter and Fred") and the fleeting changes in principal narrator were annoying and disorienting. Overall, a bit disappointing.
My enthusiasm stems from the books I have read this year. In mid-summer I read Andrew Smith's excellent "Moon Dust" followed by "A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts" by Andrew Chaikin. Both books left me in thrall of that enterprise. It really was a breathtaking accomplishment and one that is utterly unsurpassed.
Not only are his ideas simple and compelling, his delivery is incredibly entertaining! Take his example of a well known electrical manufacturer. Gerry convinced them of the misunderstandings that could arise from the homepage slogan 'Find a dealer'—could we buy a TV and LSD from these guys?!
Blíanta ó shin bhí cuid mhaith de na téarmaí teicneolaíochta Gaeilge faoin idirlíon ar an eolas agam – mar shampla, gréasán, suíomh idirlín, bunachar, nasc, srl. Ach, is léir anois gur thit mé cineal as-data le deanaí. Mar shampla, go dtí an tseachtain seo thart níor chuala me riamh faoi 'bhlagadóireacht' no 'podchraoladh'! Sin samplaí de na focail áisiúla úra a d'fhloglaim mé le gairid ar chúrsa Ghaelchultúr i mBarra an Teampaill. Ach d’aithnigh mé nár thainig an téarma ‘Web 2.0’ chun tosaigh le linn ar ndíospoireachaí. Mar sin cruthóidh mé féin é : 'Gréasán 2.0'. Anois! An chéad focail Gaeilge a chum mé riamh!
Although this book provides a good overview of the themes of the Cold War, I was somewhat disappointed at its lack of anaylsis of the main protagonists. Figures like Stalin, Kennedy, Mao, Gorbachev get less attention than I would like. Yet on the upside, the author presents in clear and objective language his own opinions of the factors that first led to (the desire of the west to limit Soviet influence in Western Europe) and ultimately what ended (economic contradictions and social pressures in the Soviet Union) the Cold War. The clearest lesson to me was that - no matter how bad the international situation seems now - we certainly do not face the same existential threat as existed in the latter 20th century.
As a true fan of Robert Harris, I was inevitably underwhelmed by his latest novel. Imperium simply fails to ignite the same moods of empathy and suspense as used wuccessfully in Fatherland, Pompeii or Archangel. I also feel that by telling the story through a narrator who is one step removed from the main character, we stray from the point of the book - to get inside the mind of the Cicero. That said, Harris does a typically superb job of building his fictional world. I could almost smell the streets of Rome. The deliberate parallel drawn between Pompey the Great and George W. Bush, and their joint desire for extended power, is also very entertaining.
During our holiday in Poland this year, myself and my girlfriend visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. The sun was bright and hot, trees rustled in the breeze and birds sang at intervals. We stood in the tall grass that surrounds two sunken ruins and were conscious of the ashes literally underfoot.