Web 2.0

Two good quotes about Web 2.0 from O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Principles and Best Practices whitepaper (2006):

Web 2.0 is much more than just pasting a new user interface onto an old application.  It's a way of thinking, a new perspective on the entire business of software--from concept through delivery, from marketing through support.  Web 2.0 thrives on network effects:  databases that get richer the more people interact with them, applications that are smarter the more people use then, marketing that is driven by user stories and experiences, and applications that interact with each other to form a broader computing platform.

And:

Web 2.0 is a set of economic, social, and technological trends that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the internet -- a more mature, distinctive medium characterized by user participation, openness, and network effects.

Writing for the web

I vastly prefer informal writing styles for the web. And, thus "internet" and and "email" over "Internet" and "e-mail."

This is a post from Wired News from back in 2004, where they say they will no longer capitalize "internet".  http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/08/64596

Quote:

In the case of internet, web and net, a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. That it transformed human communication is beyond dispute. But no more so than moveable type did in its day. Or the radio. Or television.

Clap clap.

The CBC had a similar posting in 2003. http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/words/internet_i.html

Quote:

The language we speak and write is constantly evolving. Almost 100 years ago, the first edition of what's now known as Strunk and White's The Elements of Style insisted on to-day, to-night and to-morrow. Much of the book's general advice on clear writing remains relevant. But its specific edicts on how to spell certain words were abandoned decades ago.

More blogging advice

Nora Carr's column in the June 2008 eSchool News added some more blogging tips:

• write about topics you care about and feel passionate about


• good blogs have a viewpoint and a voice


• use an informal "Dear Mom" approach to your posts


• keep postings short and link to other articles or sites


• subheads, bullets, one-sentence paragraphs and other graphic organizers can help readers skim your contents


• craft titles with care; often users may only read the titles to decide if they want to read the entire posting


• post regularly

Change

In an article on global climate change in the June 2008 issue of Wired, the comment was made:

Markets are better mechanisms for change than command and control.

I think that point is a good one to remember in all sorts of arenas. And, there's got to be a lesson in there for managing technology change, too.

More tips on blogging for newbies

Nora Carr wrote about some tips for blogging for newbies in the May 2008 issues of eSchool News.

1. Write for an audience, not yourself.


2. Don't blog anything you don't want our mother, your principal, or school superintendent to know.


3. Provide information about yourself.


4. Start with a blog service.


5. Less copy, more often.

Flow, or the psychological conditions of enjoyment

Years ago (1992?) I heard a lecture on Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's concept of "Flow" -- the conditions under which people are happy and productive.  Some of those conditions were:

1. person given a chance to complete the task


2.  person given the opportunity to concentrate on the task w/out distractions


3. task has clear goals, clearly presented to the person


4. the task provides immediate feedback


5. the person's involvement is deep, but effortless


6. the person has a sense of being in control


7. the concern for the self disappears (but when the task/job is finished, the sense of self is enhanced or raised)


8. the sense of time duration is altered (time slip away)

Flow has also been described as being "in the groove" or "in the zone."

Crucial is the balance between the work/task/job (the challenge) and the skills/progress of the person (the success).  There should be a challenge, but one that is met.  There should be obstacles, but ones that are overcome.

When a person works in that "sweet spot" -- the balance between the challenge and the success -- his/her sense of enjoyment and satisfaction is maximized.

Innovation at work

The March 2008 issue of Fast Company wrote about the most innovative companies in the world. A few quote caught my attention.

On page 74:

When you visit the Gooleplex in Mountain View, California, what's special is elusive. The company looks like the standard-issue, Wii-in-the-lounge, hieroglyphs-on-a-whiteboard, code-until-dawn tech shop. But the difference isn't tangible. It's in the air, in the spirit of the place.

Talk to more than a dozen Googlers at various levels and departments, and one powerful theme emerges: Whether they're designing search for the blind or preparing meals for their colleagues, these people feel that their work can change the world. That sense is nonexistent at most companies, or at best intermittent, inevitably becoming subsumed in the day-to-day quagmire of PowerPoints, org charts, and budgetary realities.

I don't think you always need to feel you are "changing the world," but you do need to feel that you are making a difference. Not just killing the hours or maintaining status quo, but building something better.

On page 84:

Google has a high tolerance for chaos and ambiguity.

From the online version of the article:

A PAYCHECK IS A LOUSY MANAGEMENT TOOL

"There's an old Peter Drucker line that goes, 'If you ever really want to learn how to be a manager, go work with volunteers.' Because when you manage volunteers, you realize that the paycheck is actually a lousy management tool. It has almost nothing to do with how you manage and motivate and organize and excite people. It can become a crutch, right? And in that sense, not in the financial sense, but in the 'build something great, change the world' sense, everyone at Google is a volunteer. So the trick in managing volunteers is get out of the way and clear the underbrush."

IMPOSSIBLE TO DUPLICATE

"You could not replicate this with a different set of people. There are management practices here that would break with different staffs, and vice versa; there's not one way to do it. We have a matched set of hiring and operations that go together. 'Culture' is a fine word for all that."

On page 85:

My impression early on was, 'Wow, you hire a guy who's an expert in food and let him run with it! You don't get in his way or micromanage.' After a year or so, I realized this is the way everything works here.

We came up with a values system. We said we want local. Then it was local, fresh, and sustainable. Then it was local, fresh, sustainable, and organic. We don't want genetically modified organisms or nitrates. We're the first company to go global with cage-free eggs.

Blogs, Women, and Science

Blogs, Women, and Science presentation by Annalee Newitz.

http://www.fairerscience.org/pages2/annalee_2_0.html

This blog retired; see new blog at NJIT

I am no longer blogging to this account. You can find my new blog at NJIT's WordPress MU installation at https://blogs.njit.edu/robertso

Update:  I left NJIT in 2011 and transferred my posts back over to this blog!  (Feb 2012)

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

Here's a great talk by the always compelling Clay Shirky.

One of the key concepts I took away from it was this quote from Clay:

Every URL is a latent community. Which is to say: in addition to the value of having an individual being exposed to a resource that's available on the internet, there's additional value to be gotten by introducing those users to one another.

Bloggins tips from NY Times article

Here are some tips on blogging distilled from a NY Times article from March 20, 2008.

Tips:

1. Write about what you want to write about, in your own voice. Blog about your passions. Don’t blog about what you think your audience wants. Post because you have something you are dying to write about.

2. Fit blogging into the holes in your schedule. Blog is best handled by inserting it into the small bits of free time that rest among the bigger chunks of your work -- between classes, as a break, and during slow time at home.

3. Just post it already! Resist the urge to polish your blog posts. Don’t bottle up your ideas forever believing you have to hit a mature, complete, perfect point. Glogs are always in progress.

4. Keep a regular rhythm. Bloggers disagree on how often they should post -- some post several times a day; others will go a week without a post. What matters is that you establish a reliable rhythm for readers.

5. Llinking to other bloggers is the best way to get them to link to you. Links from other bloggers increase your readership two ways: they send readers directly from other sites, and they raise your ranking in search engine results.

6. Allowing readers to post comments on your blog not only increases readership, it provides a sense of live interaction with the rest of the world. But beware: the insulting comment is an Internet art form.

Blogs rolling along

We're starting to launch blogs now. I've been working with groups such as:

• Engineers Without Borders


• Connections Miniversity


• Murray Women's Center Ambassadors


• Green @ NJIT


• CCS Dean


• TLT (Teaching, Learning, and Technology)