Month: March 2008

came in 15 mins late, but with interesting reasons. (aside from the fact that this place is freaking HUGE) more on that later.

catapult systems on sharepoint. variations for internationalization, mobile. “my site” for intranet.

drupal. is that the lullabot guy? who has heard of? like 80-90%. “vaguely creepy logo, weird name” built by the people who use it. “hobbyists, businesses, volunteers, belgians” (2 top contributors: 12 year old named Dimitri; 50 year old woman who wanted to write about taking care of elderly parents)

fast company. all existing content, 10 year old social network, plus NEW stuff with citizen journalism. whew. (Oh dear god I want to make OlyBlog look cool.) Lifetime TV. musician with flash (!) site where backend is drupal. UN end poverty. DC comics + IBM site. US magazine. (Dave told me the other day they just finished a site for Harlequin books. Remind me to send that to mom.) The Onion. “now that Onion & CNN are cross-sharing headlines, my world is a lot more disorientating.” heh.

“drupal can look like whatever insane photoshop files your designers throw at you.” approx 3000 modules.

graphic of the layers (need to find that image). core (can do “enough” with just that) -> modules -> users (in different roles. does that say “plebians”?) -> content ->  views of content -> theme.

looks lame by default, because default theme is blog-style. yeah.

not good for: “I just want to make a page” (like swatting a fly with a buick), “the next twitter”, brochureware sites (altho I did it), just a blog.

good for: user-generated content, communities, many kinds of content, many views of content (mailings, calendars, etc), if you care abt open apis, web standards. big community that works on integrating with apis from other site. openid is part of core in the latest version. most of the good theme designers are good with standards & accessibility.

sony artist sites. building traffic by being dynamic; roll out new artist sites fast (2-3/week), Sony BMG is one of the largest contributors to drupal now.

expression engine. “a fool that needs pity.”  handful of EE users. just giving a specific example. “I have no technical expertise” no custom php on the site at all. (mr. t & me?!) everything is standards compliant, and has been since 2004.

using php to find double-pipes, breaking content apart, then mashing it back together. can have custom field for every single bit of content. (asked if drupal now does the same, I think the response was yes)

too hard to see the screenshots. should’ve had a close up over the big screenshot.

has used on abt 20 sites on his own. abt $200 for commercial license. with paid support staff on the forums.

shows sites for other clients. on EE side, coded the whole thing in one day, after the design was built in HTML/CSS.

new presenter: “cms agnostic” case study of art institute of chicago. “we’re still thinking about our ‘real’ cms.” round 1: dreamweaver, bits of custom php (1500 pages) “interim solution” quick & easy, discrete scope. …but: doesn’t stay interim: to this day that events module lives (in PHP4, MySQL4), never added another page, nav was nightmare to do in dreamweaver.

round 2: serena collage. “design-time product” switched to text-based navigation. nice master-page structure. added breadcrumbs. “wcms”? greatest asset is being “metadata-driven” design-time aspect can be frustrating, can’t just do a database query. spit out static files (ala MT?). still using it. master pages were great; workflow; version control one of the most used features. “links as assets” managed, change in one place & propogates throughout. good for internal, not so much for external. training contributors was easy. training developers much more difficult, hard to keep staff: tedious. don’t have people work on back-to-back collage projects. very slow interface. not Mac-friendly. interfered with php code, no support for dynamic framework: nothing interactive. end-of-life product: no more licenses being sold. “maybe this is the announcement” (!!!!!!)

round 3: drupal. “really into drupal now” added a “my collection” feature. drupal controls the menuing, easy to bring together various sources of content. everything about any particular work. their digital collection management system is custom, and drupal works pretty well with it. using an orange variant of garfield for management. their main system is the main source of information, and drupal lets it be. (or something.) then microsites for major exhibitions. they don’t have web staff, can use color picker to generate new skins. user management is “awesome”, they like jquery. drupal 6 didn’t come thru in time for them. drupal isn’t as good with one-off exceptions (edge cases), which make

q: resource for people new to drupal? “like a garbage truck full of legos” community is putting out more resources. (yes, that is the lullabot guy.) biggest failing of drupal. suggestion from (? woman) they have some resources. I missed some of that. “pro drupal development” I looked at that in the trade show, and it’s 5, not 6.

q: certain feature that’s not included, do you try to lean them to something that exists or create from scratch? often better to find something close, but in some cases you need to do something specific. also, consider the expertise of the client. “impressed at the willingness of clients to release custom work back into the community.”

q: drupal & workflow: “workflow” module, also “actions” — states that content can be in.

[EE guy keeps saying, “it has that built in”]

missed question about designing a cms or something.

q: cost structures? per site, start-up, monthly. how do free products make money?

“it’s microsoft so it all depends” number of people for external, flat fee for internal (abt $25,000) holy moses. edu installs get huge huge discount.

“everything in drupal is free” downside is that you need knowledge. hiring a company or spending the time to ramp up. lullabot does a lot of work getting clients thru the ramp up stage, training internal staff.

EE: personal license abt $100, commercial $200-$250. subscription fee to the code, might have to buy in again with upgrades.

agency: time & materials estimating. collage was very successful in higher ed, “until yesterday” — $80,000 – $200,000 fee. ouch.

in 5 mins late. millions and millions of dollars! (of course vs. tiny amounts to just pay people to do the damn thing.) oh, this is the first session where I’ve seen a ASL translator. asking about sizes of co’s that people work with. I fall in between “small business” and “the size of target.” point the first: lawyers cost more than web folk.

millions and millions of people. both the narrower group of disabilities that actually matter to the internet, and things that aren’t disabilities but mimic them. (lack of speakers.) oh, the complex topic of learning disabilities.

the law. (this is all known stuff for me.) nice list of public accommodations. “Retail services (barbers, banks, lawyer, accountant)” so yes, of course that would be us.

are these ballrooms a wifi dead zone?

access now, inc. vs southwest airlines. “must be a physical, concrete structure.” “nexus” to physical place? aircraft not included in ADA. does not apply; case dismissed. (2002)

national federation of the blind vs target (hrm. slides of bullet points. he’s quite articulate, but dude. still.) (06-01802 MHP; N.D. Ca. 2006 don’t know what those means, but might want for reference later.) “reasonably related to the purpose of the store” not throwing out the lawsuit. “affirmative defense” not cause for throwing out, just a defense at an actual trial.

NFB allegations; Anitra is going to review the actual site. guy who wanted to pre-shop, because it makes it easier, and couldn’t; also couldn’t order online to pick up at store. couldn’t complete checkout by himself. (I wanna see pictures here, or a video or something. are they going to get to that?)

here’s the pictures.

rendon v valleycrest prod. — who wants to be a millionaire case! phone access to game show was a service, game show was a place of accommodation. target argument: “web site isn’t only way to get to store”

ford v schering-plough — employee benefits not a service related to public accommodation

stoutenborough v national football league — live telecast; allegation was connection between service & accommodation, but not owned by the same company.

“the answer is maybe”

if you have a brick & mortar location and a website that covers a [???] related service. meager: amazon, 37signals, et al probably not covered by ADA. why aren’t these disabilities organizations working on lobbying congress to amend the damn law already? for the love of frigging god.

“nexus test” 1) store locator. (happy to have made our gmap w/graceful degradation, although I should probably do additional testing. call that lady that emailed?) 2) ordering online to pick up at the store.

get proactive; be responsive. (YES!) test, involve users, design accessibly from scratch. take feedback seriously, fix quickly, offer equal alternatives. largely in the dark on that last.

schools for the $DISABILITY will usually be happy to take a look at sites in progress, given enough time.

I should really look into adding captions for that silly TV ad and/or transcripts for radio ads. (ugh. I wish I had more access into the banking stuff. but I’m not going to talk about that, except maybe to think about how I can improve the shell.)

“accessibility is cheaper than lawyers”  this is an important phase to watch. evolving law, technology, and user expectation.

q: wtf happened to watchfire? recommendations? firefox extension, cynthia says. shawn henry (?) pipes that there’s a list of all the checkers on w3.org/wai and go looking from there.

q: non-profits? if you’re a public accommodation, including social services, then yeah. “profit has nothing to do with it.” does the public use your physical space?

q: if the co doesn’t have the knowledge to understand, can the developer/designer get sued? probably not, unless it’s a big company. 😛 the analogue: would an architect get sued? (I find it almost always useful with web stuff to look for the next closest analogue.)

it looks like this may actually be an interactive format rather than sitting & being talked at, so might not end up with a lot of live notes. thus, this is a placeholder for later.

ok, that was lame. got one useful thing: casual games for learning discrete tasks. (3M game from 1996, elephant crossing the bridge by matching adhesives & materials.)

update: the core conversations were a set of moderated discussions amongst attendees; all the tables at a given time were within a specific “theme.” 2 problems with the general format: the room was terrible for having a good conversation, big & echo-ey with a high ceiling; and being all on a theme meant picking between topics that one was very interested in or not being interested in ANY of the topics. This conversation was not what I was hoping for, except for that one tidbit, while the other one I went to was fascinating.

late in (lunch w/Andrea at mongolian grill, yay!) — came in as he was showing postcards that couldn’t be in the book. clip art, famous people, unidentifiable photos.

something about postsecret stuff just makes my eyes well up, I can’t help it.

the bar code as evidence of the journey, and as a challenge to the viewer.

omg, guy just proposed to his gf on the keynote stage.

“women have the most [interesting? creative? something] interior lives and I feel [grateful?] for getting these.”

“whatever secret you’re going to say, I’ve gotten it before and someone else has that secret right here in this audience.”

“authenticity revolution” (from questioner) what the heck is that joe clark thing from ages ago about the life-on-the-web generation gap.

false dichotomy of true/false with secrets.

okay, now I am actually crying.

Just got back in (1:30-ish) after dinner at halcyon (omg salad!), a few hours at the fray cafe, where I got up and told the story of grandma & grandpa nelson, then just about collapsed shaking like a leaf. there was another story I wanted to tell but couldn’t get up the nerve. christina wodke was 2 after me IIRC and we commiserated over the internal sensations of getting up and talking about something personal. (vs professional.) I got a copy of the latest fray book, too, which was kinda cool. badge of honor & all that. tagged along with christina & her gang for a bit, when they got to the (bar? party?) they were headed to I decided I didn’t really want to do that, I wanted to cruise around on my bike (this was shortly before midnight, I think) and I headed over to some other party that I’d considered earlier. but it was too loud. I’ve never really done loud. actually, I find austin in general to be too loud. the one thing I really don’t like. (that, and the potholes! it’s like biking into a canyon.) so I headed back towards the hotel, and as I was cruising along on the sidewalk, caught dori smith’s profile out of the corner of my eye, said something goofy like “hey, you’re dori smith! I like your work.” (very suave, as per usual.) and she knew who I was, which totally surprised me. 🙂 and then we talked, just standing there, for like an hour. I think I actually may have gotten her in trouble with tom, because it was past 1 before we went our separate ways. I like her a lot. very high energy, fun to talk with.

so I got back here, and it’s now a quarter to 2, and I’m kinda jazzed, and my feet are kinda cold, and I have no friggin’ idea how I’m going to get to sleep. wishing the whirlpool at the hotel was open. or maybe I could do laundry? but I imagine I’ll take a bath and then drift off. (not in the tub. but you knew that.) I just wanted to brain-dump all of this here while it was still fresh.

and I’m going to have to think about how I would’ve told the story that I wanted to tell, so maybe I’ll be ready to tell (or write, because it’s never been written in all one piece) it sometime later.

::deep breath::

Today was the day when my head exploded. In a good way. Too caffeinated to be articulate right now (double tall mocha yay!) but I have ideas, got to meet several people I knew of or knew by internet, ate too much lunch. The trade show had good surprises, enough to make up for missing a panel session. Suffered through 2 kinda sucky panels, went to 2 pretty damn good ones. Got lots of buttons. I don’t remember the tiny buttons being so big in 06. (heh) Honestly? I almost wish I had some TwinStar buttons, ’cause I think our logo is cool. (There. I said it.) Scoped out some books.

Taking a bit of downtime right this minute to ditch some stuff so I’m not horribly overburdened when I go out again. Need to get a bite for dinner, then definitely going to Fray Cafe. Maybe more writing later?

kathy sierra, getting the love from the sxsw audience.

what did/do you want to be really, really good at? and never quite made it.  (me? playing the viola. I wanted to be good, but never put in the time.)

why are you here? (if building stuff that theoretically makes f2f unneccessary)

to make better apps, compensate for missing human-ness.

secret answer c: “I kick ass!” okay, having people talk to their neighbor is pretty damn cool. (“I love my house.” “I made enough money to retire.” “I got a stereo after saving for it.”)

The “high-res user experience” – if you know more about music, you get more out of it. (yeah.) tantek look at the windows visualizing them as a climber. (or as an architect, or as a lego person, or an urban planner)

neurogenesis. neuroplasticity. I’ve read (where?!) that the effect of the new anti-depression medications (SSRIs, et al) is that it increases neurogenesis. monkeys needed a richer environment to get neurogenesis when learning; I’m glad I have a big window right next to my desk.

not about natural talent; a talent for practicing. why I got good at writing, and not at playing the viola. it was (is?!) fun to “practice” writing, music not so much.

one of her cute little graphs. getting over the suck threshold, and then again over the kicking ass threshold.

what do you help your users kick ass at?

getting the brain interested.

“it takes 2 minutes for the lights to turn on?!” and there they go.

1. use telepathy. more monkeys with electrodes. mirror neurons: inferring expressions. have to see people when you do usability testing. yes. non-consious; a simulation running in yr own brain. (also, important to take expressions with you when explaining results! use their tone of voice, imitate (not facetiously) their faces.) the resolution of the simulation depends on what you already know. getting better by just thinking about it. (not a lot, but some.) and seeing the simulation from your POV, not outside of yourself.

2. serendipity. pattern-finding machines (that would be us). the psychic shuffle. “just what I needed!” just the right level of randomness.

3. dog-ears principle. iphone scroll with bounce at the end! tests with animation, subtle additional real-world physics. “the ears follow the head” the pant leg moves separately from the leg.

4. create joy. learning through joy/play. amy jo kim; liz danzico.

5. inspire first-person language. “what can I do to make my users talk about themselves instead of the product?” (oh, reminder: get good documentation for user side of online banking.)

6. “t-shirt first development” “we’ve talked about this before” — I’m mildly annoying at the assumption that we were all at some prior talk. in some cases, only announce to other people, like the guy at work who occasional wears the red stapler shirt. “for god’s sake make a women’s fitted tshirt!”

7. april fool’s joke “the emo programmer” easter eggs smile in the mind.

8. tools for evangelizing. re: twitter “I’m coming around…all the bad things I said are still true, but there is something to it.” video: twitter in plain english. “I can explain it to people!” less an issue of turning users into advertising, but giving people a way to explain this “totally lame waste of time”

9. You are a… something about eyeballs. “I’m seeing now what a deer would see as it’s about to be eaten” mocking the audience! “you’re still naked predators…but now you’re all cute fluffy animals” (also, guy next to me is at weareteachers.com, sounds interesting) stage fright type fear is a chemical reaction, same with stress and nobody kicks ass when they’re under stress. “those who stopped & were thoughtful about it got eaten” stress eraser turns getting unstressed into a videogame. perky front row….

10. exercise the brain. but the best is physical exercise. (physicsdiet, daily plate, we endure, etc.) she shows the nike+. help improve their body. (or at least, don’t hurt them!)

11. give them superpowers quickly. “user must do something cool within 30 minutes” I would love to see the intranet be like that!!!!!

13. huh? I missed the title because I was boggled by the numbering. do experts know more? some weird example with chess: massive number of patterns that they know. learning patterns. bruce wilcox. got to be 5th level black belt in go while trying to write a software program to play go. “patterns that will help you kick ass”

14. skipping like crazy, because apparently we all saw this last year. grrrr. something about emotion? I need that slide to explain something. “oops” vs “bastards!” how did they feel about the confusion?

15. help with reinvestment of mental resources into new problems. the expert keeps adding boxes to get good at. (this is what I LOVE about web design.) siggy magnusson, silverstripe (did I look at that before?) also, everything I know about computers comes from 1 semester of “computers” in high school. focus: all of your attention” or die. attention offsets — partial attention. like carbon offsets? don’t assume that it doesn’t have any consequence. twitter-sponsored meditation retreat? monk laptop “we’re totally screwed”

16. again, jumped past the slide title. user as hero. make them a mentor earlier “getting a sidekick” no dumb questions. but also, no dumb answers. start answering questions earlier. yes! (okay, now I’m getting ideas for intranet.) help people ask and answer good questions.

17. do not insist on “inclusivity” jargon is awesome! a shortcut that unpacks a bunch at once.

18. practice seductive opacity. brains love mystery. (well, maybe not so much with their money.) “it’s not secrecy — it’s theatre” oy. diane ackerman “deep play” (book) (oooh, idea: the dull story-problem section, turn it into a story.) the ups guy as sex symbol. unboxing? like a strip-tease. something physical.

19. atoms are not old skool. etsy, make. handmade 2.0; not “boomer nostalgia”, a bit of indie cred. nice 3d image of that map of how nerves map to the brain. oh, those silly ambient things. nabataz. (didn’t ralph get & dis-assemble one?) petted rabbits lowered their cholesterol. (lots of research about old people & pets.)

19.5: be like this guy (the surprise visitor): (she says good writeup at brian soliz(sp?).com) Gary (I missed the last name) the “Sideways” slide: high-resolution wine experience. “Yes, it is that obnoxious.” winelibrary.com (?) first-person language in the forums “here’s how it feels to me” asking him how to have a higher-res wine experience. “most people in the wine industry are douchebags; wine is fundamentally broken in america” 1) try different stuff. 2) respect your own palate. (not someone else’s) if you love it, love it. okay, wow, that guy is quite energetic. making the viewers entertaining, bringing them into it.

was there a 20? okay, that was fun. she’s a good speaker.