Internet Dreamings

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Internet Dreamings
Emergent trends
Essential friends
John Brisbin Social Change Online http//online.
socialchange.net.au Johnb_at_socialchange.net.au
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Think globally, act locally

• Emergent Trends Think globally
• Essential Friends Act locally
• Interplay between the strategic and the tactical

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The pace of change is accelerating our challenge
is to balance adaptability with stability
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Technology continues to advance at an
exponenetial rate
Networks of networks highly complex information
environments
High degree of reliance on advanced technology
both a benefit and a risk
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The Basic Risk Factors
Theres nothing new under the sun,but with
computers we have more funEvery bit of
additional speedserves merely to increase our
needNew gadgets breeding like rabbitstis all
for nought without good habits
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Advanced information systems favour connected
organisations
Your choice is to evolve quickly, or risk being
irrelevant to your organisational community
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Complex distributed solutions
App. Templates
Widgets
JSP standard
Map
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Without organisational commitment, technology is
pointless
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Major areas of focus

• Organisational awareness/learning
• Information life-blood
• Back-end systems
• Client records/databases
• Intellectual assets/content
• Front-end systems eg, the Web
• Service counters
• Discovery spaces
• Information exchange

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Be clear about objectives before buying
Be critical, but open-minded Agree to clear
success measures before shopping Have a clear
budget cost/benefit concept in mind
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Where do effective websites come from?

• Guided by a clear communications strategy
• Implemented using appropriate tech
• Informed by user feedback
• Associated with external processes
• Driven by organisational agenda

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Umbrella sitesLook for opportunities to share
centralised resources
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Use good design methodology eg, UML
Unified Modelling Language excellent tool for
describing and specifying large, complex
projects Focuses on scenarios (usecases),
sequences, and components
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Attributes of a winning website

• Acknowledges user user-centered design
• Emphasises user benefit
• Encourages simple participation
• Protects users from transaction risk
• Provides confirmations for every transaction
• Pushes new content via email and syndication
• Works with larger community interoperates

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Good design is not necessarily FLASH
Example of a graphically-rich site that is
broken no navigation options one of the hazards
of going with high-end presentation values at
the expense of utility values
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Good design is about being effective
Excellent interactive site with low graphics load
and good interface also ref WebLog (or
Blogging) http//www.blogger.com/ http//source.b
ellanet.org/medplant/
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Attributes of a winning website

• Acknowledges user user-centered design
• Emphasises user benefit
• Encourages simple participation
• Protects users from transaction risk
• Provides confirmations for every transaction
• Pushes new content via email and syndication
• Works with larger community interoperates

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User testing helps identify and reduce
transaction risk

• Getting the user involved is one of the biggest
  site design challenges.
• The click is a tough sale to make encourage
  the user to trust your judgement by providing
  clear expectations for each link
• Provide lots of simple transaction opportunities
  and test these thoroughly

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Stylesheets separate logic from design

• Underpins almost all efforts to make content
  re-usable, machine readable, and generally more
  valuable.
• CSS Cascading stylesheets
• http//archive.webstandards.org/
• http//www.westciv.com/style_master/academy/css_tu
  torial/
• Accessible, universal access
• http//www.ww3c.org/WAI/

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10 point checklist for web designer/developers

• What HTML validation service will we use?(W3C
  standards / online tools)
• Show me the site on a 640pixel, 16 colour
  screen(Design should be liquid and high
  contrast)
• Lets look at the design colour blind(Simulator
  http//www.vischeck.com/)
• Lets look at the site in text-only mode
• What is the download time for the average and max
  page on a 24Kbs modem? (sub 30secs)
• How much trouble would it be to change all the
  fonts and background colours? (CSS/Cascading
  Style Sheets)
• Type in fred.html and check out the error page
  (error pages should always be customised to
  assist the user)
• How will I be notified of outdated or broken
  links?
• What browsers does this javascript work for?
• Show me my metadata (very important ask your web
  contractor)

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Attributes of a winning website

• Acknowledges user user-centered design
• Emphasises user benefit
• Encourages simple participation
• Protects users from transaction risk
• Provides confirmations for every transaction
• Pushes new content via email and syndication
• Works with larger community interoperates

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Content syndication push and pull
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Headline viewers
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Syndicate strategically

• Exchange headlines within operational community
• Establish/promote headline services
• First step toward distributed/gateway services
• Eventually, applications themselves will
  syndicate
• http//www.headlineviewer.com/
• http//www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/02/eise
  nzopf/

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Survival strategies Taking it personally

• Coping with email overload
• Filter your mail box
• Use Email Lists effectively (searchable web
  archives)
• Put fielded feedback forms on website (no more
  mailto tags)
• Staying wired in an unwired world
• Structure vs presentation using Word Styles
• Always use the heading styles to give you
  documents a logical structure adjust the styling
  to suit through the style editor
• Crucial role of databases

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Focus on the important stuff

• Information overflow for me is really dramatic.
  I don't have piles on my desk. They are behind me
  now. I cleared off the desk so I could at least
  see the people
• - Participant in Pew Partnership research
  Coming of Age in the Information Age

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Separate content/structure from presentation

• Logical formatting is the foundation of efficient
  content management
• R2net is an excellent doc-to-html converter
  (never use MSWords built-in html function!)
• http//www.logictran.com/

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Stay alert to patterns of usage
Ensure that your facilities have the capacity to
tell you about usage patterns and act accordingly
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Data is only as good as the processes that
support it
Billy! Good to see you youre all grown up.
Gosh, our customer database must be way out of
date
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Crucial role of databases

• Good filing habits apply
• Thinking outside your squares interoperation is
  long-term goal
• Platform less important than data design
• Focus on the data schema
• Use standards for directories and common concepts

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Understanding the implications
IT staff I worked all weekend to get the bugs
out of our database Manager Yeah, but now the
data make us look bad. Put the bugs back in.
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Locality is a crucial element
More info about web-based mapping
solutions http//webmap.socialchange.net.au
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Distributed mapping provides shared context
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Sift, sort, and shred

• Start with solid understanding of costs and
  benefits managing data is expensive
• Classify and tag metadata and process
  documentation
• Dont be afraid of ruthless archiving burn it to
  disk or tape and move on

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Staying connected outside the office
Tools for the traveller
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Field tools

• Hand-held computers
• GPS units
• Satellite links
• Email on the road
• IMAP
• Webmail

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Edge of the wired world
Many of these pieces of equipment are special
purpose and are associated with the projects they
are involved with. Bare minimum is the ability to
check email remotely IMAP or Webmail Field
computers http//www.pocketpcmag.com/
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Terminal services

• Connects to your office network
• Direct access to files and services
• Ideal for high-end functionality
• demo see Elan WINGS

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WINGS Roles and futures

• Good practice starts at home
• What members want
• Key opportunities
• Structure to build a collaborative future
• Leadership and cutting edge developments