Tim Bray from Sun kicked it all off this morning, his hat isn't quite as cool at Ryans, but its a hat, hats are the new Vans apparently.

Tim had an Interesting pitch which he tells us he changed it at the last minute from a detailed technology pitch to how companies in the techspace can survive the current crunch. I have to be honest, after a day of being depressed about my stocks this was about as appealing as root canal work, but he pulled it off. Some people (including me) will hate this, but Tim tells us the waterfall method is dead, we need to be agile. Projects that take months of requirements cost infinitely more. Well I agree with that, if your some l33t start up, the rest of the world need requirements, nothing like finding out your agile approach missed something 20 iterations ago to really screw up your day.

Honestly, the cloud, and what ever it is beginning to get a little boring. If I hear another pitch that infrastructure is like "1900s electrics and why would anyone want to generate it" again, I will scream, bring back the lolcatz. However Tim was a little critical of both Amazon and Google, infact he drew the exact same conclusion I have that lock ins are bad. You need to get into the cloud but you need to be careful. Poor old Werner spent the session moaning on twitter that he couldn't respond, would have been interested in his replies.

The thing I loved about this session was the upbeat approach to a downbeat subject, downtimes are also a great chance to reposition your business, according to Tim

Think about regulatory technology
Think about basic needs
Think about servicing the legacy
Think about telecoms
Build something for yourself
Fear VCs (really, well if you work for Sun...)

Really interesting , but pulling telecoms into the same pitch as fearing VCs, I dont know, perhaps I am over critical here but it was a slide filler.

Tim then went on to talk about how to ride the cruch personally:

No technology religion
Designer vs developer, dont just be one
Dont be an X developer (for any value of X)
Build skills
Contribute to an OS project
Publish
Network

Love it, its the philosophy I live by, I hate some of the narrow mindness of the tech world and Tim kicked ass in this part.

Adam Gross - Salesforce

Adam discussed cloud computing from a developer perspective. Discussed the subscription model and how it deliveries value quickly. Adam tells us that the key to be a great SaaS company you need to be totally scalable from day one and extensible, yer, we know. The pitch was a little disappointing and was really just a sales chat. I love the product, but I loved it before I heard the 10th pitch. Adam also wears nice jumpers.

I then went on to a uni session lead by the very friendly and consummate professional Robin Daniel. Robin spoke about running your business in the cloud, interesting chat about Disney and Mickey Mouse tracking services. Ron gave a solid overview about the force.com platform.

Chris Messina from Vidoop then gave a great talk about how oAuth and portable data can revolutionise your web app. Very interesting, very relevant and quote of the conference in my mind:

"Passwords are not confetti"

For those that dont know oAuth basically replaces the need for third parties to ask for user credentials, thats the deal, I have to be honest I kinda got a little lost how this differentiates from Open ID (and Facebook connect), apart from the fact that oAuth can run on the desktop, I think. This was quite a technical session, which I quite enjoyed,

Work/life balance or Blood, sweat and tears: Which is the startup way?

This was great, it was a double header from Jason Calacanis (Mahalo.com) and Tom Nixon (Nixon McInnes) talking about some of the philosophies behind running a business.

I love tech, if your reading this you know I do, but this was a great break after days of detailed byte level conversation. I will be honest, I loved this, ok, I am a conservative voting spirit of free enterprise and I believe in two core business principles, if you want to succeed you need to work damn hard and you need to believe in what your doing. Gary Vanachuck calls this business DNA, I agree (but in a more British and less Randy Matcho Man Savage way). I guess what I am trying to say is this, if you want to live on the beach drinking tequila you better have an awesome business idea, not everything web 2.0 is about wine, shoes or friends. This session gave both sides of the argument, that's why it was interesting. As a people manager I can take a lot away from this, there is a fine line somewhere and finding it it key.

Jeff Bar, the Amazon AWS head honcho then went on to talk about the important bits of cloud computing.

This was frigging awesome, not awesome in terms of the content, even though it was a very interesting devils advocate to cloud computing. It was awesome for the fact I send a couple of twitters out complaining about S3 then was invited to talk to Jeff Bar and Werner about my complaints, the CTO of Amazon is involved, he reads twitters, thats pretty cool.

The Future of Entrepreneurship - Julie Meyer, Ariadne Capital

Interesting discussion how companies can demonstrate how there is market demand for tech products. Very interesting discussions regarding B2B and B2C, quite thought provoking. Discussed the speed of innovation (although she came from a VC perpective) the thing I quite liked is not to stress too much about the technology, but make sure it works. Its interesting this is a similar concept as Edwin from AOL spoke about yesterday, I wonder if its credit crunch inspired.

Julie had an interesting quote from WorldPay, apparently the most important thing Nick Qgden did was never miss the payroll...

...It was ok, death by powerpoint, she was interesting though.

How can you survive outside of Silicon Valley

Again a double header with Michael Galpert from Aviary and Andy McLoughlin from Huddle, great overview of the development and VC scene outside of Silicon Valley. This was quite an inspiring session, and Andy made me proud to be British and involved in the tech world!

Facebook connect overview - Dave Morin

I liked this, having spent time today looking at things such as Open Social and oAuth I was a little "credential managemented" out, but this is pretty cool. The thing I really like about FaceBook Connect is the ability to:

1. find out who you are
2. grabs all your info
3. gives you an option to publish what it was on your facebook account

I can see this as a real value add for so many people in so many different spaces, forget the credential bit for a moment, basically being able to tell people you care about what it is you just did, is very powerful.

Next session was an Adobe AIR app Dragons den £5K prize, I didnt get chosen (not bitter). I wont go into detail as the whole thing was a little amateur hour, but fun.

Mark Zuckerberg, FaceBook CEO

This session was hyped to the max, and that can only lead to one thing, a little disappointment (I support Spurs, I know all about this). I dont know what I was expecting, Facebook CEO to announce he was opening up his platform, that he was hiring Ben Hur and his crack squad of LOLCATZ who knows. It was interesting, but not amazing, I didn't spot Jesus or Gandhi in the audience. He looks half my age which is oddly inspiring, must work harder. Zuc all but confirmed there is going to be a facebook payment system. So we need to keep on top of that :)

After Zuc there was the most awesome talk from Kathy Sierra, I cant even write about it, it was that good (I am also tired, been writing this post for over two hours!).

Then live Diggnation and Facebook party but that a whole different posting...

Not as impressed as Vince with the new browser. Buggy (error at startup time after migrating the favorites) unable to access gmail, suspicious googleUpdate.exe process still active after I've closed the app etc ...

However, the comic is quite a fascinating experience.

Documenting software to transmit knowledge has always been something I've loved to do. The reason is : along with tests, documentation is another abandonned child of the developpers and as such I feel a lot of tenderness towards this activity.

Head First series has been an amazing step toward transmitting knowledge. Kathy Sierra has been studying cognitive science so she knows a tad bout the subject.

But here we're just moving a step further : a real artist is documenting this rather geeky product ...

Scott Mc Cloud is a graphic artist and he has been approached by google to write the specs of the Google Browser. The old times of truck loads of documentation delivered together with your software by the big cat  seems like ages ago.

Kathy Sierra taught us why a) conversational writing kicks formal writing whenever it comes to teach and have your audience remembering and b) Graphics have people responding. Google learned their lesson very well thank you and decided to do both.

At GLV puts it in twitter : Google Chrome's coolness is mostly under the hood. Hard to convince non-programmers why that's important. The comic is a brilliant solution.

Best thing : the main characters are software engineers. Respect to the alpha geeks indeed.

Check out Scott interview at techRadar.

(Hi it's Cecil here. As usual, a copy of this post is available on Heavy Mental)

Not as impressed as Vince with the new browser. Buggy (error at startup time after migrating the favorites) unable to access gmail, suspicious googleUpdate.exe process still active after I've closed the app etc ...

However, the comic is quite a fascinating experience.

Documenting software to transmit knowledge has always been something I've loved to do. The reason is : along with tests, documentation is another abandonned child of the developpers and as such I feel a lot of tenderness towards this activity.

Head First series has been an amazing step toward transmitting knowledge. Kathy Sierra has been studying cognitive science so she knows a tad bout the subject.

But here we're just moving a step further : a real artist is documenting this rather geeky product ...

Scott Mc Cloud is a graphic artist and he has been approached by google to write the specs of the Google Browser. The old times of truck loads of documentation delivered together with your software by the big cat  seems like ages ago.

Kathy Sierra taught us why a) conversational writing kicks formal writing whenever it comes to teach and have your audience remembering and b) Graphics have people responding. Google learned their lesson very well thank you and decided to do both.

At GLV puts it in twitter : Google Chrome's coolness is mostly under the hood. Hard to convince nonprogrammers why that's important. The comic is a brilliant solution.

Best thing : the main characters are software engineers. Respect to the alpha geeks indeed.

Check out Scott interview at techRadar.

I was first introduced to her at SXSW 2007 (she keynoted).  But, then due to some harassing comments on her blog (see this CNN report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ6IxYaD774), she disappeared from regular posting at http://headrush.typepad.com/ . Hopefully, she'll start again soon.  I'm looking forward to the book.

Listen to her interview. You'll love her, too.

1. Nobody ever died of embarrassment
2. Women can be such weenies when hostility is directed their way.

Read her post for a good and funny example of surviving public embarrassment. Even better, approach it with humor. In her case, she gracefully turned physical awkwardness into into an opportunity to set her audience at ease. This no doubt made them more receptive to her ideas, and she must have left more of an impression than if everything had gone "perfectly."

Look back on the memorable occasions in your life. Aren't they more memorable because of the things that went haywire? Mine are. Yes, usually, you really will laugh about a life bobble later.

That story alone makes that post top notch. But then she segues into a topic that has been on my mind for years. I'll let you read VA's post for the particulars of the incident that inspired her to write. The particulars aren't important, because it's just another occasion of a woman giving up because someone attacked her (not physically).

There aren't as many public, professional women as men, so it's noticeable when they give up in the face of hostility or public attacks. The problem is the message this sends: women are weak, need protecting, and that, really, it's better to just stay quietly in the background and not make waves. This is so wrong it makes my head ache.

I'm mightily disappointed every time I read of a woman who gives up instead of fighting.

I used to read the blog Creating Passionate Users co-authored by Kathy Sierra. A while back some people started posting really mean things about her. I gather that it was pretty extreme at one point and included death threats. In the face of that she gave up writing and appearing publicly. I don't know what her current status is.

I sympathize. I really do. I have been subject to miserable, obscene suggestions about what would happen to me as a result of newsgroup postings some respondent didn't like. It was frightening. It wasn't nearly the scale of the abuse Ms. Sierra experienced, but enough that my sympathy is sincere. And it's true that sometimes people really do act on their threats. So, Ms. Sierra had reason to be afraid.

Mostly though I wanted to say, still want to say, WHAT THE FUCK WAS SHE THINKING WOULD HAPPEN? You go public, writing about topics that are supposed to instill passion in people, that you feel passionate about, and you are shocked when people react passionately? Especially knowing that people will feel particularly free to attack you because you are a woman? And that when you don't quit, they will be even more abusive?

If Sierra made any mistake, perhaps it was in thinking that she could become a public figure and not be subject to bad behavior by idiots.

The abuse was wrong. Those people were absolutely foul. It was a serious problem, and Ms. Sierra had a serious decision to make. I can't really fault her for choosing as she did, but I am disappointed. Ms. Sierra is an extreme example of women in a position to push through a wall of resistance to her and every woman's presence, and she quit. The next woman after her will only have a harder time because Ms. Sierra quit. That next woman may be her daughter. Or a daughter of one of the assholes who drove her to quit.

So, there is this crux that Ms. Sierra's case presents, that the case VA presents: one can't be a revolutionary (and she was) and be assured of personal safety at the same time. If a woman gives up in the face of resistance to the trail she's blazing, she will only leave a harder path for the woman behind her. Why? The assholes will know what works and will feel more free to pull all the stops. It's interesting, she blogged once about the importance of listening to the happy (well-adjusted) people rather than the negative people. And yet, she did exactly that.

One more point. This isn't, really, about men vs. women. Public men also receive abuse, death threats, and threats of violence. Also, women are subject to the censorship of other women as often as by men. A graphic example? Girls are not circumcised by men. They are circumcised by women. I won't use an example from my own country (U.S.) or time because it would just be a distraction.

When someone, anyone, stands up for themselves in a constructive, proud way, they are really standing up for many other people. Sierra mentions Robert Scoble's support for her. Robert is my role model for grace under fire. He's had horrible, miserable, untrue things written about him for years. If he loses his temper it's rare, and rarely public. He's always seemed to me to be genuinely willing to hear the constructive part in any criticism, and yet keep his self-confidence whole and complete. I admire that. If I don't have that talent naturally, I can certainly try to emulate it.

In reading up on the Sierra controversy, I found the following statement by Joan Walsh in an interesting article about the "firestorm:"

I say this as a mouthy woman who has tried for a long time to pretend otherwise: that Web misogyny isn't especially rampant -- but even if it is, it has no effect on me, or any other strong, sane woman doing her job.

I argue that those are not only options. We do not have to choose between delusion about the misogyny, nor do we have to dwell on it to the point it controls us and our actions. But, how do we acknowledge it? How do we as public people (yeah, I'm over-inflating my importance) resist the temptation to give up, to stay sane in the face of brutal reactions?

I don't know  how to "solve" the problem of disrespect in the public sphere. I don't know that "it" is solvable, or even if there is an "it." I do believe that regulating manners fails. Manners are relative: mean things are couched in nice behavior and an abrasive person can become a loyal and helpful advocate.

In either case, nasty whisperers and the overtly hostile, direct counter-attacks seem to be rarely successful. However, the form of the counter attack has to be natural to the person. VA would fight one way, I'd fight another. But neither of us would give in--well, I'd hope. Of course, we all have our limits.

But I don't want to no matter what someone thinks I should do, because I work with girls every week who are learning from the examples around them what it means to be a woman. If I give up, I've abandoned them. If people try to attack me, I have to figure I'm starting to get somewhere.

I'm glad that VA will be there fighting too, in her way, on her terms.

I was impressed by the following exchange between two very public, trailblazing women: Diane Sawyer and Jeanne Kirkpatrick. (I'm paraphrasing from memory.)

Sawyer: "Didn't you experience discrimination as a woman?"

Kirkpatrick: "Yeah. So?"

Hate Kirkpatrick's politics. Love her aplomb.

Existem dois grandes mitos na história de arte: o de que os grandes artistas são anti-sistema, marginalizados e pobres (ideia popularizada em finais do séc. XIX, tipo La Bohème) e o de que os artistas precisam de total liberdade criativa para produzir o seu melhor trabalho. Compreende-se que estas ideias feitas sejam perpetuadas por artistas e críticos. Mas a verdade é que esta imagem romântica deve ser atraente para as pessoas em geral, pois algo tem que explicar a sua permanência perante a evidência histórica. Ao longo dos séculos a maior parte dos grandes artistas esteve ligada ao poder e serviu o poder. Isto não é necessáriamente uma crítica, é uma constatação. Quanto ao segundo mito, o dos constrangimentos, a questão é mais subtil. Gostamos de acreditar na liberdade total do artista. Mas o facto é que as restricções da época, do estilo dominante, e as que o próprio artista estabelece, são indissociáveis da obra e não são necessáriamente nocivas. Os grandes artistas revelam a sua genialidade no confronto com os espartilhos da sua obra, como Camões fez no uso do decassílabo nos Lusíadas, por exemplo. 

Claro que este conceito tem sido rejeitado ao longo do séc. XX, com a ideia da rebeldia na arte e com a glorificação da quebra de regras e tradições. Um artista é (deve ser) totalmente livre. Mas a rejeição do constrangimento talvez seja o maior constrangimento auto-imposto da história de arte. Mas para esta ainda mais complexa questão já não tenho verbo, pelo que me resta citar alguns dos poucos artistas do séc. XX que tiveram a "coragem" de ser contrarians nesta questão, e que Kathy Sierra relembrou neste contexto:      

I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it. Federico Fellini

Man built most nobly when limitations were at their greatest. Frank Lloyd Wright

In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed. Henri Matisse

* - Título roubado deste excelente artigo de Marissa Mayer, vice-president for user experience da Google, que reflecte sobre esta questão num âmbito empresarial.  

That's because traditional news media with online 24-hour news sites have shown themselves to be somewhat lax in monitoring comments, which can range from the civil and rational to the ugly and downright deranged in some cases, making for some pretty unsavory comment strings and exchanges in response to news reports, Opinion pieces and Editorials and even reader posted video and audio clips. That's not true in all cases -- concerned enough in January 2006 with objectionable comments on its site, the Washington Post shut them down altogether for a period.

But for many others, the value of online comments outweighs the negatives. Clearly, the intrinsic value of online comments unlocked by the advent of blogging and social media software has been that they encourage two-way conversation, dialogue, transparency ... and they can help build community around an issue, a topic or shared interests. That's a good thing, especially when compared to prior practices by traditional print and broadcast media.

In the days of yore, reader or viewer response to traditional print and broadcast media stories had to wait days, sometimes weeks to find their way into print via "Letters to the Editor" or on-air through a station ombudsman or manager special "From our Viewers" (or listeners) segment. Gatekeepers controlled what was originally printed or aired and gatekeepers controlled what comments were printed or aired in response. And, once the paper hit the recycling bin or the news broadcast was over, the comments were forgotten and the photocopy or reprint of the original article was what remained at the end of the day.

The blogosphere hoped to end-run those traditional gatekeepers in order to generate more conversation, more interactivity, more transparency in the availability of information and response. That's a very good thing, provided the level of civility in comments is maintained by members of the community. The blogosphere felt the double-edged sword of unregulated comments with the Kathy Sierra incident, causing Web 2.0 community luminary Tim O'Reilly to suggest a blogging code of conduct -- not popular with everyone, but many blogs nevertheless now have notices that the blog administrator reserves the right to approve or disapprove comments, based on what are now becoming generally accepted rules of conduct in the sphere.

But traditional news media with online sites -- once the redoubt of gatekeepers in all information flow -- are clearly lagging in their ability of willingness to get a handle on the comments on their web pages. This may be because of the web traffic that comments drive (yes, strange as it might seem, posting and reading the comments themselves are one of the most popular activities on online news sites) and increased web traffic means growth in online advertising revenues for cash-strapped news organizations. It may also be that with staff cuts to the newsroom, few news organizations have yet to begin advertising the post of "Comments Editor" to Editor & Publisher's job listings or Monster.com, though that position is starting to show up occasionally on media job boards.

Whatever the reason, the negativity and uncivility of comments on news sites presents a conundrum for media relations specialists -- that's because no longer are you trying to help get the message of your client organization across to communities of X-thousand readers, viewers or listeners served by the print or broadcast outlet; now, you're also engaging the communities themselves via the companion sites, inviting their comment and assuming that their responses and feedback will be as civil and as rational as the spirit in which the original news or announcement was conveyed.

That's clearly not always the case and there are those readers who troll the news sites with Google alerts and feedreaders looking to attack and besmirch reporters and sources, news stories and Opinion pieces that have been published about their pet peaves or that feature their favorite enemies.

To their credit, some traditional news media with online sites, including the Miami Herald, the Washington Post and others, are now taking the same hard look at their comments as the blogosphere did a few months ago and are trying to get a handle on how to keep the conversation civil. That's good, because we all know that "what happens on the Web stays on the Web," and the uncivil dialogue generated by comments on their sites will reflect poorly on them and the communities they serve for a long, long time.

Until the uncivility of comments that still prevails on many online news sites changes, however, many media relations specialists would do well to think at least twice about the cost and benefits to their client organizations -- and to their own relationships with their clients -- of strategies that reach out to a given community through traditional media outlets with companion news sites where the unregulated comments can be often uncivil, ugly and just plain bizarre.

That is, unless you're one of those who think there's no such thing as bad publicity, or rather that the only bad publicity is no publicity. But, that''s a discussion for another day. Or maybe for a (hopefully) civil comment to this blog post ...


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Lisa

I entered a room that was the largest out of the entire center - about 1k capacity. I was instantly enthusiastic for the panel to begin. Before I dive into the different ways, Kathy Sierra is a programming instructor and a game developer, so not all 20 points may be applicable to us.

Sierra started the panel by talking about the more the user knows, the more richer the experience becomes. This might sound general, but it's completely true. For example, the Whitney t-shirt website concept for Summer...if the user does not know how to navigate the site (simply mousing over the circles that will expand to other circles full of information), the user will be completely fed up and leave the site. But, if she finds out how to navigate, she'll understand and appreciate the website much more, thus, having a richer experience and enjoying it.

Here are the 20 ways to woo users:

1. Use Telepathy. You must experience the users' experience. With our website, this might become "easy." We have beta links that enable us to see how the user will see the creative. So, we test out every single combination of clicking to make sure everything is working correctly and have the experience of how the user will engage the content.

2. Serendipity. Add randomness. We tend to find patterns and reasons for everything, but if we add randomness, it engages us a lot more and keeps us interested.

Photo Source

3. The dog ears design principle. Use real world physics (a dog's ears move separately from it's head). This subtle little real world experience enhances the user experience and adds human-ness.

4. Create joy. We usually play, learn and then practice. To keep us engaging, we need to create joy in the experience.

5. Inspire first person language Talk about yourself. For example, "I love these Surplus Khakis! I can wear them with my woven shirt or add a blazer." This type of language helps the reader relate better to the product, therefore, trusting it more. She thinks, "Hey, this person is just like me, I can trust her judgment."

6. T-shirt first development. This is the thought of making the t-shirt before you make the product. Passionate people will express it with all those souvenirs - t-shirts, stickers, mugs, pens, mousepads, etc. (I'm not quite sure how we can incorporate this to Gap...)

7. Easter eggs and other treats. I personally really love this idea. I believe we can add easter eggs in our site that will surprise the user. Imagine finding a $20 in your jeans months later, doesn't that feel good? This is the same type of feeling a user will feel when they discover an easter egg. They'll appreciate the website more and want to look for more treasures.

8. You are a....predator. Manage the users fight or flight response. We all get stressed when we're under attack, so think about ways to helps users de-stress - help them manage this. For example, Gap Japan's site for holiday had these scissors that wiggled back and forth. Upon arrival, one might not know what to do, but by adding a movement to the scissors, the user was able to not "stress" out about what to do, but knew to click/interact with the scissors to go to the next destination. At this point, Sierra showed the "Stress Eraser." A real tool she uses that relieves stress.

10. Exercise the brain. The number one way to help the brain grow is by exercising - help people improve their body. Sierra mentioned the success of Nike+. It is a site that helped the users improve their bodies in an educational and efficient way. Brain Age is also the number one game sold on Amazon. The game has puzzles to "grow" your brain. It's extremely addicting and fun, by the way.

11. Give them superpowers quickly. Think about how you can enable the user quickly. The user must do something cool within 30 minutes. Obviously, 30 minutes is not going to work on Gap.com, but within the first few seconds, we should have the user do something interesting.

12. Speed their knowledge. Help and keep people pushing forward. Use patterns to help. This can come in the form of consistency of our shops. A really good example is the gifting shops. We had one template that all sub-brands utilized. The user can experience women's first and then click on men's. She will quickly already know that she will navigate the men's shop the same way she did with women's.

13. Focus. Help them focus on the product. By helping them do this, users will keep engaging and stay longer on the product.

14. Make your product that documents feelings. Have tools that let the users reflect the product. A good example of this are the reviews on Amazon, Target, even Macy's. The product reviews is a way that users can say whether they liked a certain thing or not, or even to share information.

15. Reinvest mental resources into new problems. Experts of anything never stop learning. It's the passion to keep learning and to expand their knowledge. So, you would add new skills to help them learn and grow.

16. Create a culture of support. There are no dumb questions or answers. There should be a platform to let people ask and answer questions (forum).

17. Do not insist on "inclusivity." Passionate users "talk differently." You should separate the newbies from experts.

18. Practice seductive opacity. Turn the brain on! Mystery. Anticipation. Curiosity. All things the brain loves. The digital world has raised the value of non-physical things (virtual gifts on FB). When you see that distinctive branded packaging (Piperlime, Amazon, Urban Outfitters, etc.), you have an instant feeling of happiness. Here, Sierra mentioned a video/photo site called "Unboxing.com," where you see the experience of opening something. It's actually really funny how into it people are.

19. Atoms are not "old skool." People have senses. Real things that you can touch are very important. This is why there is a sudden spike of DIY magazines/tv shows/websites (etsy.com). The photo below shows which body parts that are the most used. Is there a way we can do this in the digital world?

Photo source

20. Do everything this guy does. Special surprise guest, Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library (a podcast that showcases different types of wine) comes onto the stage and has a five minute speech about wine. Apparently, Sierra is a huge fan of Vaynerchuk and thinks he touches all these points.

I've realized this has become an extremely long post, which I did not intend it to be - there's just so much information! Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something. At the very least, enjoyed looking at the pictures and fun site references. :)

Kathy Sierra, Creating Passionate Users

• To make better apps, we must compensate for the missing 'human-ness'.
• Not about the company or the product, it's about how the user feels.
• The difference between fantastic and average is not about natural talent but about practice.

1. Use telepathy. You need to feel your users' pain.
2. Serendipity. We try to find patterns and reasons for things. Add randomness to help serendipity.
   
3. The Dog Ears Principle. Use subtle real-world physics (a dog's ears move separately from it's head). For example the little bounce when you scroll on an iPhone.
4. Create Joy. This is normally the last thing we look at after the core functionality. But to the brain this isn't just the icing on the cake, it's what will keep us returning for more.
5. Inspire first person language. Make them think about themselves not the product. Passionate users have more 'I's.
6. T-shirt first development. What does it say about someone that they are one of your users? Make the t-shirt before you make the product. Where there is passion people will express it with t-shirts and stickers and mugs.
7. Easter Eggs and Other Treats. Use inside references and hidden surprises. Brains thrive on the 'oh!' moment of discovery.
8. Tools for evangelism. Your users need to be able to easily tell everyone why they love your product. Justfication. Help them defend this 'totally lame waste of time' to others.
9. You are a...(predator). Manage their fight or flight response. We get stressed when we're under attack, help users manage stress - we can't think properly under stress.
10. Exercise the brain. The exercise that best helps the brain is physical exercise. Help them improve their body.
11. Give them superpowers quickly. Think about how you can enable them quickly.
12. Speed their knowledge acquisition. Use patterns to help.
13. Focus. Attention offsets. If you create a product that consumes attention (Twitter etc) then offer something that will help them focus too.
14. Make your product documents reflect your feelings. Help and FAQs pages are not enough. Users turn to them when they're frustrated and the content the find can make the difference between your users thinking 'oops' or 'bastards'.
15. Help with 'reinvestment of mental resources into new problems'. Experts never stop learning, they add new skills to their list.
16. Create a culture of support. There are no dumb answers. Encourage people to ask and answer questions.
17. Do not insist on 'inclusivity'. Don't punish advanced users. Jargon is good, passionate users talk differently.
18. Practice seductive opacity. Brains love mystery, curiosity and anticipation. The digital world has raised the value of physical things. The package is a sexy thing.
19. Atoms are not 'old skool'. People have many sense. Think of ways for them to use them and interact in different ways. iBuddy etc.
20. Do everything this man does:

Photo from Deneyterrio

Kathy Sierra asked us what did you really want to be good at and didn't make it... For me it is jewelry making / metal smithing. I used to go to Texas Tech, and had exposure to amzaing metal smith teaching... and I loved it, but was never good at it.

Our theme for the panel is "How do we help our users kick ass?". Here are the notes:

• Second Question: Would you rather have users talk about your product or your company? I would rather have our users talk about our products... because it is more profitable. They don't care about us as much.
• Kathy wants our users to have a better and more high resolution experience... what can we do to help that.
• Neurogenesis occurs when you are in an environment that promotes it
• The difference between fantastic and average is
  1. not about natural talent
  2. and is instead about practicing... and putting in the time
  3. It is your fault if you don't practice
• Read the 4 hour work week -figure out what you want to be good at and find a way to devote time to that. Optimize your time

Here are the 20 Points:

1. Use Telepathy -You have to see someone's face - Mirror neurons fire off and help us read other folks. Motor neurons react when you see movement - you run a simulation of what you see. You have to see people to do it.
2. Serendipity - make sure you build in randomness for your users. It leaves a sense of chance that people like
3. The Dog Ear Principle - the bounce at the end.. and the subtle movements make movement more attractive. Another word for secondary action
4. Joy - give your users a joyful experience
5. Inspire First Person Language - What would you do to inspire first person language. How can you get your users to talk about themselves
6. T-Shirt First Development - Say what you want your users to say on a T-shirt. What does being your user say about people. "And for God's sake, make a woman's fitted T-shirt"
7. Easter Egg - Give folks a good surprise find
8. Tools for Evangelizing: This helps them kick ass - Example is "Twitter in Plain English"
9. You are a....: Predator or a fluffy bunny. Manage Stress, manage the fight or flight response.
10. Exercise the Brain/Body: Exercising your body helps develop your brain too
11. Give them Superpowers Quickly: How can you get people really engaged quickly. What can you do the keep people pushing forward. (your users need to reflect their experience to you)
12. Help with reinvestment of mental resources into new challenges: Experts don't shrink the list of things they do, they just add new challenges when an old one is done.
13. Focus: You have to devote all of your attention to certain things
14. Create a Culture of Support: If you want to build a community... you want people to be mentors early, they are an expert in the pain and can share the information - No dumb answers
15. Do not insist on "inclusivity": Jargon is awesome. Passionate users talk different, so maybe you should try to seperate the experts from the newbies.
16. Practice Seductive Opacity: Brains love mystery.
17. Real is good... How can you deliver your message through real objects. There is a ressurgence in real tangible items - not virtual. It's all about the package. Unboxing is the experience of opening your new digital things.
18. I missed two numbers?????

Gary Bainbridge came in to speak.... Talks about how wine can experience a deeper resolution, and how he is using his show makes his viewers entertaining.

Now we are touching the shoulder of the person next to us... good and interesting end to a panel.

We've applied assembly line thinking to just about every area of life. Public school, restaurants, and even airport security have adopted these practices. While some industries benefit, others are harmed by the lack of individual attention to detail. Sadly, the ones affected the most are the outliers of our population. If your tastes and your interests run down the middle, you're set for life. Stray from the norm and you'll become lost. In spite of the norms, society isn't totally unwilling to change.

Chris Anderson's Long Tail concept does an excellent job of capturing this changing attitude. In some ways, however, the Long Tail still occupies what's perceived as the extreme. In our chase to capture ever more market share, we've confused quantity with quality. A current client has adopted the practice of vetting his customers and unless they meet certain criteria, he turns them away. The interesting part? My client is actively growing his business, but believes his client profile plays an invaluable role in the ultimate success of his business.

What's Enough?

Adopting a less can be more approach appears to have its own rewards. I'm often asked when I plan to hire full-time employees. My answer often surprises. I have no plans to ever hire employees. My choice to work with a network of skilled individuals, equally committed to their own businesses, helps ensure that my work doesn't slip into an assembly line. The second most common question that pops up is, "When do you plan on selling out and retiring?" This question usually only comes from people completely unaware of my business model. I'm the product or more accurately, what I produce is the product. That makes it a little difficult to sell my business without me, which defeats my plan to remain my own boss. Both these questions, however, are representative of our changing perceptions of what holds value.

For example, historically, when families started businesses, they employed extended family and gave future generations an almost guaranteed form of employment. Now, the expectation when someone starts a business focuses on when it will be sold for an obscene amount of money. People still chase things bigger than money, but money enters the conversation more often than is used to. Apparently many of us believe we're only one IPO away from lifelong wealth.

Showing Your Passion

This new reality brings me back around to where I started. Assembly lines have their place and value, but they aren't a one-size fits all solution. And while money represents a valid end goal, its potential to fulfill your passion feels very temporary. I'm probably in the minority, but if money is your only driver, customers can sense it. Instead of leading a community revolution, your market will be determined by whether someone else can duplicate your product versus duplicating the experience you offer.

If people can't sense your passion, it's difficult for them to feel passionate, too, making it difficult to build a sustainable, long-term audience. I was reminded of this cause and effect in Kathy Sierra's keynote at E-Tech this morning. Determine what you want to be really good at, commit the necessary time, and concentrate your efforts. You can also take cues from the most passionate of followers---die-hard sports fans.

Rain or shine, these people support their teams, often for little or no reward except for the chance to be there to share the excitement when the team wins. On top of that, they buy the gear and publicly identify themselves with their teams whenever possible. You can't produce that kind of passion with assembly line thinking. What are you doing to create the loyalty that fills a football stadium when the wind chill registers 23 below*?

Comments?

(Image courtesy of pickinjim2006. Some rights reserved.)

*The Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets NFC title game was played at Lambeau Field where the temperature at kick off was -1, with a wind chill of -23. (link)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6499095.stm

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/04/12/in-which-kos-deigns-to-enlighten-the-sanctimonious-womens-studies-set-about-something-he-hasnt-bothered-to-research/

http://feministing.com/archives/006858.html

http://feministing.com/archives/006758.html

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/03/26/why-feminism-is-still-necessary/

http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2007/03/female_tech_blo.html

http://timelady.com/blog/2007/03/27/we-challenge-the-culture-of-violence-when/

http://scobleizer.com/2007/04/02/onward/

http://scobleizer.com/2007/03/26/taking-the-week-off/

Kathy Sierra es una bien conocida instructora en el mundo de la programación Java. Está involucrada en el desarrollo de juegos y examenes de certificación en Java donde tambien trabaja como experta de Sun Microsystems para enseñar a otros intructores a introducir nuevas tecnologías Java.

El autor se topó con una entrada en un blog que hablaba sobre cómo Kathy recibió amenazas de muerte de parte de algunos bloggers. Aunque al principio le pareció poco creíble, pronto confirmó que el suceso habia sido real. De acuerdo a la Wikipedia, en marzo de 2007, Kathy tuvo que cancelar su aparición en una conferencia de tecnología de O'Reilly en San Diego luego de recibir mensajes graficos y sexuales que le hicieron desistir de salir de su casa. En cierto blog, un usuario comentó que al parecer habia comenzado a recibir este tipo de mensajes desde cuatro semanas atrás que le hicieron convencerse que estaba siendo victima de un patrón de intimidación.

El autor del post menciona que esta historia resalta la importancia del comportamiento ético en el mundo online. El hechode tener un blog no da derecho a atacar a otra persona, sobre todo cuando ya se tiene suficiente violencia en el mundo. Compartir tus opiniones personales sobre el disgusto con una marca o producto es una cosa, pero atacar a un ser humano es otra.

El negocio envuelve competencia y el mundo de los blogs tambien es competitivo. La blogosfera esta llena de cosas geniales pero tambien de mucha basura. Personalmente prefiero las cosas geniales, el spam y el link bait (una especie de links amarillistas que capturan la atención del lector y los terminan por llevar a otros sitios que no tienen nada que ver) me aburren. El hecho de que un blog puede afectar a alguien tan negativamente como le pasó a Kathy Sierra, muestra lo poderoso que puede ser y claro, también puede ser poderoso cuando se usa de una manera positiva. Podría decirse, retomando la frase de la película del Hombre Araña, "Un gran poder conlleva una gran responsabilidad".

Despues de leerla, supongo que Pablo quizá alude a mis recientes entradas donde hago algo de crítica sobre mi relación con otros trabajos y consultorías. ¿Qué opino de esto? En primer lugar, concuerdo con el asunto de que tener un blog es una gran resposabilidad, hasta un peligro para el blogger. Por un lado esta la resposabilidad de hasta donde su blog dejará entrar a un extraño a invadir su privacidad y debe asumir el riesgo que puede suponer poner su nombre, su dirección, fotos, pensamientos, etcétera. Por el otro esta la responsabilidad de lo que dice, las palabras que por simples que sean pueden destruir la vida de los demás.

Aqui he de reconocer ciertos cambios en mi blog en últimas fechas. Lo cierto es que por ya casi dos años que ando con todo esto y luego de hacerme una pequeña valoración, me di cuenta que quizá por un respeto exagerado muchas de mis entradas excluían el dar mi opinión sobre cierto asunto y se limitaban a exponerlo, quizá con el firme afán de ahorrame discusiones y demás. Por ello me propuse dar un nuevo paso a fin de no guardar tanto mi critica y punto de vista y expresarlo más libremente.

A comparación de otros blogs, aun me considero bastante reservado y creo que eso se debe a que entiendo la responsabilidad de todo esto, a que reconozco que no somos autoridad absoluta para juzgar y criticar a nadie y que sé que yo como cualquier otro puede equivocarse y sé que "hay que tratar como queremos ser tratados". Por eso mi critica está lejos de querer echar tierra, procuro ser positiva y constructiva, para nada vengativa y que no aporte mas que mala leche. En ocasiones para darle sabor habrá algo de sarcarsmo y comicidad, pero quien bien me conoce sabrá que soy una persona que aunque pueda tener una opinión totalmente opuesta a la de otro, el respeto creo que no me ha faltado.

Asi que mi crítica sigue, reconociendo que esto lleva más resposabilidad.

Wonderful. And true.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: KathySierra, Creating Passionate Users, Fear

Within the scope of MyFaveBloggers serie, and after Kathy Sierra and Hugh McLeod, I've written a blog post on Scott Berkun work for techITeasy, so that you know.

I shall do one at some point on the immense work of my secretly (okay it's kinda public now) beloved danah boyd, for whom i've just fixed the link in my blogroll, making sure I spell her name in lower case.

Technorati: Scott-Berkun Tech-it-easy

Ce post s'attache à essayer de répondre à cette question. Je ne suis toujours pas certain que ce soit très intéressant à lire. Ca l'a été à écrire en tout cas, believe me.

Songs to learn and sing

(Petite intro pour justifier la pub graphique pour les copains)

Je me rappelle de ces longues discussions sur la tech mob avec Julien de Hey Hey My My, Zwaffle de Mondegreen ou Nicolas la voix impeccable de Paris, Diplomatic Shit et surtout de l'excellent album de Poni Hoax.

Bref ma question : mais pourquoi ne chantez vous donc pas dans votre langue maternelle ? La réponse était inévitable : Parce que notre culture musicale est anglo-saxonne. Les albums que nous écoutons, les artistes que nous chérissons et qui nous ont donné envie d'être musiciens sont en grande majorité anglo-saxons. Accessoirement, ils pouvaient ainsi m'avouaient-ils prendre quelques libertés avec le sens.

Et aussi : parce qu'ils avaient un peu honte de la culture musicale française, qu'ils ne souhaitaient pas, même à leur modeste niveau, y être associés.

Je trouvais cette attitude plutôt pusillanime, ce refus d'assumer sa langue, sa culture etc ... Il faut préciser qu'au moment de cette conversation j'étais expatrié et plutôt en manque de francité.

Aujourd'hui je comprends un peu mieux cette position.

Creating Passionate bloggers

Donc si j'écris en anglais, un peu comme les potes qui le chantent, c'est parce que tous les bloggers que je lis régulièrement et dont je me sens proche, dont la lecture m'enthousiasme et m'apporte de la matière à réfléchir, et bien tous ces bloggers sont anglo saxons figurez vous : Kathy Sierra, Danah Boyd, Hugh McLeod, Roger Von Oesch, Scott Berkun, Jason Fried.

J'ai des prédispositions : j'ai vécu 3 ans à Londres, qui est ma capitale professionnelle et culturelle. Bière, football, pop musique, humour tongue-in-cheek, pragmatisme : j'adore ce pays. (Je laisse juste un peu de temps s'écouler pour me faire cataloguer de gros salaud de libéral demeuré ... voilà).

Par ailleurs sur les bientôt 20 années de ma carrière, un gros 2/3 l'a été en milieu international avec l'anglais comme langue officielle. Donc pour ce qui est des sujets techniques, ça me vient plutôt en anglais.

Et puis, pour tout vous dire, dans ma culture il y a deux choses qui me gênent considérablement dans le rapport à l'écrit : le sacré et la politique.

L'Ecrit et le Sacré

Ma petite théorie déjà avancée ici (en fait ce n'est pas exactement ma théorie, je crois l'avoir lu chez BHL, Luc Ferry ou un lascar à mèche du genre) : depuis qu'on a décapité notre roi puis viré le religieux de l'espace public il n'y a plus de sacré. Les lumières qui passaient par là se sont ainsi vu sacralisés et par extension l'a été l'écrit. (Je ne dis pas que c'est bien ou pas bien, hein, je constate juste).

Du coup les auteurs autorisés s'écoutent écrire, leur objectif étant plus d'épater la galerie que de se faire comprendre (abération à l'opposée des 7 vertues du blogger telles que définies par Sierra et McLeod, entre parenthèses).

Autres conséquence : chaque goût énoncé en littérature est perçu comme une profession de foi et provoque d'âpres batailles esthétiques. Chaque écrit est reçu avec une gigantesque circonspection, comme une grande preuve d'arrogance ou je ne sais quoi ; la mise au pilori n'est jamais loin. Bref : c'est juste pas cool.

Save me from le Politique

L'omniprésence du politique est une autre plaie de l'écrit. Il y a une très grande confusion dans l'esprit des français complètement envahi par le politique ou tout au moins son plus petit dénominateur commun : l'atavique combat droite/gauche. Et alors ça, c'est carrément épuisant.

On ne peut pas poser une réflexion sociale, esthétique ou professionnelle sans qu'immédiatement ce ne soit politiquement latéralisé. C'est une sorte de reflexe primal et obscène, comme une érection malvenue. Bien entendu pour nous français cela semble naturel et normal mais pour ceux qui n'ont pas l'habitude de cette culture c'est carrément embarrassant. Le pire : nous sommes persuadés qu'il s'agit là d'une position intellectuelle (soupir + yeux au ciel).

On se retrouve alors avec les blogs satiriques débiles tristement de gauche , l'esprit Charlie Hebdo, tout ça, bon. Perso, moi ça me déprime profondément, un peu comme Guy Carlier, Bigard ou Laurent Ruquier.Et là pareil : les mecs ils sont persuadés avoir de l'esprit, hein. C'est térrifiant.

Il y a aussi le type blog de winner qui est à fond dans l'archétype de l'entrepreneur anglo-saxon. Pareil : je peux juste pas. Le pire : cette attitude caricaturale du carriériste qui se la pète, active encore plus le ressentiment et l'amertume chez les losers de gauche envers les héritiers de droite : c'est indémerdable.

Voilà : écrire en anglais c'est me délester de ces deux poids épuisants, le sacré et le politique, de ces attributs ontologiques de l'écrit en France.

Bien évidemment je n'ai pas lu tous les blogs français du monde libre mais sincèrement ceux que je connais, à quelques exceptions près (check le blogroll), ça ne donne pas vraiment envie d'y être associé.

The first thing I would like to make clear is that I know I can just unsubscribe from Twitter. But that is not the point.

The point is that SMS (that's text messaging to us Brits) is endangered. For me SMS has always been a very personal thing. It is truly great, when I get a message I know it is something important or interesting from someone I know. Something I will value.

The other day I was cycling into work listening to music on my phone converged device. I have an O2 Orbit and with the handsfree kit it works splendidly as an MP3 player. This also means I can take calls on the move and know when I receive SMS. For those concerned about my safety as I listen to music while I cycle, my journey is six miles on a disused railway track. So as I was cycling to work I heard an SMS arrive. Thinking is was something to do with a colleague or family I stopped, dug out my phone and read my important message:

"Scobleizer: Well, I'm tired of talking about iPhone. Hopefully something more interesting will come up soon."

Thank God I stopped! What would I have done if I hadn't know that right then? I felt fulfilled by technology and proud my ability to keep my finger on the pulse of Scoble's every thought. Wow.

So this is the future? Every messaging medium turns into a continuous stream of micro comments. Facebook is doing it, Twitter, Pownce. What, I ask you, is the value? Answers in the comments please.

This got me to thinking about what Kathy Sierra was saying about Getting Things Done and my previous blog entry about when email was great.

I am so conditioned now to react to all of these distractions that in my work day I don't realise they are even happening. At least when I was cycling I was moving along making progress and when I stopped to read Scoble's Twit I realised I had stopped, dug around for my phone, unlocked the keypad, read the message, got no pleasure, reversed the last three step and got moving again. This is what is happening all the time in work places around the globe and it must have an effect on people, the amount of hours they work and the economy. Perhaps food for another blog entry.

I suppose I have the small consolation that I didn't get three points on my license because of Twitter, like Mike Butcher. Poor sod.