Off the Top: Community Entries
January 5, 2003
I received an invite to join Friendster when it first opened, but thought it was somewhat silly for those that are married. Thanks to Jish and his invite to join I have found a rather interesting social networking tool. I have been having a tough time finding music, movies, and other media that is of interest (my taste tends to run slightly outside the mainstream pop - interchangeable Britney - mindset). I am not sure Friendster will provide an avenue for discourse, but it could help with media and finding new folks I have not discovered yet that I would be great to know.
Tickstubs is launched by
Matt. This site is a story repository based on ticket stubs. I have many ticket stubs that serve as reminders of past events, travels, and adventures. I am glad to see there are others that have the same interest and are sharing them. I look forward to following along.
December 23, 2002
My other reading on my quick trip to Spokane, Washington included Stephen Johnson's Emergence, which I am finally getting around to. It is a wonderful book that cuts across many fields of expertise and ties them together in a well thought through manner. Not much in the book is really new, but the connections of the cross-currents makes a fun read. It has sparked the Alan Turing interests in me again and has me looking for my Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstadter, which must still be in a box. Metamagical opened many of the doors Johnson opens in Emergence, but is a more approachable manner. I will hopefully finish Emergence on my next quick jaunt.
November 6, 2002
Those of you in the DC area the DC-IA group has their book reading tonight at Barnes and Noble in Bethesda at 7:30pm. The book for this month is
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd edition (the polar bear). Dan Brown who organizes the book club is reminding folk of the free coffee.
July 23, 2002
BBC News now is providing a UK version and a World version of their news sites. I have IE looking reading the worldly site and Mozilla reading the UK version. This comparison brings to light the differences in providing to the different user groups. The previous posts noting the deaths of Potok and McKern were only easily found on one of the versions. Potok's passing was noted in the World edition and McKern the UK edition. Now to take a closer look. Anybody know of a write-up on this change?
June 25, 2002
Matt Jones introduces Warchalking. This is a great idea. Hmmm, I wonder if my nephews have any sidewalk chalk in their posession?
June 17, 2002
I am very intrigued with
Meetup, a new company/organization to bring people together face to face (f2f).
June 14, 2002
This past Saturday I had a wonderful time at the
Break Bread with Brad Brunch in DC. I met some great folks and got to see
Mike and Dineen (whom I only tend to see in when I travel) and now that Brad has posted photos and links I really can tie the faces and names (and URLs). I will post the few photos I have in a day or so. I deeply appreciate Brad putting this together.
This past Saturday I had a wonderful time at the
Break Bread with Brad Brunch in DC. I met some great folks and got to see
Mike and Dineen (whom I only tend to see in when I travel) and now that Brad has posted photos and links I really can tie the faces and names (and URLs). I will post the few photos I have in a day or so. I deeply appreciate Brad putting this together.
June 5, 2002
Seeing and Tuning Social Networks by John Udell is dense read for this evening. There is some great stuff in here. Must come back to it a lilttle later.
June 1, 2002
Today's New York Times provides
Creative Cities and Their New Elite, which theorizes that cities with higher than normal gay and bohemian populations are fertile grounds for economic sustainability, innovation, and technical growth. There seems to be a strong correlation between open accepting environments that recognize the importance of creativity and intelligence and the other measures of successful city cores that are economically viable. The article focuses on
Robert Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life", which fully fleshes out these discussions. The
Austin American-Statesman expounds on the Cities of Ideas in their series. The core of growth is based on knowledge and ideas that provide the fuel for the local economy. The precept seems to account for the cities I truly enjoy, including Amsterdam and Paris.
March 30, 2002
Two items pointed out to me or found lately have improved the usability of
IAwiki (an open collaboration site for information architects). 1)
IAwiki categories and 2)
Index of IAwiki terms. There is great information that the IA community has entered and built upon in iawiki, now I have points that can attract my attention and find the gems that are tucked away.
HBS Working Knowledge offers,
Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice, which has some very good insights. [hat tip
tpodd]
January 22, 2002
Peter Morville provides
Innovative Architecture that looks at the future of IA, which incorporates collaborative IA. The users of many sites create or hone the IA through many components, such as Amazon's "people who bought this item also bought." I like the breadth of this piece and how it encompasses applications and community driving IA.
November 8, 2001
Matt points out a Web-based bookmarking tool
b.. This can be collaborative in nature if you should so choose.