The recent few days of hot weather seems to be coming to an end. To celebrate it while it still lasts, here’s a photo Andy took yesterday of some friends enjoying the sun on the steps of Hursley House. Left to right: Hanan, James, Rob, Helen, Alice and me.
If Darren wasn’t out in Arizona (taking even more amazing photos) with Ian, they both would have been on the steps with us above. I’m not sure if they would have been eating ice creams or would have stuck with the traditional cup of tea though.
I’ve been hunting for a Mac equivalent to Windows Live Writer. Here’s my personal checklist/wishlist of what an offline blogging tool should do.
Ecto (Mac & Windows)
MarsEdit (Mac only)
Qumana (Mac and Windows)
Windows Live Writer (Windows only)
Easy (mouse-free) way to add links by selecting text
+ [1]
+ [2]
+ [3]
+ [4]
WYSIWYG / rich text editing
+
-
+
+
WordPress categories
+
+
+
+
WordPress tags
+
+
-
+
Scheduled posting
+
+
+
+
Easy to add Flickr photos
+ [f]
+
+ [e]
+ [!]
Easy to add YouTube (etc) videos
+ [e]
+ [e]
+ [e]
+ [!]
Undo
+
+
+ [w]
+
Creates nice clean HTML
+ [u]
+
+
+
Post to blog as draft
+
+
-
+
File upload
+
+
+
+
Web preview mode (what will it look like on the blog)
-
+ [f]
-
+ [!]
+ = yes - = no (or if it’s there, I couldn’t find it) [1] = ⌘+U (or Shift+⌘+U to use clipboard text and bypass the dialog) [2] = ⌥+⌘+A (or Shift+⌘+A to use clipboard text and bypass the dialog) [3] = Shift+⌘+L [4] = Ctrl+K [f] = with a little bit of fiddling [e] = via HTML embed codes
[!] = really stupidly wonderfully easy [w] = only in WYSIWYG mode, for some reason [u] = Generally not too bad, but <span style=”font-style: italic;”> rather than <em>? Urgh.
Windows Live Writer is by far the best blogging tool I’ve ever used, but sadly it’s Windows only. It’s the benchmark by which I’m judging the others, but it would get big additional bonus points (if points were being given) for making it stupidly, wonderfully easy to insert Flickr photos and YouTube videos, without even needing to paste any HTML. Pasting in the URL for a Flickr photo / YouTube video into the editor is enough to make it do the right thing, which is a wonderful timesaving feature. The web preview auto-detects what your blog looks like, which makes an accurate preview trivially easy too.
Qumana is free, but a bit ‘monetized’ (there’s an Insert Ad button I have no interest in using, and the website says things like “Make money from your blog content by inserting the ads of your choice…”) but it’s nice enough. Each post automatically includes a “Powered by Qumana” link, which can be deleted by hand. The biggest problem with it is that alt+left/right doesn’t do anything, and instead you have to use ⌘+left/right to jump left/right by one word which is just wrong (or at least grossly inconsistent with every other Mac app I’ve ever used). Given my desire to use the keyboard for just about everything I do, this alone is a showstopper.
Ecto costs $17.95. Flickr support comes via a plugin, but sadly the output doesn’t follow the Flickr terms of service (the image should link to the photo page, but doesn’t until you add the link yourself). Rich text editing is nice though.
MarsEdit costs $29.95. It’s Flickr tab makes it very easy to add your own photos. No rich text editing but does have nice support for macros. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty with some HTML, it’s great.
Depending on whether you like hacking HTML or really need a rich text editor, you’ll probably prefer MarsEdit or Ecto respectively. I’m enjoying MarsEdit enough to stick with it for now. I still have yet to find anything quite as nice as Windows Live Writer on the Mac though. Have I missed any?
I joined the IBM Hursley ETS (Emerging Technology Services) team just a few weeks after their first Rocket Day in 2005. Today was version 2.0, and it was the most fun team-building day out you can imagine; a field full of geeks and their (water, air and coke-and-mentos powered) rockets, cameras, access to good food and great beer. Good times.
Best of all, Rob made a video which includes some footage captured using a tiny camera fixed to the nose of one of the rockets. There’s a long version on YouTube. Here’s the short ‘trailer’ version (music by yours truly).
In addition to the various panels and keynotes, there are a great many informal events running too. There are even more parties and events on Upcoming. Here are few which are catching my eye:
I was invited to do something on Web 2.0 and ‘where is technology headed’. After some thought, I’ve written up some notes about social networking, user generated content and virtual worlds in relation to presentations, conferences and events. Inevitably, I ended up thinking mainly about the Backchannel, in its many current forms. Much of that is catching up with what’s been going on in the past few years.
Photo of the Academy Workshop at the Annenberg Center for Communications at the Unversity of Southern California by Justin
Some of this goes back a long way. In 2003 the New York Times quoted a number of internet thought-leaders…
Some people, of course, ignore speakers entirely by surfing the Web or checking their e-mail — a practice that has led some lecturers to plead for connectionless auditoriums or bans on laptop use. But others are genuinely
interested in a lecturer’s topic and want to talk concurrently about what is being said. They may also like to pass around links to Web sites that relate to, and may refute, a speaker’s point. For them, wireless technology allows a back channel of communication, a second track that reveals their thoughts and feedback and records it all for future reference.
“We’re just moving the corridor into the room and time-shifting it by 30 minutes,” said Mr. [Cory] Doctorow, who takes notes and posts them to his Weblog, or blog, during conferences, enabling people to follow the
speaker and Mr. Doctorow’s take on the speaker at the same time.
“To me, it’s a little irritating, frankly,” said Stewart Butterfield, chief executive of Ludicorp, a company that is developing [Game] Neverending, a multiplayer online game [which would go on to become Flickr]“
Joi Ito: ”I want to make something that I can put in a suitcase and take to conferences,” he said. He describes it as a subversive device that will get people thinking about the significance of the back channel. From the chat
room, he said, ‘”you could send something like, ‘Stop pontificating.’”
“once the meeting got rolling, the chat room became an invaluable tool”
“Group conversations are exercises in managing interruptions. When someone is speaking, the listeners are often balancing the pressure to be polite with a desire to interrupt, whether to add material, correct or contradict the speaker, or introduce an entirely new theme. These interruptions are often tangential, and can lead to still more interruptions or follow-up comments by still other listeners. Furthermore, conversations that proceed by interruption are governed by the people best at interrupting. People who are shy, polite, or like to take a moment to compose their thoughts before speaking are at a disadvantage.” … “The chat room undid these effects”
One of the interesting things about Clay Shirky’s work on in-meeting chat was the large shared screen showing the chat to everyone (in addition to the personal window into the chat.) Here we see that happening at a Le Blogs 2.0 panel…
Photo of on-screen backchannel at Les Blogs 2.0 by Bjoern.
“Things get fascinating when people project that backchannel in a public place,if not right behind the speaker. The idea is to weave the “front-channel” and backchannel together as needed. In doing so, the hope is to add even more value to the talk and conference. This kind of thing freaks the crap out of some (most?) presenters, while others are neutral, and some like it.”
“I like the IRC banter—and not just for its entertainment value. I find that particularly when a presentation might be rough, or something I’ve heard before, that the feedback loop provided by the other participants, snarky or
not, often helps me see the content in a new light, and immediately increases the value I take out of the experience.”
“The backchannel has really become my favorite tool of choice when I’m presenting. I’ve purchased an inexpensive ad-free chat room at Chatzy that is password protected and use it for my backchannels when I present. I like to find two people to help: one to serve as Google Jockey (a/k/a Link dropper) and another to serve as a moderator — posing questions to me”
All of which brings us nicely up to date. I won’t be quoting all of that in the talk, but it’s now safely in my head. For the glimpse into the future, I’ll be bringing in virtual worlds and and their use in the backchannel (and more) too, but that’s a conversation for another post.
A presentation I gave recently for a British charity. Ren Reynolds (no relation) suggested an alternative title for it, “Third Sector in Third Spaces”. That’s much better and I’d use something that next time.
Ewan invited questions from audience via a roving microphone, but also while the event was still happening, via Twitter and comments on his blog. Ewan was, I think, the only session moderator to try this, and as far as I could see it really worked. It was fun, and I’d like to do more of that sort of thing. Thanks Ewan.
Wifi is much better, and there’s decent acess from inside the auditorium now.
"Web two point naught" is perhaps the most irritating pronunciation, and makes me cringe every time.
I confirmed the person sitting behind me was indeed Dominic Campbell by holding up my laptop showing his Twitter profile photo and asking "this is you, isn’t it?".
Dominic Waghorn (thesite.org) thinks teenagers share about themselves online because they’re self-centred.
The exhibition hall is enormous.
Today I made notes on
How should Web 2.0 co-exist with Intranets? - Sam Marshall, ClearBox Consulting
Web 2.0 inside the corporate firewall: latest research and case in action: BT - Helen Day, Intranet Benchmarking Forum and Mark Morrell, BT
Intranet 2.0 Maturity: Survey Results - Jane McConnell, NetStrategy/JMC
Collective Intelligence and the Wisdom of Crowds - Jeffrey Walker - Jeffrey Walker, Atlassian
I’m in Olympia this week for Online Information 2007. I’m presenting on Thursday, but until then I’m wandering around and taking notes. Here are some of the sessions I went to on Tuesday.
Keynote - Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia
Real Work - Euan Semple
Real Web 2.0 Benefits - Richard Wallis, Talis
Tools Technologies & costs of Web 2.0 - Karen Blakeman , RBA
RSS: The Glue of Enterprise 2.0 - Andre Bonvanie, NewsGator
First, some random observations:
Olympia is big.
The Wifi at the conference sucks mightily. Mightily. Is it wrong to pick sessions based on where the best wifi reception is?
Speakers get free food and drink. Yay.
Randomly overheard an American guy reading out a confirmation code over the phone, abusing phonetic alphabet: "…, 2, 9, L as in Larry, 1, 3, M as in Mary, …" and appearing surprised at being asked to repeat it. Again.
As ever, lots of talk about "if you can convince your IT department to allow access…" [Makes me wonder, as usual, who is in charge]
Heard an example a library which had a paper-based suggestions scheme, which started a blog instead. The reason that was given was because the suggestions box wasn’t being dealt with, and the suggestions were just building up. [Will a blog automatically solve this then? Doesn't it this suggest a more serious problem?]
Most speakers are not leaving long enough for questions. Sometimes 90 seconds, after a 30 minute talk. I’ll try to 10 minutes of my 30 on Thursday morning for Q&A.
I’m going to be in Zurich for a few days, presenting at the 6th Innovation Forum. I’m actually giving two presentations. On Tuesday I will (of course) be sharing IBM’s interest in virtual worlds, but on Monday I get to deliver the IBM 2010 CIO Outlook.
I’ve never given this pitch before. It’s IBM’s CIO 2010 Outlook, written by Dave Newbold. It’s a great presentation. I say that with absolute modesty because Dave made it. I’ve modified only slightly, jiggling some fonts around and adding a few more examples to keep me on my toes.
What does it cover? Well, the main trust is on overview of current technological and social trends and their impacts, and It’s heavily focused on the employee. Here’s a snippet from the speaker notes (slide 4).
“IBM’s workforce is transitioning to a new network generation that is facile with email, IM, blogs, feeds and social software like Facebook and My Space. This generation assumes transparent and accessible data, fluid connections with colleagues and a commitment to their work above that of the organization. We also face the loss of institutional and process knowledge in the heads of retiring ‘Baby Boomers;’ many of whom are not as comfortable with collaboration and sharing.”
Exciting stuff. I feel better about the company just thinking about this. It’s true that the workplace is changing, and while my relative youth means I’m not going to push the angle that it’s generational (I still believe you get early and late adopters in all generations) there is something to this. People do increasingly expect openness and highly connected ways of working, and knowledge that would otherwise be lost at retirement does need to be captured and shared. ‘Handover’ to a new subject matter expert is not the answer. Living in a culture of ongoing openness and sharing, that sounds more like it.
It’s great to be able to deliver what IBM is up to in this area. To quote from the speaker notes (again, Dave’s work. I rarely write such comprehensive notes myself…)
"It sounds obvious, but we continue to communicate permission to experiment and extend our environment. … For most it is an opportunity to let our early tenure employees show us the way towards more natural collaboration."
The majority of the presentation is an explication of Enterprise 2.0, pulling out some of the key themes including participation, software as a service, simplicity, tagging, etc. I’m going to illustrate tagging with an in depth look at IBM’s next-generation internal employee directory, Fringe (slide 12 to 15), previously known internally as BluePages+1. This makes extensive use of tagging and feed aggregation, as well as exposing a nice API allowing other stuff to be built on top of it, so I’ll show some examples of that (slide 16). Also, I wanted to show two other examples of fun mashups which have already created by employees (um, that makes them sounds like resource. I actually mean friends). They did this for fun, in between doing their "real work". The first is Sacha Chua’s tag cloud (slide 17), which his not only beautiful but makes a great anecdote: people spotting which of several bookmark tagclouds on a wall belong to which colleague. The other example is Darren Shaw’s blogometer (slide 18) which first started life as a hard-to-read graph and morphed into a much easier to interpret visualisation.
Towards the end (slide 19 to 20) there’s a vision of what a future employee desktop would look like, with feeds tying together catalogs, tags and activities, all mashable, allowing people to develop their own applications from components, as well as delivering them to mobile devices. It may sounds like a pipe dream, but the direction we’ve been moving in is the right one, and the underlying components required for this are increasingly already there and it’s only a small step from where were are now to pull those components together. It’s relying on the community, and aggregating (and continuing to open up) various services and data sources, rather than cranking out some monstrous new thing.
In short, as you can probably tell, I’m looking forward to this giving the CIO 2010 Outlook on Monday. It’s to a mixed audience of IBM + non IBM, so I’ll try to record the audio and add it to slideshare on Monday night.
Then, on Tuesday, Luis Suarez will be giving a presentation on social computing, followed by me talking about virtual worlds (probably something quite similar to what I did at Warwick recently). After me is Prof. Charles Woodward of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, talking about augmented reality. The sequence of social computing -> virtual worlds -> augmented reality could not have been planned better. I can’t wait.
Luis already blogged about the event, and it looks like we’ll be in the same hotel, so I am looking forward to geeking out with him over a beer or three and catching up. If you’re in Zurich and want to join us, do get in touch.
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