SuperSatellite

eduWeb 2008 Opening Day Thoughts

// July 21st, 2008 // Tech, Travel, Web

Remind me to never allow just three hours to get to Kansas City International airport, particularly in summer, when construction season kicks in.  The trip to eduWeb almost ended before it began, but luckily a dash from check in to the gate caught the plane just in time.  We also managed to catch the train from 30th Street Station to Atlantic City in a similar manner.  But besides the close shaves, we still managed to have a relatively trouble free and smooth trip.  But, that doesn’t excuse having eduWeb in a city that doesn’t appear to have direct access to it by air.  I’m still grumpy about that, and come next year, I think I’ll see about going to Google IO instead if eduWeb is similarly inaccessible (note to attendees, vote for Orlando, FL for next year’s location. Don’t argue, just do it).  Driving + plane + (2*trains) + shuttle = one hell of a long day.  The Amtrak was also a terrible way to see the area, not just because there’s not much of a view, but what you can see is very depressing.  (Update: turns out, when Atlantic City was picked as a location, there were 5 airlines servicing the area, so it’s not really their fault that there’s none now.  They are forgiven…for now.)

Also, the Trump Marina itself appears to be smack dab in the middle of… very little.  I was amused when John discovered a pack of cigarettes was $11.50 though.  But seriously, if you don’t want to gamble or eat at Hooters (which we did), then it looks like a taxi is in order.  There were some cool boats down in the marina though.

If you are keeping up with eduWeb stuff, be sure to look up the tag eduweb2008 in your various social media sites.  Brad Ward started up a Flickr group already as well, so dump your pictures in there if you get a chance.  del.icio.us should also be a good resource to get tracking.

Currently, I’m hanging in the Developer’s Lounge, which has nice couches, power outlets, and wifi.  My room has only one of those, and I’m not paying extra for the wifi.  I’ve managed to bump into a few familiar faces, and to all of you, damn you for not showering me with gifts.  I expect compensation for that insult.  I accept gaming vouchers and cash.  The keynote is coming up soon, so keep your eyes open and I’ll have more information coming soonish…

Update ~3:02PM EDT

The keynote was presented by Mark Greenfield of the University of Buffalo.  It’s very likely you’ve seen his name floating around, as he’s very active in a number of areas, including the UWebD Ning group.  He’s also a damn good speaker.  His keynote was a sequel to a presentation he gave last year, “It’s the End of the Web as We Know It.” Feel free to follow him here, or on del.icio.us, or Twitter.

Mark gives a very good presenation, and ties examples together nicely.  Plus, now I know what his house looks like thanks to Google StreetView.

Update ~3:08PM EDT

His top ten web trends (this week) are as recommended:

10: The End of Print

The Amazon Kindle is brought up as a good example of why this is happening, and I fully agree.  I love a lot of what the Kindle represents, and some some universities, such as Princeton, are already planning textbooks for it.  How awesome is that?  Now… the question is, will the publishing industry follow the RIAA’s example and fight evolution?

9: The World Network

The concept here is the idea of linking things like communications, networking, identification, etc together, for the purpose of having instantaneous access to data you need, regardless of where you are or what you are using.  Think cars capable of instantly adjust to weather and road conditions, or locating lost pets wherever they might be.  The other example is Minority Report: doors that open automatically, lights that respond to the owner, etc.  The iPhone system Loopt is another example.  Another is eSuds, which is the usage of an online tool to tell you the status of your apartment/dorm’s washing machine (are they all in use or not).

8: Virtual Reality

Second Life is the first thought here.  SL is one thing I have never bought in to, at least in this kind of implementation.

7: E-mail is so Dead

Important messages being tagged as spam?  Certainly not a good thing.  As Mark put it, e-mail has been “hijacked by the forces of evil.”  E-mail is a killer app, but is being used for purposes it wasn’t intended. How much I totally agree with this is beyond my ability to articulate.  HTML email is a vicious, evil creature (in my humble opinion).  He’s tagged a bunch of articles on this subject on his del.icio.us.

Update ~3:44PM EDT

6: The Read/Write Web

This goes back to the idea of user generated content, the ability for people to contribute and consume without the types of HTML skills needed in the past.  Plenty of sites are examples: Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, etc.  Mark offers that “audience implies a monologue,” and we should focus on dialogs.  We shouldn’t target people as an audience, but instead as a community.

5: Information Overload

Very simple, information is increasing, tons of it are noise, and how do you filter down to the good stuff.  How do we develop information literacy?  Ambient Findability is a book Mark recommends that I have also read, and I’ll agree that it is something you should check on.  He also recommends aideRSS.com as a filter to get to good stuff.  Also Delver.

4: Redefining Time

Time is changing with regard to what people expectations for instant information are. Students don’t want to wait for things course changes, etc.  It’s very true.  We as a general culture have changing expectations as to when we expect information to change and update.  I also think about bank transactions and why it takes so long for the computers to do the math and approve transactions.  Mark uses the term “synchronicity” to refer to synchronous or asynchronous communications and why you need to distinguish between the two.  Twitter is an example, as it can be used either way.  Check out qik.com.

3: The End of Walled Gardens

Original AOL is an example, where you got just their portion of information on the World Wide Web.  The page was the core component.  That is no longer true, now that tiny portions can be used and shared, outside of an originating “page.” Another idea is how comments to articles can appear other places than at the article, like a lifestream or blog aggregator, so where is the “conversation” taking place now?  Ping.fm (which I’ve mentioned before) is an example of attacking multiple conversations at once.  You must think about your “presence,” not your site.

2: Community

First recommendation is the book The Cluetrain Manifesto.  We have a pack mentality need to connect, even though as individuals we are spreading out more and more.  Social networking should be a feature, not a destination, as Chris Anderson puts it.  Ning.com is a big one for targeting communities.  The UWebD group is at http://cuwebd.ning.com/, which is up over 900 members now.

Update ~3:59PM EDT (55% battery and about 15 minutes left to the keynote)

1: Mobile

The US is a good ways behind the world with respect to mobile, but we’re slowly catching up.  Same places are going so far as to supply people with cheap cellphones, as opposed to cheap laptops.  People are absolutely attached to their mobile devices, and the damage caused when they are cut away from things like cell phones, even if it’s temporary.  There is an idea that mobile platforms will become the seventh mass media after the Internet.  The change is similar in idea to when news became something that wasn’t limited to a movie theater, and moved to being available on a television.  Mobile also links to the idea of 24/7 availability that 3G is bringing us in a more realistic manner.  The largest challenge is form factor.

Lastly, he is discussing strategies to address these issues.  People talk about things by refering to technology, which is not the best way.  You should consider it in terms of relationships and goals.  Look into the book Groundswell.  Another good book is The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.  Concepts from this book include: be first, keep it moving, use an authentic voice, tell the truth, build a community, cede control, and believe again.  I haven’t read this, but it’s been one I’ve been meaning to, and it sounds pretty awesome from a political standpoint.

Organizations should start considering a CMO, a community management officer.  This person would would be in charge of consider how, where, and why we engage communities.  Mark follows with a recommendation for The Horizon Report.  The Singularity is Near is a Kurzweil book known to many that is also a recommended read about people and technology and the exponential growth and integration of both.  We must remain responsive to change in order to keep up and remain successful.

Okay, break time for me, time to find an outlet and prep for the next session.

Update ~5:11PM EDT (now on AC power!)

The “Put You Web Site to the Test” session is being presented by Michelle Mierzwa and Matt Dempster from Datatel.

Start with the 5 E’s: Effectiveness, Efficient, Engaging, Error Tolerant, and Easy to Learn.  Use these to guide testing in a one on one environment, with a member from your target audience (or community, as Mark might suggest), have them perform tasks you specify, and you observe, listen, and document the results.  Keep in mind, small testing is better than no testing.  Decide what you want to test and be sure that it is ready to be tested.

Hmm…this folks are talking fast and somewhat quietly.  Straining to keep up.

Continuing on: decide what you hope to learn and be specific, decide if it advances your goals, and ask other people if it matters to them.  Find a list of issues, create tasks that reflect the issue, and then produce scenarios that put the task in context.  You should produce several scenarios for a usability test, they should have tasks, but not be told how to do those tasks.  Some issues, such as whether or not a particular feature is used, do not require a scenario though – they use the example of breadcrumb trails.

The example they use for developing a scenario is:
Issue - Will users click on the links at the top of the page?
Task - Use the directories link
Scenario - You are a prospective student interested in attending this college.  You have a specific question about academic advising. You want to locate an email address for the academic – [damn, I couldn't type fast enough]

Good scenarios are short, clear, and focused on an important issue.  They should know when they have completed the scenario.  You should also have the following roles involved in a usability test: a facilitator to interact and be the face for your test while staying neutral and observing, a note-taker to document the experience and sit behind participants, and lastly participants should match the audience and be unfamiliar with your product and should vary with their levels of expertise.

[Sorry if you've had problems connecting to the blog, my host appears to have epicly failed me and can't take the relatively light increase in traffic this is bringing me. When I get back, I'm switching hosts permanently.]

Be sure to offer incentives like food or gift cards, to show that you value their time.  Get profiles on participants, a release form, scenario scripts, a notebook for notes, and the gifts for the participants.  Some general tips: take time to meet with the participants, encourage them to think out loud, and write down exact quotes from things people say, don’t confuse inferences with actual behavior, don’t take it personally, interview them after the test, ask open ended questions, change scenario order for different participants, take notes on paper, and don’t blame the participant.

Update ~5:27PM EDT

Once you’ve started collecting data, look for patterns across all your users, make specific observations, and group observations.  Be sure to determine your spread and severity.  Spread should consider how many pages and/or users the problem impacts, and severity should help set a priority with regard to addressing the issue (is this a blocker, or just something to enhance when you get time?).

[I've dumped some more photos onto the eduWeb Flickr group a few minutes ago.]

You can then create a plot that let’s you track severity vs. spread, and plan out fixing or changing issues.  It is possible to add a third metric of time to the plot as well.  Once that’s done, you can write up your report, summarizing demographics, examples of what was looked at, etc.  Specify findings, and make recommendations after all that.  So far, this is all pretty cut and dry.  Toss in some appendixes for scenarios, data/notes, and consent forms.  I’m really just wanting to get some food and head to the BlogHighEd social right now, that seems much more interesting.  By the way, if you’re reading this and on Digg, be sure you digg this post, because I’m awesome and smell really good.

Okay, I’m out.  I’ll follow up either late tonight or in the morning with strange tales of partying this evening.  Also pictures that I will try to make as good as possible for blackmail.  Also, if you want sushi, I’m getting a group together.  Meet in front of the Developer’s Lounge between 6:30 and 6:45 Tuesday night and we’ll find a place and get our rice on.  Let me know if you’re interested.