Like I mentioned, .eduGuru is sucking up a lot of my writing time right now. So, for those of you missing out, here’s some of the stuff I’ve thrown down the pipes over there. I usually manage a post a week, with several ideas currently in the works. So much writing, so little time…
The web design world let out a collective cry yesterday. To some, it was a squeal of delight. To others, it was a groan of despair. At issue was Google’s new brainchild (and latest step towards WORLD DOMINATION), Chrome. If you have been hiding in a hole since Labor Day, Chrome is Google’s attempt to enter the web browser market by dropping a “lightweight,” WebKit based browser designed to function more efficiently in an increasingly modern web environment (while at the same time trying to drag us kicking and screaming back into the browser wars that defined the late 90s). They made a bit of a goof in their release cycle, and let the cat out of the bag a bit early the other day (it could have just as easily been planned to stir the pot for the couple days leading up to the Beta release on the 2nd). Like many things Google related, the idea is quite idealistic, and has a ton of potential. But just the same, new browsers always pose a number of issues.
Those of you who have kept up with some of Microsoft’s new toys (or who read my Twitter), have undoubtedly heard of a new little Seadragon based photo interface they have been working on in conjunction with the University of Washington called Photosynth. This new spatial photo organization system sent the tech word abuzz when news, video, and a tech demo began passing back and forth across sites like Digg and Slashdot.
It was brought to my attention the other day that there are some concerns about e-mail addresses published on our college’s web site and the effect it has on spam. It turns out the filters here run through about 10,000,000 emails a day, about 7% of which are passed on as being actual, legitimate messages. We are not a huge campus, but I’m going to guess that many of you would see a similar ratio. Naturally, this has brought up conversation of obfuscating e-mail addresses. We’ll set aside the “closing the gate after the horse got out” metaphor for now, because techniques can always help prevent spam from hitting new addresses, so at least that way we can lighten the load for our new users.
The morning Flickr update is done. I was quite disappointed, no sooner had I gotten to the Boardwalk last night and my batteries went and died on me, so I ended up missing a lot of good shots. Hunting down sushi was an interesting challenge, but by god, not only did we find it, we managed to put together a crew of about 22 people. Yeah, they totally hated us. Hopefully everyone else tipped well (because I sure didn’t… no, I kid, I did). I’m sorry to report it actually wasn’t that great, which is too bad. That was, however, the best group I’ve managed to get together. So, what’s everyone doing at HighEdWeb in Springfield? Heh.
The morning is starting as a painful one. Stupid soft beds. I’m getting rolling at Sarah Stanek’s presentation on effective web site management. Didn’t hit topic tables this morning. I’m gonna follow here as best I can, had to jump in a couple minutes late due to a last minute need for a jacket in the room. We’re talking about turning skills as web users into skills for web authors. A person might not know how to create what they want, but they know what they want to see, so we should give them the tools to do that.
Four steps of web writing: 40% organizing, 30% setting goals, 20% writing, 10% building. Did you know 67% of all statistics are made up on the spot? It’s true. We’re back to a lot of basics: web users scan, not read, reuse content when possible, proofread. More stats: web site creation is 80% organization and 20% composition. What happened to 40/20? Write, test, and revise navigation. I’m getting that feeling of “too basic” again. I think it’s time for conferences to have an “advanced concepts” track.
“Ideal links are 7-12 words in length.” That seems like a really unusual statement. While you see this with blogs where the title is a link, general contextual links will never be that long, and making them that long is kinda crazyish. She’s also throwing out the idea that we should use words, not URIs. Good concept, unless you want URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) recognition so people can go straight back without navigating clear through your site. That’s a bit nitpicky though, because I understand why you should use words instead of URIs.
Hierarchy of web content: links and navigation, calls to action, support documentation, site home page, ande everything else. It is clear, relevant, short, relatable, easy to scan, and authentic. You know, I really thought this was going to be about managing a web site, not about an introduction to creating and organizing content. I was sorta thinking how you manage resources, work with other teams, control and drive development, etc. Oh well. Sorry, I’m cranky this morning, and still waiting on the Aleve to kick in. Updates to follow…
Update ~9:29AM EDT
Nearing the end of the first session, and covering more writing tips. It does make me glad that I don’t have to write, for the university at least. Now, I do like the idea she presents to create a fake departmental site, full of bad writing and mistakes to use as an example and to train people to find and fix things. It allows you to train consistently and to avoid calling anyone out as an example. And to paraphrase: never underestimate the stupidity of your users.
Update ~10:21AM EDT
I’m taking a gamble in the session on e-mail in the new media landscape. One, because I’m not terribly interested, and two, because it’s a vendor presentation. But if I go take a nap, I might just sleep away the rest of the morning. And afternoon. The vendor is Greg Cangialosi from Blue Sky Factory. These guys are in the email business, so you can bet they’re going to be pushing the importance of email. Let me be clear, I like email, I think it has its place, but I also think there are things that it isn’t good at and wasn’t meant for. I also think it’s time for marketing to find a new medium, as email’s spam saturation level is so high that I think the effectiveness of it is in peril. Plus, I’m not a proponent of HTML email. I know some folks that will disagree with me, and can throw numbers to the contrary, and I admit it is a personal thing. It made fun of my mom when I was a kid and I still hold a grudge.
He says “Email is THE dominant app.” I cannot argue with that. It’s sorta like how Ali was the heavyweight champ, or VHS was the video format of choice. Stat: ROI is ~$48 for every $1 spent on email. Did you know 28% of all statistics are made up on the spot? It’s true. I would like to see some methodology on those numbers actually.
Switching gears to RSS. Discussing how prevalent it has become, and how it’s being woven into the fiber of the web. But the thinking is RSS can’t replace e-mail, which I’d agree with. But I also don’t think it ever could have. He states that e-mail is the currency used by all the accounts that you have, everywhere you go, every service you use, e-mail is the common thread through them all.
Greg presents the following “five gems” to capture data and build returns: incorporate social media (capture them every opportunity you get), optimize for mobile devices (positive brand experience), triggered and nuture e-mail (keep your brand in their mind = mindshare), permission is paramount (tell them what to expect), and lastly, don’t forget the parents (keep the decision makers in the loop).
Update ~10:35AM EDT
Example of nuturing email: 52 tips in 52 weeks. Nice, because it also suggests a “contract” that you’ll get an email a week, no more, no less. Some things you can control and test: from line, subject line, copy, imagery, call to action, and a landing page. “Email is the digital glue of it all.” I can see that thinking.
Greg’s blog is www.thetrendjunkie.com. He’s also on Twitter, @gregcangialosi.
Update ~11:33AM EDT
OKay, got my bag into the hands of the busboy (busman?) for the next couple hours. Managed to get checked out before the biggest part of the eduWeb rush I think (it’s currently pretty empty in here). I can’t wait to get away from the stale 30 year old cigarette smell of this place. For the record, the eduStyle award winners from yesterday’s lunch have been posted: http://www.edustyle.net/awards/winners.php. I plan on seeing us on that list next year. We just weren’t fast enough with the redesign to get in the running this year. But that’ll give us a solid year to smooth things out. Fear us.
Waiting for “How to Embed Video on Your Website” presented by Lance Merker of OmniUpdate. Another vendor presentation on a subject not of a ton of value to me. I’m hoping he covers some stuff like codecs and bitrates. The last session like this I sat in on was just on recording and very basic editing, not at all what I wanted. Our CMS (Content Management System) (dotCMS) is already set up to handle, embed, and display video just fine, but I always like tweaking settings to try and get clearer, more high quality FLVs.
Okay, the first photo was pretty funny. Tried to get a photo of it, but he went to fast. The concept is that video should be used to address the “short attention span theater.” They are “information snackers.” People viewed 11.5 billion videos in the month of March.
Videos on campus are good for campus tours, visual FAQs (neat idea, expanding on the screencasting concept), blog content, student perspectives, serial programming. I wonder if anyone has thought to engage their broadcasting depart to put together a “TV show” that is ran only on the web, a la Dr. Horrible.
Hooray! Containers and codecs and players, oh my! Finally someone seems to be getting to the good stuff. Talking about YouTube as a potential, but not terribly effective solution. It’s easy, but not ideal, and you end up with a branded, identifiable container that you have little control over. Flash video is the ideal solution. I think that’s a generally agreed upon medium at this point.
Talking transcoding to get to FLV now. He’s recommending www.transcodeit.com to use cloud resources to get any common video format to flash. No mention of bitrate or size controls though. He’s doing a demo now, and it looks like there are no controls for such things. I’ll mention Riva Encoder as well as a free FLV encoder. I’ve found it to be pretty fast and decent. Answering my question, he corrects my previous comment and says there are controls for bitrate, etc, we just need to wait until the upload of the sample video finishes on our brutal wifi here.
Update ~11:49AM EDT
Transcode-It actually doesn’t look too shabby for a free, online transcoding service. It even has FTP (File Transfer Protocol) controls to automatically upload the transcoded video straight to your web site. Interesting… Transcode-It apparently supplies code specific to OmniUpdate users as well. They must be affiliated. And now that I look at it, the Transcode-It site footer clearly states an OmniUpdate copyright. So, just be aware. Still looks like a good service, and you don’t have to use OmniUpdate to use it.
Also talking about captioning too. He recommends MAGpie.
Update ~12:50PM EDT
Keynote! We’re almost done! The closing keynote is being presented by Karine Joly, and is called “It’s the Community, Stupid!“ The concept is raising and nurturing online communities. Unrelated: Heidi Cool got her presentation on blogging from yesterday posted.
So far, everyone seems pretty excited for this. Hopes are high, emotions are on edge. Karine runs collegewebeditor.com. She definitely puts togther a nice slide. That’s something I definitely think separates the good speakers from the less than good. Making a note of that to myself. She brings up a point I mention occasionaly, that people are starting to suffer from communication overload. I think this is the big failing point of the social web, that there’s just too much right now. It’s hard to determine what is most important. Ultimately there is no way to catch up and keep up.
We are in the relationship building business. It’s easy to get lost in our information silo, and fail on connecting to certain audiences and targets. Conversations build relationships, and the community is central to our job. We can’t have conversations or relationships without a community. She mentions the Groundswell book I linked the other day in Mark’s keynote. I must make it a point to get that now, since it showed up in both keynotes. “Community is about people’s need to connect, not your need to control.”
Karine’s 7 step plan for community building:
Community members are the stakeholders, and never forget that they know more than you do. Eww, now we’re treated to Brad’s ugly mug on the projector. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. But, good point on the random incentive to get students blogging. Dammit Brad, stop making points I need to mention. Karine’s showcasing a Ning group. I keep coming back to this wondering if there’s a use for it with us. I’m just not totally keen on relying on a free third party for something like that yet.
Update ~12:59PM EDT
And that’s that ladies and gentlemen. I have a bag to go grab, and shuttles and planes to catch. Hopefully it all goes as planned. I’m taking tomorrow off, and will upload some more photos and maybe some finals thoughts then. Good meeting those of you that I got to, look forward to seeing some of you at HighEdWeb. Travel safe, those that are traveling, see you in the Twitterverse.
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