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A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet (WSJ)

This WSJ article covers how start-ups are document there experiences using Twitter.  It features a quote from TBG’s own David Murray.  The relevant section of the article is below:

Over the next few months, Mr. Callahan’s Twitter stream and blog documented, blow by blow, the start-up of a new business, with all of its victories and defeats. His experience suggests that wise use of social media could help speed the birth of many new ventures—not just those involved in social networking—if a business owner knows how to connect with the right people, learn from their conversations and weather the ups and downs that come with this new form of communication.

“Twitter is a digital handshake. It’s one of the fastest ways you can reach out to people,” says David Murray, director of social Web communications at Bivings Group, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm.

“Usability” is a word used ad-nauseum in the web development world. Since most of us spend all day navigating and constructing sites, it’s easy to assume just about anyone can be an expert in usability if they’re even half aware of what makes a good or bad site.

Smashing Magazine, however, published an interesting article Thursday on uncommon findings about usability.

The list includes some interesting psychological research results like the fact that people look at images of other people’s faces – and then whatever those faces are pointing at.

Another surprising find was, according to a Jakob Nielsen study, 77 percent of web users do not scroll when visiting a site for the first time. This makes the phrase “above the fold” as important for web designers as it is for print.

Check out the rest of the article for more tidbits and facts, such as why all your links should be blue and why users ignore your advertising.

This is a great video that throws out random facts about how the Internet and technology are changing our lives.  A couple to whet your appetite:

• The average America teen sends out 2,272 text messages each month.
• There are 240,000,000 televisions in the United States.  2,000,000 of those are in bathrooms.
• 40,000,000 people have been Rick rolled.

As social networking sites and technologies have flourished over the last few years, there has been much discussion about privacy today.  It is not that uncommon for people to provide updates about their personal lives on their Facebook accounts or Twitter feeds.  They talk about if they are sick, have a crush on somebody, are out partying, etc.

While this information sharing is innocuous at times while concerning at others, there are some social networks that are pushing the limits.  For instance, while at the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit last week, I learned about the site PatientsLikeMe.  This is a fascinating site in which people with medical conditions come to connect with other people suffering from the same condition.  However, there is so much more than providing moral support and answering questions, people are expected to build detailed profiles about their bodies and health histories.  When they undergo treatment, they are encourage to share their experiences to it.  Does it give them gas?  Do they get headaches?  Is their sex life affected?  Of course, does the treatment actually work?

Now, it is one thing for me to announce on Facebook that I’m going to have Papa John’s Pizza for dinner tonight, but it is another to share personal side effects of a medication that I’m currently taking.  PatientsLikeMe does acknowledge privacy, but expounds upon the importance of openness on the site by stating: “You see, we believe sharing your healthcare experiences and outcomes is good…for a greater purpose: speeding up the pace of research and fixing a broken healthcare system.”  By sharing detailed health information about yourself, you help others understand how medical conditions and the procedures used to treat them work.

So, do you think that openly sharing your health information on the Internet is worth the potential it can to help others with their health?

“…the news industry doesn’t suffer from a shortage of ideas or possible revenue models, it suffers from a different but more acute malady: being an institution during a time of disruptive change.”  Stop Giving the Newspapers Your Advice – They Don’t Need It

Associate, Client Services Division

We are hiring a project manager in our Client Services division to help us manage the web programs of some of our clients.  We’re looking for someone who has a passion for the web and social media, knowledge of Drupal/Wordpress and two years of relevant job experience.  You can apply via our job listing on Craigslist.

It is day two of the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit, and I had an interesting conversation at lunch with a person who works in a well known US federal agency.  I’m not going to share this person’s name or agency since I don’t want this person to get unwanted attention.

This person follows the the following maxim when it comes to new experiments: “It is sometimes easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.”  This is in reference to how this person set up a Facebook page for their particular department.  Further, he/she also follows retweets about how members of the public react to interacting with the agency.  If they find someone who has a question, the agency provides an answer via twitter.

I was surprised that this person seems to enjoy a degree of freedom that I did not expect one could have in the bureaucratic federal government.  This person mentioned that while he/she and his/her boss are “uncomfortable” for a week or two after starting something like a department Facebook page without permission, they have been vindicated.  Of course, that’s if what they do succeeds; they would be in trouble if something they do fails.

I applaud this person’s initiative and willingness to trail blaze.  Of course, I understand that there is judgment required when trying new strategies out.  It is one thing to send someone to a useful webpage via twitter than it is to divulge sensitive information over a non-government network.  Further, I understand the comfort and protection of waiting to get permission before experimenting, but nonetheless I wish this person success.  Hopefully, he/she will help inspire federal agencies to use social media more to serve the public better.

I attended the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Summit today and enjoyed listening to many of the insightful speakers.  One of them was Clay Shirky; who is popular on the tech conference circuit.

He talked about how organizations have tried to harness their community members to use the data and services that they provide turning them to them to the public to develop applications and new uses for their services.  Shirky cited Apps for Democracy as a success story in this area; over four dozen applications have been developed to harness government data.  On the other hand, the Los Angeles Times tried to invite its readers to help write editorials through a wiki; this was a failure since the space was used to post information that was either not useful or vulgar (ie links to porn).

Shirky argues that when organizations invite others to participate in their work, they need to have a “social contract” that is complete enough to provide a purpose for the applications and new uses but not complete enough that it stymies participants from coming up with new ideas that the organization that did not think of.  Further, by limiting creativity, this chips away from the participants’ motivation to work.  According to Shirky, the Apps for Democracy contract was sufficient, and the LA Times contract was too complete.  The newspaper already had an idea of what its users would produce, and it was embarrassed that the experiment didn’t turn out well after advertising it.

Shirky said that organizations that undertake such initiatives need to keep three things in mind:

1. Expect surprises; allow and trust people to be creative
2. Don’t take credit or advertise the initiative until the results are understood
3. Allow people to use their own motivations