Feb. 6, 2008
You, SME, and everyone you know
IT World Canada
Shane Schick writes about the problem with paper-based directories.
“At my previous employer we tried to take a paper-based directory we published once a year and turn it into an online platform. We imagined happy contributors logging in and updating their profiles in real time, kind of like the way celebrities and politicians have publicists to edit their Wikipedia entries. It didn’t happen, and not just because the interface was lousy. (And boy, was it lousy.) People were lazy, they didn’t understand the limitations of the system, and we didn’t have adequate staff to address the support issues.”
Ballmer’s secret plan to inseminate world with Vista
Valleywag
Nicholas Carlson writes that when Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO admitted Windows Vista needs to be marketed better, the circus performers he hired for the event seemed to be a metaphor to symbolize a new “birth” of Vista.
“Ballmer and Co. hired circus performers to dress as sperm, wriggling their way into a giant blue egg, which could stand for the earth — the world of IT. At least, that’s what this photo (on Valleywag’s Web site), taken by CNET’s Caroline McCarthy during the event in which Ballmer revealed his plans seems to convey.”
The problem with social networks: when worlds collide
Techdirt
Mike Masnick writes about the overlap with more and more social networks now that so many people are signing up for them.
“Most social networks effectively treat every one of your friends the same. There may be some slight levels of differences, but there’s still a lot of overlap. And that’s troublesome when your college buddies know you as one sort of person and your work colleagues know you as someone else. it actually may cause some people to stop using the social networks as much and to pull back from sharing certain bits of information that made the various systems fun in the first place.”