"I love winning. I love the fans, but the bottom line is that I still love the game" 2009, July 26, Quotes of the week. The Straits Times, p.30. This quote has all the 3 parts that I always assign to a job: Dedication to work (skills & knowledge) Dedication to clients (service & attitude) Dedication to profession (giving back, adding to the body of knowledge)

Introduction to metadata Tony Gill, Anne J. Gilliland, Maureen Whalen, and Mary S. Woodley Edited by Murtha Baca An online publication devoted to metadata, its types and uses, and how it can improve access to digital resources. I was about to purchase this book when I stumbled upon this online version (free of course). Here is the TOC Introduction Setting the Stage Metadata and the Web Crosswalks, Metadata Harvesting, Federated Searching, Metasearching Rights Metadata Made Simple Practical Principles for Metadata Creation and Maintenance

Nice collection of accessibility and web development tools. "Ever wonder how usable your site appears to someone with a disability, slower connection, or different setup? This list of tools highlights some of the most useful tools and extensions for making your website more usable."

A very useful article by Jakob Nielsen. His main point in this article is that we need to be wary of how we present usability activities like card sorting to users. If we are not careful, we may be priming them towards an option rather than allowing them to think through the different options. Jakob Nielsen explains his theory by way of an card-sorting exercise. Go ahead and read it.

The ASIS&T Bulletin current issue is on information architecture. There are a number of articles including one by Colleen Jones on The Debut of Usable, Influential Content and another by Christian Crumlish on The Information Architecture of Social Experience Design.

McKinsey Quarterly reports on survey done in June 09 to understand the impact of Web 2.0 inside companies. You’ll have to register (free) to read the entire report. Here are some quotes. "Regardless of industry, executives at companies that use more Web 2.0 technologies also report greater benefits. Comparing respondents’ industries, those at high-technology companies are most likely to report measurable benefits from Web 2.0 across the board, followed by those at companies offering business, legal, and professional services." "Web 2.0 delivers benefits by multiplying the opportunities for collaboration and by allowing knowledge to spread more effectively. These benefits can accrue through companies’ use of automatic information feeds such as RSS2 or microblogs, of which Twitter is the most popular manifestation. Although many companies use a mix of tools, the survey shows that among all respondents deriving benefits, the more heavily used technologies are blogs, wikis, and podcasts—the same tools that are popular among consumers." "Many companies experiment with Web 2.0 technologies, but creating an environment with a critical mass of committed users is more difficult. The survey results confirm that successful adoption requires that the use of these tools be integrated into the flow of users’ work."

Converge Magazine reports on some 3D learning modules used by the Kentucky Community & Technical College System. "But through computers and projectors, 3-D technology allows users to see a person, place or thing as it would appear in real life. This opens the door to a virtual world of possibilities in the classroom, where students can learn about science anatomy, geography, architecture and astronomy by interacting with the content rather than reading about it in a textbook."

Tim O’Reilly writes a short but direct piece on what Gov 2.0 should really focus on. "A lot of people equate the term with government use of social media, either to solicit public participation or to get out its message in new ways. Some people think it means making government more transparent. Some people think it means adding AJAX to government websites, or replacing those websites with government APIs, or building new cloud platforms for shared government services…" "... government agencies shouldn’t just provide web sites, they should provide web services. These services, in effect, become the government’s SDK (software development kit). The government may build some applications using these APIs, but there’s an opportunity for private citizens and innovative companies to build new, unexpected applications."

The Rockley Group has published DITA 101, a guide for authors and managers to understand and use DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). I’m reading it now and so far its been simple and easy to understand. "DITA 101 is designed for authors and managers. We’ve taken our years’ of experience helping organizations to move to DITA and training our clients in creating DITA content and distilled it into an easy to read and understand format. Combined with our expertise in developing effective reuse strategies and adopting content management, this book covers everything you need to know to understand DITA from an authors or managers viewpoint."

Content strategy is really picking up steam. InfoDesign links to 2 articles on this emerging discipline. Content Strategy SIG Content Strategy for the Web Professional I just finished reading Kristina Halvorson’s book, Content Strategy for the Web, which I think should be a must-read for designers. She makes a very good case for content strategy but does not build enough of a case to sell the discipline to the likes of busy managers and the IT department. The case for content lifecycle management will be a tough idea to get across to these folks. This nevertheless must be done. We designers should just be persistent about it.