While browsing YouTube diligently working, I stumbled upon a video showing how to open a banana like a monkey. I like bananas, and who doesn't like monkeys, so I gave it a watch. Turns out, I've been opening bananas the wrong way my entire life.
Basically, for those of you who haven't seen it, it shows how a typical person opens a banana using the stem. As we all know sometimes this method works just fine and sometimes the stem is tough and we have to struggle a bit to peel it, smashing the top of our banana in the meantime.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Microsoft made great leaps forward with IE8, and just when I start thinking they deserve a nice pat on the back for embracing standards, they give me another reason to lose faith in them.
The recent announcement is that Outlook 2010, like Outlook 2007, will use Microsoft Word for it's rendering engine. No...you read that right...Word's rendering engine. A rendering engine that doesn't support simple CSS statements like float, width or height.
The recent announcement is that Outlook 2010, like Outlook 2007, will use Microsoft Word for it's rendering engine. No...you read that right...Word's rendering engine. A rendering engine that doesn't support simple CSS statements like float, width or height.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Developing Smarter with Progressive Enhancement
Progressive enhancement is not only a smart idea, but it's the right idea for anyone looking to produce cost-effective websites. It is alright if your site doesn't look exactly the same in every browser. In fact, because of factors like font rendering, it's impossible to maintain the exact same appearance across all browsers. Getting clients to accept that fact is important because it can save them both time and money (not to mention save you a few headaches).
Let's take an example. Let's say that our client, Great Sprockets Inc., wants a design with a few rounded corners and semi-transparent backgrounds sprinkled in. We decide not to use progressive enhancement. Everybody should get these rounded corners and semi-transparent backgrounds.
So, we oblige. We create some 24-bit PNGs for the backgrounds. IE6 doesn't support PNG24 transparency natively, so we add in a call to a script to fix that. We create a few images for the rounded corners, add a couple of extra element to our markup to position them, and we're good to go.
Now our other client, Even Greater Sprockets Inc., also wants rounded corners and semi-transparent backgrounds. However, recognizing that neither is important to the actual branding of the site, they agree to practice a bit of progressive enhancement.
So, using two lines of CSS, we give rounded corners to all Firefox and Webkit-based browsers. Again, using CSS, we use RGBa to create semi-transparent backgrounds in the browsers that support them, and let others fall back to a fully opaque background color. And that's it. No images, no extra Javascript calls, and no extra elements in our markup.
One client has ensured that every visitor to their site with a relatively modern browser, regardless of browser capabilities, gets rounded corners and semi-transparent backgrounds. As a result, they added time to the development of their site, and therefore money to their bill. In addition, they've increased the time it takes for their page to load by adding a few extra HTTP requests necessary to load the necessary images and scripts.
The other client has offered these embellishments only to browsers that support them natively. As a result, their development time is lower, and so is their bill and page load time. Their branding is still in tact, and their site still looks good, it's just without a few added aesthetic touches.
Which option makes more sense to you?
Let's take an example. Let's say that our client, Great Sprockets Inc., wants a design with a few rounded corners and semi-transparent backgrounds sprinkled in. We decide not to use progressive enhancement. Everybody should get these rounded corners and semi-transparent backgrounds.
So, we oblige. We create some 24-bit PNGs for the backgrounds. IE6 doesn't support PNG24 transparency natively, so we add in a call to a script to fix that. We create a few images for the rounded corners, add a couple of extra element to our markup to position them, and we're good to go.
Now our other client, Even Greater Sprockets Inc., also wants rounded corners and semi-transparent backgrounds. However, recognizing that neither is important to the actual branding of the site, they agree to practice a bit of progressive enhancement.
So, using two lines of CSS, we give rounded corners to all Firefox and Webkit-based browsers. Again, using CSS, we use RGBa to create semi-transparent backgrounds in the browsers that support them, and let others fall back to a fully opaque background color. And that's it. No images, no extra Javascript calls, and no extra elements in our markup.
One client has ensured that every visitor to their site with a relatively modern browser, regardless of browser capabilities, gets rounded corners and semi-transparent backgrounds. As a result, they added time to the development of their site, and therefore money to their bill. In addition, they've increased the time it takes for their page to load by adding a few extra HTTP requests necessary to load the necessary images and scripts.
The other client has offered these embellishments only to browsers that support them natively. As a result, their development time is lower, and so is their bill and page load time. Their branding is still in tact, and their site still looks good, it's just without a few added aesthetic touches.
Which option makes more sense to you?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
A Big Day for Microformats
Today was a big day for Microformats - very big. First, they announced that the new value-class-pattern is ready for implementation. The value-class-pattern is a great step forward, as it provides needed accessiblity improvements, and in my opinion, gives the developer a bit more flexibility over how to structure their markup.
That was a pretty big announcement in its own right, and I was very pleased to see the new pattern approved and garnering a bit of buzz. That announcement, however, was trumped by Google announcing that they will be starting to index Microformats and RDFa and using that data to enrich their search results.
Microformats has been around since 2003, but the adoption has been a bit sluggish. While overall quite easy to implement, it can been difficult to demonstrate the value of using Microformats at times due to a lack of major support, and therefore, major incentive. That shouldn't be a problem anymore, because Google is definitely providing that major incentive.
Google has a good vision for how to make use of the harvested data in their results. They'll be providing these "rich snippets", as they're calling them, to provide both additional content and meaning about the pages in their search results. For example, a page featuring reviews will feature the average star rating, and number of reviews the page contains, right there in the search results.
In addition to reviews, this initial launch will also provide "rich snippets" for people. Using contact information parsed from sites like LinkedIn, for example, search results may indicate a person's job title and location, to help users determine if the results they are looking at are likely to be associated with the person they're looking for.
On top of that, Google plans for to use these Microformats to allow users to be a bit more specific with their searches. An example given was that a user could search for all reviews on a printer where the average rating was over 3 stars. This allows users to tailor the content they receive by the context in which they are interested.
Not only does this new feature enhance the user experience, but the use of Microformats and RDFa data should also provide signifcant value for sites smart enough to markup their content using them. According to studies done by Yahoo on similar enhancements to search results, they found these kinds of improvements resulted in a significant improvement in click-through rates, in some cases up to a 15% increase.
There's been lots of great coverage on Google's announcement, and I highly encourage you to have a look at some of the insights offered in the posts below:
In addition, if you haven't explored Microformats, I encourage you to do so now. With Google starting to index Microformats, and in turn leverage the harvested data to enhance search results, whether or not Microformats are valuable is no longer debatable.
That was a pretty big announcement in its own right, and I was very pleased to see the new pattern approved and garnering a bit of buzz. That announcement, however, was trumped by Google announcing that they will be starting to index Microformats and RDFa and using that data to enrich their search results.
Microformats has been around since 2003, but the adoption has been a bit sluggish. While overall quite easy to implement, it can been difficult to demonstrate the value of using Microformats at times due to a lack of major support, and therefore, major incentive. That shouldn't be a problem anymore, because Google is definitely providing that major incentive.
How They'll Be Used
Google has a good vision for how to make use of the harvested data in their results. They'll be providing these "rich snippets", as they're calling them, to provide both additional content and meaning about the pages in their search results. For example, a page featuring reviews will feature the average star rating, and number of reviews the page contains, right there in the search results.
In addition to reviews, this initial launch will also provide "rich snippets" for people. Using contact information parsed from sites like LinkedIn, for example, search results may indicate a person's job title and location, to help users determine if the results they are looking at are likely to be associated with the person they're looking for.
On top of that, Google plans for to use these Microformats to allow users to be a bit more specific with their searches. An example given was that a user could search for all reviews on a printer where the average rating was over 3 stars. This allows users to tailor the content they receive by the context in which they are interested.
Not only does this new feature enhance the user experience, but the use of Microformats and RDFa data should also provide signifcant value for sites smart enough to markup their content using them. According to studies done by Yahoo on similar enhancements to search results, they found these kinds of improvements resulted in a significant improvement in click-through rates, in some cases up to a 15% increase.
More Coverage
There's been lots of great coverage on Google's announcement, and I highly encourage you to have a look at some of the insights offered in the posts below:
- Introducing Rich Snippets
- Google Announces Support for Microformats and RDFa
- Google Engineering Explains Microformat Support in Searches (Interview)
- Google Search Now Supports Microformats and Adds "Rich Snippets" to Search Results
In addition, if you haven't explored Microformats, I encourage you to do so now. With Google starting to index Microformats, and in turn leverage the harvested data to enhance search results, whether or not Microformats are valuable is no longer debatable.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Building a Stronger DOM
In Nate Koechley's excellent talk on Frontend Engineering, he talks about the importance of building a "stronger DOM". By marking up your site with meaningful elements and attributes, you give your markup more value and provide a richer experience for both users and machines.
In addition, a strong DOM provides you with numerous attributes and elements that you can make use of to style the content to your hearts desire. This gives you much more power and control with your CSS, and helps to greatly decrease your usage of extraneous divs and classes
A very quick way to improve your markup skills, and therefore the value of your content, is to expand your knowledge of HTML elements, and start making use of a few you might not have been aware of.
The fieldset element is used to group related controls and labels within a form. They are a great way to help make your form easier to understand, and more accessible for speech-navigated user agents.
It should be used in conjunction with the legend element to provide an even richer and more usable experience. The legend element basically defines a caption for the fieldset. Here's an example of how you could use these elements in your markup:
An often forgot element that you can start using immediately in your text is the q element. The q element is very similar to the blockquote element, but should be used in a different context. The blockquote element is meant to be used for longer, block-level quotes. The q element, on the other hand should be used for short quotes.
All major browsers, other than IE6 and IE7, will automatically insert quotation marks around the content within the q element, according to the HTML spec. There's a few ways to work around this, but my favorite solution is the one proposed by Stacy Cordoni in an A List Apart article from 2006. Her solution is to remove the quotes from around the q element using the :before and :after pseudo-classes to even the playing field. Then, with each of the major browsers not rendering quotes, you can insert them directly into your markup, ensuring that all browsers render your quote the same.
The cite element is used to identify a reference or citation to another source, like a book or another website. By default, each of the major browsers render the cite element in italics. Making use of our q element example, adding the cite element would give us something like this:
The dfn element is used to markup the defining instance of a word or phrase. It's important to note that it is not intended to markup the actual definition itself, but instead the word or phrase being defined. Most major browsers will render the content within the dfn element in italics, though of course you can alter that as you wish with CSS.
and
Here's one for anyone who writes any sort of articles online. You can use the ins and del elements to identify content that has been either inserted or deleted since the content's publication. The ins element, by default, is underlined, and the del element, by default, is striked through.
The address element is slightly misleading. One would think you would use it to mark up a physical address, but that's not necessarily the case. The address element is actually intended to contain the contact point for the document containing it. While this certainly could contain a physical address, it doesn't have to. It could house any sort of contact information provided that it is contact information for the author and/or owner of the document in question.
For example, I could use the address element to provide my contact information since I am the owner of this article, like so:
By default, the address element is rendered in italics in each of the major browsers.
If you're interested, I put up a page with examples of each of the elements above. I did not apply any CSS, so you can see how each element is rendered by default in different browsers.
In addition, a strong DOM provides you with numerous attributes and elements that you can make use of to style the content to your hearts desire. This gives you much more power and control with your CSS, and helps to greatly decrease your usage of extraneous divs and classes
A very quick way to improve your markup skills, and therefore the value of your content, is to expand your knowledge of HTML elements, and start making use of a few you might not have been aware of.
The fieldset element is used to group related controls and labels within a form. They are a great way to help make your form easier to understand, and more accessible for speech-navigated user agents.
It should be used in conjunction with the legend element to provide an even richer and more usable experience. The legend element basically defines a caption for the fieldset. Here's an example of how you could use these elements in your markup:
- Team Captain
- Player #2
An often forgot element that you can start using immediately in your text is the q element. The q element is very similar to the blockquote element, but should be used in a different context. The blockquote element is meant to be used for longer, block-level quotes. The q element, on the other hand should be used for short quotes.
All major browsers, other than IE6 and IE7, will automatically insert quotation marks around the content within the q element, according to the HTML spec. There's a few ways to work around this, but my favorite solution is the one proposed by Stacy Cordoni in an A List Apart article from 2006. Her solution is to remove the quotes from around the q element using the :before and :after pseudo-classes to even the playing field. Then, with each of the major browsers not rendering quotes, you can insert them directly into your markup, ensuring that all browsers render your quote the same.
- "
Remember that drover, the one I shot in the mouth so's the teeth come out the back of his head?
", asked Munny.
The cite element is used to identify a reference or citation to another source, like a book or another website. By default, each of the major browsers render the cite element in italics. Making use of our q element example, adding the cite element would give us something like this:
- "
Remember that drover, the one I shot in the mouth so's the teeth come out the back of his head?
", asked Munny.
The dfn element is used to markup the defining instance of a word or phrase. It's important to note that it is not intended to markup the actual definition itself, but instead the word or phrase being defined. Most major browsers will render the content within the dfn element in italics, though of course you can alter that as you wish with CSS.
- The dfn element is used to markup the defining instance of a word or phrase.
and
Here's one for anyone who writes any sort of articles online. You can use the ins and del elements to identify content that has been either inserted or deleted since the content's publication. The ins element, by default, is underlined, and the del element, by default, is striked through.
- SXSW's parties are a great time to
booze it up withmingle with fellow developers.
The address element is slightly misleading. One would think you would use it to mark up a physical address, but that's not necessarily the case. The address element is actually intended to contain the contact point for the document containing it. While this certainly could contain a physical address, it doesn't have to. It could house any sort of contact information provided that it is contact information for the author and/or owner of the document in question.
For example, I could use the address element to provide my contact information since I am the owner of this article, like so:
By default, the address element is rendered in italics in each of the major browsers.
See For Yourself
If you're interested, I put up a page with examples of each of the elements above. I did not apply any CSS, so you can see how each element is rendered by default in different browsers.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ideas and Alibis
Ideas and alibis are very much alike. Everyone has plenty of both. Some are good, and some are bad. The big difference is that while no one has a problem using alibis, very few are willing to consistently act on their ideas (me included).
There are several reasons why people tend to pass on acting on their own ideas. Some of the major ones are fear of criticism, fear of failure, self-doubt, or the feeling that there is not enough time. Based on these reasons, we can come up with a multitude of alibis for not pursuing these ideas.
One that I commonly use is that the "time is not right". I often tell myself that I should wait on acting on my ideas until sometime where the circumstances are better aligned for it. Sometime in the future when I have more of the knowledge necessary or where I have more time available to me; that's when I'll move forward on my ideas.
The fact though, is that postponing ideas quickly becomes a habit. The truth is, there will always be more research that could be done, and there will always be distractions that make us feel like we don't have the time to act. Acting on an idea will always expose yourself to criticism, and there is always the chance that the idea will not be perceived as a success. If we keep waiting until the circumstances are "just right", we'll be putting that idea in a perpetual holding state, until either we decide not to act on it at all, or someone else has already beaten us to it.
At least by acting on those ideas, we make them count for something. They may not be met with an extraordinary amount of success, and occasionally they may even be met with flat out failure (though I believe that if you really go after your idea with vigor, true failure will occur very infrequently). For each non-successful idea you have and pursue, that is one more lesson you've learned and one more step you've taken towards making your next idea meet with greater success.
The conclusion then, is that ideas were meant to be pursued, not postponed. Quit coming up with excuses and start moving forward on those ideas and goals that you've been putting off. If you never try any of them, it is a certainty that none of them will work out. By pursuing them, at least you give them the chance.
Excuses, Excuses
There are several reasons why people tend to pass on acting on their own ideas. Some of the major ones are fear of criticism, fear of failure, self-doubt, or the feeling that there is not enough time. Based on these reasons, we can come up with a multitude of alibis for not pursuing these ideas.
One that I commonly use is that the "time is not right". I often tell myself that I should wait on acting on my ideas until sometime where the circumstances are better aligned for it. Sometime in the future when I have more of the knowledge necessary or where I have more time available to me; that's when I'll move forward on my ideas.
The fact though, is that postponing ideas quickly becomes a habit. The truth is, there will always be more research that could be done, and there will always be distractions that make us feel like we don't have the time to act. Acting on an idea will always expose yourself to criticism, and there is always the chance that the idea will not be perceived as a success. If we keep waiting until the circumstances are "just right", we'll be putting that idea in a perpetual holding state, until either we decide not to act on it at all, or someone else has already beaten us to it.
Make Your Ideas Count
At least by acting on those ideas, we make them count for something. They may not be met with an extraordinary amount of success, and occasionally they may even be met with flat out failure (though I believe that if you really go after your idea with vigor, true failure will occur very infrequently). For each non-successful idea you have and pursue, that is one more lesson you've learned and one more step you've taken towards making your next idea meet with greater success.
The conclusion then, is that ideas were meant to be pursued, not postponed. Quit coming up with excuses and start moving forward on those ideas and goals that you've been putting off. If you never try any of them, it is a certainty that none of them will work out. By pursuing them, at least you give them the chance.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Book Review: Object-Oriented Javascript
Who Wrote It?
Object-Oriented Javascript is written by Stoyan Stefanov, a web developer at Yahoo. Stoyan's thoughts on all things web can be found at phpied.com. He also runs a blog on iPhone development, and a site dedicated to Javascript design patterns at JSPatterns.com (it's been quiet for quite awhile now, but I'm hoping to see it brought out of retirement).
What's Covered?
Exactly what you'd expect given the title....object-oriented Javascript! Actually, the book covers a lot of information, starting with the basics (variables, loops, functions, etc.) all the way through to a few basic, albeit useful, design patterns.
The book is very well written and its discussions precise. Stoyan doesn't take a lot of time going through complex examples. Instead, he gives bite-size chunks for you to play with and expand upon. If you're someone who prefers playing with concepts yourself over going through expanded examples in books, this book is right up your alley.
While the book has chapters on the DOM and primitive data types, it is in the discussions of topics like closures and inheritance where the book really stands out. These sometimes confusing topics are presented in a very clear and concise way, helping to break down the learning barrier that so often stands in the way of truly understanding those subjects.
Should I Read It?
The book is intended to be accessible to even developers with no prior Javascript experience, and it does a reasonable job of doing so. Thankfully, the information is covered very well, making it likely that even the introductory chapters will be worth the read for more experienced Javascript developers.
I'm sure the refinement and overall quality of the information presented is in no small part due to the plethora of quality technical reviewers. It's clear Stoyan took the task of accurately presenting this information very seriously, as his list of technical reviewers sounds a bit like a who's who of web development.
Final Verdict
I really enjoyed Object Oriented Javascript and highly recommend it. For beginners, its not as soft an introduction as DOM Scripting, nor is it as exhaustive in detail as PPK on Javascript. That being said, its content is perhaps the most complete of any Javascript book accessible to beginners that I've read thus far, and it's certainly one of the best written books I've read. Even more experienced developers will find very useful information in some great coverage of more advanced object-oriented techniques and very useful appendices.
Great...Where Do I Get a Copy?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
We're Going Streaking
It's April. The weather is starting to get nicer, Easter is around the corner...and hundreds of people are going streaking! No, you don't have to be nervous about heading outside today. This kind of streaking is completely un-offensive (hopefully). Once again it's time for the annual CSS Naked Day.
CSS Naked Day is a way of promoting web standards by stripping off all the CSS on a site to show that by structuring your HTML in a way that is semantic and makes sense, your content is still useful even without all the pretty design. If you want more information, you can check out the official CSS Naked Day site, and the almost 400 participants.
Don't worry, this site will return to its regular design and layout on the 10th.
CSS Naked Day is a way of promoting web standards by stripping off all the CSS on a site to show that by structuring your HTML in a way that is semantic and makes sense, your content is still useful even without all the pretty design. If you want more information, you can check out the official CSS Naked Day site, and the almost 400 participants.
Don't worry, this site will return to its regular design and layout on the 10th.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
SXSW 2009: In 350 Words or Less
I started working on a recap post of this year's SXSW, and every time I did, it turned into a short novel. There's a lot of exciting stuff that goes on there. Since few people, other than say...my mother, want to read about my trip in that much detail, I thought I should trim it down. So here is my recap, in 350 words or less:
If you're going to talk about SXSW, the discussion will inevitably revolve around three topics: presentations, parties and people.
This year, whether due to incredible content or the broadening of my interests, there were multiple presentations I wanted to see each session. Thankfully I feel like I chose wisely, as I can honestly say I enjoyed every presentation. Not equally necessarily, but each presentation had value that I could glean from it, and each held my attention.
As always, the parties were a fantastic opportunity to let loose and mingle with fellow web developers and designers. I always hesitate to call them parties though. For one, to be able to attend the last two years, I've needed funding from my employers, and it's harder to sell a conference where the word "parties" is frequently used.
More seriously, I hesitate because they aren't parties in the typical sense. These are parties geek style. Like most parties there is beer (Shiner Bock if you're doing it right) involved, but conversations are about things like Javascript performance and new CSS techniques. In general attendees are intelligent, and the conversations reflect that.
That's the beauty of SXSW - the conversations. You meet fantastic people from all over who are interested in the same kinds of things that you are. I'd heard people say that each year they come back it feels more like coming home. While I'm not ready to go that far, I will say that it was great to catch up with people I had met last year, and to meet new people to catch up with next year.
I'm hoping to make the AJAX Experience this year, but as of right now, SXSW is the only major conference I've attended, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. However, it's safe to say that the rewards of going greatly outweigh the costs of doing so, and SXSW should be one of the conferences on your yearly radar. If you can get to Austin next March, I highly recommend it, and hopefully, I'll see you there.
SXSW 2009
If you're going to talk about SXSW, the discussion will inevitably revolve around three topics: presentations, parties and people.
Presentations
This year, whether due to incredible content or the broadening of my interests, there were multiple presentations I wanted to see each session. Thankfully I feel like I chose wisely, as I can honestly say I enjoyed every presentation. Not equally necessarily, but each presentation had value that I could glean from it, and each held my attention.
Parties Events
As always, the parties were a fantastic opportunity to let loose and mingle with fellow web developers and designers. I always hesitate to call them parties though. For one, to be able to attend the last two years, I've needed funding from my employers, and it's harder to sell a conference where the word "parties" is frequently used.
More seriously, I hesitate because they aren't parties in the typical sense. These are parties geek style. Like most parties there is beer (Shiner Bock if you're doing it right) involved, but conversations are about things like Javascript performance and new CSS techniques. In general attendees are intelligent, and the conversations reflect that.
People
That's the beauty of SXSW - the conversations. You meet fantastic people from all over who are interested in the same kinds of things that you are. I'd heard people say that each year they come back it feels more like coming home. While I'm not ready to go that far, I will say that it was great to catch up with people I had met last year, and to meet new people to catch up with next year.
I'm hoping to make the AJAX Experience this year, but as of right now, SXSW is the only major conference I've attended, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. However, it's safe to say that the rewards of going greatly outweigh the costs of doing so, and SXSW should be one of the conferences on your yearly radar. If you can get to Austin next March, I highly recommend it, and hopefully, I'll see you there.
Monday, March 23, 2009
A Better Way to Get Educated
As you may remember, secondary education for web development and design is something that interests me greatly. I've mentioned before that the curriculum taught in most colleges tends to be dated and in need of definite help. Opera published their Web Standards Curriculum, and that was a great step in the right direction, but The Web Standards Project (WaSP) has taken it to an all new level with their recently launched InterAct Curriculum.
WaSP's InterAct Curriculum was specifically developed to help take some of the pressure off current educators in creating and maintaining a curriculum based on current industry standards. Thanks to the work of numerous educators and industry professionals, the InterAct Curriculum accomplishes that. The current, and initial, release contains 11 courses that fall into one of six general tracks:
There's a lot of work that went into the development of the curriculum. For each course there are assignments, core competencies, learning modules, recommend textbooks and additional recommended reading. The content in each course is carefully selected, the books include fantastic titles like Designing with Web Standards and PPK on Javascript, and the recommended reading contains some great writing from around the web, including articles from Opera's web curriculum.
There are two other releases scheduled, one in March of 2010 and one sometime after that. Each will contain a few more courses, as outlined in their roadmap. The best part is, this is an ongoing project and community driven. That means that the curriculum will not become stagnant, but will continue to evolve with current industry standards.
Being community driven, there are plenty of ways to get involved. Educators can contribute assignments and modules that they've implemented in their own courses and believe to be helpful. There is also a place to discuss the curriculum and input suggestions or criticisms to help fine tune the subjects addressed.
I doubt if many educators (if any for that matter) will argue against the value of having the curriculum available to them. Considering all the work that went into its development, and the fact that industry experts were envolved, ensuring that the curriculum lines up with current practices, it's just too valuable a resource to pass on. I think the biggest challenge then, is to make sure and get the word out about the curriculum.
We need to go out and start sharing the information with local college professors and advisory teams. If we can start communicating the value of adjusting existing curriculum to model the roadmap laid down by WaSP, that would go a very long ways in speeding up the adoption of these courses and helping to increase the level of competence for new professionals fresh out of school.
WaSP's InterAct Curriculum was specifically developed to help take some of the pressure off current educators in creating and maintaining a curriculum based on current industry standards. Thanks to the work of numerous educators and industry professionals, the InterAct Curriculum accomplishes that. The current, and initial, release contains 11 courses that fall into one of six general tracks:
- Foundations
- Front-end Development
- Design
- User Science
- Server-side Development
- Professional Practices
A Complete Package
There's a lot of work that went into the development of the curriculum. For each course there are assignments, core competencies, learning modules, recommend textbooks and additional recommended reading. The content in each course is carefully selected, the books include fantastic titles like Designing with Web Standards and PPK on Javascript, and the recommended reading contains some great writing from around the web, including articles from Opera's web curriculum.
There are two other releases scheduled, one in March of 2010 and one sometime after that. Each will contain a few more courses, as outlined in their roadmap. The best part is, this is an ongoing project and community driven. That means that the curriculum will not become stagnant, but will continue to evolve with current industry standards.
Getting Involved
Being community driven, there are plenty of ways to get involved. Educators can contribute assignments and modules that they've implemented in their own courses and believe to be helpful. There is also a place to discuss the curriculum and input suggestions or criticisms to help fine tune the subjects addressed.
Get the Word Out
I doubt if many educators (if any for that matter) will argue against the value of having the curriculum available to them. Considering all the work that went into its development, and the fact that industry experts were envolved, ensuring that the curriculum lines up with current practices, it's just too valuable a resource to pass on. I think the biggest challenge then, is to make sure and get the word out about the curriculum.
We need to go out and start sharing the information with local college professors and advisory teams. If we can start communicating the value of adjusting existing curriculum to model the roadmap laid down by WaSP, that would go a very long ways in speeding up the adoption of these courses and helping to increase the level of competence for new professionals fresh out of school.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Love It or Leave It
One of the highlights of SXSW this year for me personally, was being able to see a panel with Andy Budd of Clearleft, a person and company for whom I have the utmost respect. The panel was about usability testing and the tools you can use to better know your users, but one of the major takeaways I got had more to do with how to approach your job in general.
The discussion that led to Budd's little slice of wisdom revolved around how to get a company's designers and developers together and interested in usability testing. One response was to entice a team with pizza and soda and make a day out of it. Budd's response was that if you have to bribe your developers for them to take an interest in improving their products, then "hire better people". As Budd said, "It's everyones job to build better ****!" (Profanity excluded but I think it still makes the point!)
Budd's passion on the topic was inspiring, and the point he raised was an excellent one. Continually improving your skills, and therefore the products you develop, should not be a chore; it should be the goal.
I can think of two reasons for not trying to continually improve your current set of skills:
If you have no desire to improve, find a different career. Sorry to be blunt, but I believe we are not intended to spend our lives working on something that we have no desire to be doing at the highest level of competence that we are able to obtain. If you're not in a profession you truly enjoy, find one that you do.
If you feel there is no need to improve, that you know all you need to know about a topic...then you're doing it wrong. Whether it be improvements to your speed, efficiency, quality or general knowledge base, there is always room to improve. If you think you know everything there is to know, you most certainly do not.
For truly great work, you must be passionate about what you do, and you need to surround yourself with other passionate people. If you're not in that situation, whether it be the people who surround you or the career you've chosen, do whatever you must to get there. Life is too short to not spend it doing something you truly enjoy.
The discussion that led to Budd's little slice of wisdom revolved around how to get a company's designers and developers together and interested in usability testing. One response was to entice a team with pizza and soda and make a day out of it. Budd's response was that if you have to bribe your developers for them to take an interest in improving their products, then "hire better people". As Budd said, "It's everyones job to build better ****!" (Profanity excluded but I think it still makes the point!)
Budd's passion on the topic was inspiring, and the point he raised was an excellent one. Continually improving your skills, and therefore the products you develop, should not be a chore; it should be the goal.
I can think of two reasons for not trying to continually improve your current set of skills:
- You have no desire to improve.
- You feel there is no need.
No Desire to Improve
If you have no desire to improve, find a different career. Sorry to be blunt, but I believe we are not intended to spend our lives working on something that we have no desire to be doing at the highest level of competence that we are able to obtain. If you're not in a profession you truly enjoy, find one that you do.
No Need to Improve
If you feel there is no need to improve, that you know all you need to know about a topic...then you're doing it wrong. Whether it be improvements to your speed, efficiency, quality or general knowledge base, there is always room to improve. If you think you know everything there is to know, you most certainly do not.
For truly great work, you must be passionate about what you do, and you need to surround yourself with other passionate people. If you're not in that situation, whether it be the people who surround you or the career you've chosen, do whatever you must to get there. Life is too short to not spend it doing something you truly enjoy.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
New Arrival
Things have been a bit silent around here lately, but I feel for a pretty good reason.
As many of you who are on Facebook or Twitter no doubt already know, on February 7th my wife and I had our first child, a little baby girl. Little is a bit relative here...Naomi Adalyn was an ounce shy of 9 lbs and was 21" long. I wanted to get this post up a bit earlier, but as you can probably guess, she's kept us quite busy.
She's very healthy, and both my wife and I are very happy (and a little tired!). Hopefully as we continue to get accustomed to our new schedules, I can get back to fairly regular postings.
As many of you who are on Facebook or Twitter no doubt already know, on February 7th my wife and I had our first child, a little baby girl. Little is a bit relative here...Naomi Adalyn was an ounce shy of 9 lbs and was 21" long. I wanted to get this post up a bit earlier, but as you can probably guess, she's kept us quite busy.
She's very healthy, and both my wife and I are very happy (and a little tired!). Hopefully as we continue to get accustomed to our new schedules, I can get back to fairly regular postings.
That Time of Year Again…
Last year I attended SXSW for the first time. I had said that I would try to recap the conference, but never really did that. Best laid plans of mice and men and all that. I haven't really attended any other major conferences, so I don't have much to compare it with, but the experience was fantastic.
So fantastic, in fact, that thanks to the generosity of my employer and a little good luck, I am going to be attending again this year. There were a few lessons I learned while attending last years conference that I'm going to keep in mind this year, to hopefully glean even more value from SXSW.
Last year, I made the attempt to plot out, hour by hour, every panel that I was going to attend. The truth is, of all the panels I attended, maybe 50% were those that I had planned on. The rest of the time, whether due to how I was feeling at that particular instant, recommendations of people I met, or interests kindled by earlier conversations, I attended panels that in some cases, didn't seem like they would have interested me earlier. The result, was that I attended many panels that did a great job of pushing my knowledge in some areas that I really hadn't explored before.
I do think there is some benefit in going through the panel listings and identifying some that really are must-attends. There were a few from last year, Secrets of Javascript Libraries comes to mind, that I had considered absolute musts to attend, and was sure to keep those time slots set aside. This year though, other than identifying this year's must attends, I'm going to keep the rest of those time slots subject to change.
One of the most amazing, and inspiring things about SXSW (and I would imagine other conferences as well), is being surrounded by so many people with similar interests, who are also passionate about the web. It should come as little surprise, that these people with a passion for the web are almost all hoping to strike up conversation with interesting people throughout their time there. With very few exceptions, this was true of everyone I met, regardless of any kind of pre-conceived 'internet fame'.
I met some fantastic people with some great ideas, several of which I have kept in contact with throughout the year. Some of these people are attending again this year, and I am looking forward to meeting with them again. I am also looking forward to meeting a whole new flood of people, and hearing about their opinions and ideas for the web.
The value of these conversations and networking cannot be overstated, and in many cases, this networking can become even more valuable than the panels themselves. The added benefit is that networking, combined with continued conversations with these people throughout the year helps to maintain that 'SXSW high' that otherwise runs out all too soon.
Five days seems like a long time for a conference, but it goes by quicker than you'd think. Once it's done, you have to wait another year for March to roll around, and you never know whether expenses and circumstances will allow you to attend the following year. So, I'll make every effort to soak up each day that I'm there...the panels, the conversations, and yes, the parties.
I believe I'm still young enough that I can attend panels all day, stay out at the parties and social activities till late at night, and still have plenty of energy to get up for the next morning's first sessions. Seeing as how there's plenty of Starbucks stands set up in the hallways, I can also rely on my good friend caffeine to help out a bit. I can't imagine experiencing SXSW in any other way than cramming my days full of as many inspiring conversations and informative panels as possible.
If anybody else is going to be down in Austin for SXSW this year, feel free to look me up. I'll be getting down there the morning of the 13th (Friday) and heading back the morning of the 17th (Tuesday). The best way to get ahold of me while I'm down there will be via Twitter, so feel free to ping me if you want to meet up. The conversations are half the fun, and I'm looking forward to meeting more people this year.
So fantastic, in fact, that thanks to the generosity of my employer and a little good luck, I am going to be attending again this year. There were a few lessons I learned while attending last years conference that I'm going to keep in mind this year, to hopefully glean even more value from SXSW.
Plan Loosely
Last year, I made the attempt to plot out, hour by hour, every panel that I was going to attend. The truth is, of all the panels I attended, maybe 50% were those that I had planned on. The rest of the time, whether due to how I was feeling at that particular instant, recommendations of people I met, or interests kindled by earlier conversations, I attended panels that in some cases, didn't seem like they would have interested me earlier. The result, was that I attended many panels that did a great job of pushing my knowledge in some areas that I really hadn't explored before.
I do think there is some benefit in going through the panel listings and identifying some that really are must-attends. There were a few from last year, Secrets of Javascript Libraries comes to mind, that I had considered absolute musts to attend, and was sure to keep those time slots set aside. This year though, other than identifying this year's must attends, I'm going to keep the rest of those time slots subject to change.
Be Ready to Network
One of the most amazing, and inspiring things about SXSW (and I would imagine other conferences as well), is being surrounded by so many people with similar interests, who are also passionate about the web. It should come as little surprise, that these people with a passion for the web are almost all hoping to strike up conversation with interesting people throughout their time there. With very few exceptions, this was true of everyone I met, regardless of any kind of pre-conceived 'internet fame'.
I met some fantastic people with some great ideas, several of which I have kept in contact with throughout the year. Some of these people are attending again this year, and I am looking forward to meeting with them again. I am also looking forward to meeting a whole new flood of people, and hearing about their opinions and ideas for the web.
The value of these conversations and networking cannot be overstated, and in many cases, this networking can become even more valuable than the panels themselves. The added benefit is that networking, combined with continued conversations with these people throughout the year helps to maintain that 'SXSW high' that otherwise runs out all too soon.
Soak It All In
Five days seems like a long time for a conference, but it goes by quicker than you'd think. Once it's done, you have to wait another year for March to roll around, and you never know whether expenses and circumstances will allow you to attend the following year. So, I'll make every effort to soak up each day that I'm there...the panels, the conversations, and yes, the parties.
I believe I'm still young enough that I can attend panels all day, stay out at the parties and social activities till late at night, and still have plenty of energy to get up for the next morning's first sessions. Seeing as how there's plenty of Starbucks stands set up in the hallways, I can also rely on my good friend caffeine to help out a bit. I can't imagine experiencing SXSW in any other way than cramming my days full of as many inspiring conversations and informative panels as possible.
Getting In Touch
If anybody else is going to be down in Austin for SXSW this year, feel free to look me up. I'll be getting down there the morning of the 13th (Friday) and heading back the morning of the 17th (Tuesday). The best way to get ahold of me while I'm down there will be via Twitter, so feel free to ping me if you want to meet up. The conversations are half the fun, and I'm looking forward to meeting more people this year.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate
Who Wrote It?
SocialCorp is written by Joel Postman, currently the Chief Enterprise Social Business Strategist at Intridea, a social app development company. Joel frequently blogs on social media marketing and other related topics at www.socializedpr.com.
What's Covered?
In today's web, a company's online presence extends far beyond their website. Thanks to the rise of social communities like Facebook and Twitter, and the incredible reach a simple blog post can have, consumers are discussing company products and services, both positively and negatively, all over the web. This presents an incredible opportunity for companies to interact with their customers in ways that can feel a bit foreign to people accustomed to traditional marketing.
That's where SocialCorp comes in. Joel has written a fantastic book to give to anyone looking to get started in, or relatively new to using social media for marketing for corporate companies. Joel writes in a very engaging, conversational tone, and covers a lot of ground in this fairly short book.
SocialCorp introduces the reader to examples of companies that have had tremendous success with social media (like Dell, HSBC and GM for example) and to some examples of companies whose social campaigns missed the mark or backfired. In fact, that's one of the best parts of the book. Joel is willing to discuss both how social media can help if used correctly, and how social media can hurt a company if used improperly.
The truth is, social marketing is a better fit for some companies than for others, and SocialCorp tries to help you understand the difference. There's even a handy social media readiness quiz intended to help you identify if a company is ready to effectively use social media to interact with their customers online.
Should I Read It?
Like I stated above, at under 200 pages, SocialCorp is a short read. Don't let that fool you, as there is no shortage of helpful information. SocialCorp provides numerous case studies of how companies today are making use of social media, and points you in the direction of numerous tools online to help you to best utilize and measure your social campaigns.
The book is intended to be a very practical introduction to social marketing, and it accomplishes this goal very well. Social marketing requires a significant change in mindset from conventional marketing, and as a result, it can be a bit difficult to grasp at first. SocialCorp provides a gentle way to help understand the how's and more importantly, the why's involved with social media.
The Final Verdict
SocialCorp is a great book to share with co-workers, bosses, employees, and corporate executives who are interested in social media, but could use a little extra information to get them truly engaged. There's a lot of value offered by social media that is just waiting to be tapped into, and SocialCorp does a great job of explaining how you can do just that.
Great...Where Do I Get a Copy?
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