So that's why government has no time for usability analysis?!

Slashdot reports a Washington Times story claiming that one senior executive at a government agency spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his computer. It's important to to remember that the Sun Myung Moon-funded Times has its own very conservative axe to grind. But if this is true, I wonder if it's a contributing factor to why many government Web projects seem to have no requirements for the evaluation of digital media while funding same.

The larger, sadder, more expensive issue is the ongoing loss to American government - and business - from poor use of technology. Bad decisions, bad builds, lack of objective evaluation. No oversight. No accountability.

The for-profit world moves too quickly for its own good sometimes. The non-profit and government sectors may not feel the same sense of urgency. Time for them to address important issues - like why technology projects need a plan, a purpose, and objective evaluation. We've expressed this sentiment in many environments; it seems to fall on mostly deaf ears. Fiddling while Rome burns, or rather, supporting poor overseas online sex workers (the executive's excuse).

Execs give Web 2.0 thumbs-up? Doh!

"Companies that use social media applications say they’ve seen clear benefits from the technology." - McKinsey via Elizabeth Lupfer's The Social Workplace. Check out video sharing numbers - way in the lead. Given what our usability studies have shown recently, no one reads any more, so this explains it. Sort of.

The "big numbers" all revolve around the sharing of knowledge - speed of knowledge acquisition, effectiveness of marketing, reducing communication costs.

Many Web evangelists have spoken to the power of social media. The McKinsey imprimatur may reach those last holdouts who refuse to play. The real hidden value: Boosting the brand, which is harder to measure; its presence is inarguable regardless.

Regardless, check out Elizabeth's savvy site, formerly Geeky Grrl. She's got an incisive combination of wit and expertise. She's also the most hilarious dinner guest of all time.

NY Daily News: Web's worst offender for intrusive ads?

Worst offender: Best Foods ad that can't be closed AND covers content. I promise to boycott this brand forever.
The temerity to cover the entire masthead. UNbelievable.


So, what's up at New York Daily News? I have not seen such an onslaught of intrusive ads in, well, ever. They cover the masthead. They cover content. AND you can't close them. I would love to see the metrics on these ads, then I'd love to test it so I could demonstrate just how many of those vaunted click-throughs are actually invoked by users trying to exit these ads = which break every rule. I feel as if I just had to toss four pushy salespeople out of my living room. I bet a lot of readers at http://www.nydailynews.com feel the same way.

Ads that interfere with navigation are bad for everybody

Can we all agree that ads should not display in front of dropdown navigation? Check out this Suave (not) leaderboard covering up top-level dropdown navigation. By the way, the nav on the left of the page does not correspond in any sane way to the dropdown nav, so God help you of you actually want an alternative way to find that item you now can't reach in top nav. Who wins here?

Bamboozled by Wacom's set-up UI

I finally got round to setting up my Bamboo graphics tablet from Wacom... probably the sixth Wacom I've owned. Love the product, package design, functionality. Here's the glitch: You have to run the visual tutorial to set up the tablet and pen (okay), but what happens when the UI locks up? I got a Director error twice, restarted the tutorial, and was finally stymied by a "press space bar to continue" dialog. This is a great tool, but the tutorial for install of the product suffers from overdesign. I understand that someone designing a tutorial for this very slick product would be tempted to make it as cool as the tablet. But you know what's *really* cool? When you can actually complete the tutorial without aggravation.

"Perhaps the next iPod will send telegraphs and teleport people."

Alison Southwick quoted in the LA Times: "Perhaps the next iPod will send telegraphs and teleport people." Ripples in technology, forward and back? Maybe the next iPod will feel like steampunk.

My friend Dan Rosenbaum, eyewitness to 9/11

My friend Dan Rosenbaum is a true friend. The kind you slug it out with, just to realize you can't live without them. We met in New York at FOLIO: Show 1999, so it is our tenth anniversary of friendship.

I learned a lot from Dan, about business and the Web world, where he's a true pioneer. One of the best nights of my pre-Web-crash life was at Jack Powers' Internet World LA party in 2000. Dan wore a suit, I wore a black vinyl ballgown, and we all exulted in the rush of the Web.

Dan is a devoted husband and father. On 9/11, when Olivia was pregnant with their twin sons, Dan had an eyewitness view of the maelstrom at Ground Zero. I will never be the writer Dan is, so I will let him tell you the story of what he saw on 9/11.

Always remember. Never forget. Happy birthday, Dan.