Month: February 2003

10 things you need to know about XDocs. Jean Paoli, the architect of Microsoft Office's XML capabilities, recently spent several hours showing me Microsoft's newest Office family member, InfoPath (formerly XDocs, originally NetDocs). Here are 10 things you should know about this revolutionary piece of software. [Full story at InfoWorld.com.] … [Jon's Radio]

Are you an Amazon Associate?. I'd noticed that my Amazon Associate fees this quarter were much lower than average. Then I notices that I wasn't getting any referral fees for some items readers emailed to say they'd purchased. Jason dig some digging and discovered that Amazon's URLs have changed. Apparently only one style of URL… Continue reading Are you an Amazon Associate?

Useit.Com: Investor Relations Website Design. While companies must provide IR information to attract and retain investors, they must also be realistic about the types of content and features that users need most. Simplicity and a coherent story about the company are better than drowning users in incomprehensible data. [Tomalak's Realm]

IBM: Challenges in mapping organizational knowledge (pdf). Quote: “The term knowledge management (KM) conjures up a number of images: a customer service representative accessing a database of frequently asked questions; a team of consultants collaborating on a new salary study; or a facilitator capturing the lessons learned from a major marketing initiative. Many firms have… Continue reading IBM: Challenges in mapping organizational knowledge (pdf)

“Persuasive Design”: This interview at User Interface Engineering goes a step beyond “usable design” (“Can the visitor use the site successfully?”) and focuses on ways to help achieve the site's goals. A key tactic is to make sure that the visitor can get the information they want, rather than just making the information you wish… Continue reading Untitled

'Jennifer Government': Guerrilla Marketing. In Max Barry's novel, set in the near future, companies go to extreme lengths in their marketing campaigns. By Rob Walker. [New York Times: Books]

Groove 2.5. Team blogging Groove founder Ray Ozzie and his teams have always pretended to build application software. But what they have actually delivered are the operating systems of the future — years ahead of schedule. The XML business Web is only now achieving the architecture that Lotus Notes laid down 15 years ago: message-oriented… Continue reading Groove 2.5

The high-tech trial of the future – I've spend the past few days in a trial that features lots of lawyers and lots of scanned images that are displayed on big screens.  I won't say more than it's a big class action case. In my role as “technology anthropologist” I have a few observations.  First,… Continue reading

The high-tech trial of the future – I've spend the past few days in a trial that features lots of lawyers and lots of scanned images that are displayed on big screens.  I won't say more than it's a big class action case.

In my role as “technology anthropologist” I have a few observations.  First, many of the big shot lawyers are carrying Blackberrys and tap away furiously (no doubt some are sending messages to one another) during the trial.  Instant messaging would be a much better way to handle this (yeah, I know about the security stuff, but I'm just talking about what's possible).  And the Apple Rendezvous

Dell Quarterly Sales and Profit Jump Smartly. Dell Computer reported strong quarterly gains in both sales and profits, demonstrating that it is largely immune from the travails of its rivals in the personal computer business. By Steve Lohr. [New York Times: Technology]

Is the Sun setting?. Cringely says: Cheap Intel and AMD hardware running Linux is going to kill Sun unless the company does something so stop it, which they aren't. Funny. I've been saying that for a few years now. I don't know how blind… [Jeremy Zawodny's blog]