$ign of the time$

Now don’t get me wrong - I have nothing against Riya, their software or their employees. They’ve recognized a business need - the huge pile of unrecognized photos called ‘DSC20006.jpg’ - and it looks like they’re fulfilling it, with lots of appropriate buzz to boot if 15,000 requests for alpha testing is right (yes, I said alpha - apparently waiting for beta is ’sooo’ 2003 or something). I tend to get ‘meta’ and wonder what the effect of something nontraditional means on the tech industry. I’m not a big fan of silly traditions, and often praise innovation for innovation’s sake; however, the lack of some tradition as it applies to business pratice can make me a little quesy at times.  What are the effects of untradition, and what is the motivation of these new tech companies to be non-traditiona? How does a lack of tradition affect an industry, innovation, and where does innovation end and hype take over?
I think it does speak to something in this Bay Area Bubble that a company can get a crapload of money ($15 million in venture capital funding) for an alpha product even though the company is this ‘new’ kind of company - that is product centric rather than business centric - namely, a company that doesn’t have “Business Development, Finance (a Controller to mind the money), [or a] a Revenue Manager”, in the words of its CEO. On some level, it’s a triumph of the user over the company if the product rather than business profit drives that development - or, even better, a user’s need (in this case, to identify photos). Anything that puts the user ahead of a bottom line works for me - well, the sooner companies realize happier users increase their bottom line would actually be a true triumph.
It does make one wonder what it says about businesses if they can operate in these nontraditional manners and be successful at it. Do the web 2.0 companies create these products, only to have them be sold for a lot of money to the big Deliverers like Yahoo and Google? Is this the way the web industry is to work? When this current bubble bursts, how will this affect product creation, how those products are sold and the user, in the end?

On one philosophical and personal level it’s liberating to be untraditional, but on another, it starts to feel like a mad mob rule has taken over. (Well, to be honest, it’s not the start of that feeling - I felt it as soon as I heard an iterative number slapped haphazardly onto a set of technologies). Rather than rewriting all the rules of what it means to be a business, couldn’t new companies try reforming just the more evil parts of what it means to be a business? Wouldn’t that be easier? Not all business practices are evil - we don’t need to throw out all babies in the bath water in the rush towards funding and IPO stock offerings, do we?
For instance, when signing up with Riya I’d have to say I was not impressed with the weird registration page that seems anything but professional. I distinctly went from feeling very excited by their product to suddenly being turned off by that product, or specifically how it was being presented to me. Friendly tone can be used to good effect - it’s part of what made services like Flickr and Upcoming.org so special and worthy of the buzz they generated.  Like anything, though, it’s a balance - in the rush to deliver a product to meet its buzz, can we afford to lower the professionalism or tone of that product? Do we sacrifice quality for buzzworthiness? Should we? Does that help anyone who’s a user?  You could argue that the users don’t and shouldn’t have to care.  That’s fine - but for those of us who think meta about this industry, signs of the times that point to problems in how products are created or sold should be analyzed.  I’ll still play around with what Riya has to offer, but that wariness during registration should be an indication to someone that some things need not be sacrificed in the rush to launch.
So in the end no, I suppose not all companies need employees dedicated full time to biz dev early on - heck, maybe some companies don’t need it at all. But what kind of industries are we going to have when it’s about the product and its buzz rather than the company that delivers it? Does this become the kind of user-centric industry many of us yearn for, or something else? I’ve felt most impowered by the creations of Open Source and open API developers because they’ve come directly from individuals and small dev shops and are directly addressing a business need.  Still, I’d like to think that some solid core business values will guide these new companies as they navigate the choppy waters that swirl on the bottom of this bubble.
Again, no slight against any one company, any one alpha invite or any one person. I’m just starting to feel old and curmudgeonly and wondering when those who have failed to learn from history will learn from it, since that history - that of the Dot-Com Boom and Bust - certainly looks like it’s repeating here in the Bay.  Where that will leave any company is anyone’s guess.

reflections

This is not going to be a ‘best of 2005, here’s what I loved’ entry, because I’m still working on that list. Furthermore, this is not going to be a ‘whoop-de-do, here’s to 2006′ entry. There are times and places for such things - and for me, knowing that good things are coming for me in San Francisco in the New Year reminds me to be humble as well as happy.
No, this is a simple wish to those who know me - or those who are coming across this entry - to say that I love you and to wish for health, prosperity and above all happiness in all we do, now and in the New Year. It’s just that kind of entry…nothing more, nothing less.

Movin’ on out…

See the new post at my WordPress blog… I’m movin’ on out to another site, with a brand new URL: http://rachelmmurray.wordpress.com/ There’s a bit of an explanation there on why I’m moving; these archives will remain until my hosting service sets up MySQL and I can import them over on WordPress, and of course until I get it the new blog to display correctly with my Dreamweaver template ;). Ideally the final resting place for the blog will be at my actual domain, but for the time being, a nice WordPressified blog addy is something I’ll have with pride, thank you very much.

So, a year and a half on Blogger. It’s been fun, but it’s time to move on. Thanks for the memories, Google, but I am outta here…

Goodbye Google - Hello WordPress!

Well, this is the first version of WordPress I’m using - it’s hosted on the WordPress site until I can get my hosting service to add MySQL so I can futz around with configuring it myself. I realized that when I was expressing my frustration with Yahoo and Google I could stop and actually practice what I preach - namely, use Open Source software whenever I can, and stop using products that frustrate me. This is just one of a continuing series of things I’m doing to make that change.

I had originally looked at using WordPress as a small content management system for a friend’s web site, but instead I think I’ll probably use something else for that. As a blogging system, it’s clearly superior to Blogger in a number of ways - there are categories, a great, easy to use administrator panel, and a sense that this is what someone can use when they’re learning to customize and make their blog their own.

It’s been a slice, Blogger/Google, but it’s time for me to be on my own.

The big get bigger.

I’m still figuring out what I think of the whole “Yahoo Acquires del.icio.us” thing. It’s the latest piece of news to get the people with blogs all a twitter - that and some silly flairup between people at “Les Blogs” in Paris. I have a bad habit of immediately reading about such things on Rich’s blog and of course commenting on his blog instead of my own - sorry Rich, you know I’m trying to stop doing that, honest!
So the big get bigger, and the rich get richer. I’ve read some good analysis from folks - including the ever wise Dan, something a little different from Trebor, and of course a prophetic lesson on what’s happenned before from David. I’m probably in closest agreement to Trebor’s point of view - kind of a disgusted resigned feeling of sadness (not to put words in Trebor’s mouth - just speaking for myself here). I know this is how the world works (with twitters on Technorati - if that’s a bang or a whimper, well, you decide) but I still don’t like it. I don’t like it when the Fortune 500 do it, and I don’t like it when megacorporations in my industry do it either. The antiglobalization movement has made valid points on how corporations work; corporations in the technology sector should not be exempt from that analysis as well.

I don’t expect the technology business sector (open 2.0 technologies or not) to operate in a bubble away from other industries, but every time a large corporation like Yahoo buys out a smaller company that’s created a great tool that people love and feel ownership of, well, it makes me feel like nothing’s changed - that it’s all just business, money and acquisition, and has nothing to do with using technology to solve a problem. I feel the same way about Google doing it - I feel the same way when any company does it. Innovation comes from creating a solution that fulfill’s a user/customer/person’s need; acquisition of a company that makes a tool is not a substitute for making better products. If I at least bought into the branding myth of Yahoo, if I at least felt like they cared about me as a user, that I wasn’t just a nameless schlub with a ID, well, perhaps this would sit well with me. But that’s all I am. A Yahoo ID to them.

Here’s a lesson in branding. My allegiance to the Apple brand is simple, really - they create a product that doesn’t make me sick to my stomach to use - that it’s about creating an insanely great product superior to what’s created by Microsoft. It has nothing to do with which company they’ve bought out - if Apple’s bought anyone out in the name of ‘innovating’, please educate me if I’m wrong here. It’s not about creating a 360 portal or city wide Wifi - it’s just about creating something that works well, that keeps people happy, that fulfills a need and does it well. I don’t see many large corporations doing that, because I suppose that’s not what they’re there for or how they operate. Sure, I’ll continue to use del.icio.us - for now - and yes, I’ll use Yahoo Groups because everyone still does so - just don’t expect me to feel much good from them, their way of business, or their ultimate plans. Yes, my analysis at this point is naive and simplistic, but I’m frustrated - frustrated that this tired old paradigm of acquisition rather than development. In the end I suppose it all works out, but it doesn’t stop me from having a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach - that whoever dies with the most toys has won.

There’s got to be some other way. I don’t expect socialism in this industry, but I do expect something other than the 20th century paradigm of smaller fish getting eaten up by bigger fish. I don’t think any of these larger tech companies are necessarily entirely Evil with a Capital E, but you can forgive me if I’m a little suspicious of companies when their actions look more like a giant game of chess (Rushing towards the checkmate of beating Microsoft and Google) than creating great products. I’m tired of the old ways the world has worked - surely to God there’s got to be a better way…

Je me souviens…

I will remember. It’s a phrase fraight with some peril within Canadian history since it’s associated with Quebecois sovereignty movement, but I’m going to use it - appropriate it, if you will - today because it fits, and because some issues transcend two sides of an issue - Anglophone or francophone, man versus woman.

Je me souviens… I remember. In my mind, I change it to ‘I will remember’ - an imperative, a demand of myself and others not to forget history, both near and far away.

Je me souviens le 6e decembre, 1989.

Whenever I see that today’s date is December 6th, a little part of me does die inside. A part of me that remembers where I was - coming home from school, to see the CBCannouncer (Bill Cameron, most likely - RIP, Bill - you are missed) telling me a man had started shooting in a school in Montreal. You remember the moments of history as you live them - seeing the paper with the headline about John Lennon, watching the television when space shuttles explode. And then watching the stretchers being pulled out of a school.

I had just come from school.

“On December 6, 1989, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, ammunition and knives, an enraged lone gunman walked through the Engineering Building of the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, and shot and killed 14 women, wounded 13 others, mostly women, and then killed himself….”

I was just starting to be a woman.

“As he killed the 14 women and wounded 13 others, the deranged gunman was making anti-woman statements and blaming feminists for ruining his life. The letter that he left behind detailed his hatred towards women. He had failed as a military candidate; he had applied for admission into engineering, and was rejected. In his twisted and cowardly mind, he did not accept responsibility for his failures, but held women responsible for them. He acted upon this cowardice and hatred in the most violent way possible. He carefully and systematically separated the women from the men in the classrooms of Ecole Polytechnique, and then he killed the 14 women, for no other reason, but singularly and only because they
were women.” (from the University of Victoria page on equity)

was being a woman going to school an act that qualified one as a feminist now?

Was it so very long ago? It could have been just yesterday. It was just one of many separate events and histories that introduced me to feminism, of which I am a very proud member.

So much has changed, yet so little, when considering the state of women in the world. Progress can be made in the fight against sexism - it has to. Can we afford not to progress, to evolve? For every moment which has me wondering if we’ve progressed, a review of the enlighted men out there does give me hope that perhaps progress is possible, that society can change.

I do look forward to the day when a date will not live in infamy - when we no longer dread dates for what the past has given us, and what we must inherit for the future.

I picked up a poster from a memorial the U of T was having a few years. It had a great slogan that is burned into my mind: “First mourn, then work for change“. It’s a call to action on this and every other day. If we do not help our fellow humanity, then what are we here for, and can we dare to call ourselves human?

Je me souviens…
Je me souviens…
Je me souviens…

technorati tags: dec6 montrealmassacre

Brainjammed out…

So the Brainjams event was a rousing success - I do believe a good, informative time was had by all. It was an interesting experience working as one of the organizers/volunteers/what have you - in a more democratic view of the world, when does one ‘role’ end and another begin? Thoughts about democracy have been on my mind as a result of the event; I’ll have more to say on the actual details of the event in a future post after I’ve caught up with non-Brainjam activities and have unpacked the experience fully.

But hearing a room of over 50 people sharing their knowledge and their passions made me hope that this is the beginning of something, and not just another another Bay Area 2.0 digerati-and-brat-pack networking event. It’s no secret that I’ve been itching to see this event become part of a movement - or rather, to plug into an existing movement which discusses and acts upon the intersection of culture, technology and democracy. Only time and the Bay Area digerati community’s desire for something more will tell if this becomes something greater. The need is there - we’ll see if we connect with the excellent existing initiatives and ones starting up that need our support (like NetSquared - which is a far worthier cause than anything involving ‘web’, ‘2.0′, ‘digerati’ or ‘technology’, for that matter.)

I watched Brian Sullivan’s excellent recap of the day over on his blog, and was startled to see the reaction of one of KRON’s news anchors after she came back on the air. Her reaction to the idea behind the event was ‘far out’ - not, ‘wow, far out - neat stuff going on…looks like the future of media to me…’, but ‘far out’, in that dismissive, corporate, ‘you’re a bunch of hippies, aren’t you?’ tone of voice. It reminds me of how far along we need to come to change everyone’s minds - and not just our own.

technorati tag: brainjams

Post-holiday clean up - and good news

I’m in the midst of the post-holiday clean up, both figuratively (email, spam, blogs, more spam) and literally (unpacking after a week away out East), came across a golden nugget of personal information - two new friends are getting married. Chris and Kristie, the main organizers behind the upcoming Brainjams event on Dec.3, just announced the news via separate blog entries - (here’s Chris’ and here’s Kristie’s. I especially like their clarifications section So in his spare time when not organizing events Chris plans things like proposing to his girlfriend - a busy man indeed!

Happy news from a passionate and cool couple. If you come to the event on Sat. (!), hoist a glass to them during the after party.

tags:

Brainjams,
BrainJams3Dec2005

Post Conference Hangover

So, a few brief words on DUX2005, since people have asked me about it, and I’ve put off this entry for long enough. Oh, and that’s not an alcoholic hangover, as that will hopefully become apparent.

To be honest, I’m probably unable to divorce the experience of the conference itself from my role viewing it as a volunteer; sadly the experience of the latter has clouded my judgment on the former. In a way, though, as someone ‘working’ the event I got to see some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes on in running a big show. It did remind me of that experience in high school where I ran front desk for a drama production, although thankfully there were no actors with their riders that they have ‘cookies after the performance’ - or luckily I was low enough on the totem pole to notice them…

Onto the memories and thoughts, conveniently classified into my usual favorite categorization scheme of ‘people, process and tools’… only this time I’ll have the groups be ‘people’, ‘process’ and ‘content’, because that fits the bill. Forgive the slightly conversational tone of this post - as you will see, the experience itself seemed to be more about the conversation at times than the content…

People:

• hanging out with my fellow volunteers - those with names and those whose names I’ve forgotten or didn’t have a chance to learn was definitely one of the highlights. The user experience community is in good hands with such a field of intelligent, creative and interesting people starting out (or who are in the process of starting out). I know that when I praise someone it inevitably sounds like I’m kissing up, but I’m not. I learnt much from all of you, and thanks for the laughs. To those I didn’t get to spend much time with, I hope to see you next year.
• the volunteer duties around putting together the Bag of Schwag (a.k.a. conference proceedings and Schwag) was fun and definitely a memorable start to the whole event
• having a brief but uplifting chat with Clark Dodsworth of SIGGRAPH about being assertive in the job process even if the job market is quite hot. I suspect these little interactions - the brief but hugely illuminating, epiphany-like experiences - are what people come to conferences for. I am beginning to see why. It’s about the quality of these interactions, and not quantity, a theme that would show up time and time again.

Process:

• The conference itself went well on a practical level, thanks in no small feet to the chairs and in particular Teresa and Jeff, who were the glue that kept the whole damn thing from falling off Fort Mason and into the ocean.
• 5 minutes per paper felt like I was mainlining crack. That particular facet of the user experience of the thing just didn’t work - if I want quick hits, I’ll read the blogs et al; I want to see people engaged in a panel, dealing with the meat of what it means to be a UX professional, and that - the joy and pain that accompanies that - just won’t be delivered in 5 minutes. I attended a bit of the APSA conference this year in Washington, and that was an experience one definitely needed recuperating from - and it taught me firsthand that 5 minutes is nowhere near enough. You can find out more about the numbers of the APSA conference; while I’m sure the UX community will never have to deal with 7000 (!) attendees, 730 panels and roundtables or 100+ receptions, we could do well to learn from other communities and make it more than 5 minutes.
• I can safely say that a commute from Palo Alto to San Francisco every day for 4 days damn near killed me. I learnt my lesson - hotels are around conferences for a reason. There’s got to be some way to endure the conference experience without putting one’s body through hell - be it the after parties and numerous talks, I’m still getting used to it all. I suppose that’s not unique enough of a point, but damnit, it needs to be stressed.

Content:

• I’ve glanced at the proceedings but look forward to getting into them in some depth. I plan to post something in a separate entry just so this one doesn’t go on forever.
• I was struck by the uneven quality of some of the presentations, but I suspect that’s just a necessary quality of all conferences that can’t be escaped. I don’t know how that can be overcome - someone can submit a paper and then show up at a panel and turn out to be a dud as a presenter, and that’s beyond any conference organizer’s ability. That said, there were some jems that I was lucky enough to catch - including J. Walt Adamczyk’s fascinating ‘keynote’ performance, Jared Spool’s hilarious presentation, and the folks from BBC who remind us of what an actual authoritative news network looks like.
• I’ll be very interested to see what next year’s conference content will be like, in light of all the hoopla concerning web 2.0; will there be battle scars, stories and more hype? Will Yahoo’s obsessive marketing schwag (mints! cookies! napkins! umbrellas!) be curbed, or will the simple-yet-memorable SAP duck kick all the sugary confectionery schwag to the curb? Tune in next year…

It was quite a memorable experience to say the least. Will I be back for another one? Sure. Will I give it a glowing recommendation to family and friends? Not quite - but then again, the family and friends are probably sick of me warbling about designing and user experience. Am I glad I attended? Absolutely. Will I volunteer again? Maybe - although first I’ll have to regain feeling in my feet before I answer that one…

Sadly, though, what struck me most about the experience was people’s motivations for being at the conference in the first place. It’s not the first time I’ve ranted on about people and events, and how one can ruin the other. Perhaps I as a perpetual outsider - new to the Bay Area, not having a design related degree, a cynic, etc. etc. - tend to notice these things. Who knows. I do know that for me, a conference is all about the knowledge transfer - to learn, to find out more about people’s case studies, lessons learned, the direction of UX and how to make it an essential component in business. It seemed that for many people it was more about:

• the who: who you know, who’s influenced you, who’ve you’ve read, where you volunteer/which board you sit on, what book you’re writing. Possibly as name-drop-worthy of anything found in Southern California.
• the what: what companies you’ve worked for, what your titles have been, which clients you’ve had and what products you’ve helped to launch. Heaven forbid you’re starting out in the field - I dare say what those poor souls have to contribute to the discussions!
• the where: where you went to school and what you’ve studied, where you teach and what lasting technology/term/paper you’ve contributed to the field, let alone which blog entry of your own you’re referring to. See point number 2, the ‘I made this!’ school of design, which is essentially a variant of ‘whoever dies with the most toys wins’. Only this time we designed the toys - yeah, something like that.
• did why and how matter to many of these people? In my mind, the jury’s still out.

So in other words, the usual - people seemed to come to network, to see friends, to make new ones, to pick up schwag, and of course, to bitch about controversial statements, even if there weren’t really any. I found the atmosphere quite odd, to tell you the truth. I had no idea that so many people in the UX community - or at least the people at this event - were so, well, superficial and self-referential. I had one of those minor Rachelian epiphanies at one point - it occurred when I was outside getting a breath of fresh air (which is always necessary at these things). Fort Mason was also hosting a glass and craft show that weekend, and there was a glass-blowing exhibit going on outside. It’s a craft that always has fascinated me - at some point I’d love to find a studio so I can try it. Anyhow, the artist showed us, in real time, how he creates blown glass objects. I loved it - it was one of my highlights of the weekend. He ended up creating a one-of-a-kind vase, and I felt that I was witnessing real magic, the kind that no amount of wordy analysis could capture. It was a real experience not by a user in a closed environment, and certainly not by a formal UX designer - but solely about creating something better, something separate from one’s self, something that can stand alone without hyperbole, without meaning. Just something purely beautiful that’s a joy…forever.

It seemed to illustrate for that all the hot air we as professionals talk about - 2.0, the job market, the Google versus Yahoo false dichotomy - in a corner somewhere there will always be normal, non-designing people living their lives without jargon, without namedropping, without the need to turn a conference experience into something it’s not. In the end, does our hot-air talk create something beautiful like glassware, or not? At some point in your life, you realize that art is more inspiring than a ton of verbiage; if you’re one of those people who has yet to learn that lesson, well, I feel sorry for you. If you’re at next year’s conference - do me a favour and keep your talking down low a little lower? Thanks. And if you need me, I’m just be in the back, taking notes, trying to learn and marveling at the beauty when I come across it.

dux2005

Does anything this fun happen in my town?

Check out the roster of Flash-mob style ‘events’ the folks over at

Newmindspace. have going on. They had a giant pillow fight in Toronto a few days ago. When I was in T.O. I wasn’t plugged in to these events - if they even took place.

I’d like to live in a place with spontaneous acts of fun. “What’s the point of being an adult if you can’t be childish once in a while!” (from Dr. Who).

Found via my favourite photoblog “Daily Dose of Imagery” from Toronto-based Sam Javanrouh.