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How I Talked Myself Out of a Kindle

It takes me a really long time to buy a gadget. Over the course of months I deliberate whether I really need the device and, if I do, what options I should get. The current object of my rumination is the Amazon Kindle 2

and, right now, the pendulum is on the "not buy" side of the swing. Here are the arguments that are keeping it there.

1. I like to share books with my friends and family. The exchange of books can be a nice social experience. You loan or borrow a book and you have at least one person you can discuss it with.

2. I buy used books. Used books can be a great deal. I like to browse used book stores and tags sales to find interesting books at a reasonable prices.

There you have it; those are my reasons. They are working for me right now but, in case you are not convinced, you can click through this Amazon Associates link

and put a little money in my Kindle fund (because that I know that I will eventually cave).

Blogging: Alive or Dead?

Paul Boutin's Wired article "Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004" last year created a lively dialog about the future of blogging. The general gist of the article (in case you haven't read it) is that mainstream media companies have adopted and started to dominate the blog format while independent bloggers have drifted into the even more casual and spontaneous domain of "status updates."

Independent bloggers do tend to let their productivity ebb and flow and I am sure that many of the "citizen journalists" who were really flowing during the blogging peak are seriously ebbing right now. I agree with Boutin that blogging is no longer the primary way that people casually share ideas. Now, when I run across some interesting information I have three choices. I can blog it, I can bookmark it, or I can tweet it. My general rule of thumb is: when I have something to add, I blog it; when I just want to save it for later (perhaps with a little note), I bookmark it in Delicious (or star it in Google Reader); when I just want to tell my friends, I tweet it. All of my stuff goes into FriendFeed where occasionally people comment and add their own ideas. I imagine other bloggers' productivity is similarly diluted across these other channels.

But Boutin's trend is going even further. There was a great article in the New York Times that described how television journalists are getting addicted to Twitter. Robert Scoble has created his own format on FriendFeed where he starts an item with something like "Why Twitter is not for conversations. I will give you five reasons here:" and then goes on to list them in the comments. As he adds items, everyone else chimes in with their opinions. The result is a Crossfire-like discussion but without the interruptions (and, thankfully, without Tucker Carlson). In this case, he gave 5 reasons out of a total of 158 comments and another 143 people "liked" the post. In these cases the journalist moves from commentator to facilitator or catalyst. But, while this format is very dynamic and has lots of energy, it lacks the authority of a single person summarizing and interpreting the information.

To really develop an idea into a cohesive viewpoint, you may not need to write a 1,400 word exposé but you do need more than 140 characters (FriendFeed allows you more but most people don't use more than 140). And for that type of communication the blog format is very well suited because you have the room to elaborate on your point and you still offer a place for others to make their own comments. Blogging is not going away. If anything, it is displacing the formal article as the preferred format for journalists who appreciate the more intimate relationship with their reading audience that comes with immediate publishing and user submitted comments. My feed reader relentlessly fills up with new content every day so I can't complain about not having enough to read. If anything, I feel like the overall quality of the blogosphere is going up. Blogging isn't dying, it is just maturing. And with maturity, comes sophistication (at least that is what I tell myself).

Talk about lock-in! How about a WordPress tattoo?

Lorelle VanFossen posted the first known permanent WordPress tattoo. I guess (tattoo recipient) Ed Morita didn't read my post on CMS exit strategies. As with most CMS implementations, the feedback has been mixed. Comments on Lorelle's blog range from "Woah! I think it’s a good tat! And it is a great location" to "Oh dear I hope that is fake cos that is the lamest tattoo ever!" However, unlike most CMS implementations, which are planned to be in place for less than 5 years, Ed's tattoo should last a lifetime.

Drupalcon DC 2009 Sessions Online

For those of you (like me) who missed Drupalcon in DC, videos from 90 sessions have been posted online. By all accounts this was an amazing conference and I am sorry to have missed it. At least, I will be able to catch some of the sessions online. In particular, I am interested in:

• Drupal in the Newsroom

RFP Horror at the RNC

How could the RNC not select a CMS called The Red Elephant?
(this image is copyrighted by Red Elephant ICT & Internet Services)

Gregor Rothfuss sent me a link to a report about a ridiculous CMS RFP issued by the RNC. As I have written before, the traditional RFP process is totally broken. Here, the RFP asks for innovation around sketchy buzzwords that are meant to be requirements yet still asks for a fixed bid. I wonder how the RNC could avoid selecting a CMS called The Red Elephant?

In my Web Content Management Selection workshop at last year's Gilbane Conference, I told a story about a fictitious botched selection process for an imaginary website. This may be one of those cases where reality is better than fiction so I am thinking that the RNC RFP should be my anti-example when I teach the selection workshop this summer.

Communicating Across the Techno Gap

You have probably heard people talking about "dotted lines" in organizational charts. That is when someone has partial accountability to someone other than his direct manager. An org chart notation that I would really like to see is a "flashing red" line. I would use it to show when someone reports to a manager who has no clue what he does.

Any reader of Dilbert knows that this happens all over organizations but the case that I am the most keenly aware of is when a technologist reports to a non-technologist (or, perhaps worse, a former technologist). As a consultant, this is the area where I am regularly deployed. I am often hired by the non-technical manager to help him validate and/or understand what his technical staff are doing. I am also often hired by the technical staff to validate and explain their strategy. Consultants get put into this position because this is an area where companies struggle on their own. They need an outsider to facilitate and verify because communication and trust is so compromised. While I do love this work and would be happy to perform this role at your organization, here is some free advice to get you started so you can make some progress on your own.

Communicating to a non-technologist

Your manager doesn't really understand what you do despite your best attempts to explain it. You suspect that he doesn't care. Maybe he doesn't want to understand. Maybe he can't help that his brain just locks up when you say words like "refactor." You don't feel appreciated. You are about to stop trying.

When talking to your non-technical manager, don't try to dumb down what you say but for every detail mention, make a very clear connection to something that matters to the business. That usually means cost (short term and long term), quality, and impact. By impact, I mean things that will benefit the business: time savings, competitive advantage, etc. Provide inputs for any financial analysis he wants to do.

Don't get bogged down in numbers. Instead, draw comparisons because the units are probably meaningless. At the end of the day, the non-technical manager wants to be reassured that progress is being made and nobody is making "unconventional" technology decisions. An example of the former, is saying that you are "doubling storage" rather than "adding a 500GB RAID 5 storage array." For the latter, say "companies like EBay use MySQL" rather than "MySQL is a fully ACID compliant database."

More important than anything you say is how you listen. Listen to his concerns. Figure out what kind of proof will alleviate these concerns and provide it. Prototyping is a great way to show a technology in terms that a non-technical person can relate to - much better than UML.

Communicating to a technologist

Admit it. You are a little afraid of your tech guy. He has strange working habits and speaks in a language that you only barely understand. Even though you manage him, you have very little visibility over what he does. Unlike with other people who report to you, your advice to him is pretty much worthless because you both know that you have no idea what you are talking about. Whenever you ask a question, the answer just confuses you more. You just stop asking. The scariest thing you can think of is that your tech person leaves and, after drifting helplessly for weeks, you learn that your entire infrastructure is in chaos and about to collapse. What is going on in this technical empire he has built under your nose?

If you don't know anything about technology, you should start learning. Unless you are retiring in the next couple of months, you can only expect technology to become a more important part of the business that you are supposed to run. Have your technology guy help educate you. Ask him about the technical details underneath what you see as a user. But don't just listen to your internal technology people, listen to what is happening outside of your organization. Talk to your peers at other companies and learn about what they are doing. Read stuff online. Hire a good consultant. Share what you are learning with your technical staff in a non-confrontational way. Don't go in with managerial bravado. You are the student - be humble. It is a warning sign if they get defensive when you show a genuine interest.

The best approach for making technology decisions is to describe what you need in very clear terms (your technical person will call that requirements gathering). I like usage scenarios as a way to communicate these things. Ask your technical staff to put together their best solution and schedule time to review its viability and sustainability. Have an open dialog about the implications. Meet regularly with the team - not just at the end to "sign-off."

More important than anything you say is how you listen. Treat the interaction not as manager but as a partner and teammate. You both have the same goals. When the technical discussion gets out of your depth, don't shut down! Instead, connect it to something that you do understand and that matters to your responsibilities. Share the insight that you have about the company's needs and what your boss will ask for.

FeedBurner and Blogger

A funny thing happened to me a couple of days ago when I completed my move to WordPress by deleting Enter Content Here from Blogger. The old RSS feed (http://contenthere.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default), which FeedBurner somehow kept alive with new content posted on WordPress, suddenly went dark. The net result was that I lost my first 300 (or so) subscribers. To them, I stopped blogging after my eZ Publish Fork post on February 25th. Hopefully, these subscribers will notice the fetch errors and repoint to http://feedproxy.google.com/EnterContentHere (please spread the word).

What took me off guard was that the old RSS feed was being updated by the new site rather than the old site. I think this is because I elected to "merge my feeds" (or something like that) when Google bought FeedBurner. The readers who were subscribed to my old blogspot feed didn't notice my warning posts and the fact that I made the old blog look really ugly by changing the template. They saw the new posts and clicked through to the new blog.

So, if you are thinking about moving off of Blogger, first read this post. Then, if you merged your feeds, remember to put a couple of warning posts on your new blog to let people know you are moving before you delete your old Blogger blog.

First Magnolia On Air Customer Live

It looks like the first customer of Magnolia's On Air platform is now live. RTSI is a Swiss radio and television company. They are moving to On Air from a home grown system. Eventually eight stations will be supported on the new platform.

Architecture diagram showing integration between Media Workflow Engine and Magnolia (please excuse the colors).

For those of you who are not familiar with On Air, it is an integration between Magnolia CMS Enterprise Edition (reviewed here) and a third party product called Media Workflow Engine by FutureLabs. MWE provides capture, workflow, and advanced (non-destructive) editing functionality for video, audio and images. Images are represented in the Magnolia repository (the Apache Jackrabbit JCR implementation) as proxy objects. This saves the Magnolia repository from becoming bloated with binary files. Another nice feature of the integration is that workflows can be initiated in either system and can be continued in the other system. For example, a visitor uploading a video to a site can kick off a workflow in MWE.

Joomla! vs WordPress Usability: A Simple Case of Disruption

PlayingWithWire has a usability comparison between WordPress and Joomla! that has gotten a lot of attention on Slashdot and the Joomla! forums. The debate as is as you would expect: WordPress is more usable; Joomla! is more powerful. I don't disagree with either position.

I think this highlights the fact that WordPress is at a point in its progression where it can handle many simple web content management use cases but has not yet achieved a level of complexity as to detract from its usability. It has truly become a viable lightweight CMS - not just a blogging tool. This makes WordPress and platforms like it (Movable Type, Expression Engine, etc.) disruptive technologies in the classic Christensen disruption model where a simple technology reaches a point where it can compete against a more complex incumbent that over-delivers in functionality.

The disruption model usually focuses on price; the challenger technology is cheaper than the incumbent. Not that long ago, we were talking about open source as the disruptor (we still are. Just look at all the chatter about the Linux powered Netbooks). In this case, however, both are open source and free. Here, the cost is in the effort it takes to understand and use the technology. Writing good content is hard enough without the barrier of a hard to use web content management system.

There is a clear trend of companies leaning toward simpler technologies that may not meet all of the extended requirements but are very effective in the primary use cases (in this case, publishing pages and articles). There comes a point where a simple tool reaches its limitations but many companies are prepared to make compromises or doubt whether they will ever need the fuller feature set - at least in the near term.

The incumbent CMS products are not taking this lying down. Many of the commercial products on the market offer a simplified, "task-based" user interface for the casual user as an alternative to their traditional "power user" interfaces. But even unused and unseen functionality has a cost in the complexity of implementation and the cost to support. If your website is very simple and you don't have any power users on staff, a simplistic, lightweight CMS (like WordPress) may be sufficient.

eZ Publish Fork?

Image credit: Malinky on Flickr

Sandro Groganz just tweeted a link to Kristof Coomans's proposal of a community fork of eZ Publish. Kristof is about to be a former employee of eZ Systems Belgium and seems to be quite frustrated with eZ's lack of progress and openness with the platform.

To me, this is unfortunate news. eZ Systems has been making a lot of progress in the media and publishing industry and (to me at least) been improving the platform nicely. eZ Systems has also successfully established a beach-head in the United States. I think the one area that they have been lagging is their initiative to port eZ Publish onto the eZ Components framework. It would be a shame if the great energy behind this platform were to be fragmented into two competing projects - especially as eZ Systems is poised to do a major rewrite.

Still, I am not panicking yet. For now, I am just filing this as a frustrated employee rant. It takes much more than a rant to start a successful fork.