Daily Thoughts 12/30/2010 (Kickstarter, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web)

Eigen scan uit Het doel der Vereeniging; afbeelding uit 1892 auteursrechtvrij.  I am not quite sure what it says, but I do like the image.


Daily Thoughts 12/30/2010

I tried to watch the original Planet of the Apes but just could not do it today.  The costumes somehow seemed a little bit dated.  The story is based on the novel, Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle.

I also could not get myself to read The Autiobiography of Mark Twain.  It was a little bit too much.

I also decided to not write any reviews today.  Sometimes, you need to not do things to keep it all in perspective.

Finally, I decided not to go to the final public session about the budget.  I think I will hear about it tomorrow.  I need a break from this stuff.  Hopefully, I'll have one until the new year starts.

I have been fooling a little bit looking on the web.  I rather like http://www.kickstarter.com/ , a lot of the small creative projects which are on it are publishing oriented.

I started reading Information Architecture for the World Wide Web , 3rd Edition by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld tonight.  It is about designing the information framework for large scale websites.  I think I need to learn a little bit more about website design both for content and structure.

Daily Thoughts 12/29/2010 (Letting Go Of Words, Get Glue, The Big Sleep, Advocacy)

Raymond Chandler http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raymond_chandler.jpg  


Daily Thoughts 12/29/2010

I read some more of Letting Go Of Words Writing Web Content That Works today.  It reminds us that websites are not a way to push out information.  They are designed primary to pull people in and provide the information they need.  There is another term that goes with pull.  This is the term stickiness.  In addition to pulling people in, a website should stick with the person and draw them in.  It should give them reasons to come back and use the site repeatedly.  You want your people to check in regularly to see what is new on the site.  An excellent example of this is http://www.getglue.com   The entire site is designed to stick and pull people in.  The site asks people to check-in, review, and explore.

I watched The Big Sleep today starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.  I enjoyed it even more than Casablanca.  The Big Sleep is based on the novel by Raymond Chandler.  It was a very enjoyable noir film.   One of the screenplays writers is Leigh Brackett who also helped write The Empire Strikes Back.  I like Leigh Bracketts science fiction; The  Sword of Rhiannon and The Hounds of Skaith.

Tonight, I am going back to go to the meeting for the vote on the budget for the city of Mount Vernon.  Hopefully, they will change things, but I am not that certain.  It is in city hall at 7 p.m..

I went to city hall tonight to see the public vote session on the budget.  A city council member told us that the public vote session was cancelled, we should go home.  It was originally announced  for today on Wednesday, December 29 for tonight at 7:00 p.m.  They are still having the discussion session tomorrow on December 30.

Several of my colleagues were there including the library director and a few people from the community.  The gentleman who ran the Mount Vernon Inquirer was there as well.

I also finished reading Letting Go of the Words on the train home.  I found some of the ideas to be quite interesting.  She talks about how splash pages and flash are generally detrimental.  I can agree on this completely.