Archive for April 2004

In my review of Seth Godin’s book, I mention an inspiration from his book and applying it to the eNewsletter Journal. The issue is out and we’ll see how the Extreme Copy Makeover idea pans out. The purpose is to find bad copy on the Web, put it in jail, work with it, and release it as a changed copy… for the better so it can become a successful contributing citizen… er, copy.

Just received word about the Center for the study of the Public Domain “Arts Project” contest to create a 2-minute moving image that explains to the public some of the tensions between art and intellectual property law, and the intellectual property issues artists face, focusing particularly on either music or documentary film.

Enter by creating, or mashing-up, a moving image. Entries can contain video, animated images, text, and audio. You may incorporate other people’s work, but only if you have permission or the work is Creative Commons-licensed or public domain.

Hard work, but there are some mouthwatering prizes to try to win.

It’s easy to get carried away with IA and figuring out how to set up a site’s navigation scheme. After fiddling with ideas and drawing them, the process looks complicated and endless. Let’s step back and try Bryan‘s approach.

Wait… before you go to the link. Think about something you need that you can buy online. Write it down. Also, write down three sites most likely to carry the product. Go to each site, one at a time, and see how long it takes you to find what you need. Record how many clicks it takes and any thoughts that come to mind such as “Would product x be in here or here?” or “Where do I even start to look for it?”

Fun experiment, wasn’t it? I thought so, too, and I think it teaches a lot in just a few minutes. Go ahead and read the article. Compare your experience to Bryan’s.

Boxes and Arrows’ latest article on card sorting is superb. I’ve read countless articles on the topic. This one is thorough, jargon-free (not an easy thing to do in IA-related articles), well-organized, applies online writing concepts, and keeps your attention (I didn’t have to force myself to read through it). [ InformIT ]

P.S. Happy 1st Birthday, Z!!!!

Book review of Seth Godin‘s newest book, Free Prize Inside, is posted. Man, he is good. The book has not even reached shelves and look how well it ranks in Amazon from pre-orders.

Godin’s previous book, Purple Cow, presents examples of how to stand out from the herd. Free Prize Inside shows how to make that happen. It answers questions of “How do you create a Purple Cow?” “How do you make something sell itself?”

When we buy cereal, especially kiddie cereal, what’s the best part? The free prizes inside, of course! He walks the talk by packaging this book in a cereal box. Though the book is not free, it’s a catchy and unusual way to package a book. Wait! There IS a free prize inside. It’s a copy of This Is Not the Journal newspaper. It may not be as fun as the toy cars or game CDs that come in cereal boxes these days, but hey, it’s free! (Note: the cereal box packaging and newspaper are limited, so they won’t always be available).

Free prizes aren’t just the stuff you find in cereal or Cracker Jack. Does your credit card offer free airline miles or money towards the next car you buy? That counts. What about an online store offering free shipping? Every year there is a huge technical tradeshow in Washington, DC for government agencies. What I remember the most about it is the drawings for free prizes, the goodies I received, and the shirts I still have.

This book has impeccable timing. As an editor of a newsletter, I have been struggling to find ideas to pep it up and draw in more subscribers since new subscriptions have slowed down. I cheat and go straight to page 131, the start of the list of “Edges” and look for a spark of creativity to create an “Edgecraft” (book’s buzzword) to find a free prize. The goal is to find something to reel people in, to give them something they want like the previously mentioned examples.

I learn from examples and Godin lists plenty of them using Edgecraft in action. He is not saying you have to invent something new to make something happen. It’s about taking what you already have going and how to make your product, service, head, blog, whatever worth talking about and watching the results.

My dad follows the guys from the radio station and meets them wherever they set up shop. Not only has he made a friend or two, but he has picked up cool stuff like movies on DVD and tickets to events. The radio station obviously has a faithful listener in him otherwise how would he know about these events?

As for the newsletter idea, I am trying two things. One is adding a “gotcha” section where I post a graphic of a typo, bad grammar, or something demonstrating a content blooper. Readers are encouraged to find the blooper and send it in to be entered in a drawing for a… free prize!

The other idea is called Extreme Makeover: Bad Copy Edition. Readers submit examples of bad copy to be torn apart, made over, and reported in a future issue. Of course, we’ll mention the reader’s name and company to give her credit and company recognition.

Guess what? This isn’t the first free prize offered in the newsletter. Existing free prizes do fade away and we have to create new ones to revive interest. After all, my son wouldn’t want multiples of the same cars he got from the cereal. The cereal company puts in a new car and he is after poor mom to buy it again. Thankfully, he actually eats the cereal.

Back to the book and the purpose of this write up. With three kids, a spouse, two jobs, a house, and volunteer work, finding time to read a book is a challenge. Even if I weren’t a book reviewer, getting through this book would be a breeze because (a) it’s 183 pages (the rest are detailed endnotes with references and explanations), (b) it highlights plenty of key points for easy scanning, and (c) each section or idea is short. Getting bite-sized pieces of information is enough to get going with the concepts gleaned from the book and make something happen.

VITAL STATISTICS:
TITLE: Free Prize Inside
AUTHOR: Seth Godin
PUBLISHER: Portfolio
PUBLICATION DATE: May 2004
ISBN: 1591840414
FORMAT: Paperback
PAGES: 256
PRICE: US$19.95

Computing Unplugged has a review of Crazy Olympics 1.5 for the PalmOS. This is the same game I used to play on my Apple ][+ in 1983! Never thought this game would resurface.

The Remediator Security Digest – April issue is out. Those cool camera phones are everywhere along with photologs. In editing this article, I see how the consequences of having these gadgets is dangerous in a company environment? The scenarios may sound unreal, but they’re based on the author’s experiences.

You can see how serious of a problem security is when you read Will Trade Passwords for Chocolate. Imagine what a disgruntled employee will do with a company’s information. Think of a co-worker or boss who has PO’d you and what you wish you could’ve done. That bad, eh? The author has written a follow up in his blog in which he mentions Boing Boing.

I’ve started editing his article for the May issue and again the stuff is shocking. Next month, you’ll meet the Idiot Savant.

Take out your designer’s scapel and prepare to give forms an extreme makeover without <tables>. Slight exaggeration, but adding a splash of color and changing the layout dramatically changes a room and the same concept applies to forms. The form code is also accessible. Note the <label for>, <id>, and <name> tags. See Quirksmode for an excellent explanation of name vs. id.

Read the tutorial.

Ever since I revived Don’s list of sites using CSS for without tables, I’ve been wanting to put the resource into a new design without tables. I finally did it today. Got a lot of work left to do like adding the hundreds of entries.

Let me know your thoughts on the newly redesigned CSS List. Hey, it was a miracle I found time to do this… so time to make changes is limited.

WWDN was fearless in writing Dancing Barefoot, so I returned the favor in the book review.