Blogs

I just discovered the Customer Interaction Management Forum. It appears to be just a few weeks old - at least late July was when the press started talking about it.

I am not really sure what it is or what it is about, but with a tagline "Sharing best practices for an exceptional customer experience" and sponsorship by IBM, I felt obligated to join. (^: Their description:

Combining extensive Customer Interaction Management (CIM) experience with knowledge and insight gleaned from millions of customer interaction sessions, The CIM Forum explores thought leading topics, proven best practices, technical infrastructure, and key performance indicators associated with creating consistently positive customer experiences.

It looks like the IBM Content Discovery people are behind this, since that is the IBM product mentioned on the site.

After I joined the site, I got access to additional resources. The one that popped out at me was "How Findability Can Drive Business Growth: IBM WebSphere Content Discovery Server and the IBM Content Discovery Foundation" by Susan E. Aldrich, Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group, April 2006. It has some intro sections on "What Terrific Search Does for the Business" and their search evaluation framework. Then a lot on Content Discovery Server (because the report was prepared for IBM).

Good report overall, but PSG missed the boat on findability - using the term in the title but otherwise ignoring it, in essence equating "findability" with "search technology".

By the way, you can get this white paper from lots of different places, including on ibm.com. Registration appears to be required most places.

Anyway, I will track this CIM forum and see where user experience, information architecture and user-centered design come into play.

I will miss the first meeting of the new "season" of MOCHI - Tom Brinck's farewell to Michigan on August 9th. But it is good to see something on the calendar. The MOCHI blog is another good sign, making it easier for me to stay in touch with my user experience colleagues up north.

I have been using Drupal for over 3 years now - this site is built with it, we built the World Usability Day 2005 site with CivicSpace (which is based on it). I used it for the Computer Science HCI class I co-taught in the spring. And so on. I have also used it a few times on "concept sites" - in a weekend I can install, set-up and populate a mini-site to show a concept (I take the concept site down later). Drupal is an awesome piece of software.

The buzz now (at drupal.org and digg.com) is the first part of an IBM developerWorks series Using open source software to design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site by Alister Lewis-Bowen, Stephen Evanchik and Louis Weitzman (all senior software engineers in IBM's Internet Technology Group). The article causing the excitement:

• Part 1: Introduction and overview: Why they chose Drupal

Part 2: Design for an effective user experience is about the design process for this fictitious web site. More articles specific to Drupal are coming up next in the series.

So hurrah for Drupal - this is yet another high-profile example where Drupal was chosen over its competitors. To be precise, however - "IBM" did not choose Drupal, just 3 guys in our Internet Technology Group chose Drupal. That does make at least 4 IBMers who like Drupal, and I am sure the numbers will keep growing.

If any IBMers who are interested in Drupal make it this far in my blog entry, they are welcome to join me in a Drupal group I just created for IBMers.

Just up US 23 from here, Jason Withrow, Department Chair, Internet Professional Department, Washtenaw Community College, is looking for someone to teach two classes this Fall (August 31 - December 14) in the Internet Professional Program. The classes are:

• INP 153: Designing User Experience I (Thursday evenings)
• INP 203: Designing User Experience II (Tuesday mornings)

Jason has Crafted this User Experience Curriculum.

Lectures for both INP 153 and INP 203 will be provided to the instructor, as well as labs and other assignments, so preparation time should be minimal.

Contact Jason if you are interested!

The weekend of September 30th and October 1st will be a big one in the Information Architecture world:

• EuroIA is having its 2nd European summit in Berlin, Germany
• Oz-IA will be the first "down under" conference/retreat on IA, in Sydney, Australia

Perhaps there could be some sort of video hook-up between them? Or at least some internet conference / live chat during the hours when both sets of attendees are awake and coherent? Using this meeting planner for Berlin and Sydney, the best time appears to be:

• 9am Saturday morning in Berlin is 5pm Saturday evening in Sydney

The Aussies could end their first day by helping the Europeans kick off their first day.

Depending on how late people would be up (drinking?), there are other possible times. But could the 2 events sync up?

Leave it to Ohio to apply the term "Blue Collar" to information technology. The Ohio Supercomputer Center has a program called Blue Collar Computing. Some quotes about it:

The complexity of current HPC [High Performance Computing] hardware and software creates a substantial "barrier to entry" for both scientists and engineers. Without proper HPC tools many of our modern research problems range from extremely difficult to impossible to solve. In short, we are losing opportunities for innovation due to an incomplete national HPC infrastructure.

The most formidable barrier of HPC adoption is the lack of simple and cost-effective tools available for use. Just as the graphical user interface (GUI) made desktop computing accessible, and web browsers made networking popular, the right tools are needed to make HPC widely effective.

That is, supercomputers are too hard to use for most businesses.

OSC lists some good next steps to make Blue Collar Computing happen, like public-private collaborations, training and better tools, but one focus is clearly missing in my view: focus on the total user experience by utilizing user-centered design methods. A focus on reducing complexity, usability, understanding user needs, iterative design, etc. is what has made the GUI and the web what they are today. It is long overdue for supercomputers to catch up.

Writing at Clustermonkey, Stanley Ahalt and Kathryn Kelley (from OSC) sum it up well in their article HPC for the Rest of Us. The biggest barrier is: "Hard to use means hardly used – at least by the broader community".

The other news is that this may be going national. USACM reports that legislation for a similar effort has been introduced. About the bill:

• OSC press release
• Blue Collar Computing and Business Assistance Act of 2006 (the bill, from the Library of Congress)
• DeWine press release

We shall see if this catches on at the federal level. And if "blue collar" joins "user friendly" as another way to say "easy to use".

I was catching up on news about CivicSpace by reading Zach Rosen's blog and found him sitting next to Jesse James Garrett in a roundtable discussion with a Senator.

Jesse's face seems to be everywhere.

Kent State's Information Architecture and Knowledge Management program is looking for another professor. I have hung out with Thomas Froehlich and David Robins at a few IA Summits and enjoy hearing about their program. I have yet to go visit them on the other side of Ohio (but I will soon, I promise). In the spirit of supporting them from the western part of the state, here is their faculty posting.

Kent State University
Assistant Professor Position
Information Architecture and Knowledge Management

In recognition of the significant growth and development of the Master's Program in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management (IAKM), Kent State University has allocated a new tenure-track faculty position at the level of Assistant Professor. The position is available Fall 2006 or January 2007.

The Master's Program in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management is a unique, innovative, interdisciplinary program inaugurated in Fall 2001. It has three concentrations: Information Architecture, Information Use and Knowledge Management. It features a progressive curriculum (PDF) that has been extensively revised for the Fall 2006. The program is a collaborative effort of the Department of Computer Science, the Graduate School of Management, the School of Communication Studies, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the School of Visual Communication Design, and the School of Library and Information Science. The School of Library and Information Science administers the IAKM program.

Facilities include a state-of-the-art usability lab, fully-digital classrooms with the most current hardware and software, state-of-the-art distance education tools, whether through interactive television or web-based synchronous or asynchronous learning objects, and instructional designer support.

The successful candidate is expected to teach at least three of the required courses in the concentrations of Information Architecture or Information Use. These courses include Information Architecture, Research Methods for Information Architecture, Information and Visual Design, Usability I, Usability II, and User and Task Analysis. Preference will be given to those with educational training and teaching, work (or consulting) and research experience in these or related areas.

Teaching competencies, teaching experience, work experience or research experience or interest are also sought in several of the following areas:

• Information Architecture
• Usability Testing or Engineering
• User Prototyping: Personas, etc.
• Information Seeking Behavior and the Web
• Human Information Processing
• Interaction Design
• Project Management for Information Architecture or for Usability Testing
• Document Engineering/Management
• Content Management Systems

Qualifications include a Masters degree in Information Science, Computer Science or a related field and a completed doctorate or substantial progress toward completion of a doctorate in Information Science, Computer Science or a related field. Experience and/or interest in synchronous or asynchronous digital distance learning is desirable. Nine-month appointment; summer teaching and workshops may be available. Salary is competitive; benefits are excellent. The position is available for the Fall 2006 (though dependent on the needs of the successful candidate, Spring 2007). Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

To better work with the growing demands of the information economy, Kent State University launched a unique, new college, the College of Communication and Information in July, 2002. It is composed of the School of Communication Studies, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the School of Library and Information Science (including IAKM), and the School of Visual Communication Design. Ohio is a recognized leader in information networks and has undertaken major funding commitments to use information technologies to promote economic development.

Applicants should submit a letter of application, resume, copies of transcripts from all colleges and universities attended (official transcripts will be required in the event of employment), and names of at least three references to:

Prof. Thomas J. Froehlich, Ph.D.
Chair, Search Committee
Information Architecture and Knowledge Management
Kent State University
P.O. Box 5190
Kent, Ohio 44242-0001
email: tfroehli@kent.edu
Phone: (330) 672-2782
Fax: (330) 672-7965
http://iakm.kent.edu

Kent State University supports equal opportunity, affirmative action and diversity in education and employment. Applications from minority group members and women are encouraged.

Karl Fast's The Confluence of Research and Practice in Information Architecture is a recap of IA and research from the summit. If you were at the panel discussion you will remember Karl as the guy in the audience who had more / better stuff to say than those of us on the panel.

I like his point about the difference between researchers and academics, and I look forward to the 2007 Summit.

Do you know the feeling when your wife/husband/significant other/whatever meets and spends time with a former girlfiend/boyfriend/spouse/whatever?

That was the initial feeling I had as I read Mike Moran's report on Peter Morville's talk at the Enterprise Search Summit.

Mike is my 2nd line manager at ibm.com; I worked closely with Peter for 2 years at Argus (1999-2001). Nice to have my new "wife" saying good things about my former "wife".