WebWord.com Newsletter Issue #32

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ISSUE #32

4-Oct-99

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                WebWord.com Newsletter
              "Usability & the Internet"
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                      List Owner 
                    John S. Rhodes 
                   John@WebWord.com
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October 4, 1999                     Newsletter #32
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Table of Contents

1. The Human Behind Robot Wisdom 
2. An Inside View of Epinions 
3. Path of Resistance: Reader Feedback
4. URLs and Signatures in Email: Reader Feedback
5. Books I'm Reading
6. My eBook
7. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


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ITEM #1

A new WebWord.com interview is now online:
--> http://webword.com/interviews/barger.html

The Human Behind Robot Wisdom 

Jorn Barger is the force behind Robot Wisdom,
a weblog that covers all kinds of interesting news. 
I've been pushing weblogs on you because I think they 
offer a true view of personalization. This, as you know,
is a crucial component of web usability.

Jorn is an interesting fellow. Robot Wisdom gives you
a quick peek at his thoughts and feelings. Also, because
of a variety of things falling into place, I found out 
that he has some interesting views about XML, usability,
and scrolling. Things that are all rather important to 
me. And, perhaps to you too.

Take a few minutes to read the interview:
--> http://webword.com/interviews/barger.html


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ITEM #2

A new WebWord.com interview is now online:
--> http://webword.com/interviews/guha.html

An Inside View of Epinions 

I've been talking a lot about Epinions, both here and
on my main page. I like how the site operates and the
ideas that make it work. I recently had the chance to
send off some questions to Guha, the Chief Technology
Officer at Epinions. He has a lot to say about the 
"Web of Trust", and how readers and writers benefit
from the Epinions model. If you want to see how this
company built "trust" into an e-commerce model, then 
you ought to read the interview.

Here it is:
--> http://webword.com/interviews/guha.html

p.s. If you want to see Epinions in action, see my 
profile page:  http://www.epinions.com/user-webword


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ITEM #3

Path of Resistance: Reader Feedback

After reading 'Are You Creating a Path of Resistance?' 
<http://webword.com/moving/path.html> Jonathan Keane 
<http://www.jonk.com> wrote me to say:

  "When I first started working the net, it was an 
  accepted convention that site admins would physically 
  differentiate their resource addresses -- my gopher 
  site would be 'gopher.', my ftp site 'ftp', later my 
  web site would be 'www.'.  That was so that people 
  could tell what was there and so they could tell what 
  app to use to access it.  It wasn't until Netscape 
  1.x that web browsers started to subsume the other 
  functionality and we started to use http://, ftp://, 
  etc. to indicate resource type to the browser.

  I still think that telling everyone that something is 
  a web resource by using 'www.' as the start of the 
  address is a good idea for accessibility/education 
  reasons.  Allowing both at the server _does_ make it 
  easier to be lazy.

  Also, aliasing of the sort you mention does add load 
  to the system.  At a DNS server, it adds and extra 
  lookup and possibly a re-direct.  I have run into 
  ISPs who won't support DNS aliasing because it 
  impairs performance and makes maintenance more 
  complicated.  I have also run into ISPs that charge 
  more for it.  At my proxy server, as far as I can 
  tell, it means that I am storing two copies of 
  the static content from your site, which chews up 
  space and slows my proxy server down.

  BTW, from behind my main and backup ISPs, I can only 
  get to www.dell.com or www.dell.ca, dell.com and 
  dell.ca don't work.

  Anyway, I just want to finish up by thanking you for 
  putting out a very usable bunch of columns!"

Jon, thanks for the feedback.


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ITEM #4

URLs and Signatures in Email: Reader Feedback

Josh Baugher <http://www.acm.vt.edu/~jbaugher/>
sent me the following email signature resource:

--> http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/afw/

Be *sure* to scroll down this page. There are a few
signatures that are too funny and too cool to miss. 
You probably know this, but I should remind you that 
you can substantially increase your web traffic with 
a good signature. With "good" being equal to "usable".

Great resource, thanks Josh!


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ITEM #5

Books I'm Reading

--

Things That Make Us Smart
Donald A. Norman 

"The theme of the book is that technology can indeed 
enhance human intelligence, but only if it is properly 
built to fit human abilities and needs."  

http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201626950/wedwordcom

--

Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Interent
Stephen Segaller 

"Based on four years of research and interviews with 
the founders of the successful companies who started 
in their parents' garages with credit card advances and 
with the venture capitalists who supported them, as 
well as with the unlucky engineers who missed the 
patent deadlines and key phone calls, Stephen Segaller 
tells the human story behind the Internet. "

http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1575001063/wedwordcom

--

Applied XML: A Toolkit for Programmers
Alex Ceponkus and Faraz Hoodbhoy

"You get an in-depth look at how to use the XML 
Document Object Model, the DOM, and techniques for 
leveraging the XML Stylesheet Language, and XSL."

http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471344028/wedwordcom


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ITEM #6

My eBook

I'm putting together an eBook of most of the WebWord
interviews. I'll have it set up so that *you* can sell
the book and earn money as an affiliate. I'm going be
offering a 35-40% commission. 

Details are coming soon. However, if you need more 
details right now, feel free to contact me. My address
is <mailto:john@webword.com>.

By the way, if you are a "real" publisher, or you know
one, I'm interested in turning this into a hardcopy. 
Let me know what you are thinking. Or, pass this 
newsletter on to the person you are thinking about.

Thanks.


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ITEM #7

What Can You Find at WebWord.com?

Articles (Moving WebWord)
<http://webword.com/moving/>

Expert Interviews 
<http://webword.com/interviews/> 

Recommended Books
<http://webword.com/books/booksindex.html>

Newsletter Archive
<http://webword.com/archive>

Usability Reports 
<http://webword.com/reports>

Recommended Web Sites
<http://webword.com/hotsites.html>

Free Stuff
<http://webword.com/freestuff.html>

Friends
<http://webword.com/friends.html>


---- End of WebWord.com Usability Newsletter #32 ------

(c)1998-99 by John S. Rhodes. All rights reserved.

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