WebWord.com Newsletter Issue #58

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ISSUE #58

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                WebWord.com Newsletter
           "Industrial Strength Usability"
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                 Newsletter Editor
                   John S. Rhodes 
                     John@webword.com
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June 10, 2001                       Newsletter #58
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Table of Contents

1.  DarWindow: A Huge Opportunity
2.  The Four Horsemen of Usability
3.  The WebWord Content Management System
4.  Care to Invest in Usability?
5.  Xanga!
6.  Reflections on Open Source
7.  WebWord Reader Mail
8.  Interesting Stuff
9.  WebWord Discussions
10. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?

       
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ITEM #1

DarWindow: A Huge Opportunity

About a month ago, in the previous newsletter, I told you about my secret
project (DarWindow). I'm happy to say that we have made incredible
progress. 

DarWindow is a technology that allows you to know what other folks are
viewing on the web. You can see what people are viewing based on their
general interests (e.g., sports, technology, health), or their profession.
You can see all of this in real time! 

DarWindow is a tool that generates an online community based on actual
user activity. That is in contrast to being fed what companies and the
media want you to read. While you might see a lot of the same material
that you would find through those sources, there is a difference with
DarWindow. You know that you are seeing web sites based on a trusted
source: Everyone! The web sites you see through DarWindow are the ones
that are recently visited, and the ones that are visited often. 

DarWindow is totally anonymous. You do not specify your name, address,
email, or anything else. You merely indicate your general interests and
your profession. The tool takes care of the rest. I'm being extremely safe
about how the tool treats your privacy. I simply cannot collect any
personal data.

As you can tell, I have kept out many of the details of DarWindow because
I need to be safe. Also, we are still beta testing the tool. 

What is next? Well, I have been weighing many options. First, I've been
thinking about how to roll DarWindow out to the world. Second, I've been
thinking about how to extend the power of the tool. Third, I have been
thinking about how to find a business partner. There is a HUGE opportunity
here. Let me explore this idea some more.

I am looking for a company that could use my technology. There are many
scenarios. A software company could buy the technology and build it into
their product line. A media company could buy the technology and sell the
data that it collects. They could feed the data to other media and
reporting companies. A security company could buy the technology, tweak
it, and use it to collect data on user activity inside companies as part a
network monitoring suite. There are many possibilities. 

So, I am asking for your help. If you are seriously interested in this
technology, please let me know. Or, if you work for a company that might
benefit from this technology, send me a note. I'm looking for a partner. I
think that I willing to sell the technology, if the benefit is there.

Thank you!

- John

p.s. Over 4,100 subscribers. Wow!

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability
http://webword.com
john@webword.com
607-427-WORD (9673)



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ITEM #2

A new WebWord.com article is now online:
--> http://webword.com/moving/fourhorsemen.html


"The Four Horsemen of Usability"

As of June 2001, four web properties control more than 50% of all the time
spent online by U.S. surfers. This means that you can throw away your
usability guidelines and follow these companies. They spend millions on
usability testing and they are driving standards by sheer market force.
You have no choice but to follow their lead.


You can read the new article here:
--> http://webword.com/moving/fourhorsemen.html



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ITEM #3

A new WebWord.com article is now online:
--> http://webword.com/moving/webwordcms.html


"The WebWord Content Management System"

The WebWord content management system is not technical, it is human. In
fact, the technology is minimal and the web site works because a human
understands and maintains the content using very simple tools. While this
approach consumes a lot of time, it is simple and cost effective. Small
and medium web sites can get along without using content management
systems.

 
You can read the new article here:
--> http://webword.com/moving/webwordcms.html



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ITEM #4

A new WebWord.com guest article is now online:
--> http://webword.com/moving/harrison001.html


"Care to Invest in Usability?"

This is an article by guest author Nick Harrison. The basic idea is that
usability is important in investing, in at least two ways. First, if a web
site stinks, then people are probably less likely to buy stock in that
company. Who really knows by how much? Second, making financial decisions
is difficult. It is difficult because usability is poor.

By the way, Nick is from the UK so his perspective is perhaps a bit
different than you might expect. I know that many WebWord readers are from
the United States, so this article might be especially interesting. 

 
You can read the new article here:
--> http://webword.com/moving/harrison001.html



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ITEM #5

Xanga!

Trying to communicate with group of people using email is painful. If
every person wants to speak to every other person, things get very messy.
This is true even with small groups.

In the last two months I have been corresponding a lot with two of my
longtime friends via email. While this might seem fine, it became quite a
pain. We were trying to carry on a three way conversation and it just
wasn't working. 

I thought about how to solve this problem. I hit on an obvious solution:
Build a discussion board. I looked around for an exact technical solution
but I couldn't find anything that was totally easy and free.

Then, I had another idea. What if I created a weblog and then passed
around the username and password to my two friends? Then, we could all
easily post our ideas, thoughts, and notes. Using this technique really
seemed like a good idea. 

So, I hunted around and found Xanga. It is a very good weblog tool. It is
free and easy to use. It also offers a nice upgrade path if the weblog
grows and you want to add more power and functionality. All in all, Xanga
was the best weblog development tool I could find given my situation. 

Xanga is also set up so that members can refer other people and earn a
small commission if they upgrade to the premium service. In other words,
they have an easy to use affiliate program. Perfect! Below is my link to
Xanga. If you have been thinking about setting up a weblog, give it a try. 

Note: You will see the FREE Xanga Classic signup link at the bottom of the
page.

http://xanga.com/about/premium/LearnMore.asp?refid=33613

Please let me know what you think.



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ITEM #6

Reflections on Open Source

Every once in a while I post something to Slashdot, a wwe site that is
mainly for computer geeks. The emphasis is on things like Linux, computer
security, and bashing Microsoft.

I recently wrote a long posting about Open Source. Here are some of my
thoughts:

"Second, Open Source is not a business philosophy. Therefore, it also does
not compete against Microsoft. I thought it did, but it can't. Open Source
is a philosophy with business implications, but it is not strictly a
business model. Therefore, if you hear that Open Source is fighting
Microsoft, you are hearing lies."

"Seventh, Microsoft is defending its pocketbook. It is fighting for itself
and it is fighting for its stockholders. There are thousands of people,
outside of Microsoft, that want Microsoft to do well. How many Open Source
folks own Microsoft stock? Some percentage of people do, either directly
or via mutual funds. You cast stones, but are you hoping they miss?"

Here is a link to my posting:
>> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=01/05/29/2240253&cid=276


Note: My posting isn't perfect, but I think I make some valid points. Are
you curious about Open Source? Learn more!

>> http://www.opensource.org/

>> http://sourceforge.net/

>> http://www.osdn.com/history/

>> http://oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html



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ITEM #7

WebWord Reader Mail

I've been trying to post more reader email on WebWord. Plenty of smart
people read WebWord and they have some very interesting things to say.
Below are two samples. Enjoy!


"What really amuses me though is that many of the people opposed to
European federalism are staunchly pro-American. But the USA is a federal
system. Does a Texan feel he's lost his Texan identity because he's
governed by a federal government in Washington? Or a Floridan or
Californian or whatever? Of course not, and we'd be in exactly the same
position if Europe became more closely integrated."

>> http://webword.com/readers/fisher2.txt


"Surely you know that huge companies have come and gone throughout the
previous century. I don't know the statistics but isn't GE the only
company (or one of the last ones) to survive from the top 100 from a
century ago? Microsoft, of course, is dominant now, but even they must
struggle with changes in technology to remain that way. And to do it, they
must provide products that serve the marketplace (yes, we can argue about
the relative merits of their products)." 

>> http://webword.com/readers/noonan.txt



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ITEM #8

Interesting Stuff

Here are some things that I thought you might enjoy. I pulled these from
my daily weblog entries. Remember that I update WebWord just about every
day. Be sure to visit to get the latest usability news.


PDF Search Engine
>> http://searchpdf.adobe.com/
	

Search Engine Tips
>> http://webmonkey.com/01/23/index1a.html
	

Lorem ipsum Generator 
>> http://subterrane.com/loremipsum.shtml


WinAmp and Shoutcast
>> http://shoutcast.com/


On the trail of Evan Chan		
>> http://www.writetheweb.com/read.php?item=110


Coolsig 
>> http://www.coolsig.com/

 

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ITEM #9

WebWord Discussions

I've been trying to make WebWord a bit more interactive. I found a great
tool that allows me to build a discussion page in less than twenty seconds
(seriously). Below are some of the discussion I have started:

--

Internet Memories

"Don't ever neglect the power of history. There is much to be learned by
going back in time. Capture the feelings that you had when you first saw
the web. Think about your first email message. What is the first thing you
remember about the internet? Talk about it!"

>> http://quicktopic.com/7/H/VG4VVw2R4GSqq

--

Microsoft Branding

"Did you ever notice that people often say 'Microsoft' before Microsoft's
products? For example, people often say Microsoft Word versus just plain
Word. People do this all of the time: Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft
Access, Microsoft Project. I hear it all of the time. Not always, but
quite often. Contrast this with Oracle. I don't hear people say Oracle
Cache Fusion. They just say Cache Fusion. Same with IBM. People don't say
IBM AS/400 , they just say AS/400. I know that I am not entirely correct
and that they are exceptions (e.g., people mainly just say Internet
Explorer), but I think I have a point. What do you think?"

>> http://quicktopic.com/7/H/jJqYWds43ThZm

--

Open Source and Usability

"I guess my next question would be this: What is the low-hanging fruit?
What Open Source project(s) would benefit most from usability, with the
least effort? I'd love to hear the answers from both the usability
community and the Open Source community."

>> http://www.quicktopic.com/7/H/3Sv2UXKjdEkh 



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ITEM #10
    
What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


WebWord.com Services
>> http://webword.com/services/index.html

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

Weblog Archive
>> http://www.webword.com/weblog

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

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



----- End of WebWord.com Usability Newsletter #58 -----

      (c)2001 by WebWord.com and John S. Rhodes. 
                 All rights reserved.

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