Your Attention.xml Please

If you haven’t heard me proclaim, “RSS killed the visual web designer”, now you have.

Quickly stated, RSS is a structured format for distributing text, audio (podcasting), video (vlogging), even applications in a convenient and anonymous way.

For the publisher, RSS means the timeliness of email without the worry about spam filtering. For the reader, RSS means the convenience of email with the anonymity of a web page.

The downside is metrics.

Measuring behavior on websites is always nebulous. Robots, routers, giant ISPs can all throw off numbers. For publishers RSS doesn’t really help this problem. For readers, there’s a slightly different problem – once you’ve aggregated your 200 favorite websites into a single place, what do you pay attention to.

Cody and I have been talking about Attention.xml solving the both problems.

I’m interested in how Attention.xml can tighten the publisher-reader relationship and help readers share what’s interesting to them with friends. While also giving Cody and I better numbers on our respective podcasts.

More thoughts and prototypes on this later.

Minneapolis Scobleized

Tim, Cody, Chuck and I grabbed a drink with Robert Scoble tonight. And I also met local open source CMS developer Tim Broeke from ElectricJet.

If you’re finger isn’t on the pulse of weblogs, Scoble is Microsoft’s überblogger. He was in town to start a conversation with Target. I applaud Target for this.

There are only a handful of companies people feel really passionate about. So passionate you don’t want them to get started (yeah, like me with weblogs and podcasts). These are companies that would have to do something really, really stupid for their impassioned customers to blink.

Target is one of those companies.

Jen is one of those customers. She knows Target’s different layouts. We get the Sunday Star Tribune for the Target flyer. There was a moment of silence in our house when T-1 was demo’d. I’ve talked to a number of others around the US, just as passionate.

To me, companies with a customer base this passionate are obligated to cultivate an intimate conversation. Whether this is weblogging, in its many forms, or some other community-building technique, I think that’s up for discussion and experimentation.

As always, I look forward to seeing the fruit of whatever seeds Scoble planted.

What else isn’t a crime?

On the 40 acres of rural Wisconsin farmland I grew up on, I build a skateboard mini-ramp. Southern California skateboard and BMX stunt culture was injected into my world of cows and cornfields on a monthly basis via the USPS and magazines like Thrasher, Slap, Freestylin’.

Throughout those magazines was the Skateboarding is not a crime vibe. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, all the propaganda you need. Not that I was ever going to be hassled for skating in my backyard, there was something compelling about that mantra. That despite the vandalism skateboarding can cause, it’s just like basketball or tennis. You know, not a crime.

I spent this afternoon reviewing content for a client. In it, “a speeding ticket is not a crime.” It made me compare the 2 statements. Both are dangerous, both can damage property – personal and public. Yet, one is spoken as a persuasive argument and one is a statement of legal fact.

What if the sentiments were swapped?

Learning Ruby – Day 14

Day 14 – Blocks, Procs, and the Others

I get it. Seven pages into Day 14 trying to figure out what other meant in Slagell’s examples and it clicks.

In other languages I’m familiar with (Applescript, PHP, Perl, REALbasic) variables are passed through methods. Example if we have a method that’s friendly,

function SayHiTo($name) {
print "Hi, " . $name;
}

and we tell it our name, SayHiTo("Garrick");
The resulting would be Hi, Garrick.

Fairly straight forward. In Ruby-land, not only can we pass whole objects (or close enough) we can also access the methods within those objects.

Slagell’s other is this object. Pretty cool. Pretty useful.

I say this hesitantly, Ruby is the programming language I’ve always wanted.

In other languages, when it’s difficult to do something (pass an object through a method) it’s usually because it’s a BadThingToDo. At this point, I’m a bit skeptical of Ruby’s simplicity and ease.

The Macintosh made bad graphic design real easy, the web made bad publishing real easy. REALbasic made bad programming real easy. Does Ruby do the same or is there something in Ruby preventing this?

I sure hope for the latter.

This post documents my journey through Sam’s Teach Yourself Ruby in 21 days. I’ll be joining Al Abut in his effort to learn Ruby and blog along the way.

The Power of Podcasting 1: The Voice in My Head is Yours

I was reading Scripting news when it I noticed it. The words I was reading were spoken by Dave Winer.

I’ve never met Dave. Something I’d like to do, but all the same, I’ve never met him. I’ve only listened to his podcasts (which continue to explore the bounds of this new audio form). From his podcasts, I have a place in my brain for Dave’s cadence, his inflections, his pronunciation, his personality.

In my head, the words I read are always spoken by The Voice of the Author. Some archetypical voice without a name or face. Reading Scripting news this morning, it was Dave speaking. His voice reading the words back.

Behold, the power of podcasting.

What is Failure?

The other day, I was talking with a software engineer about a potential project. During the conversation, he asked if I was ever on a project that failed.

“Failed?”

I’ve worked on thousands of projects and given that more than 50% of project fail. I asked for a definition.

“The project didn’t launch,” he responded.

Given the complexity of even the simplest project, software or otherwise, it still seems like an odd question. The gestation of any project requires a commitment of time and effort – at any point, some external force could (and frequently does) warrant an end to the project. An engineer at Edward’s Air Force base even declared this a phenomenon a law.

All this assumes the project was a good idea to begin with. I’ve been on projects where it became very clear the project was doomed. Bad idea from the outset. It just took a little while to figure out exactly why.

Is this failure? I don’t think so. Especially if “failure” was found quickly. In the long run, stopping a project mid-stream saves time, effort, and probably a reputation or two. The trouble comes in when, despite all the red flags, the project continues onward. Unstoppable, yet acutely aware of the impending demise.

Measuring a success by whether or not a project saw the light of day is like judging how good your day was based on the thermostat reading. It’s just one of many factors.

I think a more interesting question would be, “Have you ever been on a project that succeeded.”

ELSEWHERE 28 Dec 2007:

Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding.” – Burt Rutan

The Elmer’s Glue of Home Improvement

This weekend, Jen’s parents came by to help us finish some projects around the house. The projects we’ve procrastinated for a year now and just needed a dedicated time to complete.

The list included:

  • Install crown molding in the bedroom
  • Repair and paint walls in the hall closet
  • Repair and paint walls in the hallway to the upstairs
  • Make a plan for the landscaping the yard

The work went surprisingly quick. I attribute the speed to liberal use of the Loctite Power Grab construction adhesive Jen’s parents with them and her dad being an expert crown molder.

Power Grab is like Elmer’s glue for weekend warriors. We smeared it on the wall, massaged the molding into place, then started nailing. Sure beats holding a 13-foot board above your head while someone’s wailing on it with a hammer.

At some point I’m sure it’ll come in handy for landscaping – just not this weekend.