January 05, 2006
Pricking the insular tech bubble
Structured blogging - this strikes me as a solution in desperate need of a problem. Well, I know *who* has the problems -- blog search engines, rss aggregators, and the like who are hoping to be able to better define the blog reading experience. But the users definitely don't have the problem -- neither the reader nor the writer is calling out for structured blogging... Are they?
Attention Trust. There's been quite a bit of blog froth about the subject of attention, and the development of Attention Trust, a group dedicated to ensuring that people's attention is appropriately valued. I was hoping I could avoid saying much about it, because it seems like a circle jerk of well-meaning technologists who are totally out of touch with consumer needs. I was dismayed, then, when the otherwise on-the-money Bokardo identified "attention" as a trend to watch in 2006. Dismayed because, frankly, there are much more important problems for designers (and engineers, and, well, anyone) to solve than managing issues of "attention." Attention management is one of those classic problems that direly affects the cognoscenti, and has little impact on the bulk of humanity. There are so many more bigger issues to address -- can we focus our attention (ha!) appropriately?
Adaptive Path Workshops in L.A. Miami, and Seattle
Just a little beginning-of-the-year plugging for some workshops we're doing around the country.
You can receive a 15% discount to any of these workshops by using the promotional code FOPM when you register.
Los Angeles
The two L.A. workshops take place on campus at UCLA. I then encourage attendees to get gutbusting donuts at Stan's in Westwood.January 25
The Elements of User Experience
January 26
Designing and Building with Ajax
