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JJ Garret is an icon in information architecture/information design. His book The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web is one of the clearest explanations of what needs to be done, in what order, and how. If your working on a site then definitely read this one.

Sites used to be on of two kinds, technology driven or designer driven. This resulted in either a convuluted mess for the user or a glossy magazine ad that was interesting only the first time it was encounterd. This book is the antidote to both those types of sites. Highly recommended if your in the “biz”…

Nice to see that Ruby on Rails is getting significant traction. Looks like the BBC is looking to leverage it on their latest skunkworks project. Check it out at: hackdiary: The BBC’s programme catalogue (on Rails)

As I pointed out in this post, the internet is far from dead. The current rage is Web 2.0, become familiar with this term as it will dominate the landscape on the ‘Net for the next few years. Web 2.0 represents a significant paradigm shift. That means new opportunities, new challenges, and a whole lot of work to build business that bring it to the users.

What exactly is Web 2.0? It is radical change on 3 different axes:

• The user and how the user interacts with the internet
• The tools used to develop the sites & how the programmer/designer envisions the site
• The relationship of the site to the rest of the net

The User:

The traditional model of user interaction on the internet is dated. The user requests a page of relatively static content, they read the page and potentially fill in some form details, then submit the page back to the server. The server processes the page and returns the result. Its a request response paradigm that 10 years ago was considered revolutionary, although it was a step back from user interface thinking that existed on the desktop. In certain ways it was and still is a painful step back. Java applets sought to change the landscape but never lived up to the promise. Flash has made some in-roads but also presents some real issues for users & site builders.

Web 2.0 helps solve the problem through a new user interface model based on AJAX (asynchronous javascript and xml). Ajax represents a return to more robust user interfaces. GMail, Google maps, Basecamp, Housing Maps etc… are all based on the Ajax model. Users will be pleased, money will be made. Any VC with an interest in future directions is putting money into companies leveraging the Ajax model. Using the Ajax model, instead of waiting for the user to submit the page back to the server, AJAX leverages javascript and XML to submit the changes behind the scenes and then update the user interface in real time. The net result is a more responsive and interactive user experience. Yea!

The Tools & Techniques:

Web 2.0 also represents a rise of new programming languages & new techniques. The programming languages that dominate the Ajax world are Python, Ruby, and the old stalwart Perl. Dynamic languages are at the forefront, languages that get out of the programmer’s way and provide a productivity boost. Java and C# are definitely coming up strong and will/are there as well. PHP is not standing still either. Design is also changing significantly and thankfully. Instead of creating great magazine ads on the internet designers are really starting to understand the internet and create truly useful and beautiful software.

Using XML to communicate back to the server forces the programming to think of providing the site’s functionality as discrete lightweight web services. This is great because it really opens up the third component, the relationship of the site to the rest of the internet.

The Relationship of the site to the rest of the net:

Web 2.0 improves the user interface experience of the user dramatically, a big win. Web 2.0 has a much bigger win in store for everyone, exponential value creation through the network effect. Using the new tools and techniques of the Web 2.0 crowd gives a site really two faces, an end-user interface but also (and perhaps more importantly) a programmatic interface. It makes it easy for third parties to build ontop of your site to provide some new and unthought of service. Linkages of functionality are created by different parties (aka mashups) on the internet that may not even know each other. Look at Housing Maps, they are leveraging google’s maps and craig’s list to provide a profoundly useful service.

There will be (and is) alot of resistance in allowing this type of thing to occur from the entrenched behemoths. But as google and yahoo and others take a visionary position and the value becomes apparent more and more of those resisting will open up their services. And as more open up the network effect will really kick in, Metcalfe postulated that the value of these types of linkages will increase proportionally to the square of the number of linkages. Wow, that is alot of latent value creation waiting to be unleashed with web 2.0.

 Tim O’Reilly has a great post all about Web 2.0, check it out.

Technorati Tags : web2.0, internet, oreilly

Digg is a great way to keep in touch with the latest emerging memes, check it out at http://digg.com

Let’s face it, TV is dying. That morass of crap is slowly but surely becoming irrelevant, good riddance I say. I recently heard a statistic that soap operas are experiencing an amazing drop in viewer-ship and the entire tv industry was puzzled. That’s right, they are puzzled why they are losing viewers and are befuddled how to deal with it.

Slowly but surely I can honestly say I watch nearly no traditional TV today, I urge you to do the same, its not hard at all, try it for a week. I also make frequent use of my netflix account and always have some sort of theme going (right now I’m obsessing over 70’s film noir).

That said, Frontline continues to be the best thing around. Much like the BBC, the public broadcast corporations are taking the lead in creating quality programming for the thinking man. Here is a smattering of recent Frontlines:

A Jew among the Germans

The New Asylums

Death of a Princess

I was stunned at the quality and depth of these reports. PBS also posts the reports online, sidestepping the entire copyright debate and focusing on the viewer. That’s right you can view a frontline whenever you have a moment. Go enjoy classics like “The Farmer’s Wife” or “Memory of the Camps”, be amazed at the true power that media can have. Somewhat different than reality crap they try to spoon feed us these days.

PBS is not alone; the BBC has done an amazing job in opening up its archives to a viewing public online.

These institutions should be applauded for daring to tread where modern corporations refuse.

Zen Gardens are beautiful creations. They exude tranquility and serenity, take a tour online.

Wow, amazing….

Most amazing, many years after the Be OS, we finally have…..

Arbitrarily Extensible File System Metadata

Wow, Apple did it. They did it on HFS+. Wow…..

Spotlight absolutely rocks on so many levels, yeah what it does is very cool, but the technical details in implementation are astounding…

I am gonna have fun playing with this….

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I know the guys at UpTo11.net and they are probably some of the most innovative bunch of guys imaginable. Their new site is simply the most amazing music recommendation engine, its at UpTo11.net. It seems to be using some interesting techniques to recommend artists based on artists you search one. The engine works great, I really am amazed, very nice job guys. It seems to have me pegged perfectly. If you haven’t been there, get there now. It just made del.icio.us most popular link of the day, its that good!

How well do its recommendations work? Good question. I love underground and obscure music. There is something about it. I hate alot of the overproduced crap coming out of the music industry these days, but that obscure stuff is sometimes just amazing. The last couple of months I’ve been really obsessing over Bill Frisell’s Gone Like A Train. It really is an awesome album by an incredible jazz artist, and the perfect acid test to see if upto11 could really recommend some artists I know and don’t know. Now here is the amazing thing, pop that into the UpTo11.net search engine and lo and behold, up comes Dave Holland, another ass kicking jazz artist I’ve been enjoying. There is also a boatload of other interesting artists I plan on exploring. I love this, its sort of an exploration of musical space with concrete suggestions.

Now, you put in a jazz artist and out comes a jazz artist, ok not that great right? Well, it actually goes way beyong that. African blues artist Ali Farke Toure, another artist in heavy ipod rotation, is also there. Toure isn’t a jazz guy, he does Mali blues (which if you haven’t heard you should particularly if you like american blues, it is amazing). Somehow or other the UpTo11.net engine figured out they go together well. I could have told you that, but how did they do it?

Ok, next I figure I would get even more obscure, Old Crow Medicine Show (OCMS) has also made it into heavy rotation. Their song Wagon Wheel is amazing, I had a chance to see Norah Jones cover it at Irving Plaza (that was amazing). Now, consider yourself warned, OCMS is bluegrass. Yes hillbilly music, and just plain fun! I’ve been going through a bluegrass phase and enjoying a whole bunch of artists. It is kind of hard to figure out where to go next, but upto11 has already pointed me in some interesting and suprising directions. Spend some time with it, you will enjoy it. It also has this killer feature where it links ot wikipedia entries for the artists. I love the wikipedia and have blogged about it before. This is so freaking cool, I applaud them for doing that stuff.

I’ll be exploring the engine and the site over the next few weeks and tell you how the recommendations have panned out. I can’t wait to see what new musical realms it takes me too. Another absolutely brilliant effort by some really good friends!

Microsoft dipping its toes into the social networking/lifehacking/wiki/full-buzzword-compliance phenomena? If your in the beta and can invite please feel free to invite me…

Check it out at Wallop!

If you haven’t had a chance to checkout Google Maps head right on over and have some fun. Its another real interesting head-turning google application. Google is getting closer and closer to desktop app feels with these things, of course the data they contain blows away anything a desktop app could do…