beatnic - just wondering

Are you involved in intranet (in its broadest possible definition) content, design, management, publishing, thinking, consultancy, evaluation or strategy?

What’s on your reading list?

I’ll kick off with my blog subscriptions tagged “intranet” in google reader (view posts/subscribe to this list):

• Column Two - James Robertson in Australia, who is also behind the Intranet Innovation Awards.
• Currybetdotnet - Martin Belam, who I first met and worked with at the BBC when he helped us with our intranet search strategy back in 2002.
• Dilbert - keeps me sane.
• FastForward - stuff on so-called “Enterprise 2.0″.
• Globally local - locally global - Jane McConnell in France. Useful international and strategic perspectives. Annual global survey giving excellent insight and evidence if anyone needs to build a business case for an intranet.
• InfoDesign: Understanding by design - digest of design-related posts and articles (including interaction design, user experience design and information architecture) compiled by Peter J. Bogaards.
• Inside out - A relative newcomer to the intranet blogging scene and a must-read from Richard Dennison at BT.
• Intranet Blog - Toby Ward in Canada. Has worked with numerous companies and seen a lot of intranets - useful case studies and advice on avoiding common pitfalls.
• IBF Blog - Rotating bloggers on a monthly basis offering insight and analysis from research and evaluations of dozens of company intranets. [I wear an occasional Intranet Benchmarking Forum hat]
• Is this wisdom - Richard Hare on networking and sharing ideas.
• Learning Trends - Elliott Masie’s newsletter on the world of learning, work and technology.
• New Thinking by Gerry McGovern - killer content and the long neck.
• The Obvious? - Euan Semple, who started the BBC’s internal blogs, wikis, discussion forum, profile pages long before anyone was talking about Enterprise 2.0 or other such neologisms. Thought-provoking ideas and ruminations on social media, the internet, society and work.
• Signal vs. Noise - The blog from 37 signals makers of Basecamp and other useful, usable and desirable web apps.
• Webcredibles - Accessible writing on accessibility.

This gives me a manageable amount of info and insight and points to other conversations going on that are relevant too.

It’s difficult deciding what to tag “intranet” and what to tag “intranet-related” - as Richard Dennison asks what is an intranet after all?

I’ve tagged quite a lot, including the frequently updating news-based sources, as intranet-related to try to see the wood for the trees as it were.

Right, wrong, good, bad? Too introspective? What’s missing? What do you recommend?

These are the text message (SMS) templates that came with my phone:

1. I am late. I will be there at
2. I’m at home. Please call
3. I’m at work. Please call
4. I’m in a meeting, call me later at
5. I will be arriving at
6. Meeting is cancelled.
7. Please call
8. See you at
9. See you in
10. Sorry, I can’t help you on this.

I’ve never used them. I’m not sure I ever will.

“Sorry, I can’t help you on this.” Seriously!

I mean they all seem to be written in some strange language from a bygone era. For starters they all have complete words and correctly used punctuation.

It got me wondering what templates you’d end up with if you went round asking people what text messages they send the most.

• Accountant
• Articled clerk of a limited company
• Assurance agent of recognised company
• Bank/building society official
• Barrister
• British Computer Society (BCS) - Professional grades which are Associate (AMBCS), Member (MBCS), Fellow (FBCS) (PN 25/2003)
• Broker
• Chairman/director of limited company
• Chemist
• Chiropodist
• Christian Science practitioner
• Commissioner of oaths
• Councillor: local or county
• Civil servant (permanent)
• Dentist
• Designated Premises Supervisors
• Director/Manager of a VAT registered Charity
• Director/Manager/Personnel Officer of a VAT registered Company
• Engineer (with professional qualifications)
• Fire service official
• Funeral director
• Insurance agent (full time) of a recognised company
• Journalist
• Justice of the Peace
• Legal secretary (members and fellows of the Institute of legal secretaries)
• Local government officer
• Manager/Personnel officer (of limited company)
• Member of Parliament
• Merchant Navy officer
• Minister of a recognised religion
• Nurse (SRN and SEN)
• Officer of the armed services (active or retired)
• Optician
• Person with honours (e.g. OBE MBE etc.)
• Personal Licensee Holders
• Photographer (professional)
• Police officer
• Post Office official
• President/Secretary of a recognised organisation
• Salvation Army officer
• Social worker
• Solicitor
• Surveyor
• Teacher, lecturer
• Trade union officer
• Travel agency (qualified)
• Valuers and auctioneers (fellow and associate members of the incorporated society)
• Warrant officers and Chief Petty Officers

This is the list of acceptable countersignatures on the Passport Service website.

edublogs: Six points for organisations entering the Live Web.

Interesting post by Ewan McIntosh. Via Nick Reynolds at work.

Delicious seems to have stopped posting my bookmarks across on to this website, so here are a few recent additions:

• Should Designers and Developers Do Usability? (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox) to usability webdesign roles … saved by 38 other people … 1 day ago
• BBC NEWS |UK | ‘Most dangerous’ roads revealed to A682 yorkshiredales longpreston roads safety … saved by 3 other
  people … 2 days ago
• Community Kit for SharePoint - Home to sharepoint cks blogs wikis communitykit … saved by 51 other people … 2 days ago
• Wired Science - Wired Blogs “Yes Men Strike Oil: Civil Disobedients Make Modest Flesh-to-Fuel Proposal” - as my friend another Paul says serious/funny. to yesmen prank politics activism environment … saved by 52 other people … 3 days ago
• Epicenter - Wired Blogs “Dismantling the Media With the BBC’s News Director, Richard Sambrook” - David Weinberger interview to BBC news richardsambrook davidweinberger interview viaeuan … saved by 19 other people … 3 days ago
• Dulwich Rhino Run - Event Details - Runner’s World Tuesday 3 July, 7pm 10 miler to Dulwich running London dulwichrhinorun … 4 days ago
• Face-off | Media | MediaGuardian.co.uk to facebook bbc guardian … saved by 6 other people … on june 19

I saw that David Cameron fellow riding his bike to work down Constitution Hill this morning on my cycle commute to White City. He appeared to have a bit of an entourage and wasn’t wearing a cycle helmet. When I mentioned this to a friend at work he suggested he didn’t need a cycle helmet with all that protection around him.

Meanwhile, it’s good to see something being done by the Evening Standard to help London’s cyclists… (of course, this doesn’t have to be limited to London)

Evening Standard’s 12-point charter

1. A real cycle network across London
2. Better cycle lanes with proper segregation
3. Enforcement of special advanced stop lines for cyclists
4. HGVs to be fitted with special cyclist safety mirrors
5. Compulsory cyclist awareness training for all bus drivers and new HGV drivers
6. Make safe the Thames bridges: some of the most dangerous places for cyclists
7. Cycle-friendly streets: fewer one-way systems which funnel cyclists into the middle of traffic
8. More cycle parking across London
9. A police crackdown on bike theft
10. Campaign to urge the selfemployed to claim a 20p a mile cycling allowance against tax
11. Better cycle-bus-rail coordination: adequate parking at all railway stations
12. Cycle training for all schoolchildren and any adult who wants it

Nigel tagged me a wee while ago and I’ve finally had a moment to respond.

Here are a few things I do to keep fit:

• Running - it’s my Dad’s fault, and it’s his Dad’s fault! There’s nothing quite like it for clearing my mind. The more undulating the better… the Yorkshire Dales and the eastern Pyrennees are perfect, and East Dulwich and surrounding area has plenty to offer too.
• Cycling - to work - it’s a 12 mile journey each way and I’m managing about 6 journeys out of 10 a week at the moment.
• Not using lifts and walking up escalators - there are 124 steps at Elephant & Castle, down in the morning, up in the evening. When I’m not cycling of course.
• Walking - what better way to get to know somewhere than to have time to stop every now and then and look up.

Every now and then I read something that seems to coincide with my life so perfectly I imagine there must be an Amélie-like character who has placed it in my path.

This is certainly true of John Maeda’s book The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life).

Maeda is a world-renowned graphic designer, visual artist and computer scientist at the MIT Media Lab.

At work we have a big simplicity theme going on at the moment which I’m closely involved in. The book is the perfect reference for this work.

On a personal note I found it covers themes which are incredibly important to me in the way I work and think as a technologist, designer and facilitator and also in my non-work life.

There are ten laws. If you’re really pushed for time the tenth law “The One” summarises them all:

Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.

The book is deliberately 100 pages long. Just knowing that when you’re reading it is reassuring and offers a feeling of simplicity in itself.

I must admit I enjoyed the book so much I broke the third law immediately by taking my time to ponder the content.

There’s a great explanation of how the iPod became more complex before it became simpler, like so many other things in life!

Maeda also covers Gestalt, one of my favourite subjects, and how it helps when designing and understanding design.

If you don’t want to buy the book, much of the information in the book is available on Maeda’s Laws of Simplicity blog, though I find the fact that the book packages the ideas and is itself simply designed means it works much better for me.

I’ve been tagged by Nigel Paine and Martin Belam - so here goes…

Five things you might not know about me:

1. I went to nine nurseries/schools including O Pequeno Principe (The Little Prince) nursery in Brazil and the Junior English School in Rome, Italy.
2. At Southampton University I was the long-haired lead singer in a band called SINS (which stood for Suck It ’N See!). Our biggest gig was in front of 1500 people celebrating Chamberlain Hall’s 10th “Bar Birthday”
3. Both my ears are pierced.
4. In 1992 I was Office Angel of the Month while temping at South London Dial-a-ride. The office postcode was SW19 8UG - I told them the mnemonic was “Swig bug” and that’s how they remembered their postcode from then on. I don’t think it’s connected to the Angel award.
5. I broke my nose doing the high jump. I was 15 years old and representing my school at an athletics meeting. I cleared the bar (1.58m) but had to pull out. My record was 1.78m which was also the school record for a short time. I also did 110 metre hurdles, javelin, 800 metres and 1500 metres.

And they are:

Allianz Australia Insurance, Australia
ALTANA Pharma AG, Germany
Bank of Ireland Group, Ireland
Capital One, USA
IBM, USA
Merrill Lynch, USA
METRO Group, Germany
O2, UK
Staples, USA
Vodafone, UK

Summary:
This year, we saw increased use of multimedia, e-learning, internal blogs, and mobile access. Winning companies also encouraged consistent design by emphasizing training for content contributors.

Read more on Jakob Nielsen’s useit.com

Congrats to all winners.

It would be useful to know how many entrants there were, I couldn’t see that info available, maybe I missed it.

Five email tics I’d love for you to lose

For the love of God, people; can we get the word out on these? Format courtesy of my other site.

1. The liberal use of the “VERY HIGH PRIORITY!!!” flag
2. The 18-line sig about all the Bad Things that will happen to me if I ever reveal the contents of your privileged, confidential (and unencrypted) message
3. The unrequested press release (and the serial ignoring of the “Unsubscribe” I sent you for the previous seven press releases)
4. The graphical background, font and table tags, and remaining 14k of HTML cruft associated with every. single. message. you’ve ever sent
5. The including of my — plus 98 other strangers’ — personal email addresses in the “To:” line of your friendly reminder about Tyler’s birthday party

Friend: I love you, but you must evolve.

From Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders blog

To which I’d immediately add:

• FYI with no explanation why
• Really huge attachments where the content is just text
• Misuse of the CC line - do I need to read this or not?

And many many more…

Here’s my memory’s version of what I’ve just discovered after a Google search for n for lope is called the Cockney Alphabet, but should surely be called the Al for Bet.

We used to have fun trying to remember these or making them up on car journeys when I was growing up. Some of them are pretty tenuous!

A for Gardener
B for Mutton
C for Miles
D for Mation
E for Brick
F for Vescence
G for Horse
H for Retirement
I for The Engine
J for Oranges
K for Teria
L for Leather
M for Sis
N for Lope
O for The Hill
P for England
Q for A Bus
R for Daley
S for Rantzen
T for Two
U for Mism
V for La France
W for Quits
X for Breakfast
Y for Runts
Z for Breezes

1. Using a shredder. It’s very cathartic!
2. Regularly transferring my ideas and actions from my PocketMod and emailing them to myself.

PocketMod, my new PDA!

3 things that cross over between my work and my life:

• A desire to understand how things work. (What goes on under the bonnet? What do they feel like to use? What’s the story behind the design?)
• Using technology to help connect people with each other and with information
• My love of language(s)

Not to be confused with “work-life balance”.

1. The Killers - Hot Fuss
   Massive tracks - remind me of The Cure, The Psychedelic Furs and U2

2. Athlete - Tourist
   Deptford’s Coldplay (ducks for cover)

3. Hothouse Flowers - Home
   Probably more famous for their 1980s hit “Don’t Go” from a different album. “I can see clearly now” and “Movies”, two tracks back to back in the middle of this album take me back to my days at Southampton University in 1988-1990.

4. Supergrass - In It For The Money
   Saw them play live at an Xfm gig in Islington last year - very energetic that Gaz Coombes

5. Jack Dee - Live (somewhere)…
   Free with the Observer a few months ago. Funny bloke.

6. Norah Jones - Feels Like Home
   Soothing stuff

7. U2 - How to dismantle an atomic bomb
   Large

8. Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
   I like the piano in clocks

9. Empty slot for some reason

10. Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters
    My two-year old son always requests this one

I really must get an MP3 player…

What 43 things would you really like to do?

Share them with the world.

And find out who else wants to do them too :)

This week a hugely important UN-backed report, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was published about how rapidly we’re destroying our planet.

It’s four main findings are:

• Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively in the last 50 years than in any other period. This was done largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. More land was converted to agriculture since 1945 than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined. More than half of all the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, first made in 1913, ever used on the planet has been used since 1985. Experts say that this resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in diversity of life on Earth, with some 10 to 30 percent of the mammal, bird and amphibian species currently threatened with extinction.
• Ecosystem changes that have contributed substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development have been achieved at growing costs in the form of degradation of other services. Only four ecosystem services have been enhanced in the last 50 years: increases in crop, livestock and aquaculture production, and increased carbon sequestration for global climate regulation. Two services – capture fisheries and fresh water – are now well beyond levels that can sustain current, much less future, demands. Experts say that these problems will substantially diminish the benefits for future generations.
• The degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this century and is a barrier to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals. In all the four plausible futures explored by the scientists, they project progress in eliminating hunger, but at far slower rates than needed to halve number of people suffering from hunger by 2015. Experts warn that changes in ecosystems such as deforestation influence the abundance of human pathogens such as malaria and cholera, as well as the risk of emergence of new diseases. Malaria, for example, accounts for 11 percent of the disease burden in Africa and had it been eliminated 35 years ago, the continent’s gross domestic product would have increased by $100 billion.
• The challenge of reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting increasing demands can be met under some scenarios involving significant policy and institutional changes. However, these changes will be large and are not currently under way. The report mentions options that exist to conserve or enhance ecosystem services that reduce negative trade-offs or that will positively impact other services. Protection of natural forests, for example, not only conserves wildlife but also supplies fresh water and reduces carbon emissions.

“The over-riding conclusion of this assessment is that it lies within the power of human societies to ease the strains we are putting on the nature services of the planet, while continuing to use them to bring better living standards to all,” said the MA board of directors [...]

Worrying stuff, but we can do something about it.

It reminded me of a book called Change the World for a Fiver by the We Are What We Do movement. I like the way the graphic design in the book makes me stop and ponder the messages for longer than I might do otherwise.

If you want to know more, have a look at the We Are What We Do website

Why not buy the book right now (or buy several and give them to your friends)?

A piece in today’s Guardian Online lists some of the web’s top search engines as a “new search war breaks out”

I’ve set them up below for easy access.

The groupings are taken from the paper version of the Guardian. (One or two missing from the original list until I have time to get them to work)

Thanks to Claire for alerting me to The 48 Laws of Power

Remind you of anyone in power anywhere?

Marylebone High Street wasabi strength chart with your take away sushi…

1. Japanese Canteen (strongest)
2. Pret a Manger
3. Tesco
4. Waitrose
5. Boots

In no particular order…

• London
• Learning to cook
• Cycling
• Design (of anything and everything)
• Windsurfing
• The history of communication
• How things work
• Running
• The development of language