Is NDA culture hurting developers?
Ars Technica has an interesting post revealing some sordid tales from the world of iPhone development. The tales center on iPhone app developers who claim to have developed apps that they really didn't develop. And they're getting away with it because of an NDA culture that permeates much of the development world.
NDAs, or non-disclosure agreements, of course, are those pesky little agreements that you've probably asked been asked to sign a million times if you work in the world of technology. In some markets, just about everyone asks that an NDA be signed for the smallest of things. Sometimes I half expect to be asked to sign an NDA if I ask where the bathroom is when working on-site with a client.
Five glorious presentations on visual thinking
Do you think in words or pictures, or both? Visual thinking engages the part of the brain that handles visual processing, and is said to be both "emotional and creative" so you can "organise information in an intuitive and simultaneous way".
A picture really might be worth a thousand words, while being easier to understand and recall. Therefore it is worth exploring how visual thinking can help you communicate ideas to colleagues and clients.
I have collated a few presentations to help you do exactly that. These will help you to understand the benefits of visual thinking, and there - obviously - lots of useful visualisations to aid you.
Q&A: Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Founder of FutureNow
Back when dot-com mania was at its peak and marketers crowed about the number of "hits" they were able to attract to their web sites, a voice of reason came out of the darkness and said, in effect, that it's not about the traffic. It's about what you do with the traffic, and -- hello? -- more important, whether that traffic makes money.
That voice was Bryan Eisenberg who's gone on to become a noted speaker, columnist, blogger, co-founder of the Web Analytics Association and author of a string of best-selling books. A new one is in the works: Trim the Fat will draw analogies between what's needed to improve website conversion and the author's recent shedding of 50 (!) pounds.
And Bryan will share those insights at Econsultancy's inaugural U.S. event in New York on Oct. 8, the Peer Summit, as both a keynote speaker and a moderator. We caught up with him for a preview of what he'll be sharing with attendees.
Benchmarking site performance can be misleading
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are important to drive improvement for your website. Although it is obviously interesting and insightful to compare how your website is performing against your peers and competitors, it can be a mistake to place too much emphasis on external industry benchmarks.
These external benchmarks can be misleading and often end up with you finding the benchmark that fits your story, giving a false impression of success.
Dealing with freelancers: five common mistakes
If you're an entrepreneur or run a small business, chances are you've hired a freelancer or considered hiring a freelancer. And for good reason: when you don't need or can't afford an employee, freelance labor gives you access to talented workers who can take care of a specific set of tasks.
But getting the most out of freelance labor is not always easy because freelancers work differently than employees and many entrepreneurs and small businesses don't understand that. To ensure a successful relationship with a freelancer, here are five common mistakes to avoid.
Q&A: BusinessWeek.com Editor-in-Chief John A. Byrne
Journalism on the web requires a new way of thinking. As editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com, John A. Byrne is responsible for guiding the BusinessWeek brand on the web.
In this exclusive interview Byrne, who was previously editor-in-chief of Fast Company and is the author of eight books, talks at length about BusinessWeek's strategy for engaging readers and managing BusinessWeek's web brand.
The workaround: technology strikes back
People have been finding workarounds for poorly designed systems for many years. Although both the technology and the workarounds have become more sophisticated, the problem, and its solution, remains the same.
Many years ago, before web-based interfaces, we were asked to investigate why an online ordering system wasn’t delivering the promised productivity benefits. Our research, which involved videoing staff dealing with telephone orders and then interviewing them about the process, soon revealed the problem.
Even a bad news aggregator is better than none at all
In the face of defeat, America's news outlets continue to find ways to innovate. Mind you, they aren't ground-breaking innovations. But they're innovations none-the-less.
This week online news magazine Slate launched a new aggregator called Slatest. It's not great, but at least it's something. I just wish I could say the same for British media.
10 kickass crowdsourcing sites for your business
I’m not a believer in the so-called wisdom of the crowd, but I do think that crowdsourcing has cemented its place in modern business.
Crowdsourcing, as you probably know, is a way of using ‘crowds’ to ‘source’ solutions to your problems.
What have you crowdsourced lately? Nothing? Well, if you run a website and have embraced user-centricity then think again... perhaps you have conducted user testing? Well, that’s crowdsourcing – asking the crowd for feedback - and it beats a top-down policy of allowing your board to design the website.
Of course there’s more to life than usability testing. So what else can be crowdsourced? It turns out that there are plenty of dedicated crowdsourcing services that can be used for businesses. I've collated a bunch of the best ones, and some of them are really great.
Q&A: Dominic Sparkes on best practice for child protection online
With brands and marketing agencies building their own, or joining existing, online spaces to exploit a growing social media audience, child safety should always, without doubt, be the number one priority for those managing social media projects.
Tempero MD Dominic Sparkes worked with Econsultancy on the recently released Child Protection Best Practice Guide, which looks at the legal and ethical considerations for brands and companies operating in this area.
We asked him about the issues involved in child safety online in general, and setting up and managing online communities for children...
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
