info layout

Thinking about info architecture, but down real basic-like.

Take the page. Most folks on the Earth can deal with a page -- they've got some kind of cultural place for the page, even if not for print or for books. We can sort a page out -- right-to-left, left-to-right, up or downwise, lots of us have context for markings on a page.

Web browsers are new, computers are new, and as common as they seem to us in the bizzness, plenty of folks yet have zero context for making sense of the computer. The mouse? Keyboards, more common. Web browsers? Web pages?

Folks'll be thinking "Where is this page, like? On web-what?" Does it go forward-back, back-forward, front-to-back? Which way am I moving through it? How do I get to where I began, and how do I know where to go next?

Old territory for some of you. Usability stuff back to Nielsen. Peter Morville and info-structures.

But let's look at this anthropologically, culturally. How do grammars affect layouts? How do kinship models affect category trees?

band names 7

False Flag

sugar hiccup

Tonight was a B- movie with my lovely wife. We watched and laughed at the almost-working jokes, had some IPA once the boy was snug in bed, and generally felt cozy under the light of our little LED-lit tree. It's the solstice, and I've laid down new cider. It's the solstice, and already the days are getting longer (but tonight TONIGHT, I'm enjoying the long dark). The dark is good for listening to Cocteau Twins and starting my new book. But here's The Rosebuds, and I'm bored (because they're approaching Rykarda Parasol but... but they're not Rykarda Parasol); yeah, it's time to get back to it. I'm calling in some Erik B. and Rakim. The topic is 'library 2.0', so respeck some classic as we go, yo, cuz age don't count in the booth when ya flow stay submerged in the fountain of youth.

I'll not let too much more darkness pass me by now. Goodnight, and merry all and all.

Really. Goodnight.

band names 6

ghost party

band names 5

In the ongoing effort to help bands by freely giving of cool band names that I make up, here's the next:

Incendiarians

(Sam and his fellow rockers get first dibs on that.)

star-tides linking

Linking here to STAR-TIDES.NET.

writing, writing, writing

Working on a project now about making the 2.0 stuff work for libraries -- advanced tools, qr code, smart xml schemes, social books, wanding w/ arphids. Trying to gather all the thoughts together, lay them down in one spot with some order. Will be making some notes to myself here and there.

band names 4

Penny Dreadful

--
repeat:

band names

Looking for a cool name for your band? I've got some. I think of really great ones. If I don't write them down, I forget them. These are available to you for free (as in freedom) and for free (as in beer) to do with what you want. I'd ask you as a gentleman to make a note of attribution somewhere on your MySpace page or album liner as to where you got it, but that's not binding. Do as thou wilt.

--

You know you love me for it.

band names 3

The Crimes.

lost patrol

What I like is their surf-rock sound, but that it's done darkly. Dark surf-rock. Mmm, hm. That's The Lost Patrol I'm talking about. Edges toward "smart goth", if there is suchathing. Harder and meaner-eyed than "Emo" (though that ain't hard to pull off). Spooky. Rockin. Yessir, I like it.

I like the drums & vocals, but I love the guitar work.

yahoo! design innovation team

Take a look at Bookscape, and the movie demo there... Reminds of Seadragon:

BookScape

“The Open Library project (part of the Internet Archive) has scanned and digitized about 2,600 illustrated books for children, all full of about 250,000 illustrations total. It it hard to see all the pictures without paging through each book however, so this experimental interface uses dynamic resampling of image data to place all the images in one zoomable space, arranged alphabetically by title.”

(via infosthetics)

kdice tips and strategy

Here in my experience with kdice, I've noticed a few things.

. Don't overreach. Especially early in the game.

. Stay with a few territories and build them up.

. That's important, so I repeat: don't go spreading yourself thinly on the board. That won't last. Not sustainable.

. Be tenacious -- two of the most important factors: patience and stubbornness. If you don't give up, you'll earn a higher place than if you do. That means if you just have one territory left -- with one die on it, hang on. Then you'll have two dice next round, if you're not conquered, and you may have a chance to come back.

. Don't trash talk. It's a distraction. Just play.

. Remember defense. Think twice before you use a big force to conquer a small territory in a corner -- try and move your larger forces out to the edges where you can count on them to better fend off attacks.

. Don't be self-centered -- and what I mean is, think about what the other players have to do to win. Think about what you would do if you were them. Then you can see how they're likely to move, and you can plan to attack or defend accordingly. If you're too self-focused, you won't see that you're in somebody else's way -- you won't see that they're planning to eat you for lunch. So think outside yourself.

. Be loyal to your territories. Don't desert them, build them up when you can, and think of them as actual provinces with people trying to make a living from the land there. It invests you in gameplay and boosts your will to win.

on linkedin

Experimenting with social networks beyond MySpace now. Here's my LinkedIn profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/woodyevans

MySpace, I just use
1) to find and listen to music
2) as a personomic placeholder for finding (and being found by) old friends
3) to continue publishing my kernels... and kernels somehow require the chintzy couch of MySpace... that may change, but for now they'll remain there.

But Facebook and LinkedIn,,, they have a whole different feeling. I think in these it may be possible to really do some interesting things.
...If only they folded in Ning tools and Google Docs... made workflows, files, and tasks so social.

context, gentlemen. context, ladies.

note to self: Michael Gorman's take on Web 2.0, also something abt Bruce Sterling.
hierarchy of maturity in social networking sites? myspace v. linkedin, etc.
context! rather than grazing for memes?
"smarm mobs" of warrenellis readers.
context, please please, dear webheadeds.

fundamental particles info viz

Via Sterling, this New Scientist vid:



"This elegant model by Garrett Lisi may at last reveal the link between gravity and the other fundamental forces of nature."

arphids in ascendance

Evans, Woody. "Arphids in Ascendance," American Libraries, June 2007. p. 58.
[arphids] [exp. in search indexing] [rfid]

star-tides pentagon

The View from the Pentagon: STAR-TIDES live.
See also STAR-TIDES main site.

STAR-TIDES.net

Reminder:

STAR-TIDES Homepage

W

wesch at it again

band names 2

Here, this one's for free too:

The Nucular Sauce