From: Gleanings
To: Visionaries
Subject: Gleanings: John, Paul, George and Steven Johnson
OPENING THANG.
I heart Steven Johnson. Y’all got the book, right?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062514822/eleganthack/102-8624076-7347347
It’s one of those books you have to put down every few pages to stare at the ceiling and think. I managed to think up three business plans and a new way to write poetry by the time I was halfway through.
anyhow, new column from him
“FEED Magazine: Change the System! Steven Johnson. I confess to being one of those early adopters, and I also confess to suffering from the strange lack of proportion that a software event like this induces. This fixation has got me thinking about the cultural status of operating systems… ”
http://www.feedmag.com/column/interface/ci398_master.html
and someone else writes on one of his favorite riffs, reinventing narrative in hypertext.
“In Depth: What is the Future of Fiction, Interactively
Speaking?”
http://www.newmedia.com/nm-article.asp?articleID=2316
IA & DESIGN MATTERS
“Pattern-Supported Approach to the UI Design Process
The use of patterns for capturing and transmitting UI design knowledge has become a hot topic over the last couple of years.”
http://www.gespro.com/lafrenid/patterns.html
“The Art of Indexing by Larry S. Bonura (Review by Sarah Bidigare)
Sarah explores the extent to which this book about the principles and practices of print indexing applies to the Web.”
http://argus-acia.com/content/current_content.html
“An Interview with Nathan Shedroff
Nathan shares his experiences at vivid studios, his take on Richard Saul Wurman, and his thoughts about information architecture and interaction design.”
http://argus-acia.com/people/current_profile.html
USABILITY MATTERS
Internet World: Deconstructing Moviefone.com. Joy Busse and Peter Merholz. Too many clicks. Remember, we’ve got a busy person here, with a couple of spare minutes to purchase tickets in between tasks. Every click and page load counts. First-time users have to go through seven clicks from the home page to buying tickets…
http://www.internetworld.com/article_bot.asp?inc=100100/10.01.00Decon&issue=10.01.00
NEWS
“SJ Mercury: ICANN pursuing slowest-possible expansion of Net domain names. Dan Gillmor. The more plausible reason was that powerful trademark interests want to keep this resource scarce. For one thing, they’ve already invested in .com domains. For another, it’s easier to police alleged violations of trademarks with fewer TLDs. ”
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/dg100400.htm
“Trademark This!
(Monday, 2 October 00) It used to be that before you could trademark
something, it had to exist. You know, before there was an office tower
full of frothing lawyers defending the Coca-Cola Company’s right to
unfettered commercial use of Coke, Diet Coke, and the like, someone
else actually started putting brown carbonated sugar water into a
bottle and selling it to the masses. The trademark came to protect the
identification of the product. Suddenly, however, it seems that the
cart is coming before the horse. United States Patent and Trademark
Office policies now are being used to stake out domain names that
don’t even exist. By Andrew Rice.”
http://www.newmedia.com/nm-article.asp?articleID=2309
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Have you heard about the “sand mouse”?
Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/03/science/03CHALL.html
Web page:
http://shadrach.cns.nyu.edu/~carlos/Organism/
“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Call it a love-in, year 2000 style. Hundreds, if
not thousands, of San Franciscans are expected to gather Thursday to
sing the Beatles’ 1967 hit “All You Need Is Love” in Union Square.
Thursday is Beatles Day in San Francisco, the city where the Fab Four
had their last public concert, in 1966. The day celebrates the
publication of “The Beatles Anthology,” a $60 autobiography published
by San Francisco-based Chronicle Books. The 367-page book cobbles
together conversations between John, Paul, Ringo and George to trace
the band’s decade-long journey of fame, from their 1960 debut in
Hamburg, Germany to their breakup.” See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2570365199-191