Number crunching is the kind of art you don’t appreciate fully until you have to do it. As we were analyzing the data from the social media report, one of the biggest challenges we had was finding the right kind of chart to represent the trends we were seeing. A big help would have been […]

When I first started paying careful attention to the people who visit my website, I was surprised at how many went to our contact page. Sure, some people would send messages or look up a phone number, but not everybody. Many people look at your contact page so they can learn something about you. They

I adore my Sony e-book reader, and it’s perfect for novels. But one of its big drawbacks is its size, which makes it difficult for reading technical books or any document that benefits from a large format. That’s why I was happy to see the Plastic Logic reader in production. What the Plastic Logic reader

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”714″,”attributes”:{“class”:”media-image”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”style”:””,”width”:”500″,”height”:”333″,”alt”:”We \u2665 blog”}}]] [Image: Flickr user tarop] If you’re anything like me, Fridays, especially rainy ones, are big days to look around other people’s blogs. I use it as a time to keep an eye on the industry, see what kinds of thoughts are out there and spend some thoughtful time learning. Not that I’m

A publisher asked me the other day for advice on how to pare down the number of programs, software and tools his company uses. He is using a graphics program, a workflow program, a listserv and websites – that’s just what I know about. There’s probably more, including programs that handle subscriber databases, mailing lists,

I wish the acronym “RSS” had never been invented. It’s confusing, hard to describe and something everyone wants to understand. I much prefer the term “news feed” for this technology that helps you get blog and podcast updates on your computer. Nevertheless, I was glad to see that Unclutterer wrote up a handy primer on

Recently, someone from a UK firm putting together a glossary of social media jargon asked me to contribute. The world of social media jargon is immense, but I realized I’ve been hearing the word “ping” in a sense that didn’t really make sense to me. Ping, v. This is something you send to a computer

Preparedness is never easy, which is why so many of us get caught out when something goes wrong. With technology, the tiniest thing can misfire and blast your plans to oblivion. I was happy to come across blogger Rob Jackson’s post Confessions of a Live Blog Failure, where he talks about trying to report an

[The following is reprinted from the technology issue of Torah at the Center, and educational publication from Union for Reform Judaism. Read the whole technology issue by clicking here.] By Monique Cuvelier, Usability Consultant and CEO, Talance.com, Burlington, MA The last thing you want a student to do in an online course is to think.

Never one to shy from a bit of self promotion, I wanted to share this list of 100 (Non-Design) Blogs that Every Web Designer Should Read. Friendly Web Tools makes the cut! But I also wanted to mention it, because this is a tidy list of what really are some of the most useful blogs