 Sunday, May 23, 2004
Blogging Behind the Firewall
"Our internal use of Weblogs has greatly accelerated, and we’re beginning to see more tangible benefits as we’ve begun to reach a critical mass of internal contributors....
Since then, my team has been using the blog-driven IT roadmap in weekly staff meetings as a platform to discuss the initiatives we have completed and to look ahead to new ones. Our meetings no longer have agendas or redundant handouts, because we don’t need them. Of course, some items have dropped off our master plan altogether, and new ones have been added, but the important point is that our master plan is always updated and readily available on our intranet, and any changes are distributed via RSS to anyone who wants to see them. Aside from the public Weblog, we maintain our own Weblog for more technical documentation, which has raised our level of internal documentation by several orders of magnitude already.
Our internal use of Weblogs doesn’t stop there. Software Engineer Kevin Varley has created “Varley’s Project Notes,” his own Weblog to keep notes on his development projects. Kevin makes inventive use of the comment functionality available in Movable Type. After outlining coding and debugging tasks in posts with titles such as “Taxonomy Terror,” Kevin uses the comments feature to make additional notes about how his initial assumptions ultimately played out.
Weblogs are not just for the hard-core techies. Our editorial staff recently started its own Weblog to share updated style guides, edit calendars, and other tools of the trade. I’m looking forward to seeing what unexpected points of leverage they achieve with their Weblog. It’s amazing how a system so simple and easy can produce such profound results." [InfoWorld, via Tomalak's Realm]
I hadn't thought to use the comments in this fashion, but it's a great idea. I think I'm going to set up my own personal blog for the next two months' worth of my projects for our upcoming merger.
There's an interesting dialogue going on between Robert Scoble and John Dowdell regarding whether RSS feeds should be full-text or excerpts only. I tend to like full feeds, even on my Treo, but to me it's a personal choice and everyone is different. That's why I think every site that is willing to offer a full feed should also consider providing an abridged feed. That way, the user can pick the one she finds most useful (or, in some cases both, depending on how she's reading it at any given time).
For libraries, this is really a no-brainer, especially if you're using Movable Type. Your default index.rdf feed is an excerpt, so all you need to do is create a new file, name it something else (like index.xml or rss.xml), and change "MTEntryExcerpt" to "MTEntryBody" in the code. Just change that one word, and you're in business.
Yes, it really is that simple. Please consider doing it.
Oh, and a personal plea to librarian bloggers - please consider adding a full text feed for your own site!
Camera Phones Hit 3 Megapixels
"Japanese cellular carrier KDDI plans to begin selling in early June a cell phone with an embedded 3-megapixel resolution digital camera, it said Wednesday. The handset will be the first in the world at this resolution, according to the carrier.
The announcement came almost a year to the day since the first megapixel-class cell phones went on sale in Japan and around six months after the first 2-megapixel models hit shelves....
...Features include a 2.3-inch thin film transistor display with 240-by-320-pixel resolution, a 1.1-inch sub display, a USB cradle to allow for easy transfer of images and video files to a PC, a 12.8MB internal data folder and a slot for miniSD cards.
It measures 2 inches by 4 inches by 1 inch and weighs 4.5 ounces. KDDI, which offers service under the 'Au' brand name, hasn't announced the price of the phone. It's compatible with Japan's variant of the Code Division Multiple Access standard and won't go on sale overseas." [PCWorld]
Lift and Reach and Hold That Pose, and Advance to the Next Level
"Ever greater weight loss - rather than a chance to battle bigger monsters - is one goal for players of Yourself!Fitness, a video game under development for Microsoft's Xbox. The new title, aimed at women, features a computer-generated personal trainer who guides users through a customized set of exercises and diets.
Players must reach certain goals to advance to the next level. The program creates a fitness plan for each person based on height, weight and other characteristics. The game's virtual coach, Maya, then guides users through a subset of 600 possible exercises, congratulating and encouraging them when they achieve their goals.
The creators of Yourself!Fitness at ResponDesign, a game developer based in Portland, Ore., think their new title is a natural successor to exercise videos and DVD's, which continue to sell more than 30 million units a year, the company's co-founder, Ted Spooner, said....
After the game's release this fall, the company expects to make a Sony Playstation version available at the end of the year, and to sell an Xbox Live version in 2005 that will let participants use a wireless headset to talk to each other during the game.
'Users will be able to create an online community to discuss each other's accomplishments and chat while working out,' Mr. Spooner said. 'This will be a virtual gym.'
Company executives expect the game, which cost millions to develop, to sell several hundred thousand units. Assuming that happens, ResponDesign is ready to create spinoff titles focusing on Pilates and Yoga." [New York Times: Technology]
I'm surprised it's taken this long to happen, although I suppose I'm most surprised that the company didn't start with the Playstation for its EyeToy accessory. Hey, you could be right there in the video with Richard Simmons or Jane Fonda!
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