Recently heard:

I don’t get the whole social media thing… if I want to talk to someone I’ll just call them.

Social Media is on the way out. No one uses it other than those in technically related industries.

I say these people are:

• Truly missing out on a very useful and generally free service
• Are sorely misinformed about social media’s viability and popularity

Why do I find value?

While I am not a huge text messager… If I take an inventory of what I use a daily basis…

• I can say I am very well connected via Facebook and LinkedIn.
• We are playing with Ning and Yammer (have hooked into IM and phone) at work
• I participate lightly in an ad-hoc email list of friends and associates
• I submit articles and comment on Digg posts
• I have a personal but public Wiki and Blog that I post to on a fairly regular basis
• I frequently use Motley Fools’ CAPS network for participation and research into investment ideas
• I blog scan 50+ feeds of varied matter through Google’s Reader

I can say that I am more connected this year than I have ever been before in my life, even when in school. For example, yesterday:

My birthday arrived and I woke up to receive a phone call from a previous co-worker wishing me a happy birthday. I checked Facebook to see I had 3 current and previous co-workers sent a quick message to wish me a happy birthday. I left the house and stopped by my usual coffee shop for my morning fix and was greeted by “Happy Birthday!” by the employees who also gave me a free drink.

I subsequently arrived at work to a barrage of greetings and received a hail of additional notes through facebook and email from over 20 different folk I have different levels of communication with. My last “Happy Birthday!” actually came from my own Mother in the latter part of the afternoon (granted she had already sent a birthday card).”

A vast majority of this recognition came about because of the simple birthday notifications that comes with Facebook and displays current and upcoming birthdays. However I also received communication this week, albeit brief and simple, from:

• My high school valedictorian I connected with after the last reunion
• The AJUG president I speak to at most once a month, commented on my music preferences
• I saw two past brides I shot pictures of post them and got to see comments on them
• I got status comments from a handful of friends I don’t get the chance to speak with very often
• Kept us with close friends on vacation and updating their status via mobile
• Learned about some cool events I want to go to this week
• Updated information about an upcoming Halloween party I am throwing to all my invitees

Like the cell phone or internet, I just can’t imagine going back to the more disconnected way of life even 10 years ago.

Are they still relevant?

A quick search on the intertubes reveals that social networks are as relevant as ever.

• Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester says:

Facebook - The hot talked company Facebook has the highest growth rate, and at Forrester we predict it to achieve the same number of registered users as MySpace in Q4 of 2008, or early 2009 given the current growth rate.

General Growth: * More than 60 million active users * An average of 250,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007 * An average of 3% weekly growth since Jan. 2007 * Active users doubling every 6 months

• Jacob Morgan, a marketer that researched social media from compete.com

shows MySpace is declining

Facebook is climbing though

Twitter and LinkedIn are also up though

• Empirically, I know that I am more and more involved in a social media type of site all the time
• According to this site… Gen-X is actually one of the largest growing segments as well…

Maybe I’m not that unique in understanding the real benefit of these tools in making me feel more connected, more informed, and more effective.

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, “oh my”…
Flock, Thunderhawk, Lynx, “really?!”…
So many derivatives of each engine…
Game Console Browsers, Mobile Browsers, Kiosk Browsers…

“Oh give me a break!”

And Google wants to introduce yet another…
Google Chrome…

Why, why, WHY?!

• I’ve heard many reasons
  • “…they want to get more market share from Microsoft…”
  • “…they have a better engine concept…”
  • “…they don’t want to be hampered by the Mozilla foundation…”
  • “…they want to have an alternative for everything Microsoft…”
  • “…they’ll get into their Android platform…”
• I’ve heard many good things
  • “…the V8 JavaScript engine is blazing fast…”
  • “…the separated process model is more stable and secure…”
  • “…the ‘incognito’ feature is a must have…”

I say Hogwash!

There are too many reasons I think they shouldn’t have done this.

• If they get any market share it is just going to frustrate those developers that have to ensure their JavaScript libraries, Flash and Java plug-ins, and HTML/CSS render the same in yet another browser
• They are most likely to cannibalize both plug-in developers and general platform developers from Mozilla, making both have to fight over the limited open source developer pool
• Opera and Safari already provide innovation and competition to a crowded market and both are available on more platforms than Chrome
• The energy would have been better spent on a partner they’ve already been working with… Mozilla. No doubt they would utilize the other building blocks Google already is providing by exposing the V8 engine and tons of code plug-ins.
• Thwarting Firefox’s attempt to grow its market share will only give more credence to support IE just to achieve some sanity in the browser space

RIA please rescue us!

This eventual fragmentation of the market, may just give the extra oomph that RIA technologies need to win adoption. As the cost of cross-browser support escalates with so many variants, web development will undoubtedly look for an easier path. Flash/Flex/AIR, Silverlight and JavaFX all promise to relieve the cost of maintaining sites for different browsers. Solve the problem once and you are good to go.

Me thinks I think I need to brush up on some new skills.

I happened across a seemingly ordinary slashdot.org article talking about a conceptual Mozilla browser, codenamed Aurora. While this browser is a long way from reality and does build on some older concepts, I am noticing a pattern in how we are building our applications. I find it intriguing, novel, and fun… but I’m unsure about the problems to be exposed in this new paradigm.

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Visual Organization and an Embrace of the Scroll Wheel

The first interesting piece of this demo is the use of more visual techniques in grouping and/or relating information. We’ve seen this technique in everything from Tag Clouds to the graphical flipping between iPhone music and Vista applications. Instead of simple text based categorization/reference of objects, everything is moving to graphical thumbnails of objects that can be scanned pictorially instead lexically. Tag Clouds are still a primarily lexical representation but they did bring in the notion of using size, color and transparency to emphasize strength and relevance. Pictorial representations typically use the same notions of size and transparency to convey the same information. What I am most excited and forlorn about is the relatively new introduction of depth into these efforts to help us relate complicated and disparate information. Demonstrated in spectacular ways by Microsoft’s Photosynth or even Google Maps and Earth, applications are developing with the notion of relevance and frame of context by a depth characteristic. Our two dimensional world of yesterday is quickly becoming and antiquated notion in lieu of a new third dimension to store and relate even more data.

Will this new way of thinking leave me cluttered in another dimension?

Kinetic Gestures and Wrist Weights for Exercise

The second big shift is coming from the advent of Wii and iPhone among others. Everything is becoming so much more energetically interactive as we make our Human Computer Interaction (HCI) devices momentum and gyro aware. We can shake our devices, sling them, and elicit different behavior based on the speed and direction of our actions. HP has release it’s new line of “TouchSmart” PC’s that offers scrolling ability and speed based on the swipe of your hand and the speed of your swipe. The above video as well as the others on Mozilla Labs demonstrate this new capability in all facets of Browser design.

Are we moving towards forced exercise in all of our computer interactions as we speedily try to navigate and pull detail information to the forefront of our screens? Maybe they should start making our Wiimotes and Gyro-Mice in 2lb, 5lb, and 10lb sizes.

Alright, so the nursery rhyme goes slightly differently. Regardless, I couldn’t resist talking more to the Agile process; since another big dogs has realized the benefit. Adobe (of all folk) has announced the success of using an iterative process in the development of CS3.

Clearly, no one process will rule all. But I still reassert that I like the idea of incremental process.

Do a little…
review…
improve…
repeat…

Most modern processes have such a concept, whether TQM, Six Sigma (DMAIC), BPI, or Lean. I couldn’t imagine going into product development anymore that would last 2 months or more without an iterative based approach. It is too easy to misinterpret, miscalculate, and misunderstand client needs and intentions.

Part of the story also speaks to “Bugalaunch” - the death march to release depriving team members of precious sleep, social lives and undoubtedly personal health. Too often it is the unceremonious end to a project to be rewarded with Bug Hell; which I think exists somewhere around the 222nd layer of the abyss.

This made me realize that it makes the job of motivating developers very difficult, since they never really get a clean, clear reward of a product delivered well and gracefully. I mean, in a traditional Waterfall approach, the chances of something going bad and erasing months of hard work is high. Why not allow for incremental “showing off?” The Agile method allows developers to demonstrate the exceptional work they do gradually. If the project does go awry (for whatever reason), the customer would now be aware of all the good work that happened before a major hurdle is reached. They will therefore be more sympathetic, appreciative and understanding of the hard work it then takes to right the project and overcome the hurdle.

Of course, my developers should beware, because I do like the 20 bug rule too.

Developers are classically referred to as prima donnas. We are a needy bunch that left unchecked can cause a number of ailments. But, is this characterization really limited to Developers? I find that everyone channels their inner “prima donna” to some degree. This means they want some level of influence, interaction, visibility into the processes that are important to them. We dislike inconvenience and treasure being free to express our ingenuity and cleverness!

This isn’t really an unrealistic expectation, is it? I mean… clients pay us a lot of money to develop systems for them. If it is my pocket book shelling out dough, you’re damned-straight I want to be involved, and know how my money is being utilized… sooner, rather than later. The system designers, whether BA, IA, PM, QA (or other acronym), want to feel pride that they are significant to the success of a project. Quite frankly, the effects of group collaboration on idea generation is extremely effective.

However, the point is that this process operates most efficiently when it is completely transparent. Transparency - a simple word. But a powerful concept that applies to everything from Sarbanes-Oxley to my physician’s visit. It boils down to trust and honesty; because you MUST give visibility to everyone involve.

Enter stage left, Agile processes. Agile shares a lot with the somewhat illusive web 2.0 moniker. The point of both is to make the processes more transparent, collaborative, and organic. We employ a variety of Agile called Scrum. I really hate cheesy processes and the silly names they use. Scrum is no exception. I has its own names, including ScrumMaster, Sprints and Retrospective; generally based on the English Rugby sport. It elicits smirks and giggles nonetheless. Lot’s of humor on the web:

YouTube: High Moon Studios: A Portrait - Scrum

YouTube: Scrum Masters 2

It’s all funny and insightful in its own right, but I take it seriously from the conceptual level. How I look at it, most fail to realize that Agile isn’t about providing good solutions faster as much as it is about engaging the customer to provide the correct solution for their needs. The point is “customer engagement and satisfaction”. The most efficient way to achieve this goal is to involve the customer as much as possible throughout the development lifecycle. It is integral that they are available to clarify, elaborate, and prioritize the features and designs they want from the feedback we give them.

As a manager of “prima donnas”, I want to empower my developers to deliver the best product they can currently conceive that meets the customer’s expectations. To me, this means that I need to put the developer as close to the customer as possible. Agile development processes and tools generally answer this need.

The basic premise is to start with “what you know” develop with “refactorable” techniques in “small iterations” and “solicit customer feedback” often. There are a lot of concepts in that small sentence. “What you know” implies that we don’t belabor the requirements since it’s hard for the customer to truly visualize what they want in its entirety. “Refactorable” implies that we are going to develop in such a way that change isn’t hard. “Small iterations” and “solicit customer feedback” imply that we want the customer to be an active participant in the software we develop. Plain and simple, we know software is expensive and we want to bet on the best system to ensure that your money buys what you need now, and can easily grow to what you need tomorrow.

We utilize tools like XPlanner, Basecamp, and MediaWiki to engage our customers, while enabling our developers to use the best tools to deliver the best product to our clients.