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A List Apart |
A magazine, no, a discussion list, no a kind of group blog. Typical
topics: accessibility, browsers, content, cascading stylesheets, tools,
typography, usability, XML. Good short paragraphs with links to thoughtful
articles. Run by Jeffrey Zeldman, who also runs Happy Cog Studios, and
wrote Designing With Web Standards
http://www.alistapart.com/ |
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Cluetrain Manifesto |
Get a clue, by browsing this manifesto against conventional marketing.
Written by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searles, and David
Weinberger, this is the classic revolutionary call to arms in favor of
conversation and writing that is "natural, open, honest, direct, funny and
often shocking."
No more happytalk. Forget consensus group speak. Let real individuals in
the company tell the truth. Engage in discussions with customers. Instead
of treating a market as the fortunate recipient of a brochure, join the
conversation that is already going on.
"These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language
that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether
explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is
unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked."
Get all 95 theses, and the commentary online. Examples:
- Thesis 39: The community of discourse is the market.
- Thesis 50 Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect
for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority.
- Thesis 52: Paranoia kills conversation. That's its point. But lack of open
conversation kills companies.
http://www.cluetrain.com/ |
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Creative Commons |
A way to offer your work for some uses, while retaining some rights. This
site explores various ways to distribute your work without totally losing
your copyright. They say, "Taking inspiration in part from the Free
Software Foundation's GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), Creative
Commons has developed a Web application that helps people dedicate their
creative works to the public domain - or retain their copyright while
licensing them as free for certain uses, on certain conditions."
http://creativecommons.org/ |
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Eastgate Systems |
Thoughtful essays on the literary approach to links, in fiction, poetry,
nonfiction-or, as Mark Bernstein puts it, "serious hypertext." Some
articles and book reviews from the webzine, Hypertext Now. Lists of
university courses on hypertext. Eastgate Systems publishes some major
pieces of hypertext fiction and poetry, and tools such as Storyspace (an
application for creating narrative hypertexts) and Tinderbox (a personal
content management system).
The orientation, here, is classical, starting
with the early pre-Web conferences on hypertext, growing through the
theories of several major academicians, during the early 90s, pondering
hypertext as a form of expression. Some of the authors come from Eastgate's backlist, and many folks take a distinctly old-fashioned
approach to links, but I'm glad to report that the Hypertext Now site does
not make any direct sales pitches.
http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/ |
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Edge |
John Brockman, literary agent and agent provocateur, runs this clubhouse
for big thinkers, particularly those with something interesting to say
about digital culture. He recruits the digerati, poses questions, and
collects their rants, comments, and reactions on the site. So we get to
listen in, even if we do not qualify for membership. Another discussion
focuses on topics where science intersects with society, creating what
Brockman calls the Third Culture.
Who's involved? John Perry Barlow, Stewart Brand, David Bunnell, Denise
Caruso, Steve Case, John Doerr, John Dvorak, Esther Dyson, David Gelernter,
Ted Leonsis, John Markoff, Scott McNealy, Nathan Myrhvold, Howard
Rheingold, Louis Rossetto, Paul Saffo, Clifford Stoll, Sherry Turkle,
Davie Winer,. And Richard Saul Wurman. You can gauge how interested you'll
be by the number of pings you get, when you go through the list of
participants.
http://www.edge.org/ |
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Emarketer |
These bright folks pull together research from more than 1500 sources
(they say), and they cover lots of topics in marketing and ecommerce. They
post the top of the iceberg, which is often enough for me. I have read
some of their expensive in-depth reports, though, and they do a good job.
Often they are integrating fancy reports from the even more expensive
consultants.
Get their newsletter, for the tip of the top of the iceberg of information
here. Well written, with slick diagrams and charts.
http://www.emarketer.com/ |
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Evaluating Quality on the Net |
Hope Tillman wrote the first draft of this essay in the early 90s, when
there was no Web. She's updated it several times since then, in the course
of doing some books for librarians. She addresses the question: how can
you tell whether the information online is any good? She tells you how to
look up stuff, but the best part of her essay is the advice on gauging
quality. As writers, we look at this article from the other side of the
mirror: how can we gain credibility with our visitors?
http://www.hopetillman.com/findqual.html |
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First Monday |
An excellent peer-reviewed journal about all aspects of the Internet, with
a particular focus on the Web. Well edited, thoughtful analyses, with a
nice mixture of crusading arguments, economic theory, rhetorical study,
and rant. In the archives, use the article index, even though it is
alphabetically arranged by the first word in the title. You'll find plenty
of serious, statistically valid research here, along with theories only
lightly encumbered with quantitative proof.
http://www.firstmonday.org/ |
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Industry Standard |
Not the magazine. That crashed with the dotcoms. Now four editors from the
old magazine have created a blog using their old logo. Amy Bernstein,
Jimmy Guterman, Eric Savitz, and Jonathan Weber alternate weeks reporting
on stories on the web about the Internet economy.
http://www.thestandard.com/movabletype/jimmyguterman/ |
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Innovation tools |
Chuck Frey has put together this site to ponder new ways of thinking,
writing, and communication. Articles, reviews, discussions, and an email
newsletter. How to boost your creativity, encourage innovation in the
organization, map your mind, manage ideas, brainstorm, solve problems-you
name it, you'll find your brain expanding here.
http://www.innovationtools.com/index.asp |
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Journal of Electronic Publishing |
Aimed at publishers, librarians, scholars, and, oh yes, authors, this
academic journal brings together comments by practitioners, research by
publishers, and essays by professors. Interesting topics, such as the
Internet economy, lessons on electronic journals, and hypertext. Alas,
they need a new designer: black text on blue background means the articles
are hard to read onscreen.
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/06-03/index.html |
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Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization |
Dave Weinberger's strange but intriguing site with lengthy reflections on
communities, concepts (like metadata), legal and moral debates (who owns
what I create?), current technology (Bayesian fun with filters). Dave
waits a few months, gathering together several thoughtful pieces, so this
is like a slow-motion blog, or a very personal magazine. No matter what
the topic, Dave's unusual point of view always widens my perspective.
http://www.hyperorg.com/ |
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Memepool |
No emperor, just clothes, they claim. Short paragraphs summarizing trendy
or influential ideas, products, or activities. Memepool is run by Joshua
Schachter and Jeff Smith
http://www.memepool.com/ |
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NUA |
Want a stat right away? NUA collects summaries of all Internet surveys,
and gives you links to the original research. Plus Gerry McGovern and his
staff comment on online writing. Check their count of Internet users: How
Many Online?
http://www.nua.ie/surveys |
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Rhetoric and Sophism Rules |
Richard Johnson teaches professional writing, modern rhetoric, proposal
writing, business communication-you name it. And he will tell you what
rhetoric really is, if you want to know.
http://www.unm.edu/~rsheehan/annex.html |
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Seth Godin's Blog |
Author of Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, and Unleashing the Ideavirus (which he
claims is the most popular ebook ever written, with m than 1,000,000
downloads), Seth started out with a Stanford MBA, but he has overcome that
handicap, becoming an inspiring writer and speaker at conferences on
marketing, content creation, and ecommerce. Whatever meme he points to
turns out to be a trend-in a few years. If you want to expand your brain,
look at his shiny skull, and read his thoughts.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ |
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Silicon Valley.com |
Dan Gillmor, who writes for the San Jose Mercury, tries out column ideas
in his blog, and because he is alert to the latest trends in the tech
economy, his ponderings alert you to twists in turns in the meme field
before they appear on other sites.
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/ |
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Stuart Moulthrop |
One of the early hypertexters, author of Dreamtime, The Garden of Forking
Paths and Victory Garden, Moulthrop takes a a broad view of both fiction
and nonfiction in hypertext. Here he archives old hypertexts and articles,
as well as some talks, next to intriguingly surreal images that change
randomly as you watch a page. Unfortunately, Moulthrop has rather let this
site slide, so you are looking at history, not breaking news.
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/ |
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Theory Org |
A fascinating, if arty, take on all forms of communication over the
Internet. Lots of theory, and examples of hip design.
David Gauntlett offers the intro to his book, Web Studies. Check out the
archive of his old NewMedia Studies site, for a lively idea map. Also, an
ad for, and supplements to his book on media, gender,and identity. Special
treat: the Lego version of Michel Foucault. Collect the Theory.org trading
cards from Adorno through Weber.
http://www.theory.org.uk/ |
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The Word Spy |
Neologisms, new twists on old words, and strange phrases that are becoming
popular. To qualify for this site, the new terms must have appeared
multiple times in "newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other
recorded sources." Once a word has been spied, the site tracks its most
popular words over the last week, yielding the top 100 words, in order,
with the date on which the word first got onto the site. For each word you
get a learned definition, an early citation, examples, and notes. This
site is like watching the dictionary happen in front of you.
http://www.wordspy.com/ |
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Uncharted Shores |
Fun rants on personalization and identity on the Internet, from Eric
Norlin. Successor to the much-loved Titantic Desk Chair Rearrangement
Corporation newsletter. Topics ebb and flow, including identity
conversations, open source memes, Internet luddites, and, oh yes,
revolution.
http://www.unchartedshores.com/blogger/blogger3.html |
