February 08, 2005 02:52 PM Business  |   Link
Modern Design for Sustainability

Re:Modern

My friend has just opened up her ecommerce furniture website. I just browsed and enjoyed many of the designs from emerging designers with sustainability and earth friendliness in mind. Re:Modern also does design consultation in the SF Bay Area.

Congratulations Mona!



January 25, 2005 10:10 PM Business  |   Link
Cell phones and the office

I just saw this article on Yahoo. It talks about how Ford Motor is planning to get rid of desktop phones and use cell phones exclusively. I still have weird feelings about using cell phones all the time. Could we see an increase in head related cancers over the next generation? Potential occupational hazard, I think, along with repetitive stress injuries, air pollution, and sick buildings(etc.). I wonder if anyone is studying it?



November 21, 2004 08:03 PM Business  |   Link
Credit Card Society

Hong Kong is very much a cash society. Even with the many credit cards available, many are still lining up at ATMs to get cash. Everywhere I go here in CWB I notice people pay cash.

Today in NY Times, there was an interesting article on the need for credit companies to increase minimum paments and interest rates of consumer credit. The report mentions that consumer debt is pretty high in the US and from a credit risk prevention standpoint, many of the companies are protecting their business because of the high consumer bankruptcies of the 90s.

More on article: Soaring Interest Compounds Credit Card Pain for Millions. (NY Times, Free Reg Required)

I guess consumer credit is not such a big deal in the US when the government is really into deficit spending as well. It's all good for the US economy in some way. However this type of value of spending what you don't have is still not a common thing elsewhere. It's probably a type of American imperialism...let's force our value of consumer debt so that credit businesses can make more money...

I remember even Martin Yan mentioned how as a Chinese-American he prefers cash rather than credit in his financial well-being.

Credit cards or going into debt is not part of the culture here. Everyone works hard and lives pretty much within in their means. One tactic for the credit card company to encourage consumer credit is to offer discounts at restaurants or retailers. You can get anywhere between 15-20% off your meal in many places.

Ten years ago I worked at Robinson-May credit card office, setting up new credit applications, increasing credit limits, and in most cases declining credit purcahses or credit limit increases. I learned how to read credit bureaus and understand credit risk in relation to credit history. It was quite a frustrating experience since we would look at credit history of a client but also use a recent credit bureau report to back up our decision. In lots of cases folks still wanted more credit even after filing bankruptcy, loosing a car or home, or defaulting on other cards. These days if you have no credit history, it's quite difficult to get a good rate for a car or home loan. It's like our society perpetuates the need to have credit to show your worth...

Oh well, recently I've started to appreciate this cash society. If anything I use my credit card as a backup payment option. Even with the rewards systems that many of these cards have, I like not having to see a statement chronically all my purcahses and reminding me to settle my bill. I also like the Octopus card as a great substitute for cards. It's basically a cash card that you can use to pay for parking spaces, public transportation and small purchases at the grocery store and 7-11. Hopfully in the future it can be used for taxis as well.

I'll probably write more about this topic from a cultural standpoint. There's still so much to learn here.



October 14, 2003 09:00 AM Business  |   Link
EMC buys Documentum

Is this a trend, bigger companies buying out content management companies. I found this news at CNET, "EMC busy Documentum for $1.7billion."

It seems to appear that over time more of the bigger comanies will start swallowing up some of the small and medium sized companies.

I'm taking an econ class this quarter and it was interesting that our teacher would suggest that some industries are heading towards a more oligopoly or monopoly model for business structures. This is definitely one of those examples. Also many companies are starting to market that fact that they offer so much with the value that you know everything will work together.



September 23, 2003 09:40 AM Business  |   Link
OCLC vs. Library Hotel

Didn't even know that there was a Library Hotel in NYC...however the theme might fade away since the Hotel used the Dewey Decimal System to classify their rooms and setup themed rooms that reflect the classification systems organizing principles. It turns out that OCLC has sued the hotel for trademark infringement. I didn't know Dewey was trademarked...I think it's a waste of time and money. Perhaps when I venture to NYC I'll make an effort to stay at this hotel if it survives the lawsuit.

More info at NY Times. (free registration required)

More info about the Library Hotel.



August 20, 2003 11:58 AM Information Architecture  |   Link
VCs & Social Networking Applications

The MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) Presents:
Social Networking: Is there Really a Business Model?
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Bishop Auditorium, Stanford Business School

Speaker:
Reid Hoffman CEO and Chairman LinkedIn, Ltd

Panelists:
Jonathan Abrams Founder & CEO Friendster, Inc.
Andrew Anker Partner August Capital
Ross Mayfield Founder & CEO Socialtext

Moderator:
Tony Perkins Creator and Editor-In-Chief AlwaysOn

Sponsored by:
MIT/Stanford Venture Laboratory



August 19, 2003 08:19 AM Information Architecture  |   Link
Resident Sociologist at MS - Social Networks

Paul Festa interviews Marc Smith, resident sociologist at Microsoft Research. "Microsoft's in-house sociologist." It's a good interview of insights in the use of Usenet Newsgroups to analyze social networks and hopfully improve information retrieval(search). Lots of the typical questions regarding spam, and value of short lists to answer questions, however the reason why this was worth blogging, was the fact that there really is a trend converging on the use of IR & social networks to not only help people find information, but also to help people find each other. Yes this is almost like knowledge management, but it definitely is about community. We aren't limited to our physical community, and tools such as Verity K2 or this new MS Aura project I can see a stronger pull towards better IR tools. All the better for us who are trying to find answers to questions.



August 14, 2003 10:30 AM Information Retrieval  |   Link
Look Up Directory

Found an article by Gary Price on SearchEngineWatch.com on a pretty beefy online search directory tool called Look Up Directory. I can see tele-marketing folks loving this or your local and corporate libraries. This is definitely a bookmark item.



July 21, 2003 08:55 AM Information Retrieval  |   Link
Amazon to provide full text search of books

Just read in NYTimes, "Amazon Plan Would Allow Searching Texts of Many Books"(free registration required).

This is really fascinating news. Just imagine if they are successful in negotiating access to the actual content of all the books they already have in their catalog. There are definitely issues, like having to secure the access to the full text content, a business model(like subscriptions) for allowing portions of the text to be accessible online. I can see publishers benefiting from this as well with perhaps some micropayments, greater access for their potential readers.

One of the shortcomings of our basic library catalogs, is that there is a definite separation of physical and online. What Amazon plans to do will probably effect how people do their research for homework, evaluate for purchasing a book online, and who knows whatever else.

I wonder what search technology they are planning to use. We already know that a parametric search technology(with good metadata) defintiely differs from full-text searching of unstructured information.



June 21, 2003 10:05 AM Information Architecture  |   Link
Just when I thought I was out of User Experience stuff

I have to be honest with myself, I am NOT so much part of that User Experience stuff anymore...unless you count developing search products and management metadata standards...but the more I want to get out of the scene(because of navel-gazing), there's always something pulling me back in...

MORE...


April 24, 2003 08:45 AM Information Architecture  |   Link
Software Programmers Innovate

I wish I was at the Emerging Technology Conference(ETCON)...it's only about 20 minutes from where I live. Hundreds of people from the around the world coming to Santa Clara to look at technology and innovative wares of the future...Keynote speaker Howard Rheinhold was featured recently in Wired News, "Futurist Fears End of Innovation." The piece was on his keynote address regarding the government's control over the sharing of new technologies. Although I wasn't there, I agree that we have a responsibility to share and constantly challenge ourselves to push our thinking about the use and usefulness of technology.

In the IA community there is always a need to find standards and to find best practices, are we doing our share to innovate the landscape of information access, architecture, management, retrieval, and user experience? Who are the folks? What are they saying now?



February 01, 2003 11:49 AM Business  |   Link
EVA

No, I'm not talking about eva, a new movie out this past month. I'm talking about EVA, economic value add or another buzz acronyms running around that essentially is a variation of ROI or return on investment.

Basically I had to do some research before the buzzword took over my senses. I found the Stern Steweart & Company website had a really good explanation. By no means am I endorsing them, it was a matter of searching Google for some help on the acronym.



January 30, 2003 09:14 PM Business  |   Link
Urband Legends: Ideas that Stick

Attended a seminar that was presented by a Stanford GSB faculty, Chip Heath. His presentation was on how to make ideas stick. He uses a formula that makes urband legends so popular. He presented several hints for structuring how that message should be crafted so that people remember. I'm not sure if I can really spell it all out but check out his research, he's got some really interesting ideas for selling your idea.

One of the holes in his thoughts is that in order for the idea to really stick. The audience of your message must have some kind of homogenous background of experiences or common cultural or social exposure to symbols or icons that could be potentially used in a formula for crafting the message.



December 13, 2002 04:07 PM Cars  |   Link
Porsche & Cayenne

The New York Times did an article describing Porsche enthusiasts reaction to Porsche deploying SUVs.* I found it very interesting both from a business standpoint as well as from a Porsche owner's perspective.

1. Porsche needs to continue as a business
2. Porsche is jeopardizing their brand.

I have to agree that in order for Porsche to survive, they need to expand their offerings and sell SUVs(Cayenne). But at the same time, Porsche may be missing the segmentation opportunities by starting with SUVs. Deep down, I'm a bit disappointed, but Porsche has to do what they have to do in order to stay in business. I'm definitely not one of the ones first in line to get the Caynne since I'm really not a fan of SUVs. Hopfully it does become successful so that Porsche can put their concentration on winning more races.

* free registration required

A more heated discussion is happening at Rennlist (a very active Porsche enthusiast newsgroup)



October 28, 2002 09:05 AM Information Architecture  |   Link
Wanted: Wait Staff with PDA Experience

Just came back from breakfast at Stacks in Menlo Park. Just your typical Monday morning breakfast with my husband. With coffee in hand and menu in the other hand, our waitress approached us with PDA in hand to take our order. This isn't just your ordinary PDA, it was a PDA with wireless connection. Just moments earlier I had noticed hubs around the restaurant with blinking lights. From my experience they did not look like a security system. So when the waitress took our order, it made sense and I immediately saw the PDA/wireless hub connection.

So as she was taking our order, it looked a little cumbersome to see her go through the menu screens. The hostess said it was definitely faster since in most cases many restaurants only had 2 terminals to enter order with several wait staff members. I could see how this could save time; For instance a typical scenario is a wait staff taking your order on a paper and then heading over to the order entry terminal where there could be 2 folks ahead of you. By taking your order once, and having it sent directly to the kitchen it could save time.

This is my first exposure to a new venue for PDA use to improve efficiency. It was kind of weird seeing our wait staff trying to fill our order one person at a time. If we were a party of 6 or 8, it may have taken longer. How much time is really saved? Yes the restaurant is innovative and possibly the first to implement this type of system, but what about the customer experience? I'm very patient, but to see the wait staff just stare really(concentrate) hard at the PDA screen, I wasn't sure if she was really listening to me.

Here are some interesting potential challenges:
a) software is still new, lots of bugs
b) the battery dies
c) the pda freaks out, the cursor doesn't go where it should
d) someone wants something that isn't on the menu
e) you spill food/drink on the pda
f) parties of more than 6, could take longer than expected. Backup system should be used.
g) the internal network goes down, does your staff(wait & kitchen) know how to take orders the old fashion way?

Thoughts?



October 23, 2002 08:15 PM Business  |   Link
MBA or Bust

An interesting controversial journal article was published recently by a Stanford GSB professor on the value of an MBA. Somehow the business press really had a field day with this article especially with its timely print during all the CEOs being indicted for one thing or another.

Busines 2.0 Article on the topic: What's an MBA Really Worth?
By Andy Raskin

Citation to Pfeffer & Fong Article:
Pfeffer & Fong, "The End of Business Schools? Less Success Than Meets the Eye," Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2002, Vol. 1, No.1, 78-95.

Some of the issues includes the following:
Practitioner vs. research, bar-crawls, networks, direct application of textbook learning, does an MBA actually equate to success..

For me, I think I'm going to hold off on pursuing that "dream" of an MBA. I'm beginning to learn that experience really gets you far, and any piece of paper to tell me that I'm special won't really help. Also based on my previous GMAT, I have no chance for those top tier schools...he he he. Maybe someday I will, just not right now.



April 25, 2002 06:50 PM Business  |   Link
Kevin Roberts & Lovemarks

Just saw Kevin Roberts speak at the Stanford GSB. Here are some tidbits from the Saatchi & Saatchi website of that talk.

He was definitely an inspirational and funny speaker. I wonder how far I can take "Lovemarks" in the IA Community. I will have to learn more from the LoveMarks website.



March 27, 2002 07:41 AM Business  |   Link
Work Technology Organization

Just stumbled on this group at Stanford: Center for Work, Technology and Organization. I'll be curious to attend some of their talks here on campus. I was reviewing some of the folks on their board...pretty impressive mix of folks in the Valley.



February 02, 2002 05:01 PM Business  |   Link
Research as Product

Attended Brenda Laurel's presentation on her new book, Utopian Entrepreneur.

Abstract: Stanford's HCI Seminar February 1, 2002.

Presentation: Video Source Just click on the Video Source button.

Some Thoughts:
First it was nice to attend this presentation with my former AltaVista colleague, Lee Cline. She was a former employee of Purple Moon and she gave me some insights on her experiences there. She also introduced me to Dr. Laurel. I thought the presentation at first was going to be more like a computer/techie type talk but it turned out to focus on how "we" can be better designers of products to make life better and make a difference. Alot of her commentary revolved around her experiences with Purple Moon from the business perspective. I really enjoyed this and what would have been really nice is if there were any MBA students in this class. I think they would have benefitted from Laurel's insights on running a business and some practical transitions of research and theory's application in the new economy.

I was also fascinated with Laurel's new work at the the Art Design Institute that brings together design and business models. I would be really excited to take that class. I guess at some level I have the benefit of being exposed to user research, design, usability and hopfully in the future be a better leader by those experiences and develop useful products that make a difference to the Earth and humanity.



Business  |   Link
Designing & Managing an Experience

Sat in an interesting internal management workshop the other day at work. Something came up as part of our this workshop that left a profound thought on my mind. If we are all so concentrated on designing the experience online how are the offline experiences managed. Everyone in the IA/UE community seem to be so focused on developing or designing and online experience and I rarely hear any coordination with folks who have been designing and managing the offline experiences that follow a product. I know marketing does some of that but there are such things as customer support, project manager, partner relationship managers, distribution managers, and public relations. Do these things really have one central brain or vision that makes sure all of the stuff we do online is really streamlined with all the other channels?

The key to making sure everyone gets a good impression of the product is not just the product but every single touchpoint that involves some interaction with the customer or buyer. Each of these touchpoints are possibly experiences that the customer may experience.

I wonder if anyone out there cares?



January 02, 2002 12:26 PM Business  |   Link
What do Fish & Cheese have in common?

Fish Book Cover Cheese Book Cover

I spent alot of time reflecting on changes in my life. I guess many saw it happening as well and for this past holiday season I received two copies of the cheese book. Two weeks after finishing the cheese book I stumbled on the Fish book. Can I just say that the authors of the The One Minute Manager are amazing. They each took something like "change" and produced a really nice story on self-reflection and action. They are both a quick read and a great way to help motivate yourself and others.




December 16, 2001 01:39 AM Business  |   Link
Depth of Perception

I'm finally done with my Essential of Marketing class. Pretty interesting class. I think I have a better grasp of marketing functions of many different types of companies. I'm totally ready and able to take a marketing project...well maybe under the guidance of some amazing guru.

I hope I got an "A" in the class. I feel really good about the final. I'm not sure about the final presentation on Saturn. I'm sort of too embarrassed to publish the ppt.



November 04, 2001 04:48 PM Business  |   Link
Economist.com: Peter Drucker Speaks When

Economist.com: Peter Drucker Speaks

When Peter Drucker speaks in "The Next Society." People tend to listen. Ck out this article on how this management guru thinks things will be coming soon.



November 02, 2001 04:01 PM Business  |   Link
"Life is a marathon and not a horse race..."

Not everyone running in a marathon worry to beat others, they run to beat their personal time...Time to market is the mantra in business and it is a shame because alot of great ideas exists, but if they let time dictate how it launches, then they miss out on producing the great "thing". Sometimes I feel bad for all these great ideas that fade into the background because it didn't get executed properly. What happens, somebody sneaks up behind you and takes the bigger market share...

Recommended Reading:
Guy Kawaksaki on how to be an entrepeuner from a speech at Netpreneur http://www.netpreneur.org/angels/transcript.html

Christina Wodtke reflects on today's blog as well on the topic at http://www.eleganthack.com/blog/archives/00000241.html.



October 31, 2001 07:31 PM Business  |   Link
MBAs and IA as Revisited

"Meet the New Information Architect" byPaula Thornton

This article is a great synthesize of a discussion that I was running over and over again with Paula.



October 26, 2001 05:00 PM Business  |   Link
HBR September 2001

HBR September 2001

I'm still trying to catch up on my readings. Came across "The Weird Rules of Creativity" in HBS Sept 2001 issue. Robert Sutton offers some interesting advice that to many would be contrary to practice...he definitely promotes diversity. I guess the article could be a nice companion to Gordon MacKenzie's Orbiting the Giant Hairball.



October 14, 2001 04:29 PM Business  |   Link
Still Reflections

Starting my paper on my self-assessment behavior & motivations in business and here's a summary of what I've discovered...
ENFP : Extravert, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving
Flexible - Cohering : a mix or rainbow of the assertive, analytic, nurturing
the Artist : bold, daring, exciting, vlatile, intuitive, enterpreneurial, inspiring, imaginative, unpredictable, funny (i'm not too sure about this one but I definitely know I'm not a crafsman(woman) or technocrat.

I hope this helps someone out there know how to interact with me more effectively...he he he.



September 24, 2001 10:35 PM Business  |   Link
Three Cultures of Management: the key to Organizational Learning

Full citation: Edgar H. Schein, Sloan Management Review, MIT, Fall 1996.

I was thinking about Venn diagrams again today. I stumbled on this article in my O&M course. Although the article is focused on organizational learning, I felt there are a few things I know I learned from the article that can be directly applied to the IA/UX community.

It's kind of dated but I think the IA community can read more into the application of understanding these three cultures of management:
the culture of engineering, the culture of CEOs, and the culture of operators

1) engineers could be mapped to the IA/UX: wanting to create a change for the operator(user)
2) executive cultures map to all the managers/supervisors/executives in an organization(the budget and product devevlopment process)
3) operators map to the users of a system or product(product users or a website vistor)

Bottomline...why can't we all just get along? Currently we can't because we don't know each other's language for "stuff." I think someone in the past on the SIGIA list or one of the IA Summits described that IAs should learn the language of marketing folks and business. This was conveyed in a digram more recently at Lou's Bloug with Jess McMullen on "IA Areas of Practice" and the emphsis on having a "minor" in areas of users(user research, contextual inquiry), content(metadata, taxonomy, writing), or context(business, ROI).

If you're an "innie" what culture that your organization prescribe to? If you're an "outie" how can you relate to each culture from the different settings you've been exposed to?

Refer to the IA/UX Sept 2002 Cocktail Hour for deails on "innies" and "outies."



September 21, 2001 01:31 PM Business  |   Link
HCI & business



September 19, 2001 06:35 PM Business  |   Link
Rediscovering Dilbert

I've been rereading The Dilbert Principle and I can't believe that I see some of the exact stories in the book happening in various settings that I am in or was in. I totally recommend anyone remotely interested in management to take a second look at the book and the comic strip.

Official Dilbert Website: http://www.dilbert.com/



September 13, 2001 09:37 AM Business  |   Link
Discovering Your Own Interaction/Personality Style

I highly recommend http://www.humanmetrics.com.



September 10, 2001 08:24 PM Business  |   Link
MBAs and Meyer Briggs Test

I decided to take a class on organization and management through a local university's extension program. I was really fascinated on learning this framework for understanding management styles. The MB test we took was administered and analyzed. We were also engaged in discussion of other frameworks for understanding organization behavior/management.

In addition we reviewed each other's personality in relation to team building exercises. The instructor's point of view on management education was pretty interesting and he quoted an interesting article on the meaning of education, "Learning is experience understood in tranquility." - Handy, Charles, "A Proper Education." CHANGE (September/October 1998) p 13-19. I highly recommend a perusal of this paper.

This perspective definitely reinforces my thoughts that getting an MBA degree is to foster an environment for active networking and intense textbook/case study learning. While taking a course here and there, I am exposed to active problem solving on every day problems everyone is having at that time. Perhaps this perspective will change if I decide to try again for business school.



September 06, 2001 06:24 PM Business  |   Link
Where MBAs and IA mix...

So I didn't get into business school this fall. I don't feel down on it when you know there were over 5000 application and only 300 spaces. People I probably competed with were probably my age and had already crashed and burned millions of dollars for a startup.

What was I thinking about when I started the application process?
I guess I thought I could position myself strategically in an organization that would be more sympathetic to the user experience design and development process. I envisioned better products developed by user research and not just market research. I saw the future of better designed services and products. I thought by getting myself into a b-school I could do more by directing corporations into more user-oriented development. Was I dreaming? I don't think so. I'm not alone thinking about that. But business strategy is still an important componant to being an IA.

IAs can really be anywhere in the org chart. It's a matter of who hears them.