On Web design

Jim Horton points to Jakob Neilson’s excellent page on common problems with web design. It appears Brother Murphy’s anti-flash message has not gotten through:

I view it as a personal failure that Flash collected the bronze medal for annoyance. It's been three years since I launched a major effort to remedy Flash problems and published the guidelines for using Flash appropriately . When I spoke at the main Flash developer conference, almost everybody agreed that past excesses should be abandoned and that Flash's future was in providing useful user interfaces.

I may have gone overboard in simplicity of design in the Presto Vivace web site. But I like a clean look.

Build security in

Adam Shostack points to the Department of Homeland Security’s new site, Build Security In. Developers, take note.

Voice over IP and emergency service

Dispatch Monthly

While providing some important cost-saving s to consumers, current VoIP technology does not provide for the transmission of the caller's physical location along with the voice call. If the caller dials 911, there is no inherent protocol within the VoIP technology for routing the call to the nearest PSAP, or to display the caller's location, telephone number or other information.

Another issue involves E911 funding-- VoIP users can arrange for E911 service with their Internet provider, and yet not pay any applicable 911 surcharges for the service. There is anxiety among public safety agencies, county and state-level 911 agencies that E911 system funding could be reduced as more persons convert to VoIP telephone service, and drop their wired telephone service.

These are the sort of issues which providers must address if VOIP is to work.

Heroes for our time

Times Picayune

Nick Spitzer

Clarion Ledger

A challenge to the open, end to end Internet?

Internet partitioning - Cogent vs. Level 3

Network feud leads to Net blackout

The day we allow the partitioning of the Internet is the day it loses its value.

Skype and the demo demon

Skype CEO Muffled by Bad Audio Feed

ECM Case Study – Government Accountability Office (GAO)

NCC-AIIM Monthly Meeting
Thursday, October 13, 2005

Carol Brock
Director of Information Assets, GAO

Organizations have quickly come to realize that Records Management (RM) is a critical component of their Enterprise Content Management (ECM) infrastructure. With that said, how does an organization improve its Records Management practices with a limited staff of Records Managers when the amount of electronic content is growing exponentially? It isn’t an easy task - particularly when your organization audits the work of other government entities and is held to the highest standards.

Sooner or later the GAO is called into every controversy that sweeps the federal government. The unique challenge they face in satisfying all of their stake holders has lessons for us all.

What should a newspaper do if circulation is declining?

The London Evening Standard hired 20 additional reporters with an eye to boosting its business coverage. Improve the product, what a concept. Let’s hope other publications take note.

Wasn’t XML supposed to put an end to the platform wars?

Greg Gianforte has written an opinion piece about how the platform wars hurt customers and ultimately our industry. He then goes on to join the platform wars:

The second part of the answer is open source. Open source commoditizes the stack. MySQL replaces Oracle. Linux replaces Windows. TomCat and JBOSS replace Websphere and NetWeaver.

Not if the customer has already installed Oracle, Windows, Websphere or NetWeaver. Any solution that does not work with the customer’s present system is no solution.

One of the reasons I promote the work of the Federal XML Work Group is that the collective buying power of the federal government has the power to oblige vendors to build interoperable products.

Reporters are customers too

Brian Krebs of the Washington Post requests a copy of his credit report and is given the run around when he tries to correct errors on his report. The illustrates something I often tell clients, have a policy of courterous efficient service, that way you won’t have to make a special effort when dealing with reporters.

Law enforcement net goes IP

Dibya Sarkar, Federal Computer Week

The National Law Enforcement Telecommunication System (NLETS), a highly secure system that shares private information among public safety and justice agencies, has upgraded to an IP-based network, making it possible to encrypt the 41 million-plus transmissions the network carries each month.

Very good news indeed.

Computers are like cars, we are going to have to learn to lock them

Gregg Keizer, TechWeb News

Lonesome PCs pose a security risk that enterprises underestimate, a research firm said this week. Making matters worse, corporations just don't pay attention to the major security hazard of unattended workstations, according to Gartner research vice president Jay Heiser.

Edit-
More from Governmment Computer News.

Bali. Again.

CBC

At least 25 people were killed and 100 are injured during two simultaneous attacks Saturday.

The blasts hit two packed seafood restaurants in Jimbaran beach and a bustling tourist shopping centre 30 kilometres away in downtown Kuta.

Expressions of sympathy can be made here.

Tips on the use of presentation software

Death by PowerPoint

A picture is worth a thousand words, possibly more – Just because PowerPoint has bullets is no reason to use them. There is no way you can convey as much information in a slide full of bullets as you can in a slide with a single picture on it. Try this next time, put a picture in instead of the bullets and then talk about the picture. People will find it much more interesting and much more informative. As a bonus, it makes it more worthwhile to come to the presentation as opposed to just downloading the slides – making you a more important person to have at the event.

First question, why use presentation software at all? When was the last time you saw a political candidate, clergyman, or anyone else who speaks for a living, use presentation software? Exactly. Unless pictures, charts, or some other graphic information is part of your presentation, why not just get in front of the group and talk?

37th Annual Thoth Awards

Top Washington Public Relations Professionals Honored at 37th Annual Thoth Awards

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The best and brightest in public relations were recognized by the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) tonight at its annual Thoth Awards at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

From 144 entries in 34 categories this year, 35 Thoth Awards and 14 Certificates of Excellence were presented to representatives of public relations agencies, corporations, government agencies, and trade and professional associations. The Thoth Awards (pronounced "Tot") are named for the Egyptian god of information and communication.

Special congratulations to winners Heathere Evans-Keenan, Sandra Wills Hannon, and Donna Arbogast, all members of IPRA.

Call for papers

New Communications Forum 2006


Don’t forget Les Blogs, Dec. 5 & 6 in Paris, France.

Hurricane season is not over yet

Inter Tropical Convergence Zone regional imagery, 2005.09.30 at 1100Z. Centerpoint Latitude: 15:26:25N Longitude: 31:16:19W.

A sign of the times

CompuDyne Products to Help Protect Phoenix Airport; Blast Protection Glass to Be Installed in Control Tower

No one ever won a war with their customers

Kevin Drum has a post about annoying online advertising, listing the worst offenses. My personal pet peeve:

Ads that prevent a site from loading just because the ad server is malfunctioning.

Ads succeed when they offer attractive invitations. If you are using a club you need to revise your approach.

Economic indicator?

THE TECHWEB SPIN: 200 Press Releases A Day And Counting

The tech economy must be chugging along because my email inbox is positively bursting at the seams. ..

At the risk of being accused by fellow news hounds of being a heretic, I submit that all this fever-pitched pitching is a good thing. Today's high volume, high intensity, high tech PR hasn't always been so hyperactive. Not long ago, the buzz machine was considerably quieter. I suspect I'm far from alone in noting this trend. While my email address is listed as a press release contact for TechWeb, I think many of my colleagues -- working in the trenches of the technology press corps -- are also using a forklift to cut through the blizzard, which is fine, because the alternative would be reliving the disastrous Tech Wreck of 2001.

May it be an omen of better times to come.

Edit-
Phil Gomes takes a different view.