April 2007 Archives
Here you’ll find a collection of articles published during the month of April 2007.
Separating “How” from “What:” An open letter to the tech industry
By Michael Mace on April 6, 2007
One of the advantages of working as a consultant is that you get to look at the big picture across corporations. You can see trends and common themes that might not be obvious to somebody working in a single company.
One of the themes that’s become very clear lately is our industry’s difficulty telling the difference between “how” and “what” when designing products.
Virtualization in the Real World
By Bruce LaFetra on April 5, 2007
Conventional wisdom, in lumping Second Life with MySpace, FaceBook and other social networking sites, dismisses it as merely a social site. By “dismisses” I don’t mean to say that people think as a phenomena it is unimportant and can be ignored, but merely that they think of its impact solely in terms of social interaction. I am more convinced than ever that Second Life is really a new medium of virtualization, and is far more revolutionary than most people realize.
Consumers to Corporations: Where’s My Experience?
By Marsha Keeffer on April 3, 2007
With a print job deadline looming, I Googled on Kinko’s, figuring I’d get their number and call before I went over. Clicking again for more information, I was faced with the FedEx landing page. Suddenly, my services and solution were reduced to 8-point type—the most subsidiary of subsidiaries—and the services I wanted were nowhere to be found.
The New Leadership: Social Change and Connectedness
By Nilofer Merchant on April 2, 2007
We are in a time of great change. I suppose that’s obvious. Post 9/11, there’s been much commentary about these uncertain times. Whatever side of the political aisle you are on, you can likely agree that environmental concerns, “terrorism,” war, and other big issues cause us to live in uncertain times. Institutions, much beloved for decades, are seen with some distrust. Journalism, once depicted by Thomas Carlyle as the “fourth estate” so important to democracy, is now one of the most disliked institutions, with a trust level below that of used car sales persons.
Telephony meets the Internet: What it means to you
By Michael Mace on April 1, 2007
The Emerging Telephony (eTel) conference brings together the open source and web telephony community. It doesn’t get much attention in the mainstream tech press, but it’s an interesting place for scouting out telephony trends that might affect the tech industry as a whole. We went to this year’s conference. Three themes stood out that deserve your attention: