Links: 10-26-2008

Links: 10-15-2008

  • Yahoo! Releases OpenID Research (Yahoo! Developer Network Blog)
    Quote: "Now the bad news. None of the users had heard of OpenID before, and none of them even noticed the OpenID sign-in box displayed below the traditional email/password login form on the site. In many cases, the test subjects entered their Yahoo email address and Yahoo password to try to log in. We had told the test subjects that they could sign into the site using their Yahoo! account without having to register."
    (categories: openid ux usability research fail )

  • Rands In Repose: The Culture Chart
    Quote: "Unlike the org chart, you’re not going to find the culture chart written down anywhere. It doesn’t exist. The culture chart is an unwritten representation of the culture of your company and understanding it answers big questions that you must know: * What does this organization value? * Who created this value system? * Given this value system, who contributes high value? * Who is most aware of how value is being created?"
    (categories: strategy software culture value )

Links: 10-8-2008

  • Thoughts on the Financial Crisis – O’Reilly Radar
    Quote: We don’t know yet how problems in the overall economy will affect our business. But what we can do now are the things we ought to be doing anyway: * Work on stuff that matters: Assuming that the world does go to hell in a handbasket, what would we still want to be working on? * Exert visionary leadership in our markets. In tough times, people look for inspiration and vision. The big ideas we care about will still matter, perhaps even more when people are looking for a way forward. (Remember how Web 2.0 gave hope and a story line to an industry struggling its way out of the dotcom bust.) * Be prudent in what we spend money on. Get rid of the "nice to do" things, and focus on the "must do" things to accelerate them.
    These are all things we should be doing every day anyway. Sometimes, though, a crisis can provide an unexpected gift, a reminder that nobody promised us tomorrow, so we need to make what we do today count.
    (categories: strategy economy future business quotes )

Links: 10-1-2008

Links: 9-30-2008

  • Focus on Things Under Your Control
    Quote: Fear and anxiety comes from lots of places, including fatigue, misinformation, and the endless blathering on of talking heads on the television. If you start feeling your anxiety level increase because of things you have no ability to influence, step back and reconsider how you are spending your time. Go for walk around the block and enjoy a nice October afternoon. Take your best friend out to lunch at a restaurant you’ve never been too. Get a good night’s sleep. Take a deep breath and – as my dad once told me, focus on things under your control.
    (categories: focus life )

  • Website Optimizer
    Google now offers A/B and multivariate testing. Nice.
    (categories: a/b testing experiments experimentation )