Promises of Progress

A year certainly goes by quickly, when you start a company. If anything, this blog is evidence hereof. 140 characters is apparently sufficient, when you are in a hurry. Maybe that’ll change.

With some of the most ungrateful users there is out there – it’s times like these, I’m glad I’m not in the Twitter systems operations team.

If only you could hide behind a cute #failwhale.

Anyway, Twitter doesn’t owe you anything. You paid nothing. They promised nothing. The beauty of free. And a very good reason why not to rush a business model onto Twitter.

… but three lefts does…

Although, you will probably get a hefty fine, for doing that.

After 10 years in the rollercoster-ride that is the telco business, I recently had my last day as a direct employee with Telia.

I have received a lot of positive feedback and good advice with regards to the road that lies ahead. I’m really looking forward to being able to work on what I myself find interesting. But first – hard work is required. 

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work..” – Peter Drucker

In my experience, these are the three keywords you need to consider before adding content to your site.

1. Relevant.
   Does anyone care enough to read the entire thing? Make sure you have an audience, but do not be picky. The content may not be relevant to 98% of your sites users, but hopefully the other 2% will be delighted.
2. Unique.
   Can your readers get the same information somewhere else? People normally go straight to the highest authority.
3. Updated.
   Old news is old. Make sure you allocate resources to review the content. If you don’t publish relevant updates – some other site eventually will – and then you are no longer the highest authority on the matter.

Photo by Steve Rhodes on Flickr

From time to time I would also argue that availability is also key. Choose a publishing format that suits the content format and audience. That means no Flash based sites for you iPhone audience. And put your upcoming concerts list in a RSS feed. Etc.

 When you have all this in place, THEN you are allowed to look at how it’s presented.

Let’s do a quick case study:

In Denmark, the major public transportation companies have teamed up to provide tickets via SMS. The setup is simple:

1. Send “1 2″ to 1415 (to get a 2-zone ticket, valid for journeys beginning in zone 1)
2. Reply “JA” to the SMS you get back
3. You receive a SMS ticket that you show to the busdriver or the train conductor

If you are waiting for the bus, and you need this information, what do you do? You go to the information site (www.1415.dk) on your mobile browser, right?

Wrong. It’s flash only.

Given that no commonly available phone support native Flash very well (or at all) – please just provide a xhtml alternative.

Ironically, the site features a competition, where you can win — you’ve guessed it — an iPhone!

I smell an old-fashioned approach to marketing. I hope they have a mobile version coming up soon.

If you have asked a web agency to come up with a design for your new website, I propose the following basic test. Pay attention to the order in which they present the site components to you.

• If they begin with the front page – take my advice and do not proceed with that company.
• If, on the other hand, they begin with any other page, (preferably with generic elements) – chances of them being total dorks are much smaller.

That’s at least my claim. Your mileage may vary.

Last week I filled in a Jung Type Indicator test using the javascript Math.Random() method. Now, the result is in.

It seems that Math.Random() is an INFJ personality type. “INFJs tend to be quiet and reserved.” Nuff’ said.

Having to complete an online multiple-choice personality test in a hurry, I quickly threw together a piece of javascript, that selects random radio buttons on any page.
If you are in a similar hurry, feel free to bookmark it – and use it on a page with plenty of radio buttons.

randomradio!

Enjoy.

And now I look forward to hearing about the personality profile of the javascript random().

..eller del 2 i Merlin-gavekorts sagaen.

Som jeg skrev tidligere, havde jeg indsendt mit krav på 200 kr. til kuratoren for konkursboet efter Merlin A/S. Det kostede mig et frimærke og til gengæld modtager jeg nu interessant læsestof med posten. Jeg har idag modtaget brev nummer 2: “Meddelelse i medfør af Konkurslovens §124, stk. 1″. Jeg skyder på at man nok ikke skal regne med en hurtig afslutning på denne historie. 

I brevet kan man bl.a. læse at, der forløbigt er gjort krav på omkring 100 mio. kr – men at, der så at sige, kun er ca. 39 mio. i kassen. Lidt naivt ville jeg måske så håbe på at få 39% af mine 200 kr. tilbage – men hvad tallet bliver må tiden vise. Indtil da nøjes jeg med at lære nye juridiske udtryk af mine nye advokat-pennevenner.