Rex Hammock's Page

I’m sorry if you’ve had problems attempting to comment on this blog during the past few days. For some reason (translation: operator error), the setting got changed so that someone had to be “registered” on the site to make a comment. As I probably have “registering” turned off, that made commenting problematic. Sidenote: I’m trying to install the Disqus and FriendFeed plugins but the blog’s custom theme is making the installation of both a notch above my skill-level — I’m close, but not quite there. I’ll tackle it this weekend. That is all.

I’ve been trying hard this year not to link to items that fall into the shiny object chasing category I’d call “tech-blogger meme-of-the-day.” However, I can’t help myself on this one. Mozilla Labs (the folks behind the Firefox browser) has a concept project called Ubiquity that utilizes an interface concept that will be very familiar and compelling to users of the software called Quicksilver.

I’ve never tried to explain Quicksilver, but here goes: It a light-weight utility that I use on my Mac that allows me to navigate and operate pretty-much everything on the computer in a text-driven way so that I can by-pass all the clicking I do when using the “finder” and all the metaphors related to the desktop. Of course, writing that previous sentence and recognizing that it makes no sense, whatsoever, is why I don’t try to explain Quicksilver.

So I won’t attempt to explain how or why I find Ubiquity so compelling either (watch some of the video and maybe you’ll see why). One day, perhaps in about 10 or 15 years, people who live on the Internet will migrate to a web interface that Ubiquity points to — one where users can navigate among websites and web-apps using “verbs” or “language-driven” methods of controlling the browser and content and services they want to collect, store or share. In the old days, I would have predicted 3-5 years, but about 15 years ago, I predicted such a life-span for the fax machine — and I hear one whirling in the background.

I’m not recommending you become a lab-rat and download an early version of Ubiquity. It’s cool to use, but not yet something ready for prime-time. However, if you’re already someone who uses Quicksilver, you may want to check it out.

(via: waxy.org)

Technorati Tags: ubiquity

Jon Henshaw, the SEO guru (among many other things) at the web-development firm, Sitening, says some very nice things about the online strategy displayed on the Hammock Inc. company website, Hammock.com. (Yes, I do have a job.) Thanks, Jon. I feel like Sally Field.

There are subtle things about the site that Jon notes — simple things that took me years of blogging to figure out and that took several people at Hammock (not just me, but thanks for the credit, Jon) nearly a year to think through. Again, it’s a simple strategy that any business or association, large or small, could implement. But for some reason, very few do — perhaps because the “content” commitment such a strategy requires appears daunting once you start scratching the surface. (Another promo: Helping companies and associations do such things is our business.)

Jon observes one of things I’m very proud of (in a geekish way), but something no one else has written about: Every employee at Hammock has a “blog” designed to look okay even if it’s never updated. I’ve often said that if they weren’t called “blogs,” more people would have one. So internally, we decided to have a page for each employee, but to not use the B-word (or, come to think of it, any letter followed by “-word”). Internally, we call them People pages. On the site, at first, we didn’t call them anything. They were just pages for each employee that contain work-related contact info. Officially, they reside in the “About” category. Each of these pages have an easy-to-remember URL, like mine, Hammock.com/RexHammock. But as Jon noticed — and we have now acknowledged — each of these pages is also a blog built on Moveable Type with all the bells and whistles you’d expect on a blog — even a stealth blog. Recently, we did add them to the “blogs” category and put the word “blogs” at the top of each page. The first (and for several, only) “post” on each page is a bio that has another easy-to-remember URL, like Hammock.com/RexHammock/bio. Some employees have never made a second post to their page, but by design, such a page doesn’t look like a blog that hasn’t been updated — just something that provides helpful contact information. Some employees use them like a phone message — “I’m out of the office until Sept. 2.” Others do use them like a blog. Those who study online behavior would recognize the pages’ versatility in serving dual roles for identity and expression. As each “people page” (it’s a stealth blog, remember) has an RSS feed, it’s easy for them to be integrated with other services. For example, I have mine feeding into my FriendFeed page.

In Jon’s post, he speculates about the SEO mojo that our strategy generates. I’d share the before and after data (we have about nine months of data) but I’m not yet a true believer in all that radical transparency stuff. Let’s just say, it’s working.

In a future shameless self-promotional post, I’ll explain how the Hammock.com website embraces a variety of social media services in nuanced ways (APIs, RSS, etc.) and how we’re working with association and corporate clients to do the same.

Technorati Tags: hammock, SEO, strategy

Folio: is reporting that business-to-business (or “trade”) magazine circulation remained mostly flat during the first half of 2008, according to numbers released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Earlier this month, the same audit bureau reported newsstand sales of magazines was down 6.3% in the same period. If you weren’t living under a rock, you probably read the widespread coverage when those newsstand numbers were released. Beyond Folio, a few B-to-B bloggers and the website of American Business Media, you’ll probably not be reading much about today’s reports. That’s because to most general business reporters, “the magazine industry” is that part of the industry that pertains to consumer magazines. As I’ve noted before, that misunderstanding often leads to comparisons between magazines and other media that make little sense, i.e., comparisons of consumer advertising in magazines with all advertising on the Internet.

By now, regular readers of this blog know that I dismiss any statistics-dependent article written by a reporter. Even reporters who should know better feel compelled to quickly post any report that involves percentage signs. I’ve given up on trying to educate readers or writers about stories involving numbers*. I’ll merely remind those who are not in the magazine industry, there are distinct types of magazines. It’s impossible to say “the magazine industry” and mean something beyond the type of print format content is distributed on:

1. Consumer magazines: The kind you see on the newsstand. The ones that had a 6.3% decline in newsstand sales.

2. Business to business (or trade) magazines: The kind you receive at work, like Plumbers Weekly. The circulation of these magazines was flat during the past six months.

3. Other (which can be divided into endless sub-categories): All the magazines you get from associations, universities, non-profits, your grocery store, the company you bought your car from, the kind you pull out of the seat back pocket on an airplane, etc.

Business-to-business magazines are, like other segments of the magazine world, being transformed by the Internet. However, most companies that publish B2B media have diversified their businesses into events, information services and a wide-array of digital and online products.

Bottomline: The magazine industry is bigger than those magazines you see on the newsstand. That said, it’s an industry that must adapt to challenges and embrace a wide array of changes. Of course, you can say that about any industry, I’m sure.

*For following the way in which numbers are used and misused, I recommend the New York Times’ Freakonomics blog.

Technorati Tags: advertising, magazines

Doing a little blog maintenance that requires a post. Sorry for all of the echos this post will generate.