In a piece for Medium commissioned by Matter, Jon Norris describes a little-known aspect of the UK’s information technology history:
Gender equality is still a major issue in the technology industry, but 50 years ago one British company was blazing trails.
I’m going to miss having Harry around at Clearleft. Sounds like he might miss Clearleft too:
What I’ve loved about Clearleft is that it’s just so different to any other agency I’ve worked at. There’s no company process – everyone’s encouraged to experiment and try different techniques to suit the client’s needs. There’s hardly any internal meetings. I’ve never once had a conversation about my billing efficiency. The focus is on quality, and profitability is almost seen as a by-product. You’re encouraged to share your learnings externally rather than keep them in-house. Everyone’s trusted and given a lot of independence.
Yes, yes, yes!
In Toxic Title Douchebag World, titles are designed to document the value of an individual sans proof. They are designed to create an unnecessary social hierarchy based on ego.
Biting satire that hits its mark superbly. Ouch! Be careful — this is sharp …and funny.
The latest Clearleft product will be like having an intensive set of discovery, collaboration, and exploration workshops in a box. Perfect for startups and other small businesses short on time or budget.
It starts in Spring but you can register your interest now.
Some insane numbers on the return on investment that a bit of responsive optimisation can bring.
VC funding that actually makes sense, from the always-sensible Maciej Cegłowski.
Oh, my! This excellent, excellent post from Anil Dash is a great summation of what has changed on the web, and how many of today’s big-name services are no longer imbued with the spirit of the web.
Either you remember how things used to be and you’ll nod your head vigorously in recognition and agreement …or you’re too young to remember this, and you won’t quite believe that is how things worked.
This isn’t some standard polemic about “those stupid walled-garden networks are bad!” I know that Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and LinkedIn and the rest are great sites, and they give their users a lot of value. They’re amazing achievements, from a pure software perspective. But they’re based on a few assumptions that aren’t necessarily correct. The primary fallacy that underpins many of their mistakes is that user flexibility and control necessarily lead to a user experience complexity that hurts growth. And the second, more grave fallacy, is the thinking that exerting extreme control over users is the best way to maximize the profitability and sustainability of their networks.
Therefore, from a business perspective, and my excitement in doing this blog post is that RWD is especially important for mobile-centric markets such as Africa.
The truth about startups. Got a startup? Take the quiz. It’s harsh but fair.
I think Derek is on to something here. Maybe online communities and profit are simply incompatible?
The bigger you go, the harder the road. Meanwhile, small, focused, and yes, exclusionary community sites flourish.
You know what? I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.
A satirical parody of post-singularity existence by Tom Scott inspired by Jim Munroe’s Everyone in Silico and Rudy Rucker’s Postsingular.
Time is money …especially when it comes to performance on the web.
A heartbreaking article about just how badly Yahoo fucked up with Flickr. It’s particularly sad coming out right as the Flickr devs roll out an improved uploader and a more liquid photo page …but it seems like band-aid development at this point.
This post by Jason Fried is three years old but it’s more relevant than ever.
What a loss. Is that the best the next generation can do? Become part of the old generation? How about kicking the shit out of the old guys? What ever happened to that?
Just copy and paste.
Dear soon-to-be-former user…
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Glenn gives a rational thoughtful explanation of why he’s as pissed off as I am about Google’s destruction of the Social Graph API.
Yes! Charles Stross speaks the unspeakable: that advertising is fundamentally “wrong”.
He’s right, y’know.
An in-depth look at where Google is going wrong.
Matt has transcribed the notes from his excellent Webstock talk. I highly recommend giving this a read.
Now this is some prioritisation I can admire:
I’m going to build valuable, reliable, sustainable web services that will last forever.
I really enjoyed Matt’s talk from Webstock. I know some people thought it might be a bit of a downer but I actually found it very inspiring.
A superb scathing piece by Andy, who has a personal perspective on Yahoo’s massively dick move in deploying the patent nuclear option against Facebook.
A great article from David with some concrete proposals for media companies.
By the way, how nice is David’s new responsive design? Very nice. Very nice indeed.
Stef does some data-sleuthing and uncovers some shocking behaviour on the part of Google in Kenya.
Everyone has their bullshit. You can simply decide whose you’re willing to tolerate.
Another satisfied convert to the world of huffduffing, Joel has written some very kind words about the site.
Interestingly, the fact that Huffduffer is free worries him. In this case his fears are unwarranted but it’s a legitimate worry with free services: what if it gets bought out and shut down?
It’s funny and heartbreaking because it’s true.
There’s a good point buried in this tirade.
Here’s a more positive spin: with this much horseshit, there’s gotta be a horse in there somewhere.
Maciej delivers a rant worthy of Paul Robert Lloyd.
Clay Shirky takes a long hard look at the present (and future) of newspapers and—more important—of journalism. A good read.
A great presentation on contracts and payment by Mike Monteiro …and his lawyer.
Don Norman bemoans the seemingly-inevitable direction that the internet is taking; from an open system of exchange to a closed, controlled broadcast channel. I share his fear.
Jeffrey points out another point of failure in our online storage: the willingness of site owners to sell their product (and your data) to a big company for a quick payout.
Douglas Rushkoff on the repeating circle of life that all big online companies live through.
Punctuation matters.
An excellent resource for deciphering corporate business-speak gibberish (I'm going to need this when I'm eavesdropping on Andy Budd making phone calls).
The companion website to Kevin Hoffman's IA Summit talk, this is a hugely valuable resource for an often-overlooked part of the design process: the kick-off meeting.
I believe it was the philosopher Conflicticus who said, "Only stupid bastards help EMI."
An interesting take on the business models of social networking sites.
A great article about the rising prevalence of "rough consensus and running code" in the real world.
A superb call to arms on the importance of "fat pipe, always on, get out of my way."
A sobering article on the cost of being a truly global website. This gives some context to Last.fm's recent pricing model decision.
An excellent take on font-linking from someone who designs typefaces for a living.
There is now a dedicated Monty Python channel on YouTube, all legit like. Hurrah!
Excellent news: Valleywag is being shut down. If enough people shout "fuck off" together, miracles like this can happen. The web is a better place without Owen Thomas and his bilious spume.
Brian says what we're all thinking (or rather, what we would all be thinking if we actually wasted valuable brain cells thinking about TechC*nt).
The muisc "industry" is clearly populated by asshats who actively enjoy displaying their incompetence and malice.
Worst. Business Idea. Ever. A CD of office sounds so that homeworkers can impress clients on the phone with the sounds of industriousness. "Instant credibility for home businesses!"
A brilliant summation by David Byrne of the possible business models available to musicians today.
Ev Williams has some tips for evaluating business ideas, broken down by tractability, obviousness, deepness, wideness, discoverability, monetizability (ugh!) and the all-important "personally compelling" factor.
Excellent news from the New York Times: no more charging for content. Finally, I can link to NYT articles from blog posts (and del.icio.us).
Hail to the King... so says Business Week.
I suspect David Sleight was hovering over Catherine Holahan's shoulder while she wrote this.
I'm living on the cutting edge, apparently. This article is more like a press release meets an annual report, completely missing out the real reasons why Brighton is a cool place to live and work.
Matt points out that we can get sidetracked by taking what matters most to us and assuming that it matters most for success.
Make business cards with your Flickr pics. Got a pro account? You can order a test batch of ten for free. The process of creating the cards is fun and easy. I can't wait to see the results.
"Not only did the head of Waterstone's underestimate the internet. Even Rupert Murdoch was caught out"
This is the plain vanilla look.
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