Metadata Blues

July 20, 2010 · Posted in Technology · Comment 

Why can’t I associate a caption with a .jpg or .png file and have it recognized (and, if appropriate, displayed) no matter what file browser, photo manager, photo editor, layout program or web publishing platform I use and no matter which operating system I use?

How come we still don’t have a standard for e-books and web pages that represents a page-like unit of text so that it’s easier to reference where one is in an electronic text no matter the font size?

Why doesn’t WordPress auto-de-dupe the tags that are only off by a misspelling, shortening of a word, or the use of hyphens?

Why doesn’t every e-mail program (web or client-based) have an option where you can add tags to and file to a folder to an e-mail you are sending right before you hit the send button?

Why are tables of contents in e-books so lame?

Why do content management systems still spit out incomprehensible URLs?

How come stories on newspaper websites don’t thread over time? (or at least: why are the “suggest” or “related” features on newspaper websites so often incomplete or irrelevant?)

How come you don’t get both a “last saved” and a “last edited” timestamp that’s easy to view on all OSes with files of any type that displays in the same way across operating systems?

Why don’t people add metadata to PDF files, like ever? (even people who should know better)

I don’t know for sure. Perhaps it’s that technology, especially search, makes allowances for us. Perhaps it’s that there are no consequences to the lack of speed and piling up of un-indexed or un-easily-searched image files and documents and e-mails. Perhaps metadata doesn’t have the right branding*. Perhaps we simply don’t expect the same sense and consistency across products that we do from, say, prescriptions or ingredients labels. We just don’t have the same expectations for electronic files that we have for physical objects.

Of course, when augmented reality — when the internet of things — really takes off, well, we’re going to be singing the blues with much more feeling if everyday users (and the companies that sell to them) don’t embrace the smart use of metadata.

*Maybe we need a metadata button (like an rss button or the x that means “close this window”) that displays metadata when clicked

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How immersive digital experiences should deal with calls to action

July 12, 2010 · Posted in Advertising, Technology · Comment 

So Steve Jobs has it all figured out how we’re going to consume ads in an immersive experience like an iPad app. The solution seems to be to make another app that has content so great that you’ll want to experience it. That may make sense for highly creative products like films or books or high ticket items like cars or high-end electronics, but that doesn’t really help consumer product and food companies, small businesses, etc. Not only would creating such experiences be costly and time intensive, but making commercials that require even more time to consume is likely to get old with consumers.

The other options are to do what we essentially have now — video ads in anything streaming (game, Hulu app, whatever) and basically print ads in anything to be read (like a magazine app). The problem there is that all you can capture is mindshare, which is no improvement over what print and television already offered — but with, usually, a much smaller audience.

It seems to me that the most nonobtrusive but still effective way to go about this is to provide a discrete button during a video ad or on a static ad that consumers can click that triggers an action that doesn’t jerk them out of their experience. How could this be done?

One thing Hulu does is pop up a fairly non-intrusive dialog  during its commercials that asks “Is this ad relevant to you?” and provides a “yes” and “no” button. It’s non-intrusive because it shows up in the frame rather across the “screen” itself. I suggest a modification of this that provides a simple “more” text button or perhaps an icon (that hopefully gains traction and becomes universal) that is displayed discreetly in the frame around the video or static/Flash animation ad. When clicked (or more likely touched since this is really intended to work with tablet apps), an action is triggered that takes place in the background. This could be everything from send you a link in an e-mail or text message to bookmark the site to Delicious to add an item to Google reader. Ideally, the platform for this call to action would be able to thread itself through most of the apps and would customizable by the user. The user him or herself could choose what the action is, thus setting the zone where he or she is willing to receive more information or coupons or a request to sign up for a mailing list of like a page on a social media site.

I also suggest that the follow up to the call of action, the thing that is triggered by touching the “more” button be heavy on the informational side of things. Advertisers can deliver the emotion in the ad. If consumers are interested, then the next step is to provide them with something that allows them to indicate that interest without jerking them out of the immersive experience, the app that they are currently in. Add in (depending on the app and advertiser) location awareness and a build up of consumer preference information, and I think you have an effective advertising platform that consumers will be more willing to engage with.

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Persistent conversation among people I trust

July 6, 2010 · Posted in Culture, Education, Journalism, Technology · Comment 

I recently went in and cleaned up the more than 900 items I had starred in Google Reader going back to 2006. At least half of them  were on recurring topics — personal finance, literary criticism, social media tracking, economics, food, etc. — that I like to follow closely (thus why they had been starred).  But I had no trouble letting most of them go because, well, the conversation has moved on and things change and, to be honest, part of me was saying “hey, they’re only blog posts.” Don’t get me wrong — I love form and have been reading blogs since Instapundit just started out and have regularly blogged since 2004. But although blogs are a good way to generate current conversation, they suck when it comes to persistent conversation across time. Digging into archives can be very hit or miss (and tags and categories only take you so far, especially with a blog that has been around awhile). And even if comments aren’t closed on an older post, chances are the conversation is not going to be re-ignited. Also because of the semi-casual nature of blogs, both posts and comments don’t focus on real tight writing on thought.

On the other hand, Wikipedia is excellent for persistent content over time. Entries get updated, refined and fleshed out. Changes to the page are tracked and made available to the casual reader. But the problem with Wikipedia is that it’s only an encyclopedia. It’s tone and scope is focused on factual, relevant content.

And finally, scholarship, as it is made available in academic journals, and public intellectualism, as it is made available in magazines and newspapers, can often be great and producing polished work and work that is in conversation with others in the field. But you often have to slog through a lot in order to get to what you find interesting and conversations get off track and some of it is just too specialized.

So here’s what I want: a way to read a persistent, focused conversation on specialized topics I’m interested in undertaken by people I trust, admire, tolerate, hate or whatever but at least am willing to listen to that is set up in such a way to occur over days, months, years. I’m still mulling over what form this might take. More later when things have fully coalesced.

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What I, as a writer/editor, want from a tablet computer

April 27, 2010 · Posted in Technology · 2 Comments 

I like the idea of tablet computing because as a writer, editor and reader, anything that’s conceptually akin to a book or a (paper) notebook has an inherent appeal. However, I’m unlikely to commit to a device unless I am convinced that it will work well for me as a writer and editor and work in a wide variety of situations and for all stages of writing and editing a work. As I think about what that means in relation to a tablet, I run in to several barriers — not all of which can be overcome by interface (even a multi-touch one) alone.

Now, this may simply may be my own idiosyncratic needs. And certainly they are informed by the fact of my daily bus commute and the fact that I live in an apartment with a wife and daughter (and so have no “room of my own” so-to-speak). But here are the two things that I would require of a serious writing device:

A. Easy, quick data input for when ideas are flowing (brainstorming) and/or I’m in the zone (writing) that can happen in a variety of environments and even without the need for a flat surface.

B. Easy mark up of drafts, including the ability to quickly move chunks of text around.

Now I know the whole point of the iPad is supposed to be that one only needs a finger and the device (with the addition of a bluetooth or docked keyboard when needed), but I think some extra hardware accessories would be very useful when paired with a tablet computer.

Here’s what they are:

  1. A thumb keyboard: yes, I know this sounds dumb and retrograde, but the problem with a blue tooth keyboard is that you need a flat space to put it down on. I don’t have that on the bus. A thumb keyboard, say similar to a Blackberry keyboard, but I’d be open to other configurations, connected via bluetooth to a tablet means that you could have the tablet nearby, but not need it be all the way out and still go to town with the writing. Heck, I’d be willing to give up QWERTY in a second and learn a new alphabet input system for the right device. For those late night flashes of inspiration. For when you want to stand and pace. For, as I mention, the bus or the plane, this would be a great, easy way to download what’s going on in your mind. One key wakes up the tablet and opens up a blank document. The rest is just sheer input.
  2. A pen/pencil stylus for editing. Yes, one could theoretically use a finger. But the ergonomics of that suck, imo. Plus you can’t get quite as fine tuned as you need. A stylus that felt in the hand like a good pen or pencil coupled with software that recognizes editor’s marks and has provisions for adding annotations/comments and selecting and moving around chunks of text would be awesome. Think about how much more efficient and clear you’d be as an editor if you could interact with drafts in this way instead of either using Word’s or Adobe Acrobat’s horrible mark up systems or (as many editors still do) printing the document out and going over it on paper (thus requiring duplicate data entry).
  3. A dictation device. Possibly a microphone you hold in your hand or even one of those silly bluetooth ear devices. I write well when I walk. If I could walk with while carrying something that’s easy to hold and that I could speak in to as thoughts came to me and that could record a half hour or more worth of data and then connect wirelessly to a tablet and transcribe and transcribe well, I’d be in heaven, especially if I can then use the pencil stylus to edit the results.

I’m open to other solutions. But really, although multi-touch on a tablet solves many UI issues (I’ve never been fond of using a computer mouse), I still don’t see a vast improvement for those of us who focus on writing and editing. Give me the above, however, and a tablet is all I would need.

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Tablets could be awesome for language learning

January 13, 2010 · Posted in Education, Technology · 2 Comments 

What I really want when it comes to new tech is a cheap, ultraportable, lean text writing and editing device. Which means a keyboard, probably. So I haven’t been all that interested in the rush of tablets. But last night I was thinking about how I struggle to keep fresh the foreign languages I know, and it occurred to me that one of the killer uses for a tablet would be language learning and maintanence.

Language learning takes place best in an immersive environment that can be entered consistently and provides a variety of ways to gain spoken, written and reading comprehension competencies. A tablet would be a great way to present video, audio, photos, words, quizzes, etc. Yes, that’s all content that is currently available through websties and software on desktops and laptops and smartphones. But I do think that a tablet form, that allows one to interact in a comfortable, casual setting and requires touch feedback (rather than the mouse or track pad) and has a bright, well-designed screen and an app-driven interface presents enough improvements and enticements and sensory experiences to really make language learning much better.

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Features I want from Hulu, Netflix, Gmail and other web services

September 4, 2009 · Posted in Social Media, Technology · 3 Comments 

I have no major complaints about most of the web services I use*. Of course, that’s a bit tautological because if I hated them, I wouldn’t use them. But anyway, I do have some suggestions for minor improvements to the following web services:

Hulu: I would like a smarter queue that tracks what I have already seen. It’s great that you can subscribe to shows and when new episodes get loaded on to Hulu, they pop in your queue. But because episodes sometimes get taken down (after I have seen them) and then put back up (for example, to drum up excitement for the start of a new season), the queue oftens clogged with episodes of a show that I have already viewed on Hulu. I want an option to only show ones I haven’t viewed already — and for re-uploads to recognize that I saw them on the first go round.

Netflix: I would like a queue that’s just like the current queue but is for tracking purposes only, and I want to be able to subscribe to actors, directors, writers, studios, awards lists, certain critics picks, sub-genres and sub-sub-genres and when something new is acquired by Netflix that features the keywords and  individuals I’ve subscribed to, I want those titles to appear at the top of that tracking queue.**

Gmail: I love Gmail. I’m one of those who immediately took to thread conversations and tags instead of folders.  There is one feature I’d like though: the ability to tag an e-mail before (or as you go to) send it.

Google Docs: Yes, you can export Google Docs in a variety of formats, but there are occassions where I like to simply publish a Doc. For those instances I’d like to be able to have the option of auto-pagination (and be able to specify how many paragraphs or words for each page).

Twitter: I know this is supposed to be on the way, but, imo, the ability to RT from the web interface can’t happen soon enough. Yes, I use Tweetdeck and Hootsuite fairly often, but sometimes the web interface it just easiest to use, and I’d like to be able to easily retweet from it.

YouTube: I want 20 minute video uploads. Some better metrics tools (and even integration with Google Analytics) would be nice too.

Flock: I want it to open faster.

Flickr: I want the ability to batch organize sets and collections without going in to Flickr’s Ajax (sometimes browser resource heavy) Organizer e.g. just using titles of everything without thumbnails and the drag and drop feature — a light version, I guess, of the Flickr Organizer.

GoodReads: I want the ability to easily order titles on  shelves (both drag and drop and enter number) and the ability to select multiple shelves and only show the titles that match all the selected shelves.

*Facebook is the Big Exception, but I’m not going to go in to all that in what is intended to be a light, quick post.

**I also want Linux supported Netflix On Demand, but that’s not a feature  improvement, per se.

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I want non-destructive editing for photos

August 10, 2009 · Posted in Technology · Comment 

I encountered two things recently that crystallized for me an issue I have been having with image files. The first was doing some reading on Final Cut Pro and finding out about non-destructive editing. The second was this Signal vs. Noise post by Jazon Z. titled Work in Photoshop, don’t Save in Photoshop. Jason talks about how when he works in Photoshop on user interface concepts, he no longer saves the results as PSD files (complete with layers), but instead he just takes a screenshot of the various iterations.

As I thought about those two bits of information, I began to realize that image management and editing is fundamentally lame because you have to save image files for every iteration of any photo you work with. Maybe I’m just doing it wrong. But there are times when I end up with a source photo, a photo with a conservative crop, one with a funky crop, the photo I upload to Flickr, the one that I size for placing on a web page, the one that I e-mail to people that’s print quality but under 3 mb (because that’s the attachment size limit at work), etc. etc.

What if there was some killer piece of image management software that helped you catalog and tag your photos AND kept a record of all the various pieces of specialized software that accessed the image, but didn’t keep any of the edits/filters/resizings you used. But then if you open the image in Photoshop (or GIMP or Aviary’s Phoenix, etc.), Photoshop itself has saved the various versions of the image that you told it to save and brings those up in a dialogue that you can scroll through and as you view each one, Photoshop is applying those parameters or filters, but the source image itself isn’t touched e.g. non-destructive editing. The same is true if you open it in Fireworks or Dreamweaver. The source file is the same but the filters native to that program and attached to that image come in to play when you’re actually working with it. And then, of course, the image that gets uploaded to the server is the correctly edited and sized jpeg or png or gif (or maybe even not then, but that’s getting in to some issues with cloud computing and future versions of html that are beyond my ken).

And did I mention that the source file will keep data on where it’s been uploaded via the image management software (whether that’s Picasa, iPhoto, F-spot, or Lightroom or Aperture, etc.) so you can see if you uploaded it to Facebook or Spreadshirt or icanhascheezburger or Google Presentation (and when)? Because that’d be cool. Frankly, image/photo management is a huge pain and the number of different versions of a photo or image one needs is verging on the ridiculous. Is this an unreasonable request? Is something like this already being worked on? Is anybody else as dissatisfied as I am with the state of photo management?

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A method for composing stories/pitches/releases (or: throwing off the shackles of Microsoft Word)

April 2, 2009 · Posted in Media Relations, PR, Social Media, Technology · 1 Comment 

A few weeks ago I realized that the current system our office had for information management for our stories, pitches, news releases, event announcements, etc. just wasn’t working. I was tired of formatting issues cropping up as I moved content between platforms. I was worried about how much was stored in the e-mail in-boxes of me and my co-workers rather than on our share drive. And I was beginning to understand that engagement with social media — even on a straitlaced, low-frequency scale (which I’m not necessarily happy about, but we’re doing the best we can with a small shop) — meant that viewing content as A News Release or A Magazine Story wasn’t going to work.

Here’s the solution I came up with the help of one of my co-workers:

  1. Everything is now a story — we don’t think of content by what platform it’s going to be featured on/in.
  2. Any story, no matter how big or small or important or whatever other adjective you want to apply to it, gets a text file created about it (in Notepad) as soon as we know about it. This text file is placed in a Stories folder on our department’s shared rive. The filename consists of a status tag, key words, and a month. The status tags are a = active, t = tickler, z = archived e.g. a_NewStoryMethod_April09.txt. The idea here is that stories with the same status will group together.
  3. The text file is set up with three basic areas separated by a few hyphens as a visual divider. The areas are: Publishing , Story and Source.
    • In the Publishing area we list the platforms we think this story should be published too. This includes News release, Web site, faculty/staff newsletter, student newsletter, alumni newsletter, alumni magazine, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and more. When we publish to those areas, it gets noted next to the platform. Sometimes that’s a date and URL. Sometimes it’s just a date posted. Sometimes it’s a reference to an edition. Whatever makes sense so we can look it up later if we need to. If we’re sure this story isn’t going to be represented in one of those areas, that tag gets deleted.
    • In the Story area we have a bunch of different content fields. How many all depends on the story, but the possible fields so far are: Photos, Video, Headline, Subhed, Excerpt/Summary (1-2 paragraphs), Story (with a lead paragraph and as many paragraphs as the story demands — in some cases this may be Bullet Points or the Who/What/When/Where of an event listing rather than Story), Quotes (with notations about approvals or needs), and Boilerplate. For photos or video we copy and paste the file path to where those photos or videos are located. And these fields change depending on the nature of the story. Basically we dump them all in the template and then remove when we’re sure we don’t have to worry about that field.
    • In the Source area we dump everything that we get as raw sources — the text of e-mails, resumes, the results of Q&As, transcripts of tape-recorded interviews — with a note on where that info came from.
  4. Obviously this is just the source product. If we need to create a formal news release in Microsoft Word complete with letterhead then we do that and it’s housed in the News Releases folder just like ones created before this new system. And created isn’t the right word — it’s assembled from the pieces — the quotes, the explanatory paragraphs, the lead, the boilerplate. And for our alumni magazine, we’ll use this as a source and plug in quotes, but probably rewrite the lead and headline so it’s more feature-like. In addition, for pitching the media, I may rewrite the excerpt/summary to make it more relevant to the targeted publication. And when translating the headline for posting to Twitter, I may make it more colloquial. But the point is this the story source from whence all other pitches, stories, news briefs, releases, Flickr set summaries, etc. etc. flow.
  5. This could all change and we could ditch the system next week and it really only works well if everybody who is generating and disseminating content buys in to it. One cool thing is that it allows me to outsource some of dissemination work to a co-worker. And conversely, if a co-worker has a Story that was featured in, say, the faculty/staff newsletter and we decide to elevate it to the alumni magazine or a pitch, I know where to go first to get up to speed on what info we already have.

Hopefully my explanation is fairly clear. If not, I’ve uploaded a sample content_template that may help.

We’ve used this process for three stories so far, and so far I think it’s fantastic. I love not having to worry about formatting issues when I copy and paste*. I like that when I go to post an affiliated Flickr set or a Facebook note, I can pick and choose the language and details I want to add (and then modify if needed for tone and length). I find it soothing to not compose in Word.

Now there are a couple of downsides to this method. First, there’s no spellcheck**. Second, you have to remember to turn off word wrap when you copy and paste from Notepad — otherwise you end up with weird line breaks. I’d love to use Gedit (which I use at home on my Ubuntu box), but we’re a Windows XP shop at work. At some point, I’ll check out other text editors for Windows (anybody have suggestions?). But for now, Notepad is working just fine. It’s pretty sweet how quickly files open and save and close — and how small they are even if I’ve dumped several pages of stuff in to the Source section.

Keep in mind that there’s only four of us in our department, and we don’t publish a ton of content so this may not work for other college pr and marketing offices, but so far it has been a very positive change. And really, the key message of this post is not the method, but rather this: with a million places to publish, you better have some way of storing all the bits and pieces of content you need to tell your stories. And e-mail isn’t it. And a formal news release archive with nicely formatted MS Word docs isn’t it, either.

* Seriously — have you ever seen the crazy html code that MS Word creates when you try to copy and paste in to a CMS like Dreamweaver, WordPress or an e-newsletter service? Or even just in to an e-mail. It’s so annoying.

** I believe there are text editors with spellcheck. I’m looking into it and will post a comment if I find anything interesting to report.

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