I taught a class on tagging for Vera Rhoads at the University of Maryland Graduate School back in 2006. It was an introductory-level presentation, aimed at covering the basics. Last year, I presented a similar presentation on classification, tagging and search. Continue reading »

I have given versions of this information retrieval talk for five or six semesters at Thom Haller’s USDA Graduate School class on Information Architecture. I always enjoy the class, since Thom attracts folks with an interesting range of experience. Continue reading »

While doing a little housekeeping on my site I rediscovered this presentation I did a couple years ago on Enterprise Content Management and Federal Enterprise Architecture. It was for the Gilbane conference on content management technologies in government. My notes from the conference are also available. Continue reading »

Yesterday, while at the local California Tortilla, we spied a Maybach parked illegally in front of our local Starbucks. For those who have never heard of the Mayback, they are seriously rare and seriously expensive. It is a huge Mercedes-built luxury sedan for the uber-rich (background: the Maybach was Daimler’s response to BMW purchasing Rolls-Royce). While we ate, we watched out the window to see if the owner would appear, thinking it must be a Marriott (they’re local), a basketball player or a movie-star we would recognize. We never did figure out who owned it, but while we were watching a second Maybach drove by. Yes, there were TWO Maybachs. Unbelievable! It’s like the Queen of England and the Pope decided to meet in Potomac for a spot of tea.

What is particularly funny is that the second one, which I couldn’t get a picture of, was hideous. It was British racing green with cream side panels. And it was just awful looking. I searched Google images to try to find a picture of one with this color scheme but it was tough to find one. Apparently Maybachs are custom-built for each owner, so that color scheme was carefully selected by someone. Money does not buy taste, apparently.

This is a continuation of my notes from Day 2 of MX East.

Brendon Shauer of Adaptive Path gave a talk on the Long Wow, planning and staging a great sustained experience. (It sounds like a sexual self-help talk, but wasn’t). His major points were clear and resonated well. However, saying these things and doing them are two different issues.

• Manage the platform for delivery
• Create and evolve a repeatable process
• Tackle a wide area of customer needs, especially in areas with metrics, like UX
• Organize and plan the pipeline of improvements/changes

Brendan also gave some general UX advice…

• Stop trying to do everything
• Connect with something distinct
• Consciously plan and manage strategy

The closing keynote speaker was Scott Berkun on the Myths of Innovation. I really enjoyed his talk, but I didn’t take any notes. The only thing I wrote was “buy the book”. I guess I should do that.