This one-day event was broken up into 3 streams: Equip, Evolve, Enable.

• Equip: Foundation Skills for BAs
• Evolve: Business Change for the Organisation
• Enable: Take your Career Forward

I was late in registering and was unable to sign up for any of the workshops. Here is a summary of the presentations I saw.

Today’s Business Analyst: Learning, Adapting, Delivering Value

Mary Gorman was the keynote speaker. She spoke about how today’s business analysts need to be able to adapt to deliver value to the organisations they work for. Business analysts need to focus on the goal of the business rather than focusing on the role of business analysis.

From BA to BA Lead and Beyond

Deanna Hughes talked about how many business analysts do not take control of their career. Without knowing what they want to do how can they understand their own development needs? “It's too easy to work in an area of expertise and discover you're not an expert after five years.”

Presenting Better Business Cases

Helen Chesterman talked about how business cases are arguments, not documents.

Sponsors are emotional beings and sometimes make decisions that go against the recommendations in a business case. This can be because the sponsor’s values and the organisation’s values are often not included in a business case.

Business analysts often feel uneasy about being emotion into the workplace, but emotion brings value to the company. Business cases need to include, with the facts, ties to the company’s vision. This adds emotion to the case, making it easier for the sponsor to align the business case with their values.

A traditional business case is factually based, including the estimated cost of implementation, and there turn on investment, and the risks of delivering and of not delivering, and the recommendation. It's a logical argument. It is missing the elevator pitch.

The Enterprise Business Analyst is a must have for any progressive organisation

Bruce Anderson spoke about the value of a business analyst focusing on the enterprise provides to an organisation.

They:

• Constantly considers the organisation view.
• Can communicate at all levels.
• Are resourceful in information gathering. This is necessary to know what's really going on. Fact-finding is needed to get information from business unit leaders.
• Challenge the current paradigm and understanding the impacts. For example, policy can change from pushing to market to allowing the market to pull.
• Help drive change and instigates change based on understanding of the business needs.
• Deliver an appropriate level of business modelling, using whatever is appropriate for the organisation. Detailed models may come later.
• Understand the skill sets required to support the business processes.
• Sit above, but feed into the detailed project level. They are not involved in single projects.
• Are an important link into the Business Analysts. A BA needs the information at the organisation level from the enterprise BA. The enterprise BA needs to know from the BA what is happening at the “coalface”.
• Has enough technical understanding to “be dangerous”. Architects handle the technology. The CEO wants to know about their business.

An enterprise BA makes the CEO look good by feeding the right information.

The Software Development Industrial Revolution and the Role of the Business Analyst - Return of the King

Craig McLean provided a demo of Aviarc DrawingBoard, a new software development tool to create working prototypes.

Business Rules and Data Requirements: Analysing in Tandem for Success

Mary Gorman talked about how understanding just the business rules or understanding the data is limiting.

Different types of rules:

• Term rule - a glossary definition. These help constrain our understanding. These definitions are not casual definitions.
• Fact rule - can be drawn as a relationship between two entities.
• Data attributes - the fact rule may provide the information about the data.
• Constraint rule - helps understand if there is some localisation of a rule, if it is specific to current focus. For example an expiration date on a gift card.
• Derivation rule - a calculated rule derived by data. For example a card expiration date may depend on an activation date.
• Data attribute rules – define how the data will be stored, its size, whether the attribute is optional, what values are permitted. Business analysts need to know early how these will be enforced because it will constrain the design.

Categorisation helps us see if we are missing some rules, and if they are balanced.

All rules are not equal. Analysts do not have time to model the world. Analysts need to understand which policies have the higher priority to prioritise work.

Moving from Requirements Analysis to Business Analysis

John Barris talked about how business analysis is all about understanding the business for the purpose of changing it. Requirements analysis is just a part of this. Analysts need to move from focusing on requirements to being business change specific.

The IIBA has educated BAs as to what a BA is. We need to be able to prove the value of BAs to others. Focusing on business instead of features is focusing on the overall outcome. To do this, BAs need to understand the business to understand the desired outcome.

We need to move from a requirements artefact/document focus to a business focused change. These artefacts can constrain the real requirements.
We need to change from writing documents to solving problems. Business-centric change is impact, risks, and results focused. A builder will talk about what the new kitchen will be like, not the specific requirements.

How to evolve your skills to be a business change advisor.

• Never ask “what do you want?” unless you want to be a glorified minute taker.
• Use business architecture.
• Think business change enabled by IT, not IT change.
• Assess your current state based on the outcomes required, not by assessing the entire work domain.
• Become the business change specialist and advisor. Focusing on outcome instead of territory improves your reputation.
• Up skill on business success.
• Understand what a healthy business looks like.

How to Get Motivated Again When You’ve Lost Your Enthusiasm

Have you ever felt totally filled with enthusiasm, fired up for achieving something new?

Chances are, you felt that way at the start of a big project. Perhaps you were determined that you’d finally lose weight, or that this year, you’d actually start that small business you’d been dreaming about.

Motivation can give you a ton of energy when you’re embarking on something new. The problem is, motivation doesn’t always last. After a few weeks of sticking to your diet, or slogging away every evening at your business, it’s easy to start feeling discouraged.

Read the article for some tips how to get motivated again.

2. Picture

Klondyke Corner, by Nathanael Boehm

3. Comment

"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things."
- Albert Einstein

4. List

10 Ways To Earn the Respect of Others

If you are a self respecting individual, chances are you want others to treat you with respect. And you know what, age isn't a prerequisite nor is it a magic key to gaining respect. I've seen plenty of people who are young be highly respected from their elders. I've also come across older people who I'd never respect because their actions are so out of line. It's about how you conduct yourself, your attitudes towards others and your actions.

1. Be good at what you do
2. Respect others
3. Honor what you say
4. Be open to criticisms
5. Treat yourself with respect
6. Conduct yourself professionally
7. Don't bad mouth others
8. Stand up for what you believe in
9. Be yourself
10. Be a role model to others

5. Video

Some people are naturally very tidy, putting things away as soon as they are finished with them, or filing papers in the right place to process at the right time. I'm not one of them, but I live with one. A 2009 NY Times article, An Orderly Office? That's Personal talks about how different people deal with this, and how they need different solutions.

At home I will usually keep at a task until it's done. I often don't allow for time to tidy up afterwards, leaving a "mess" when I rush off to something else. The "mess" exists to remind me that I have more to do, but other tasks are usually prioritised.

My inbox is part of my digital to do list. Anything in there still needs attention. It's rare that I achieve inbox zero at home, but this isn't bad; the emails are not in the way of other people. (Inbox zero at work is something I achieve regularly.)

I have improved in some ways. I no longer like to see dishes left, and usually within half-an-hour of dinner everything is cleaned up. Even cooking will have me washing dishes as I go, making the exotic dish look easier than it was.

If I'm trying to clean up I find it very easy to carry something to another room, and get distracted there.

Depending on the task, and if I'm alone, I will have low-attention music or podcasts or audio books playing. If the tasks permits, such as cooking, I might have a new TED Talks video playing on my laptop. These exist to focus my distractability and let me stay in the room and complete the task.

(On a safety note, I'm very careful to have my distractions in the kitchen when I'm cooking.)

However this is not enough. I'm happy with the way my email inbox is, but the rest isn't fair on the people around me.

I've tried to pick up tips from unclutterer.com. I see now that Inherited clutter, and growing up with a depression-era hoarder are part of my problem with having so many things. It's hard to get over the it might come be useful one day thoughts. I know I don't need my school year books. Heck, I know where to lay my hands on them but I doubt I've read them since school. At least they're not part of the visual clutter.

I have an extensive book collection. I started keeping it online and giving away the books I know I'll never re-read. Some I register with Bookcrossing so that I "still have them"; without the storage space.

I have a pile of books to read. Some test books as part of my last Amazon order. Others I've received for free via Bookmooch. I know that if I put them away I'll stop thinking how I should be reading them.

Can anyone help me? How do you deal with your distracting clutter?

Webstock is the mostest bestest scientifically proven amazingest conference ever. In the history of the world. Fact.

Warning: Long post follows. Day 2 to come.

Opening and Welcome

Mike Brown @mapuia

This year there is no big theme to Webstock in a year of world disasters and bad news.

Boston 1970: busking because of loneliness. Think of the Webstock attendees as busking together and being less lonely in the world. Amid a world of big events we forget those little things that make us human, and hopefully we will remember to connect. Webstock is about meeting people we have only read about, it is about bags, t-shirts, and pencils, ice cream, coffee, and grapefruit frujus.

The comments have nothing to do with the post. Some are on the quote posts, others appear on my recipe blog. Here's a sample. I block the domains as they pop up, preventing the comments being posted in future, but there is a lot. Poland must be making things easy for spammers, .pl domains are frequent.

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Hopefully I'm not sounding critical here but I think you might have missed some thing along the way, like forming relationships, it's a two way street you know , get out of that victim role and see what part you played, all those handles,credits,and pieces of paper you accumulated don,t compare to sitting having a buddy over a cup of coffee talking about whatever. Acceptance and go on.

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This next one was on my recipe page for stained glass window biscuits

We did not understand your second paragraph in the least. What do you mean by that? This really is an interesting topic personally so I want to understand everything you should say. I became not able to find a number of other articles during my search although My organization is not very computer literate so this can include why. I hope to see you offer more frequently.

I like the irony of this appearing on my How to confuse an idiot post

This is the topic that I have a significant strong passion about. I think most people today ignore how important this subject matter is. I believe this is the foundation upon which all kinds of other things are built and if we do this step wrong, there are various dire consequences in the near future. Thus, we should be careful and think about how precisely we want to method this topic. I thank the author for giving a fantastic first try at towards it.

It becomes easier to recognise the comment spam the more you read.

[Comments are now closed because comment spammers don't get the irony of posting comments which I moderate to remove their links. This post acted like a honey-pot for them.]

1. Light
2. Exercise
3. The 10-Minute Rule
4. Active Work
5. Don’t Skip Breakfast
6. Commit to a Sleep Schedule
7. Turn Up the Volume

It's not a New Year Resolution but I'm going to try doing more of these, in addition to the ones I already do.

The only New Year Resolution I've ever kept was, "Stop making unrealistic New Year Resolutions!" If you want to make a resolution then do it. Don't wait until 1 January. Don't indulge in "I'll just finish this then I'll start. Just do it.

Read the poem aloud for the best result.

A is for analysis - differentiate and abstract,
yields requirements and rules from science inexact.

B is for business, whose capability we improve.
Maximize throughput? Just a step in our groove.

C is for change, for better for worse,

D is for decisions, or leaderless we curse.

E is for elicit, requirements fall not from trees!

F is for functional, remember non-functional, please.

G is for goals, stakeholders have their own,
non-overlapping, we lament and bemoan.

H is for how, counterpart of what,
a distinction so simple yet a knot hard to cut.

I is for iterative, cyclic nature pervades all,
yet management grips tightly to venerable waterfall.

J is our judgment project managers fear,
twin loyalties to business and to projects dear.

K is for knowledge we continuously accrue,

L is for listening which we actively do.

M is for metric, the chestnut is true,
that which we measure can be improved, can you?

N is for negotiate, can everyone agree?
Cross-functional monkey rodeo, that’s no way to be.

O is final outcome, our striving to delight
the blessed product champion who was our guiding light.

P is for process leaving nothing undone,
identifying hidden handoffs, one by one.

Q is for questions we have license to ask.
Assail those assumptions, take them to task!

R is for requirements, our stock in trade.
Oft mistaken for specification, please hand me a blade.

S is for scope, that game of ping pong,
one stakeholder to go, will the decision last long?

T is for trust, partner of integrity.
Armed with the pair, analysis proceeds intrepidly.

U is for users whose lives we make better,
improving usability or efficiency unfetter.

V is for validate and verify, they are different you know,
but it’s value, true value that analysis shows.

W is for who, what, when, why and where, the pentagonal key
that unlocks preconception setting ideas free.

X is for executive whose sponsorship we seek,
facilitating these folks is not for the meek.

Y is for yes, magic word of approval.
Can it be heard without a tribunal?

Z is for zilch, either missing or unknown,
the truth will emerge once the seeds have been sown.

Cecilie Hoffman’s professional passion is to educate technical and business teams about the role of the business analyst, and to empower the business analysts themselves with tools, methods, strategies and confidence. Cecilie is a founding member of the Silicon Valley chapter of the IIBA. She authored the 2009 Bad Ass BA series for BA Times. See her blog on her personal passion, motorcycle riding, at http://www.balsamfir.com.

"We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them."
--Livy

Why Public Speaking Is Good for You & Your Brand

Most freelancers and small business owners are required – like it or not – to spend a substantive amount of time on marketing. To ensure that the jobs and the clients keeping coming, we are constantly hustling – pitching new projects, updating our portfolios and CVs, and taking exploratory meetings. Yet, one of the best ways to build and promote your individual brand or company is one of the most oft overlooked: public speaking.

2. Picture

For The Fallen
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

3. Comment

"Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity."
- Irving Kristol

4. List

10 Tips for Getting it Done Today

Most freelancers and small business owners are required – like it or not – to spend a substantive amount of time on marketing. To ensure that the jobs and the clients keeping coming, we are constantly hustling – pitching new projects, updating our portfolios and CVs, and taking exploratory meetings. Yet, one of the best ways to build and promote your individual brand or company is one of the most oft overlooked: public speaking.

The Benefits of Public Speaking

1. Know how long it takes.
2. No time like the present.
3. Challenge irrational thoughts and cognitive distortions in a daily journal.
4. All tasks can and should be broken down into parts.
5. Work backwards from a due date.
6. Keep track of it all in an organizer (or organizer app).
7. Keep a daily to-do list.
8. Start every day with a review of your day, week and to-do list.
9. Keep your schedule up-to-date.
10. Take back control and reward yourself when you finish a task.

5. Video

On a serious note you should watch Michael Specter talking at TED on The Danger of Science Denial

Tuesday night I attended Ignite Wellington. This is the first time Wellington has had an Ignite event. Ignite is a world-wide event, and this week it has been a global event, with presentations in 35 cities.

It's a tough presentation process; speakers have 5 minutes to talk on a subject, with 20 slides, each auto-advancing after 15 seconds.There was a couple of technical issues last night, making it harder for the speakers concerned to time their speeches with the slides. The better presentations didn't rely so much on their slides, and didn't use highly detailed slides.

Some presenters seemed only interested in self-promotion; some wanted to inform; and some wanted to simply entertain. Most inspired.

A few things I learnt from the evening:

• Vikings probably never lived in Dannevirke
• World-wide there are twice as many mobile phones as credit cards
• Teach gradually and playfully
• Show users ways to engage with your site with a smile
• Venice Biennale is awesome
• Insights come later
• Travel light and trust the serendipity
• Wellington's shared car are hidden
• We're going to be screwed over to preserve the failing business model of large corporations
• Use your mind to drive yourself past your boundaries
• Hire for attitude; skills can be taught later
• Get into the zone to win
• The creative destruction process describes what is happening in the music industry.
• Make it fun to connect people to their local environment
• Ideas take up brain real-estate. Dumping them into a book means they're not lost.
• Mind -> book -> list -> story => essence of an idea => ideas that really work for many, not just you
• Positive thinking is a brain hack. Picturing a positive outcome makes the task easier
• Kiwis can successfully help in emergencies from half a world away
• Failure is the best option
• Sometimes following the rules is wrong
• Prepare to fail; then learn and connect
• When you fail is when the adventure begins

The Ignite videos aren't available as I write this, but I look forwarding to seeing them soon.

I think I might try presenting next time. I'll need to find a suitable subject that can be entertaining. Thought-provoking subjects need more than 5 minutes.

Webstock has 3 places you can learn, in addition to the celebration that is The Onyas.

1. Workshops - Monday - Wednesday
2. Presentations - the 2-day conference
3. Networking

I didn't go to any workshops this year. In hindsight there were a few I could have benefited from, though as a business analyst I don't see myself as the typical Webstock attendee.

The 2-day conference has been covered in earlier posts, day 1 and day 2. Some of the presentations allowed time for questions form the audience; this added to their value.

Networking is an optional extra of Webstock. The ability to meet people with a like mind. There were a few unofficial fringe events to help this, the games and the tweetups, in addition to the breaks and the official end-of-day events.

Thursday had cocktails in the West Wing of the town hall. Friday had cocktails in the Renouf Foyer prior to The ONYAs. Both were places I got to meet people.

When it was discovered there was no official Webstock Trading card game this year, a couple of groups sprung into action to create games.

• The Webstock Game – Organised by those responsible for The Case of the Midnight Note.
• Webstock Bingo – Credit has to go to @wrumsby and @johubris for the work they put into this at the last minute.

These games encouraged participants to talk to other attendees; including those not playing. I had a reasonable go at Webstock Bingo, but felt there was too much in The Webstock Game to be successful in.

The Case of the Midnight Note was a 3-week long noir mystery culminating with a fund-raising tweetup evening on Jan 28. I went along to the Midnight Note tweetup; I wanted to see how it ended. Dame lied, guns applied, Betty died, Sammy cried, drinks arrived, what a ride!

The tweetup on Wednesday 17 started the networking for me. The games started that evening too. I saw some people I hadn't seen for a year, or since the Open Govt Data barcamp.

Thursday, after cocktails in the West Wing was another tweetup. Originally organised for Southern Cross it moved to Mighty Mighty when Kevin Rose, not knowing about the plans, stated his intention to go there. In between cocktails and Mighty Mighty, I had dinner with 6 others, including a couple of presenters.

I handed out lots of business cards and Moo cards.

Photos

I took a few photos; nothing exceptional, but they can be found here on my Flickr page.

Other, better, photos can be found on Flickr tagged "Webstock".

Closing

In summary I'd like to thank the sponsors for supporting Webstock; my boss, for letting me go; the presenters, for coming to this part of the global village and sharing their experience, and Mike and Tash, for organising such a great event. One of the speakers (I can't remember who) said that Webstock is a highly regarded worldwide for web conferences. I'm glad it's local and I hope to be back next year.

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Day 2 of Webstock - Friday 19 Feb. I saw the following presentations:

1. The Lean Startup
2. Iterative Design Strategies
3. Double-Click to Edit
4. When Your Idea Doesn't Suck
5. Designing for Participation
6. 10 Tips For New Web Entrepreneurs
7. Elements of a Networked Urbanism
8. How the Web Works
9. Dense and Thick

I'm sorry for the length of this post. I wrote it to reinforce what I learnt at Webstock. I hope you'll read it anyway.

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The Lean Startup

Eric Ries (@ericries) said there's three things you want to do in a startup:

• Change the world.
• Build an organization of lasting value.
• Make customers lives better.

Most startups fail, but it doesn't have to be that way. With better practices, they can succeed.

A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under condition of extreme uncertainty. It is this extreme uncertainty that means general management techniques are not the techniques you need for entrepreneurial management

Successful startups strip away the bad ideas, letting the good ideas flourish. These good ideas are not necessarily the ideas considered when starting out. Rapid iterations are necessary to do this.

Failure in startups can be caused by "shadow beliefs", which are never stated:

1. We know what the customers want. Value is in the eye of the customer, but startups don't know the customer.
2. We can predict the future. Waterfall software development works when the problem and the solution are both known. Agile works when the problem is known and the solution is unknown. Startups deal with the situation where the problem is unknown and therefore the solution is unknown.
3. Advancing the plan is progress. The biggest waste of startups is building something that customers don't want. It doesn't matter if it's on schedule if no-one wants it.

The short iteration time is essential for a successful startup, but the time to optimise this the complete feedback loop, (Learn → Build → Measure → Learn) not just one part. Continuous deployment works by:

• Deploy fast.
• Identify bad changes.
• Revert bad changes (after human review).
• Work in small batches, no items more than 3 days work.

Iterative Design Strategies – Embracing Evolution

Daniel Burka (@Dburka) says to take chances and release your product. Don't try to predict everything your product will do. See the 'desire paths' of users and build with the expectation of change. Subtraction is iteration too. Don't be afraid to remove a feature useful by only a few users
Listen to your users, both explicit and implicit feedback.

Recommended reading: How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built

Double Click to Edit - Shift+Cmd+R: Hard Refresh Your Design

Amy Hoy (@amyhoy) told us that no-one is going to invite us to be great. We have to build your own greatness. Creating an iphone to-do app, or an RSS reader is not going to be great, they all have a sameness. Understand how someone uses their tools and what their needs are, as opposed to just copying others.

Affecting (and improving) the quality of someone's day is the highest of arts.

When Your Idea Doesn't Suck: How to stop working for clients and launch a startup

Mike Davidson (@mikeindustries) asked that his presentation not be blogged.

Designing for Participation

Bek Hodgson (@bekini) said "curate by the community". Changing from taxonomy to folksonomy allows the community to curate the way they understand, making it useful for everyone.

Accept that user generated content may not suit the palette of your site.

Consider how your site will look like with a little or a lot of content, such as a user's profile page.

10 Tips For New Web Entrepreneurs

Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) detailed 10 useful points.

1. Go build it
2. Build and release
3. Hire your boss
4. Raising money
5. Go cheap
6. Connect with your community
7. Hack the press - ways to get free PR
8. Advisors
9. Leverage your user base to spread the word
10. Analyse your traffic

Elements of a Networked Urbanism

Adam Greenfield (@agpublic) reminded us we have no privacy is public, to assume any camera we walk past in public is on.

Computing devices are becoming more and more ubiquitous, we need to consider the social and ethical consequences. We are all surrounded with a network of things that know what is going on in their environment, and our actions are being shared, with someone.

Migration from small communities to a city, or from one city to another used to provide anonymity; but not any more.

How the Web Works

Jeff Veen (@veen) talked about the historical progress, from ice to refrigerators. Some industries transition, some don't, so get it out there.

Speed of iteration beats quality of iteration. As you release iterations you can get consensus from users as to what you should be providing.

Dense and Thick

Mark Pesce (@mpesce) reminded us, that like at primary school, sharing something makes it more valuable. He talked about how the web has revolutionised the world, and the next revolution could be anywhere. The future is in our hands, and the world is clamouring to get into cyberspace.

His words are available here.

These last three presenters covered a lot of material, too much for me to make good notes, which is why these are so sparse. I look forward to the videos of the presentations being released.

More coming soon. What was your experience of the Friday speakers? Is there someone else I should have seen?

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Day 1 of Webstock - Thursday 18 Feb. I saw the following presentations:

1. Opening
2. Web Design that Grabs People
3. Brian does the Andrew Sisters
4. Designing for Diversity
5. Building The Open Web
6. Security-Centered Design
7. Fostering Personal Connection to Place
8. Building Social Software for the Anti-Social
9. Please, don't let it be interactive
10. The Word Wild Web

Day 2 coming soon.

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Opening and welcome

Mike Brown (@maupuia) opened Webstock 2010 by reminding us that we love working with the web, and that we fall in love with things made from love.

Web design that grabs people

Scott Thomas (@simplescott) was the design director for the Obama campaign. They wanted to use images people can be proud of, and to unify the design of the print and web media. A consistency and balance needed to be established in the messages, which had to be clear and concise. E.g. they focused on "We" rather than "He".

They made sure supporters could get everything they needed. The mission of the home page was to persuade people, but it also needed to make it easy to get localized information. As the campaign progressed the message of persuasion changed to fit the needs of the campaign.

Analytics are essential to understand how people are interacting with the site.

Brian does the Andrew Sisters

Brian Fling (@fling) gave a disappointing presentation. Communication 101 says that if the listener/reader doesn't understand then the speaker/writer has failed to communicate successfully. Brian's presentation covered the things he could have talked about; some of which looked very exciting. Sure, they were presentations he'd done before but they were new to most of us. Brian is clearly very articulate and knows what he talks about, but this presentation jumped everywhere and didn't allow any idea any depth. The bits I did get were:

• Focus on a single platform. The cost of supporting different devices is expensive.
• Build cross-platform mobile web applications. This lets you support a single framework.
• App stores like churn. To sell things you need to drive the viewers' attention.

Designing for Diversity - Inclusive Design & the User Experience

Lisa Herrod (@scenariogirl) reminded us design needs to cater for more that the obvious audience; shallow personas often miss accessibility characteristics. (I wish I got to use personas more, they're an important overlap with business analysis and design.)

Lisa also pointed out designers needs to work ethically. Without doing so, user experience is missing opportunities to be an inclusive experience.

One way to make the WCAG2 easier to apply, is to break the components down into the roles needed to perform them. A back-end developer doesn't need to know some of the elements a designer needs, and a front-end developer has a different set too.

Note to self: find out ways a business analyst can convince stakeholders that accessibility is an important quality-of-service requirement.

I got to talk more with Lisa over dinner that evening; Lisa, Lachlan, I, and a few others all went to La Casa Pasta for dinner before going on to Mighty Mighty.

Building The Open Web

Lachlan Hardy (@lachlanhardy) started by reminding us what "open" means in relation to the web; that it is royalty and patent free; that it is supported by more than one vendor or provider; and that there is public involvement in the specification. Lachlan warned us to be aware of "open washing", the presentation of something as open when it isn't Open.

Lachlan then pointed out things become simpler for user when there is greater implementation of open technologies. An example is the linking of webfinger to OpenID to make is simpler for users to benefit from OpenID technology. I'll be adding webfinger to this domain.

People are able to implement these open technologies as if they are pieces in the puzzle. We don't know which pieces are missing, bus as these talk to each other gaps will be noticed. This is a good thing.

A big question raised with open technology is the issue of money. Lachlan reminded us that using open lets companies focus on the things they want to do, and not have to write security code to implement good security. The other advantage of open is not needing to pay the creators for their expertise.

Open can be profitable too, look how successful SilverStripe, a Webstock sponsor, is.

Security-Centered Design: Exploring the Impact of Human Behavior

Chris Shiflett (@shiflett) spoke about change blindness and ambient signifiers. Our brains are wired up to receive a lot of information, and to filter it down to the essential items. Change blindness is our inability to notice a change; our brain doesn't register it as important enough to focus on it. Ambient signifiers exist to bypass this blindness and let us know something has changed.

An example of an ambient signifier is a particular tune playing as the train pulls into each station. Travellers become familiar with the different tunes as their train passes each station, and are more aware of their stop.

This can be used online to improve web security by accommodating users' expectations and tendencies without trying to modify them.

He demonstrated the Colour-changing Card Trick. It's awesome.

Fostering Personal Connection to Place

Shelley Bernstein (@shell7) talked about making the Brooklyn Museum more accessible and understandable. They did this by

• Posting interesting content on the blog, with multiple bloggers providing content.
• Interacting with people via twitter and social media.
• Providing a kiosk enabling recording and uploading of comments to youtube.
• And learning from the feedback provided by visitors.

Stack Overflow: Building Social Software for the Anti-Social

Jeff Atwood (@codinghorror) had a few points to make:

1. Know your audience (programmers)
2. Know your Topic (software code)
3. Understand people's motivations (reduce bad code)

Rather than saying whether you can complete a task, ask yourself if you are motivated to do it in the first place. This is "Work" (paid for) vs. work" (inspiring to do).

Please, don't let it be interactive

Regine deBatty (@wmmna) took a very different direction to the other speakers, but considering her website looks at art using technology it was not surprising. Her main point was that interactivity in some art adds no value.

The Word Wild Web

Rives entertained us with his performance poetry and stories. From Kite, to the end, by way of explaining the selling of stolen wind chimes for Rubiks cubes; filming dancers; climbing cranes over New York; and other stories.

You should check him out at TED. The emoticon story is one he retold for us.

Day 2 coming soon. What was your experience of the Thursday speakers? Is there someone else I should have seen?

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"Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it."

--David Starr