Web Worker Daily |
| Google Delivers Plan for Chrome Extensions Posted: 01 Dec 2008 04:00 PM PST Recently, I’ve done a couple of posts on the growing market share of and impressive performance in speed tests of Google’s open source Chrome browser. Even though Chrome is a very fast browser, though, and even though its ability to load pages and applications in distinct tabs without crashing the whole browser is attractive, it still doesn’t have the extremely useful universe of extensions that Firefox has. In answer to many questions on the topic, Google programmer Aaron Boodman has put up a post confirming work on extensions for Chrome. Boodman’s post includes a link to a design document intended for developers who want to build extensions for Chrome. Many people who had been wondering if it would be easy to fork extensions for Firefox to Chrome’s Chromium core may be encouraged by attention paid in the design document to “users coming from other browsers who are used to certain extensions that they can’t live without.” The design document also cites several popular Firefox extensions as examples of good add-ons for Chrome, including ForecastFox, Adblock, and many more. “The system should be able to support an open-ended list of APIs over time, such as toolbars, sidebars, content scripts (for Greasemonkey-like functionality), and content filtering (for parental filters, malware filters, or adblock-like functionality),” the design document adds. The plan calls for bookmarking, content enhancement, content filtering, download helper and other types of extensions. This is good news, and more evidence of how much of the innovation in browsers is being driven on the open source front by Firefox and Chrome. Indeed, there already is an initial extension for Chrome–a fork of the Firefox extension URL Helper. I expect that a lot of the most popular Firefox extensions will show up in versions for Chrome next year, which will create a more level playing field between these two browsers.    |
| Posted: 01 Dec 2008 12:00 PM PST If you’re like me, the beginning of December means one thing: regretting not having started your Christmas shopping earlier. The malls are packed, Black Friday has ravaged store stock, and you don’t have a clue what to get anyone anyway. I hope I can help with at least one of those problems, with this list of great gifts for that web worker on your list.
While this list is by no means comprehensive, chances are someone you’re shopping for will appreciate one or more of these items. The best part about them? Your friends and family will actually use them, unlike that hideous sweater you bought them last year that they’ve buried so deep in the closet it will never see the light of day again. Ideas of your own? Share them below. ‘Tis the season, after all.   |
| Time to Think Twice About Free Posted: 01 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST As we covered last week, free services I Want Sandy and Stikkit are closing shortly, joining a growing list of Web 2.0 free-to-consumer startups that have shuttered their sites. It’s not just the little guys that are going out of business, either: Google Lively is set to become the latest failed experiment from the search behemoth later this year. While just a few data points don’t make up a trend, it does seem likely that we haven’t seen the last closures. Services start up in a burst of optimism, then hit the cold hard wall of needing to pay for servers and bandwidth. The tightening of venture capital and the decline of online advertising have been covered elsewhere: other factors that will make it tough for free eternal-beta Web 2.0 startups to stay in business. But how is the savvy web worker to cope? It’s clear that “free” doesn’t actually mean “free” when you put it into a larger context of web work. Choosing to use an online service for part of your business workflow carries with it opportunity costs and risk costs. Rather than rushing to put your entire business online, consider these guidelines: 1. Prefer in-house servers for mission-critical applications. Yes, it’s nice to be able to sit down in a cybercafe with instant access to all of your work - until the day when some of it is just missing in action thanks to factors beyond your control. As a software developer, for example, I’m not willing to place client code on a free source control server in the cloud, even though there are several excellent ones out there. Instead, I run my own server, and can access it remotely if I need to. There are tradeoffs, of course, but for this particular data I am willing to assume the administrative costs to eliminate the dangers of free. 2. Prefer portable data. If you do have data that you’re willing to host with a free service, then one of the best things you can do is ensure that you’re not locked in to that particular service in case things change. This implies that you should have easy access to all of your data in some standard format (XML or CSV, for example) in case you ever want to pick up and leave. Beware of services that have no export capabilities or that only let you save data in their own proprietary formats. 3. Prefer backed-up services. All the data portability in the world does you no good if you don’t have the data when you need it. I Want Sandy and Stikkit are doing the right thing and giving a few weeks of warning, but what if you end up on a service that shuts down overnight? We’ve mainly been concerned with backing up desktops into the cloud over the past few years, but I’m increasingly convinced that backing up the cloud to local storage is the sensible thing to do. I expect this to become a key differentiator in the next round of services. In the current software and economic environment, I’m re-evaluating my dependence on free services, and pulling some things back to less trendy but more reliable client-side applications. How about you?   |
| Socialtext and A Theory of Collaboration and Networks Posted: 01 Dec 2008 10:00 AM PST
He spoke about the construction of a social network and how our networks have dense cores (strong ties) surrounded by dynamic peripheries (looser ties). The core of an organization - such as the leadership team - tends to work closely together. They process information well and can usually make decisions quickly and effectively. The rest of the team, however, is the dynamic periphery and there is strength in these weak ties. Traditional groupware serves the dense core, says Mayfield, never connecting to the weak ties. However, tapping into the periphery - the distributed team - can accelerate a project and a process cycle. Socialtext is meant to save the time individuals spend seeking information or the right people with the information or skills they need to get a job done. The traditional way of communicating has been email back and forth with attached files. Many groupware products try to address this disorganized method of communications amongst many, however, the tools are often rigid with a top down structure.
Every person who is a member of an organization’s Socialtext account gets their own dashboard - or personal “homepage” - where they can embed and arrange via drag and drop both work and personal information, images, and widgets containing video, audio, slides, and any other content they want to display. Why a homepage for a worker with both professional and personal information? Mayfield believes in the value of an individual displaying their (appropriate) personal interests as well as their work because collaboration is between people. Knowing more about the people with whom you are working - especially when many workers are so far-flung and separated by more than just cubicle walls - can be key to building effective teams. Work spaces on Socialtext work like both wikis and blogs, collaborative spaces where team members deposit and arrange content with a comments section for feedback from the team. All individuals’ names are hotlinked to their profile which is like a listing in a company directory with standard contact information but also links to their web site, blog, and social media accounts. Any team member can subscribe to the RSS feeds of other team members to keep track of their activities and input. People within an organization can add one another to their Socialtext social network based on common interests or skills and knowledge they need at their fingertips. Tags are used to help you and others label information and even one’s own profile to make it easier to find both. Email is integrated into the wiki spaces of Socialtext - an email becomes the body of a wiki page. When a page is edited, that information is tracked and made public. When someone comments, everyone can share in that feedback.
Mayfield pointed to several major publishing companies who are using Socialtext to map out editorial calendars, post story ideas, manage content as it develops, facilitate group assignments, and handle the day-to-day communications between workers. Instead of focusing on files as the crux of collaboration, Socialtext focuses on the people who are creating the documents and sending the messages. You can follow who you want, connect with who you choose, and build your own organizational directory based on your needs and goals so you can tap into the right people to help you get the job done. Socialtext makes the dynamic periphery visible and helps everyone tap into the critical talent, knowledge and skill that may not be situated in the dense core. As a web worker building a virtual team of independent consultants in several different states and time zones, I can see the value of a social networking, communications and collaboration platform like Socialtext although there are only eight of us at the moment. Still, trying to determine who should be assigned to what client project and who is working on what assignment at any given time is a struggle, not to mention building connections between these independent workers. Having an internal system where we could identify ourselves and our skills; post and comment on the work at hand; announce new client projects and get input and participation; and tap into one another’s skills and talents would be invaluable. How would you use an internal, work-related social networking application like Socialtext? image of core & periphery from Ross Mayfield’s Flickr page   |
| Posted: 01 Dec 2008 09:00 AM PST You can’t please everybody. There’s a reason why that line is a cliché. I’ve yet to hear of a freelancer who never encountered a client who was disappointed in their work. Some clients keep their frustrations to themselves or simply stop working with you. Others, however, expect you to hear out an entire rant about what went wrong and how they feel about it. In cases like those, it’s important to take calculated steps in fixing what went wrong.
Of course, this is easier to say than it is to do - especially if the client calls you on the phone. It’s easier to be calm and collected (or at least to seem that way) when you’re communicating via chat or email. On the phone, it takes more willpower. Read (or listen) between the lines. Oftentimes, when your client is saying something, that’s not what they really mean. “This isn’t what we talked about” could mean “I understood your proposal differently”. A phrase like “I could easily replace you with a high school student” usually means “Fix this as soon as possible” with a dash of “I have no idea how difficult your work is”. In other words, take the time to truly listen and interpret what went wrong. Be accountable. At least a small fraction of the blame, if not all of it, should rest on you. This is why you need to take control of the situation and start channeling both your energies into finding a solution. You need to ask yourselves what went wrong and what could be done to repair the damage. Speak in terms of situations and events, rather than people. Otherwise, it will look like finger-pointing. Remember that even if you’re at least partially accountable, this doesn’t mean you have to accept verbal abuse and enslave yourself to unreasonable requests just because you’re feeling guilty. Provide options. Giving clients several options to choose from makes them feel empowered. You’re not forcing solutions on them or telling them what to do. This makes it easier for your client to accept your proposed solutions, since they know that the final decision is in their hands. Ask for a testimonial. I know this part sounds unusual, but if you actually resolve the problem and your client is appreciative and pleasantly surprised, it makes sense to request a testimonial. Most people take perfect testimonials with a grain of salt, so nothing stands out like a testimonial that says “I encountered this problem with her service, but she was there 100% to fix it with me. Didn’t have another problem since then.” This tells potential clients three things: that you’re honest, you’re a reliable problem solver, and that you take their feedback seriously enough to improve yourself. Taking care of angry clients can be an emotionally exhausting task. Although our instinctive response is to feel some anger as well, it’s important to remember that these disappointed clients are the ones who will teach us the most about what we need to do to be better web workers. Have you ever had an angry client? How did you handle the situation? Image by Charlie Balch from sxc.hu   |
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