Epeus' epigone: How Twitter works in theory
http://epeus.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-twitter-works-in-theory.html

Kevin Marks, 14 Aug 2009. Flow, faces, phatic, following, publics, mutual media, small-world networks. "The subtlety is that the publics are semi-overlapping ... we are the synapses in the global brain of the web of thought and conversation."

It is said that an economist is someone who sees something that works in practice and wonders whether it works in theory. Twitter clearly works in practice - and if you want practical advice, watch Laura Fitton's Tech talk at Google, or read her Twitter for Dummies. I've learned a lot from talking to her and others about this phenomenon, and I wanted to write about some theories that help me understand it.

It is said that an economist is someone who sees something that works in practice and wonders whether it works in theory. "Twitter clearly works in practice - and if you want practical advice, watch Laura Fitton's Tech talk at Google, or read her Twitter for Dummies. I've learned a lot from talking to her and others about this phenomenon, and I wanted to write about some theories that help me understand it."

At its heart Twitter is a flow - it doesn't present an unread count of messages, just a list of recent ones, so you don't have email's inbox problem - the implicit pressure to turn bold things plain and get that unread number down. Instead, you can dip in and out of it, when you have time, and what you see is notes from people you care about.

It is said that an economist is someone who sees something that works in practice and wonders whether it works in theory. "Twitter clearly works in practice - and if you want practical advice, watch Laura Fitton's Tech talk at Google, or read her Twitter for Dummies. I've learned a lot from talking to her and others about this phenomenon, and I wanted to write about some theories that help me understand it."

You’ll also notice there are two arrows pointing out from “Submit email matching a user account” under the “Forgot password screen.” That’s because two different screens result from that action! Yo

save

From 0.1 seconds to 10 years or more, user interface design has many different timeframes, and each has its own particular usability issues.

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

people can make rough decisions about a Web page's visual appeal after being exposed to it for as little as 50 ms, which is 1/20 of a second

tidsstudie over brug af website, 1 sek, 1 min. 10 min. osv.

Some in the room might immediately think, "Ah, but it's a meritocracy. People will give their attention to what is best!" This too is mistaken logic. What people give their attention to depends on a whole set of factors that have nothing to do with what's best. At the most simplistic level, consider the role of language. People will pay attention to content that is in their language, even if they can get access to content in any language. This means Chinese language content will soon get more attention than English content, let alone Dutch content or Hebrew content.

In his seminal pop-book, Csikszentmihalyi argued that people are happiest when they can reach a state of "flow." He talks about performers and athletes who are in the height of their profession, the experience they feel as time passes by and everything just clicks. People reach a state where attention appears focused and, simultaneously, not in need of focus at the same time. The world is aligned and it just feels right.

As we continue to move from a broadcast model of information to a networked one, we will continue to see reworkings of the information landscape. Some of what is unfolding is exciting, some is terrifying. The key is not be all utopian or dystopian about it, but to recognize what changes and what stays the same. The future of Web2.0 is about information flow and if you want to help people, help them reach that state. Y'all are setting the tone of the future of information.

Via Jon Stahl - very interesting stuff

essay

great article on how and why to be a lean startup

Discussion of the principals of Lean Startups with many useful hints.

How I manage my most valuable asset – Time

http diagram v3

updated version of Alan Dean's diagram

http flowchart