Business: December 2002 Archive Page

"The look 'n' feel of your website is important. However, it is less important than your text-based content. In most commercial websites, the role of the traditional graphic designer is relatively minor. The role of the information architect is central. The role of the editor and author is critical." Gerry McGovern

--How important is the look 'n' feel of your website?GerryMcGovern.com)

Note that McGovern is not claiming that design is unimportant -- he's just observing that fiddling endlessly with colored stripes and whitespace (as my students often do when they first begin making web pages) has only minimal impact on the value of a web site; far more important is the role of the information architect. Join the discussion over on WebWord.

"We love these programmes not only because they show us how curious the products of evolution are, but also because they remove us to a parallel planet, the Garden of Eden before the sixth day of creation, when God went and messed it up by making man.... Today, conservation officials in Kenya often concede that traditional grazing could be permitted in the parks and reserves without driving out the wildlife. But the local people must continue to be excluded because the tourists 'don't expect to see them there'. The tourists don't expect to see them there largely because the television shows them that healthy wildlife habitats are places without people. By presenting the natural world as something apart from humanity, it creates the impression that conservation means exclusion." --Planet of the Fakes: Wildlife TV shows portray a phoney Garden of Eden...Guardian)

"In fact 60 percent of Americans who use e-mail at work receive 10 or fewer messages on an average day, the study released Sunday found. Only 6 percent receive more than 50. And among those power users, only 11 percent say they feel overwhelmed by all the e-mail."

--Study Refutes E-Mail MythWired)

It makes sense... those few people who really are overwhelmed by e-mail are more likely to complain about it online, where such memes spread very quickly. Nevertheless, if you shut off your telephone and answering machine, there's no record of the phone calls you ignore. If you don't check your e-mail for a while, it piles up, and hits you all at once when you go back to it. You can't even pick up all your e-mail and dump it in the trash can so that it makes a satisfying "whump", though I guess you could record the "whump" noise and set up your computer so that the "whump" sound plays when you empty your recycling bin, but that wouldn't be nearly as satisfying. Er... what was this post about again?

"The theater has been transformed into a multi-player gaming center in which patrons can challenge one another on some 80 computer games. Unlike a video arcade, players will compete against each other on such popular game systems as Microsoft's XBox, Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube. Where there used to be stadium-style theater seating, there are now comfortable executive leather chairs and computer monitors. When the gaming center opens in January, there also will be video screens of varying sizes hanging from the walls so gamers and spectators can view several different contests at once." Jennifer Davies

--Theaters Getting Game: Stadium-style room is transformed into a gaming centerSignOn San Diego)

The article doesn't clearly specify that this is about the transformation of a movie theater into a gaming arena -- so this article is really about the blending of movies and sports, rather than games and theatre. A few weeks ago I taught the 1990 play PICK UP AX, which features a "mood room" that uses a computer to interpret the physiological readings of the people in it. We also discussed selections from The Diamond Age, which features theatrical events in which paying customers interact with professional 'ractors (short for "interactors") in virtual reality.

"Consumers are often baffled at the price tag attached to what appears to be little more than a mass of paper, cardboard and ink. A whole host of factors, including the size of the book, the quality of paper, the quantity of books printed, whether it contains illustrations, what sort of deal the publisher can make with the printer and the cost of warehouse space, all affect the production costs of a book. But, roughly speaking, only about 20 percent of a publisher's budget for each book pays for paper, printing and binding, the trinity that determines the physical cost." Christopher Dreher --Why Do Books Cost So Much?Salon)

"Costing me money? I don't pretend to be an expert on intellectual property law, but I do know one thing. If a music industry executive claims I should agree with their agenda because it will make me more money, I put my hand on my wallet--and check it after they leave, just to make sure nothing's missing....And it's difficult to convince an educated audience that artists and record labels are about to go down the drain because they, the consumer, are downloading music. Particularly when they're paying $50-$125 apiece for concert tickets, and $15.99 for a new CD they know costs less than a couple of dollars to manufacture and distribute." Janis Ian --The Internet Debacle -- An Alternative View (JanisIan.com)

Ian is not a megastar recording artist, but she's had a long, satisfying career, and she says that the music industry isn't to be trusted when it says that file sharing is bad for recording artists.