I’m planning to attend this year’s Future of Web Apps conference in London. Their list of speakers sounds fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to meeting some folks in real life. 

I’m particularly interested in this conference for its stated focus on the web community. Just have a look at the Agenda:

•  How to grow and nurture your community
•  Work/life balance or Blood, sweat and tears: Which is the startup way?
•  Colliding Worlds: Using Jabber to make awesome web sites
•  Startups live - An interview with three new European startups
•  How to survive outside of Silicon Valley

The BBC reported a few days ago that:

Web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online, reveals research.

The idea is that people are using the web to get things done, and don’t seem to notice that service providers want them to stick around. They even get tetchy with intrusions or ‘widgets’.

I agree, to a certain extent, with this statement—that people are impatient with adverts on sites. However, I’m not sure if I feel this article is that well informed. Yes, it is backed by Jakob Nielsen (so-called “Usability Guru”); which means it’s founded on stable research etc…

But, what’s a widget if not a short-cut to a result? An Amazon widget on a site is basically a way to buy a product without the need even to visit Amazon.co.uk. I don’t think it’s helpful to lump all widgets together on this one. Most widgets are functional—In fact, I’d go so far as to say that a non-functional widget is just a banner-ad.

It IS annoying when your browsing is interrupted with a flash game or advert placing itself over your text or form. It doesn’t help me make a decision, and actually puts me off that particular site. The Times Online had a long-running Land Rover ad which drove over the page, stopping me from reading. Since when is a Land Rover Discovery 3 an impulse buy?

What this article fails to notice is that users are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do: use. The internet is usable now.

I read about sliderocket over on R/WW, and at ZDNet, today, and signed up for a Beta. While I’m waiting for them to send one out (I hope) I’d like to talk a little about why I love the idea of this product.

Firstly, I was recently tasked with conducting a 40-minute presentation. This is something I was quite excited to do, since it was about the Semantic Web, but I didn’t have any presentation software on my PC. I downloaded a copy of OpenOffice, which has a presentation application built in, and found it ironically bland for an app called ‘Impress’. I know, as a person of geekish persuasion (I’m only half-geek, on my father’s side) I shouldn’t give a toss about what an application looks like, but should focus entirely on what it does and how well. But this is a presentation–aesthetics is what the software was written for. I’m not crunching numbers or writing code, I’m standing up in front of people discussing an exciting topic, trying to put forward a well-polished talk. I want my slides to reflect that–they need to add to the talk, and they can’t do that if they’re boring.

Not only this, but I find OpenOffice’s Impress seemed to have loads of options in random places, and a difficult-to-follow system of preferences. It has dozens of background settings, but it’s like pulling teeth to get a gradient you like.

Eventually, I downloaded a trial of Microsoft’s Powerpoint 2007 and found it much, much better. It’s easy to use, simple-to-navigate, and aesthetically pleasing. It’s huge downside, however, is that it’s expensive.

Zach Beauvais

Curriculum Vitae

Nationality: United States of America (resident without restriction in the United Kingdom)
Born: 1984
Gender: Male

Career Objectives:

To produce positive impact in the most effective and interesting way possible
To take opportunities to apply reasoning through efficient communication to solve problems; and to have the responsibility to make that difference
To help others reach their full potentials while maintaining a good environment in order that the entire network may see positive results

Relevant Employment:

Talis Information Ltd:

April 2008 - Present
Researcher

Talis—Shared Innovation—is exploring and applying semantic web technologies to business, education, and potentially public-sector markets. By researching high-level concepts, and synthesising ideas though blogs and print, as well as at conferences, I am working with Talis to advance its innovations. My position is with the Talis Platform, a Semantic Web enabling medium, and I work through Talis blogs and also edit the magazine Nodalities.

For more information on Talis, or for more information on my perspectives from here, feel free to email me on: zach.beauvais(at)talis.com.

Grandstand Media Ltd

Jan 2007 – Dec 2007
New Media Executive

Grandstand Media, organisers of Horse of the Year Show and the British Open Show Jumping Championships employed me to project-manage their electronic marketing and online presence. I was responsible for furthering Grandstand’s brand on the web—now their primary marketing tool—, for exploring the potential for Social Media involvement and for developing content with the marketing department. My remit included the production of the British Open official programme, press office work, and some graphic and digital design.

I know this is behind the game, and that the bleeding edge of blog reviews has moved well beyond online streaming service Hulu (even though it’s not yet out to the public). But I received my beta invite last week and have had all this time to play around with it.

My initial thoughts: none.

No, not one initial thought. Hulu doesn’t work in the UK. They don’t tell you: "Hey, if you live in the UK, you will be able to access and begin your Hulu experience, but when you choose a show to stream, you’ll be disappointed. Have a nice day." You have to jump through all the Beta hoops to get there first.

Now, I know I should have known better, being a generally web-savvy chap. But after a few pre-reviews of the Hulu service, I decided not to read any more blogs about it until after I’d tried it out myself. I knew not to expect too much, after reading the last review over at Between the Lines , but I wanted my own experience.

Since then, I’ve found dozens of blogs about how bad it is that Hulu doesn’t work in Europe. Aside from whingeing about the lack of support, I can’t really think of anything more to write about Hulu (apart from its ridiculous, trying-too-hard-for-the-Web-2.0-market name).

But, doesn’t this kind of go against point of the web? The idea that we can make connections, share content, stream and connect?

The good folks over at ZDNet.com have published a couple of posts from my blog. In a bid to increase the scope of their topics, ZDNet have created a blog called Web 2.0 Exlporer, which is made up of guest bloggers’ posts. In this blog, two articles of mine have been posted. Please feel free to go and have a look (though it might be boring reading it twice!)

How Smart Can a Link Be?

Web 2.0- Don’t call it that!

Let me know what you think (either using ZDNet’s TalkBack feature or my Contact Form)!