heidi go seek

There was a recent fury directed at TwitPic, a Twitter-specific photo sharing service, for updates to their terms of service (TOS). The new terms state that while you are still the copyright holder to your photos, TwitPic is free to distribute your images to promote their service, and share with "affiliated partners." It was interesting to see TwitPic singled out, a quick check of similar services proved that they have comparable terms with other services

The night my Twitter-stream lit up over this, I spent a good part of that evening pouring over the terms for similar sites. Instagram, for example, state if you use their site, you do grant them the right to distribute your material, as they think necessary for promoting their services. Some go a step further and include associated third parties, which is the case with TwitPic. An article by TNW Industry has a run-through of other services with similar terms.

The ToS for other popular photo-sharing apps, picplz, Color, yFrog, Instagram, Flickr, and Lockerz (fka Plixi), all have similar clauses to those of Twitpic - bar one MobyPicture.

I will point out, and included as an update in the article, that yFrog has since changed their TOS in the month I have looked at them, and now read more specifically and clearly. Not mentioned in the TNW article was both Posterous and Tumblr, maybe because they are blogging platforms and not just for photo content. Many people on Twitter mentioned moving to both of these services, but I do not see them as offering any different terms to what TwitPic already states. I am not sure why Flickr gets a mention though; it has integration of Creative Commons licensing, which I see as a positive point.

It is not that I think uploading to these sites is bad, many do offer their services free, and they do have costs and offer advertising based business models to justify. The successful TOS policies are the ones that state that they will not sell your content unless they ask you first. It seems that yFrog's new terms do include this.

I did offer some quick suggestions on Twitter to which services I would recommend after my scan of various TOS policies, and I have received a couple of requests via replies and DMs from followers asking for those again.

• MobyPicture - Praised by several sources for its concise terms on content ownership "All rights of uploaded content by our users remain the property of our users and those rights can in no means be sold or used in a commercial way by MobyPicture or affiliated third-party partners without consent from the user." That is it. That is all it should be. I think other services should take note.
• CloudApp - I have started using CloudApp, which is a standalone app for Mac. The reason I do not recommend it directly is because it is not cross-platform, but if you have a Mac, it is not a bad free app. My Twitter client for the iPhone, TweetBot, supports it for photos, videos, and for link sharing. CloudApp is not limited to photos, which makes it a nice area to drop files both publicly and privately.
• Flickr - Despite what the TNW post actually says, I didn't see Flickr's terms as potentially rights encroaching, so I'm going to recommend it. Flickr does not work directly with the way I like to share Twitter photos personally, but a few followers have mentioned to me that they were going to start using it for their mobile shares too. Many apps already support it, and Flickr comes with the extra bonus of Creative Commons licensing, so you have genuine flexibility in how you may set your terms.

The way these terms read may not be a concern with many people, but the nature of the Internet makes it difficult to know when unintentional or unauthorized use of our intellectual property happens. If it does matter to you then my biggest recommendation is to understand the terms of the services you use most. Also, revisit them to see if they have changed. Often we get emails from these services if there is an update to their policies, take that opportunity to review that their service still meets your needs.

I'm in my second term now at Kingston University, and as expected, I've been pretty busy... even as a part-time student. In the last few weeks I've even acquired an amazing new internship so I'm busier than ever. I've been thinking again about all the different ways I contribute online (or have stopped contributing when it comes to this blog), I have a bunch of little blogs here and there... even a new website and twitter account that I created to support my previous freelance endeavors (though this may have to change again due to new opportunities). It's my hope to evaluate all of these identities so see how I can improve them and use them. Someday I do need to reign all of this in!

It recently occurred to me that I have been participating pretty regularly online with a very small group of people and we had been keeping our interaction private. So, contrary to what I would normally do, I wasn't sharing interesting insights and thoughts with a broad community, but rather a small group of two other people (and by sharing I mean via blog form, I'm not including Twitter in this because I am pretty consistent with the microblogging). Last term I began my course in the first of my Experience Design modules. I formed a group with two other people and I think it's been one of the most positive group experiences I ever had. We've continued this term as the same group +1 and I think we're even better than before. During the entire process we were encouraged to keep a blog, mostly as a way for our instructors to keep check on what we were doing. We are using Posterous (which is a fantastic group blogging tool!) to share articles, thoughts, brainstorms, and even to sort of archive our progress as we go.

Last term we kept our blog password protected, this was ok for us then, though now that we've added a new member to our team, and now have created a new blog, we thought it might be nice to open up the blog as a sort of "archive" of our project. I've removed the password. It may not be relevant or interesting to the entire world, but maybe somebody might find value in our research, who knows?

This term we've started a new blog with a new project and a new group member, and this we decided to open up the blog right away. We're not entirely sure how this might benefit us through our research as it is still a platform meant for a small group of people... but I guess it's a little experiment for me in if we could benefit from transparency in the development of our research project. Maybe it doesn't matter? Maybe our little corner of the internet is fine as it is? I guess we'll just have to see!

So here it is... where I've been spending most of my time online since last Autumn:

Experience Design I Blog - This is sort of an archive of the work we've done last term. Our final design idea and prototype was a BlackBerry application (yes, BlackBerry because our research showed us that this is the primary mobile device of our target audience!) Of course there's so much more we could have and wanted to do, but I think we did a lot in the few months that we had.

Experience Design II Blog - This is our current work. It's a lot more technical and a lot more interactive this term. At the current moment we're looking at creating a projected, large form, interaction for school children, introducing them to cultures around the world. There's many moving parts here and it's very exciting. We're also happy to have a graphic designer join our group... I had a few frustrating attempts at graphic design last term so I'm especially pleased by our newest member's skills!

Wow, I really should stop waiting 6 months between blog posts. So much has changed since May... including my location... twice.

Anyway, stumbled on an interesting and personally relevant post on UX Design Education through my morning reads.

The UX Design Education Scam

If you emerge from university today with a web design degree, chances are rather slim that you're employable as a user experience (UX) or web designer. Maybe you learned a lot of stuff; it's just probably the wrong stuff. Congratulations, you've been defrauded. Hope it didn't cost you or your parents too much.

Ok, I don't exactly agree with the tone of the post, and the opening seems a bit harsh, but I have had many ups and downs with my own higher education that I may agree with a few points. I don't think every UX job requires higher education, I don't even think every UX degree will prepare you for every UX job. I do believe that some people can thrive in higher education though, and it's not inherently evil. It's just a different way of looking at things.

I was quick to say "never again" after my first Master's degree that it may seem strange my decision to go for a second one. There were many factors in my decision. Being unemployed for a year was difficult (I was bored and struggled to find purpose each day). Knowing that I was nowhere near where I wanted to be professionally was another. Also feeling slightly let down by my MLIS was one more. I didn't want another library job either. One thing I knew before I entered my degree at Wayne State was that I didn't want to be a librarian, I thought my Information Management direction would help guide me where I needed to be, but it didn't. I took a short detour there. Of course, there were also reasons I went for that program when I started and I can't say it was a wasted experience, it was just a progression to the next thing.

I'm pleased with my decision to go back to grad school for a UX Degree, but because I just finished another Master's Degree I think my perception of what I need to be doing to get where I want to be has changed drastically in the last year. My course may have hints of old-skool academic thinking, but there's still a flexibility there to go my own direction that I never had with my MLIS (I tried at WSU, but still felt weighted down by the narrow library-minded curriculum). Please note: I'm not bashing WSU, the program was not horrible, and I am still very passionate about libraries, and I always will be. It just wasn't for me. My certificate in Information Management was new and still finding its legs. I was in the first group of graduates to leave with that certificate, and after a year of job searching in my desired field it was apparent where I should've been focusing my energy in graduate school but didn't know at the time what I needed to be doing.

I'm also pleased with my decision to come to Kingston University for my UX degree. I know the program I chose here in London does not exist in the US. UX focused degrees are often placed in Information Schools in the US. I already have one of those degrees and I didn't want another. I am part of a unique mix of students from not only vast ethnic backgrounds, but also varied educational backgrounds. After watching several presentations from my classmates yesterday I realized just how creative and inspiring this group is, including people from backgrounds in art, development, research, and games design.  These are people I know I can learn from and continue to be inspired with.

Only a week after being in London I had a job interview at a very large company. I didn't get the job, but it was my first interview in over a year. It was also my first interview for an IA role. I was nervous, and I was a little unsure of why I was even there, but I tried to stay as positive and as confident as I could about it (just a side note, I didn't apply for the position, I was contacted through LinkedIn and asked to interview so it was an unexpected surprise for me). The interview was a personal benchmark for me. The feedback I got back said that with another year of experience they might be interested in seeing me again. Before that interview I had no idea where I stood in the field I wanted to work in.  Because I'm enrolled in this course and I know I'll be working on great projects for at least the next two years, I know this goal is absolutely doable for me. I can't expect to get everything I need from a graduate program, but I know it has been the right decision to help me focus on my goals and to update my skills.

I don't think UX Education is a scam, but I do think, at least in my case, it is what I need to find my confidence again.

Redesigning this website has been something on my mind for a long time. I've decided to go ahead and do it proper so at least I have a few things for the portfolio when I'm done. I've done the wireframes already; the overall content was the easy part because I have been contemplating this for awhile. I'm currently working on some HTML mockups which dive into the content in more detail. I do have some design elements in mind, though that stage isn't for awhile.

Home

The main focus of my redesign has always been shifting my home page away from the blog and creating more of a portal of other areas I contribute content online. A few years ago it occurred to me that anybody going to heidigoseek.com doesn't really get a full picture of who I am and where I spend most of my time by just viewing my blog. If anything my blog is my least updated area online (not a sad truth, just reality).

Certain social media links will always be at the top of the page next to the main navigation. Some basic information about me, my location, and contact details will always be at the bottom of the page. This gives me room to work with things in the main content area. The home page brings back my favorite quote (which was on a previous version of my website) and has a Twitter widget (which will always be the most current status), but the three main areas focus on where I'm most likely to contribute my own content; my blog, Flickr, and Tumblr.

About

The about page is my extended biography, but reuses the Twitter widget from the homepage. The Twitter widget has links to download my CV and my vCard. I'm thinking of redesigning my CV as well, but I haven't gone this far yet. I have decided to leave the HTML version of my CV off of the new website and just have the downloadable copy. LinkedIn is essentially my online CV and I've never been happy with any HTML iterations of my CV I've ever created.

Lifestream

The Lifestream is currently active on my website and is implemented through Movable Type's Action Streams plugin. I've already blogged about how I set this up and it's going to stay for the next version of the site. The Lifestream will capture nearly everything I do online, including links or information I share. A project on the backburner is to customize the stream output a little more; for example, I would like the Twitter feed to not include @replies, but that will take some more fooling around with Action Streams to do. The page is not where I want it yet, but it is conceptually there.

Blog

There's nothing special to say about the blog except that it will be moving to another directory. I'm keeping Movable Type, not because I'm absolutely in love with it, but because it's just what I use. The website I do next will be with WordPress, but this site is fine still with Movable Type.

Portfolio

The portfolio set of pages are all new and the second focus of the redesign. I wanted something more visually appealing, but I also wanted to include a wide range of content. It was fun trying to organize these and I think the designs I have in mind will be great here. The portfolio will contain content from up to four different areas; Deliverables & Websites, Presentations, Articles & Writing, and Coursework. Some of the content can overlap which is why I'm already considering the content strategy aspect of this area. The layout of each page is determined by the section, each is a little different.

I would like to thank Gavin for giving me the idea to put the wireframe images up on Flickr. I've been enjoying watching his progress with his own website and portfolio as well.

Facebook is at it again. It's changing things around, and a few people are noticing. I've been thinking about this post for a long time. Facebook is a very popular service, and privacy is a hot topic (especially for many librarians I know), it's bound to strike several different chords. I've heard Facebook criticized as being both too constricting (aka the "walled garden") and too open with our information. After mulling about this post for a while (maybe even since Facebook has been around), I've decided that the problem is not necessarily with Facebook, it's with us, and our lack of understanding of a service we invest so much time and throw so much information into.

When I started writing this I decided what I did not want it to be was a "why and how we need to turn off all privacy settings in Facebook" sort of thing. I am not advocating that. Facebook is here to stay, like it or not. What I think the essence of Facebook is illustrating to us, though, is where I've felt this privacy discussion has been heading for a long while... whose responsibility is it to protect our own privacy? It is ours. I may not agree to all the options in Facebook's convoluted privacy settings, but it's because I took the time to understand them that I feel better about what the world sees of me through Facebook. So what this is instead, is an approach to taking back what is yours, and to understanding what part of your soul Facebook actually owns (it might not as bad as you think.)

I spend a lot of time thinking about information, particularly how we consume it and what we do with it.  I think most people struggle with the bulk of it, surely I do anyway.  I think I do a lot more consuming and sharing than I do absorbing, which is why the "To Read" stack of articles often gets overlooked.  The tools are a big part of the process, I do use a lot of them, but I use them in a way that as signals of what I might want to do with that information later.  I share almost everything through Google Reader.  I save almost everything too, but that's so I can review things later (a second look at my Google Reader things is like going through the pile of papers on your desk and filing them appropriately).  Then things get sorted again.

• Is this a website or service I wanted to sign up for?  If it is then I take a few minutes and evaluate its worth to me... if it's more involved than a quick sign up then it might go into the to do list (Remember the Milk is the list of choice here).
• Is this information this something I want to read later?  If yes then it goes into Instapaper (and I have Instapaper Pro for the iPhone as well, which I actually prefer as a reading interface for blogs posts or articles).
• Is this a resource that I might want to use as a reference later?  If it is then it goes to Delicious.  The Delicious extension in Firefox is a nice way of accessing those later.

My feed reader has turned into a stream of information like Twitter has.  I don't fret if things go unread.  I peer into my feeds when I have a few minutes and I share or mark the things that look interesting.  The Feedly extension helps me manage items that don't appear in my feed reader the same way (basically it turns the entire internet into my reader).  Things found on Twitter or Facebook can be added to the information stream just as easily as things already there.

Of course this isn't a fool proof process, things that I know I read go missing.  Search becomes important in these situations.  Since I save almost everything to Google Reader as a shared item then I can usually start there.  Did I put it somewhere else?  FriendFeed can often help me out if I did (lifestreaming isn't always about sharing with others, it's about remembering what you did).

So far this is a pretty reliable process for me... that is until I get to the "To Read" stuff.  Let's be honest, it never gets read, no matter what your method.  I'd like to change that.  I opened Instapaper today and realized most of things I have saved here are really great articles having to do with IA or UX topics.  Things I should be reading!  Not just reading though, absorbing and understanding.  I'm going to try to build it in to my to do list as a once a week thing (as well as reviewing my saved items) and hopefully save or synthesize the information as I see the need to.

I do think there's value in learning how to skim the surface of information.  We can filter, pick, and choose what is relevant to us quickly and very efficiently.  However, this should be balanced with some of the more traditional skills of picking apart and analyzing the information we do find useful.

Traveling can be expensive.  While I'm feeling less of a tourist in the UK, having been here for about five months now, I'm well aware of the limitations of being in a different country while relying on technology to get around efficiently and cheaply.

I do love the convenience of my iPhone and the many apps I have installed, but if you use an iPhone (or any other smart phone) and rely on a data network in your own country (for me the United States), you become quickly aware of how reliant that device is on data access once it's stripped away from you.  This makes using the device a challenge when you're outside your network trying to find your way around or discovering interesting things to do.

I don't plan on giving up my US based iPhone any time soon, so most of my days in the UK are spent on free wifi access points or rationing my 20MB of international roaming data (which I do quite successfully most months).  This isn't the US though, free wifi can be difficult to find, and trying to load up the built-in Maps app will eat your roaming data very quickly.

I recently spent a day in London.  I considered it a touristy day, basically roaming one part of London and taking photos along the way.  The goal of the day was to spend as little money as possible, which I thought would be a fantastic challenge for a city as expensive as London.  I may blog about the entire experience some other time, but for this post I wanted to focus simply on the technology.

Features that make a good travel app include offline access with full use of the phone's GPS, and an easy to use interface.  Not everybody may require offline access, but it's good to consider, especially if you plan on using underground transport, or areas where you think there may be no wireless signals present.  I'm focusing on a few apps I downloaded for London, but I hope to take what I learned there to discover different apps for visits to other cities in the future.  A good way to test how an application will work offline is to try it out in airplane mode first.

Travel Guides

I still like to take a paper travel guide with me, but I like to keep them small.  This is because I prefer to plan trips out before I go and don't like carrying giant travel tomes.  I've also been burned on GPS signal in big cities before, tall buildings can interfere with getting an accurate reading on your device.  If you rely too much on the technology it could get you lost.  I prefer the Fodor's '25 Best' Series if I can find it for any city I visit.  It's thin, it only contains a few highlights of the best attractions, and it has maps both inside the covers and a bigger fold out map (oh and it's also cheap).  Having a nice and easy to use paper based map is still a good idea, even when you are traveling with a device that has a digital map.

I relied on my paper map the first time I was in London back in August, though this time I seemed to want to forget I even had it... even when I needed it.  I think it is easier and faster to pull out the iPhone than it is to mess with a map, which is why I try to plan on having both on hand.

I admit I didn't use my iPhone much for travel guides during the trip, I did look at a few before though.  Here's a few I found that I did like:

Free & Budget London - $1.99

If I liked one travel app the most it was this one.  I'm thrifty, what can I say?  It was the most expensive of all the apps I purchased, but I think it was worth it.  The interface is really nice and there are some unique tips and ideas for exploring London on the cheap.  I also liked that there was an average price for restaurant options.  The app works nicely offline, but you do need access to a network to view places on the map.  The distance option does work with the GPS and the phone offline, so it's possible to get nearby options on the fly.

London Map and Walking Tours - Free

This application has a nice interface for walking tours.  Even if you're not into doing an entire walking tour it could be useful for finding places nearby to go.  It also has a map that can be used offline.  There is a full version of this app for $4.99 that includes the same tours but with GPS navigation and turn-by-turn tour routes turned on.  The map and tours are loaded into the application and work offline.

London Highlights - Free

The London Highlights application is a lite version of the Way2GoGuides.  It has an easy to use interface with audio, area maps, and a host of other useful information.  There are a few other more detailed mini-guides that can be downloaded for $4.99, but the free application seems more than suitable for ideas and travel information on local attractions.

If offline access isn't necessary for you then there's a couple of honorable mentions.

Time Out London - Free

For a free app there's a lot going on here.  It's packed full of information, events, and fun things to do with a nice interface.  It doesn't work offline, but because there's a lot of real time information on events in here you can be sure there's less stale or outdated entries.  If I have one complaint about this app it is the nagging Smirnoff screen at the beginning asking if I'm of drinking age.

Spoonfed - Free

Like the Time Out London app, it will keep you up to date on live events and happenings.  It also needs a network connection to run so no offline access here either. 

Maps

Offline city maps are a wonderful thing to have on your phone, but it can be frustrating to find the best one.  There are so many options to choose from.

Smart Maps - London $0.99

I settled for this map because of the offline access and the price.  It uses OpenStreetMap as the base map, which I noticed a number of these mapping applications do.  What you need to know about OpenStreetMap is the data is non-commercial, open, and user-generated (anybody can use it for free).  It will only be as good as the data the users have added to the map (and of course how the app developer implements that data).  Though knowing this I noticed a lot of mapping applications using OpenStreetMap are charging a lot more for their apps, some in the $4.99 range, but others, like this one, a few dollars.  It's good to look at the features, and it's also good to know what you're going to want from an offline city map.  For me use of the GPS was important.  Where this map failed for me was finding a nearby tube station.  The stations are marked but they're not labeled, so I had no idea which one I was looking at.  It looks as if an update to this map does have some tube stations marked and search-able so this may no longer be an issue here.  The icons for tube stations and bus stops are similar so it's not as easy to use as Google Maps, but this is still a good map though.  The GPS works ok, the search feature does bring up some nearby places of interest, and an update to the map allows you to bookmark landmarks (which I've already started adding a few for my next trip to London).  The people who make the Smart Maps do make a few for other cities.

With all that being said, I noticed that the Walking Tours map I mentioned earlier does have the tube stations more clearly marked and uses the same OpenStreetMap base map.  The Mini A-Z maps ($9.99) are very popular in the UK, but I personally do not like how they look and the apps are basically expensive scans of their print maps.  Before committing to a map try to look at the screenshots to see if you can get any a sense of how the information is organized and labeled.  For a good map I don't think $4.99 is too much to pay if you think you're going to use the features, but cheaper is always better.  I did use the offline map a lot to get my bearings, they are incredibly helpful.

Transportation

I love riding on the London Tube!  I didn't bother downloading any bus apps for London because I prefer the Tube and walking, but there's a bazillion different transport apps for London alone.  I've also searched apps like this for Chicago so I know any large city will have many options for you to choose from.

Tube Map - Free

Like with city map applications, transport applications can vary.  The one I settled with was Tube Map because it was free.  It does a nice job getting you from station to station if you know where you're at and where you intend to go.  It does not use GPS though.  There is a naggy screen when you open the app to register but you can skip that and the app works fine offline.  The only thing that will not work offline with any of these apps is the tube status feature, which needs a data network to connect.  For a free app though, this one is good.

London Tube - $0.99

I haven't tested this one out for London, but I have a similar app by the same developers for Chicago.  I do find the interface a bit finicky to get around and you have to pay more for points of interest so it's no good if you want to search nearby locations.  I also have full access to the AT&T network in the US, so I'm not so much concerned with offline access there.  I've given my Chicago app another look though and I do find the interface frustrating enough that I'm willing to skip the London version of this application.

London Tube Deluxe - $0.99

While I still have yet to test it in London, I've decided to upgrade from my previously mentioned free Tube app to London Tube Deluxe.  The reviews are good and it was updated very recently with new features.  I like the interface, you can select a station from the map by tapping twice on the screen, and there is a locate feature that uses the GPS.  My next London trip won't require a ride on the Tube, but I'll try to remember to turn on the app to test the GPS offline while I'm in the city.

Looking through the options and the reviews, $0.99 seems to be the most you want to spend on a transport application.  The free map works just fine, especially if you don't need to rely on a GPS location for finding the nearest station, but if you want a few more features then you can find it for not much more.

WiFi Hotspots

A big "must do" when I plan on going anywhere is to get a handle on where the wifi hotspots are, or rather, the free wifi hotspots.  WiFi is a little easier to find in the US, but not impossible to find in the UK. 

WiFiZone@UK - Free

Most of the wifi locations here include the commercial services like The Cloud and BT Openzone, these are not free wifi hotspots and there is no filter to really determine if any are free.  The app claims it works with no internet connection, but it oddly does not work in airplane mode.  If you need a hotspot quick and don't mind paying for access this one will work throughout the UK.

Free WiFi London - Free

This is a simple app that works offline.  I used it twice in London, once brought me to a location that was closed (it's possible to mark locations closed when you're online, which I did), and another time brought me to a fabulous little cafe that I wished I had eaten lunch in instead of the typical chain cafe I did end up in.  It's not fancy, but it works with no internet connection and with the GPS.  My success rate is still only 50% with it, but it's a free app and it might help you find free wifi so it's worth the download.

Travel requires some planning and traveling with technology requires a lot of patience and research.  The apps themselves can be of varying quality and expense.  What I've learned with this trip to London is that finding the best applications might also take some time.  I'm not against paying money for a good app, but if you look at a decent map application alone you'll see some pretty astonishing prices.  I think once I was out and about during the day I realized what features were more essential than others.  The other unfortunate thing about downloading apps, particularly iPhone apps, is that there is no refund if you decide you don't like it after all.  My recommendation is to start with free or cheaper apps, there are some good ones out there and there are some bad ones too.  If it's free you're out nothing, and if it's cheap you're out a little... and who knows, maybe with some advice from you that mediocre free or cheap app could improve in time for your next trip.

Just a quick update here to cross post to an article I recently wrote on managing conference information. The article was published last month in FUMSI and it's called "Conference Information: Managing Before, During, and After". The article is based on some of my own experiences with using social media to communicate and participate in conferences. It's written more for people who are attending conferences in person, but some of the techniques could be applied for people who want to stay in touch with events that they are unable to attend.

I hope some of the resources are helpful for people. Social media has opened the channels (and backchannels) of communication widely for many of us, but it also has us drowning in a lot of information that we don't often know what to do with.

Back in September, after only a couple weeks of being in Birmingham, I attended the Birmingham Twestival.  It was my second Twestival, the first being in Detroit, but it was the first social event I participated in here.  What an excellent way to quickly get to know the wonderful people that live and work in this city!  I was also thrilled to win a raffle prize, a photo shoot by Lee Allen. 

I was a little bit nervous about the whole thing, I generally don't like the way I look in photos (though, everybody says that, don't they?) but in the spirit of the event and knowing that having some nice photos will help spice up some other projects I'm working on here and there (blog redesign, CV, and article bios), I decided it was definitely a good thing to embrace. 

I am so pleased with the results!  We set up a day last month to meet in the Jewelry Quarter in Birmingham (a short walk for me as I live just on the outskirts).  The walk over threatened a little rain, but I liked the atmosphere, it was a beautiful autumn day.  Lee was great, my nerves didn't last long, he made the whole experience really comfortable, and he only risked my life in dangerous British traffic once during the whole day ;)  Though to be fair, he risked his life in traffic far more than I did.  I liked the Jewelry Quarter as a backdrop, I've been here for a couple of months so it does feel like home now, and the urban landscapes do remind me of being in Detroit.  Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the day.

I'm really glad I had this opportunity, and now having done it I would recommend to people that it's worth it to get some professional photos done of yourself (and if in Birmingham, call Lee of course!)  I've already updated my Twitter background, and changed some of my online avatars, it does kind of make me feel a little bit grown up :)  Thanks to Lee, and thanks to the Twestival for opening doors and giving me some unique experiences here in Birmingham.

Well maybe not the end of email, but there has been a trend for awhile to hate email, and I've never quite understood it.  A few weeks ago Wall Street Journal posted an article titled, "The End of the Email Era" with a few points declaring why "email no longer rules."  I must say the article is a little bit overdramatic.

In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold--services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate--in ways we can only begin to imagine.

I do believe that Twitter and Facebook (or insert name of favorite social networking tool here) is changing the way we communicate, but that doesn't mean we're all going to stop using email any time soon.  It's a shift in habits brought on by innovation in the tools we use.  I check two things religiously and in parallel each and every day, Twitter and Email.  In my world both services are of equal importance.  Twitter is not always about trivial communication, but the type of information I get from Twitter I don't want in my inbox.  Email is about communicating tasks, stuff I need to do or remember.  And let's admit, there's some things we need to communicate in more than 140 characters, I need email just as much as I want Twitter.

A lot of this evaluation of email is coming at the heels of Google's new collaborative tool, Google Wave (which I'll comment on a little later in this post, but here's a short and clever YouTube video about Google Wave).  TechCrunch's response to the WSJ article and the flurry around Google Wave described it as a "passive-aggressive" form of communication, while also quoting the WSJ article:

For many of us, email is simply not cutting it the way that it used to. It's a sedentary beast in a fast-moving web. It uses old principles for management, and this is leading to overload. I think the key statement in the WSJ is this:

"We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet--logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone."

That's absolutely true. But that also implies that we want some sort of always-on communication connection. I don't think that's the case. I think we want the option to communicate in real-time at will, but also the ability to communicate at our leisure at times. I would consider this to be a desire for a "passive-aggressive" method of communication. Perhaps it would be better stated as a "passive/active" method of communication, but passive-aggressive sounds better, so we'll go with that.

I think WSJ and TechCrunch are both missing the mark with email, but I do agree with TC that there are limits to the "always on" connection.  The WSJ elaborates a little more by saying, "Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging? Thanks to Facebook, some questions can be answered without asking them."  Well sure, but I still have to log in to Facebook to get the answer (oh and by the way, Facebook is a poor example because I get all my Facebook notifications through email anyway, I absolutely do not want Facebook to be my email client).  Facebook is a closed platform, and another tab on my browser.  WSJ also goes on to say that, "Email, stuck in the era of attachments, seems boring compared to services like Google Wave..."  Collaboration isn't all about fun, it's also about getting things done... and Google Wave is still another open tab in my browser that I have to log in to (in other words it's not "always on" if I decide to close the tab).

I think email can be better, and several services are working to that goal.  What I would like to have is less tabs, and a few services have emerged to re-invent email.  Xobni is a tool that integrates Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others into Microsoft Outlook.  It works ok and it's good for what it does, but the problem for me is that it's integrated into Outlook which is bloated and I hate to run.  Outlook is not an "always on" application for me, but it may be for others.

I'm looking forward to Mozilla Raindrop, which isn't available yet but looks promising.  If there's one reason I wouldn't use Raindrop it would be because it's a client.  I am moving more web based.  I've tried Thunderbird in the past for email, but because I have Outlook (and never use it anyway), I find downloading another email client excessive.  I might be compelled to if it can bring together the filtering, communication tools, and prioritizing that I want from everything I use.

What Xobni and Raindrop are doing is integrating new tools with email, which is what I think should happen.  Email is a base for me.  This has not been Google's approach with Wave, however, and I'm a bit disappointed by this.

So my thoughts on Wave, maybe it's too early to tell, but I find it to be clunky and busy.  Like I mentioned before, Wave is just another open tab in my browser.  I still find Google's own mail service to be far superior to anything else out there.  If Wave could be integrated with the email that I already use in some way then I might be more excited about it.  I actually do find Wave a little boring, I normally only check it once, maybe twice a day, and I haven't got much value from the few threads that I'm on (other than learning how the tool works from a more mechanical perspective).  That could change though once more innovative uses open up.

In the end we're going to use what we're comfortable with anyway.  If somebody sends me a DM through Twitter I'll probably respond through Twitter, likewise with people who communicate through Facebook or email.  The real issue isn't with the tool, it's about our habits with the tools that we use.  Email isn't going anywhere, if anything it will get better and more intelligent over time.