Category: Web/Tech

Design Fiction Futures for NYC Libraries

Dec 13, 2014

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in City Planning, Community, Design, Design Fiction, Urban Planning, Web/Tech

I have long been a fan of design fiction to frame what the deployment of a design idea looks like after it has been created and is in use. I have used this quite a few times in my own work over the years. But, seeing great examples of design fiction in public isn’t a…
Responsive Design is Part of the Question not the Answer

Jan 8, 2014

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Design, Devices, Information Architecture, Mobile, User Experience, Web/Tech

Today’s New York Times redesign has lit up Twitter and other services with many saying “… but, it isn’t responsive”. I quickly recalibrated who knows mobile design / development and who is still learning. Responsive design has become the mantra the zombies repeat for mobile. Responsive is one of the five options for mobile and…
Mistaking the Edges for the Norm

Jun 22, 2012

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Applications, Community, Social Software, sxd, Technology, User Experience, Web/Tech

One of the best lessons from social quantitative analysis in grad school (public policy) was learning to understand if you are viewing edge cases or the norm (mainstream). Humans have some common traits, but when you start to design or develop any sort of program (be it government services or social software) you start to…
Getting Beyond Simple Social

Mar 3, 2012

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Community, Enterprise, Knowledge Management, Social Software, sxd, Technology, Tools, User Experience, Web, Web/Tech

“Social is hard!” is something I hear repeatedly by most of my clients and those I talk to. It is one of the issues I continually run across in my work with organizations trying to better understand social software and collaboration tools for their organization as well as helping vendors better understand their gaps and…
Removing Trust

Jan 25, 2011

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Community, Enterprise, Identity, Knowledge Management, Social Software, sxd, Technology, User Experience, Web, Web/Tech

About two years ago I made a conscious effort not to use the term “trust” and encouraged those I was engaging for work and social interactions not to use the term. The problem is not the concept of trust, but the use of the term trust, or more accurately the overuse of the term trust.…
Closing Delicious? Lessons to be Learned

Dec 30, 2010

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Access to Info, Connectivity, Folksonomy, Knowledge Management, Personal InfoCloud, PKM, Refindability, Social Software, Standards, Web/Tech

There was a kerfuffle a couple weeks back around Delicious when the social bookmarking service Delicious was marked for end of life by Yahoo, which caused a rather large number I know to go rather nuts. Yahoo, has made the claim that they are not shutting the service down, which only seems like a stall…
A Conversation on Social Interaction Design with Adrian Chan

Jul 21, 2009

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Community, Enterprise, Knowledge Management, Refindability, Social Software, Web, Web/Tech

Earlier today Adrian Chan and I had an e-mail exchange that both of us enjoyed and agreed it would be good to place it out for public consumption on our blogs. The ideas and concepts differ in their focus and approach, but are similar in that they are trying to reconstruct a much improved social…
Enterprise 2.0 Wrap-up

Jul 7, 2009

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Applications, Community, Conferences, Enterprise, Folksonomy, Knowledge Management, Marketplace, Social Software, Technology, User Experience, Web/Tech

Each year the Enterprise 2.0 Conference has been different for me, this was my third year in a row attending. Two years ago there were a organizations trying these tools (other than on a server under somebody’s desk), tool makers were trying to catch-up to potential customer desires, and most consultants were trying to apply…
Social Design for the Enterprise Workshop in Washington, DC Area

Jun 26, 2009

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Access to Info, Community, Enterprise, Folksonomy, Information Architecture, Information Creation, Interface, Knowledge Management, Research, Social Software, User Experience, Web, Web/Tech

I am finally bringing workshop to my home base, the Washington, DC area. I am putting on a my “Social Design for the Enterprise” half-day workshop on the afternoon of July 17th at Viget Labs (register from this prior link). Yes, it is a Friday in the Summer in Washington, DC area. This is the…
LinkedIn: Social Interaction Design Lessons Learned (not to follow) – 1 of 2

Feb 9, 2009

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by

Thomas Vander Wal

in Access to Info, Community, Identity, Interface, Personal Info, Social Software, User Experience, Web, Web/Tech

Why LinkedIn Needs to Have a Better Grasp of Social A heavy user of LinkedIn, I have been hearing identical complaints to my own as regular business networking event conversation fodder for the last six months or more. Light users of LinkedIn as well as those of us who have over 600 connections have nearly…