Jon DiPietro is Domesticating IT

Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.

Amazingly, this week’s High Five largely ignores the iPad announcement.  This is a reflection of how important I believe it to be, since I’ll be blogging about that in the upcoming week.  Instead, this week’s links are focused on digital rights and net neutrality.

#5: Settlement Rejected in ‘Shocking’ RIAA File Sharing Verdict

I’ve been following this case for quite some time, and the defense team seems to feel like they have the courts on their side.  Having the judgement reduced from $1.92 million to $54,000 is still not enough for them, as evidenced by their decision to reject a settlement offer of $25,000 from the RIAA.  That the settlement was even offered seems to indicate that the RIAA is also concerned that the courts are on the side of the defendant.

Link: Wired

#4: iPad is iBad for freedom

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has organized an online petition named “Defective by Design,” asserting that Apple’s implementation of Digital Restriction Management (DRM) goes too far and will restrict the distribution of free software by disallowing applications to run on the iPad unless they are downloaded from the Application Store.

Link: Free Software Foundation

#3: Mozilla leader worries about Internet limits

Mitchell Baker, leader of the Mozilla Project, expressed concern over “the increase in laws that make it difficult to run an open network,” and especially over rules concerned with policing content.  She spoke at the opening of athree-day conference on digital innovation and creative ideas in Munich, Germany.

Link: Yahoo! Finance

#2: Netflix to FCC: scary loophole in net neutrality rules

While they generally support the proposed nondiscriminatory rules put forth by the FCC, Netflix‘s general counsel is expressing concern over a potential loophole. “In short, if left unchecked, the ‘managed services’ category could engulf the Commission’s open Internet policies altogether” and let ISPs end run any regulations.  This is no small matter given blurring between content providers and Internet service providers as exemplified with the sale of NBC Universal to Comcast.

Link: ReadWriteWeb

#1: Australia bans graphic games … sort of

The final story in this theme is a cautionary tale of unintended consequences.  Australia has passed a series of laws attempting to restrict adult content from children.  This story shows that the laws have, in fact, increased the amount of adult content reaching children age 15 and under in games like Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare.

Link: Global Post

Feel free to provide your thoughts and/or contributions…

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It was just after Christmas and I had some gift cards and a book to return to Barnes & Noble.  In the hustle and bustle I left the house without the “wish list” I had printed out, which contained my reading list.  Since I would rather spend my time treasure hunting on book shelves than slaloming through post-holiday traffic, I decided to troll. One of the books on my list was to pick up a styles manual, as humdrum as that is. Luckily, however, I saw “The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing” by Francis Flaherty and decided to go ahead and purchase it. The good news is that reading this book was a transformative experience. The bad news is that I am now burdened with reviewing a book penned by a New York Times editor.

The Skinny

Why It Rocks:
Flaherty groups fifty rules into seven parts, presenting them with vivid examples and none of the pretentiousness you might expect from a New York Times Editor.

Why It  Doesn’t:
At the risk of sounding spineless, the only complaint I have about the book is that there were not a hundred rules.

Who Will Dig It:
Bloggers, of course, but also anyone who needs to write articles, posts, reports, proposals, and any other non-fiction prose.

The Essence

Previously, I had read a few books about visual design.  A consistent theme of design is simplicity, which is captured in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s famous quote: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” I immediately recalled this quote after Flaherty closed out Chapter 5 by saying, “To write is to choose, which is to exclude.” That’s when the sea parted for me; writing is design using words. The same rules of simplicity, contrast, color, motion, proximity, etc. apply to writing as well.  With this in mind, I began to think of writing in a whole new context.

Flaherty groups his fifty rules into seven groups:

1. A Human Face
   “Every story, even the driest, has a human face. Draw it well and put it on display, for to readers it is a mirror and a magnet.”
2. The Theme
   “The writer must be loyal to his major theme. He must study all its facets, and he must tamp down other topics that threaten to displace or diminish it.”
3. Motion
   “Good stories are a brisk journey, and the reader can always feel the breeze in his hair.”
4. Artfulness
   “The artful writer sees what others see. He just sees it in a drawn-fresh way.”
5. Truth and Fairness
   “Writing is an art, and art bestows a license. But the license is a limited one, and it never sanctions material omission or unfair play.”
6. Leads and Other Article Parts
   “Leads and settings, transitions and kickers: Each part of an article demands its own peculiar art.”
7. The Big Type
   “Titles and subtitles are turbocharged text. They are your work distilled.”

I would not argue strenuously if you said it’s a bit lazy of me to reproduce the Table of Contents here. However, part of the charm and lure of this book is Flaherty’s masterful use of words and particularly the economy with which he employs them. Therefore, I felt it would be most effective for his work to speak for itself at least a little.

The Verdict

I found “The Elements of Story” to be as enjoyable as it was informative. Flaherty’s writing style is easy on the brain and ripe with understated – almost British? – humor. I consider it required reading for bloggers and strongly encourage anyone interested in improving their writing craft to give it a read.

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For the second time in the last three months, I had a grateful client report back to me that a new report commissioned out of my software product uncovered errors in their former spreadsheet-based billing system.  In this case, they would have under-billed a client by several hundred dollars for the quarter.  Considering that this spreadsheet had been in use for years and copied to other spreadsheets for billing other customers, one wonders what the total cost was.

Spreadsheets are like high blood pressure: the silent killer of businesses.  Of course, this means every business except yours and mine. It’s all those other users who have error-riddled spreadsheets with mistyped formulas and errant cell references.  I have every confidence that yours and mine fall into the ten percent of all spreadsheets that contain zero errors.

90% of All Spreadsheets Have Errors

Raymond Panko has been researching and documenting spreadsheet errors since 1997.  In 2009, he conducted seven field audits of operational spreadsheets and found that an astonishing 88% of them contained errors.  At first blush, this is hard to swallow.  But what if I were to tell you that one in every twenty cells with a formula is flawed?  That doesn’t seem so hard to believe.  If you then allow that the typical operational spreadsheet averages about a hundred cells with formulas, then it suddenly becomes quite plausible.

Another field audit of fifty operational spreadsheets by Stephen Powell at Dartmouth College found that only three of them (94% percent) were error-free.  In this study, six main types of errors were reported:

1. Hard-coded numbers in formulas where cell references were intended
2. Formulas that contain incorrect cell references
3. Logic errors caused by using the wrong function or incorrectly implementing the function
4. Copy/paste errors
5. Inaccurate calculations due to cells with omitted data
6. Data input error

These sorts of errors are known to cost businesses billions of dollars every year.  The European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group published a list of 89 “horror stories” encountered in their own evaluations.

But I’m sure yours and mine are perfectly fine.

What’s the Point?

Databases.  Most operational spreadsheets I’ve come across are a case of trying to hammer a nail with a banana.  They are situations that are best suited by a bona fide database back end and user interface.  The fundamental problem with a spreadsheet is that the data and business logic are not separated from the user.  One inadvertent keystroke can wipe out a carefully crafted formula written five years ago by a statistical guru no longer employed by the company.  Fault tolerance is another issue, as is data type checking and many other standard features of a properly designed databases that will protect both the data and the formulas.

I’m particularly sensitive to this topic after responding to Gary Mintchell’s recent blog post, “You should all learn SQL.”  In it, he noted the proliferation of databases and subsequent need for more non-IT personnel to learn SQL.  As this discussion points out, however, maybe the proliferation is not quite fast enough.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and, particularly, any spreadsheet horror stories you’d like to share.

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If Facebook were a spy novel, the terms of service would be enigmatic documents stored on microfilm and hidden in plain sight in some local library.  The features are like James Bond’s clever gadgets, but are never at hand when needed and lack any meaningful instructions.  How is one to unlock these mysteries and reach that magical transmitter that can carry your message to those 360 million users?  Facebook fan pages are incredibly useful and effective marketing mechanisms, but it can be frustratingly unapparent where to start, what to do, and how to do it.  Lucky for you, I have the secret decoder ring you’ve been looking for.

Why Bother?

Before decoding these mysteries, let’s talk about why anyone should bother in the first place.  I already mentioned fan pages specifically, and there are three major advantages to implementing fan pages over groups and personal pages:

1. Link Juice – Fan pages are public, whereas your personal profile and its updates are protected, unless you’ve made everything public in your privacy settings.  But even if you’ve done this, the interactions with others is mostly protected, which means that none of the content is indexed by search engines.  The pages contain links back to your site, which create link juice.
2. Branding – Anyone can create a fan page in your name, whether it’s an employee, a customer, or a competitor.  Even if your company name is a registered trademark, you do not want to be spending your time firing bow-shots and dealing with Facebook support.  Grab your company’s identity so you are in control and do it today.
3. Analytics – Facebook calls them “Insights” and you can only get them with fan pages.  They give some basic data to do some trending and metric measurement.

In addition to these benefits over Facebook groups and personal pages, I wrote another blog post that contains “7 Reasons to Include Facebook In Your Marketing.”

The Ownership Dilemma

In order to create a fan page, you need to be logged in to a Facebook account.  But whose account and what kind?  Well, that’s the dilemma.  The account that creates the fan page becomes the de facto owner.  Worse yet, the owner of a fan page cannot be changed (at least not right now).  Therefore, it’s not really desirable to create a fan page using your own personal Facebook account.  Therefore, Facebook does offer the option of creating a “business account” which has a number of limitations when compared to a standard, personal account.  Problem solved, right?  As it turns out, not so much if you read the dreaded Terms of Service for business accounts:

You may create a business account if you don’t already have a standard Facebook account.
…
Please be aware that managing multiple accounts is a serious violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If we determine that an individual has more than one account, we reserve the right to terminate all of their accounts.
…
Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use. If you already have a personal account, then we cannot allow you to create business accounts for any reason. You can manage all the Pages and Socials Ads that you create on your personal account.

Please keep in mind that the fans of any of the Pages you administer will not have visibility or access to your personal account or profile. Any actions that you take as a Page administrator on your Page will show the Page’s name as the actor and not your personal name.

Despite the fact that “we reserve the right” does not necessarily mean they will, these warnings are pretty stark and I am therefore reluctant to advise anything other than creating your fan page from your own personal account, as undesirable as that is.  It’s a bit of a mystery why Facebook would offer such a thing as a business account and then virtually assure there is no way to use it without violating their terms of service, but such is life for the time being.

Getting Started

Facebook makes it a little tricky to get the ball rolling, so here’s a quick start guide to get you going:

1. Go to the Create New Facebook Page link (http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php).
2. Select the type of page you want to create and give it a name.  You can choose to keep it private if you’re not quite ready to make it visible to the world.  This is a good option if you’re just trying to protect your brand.
   
3. Set up the basic information.  Upload a picture (hover your cursor over the picture area and click “change picture”), and make sure it’s square so that Facebook doesn’t auto-crop it.  Click the link under the picture that says “Write something about …” and put in a brief description of your page.
   
4. Click on the “Info” tab and then the “Edit Information” link.  Be sure to enter a web site and company description at the very least!
   
5. Click on the “Share” button in the left margin and invite all of your friends who may be interested.
6. Promote your fan page on other web sites by creating a Fan Box.  This is another frustratingly difficult link to find.  You can begin from the Facebook Widgets page.  There are two options; Fan Boxes and Page Badges.  You can play around the settings for each to configure it as you like.  When you’re done, save it and then you can copy and paste the code in to your web page.
   

Then, go forth and update!  One word of advice; don’t turn your fan page into a content Doppelgänger.  Try to understand how your Facebook audience wants to interact with you and what sort of content and update frequency is palatable to them.  If you’re not sure, ask them.  If they became a fan, they should be happy to offer their opinion on what they want to see from you.  Don’t simply redistribute press releases or link your Twitter stream to your fan page.  Each social media channel has its own character and user preferences and you need to understand and respect them.

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Weekly High Five lists the most interesting, compelling, and/or useful links of each week.

The theme for this week’s High Five is, “Content Wars.”  Wrangling continues over copyright protection, and content creators continue to struggle with delivery channels and monetization.

#5: Apple Courts Publishers, While Kindle Adds Apps

The e-reader market is heating up nicely.  Apple’s expected announcement of a new tablet computer is igniting a battle “for the hearts and minds of book publishers, authors, and readers.”

Link: New York Times

#4: $675,000 RIAA File Sharing Verdict Is ‘Unreasonable’

A defendant has asked the U.S. Disctrict Court in Massachusetts to either retry the case or reduce the fine of $22,500 per song.  This comes on the heels of a $1.92 million judgement last year against a woman who downloaded 24 songs.  These shocking verdicts are raising the volume of calls for Congress to change the laws, but a Justice Department dominated by RIAA lawyers and lobbyists it seems that the entertainment industry’s stormtroopers will continue to patrol the Internet for the foreseeable future.

Link: Wired

#3: Open Letter From OK Go, regarding non-embeddable YouTube videos

OK Go is a rock band that just wants to make music and share it with their fans.  In a thoughtful post on their web site, they explain the intricacies of publishing music videos in the current Internet climate.  Shockingly, they declare that “crazy as it may seem, it’s now far harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four years ago.”  Like the aging Hippie reluctantly pulling the lever for a Republican, YouTube is finding itself answering to new constituents in its quest for monetization.  The soundtrack to this drama would surely include Roger Daltry’s voice; “I hope I die before I get old.”

Link: OK Go’s User Forum

#2: YouTube Will Start Charging for Some Videos

On the heels of the OK Go story, we learn that YouTube will begin experimenting with paid content.  They plan to charge users around $5 to view independent films from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance Film Festivals.

Link: ReadWriteWeb

#1: New York Times Ready to Charge Online Readers

In the latest chess game between newspapers, readers, and search engines, the New York Times announced this week that it is planning to charge readers.  Their approach will differ from the Wall Street Journal, which charges based on premium content.  Instead, the Times plans to charge by volume, which will ostensibly allow the casual visitor to find an article on Google, for example, and have full access to read the article.  It’s a novel idea and not without some technical hurdles to be overcome.  It seems to me that it strikes a fair balance between the free exchange of ideas and making a living.  I will be rooting for it to succeed.

Link: New York Magazine

Feel free to provide your thoughts and/or contributions…

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