shadows of echoes of memories of songs

But seriously, how am I supposed to develop a future-proof, forward-thinking*, dynamic and synergistic user communications strategy if I don't have access to the latest web browsing technology?

* Interestingly, our house style eschews hyphens. Given the jargon of the sector, this sometimes makes for a less user friendly unreadably technology rich adjectivally overloaded word pile up.

Institutional Web Management Workshop 2006
June 14th-16th, University of Bath

A quick summary, before life overtakes me and I lose the impetus:

As a first-timer at the event, I risk looking like a wide-eyed web innocent with the following comments, but I'd still like to say that I thought IWMW-2006 was fantastic: at its best it was like living in some kind of experimental utopian always-online community, and even at its worst (not counting networking-induced hangovers) it was always interesting and thought-provoking.

The big buzzword of the event was "Web 2.0": not a technology, not even a formal methodology, more an attitude, or (allowing myself to be infected by the general enthusiasm) a vision of the future of information. The emphasis was strongly on collaboration, on sharing resources and working together (at all levels -- personal, technological, methodological) to produce something greater than the sum of the parts. It's easy to feel enthusiastic about the benefits of collaboration when surrounded by a couple of hundred excited experts; harder by far, but ultimately the only point of the exercise, to carry that torch back into the office -- or at least blog the brightness and capture the flame on Flickr.

At the other end of the scale from all the shiny new technology, I was delighted to see IRC being used as a force for good. I've loved it since I started using it in about 1997 (scat0324 will probably remember my first tentative steps onto OxIRC, and somebody may even have logged it) and I've found that it's a medium of communication ideally suited to my way of talking/working; but this conference was my first experience of seeing just how neatly and productively IRC can interact with realtime input to the enhancement of both, as the general IRC channel allowed us to interweave parallel debates and comments with the talks and workshops which were taking place.

At a personal level, the conference was hugely confidence-building; I felt as though I'd been weighed in the balance and found, well, obviously comparatively young and inexperienced, but nevertheless on the right track. There were a couple of moments when I really thought yes, I do know what I'm talking about here, I'm contributing something to the discussion, and experts in my field are prepared to listen to what I have to say, and that's always good for the ego. Being able to 'speak geek' helped a lot, too; never underestimate the bonding potential of usenet nostalgia! Though I should note that the thing that broke the ice with the first conference delegate I met (at the bus-stop outside Bath train station) was the "BRETT ANDERSON IS GOD" badge on my bag strap. Call it interdisciplinary networking. 8-)

I've come back with all sorts of ideas: from low-level improvements along the lines of how we can make our wikis more useful, or tools we can use for processing Quark files into HTML; to issues of information architecture, and an even more urgent and more focused sense of the need for proper user-testing and feedback-gathering so that we're at least making an effort to reflect our users' mind-maps; to visions for setting up more active collaborative networks, both internally and externally. It was significant that I probably spent more time talking to my Cambridge colleagues during the three days of the conference than I had done in total during the 2.5 years or so I've been in this job; that's something I want to change in the future. (If we can't even talk from one University site to another, what hope do we have of communicating with the wider world?) Also, I went to the conference hoping to put out feelers for the possibility of setting up a network for Oxbridge 'Informationists' (a term I've picked up via infomatters [relevant blog entry here] and am determined to popularise) and I got some encouragingly positive noises in response; so that's something to pursue more actively between now and next year.

I've also come back with a new resolve to sort out the tagging on this LJ, and to update my shockingly outdated website (and write a monograph on the death of the personal home page). There's really no excuse for the cobbler's children to continue cutting their bare feet on the broken glass that litters the information superhighway.

I'll do a more coherent and comprehensive writeup at some point, which will probably appear here and/or elsewhere; in the meantime, sorry if I've missed email/LJ from you while I was away (feel free to nudge) and I'll do my best to catch up soon.

Awful dreams last night, hidden behind a cut for the vivid of imagining, ( which you can read at your own risk... ) There was a soundtrack of non-stop bloodcurdling screaming, and eventually I woke up and realised that there really was non-stop screaming from the wailing wean next door. It's clearly got a healthy pair of lungs on it, but I can only wonder what (if anything) is going on in its head -- not to mention the heads of its parents.

By the time I had to get up I could barely move for tiredness; cycling in felt like trying to swim through treacle, and I still can't shake the ache from behind my eyes. I'm supposed to be going up to my parents' on Friday night so we can visit my grandad (who's been ill recently) on Saturday, and at the moment I'm just dreaming of sleeping on the train to Loughborough, and then sleeping in my old bedroom, not really mine any more but still a comfortable bed in a dark, quiet room.

Even this office seems quite peaceful by comparison with the screaming room; even with the constant huffing, thumping, sighing, throwing-things-around, and clicking of executive desk-toys from the chap at the desk behind me. He probably finds me just as annoying, mind you. Yesterday I had an argument with him over a word -- a single word! -- in a consultant's report. ( Meaning and meanness... )

Why hasn't the screaming in my head stopped yet?

My job is so meaningless. I mean, I know they all are, in the end, but this one is definitely more so than many. Less than the previous one, though. I suppose that's something to be thankful for. That, and the very reasonable salary.

And, I mean, it's indoors, which is a good thing.

But anyway.

[Poll #712898]

There probably weren't any good ways to start work this morning given that I was feeling tired and hungover and wobbly-stomached (at least part of this was my own fault for last night's delightful Valentine's Day indulgence in the shape of a huge meal at Bruno's Brasserie) but I can certainly think of better ways than getting two angry, rude phone calls in the space of 15 minutes about something I know nothing about and have no power to fix. ( whinge )

A quick quiz question for you:

If you were designing the web-based user interface for a complex, multifaceted, high-profile system for tracking and reporting on all aspects of the higher education process, for use by students, supervisors and administrators at all levels, would you:

1. ensure that there was a single clear point of access for the entire system,
2. ensure that there was coherent and consistent branding across all possible points of access, or
3. HAVE IT DESIGNED BY MONKEYS ON CRACK?

My bosses are both away, one until Thursday, the other until next Thursday; basically this means I'm left holding the fort (or rather, the baby). So far today and yesterday I have had:

• Two requests to do some work that boss #2 said she'd do two weeks ago.
• A request to update a colour image with the attached document (a Word file).
• A request to do, by Friday, a major revision of an area of the site which I've never seen before ...
• ... and which is on a server that we don't even own.
• Two requests to "just change a couple of words" in PDF documents.
• About 15 requests to make edits which, to paraphrase the sense of urgency conveyed, need to go live by yesterday if not sooner otherwise the University will explode and EVERYONE WILL DIE.
• One request from our Press department as to why a demo page in somebody's personal webspace on an internal server behind the university firewall can't be seen by people browsing from outside the university ...
• ... for example, by the hundreds of people to whom the URL for said page has just been emailed.

*headdesk*

I have this theory that some of the documents we're sent for publication on the web are actually intended to contain information.

If I save a .csv file from an email attachment to a samba-mounted drive, overwriting a pre-existing file of the same name, it doesn't change the last-updated time for the file.

Quite apart from the general problems of no longer knowing when you last updated something, this means that if your processing script is looking for new updates in order to overwrite the old data with the new, this means the script completely fails to find the 'new' file, since according to its timestamp it is frankly old hat. Which is something of a nuisance.

This behaviour on the part of attachments has started quite randomly -- or rather, as far as I can tell, not due to any action on my part. Does anybody know of any way of persuading it to stop?