Stephanie Booth's online ramblings
[en] Bloggy Friday tomorrow. Who's coming, who's not.
Le temps file, surtout quand on est en voyage. Donc, demain, Bloggy Friday d’octobre. Comme d’hab, présents et excusés.
Là
Pas là
Avis aux amateurs, ça sent le petit comité. C’est donc très sympa pour une première fois. Annoncez-vous!
[en] Most efficient way for dealing with humans who complain that your cat is excerting revenge on them by peeing on doors: don't try to explain that cats don't have human feelings or attitudes. Instead, tell your cat sternly off in presence of the complaining person (just talk normally but firmly, of course, no being nasty), and say something like "Now, Puss, have you heard that? You can't go on peeing on doors like that. I want you to behave, understood?" And tell the person that you're going to have a serious discussion with the guilty feline about the situation.
Un truc infaillible pour régler le sort des personnes bien intentionnées qui se plaignent de problèmes avec votre chat en l’anthropomorphisant à outrance (concierge, voisine du dessus, etc.) Exemple: votre chat se venge des gens qu’il n’aime pas en allant marquer sur les portes des appartements quand il les voit. Tenter d’expliquer que ce genre de comportement ne correspond pas à la psychologie féline se solde en général par un échec cuisant et du temps perdu (conversation tournant désespérément en rond).
Remède
Ramasser le chat, qui durant la conversation est venu voir de quoi il s’agissait. Regarder ensuite sévèrement le coupable qui ronronne dans vos bras et lui dire: “Bon, Bagha, tu entends ce qu’elle dit, hein? Ça ne va pas du tout. Faut vraiment que tu apprennes à te comporter correctement, c’est compris? A partir de maintenant, plus de marquage sur les portes que la concierge vient de nettoyer, d’accord? Sinon, je vais me fâcher!”
Et préciser à la personne qui se plaint que vous allez avoir une discussion sérieuse avec votre chat et que vous comptez bien lui faire entendre raison.
A problèmes humains, solutions humaines.
[fr] Allez voir les enregistrements des conférences données à Blogtalk. En ligne presque en temps réel.
Via Suw, Blogtalk talks are being put online almost in real-time. Go look. Good job, guys. Extra brownie points for you 🙂
No brownie points, though, for not giving a mike to people who asks questions form the public. You can understand a microphone-less person asking a question at you, but not away from you. Next time, maybe?
[fr] Conversation hier avec Suw au sujet de la meilleure approche pour initier les gens au blog dans un cadre professionnel. Contrairement à mon intuition, elle recommande d'éviter les blogs "communautaires" à moins que le thème en soit très clairement défini. Il vaudrait mieux donner à chacun son blog, si possible avec une période d'essai sur l'intranet pour repérer qui "capte" et qui ne "capte pas", afin d'encourager les futurs blogueurs à se sentir responsables du blog. A plusieurs, on tend à rencontrer le syndrome "les autres blogueront". Et vous? Qu'en pensez-vous? Des expériences à partager dans le domaine?
Interesting and thought-provoking conversation yesterday with Suw, about group blogs vs. author blogs to get people to start blogging. Group blog can work with newbie bloggers if they have clear focus (ie, we are going to get together to blog about things we’ve come upon in Lausanne).
If there is no clearly-defined topic, then it is better to get people started on their own blogs, so that they take responsability for it. Otherwise you get the “somebody else will post” syndrome that I’ve noticed on a couple of multi-author blogs I participate in (or try to direct). If necessary, make them start blogging on the intranet before going “public”.
Your experiences with newbie bloggers in more-or-less corporate environments? Tried group blogs? Prefer author blogs? Got theories?
[fr] Plus que de savoir quels parfaits inconnus sont à l'endroit où je suis, je voudrais savoir quelles personnes avec lesquelles j'ai des liens faibles ("weak ties") sont dans le coin. Quelqu'un qui a commenté sur mon blog, par exemple, ou qui a participé à la même conférence que moi.
Kevin Marks says we need a Weasley’s clock rather than a Marauder’s map. I generally agree with this. Most of the times, I’m more interested in knowing where (and when) the people I know (or the people I have weak ties with) are, than in knowing which complete strangers are where I am (or in letting complete strangers know who I am).
Unfortunately, in most systems, it’s too much work to get people on your “buddy list”. Stowe‘s talk at SHiFT encouraged me to take a second look at my Plazes account, which I had more or less given up on using because it systematically placed me at the other end of the country when I logged on.
I might be very interested in knowing I’m geographically close to somebody who commented on my blog, or on whose blog I commented. Or somebody who was at SHiFT but that I didn’t actually get a chance to talk to. What if a system like Plazes was capable of doing that?
I finally understood at SHiFT what weak ties were, and I think this idea has all to do with them.
[fr] Une présentation que j'ai donnée en juin lors d'un colloque de recherche à Cartigny. La présentation powerpoint contient un "tour d'horizon" plutôt visuel de ce que j'ai pu rencontrer durant mes "promenades" sur la plate-forme Skyblog. Cela représente assez bien les préoccupations des écoles qui me contactent afin de venir parler de blogs aux adolescents, aux parents, et aux enseignants (pas tous en même temps bien sûr!)
Earlier this year (in June) I was asked to give a presentation on teenagers and blogs at a medical research workshop in Cartigny, near Geneva (Sexual Health of Adolescents in the Internet Age: Old Concerns, New Challenges). I’ve just received an OK to put it online, so here it is: Teenagers and Skyblog, Powerpoint [8Mb].
It’s basically a very visual “collage” of what I’ve found during my expeditions on the Skyblog blogging platform which a lot of French-speaking teenagers use. It reflects the kind of issues that I’m asked to come and speak about in schools (to teenagers, parents, and teachers — not at the same time, of course).
My excuses for the format — no powerpoint on this machine, so I can’t convert it to anything nicer.
I’ve just discovered SlideShare and uploaded the slides there. You can view them below:
[fr] Le format des conférences (particulièrement celles avec un public de blogueurs, donc producteurs actifs de contenu) doit changer. On nous fait écouter des choses intéressantes, il faut nous laisser le temps d'en faire quelque chose. Après deux présentations, j'ai de quoi bloguer ou discuter au moins une heure! En rajouter deux de plus par-dessus, même avec une pause d'une demi-heure, ne fait qu'accélérer la grillade de cervelle.
Talking with a couple of people during the SHiFT closing party, we agreed that the conference format has to change. If you’re putting a bunch of people in a room, particularly bloggy people who are used to producing content and thinking on keyboards, and you’re hopefully providing them with thought-provoking thoughts and speakers, you need to give them time to digest the talks.
After two talks, I’ve got enough stuff in my head to blog for an hour or talk for the same length of time with the people who were in the same room. After four talks in a row, even with a thirty-minute break in between, my brain is fried and I just stall.
That’s why I’m really excited to see how the LIFT’07 concept works out. One day with lots of small talks (select those you want to see, skip the rest), and another day with keynotes and huge chunks of time around them.
Looking at what awaits me tomorrow, I’m feeling a tad apprehensive…
[fr] SHiFT est terminé. Blogtalk commence.
SHiFT was really nice. Interesting things, writer’s overflow, but not writing. Check out Suw‘s notes on Strange Attractor: talks by Dannie Jost, Stowe Boyd, Martin Röll, Kevin Cheng, Euan Semple.
Suw’s talk was great, I’ve finally understood what ORG is about — and a bit worried about the situation in Switzerland.
Kudos to the SHiFT team for being so proactive in asking us for feedback during the closing party. Conference organisers everywhere, geek girls would like girly-shaped T-shirts, please! (Reaction to men-shaped T-shirts, however cool: oh, good, another one to sleep in.)
Many things not mentioned. My apologies.
I’m in Vienna now, with a cold, for Blogtalk reloaded. Looking forward to talking with John Breslin tomorrow, and hoping to get a chance to catch danah and Matt too.