QDIS Blog

AIIP Conference 2007 Saturday

by Ed Vawter @ 9:16 pm. Filed under Asides

Roger Summit Award Lecture
Ambient Findability and the Future of Search
Peter Morville, Semantic Studios

The following is just my impressions of the talk and not a full well thought out posting. It’s just sort of my thoughts. Peter has made the presentation available on his website and the link is at the end sf this posting.

Provide multiple ways to access information.
Multiple disciplines needed to design websites
got tired of “usability. and has a slide describing it in more detail
Talked about the interrelatedness in peoples mind of findabilty and credibility. people tend to trust and believe pages that have higher ranking?!
Gave case study of Cancer.org site and how it was redesigned based on users searches.
Future movement towards taking things learned on the web through interface design into physical space. Good case study from Maya.
Findability: the ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime.
A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention
Herbert Simon, Nobel Laureate Economist
Dilbert version: information is gushing toward your brain like a firehose aimed at a teacup.
Recommended The Transparent Society by David Brin
Need to combine tagging and standard taxonomy
Amazon has done much for navigation and organization of a rich information system.
use not just the long tail but alos the “fat head”. use that information as a guide.
Mentioned Buzzillion and Clusty as hybrid systems of standard and tagging

link on the web: http://semanticstudios.com/aiip.pdf

Mistakes I Made and How I Recovered
Margaret King, Karen Klein, and Jan Davis

Margaret: Make sure you have a contract in place if you are doing business with anyone defining the relationship.
Lost relationship, lost revenues and marketing opportunities due to on-going problems.
Partner was handling books and it cost to get that fixed.
Just because you are friends doesn’t mean they are a good business partner.
Try to keep emotions out of the business as much as possible.

Karen: Related a story of a problem client not responding and then not approving the invoice for work agreed to and completed in a timely fashion. Used her mentor to bounce ideas of off.
Sent a letter to the manager and copied COO saying she wouldn’t be able to do business with them if she didn’t get paid and related that this was very scary.

Don’t ignore red flags.
Divide projects into chunks.
Strength your disclaimer that they are paying for the services not results.
Listen to your conscious

Jan: Emails can lead to problems and misunderstandings.

Follow your instincts.
Put things in writing.
Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and talk.
Don’t lowball your projects.
Make sure and understand what it is your client wants.

Forming Strategic Alliances
Ann Potter, Suzane Sabroski, and Jane John

Ann: Retired after 20 years having done market research, secondary and primary research as well as competitive intelligence
Had 2-3 formal alliances, 4-5 informal long-time alliances and many informal long standing subcontractors and partners.

Why form alliances?

leverage your efforts
expand your network
develop teamwork skills and other skills
smooth income fluctuations

Think in terms of assumptions about relationships
Take inventory of personal styles

Suzanne: Background as a corporate librarian. Started her work in 1995 and changed name to Sabroski & Associates in 2002.
Has had one formal partnership in place for 4 years.

Prevents isolation
Gives you the ability to enhance relationships and communication skills
Expand your business
Consistent work can develop.

Suggestions

offer unique service
do several projects together first
define roles

Jane: 5 years in business creating 20-40 page market reports
Has used 3 subcontractors for telephone, web search, and accounting charts and various professional consultants.
can do more work and be more profitable as well as more control and more fun!
start small and build relationships
have one firm take the lead.
allow time to integrate results

Business meeting ran long and I missed the first afternoon session.

The afternoon session were again three concurrent tracks.

Lessons Learned From the Client from #@*
Liga Greenfield
Characteristics of the client from hell

Unrealistic
Demanding
Opinionated
Indecisive
Secretive
Deadbeat: don’t pay their bills
Thief: take detailed proposals and se it for their own gain

Manna from Heaven, many promises, well-paying, etc.

Good people and ones that were trusted.
Recognition and Respect
Growth
Friendship mixed with business
Foregone conclusion
Obvious gaps in the plan
Lack of consensus
Greed
Delusions of grandeur

Results:

timelines changes
project goals
trouble playing bills

Rising from ashes

developed a game plan
contacted client and VC board
pulled together to do the impossible
contacted creditors and made arrangements
maintained contacts even though not involved anymore
actively solicited business from VC firm.

Two of the VC folks are on the BioMed{harmIS advisory board
number of other projects
have gotten more from the VC firm

Suggestions

put expectation in writing.
expectations only in writing including scope and cost changes
learn from both success and mistakes
define specific lesson learned when things do go wrong.

You can learn what to do and what not to do from both good and bad clients.

How to Conduct Primary Research and Still Make Money in a Business
Amy Hebard

Gave brief background and then talked about what goes into performing primary research

Objectives