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I use Google News when I am looking for the latest headlines, Blogger when writing for two different blogs, and Google Earth when I am interested in determining what the surroundings of any location in the world are. I also use Google Maps when figuring out driving directions, but this function alone has been problematic for me in the past, because I must admit I have gotten incorrect directions from it. As a safety and when I have time to look up directions, I check at least one other site to compare the routes and determine which I will trust and follow more. I am also a big fan of Picasa when sending and storing photographs to friends and family, which alleviates the fear of losing images forever if my computer or laptop crashes and I haven’t backed up all my data. I am avoiding the latter, just in case.

Looking back at the good, the bad, and everything in between, I have to admit that the Internet has been a very interesting place since Google was conceived and launched to an unsuspecting public. The online experience would be a very different place if it never existed, and that would not have been a  good thing.

Google has been an integral part of my Internet experience, and as a search engine it is the closest thing to perfection I have seen on the Internet. If the company keeps doing what it is doing while striving to innovate and improve all of its services and programs, Google will continue to be on top for years to come.

Many of the following tips are common sense, but I think they are worth mentioning.

·  In addition to your address, try not to put your phone number out there too. This obviously doesn’t apply to small business owners who want to promote their businesses. Still, e-mail addresses are ideal because you can always adjust your spam filter and block addresses if needed.

·  Setting your relationship status on FaceBook or MySpace to anything you want isn’t a problem, unless this information is something you don’t want other people in your life to find out about. If you are in an “open relationship” and one of the people in it are not aware of this, you may not want to publicize this. If you have the option to set your social networking sites to a private setting (accessible to friends only or completely private) then do so.

·  As mentioned earlier, any objectionable images of you (or those which can be construed as objectionable) should be taken down from public view, or placed on more private pages. Remember, even if you think your grandmother will never see the crazy vacation pictures you posted a year ago, I wouldn’t take the risk. After all, someone else could always print out them out or show them to her on their computer or cell phone.

Just be careful when you are on the Internet. The virtual space may seem imaginary because we cannot stand in it or experience it on a tangible level, but it is very real…and it can backfire on us if we are not cautious.

But the idea that there is “too much of a good thing” does apply to the bounty of free, online journalism. The constant need to put the latest news on the Internet can affect the quality of the writing or ignore the credibility of the sources used. Many news sites (alternative, national, and international) have reputable journalists providing content, but there are those other sites that have questionable contributors with dubious writing and editing skills. I have seen a quite a few spelling, grammatical and even factual errors when reading articles online, but these can easily be corrected; once an article is published in a traditional newspaper or magazine, any errors are there to stay.

Last year I attended a conference on the future of micro-blogging and online news sites as a whole and was surprised to find that many of the attendees where in the advertising industry. Obviously, the tensions in the room were high; I almost expected a screaming match between one of the panelists and an advertising executive in the audience. The general consensus of the panelists was that a new advertising model must be developed to adapt to the rapidly growing online journalism industry. Journalists, editors, graphic designers, photographers, and all others that contribute to online content should be paid, and I also believe that traditional advertising methods must change. When one disgruntled audience member suggested charging visitors to online news sites a small fee, many others balked at the notion. I just don’t see it happening; what I do know is that the “powers that be” have to think of something. Online journalism is here to stay; and no one wants to pay for it.

What are your thoughts on the online journalism and its future?

This Labor Day, and just after the unofficial 40^th anniversary of the Internet, I find myself respecting the technology and the people behind it (too numerous to count) who created this virtual medium that has truly contributed to the world of communication and globalization. There really is no going back, and I look forward to the future of the online communications and technology.

But designers no longer have to work in a vacuum to figure out the solutions. They can now leverage all of the expertise, user behavior analysis, and best practices of the great user interface design patterns that are available online.

What is a user interface design pattern?

A design pattern is good design that has been vetted and tested for usability by designers, User Interface (UI) experts, and even the design community that have been proven to work well for very specific user situations and user issues. It is a package of proven expertise that informs the designer of the principles behind the design and what is known to work.

Using known and researched principles in your design will save you time and money and make your applications more intuitive for the user and easy to use.

All design patterns answer the following questions:

• What is the Problem we are trying to solve?
• What is the Solution?
• When and why to use the pattern?

Where can I find design patterns?

• Yahoo Design Pattern Library
  Yahoo! breaks down their design patterns into five categories: Layout, Navigation, Selection, Rich Interaction, and Social.  Within each category you will find an array of design patterns that not only answer the standard questions of What, When & Why they also provide real world examples, code examples, related patterns, and similar patterns from non Yahoo! libraries.  They also have a community where you can discuss the design patterns with people who are trying to solve the same design problems.
• Welie.com
  The patterns on this site are grouped in a very meaningful way.  The main categories are broken down into:
  User needs which include navigating around, searching, shopping, making choices
  basic interactions, dealing with data, personalizing, making choices, giving input.
  Application needs which include drawing attention, feedback, simplifying interaction.
  Context of design which include site types, experiences, page types
• UI-Patterns.com
  This website provides a good number of design patters but what makes it different is that they offer a lot of examples of actual sites that use good design principles via their screenshot collections and their resources.
• Open Source Design Pattern Library
  This is a community where designers, developers, and other people interested in patterns can come to reference material, collaborate on patterns and designs, and share their knowledge with everyone.

Do you use other resources that I haven’t mentioned?  Let me know if the comments!

My answer….you have to develop great time management skills and stay disciplined about them…and you have to manage technology instead of it managing you.

One of the biggest problems of the social web is the ease with which one can lose track of time.  We are having so much fun connecting with friends & colleagues on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks that we end up not getting any work done during the work hours and end up working ALL THE TIME.

Another problem is multi-tasking and interruptions.  Research shows that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task when interrupted on an unrelated topic.

Here are some tips on managing your time on the social web:

1. Schedule Everything and stick to the schedule
   I use the Entourage calendar to schedule EVERYTHING…meetings, responding to email, social network presence, day-to day tasks.  But it’s not enough to schedule things..you have to stick to the schedule!
   
2. Schedule your most important tasks when you feel like you are most productive
   The most productive time is different for each person…some people are sharpest in the morning, some are later in the day.  Figure out what your magic time slot is and schedule your most important task during that time.  Sprinkle your social interactions & email management throughout the day but make sure it’s not during your most productive time.
3. Use a timer
   Using a timer will allow you to set an alarm to notify you when your current scheduled task/activity is supposed to end.  Let’s say you are alotting 20 minutes for social media interaction at 1pm…before you begin the task at 1pm, set your alarm to let you know when the 20 minutes has passed. 

   The application that I use to achieve this is Apimac Timer (mac). You can also use Xnote StopWatch if you are on Windows (there are many more you can choose from).

4. Close down the applications that you are not using
   Human nature is to respond to stimuli…so if you hear a notice that you have a new email or a new response from a friend, you have to go see what it is.  That is why if it’s not time to check and respond to email, I close down the email application…if it’s not time to interact on Twitter, I close down the Twitter application…the point is…only have the application that you are currently working in open.
5. Set and manage expectations
   Managing everyone’s expectations is the key to time management.  I think a lot of the time, the immediacy to respond is in our own head.  Training your clients, colleagues, friends, and online connections that you are not available 24×7 will allow you to respond on your own time.  And because we are all going through this information and task overload…they will more than undertand!

Did I miss anything?  Share your time management tips in the comments!

The infinite resources to be found on the Internet seem limitless, but I think I know which sites I can rely on for my language studies. In addition to a few online language lessons, I have found the complete French language series entitled French in Action, which came out in the late 1980s and was developed by a Yale University professor. As a child, I remember watching re-runs of the series, which was completely in French and was centered on a young French woman, her family, and friends in Paris on PBS. The language immersion technique is very effective, and I am very happy to have found it online so I can watch and absorb the lessons at my own pace. 

The best sites to help me with “on the spot” language learning are the online dictionaries. I usually alternate between WordReference.com and Yahoo! Babel Fish. Not sure what the future tense of the verb savoir (which in English means “to know”) is? I usually find myself on verbe2verbe.com or Conjugationfr.com to make sure I spelled my conjugated verbs properly.  I prefer the former site because it gives the most accurate definition of the verb in English. I have also found that if I spell the word wrong and there are no direct matches given, a list of other, similarly spelled verbs appears in the left-hand column. For someone who needs as much as I can get, I am very grateful for these useful additions.

If I can help it, I will not let the dust settle on my French language lessons again. With the help of my own personal resources, the library, conversations with French-speaking friends, and the World Wide Web, I may one day be able to call myself bilingual.

Companies like IBM and Sun Microsystems seem to know how to make their virtual workplaces work for them and their productivity. What I see as the ideal virtual workplace is one in which the employer and employee have trust in one another, and have no desire to abuse that trust. It is where an employee works hard, but knows when to stop each day, and the employer gives freedom to the employee to have a personal life, without compromising the work flow. I also see a good virtual workplace as one that allows employers and employees to have face time with one another, and that doesn’t include web conferences. It is easy to feel disconnected from others you work for or work with if you never see them.

So while some people might think being in a virtual workplace lacks structure and growth for a company, I saw they are wrong. Virtual workplaces are here to stay, and will continue to grow throughout the economies around the world.

What are your thoughts on the virtual workplace?

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