Team members need to be updated with a project’s status frequently. Updates keep everyone motivated knowing things are on track at full speed on your end, and so feel compelled to match your drive, or possibly even beat it. Updates show your team the extend of your work, an important point since often this information is invisible to them, particularly when working in the cloud. Seeing the extent of your work helps them appreciate your input: no one wants to work like a dog and be thought a lazy bum.
At the same time people are busy. Besides your project they may have others they are working on. They may have full time jobs or degrees. They may have, god forbid, real social lives – friends who don’t speak in status updates or tweets; maybe even a love life; or a family. These people actually exist -I’ve even met a few in my travels. They don’t have the time to read lots of detailed emails about your project, so a balance must be found.
I decided on a solution: Inbox Texts – quick emails with the entire message in the subject title. Tiny status updates. Quick to-dos. Readable from IPhone or Blackberry – even if you’re out and about and don’t have time for the cloud.
Take some examples examples from my Bolivian Express project, where I am working with a team of three to set up an English language publication in Bolivian and set up a program whereby people can travel to Bolivia on a short term basis and work with the publication whilst there:
UPDATE: Internet explorer bug fixed (was HUGE)+ Backup system in place + Destroy links “destroyed” + Fixed problem with “edit” page
TO-DO AMARU: Digg our site and walk around the library FORCING people to do it with Facebook connect
UPDATE: Modified site to say program, modified pdf file to say program, cut 10% of basics sheet to fit on one page
Before you say it, no, I shouldn’t have written this entire blog post in the title. This is a blog. Not a project management system. HA.
Introducing: The Bolivian Express, a new English language newspaper, set up in association with Express Press in Bolivian my myself, two friends from college(Amaru Villanueva Rance and Xenia Sarina Elsaesser) and a Bolivian journalist I’ve only talked to over Skype (Ivan Rodriguez Petkovic).
From the website:
-
Debating whether to go traveling or to get work experience instead? Now you can do both
THE PUBLICATION
The Bolivian Express is a new English-language newspaper published by Express Press, a Bolivian publishing house responsible for two prominent magazines distributed nationally and internationally.
Want to take part? Applications are now open
THE PROGRAMME
You will spend one or two months of your summer (July-August) in Bolivia. During this time you will have a chance to work alongside experienced professionals and gain first-hand experience learning the tricks of the trade. You can also register for tuition in all areas by practitioners and experts from each field. Spanish lessons are also provided for speakers at all levels. Flexible working arrangements encourage you to travel in the country to gather material and help us make business deals. Whatever you decide to do, the team will help you make the most of your stay.
IS THIS RIGHT FOR YOU?
We are looking for writers, photographers, designers, as well as people interested in marketing and the business side of things. Whether you’re leaving sixth-form, planning your gap year, a languages student planning your year abroad, or simply someone looking for a career-break or something to do over the summer, this could be just the thing for you. Some experience is valuable but what is most important is a genuine interest in journalism, publishing or marketing, as well as curiosity for Bolivia and everything it has to offer. Work will be assigned in line with your level of experience; you will be challenged but you will get all the help you need along the way
Our website is http://www.bolivianexpress.org and we have a Facebook group too, which is pretty dang retro these days what with all the page suggestions and all.
Come back over the next week where I’ll write about how we managed to set up the business in less than three weeks working on the cloud across three different countries and without spending a single penny. It’s a good story. For now, just tell your friends about this thing.
Want to become an Internet celebrity? Perhaps even (god forbid) a real life celebrity?
A good first step is placing a photo and a short biography on every page of your blog. Notice I said to place in on every page of the blog – I’m explicitly ruling out limiting yourself to only placing the picture hidden away in some “About Us” page which nobody will ever read. I mean you need to place the picture loud and proud in your template for all to see.
Take this example from Gretchen Rubin’s blog, The Happiness Project”:
On every page of Gretchen’s blog you see this photo of her and a snappy bio. Whether or not it was her intention to become well known (and don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a healthy and perfectly normal intention to try to draw attention to oneself), having a picture on every page means that most every person who ever stumbled across her blog knows her face and a little about who she is and what she stands for.
Having a pic and a short biography humanizes your Internet presence. No longer are you just one more page of Times New Roman font and blue/red links. You are now a person, with a face and a story.
I often travel from my lovely hometown Galway to my work town Dublin on the GoBus non-stop speed wi-fi bus. I love the service but so do a lot of other people so I book ahead to ensure a seat.
GoBus Ireland Defaults to a booking of zero tickets. Handy.
When you use their website to book a ticket it asks you your starting point, destination and time. At this point I usually click next, only to get the form spat back at me telling me “zero is an invalid number of passengers”.
Now I don’t mean to offend the adorable web designer who designed this piece of code but COME ON!! How many people do you think go to the trouble of filling out that form to book zero tickets? Let me take a wild guess: none?
Whats more there is a second failing with this form design: users must first select which “route” they wish to take, before then choosing a starting point and ending point. Considering that there are only two journeys available with GoBus (Galway-Dublin and Dublin to Galway), having to choose your route THEN your starting and ending point is tautologous, as one is implied by the other.
Forms should be designed to cater for the typical user in as efficient a way as possible. Your typical visitor to GoBus is there to book a single ticket for themselves. Intelligent web design would mean defaulting to a passenger number of “one” so that these typical customers can book without needing to fill in an extra tautological.
When I was in college I learned that the most effective way to learn a topic was to summarize it onto a single A4 page. The point of doing so is to reduce the topic down to it’s absolute essentials, recording on the page only the minimal facts necessary to memory. The sheets usually end up crammed with tiny writing and dense definitions but this kind of condensed notes are exactly what you need when revising for an exam – 12 meaty pages is far more manageable than 60 or 70 pages of regular notes when you’ve got an exam the night before.
As a law student turned web professional I’ve got a lot of learning to do: HTML, CSS, SQL, Scripting, Linux, DNS – every day there seems to be more and more buzzwords and languages I need to pick up. Luckily the web programming community has come to the same conclusion about the benefits of cheat sheets. Web professionals frequently make and distribute their own cheat sheets to the world and websites like Devcheatsheet and Cheat-sheets.org aggregate all these cheat sheets from across the web and present them all together in one handy portal.
If you’re serious making it online, I’d recommend you print off a folder worth of these badboys and stuff them into every corner of your life where you might find a spare minute or two. After a few weeks of sneaky cheat sheeting you’ll be amazed by how much you learned and by how much coffee you’ve drank.
Excited? Then take your first step and download a set of html cheat sheets to start seeing how the web around you is constructed.
