My Blog

Why the web’s still misunderstood....

Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:23:28 -0700

A friend of mine recently asked me to help her company understand why their i.t. department shouldn’t be running their web site. As someone who’s been doing this since 1993, it’s a head-shaking moment. 17 years into the great intertubebbernet and we’re still wrestling with the same concepts.

here’s what I told her:

Your I.T. department is focused (or should be) on internally-facing business systems, networks, desktops, and employee applications. In some cases they also build, manage and maintain externally-facing interfaces to those systems.

Your digital media team is responsible for externally-facing (customers, guests, whatever you’d like to call them) systems, which includes the servers, applications, hosting, design, and strategy.

The reasons fall into several categories:

1. Hosting

I stopped hosting web sites inside my company’s walls in 2005 after realizing the inherent conflict of having my public web site managed by a guy whose job it is to stop all non-employees at the firewall. plus, internal teams just can’t manage the SLA’s effectively or as cheaply as ISP’s. in 2010, there’s almost no reason to put these boxes inside your server rooms.

2. Different skills, Different TOols, different approaches

These i.t.guys are just wired differently and i.t. managers continually attempt to apply one set of policies and tools to both jobs. i had a colleague insist that the web team needed to use the same trouble ticket system as the desktop support team. there’s a reason why there are web-specific products on the market like Jira.

I’ve also encountered and managed few I.T. shops who enjoy the agile development process. Web folks (tech and marketing) love it and have embraced it.

Finally, you’re looking at two extremely different career paths. As someone who has managed both I.T. and web teams, i’ve rarely found folks who can cross over -- or who even have the interest in crossing over. A woman who loves helping internal employees work through issues with a controlled corporate desktop will wince when faced with the permutations of Internet Explorer 6,7, and 8 (See #3). I bet some of the folks at MLB.TV wish they worked on desktops given their ongoing problems.

1. Different Customers and users

I.t. folks deal with a known base of users, with a known (and locked down) desktop environment, using a set of applications they define and update on their schedule. I.T. departments are, generally speaking, one rev behind (my office is just now rolling out Office 2007). I.T. teams are risk-averse by their very nature.

Web guys: one rev ahead, or at least current. Their users are sporting every known browser/OS combination. Chaos is an occupation hazard. When i worked at organic our motto: Embrace the Ambiguity. Web teams are risk-takers to their core.

1. marketing expertise

Web developers need a keen sense of how to work with marketing teams and how to interact with all of the different stakeholders. I only hire web developers i can put in front of clients and stakeholders. they need to both understand user/business needs and be able to defend the technical design decisions they make.

In my experience, I.T. teams do not have the need for this same skill given the applications they’re building and supporting.

There are other reasons -- knowledge of programming languages, different security standards, ensuring internal priorities don’t compete with external marketing needs -- but in 2010 we should be beyond this discussion. It’s becoming clear to me that the web needs another generation to get past the land-grabbing.

I’m happy to say that after an hour or so of discussion everyone in the room seemed to “get it.” and more importantly, the i.t. folks seemed to actually breathe a sigh of relief thatr this burden would be off their hands.

[n.b. i get that there are exceptions. they’re rare]

Springfield

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 17:28:01 -0700

One of the many benefits of being married to my wife is that she has fans. A couple of the writers for the Simpsons invited her (and me, her +1) to see the magic made.

for an hour, we saw Dan castellaneta, Julie kavner, Yeardly Smith, Hank Azaria, Pamela Hayden, and Tress Macneille run through “The Greatest story Even D’ohed.” (airing sometime in the late fall of 09). Nancy Cartwright (“Bart”) was on the speakerphone.

Their voice work was amazing. I especially loved hearing bart come out of the Polycom. My hours in conference rooms are never like this.

A couple dozen regular folks sat on the edges of the room and served as a realtime focus group -- what jokes worked and which fell flat. The atmosphere was so friendly and fun -- the entire group seemed to really enjoy their work.

At the end one of the writers told us which parts needed a rewrite (Bart’s flirtations with an Israeli girl needed some punch) and we got to keep our scripts!

Amazing. We were so fortunate that the Simpsons crew allows fans to see their work in progress (and no signing of onerous NDA’s). Nice to see a production so confident in allowing the public to see the snausages being made.

We even got to walk around the lot and check out the fake buildings! so seductive!

Oh, and Homer says “jebus” in this episode. My favorite word of all time.

Tyburn St & Madera Ave, CA

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 20:53:39 -0700

The graffiti in Atwater Village is usually pretty weak. The gangs here aren’t very adept when it comes to tagging the streets and walls. they’re more like doodlers. This weekend a new gang appeared and i’m ready to get jumped in.

Hollywood Bowl, CA

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 19:26:14 -0700

Kinda lackluster performances all around. but a swell nite with the wife.

The New Pornographers really missed Neko and played for far too short.

For some reason the LA Phil only played the last few songs with DCFC and the band overpowered every instrument except the horns. To see how it should be done, check out elvis costello playing with the london symphony.

n.b. always bring your own wine and cheese to the bowl. The food there is not nearly as good as the Silver Lake Cheese Shop or 55 Degrees.

Hollywood, CA

Fri, 29 May 2009 20:59:29 -0700

Yeah yeah yeah you need to help me pay the mortgage.

That out of the way, this is Pixar’s most sophisticated movie to-date. A kids movie unafraid to tackle difficult adult issues while not talking down to the audience. My nephews and nieces always like when adults talk to them -- not in baby voices -- but as a peer. why should movies be any different?

Plus, talking dogs! Who doesn’t love talking dogs.

Also: Go visit Fenton’s as seen in Up!

Central Park West, CA

Thu, 28 May 2009 20:49:45 -0700

Car show?
Supernatural infestation?
Maybe just rats.
Nope, Hollywood’s ongoing recession of ideas continues with Ghostbusters 3 in 2012!

West Hollywood, CA

Fri, 22 May 2009 20:41:40 -0700

Saw this on a busy street across from the Beverly Center the other night. it wasn’t there a couple hours earlier. no idea what it was (or what it is going to become?). It almost came home with us except I didn’t want to be arrested.

Burbank, CA

Thu, 21 May 2009 22:21:42 -0700

let’s say your job entails making me a turkey sandwich every day. I know, it sounds like a crap job and it is, but you signed up for it. all legal-like. then one day -- we’ll call it monday -- you forget. no big deal, but as a result, i starve. not “to-death” starve, but pretty hungry for a sammich.

you beg forgiveness, as you should.

but then another day arrives. we’ll call this day Thursday. and the above picture is the result of your lunch-making efforts. fail. funny joke, monkey socks.

Earthquake, CA

Thu, 21 May 2009 20:03:52 -0700

Sunday there was an earthquake. not too big. but it knocked my piñata off the fridge. Yeah, the piñata: we had them made for our wedding but the people who created them forgot to leave holes for the candy. We couldn’t understand it either. Anyway, it fell, sadie ate it.

Atwater Village, CA

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:55:37 -0700

Our neighbors did a little creative recycling, using shipping pallets to create their fence and a headboard for the gate. Cool? Ugly? I’ll say this: there’s never going to be a shortage of replacement parts.