March 12, 2008
General
2 Comments
I just watched the presentation on the Microsoft Office ribbon that Miguel pointed to earlier and I have to agree with him that it’s a great presentation on application design methodology, well worth watching. There a related series of articles on the UI design in Jensen Harris’s blog which is also worth reading (at least, so far).
Some amazing stuff in the article in particular was the amount of data collection they have done over the years – millions of clicks and keystrokes, yielding some surprising results that reinforce once more the lesson “we are not our users” (striking example: 80% of people save by clicking the floppy disk in the toolbar, only 20% of saves happen with the Ctrl-S keystroke).
I spotted a familiar voice doing some fanboying at 1:22:43 or so 🙂
March 3, 2008
General
No Comments
Over the weekend, the Primevère salon was on in the Eurexpo conference center in Lyon. Thisis something of a regional mecca for everyone interested in organic living, holistic lifestyles, energy conservation, and everything to do with the environment. Over three days, more than 30,000 people come to see what’s on offer, educate themselves and mingle in this very particular ambiance.
There are a really wide range of associations, products and services on display – from the giant Kapla constructions above to Esperanto courses, Hemp beer, clothes and ropes, organically grown produce and solar panels.
In the middle of it all, my local LUG, ALDIL, had one of the most popular stands ofthe salon, spreading the gospel of Free Software with our ragtag group of volunteers. Over the three days, there were lots of presentations, including: “Which software for which usage?” (by yous truly) “Free software office applications”, “Communicating with Free Software” and “Free games”.
This is one of the reasons I love this LUG – this is not the kind of event that you associate with Linux geeks, but it is exactly the kind of event where you find *lots* of people willing to listen, and sensitive to our arguments of freedom and community. This is the ALDIL’s third participation in the event, but the first time I’ve been able to go myself, and it’s been an eye-opening experience. It’s exactly the kind of public which all free software projects should be aiming to reach with their message.
February 28, 2008
General, gnome
No Comments
I’m always amazed at the network effect of free software communities – the LinkedIn GNOME group which I talked about 9 hours ago now has 107 members and growing as the time zones move westward. Update: A few hours later, roughly 12 hours after mentioning the group, we’re now at 143 members.
Colour me impressed!
