“An accessible web page makes all content available to any human user who wants it regardless of browsing technology.” – WebAxe
In your browsing experience on the web, you may have heard the word ‘accessibility’ mentioned. If you did a quick web search, you saw that it was to help people who are disabled access the web. That is true and it’s still a primary driver, but the benefits of accessibility affect everyone. One example is phone numbers.
Marketing people like to use words, substituting letters for digits, in their phone numbers. So you might see “1 800-your-mom” instead of “1 800 968-7666″. They do this for 2 reasons. First, people are better remembering words than numbers. Second, it helps with their branding. The convention is based on the original rotary phones, and then touch tone phones. It was useful in years past, but its quickly becoming an outdated strategy. As more people use mobile devices with full QWERTY keyboards, the letters no longer matchup with the digits, and the solution becomes inaccessible.
Everybody needs access
I agree that disabled people have been treated as second class citizens on the web. Sometimes, not considered at all. There has been some forward progress thanks to the web standards crowd through the use of alternate stylesheets, semantic markup, and considering whether someone could use their design with a screen reader. With that said, to sell accessibility as a way to assist disabled people sometimes does more harm than good for the cause (increasing adoption of accessible design). Most people don’t identify with the disabled community, unless they happen to know someone. In fact, its not even on the radar for most businesses. So when it comes to their company website, accessibility is not considered during the website design process. But if it were, it wouldn’t cost that much to add it. Adding it afterward, just like security, is always a more expensive process. If you discuss accessibility in terms of the non-disabled users, it’s likely businesses will see the value more readily. As a result, the disabled users get what they need.
Data from a U.S. Census Press Release
In a press release titled “More Than 50 Million Americans Report Some Level of Disability” released May 12, 2006, The U.S. Census Bureau provided a number of important statistics. Below is a quote from that report.
“About 18 percent of Americans in 2002 said they had a disability, and 12 percent had a severe disability, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Among people with disabilities, more than half of those 21 to 64 years old had a job, more than 4-in-10 of those ages 15 to 64 used a computer at home and a quarter of those age 25 to 64 had a college degree.”
Perhaps this will get businesses addressing accessibility as a primary concern, if for no other reason than that it could increase their bottom line. Here’s to hoping.
Introducing Mastodon Labs
I’ve been in web development since 1999, when I started at Animated Designs as a contract Perl programmer. I spent 6 years there learning an array of web technologies in the areas of programming, databases, and Linux system administration. I left to seek out new adventures outside of California, which brought me to Seattle. Since arriving in Seattle, I’ve had the opportunity to work with great people at a variety of companies, both as a contractor and as an employee. I think now is time to take my next step. I enjoy the agency environment, and want to return to it. Also, since I was a teenager, it’s been a goal of mine to have my own business one day. I couldn’t imagine what form it might take. Now I can. Without further adieu, I’d like to introduce you to Mastodon Labs.
Mastodon Labs is a web development agency whose focus is to serve the needs of American small business. Yes there are many companies that build websites, but what’s different about this one?, you ask. There are 3 key differentiating factors. First, is to design every website to be accessible by all audiences. Companies in the United Kingdom are required to do this. However, it’s largely not done in the United States. The web standards movement has been making some headway in bringing it to the attention of developers, but it’s not pervasive yet in the industry. Secondly, I have a strong interest in the mobile web and want to make that a key component of Mastodon Labs offerings. As mobile device manufacturers catch up, and consumers increasingly use their intelligent mobile devices, it will become essential for small business to participate. Thirdly, but not least, community is important. Within your local community is where you can have the greatest impact. Because we’re located in Seattle, we’ll serve the needs of small businesses in the Pacific Northwest, but we’re open to helping everyone.
This will be a great adventure. The opportunities and challenges that lie ahead will make the journey fantastic, and I can’t wait for it to unfold. I look forward to working with you.
online news
The current state of the newspaper industry is in a difficult situation. That was true before the entire economy made a massive downturn. Traditional newspapers have high printing and distribution costs due to the cost of materials, and the distribution costs due to the weight of the publication. To offset these costs, newspapers sell advertisements. Ironically, the addition of advertisements adds to the weight, which adds to the shipping costs.
Another factor that causes difficulty for newspapers is the user expectation that online news should be free. This is correlated to the principle that openness on the web is empowering. It’s this principle that has enabled so many, to create new applications and visualizations of information, by combining 2 more sources of data. In addition, traditional newspapers need to offer free news to remain competitive with the blogosphere for the attention of customers.
What are some of the factors that have contributed to the success of newspapers? The first is ubiquity. It’s possible to walk to a street corner and buy one from a newspaper vending machine. Supermarkets, liquor stores, and magazine stands are also common venues of purchase. Another factor, is reading text on the printed page. Some people find it easier that reading text on a monitor, while others enjoy the feel of paper. A third factor is archivability. There are people who want to capture historic moments, particularly those with famous headlines like “Dewey Defeats Truman” (Chicago Tribune, 1948), “Kennedy Assassinated” (Daily Mail, 1963) “God is Dead”(NY Times, 1968). For those, capturing a piece of history for the price of the daily edition is a powerful thing. In order for online newspapers to be successful and return to profitability, all of the above need to be addressed.
As noted above, it’s important to not break the web by hiding the news content – at least not in totality. An acceptable solution would be to expose some articles for the public to freely consume. Others would be exposed if someone is a paid subscriber. Imagine a front page where the free articles expose their headlines and the 1st paragraph or two. The articles requiring a subscription would expose headlines that link to the full articles, all of which would be in a panel on the homepage that clearly labels the box as subscriber content. This would allow the free viewing public to be aware of the content that subscribers can access. For the print operations, there are two obvious paths to consider. The first is total elimination. Becoming a totally digital publication has a number of positive aspects – greater responsiveness, significantly lower distribution costs, and decreased personnel requirements. The second path is to print back issues on demand. This allows the customers to print out the editions that would like to keep. Because it would no longer a primary service, but rather a supplemental one, the customer would need to absorb a higher cost. This will cause them to be more selective about which editions they want in print.
One of the attributes of the internet is it’s a great medium for distributing content. It would be cost effective to allow customers to have a digital edition download to their computer. This allows the editions to be distributed cost effectively while maintaining the ability to archive. While some people prefer to read paper instead of on a monitor, technology is always improving. The Kindle 2, a new device from Amazon, is reported to have improved text rendering abilities that more closely resemble the print experience. As this technology becomes more available, the quality difference between electronic and printed text will be less of an issue.
While the internet isn’t totally ubiquitous yet, its presence is growing by the hour. Most users currently access the news on their desktop or laptop, whether at home, work, or on the wifi at a cafe. But as mobile devices become more powerful, and barriers to entry are removed, it will only get easier to access information.
Seattle Startup Weekend 2 Wrapup
This was the best startup weekend I’ve ever been to. Ok, so this was my first one, but it was still awesome. On friday night, about 150 people were there. As you know from previous posts, I had 2 ideas. I picked one, then pitched it to the group. I’m not well versed in public speaking so I was pretty nervous about giving the presentation. Sure, it’s only a few minutes, but I had never in my life spoken to 150 people. That’s kinda of a big deal for me. I actually handled it better than I had anticipated. Result: pleasantly surprised.
It’s a great opportunity to be able to interact, converse, and share ideas with so many smart, creative people. There were 48 project ideas pitched, of which 16 were built. Here’s a list of all the projects that were created.
During the event, Q13 News from Seattle came by . Here’s is video
It’s clear from this video, and the twitter messages after the event, that Tom Music’s project Obey The Decider is the favorite project. Cassie Wallender’s project Tweetsum is close second, with it’s talented development team and outstanding UI design. Their upcoming public beta release should arrive soon!
I look forward to seeing what happens with all of these projects.
Seattle Startup Weekend Idea 02
This is the second of two ideas I’m contributing for Seattle Startup Weekend.
Nomidate
This is a social network designed to augment your dating life. You create a profile to specify the qualities and attributes you’re looking for in someone that you would like to date. The feature that separates this site from others, is that your friends are making the initial connections to your potential mates, on your behalf.
The beauty of this is that it’s acceptable for married people to be on the site. In fact, I expect that married women will be one of the core user groups. It’s just like your buddy’s wife, who enjoys playing matchmaker for her single friends.
Here’s another scenario that I imagine would be quite common. Lets say there’s a guy, we’ll call him Clark. Clark has a neighbor and has a crush on her. We’ll call her Lana. Clark asks out Lana and they begin dating for a while. It’s comes to an end, but on good terms. Clark and Lana are both on Nomidate and connected. Lana’s profile mentions that she dated Clark, and thinks hes a good guy. Lana sends Chloe a message recommending that she date Clark. Chloe looks Lana’s profile, and sees that she’s rated as a good person for making matches. Chloe sends Clark a message saying Lana recommended him. Now Clark and Chloe can date.
Revenue model: Low signup fees + Vendor subsidies. Our partners post their articles in the advice section of the site. They pay us for that priviledge.
Partnership opportunities: Magazines like Cosmo, Men’s Health
UI: XHTML/CSS, PHP, MySQL
Seattle Startup Weekend Idea 01
UPDATE 2009-feb-11: I’m still interested in doing this project. however, it’ll be more challenging as I’ll need to do it in my spare time.
UPDATE 2009-feb-07: I was unable to get enough team members together, so I swtiched to the tweet reporter team.
UPDATE 2009-feb-06 : I selected this project, and pitched to the group. There were 48 projects submitted. This project made it into the Top 16. Were moving forward tomorrow morning. I’ll be at Peet’s Coffee in Fremont tomorrow at 8:15am for anyone that would like to discuss the project.
Original Content
I, like 150 others, am very much looking forward to the beginning of Seattle Startup Weekend this evening. This is the first idea of two.
Borrow Local Stuff.
This is a social network, but very different than most, as it emphasizes those who are closest to you geographically. Also trust is a key component. The way this works is you create a profile, which contains a catalogue. Then you add items to your catalogue that you’re willing to share with your friends. You might start small, with things like: books you’ve already read, CDs that you have, or maybe some tools you don’t use often.
Now that you’re set up, look for things that you want to borrow. Doing a search will look through the assets that your friends have, and return any potential matches. When you find something you like, you send a request for that asset. The owner will then accept/deny. If they accept your request, you meet them in some public place and make the exchange. They’ll update their record they delivered the item to you, and will enter a due date of when it should be returned. If you have not returned the item by the due date, you’ll receive an reminder email everyday until you have.
How can you ship things, you wonder? You cant. Items are delivered via the Sneakernet.
Revenue model: Free/Premium. Premium accounts will allow you get insurance on items of particular types. In order to borrow a premium item , you pay a rental fee.
Partnership: Delicious-Monster.com – They have cool software that makes adding things to your catalogue easy.
UI: xhtml/css, and add some AJAX-y features for good measure. Future versions will include mobile apps.
Just Service
Today, I’m working from the Online Coffee Co. It’s a new coffeeshop for me, but it’s been here for a while. This morning, I had my favorite drink (Grande Decaf Mocha) and a cherry danish for breakfast. After doing some work and reading the Engadget live blog about Macworld 09, it was time to purchase another drink. I peruse the menu and decide upon a 12oz Decaf Drip Coffee. My decision for drip coffee is based mostly on the unlimited refills. The baristas inform me that they don’t sell drip coffee as decaf, because not enough people buy it and it goes bad too quickly. I can sympathize with that. They offer to make me a 12oz Decaf Americano instead, which is different but close enough. I say ok. But then I ask “will I be able to get the refills on my decaf americano, since you don’t offer a decaf drip cofffee, and that’s really what I wanted”. The barista says “technically no, but I can ask the manager”. I left it at that, as I still wanted the initial cup. As a consolation they only charged me the price of the drip coffee, while giving me the americano they offered.
Drip Coffee (unlimited refills) $1.51
Americano (no refills) $1.92
So dear reader, what would you have done:
Offered the americano, charged for the americano
Offered the americano, charged for the drip coffee and no refills
Offered the americano, charged for the drip coffee and allowed unlimited refills
Part of what concerns me, is that I would like to make this a regular venue. The outcome today could be a one time outcome since I wasn’t aware they didn’t have the decaf drip coffee. But now that I am aware, the rules are different. I can’t claim ignorance when I come in tomorrow, but they still don’t have the product I want, so I’ll likely have to get the substitute product at the higher price without refills.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
King County Metro: Weather Fail
Here in Washington state, there is a mission to reduce peoples’ reliance on cars and their impact. It’s strongest in Seattle where Mayor Greg Nickels is trying to incentivise people not to drive their cars. Part of the solution is to provide an alternate means of transportation. In Seattle, that comes in the form of buses, almost-here (coming in late 2009) light rail, monorail, and the SLUT.
I’ve been making the effort in my own life to minimize my driving. I walk a lot more. Typically if my destination is in downtown or near Seattle Center I’ll walk. Optionally I’ll ride the monorail or the SLUT. Outside of that I’ll take the bus. Even after all that, there are still a few times I’ll drive my car. But I’m supporter of mass transit. I see it as essential for any city of significance. So I’m glad the city of Seattle is encouraging people to take mass transit. What I’m not glad about, is what I witnessed over the last few days.
There’s a snow storm going on now. While the amount of snow we’re getting is uncommon for Seattle (some are calling it Snopocalypse ‘08) it’s pretty run of the mill for cities like Chicago, New York City, and Boston. I wanted to go to Lower Queen Anne on Saturday night so I went to over to 3rd street and Pike to catch the bus. Routes 3, 4, and 16 all can get me where i wanted to go, or at least close enough. I waited about 25 minutes before I pulled up the internet on my mobile to check the status. What I discovered was that many routes had been suspended. I wasn’t the only one out there. There was a crowd of people all standing in the frigid night waiting for a bus to take them home. These people were failed by King County Metro. They need to realize that if you want people to rely on mass transit, it has to always be available. You can’t just take it away when the weather isn’t optimal. People still need to go places and have lives to lead. I’m disappointed that King County Metro failed these people. I’m sure they weren’t the only ones, and I’m sure it will happen again.
Hello world!
I’ve moved my website from GoDaddy.com to Dreamhost.com today. Its a superior hosting platform from a developer perspective. For one it’s far more flexible. More importantly GoDaddy’s websites are setup so when you login to your website with FTP, your home directory is the website root! That’s very bad from a security perspective. As developers we’re taught that some things should be outside of your website root, and GoDaddy made that impossible. Additionally, Dreamhost gives you SSH access and Subversion!
What happened to the rest of my blog you might ask? Well, its funny. I did a database backup for my wordpress installation at GoDaddy before shutting off my hosting at GoDaddy. What I never noticed was a Export option in the Wordpress admin panel. In fact, it wasn’t until I was working on the configuration on the new Dreamhost version of the blog that I noticed it. so, I’m hoping to be able to do a database import with my backup file. That would be awesome! However, it might not be that easy. the Dreamhost version of wordpress is 2.5 where the GoDaddy version was much older. So we’ll see what happens. I need to do some research to see what my options are. Wish me luck.
Help Me Name My Company
I’m going to create a company to represent myself as a web developer in the next week or so. In the future, its likely I will have some employees. Because of that, I don’t want the company to be named after me. Besides I’m just not that vain. So I’ve been brainstorming, and I’ve come up with a few names that I like. I’m asking for your help, dear reader, to assist me in creating the best name. In addition if you any suggestions – please tell me. Express what you like or dislike in the comments below.
Biourban (pronounced Bee-YOUR-buhn)
Strummer Studios
Lime Blue Studios
Shank Piston
Mastodon Labs
Amber Chrome
Ok, so here’s my thoughts. I’m thinking the name doesn’t have to be descriptive of my business. A perfect example is Red Hat. The name Red Hat doesn’t infer that they are a Linux Distro. That association has been created by their marketing department. So this naming style opens up possibilities. I basically, am just thinking up words or phrases that sound cool together. I heard from a friend about an idea to name the company what you might name your kid. Full Disclosure: the name “Shank Piston” came from putting my first and last name into the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. It’s a silly tool that my twitter friends sent me, but i happen to like the output. Any name that sounds feminine doesn’t fit me. Androgynous names like Terry, Pat, and Jaime have the most flexibility. With that said, this feels like the wrong path
One thing I’ve done intentionally is to avoid words that imply technology – systems, design, development, tech, web, net, and synergy. Those aren’t the only words, but they’re the most overused. Another thing I want to avoid is cheap sounding phrases/LOL speak like “websites 4 U”, “U Can Haz Website”, and “The Web R Us” . The message I’m trying to communicate is I want the name to stand out.
Thanks in advance. I look forward to hearing your feedback.