: User to User Support in Web Techniques. I’ve just about given up on “official” support for anything I’ll buy now. If I can’t find a good discussion group about a product or family of products, it’s unlikely that I’ll buy it. I learned how much I liked User to User support a long time ago through Apple’s and MacFixIt’s sites. But it really sunk in when I went by IBM’s site to find something out about my work-supplied ThinkPad. Uh, no. It’s practically impossible to find actual information about anything in particular. Specs? Sure. Trying to figure something out? Never.
Mr. Derek Powazek
has given birth to his book, Design for Community! Huzzah! Huzzah!
I’ve never written a book, but I have had the experience of holding a book I helped produce (I co-designed, layed out, and helped edit) in my hot little hands when it first arrived from the publisher. I have had very few more satisfying feelings than that one – so I can just imagine how great Derek feels holding his book having written the thing!
All of which prompted an expensive day at Amazon yesterday. I bought DfC, Jeff Veen’s book, and the new-ish edition of Rheingold’s classic The Virtual Community, in which I believe my name is mentioned (among many others, a testament more to Howard’s supreme graciousness than to any contribution I may have made) in the Forward.
Cheebus
. I’m sitting here and it’s three in the morning and I’ve come across two sites that have (not quite literally) knocked me off my chair. The first one I just wrote about. The second one is the new {fray} piece by Derek Powazek, illustrated by Claire Robertson: playing with fire. Maybe I get around in the wrong circles or something, but it’s been 5 years or so since Carl (with friends) did Rats to Cats, and I haven’t seen anyone really push the idea of illustration on the web, mixed with great text, in the same way that Derek and Claire have now done. Congratulations are in order.
I came across
a very interesting site through Derek Powazek‘s site this evening: CommunityZero. Anyone can set up a free online community for their friends, for a project, whatever. Many of these have come and gone in the past, but none quite as well executed as this one seems to be. I may play with it soon – as a long-time online community guy, it has been a goal of mine to merge this site with a series of discussions at some point.
There’s a new website
that will document the creation of a new book: Design for Community by Derek M. Powazek. He’s making use of community tools in the site, which makes sense. The site itself could become a great example to use in the book later on. Pretty cool. Recombinant.
