Quizfrage: "Wie schafft man es, aus 20 Minuten Lesern zahlende NZZ-Konsumenten zu machen?"
Antwort: "Ähm, schwierig, weiss nicht, mal schauen..."
Mit den herkömmlichen Mitteln, Probeabo und Halbjahresabo mit gratis Badetuch o.ä, kann diese Herausforderung sicher nicht (mehr) gemeistert werden. Neue Herausforderungen sollten auch mit neuen, unkonventionellen Lösungsansätzen angegangen werden, da darf auch mal ein Flop dabei sein, hauptsache vorwärts.
Herausforderung: Gratiszeitungen und Internet machen Kopfschmerzen.
Ansatz: Den "Gegner" mit den eigenen Waffen schlagen.
Die heutige Sonderbeilage NZZ Campus und die gleichzeitige Aufschaltung einer passenden Plattform, nzzcampus.ch, sind ein excellentes Beispiel.

Nicht lange fackeln, machen und ausprobieren. Ein Studenten- und Headhunter-Blog sollen die Nähe zum studentischen Alltag garantieren, der Rest ist NZZ Qualität. Genau das sollen die Studenten auch lernen, NZZ = Qualität. Sollte die Plattform erfolgreich sein, ist die Sache auch noch als Vermarktungsvehikel für die (abgewanderten) Stelleninserate interessant. Aber Businessmodelle interessieren im Internet ja meistens niemanden ;-)

Liebe NZZ, weiter so.
Da bekommt man beinahe wieder Lust aufs Studieren.

Am 13. und 14. Dezember organisiert Euroforum die Konferenz User Generated Content. Titel ist Programm mit einer breit abgestützten Referentenbasis. Am zweiten Tag gibt es einen Beitrag von namics zu: Technische Prinzipien von Web 2.0 und deren Zusammenspiel (im Ansatz vergleichbar mit einem Beitrag an der iico-Konferenz in Berlin).

Und was bietet namics sonst noch? Für alle Teilnehmer, welche sich mit Referenz auf den namics Weblog anmelden 20% Rabatt (das gibt es bei Euroforum sonst nicht). Am einfachsten ein E-Mail an Pascal Novotny.

Es geistert grad eine (bei Google mit robots.txt ausgeschlossene URL) rum und zwar die Version 2 von Google Base. Man merke das /s2/: http://www.google.com/base/s2/s2.... Angekündigt als Froogle Ersatz ist das Ding nun schon sehr mächtig. Zudem schön Web 2.0 mit User generated Content und neu einem Mashup mit Map u.s.w. Interessant zum beäugen.

..oder was braucht die Welt noch alles nicht, worauf niemand gewartet hat. Ein Flash Applet mit einer Art Avatar (die sind ja meist sinnlos) hier in der "Form von" Janina Gavankar inkl. Sound. Resultate von Microsoft Live und ein katastrophales User Interface. Und nun?

>> http://www.msdewey.com/

A few days ago, I wrote that established companies, even innovative ones like Google, seem to be challenged when it comes to creating successful new innovations. The big guns prefer to buy them. Google buys YouTube, News Corp (Rupert Murdoch) buys MySpace, Yahoo! buys flickr. The list goes on...

Truly new ideas are hard to integrate into a company's culture because either they are:

• close to the company's core business and threaten that business in some way
• far from the company's core business and don't seem relevant enough

Do you really want to pay billions for the next Youtube? How many of us can afford that? can you afford to be blindsided by the Next Big Thing? Is there a better way, one that gives us a chance to be the next YouTube?

Marc Hedlund of O'Reilly.com recently wrote about the expensive prototypes that are being sold to Venture Capitalists ("'$5 million for a team of five engineers to create a prototype in less than two years' -- for a web site to share spreadsheets!?"). He wrote a about a company called Y Combinator, which has a low budget approach to early stage start-ups.

Here's how it works. Got a team with a good idea? Give the team 3 months and $6'000/month per team-member. Give them a mandate to produce a working prototype. If they can produces something exciting in that time, you have something with great potential in your hands. If not, you've lost less than $100K. You can incubate a lot of projects for the cost of one YouTube.

So how do we apply this concept to established companies? Call it institutionalized incubation. Encourage your staff to come up with business ideas. Have a competition every quarter. The top proposals get their 3 month prototype funded.

Take the winners and lock them in room (figuratively) so they can realize their vision without interference. Give them their salary and whatever they need in infrastructure. Give them an ownership interest in what they create so they become true Product Champions and keep their innovations in the family.

What do you do with the results? The ones that are exciting, you fund. Maybe you build them into your business. Maybe they are stand alone. Maybe you sell them for ridiculous amounts of money ;-)

Swisscom appears to get it: Swisscom Innovations funded CoComment.ch, an innovative tool for tracking blog conversations. Cool idea. I'm looking forward to taking a closer look.

In den Projekten mit namics spart man Nerven, hier ein kleines Goodie für alle Blogleser, die beim Geld ausgeben sparen möchten. Der sehr umtriebige Reto Hartinger veranstaltet eine weitere Konferenz, dieses Mal zum Thema „Technologien, die Ihre Firma verändern werden“, am 21.11.06 in Bern – alle Details und Anmeldemöglichkeit zur Konferenz auf www.executive-briefing.ch. Bernd Schopp von namics referiert dort über die Beschleunigung von Prozessen und die Dynamisierung von Unternehmenskulturen, daneben und dazu gibt’s Vorträge von der Gartner Group, OpenBC [ach nein, das heisst ja jettz XING], Microsoft, SAP und einigen Anderen.
Die Konferenz verspricht also interessant zu werden und als Leser des namics-Blogs kann man sich für SFR. 600 anstatt 750 informieren lassen. Einfach bei der Anmeldung im Bemerkungsfeld eingeben „Leser namis-Blog, Eintritt SFr. 600] und das war’s schon.
Bis gäng in Bärn!

Fast verpasst [Danke Yven und Denis für die netten Kommentare!]!

Social Networking goes mainstream fiel mir ein, als sich Corinna Bianchi von Viva bei mir meldete und nach einem Interview dazu für eine Sendung auf Viva [Schweizer Fernsehsender für junges Publikum, gehört mittlerweile zu MTV, www.vivatv.ch] fragte.
Machten wir doch prompt, Viva-VJ und Corinna schauten kurz bei uns rein, richteten sich ein und stellten ein paar Fragen, die sie dann in den Beitrag „Feat. Broadcast Yourself“ einbauten. Dieser Beitrag aus der Reihe „Feat…..“ [aktuell gerade sonst in der Rotation „Feat. Pink“, „Feat. Paris Hilton, „50 Jahre Bravo“ also alles sehr, sehr relevante Themen] wird dieser Tage ausgestrahlt und dies sind die restlichen Termine von „Feat. Broadcast Yourself“:
Samstag, 28.10.06, 19.35 Uhr
Sonntag, 29.10.06, 11 Uhr
So beschreibt Viva die Sendung: „Ein grippeartiger Virus hat die Schweiz überrollt und das ganze ist unaufhaltbar! Jeder ist davon betroffen, es ist das Gesprächsthema Nummer 1 – die Rede ist von den Onlinecommunity’s Myspace und You Tube. Was für die einen als Selbstdarstellerding gilt, ist für die anderen einfach nur Kult. Statt auf einen Kaffee trifft man sich heute auf eine Instant Message bei Myspace und wenn früher jeder davon geträumt hat, mal wie Brad Pitt oder Julia Roberts über den Bildschirm zu flimmern kann man heute dank You Tube einfach selber die Hauptrolle spielen! Was diese zwei Onlinetools für Möglichkeiten bieten, wo die Vor- und Nachteile liegen und ob Stars wie Joy Denalane, DJ Tatana, Sir Colin, Jessica Schwarz, Black Tiger, Griot, Claudio Zuccolini, Jubaira Bachmann und Jesse McCartney die Finger nicht mehr von der Tastatur lassen können – Feat. Broadcast Yourself deckt alle Fragen auf! Highlight der Sendung ist natürlich das Interview mit dem Fachmann Urs Bucher von namics [OK, OK, den letzten Satz habe ich selbst erfunden und hinzu gedichtet – aber ein bisschen Spass muss ja sein].
Meine Meinung zum Ganzen: Warhol hatte Recht! – „everybody can be a star for 15 minutes“
Enjoy!

Last week, I tuned in to a MySQL Webinar on Web 2.0 and MySQL's place in it. I was actually more interested in how they do it – they are very professional – than in a marketing presentation per se,

A webinar lets you broadcast say a Powerpoint presentation on the web. You see it in your browser. Simultaneously it sets up a conference call so everyone can listen. Lastly, a chat mechanism (similar to Skype, MSN or IRC) enables the audience to communicate with the speakers. These tools together make a cheap and effective tool for marketing, remote training, decentralized meetings, etc. Cool stuff. Not sure if Webex is considered Web 2.0, but it's a cool application.

And the MySQL folks are really good at it. They showed that it is possible to start on time, with no technical hiccups, echo's on the line, broken connections etc. Amazing. ;-)

Being a marketing presentation, MySQL listed all their name-brand Web 2.0 references. Google, del.icio.us, flickr, youtube and many more. The list was quite impressive.

An then it struck me. With the possible exception of Google (which had to buy youtube to get a top tier web 2.0 application), none of these companies were name-brands from even the previous Internet generation, much less from the pre-Internet days.

Thinking back to fruit flies and disk drives, why is it so hard for established companies to think outside the box? How do you foster revolutionary innovation in the face of your own (current) success?

Eine gemeinsame Fachtagung welche wir zusammen mit der Firma Zeix durchführen.

In sechs Vorträgen illustrieren und erklären wir die wichtigsten Aspekte der Informationssuche im Internet und im Intranet. Information Retrieval und nicht Volltextsuche! Ein guter Überblick welcher die verschiedensten Aspekte abdeckt: Von User-Bedürfnissen, Suchstrategien, User Interfaces über technische Aspekte bis zu einer ausführlichen Betrachtung der Daten. Der Fokus dabei immer der Zusammenspiel aller Akteure und Quick Wins.

Hier die Slots mit den Präsentationen

1. Warum Suche nicht (immer) einfach ist: Von Motivationen, Suchstrategien und der Informationsflut [pdf, 2,4 MB].

2a. Einfach, erweitert und die anderen: So stellen Sie Ihren Usern die richtigen Fragen [pdf, 2,8 MB].

2b. Warum Technik nicht alles ist: Ein wenig zur Technologie von Suchen und Finden [pdf, 3,3 MB].

3. Die treffende Auswahl anbieten: Wie nach oben kommt, was oben steht.
a. Fokus Internet [pdf, 2,5 MB].
b. Fokus Intranet [pdf, 2 MB].

4. Der Weg zur optimalen Suche: Wie Sie Ihr Projekt «Suche» schnell zum Erfolg führen [pdf, 1,9 MB].

Danke für Feedback!

>> Da die Tagung schon ausgebucht ist, bieten wir am Dienstag, 5. Dezember eine Wiederholung. Anmeldung als Kommentar auf diesen Post...

...wurde bei uns als belustigender Ausspruch immer wieder mal gebraucht, wenn es darum geht, dass digitale Kopierschutz-Mechanismen für gewisse Medientypen nie funktionieren werden. Dabei hatten wir auf Jon Lech Johansen (aka DVD-Jon) angespielt, welcher den DVD-Kopierschutz in Alter von 15 Jahren genackt hatte: DeCSS. Sein Blog trägt übrigens den Titel [So sue me].

Nachdem er später den Apple Kopierschutz FairPlay in der Version 1 und 2 (und ein paar andere Sachen) geknackt hatte, ist nun in der Presse (ca. 3 Wochen nach dem Blogs), dass auch die aktuelle Version von Apple's DRM technology FairPlay offen ist. Es gäbe die Technologie jetzt zu lizenzieren und endlich kann auf dem iPod drauf was ich will.

Und ich hatte wiedereinmal Recht, dass sich Musik nie schützen lässt... ausser meine Ohren würden digital funktionieren ;-)

Ich war angenehm erstaunt, dass der Klein Report rund 4 Stunden nach Ende des 13. Schweizer PR-Symposiums im Newsletter schon ausführlich darüber berichtet. Interessant auch, dass der Newsletter das Datum von morgen trägt!

Also wollte ich den Bericht gleich hier im Weblog verlinken und ging auf die Webpage. Dort ist aber noch das Datum von heute (eigtl. logisch) aber der Bericht fehlt... schade. Über Multi-Channel sprechen scheint einfacher als es auch zu tun ;-)

Since there are mobile phones available, which can display more then phone numbers and names, the industry is talking about the huge potential of mobile advertising. When is it coming now, and why?

In the last year, we have seen an increasing interest in mobile advertising within the industry (see graph below). With the increased availability of services, which are not linked within operator portals, the interest of mobile advertising has increased. An additional driver is the diversification of the addressable consumer segments. Different segments have to be addressed in a different way with the help of e.g. mobile advertising.

Let’s sum up: The increasing interest in mobile advertising seams to be a sign of maturity in the mobile internet space. What has proved to work in the desktop world is now also applied in the mobile world.

Get your own chart!

Morgen vom Berufsregister der Public Relations Gesellschaft BR-SPRG an das 13. Schweizer PR-Symposium eingeladen.

Zuerst meine "Einstellung" zu Innovation im Internet lautet wie folgt: Innovation im Internet hat aus meiner Sicht wenig mit Technologie zu tun, aber viel mit Menschen.

>> Und dann drei Thesen

- Geschwindigkeit ist ein zunehmend wichtiger Erfolgsfaktor in der Kommunikation. Entschleunigung ist nicht in Sicht.

- Vernetzung von Menschen online schafft Vertrauen. Autoritäre Kommunikation wird entmachtet.

- Online wird integraler Teil von Informations- und Absicherungsprozessen.

>> Und hier (wir fast immer) die Präsentation mit ein bisschen Vorsprung. Da es fast nur Bilder drin hat, lohnt sich der Download kaum ;-): Publizistische Innovationen mit E-Tools [pdf, 1,8 MB]

It is no miracle that camera phones are slowly becoming the main camera devices of consumers. The established camera producers can only look at their sales slowly eroding. Is this the next disruptive development just after the disappearance of silver halide photography? Let’s a have a deeper look at this development.

The silver halide photography have been only good to create print outs and to store them until the colour was gone. Today the digital cameras are producing an enormous amount of digital photos, which are saved regularly on hard drives or even in an online album. The administration of these photos is time intense and the process is changing too often. Today the unconnected digital cameras are still dominating the arena. This is now slowly changing. On Flickr, an online photo album, the top 9 camera producer is Nokia and number 10 is Sony Ericsson. With the upcoming high end camera phones this development will continue.

A logical consequence of the increased quality of camera phones is the multiplication of the number of active cameras, as the mobile phone is a constant companion. This will also multiply the photos taken and will therefore also stimulate the usage scenario’s of photo services. As the camera phones are connected over telecom infrastructure, the photos can be immediately sent to a server. There are several hurdles, which are still hindering this to happen. These are the missing broadband networks capacity and the data pricing. If this two hurdles fall, the development of instantly exchanging, storing, publishing photos can freely evolve.

When more photos are taken, the time to administrate will increase as well. Services, which allow consumers to reduce administration, will therefore increase. Context sensitive services (time, topic, group, and event) help to achieve this goal.

When have you last seen a printed photo? That must be a long time ago. Let’s think about the purpose of photos tomorrow.

Most popular Flickr cameras

Auf der Website Designers Skulls sind Online die Ergebnisse einer Idee von Eike Beck (Stankowski + Duscheck) zu sehen. Er hat Ihm bekannte Designer dazu eingeladen einen Totenkopf zu zeichen, malen oder digital zu erstellen. Einschränkungen gab (und gibt) es keine.
In den nächsten 3 Wochen läuft eine kleine Ausstellung zum ersten Teil des Projekts im Werkraum Ulm (in der Rabengasse) und bis 31.12.2006 könnt Ihr noch am Wettbewerb zum "Schädel des Jahres" teilnehmen. Also ran an die Zeichenbretter und Grafiktabletts und zeigt Ihm dass Schweizer nicht nur aufgeräumte Schweizer Grafik machen können!
Zum Schluss noch ein paar Eindrücke von der Ausstellung und der Hinweis, dass Ihr Euch die Schrift mit der ersten Serie der Totenköpfe bei Fontkitchen downloden könnt.

My hobby these days is Agile project management, most particularly Scrum. Scrum is about how to mange software development projects effectively, so that you get products which produce value for you and for your customers. If you are wondering why despite having top manpower, generous budget, and meeting all your RUP milestones, your 5 Million dollar project is behind and over budget, Scrum will help you get on track.

But this is not what I want to write about.

While immersing myself in Scrum, I stumbled upon what looks like a cool book: "The Innovators Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail" by Clayton M. Christensen.

It turns out, if you want to study evolution, you don't study humans, you study fruit flies. Fruit Flies reproduce every day. Humans every 30 years (if their Grandparents are lucky!). Disk drive companies are the IT equivalent of fruit flies (at least in terms of rapid technological change. In terms of producing nuisances for system managers, my vote would go to anybody responsible for printer technology).

There have been many changes in the disk drive industry. From disk packs, to 14 inch, to 8 inch, to 5.25 and now, if I'm not mistaken, to sub 1" formats. Suprisingly, the established players usually invented each new technology, but were unable to capitalize on it. Within a few generations, the upstarts became established players and then died off, got acquired or went out of business. Why does this happen?

A new technology usually offers advantages to new users, but not to existing customers. 5 1/4 inch drives were smaller and lighter, but minicomputer manufacturers (who used 8 inch drives) didn't care. They wanted more capacity and faster access times, not a slower, smaller and cheaper drive. But desktop computers manufacturers did, so a new market for the technology drove its development.

What killed the 8 inch manufacturers? The rate of technological innovation of the 5.25ers was higher than for the 8 inchers. Eventually, the smaller drives were able to offer performance comparable to the established competitors, but they were smaller and cheaper. At which time, the fate of the 8 inch manufacturers was sealed. This pattern has repeated itself throughout the 40 year history of the disk drive industy.

Moral of the story: Listen to your customers for improving your product. Ignore them when looking at disruptive new technologies. You'll be able to serve them in a few years, even if they're not ready for the new product today.

To be honest, I have only read the extract. But it sounds like a fascinating book and I can't wait to read the rest.

Es gibt keinen Anlass bei mir, aber die ziemlich alte Anwendung ist sehr schön gemacht. Eine Visualisierung ([leider] mit clientseitigem Java) der Häufigkeiten von Baby-Namen in den USA... Lustig zu sehen, seit wann es Kevin gibt oder wie es um George steht (vgl. Bild).

>> Der Baby Name Voyager

PS: Vornamen von Kindern sind auch beim Schweizer Bundesamt für Statistik eine der online am häufigsten nachgefragte Information...

What should my company be doing with the Web? It seems everybody is trying to answer this question.

Bruno Giussani, a writer for the IHT, WSJE, Business Week and other publications, argues that news magazines should throw away most of their websites, get back to basics, and stimulate their readers through reporter blogs. These blogs would stimulate discussion, yes, and improve the brand value of the journalist (certainly in the interest of Mr. Giussani!), but is that what a news magazine (as opposed to the journalists) should be doing to be successful?

Web 2.0 is first and foremost about establishing communication, which by definition, is bidirectional. I'm not sure that the news media have come to grips with the idea of being a conduit of information which can move in two directions.

Create a space where everyone sees a role for themself, and people will come. Blogging is part of that, but if you're the Economist, do your really want to prop up someone else's brand at the expense of your own?

Suitable comparisons among Swiss weekly magazines are hard to find (maybe someone can tell me who's getting it), but it's interesting to look at the online popularity of two leading Swiss dailies — the Tagi and 20 Minutes. If we believe Alexa.com, we see that "20 Minutes" has been gaining on the Tages-Anzeiger for two years. Although the Tagi owns 20 Minutes, the latter seems to be overtaking its parent in popularity.

How are they different? The print version of 20 Minutes drives traffic to the online version. It is easy to get to in-depth information, e.g. slide shows. Very often they include links to original information sources (although this applies more to entertaining videos than to original documentation, say out of Washington). And they have a very strong community presence. Forums, Chat, Contests, you name it.

The journalists of 20 Minutes are (as far as I can tell) quite anonymous, but the concept appears to work. Is this the future of journalism? Or is there an alternative vision?

My wishes for an online news site:

Links to original sources of information. Don't just tell me about the Pope's speech which got everyone upset, give a me link to the transcript!

Every article has a forum discussion — Let the readers (maybe only subscribers) comment. Use a good spam filter and feature the best in an online "Letters to the Editor" and the very best in the print version.

Let your subscribers blog. Feature the best articles (Give them an iPod or something as a prize!). Embrace your readers, don't be afraid of them!

By now, everybody has heard about Mash-Ups: combining data from various sources on the Internet to produce exciting, new, easy-to-understand information. Early Mash-Ups combined (often unstructured) text and Google Maps data to help look for a place to live, find nearby child molesters (sample, original site) or follow the progress of the avian flu (original data requires Google Earth).

But a good mash-up need not be based on a map, as demonstrated by the job hunting site, indeed.com

Indeed bills itself as a one stop site for job seekers. They apply search engine technology to the job market. Presumably, wherever a job is posted, they notice it, scan it and put it in their database.

Perhaps their most interesting toy is its salary comparison tool. Enter a combination of job titles and/or locations and check out the average salaries. This lets you ask a variety of interesting questions, such as:

Is it worth learning OpenOffice?

Is it cheaper to run a data center with Open Source Software?

What Language Should My Children Learn?

The questions go on and on: Should I consider relocating for work? What is your job title worth?

And in Switzerland? Where are the Swiss Mash-Ups? Any nominations for best Mash-Up based on a Swiss data source? (No, I don't think displaying SBB data on maps at local.ch or maps.search.ch count, because, useful as they are, AFAIK they are not based on publicly available data or API's)

Ich könnte eine Serie darüber machen, was ich für Anrufe erhalte von Menschen, die mich zu "Investitionen" Überreden wollen, die sofort irgend eine Firma mit dem Namen "Nimix" oder so kaufen wollen (gegen Bar natürlich) oder halt der wegen ganz speziellen Umständen frei gewordene Werbeplatz u.s.w.

Heute war es ein E-Mail mit dem Subject "Lässt Partner Sein". Lucas Mbeki Kumalo will mir USD$12.5m Überweisen. Ein Klacks ;-) Lesen lohnt sich v.a. bezüglich der Übersetzungsqualität...

In honor of Sarah Laurel's recent arrival, here is the conclusion to my 10 tips for successful parenting:

7. Children can entertain themselves. "Quiet play time" after lunch, where the kids have to entertain themselves for an hour without grown-ups or TV sets, teaches them self-reliance and gives the grown-ups in the house a chance to recharge their batteries!

"Flatscreen" — TV, video and computer — is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it keeps kids occupied for a while. But it makes them ornery and upset. Keep control of what and how much they watch. The less the better. Putting kids in front of the TV to keep them occupied will only make them restless and uncooperative later in the day.

8. The punishment should fit the crime — and the situation!. The beauty of time outs is that they are used to modify the child's behavior before something has happened which requires punishment. But sometimes stronger measures are necessary, either as a threat to get the child to do what you want (when a time-out is not practical or not effective) or as a reaction to something serious that has already happened.

A consequence is a logical result of what happened before. A natural consequence is purely the result of the child's actions. She throws her pacifier in the river – the consequence is she doesn't have a pacifier any more... at least for a few hours. So having the punishment be a consequence builds the relationship between cause - what the child did - and effect - what the child has or does not have.

So whenever possible, the punishment should be a consequence, i.e. related to the crime: if the child watches TV without asking, this means no TV for the rest of the day. Taking something from the refrigerator without asking means no dessert, etc.

For a young child, the actual act of taking something away is the punishment. How long it goes away - whether for half and hour or half a week doesn't make much difference. So things should disappear only for a short period of time (if for no other reason so that they can be taken away again, later).

It's important to think about consequences in advance. Never threaten something that hurts you more than the child or something that the child could actually want. If you are visiting your best friend, how will your son react to "Be nice to your sister or we're going home"? It gives him control over the situation. If he calls you bluff, and if you don't go home, then he knows your threats are meaningless. If you say you are going to do something, you have to do it, no matter how much it hurts you.

9. Give a time out before you lose your temper - dealing with kids can be an emotional challenge. Giving a time out early, before you get upset, gives the child a chance to settle down and adjust his behavior. It also gives you a chance to settle down. If you wait until you're at the end of your rope, then you're angry and the time out becomes a punishment. The child is also much more worked up, and it takes longer to calm down.

10. Set your priorities: First: yourself! Second: your partnership, Third: Your children. Your children will always be there. If you put them above everything else, you risk losing your partnership and yourself.

My kid's pubertry is still beyond the horizon and thunderstorms are getting more intense every year, so I'm not going to claim ultimate wisdom, but these tips have worked for me and my family. Good luck, Kathryn and Sam. And Good Luck, Sarah Laurel!

Gentle reader, lest you think this is totally off topic, try replacing "parent" with "manager" and "children" with "employees." How many points still apply?

Yesterday, in honor of Sarah Laurel's arrival in this world, I started writing down my 10 tips on successful parenting. Here are the next 4 tips:

3. Treat your children with respect. A successful relationship has 5 times as many positive interactions as negative. So say please and thank you. Make requests instead of giving orders. "I want you to pick up your toys" has a completely different meaning than "Pick up your toys! " If they refuse, insist - stay polite, but don't take 'No' for an answer. If they continue to refuse, you can offer them (and give them) a time out or a consequence. How you talk to your children (and your partner) speaks worlds about how you feel about them. If you tell your son he's a bad boy, he'll start to believe it, and act accordingly.

4. Focus on what you want, not on what you don't want. If your child is standing in an open doorway, letting in lots of cold air, say "Come in"! He knows immediately what to do. Yelling "Don't stand in the doorway!" tells the child something is wrong, but not how to fix the problem. He will probably just stand there, unable to figure out what to do! Telling your kids not to play on the street focuses their attention on the street -- which inevitably leads to their playing there!

5. Children want to cooperate - even though they need reminding sometimes. They need their parents to feed them, clothe them, teach them and protect them. This makes children genetically predisposed to cooperate. Sometimes they forget, get tired, get worked up or just don't respond to you. In this case, they need a time out - some time by themselves to calm down and remember how important cooperation is. A time out is not punishment - it's just a cooling off period. As soon as they are ready to cooperate, they can rejoin the family. (But only if they are really ready to cooperate. Otherwise the time out continues). Welcome them with open arms and a hug. As time passes, the kids will need fewer time outs, because they are better at cooperating.

6. Children want attention. Loving attention is better than hostile attention, but even hostile attention is better than no attention at all! So take some time each day and give your kids your undivided attention. If you don't, they'll demand it from you anyway, even if it means getting time outs, consequences or worse. So read them a story, go out with them for a walk, play ball, whatever. You'll all be happier for it.

Tomorrow we'll tackle crime and punishment...

Two weeks ago, I become an uncle. Actually, my sister and her husband became parents. Sarah Laurel did not have an easy entry into the world, but it looks now like she wants to stay, and I am really happy for her and especially for her parents, Kathryn and Sam, who've been through an incredibly difficult time, but have come up smiling.

Shortly before I became a parent, my father gave me the following advice:

• Go spend a day with some friends and their children
• Watch them discuss, argue, fight and otherwise deal with the challenges of children.
• Give lots of advice on how your friends could do a better job parenting (regardless of whether they asked for it or not).
• Go home, open a bottle of wine, and savor the moment. It will be the last time in your life that you know all the answers!

So after touching wood and promising to stay indoors during thunderstorms, I offer my sister and anyone else who may want them my personal 10 tips for successful parenting:

1. Work as a team. If your partner is "in the heat of battle", dealing with a problem, then support their actions even if you would do things differently. Let your partner finish. Then, when the children are out of earshot, discuss the problem and agree on a strategy for next time. Unresolved disagreements will be shamelessly exploited by children, which will also make them (and in turn, you) very unhappy.

2. Be loving, be firm - These qualities are not mutually exclusive. You can be nice to your kids and set clear rules and expectations. Your kids will trust you and respect you for it. They will also adopt these qualities as the normal way to be. If you give in to avoid conflict, they will learn to push you, to whine and to throw temper tantrums to get what they want. Conflicts escalate.

If you are harsh, violent or disrespectful, they will learn subservient obedience. They will also consider this normal behavior and adopt these qualities. Remember: your children will grow up to be just like you. When they confront life's hard problems, do you want them to fear your and hide things from you? Or do you want them to trust you and talk to you about their problems?

Oh, this is getting long. More tomorrow...

Tja - dann bleibe ich eben noch eine Weile im Office, danke SBB!
Wenn ich zum momentanen Zeitpunkt eine Fahrplanabfrage machen möchte, bekommt man folgenden Fehler:

Danke an Jonathan Wenger für den Hinweis.

[edit: 17:57h]
Wie es aussieht funktioniert die französische Version der Suche.

[edit: 18:20h]
Und warum es nicht funktioniert hier und jetzt, danke an Markus Koller!

"Basel-Stadt hat den besten Internetauftritt" war heute zu lesen und gemäss der Bedag Informatik AG, welche den Preis ausschreibt, sticht das Angebot besonders durch sein vielseitiges Informationsangebot, die dreisprachige Startseite sowie durch einen interaktiven Stadtplan heraus.

Ebenso zu lesen war, dass als wichtigste Wünsche an das Electronic Government Bedienerfreundlichkeit (Einfachheit, Sprache, Übersicht), Informationsqualität aber auch der persönliche Kontakt im Austausch mit der Verwaltung genannt werden.
Einfachheit, Sprache, Übersichtlichkeit - alles Kriterien der Barrierefreiheit, wie steht es also mit der Zugänglichkeit zur Website?
> Sprachauszeichnung im Quellcode - trotz dreisprachigem Angebot -> Fehlanzeige
> Strukturierungshilfen in Form von Überschriften "h1" oder "th" -> Fehlanzeige bei mehr als 60 Links auf der Startseite
> Kontrast -> Fehlanzeige sowohl Farbdiffferenz wie auch Helligkeitsdifferenz sind weit unter den Vorgaben des W3C
Leider also kein Testsieger in Sachen Barrierefreiheit - Verbesserungspotenzial, damit bald ALLE Menschen in den Genuss der besten Internetpräsenz des Jahres in der Kategorie Kantone kommen!

Und zwar mit der grössten Investition in der 8-jährigen Firmengeschichte von Google. 1.65 Milliarden US Dollar lassen sich die Mountain View'er den Deal kosten. Cash fliesst keines, YouTube Aktionäre werden Google Aktionäre.

Hier das Transcript des Confernce Calls.

Yesterday I sent a letter to a friend of mine in the US. You remember letters? Real letters are written by hand with pen and paper, placed in an envelope, and given to the postal service for quick delivery to the desired recipient. OK, it wasn't a real letter, but it was important, so I sent it registered mail.

I was pleased to see a registration number on the receipt, so today I went to the Track and Trace page of the Swiss post to check on its progress.

Everything looked good, except "Italy"?! The letter is going to the US. So I called the toll free number (good karma) waited through three loops of the "all our agents are busy" recording (bad karma) and finally got a friendly agent who explained:

1. We don't offer tracking services on registered mail — OK, so why did it tell me anything at all about my letter?
2. The information is correct. We reuse tracking numbers, and this number was also used for a package going to Italy in June, 2005. — Wie bitte? I didn't send a package to Italy, and even if there are two items under the same number, it's clearer to display information for both (or niether)
3. If you really want to track it, go to usps.gov, where it should appear in a day or two — I do appreciate good, honest advice (so good karma wins out)

Moral of the story – 1: If you're going to make information available to your customers, it should be complete and correct. Ganz oder gar nichts.

Moral of the story – 2: A toll free number helps when the web pages fails, and honest, helpful advice is always welcome!

Google Blog Search hat nicht den besten Ruf bei den Bloggern, da nicht aktuell und viele alte Einträge. Google schafft hier nun Abhilfe. Seit heute Nachmittag steht der Google Blog Search Pinging Service zur Verfügung. Details wie dieser angesprochen wird finden sich in den Blog Search FAQ.

Google hat heute 3 Neuigkeiten bzw. Erweiterungen gelaunched.

1.) Die Programmierer wird es freuen, Google Code Search durchsucht öffentlichen Sourcecode:

- man kann nicht nur nach Strings und Begriffen suchen, sondern auch nach Regular Expressions, z.B. go{2}gle
- man kann die Programmiersprache eingrenzen, für die man Code durchsuchen möchte, z.B. sprintf in c++
- die Code Search API bietet die Möglichkeit, mit GET Anfragen direkt XML zu erhalten und so kann dies z.B. in einer IDE integriert werden

2.) Google Accessible Search jetzt mit