General
I hadn’t planned on buying the Smashing Book #2 before this weekend. As yet I have no opinion on the content of the books as I have yet to read them, my choice to not purchase them before was simply due to having too much other reading material, so I tend to be picky over what I add to the reading list.
There is a massive divide between what can be taught about the web and what is actually going on in the trenches. Still I see numerous web courses of varying levels seemingly teaching old practices, it’s understandable that in a fast moving industry the academics are struggling to keep up but there’s no excuse to still be teaching table based design, for example. Some professionals are trying to help Universities provide more up to date curriculums but I wonder if there’s another approach.
Personally I love the idea that I could help someone with the knowledge I’ve gained whilst in the industry. Sure I’m not as well versed as those on the conference scene but I’m pretty positive I could have taught an 18 year old me better than some of my lecturers. The problem I see is there is a gap in the information being passed around in our community, with so much at a high level that it is making it difficult for many newbies to figure out where to start.
Over the past few years the homepage of Twitter has undergone a few redesigns but the twitter profiles and user login areas have gone untouched, only changing based on the users choice of background and colour scheme. Now Twitter is not only redesigning these areas but also adding a wealth of new features to enhance the user experience.
So far I can only see what Twitter has shown of the new interface as my account isn’t one of the lucky ones yet but given what I can see of the new design I see a couple of issues…
Following in the footsteps of Gowalla and Foursquare it was Facebook’s turn to jump on the geolocation bandwagon today with Facebook Places. It describes the service as somewhere to share where you are and connect with friends nearby.
Personally I think this is Facebook trying to have a presence in yet another arm of social networking. But while they expand into yet another market are they able to compete with those who operate solely in the geolocation game?