SwitchBook – joeandrieu.com
type: channel
description: My personal space
date: 2010-08-24T20:56:40Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
generator agent: https://wordpress.org/
items: A fresh breath
items: Paper Prototype Rocks
items: Kynetx takes on Structured Browsing
items: Farewell Google Notebook, Move over SearchWiki, We need a Search Map
items: Notes on User Driven Search
items: Towards User Driven Search
items: Microsoft’s SearchBar: an integrated tool for Advanced Searches

A fresh breath
type: item
creator: Joe Andrieu
date: 2010-01-02T04:09:32Z
subject: Uncategorized
subject: 2009
subject: 2010
subject: Azigo
subject: Doc Searls
subject: happy new year
subject: kynetx
subject: project VRM
subject: scanaroo
subject: SwitchBook
subject: the mine!
subject: User Driven Services
subject: VRM
description: This last year (2009) was the most challenging ever for me, both personally and professionally. Good times, tough problems, people that transformed my heart, and ideas that changed my perspective. It wasn’t always easy, but each challenge had its own … Continue reading →
encoded: This last year (2009) was the most challenging ever for me, both personally and professionally. Good times, tough problems, people that transformed my heart, and ideas that changed my perspective. It wasn’t always easy, but each challenge had its own reward. I’m looking forward to writing a bit more this year, opening the conversation up about portable contexts and user driven services. My work with Project VRM and the Kantara Initiative‘s Information Sharing and User-Managed Access Work Groups will continue to be a big part of that. I’m also looking forward to some interesting new product and service releases, from SwitchBook, MyDex, The Mine!, and others in the VRM community, as well as updates and innovations from Scanaroo, Kynetx and Azigo and others. Also, Doc Searls‘ upcoming book on the Intention Economy promises to be an intriguing read. It should be a good year for VRM. Best of luck to you and for your own plans for 2010. May it be a stand-out year for all of us.

Paper Prototype Rocks
type: item
creator: Joe Andrieu
date: 2009-02-12T00:31:28Z
subject: Search
subject: User Driven Search
subject: Vendor Relationship Management
subject: carolyn snyder
subject: development
subject: paper prototyping
subject: programming
subject: ProjectVRM
subject: search map
subject: SwitchBook
subject: VRM
description: Last week we used a prototyping technique that has changed the way I look at development: paper prototyping. I had heard a bit about this before and it sounded great… but there’s always such a drive to just start coding! … Continue reading →
encoded: Last week we used a prototyping technique that has changed the way I look at development: paper prototyping. I had heard a bit about this before and it sounded great… but there’s always such a drive to just start coding! Before I reach Carolyn Snyder’s excellent Paper Prototyping, I hadn’t realized what I was missing. The key difference from what you might be thinking–and definitely what I was thinking–is that paper prototyping isn’t just about doing mockups of the UI and asking users for feedback. It means recreating the a subset of the core user experience using a paper-based model, with a human “computer” and the user interacting not with the facilitators or testers, but directly with the pieces of paper, by pointing for hovering, touching for clicking and writing for typing. The results were amazing. We took two weeks to develop & construct a paper prototype for our upcoming Search Map software, which is the first implementation of the SwitchBook approach to User-driven Search (which is the focus of our work with the VRM community). That was followed by one week doing the actual testing. To build out a paper prototype like this you have to have a critically specific definition of what it is you are building. Depending on how early you are in the gestation of your software idea, this might be impossible. But if you have a pretty good idea of the basics, the paper prototype will force you to actually write down both a subset of tasks in sufficient detail for the user and the prototype to do with paper assets, and create the pieces of paper that represent every window, every menu, every dialog box, every state in the interface. It felt like we went through three revisions of our core UI before we actually had any users. We found there were so many assumptions hidden in our initial requirements documentation that we were missing key parts of the user experience. And then, by mapping out those parts of the experience, we made significant leaps in simplifying and unif…

Kynetx takes on Structured Browsing
type: item
creator: Joe Andrieu
date: 2009-02-08T07:47:48Z
subject: Identity
subject: Intention Economy
subject: Personal Data Store
subject: ProjectVRM
subject: User Driven Search
subject: Vendor Relationship Management
subject: ad blockers
subject: Adaptive Blue
subject: data rights management
subject: Doc Searls
subject: Glue
subject: information cards
subject: kynetx
subject: MyDex
subject: open source
subject: open standards
subject: OpenID
subject: Phil Windley
subject: privacy
subject: r-button
subject: rbutton
subject: relationship services
subject: search map
subject: Skype
subject: structured browsing
subject: SwitchBook
subject: User Driven Services
subject: VRM
subject: web augmentation
subject: Yahoo Toolbar
description: Doc Searls recently brought my attention to a White Paper by Phil Windley, about his company, Kynetx. It does a good job explaining the thinking behind their architecture, and raises some questions that, for me, challenge some underlying assumptions and … Continue reading →
encoded: Doc Searls recently brought my attention to a White Paper by Phil Windley, about his company, Kynetx. It does a good job explaining the thinking behind their architecture, and raises some questions that, for me, challenge some underlying assumptions and business choices. Problem Domain The distributed nature of the web is a big part of its power–nobody needs to ask permission from a central authority to use it or create with it. However, that disaggregation limits the cohesion for sophisticated uses, leaving users to hobble together ad-hoc mash-ups of value from multiple, diverse service providers. For example, the average travel planner spends 29 days from their first query to their first purchase. No tool I know of facilitates that entire process effectively. Solving this problem in a general way—while retaining the authority of the individual and the flexibility of open systems—is perhaps the greatest opportunity for VRM. The personal data store and VRM relationship services are two prongs of an architectural shift for enabling this kind of aggregation while remaining open. Once you put the user in the driver’s seat, with coherent controls over the flow and the data, the experience can integrate around the user, even as they drive anywhere on the Internet. Solution Kynetx’s solution is built on one primary capability: A rules engine (and language) for contextual customization based on strong identity-based claims, using the user-centric Identity of Information Cards. This puts Kynetx squarely in the web augmentation service business. Adaptive Blue (and their Glue product) is perhaps the most sophisticated approach to this space, but Yahoo’s Toolbar also augments web pages, as does Skype (putting its SkypOut button on any phone # it recognizes), and the granddaddies of all web-augmentation services are the ad blocker plug-ins that remove banner ads on websites. I distinguish web augmentation from web media enhancements, like PDF and Flash and Java, in that the lat…

Farewell Google Notebook, Move over SearchWiki, We need a Search Map
type: item
creator: Joe Andrieu
date: 2009-01-19T05:02:59Z
subject: ProjectVRM
subject: Search
subject: User Driven Search
subject: Vendor Relationship Management
subject: advanced search
subject: Complex Search
subject: Doc Searls
subject: Google
subject: Google Notebook
subject: search map
subject: SearchWiki
subject: SwitchBook
subject: VRM
subject: VRMWorkshop
subject: VRMWorkshop2009
subject: Wikia
description: Alas, a noble experiment has been slayed by the relentless hand of corporate focus. Google has announced its web-clipping scrapbook Google Notebook will no longer be actively developed. I’ve mentioned Google Notebook briefly in the past, as a tool for … Continue reading →
encoded: Alas, a noble experiment has been slayed by the relentless hand of corporate focus. Google has announced its web-clipping scrapbook Google Notebook will no longer be actively developed. I’ve mentioned Google Notebook briefly in the past, as a tool for helping with user-driven searches (more) — or complex searches as I used to call them. Unfortunately, Google never connected the notebook with Search, despite it being a reasonable solution for keeping track of the kind of discoveries you find when doing advanced searches at a lot of different websites. Instead, Google suggests you try one of their other products: If you haven’t used Notebook in the past, we invite you to explore the other Google products that offer Notebook-like functionality. Here are a few examples, all of which are being actively improved and should meet your needs: SearchWiki – We recently launched a feature on Search that will let you re-rank, comment, and personalize your search results. This is useful when you’ve found some results on Google Search that were really perfect for your query. You can read about how to use SearchWiki in this blog post. Google Docs – If you’re trying to jot down some quick notes, or create a document that you can share with others, check out Google Docs. Tasks in Gmail – For a lightweight way to generate a todo list or keep track of things, we recently launched Tasks in Gmail Labs. Google Bookmarks – For a tool that can help you remember web pages that you liked and access them easily, take a look at Google Bookmarks. You can even add labels to your bookmarks to better organize and revisit them. Sigh. Google Notebook fit a unique spot in the Google product portfolio, and as you can see in the comments on the announcement, a lot of people will miss it. It’s too bad we don’t have our Search organizer product ready, I’d love to swoop in and save the day for all those wayward soles stuck without their Google Notebook. The future holds promise… Still, there something to b…

Notes on User Driven Search
type: item
creator: Joe Andrieu
date: 2008-07-20T21:55:45Z
subject: ProjectVRM
subject: User Driven Search
subject: Vendor Relationship Management
subject: MatchMine
subject: SwitchBook
subject: VRM
subject: VRM08
subject: VRMWorkshop
subject: VRMWorkshop2008
description: Whether it’s user-generated content like YouTube, user-written and edited knowledgebases, like Wikipedia and Freebase, or user-centric Identity like OpenID and Information Cards, user-driven thinking is transforming our world. With VRM— Vendor Relationship Management–that revolution reaches the market, creating tools for … Continue reading →
encoded: Whether it’s user-generated content like YouTube, user-written and edited knowledgebases, like Wikipedia and Freebase, or user-centric Identity like OpenID and Information Cards, user-driven thinking is transforming our world. With VRM— Vendor Relationship Management–that revolution reaches the market, creating tools for individuals to get more value out of their relationships with Vendors. The goal is to create a user-driven market, where individuals engage with vendors on their own terms, creating mutually beneficial relationships that generate new value for everyone involved. So what would it mean to apply user-driven thinking to Search? Traditional search is a mix of user-driven and vendor-centrism. While users can enter any query and be directed to content anywhere on the ‘net, we can’t share our search history with Search Providers of choice, nor do we have control over how our activities are tracked and utilized. There are few, if any, open standards for the searcher side of the experience and few options for moving beyond traditional query-response Search. At the VRM Workshop 2008, we fleshed out some ideas, building on the thoughts introduced in my previous post, as well as ideas discussed at VRM 2008 in Munich and IIW2008a in Mountain View. What I love about the conversations at these unconferences is that they are so rich, literally creating value on a moment-to-moment basis. And these were no exception. Here’s what has emerged so far regarding User-driven Search. 1. User Driven Search is bigger than query/response. User Driven Search is more than what we type into the query box and the results we get back from Search Engines. It covers an entire set of activities that span the Internet, including searches entered at site-specific Search Providers like Expedia, the USPTO, and Circuit City, and all the web pages we visit in-between. It is inherently cross-silo—even non-silo—as it encompasses all of our online efforts around a given Search topic. A recent G…

Towards User Driven Search
type: item
creator: Joe Andrieu
date: 2008-07-12T07:52:14Z
subject: ProjectVRM
subject: User Driven Search
subject: Vendor Relationship Management
subject: Adriana Lukas
subject: Doc Searls
subject: Google
subject: SwitchBook
subject: VRM
subject: VRMWorkshop
subject: VRMWorkshop2008
description: It is time to give users more control over Search. At VRM2008 in Munich and at IIW in Mountain View, I started a conversation about User-Driven Search, the premise: what would it mean for users to truly drive their searches? … Continue reading →
encoded: It is time to give users more control over Search. At VRM2008 in Munich and at IIW in Mountain View, I started a conversation about User-Driven Search, the premise: what would it mean for users to truly drive their searches? User-driven is a new term that came out of the VRM community riffing on the meaning of user-centric development and user-centric identity. User-centric is a nice term, but it could be construed as limiting. For example, user –centric definitely implies that that the user is at the center of attention and the focus of the architecture, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the user is in charge of the experience. That’s a key distinction. Not just tuna salad Adriana explains this difference between user-centric and user-driven as metaphorically the difference between buying ready-made tuna salad or picking and choosing your own ingredients and making the tuna salad yourself. When I first talked with Doc about user-driven instead of user-centric, Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show immediately sprang to mind: from birth, Truman is the protagonist in a huge reality show revolving around him… only he doesn’t know it. The climax of the show is Truman discovering the rest of the world and confronting his father/producer. Clearly the Truman Show is Truman-centric… but it is most definitely not Truman-driven. It’s about impetus and authority For me, user-driven means that the user provides the impetus and is the controlling authority throughout the transaction. Sure, sometimes there is negotiation or collaboration with others… the user isn’t omnipotent, after all. However, the user is in charge of creating his or her own experience. This fits with user-constructed or customized solutions, like the tuna salad recipe. However, it has implications far beyond the limits user-created or user-customizable architectures. Is the user initiating the experience? Is the user’s moral authority the primary control throughout the system? Is the system transparent to users, enabli…

Microsoft’s SearchBar: an integrated tool for Advanced Searches
type: item
creator: Joe Andrieu
date: 2008-03-18T07:48:40Z
subject: Search
subject: advanced search
subject: Jacob Nielson
subject: Microsoft
subject: Microsoft SearchBar
subject: SearchBar
subject: SwitchBook
description: Microsoft Research recently revealed a new interface, called SearchBar, for tracking Advanced Searches. It’s pretty cool. The video is a must see for anyone interested in next-generation search. And the PDF is solid detail well worth the read. [You might … Continue reading →
encoded: Microsoft Research recently revealed a new interface, called SearchBar, for tracking Advanced Searches. It’s pretty cool. The video is a must see for anyone interested in next-generation search. And the PDF is solid detail well worth the read. [You might also want to see their other Search UI innovations.] The new SearchBar addresses a lot of the needs I’ve been talking about for Advanced Searches, although with some slight variations and a few key missing ingredients, which I’ll be talking about soon. (Hint: it’s not quite a User Driven Search solution.) What’s great about SearchBar is how thoroughly Microsoft has investigated the value of managing Advanced Searches explicitly. Although the simplicity of the Google-style keyword search has empowered a generation of people to find what they need online, it essentially breaks down for Searches that pass a certain threshold of complexity. Searches that take us to multiple search providers and last more than a few minutes, even days or weeks, are essentially managed in whatever ad-hoc way we can find: we keep it in our heads, open in new tabs, cut & paste into Word, bookmark, print to PDF, whatever works. One of the hard questions we’ve been facing at SwitchBook is how can we simplify that complexity enough so Mom & Grandma will be able to use our software. This is particularly challenging in light of data from Jacob Neilson showing that for a shockingly high percentage of people, just getting to Google is hard. Read that again. In a recent study, 24% of “above average” Internet users failed to reach Google despite a stated desire to do so. That seems crazy to those of us who earn our living online in some fashion, but this is the crazy truth of the mainstream Internet user. These are the folks who turn a blogosphere buzz into a $200 million acquisition or billion dollar IPO. Folks need it simple. No, even simpler than that. Nope. Think again. EVEN SIMPLER. 24% couldn’t get to Google. Amazing. So, we can build a soluti…