As with most UX stuff, it’s pretty much common sense, but it’s good to see someone talking about it. Otherwise stuff like this ends up like an Irish gathering where no one’s mentioning the “family problem”.

Read on at Smashing Magazine

(Matthew, Casson, and I)

Our team, assembled randomly by fate, won the Judge’s Choice prize at the first-ever “Reinvent NYC.gov” Hackathon this weekend. It was a blast working at General Assembly with Matthew and Casson, as well as everyone else who participated. Good vibes, tech, and design.

I’ll hand the mic to David Holmes , the author of this great NY Daily News article:

Meanwhile, “The Judge’s Choice” award was handed out to Casson Rosenblatt, Matthew Howell, and Tom Gibbons, the tech-y troika behind MyNYC.gov.

To attract visitors to the site, the group created a model to incentivize civic duty by awarding points to good citizens who report potholes or downed trees. Users could then redeem these points by asking the city to make small grants to local causes in their names.

“NYC.gov should be a site you want to go to, instead of a site you have to go to,” said Gibbons, a digital strategist.

I was honored to be a participant in such a groundbreaking and meaningful event in NYC history. Rachel Sterne, the Mayor’s Office, & NYC DOIT have some great plans for the city’s digital future, and it was cool to share our vision with them.

Oh, and the idea…click below to check out our mockup of a resident’s profile page showing a few of our innovations like the alert feed and incentive points.

http://cv.tenderaction.com/reinvent-nyc-gov/my.html

We built something great in a short period of time  - a testament to having a small group of talented people with solid fundamentals pitching a big idea. And in the end, big ideas win, and hopefully help the City.

Update!

Got to pitch Mayor Bloomberg in person this week. Very cool. Smart guy, and he seemed interested in our alerts idea.

Here’s the Daily News coverage of the event.

Digital music is a big interest for me, and between TuneBooks and Whatevski it’s an industry I keep up with regularly. So for my first article, I’m writing about eMusic, the veteran (current) bronze medalist of the major digital music retailers. They’ve got a renewed mandate to sign up hardcore indie music lovers to subscribe for $15/month to download from their catalog.

While they’ve made the effort to embiggen their pop-music catalog by doing deals with the big labels, the company still believes their bread and butter and survival are the hardcore indie collectors that keep the wheels greased with their $15 monthly tithe.

The $64 question is, are they chasing a demographic that doesn’t want them? If indie records are showing up on the other services just as fast as eMusic, will it be ease of use and features that’ll force eMusic out of the winner’s bracket?

Now, eMusic isn’t a bad deal if you’re willing to download and manage vs. stream – they’ve got good pricing, a big catalog, and throw-ins like homebrew Pitchforesque editorial, and it’s in same pricing tier as the other services (give or take a few $$).

The problem is that in my estimation, a sizeable portion of these super-influencer indie fans will never pay eMusic the $15, because the fundamental way they present their service and enroll and interest new customers is flawed. The offering isn’t clear, and the overall incentive for the customer is confusing. This is a problem, especially with Spotify and iTunes rapidly pushing things forward with streaming services that are proving to be more valuable and popular.

Before I dig in, I’ve got to mention that I have friendly and pre-existing biz relationship with one of the higher-ups at eMusic, and the impetus for this article was research and ideas I provided for Name Redacted. Instead of letting it stew, I summarized and am making it available here as my first article.

Let’s go.

There’s a lot to look at when sorting through eMusic. To keep this easy, I’m writing about single use case: a consumer flow from an affiliate click leading into a finished registration.

In this case, we start with The Hype Machine, an indie music blog aggregator catering to a demographic eMusic is after. They have an affiliate link that appears on each album they present to their users, offering $10 of free something, like highlight #1 below:

Put your best link forward.

The current affiliate link is poorly focused, unclear, and doesn’t give any reason to click it instead of  iTunes or Amazon. Let’s improve that.

(These bullet numbers below erratically correspond to the image above.)

1. Take control over affiliate links to eMusic’s sites.
• Provide one line last-to-load Javascript code that a blog can use to create targeted links to eMusic. eMusic would be able to control the incentive, copy & URLs remotely.
• eMusic can capture metrics data to aid in targeting (blog browsing history, clicks, etc) via the Javascript code.
• If the customer is already a cookied eMusic customer, the link can be set up for quick purchase, maybe inline.
2. Run targeted-by-artist display ads on the blog driven on the data captured and market conditions.
3. To foster community, eMusic can become a sponsored editorial contributor to reviews and artist pages.

Hype Machine would be paid both for traffic driven as well as customer conversions.

Got a click. Display a targeted landing page.

Act like you know (your site visitor).

• Currently, affiliate links drive potential customers to eMusic’s regular search page. The user’s asking a question, and eMusic is essentially saying whatever, just browse. Instead, they should be welcoming and giving a completely useful answer.
• Present a landing page customized for the potential customer using the data accrued from the Javascript embedded on the referring blog, and eMusic’s own predictive user metrics.The “voice” of the landing page should portray eMusic as a digital music store that “gets it”, where fans can purchase and download easily at great prices, and enjoy great editorial and community.
• Fine tune via multivariate testing. An intelligently customized landing page with clear messaging and incentives goes a long way in converting an indie-loving power listener to an eMusic customer.

Thanks for reading.

Next time I’m going to be reviewing my own record label’s site. It needs a tune up big-time.

Good op-ed from  Rebecca MacKinnon, a TED contributor:

The question is: Who decides? And how do you prevent the deciders from abusing their power?

The fact of the matter is, the world’s democracies do not have clear answers for the people of Egypt and Tunisia: In managing our digital networks, we are fighting our own battles over how to balance genuine economic and security concerns on the one hand with civil liberties and free speech on the other.

Read the entire thing.

via CNN, By Rebecca MacKinnon, Special to CNN

An end user shouldn’t have to fold their meat to achieve satisfaction. Definitely a complete catastrophe. Note: I’ve referenced this clip in meetings with awesome results. Even if it fails, then you know who in the room has seen Spinal Tap. Useful.

There’s a very simple business reason why Google cares if they have your real name. It means it’s possible to cross-relate your account with your buying behavior with their partners, who might be banks, retailers, supermarkets, hospitals, airlines.

http://scripting.com/stories/2011/07/25/whyGoogleCaresIfYouUseYour.html

(via Daring Fireball)

TT.FM is the most head-smackingly brilliant thing to hit digital music in a while.

TT.FM lets you drop the big tunes on like-minded folks who can reward you, and become your fan. It’s Garage Band that you can play at work.

It’s dead simple:

• Link with FB (not ideal for the FB privacy/conspiracy set, but I gave it up).
• Pick your first avatar and set your DJ name and then profile (optional).
• Find a room, jump in, and listen.
• When you get a sense of things, jump behind the decks, and play some tunes.
• You can choose from their very extensive library powered by MediaNet, or upload your own MP3 tunes.
• Good tunes earn you props, points, and fans.
• The points get your better looking avatars, and I’m guessing they’ll add other awards later.

Once you make it on stage DJing, prepare to lose your day, night, and then some. You just want those points and respect. But it’s worth it. I’ve discovered some big tunes I’ve never heard before, and have made some like-minded friends.

If you haven’t visited, do it. And, check out this room while you are at it:

http://turntable.fm/jamaican_archives_vintage_reggae_ska_rockste

Libya is yanking the right from some, but shouldn’t these sites/brands/services do the right thing and stop using it, even if just for appearances?

I’m looking at you, ow.ly , bit.ly, name.ly, doodle.ly, generalassemb.ly and anyone else. Buy owly.co for example, it’s still short, and since Twitter is self-shortening URLs, it might not matter anyway.

Shorting him the $100 domain registration fee will prevent Muammar Gaddafi from buying a few more bullets or ridiculous outfits.