Implicit Trust, Wikis, Fireworks, and More
Stromboli was on the table (both traditional and spinach-mushroom), and varied topics were in the air as we brought each other up to speed in our fields of expertise at this week’s Resource Friday. Read on for more!
Is There an App for Trustworthiness?
Jonathan Arndt, Programmer
Today, I brought the team up to date on a recent study of mobile apps (mostly for the Android phone). Of the 48,000 apps surveyed, a fifth exposed private data. At the root of the problem was not the available security permissions, but the poor decisions users made when they installed the apps. There seems to be an implicit trust when downloading from an app store, that the app is completely trustworthy and legitimate… as well as many people not taking the time to understand the implications of their choices.
All the links to the articles can be found at this link on Slashdot.
Putting the “Strateg-” Back Into “Strategist”
Daniel Klotz, Social Media Strategist
It’s easy to look past the “strategy” part of “social media strategy,” so this week I talked about business strategies in general. Typically a business strategy has a lot to do with position relative to competitors. Michael Porter considered strategy to be the creation of a unique and valuable position. Business strategy is commonly thought of as a triangle between customers, competitors, and company. There are new thinkers emerging, however, who replace “competitors” with “unmet needs.” Thinking about unmet needs is termed “blue ocean strategy.” There is a lot of blue ocen when it comes to how businesses employ social media.
As we map out or diagram strategies for our clients, it’s useful to bear in mind that two major categories of visual diagrams are those that focus on processes (like flow charts) and those that focus on structures (like concept maps). Process diagrams emphasize inputs and outputs, whereas structure diagrams emphasis relationships between things.
I also explained why I think the new iPhone OS4 will encourage people to download and use even more apps than they already do, how HootSuite’s latest version is really cool in its integration of Google Analytics, and what my new favorite backlink tool is, and when we might find occasion to use the new Web-based tool Notable. Last, I shared what I’ve learned about Facebook Apps by playing the silly game My Empire in my free time.
Wrong Again! and 10 Common SEO Mistakes
Jeff Burkholder, Engineer/Analyst
I started today launching off of Daniel’s closing comment about the new iPhone and mentioned how some people are looking at the new Retina Display and saying that it looks fake. This brought us into a brief discussion about how bad TV resolution (even so-called “HD TVs”) is in comparison to handheld devices like cell phones. Soap Operas are shot with cameras that have higher definition and clarity than most prime time TV shows, but the sharper image is often described as cheap or cheesy-looking. Once again, our intuition and perception doesn’t quite jive with reality.
I then talked through a list of 10 common SEO mistakes that I ran across in my internet travels. The one item that garnered the most interest from the group was to watch when your domain name is set to expire. Search engines tend to look more favorably on sites that aren’t set to expire for a long time. The longer the time span, the more it shows commitment on the part of the site owner, and the less likely it is to be a spam source.
The Right Tool for the Right Job
Astrid Salim, Creative Director
Have you ever felt frustrated trying to design a website using Photoshop? Well, maybe it’s time to use a better and proper application for designing a website: Adobe’s Fireworks. Why? Unlike Photoshop, Fireworks is specifically built for design. Remember, Photoshop is primarily for photo editing.
Fireworks has superior features over Photoshop when it comes to designing a website. When I design a website in Photoshop, and I decide to create a nice vector graphic, I have to go to other vector application (I use Illustrator) to do it. In Fireworks, you don’t have to change to other programs. You can do it all in one: Fireworks combines a bitmap tool and a vector tool in one application.
Fireworks can also create multiple pages of your website in one file, so you don’t have to have multiple Photoshop files just for one website. Fireworks also makes it easier to edit multiple pages. Change one thing on the master page; all the other pages will be automatically updated. Style sheet functionality is also available in this program. That means you can change your text format for many pages in seconds.
And one of the most important thing for a website is to be able to load quickly. With Fireworks’ better image compression, your website can load faster! And no worries about universality, Fireworks can export your file as a layered Photoshop file. The newest version, Fireworks CS5, also comes with more nice features. One of the features makes it easier to design for mobile devices.
That being said, Fireworks is still inferior to Photoshop when it comes to advanced photo editing. But by editing your photos in Photoshop and then importing it to Fireworks, the problem can be easily solved.
Wikis in the Office
Mike Newswanger, Lead Programmer
For collaboration and data storage, a wiki makes a great addition to a company’s intranet server.
By offering a wiki, users can contribute and collaborate both text and media for access within the company. Overall setup of a wiki is extremely quick and easy with web server experience; a simple PHP server and MySQL database are all that are required to get started with MediaWiki, for example.
The wiki can organize thoughts, share files and data, such as company policies and procedures that are public within the company, without spending a lot of time either up-front or in long-term maintenance.