Brian’s comment at RemainingRelevant should resonate with many of us: Something to consider about why libraries end up with bad interfaces (at least as far as catalogs go) is that it might be that the people who use the interface (and help the public use it) are not the people who decide which interface to […] » about 300 words
<a href="http://worcester.typepad.com/pc4media" title="peter caputa">Peter Caputa</a> dropped a comment on <a href="http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/02/utr-zvents/" title="UTR - Zvents">Jeff Nolan</a>'s post about <a href="http://www.zvents.com/" title="Zvents - Main Page">Zvents</a>. The discussion was about how online event/calendar aggregators did business in a world where everything is rather thinly distributed. Part of the problem is answering how do you get people to contribute content -- post their events -- to a site that has little traffic, and how do you build traffic without content? The suggestion is that you have editorial staff scouring for content to build the database until reader contributions can catch up, and that's where Peter comes in, suggesting that content and traffic aren't where the value and excitement are: it's the opportunity to involve fans in the event planning and marketing process. » about 300 words