In the interest of assisting fellow web specialists in producing world class mobile web sites, I am publishing my definitive list of dotMobi Website Guidelines & Considerations. Please feel free to use them as a reference, but please do not republish or steal my work sans credit.

Domain Names

About 23% of mobile sites use .mobi domain names. In South Africa it is interesting to note that some of the big names have purchased their domain names but are not using them. This makes it difficult for users to find sites.

They are also not using the other defacto standards! If you are offering a mobile site please ensure you  use at least one of the following defacto naming standards:

www.yourdomainname.mobi

m.yourdomainname.com

mobile.yourdomainname.com

www.yourdomainname.com/mobile

Many banks and other sites are using USSD Dial strings to send mobile menu’s & sms links to their portals. This is very popular and effective in South Africa especially in the Cellphone Banking space.

Other ways of getting traffic to your site are to identify mobile visitors of your .com site to your .mobi site. Twitter & Facebook do this. DO not forget to give users a link to the standard site from the mobile site so that they do have the option to switch between the two.

Google has a novel approach, if you visit http://www.google.mobi/ on your desktop or laptop browser, it offers to sms the site url to your phone. This works well and is quick and efficient.

Simplicity

• Less is more
• There is little space on the screen
• Mobile internet connections that are often slower than internet connections
• Users need to access to what is most crucial
• As little else as possible on the page

Screen Size

• Different mobile devices have different screen sizes but all are very limited & SMALL
• Screen real-estate should be tailored & optimized to 1 specific screen size to ensure layout & design integrity of the site
• Studies show that 240 x 320 (a.k.a. QVGA) is the preferred standard for mobile development

Content

• Different mobile devices have different screen sizes but all are very limited & small
• Screen real-estate should be tailored & optimized to 1 specific screen size to ensure layout & design integrity of the site
• Studies show that 240 x 320 is a preferred standard for mobile development

Images

• Static images only. DO not insert flash or movie files or animations or client side scripts
• No image maps
• Some handsets do not support images
• Some handsets allow users to disable images
• Minimal use of images
• If you must use them, make them relevant & supply meaningful ALT text so that mobile devices can use the text descriptions
• Smaller than 100 pixels
• The image height & width should be defined in the source code
• Do not use background images, the small screen size already compromises the readability of the page and a background image will make it worse

Layout

• One column ONLY
• Up & Down Scrolling ONLY
• NO horizontal scrolling
• Align content to the left
• Be consistent – Similar alignment & layout on all pages
• ALL non-essential links & marginal content at the bottom of the page §Minimize white space
• Avoid table padding
• Avoid wide margins
• Widths & margins are detrimental to good handheld display
• No frames §Avoid tables
• No pop ups
• No dynamic effects

Design

• Style Sheets govern the design of the pages
• Limit the number of different colours used on a page
• Be consistent in your use of colours
• Use high contrast for text & images
• Some much older handsets are monochrome so keep images & contrast in mind
• Older handsets reduce or strip out images
• Keep text colour in mind
• On small screens, readability takes on much more importance
• Good colour choices ensure that the site is easy on the eyes

Text

• Headers have increased importance in mobile design
• Limit paragraph & header text size
• Handsets have standard font sizes.
• Headings or large (emphasised) type should not be larger than twice the size of paragraph text §Keep colour & contrast in mind
• On small screens, readability takes on much more importance
• Good colour choices ensure that your site is easy on the eyes

Navigation

• There is NO MOUSE, although some smart phones now have a stylus & touch screen, most will have to use their phone buttons to navigate through the site
• Use text rather than images for navigation labels & headers §Keep textual descriptions as short as possible §Use link anchors to help users navigate e.g. Next,Back to top,Home ,
• Clearly distinguish selected items
• Do Not repeat the SAME navigation on every page
• Use ordered lists of links & make use of mobile access keys

Forms

• Limit the use of forms
• Forms muse be as SIMPLE as possible
• Allow user to make selections instead of entering free text
• limit text input elements
• Keep responses needed short
• It is difficult for mobile users to input many characters
• Quick forms & easy
• A mobile user cant be expected to fill in pages of detail
• Be aware that mobile users are more likely to make mistakes due to misspelling or mistyping)when filling out forms

Testing

• View the site through an emulator or on a handset is essential to you understanding how your content, design & layout will look to the end user

© Maeve Clancy 2009

© Maeve Clancy 2009

We have learned the fundamentals of XHTML and CSS.  These are the basic tools of designing a web page.  Normally, when we want to publish on the web, we will use whatever tools will help us get the job done efficiently and effectively.  Your next assignment is to create a web site, of the topic of your choice, and publish ‘live’ online.

Here are your objectives:

• choose a way to publish on the web that meets these criteria:
  • free
  • you control all the content
  • you decide on the design and placement of your posts
• use images, text
• create posts
• create pages
• determine design

Students may choose the web service.   www.wordpress.com meets the criteria above.

Because of the slow speed of our internet in the lab, students will need to finish this assignment at home or somewhere with a better connection.

Welcome to WordPress.com class.  Each of you need to make a new post.  You can also edit the existing sample ‘Hello World’ post.

Here is another font.  I had to create this in photoshop and insert as a picture:

In WordPress we can create posts and pages (among other things).  What is the difference between a post and a page?

A page is a static, editable web page.  When users navigate to the page, it will display information that does not change much from day to day.

A post is an article or information that appears on the post page.  It is ‘fresh’ information that shows up anytime you publish.  Think of posts as the news feed on the home page of Facebook.  A page would be more like your profile page on Facebook — as an example.

Here is the post creation page in WordPress:

Our class has done well establishing a web site.

We need to be patient with the speed of our internet in the lab.

Be sure to send your site’s URL to Mr Richard  niscomputers@gmail.com

Students are to complete the following for homework.  We will have class time for these tasks, but because of the constraints on the internet in the lab, students will need to work at home to finish their assignments:

• write a new page
• write a new post
• insert an image
• insert a link
• choose a theme
• add widgets
• use categories
• use tags

Source : http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/jboye09-web-content-management-inconvenient-truths-and-industry-challenges-005954.php

There is no best web content management system. But there is probably a good Web CMS for what you’re trying to do. With that, we kicked-off a heated debate on Inconvenient truths and unsolved WCM industry challenges at the J.Boye 2009 conference in chilly Aarhus, DK.

And despite strenuous protestations by Aarhus mayor, Nicolai Wammen, who addressed the delegates at the opening ceremony today, the weather has not improved. Thankfully plenty of hot air warmth was radiating from the conference discussions, including the one on how to fix the WCM industry with all its problems and challenges. But why fix it, I ask, if it ain’t broken?

It Ain’t Broken, a.k.a. The Bright Future of Web CMS

CMS Watch’s Jarrod Gingras was certain there’s nothing to fix. The competition is healthy, the buyers have many options and that’s good for the marketplace. Clearly, there’s some frustration, but it is tied directly to the disconnect with end-users.

Gingras continued on to provided a rather positive outlook into what’s coming for the WCM industry in 2010:

• Consolidation: There will be some consolidation, but nothing earth shattering or landscape changing.
• Innovation and usability: Complex enterprise vendors will not concede to smaller vendors.
• Platforms and products will continue to co-exist.
• SharePoint 2010 is better, but will still fighting for deals.
• Open source will see continued interest, but will have to improve usability.
• SaaS: The hype may decrease a bit, acquisitions are expected.

// //

The Big Questions

Janus Boye, the conference organizer, and Jon Marks, lead of development at LBi (both were also presenting at the session), didn’t seem to agree with Gingras and posed the “big question” — How do we fix WCM? One way is to pay more attention to user experience and the needs of end-users by involving them more throughout the implementation. Change, as well as content, needs to be managed, said Gingras.

Marks, also known as McBoof in the Twitterverse, addressed several WCM issues:

Whose fault is it when a WCM project fails?

The ecosystem is sometimes broken, and we see a lot of finger pointing from customer to vendor to implementor. The products are not perfect, but they are what they are. As implementers, we do the above all the time, but we should know better, even if the customers do silly things.

Does the term WCM make any sense?

WCM as a term might be too big and too vague. WCM means too many things to too many people. The term needs to be sub-divided and we all need to take into account all its sides with respect to blurring boundaries among WCM, portals and SoCo.

Why are RFPs so bad?

Everyone is still doing checklists and matrices. This process encourages vendors to do what they hate. As a result, RFPs ask questions that achieve nothing.

On standards

The current ecosystem does not foster standards well. Let’s pray for CMIS and those that follow. Web CMS standards should not start with ‘J’.

Content migrations

They can be manageable with correct tools and processes. The migration of the delivery side is almost always a rewrite. And don’t believe vendor marketing bollocks.

How to Fix WCM?

In order to fix this mess, Marks suggested that one should:

• Align goals for success when starting a WCM project
• Plan for disaster
• Don’t make monoliths

Boye brought up the fear and intimidation tactics used in the industry. If you’re waiting for WCM vendors to wake up and fix the problems, it is unrealistic. Vendors will not change until you make them change. The big problem here is that buyers are not talking to each other as much as they should. But Boye sees the buyers acting as catalysts for change by:

• Openly sharing lessons learned
• Stepping forward as references
• Forcing vendors to take responsibility for WCM implementations
• Identifying and adopting industry standards.

Quotes of the Day

• Not every project fails, there are some happy customers (Gingras)
• Too many projects fail (from the audience)
• So many systems look and work very much alike (CMS Watch analyst Theresa Regli)
• Q: I am asking a simple question… We made the wrong choice when selected our last WCM vendor. That set us back 2 years. What do you suggest we do instead of using RFPs and vendor interviews? A: Pay 2-3 vendors to build something and pick from the best. (from the audience, answer by Marks)
• The most successful projects paid for the POC, people cringe at the bake-off idea, but what is the cost of a failed implementation? (Gingras)
• The terminology is flawed. We should focus on the dialog. (Umbraco’s founder Niels Hartvig)
• Don’t be afraid you will lose your job if you share knowledge. There are so many educational prigrams and books about the industry. (Boye)
• Some of the problems arise from the sheer diversity of people using WCM products. (from the audience)
• Standards are there, but most people don’t even do the basic things like [compliant] HTML. (Boye)
• WCM vendors are having a hard time keeping up with the content.. and customers cannot integrate a Twitter widget into the CMS they bought for managing press releases. (Regli)
• CMIS is still thought in the general audience as the document management-specific standard, even though DM and WCM are both subsets of ECM and the hope is that after version 1.0 of the standard it will be extended to WCM as well.
• Buyers should think about where they want to go, not which “car” (=tool) to use to get there. (Boye)

For more WCM goodness, check out this Twitter stream hashtagged #fixwcm, as well as the J. Boye conference feed at #jboye09.

Source: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/jboye09-selecting-a-cms-pitfalls-and-best-practices-005932.php

We’re live from the City of Smiles, where the J. Boye conference kicked off today in Aarhus, Denmark. The first day is the Tutorial Day with topics ranging from content strategy and governance to persuading people with digital content.

One of the tutorials — CMS selection: the process, the pitfalls and the best practices — was presented by analysts Jarrod Gingras of CMS Watch and Peter Sejersen of J. Boye.

The session was prefaced with a statement that there’s no perfect system. Making your CMS requirements too special may make it nearly possible to find a system that will fit them.

Dos and Don’ts in Choosing a CMS

When looking for a CMS, look for both a software vendor and a system integrator, if they’re not part of the same package. Make your project attractive for bidders. Make it easy for them.

Here are some additional dos and don’ts that were offered:

• Do not employ a detailed scoring methodology
• Do not develop a full list of requirements
• Buy a scoping exercise before buying a full-blown
• Control the dialog with vendors
• Do not look beyond 3 years

What to consider:

// //

• Project timelines
• Stakeholders
• Budget
• Creation of a business case
• Objectives
• Requirements
• Marketplace
• Process
• Decisions

In the best cases 3-7 months, worst case a year or more, according to Sejersen, who quoted J. Boye’s report on Selecting a CMS. Your level of complexity will affect the timeline, added Gingras. This is not a trivial process, but you need to move fast. In EU, the open tender process may make the process even longer, when vendors have around 40 days to respond to your RFP.

Who Needs to be Involved

Marketing folks, developers, a project manager, system admins, application admins, website manager, etc. This mix of groups depends on your organization. Engaging the project champion and the project manager are absolute musts, said Gingras. It’s a political battlefield you want to navigate carefully, when many (or too many) people are involved and you need to make a decision. You need to communicate and make it clear what their role is. They’re not making the decision, but provide input.

Don’t select a CMS before developing your requirements. Gather the requirements only after the business case is completed. How do you justify acquiring a Web CMS system? There are 3 dimensions to a WCM Business Case:

1. Greater efficiency and reducing costs and frustration largely through automation
2. Reduce risks (a system can provide insurance, but also introduce new risks)
3. Enhance value (look to get more value from your content, improve quality by implementing standards)

What Should be Included in the RFP?

Understand internally what you’re trying to achieve. The short and effective RFP is not more than 10 pages. It can start with a brief intro to the project and your organization and include project scope, goals and characteristics. As well as:

• Specific needs and business scenarios
• Technical architecture and standards
• Structure and design of the platform
• Role of the vendor
• Schedule and evaluation criteria

Do not issue checklist RFPs – unless it is absolutely required in your organization. When vendors get it they throw it to the most junior person in the organization to fill out based on a previous example. In many cases not a lot of time get put into these answers, and the possibility of cut and paste from a previous checklist is higher. A checklist alternative is providing specific, testable scenarios. But don’t go overboard – 5 to 7 scenarios should be enough. Entering a CMS vendor contract, is like entering a marriage. You have to like the people you work with.

Key vendor differentiators:

• Geography
• Budget
• Size
• Technology
• Vendor intangibles (chemistry, company focus, financials, trust, quality and experience)

Shortlists

You don’t want too many vendors on your shortlist. Somewhere between 5 and 7 vendors is ideal, and more than 10 is too much. Do your research and get input from blogs, peers, network and external analysts. Do not assume that there’s a best vendor/product. The analysts acknowledged that many reports and analyses exist but noted that they are useful as sources of information, but will not tell you which the best option is for your specific context.

Reading and Evaluating Proposals

After you get your RFPs back, look for indications of heavy copy and paste activities. More importantly, check if vendors understood your scenarios. Check their references. Many are willing to share their experiences (the good and the bad) and can provide candid feedback. And, of course, look for pricing and license models. Finally, develop an evaluation matrix, so that you don’t have to waste time on the losers.

Vendor Demos

When running a demo, make sure your team is well represented, but keep your team size limited, as 100 plus people is probably an overkill. Beware of canned demos. They often look good but fail to address your specific needs.

Give vendors the rules up front and tell them what you want them to show. This way they know to keep focused on your scenarios. Ask questions about pricing and be sure to understand which modules are part of the core system and which ones are add-ons which might cost more.

If you’re thinking of involving a system integrator, do include them in your demo processes. Keep in mind that licensing cost is usually the smallest part of the total cost of ownership of the CMS. Usually, it is recommended to have a scorecard to evaluate each demo. Formats may vary, but look for pros and cons in two areas:

1. product fit
2. vendor fit.

With open source CMS, you have to look at the vibrancy of the community. Make sure to debrief immediately after the demo, so you document the impressions properly and don’t forget who said and showed what. One of the ideas in the audience came from Martin White of Intranet Focus who suggested to videotape the demos (even though vendors may not like this) and compare them later.

Bake-off and POC

When you’re down to 2 or so vendors, you can do a bake-off using real scenarios and real content to get the real feel of the product and work with real people from the vendor or integrator side. It can be expensive, but what’s the cost of a failed implementation?
Do a proof of concept before you dive in completely. One of the benefits is to get your users to try the CMS.

Making the Final Decision on a CMS

How do you make the final decision? Blindfold, roll the dice, flip a coin? Do the due diligence and evaluate the vendors from the point of view of:

• Viability and stability
• Support and community
• Services and channels
• Strategy and roadmap

You can also attend group meetings and user conferences, which would be perfect opportunities to check references and get honest opinions. You’re not just buying software — make sure that you meet the people you’re going to work with.

It is very challenging to decipher the licensing models, as they can be CPU-based, user-based, server- and domain-based, etc. etc. Don’t take this exercise lightly and don’t underestimate the costs. The advice is to budget 2 to 4 times the license cost to allow for integration, consulting and customization expenses. Open source systems are not entirely free, keep that in mind when making your vendor selection and deciding on the budget.

Finally, yet importantly, don’t just sign the contract before you negotiate.

The internet is changing society.  The way we study, work and relate is very different than a few years ago.  It is important for students to be publishing on the web.  In this unit of study, students will explore web authoring using WordPress (CNN uses WordPress!).  By the end of the unit, you will be fairly expert at creating web sites.

Sorry about last class.  We had too many problems setting up.  I came in on Saturday to solve the problem.  I think the solution will work with the lab computers as web servers.  We need to start over again.

Students are to complete the following:

• sign up to WordPress — be sure to copy the password given
• change their password
• write a new post
  • insert a picture
  • link to another website
  • add a category
  • add tags
  • publish
• change the theme
• create a new page
• add widgets to your theme
• customize the theme
• add links to the sidebar

The internet is changing society.  The way we study, work and relate is very different than a few years ago.  It is important for students to be publishing on the web.  In this unit of study, students will explore web authoring using WordPress (CNN uses WordPress!).  By the end of the unit, you will be fairly expert at creating web sites.

The internet is changing society.  The way we study, work and relate is very different than a few years ago.  It is important for students to be publishing on the web.  In this unit of study, students will explore web authoring using WordPress (CNN uses WordPress!).  By the end of the unit, you will be fairly expert at creating web sites.

Students are to complete the following:

sign up to WordPress — be sure to copy the password given
change their password
write a new post
insert a picture
link to another website
add a category
add tags
publish
change the theme
create a new page
add widgets to your theme
customize the theme
add links to the sidebar

To begin, students are reminded to send their last spreadsheet assignment to Mr Richard niscomputers@gmail.com

Today we begin our unit on web publishing.  Most students already have a web presence.  In this unit we will use some tools that are more flexible than Facebook, Hi5 and other popular social sites.

To start, we will watch part of a lecture from Michael Wesch, a professor of anthropology.  He is studying the changes in society because of the web.

In Level I, students created a blog site using blogger.com  In Level II, we will publish using WordPress.  Our internet is too slow for us to publish live online.  Therefore, we will create a web server on our computers.  I changed my mind about using USB memory sticks.  The set up on the lab computers will work fine.

We have a couple of videos to watch on how to set up a web server.  Once we have established the web server, we will use WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) to create our website.

By the end of this unit, you will be fairly expert at publishing on the web.

Our internet is slow in the lab.  As a result,  our web publishing is going slowly.  Students are encouraged to develop their blogger websites at home.  Remember, everyone is to post their comic to their site, write a bit about themselves and try our different templates.  Explore widgets and look around the internet for other things that can be put on your blog site.

In class we will view part of a video by Professor Wesch.  Professor Wesch is an anthropologist studying how we are changing because of the web.  As students, you are encouraged to be publishing on the web, and connecting to other people.  Have fun, but be safe.

Im angloamerikanischen Raum wird die Juristerei ja viel offener als Geschäft betrieben, als in Kontinentaleuropa. Und zugleich ist die Jurisprudenz dort weniger eine akademische Disziplin, als ein soziales Handwerk, wo der Lehrling vom Meister lernt. Kein Wunder, dass man sich dort mehr Gedanken über Marketing für Rechtsanwälte macht und dabei recht unbefangen mit dem Web 2.0 umgeht.

Kevin O’Keefe ist ein ehemaliger Rechtsanwaltaus dem ländlichen Wisconsin, der seine Kanzlei über’s Web vermarktete. Weil er dabei angeblich so erfolgreich war, verlegte er sich überhaupt auf PR und Marketing für Anwälte und gründete die Agentur lexblog.com (http://www.lexblog.com/), die schlüsselfertige Blogs für kleine Rechtsanwälte wie große Kanlzeien anbietet.

Und weil jeder Händler seine Ware lobt, betreibt Kevin O’Keefe “Real Lawyers Have Blogs” (http://kevin.lexblog.com/), “a leading source of information on the use of blogs and social media for law firm marketing.” Und tatsächlich, in der Rubrik “Marketing Blog Resources”  hat er eine Menge anregender Beiträge und kurzer Anleitungen zum Thema Marketing, PR und Web 2.0 zusammengestellt – interessant nicht nur für bloggende Rechtsanwälte.

© Maeve Clancy 2009

Welcome back Grade 7 Students.  Please start the class by progressing through your keyboarding lessons.  You may need to reinstall the licence for our software.

We left off with an assignment for students to create a comic on-line. There are a number of comic engines we can use. Some have used ToonDoo and others Pixton. Today we will look at student creations, and talk about web publishing.

Your next assignment is to create a blog site. We start by using blogger.com Students sign in using their Gmail account.

Blog sites are web sites.  Blogger is an easy way to publish to the web.  You do not need to know HTML or CSS (NIS Computers Level III) course.  Most of the features of blogger.com you will be able to figure out yourself.  Each student will create a blogger.com site.

We know that our internet can be very slow in the lab.  I ask that students only work on the blog site and do not use bandwidth for other activities. If the internet is too slow in the lab, you will need to create your site as homework.

For your blog site, each student needs to demonstrate they can add the following:

a picture

a link to another site

insert your comic (several ways to do this)

try different templates

use widgets