Newsletter #75 The Smart Get Smarter

Created on 13/02/03

A special hello to all new subscribers.

The last newsletter (12th December, 2002) was "Some Dominate, Some Die" and can be found at http://www.netinsites.com/article3.cfm?ArticleID=101

This newsletter only goes to those who wish to receive it. Click on the link at the end of this article if you wish to remove yourself from the list.

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The Internet is a medium that enables the transfer of information in an almost frighteningly efficient manner. What this means is that with a little bit of Net-savvy and Google http://www.google.com, you can find out almost all you need to know about anything. In short you can become an "expert".

As author Sven Birkets says, "Rather than having to carry the factual baggage around in your head, you have this electronic prosthesis. You can get it anytime, and the doors don't lock."

While on the locks theme, when I locked myself out of my office the other day, one of the first things I did was go to the great How Stuff Works site and read up about picking locks! http://home.howstuffworks.com/lock-picking.htm

The ability to use the Net can make up for knowledge shortfalls and as an increasing proportion of jobs become information intensive, can make a measurable difference to job performance. Anyone in the IT profession already knows this of course as the use of online forums and discussion groups is just part of the way work is done. Experts Exchange at http://www.experts-exchange.com/ is one I'm fond of.

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Is your email Spam? Yes, we know you're not promoting 'herbal viagra'. The trouble is, your carefully considered online campaign could be so much canned meat product if it doesn't connect with the people you're sending it to. Our free email audit will give you an objective assessment. If you have concerns about the effectiveness of your online marketing campaign, contact Phil by clicking here http://www.netinsites.com/contact_phil.htm

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It used to be the case that only professional people needed to keep up with what was happening in their particular discipline. As Len Ellis from Wunderman, http://www.wunderman.com/ says: "Knowing how to learn and apply the learning are keys to career success in jobs all across the information economy." Now life-long learning is essential for all and it's not just keeping up with your field that's important, it's knowing the best way to keep up. Should you?:

• Receive email newsletters like this one
• Look to signup for Continuing Education courses, either online or offline
• Undertake general job upskilling
• Just browse the Web
• Use or setup a collaborative intranet
• Use online discussion groups or forums
• Or all of the above?

You'll note of course that most of the options noted above are available online. This is fine if you know your way round the Web but what if you don't?

Ellis again: "Designed by and for the smart, the Internet appears to be a neutral space, but its three organizing principles -- egalitarianism, elitism, and efficiency -- are organized in such a way that the smart get even smarter."

Because the Net has played a huge part in making the retrieval, production and distribution of information so much easier, natural selection processes that would have stopped all but the most important information being published, no longer apply. This "data smog" now means that knowledge workers with the best personal filtering systems make the best progress.

Even just being a consumer requires considerable information filtering skills. Sorting and evaluating a barrage of bundled promoted and discounted offers and researching complex goods and services is standard requirement for the modern consumer. The range of choices is increasingly greater as is the independence to make these choices. Today consumers must be smart to buy smart.

So why are the smart getting smarter?

• Because they know how to access the information they need, quickly and efficiently. They know that the Net plays a major part in this information gathering process.
• They filter the information they receive so that it doesn't overwhelm them.
• Intuitively they continue to learn in a formal and informal manner.

With more information and better choices comes greater opportunity. If you're smart, you better make sure you're getting smarter.

Alex Garden

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Newbies

Often when you write a message in Outlook Express, the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) entry box doesn't appear by default. To make BCC visible click on "New Message" (or choose "Message" then "New Message"). Now, choose "View" and click "All Headers". Your new setup will remain until you
change it.

For previous tips visit http://www.netinsites.com/hottips.cfm

Power Users

For Web designers. Where Webpage sizes are critical you can save kilobytes by assigning commonly used JavaScript objects to shorter variable names. A commonly used example of this is to place the following statement at the beginning of your JavaScript code: var d = document; This allows you to use the name "d" interchangeably with "document". For example: "document.write(..)" becomes "d.write(..)" This can make a noticeable difference to file sizes and it's easy to apply to existing pages too; simply use the "Search & Replace" facility of your text editor.

For previous Power Tips visit http://www.netinsites.com/hottips_power.cfm

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If you're interested in astronomy, you should visit the Hubble Space Telescope Public Pictures site. Even if you're not you'll probably find these pictures fascinating. Some of the pictures are amazing and you can of course download some of the photos. http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Pictures.html

Recently, the English-language version of Wikipedia, a free multilingual encyclopedia created entirely by volunteers on the Internet, published its 100,000th article. Unlike traditional encyclopedias, which are written and edited by professionals, Wikipedia is the result of work by thousands of volunteers. Anyone can contribute an article, or edit an existing one, at any time. http://www.wikipedia.org/

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The latest article we have added to our article database is "Return on Investment for Usability" by Jakob Nielsen. This article shows that usability testing can achieve measurable results. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030107.html

To search through all the articles in our online database just use the search function on any page of our Website http://www.netinsites.com

We've got two great new quick quotes to make up for being a little tardy lately:

"Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something!" Thomas A Edison

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." Carl Sagan. (I love this one!!)

You can see our other Quick Quotes on the front page http://www.netinsites.com; just refresh the page to see another one randomly selected from our database. Great for presentations or times when you want to appear to be a techno-dude(ss)!

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To access previous newsletters visit our newsletter archive at http://www.netinsites.com/articles.cfm.

If you wish to subscribe to the email version, just send a blank email to subscribe@netinsites.com, or visit www.netinsites.com .

Best wishes

Alex Garden

Internet Strategy | Website Design | Website Promotion | Web Text Messaging | Email Newsletters | Online Sports Games | Content Management