links for 2011-07-15

"There are two explanations for this endemic publishing paralysis. Either no one has made a good CMS yet — perhaps putting words and pictures on pages is the limit of our engineering capacities — or the CMS is a broken concept."

"Files are an outdated concept. As we go about our daily lives, we don't open up a file for each of our friends or create folders full of detailed records about our shopping trips. Create, watch, socialize, share, and plan — these are the new verbs of the Internet age — not open, save, close and trash". Also has a dig at typewriters along the way ;-)

"Tables are great for displaying information. But making them user-friendly is a challenge."

"This guide explains why journalists should consider having a professional presence on Facebook by creating a fan page to connect with sources and readers, make contacts, build a brand as a journalist and promote articles. There are also examples of successful journalist fan pages and tips on using your page". I'd make one if only it didn't insist on the "j" word.

"I was doing the job of the visual designer and not as well as they’re able to. It’s an easy trap to fall in to. Part of my difficulty was conflating content structure with visual hierarchy. Structure is about priority, whereas hierarchy is about placement. Structure is the responsibility of the IA and should convey the strategic importance of an element and address the level of emphasis a visual designer should give that element. Whereas hierarchy is the responsibility of the visual designer and is literally how elements should be positioned one above the other."

[PDF] - doesn't seem anything unreasonable here. The compliance looks burdensome, but then lack of compliance would be jumped on more than from any other media organisation

"American experience suggests that when newspapers close, their readers just disappear — they liked their former paper, saw it as an old friend and didn't feel compelled to find a new one. Preliminary research, picked up by my old colleague Will Heaven, suggests that two-thirds of the News of the World's readers just won't pick up another newspaper again. And why? Because there's not another newspaper like it". At least the graphs are a reminder that downward circulation figures don't start with the invention of Mosaic

"To understand what’s working, and what isn’t, managers must report on every active agency URL.  In the next 30 days, a list of all registered .gov domains will be published so the public can offer feedback."

No surprise that slightly longer posts do well, but interesting data about the best times to post, and that pictures do significantly well in the Facebook environment

"An insider writes..."