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Google Foundation Grants and Investments

To great interest around the net, the Google Foundation's first round of Grants and Investments have been published. They follow from five major funding initiatives: affordable renewable energy, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology, prediction and prevention of health and environmental disasters, information in support of public services, and fueling the growth of small and medium sized enterprizes. Posted: 1/21/08; 3:43:23 PM #

Threaded Discussion Forums Versus Text-Focused Wikis

A large part of the communicator's job these days is choosing appropriate technology. To know what's appropriate we need both an understanding of the communication flows to be empowered and a willingness to experiment and learn. Fei Gao and David Wong provide an example of both in their recent First Monday paper, entitled Student Engagement in Distance Learning Environments: A Comparison Of Threaded Discussion Forums and Text-Focused Wikis. In the context of a paper being studied by a group, the results indicate that a wiki that essentially allows annotation of the original paper results in superior levels of engagement by students. I have no doubt that this could be applied broadly to stakeholder groups in general. Posted: 1/21/08; 3:27:20 PM #

23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies

I love research into what stakeholders actually do with our communication, as opposed to what we would like to believe they do. The results of recent eye-tracking studies will no doubt disappoint people who love online publications designed as if they were in print. Christina Laun summarizes this evidence in the form of 23 Actionable Lessons, which include: Text attracts attention before graphics. Readers ignore banners. Fancy formatting and fonts are ignored. One-column formats perform better in eye-fixation than multi-column formats. Text ads were viewed most intently of all types tested. Users spend a lot of time looking at buttons and menus. Lists hold reader attention longer. White space is good. Posted: 1/21/08; 2:09:36 PM #