So you want a site on the Intranet…? March 17, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Wiki , add a commentThis is a really funny post from John Barben who says it’s a real document from an intranet in a company he knows. I’m not doubting John for one minute, it just reads like you would have to try very hard to write a better parody.
exsto: this may be why some organisations find wikis a bit of a risky proposition
What to do if you want a site on the Intranet
* Agree with the Communications Department Ext.xxxx that there is a business requirement for having an intranet site
* Nominate a Web Author who will need to attend the Intranet training course ‘Developing Your Intranet Site’. Contact Mrs xxxxx to arrange this course.
* The Webmaster will then create a template site ready for your new site to be designed.
* If a Web Author is already trained in your area then they can begin to create the site.
* Submit a form with your requirements to Communications Department. Who will review your requirements, complete the resource constraints part of the form and pass it to the Head of Communications who will approve the site.
* On completion the sites nominated Data Content Manager will need to check the site editorially and approve the data contained within the site.
* Decide which business process the site will be placed under by contacting Mrs xxxx
* On approval the Webmaster will technically check the site. If all is well the new site will then be published
I guess they don’t really want any new sites on the intranet at all then, perhaps as a result of a previous craze for people wasting loads of time creating pointless web pages. On the other hand it’s difficult to see how a company which is capable of designing these procedures is going to be able to survive for much longer whilst carrying such an enormous overhead of administrative dead weight.
Houses of Parliament outsourced March 16, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : UK , add a commentThe last bottle of HP sauce was produced in the UK today.
From tomorrow, production is ‘outsauced’ to the Netherlands. The brand’s U.S. owner H.J. Heinz has said the move is needed to use spare capacity at its Netherlands factory.
HP’s popular taste is a tangy mixture of malt vinegar, tamarind, dates, sugar, apples, and spices. It goes well with cornish pasties, mince and tatties, faggots and peas and just about anything fried or mashed.
Pajamanation France March 16, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Pajamanation , add a commentpajamanation UK is already in English, so doesn’t need to be translated before launching ( there should also be a Welsh language version one day). Same goes for the USA, Canada Australia and New Zealand sites.
For most other countries, translating a local version of the main introductory pages is a priority. I noticed the France - PajamaWork site is coming along nicely, and now that the main copy is translated it kind of highlights the fact that any text included in graphic files such as buttons, column headers or banners becomes a liability rather than a stylistic asset at this stage. Another observation is that there are enough Spanish speaking countries to make collaboration in translations well worthwhile, but after that it becomes more complicated.
Are We There Yet? March 13, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Pajamanation, London , 1 comment so farVia On TV tonight:
By 2026 the population of London is forecast to grow by as much as 1.2million Londoners.
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Are We There Yet | Epsiode two: London
London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone believes that unless there is a 40% expansion of rail, bus and tube services for commuters, London will cease to be the engine of Britain’s economy and lose its status as one of the world’s leading financial centres.
The Treasury is unlikely to fund most of this.
Chronic underinvestment in the Underground system and insane delays in building essential new transport projects such as crossrail have made it obvious to commuters that the infrastructure can only just about cope with the present levels of demand, let alone any increase.
Frankie says:
So Londoners, start planning your working-from-home or move to the countryside now.
and of course he’s right isn’t he?
Coffee shop bedouin March 12, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Pajamanation , add a commentBut what kind of “home” office?
I think I prefer the more virtual concept of the home office being wherever you can sit down for a while with WiFi access rather than the shed at the bottom of the garden idea.
Today’s Guardian technology blog revisits the Coffee shop bedouins idea.
Coffee shop bedouins revisited from Guardian Unlimited: Technology
In recent years, outdoor pavement tables and seating areas for cafes and restaurants have sprung up all over London and other UK cities, and the provision of WiFi is becoming commonplace so why sit at home alone all day?
Cafe working is also invaluable when you’ve an hour or two to kill between appointments in town, or while waiting for a tardy friend to arrive.
Students assessed with Wikipedia March 7, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : edublog, UK, Wiki , add a commentVia Linda’s Furl…
BBC NEWS | Education | Students assessed with Wikipedia
Postgraduates at the University of East Anglia are being assessed as they edit existing Wikipedia articles and research and write their own pieces.
Students have to edit eight articles on the online encyclopedia and then write their own article for the site.
When this year’s pilot scheme is completed, Dr Pratt will assess its success and hopes to be able to widen the scheme to undergraduate teaching as well.
“New technology opens up new ways of assessing students and we have to explore those.”
I just wonder if the assessment tail won’t find some way of wagging the learning dog as with Jill/txt’s blogging students
Not available for home-workers March 7, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Pajamanation, London, UK , add a commentI started reading this job ad for Online Moderators:
We are urgently looking for Online Moderators to work on an imminent
relaunch online title, on a freelance temporary basis.Applicants should have:
1. The ability and willingness to work shifts, including weekends and
some nights.2. An excellent command of the English language on a mother-tongue level.
3. An interest in some of the following: popular culture, media,
women’s topics, news and entertainment.4. An ability to work with minimal or no supervision, and as part of a
team.5. Meticulous attention to detail, and the ability to be impartial in
a heated debate.6. Experience and good understanding of online moderation/hosting.
7. The ability to follow policies and implement them.
8. You need to know your PC and understand the Internet.
PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE READ THE FOLLOWING:
1. You must be entitled to work in the UK, with no restrictions on
your stay.2. You must be fluent in English and able to express yourself well
both verbally and in writing.3. You must be able to produce a recent Criminal Record Check as this
role involves working with teenagers.The job is completely office-based, and is not available for home-workers.
Why?
St Pirin’s Day March 5, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : UK , 3comments
Today is St Pirin’s day (or St Piran’s Day) so there’ll no doubt be a proper home made Cornish pasty waiting for my tea.
Rather than the kilted Kernewek revivalists parading in Truro’s cobbled high streets, I’ll post my photo of the Giant Bolster from the St Agnes Carnival last summer.
Divshare - Free file hosting for mp3s and blog pictures March 4, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Music, blogs and community, tools, Wiki , 6commentsI think I can see this one spreading steadily through the blogs and social networking sites.
Divshare allows you to upload as many files as you like, up to 200Mb per file and then serves them up wherever you like for free, as text links, hotlinked from your blog or embedded as an mp3 player. And there’s a divshare uploader plugin for Wordpress.org which makes it so easy to add pictures to a blog without incurring any bandwith or file quota charges, whilst keeping them all organised together under your divshare account, accessible from the dashboard. This would probably have some advantages over using flickr as a file hosting resource for blogs and wiki.
The embedded mp3 flash player could appear on millions of homepages or profiles in mySpace and similar environments, since the code for embedding is available to all who visit the song.
All in all, this confirms to me that we are undergoing a seachange in the pricing models for internet hosting, towards a position where disk space and bandwidth are no longer explicitly charged for. How that works out in terms of the extra electricity required to power the ever increasing number of processors and file servers I’m not too sure.
Futures market created for bird flu March 1, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu , add a commentPredictive markets are a way of obtaining “wisdom of crowds” type knowledge, aggregating the opinions of multiple experts and concentrating the mind of each through requiring the backing of individual opinions with hard cash. As external conditions change, the proclivity of individuals to buy or sell can be averaged through a market to determine a price, which is claimed to be a remarkably accurate indicator of real probability.
Futures market created for bird flu
Organizers hope to recruit at least 100 epidemiologists, veterinarians and other medical experts from around the world for the two-year project. They will be asked to join an online trading system akin to agricultural futures markets, in which investor buys contracts that businesses will be able to deliver certain volumes of, say, corn or pork bellies.
But in this project, the contracts represent not the likelihood of a good corn harvest but the odds that deadly bird flu will infect a human in Hong Kong by July 1.
“Yes” contracts on that prediction are currently trading at 43 cents. That means the experts think there’s a 43 percent chance of that occurring.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
