Tag Archive for 'Web Analytics'

SxSW Day 4 - Final day thoughts and wrap up

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/3/31
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

So it’s a few weeks after SxSW now and I’ve been meaning to write this post for ages but haven’t had the time or energy to do so for a while now… so here it is ;-)

The last day for me was primarily about catching up with work, then preparing for the core conversation I did at 5pm, but inbetween that I did manage to take in “Considerations for Scalable Web Ventures” which for me was probably one of the most interesting and relevant panels of the conference.

I found the panel knowledgeable and happy to give away hard earned secrets and useful wisdom, which was cool. My humble recommendation is that if you have the opportunity to go see any of them speak, then do - you’ll walk away richer for it ;-)

I’ve promised that I’m going to send the content of the core conversation I did to the people that attended, so in the spirit of sharing I’m gonna upload it here as soon as it’s in a form that I’m happy with. More on that soon though.

As for the conference itself, I’m super happy I went. This time around the jet lag hasn’t been as bad, and having had the experience of the last time (cabs, locations, where to go, food to eat, when to sleep when to work when to panel) I enjoyed this time around more. I think that because it’s a huge melting pot of really cool people in the industry, where everyone’s interested in learning from each other, discussing stuff in the halls, and socialising (where all the cool conversations happen of course). London’s probably not the best place for a web startup for a number of reasons, so it’s a real inspirational change to be in the same place as loads of other people that are all in one way or another in a similiar situation to yourself… so it was good. Another humble recommendation - if you get the opportunity to go in the future, go! ;-)

Thoughts on second day of SxSW - 9th March 2008

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/3/11
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

A/B Testing was pretty interesting but kinda strightforward theoretically. Interesting to see how Yahoo!, eBay and LinkedIn approach testing in different ways, and some ideas around testing ideas for user interaction and design vs results. Sometimes you get results you didn’t expect, design or plan for.

Red Dragon - Internet in China:

  • Chinese market is super large - 200m online & 600m mobile, but market stats are unreliable in general.
  • Problems with the market - mobile is bigger, largely internet cafe based, government controlled.
  • Quasi e-commerce - credit cards not common yet - impediment to online advertising.
  • User generated content is pretty low.
  • Hire people who understand culture and creative language.
  • Stock options not common - people understand cash.

Zuckerberg keynote with Sarah Lacy:
Interesting to say the least, not sure I believe everything that was said about valuations and finances. I’m not going to add to the (pretty justified IMO) noise, but I did feel uncomfortable several times… Can only imagine how Mark felt… ;-( Zuckerberg comes accross as a geek / dork, but a likeable one at that ;-)
Facebook kool aid is:

  • making communication more efficient (repeated over and over and over and over and over)
  • creating platforms for efficient comunication
  • have reached 500 employee mark
  • running at just about breakeven

20 Ways to woo users:
Great talk by Kathy Sierra, found her engaging and thoroughly stimulating. Got to chat to her in the hallway this afternoon, and was totally disarmed - think she could disarm a SWAT team ;-)
Most important take home for me was around:

  • making users feel like they’re super heroes
  • using real life physics to create a sense of wonder
  • giving your users joy

It sounds blatantly obvious, but the examples used and way it was presented makes it accessible. My notepad was flowing with ideas for Kindo after that…

Africa 2.0: Affecting change using technology, with Kofi, Uduok, Nii, and Erik.
An earlier blog post asking whether there were any Africans at SxSW was pleasantly answered when I read the schedule in more detail (the mini schedule said “affecting change” which didn’t hit my radar. Was super happy to finally meet Erik in person, who I’ve been chatting to for a while now over email. I think that his blog post does more justice than I could, however my take homes were around:

  • there are Africans who are motivated to do something in Africa, off the back of their education and experience in Western countries
  • the mobile market is bigger and has lower barrier to entry (but we already knew that - re-affirmation)
  • opportunities seem to be around connecting communities and interest groups, either to mobilise them, or provide tools to enrich their lives
  • it seems that there is the political and financial will to do things in Africa, but what’s lacking is on the ground implementable, executable ideas and people to do so…

More on that soon ‘tho.

As usual, the after panel discussions were the most interesting (as Erik mentions), and I found the dinner table discussions with the guys and girls from Vidoop and Nike really interesting. Spent the evening going from bar and event to bar and event, finally settled on Club Deville which was pretty good.
Have to say that the highlight of the evening was catching up again with Dustin Diaz and meeting his girl Erin ;-) Looking forward to the IHOP again!!! ;-)

Thoughts on first day of SxSW - 8th March 2008

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/3/9
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

Sunset on the way to Austin from ChicagoSo I’m at SxSW again, and really loving the vibe. Missed it last year due to a little project called Kindo, but made a point of coming this year.

I’m not really sure what it is about “South By” that makes it so cool, apart from bringing together the best people in the industry, so at the moment I’m going with the idea that it’s where you get to meet and spend time with so many people that think the same way you do. Along the way you get to soak up stuff from people who have been successful, and listen to people who have already solved problems that you need to… On reflection whilst writng this I think the key for me is that I get to step outside of the daily grind and get some fresh prespective, with people who are doing the same thing. More on that soon. Also noticed there are more girls this year… ;-)

So, without further ado, some highlights of the day: Panel schedule

Ajax and Flash mistakes was pretty interesting. Some new idea for Kindo there, and some affirmations of stuff that I have been feeling negative about for a while. Also some affirmations of stuff we’ve done well too. Checkout slideshare.net

Startup Management was pretty interesting. Many new ideas for our team and really cool to see that people everywhere face the same issues… Checkout Dogster.

Opening remarks was perhaps most memorable for me in that it kinda made me realise how big the US is… And how different the UK, Europe in general and South Africa are from it. Jenkins and Johnson were amazing to listen to, and I can only hope that some of their thinking becomes more mainstream in the years to come. Apart from that, they’ve inspired me to make Kindo more than what it is now, and to embrace the course we’ve set for ourselves.
Recommend listening / watching if you can.

10 things we’ve learned at 37 Signals was a good kick in the nuts. I’ve always enjoyed listening to Jason. He seems to be able to distill stuff into nuggets that are easy to take away and do something about. I find myself getting caught up in the detail too much (which I’m working on) so it’s a good example to follow. Take homes were around focussing on good copy, making small decisions more often and disruptions being the enemy of productivity.

Social marketing strategies looked interesting but aimed too corporate for what we’re doing now, and so I elected to write this, catch up on some emails and think about stuff I want to implement in Kindo.

I’ll be putting photo’s on Flickr when I have more bandwidth… ;-)

Any Africans at SxSW?

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2008/3/8
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I’m at SxSW in Austin, Texas and am wondering whether there are any other Africans here?
Ping me if you are, would love to hook up for a beverage or two ;-)

Welcome to the Kindo Beta release!

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/9/7
in GTD and Productivity
. 3 Comments

This has been a long time coming, and it feels good to finally get there, albeit with a mountain still to climb!!!
Personal reflective blog post to follow soon…

A little while ago we released an Alpha to a small group of people, to gather valuable user feedback. Thanks to those great people, we’ve had our heads down improving Kindo, and as a result we’re releasing the Beta, and at the same time opening it up to a wider audience for more feedback.

We’ve made the following progress:

  1. Kindo is much faster now
  2. The Kindo tree is now much more stable and knowledgable
  3. You can invite family members to your tree
  4. Many more user interface improvements and enhancements
    • *Note: we’re continually adding more, so please tell us about things you think should work better or be more obvious.
  5. The internet is global now, so we’re releasing in 7 languages:
    • English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Afrikaans, Polish; with Russian, Turkish, Hindi, Hebrew and Arabic on the way.

Our mantra has become “Speed, Simple, Pleasure“, so in a nutshell that means we’re always trying to make Kindo faster for you, simpler, more intuitive and perhaps most importantly a pleasure to use.

Our new URL is http://beta.kindo.com/.

What can we do to make Kindo better?
If you dont like it – tell us why.
If you do like it – what are you missing?
Join the conversation on our blog, we’d love to hear your opinion.

Don’t worry – the same login details apply, and your data is all still there.

Have fun!

Refreshed Google Analytics UI released…

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/5/10
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

If you’re a user of Google Analytics, then you’re probably going to be getting a refreshed UI sometime soon… ;-)

Thumbs up - a massive improvement from the old version.

Hat tip to: James

Web 2.0 London Geek BBQ - summer kicks off; BBQ Etiquette humour

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2007/3/15
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

It’s been about a week now since the the good weather has hit London, so I think it’s time to start thinking about the next Web 2.0 / Geek BBQ. This year has seen an explosion of the innovator community in London, or at least, folks are starting to come out of the woodwork, so it would be really cool to meet some new people, while enjoying the sunshine at the same time.

To get you into the mood, here’s a little gem from Tim (if you’re a girl, please take this as humour, from whence it comes ;-)

Right, so if you’re keen for some sunshine, stimulating conversations, and of course good meat, then please leave a comment here to show interest, and send this link to the people you think may be interested… (my mailing list has become to big to wield effectively in Outlook, so I don’t want to miss people out)

In the meantime I’ll start looking at dates and locations.

;-)

Technology for Africa ‘07 credit card test passed, speakers announced

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2006/12/6
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

The last week or so has seen us sit with bated breath, waiting to see the reaction to the web and emerging technology conference we’re going to put together for Africans (with an African context of course). Well, we’re happy to say that the credit card test has passed, and the response has been really positive - At the moment we’re getting a sign up rate of 25% of visitors that view the site, which is not too bad I think. You can view what people are asking for at the conference, at our feedback results page.

So, that’s great but who are the speakers?
In alphabetical order, here you go for now (more on the way):

Andy Budd

Andy Budd wearing a suit but no shirt collar, sits with his hands clasped in front of him.Andy Budd is an internationally renowned user experience designer and web standards expert. Andy is a regular speaker at major design conferences and recently spoke at @media 2006 in London, and Webmaster Jam in Dallas, Texas. Andy is also the driving force behind our annual d.Construct web development conference.

Andy wrote the best selling book, CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions. In this book, Andy shares his years of experience in creating attractive, standards compliant websites.

Andy’s design experience and knowledge has been called upon many times as a judge in web design awards, most notably the Bubu Awards, the ReUSEIT Contest and the Web Standards Awards, which he founded in 2004. Andy currently sits on the advisory board for .Net magazine, the UK’s leading web development periodical.

A more personal side of Andy can be found at Blogography, a popular weblog where he writes about web design and web standards issues, as well as his passions for travel, photography and diving.

Andy is the creative director at Clearleft and runs their web standards training program.

Andy Clarke

Andy Clarke

Andy Clarke has been working on the web for almost ten years. He is a visual web designer based in the UK and started his design consultancy Stuff and Nonsense in 1998. As lead designer and creative director, his clients include local and national businesses, charities and government bodies and he has designed for The British Heart Foundation, Disney Store UK, Save The Children and WWF UK.

Andy is a member of the Web
Standards Project where he redesigned the organization’s web site in 2006. He is also an Invited Expert to the W3C’s CSS Working Group. Andy regularly speaks at workshops and conference events worldwide and is the author of Transcending CSS.

Demian Turner

Demian Turner has been involved in web development for the past 9 years. His primary focus is on developing multi-tier web applications. He also has experience building standards compliant XHTML GUIs, acting in a customer-facing role and managing projects.

Demian specialises in PHP/MySQL/Apache development on Linux and also has experience in system administration, requirements gathering, UML and Object Oriented Analysis and Design. He is the maintainer for the Seagull framework project, and contributes to SimpleTest, Max Media Manager and the PEAR open source projects.

Malcolm Hall

President and CEO of Open Box Software, a 50+ team of .Net developers out of Cape Town.

Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Malcolm was a founder member of a successful start-up (The World On Line) focused on Microsoft Great Plains—a mid-market ERP package—in the 1990’s.

Upon moving to the UK in 1998, Malcolm has, as a member of the Deloitte & Touché (UK) and then e2i (UK) management teams, managed consultancy teams in the London, Central and Northern regions of the United Kingdom. Malcolm has extensive hands-on technical experience and has also programme managed IT projects across the UK, Germany, France, Spain, The Netherlands and the US.

Since founding Open Box, Malcolm has divided his time between US, UK and South Africa overseeing operations and project delivery. He is also responsible for developing further relationships with prospective and current clients, as well as partners and suppliers.

We’ll be announcing more speakers as we confirm, and if you’re interested you can view what people are asking for at the conference, at our feedback results page.

Tech 4 Africa - Gaining momentum

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2006/11/28
in Uncategorized
. 9 Comments

Technology for Africa '07

And so it begins…. We’ve started getting some really good feedback for the Tech 4 Africa conference (last check we were up to about 30 replies after a day or so of being up and emailing to an initial beta group for testing) which has totally surpassed our expectations. When the automated notification emails started coming in, you shoulda heard the shouts of joy! ;-)

Almost surprisingly, the feedback has been along the lines we were expecting:
people would be willing to go to JHB,
wanna know about stuff around web2.0 primarily,
want to hear international speakers, and
think the conference would benefit the African web community.

On top of that, we’re getting some good coverage on the blogosphere so far:
Update as of 27/11/2006:
David Duarte
Cowboysengines (business site: http://www.virtualworks.co.za/index.asp)
Hash @ Whiteafrican.com
Update as of 28/11/2006:
Coda.co.za
Scott.za.net
Muti.co.za
http://digitalafrica.blogspot.com/

Anyone else we don’t know about yet? (If you’re going to blog about it, then please use the following Technorati tags: tech4africa07,T4A7 or T4A)

Which is all good. ;-)

Some people have asked why we’re not just launching with dates and relying on “if you build it they will come” to make it a success - in short, 2 reasons:
1. We are speaking to some really, really high profile international speakers, who naturally want to allocate time to a conference on the other side of the world if they feel there are going to be enough people to make it worthwhile. We’ve invested the time up front to collect some real data, that goes beyond a thumbsuck, to show we’re serious.
2. We believe that business rules should apply - we need to at least break even, and we need to justify further time put into the project, so it makes sense that without real data we can’t make any assumptions beyond that we reckon 10 - 20% of people we email should respond to the initial email asking for feedback.

So, if you’re reading this and haven’t filled in the feedback form on the site then please do, just to prove us wrong ;-) The more data and feedback we have, the more likely we are to actually hold the event and make it something truly special!

I’ve also been asked what I’d personally like to see at the conference, so for posterity, here goes:
1. Web app dev in Africa - what it takes, how to do it, what markets are ripe
2. How the web can help Africa lift itself up - technologies that come into play, mindsets that need to change, strategies that work
3. What Africans need to do to compete internationally - once we’ve gotten over the bandwidth issue, what needs to happen for Africans to create more Thawte’s and PayPals.
4. What web 2.0 really means for business - technologies, trends, people -> how can it be leveraged?
All underscored by a good vibe, good music, good networking, and some good ‘ol fashioned fun of course ;-)

If you want to stay tuned to what’s happening, then watch this blog, and/or our business’ blog category wev’e setup for the conference (yes, I know the theme is still default K2 - something about the cobblers shoes I think…;-( - so it will change soon enough, as well as being an addition to our shiny new site which is being designed as we speak).

Also, we’ve been asked what to do if folks are interested in helping out:
1. Email us to say so whether you think you can help with something small or big - the more help we get the better - and we’d really appreciate it. Up front, we don’t have cash to pay people now, but as and when that happens then we’re all about getting the right help, so that may be an option. Right now, telling 10 of your mates would be the best help in the world!.. and…
2. Blog it - please blog it and help to moibilise the troops ;-)
3. If you have a speaker you would really like to hear, then please do email us to say so - being able to tell speakers they’ve been asked for by people is good motivation for them!

Cool - more soon - time to go to bed ;-)

TECH4FRICA 2007 - Technology for Africa: A web and emerging technology conference

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2006/11/22
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

We’ve been a long time in preparation for this, and it’s taken a huge amount of work to get to this point, but I’m happy to say that we’ve launched the site for the TECH4FRICA 2007 - Technology for Africa: A web and emerging technology conference, and we’re starting to mail the people we know to tell them about it…

Here’s the blurb for ya!:
We’re trying to figure out whether there is demand for a web and technology conference in Southern Africa, and we’d really appreciate your help if you can spare a few minutes.

What’s the big idea?
We’re convinced that there should be web and technology growth in Southern Africa, so we’re really interested in getting together a bunch of leading, internationally respected speakers and thinkers from the industry to discuss what’s happening and what’s possible.

Some of the things we’d like you to get out of the conference:

* Hear international speakers and authors presenting in your own back yard.
* Discuss what the global web and technology opportunities are over the next 5 years
* Understand what technologies are making the biggest impact
* Thrash out how the web can positively play a role in the development of (Southern) Africa
* Create a fun, informative event where you can meet and interact with other people like you

Call for feedback
Of course, there are loads more things that are important and that could be discussed, so this is why we’re asking for your feedback – we’re committed to a bottom up conference where you get value for money, you make new friends, and where you walk away inspired.

Let’s hear from you
Tell us what you think by filling out the questionnaire below. Stay tuned, and tell your friends! We’re looking forward to seeing you in 2007. We won’t sell, trade, or abuse your data. We’ll only email you if you express interest in attending this conference.

And that’s it!

Tell us what you think by filling in the questionnaire at:
http://www.technologyforafrica.org/

Also, please tell as many people as you can, blog it, add the site to http://del.icio.us, http://digg.com (and others like Reddit and Newsvine), and tag it for http://technorati.com/.

BarCamp London

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2006/8/7
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Signed up for BarCamp London…

Web 2.0 London BBQ - Sat 5th August - the Webers have arrived…

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2006/8/4
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Just a friendly reminder, the next (Web 2.0 / Geek) BBQ is tomorrow, the 5th August, starting around 1pm.

The Webers have arrived, we’ve got enough cutlery to sink a small battleship, and I’m told to expect venison and some other tasty treats that one wouldn’t normally get from the Co-Op…

All you need to do is bring some snacks, drinks, and a fiver - that will get you all the food you can eat, and hopefully a nice healthy dose of Vitamin D.

OK, so here’s the summary:
Web 2.0 / Geek BBQ, done by real BraaiMasters Sat 5th August 20 Farquhar Road, SW19 8DA Doors open at 1pm, make sure you’re there before feeding time! -> Upcoming.org post.

If you’re a rugby fan, we’ll be watching the SA / Aussie rugby beforehand…

Hope to see you there ;-)

Web 2.0 needs to be agile to be successful

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2006/7/26
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

And yet another post for e-Consultancy:

Web 2.0 needs to be agile to be successful

I’ve been dealing with a few clients of late, most of which have heard the ruckus around this newfangled Web 2.0 thing, and most of which want to do something Web 2.0 with their projects. Some want to implement blogs, others are interested in Wiki’s and podcasting, and surprisingly most of them want some Ajax features. The list goes on.

That’s really good because I’m always happy to talk to people about getting more out of the web, specifically around creating better and more valuable user experiences, but the problem I have (and which I communicate) is that Web 2.0 doesn’t just stop at implementing a blog engine, podcasts, a Wiki or Ajax.

Read more…

Web 2.0 London Geek BBQ - and BraaiMasters

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2006/7/17
in Uncategorized
. 3 Comments

After much deliberation and discussion, the next Web 2.0 / Geek BBQ is going to be on Sat the 5th August, starting in the afternoon.

We’re going to be having a BraaiMasters this time (Braai is Saffa for BBQ) - basically a cook-off where the cooks get to cook their best dishes, then get judged by the “tasters” (we’re all tasters!). There will be at least 4 Webers in action, with some seasoned pro’s manning the braai tongs, so it should be a real feast.

All you need to do is bring some snacks, drinks, and a fiver - that will get you all the food you can eat, and hopefully a nice healthy dose of Vitamin D.

OK, so here’s the summary:
Web 2.0 / Geek BBQ, done by real BraaiMasters
Sat 5th August
20 Farquhar Road, SW19 8DA
Doors open at 1pm, make sure you’re there before feeding time!

Hope to see you there ;-)