Goodbye 2009, hello 2010

This day, 'oudjaarsdag', is a bit of a strange day as a working day. On the one hand, it is very nice to be in the office. There are just a few people working, so it is rather quite and you can get to some stuff that you did not get to before (because of discussions with and distractions of other people). Of course having few people in the office can cause a problem if just that person that can solve your problem is not in. On the other hand, I almost feel that I am missing the preparation of New Year's Eve (doing the last shopping, spending time at home and preparing it to make it (an even more) special day and evening).

During this time of year, there are a lot of articles, blogs, tv-shows about what happened in the year 2009 (and some try to have a peek into the year 2010). Although I also like these reflections, they often do not have anything to do with myself directly (although the recession is probably a good exception). So perhaps it will be a good idea to have my own reflection on 2009 (what did I like, what didn't I like, could I have done some things different / better) and of course try to set some realistic goals for 2010 (of course, world peace is what almost everyone will want, but that is a bit unrealistic as a personal goal).

Yesterday, I watched a programm to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Mies Bouwman and at the end, she was (of course) asked to make some comment. I really liked that she said that the basis of all, is her family / private life because 'that's what it is all about'. Funny thing is that my initial thoughts on the goals that I can already come up with are related to my family and my private life: spend more relaxed time with my family (instead of rushing all the time), take the bike more often, be a bit more patient with my children when they do exactly what I do not want them to do, actually throwing away some stuff instead of saying I have to do it.

Everybody have a nice new year's eve and a great 2010!

The Fun Theory

Recently I 'stumbled' upon a few nice video's that were created by 'The Fun Theory'. They believe that 'something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better'. They make video's to illustrate that indeed with using fun, behavior can be changed.

One idea was if it was possible to get more people to take the stairs over the escalator by making it fun to do?



One of the things I found surprising, is that The Fun Theory is an initiative of Volkswagen. I would not have guessed that they would be behind something like this.

Of course, time will tell if the fun will last long enough to change the behavior structurally before the fun experience becomes less.

On their website (www.thefuntheory.com) you can find some more video's.

Triggers for creativity

Last week, I read (another) article of Roos Vonk in the Intermediair (sorry dutch only). She wrote about how your body and mind are not separated and influence each other. As an example, she mentioned a study where people were watching cartoons. One group had a pencil between their teeth (which uses the same muscles as laughing and smiling) and another group had a pencil on their lips (which uses the same muscles as looking sad). The first group found the cartoons much more fun than the second group. So it seems that the way we use our body influences our (state of) mind. This is called embodiment: a physical experience translates to a mental experience.

Also external stimuli can influence thoughts and behavior. Think about a warm cup of coffee or an ice-coffee, holding something heavy (and with that associating importance with that).

Another study she mentioned was one where people were forced with evading behavior (jumping backwards, walking backwards, shaking your head from left to right and back). The study revealed that people with this evading behavior performed better on a task that required attention and concentration.

Although this approach might not be useful in a lot of practices (picture people in a meeting walking backwards with a pencil between their teeth), it shows that thoughts and behavior can be influenced by doing something different. So the lesson Roos is telling is not to wait until you believe, but just do it and the rest will come.

Moedertaal (en ook Vadertaal)

Hier zijn 175 opvoedklassiekers:

Heb je je haren al gekamd?
Geef antwoord als ik je iets vraag!
Ben je doof of zo?
Denk maar aan de arme kindjes in Afrika.
Straks gaat er nog iemand huilen!
Heb je doorgetrokken?
Het is hier geen hotel.
Ruim je rotzooi op!
Handen wassen na het plassen.
Praat ik soms tegen een muur?

Blijf uit je neus.
Je bed is geen trampoline!
Kijken doe je met je ogen.
Je kunt van de wc komen, de afwas is klaar.
Waag het eens om weg te lopen terwijl ik tegen je praat.
En nu is het genoeg!
Hoe vaak moet ik dit nu nog zeggen?
Wacht maar tot je vader thuiskomt.
Niet rennen met een lolly in je mond!
Sinterklaas weet alles, hoor.

Hoe weet je nou dat je het niet lekker vindt als je het niet probeert?
Heb je je kamer opgeruimd?
Lief zijn, hè.
Doe die deur dicht! Ben je soms in de kerk geboren?
Niet met je natte haren naar buiten, anders word je ziek.
Ga je zó naar dat feestje?!
Gaat toch lekker buiten spelen, de zon schijnt.
Niet rennen in huis.
Samen spelen, samen delen.
Dit is de laatste keer dat ik je waarschuw!

Ik kan niet gelóven dat je dat echt hebt gedaan.
Niet zeuren, groenten zijn gezond.
Als de klok slaat, blijven je ogen zo scheel staan.
Had jij niet allang in bed moeten liggen?
Dit is geen restaurant!
Lijk ik soms op een serveerster?
Heb je je huiswerk al gemaakt?
Ga rechtop zitten.
Als ik jouw mening wil, dan vraag ik hem wel.
Ik heb het nu al duizend keer gezegd.

Ik zei: doe de deur dicht, niet gooi de deur dicht.
Over mijn lijk!
Niemand heeft jou wat gevraagd.
En nu ben ik het he-le-maal zat!
Wat, wil je van huis weglopen? Ik help je wel inpakken.
Stop dat niet in je mond, je weet niet waar het heeft gelegen.
Je bent precies je vader.
Zeg sorry!
Nee, dat is geen vis, dat is waterkip.
Ik doe dit niet om je te pesten, maar om je te helpen.

Zo zou ik nóóit tegen mijn moeder hebben durven praten.
Til je voeten op.
Kindjes die vragen, worden overgeslagen.
Je moest eens weten wat ík allemaal zou willen.
Toen ik jong was, had je dat allemaal nog niet.
Hoe laat ben je thuis?
Waar ga je naartoe?
Met wie ga jij eigenlijk?
Niet alleen naar huis fietsen!
Als Kevin van de brug springt, spring jij er dan achteraan?

Die sokken wandelen echt niet vanzelf naar de wasmand.
Praat niet met je mond vol.
Wat is het magische woord?
Die kapstok hangt daar niet voor de sier.
Doe altijd schoon ondergoed aan voor het geval dat je een ongeluk krijgt.
Heb je soms wat aan je benen?
Wat je ook gaat vragen: het antwoord is nee.
Van een beetje water ga je heus niet dood.
Zo praat je niet tegen mij!
Zolang je in dit huis woont, ben ik de baas.

Gaat dat maar aan je vader vragen.
Ik ben geen taxi.
Ik heb je op deze wereld gezet en ik kan je er zó weer vanaf halen.
Niet smakken!
Heb je niks beters te doen?
Je krijgt vierkante ogen van al dat tv-kijken.
Het geld groeit me niet op de rug, hoor.
Zit niet aan dat korstje te peuteren, anders krijg je een litteken.
En nu naar je kamer!
Als je je bord niet leeg eet, krijg je ook geen toetje.

Ik tel tot drie...
Praat ik soms Chinees?
Ik zal altijd van je houden.
Nee, ik weet niet waar jouw voetbalschoenen zijn, want ik draag die ze nooit.
Durf dat nog eens te zeggen en je mag je mond met zeep gaan spoelen.
Haal dat ding van de trap voordat iemand zijn nek erover breekt!
Het leven is niet eerlijk.
Doe die deur dicht, anders stook ik voor de hele straat.
Toen ik zo oud was als jij...

Heb je oma al bedankt voor die mooie gebreide trui?
Ik ben de liefste moeder die je hebt.
Het geld groeit niet aan de bomen hoor!
Dus iedereen mag behalve jij?
Kijk maar uit, anders breng ik je terug naar de winkel.
Straks als je zelf moeder bent, bedenk je je eigen regels maar.
Omdat ik het zeg!
Je hébt net gegeten.
Niet zo schreeeeuwen!
Nee, we zijn er nog niet.

Ben je soms door de wc gezakt?
Straks als je wat ouder bent, ga je begrijpen wat ik bedoel.
Dat woord wil ik hier in huis nooit meer horen.
Zó heb ik je niet opgevoed!
Natuurlijk mag je buiten gaan spelen, als je maar eerst je kamer opruimt.
Jij bent de oudste, jij zou beter moeten weten.
Heb je je tanden gepoetst?
De kaboutertjes hebben dit zeker gedaan?
Kan me niet schelen dat jij het daar niet hebt gelegd, je moet het gewoon opruimen.
Appelmoes is geen groente.

Licht uit!
Je hebt niks om aan te trekken? Je kast hangt vol met kleren!
"Weettiknie" is géén antwoord.
Mes rechts.
Ellebogen van tafel.
Links, rechts, links gekeken, dan pas oversteken.
Je moet wel netjes u zeggen.
Honger? Opa en oma hadden honger. Jij hebt trek.
Voeten vegen!
Kijk me aan als ik tegen je praat.

Als je eerlijk bent krijg je geen straf, maar als je liegt krijg je dubbel.
Ik ben de werkster niet!
Van proberen kun je het leren.
Maak je bed op.
Moet ik me soms omdraaien?
Doe een lampje aan, anders verpest je je ogen.
Wat ?ja?? ?Ja mama? bedoel je zeker.
Zit stil!
Ik heb niet met je op school gezeten.
Werd jou iets gevraagd?

Niet slaan anders krijg je een tik!
Plak geen snotjes onder de tafel.
Nee, je spoelt niet door het doucheputje.
Heb je je sleutel bij je?
Volgende keer graag plassen vóórdat we weggaan.
Je moet van vóór naar achteren vegen, niet andersom.
Maakt niet uit wie er begon, ik maak het af.
Blijf van je broertje af!
Laat je zusje met rust!
Of je worst lust.

Mankeert er wat aan je handjes?
Degene die het sloopt, is degene die het koopt.
En wat zeg je dan? ?Dankjewel?.
Dáárom.
Ga met je schoenen van de bank.
Waag het niet!
Waarom vraag je het me dan?
Hadden ze geen klok daar?
Hou op!
Blijf met je vieze handen van mijn muren af.

Doe nou eens normáál!
Lui-ste-ren!
Niet je mes aflikken.
Waar was je nou?
Eerst iets hartigs op de boterham, dan iets zoets.
Eet je bord leeg.
We blijven aan tafel zitten totdat iedereen klaar is.
Houd je grote mond!
Welk gedeelte van het woord ?nee? snap je niet?
Nog één kusje...

Als ik alles van te voren geweten had...
Ga jij maar naar de gang.
Heb je soms met je neus gekeken?
Het komt allemaal wel goed.
Kusje erop, over.
Kijk me aan als ik wat zeg.
Ik ben geen pakezel!
Als grote mensen praten, houden kinderen hun mond.
Niks ?ja maar?!
Wacht maar tot je later zelf kinderen hebt.

Hussen met je neus ertussen.
Ga maar buiten kijken of het gras groeit.
Kinderen onder de zes krijgen geen mes
Ik heb maar twee handen.

En nu is het stil!

Communicating Rich Experience Information

During the Masterclass I attended a few weeks ago, there was a session about how to communicate rich experience information (that is the result of research) to designers in such a way that these designers are empathized with the user, are engaged and inspired by the information. During this session, the framework developed by Froukje Sleeswijk - Visser during her thesis research was shown. However, just a small part of it was discussed.

Interested in the topic, I read her thesis (which you can find here). Her thesis tries to determine which elements play a role in a successful communication process of rich experience information and how rich experience information can be successfully communicated in the
design process.

The result of the thesis is a framework that consists of 3 'fields':
1. Qualities (that determine the success of communicating the rich experience information)
2. Operational means (that user researchers can apply to fulfil the qualities)
3. Mechanisms (that influence the impact of choices of operational means on one or more of the qualities)



As a result of the studies, Froukje also developed guidelines in how to use the framework:
1. Make a good communication plan
2. Represent real people
3. Sensitize designers
4. Address designers' own experiences
5. Make communication participatory


One of the things that was mentioned several times in the thesis was that time, money, organizational structure, communication standards and the attitude towards users determine, to a large degree, the success of communicating rich experience information. Although there are many possible efforts in engaging designers and (other) stakeholders, the effects remain limited to the possibilities in the organizational structure and mindset of the company. It makes it clear that it involves the entire company and not only one (or two) departments.

It was really nice to read the thesis (also because she used actual drawings in it) and would advise anyone interested in user centered design to read it too.

Image credit: Froukje Sleeswijk - Visser

Mississippi Burning

Yesterday, I watched the movie 'Mississippi Burning'.

I knew what the movie was about, but had never watched it.

All I can say is: Very, very impressive!!!

User Experience Master Class

Last week, I attended a Master Class (organized by the TU Delft and Exact Software) where the goal was linking "designing successful products that people love to use" with "designing great software" to achieve a great user experience.


Looking back at the class, I think the ground rule should be clear: (try to) understand your customer! That way, you can create better products, products that are in line with the needs of your customers, have a lower failure risk and a higher customer loyalty.

The diversity of the attendees (Product management, Functional design, Marketing communications, Consultancy, Customer support, Product line manager, Software engineering, Product marketing) was very good. It gave insight into the different perspectives of different people.

During the Master Class, we met with very passionate, expert lecturers that presented their area of expertise and mixed it with a hands-on element. We had to visualize our development process, make collages, personas, mindmaps, observe other people (outside of the classroom), make prototypes, discuss personal items that are connected with an emotion, etc. The hands-on elements were really great, because some it put us in the 'customer seat' instead of the 'developer seat'.

Everyone who attended the Master Class was really energized to start working with the methods and concepts. Already a few ideas have started, more is to come. Hopefully we can convince our collegues and management we really need to use available techniques to come to a better user experience of our products.

Image credit: James Garrett

Microsoft DevDays 2009 - The Hague

Last Thursday and Friday (28/29 May) it was time for Microsoft DevDays. First thought when I was asked if I wanted to attend this event, was that it was not the right place for a 'functional' developer, because (in my mind) it was just about 'tech' stuff. But after having a look at the sessions, it turned out that there were some interesting sessions planned for me.

So here is a small summary of my experience:

The website
Initially, I liked the website. Looked nice. But after a while, I got annoyed by the fact that several sessions still did not have additional information (additional besides the title). Not even 1 day before the event took place. It also looked nice that you could make your own agenda. Great! However, my 'own' agenda turned out to be the 'normal' agenda with my selected sessions highlighted. And I could not find a (normal) way to print my agenda. So in the end, I just wrote the interesting sessions on a piece of paper and took it with me (like many others did as I saw). That can be greatly improved next year. Also very annoying is the fact that if you have a look at the sessions on Friday, and use the IE back button, you end up in the sessions of thursday. Another improvement for next year.

The location
The location World Forum in the Hague was great. The organization on the 2 days itself was also good. Great lunch, in between sessions refreshments were available. Even in the morning, 'ontbijtkoek' and some other bread rolls were served. A lot of stands of Microsoft and partners were there where people could ask 'experts'. Every member of the organization had a special shirt with his/her role on the back (speaker, staff, expert, etc.) making it easy to contact someone. There was one big disappointment: the session planning booklet. First of all, the sessions were ordered by the location / room, making it difficult to find a session for a specific time slot. Second, the way the sessions were presented on the website (by time line or by topic) was totally different. Everyone had trouble finding the right session he/she selected from the website. Another improvement for next year!

And now for the sessions:

A lap around Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Team Foundation Server

Although the description of the session already said it was a 'demo-intensive tour of the new capabilities in Team Foundation Session', I found it very difficult to follow the presentation. The speaker Adam Barr showed new possibilities and what TFS could do for 'you'. For me, it was very detailed and since I do not have experience with TFS, was difficult to understand the presentation.

Building better user interfaces

The speaker of this session was Jason Beres who is Director of Product management at Infragistics. His key message was to listen to the customer, to include the customer in the design process. He explained that there are a lot of User Interface Patterns and advised to have a look at Quince for them. Here users can also add new patterns or add examples of existing patterns. He ended his session with the hall of fame and shame. He explained why several websites or messages belonged in the hall of shame (even though it was obvious for the websites). Like a message explaining that something went wrong. But not telling the user what to do next. I would have liked it if he also explained why some websites were in the hall of fame.

Test Essentials 2010: The year of the tester

After reading an article of James Whitaker about how a tester should make a developer a better developer, I really wanted to attend this session. I was disappointed by the fact that he was not able to speak at the DevDays and was 'replaced' by Ed Glas. He gave a nice presentation but did not have the 'wow' factor in his presentation (as he said in a later session, James gives a better presentation, he knows more about the product). He basically gave a nice overview of 'what's new' in Visual Studio Team Test. And even though I have no experience with VSTT, it was not a problem for me to understand the presentation. I really liked his statement that it all begins with manual testing. As he states: automatic testing can only take place when the application works (at least at one point in time). And how do you know if an application works? By manual testing. He talked about how 'quality' should be defined and that testers do not basically assure quality, but that they shine a light on the product (in order to to find bugs)! Even though I have no experience with Visual Studio Team System, I could follow the presentation and liked it.

Data visualizations and dashboards

The speaker of this session was also Jason Beres (same as 'Building better user interfaces'). I even liked this session more. He explained the most important things to think about when creating dashboards. What a common 'mistake' is, is that too much information is being shown in a (part of a) dashboard or graph. Most of the time, simplifying the dashboard or graph really improves the way the viewer can understand it. The goal of the dashboard / graph always has to be the starting point (what do I want to show here, what is most important). He stressed that a dashboard is for a 'quick' view and details should be shown in a different page or table. He highly recommended the book Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few for anyone involved in (creating) dashboards.

TFS 2008 Best practices - 6 ways to ensure quality

Speaker Neno Loje gave a nice overview on how TFS can be used to ensure quality (and can be adjusted to the needs of the company using TFS).
His 6 ways:

1. Work item workflows,


2. Quality gates: a gated check-in where the checkin first is validated
   before it is actually checked in.


3. Code review: as he explained, you can define (within TFS) some kind of
   process to do this, but it was not an separate part of TFS


4. Isolate by feature


5. Build verification tests: configurable build options, for example to
   create a build after each checkin and when the checkin fails (due to the
   quality gates), no other checkin's are allowed until the failed one is
   solved.


6. Trend analysis

How development is done @ Microsoft

Gert Drapers gave an overview of how his team is doing their work and why they do it like that. One of the things he told was that people are trained to give good estimates on the duration of the work, explaining that it costs time to train the people, but that it is important to create a good / realistic planning. He also told about the Bug Jail at Microsoft: when a developer exceeds a set number of bugs (in his flow), he is put in the Bug Jail and has to drop everything he is doing and solve the bugs. He explained that previously the team would first finish the feature(s) and after that would have (some) time to solve the bugs. However, that way of working was actually more work (took more time) than how they are doing it now.

When testing meets the future

This session was also planned to be presented by James Whitaker and was again 'replaced' by Ed Glas. He gave the presentation the title 'Test automation in Team Test 2010' and explained the different testing 'area's': from a Generalist (doing manual testing) to a Specialist (doing coded UI tests). The Test essentials part of Team test is especially suitable for the Generalist tester. The (rest of) Team test is especially suitable for the Specialist tester and contains Web test, Load test, Unit test and UI test. The Web, Load and Unit tests were already available in Visual Studio, the UI test is new in Team test 2010. The presentation had some overlap with the Test Essentials 2010: The year of the tester session, but Ed adjusted his presentation with some extra information on Web testing. For me, the details of Load testing and Unit testing were a little outside my working area. I wonder what kind of presentation James Whitaker would have given.

So overall, it was a good event 'even' for functional developers!

Group thinking

Yesterday, I read a column of Roos Vonk in the Intermediair about Group thinking. Her statement is that it is not true to think that a group will come to a better decision (because multiple people know more than just one). Apparently, the need to reach a consensus is often in a group stronger than reaching the correct decision.

I really liked the column because it shows really how a group decision taking process is in practice. I recognized the situation that someone in a group (meeting) is considered as being 'difficult' when he or she ask (critical) questions or tries to bring in alternatives. Or that the group nearly reached a consensus / decision, and someone doesn't agree which evokes a reaction of the other group members 'don't start being difficult now we have almost reached agreement!'. I have to admit, I also have had that thought sometimes.

To support the group decision, the group members think 'everyone agrees, so that will be the right decision'. It is not often that someone says 'I don't understand'.

Reading this column, I was kind of glad that I do (try to) ask questions if I don't understand the arguments or situation. Perhaps we should all say 'I don't understand' more often!

Follow up: Importance of a company website

As mentioned in my previous post about the importance of a company website, I would let you know if, when and how a would get a response of the V&D organization about the fact that I cannot find the product warning announcement on their website.

I did get a response on my question (asked via the Contact Form). I send that question on 09:44 (CET) and got a reaction at 13:30 (CET), so that is not bad at all.

It turns out that the product warning IS available on the website. In the response I got on my question, I got a link to that announcement (http://www.vd.nl/vendWebShop/contents/Acties_recall_0509). So that is then oke, you would say. Not completely however for me.

First of all, I had a look and it turns out that the announcement can be found in the 'Actions' menu. Very strange place to put a produce warning announcement!

Then, when you use Internet Explorer 8, you will only see the 'Actions' menu if you have Compatibility mode on.

Unfortunately, still when searching for 'Slaapzak Frendz', I still get no results.
If I search on 'Veiligheidswaarschuwing' (product warning), then will I get to the announcement on the site. But who will search for a 'Veiligheidswaarschuwing' (product warning) if you are not already notified from another source that there is some kind of product warning?

So according to me, this is a missed chance for V&D to have inform their customers pro-actively on their site (or at least make it easy for customers that want more information, to actually find that information!)

Of course, I gave my remarks also to the V&D (with a simple reply to the received e-mail). I have to say that I got again a reply within 30 minutes! Wow, that is great. Also the content was encouraging for the future: they wrote that they appreciated my feedback (as according to them, it demonstrated my involvement with the V&D) and already forwarded it to the appropriate management. With a closing sentence that they hoped to see me as a satisfied customer in their department store, I had a better 'customer experience' than I would have thought this morning.

Importance of a company website

This morning I was listening to the radio and heard an announcement about a product warning for a 'sleeping bag' for babies of their own label (Frendz) of V&D. Because of possible suffication danger, the sleeping bag (several types of it) was not save. According to the radio announcement, more information could be found on the website of the company. When the newsreader mentioned the website, there was immediate discussion on how you have to write the website? Was it www.V&D.nl or www.VenD.nl or www.VD.nl? Probably just try and find out!

Curious as I am, I decided to have a look at www.VenD.nl. On their homepage, there was no announcment about it. Also when I explicitely looked at 'slaapzak Frendz' no results were found:



So, now let's see what Google will come up with:



When reading this product warning, it states that the source of the information comes from V&D (dated May 15th)! So why is this information not available on their own site?!?

This reminded me about a post I read a few weeks ago on how important a website is for a company.

So, again curious on the response process, I asked them via a contact form (where only an e-mail address and name was mandatory) on the website why this product warning was not announced on their website. Let's see when I will get a reaction (and what the reaction will be of course).

I hope V&D (and companies like it) also will understand this and make sure that besides products, also (important) information can be found!

I'll let you know how long it took them to put it also on their own website (if all)...

Music for the deaf

Last week, a friend of mine pointed out a great video on YouTube. The unofficial 'title' is Music for the Deaf and it is a great performance (even another friend who is a Clinical physicist audiologist in training agreed):

Why doesn't Oracle let me unsubscribe?

A few years ago, I did some work on an Oracle database. Due to this, I was 'known' in the mailing list of Oracle (both hardcopy mailings and e-mail).

Since already a while, I do not work on anything of Oracle. However, I still receive e-mails with newsletters or invitations. So how can I get out of the mailing list of Oracle?

At the bottom of each e-mail, there is a sentence that you can unsubscribe to these e-mails. By clicking on this, a new e-mail is generated with a prefilled e-mail address of Oracle. Too bad that the link will not pre-fill the subject. You have to make sure yourself that the correct subject is filled (UNSUBSCRIBE ).

I think I have send this 'unsubscribe-e-mail' already about 20 times. And I still am getting the same e-mails...... Even sending an e-mail to Oracle with the question why this doesn't work did not get any reaction.

Although the action to unsubscribe seems quite easy, it apparently isn't. To me, this has a double negative effect for Oracle: besides the fact that I am now very annoyed when I get yet another newsletter from Oracle, I will think twice before subscribing again to something.

This morning, I learned that a colleague of mine is having the same problem, but with a different company (ICIParisXL). She is also trying to get of their mailing list. So apparently, there are more companies that are kind of refusing to take people of their mailing-lists!

We agreed that a company like ICIParisXL should also handle an unsubscription correctly, but especially a company like Oracle should handle this in a correct matter.

Hopefully, we will succeed someday in unsubscribing!

Learn to share with 'the public'

In the Netherlands, a politician got a reprimand from the prime minister about the fact that he put a photo on Twitter. This photo was taken in a 'closed' meeting room. Although the photo does not display anything that should not be displayed, the prime minister was 'not amused'.
Later that same day, the politician put another photo on Twitter that was taken from his own office (with the remark that he was was not limited in his own office).

The politician that did this (Maxime Verhagen) is using the web to let his 'followers' know what he is doing and gives some insight in his daily work. This is (apparently) very uncommon for (dutch) politicians. With Twitter, he is also communicating with people that he would not speak otherwise. It is very easy to make a reply on a tweet of Maxime Verhagen or ask him a question using Twitter (and he responds most of the time). Imagine that you would otherwise have to write an e-mail (if you would know the e-mail address of course) or letter to make a simple remark (if you would know what the politician is working on) or ask a simple question. That seems to have a larger threshold than just a simple line in Twitter.

Via my Google Reader, I also follow the blog of Barack Obama. I am interested in how he uses the 'modern' ways to communicate with the public. He makes sure that there are regular blogposts, regular video's (placed on YouTube instead of some official government site) and he invites people to give their opinion via the web. His own website or the website of the White House gives a much more dynamic and personal feeling than for example an official site of the government or of the Prime minister in the Netherlands (I have to admit that I was surprised to see the option to an RSS feed!).

I think most politicians can learn something from Barack Obama and Maxime Verhagen about sharing with 'the public'!

Brain training may not be Tell Sell, but it is a bit amazing discovery

In the Intermediair of this week, I read an article about speed reading.

The article tells about someone who (because of his dyslexia) developped new ways of reading / learning more effective.
Apparently a 'normal' person will read between the 200 and 240 words per minute. The record is set to 3850 words per minute (by Sean Adam).

At the end of the first day of the course, most had doubled their reading speed! The second day of the course was spend on excersises for the brain and mindmapping techniques.

I discussed this topic with a few collegues. One of them followed a (kind of) similar course in the past and was rather sceptical about it (he claimed it will work for text that is written in a specific way). Based on the article I read (and the positive feedback of the participants), I again was sceptical about the course that my collegue had followed in the past.

I would be very curious to see if I could raise my reading speed within 1 day!

Anyone else with experience on this topic?

Kabouter Plop

Yesterday, I went to the latest Kabouter Plop show with my children (5 years and almost 3 years old). They really like the Kabouter Plop movies and short films and also like the show in the theater. For the previous shows, we went to the Luxor theater in Rotterdam. This show was (at the time we booked anyway) not shown there unfortunately, so we went to Theater aan de Schie in Schiedam.
Finding the theater was less easy than finding the Luxor theater (you really cannot miss that one). It turned out to be inside some kind of city complex where also a library is situated. You really need to use the directions given on the website of the theater in order to find the theater (and also in order to find the parking garage) if you are not familiar with the surroundings.

But luckily we found a parking place just behind the entrance of the theater (and luckily we parked in a correct space, contrary to some other visitors who had a nice yellow paper behind the wipers of their car).

For the interested ones, here is a small preview:

http://subsites.studio100.be/plop/index2.php

Some things, you never forget

In the last 2 weeks, everyone in the Netherlands was focussed on ice skating.
For me, unfortunetely, I was not able to try it untill yesterday (due to sick husband and children).

So in the afternoon, I went with my daughter (and slee) on the ice. I was a bit worried since (apart from 10 minutes skating a year ago) it was about 10 years ago since I stood on my ice skates. To my big surprise, I put them on and skated on the ice without a problem!!

So ice skating is really like riding a bike: once you have learned it, you never forget how to do it!

That made me wonder why you do not forget how to ride a bike or ice skate (compared to the maths I learned at university and cannot reproduce now). Is it pure the physical excersise or the age that I learned how to do that? Or is it perhaps the intensity of it (I used to ride a bike every day and ice skate every year). A lot of 'knowledge' learned at school (like physics) however is learned within a certain (short) timeframe and (in my case) not used that much afterwards (except again within a short timeframe).

Any ideas about this?