byungsworld

Examples of Noisy Storytelling

2005-05-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Frankly speaking, I am not sure whether I can evaluate as "a noisy storytelling web site" this web site that I am going to mention. However, when I first typed the URL, and a window popped up, I seemed I was in a mess, honestly.

http://www.animal-lovergifts.com

Yes, it has many images and some animated images. Even so, I cannot feel comfortable at all. So, I think this is a really good example of the type of web site that has a lot of images, but that fails to attract users, ironically.

For me, the key concern with a bad example of storytelling is whether or not I can catch what this web site is for at the first glimpse. If I cannot easily understand what it wants to say, it seems to fail to communicate the story as well as the main concept.

These are the web sites that confuse me a lot, or that make me run away from them immediately.

http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/stennille/ST3/desertwq.htm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/desert/desert.shtml

http://www.desert-storm.com

Examplse of Good Storytelling

2005-05-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

Personally, I prefer the web site that has a lot of flash and images helping me concentrate more on contents. Maybe one of the reasons for that is that I tend to easily get sick of reading soon.
Especially when I read academic articles(research) or some topics that I am not interested in, this would be more serious.

Since last quarter, my project team has worked on the project "the Desert Reclamation." When I analyzed the related web sites to our project, I found one web site which has really cool storytelling.

http://www.oneworldjourneys.com/sonoran

The topic regarding to the desert could look boring, and be a little hard to attract users. Why? How many Internet users are interested in moving to the desert and saving global warming?

However, with a really nice flash intro, this web site shows really cool photos and very well-organized stories, and these are absolutely enough to attract those who are not interested in before and visit it without purpose.

Besides this sonoran web site, this company has at least two more fantastic web sites as I know.

http://www.oneworldjourneys.com/jaguar

http://www.oneworldjourneys.com/georgia

These two web sites has the very simialr style to the sonoran desert web site's, of course. However, it is just enough that I applaud them.

These are really awesome!!!

One more...http://whitehouseanimationinc.com/kunstbar.htm

Lo-Fi Grunge Style

2005-05-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.smallprint.net

This is no longer the web site that Curt Cloninger mentioned in the article, Fresh Style for Web Designers: Lo-Fi Grunge Sytle.

http://www.sueellen.org

Now this web site is for photographer, Riku Pihlanto, who shows his/her portfolios here. This photographer shows the masterpieces in a way of photo essay that he arranges a series of photos he has taken. This format is pretty good to see photos, but it seems to me that this is little far from the subject of evaluating how readable it is, with the concept which is mentioned in the article.

http://www.nokiantyres.fi

This looks totally different from the previous style mentioned in the article. When the author picked up this web site, he mentioned in the article like this.

Saksi uses a solid-color block at the top of the page and then repeats that color in the navigation bar to indicate hierarchical location… This site is clean, navigable, and readable, yet still “cutting-edge” enough to appeal to your average quasi-daring, thirty-something mountain biker.

This site completely changed to ordinary format, that is, there are clear grids, and it is more clearly partitioned and formal. I went to the web site regarding “The bicycle tyre unit,” newly opened. - http://www.suomityres.fi/

In my feeling, it looks pretty attractive. Of course, it is hard to say it follows “cutting-edge format” and “a seemingly design-centric style.” However, white color (foreground) on the black color (background), blue cross, and a huge image on the top-left corner are enough to attract the readers, I think. Black and white color arrangement can represent concentration. And the right-oriented blue cross is enough to represent the bike’s dynamic.

http://www.mesoa/com/lite.himl

Like other examples, this site also changed a lot. Through the previous style of this web site, the author explained incorporation of an animated gif into the layout of the collage. – Motion Within a Collage

However, now, this is like an exhibition of who I am, what I know, and what I am able to do. The distinct thing of this web site is the very narrow strips of information in the middle. The author say that this style has a refreshing, relaxing visual quality, and visitor can focus his undelpeted attentions all the more intently on the strip of information. Scrolling? He also said that the spirit of David Carson would say that a bit of intentional scrolling challenges the visitor and gets him involved. Yes, it is. The font size is very small to read. And the font color is unclear on the white background color. However, ironically, I have paid attention to the contents and his/her portfolios.

Archiving Digital Assets

2005-05-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

Building a DAM to last: Archiving Digital Assets

By Alan Zeichick - May 2003 Issue, Posted May 19, 2003

After producing digital assets, what do we have to do with them?

The article, Building a DAM to last: Archiving Digital Assets, by Alan Zeichick, starts with this ongoing argument. This article points out the problem with reuse of DAM.
This argument is so popular and commonsense that there might be no more explanation about it, I think. Both of producing and archiving digital assets are very critical and influence the business value, either directly or indirectly. It definitely makes sense.

Let me tell my interesting story regarding this article as an example.

The article addresses that once the architecture has been determined, it is time to spend money, not only on the software infrastructure, but also physical storage systems. Moreover, a little surprisingly, many digital assets repositories lack a robust backup or disaster-recovery system.
That is my story!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I determined one host company and have stored my digital stuff. Ridiculously, this company’s serve was recently attacked by hackers, so all system was in a mess. The problem is that this company did not serve a backup system at all.

Spend money!!! My problem might be my effort that I was trying to the cheapest hosting service.

DAM, BAM and DRM

2005-05-08T00:29:00.000-07:00

DAM, BAM and DRM

At the very beginning, this article says like this.

It is becoming increasingly important not only to mange contents, but also to control brand assets, digital rights, and more.

Yes.
At the time when the term, digital, was not familiar, it was quite enough to keep it in mind to manage content itself. However, it seems not optional to consider brand asset management and even digital rights management these days. We should be able not only to locate and access their digital assets, but also to exercise complete control over their content, its use, access to it, and more. It is because we live in so-called digital area.

This article shows how good and important such systems as DAM, BAM, and DRM, are.

Thanks to DAM (Digital Assets Management), we can

Easily create new product and services,
Quickly and easily extract content for a new project,
Save time by simplifying the process of locating, retrieving, updating, and archiving assets.

Unfortunately, these are not, however, enough to satisfy our needs in the digital era.
So, BAM (Brand Asset Management) was introduced as a substitute for DAM. Based on the existing capabilities of DAM, new functionality became added: routing, approval, deployment, and repurposing contents for both online and print worlds. Brand assets can cover every part of business process, like helping market, selling, and closing business.

Like BAM, DRM (Digital Rights Management) is introduced to the public as an updated version of DAM. The article says that DRM provides users continued and protected control of contents in an end-to-end system. DRM capability gives the publisher fine-grain control over protected and encrypted contents. In addition, DRM capability adds value and offers additional security.

Then, I needed to figure out DRM in detail, so I looked up the definition of DRM
Wikipedia says,

Digital Rights Management or digital restrictions management (abbreviated DRM) is an umbrella term for any of several technical arrangements which empower a vendor of content in electronic form to control how the material can be used on any electronic device with such measures installed.

The name "rights management" implies that vendors can only use this technology to exercise their actual legal rights. However, nothing in DRM itself guarantees that its use will be restricted in this way. For example, DRM allows vendors to abridge the buyer's fair use rights if they choose, without providing buyers with any corresponding means of asserting them. Thus opponents have come to call the technology by the name "restrictions management."

The actual arrangements are called technical protection measures, although the distinction between the two terms is not particularly clear.

Then, I looked for some examples of the application of DRM to the real business.
This is one business scenario for Window Media DRM.

Rental Services

Many consumers download movies on a rental basis over the Internet to their computers. Windows Media DRM makes this possible by supporting time-based licenses. This means that movie download services can create licenses that satisfy consumer viewing habits while ensuring that the content is used in the way the content owners intended. For instance, consumers might rent a movie that allows them to begin viewing it anytime within 30 days, and for 24 hours once they start playing it.

Windows Media DRM 10 enables this content to be transferred to portable devices that support video playback, such as Portable Media Center devices.

All About Hypertext

2005-05-02T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well, honestly, the very significant reason why I can not follow the authors' intentions might be my unstable understanding of "hypertext." So, I looked into its definition, an wikipedia says,

In computing, hypertext is a user interface paradigm for displaying documents which contain automated cross-references to other documents called hyperlinks. Selecting a hyperlink causes the computer to display the linked document within a very short period of time.

Hmmm...
Then, I read those articles again.
Frankly speaking, what I felt is that they all were explaining hypertext with difficulty vocabulary to understand, at least to me.
Especially, in the article, "patterns of hypertext," Bernstein mentioned - I completely agree with him at this point - that there is no vocabulary to describe the complicated hypertext structures so that it is really hard for the readers to understand the designs.
That is why he analyzed and finally came up with some common patterns, along with some vocabulary.
The patterns he introduced in his article are below.

1. Cycle
2. Counterpoint
3. Mirror World
4. Tangle
5. Sieve
6. Montage
7. Neighborhood
8. Split/Join
9. Missing Link
10. Feint

As Curt told me that this article is a little out-of-date - it was published in 1998, - I wonder how many readers have the same feeling as his. Definitely, in 1998, not many users were not familiar with hypertext itself and its structures. Of course, I do not mean that these days a lot of people can understand the design of structural hypertext that Bernstein depited as complicated one.
I am pretty sure, however, that at least much more people than in 1998 became familiar with what it is and how it is applied to the Web design.

At the end, he mentioned, "By developing a richer vocabulary of hypertext structure, and basing that vocabulary on structures observed in actual hypertexts, we can move toward a richer and more effective hypertext criticism."
Even if I read the definition of hypertext so many times, the reason why I hesitate to explian it verbally might be the lack of vocabulary. I want to think so, and that is still our assignment left to us.

Attractive things work better

2005-04-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

I am sorry to say like this. However, I couldn't keep reading this article to the end.
Attractive things work better.
Aesthetics in product design is now fully applied in many field, and we should consider this perspective in design the web.
These ideas in this article are just commonsense.

As techonology has developed and the number of the skilled web designers has increased, it is true that a lot of web pages look similar. A few days ago, a CEO of Samsung Inc., Mr Lee announced that the key point is "Design" in any field. That is, most have the similar techololgies and skills these days, so DESIGN becomes the most important key factor to succeed.
I definitely agree with him.
In the case of web sites, we have so many choices in looking for the information on the web and in searching for the relevant web site. Imagine that many sites has the similar services. Which site am I supposed to visit? Easily one solution comes up. It is the web site that has attractive design. It's pretty simple.

Anyway, it becomes clear again. Understand what the users want, and which style, color or layout they prefer. That is the key.

My Top Three Tips of the Visual Design

2005-04-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

What are your top three tips for the visual design of a "web story"?

1. Using photos
In online writing, using photos is a very useful tip that not only helps deliver what I want to readers effectively, but also keeps their attentions to articles. Especially, the effect of the second merit is really outstanding so that taking and selecting photos which is willing to be uploaded to the blog often become hard-work to me.

2. Colorful font
Some of online article are too long to lose readers’ attention and interests. In this case, if some important part of the article is highlighted by making it colorful, the effect could be really great.

3. Emoticon
As people have sought any ways to decorate their online writing or homepages more splendid, one of those ways is “emoticon,” short for emotional icon. It is mostly used in instant messenger, such as MSN or Yahoo instant messenger. Even though it is small, it is absolutely enough to express the writer’s emotion at the moment when he/she was writing so it is really useful to let readers figure out the mood of articles without any extra explanation.

traditional narrative element of storytelling

2005-04-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

For me, the traditional narrative elements of storytelling have intrinsically same background as other writing genres because, for instance, the web-based article, looking very technological writing, has the similar elements to be good storytelling. Let me think. Of course, it is based on the article, “The element of Good Storytelling,” by Kimberly Appelcline.

Setting? Sure, it is commonsense. This is necessary to tell what you want to say effectively in either circumstance. All the time, the background of a certain topic is important to understand the intention of the author, of course.
Character? Well…It is really hard to say.
Plot? Of course, it is needed. This is the similar case to setting. There is no doubt that online storytelling would have a lot of digression if it does not have a well-organized plot.
Of course, if online article has backstory and detail, it will really help the readers understand what the author is saying.

My ah-ha in writing

2005-04-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

Keep in mind why I am writing it.
- the importance of coherence and dangerous digression -

The longer the length of the story is or the more complicated the plot is, the easier the overall story could be boring. It might be mostly because of “digression.” In the article, The Elements of Good Storytelling, the author, Appelcline mentions how important coherence is as one of the keys to writing good plot. Yes, I absolutely agree with her because that point is also my weakness in writing. In writing a paper, the length of it often makes me proud of myself. When I proofread it after then, however, I am often embarrassed as well. In most cases, they are poor!!! Although I did them by myself, it is sometimes really hard for me to catch what and why I am saying like that in them. Perhaps, the reason might be the stress of the length and lack of confidence of my writing skills. Due to the stress that I have to write longer and longer and to the lack of confidence that I am not able to write the good story so that I have to describe every moment in detail, I seldom stay on track in writing.

Keep in mind the reason why I am writing it. It will enhance my writing skills and enable my writing more attractive and better.

Production and QA

2005-03-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

The article, "Phase 4: Production and QA," touches on the last part of publishing a web site with three sections: prepping, building, and testing.

About "Production" part, it explains this below at the end of the article, "

query your client,
compose the "Client Spec Sheet,"
consult on feasibility with the visual designers and the information designer,
build the Protosite and test functionality,
receive the graphic templates from the visual designers,
slice and optimize graphics,
build HTML templates and integrate light scripting,
build and populate individual pages,
integrate complex functionality and backend applications and/or engineering, and
test."

(Honestly, I have liked to make a list like this above as I have been working on the team project because it usually serves as a reminder of what I have to do, very thankfully.)

What I was impressed more while reading it, however, is "QA," short for quality assurance. Little different from Usability testing, QA testing is part that is definitely one of the most important stage and that is often skipped due to the limitation of time, budget, knowledge of how important it is, and so on. In detail, during the QA testing, many people, including managers or even clients, would track and fix bug. As examples of mistakes in the site, there are

spelling errors,
orphaned and rogue links,
misplace contents,
broken tables, functional errors,
browser crashes.

And, of course, they should fix those bugs.

As part of my team project assignments, I have analyzed the competitive websites (http://www.onda.org, http://oneworldjourneys.com/sonoran, http://www.desert-divers.com) these days. Three websites that I picked out as good examples of our project have pretty good layout, dynamic multimedia usages, nice color schemes and so forth. As I have reviewed those websites, I have found some bugs even if they look a lot of money and efforts were devoted. Of course, there are just a few mistakes, such as unloaded photos, little misalignment of articles and background, or unavailable categories. Of course, there are just a few but in comparison to their really good graphic templates and other items, I feel sorry that they are not completed perfectly. If they had realized the importance of QA testing and conducted it before launching the site, it would have looked much better.

I think had better read this article again next quarter so as not to be lost in the team project.

Aesthetic Experience and visual composition

2005-02-27T23:11:00.000-08:00

Q. Find both good and bad examples of digital communication aesthetics, based on this author's perspective and prior reading on Gestalt theory.

A good example of digital communication aesthetics

www.hbo.com

This article, by Tim Greenzweig, addresses that the idea of “look and feel” is essentially an issue of how to “decorate” the information. One of the forms of organizing information in his article is ABA form and the site above is a good example of it. In terms of this form, this website has beginning and end components (HBO PROGRMAS and TONIGHT ON HBO or INSIDE HBO) and one middle element (HBO ORIGINAL SERIES). Moreover, on the basis of gestalt theory, this is well-organized site in terms of “grouping” and “continuity.”

An additional example with the same concepts above
www.desertgardens.com

Both sites are just simple; however, such idea might enable the users to understand the contents and to find what they need easily.

A bad example of digital communication aesthetics

www.drc-egypt.com

With the perspective of “the Rule of Third” and other concepts in this article, this site might not be thought as a good website.

Application of Gestalt Principles to the web design

2005-02-14T00:53:00.000-08:00

Q. Find an online design example (good or bad) of three Gestalt Principles. Be sure to provide hyperlinks to the source and explain why you believe it is a good example.

The arrangement of web-based database is very closely related to the web design. In fact, the traditional evaluation of the interface of the web site has mainly focused on the practical aspect of it. As the approach of the theories of “visual perception” has been paid attention, however, the theories of Gestalt Principles have become important in terms of the creative activity in web design.

In this article, there are three Gestalt Principles: Figure/Ground, Similarity, Proximity and Continuity, and Closure, Area and Symmetry.

For me, one of the most important factors to grasp the newcomer’s attention to the web site is that how comfortably the Internet user feels in searching for the specific information or just surfing on the web site. With this perspective, “Continuity” of Gestalt principles comes to me very understandably.

It is said that continuity occurs when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object.

Look at the example of this principle at the web site, www.desert-divers.com

As a team project of Contents Creation class this quarter, our team has worked on the “the desert reclamation” project. As I have searched for similar web sites to this topic, I found this site interesting me.

In terms of continuity principle, this web site seems to be well-organized.
The menu bar is located both on the top and the left, and at the middle of page, there are brief explanations of each category, along with a relative picture. First of all, because these are on the front page, it is not needed to try to find and click one of the several categories tiresomely to get more specific information. More importantly, because each explanation has the same design format, and it is continuously formed vertically (from the top to the bottom), it is very easy and comfortable to figure out what contents are in each categories at the first glimpse.

Design of Complex Information

2005-02-08T16:40:00.000-08:00

Q. How might these be applied, either in the project or in something you are doing at work?

[Main Key Point]
The levels of audience knowledge and ability are variable.

For the reason, the article focuses on the need to analyze and design for user goals and information needs within the situational context in order to maximize communication with the user.

[What is Complex Situation?]
For system, considered computer, data in the context is clear. However, the information is for the user, not computer, and the role of system is just to support the user to understand the information.
Therefore, the system for complex situations has to revolve around effectively providing information itself. The problem at this point is that there are few clear methods to connect the data into an integrated presentation fitting the user goals and information needs.

In the project, the desert declamation, this concept is especially important in that the prospective design of the web site will likely look uncomfortable. It means that there might be a lot of academic information in this web site, and it has to find a method of letting the user know how much information it has than any other similar web site. It is possible that numerous lists of contents might be shown in the front page. In this case, it is most likely to loose the user’s attention to the web site because this method does not consider the diversity of the users, such as knowledge level or interest level.

[Communication in a Complex Situation]
A major focus of technical communication research is methods of defining what information is required and in what form.
The system has to revolve around communication, not features.
Therefore, the information design must focus on effectively communicating with the person interacting with the system, computer. That is, clear information communication is essential so as help the user, user goals and information needs to understand the information in the web site.

Once again, the main reason for the web site is to help the users to approach to their goals, indicating that the design has to revolve around the user, not other factors. In the project, desert declamation, the reason why this web site is going to be published is for those who plan to live or who are already residents in the desert. Nobody knows exactly what kinds of people are considering this matter carefully, what kinds of information the prospective users need, and how well they are able to understand the contents that the web site provides.
It is, of course, needed that there is a lot of information in it. However, if the methods or design of delivering it to the user are uniform, not flexible, these might play a role of preventing the user from searching information they want to get.

Multidimensional analysis for Multiple Audiences

2005-02-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Q. How might these key points from reading be applied, in either in the project or in something you are doing at work?

A way of connecting content with information requirements and ensuring a dynamic document fits varying audience needs

An effective method of analyzing and reaching the audience – Multidimensional Analysis for custom content for Multiple Audiences

“Multidimensional Analysis” for “Multiple Audiences”

To publish a good web site, it is generally aware that analyzing various users’ specific needs is important to approach to them effectively. In this article, Multidimensional Analysis for Custom Content for Multiple Audiences, the author touches on the importance of how to satisfy different kinds of the audiences’ needs in order to successfully deliver the contents in the web site and as an example, the multidimensional analysis is introduced. That is, there are three factors that are required for effective communication: Knowledge, detail level, and cognitive ability.

(1) Reader knowledge of the topic: One of the most important factors to connect the context to the readers effectively is to realize their background or knowledge about the topic well.
(2) Reader-desired detail level: Regardless of the users’ knowledge, the reasons why they visit the web site are different. That is, some want to get information briefly; on the other hand, others want to get in-dept information.
(3) Reader cognitive ability: Regardless of their knowledge and desired details, the abilities of the reader to understand the contents are different as well.

In the team project, the desert declamation, these factors are, of course, essential. In my opinion, the prospective users of this web site are divided into two main groups. One group is those who are already interested in the desert and searching for some information. The other is those who have no idea or a little interest without any reasonable motivation to visit the web site. Especially, if international people whose countries have no desert visit it and the contents are more academic or professional, few will return to this web site again.
The case of the factor, reader-desired detail level, is similar to the first. If the contents are simple and brief, it might not be useful for researchers. In addition, think about the international reader who visits this web site. Even though he already has background and interests in this topic, he feels it does not fit his needs at all if the contents are not established without considering the readers’ reading abilities in English.

Standards, protocols, and language

2005-01-31T01:15:00.000-08:00

Q. How do standards impact our ability as communicators to reach our target audiences? When might we choose to deliver information that does not conform with standards?

The article, “Internet standards, protocols, and language,” leads to think that how important the standards are and how hard they are set up. Simply speaking, the standards are just a kind of rules so as to fluently communicate with other people who live away. Think about the academic conference, for instance. To participate in it for new outstanding research, a lot of scientists or experts come from all over the country. If a researcher read his or her research without any announcement of language in advance and any equipment for interpretation, it is no longer useful for some participants who cannot understand the language of the researcher. That is, standards play a key role to connect one to others effectively. The barriers can be the language, any specific skills, or knowledge. Standards make the significant holes on the huge walls, such as these barriers above, and through these holes, we can reach any place or any target without any serious confusion.

Of course, standards always keep working at any place and any time. Especially, if the concern with the exception is for security, standards might be ignored. When I did military service about 7 years ago, one of my duties was to deal with confidential document. Because of the tasks, I had to work for myself and to learn some unfamiliar skills. One of them was to understand the system of fax machine I would use. Because my camp was independent so as to control and supervise many other units (or camps) secretly, the system of transmitter, such as fax machine, has to be obviously different from ones of unites as well as other nonmilitary communities. Therefore, we needed our own system, not standards that were used generally.

Let's avoid "Groupthink."

2005-01-30T23:57:00.000-08:00

Q. How might your team implement processes to avoid this pitfall?

A couple of years ago, in Korea, there was a stunning TV ad which encouraged people to examine themselves or the society. There is one guy around a lot of people in the ad. When the rest of those people say, “Yes,” only this guy says, “No,” along with the narration that we need this courage. This is an example that represents one of our embarrassing phases our society has had. As a matter of fact, we have thought and learned that in an either large community or small group, we have to respect others’ opinions and attitudes and that we have to consider our team or society rather than individuals in order to develop any larger groups where individuals are involved.

Behind many advantages of this concept, there are some disadvantages. Most of all, it tends to prevent individuals from thinking freely and giving his or her own opinions honestly in case that idea or the majority differs from his or her one. This attitude absolutely does not help develop the appropriate decision-making.

At the first meeting when we first met each other as team members, we came up with some kinds of rules.

- Be honest.
- Do show respect and listen carefully even if any member gives any opposed opinions to general opinions of the team.
- Do not be rude.

In fact, these sound too basic and simple to ignore them. The reason we mentioned them at the very first meeting might be that each members seemed to realize the seriousness of “Goupthink.” Any specific explanation is not needed in the case. “To be honest.” And “be aware of the reason why we work on the team project together.” These might be the simple and fundamental but very important solution to avoid this pitfall.

Importance of the Role of the Moderator

2005-01-24T01:49:00.000-08:00

Q. Based on class discussion and reading, which team role most appeals to you? Why?

As well as the article, “Web Team Role,” this new article, “Publishing Team: Roles and Organization,” have convinced me of the fact that there are a variety of positions or roles in team project and that each team member plays a critical role for success. Yes, it is absolutely right. As it was already mentioned in class, however, this is literally an ideal environment and could be expected in just leading organizations in the world of business. Of course, there is no doubt that these articles are pretty enough to understand each team member’s role and its significance.

Back to the article, “Publishing Team: Roles and Organization.” Interestingly, I found one team role that grasps my whole attention. That is the “moderator.” Briefly, the key role of the moderator is these:

- facilitating and leading discussion in a discussion board or chat room;
- editing and formatting posts;
- asking questions of members of the online community;
- archiving discussion;
- deleting and adding subscribers to mailing lists;
- deleting defamatory messages and spam; and
- marketing and explaining the online community to potential subscribers.

Unfortunately, it is true that some companies do not pay attention to this role well although they have well-organized web sites. Such companies seem to think that if there is pretty good information or web designs are attractive enough, customers become interested in and visit the web sites often. (Maybe, there are just a few that think so. Probably the situations, such as lack of employees, time, or money, do not allow such companies to do so.) However, I am sure that this role is as important as other main roles, like publisher, managing editor and so on. Let me introduce one example of why it is pretty essential.

In Korea, there is one leading company which wipes out all kind of harmful insects, such as rats, ants, spiders or cockroachs. One of the key factors to become a leading company in this case is apparently the role of the moderator. This company’s discussion board is very famous enough that some mainstream media have introduced it as a successful model of the web site. The Internet users ask something, related to the harmful insects, and the company always responds VERY QUICKLY! More importantly, they respond to even ridiculous questions very kindly as well.

Q: “When I watched TV, I found that a lot of disgusting insects (in fact, politicians) live in the National Assembly (or Congress). Is there any way to take them out of that place?”

Q: “Suddenly, my husband became a grasshopper after marriage. (a lazy man in Korea.) Please let me know the solution.”

Q: “What is your company able to do in the place where there is no insect?
A: “We will be keeping doing our best to keep insects don’t exist.”

Q: “Among Cinderella, the lady in Beauty and the Beast, and Snow white, which person is most beautiful?”
A: “Thank you for~~~. When my friends met my girlfriend, they told me that we looked like the animation, “Beauty and the Beast.” For that reason, I am sure the lady in “Beauty and the Beast” is most beautiful.”

The responses to such questions look serious like the real solutions, but are very humorous, interesting, and funny. The numbers of those who visit this web site have increased, and finally this strategy has impressed people enough. Many people started to keep in mind that this company, www.cesco.com, seems to be only one company which is able to manage. As a result, this company is still the top!!!

Q2. the favorable way to communicate with other members

2005-01-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

How do you prefer to communicate with team members? Why?

Of course, communicating with team members effectively is absolutely important. In my opinion, there is no best way to communicate with team members because it is different according to the situation. One of the best ways for me is the mixture of such ways. Discussion face to face is, of course, really good. However, it is little hard to expect that all members give their best opinions or ideas at the moment in the meeting. That is why using e-mail is needed as well. I think this way is really good for those who are not only shy but also think carefully and give their opinions at the same time.^^

Q1. The basic factor team members should have

2005-01-17T17:31:00.000-08:00

Think of a team you've worked on before. Was it effective or not? Why?

According to the website, www.growthdesign.com, there are top three characteristics of effective teams: believing in each other, understanding power in and around the team, and common commitment to values and purpose. Of course, these are definitely critical with no doubt. As we already know, however, only these three factors do not guarantee the success of the team project in practical, which means there are plenty of variables influencing the outcome of the team project. Of lots of key factors, one of the most important things I'd like to mention here is the active participation of each member.

In 2001, I first got an opportunity to do team project and it was about the marketing strategy of Toyota in Korea. The reason I still remember it is that it was not only first project but also really hard work for me. Apparently, the project was not much stressful task. The problem was inside the team, not the task. We were four and did not know each other. That was the first problem my team had. However, more serious problem was the fact that some members did not actively participate in the project. If every member tries to do his or her best for it, the first problem I mentioned above can be covered fortunately. However, if members keep the passive attitudes and show just little interests in it to others, the shared tasks which each member should do might increase and other members might frustrate easily as a result. Because we did not know each other well, we could not force or drive them to do the shared task with their best. Unintentionally, I became a team leader and I could not do anything but doing almost the whole process by myself. I have not known the reason why they did not concentrate on the project yet and it seemed to me that the project was absolutely allocated to only me, not the "so-called" team.

The active participation might be considered "passion." There is no doubt that being open-minded, respecting each other, or listening carefully is absolutely important. If the active participation or passion is not basically prepared, however, other key factors for success of a team project might be hardly expected.

Taking a rest

2005-01-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

It's time to feel so good.