Hi! I'm a drawing of Catherine. She does most of the writing here, including this blurb. (Does this count as writing in the third person?) Catherine believes that websites don't really run on technology, they run on emotions. If you agree, then she wants to help you rock it out and be awesome online.A brief interruption to the Website Heresies…
So, I was having a conversation with Catherine on the weekend about my Bold Plans to put together a new product for Be Awesome Online, with a tech focus. In the midst of discussing three possible plans, Catherine dropped the following question, leaden with purpose.
“Have you asked people what they want?”
That right there is the magic of Catherine, folks. Pointing out the obvious, the necessary, the next step. While your brain (mine, at least) is confecting grand sugar-spun tapestries, she reminds you of the absolutely necessary thing that part of you already knew, but had forgotten. Despite the fact that I’m reading The Four Steps To the Epiphany at the moment (like all the cool kids), I’d completely forgotten to validate the direction I was thinking to boldly start charging in.
So.
The purpose of this post is to correct that oversight. I will pledge my undying love and loyalty forever, if you could drop a comment responding to this post. Let us know where your technical pain is currently. Are there particular questions you’d like answered, or dim areas you’d like illuminated? If the Tech Fairy could wave a wand and fix something for you, what would it be?
I’d originally intended this post to accompany a survey. But after doing some thinking, I suspect the questions I’d put together would still be too far inside the mental box that’s in my head. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and I’ll use that as my sextant to help you set sail for Tech-Pain-Free Awesome.
Here's the sad part about asking those questions: The non-Tech people don't know what they don't know.
Direction please? I think a survey would be awesome.
Whoa! Kevin is alive and posting!
Easier. All of it.
Right now, I'm looking at streaming audio, site design, social network (not that I think the world needs another one), site management, and a few other technical details (internal network, etc), and everything should be easier.
Really, we can't strip out half the tech that is a barrier to entry at this very second? We can't make most of these hurdles go away? We really need TCP/IP, and subnet masks, and DNS, and bandwidth issues, or we really have to deal with PHP syntax, or CSS that's hard to work with, or just finding that one little piece of code that keeps us from focusing on what we really want to say?
When the barrier to entry stops interfering with what we have to say, do, or produce, then the whole internet is going to be that much more fun. How often do I have to put something on hold because the tech makes it difficult? I have a project I want to start soon, and I have so many technical details I have to worry about, the passion is getting sucked right out of me. I shouldn't have to fight that. And I know enough about it all to be dangerous, but that isn't nearly enough.
I want it to be easier, and I want it now.
As the 80s classic goes, “aaaaaaaalliiiive and kicking”.
Ask and you shall receive, Pam. I'll put my thinking cap on and put a survey together over the next few days, because you raise very good points – you don't know what you don't know.
Thanks muchly for the feedback!
I hear you, I really do. My first instinct is to say that it has improved a lot, but that's being an apologist for the system. There are still all of these stumbling blocks that get between us and doing awesome stuff.
There are amazing tech demo videos going back as far as ten years (probably more) showing flying-car-level technology that never quite seems to get here. I remember in particular an AMAZING demo two years ago of a browser enabling data mashups in an incredibly flexible way. It was like watching Mickey Mouse in the Sorceror's Apprentice, rather than the labour-intensive floor-tiling way of doing things that it can feel like it always breaks down to.
So if we were to chip at the edges of your frustration with your new project, is there a particular pain point that stands out? Where would be a good place to start shovelling?
Oh, I hear you. The tech is sooooo much better than it used to be. If I were 18 years old in this day of personal publishing, I would see the possibilities as being endless. It's an amazing thing, and the tech keeps getting better and better, and the usability get's better and better.
My first stab at blogger was in 1999, and it was frustrating enough that I was too caught up in the tech to get to what I wanted to say. Now, I start working in wordpress and I can have a basic site up and running quickly. Believe me, I love that aspect of things.
Ok, where to start…. I think I would start with site management and design. Either that, or streaming (which I'm starting to get a handle on, and some of it is a matter of throwing money at the problem). Looking at the tools out there, either I have to start digging into PHP to make something work well enough or customize enough to get away from a blog, or start with a system like Joomla, and (as easy as it is considering the way things used to be) read, digest, and assimilate book after book to become versed enough to handle the site management and issues on my own.
And the thing is, do that while I have a real world job that keeps me fed and with a roof over my head until either the gamble pays off or I just go under and give up.
Reading all of that back, I sound like a whiner. I sound like I just don't want to put the effort into learning all the tools that are out there. But frankly, I don't want to be an SQL admin, or a PHP code writer, or any of that. I like putting stuff out there, blogging and podcasting, editing audio and posting content. That's what I want to do, and suffering through manual after manual just to get the content out there isn't what I want to do.
Does it sound whiny? Seriously, let me know. I have been dealing with faking my way through WordPress for a few years, cutting and pasting PHP and trial and error with CSS editing, and I feel like there has to be an easier way.
Hmmm … I thought you *were* Catherine. What did I miss?
As for your question, I personally have been a web developer for several years and don't come to this blog to alleviate tech pain. I come for the clearheaded, punch-you-in-the-gut, laser targeted, obvious (though not while your in the throes of it), logical, genuinely CARING ideas, questions and feedback that Catherine gives about building a web presence – not the blog itself. Perhaps I'm different than most of your readers, though.
“Here's the sad part about asking those questions: The non-Tech people don't know what they don't know.”
I think Pam said it best there.
The problem is that i don't know what's causing me tech pain until it causes me pain. (although right now I'm about ready to punch the wordpress developers. I use exactly the same code with a different category name, and one of them works and one doesn't.)
Post a survey and I'm sure there will be things on there that will make people go – “Ooh cool. I never knew I needed to know how to do that.”
Teeny tiny thought… does the category that doesn't work have spaces in the name?
Yes, but so does the category that does work. “5 Mutant Smileys” works, “5 Stay Puft Marshmallow Men” doesn't. neither does “5 Star Dodginess” I'll probably just hack together an engineering solution. (i.e. get it to work in some ugly way that'll cause problems for a real designer later on)
Hi Wendy! Looking at Engage Your Strengths, you've certainly got the tech side of things squared away. And that's completely cool.
Separate to Catherine's precision-targeted advice, the major benefit I try to provide is explaining the complex side of tech in simple terms, or breaking down critical tasks into a logical series of steps.
You're absolutely right in that that's not useful for everyone.
Was very interested in your comments on the recent posts, too Wendy. Lovely feedback (I agree with what you said 100%, too!)
I'll have a tinker in the WordPress Lab with this and see if I have a revelation, Gareth.
Sorry for taking so long to respond!
No worries. I'm just ignoring the problem at the moment, and I'll hack together something that works once I decide to go back and sort it out. It either has to do with wordpress, or the Artisteer generated theme, or, and this is the most likely explanation, my lack of understanding of technical things. (my approach to coding is to find someone who's managed to do it and copy paste)
I will probably spring for a layout redesign at some point, once the site can finance it itself.