why are my web sites so messy?

A web page I have recently written for dyd.co.nz to explain why my web sites tend to be a bit messy:


Good question! I look at other web sites, even those similar to mine, and think - they are so tidy and ordered. In fact it is a standard these days to make a web site (or a blog site which is often similar) as appealing as possible with regard to structure, ease of navigation around the site, understanding what the site is all about. The expectation that web sites will be "tidy" is now so entrenched in "web lore" that most people coming across a messy site will probably say to themselves "what is this?" and go away again rather than make any effort to explore the site.

In some ways this is a pity, because the World Wide Web is not tidy - in fact it is a big big mess. It is made tidy by the layers of software that we usually use to access it; but if we access the web in its "raw" form then it is quite a different matter. And yet, by trusting our access to these software overlays we are potentially missing out on a large part of the richness of the internet.

 There clearly needs to be a balance here. We don't want to explore the web only in ways dictated by software, that has often been written not only to make access look tidy but to direct us to particular places on the web. Yet we also don't want to have to work out how to search the web from "scratch" each time we want to find something (and of course most people would have no idea how to access the web without using the software overlays, browsers etc.).

One form of software overlay will help users produce "nice looking" web sites. This software will certainly help produce a site that meets current web site "standards", but it usually comes with an efficiency cost; that is it will take more time and effort to produce the site, using this software, than just putting material on the site directly. I would rather put my time (which is limited) into putting content onto the web, rather than making it all look pretty.

The human mind is not a pretty place. The human mind is more like the "raw" world wide web. This is why we can have such interesting conversations with people, make amazing connections between ideas and thoughts in our minds and build concepts that have fuzzy boundaries.

So, my choice is to put effort into putting content onto the web - not making it look nice and possibly easier to retrieve - and to have a web site that is more like a human mind than a structured history book. I believe that this will make it a more useful site in the long run, particularly as software designed to extract data from the internet, in all sorts of forms, gets more sophisticated.



Denys yeo

upi:dyd-dgyeo

111211

Digital Presence update 07/12/11

 

An update on how I am progressing with my digital presence project. Comments here based on the two key elements I am working on, developing a pervasive and enduring presence. For a general summary of my digital presence project go to: digital presence summary

Pervasive presence

My main measure of developing a pervasive presence has been search returns on my name, and my upi over time. With Google these hit rates have increased dramatically over the time I have been working on my digital presence.

It is important to keep working on a range of web type activities. Commenting, blogging, video, indexing on Twitter etc. It is relatively easy to keep working on areas that are efficient and put off some of the posting activities that take a little more time an effort. I have attempted to deal with this by developing a schedule of posting activity that I can cycle through each day, and working to make posting activity more efficient.

It is important to keep an eye on web activity that is more likely to be picked up by a search engine. Video from You Tube still tend to dominate search results.

I am making sure that I put my name and upi into as many posts as possible.

Linking to other sites and other site activity is important. Even if links are not used immediately they are available for use in the future, adding to the diversity of material on the web.

I am still trying to put as much material on the web as possible without worrying too much about how it might eventually be used. Frequently these days there are articles about how computers are getting better at extracting data from the web; I think this part of the equation will develop over time, but will only be effective if there is a substantial amount of material for it to extract.



 Enduring presence

I am tending to comment primarily on sites that I believe will be operational over the longer term future. These include, The New York Times, The Guardian and Scientific American. It is important to get a balance between commenting on sites that may be more enduring, and maintaining the goal of being pervasive.

I am beginning to use sites such as 1000memories to store some data, not because I necessarily think they are more robust than some other sites, where a reasonable amount of data can be stored, but because the have a commitment to long term archiving of material. In the end there are no guarantees but a commitment of this sort has to be considered when looking at developing an enduring presence.

I am indexing as much material as possible on Twitter. Twitter I believe will still be around for a while, and is a useful way of storing web activity from both a pervasive and enduring perspective. I think Twitter does have a Tweet limit of about 2000 so this may be a metric to watch out for.

I have begun to put more material on Blogger. Again, this may violate the rule regarding pervasiveness, but I suspect Blogger may be around for quite a long time, given that it is owned by Google. I think Blog sites may be at risk so choosing sites that are more likely to last is important.

I have begun to place more material onto Facebook, again because this service is now well established at the number 1 social media site and will almost certainly last well into the future. I also quite like its new time line feature.

Setting up multiple versions of material, and interlinking material posted onto the web is important. For example, if I write a blog it is available on my hard drive program as well as on a blog site. I think it is still unwise to rely on material surviving on the web only, multiple hard drive copies are also necessary to ensure that data endures.

I still feel that if material is placed on the web to ensure it is pervasive, this in itself will increase the chance that it will endure. That is diversity and repetition is important. Nevertheless, there is some tension between putting material on some sites, just to be pervasive, when I am aware that the site may not survive and therefore in this case diversity may not lead to an enduring presence.

new blog page

I have just set up this new blog space to place material related to my digital presence project. Currently some of this material is in my dgyeo blog; however dgyeo will now become mainly related to blogs to do with things that I find interesting, unless of course that interesting thing is to do with digital presence in which case the material will probably be found here!

upi:dyd-dgyeo