Frank Carver's Punch Barrel » video

Two good videos

Frank — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:09:52 +0000

Monday was a bank holiday, so I found a little time to catch up with some of the web videos in my queue.

First I watched an inspiring session from TechCrunch Nordic which likens achieving an “exit” for a startup company to dating. Fun, and with a strand of truth.

TechCrunch Nordic – Tommy Ahlers from Mike Butcher on Vimeo.

Anyone running a startup, or thinking about it, should watch this one.

Second I watched a presentation ostensibly about Kanban and “single piece flow”, but really about much wider issues in planning and managing software development. I found the approach presented particularly interesting as it correlates very well with where my thoughts are at right now.

This video is best watched at infoq, to see both the presenters and the slides

Anyone working in software development, or managing a software project really needs to watch this one.

Another inspiring talk from Kathy Sierra

Frank — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:48:14 +0000

Kathy’s talks are usually very good, and this one is no exception. This fit really well with a business idea I’m working on at the moment and prompted a whole new way of thinking about it.

Kent Beck on Agile and Lean for startups. A must-watch video

Frank — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:26:09 +0000

Kent Beck, rightly well-known for Extreme programming, Test-Driven Development and jUnit gave a really thought-provoking talk at the Startup Lessons Learned Conference in San Francisco on April 23, 2010.

Watch live video from Startup Lessons Learned on Justin.tv

If you are at all interested in software and/or startups, this is well worth a viewing.

Via Energized Work.

Recasting Ed Zwick’s moviemaking rules for a startup software business

Frank — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:37:35 +0000

1. Remember to breathe. You’ve probably worked for two years to get to this moment, and there’s no guarantee you’ll ever get to do it again. You might as well enjoy it.

2. The computer is a Buddha. It sees the world as it is and does exactly what you tell it. It doesn’t implement your expectations or your fantasies. Try to see as the computer sees.

3. No design survives contact with the users. Research, analyse, test and prepare. Then be ready to throw it all away when real users don’t do it like that.

4. A good idea can come from anywhere. You might as well listen to what others have to say because you’re going to get the credit (and blame) anyway. Your programmers, salesmen, accountants, admin folks, project managers, cleaners and so on have probably used a wider range of software than you have even heard of. Joel Spolsky calls this “hallway usability testing”

5. Life is messy. It doesn’t stop while you’re talking on the telephone. If it feels too comfortable, it’s probably wrong; if it feels right it’s probably too slow.

6. No software can ever be simple enough. Surgeons, cops and priests have a lot on their minds, but they still need your software to work right.

7. A user’s attention span is even shorter than yours. Give them something useful, valuable, compelling and obvious everywhere, all the time. As Steve Krug puts it, “Don’t make me think”!

8. The users define the software, the software doesn’t define the users. Unless you have a style, don’t act as if you do.

9. Make your software for one person at a time. Imagine your fourth grade teacher sitting alone in the dark.

10. Where there is no solution there is no problem. At some point in every project, the company management loses faith in the product and the employees loses faith in the company management. Somehow it all works out.

If you are more interested in making movies, see the original at: Ed Zwick’s Golden Moviemaking Rules | MovieMaker Magazine.

Lessons from the art of storyboarding

Frank — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:38:15 +0000

Storyboarding is a traditional and very useful technique for planning and checking film, video, and other visual arts. Presentation Zen points out that it is also a powerful technique for making better presentations.

Presentation Zen: Lessons from the art of storyboarding

Agile Advocate’s videos on Vimeo

Frank — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:14:22 +0000

Agile development, Lego, and video – what a combination! A cute series of short stop-motion videos explaining agile techniques.

Agile Advocate’s videos on Vimeo.

Update: the figures in these videos are, of course PlayMobil, not Lego. That’ll teach me to blog in a hurry

Television and Online Communities

Frank — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:06:22 +0000

There are lots of online communities, filled with active and passionate people – exactly the sort of people TV would like to court, both as consumers and as providers of (cheap?) media content. However, most attempts by TV companies to engage and participate in the on-line culture have been pitiful.

How is it that organisations with such marketing power have continually failed to make sense of this opportunity?

Scott Stead has written a thought-provoking article on the subject, and (in the manner of on-line communities) visitors have enhanced it further with their own comments.

Television and Online Communities

How much is really new?

Frank — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:27:57 +0000

I read a lot of blogs and articles about education, software, and video. It’s often interesting to observe the differences and the similarities between these largely separate fields. In education, for example, the casual use of the internet for sharing and collaborating which characterises modern software development is seen as a new and contentious area of exploration. When shown examples such as this it’s easy to become blasé and to assume that software practice is at the cutting edge of everything.

Ted Neward points out that this is surely not true, and give some examples where software teams have a lot to learn from other fields such as management, sociology and anthropology.

Interoperability Happens – The Myth of Discovery

Some links about commercialising video content

Frank — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 05:46:22 +0000

My link queue is filling up again. Here’s two links on commercialising video content.

Hey, Grandma, Let’s Put Up a Video Portal! – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com

How Google Plans to Take Over TV

10 Tips for Better Audio in Digital Video Production

Frank — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 12:53:26 +0000

Not rocket science, but a good list of tips none the less.

10 Tips for Better Audio in Digital Video Production | B&H Photo Video Pro Audio