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Posted on July 30th, 2009
Recently there has been a spate of bad stories about companies completely messing up the response to tweets on Twitter. As a user myself I see my share of that. But sometimes good conversations come out of it, as was the case with one of our local news stations.
BayNews9 is a local Tampa, FL news station providing 24-hour news on one of the local cable channels. Their website is clean, easy to use, and most importantly, frequently updated, so I get a lot of my local news from them. In addition to their site, they have a Twitter account, @bn9 which they use to post upcoming stories, breaking news alerts, and anecdotes throughout the day.
Normally I ignore the meaningless drivel type tweets such as “All this rain is making me sleepy! :) ~Jody”. But occasionally tweets cross the line from personal messages to actual bias in the stories they are reporting on. Some examples:
- “@kinaton Animal Control is the local Animal Services, county-run. I’m thinking they can sue the county? I’d be so upset!”
- “I think if a team takes him, they’re going to have an uphill battle with fans and a public outcry.”
- “Big Al here: So why does a guy 16 allegedly kill a 60 year old dude? Answers tonight at 5.”
This bothers me mainly because I want my news to be news, not a biased report of the news. I want to see solid journalistic integrity. For example, the first two tweets – instead of opinion, they could do some research to see if it was possible to sue the county, under which cases other people had done it, and how that applied here, and done it in a pretty neutral way. Same with the second – don’t give your opinion, go interview fans and find out if there’d be a “public outcry”. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, of course, but if you are posting tweets from your news agency’s official Twitter account, it should be focused on the journalistic side, not the “Let’s throw something and see if it sticks” side.
In general, I care, but not enough to actually write a letter to the editor or anything. After all, it’s just a Twitter account for goodness sakes. But one recent Tweet (which has since been deleted) happened to come in while I was in front of a Twitter client, so I did a simple @ reply suggesting that they not use opinions in their tweets. I may have been a little harsh, but I want to be able to trust them:
What could have transpired was a nasty conversation that would have led to them being in the news headlines somewhere. Instead what transpired is an example of what to do as an organization using Twitter.
Initially I got an apologetic reply from the poster. But then about an hour later I got a direct message from Al Ruechel asking about how they could improve. We eventually exchanged email addresses, and we were able to have a great conversation about Twitter in general, how BayNews9 is using Twitter, and ways to more effectively use it. For example:
- Create accounts for each anchor using the service now – @bn9_al, @bn9_leigh, etc. Let them write whatever they want there. It actually would help in another way – everyone posting to the @bn9 account wouldn’t have to sign their name
- Have the @bn9 account retweet upcoming stories or links posted from the individual accounts. That would remind people about the other accounts, and keep them from having to cross post
- Use or create a Twitter client which makes it easy to switch between accounts, and could even schedule an auto-retweet for certain tweets (for example, @bn9_al could say, “Big surprise in the NFL Draft coming up on the 9pm show”, and then click a button which would post that, and then post a retweet using the @bn9 account)
To me, this was a great response because a good conversation and connection happened, and even if they don’t change anything at all, I got the chance to feel like I was heard. And sometimes, that’s all people want.
Posted on July 27th, 2009
The official nominations for the Agile Alliance are out, and I’m on the list. My position statement is below, but there are a couple of other things I want to add.
There were two key reasons I am interested in being a part of the board. The first is because I am not a consultant, and I want to see more industry people on the board. This means that we as an industry have to see membership to these kinds of things as important and be willing to make the time for our people to be a part of it. It’s a shame that the board has to be made up with primarily consultants because they can modify their schedules to make the time work.
The second is the bridge across the groups. If you look out onto the agile landscape, there are so many choices and it keeps growing – Agile Alliance, Scrum Alliance, APLN, the Lean Consortium, etc. Each is important, but there’s no reason that we shouldn’t all be collaborating so that people can find the information they need without having to jump through lots of hoops.
There are, of course, changes that I think need to be brought about as well. I am interested to see who the board ends up being and the directions we’ll be able to take the Agile Alliance in.
My official position statement is below. If you are an Agile Alliance member and would like to vote, you can come to the Agile Alliance board meeting Tuesday night of Agile 2009, or vote online. You can also see the full list of people running.
My passion lies in the community. I’ve founded or run several user groups across the country, participated or organized code camps and events (including the TDD Firestarter and Day of Ruby events in Florida). In addition, I’ve worked with the Scrum Alliance as their Global Community Liaison to bring a common voice to the community of Scrum professionals worldwide.
I am most excited by this position because of the chance to bridge the gaps in the communities we have. Too many times there is the feeling one must pick a camp – Agile, Scrum, Lean, APLN. But because of the duplication of efforts in some fronts, we miss out on the broader goal – to help people deliver valuable, high-quality software to their customers. Through my work at the Scrum Alliance, the Agile Alliance, and the reaching out to other communities, I believe we can foster change and find common ground while still delivering effective programs and working to further the goals set forth by the board.
My background is as both a software developer and coach. I currently lead a software team inside a large international organization and work closely with the executives and teams across the globe to better the way we write and deliver our software. In addition to my community contributions, I’m involved in the Software Craftsmanship movement, and come to the board as someone who is not a consultant but an employee working to bring change from the inside-out.
Posted on July 17th, 2009
Over the past several months, I’ve seen a resurgence on the various mailing lists I’m on asking a simple question – why aren’t more women in technology, and software development specifically?
For example, on the Software Craftsmanship mailing list, Josh Cronemeyer asked the following:
I was talking to a colleague about the SCNA conference. When I showed her the list of speakers her first response was to point out there were no women in the list. I pointed out that was often the case at small to medium tech conferences. Later I decided my argument was pitiful and just bad logic.
Matt Heusser replied with a link to Philip Greenspun’s blog which said:
What about women? Don’t they want to impress their peers? Yes, but they are more discriminating about choosing those peers. I’ve taught a fair number of women students in electrical engineering and computer science classes over the years. I can give you a list of the ones who had the best heads on their shoulders and were the most thoughtful about planning out the rest of their lives. Their names are on files in my “medical school recommendations” directory.
Matt goes on to further say:
If we want more women in the technical professions, we need to raise the perception of those professions from button-pushing nerds who do fair socially – to highly paid, highly compensated experts who get things done quickly.
Josh Cronemeyer then continues:
It seems like a crux of greenspun’s argument is that women don’t go into science because they understand this is a profession with a bad ratio of reward to effort. This doesn’t explain why already in grade school and Jr. High there is a noticeable gap in science test scores between boys and girls. I don’t think the 8th grade girls have already realized that science isn’t where the good jobs are.
So, to summarize what I’ve seen, women aren’t in technology because there aren’t good jobs, or poor reward to effort, or because we’re a bunch of button-pushing nerds. And while I disagree about the reward to effort (look at the founders of Google, and Facebook, and others), I believe there is something else at play.
What does the typical software development shop look like? Either a sea of offices or cubicles with the lights off, headphones on, typing away at a computer and hoping to not have to talk to anyone. The code you write is immediately deemed as “crap” unless you did it in 2 lines of code with Perl. It’s a constant contest of showmanship and oneupidness. And suggesting change or better ways is viewed harshly unless you have “proven” yourself. For fun, we have LAN parties and all sit in the same room with a different computer, interacting through a computer screen only. And the stereotypical programmer isn’t the healthiest creature, or cleanest, or best dresser.
Let’s also look at the technology itself. Yes, it advances at a rapid pace, but it’s more than that. There is an attitude, an air of superiority around it. “Oh my gosh, you’re still using *IE6*? What a l0s3r.” Software development, and IT in general, is one, big, pissing contest. Let’s whip out what we got, and I’ll respect you if it compares to mine.
In fact, let’s look at the practices in place today. Scrum is wildly popular. “Let’s crush together and KILL THAT FEATURE! First, we’ll shove everything into a backlog. And then we’ll rip it out for a Sprint, where we’ll beat it into submission and throw it out the door at the end. And we’ll do that over and over until the customer says ENOUGH!” Or Extreme Programming – where the most vital practices – Customer Collaboration (Onsite customer), Pair Programming, Test-Driven Development, Customer Tests – are some of the first to go because of the social nature of them. Heck, I’ve heard well-respected leaders in the community say, “Well, the Agile Manifesto was just an excuse for a bunch of guys to go skiing” – and that perception leads to the feeling like this is one giant club where the weak aren’t allowed, and the followers will be cut off.
There are certainly times when I have felt like I wanted to leave the software field. Almost always, it’s around social issues – the politics, the games, the people issues. Further, in order to institute change in our field we have to issue a series of “manifestos” to force people to know that this is about social issues. For example, look at the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto:
Not only working software, but also well-crafted software
Not only responding to change, but also steadily adding value
“Craft” and “Value” are soft words – meaning we have to have a discussion to find out just what that means. We can’t just target some sterile definition.
Not only individuals and interactions, but also a community of professionals
News flash! You being stuck in a cubicle all day just leads you to think you are the best at what you do. And you are the best – at writing code in your cubicle. But if you want to really grow, you have to reach out to others and learn from the better ways. And perhaps show others better ways as well.
Not only customer collaboration, but also productive partnerships
In other words, it’s not just about talking to your customer, it’s about understanding them. What are their needs? What do they want? What keeps them up at night? How can we make that better?
So 8th grade girls may not be thinking science isn’t where the good jobs are, but they can clearly see the community of people on the internet who are the output of the math and science fields who then go into the computer field. A lonely, barren place full of posturing, sniping and showmanship where everyone has to prove that they are better than everyone else, all the time. That’s what we can begin to crack. Turning software development from this testosterone-driven battle royale to an industry where we collaborate, partner, and understand. That would be amazing, and would be a place I could happily see my daughters being a part of. And a place where people of any walk of life would be proud to be a part of.
And that’s what I see as the driving force behind my involvement in the Software Craftsmanship movement, and the other things I’m a part of. Changing our industry to one of, as Kent Beck would call it, appreciative inquiry and cutting out the things that just make us look bad, act bad, and make bad software.
Edit: There are three good resources for Women in Technology I wanted to point out:
- Women in Technology (WIT) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to offering women in all levels of the technology industry a wide range of professional development and networking opportunities.
- WITI – Women in Technology International – WITI’s mission is to empower women worldwide to achieve unimagined possibilities and transformations through technology, leadership and economic prosperity.
- Women In Technology article series -This series is comprised of articles written by women on the topic of “Women in Technology,” which will run through September.
Posted on July 15th, 2009
This morning I was opening an ASP.NET project on my Win7 box in Visual Studio 2008, when a message popped up which only said:
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
If you run into this, there are three things you need to do:
- Make sure you have IIS installed – This sounds silly, but since I had just rebuilt my box, I had forgotten to turn it on
- Make sure you are running VS as Administrator – if you haven’t mapped the ASP.NET Project to an IIS location, then Visual Studio will need Administrator privileges to modify the IIS metabase. Speaking of the IIS Metabase…
- Make sure you have “IIS Metabase and IIS6 Configuration Compatability” turned on – See Robert Boedigheimer’s article which was oh-so-handy.
There’s also a Microsoft Connect Bug that has already been filed and says it will be fixed in an upcoming service pack.
Posted on July 7th, 2009
You may have noticed a new look and feel around the site. Yes, after just 5 years I’ve finally updated the theme for the site, changing entire hosts and blogging platforms in the process. The whole thing went so smoothly that it still feels wrong.
- Hosting Providers – I switched from HostMySite.com (still one of the best hosters ever) to Dreamhost. There were two reasons – I’m doing much more Ruby, and Dreamhost supports that. And Dreamhost has shell access. Besides, I host our other 12-15 sites on Dreamhost, so may as well move it. HostMySite has been so awesome through the years, and rock solid (only one unplanned downtime in the 6+ years I’ve hosted with them).
- Email – HostMySite uses SmarterMail, which, again, has always been rock solid. The switch meant all of my email moved to Google Apps Hosting. So far I’m not totally satisfied, but I am receiving and sending email. I just don’t particularly like the way Google does things for it. And their use of non-standard ports made it difficult to get everything working on my phone – and I still don’t think it’s working right
- Blogging Platforms - This was another biggy. I switched from Blogger to WordPress. To make it more difficult, my Blogger account used FTP Publishing. But here’s how wonderful it was:
- I used Blogger’s Export Blog feature to export my whole blog
- I then used the Google Blog Converters blogger2wordpress to convert the export file to a WordPress import file
- I then imported the WordPress import file
- And all of my posts, comments, and dates showed up
- Permalinks – Because I switched from Blogger to WordPress, all of my Blogger Permalinks were going to break. So, I made sure WordPress was setup to use the similar structure (date/post-title) as the permalink. Then I took a directory list of my Blogger pages, and sprinkled some Ruby to output a .htaccess file which guessed that the default redirect was basically to remove the .html from the Blogger permalink. I then walked that list with Ruby and open-uri to find out which one’s weren’t that. To my surprise, 75% of them were, so I only had to manually add the redirects for 1/4 of my posts.
- Other Redirects – I also had to make sure archive pages were redirected, and that users subscribed to my feed got the same thing. So I added redirects for those.
All in all it has gone very smoothly so far. There are some known issues – code-intensive posts seem to not always have come across cleanly, and anything XML related seems to have dropped the tags, so I’ll have to fix that. But for changing hosting platforms, operating systems, email engines, and blogging platforms, I’m pretty happy.
But, if you see any problems, please let me know, and I’ll be happy to fix it right away. Enjoy!