Discussion Group

Re: K-Boring
Unless I miss my guess, all this automation requires the use of Userland's Radio. So to forward e-mails, for example, you need to write a Radio script.

I usually don't bother spending time playing "whose software is better" with Userland. Their CEO, Dave Winer, has a hair-trigger temper. This K-Log thing is something else. I've got a bug up my butt about it. They built a Knowledge-Logging mailing list for the sole purpose of hyping the product. I thought my evangelism was transparent! How annoying.

This stuff about requiring an outside tool (Radio) to do things is an interesting dilemna. Joel Spolsky spent some time recently attacking browser-based CMS's because of the crappy browser interface, but I think he missed his own point:

"Despite the fact that these systems had web-based editing interfaces and advanced workflow, we kept hearing that in real life, reporters created their content in Microsoft Word, did the workflow the old way (email), and only at the very last minute, a secretary opened the Word file and cut and pasted it into the content management system.

Why?

Because nobody wants to compose in a big TEXTAREA on an HTML page."

And, because every company on the planet has standardized on Word, and doesn't want to teach anyone to use a new piece of software and a new set of habits. I agree with him on the UI issue. I'd march through the snow in my underwear to have command+S do something valuable in my browser. I don't think the secret to success is introducing another piece of software into the mix. I think the real answer remains getting the existing software to work with one's server-based CMS. The first company to make "type it into Word, click the publish button" work will be the one to win the day.

So I don't think requiring companies to buy Radio to get their K-Logs (still a dumb name) to work is the solution. You want universal acceptance for your product, get it to work with the universal word processor. One of the things I've really admired about the development cycle for Conversant is the company's apparent commitment to this idea. My chosen browser, my e-mail client, my newsreader. I just use whatever I have sitting around at my end, and they worry about their end. Elegant, simple, direct.

This has been your Conversant evangelism moment.