Interview: Mur Lafferty, Author of Playing for Keeps
Mur Lafferty
Author,
Playing for Keeps
Mur has written for over 15 role-playing games, one textbook, one book on podcasting, and several magazines. Her column, Geek Fu Action Grip, appears regularly in the magazine Knights of the Dinner Table. She has published fiction with the podcast Escape Pod, Scrybe Press, Murky Depths and Hub Magazine. She has also worked for Lulu Enterprises, first at Lulu.com as a community administrator, then in June moved to Lulu.TV to work on creating content to build a community on the site. In 2008 her novel Playing For Keeps was picked up to be published in August by Swarm Press.
I discovered Murs story after hearing an interview with her on NPR a few weeks ago. In the interview, she recounted how she came upon the idea for her latest book after her friend Jason remarked that hed like his superpower to be the ability to will elevators to his floor instantly after pressing the call button. I immediately wondered if this Jason was our very own Jason, so when I returned to the office, I asked him right away if he knew anyone who had recently published a novel about superheros. Turns out Jason and Mur have been long time friends, and he was graciously willing to introduce me to her.
CB: What fascinates you about the web?
ML: The opportuniuties to be creative on the web are limitless. Many people have explored how far we can go, but I still dont think theyve found all the different ways. Im excited to explore the collaborative capabilities of digital media.
CB: Is there anything that you would change about it?
ML: Well, theres the ability to be anonymous online, which is great, but it can be severely abused. Harassment is a problem, and I dont know how to fix that without compromising civil liberties.
CB: Do you have a blog? If so, what makes your blog unique?
ML: I dont consider myself a blogger, honestly. I have a number of blogs that run the RSS that keep my podcasts going, and a master blog at murverse.com where you can get all of my content, but blogging itself, I dont do a lot of.
CB: You recently got your book, Playing for Keeps, published after taking a very web 2.0 approach to marketing it. How did you go from giving away your book for free to being in the Top 20 on Amazon.com?
ML: Giving away the book for free put my name in the minds of thousands of people. Many of those people wanted to pay me back and support me (and some just wanted to own the book in a physical form) so when the book came out, they jumped on it.
[Editors note: Mur posted chapters of her book online as podcasts first, then with companion PDFs, which generated lots of attention. Then she used Twitter to generate even more interest and keep her fans informed leading up to the release of the book.]
CB: How do you feel about devices like Amazons Kindle? Will your books be read on a Kindle near you anytime soon?
ML: Im conflicted about the Kindle. I got one as a gift, and Im enjoying it much more than I thought I would, but I sitll dont like the DRM involved with it. I havent decided whether Im releasing [my books] via Kindle or not yet.
CB: As a parent, have you observed any significant differences in how technology affects childhood learning and development in comparison to when you were a child?
ML: I think games, and yes, video games too, are a great way to encourage kids reading comprehension. On the other hand, Tivo has made it impossible for my kid to understand real-time media like radio and television.
CB: If you had one sentence to pitch your latest and greatest idea, what would it be?
ML: Its still under creation. ;)
CB: Who has influenced or helped you the most in your career?
ML: Hard to single anyone out. There have been people who have been instrumental in my writing like James Patrick Kelly and Richard Dansky, and then my husband who has supported me, without whom I could not have worked this hard.
CB: Do you have any desert island books?
ML: American Gods by Neil Gaiman and Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis.
CB: Your book is about people with unique powers that seem pretty un-super until they are desperately needed. I do believe that everyone has a specific and unique talent that comes in handy at just the right time; it might be something most people know about you or something very few know. What is your super-power?
ML: I can give people nicknames that stick.
CB: If the worlds technological and economic systems were to collapse and revert society to locally-focused, agrarian communities, what role would you assume?
ML: I would be a chef. Im actually working on a story right now about a futuristic dystopian chef.
Newfangled Heads for the Hills!
As we do every year, Newfangled spent the last three days on retreat. We rented several cabins outside of Saluda, NC and had a great time eating, drinking, singing, swimming, hiking, and all around enjoying each others company.
Heres a picture Eric took of himself, Katie and I with his phone from the top of Looking Glass Rock, a 3 mile hike straight up. The picture doesnt quite communicate how beautiful the view was, but trust me, it was worth the grueling journey. Congratulations to everyone who went on that excursion for their stamina and dedication in getting to the top!
Our retreats are always fun, but I have to say that this one was the best yet. Weve got an amazing group of intelligent, kind, talented and fun people and it was truly a pleasure to get to know everyone just a little bit better. Everyone pitched in and worked really hard to make the trip a success, too. Thanks, everyone!!
Wayfinding: Axel Peemöeller
I came across this award-winning wayfinding device while trolling my RSS feeds. Axel Peemöeller is a German designer whose signage system for an Melbourne, Australia carpark is so ingenious yet so obvious youll be scratching your head and asking, why didnt I think of that? Check out all the photos.
Interview: Kari Ziegler, Level Studios
Kari Ziegler
QA Manager,
Level Studios
In 1996, Kari Ziegler was a founding member of the first AOL Instant Messenger QA team, where she started her practice of tracking test plans, tests and metrics in a database environment. From 2000-2006, Kari built, managed and directed teams for both US and Globally based companies such as CMGi, Student Advantage, GTECH, and TransUnion / TrueCredit. She is now the QA Manager at Level Studios.
CB: What fascinates you about the web?
KZ: I would have to say what fascinates me is the perceived level of simplicity in web sites and applications because of the speed at which things get done in the internet space. Its much faster these days than when I first started working in QA (I started about the time Al Gore invented the internet). I worked for AOL in my first real QA job, where the release version of the software would take 6 months to 2 years to get out to the public. In the same role, we worked on a prototype version of the AOL Instant Messenger that was released in about 6 months and had more users than AOL within its first year. Moving from working on software to websites, I have seen application-like tools developed in 2-3 months with very complex functionality. Because of that speed, it looks easy to do to the general public. Everyone has a cousin or brother that can design a website, so why cant you make a dynamic website that grabs information from 3 data sources, organizes the data and presents it to the user in usable way? I think the miracle of the web is that complex code and great design that amazingly talented people create can be done in such a short period of time.
CB: What would you change about it?
KZ: In web deliverables, my QA answer is tempering the speed with a plan and then maintaining that plan. I havent worked at a company in 6+ years who has had requirements written for their deliverables consistently. I wont say that there was no documentation, but more often than not, what was written was minimal and did not match client expectations in the end. I think that most revenue is lost by companies in the time just leading up to the delivery and in the weeks after go live. Planning and requirements management can really help with tracking how complete the deliverable is, which is the first step to meeting client expectations.
CB: You keep a blog called Test Insanity - Hurry up and Wait on which you write, The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Thats what QA does... Is your blog an information resource or a coping mechanism?
KZ: That made me actually LOL! To be honest - probably a little of both. I was researching methods for testing in an agency setting, and thought that putting it together in a blog so I could share with my team and peers was a good thing to do. Often, I take some notes, bookmark some sites, and then forget about them. I wanted to create a place for me to be able to return and add things as I find them and try to sew them together as well as converse with other people on the same path for learning. QA is not an easy job, and figuring out how to make it more enjoyable is something that I have found I do better with others. Its only been up a couple months, but I hope to keep it going. I have about 10 blogs going at once in various states of readiness for publishing so there will be more...
CB: What technology has had the greatest impact on how you do your job?
KZ: The database. Simple or complex, data is king everywhere. But with QA, being able to aggregate, sorting and filtering tests, getting results... these things are so important to being able to get on a path to improvement for product development. Years ago it was all done on paper - jeez!
CB: Who has influenced or helped you the most in your career?
KZ: I was discussing this with my CEO about a year ago - it seems mentors are rare. I am really lucky. I have so many mentors. From my workaholic Dad, to my first manager who let me drive my own way to success, to peers that told me how what I did was wrong and how to improve it without batting an eye. In my career, I would have to say that, for the influence factor, it would be a battle between Managers and CEOs. My first manager allowed me to run with cool ideas no matter how crazy they were, and find success. I also had a CEO who I would run into at 2am in the office, who lead powerfully in a position where women were rarely found at the time. I read her books now, and still learn from her from a distance. I work with people who emit peace and calm during difficult times. I want to take the little bits that these people have and make them my own. Its a long road :)
CB: What makes you uniquely suited to your suited to your role at Level Studios?
KZ: I am tenacious. I love QA and what it can do for a company. I actually get excited when an insurmountable problem comes my way, and want to try to figure it out. QA in an agency is hard to promote, and teaching sales people and non-technical people how having that second set of eyes supporting the client saves money in the end is difficult. Level Studios is an amazing company, and that drives me to keep it up and work with my team to keep the good fight going!
CB: What is the most frequently misunderstood aspect of QA?
KZ: Cost/Benefit. It costs time and if done well, shows no benefit unless you can show metrics. QA needs to be done from the beginning of a project, not just at the end, to be able to fulfill its purpose, as well as to be able to track how the team is doing throughout the project lifecycle. I often get asked to show how QA made things better. When I personally work on something and know another person is going to review my work, my first draft is better than if no one was going to look at it. QA in the beginning of a project can bring up issues before anyone starts to develop the deliverable. The earlier an issue is found, the less expensive it is, and the less chance there is for the client to see it. Being able to show that is how you can show how QA made things better.
CB: I imagine you find yourself saying some of the same things over and over again from one project to the next. Whats a great example?
KZ: Besides Where is QA? when looking at a proposed budget for a new project? Hmmm. There are so many little things that we repeat to people outside of QA. Within QA, I think I say Did you enter that as a bug? when an issue is found.
CB: If you had one sentence to pitch your latest and greatest idea, what would it be?
KZ: How did you know I had a latest and greatest idea? Being agile in project development these days requires a solid team that is responsible to each other as well as to the client and the deliverable. Responsibility and empowerment together are part of the foundation of building a quality project.
CB: I believe that everyone has a specific and unique talent that comes in handy at just the right time. It might be something most people know about you or something very few know. What is your super-power?
KZ: In my career, I would say its looking at an unmanageable project and helping it get out the door working with a happy client. I have been on a lot of projects in a lot of jobs that no one thought would ever work that ended up being successful. My superpower is kind of like the powers of the Wonder Twins though, it doesnt work without a partner or a team to get it done.
CB: If the worlds technological and economic systems were to collapse and revert society to locally-focused, agrarian communities, what role would you assume?
KZ: Simple, I would open a wine bar :-)
Digital Intimacy
The New York Times magazine featured an articled titled Brave New World of Digital Intimacy this weekend, which is worth a read.
The following paragraph (see below) echoed an idea I blogged about in February (in Its All About Skimming), which is that good skimming means that you can quickly scan an article and determine if its content is relevant to you, then either decide to read it more closely or file it away for future reference, and maybe even share it with a friend who will find it interesting while youre at it. In Clive Thompsons article, he recounts a conversation with Shannon Seery, a recruiting consultant from Florida, who he connected with via Twitter:
I like that term he used, awareness tools. This is a much more concise way of putting what I was trying to get at when I referenced Pierre Bayards book, How to Talk About Books You Havent Read. Bayard basically argues that academics cannot possibly fully read and digest every published work relevant to their field, however they do need to be aware of this material and able to understand its contribution to the overall zeitgeist.
I also found this next bit interesting. Thompson mentions Laura Fitton, a social media consultant, and how she uses Twitter for more professionally pragmatic reasons:
This rapid growth of weak ties can be a very good thing. Sociologists have long found that “weak ties” greatly expand your ability to solve problems. For example, if you’re looking for a job and ask your friends, they won’t be much help; they’re too similar to you, and thus probably won’t have any leads that you don’t already have yourself. Remote acquaintances will be much more useful, because they’re farther afield, yet still socially intimate enough to want to help you out. Many avid Twitter users — the ones who fire off witty posts hourly and wind up with thousands of intrigued followers — explicitly milk this dynamic for all it’s worth, using their large online followings as a way to quickly answer almost any question. Laura Fitton, a social-media consultant who has become a minor celebrity on Twitter — she has more than 5,300 followers — recently discovered to her horror that her accountant had made an error in filing last year’s taxes. She went to Twitter, wrote a tiny note explaining her problem, and within 10 minutes her online audience had provided leads to lawyers and better accountants. Fritton joked to me that she no longer buys anything worth more than $50 without quickly checking it with her Twitter network.
Finally, the article also touches on how participation in social media has altered how individuals separate their private and public lives. Mark, Dave and I were recently discussing this at the Newfangled breakfast table, wondering if such a delineation was even possible anymore. I thought of this recently when a friend posted several photographs of me on Facebook and tagged me in them so that our combined networks could now find them if they so desired. I wasnt thrilled by this, because I would certainly not have ever uploaded these photos on my own. Its not that there was anything particularly bad going on- they were taken among friends at a restaurant- its just that they were bad photos. So, maybe this is an issue of my own vanity. In any case, Thompson quotes a story almost exactly the same and goes on with this, which suggests that our inability to control our public versus private identities might be a good thing, preventing duplicity and keeping us all honest:
“If anything, it’s identity-constraining now,” Tufekci told me. “You can’t play with your identity if your audience is always checking up on you. I had a student who posted that she was downloading some Pearl Jam, and someone wrote on her wall, ‘Oh, right, ha-ha — I know you, and you’re not into that.’ ” She laughed. “You know that old cartoon? ‘On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog’? On the Internet today, everybody knows you’re a dog! If you don’t want people to know you’re a dog, you’d better stay away from a keyboard.”Or, as Leisa Reichelt, a consultant in London who writes regularly about ambient tools, put it to me: “Can you imagine a Facebook for children in kindergarten, and they never lose touch with those kids for the rest of their lives? What’s that going to do to them?” Young people today are already developing an attitude toward their privacy that is simultaneously vigilant and laissez-faire. They curate their online personas as carefully as possible, knowing that everyone is watching — but they have also learned to shrug and accept the limits of what they can control.
The End of Privacy?
This months issue of Scientific American is a single-topic feature on The Future of Privacy. There is a ton to read- 11 different articles covering topics including online security, wiretapping, RFID tags, genetic privacy and social networking. I really appreciate that they do bring a distinction between privacy and security to the discussion, which is really important as privacy is a much more flexible matter of preferences and cultural norms, whereas security can be a much more serious matter of protection for individuals and/or groups of people.
In terms of web-related information, I thought the article asking Do Social Networks Bring the End of Privacy? was worth reading for anyone using (or building) a social network now. It notes the following key concepts:
If you dont have time to read the articles but want an audio-overview of the content, check out this weeks SciAm Science Talk podcast, Whos Watching You: The Future of Privacy.
In a world…
Don LaFontaine passed away this weekend. If you dont recognize the name, youll probably recognize the voice. Don was the voice for over 4,000 movie trailers dating back to the 60s. Youll be missed, Don.
Creative Questionnaire: Suzie Im
Suzie Im is a Senior Web Art Director at Cadence Design Systems in San Jose, CA. She describes herself as an information/visual design problem solver with a high degree of design skill, innovative spirit, and business responsiveness. Suzie is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where she received a BS in Graphic Design.
Job Description:
I collaborate closely with web developers, internal clients, and external agencies to drive concept development and design execution for the visual design of web properties, online campaign deliverables, and online direct mail offers.
Current Project:
Cadence.com went live on July 13th. It is the culmination of a huge volume of work, going back more than 18 months, which began with planning and defining a new architecture and design for the site. Cadence.com uses new web technologies that enable users to interact with the company and their peers in a more involved community-oriented manner, rather than just passively consuming content. Users can converse with each other and with Cadence in a more conversational way, sharing and learning from the collective participation. This helps us better understand our customers needs and develop solutions more quickly. Since going live, the site has received positive coverage from several sources including: Web Strategist, PL Design Line, as well as Newfangled.
First step in my design process:
I first run design concepts/ideas through my head then surf the web to gather more ideas, then search through stock photography sites such as Getty Images to develop concepts. I usually do a rough sketch only if I get completely stuck. Coming up with many options is the key for my design process.
Aspect of design I give the highest priority:
Design consistency, visual hierarchy, having a clear design theme.
Method for overcoming creative block:
Caffeine – cannot live without.
One typical myth about web design:
I still get really frustrated with this statement but sadly, its true. If I have a copy of Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Frontpage, Im a web designer.
Most challenging aspect about web design:
You need to have a full understanding of business objectives and translate that into a visual system that is user-friendly, brand compliant, clean, innovative, unique, beautiful, and functional. Its challenging to do all of these well but, if you tackle all of the above, you will be proud of what you did!
Most underrated aspect of web design:
I think web design in general is underrated because people think if they know simple HTML code and have copy of Photoshop they know how to do web design.
When I first knew I wanted to be a designer:
When I started getting As in all my design projects in college. :)
Inspirations:
Everything I see is my design inspiration – from billboard signs to TV commercials. I always ask myself these questions: how would I do it differently? do I like that color, motion-effect, treatment? If you train your eyes to see things from your own design perspective, its a lot more fun and inspiring.
Favorite tool:
Firebug, IE Developers tool. These are the coolest tools ever!
Favorite design resource:
Surfing the web. There is nothing better than getting design ideas/resources from web. I also speak Korean so its interesting to browse through what the other side of the world is doing with their online space.
Bookmarks:
www.lipsum.com, www.webguild.org
Design-related book I highly recommend:
I used to buy all kinds of design related books and magazines, but I stopped. Nowadays, I usually find design related topics through blogs and forums. I recently read this article on web usability which was quite amusing and interesting.
Currently reading:
Pretty embarrassing to say but the last book I read was The DaVinci Code. Ive been just swamped with work. Yeah… its an excuse.
Life lesson:
Overcome and learn from your own mistakes.
If I werent a designer, Id be...
a pianist
Favorite (non-design) past time:
Playing with my two dogs. Sleeping…
A Recent Project Success: SwissArmyKnife.com
We recently completed a large-scale site rebuild for Wenger North America, the maker of the genuine Swiss Army Knife. Now that the system has been live for a few weeks, I can say confidently that this project is a great success that highlights both some standard Newfangled approaches and some new innovations as well. This was also Jason Adams first major project that he managed from start to finish. You can see him pictured left bearing his very own Swiss Army Knife with the inscription, Wengerna.com Relaunch 2008. (Wenger expressed their thanks yesterday by sending each person involved in the project a complimentary Swiss Army Knife- very nice of them!)
This system is a fairly large stand-alone ecommerce application that is also integrated with Wengers internal product management system, which allows it to reconcile web and warehouse inventory on a daily basis and batch process daily orders once theyve shipped. In addition to this, which was a complicated undertaking on its own, the site has a few other details that I thought Id point out.
Within the CMS, Wenger has many different options for setting discounts on products. Below are two examples. The first shows the CMS edit screen to define a user discount code, which in this case is a percentage discount applied to all products within the Swiss Army Knife category purchased during the week of September 3 - 10. The second shows the CMS edit screen to define a bundle discount, in this case that a user purchasing 1 Evolution 10 knife would get the nylon pouch accessory at no additional charge during the week of September 3 - 10. In both cases, the amount, type, product and/or category and date range are flexible.
While a pretty minor detail, I also wanted to highlight a CMS back-end feature that we call a picker search tool. Many content types have attributes that are shared, such as discounts, categories or related products, so we use a picker to allow the user to find those attributes in the database and choose one or more to assign to the content they are currently working with. For many sites, the list that might appear in a picker could be quite long, especially one like Wenger with a large product catalog. To make this easier on the user, we developed a simple search tool that lets the user find what they want to pick and assign multiple items at once. Its nothing glamorous, but it makes what could be a major chore a simple task.
Another great example of a doing more with less solution in the CMS for Wenger is the image-mapping tool we built. Wenger wanted to be able to upload product images and label them on the fly, so that users could mouse-over details and get descriptions of what they are. This is especially helpful with their knives, which have many details when show with all their contents exposed (for an extreme example of this, see the Giant). Our developer, Steve Brock, built a simple tool (show below), that allows the user to create shapes on top of the product images by simply pointing and clicking with their mouse, then creating a label and description. The site takes care of assigning coordinates. Again, its not that its especially fancy or hasnt been done before- what makes this great is that it does exactly what it needs to do in the simplest way for the user. Nice job, Steve!
Finally, there are two small but nicely done user-interface details that I wanted to point out. The first is just a simple way to hide the shopping cart as the user is navigating through the product catalog (see first image below). The second is the advanced search tool that the user can access in the header. When the search tool is opened, it floats above the page and offers 8 different categorical approaches to searching. The below example shows the options for searching within the watches category.
Overall, this project went through without a hitch, which was a major relief given the level of complexity and scope of their operation. Without our project anatomy and the expertise of our team, I know this would not have happened. Great job to everyone involved, including our friends at Sullivan & Company, the creative agency we partnered with, and our team- Mark, Jason, and Steve Brock.
Interview: Jill Whalen, High Rankings®
Jill Whalen
Founder and CEO
High Rankings®
Jill Whalen is a pioneer in search engine optimization, beginning in the field in the early 1990s and founding High Rankings in 1995. Since that time, High Rankings has grown to be one of the pre-eminent SEO companies in the United States, working with hundreds of clients in more than 40 industries to enhance their presence through proven and dynamic search engine strategies that lead to increased traffic, more conversions and enhanced sales.
CB: What fascinates you about the web?
JW: Its ability to make the world so small.
CB: What would you change about it?
JW: The commercialization of the web has created a lot of junk that is thrown out there in hopes of it somehow making money. I would love to remove all the junk online and only keep the quality stuff. But I know that will never happen!
CB: Do you have a blog? If so, what makes your blog unique?
JW: While not technically a blog, our email newsletter archives are set up sort of like a blog. In other words, once the email newsletter goes out to its 25,500+ subscribers, each “post” is also available on the High Rankings website like a blog post where people can comment. It’s set up with RSS feeds, and pretty much everything else that a typical blog would have. Because of this, and the fact that I also write two other columns a month as well as post on our High Rankings Forum and numerous other online places on a daily/weekly basis, I have nothing left to write in a blog!
CB: What technology has had the greatest impact on how you do your job?
JW: I’m not sure I could pick one thing, as all the technology I use works in conjunction with everything else to create a complete package for successfully performing my work. I suppose if I had to choose, I’d say the use of Firefox and all its awesome extension add-ons is probably what I rely on most often these days. Every time I have to use IE for one reason or another, I totally miss all the Firefox extensions!
CB: Who has influenced or helped you the most in your career?
JW: There have been a variety of people throughout the 13 years since I’ve started in business. Back in the mid-late 90’s, I was influenced by the email discussion newsletters about internet marketing and search marketing which were published by John Audette. Those inspired me to create my own email newsletter in 2000, as well as helped me to establish myself as an expert in the SEO field.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to Danny Sullivan, who’s been the voice of search marketing since the 90’s. He used to refer business to me and also gave me my start in speaking at the early Search Engine Strategies conferences.
In addition, the numerous friends whom I met in various online venues as well as at conferences, have been a great help both personally and professionally. People like Karon Thackston, Christine Churchill, Scottie Claiborne, Kim Krause Berg and Debra Mastaler have all provided me with a reliable network of friends to outsource work to, as well as count on for support through thick and thin.
And last, but not least, since growing High Rankings beyond just me for the past few years, I’ve relied heavily on my colleague and friend, Pauline Jakober, as a sounding board for business decisions. She’s helped me to start to break out of my solo entrepreneur mentality, in order to grow High Rankings into a more professional business. I assure you this is no easy task, so she deserves a lot of credit for hanging in there with me!
CB: What makes you uniquely suited to your suited to your role as a SEO consultant?
JW: I’m not sure why or how, but for whatever reason, I just love SEO and everything about it. I think it’s partially the ability to think with both sides of my brain that helps. Having a creative and a technical side seems to be important in this business. For whatever reason, SEO just feels like common sense to me, so that when I look at any website, I know exactly what needs to be done to “fix it.” I think I was somehow born to do SEO, even though there was no such thing until I started doing it back in the ‘90’s!
CB: If you had one sentence to pitch a potential client, what would it be?
JW: If you’re not receiving all the targeted search engine traffic that you should be, then your website is broken and you’re essentially leaving money on the table.
CB: What are some of the most frequently misunderstood aspects of SEO?
JW: That there are quick fixes. Let’s face it, if there were things you could do quickly and easily to gain more targeted search engine traffic, everyone would be doing them. Instead, SEO is generally is a long-term investment in the overall health of your website.
It takes a while to do the preliminary research necessary to know even where to begin with the SEO process, and then time to create an SEO strategy, and then even more time to put everything in place. After that, it still takes time for the search engines to do their part and decide that your website is indeed one of the best for the relevant keyword phrases people are typing in.
CB: I believe that everyone has a specific and unique talent that comes in handy at just the right time. It might be something most people know about you or something very few know. What is your super-power?
JW: That might be my ability to break down the complicated into its essential parts while ignoring the unimportant details, and then describe it to others in everyday language that they can understand in a straightforward and concise manner.
CB: If the worlds technological and economic systems were to collapse and revert society to locally-focused, agrarian communities, what role would you assume?
JW: Perish the thought!
I would probably go back to being a caretaker of children. I was a mom at home for many years when my kids were young, and taking care of and teaching children was really my first love before the Internet came ‘round! I’m generally more comfortable around kids and computers than regular adult people!