Randomville profiled me. 10/31/11

Local web site Randomville not only came in to answer phones during our pledge drive, but wrote a profile about me and The Conversation.

Video on E-Verify I did at an excellent

Video on E-Verify I did at an excellent seminar on immigration issues with the International Center for Journalists. http://ow.ly/5H8S9

Video on E-Verify I produced at the Inte

Video on E-Verify I produced at the International Center for journalists excellent workshop on immigration issues.

Interviewing – 1/21/11

An interview is not a conversation. A conversation is purely for the enjoyment of the two people involved. An interview is for audience. That is not to say that doing an interview can not be pleasure for both people involved.

The interview should sound like spontaneous conversation in which the interviewer is fully informed and successful at eliciting interesting, informative and concise answers. But successful interviews are usually more calculated and planned.

Conversations tend to ramble, contain long pauses, and often operate at a personal and visual level beyond what is being said. Interviews have to be more overt, open, direct, entertaining, and concise than most conversations.

In conversation we assert ourselves to let the other person know about us. In an interview the focus should stay squarely on the interviewee. You should only use anecdote or personal experience as a way to get to an issue you want to discuss with the interviewee. For example, a parallel in your own life or experience to something the interviewee is addressing.

PREPARE

You cannot be too prepared. You can overuse your preparation but it never hurts to know a great deal. At the first level, do you know why you’re talking to this person? Is this the best person to speak with on this topic? Where is this person coming from? Will they represent a certain perspective? That’s fine, you just better know what it is. Check the background of guests thoroughly. Sometimes there will be a tidbit in their personal history that will open up a line of questions.

Just as a good reporter knows much more than he or she has time to tell in a story, a good interviewer should consider multiple paths the interview could take, and then choose the best one. Read everything possible. The lucky revelation comes more often when you know more.  Once you are totally prepared, you must keep that information in the background. Most listeners don’t know as much as you do. Don’t forget to give background so people understand the question.

The Technology: Many people are unused to working with microphones. Show them how to sit, show them simple hand signals you will use if they are too close or two far away. Let them know it will be edited. Double check all recording equipment before you go into the field so you will not have to be spending too much attention to it.

 

Structure: What’s the roadmap of this interview? You may change it in the edit, but have a working plan. A good interview has a beginning, middle, and end. Sometimes the interviewer can plan a climax with a question that evokes a surprising revelation or emotional response. Ideally the climax will come at the end of the interview, or the interviewer carefully plans a way to close the interview without sounding anti-climactic. The structure of many interview is chronological – how did you begin playing music, when did you first realize you wanted to be a writer. The advantage is that it provides an easy to follow structure. A disadvantage is that you may not get to the important point quickly enough.

W,W,W,W,W,H

Writing questions: Always have list of questions reflecting the direction you would like the interview to take. Attorneys are warned never to ask a question they don’t know the answer. Interviewers shouldn’t go that far, but they should ask questions they know the answer to advance the interview in the direction they want it to go.

Read back over your questions out loud. How might they be answered? Be precise in your phrasing to avoid getting the wrong question answered or being forced to explain what you mean. Carefully check your facts and your language to take out things the interviewee may seize on rather than the substance of your question (i.e. “When you were the leader of the group….?”  “I was never the leader!!! ).  Reread the questions just before the interview begins so they are fresh in your mind and you can refer to your notes as little as possible. Read the questions over at the end of the interview to be sure you covered everything.

Do:

• Ask who, what, where, when, how and why questions. They are open ended and will elicit better responses.
• Locate the personal interest of the interviewee. What got them interested in this? Visit their place and pick up cues from pictures, citations on the wall, bric a brac. It’s also a way to make a connection.
• Plan your follow up questions. Play chess. If they answer this way, my follow up will be this. If they answer that way, my follow up will be that. Sometimes a question is just a set up for the next question.
• Try to get the interviewee recall an event for you. Nudge them along –‘then what happened’. The person will see the experience in the mind’s eye and be narrativng the memory as if it’s in real time.   [Jesse Hagopian interview Haiti Earthquake].

Don’t:

• Ask verb questions. ‘Do you believe nuclear power is safe’. They can be answered yes or no. They tend to close down the conversation. Better – ‘what do you think of nuclear power?”  then “why do you think it’s safe”.
• Ask Chinese menu questions: Do you believe in affirmative action because it rights the wrongs of slavery, or because it morally correction, or do you believe in affirmative action because it is good for the nation, or is it because…..”. The interviewee will pick the question to answer and it may not be what you want answered.
• Include subtle or not so subtle loaded language. F.ex.  “Why are you demanding a new contract?”.  The verb demand implies unreasonableness. An interviewee may object.
• Include unwanted premises.  “When did you stop beating your wife?”.

 

LISTEN

Be open: Your mind should run on two tracks. What is being said. Where do I want the interview to go next? Depending on what you are hearing, you may want to follow a new thread, or pull the conversation back to a plan. Don’t be afraid to throw away your preconceptions and take off in an interview. Study when to fly in conversation mode and when pull back and elicit information.

Always think about the audience. What would they like to hear answered. Do they understand the term just used in the interview? Did they answer your question.

Devil’s advocacy – It is important to get interviewees to explain things well. Often that involves probing. Probing isn’t done to embarrass the interviewee, but to get them to explain themselves to the skeptics in the audience. When preparing questions, get out of your own head and try to imagine what this person’s harshest critic might ask or what a skeptic may wonder.

Troubleshooting: At some point in some interview you will have no idea what the hell to ask next. The answer will be too brief or pre-emptive for you to think ahead or you will be distracted. It can dangerous to open your mouth and start talking. Nervousness will mean that you will babble and finally ask a stupid question. You can avoid this problem by having your question list at the ready and taking a pause to refer to it.

Your interviewee may begin to say things you don’t understand. STOP them immediately. It does you no good to have an interview you don’t get. One of the best questions you’ll ask is “I’m sorry but I’m not clear about what you mean. Could you explain…..?”

 

Go back over your interview questions before you finish

What interviewees know: Consultants tell interviewees to stick to one or two subjects and always turn the question around to that answer. Use short answers to trip up interviewers or talk long to fill time and run out the clock. Be ready to divert the interviewee off the set answer (research will enable you to prepare the follow-up), have lots of questions, work on how to tactfully interrupt (I am glad you mentioned that…  but what I’d like to get to is…..).

 

 

Analysis of three Games.

Interaction Design Winter 2011  Ross Reynolds

Drop7 Game for iPhone.

Game Description – Drop7 is a pattern recognition strategy game. Game play occurs on a 7×7 grid. The objective is to score points by blowing up discs.

‘The Economist’ iPhone App

‘The Economist’ is a weekly magazine from the UK dedicated to finance, business and international affairs. It’s been published continually since 1843.  Their new iPhone app is easy to navigate, complete, well-designed, and unnecessary.

It loads quickly from the iPhone store. If you’re not a subscriber you can peruse selected articles. If you are a subscriber you can download the complete text of the most recent issue. Older issues stay on your phone. The issues take about 3 minutes to download when using 3G.

The  contents page looks like the print edition with sections on ‘The World This Week’ (news briefs), ‘Leaders’ (pithy commentators on the major stories that follow within), and sections about parts of the world (‘United States’, ‘The Americas, ‘Asia’), special reports (this week was China’s place in the world), and sections on Business, Finance and Economics, Science and Technology, Books and Arts, a list of charts on financial indicators.

The pages are well laid out, they offer a choice of font size, and they’re easy to read. Two innovations I had not seen before were the ability to lock the orientation and a feature which allowed you to listen to the articles being read rather than reading them.

Notwithstanding its clear writing, occasional wit, and lucid analysis, The Economist is a heavy read. I found narrated articles going to quickly for me. I like to consider the text before moving on. Even though it was optimal for the iPhone, I didn’t find the iPhone optimal for the material. It was too much to take in on the mobile format. Although the presentation was impeccable, the content was not tailored to the shorter use patterns on cell phones.

As I was reading it all I could think was that I’d rather be reading the magazine. And since reading the full text on the phone requires a subscription to the print edition, why not just read the magazine.

The location advantage of mobile played against the app. A magazine is a better way to consume the material when you’re on the go. The pages and graphics are larger. And the magazine is more robust than a cell phone. You can roll it up and stick it in your back pocket. You don’t need to worry about the batteries running out.

The Economist may want to consider the qualities of smart phone and re-do the material to fit it. Another suggestion would be to allow the user to turn on a location detector so articles about the locale you’re in would be published to a special ‘Around You’ tab. This would be ideal for the business traveler on the go.

 

King 5 TV News App

King TV is a Seattle’s NBC television news outlet. They have been advertising an iPhone app on their web site and on air. I downloaded it for free and used it. It is functional but faulty in a few areas. I’d give it a B-.

Review of Husky Basketball App

The Husky Basketball 2010-11 iPhone Mobile App costs $2.99 at the app store. It is a product of the Seattle Times where it was featured in half page ads this weekend.  It was developed a company called Bottle Rocket, that also developed NPR’s apps.

There are four menu items at the bottom of the page. The ‘News’ section features a ‘Latest’ tab with Times stories and links to other times stories at the Times web site. The stories crafted for the app are readable but the web site is not optimized for mobile. The tiny fonts are difficult to read even after blowing up the text. Although the app is billed as ‘Men’s Basketball’ it also has stories on the Husky women’s team.

There is also a tab with Times sportswriter Percy Allen’s blog and twitter feed, and a tab for coach Lorenzo Romar. The coach section features a bio and a link to news stories but they seem to be the same as the stories offered in the ‘News’ section.

The ‘Games’ menu button opens up an ‘Upcoming Games’ tab with a list of opponents and line-ups. There is a photo and capsule description for each Husky player, but rosters for opposing teams only have names and jersey number. The ‘Scoreboard’ tab is a week by week listing of major NCAA division basketball games. ‘Rankings’ is a list of AP, ESPN/USA Today, and RPE ratings for top teams across the country.

The ‘Stats’ button has biographical and performance information for each player, a comparative ranking of Husky team stats, and standings in all the NCAA divisions.

The ‘Fan Guide’ button includes a tab for ‘Offers” with a chance to win Husky tickets, ‘Arena’ with a guide to the Husky home court Hec Ed Pavilion, the lyrics to the Husky Fight Song (‘Bow Down to Washington’), and a food and drink guide to the University District with a Google map and each bar and restaurant signified by a purple push pin. Purple and gold are the Husky team colors.

Under a ‘More’ button there is a feature that’s supposed to play a Husky Bark when the phone is shaken but did not work for me. That was the only feature I had a problem using.

For the avid Husky Fan the app seems to offer easily accessible information for not much more than the cost of a paper program. Baseball is a game of stats and there’s so much down time in a game, a sports app like this would be useful to pass the time between innings or when a new pitcher is called in from the bullpen.  Basketball has a much quicker pace and fewer interruptions. My only question about the app would be whether fans would be willing to take their eyes off the action long enough to use it.

The app is overtly labeled 2010-2011 season which appears to be a set-up to sell it annually and collect another $2.99 per customer.

 

Review of NPR Music mobile app

NPR Music is a mobile app featuring a host of music features from the NPR web site which has been available since June 24, 2010. I downloaded the iPhone version from the app store. It installed without incident.

Once a side project, NPR Music has become an important web site for musicians to preview new music. The user gets the advantage of being able to preview new releases from well-known and lesser known artists a week or two before official release of their recordings.

The app offers a rich feature list including a ‘Song of the Day’;  ‘All Songs Considered’ – a thematic podcast on a theme, sometimes dj’ed by musicians. A recent guest was musician and producer Daniel Lanoi discussing music and playing favorite songs; concerts from music festivals; NPR music features – currently featured is a series of 50 great voices in popular music; and ‘First Listen’ a preview of new albums – currently featured is a new album for Stereolab.

You can listen to a feature or you can add it to your playlist so it will show up after the segment you’re currently listening to. There is a ‘Favorite Artist’ tab. Once you choose an artist, all related features ( ‘First Listen’, feature stories, concerts etc) will show up under that tab.

The app works in the background if you want to use other features. It works fairly well on wi-fi and pretty well on a 3G connection – there are drop outs.

This is an impressive use of mobile technology for the music lover. It connects the user to a rich archive of stories about music, interviews, new releases and live performances. The more I use it, the more useful it becomes.

The customization features like ‘Favorite’ artist allows the user to tailor to your musical interests. There is also a social component so you can share music through Facebook and Twitter. You easily email the link of a feature you like to a friend.

 

 

Review of Groupon mobile app

Groupon is a mobile app which offers a daily deal at restaurant, spa or other service. There is one offer per day at a substantial discount. Groupon has received a great deal of free press because it is one of the first social busying apps. I saw an article about it. Groupon also advertises on newspaper web sites.

I downloaded the iPhone app from the app store and set it up to check on Seattle deals. I have also used it in other cities. I first used Groupon when it advertised a deal at a bar around the corner from my house that I had been meaning to check out – The Waterwheel. The offer showed the price and discount, how many hours the deal would be available, how many people had already purchased it.

There is a  ‘Fine Print’ tab with details on deadlines for the deal and what specifically is included. The app includes a ‘Discussion’ button where users can ask questions and make comments. Sometimes they pinpoint confusion about the deal. Users answer questions for one another adding a social element to purchasing a coupon.

The ‘Share This Deal’ button allows you to email, post it on Facebook or Tweet it. I could see this being useful if it’s a place you had already gone to, liked and wanted to suggest to a friend. But most deals are limited to one person, so tipping a friend off and showing up with 2 Groupons wouldn’t work.

I purchased my Waterwheel deal after logging on. The app stores credit card information. Once purchased the coupon appears in a ‘My Groupons’ tab.

I went to the bar made my menu choice and asked about the Groupon discount. The waitress was not familiar with it but the owner came over and explained it. The offer had just been posted and already attracted hundreds of buyers, which surprised me because it’s just a small place. I thought the owner might feel overwhelmed at having to honor the substantial discount for so many people, but he was thrilled. He felt that if even a small proportion of users came a second time, the offer would be worth.

I found the app easy to use, almost too easy. I ended up putting it in a folder on my iPhone so I wouldn’t be so tempted to look at it ever day and purchase a deal impulsively. I have read that Groupon plans to begin to personalize the deal to the users interests. There would still only be one deal per day, but different people would get different offers. This appeals to me and would make the app more useful.