We Are the Web - In late 1994, Time magazine explained why the Internet would never go mainstream: "It was not designed for doing commerce, and it does not gracefully accommodate new arrivals." Newsweek put the doubts more bluntly in a February 1995 headline: "THE INTERNET? BAH!" Yet the Web today is hard to fathom. The total number of Web pages, including those that are dynamically created upon request and document files available through links, exceeds 600 billion. How could we create so much, so fast, so well? A common assumption back then was that big business was going to be the ones who would create all of the content for the Web and frankly people were skeptical that there would be enough money in it to cover such enormous cost. Kevin Kelly, of Wired Magazine, states that what so many people missed 10 years ago was what the Web was to become; an emerging culture based on sharing. Each one of us has contributed to the Web's growth, not just big business. Many people don't really understand why the Web has grown as it has. But, any hope of discerning the state of the Web in 2015 requires that we own up to how wrong we were 10 years ago.

Truth in Fingernails - Another cool idea that was once thought to be the stuff of spy novels has become a reality. According to Kimberly Patch, of the Technology Research News, " Researchers from the University of Tokushima and Hokkaido University have demonstrated that it is possible to read data written into a human fingernail using a laser, much like information is written on a rewritable compact disc. The data is read using an optical microscope." Thus another potential option for personal authentication has been born.

The Ultimate Stun Gun - For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and almost inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. "Directed-energy" pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on Star Trek could be set to kill or merely stun. Such weapons are now nearing fruition. But logistical issues have delayed their battlefield debut -- even as soldiers in Iraq encounter tense urban situations in which the nonlethal capabilities of directed energy could be put to the test.

Persona Perfect - At Menlo we have taught the importance of developing software for a particular user or what we call a "persona." This persona is a specific type of user which is based on observations and interviews of many real users. If this is not done, it's easy to fall into the trap of creating what developers think are "cool features" without having any evidence that these "cool features" might actually be helpful for those using the product. A great example of why this is so important is this story of the Staples.com web redesign. After a careful interview and observation process that involved real Staples customers did the company determine that what at first might have seemed like a good idea would not be very useful after all. For instance, the ability to "buy an item online then pick it up in the store" feature which happens to be available at the Home Depot web site was determined to be one of these seemingly "cool features" that few Staples customers wanted. So, it never became a part of the new web design. (scroll down to "Staples.com" on Jul 27 )

Software can be a joy to use, when it is designed to fit you and your goals - The most expensive way to build software is to build software that no one ever uses! Spend 90 minutes with us on August 18th to find out how Menlo Innovations uses High-Tech Anthropology to design and build the lowest cost software per user.

Total Recall - For over a hundred years, when we took photographs of people, places or things it was because they where in some way special. We wanted to remember them. Now with the advent of digital photography, things have changed. Many amateur digital photographers are choosing to capture parts of their lives that wouldn't have interested the Brownie and Instamatic generations. They take pictures of their breakfasts. They take pictures of their subway commute into work. They take pictures of a dreary office meeting that's gone on too long. And they take way too many pictures of their cats. If the first revolution in photography was the change in subject matter, from formal events to special events, with the Kodak crowd taking pictures of times they wanted to remember, the cell phone crowd uses photography to celebrate the banal and every-day they take pictures of events they want to forget.

The Hitchhikers Guide to Planet Earth - Two years ago, at only 25, former Virgin record company A&R man, Tom Brammar, was drinking beer with a friend, Will Wellesley-Davies, a designer at the BBC. Both had been working on interactive media projects and found themselves thinking about the relationship between information and location. "We were thinking, the best place to see a documentary about a Roman villa is right there at the villa, not at your desk," Brammar says. Ping! A dream was born.

The Man Behind the Microchip - Leslie Berlin reviews Robert Noyce's new book ''The Man Behind the Microchip.'' According to Berlin, "All the busy billionaires, multimillionaires and geeks in their garages dreaming up the next big thing that will bring glory back to Silicon Valley should plunk down some loose change on "The Man Behind the Microchip." And anyone interested in the true creation story of Silicon Valley -- in contrast to the enticing tales of the mythmakers who continue to blow bubbles of promise up and down the Peninsula -- would do well to make a small investment in this terrific biography."

Passion, Enthusiasm, Energy and a timely message - This combination in a public speaker could energize your next event. Call us at (734) 665-1847 to schedule one of our speakers. Look here for a list of some of the topics that we've spoken about in the past. 

Agile Project Management? No, it's not an enigma wrapped in a riddle, it's just another really cool idea for making excellent software! Join us for a special discounted session of our popular Agile Project Management class on August 30-31. As a special thank you, we've discounted this class to $795, saving readers of the Menlo Briefs almost $400! Click here to register!