Management

Understanding Your Content

Chiara Fox, Senior Information Architect, Adaptive Path

Content analysis is a core component of the information architect's toolkit. Content analysis is the examination of the content and features that make up a Web site. Through a content audit, or sampling of representative pieces of content, an information architect can understand the relationships, interdependencies and patterns that exist within the current content on the site. This process also allows the information architect to understand requirements and constraints inherent in the content. Content genres, or types, can be identified and used to create a content map of the site and site templates. The content map provides the basic building blocks for gap analysis, which maps user tasks with the content genres.

Let the People Speak: How Users Are Changing the Web

Steve Mulder, Senior Consultant, Molecular

The Web has always been about people, but in a Web 2.0 world, this is taking on new meaning. Giving your users more control and influence over your site unveils a whole new set of opportunities — and a whole new set of challenges. How are user ratings and reviews, tagging, editorial control, user-generated content, and social networking changing the way you should be thinking about your site? How are sites dealing with negative user contributions? What does all of this mean for how you design and build your site? Come take an entertaining tour through the social wonderland of Web 2.0 and learn what it means for you.

Leveraging Web 2.0 in Your Product or Business

Dion Hinchcliffe, President and CTO, Hinchcliffe & Company

Web 2.0 and online services are expected to become the dominant application model in the very near future, with YouTube, MySpace and other online applications having rapidly become household names. Gartner, one of the industry's leading analyst firms, advised at its IT Expo in mid-2006 that, businesses must begin to "Operate All Revenue Generating Channels in a Web 2.0 Architecture by 2008. Enterprise architects must act as catalysts that speed the formation of unified business technology strategies and their execution to accelerate innovation and execution by coordinating complexity through unified business and IT strategy."

This fact-filled session provides concrete and real-world information to help business and IT professionals begin to leverage Web 2.0. The session explores the fundamental principles of Web 2.0, including how to trigger network effects, build architectures of participation, harness collective intelligence, market through viral message propagation, harness user generated content, and build rich user experiences. The session also includes a series of compelling, real-world examples of how these Web 2.0 techniques have been used to create new, high-value, world-class businesses often with widespread societal impact.

Advertising Options: So You Want Some Revenue for All that Traffic?

David Seymour, E-Advertising Manager, Fawcette Technical Publications

What are the alternatives for generating advertising revenue from your Web site, and are there types of advertising that would bring in more revenue than others? What are the technologies and the hidden costs for services from Webcasts to rich media overlays to large email campaigns? This session is aimed at Web site operators that want to generate advertising revenue, but aren't sure of the best direction to take or aware of the technical issues in implementing online advertising. You'll hear about alternative approaches from affiliate programs to collectives to in-house sales. Plus, you'll hear about the tools and challenges related to supporting different media and advertising opportunities, from Webcasts to geo-targeting, from ad rotator systems to tracking email response.

User Testing Rich Internet Applications

Joshua Porter, Director of Web Development, User Interface Engineering

With their application-like interface elements, rich Internet applications introduce their own user-testing considerations, from accessibility to browser compatibility. Learn the best practices for user testing RIAs, and get solid, practical advice for all of your user-testing endeavors.

Turning Mashups into Money

Dion Hinchcliffe, President and CTO, Hinchcliffe & Company

Can you really build a business model based on mashups? What are some of the current best practices? What are some of the pitfalls encountered by those who have tried to build a business model based on a mashup product? Come find out! This management-level session will provide a tour of current trends in mashups to find out who's doing what in the mashup space, as well as the leading mashup tools for the enterprise. The session also includes a discussion of monetization strategies behind mashups and provides real-world information about how a business model can be built.

Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business

DL Byron, Principal, Textura Design, Inc.

What do Boeing, General Motors, and a small bag-clip company have in common? They are all blogging about their business. The fact is a conversation with your market is stronger and more meaningful with a blog. You'll learn about the types of business blogs, how companies use blogs, how to sell blogs to management and IT, effective blog design, content and conversation, pitfalls to avoid, how to develop Web presence, and more.

Tuning into Podcasting

DL Byron, Principal, Textura Design, Inc.

How big is podcasting? Apple's iTunes Store contains a directory of tens of thousands of free audio and video podcasts. A growing number of businesses and institutions are using podcasts to deliver training, employee updates, lectures, and much more — the latest software tools make it easier than ever. See and hear what you need to create and distribute compelling podcasts.

Browsing to Buying: Designing for Conversion

Lance Loveday, CEO, Closed Loop Marketing

Designers have always known how powerful simple design changes can be. Now learn how minor design and page layout changes can yield big results for your company's bottom line. The secret? Designs that convert more traffic into leads and customers, increasing your return on investment. This session will explain how placement, visual flow, emphasis and even color can affect your site's conversion rate. We'll discuss key landing page design tips, review before/after case studies on how specific design changes impacted business metrics, and view some insightful user testing videos to see how users surf — and how they think.

Getting Found: Search Engine Optimization Strategies

Lance Loveday, CEO, Closed Loop Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) has long been one of the most cost-effective marketing vehicles available to online businesses. Your site may look beautiful and work perfectly, but if you haven't made a concerted effort to optimize and promote it in major search engines and directories then you are not getting the maximum return on your Web investment. See how your site's design affects search engine placement, learn about the different kinds of search engine marketing, and find out how to develop a SEM strategy that works for you.