Living & Working

Qualifying for elections

Here’s a little thought experiment about less-than-free elections. I know we love the concept of letting everyone vote, letting everyone have their say in who runs the country. But the thing that frustrates a lot of voters, and hamstrings politicians, is the idiocy of the general public. If it wasn’t for this idiocy, then candidates […]

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Usability

Getting towards a question – and thence to an answer

One of the things that has occured to me about this Engagement lark (and perhaps explains why I’m interested) is that those whose work I’ve read are trying to design systems which encourage the best default behaviour. When any system is designed, it automatically encourages one way of using it more than others, for better […]

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the Web

Using Content to Promote the ‘Right’ Choice

The challenge, according to Jack Fuller in the Summer 2010 Edition of Nieman Reports, is ‘to induce people to want what they need’. In this way journalists – and I’d say content producers by extension – can go some way to improve engagement in dialogue with other members of our community, including those with opposing […]

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