18 June 2003

Unintrusive, delay-friendly: How IM augments conversations Instant messaging's mostly-synchronous nature mean that "it is OK to not answer an IM until you are ready—a pause of 30 seconds is perfectly acceptable where it wouldn’t be in voice (and the answerer doesn’t even have to hold the question in their mind while doing something else, but can refer back to it later)". Stewart Butterfield's office uses it to communicate across geographically distant teams (where presence is a useful feature), but "even in the office here, we often use them when we are only few feet away: to ask quick questions without breaking other peoples’ concentration". 11:11:04 AM     comments

Terry Bell: The right hand of Frank Gehry LA Times feature on the managing architect/project manager who makes Gehry's buildings happen. Architect as project manager rather than visionary. Apart from "knowing how to build stuff," says Gehry, the key to Bell's role is "knowing how to keep a crew of workmen together, and earning a certain amount of respect for his position, because the construction guys always try to diss the architect." In another sense, Gehry continues, Bell's job is "like being the conductor: You've got the score. Now, how do you do it?" [via ?] 2:34:06 AM     comments