Techdirt writes about Evite, citing a Chicago Tribune article. The issue at hand is the efficacy of Evite. I think Techdirt is one of the smartest sites out there, although a frequent “we told you so” and “this problem isn’t really a problem” tone can wear thin.

The timing is ironic, since a group of us were discussing Evite and effectiveness-across-cultures at an Evite-organized event yesterday.

For reasons I don’t understand, many people don’t respond to Evite in the way I would expect them to. If I organize an event, the Evite communications are my proxy, and I assume people will interact with them the way they would interact with me. I.e., read the messages, visit the site to see the details of the event, let me know if they are coming, etc. Many many people do not even read the email, let alone indicate their response. As an organizer, if I’m interested in that information in order to plan for a certain number of guests, then it’s the wrong tool. The last time I did this I was astounded. We got one email two weeks after the party with an “oh sorry I didn’t even look at the message.” Many other reminders ended up in spam filters.

But worse than that is something more subtle – the anonymity of the Evite I suspect makes people less inclined to treat it like a real invitation, the e-formalization (HTML graphics in an email, logos, hot links to maps) doesn’t add weight to the invitation, it subtracts from the impact. It doesn’t feel like it comes from STEVE, it comes from Evite.com, your invitation and socialization e-partner. Meh.

Now obviously this depends on who you are dealing with. For a technically literate group who adopt new services easily and will IM each other (or who know what IM is, let’s put it that way), sure. But not everyone is like that. Evite is available to anyone with an email address (and it expects you to have a browser available, but even without that you could still receive the Evite). Chances are that most people’s social circles exceeds just individuals who know what RSS and podcasting are about; who have their own blog, who installed the latest version of MT, and who have IM accounts on Y! and AIM. In my case, that’s absolutely true.

For these normal folks, it’s just not a standard way to interact around an event.

I think it’s great for blast-announcing large events where you don’t care who comes. If you get an Evite and you don’t read it, then hey, your loss, you miss out on the event. If I am having a dinner party and want guests to come to my house, I pretty much need people to read it and respond. In that case, I’m not bothering with Evite.

Techdirt minimizes any technical or interaction problems as described in the article, but the Evite event I’ve been invited to later in the week is overwhelmed with them. The body of the invite and the header of the invite refer to different dates. That was corrected (with a reported problem of the Evite system not accepting the organizer’s input), and then the same thing occurred with the time of the event. Meanwhile, even though I’m registered with Evite and they have my name and email address, the organizer somehow managed to spell our names wrong; sure we got invited but we can’t get the correct info listed. I do not enjoy being listed as Portigul – it’s oversensitivity from a lifetime of having my name mangled, but I can’t correct it.

Extraordinary Ordinary Guy In Japan offers up a pithy and provocative example of imitation/originality in Japan. Not explicitly applied to design, but the implication is clear.

Some lovely musical samples from Richard Herd who you may remember from Seinfeld as George’s boss.

Whole lotta images

The thrust of this emerging meme seems to be Wow look at all this guy’s crap, but my reaction is Wow look at how he’s got his home set up.

From today’s SF Chronicle

Canada rebuffs Bush on missile defense plan
Premier is seen as waffling on decision

Clifford Krauss, New York Times

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Toronto — The Canadian government has refused to take part in a planned North America missile defense system despite lobbying by President Bush in November, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The long-awaited decision from Prime Minister Paul Martin was a symbolic setback for the Bush administration at a time when it is trying to heal rifts with allies that emerged from the invasion of Iraq.

[etc.]

The NYT is fine; but the headline writer for the SF paper is an idiot. The leader of Canada in the article is the Prime Minister, not the Premier. Seems like they should know that; seems like an editor should have caught it. Lame! I sent in feedback, we’ll see what I hear back.

I blogged previously about our ridiculous experience in showing up at Home Depot for one of their advertised clinics, only to find that our local store lamely opted-out of the class (but not advertising the class). I contacted Home Depot corporate and got back this response

Dear Steve Portigal,

Thank you for contacting The Home Depot Customer Care.

We appreciate you taking the time to forward your concerns regarding the
clinic. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.
Please know that the feedback you have provided will be taken very
seriously and will be used in the overall evaluation of our services.

If you would like to speak with a Customer Care professional, please
call us at 1-800-553-3199 (U.S.) or 1-800-668-2266 (Canada). We would
be happy to assist you.

Sincerely,

Tamika
Customer Care Department
homedepot.com

i need a recipe for vagina shaped or decorated cookies

Uhh, sure. Who doesn’t?

Tags: cookies, recipe, vagina

Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resources Group in New York, said Tuesday he doubts Winn-Dixie will be able to succeed under Chapter 11 reorganization and may eventually be forced into a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which calls for liquidation of the company and its assets.

Looks like they are using Creature Comforts as the blueprint for new TV ads for Tiger Power cereal (recently blogged about here)

This page is probably just one example of people doing this; it’s the review of Wondercon by the folks at SFist. It features some info about appearances by Elisha Cuthbert, Christian Bale, and Joel Silver. If you look at the file names they used for those images, they are elisha_cuthbert_naked.jpg, elisha_cutherbert_nude.jpg, christian_bale_naked.jpg, etc.

If you are just reading the page normally, you won’t see that. But I guess if you are a search engine, you are going to collect that info and of course rank the page higher. Kinda cynical thing for a supposedly legit site to do. Maybe it’s standard practice.

My WonderCon (San Francisco’s comic book convention) photos are here.

Tags: comic book, confvention, cosplay, photos, shrek, wondercon

A Pair Of Funnies On “The Gates” is really excellent. I saw it when it was broadcast and have been hoping that Lisa would post it to her blog. If you didn’t see it, and you enjoy The Daily Show, absolutely check it out.

Home Depot runs special workshops on a variety of home renovation topics. They’ve simplified the scheduling by setting up a national roster of clinics that run at every store at the same time every week. So, every Thursday at 7 in Feb would be a flooring installation seminar.

From a roll-out point of view, it’s brilliant. No registration, just show up – at any store, wherever is convenient for you.

We tried it yesterday.

No dice. The store we went to decided not to run the clinic. Despite the local advertising circular and the website encouraging customers to come into that store at that time “We do one on Saturday” was the message we got.

It’s really great and all for the corporation to set up a program, but if the local stores can’t act on it, it’s worthless.

It was a pretty big waste of time to hustle over to Home Depot midweek, on their schedule. I’m not sure I’m willing to try again; my trust for the organization to actually deliver on the class is zero.

Very disappointing; the potential is great, the execution is crappy.

I’ll be moderating this panel discussion in Palo Alto on 3/31

7:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Hewlett Packard Corporate Auditorium
Building 20, 3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto CA 94304
(at the southwest corner of Hanover and Page Mill Road, 3 blocks west of El Camino).

Starting in school, designers are typically taught to use their problem solving and conceptualization skills to serve others. They rarely consider using these skills for creating and developing their own enterprises. The panel members will discuss what it takes to start and run a design-centric business and how designers’ skills can be applied towards being an entrepreneur.

Robert Forbes, Design Within Reach
Mark Dwight, Timbuk2 Designs
Kiersten Muenchinger, Parapluie

IDSA Student Members: $5
IDSA Members: $15
Non-Members: $20
Tickets will be available at the door.