10 Best Intranets of 2009

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for January 5 is now online at:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/intranet_design.html

Summary:
Intranets are getting more strategic, with increased collaboration
support. Team size is growing by 12% per year, and platforms are
becoming integrated, with a strong showing for SharePoint.
Improving usability increased use by 106% on average.
	
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Usability Week 2009 conference

  > Washington DC, April 5-10 
  > London, May 17-22 
  > San Francisco, June 22-27 
  > Sydney, July 27-August 1

In-depth training:
  > 3-day camp on Fast and Cheap Usability

Specialized topics:
  > 13 in-depth tutorials

Full program:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events

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APPLICATION DESIGN ANNUAL 2009: call for entries

Have you designed a great application user interface?
Submit it for this year's design competition!

  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports/applications/2009
	
Deadline: January 30

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FOCUSED ATTENTION AS THE NEW WORTH ETHIC

The most important article published in 2008:

  > http://www.internetnews.com/commentary/article.php/3793561 

It's now less valuable to work "hard" (i.e., many hours) than to avoid
interruptions, so that you can focus your attention on one task at a time.

More and more commercial interests are scheming to undermine your
productivity by tempting you with incessant disruptions; anything from IM
to Twitter to Facebook updates. All should be ignored, except for a small
amount of time each day that you specifically set aside for non-focused
activity.

The majority of the workday should be allocated to big blocks of
uninterrupted time where any outside influence is banned and you focus on
your own priority tasks, one at a time (don't check your email more than
once per hour). People who have the discipline to work this way accomplish
immensely more than interrupt-driven slaves of real-time updates.

Focused work is the way you achieve substantial advances, which have the
highest value-add.
	
Some actionable steps:

  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040105.html