DPL Reading List – July 10, 2015
Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.
5 Facets of the Coming Internet of Things Boom – “Predictions that the Internet of Things (IoT) will usher in a new era of prosperity get some backing in a new study by consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The study estimates that the annual value of IoT applications may be equivalent — in the best case — to about 11% of the world’s economy in 2025. That’s based on a number of assumptions, including the willingness of governments and vendors to enable interoperability through policies and technologies.”
Accessibility (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this) – “In this series we take a look at Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and what practical steps theme developers can take to make their theme more accessible.”
What If Authors Were Paid Every Time Someone Turned a Page? (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “Writers have always had to follow the whims of the market. Amazon’s move is exciting in many ways, especially for those who can deliver the page-turners that the new formula honors. But it will also push aside some writing styles that don’t fit into this modern, ultra-metered system. It’s easy for writers to feel powerless as the one dominant company shifts gears on short notice—and, ultimately, it seems like they are.”
Presentation: Mobile is Eating the World (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this) – “The macro view of how mobile is changing the technology industry, the internet and the broader economy, here with slides and an accompanying talk track as I presented it to our limited partners earlier this month.”
Unsuck the Enterprise (Thanks to Zach Lannin for recommending this article) – “The people who use the software every day only care about one thing: getting stuff done effectively. And if they can’t do that, a really ugly death spiral happens. As more people realize they can’t get anything done with the software, fewer people want to use it, until eventually no one uses it anymore. In short, a buyer-focused product strategy builds for features and timelines. A user-focused product strategy builds for the Job-to-be-Done. Those are very different things.”
Lessons from the Front Lines: Building Fetchnotes – “A couple months ago, I announced the acquisition of Fetchnotes, a startup I took from ENGR 490 at the University of Michigan through Techstars in Boston. Like any startup experience, there were a lot of ups and downs, and I’ve spent the past few months trying to digest what lessons I’ll take with me to my new gig at Occipital and beyond. In the spirit of sharing knowledge for the next generation of masochists?—?er, entrepreneurs?—?I figured I’d share as many “generalizable” lessons as possible. Plus, now when people ask me “What did you learn?” I can just send them this URL.”
Do the Simple Thing First: The Engineering Behind Instagram (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “’When there were just two of us, we didn’t have the time to do the fanciest, most complete thing,’ Krieger explains. ‘Doing the simple thing first started as a survival tactic, and became a mantra.’ Today, ‘that phrase is burned into brains of all my engineers, which is awesome.’”
