Always a stickler for UI patterns and consistency, I’ve found another pattern that seems to be repeating a lot…

An object that has a title, a description and optionally a Thumbnail Image and (optionally again) a HighRes image.

So, I had quite a few senarios where I needed to display information that took up a whole lot of real estate, but was only needed for a short period of time. Sort of a "hover help" kinda thing. I googled it for a while, and really wanted a "pure css" solution, but after realizing how much "fussing" with it that was needed for it to actually work in IE6 (even IE7 requires a strict doctype to get the hover pseudo element to work properly on non anchor elements), I decided to just go with a JS solution.

Here, by popular demand (well, one request, anyway), is an animated cursor based on the iMIS 15 icon. To install it, copy the iMIS15.ani.txt file to your windows\cursors folder. Take off the .txt extension. In Control Panel / Mouse / Pointers, Browse to this cursor for the "Busy" and "Working in Background" selections. Click Apply and you're done.

I've just uploaded the source code and demo videos for the iMIS Mobile application that I demoed at the Innovations conference.
http://www.imiscommunity.com/imis_mobile

I've also setup a live site that anyone can play with using a mobile browser. See it in action here:
http://mobile.imis.com

There are tons of devices out there, and I only have a few that I can get my hands on personally. So, let me know how it looks on your device!

Mark B. mentioned this at our Dev staff meeting. 

I recently ran across a very useful tool "WyaWidget - Widget Creator" that allows you to create a widget and place it onto your Google Personalized Homepage (Also, Netvibes & Pageflakes). I'm sure there are other tools out there that are similar but this one caught my attention because it is completely web-based and simple, some of the interface is a bit rough but it is totally usable. Not only can you build a quick widget directly from you Google homepage but they also have a web based tool that allows you to build web apps, modify any you created through Google and also change your data schema ( Similar to BOA ).  

Went to session with Bradley Horowitz - VP of Technology Development Group for Yahoo! and heard him talk about the acquisiton of flickr and how to lower barriers to partipation in collaborative environments...all very interesting...but then he started talking about Yahoo! Answers.

As product manager for eSeries/eCM, i am on a daily basis both intrigued and haunted by search. It's the inevitable siren calling - the lure of a better and more precise search experience. I hear it from customers, partners, anyone who does anything on any website....My favorite from back in my consulting days has to be the inevitable comparison to google where I would hear...

I visited a customer last week and met with the new CEO and some of the managers. They had been using iMIS for about 5 years and were stuck, unsure of what they had and where they should be going. Although they were on the latest version (10.6), different departments had gone ahead and setup their own fields and codes, and some departments - like events - who needed something desperately, didn't even know they had the module in iMIS to run all of their events and training.

Over the last few months, I've noticed a trend. Prospects are expecting to see a simplified or 'dumbed-down' approach to the scenarios that I play out during demos. In fact, I've heard the comment 'iMIS looks too complicated for my needs...'. Ouch!

Let me explain more fully.

I've been doing major demos to large prospects, you know the ones. Full day demo with 10 staff in the room, and I'm supposed to show everything under the sun, and respond to questions throughout the entire time. I call these "Due Diligence Demos", the 3 D's, or Due Dili Demos. So here's the dilemna. (Say that alliteration fast!)

I've been wrestling with how best to get input on large custom demos for about 5 years now. As a Reseller Executive and now as Product Marketing Manager, I've always felt in isolation when it comes to creating, delivering and following up on Great Demos. I've always felt it would be so much easier and effective if I had a group, a forum, do I daresay a Community?!?!!?

And then the dream began...

Attached to this post is an animated cursor based on the iMIS 10 icon. To install it, copy the iMIS10.ani.txt file to your windows\cursors folder. Take off the .txt extension. In Control Panel / Mouse / Pointers, Browse to this cursor for the "Busy" and "Working in Background" selections. Click Apply and you're done.

Here's an excellent cursor tool: http://www.axialis.com/axcursors/