text:
The 50 worst video games of all time, according to critics
Ben Gilbert
Video games: They're generally pretty good!
They can be fun, and smart, and beautiful, and challenging, and — sometimes — all of those at once.
And then sometimes, they can be none of those things at all. Sometimes, they're real, real bad.
"Ride to Hell: Retribution" is considered one of the worst games of the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 era.
Such is the case with the games you'll find below — the worst 50 games of all time, ranked according to their respective Metacritic scores.
These aren't the games we liked the least, or the games that told us we'd never amount to anything. Instead, what we've got here is something slightly more scientific: Reviews aggregation site Metacritic compiles all reviews of games, then it averages those scores into an overall average. This is the bottom 50 from that list (of over 15,000 games), with duplicates removed.
These 50 games are the absolute worst of the worst, according to critics:
50. "Basement Crawl"
Critic score: 27/100
User score: 2.8/10
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Enter the basement, explore dark, sinister arenas and be at one with the insanity. 'Bomberman'-inspired mechanics bring party games to the next generation level. Staying alive won't be easy. The only way to survive is to become death itself, crushing all opponents. Fight with, or against your friends in a intensive, packed with action online and offline game modes. And remember, because of the horror-based graphics and themes, it's best if you don't play this game alone in the dark. You never know what might be hiding behind you. "
Platform(s): PlayStation 4
49. "Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal' is an action-adventure game featuring seven playable Looney Tunes characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tazmanian Devil, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Gossamer and a special secret character, all rendered in high-definition, next-generation graphics. Engaging in one or two player cooperative gameplay, gamers find themselves immersed in fast-paced combat, puzzle solving challenges and vehicle-based action in rich environments inspired by the popular, outlandish cartoon tales. "
Platform(s): Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360
48. "GoDai: Elemental Force"
The 3DO Company
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "The time has finally come for Hiro to avenge his family and face the forces of darkness alone. His mastery of the four elements is strong, but not yet powerful enough to face the fifth element: the Void. Now Hiro must become a Master of the Elements and complete the Trials of Earth, Wind, Water and Fire. Only then will he be ready to face the powers of darkness in the realm of the final element ... the Void awaits."
47. "Rogue Warrior"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Rogue Warrior' is a character-driven, first-person-shooter, featuring Richard 'Demo Dick' Marcinko's explosive personality in an action-packed single player campaign, and intense multiplayer combat. Playing as Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko, you go behind the iron curtain to disrupt a suspected North Korean ballistic missile program."
Platform(s): Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
46. "Fray"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Fray' is a gritty sci-fi game set in 2098, a world where civil society is on the brink of collapse."
Platform(s): PC
45. "Road Rage"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Road Rage' is an over-the-top, knock-down-drag-out motorcycle combat game that tests your skill on a range of badass bikes. Race, fight, and hustle your way through the ranks of an insane outlaw motorcycle gang."
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
44. "Mucha Lucha! Mascaritas of the Lost Code"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Mucha Lucha! Mascaritas of the Lost Code' is a game so utterly devoid of challenge that actually calling it a game almost seems too generous."
Platform(s): Game Boy Advance
43. "Stake: Fortune Fighters"
Metro3D, Inc.
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Stake - the ultimate combat event! It's winner-take-all as the world's best brawl for supremacy. More than the coveted Stake Emblem is on the line in the wildest competition ever for riches, fame and respect. Enter the arena. Face your foe."
Platform(s): Xbox
42. "HBO Boxing"
Acclaim Entertainment
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'HBO Boxing' is another disappointing boxing game that fails to even come close to re-creating the look and feel of the sport in the ring."
Platform(s): PlayStation
41. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
Global Star Software
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Step inside the magical world of Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory. Based on the feature film directed by Tim Burton and the classic Roald Dahl book, the game allows players to explore deep inside the factory and play the beloved story as Charlie Bucket."
Platform(s): PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, PC
40. "R.I.P.D. The Game"
Atlus USA
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Based on the 3D supernatural action-adventure film, 'R.I.P.D.,' you and your partner strap on the holsters of two lawmen assigned to the otherworld to protect and serve the living from an increasingly destructive array of souls who refuse to move peacefully to the other side. Top-notch teamwork and an arsenal of badass weapons are the keys to defeating your enemies and bringing order back to the world."
39. "KISS Pinball"
There weren't any good images of the game available, so here's a photo of KISS totally rocking out.
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "KISS fans will be disappointed by the distinct lack of KISS, and pinball fans will be disappointed by the distinct lack of pinball."
Platform(s): PlayStation, PC
38. "Deca Sports Freedom"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Deca Sports Freedom' will take sports gaming to the next level and to the Xbox 360 console for the first time with 10 new sporting events designed especially for Kinect. Players will compete in Tennis, Boxing, Archery, Paintball, Beach Volleyball, Dodge Ball, Kendo, Mogul Skiing, Snowboard Cross and even Figure Skating."
Platform(s): Xbox 360
37. "Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Experience the rush of robotic power in shape-shifting action game 'Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle' on Nintendo 3DS and 2DS! Based on the animated TV series, prepare to bring the big guns - and swords! - into play against the villainous Vilius and his Corrupted Army. Can you stop him before he annihilates two entire planets?!"
Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS
36. "Aquaman: Battle for Aquarius"
TDK Mediactive
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Here's your chance to wield the power of Aquaman, the DC Comics superhero, as he defends the deep-sea city of Atlantis against such enemies as Ocean Master, Black Manta, and the Lava Lord of the Fire Trolls. You must fight to save the lost city by using Aquaman's super powers, telepathy, and hook-hand. While the game features plenty of intense underwater battles, you can also bombard your enemies from an attack sub in first-person mode."
Platform(s): Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2
35. "Survivor"
Robert Voets /CBS
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Play as any of the actual Pulau Tiga and Australian Outback cast members or create your own character. See if you have what it takes to become the Ultimate Survivor."
34. "Jenga World Tour"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Jenga is based on the world famous wooden block tower building game. Designed to make the most of the innovative control systems on the Wii and DS, the game offers unpredictable, quick- paced, tactical play that combines suspense and risk-taking, where mounting anticipation comes to a crashing climax. "
Platform(s): Nintendo Wii, DS
33. "World War II Combat: Iwo Jima"
Groove Games
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Relive the storied Marine assault that landed foreign troops on Japanese soil for the first time in 5000 years. Scenarios and missions are drawn from actual events. 10 levels of single player campaigns that are full of ambient events such as mortar explosions, overhead aircraft and warning sirens that create a truly immersive experience."
Platform(s): PC, Xbox
32. "Game Party"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Game Party' for the Wii is a collection of classic skill games from around the world, from American sports venues to European gathering spots. Using the Wii's unique control interface, you can play classics such as darts; modern favorites such as table hockey and hoop shoot, or participate in multiplayer trivia contests. More than a half dozen games are available."
Platform(s): Wii
31. "Amy"
Lexis Numerique
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Amy' is a survival horror/action adventure game, where players must protect, and escort the eponymous Amy — an enigmatic eight-year-old autistic girl with curious powers — as they try to get her out of a city overrun with wild creatures and dangerous enemies. The story follows Amy and the player character Lana, a woman who is trying to protect and save her in the disease-ridden town. They must work together to fight or flee from the aberrations, demons, and the military, in the hope of saving not only each other, but also the future of humanity itself."
Platform(s): Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
30. "Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): " The Japanese blockbuster is here! An international smash hit, this vintage Dragon Ball Z fighter features 22 famed DBZ warriors for you to recreate epic, one-on-one Dragon Ball Z battles. Easy to play but tough to master, this long-awaited classic offers matchups from the Buu, Frieza and Android Sagas. Experience the DBZ game that has thrilled fans all over the world!"
29. "Call for Heroes: Pompolic Wars"
Strategy First
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Many years ago, a dimensional portal to the Outer Worlds was suddenly opened, and an enemy from the darkness encroached upon our world. Led by Pompolic, these armies of demonic hordes quickly overran most (but not all) of the planet.The origin of Pompolic is not known, but it is sure that this malevolent spiritual being possesses supernatural power, and his desire is obvious, possess the people and turn them into fellows of his dark army."
Platform(s): PC, Wii
28. "Batman: Dark Tomorrow"
Kemco
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "In 'Batman: Dark Tomorrow,' it's up to Batman to solve the mystery and save the day. The legendary Caped Crusader must use all his mental and physical skills, batglider capabilities, devices from his utility belt, and sleuthing prowess to fight crime and defeat enemies. You must battle both new and familiar enemies, including Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and the Joker. But in some missions, stealth is just as important as brute force."
Platform(s): Xbox, GameCube
27. "Stalin vs Martians"
Mezmer Games
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Stalin vs. Martians,' as the name suggests, is a game both absolutely ridiculous and over-the-top. Fun and accessible, it takes a simple arcade-like approach to the genre of real-time strategy. The player controls the Red Army as it defends Earth from the Martian Invasion of 1942, the highly classified military operation which even today remains a closely guarded state secret."
26. "Cruis'n"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "An all new version of the classic Midway arcade racer, 'Cruis'n'. Choose your ride from an impressive lineup of licensed cars and experience a rush of adrenaline as you race opponents through twelve different street circuits using the Wii Remote to steer and perform outrageous stunts. Win races and earn upgrades including: turbos, body kits, neon and nitrous, allowing you to create the ultimate ride."
25. "NBA Unrivaled"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Paying homage to the old school look and feel of the arcade classics, 'NBA Unrivaled' brings back all of the intensity and pulse pounding action."
24. "Terrawars: New York Invasion"
Tri Synergy / G2 Games
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Without warning, the world is overrun by an alien invasion. The Earth is in chaos. You are John Armstrong, a medical student drafted in to the National Guard. On a critical mission that may help turn the tide, your team is wiped out. Now success depends on you. Will you rise up to the challenge?"
23. "Gravity Games Bike: Street Vert Dirt"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Gravity Games Bike: Street, Vert, Dirt' delivers the most extreme BMX action available for the next-generation systems. It takes the hottest action-sport to the next level with 21 skilled riders, 10 huge Street, Vert and Dirt courses, and more than 1,500 wicked tricks. Control one of seven professional bike riders, including Fuzzy Hall, Dennis McCoy, Jamie Bestwick, Andre Ellison, Leigh Ramsdell, Reuel Erickson, and Matt Beringer. If you're good enough to handle these intense challenges, you'll get the Gravity Games Gold Medal in the Street, Vert, or Dirt competitions ... and if you're really good, you'll get the Gold in all three."
Platform(s): PlayStation 2, Xbox
22. "Postal III"
Running With Scissors/Akella
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "The 'Postal' series continues in this third installment, using the Source Engine from Valve."
21. "Game Party Champions"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Game Party Champions' is the fifth and latest installment of the Game Party franchise and available exclusively for Wii U. The game's pick-up and play style promises to appeal to experienced and new gamers alike. Using the system's innovative new GamePad, players tilt, turn and touch the controller to play arcade, sports and party games in entirely new ways."
Platform(s): Nintendo Wii U
20. "Legends of Wrestling II"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Legends of Wrestling II' takes you through the wrestling hall of fame with the top grapplers that are battling for squared-circle supremacy. Play as your favorite wrestler--including Hulk Hogan, Andre "The Giant," and Bret "Hitman" Hart--each with signature entrances, taunts, and moves. A new storyline and career mode let you battle for the respect of promoters and fans while fighting for the heavyweight championship crown."
Platform(s): Nintendo GameBoy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
19. "Pulse Racer"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Pulse Racer' takes you to a future where racers careen toward the clouds in sleek vehicles to gain an advantage over the competition. As a racer, you'll need a risk-taking mentality; but more importantly, you'll need a vehicle that suits your driving style and a driver who matches your technique. Linked directly to your vehicle, your body will be pushed to the limit in a variety of high-speed tracks. Harass your opponents with missiles, mines, or direct plasma beams and slingshot around tight turns."
18. "Fighter Within"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Unleash your inner fighter to beat your friends with your bare knuckles. Discover 'Fighter Within,' the next-gen game that provides you with the excitement of a real fight, throwing you into a total-body combat experience. Test your real fighting skills thanks to the next gen of motion recognition. Kinect for Xbox One arms the game with realistic fighting moves using 1:1 precision movement tracking."
Platform(s): Xbox One
17. "FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction' is demolition racing at its extreme. Real world physics with 9 different game modes, and over 47 different vehicles available. Players may choose to race, smash and destroy their opponents in a wide variety of online and offline options. "
16. "Homie Rollerz"
Destineer
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Homie Rollerz' is a fast-paced, mayhem-laden kart racer where players can pick one of the 10 most popular Homies, customize their slick rides, then trick, hop, and battle through courses with settings, shortcuts, and secrets as unique as the Homies themselves."
Platform(s): Nintendo DS
15. "Charlie's Angels"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Join Natalie, Dylan, and Alex for an intense adventure based on the 'Charlie's Angels' movies. You'll need various disguises, clever tactics, and acrobatic martial arts moves to ensure a successful mission. Master the different styles of all three Angels as you battle 32 different types of enemies across the globe. You can switch between characters at anytime during the game. 'Charlie's Angels' movie stars — Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, and Bernie Mac — supply the voices."
Platform(s): Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2
14. "Rambo: The Video Game"
Reef Entertainment
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Rambo: The Video Game' puts players in Rambo's combat boots and takes them on an action-packed adventure through the iconic action- sequences and story-arcs of 'First Blood,' 'Rambo: First Blood Part II' and 'Rambo III.' The game features the original movie voice-tracks of John Rambo and Col. Samuel Trautman as well as selected music from the original 'Rambo Trilogy.'"
13. "Fast & Furious: Showdown"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Fast & Furious: Showdown' takes some of the franchise's iconic characters on a high-stakes adventure around the globe that delivers takedowns, heists, hijacks and havoc. Players can switch roles with their AI partners or team up with a friend for two-person local co-op. Completed objectives unlock new vehicle performance and customization options to make each player's ride unique."
Platform(s): Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii U, 3DS
12. "Drake of the 99 Dragons"
Majesco Games
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Drake is out for revenge in a supernatural Hong Kong world. You'll join Drake in 25 intense missions, as he battles ruthless villains and female assassins with an array of firearms, short and long blade weapons, and thrown melee weapons. Use Drake's power and agility to slow down the action, fire guns in any direction, and run and backflip off of walls. When you become injured, you can feed on the souls of the dead to replenish your health."
Platform(s): Xbox, PC
11. "Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma - Volume 1"
Versus Evil
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Head out on a journey of redemption, driven by bitter-sweet revenge. The saga of Afro Samurai continues but this time follows the path of Kuma, one of Afro's closest childhood friends."
10. "Infestation: Survivor Stories" (Formerly: "The War Z")
OP Productions
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "It has been 5 years since the outbreak, giving rise to a post-apocalyptic nightmare with 95% of the human race wiped out. To survive, you'll require food, weapons, and other supplies. Some of you will scavenge as you negotiate the terrain, others will be forced to fight for survival as they encounter zombies and other players. Every decision has an effect on whether you live or how quickly you meet your death."
9. "Deal or No Deal"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "The premise is simple: You have 26 briefcases in front of you. Each one contains a different amount of money. Open each case one by one, and try to find the briefcase with the biggest amount of money. Deal Or No Deal?"
8. "Alone in the Dark: Illumination"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "A dire curse has shrouded the town of Lorwich in an unnatural darkness, as monstrous hordes emerge from beyond the realm of nightmares to sow chaos on the land. As one of four heroes, you must battle the minions of Cthulhu with the force of arms and the power of illumination."
7. "SPOGS Racing"
D2CspoG
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Race along in distinctively unique 'SPOGS Racers' that can be personalized, customized and modified with in-game images and vehicle parts. Gamers control their SPOGS as they try their best to smash into their opponents to steal upgraded parts on-the-fly in the title's innovative Crash 'N Grab gameplay. Featuring several game modes, a variety of track types including outrageous stunt tracks with loops and jumps, multiple difficultly modes and control schemes, racing power-ups, weapons, and head-to-head multiplayer, SPOGS Racing offers plenty of fun for gamers of all ages and experiences."
Platform(s): Nintendo Wii
6. "Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons"
Cyberfront Korea Corp.
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "A remake the '80s 'Double Dragon II' game. Team up and take control of Jimmy and Billy, whose looks and actions are modernized. Battle through the newly drawn 3D stages, which hide their own secrets and surprises."
5. "Vroom in the Night Sky"
Poisoft
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Vroom in the Night Sky' is a magical bike action game. There are various night skies in this world, and it is the work of Magical Girls to collect Stardusts there. You become the Magical Girl Luna, ride a magical bike, fly around the night sky and collect Stardusts!"
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
4. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust "
Funsta
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "In this third-person adventure game, Larry takes a summer job working on his uncle Larry's movie lot doing odd jobs and trying to uncover a mole from another studio who threatens to air the studio's dirty laundry in the tabloids. 'Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust' is a rollicking, innuendo-laden lampoon of Hollywood that features open-world sandbox gameplay that includes exploration, platforming, racing and puzzle-solving to complete missions. "
Platform(s): Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Mobile
3. "Yaris"
Backbone Entertainment
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Hop into a Toyota Yaris and drive it on crazy tracks loaded with stubborn obstacles, cool powerups, and intense enemy action. The relentlessly twisted courses in Yaris might have loops or even be tube-shaped, but the Yaris never has to worry about sliding off track, as it defies gravity by scaling side-walls and going all topsy-turvy."
2. "Ride to Hell: Retribution"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Ride to Hell' is not for the faint-hearted; it's aimed heavily at the player who wants to become fully involved in the original West Coast biker culture. With its hard drinking, bare-knuckle environment, this is as close to the action as you can get. "
1. "Family Party: 30 Great Games — Obstacle Arcade"
Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade' brings home wacky and wild competitions for kids of all ages."
Features Video Games Gaming


Registration for the new upcoming Hair Coloring Course "JC1" with the Master Colorist Coach Wajdi ; just started. We are available to do your booking from 8:30 in the morning till 6:00 evening. For inquiries and questions you may contact us to 1868888 ext. 1055 or through Direct messages.


I found your blog from googling soursop, Belize it or not! I have read all of your posts (took awhile) and now I am up to date and was a little worried as there have not been regular posts lately. From today's post I understand that Barry has had an injury. Wish him a speedy recovery. I am coming to Belize in January for a month and I have done much searching on the internet and purchased two books on Belize. However, I must say that your blog has been very informative. I have enjoyed your little side trips and the pics of the food, most mouth watering. I am staying in Placencia but will probably do some day trips and I will be visiting Ambergris Caye. Perhaps we could meet and say hello. I live on the east coast of Canada and we are expecting some repercussions of "Sandy". I think we are getting some rain and high winds. I will follow your Blog untill my vist in January. Take Care.


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Roger Wolcott Sperry
American biologist
Roger Wolcott Sperry, (born Aug. 20, 1913, Hartford, Conn., U.S.—died April 17, 1994, Pasadena, Calif.), American neurobiologist, corecipient with David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1981 for their investigations of brain function, Sperry in particular for his study of functional specialization in the cerebral hemispheres.
Sperry earned a bachelor's degree in English literature and a master's degree in psychology from Oberlin (Ohio) College and a doctorate in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1941. He then became an associate of Karl Lashley, first at Harvard University and then at the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Orange Park, Fla. In 1946 he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago and in 1954 moved to the California Institute of Technology as Hixon professor of psychobiology.
Sperry's early research was on the regeneration of nerve fibres. He eventually became interested in brain function and undertook research on animals and then on human epileptics whose brains had been "split"—i.e., in whom the thick cable of nerves (the corpus callosum) connecting the right and left cerebral hemispheres had been severed. His studies demonstrated that the left side of the brain is normally dominant for analytical and verbal tasks, while the right hemisphere assumes dominance in spatial tasks, music, and certain other areas. The surgical and experimental techniques Sperry developed from the late 1940s laid the groundwork for much more specialized explorations of the mental functions carried out in different areas of the brain.
human intelligence: Hemispheric studies
…Levy and the American neurobiologist Roger W. Sperry, who worked with split-brain patients—that is, individuals whose corpus callosum had been severed. Because the corpus callosum links the two hemispheres in a normal brain, in these patients the hemispheres function independently of each other.…
David Hunter Hubel
Torsten Nils Wiesel and Roger Wolcott Sperry of the 1981 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. All three scientists were honoured for their investigations of brain function, with Hubel and Wiesel sharing half of the award for their collaborative discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system.…
Torsten Wiesel
Torsten Wiesel, Swedish neurobiologist, recipient with David Hunter Hubel and Roger Wolcott Sperry of the 1981 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. All three scientists were honoured for their investigations of brain function, Wiesel and Hubel in particular for…
April 17, 1994 (aged 80)
subjects of study
cerebral hemisphere
Nobel Prize (1981)
The Nobel Foundation - Autobiography of Roger W. Sperry

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Here are some events in and near London that could be of interest to pagans. The most important event this weekend is the launch of the exhibition on Folklore, Magic and Mysteries: Modern Witchcraft and Folk Culture in Britain, in Brighton. The picture above shows some of the items from Doreen Valiente collection, which should be on show.
Friday 1 April; Pagan Piss-Up. Pub crawl with Hertford Pagan Moot. Starting at the White Horse pub, Hertford, at 8pm. (Note: Hertford Pagan Moot normally meets on the last Wednesday of every month in the upstairs room of the White Horse Pub, 33 Castle Street, Hertford, at 8pm).
Tuesday 5 April; Cobwebs and Cauldrons Moot. Venue: Romford White Horse Pub, 118 High Road, RM6 6NU. Moot takes place on the first Tuesday of every month. 7.30pm start.


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NSCA Contacts
Term Priorities
Join/Renew (Dues)
Bylaws & Documents
History of North Springfield
Caring for the Community Since 1956
In 1946, real estate developer Mr. Edward R. Carr anticipated the great need to provide home communities for the many families moving in the Washington suburbs after World War II who were taking up newly formed government jobs. He found, purchased and developed much of the land in the Springfield area. Started in 1955, North Springfield was the second planned community in the area just behind Crestwood's Springfield. A year later, the North Springfield Civic Association (NSCA) was formed. A school and a pool soon followed.
Signature Programs Join/Renew (Dues)
Above and right: 7514 Hamlet Street (Courtesy of Tom Sheffler). Flyer far right courtesy of local historian Robyn Carter. Click photos to expand.
Today, the entire neighborhood is collectively known as North Springfield, but it's history is rich and has its roots in a much simpler time in Northern Virginia history. In 2015, NSCA embarked on a year-long celebration of NSCA's 60th anniversary from 2015-16. This was a rare opportunity to reflect on where NSCA began and how far it had come. During this reflection period, the NSCA board compiled a detailed timeline list of accomplishments and also drafted a white paper overview to explain the numerous contributions made to the community. You can also find several historical photos on our Facebook page.
North Springfield was developed in multiple phases. Oversimplified, they are:
Crestwood Park section of North Springfield (Ferndale entrance), May 1957.
Courtesy of Grace Genie McClellan. Click photos to expand.
Bonneywood:
This is an extension of the North Springfield section with slightly more upscale homes covering the area around Easton Dr.
Leewood Estates:
This is the detached area of North Springfield along Woodland Dr. that was developed not by Mr. Carr but by Sidney Weinberg & Sons. They were custom-built homes "for the family seeking the quiet luxury of a small estate for year round living in a setting of unsurpassed natural beauty" according to the sales ad. When this section was built it was an area all unto itself with no townhomes, churches, or funeral homes around. Because of its proximity to the rest of North Springfield, it was considered an extension of North Springfield and has always been part of NSCA. Several additional areas have been added over the years, including Woodland Way Estates and Granberry Way Estates. Each of these are served by North Springfield despite technically being governed by pro-forma HOAs.
"Heming Extended":
While never given an official name since it was built in the 1980s (about 30 years after the rest of the neighborhood), it is the area along Heming past Lake Accotink Park.
North Springfield:
This is the area owned by Mr. Carr and is roughly the Leesville area, Heming from Lake Accotink Park to Elgar and over to Ferndale.
Crestwood Park:
This is the area Mr. Carr sold to the Crestwood Corporation (who also developed Crestwood's Springfield at Backlick Rd. and Amherst Ave.). It is roughly Braddock Rd. to Chatham St. from Ferndale to Ravensworth.
webmaster@nscivic.org


text:
Sigma Home Page / Sigma News
Sigma News
Call for Applicants: Sigma and Jonas Philanthropies Collaborative Research Grant
NEW YORK, July 29, 2019 – Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma), an organization committed to advancing world health and celebrating nursing excellence, and Jonas Philanthropies, a nonprofit addressing high-need healthcare issues and audiences, are proud to announce the launch and call for applicants for the new Sigma/Jonas Philanthropies collaborative research grant. The grant, created in memory of Jonas Philanthropies co-founder Barbara Jonas and supported by Jonas Philanthropies signature program, Jonas Nursing & Veterans Healthcare, and Sigma Foundation for Nursing, will help improve healthcare for the most vulnerable citizens in the United States by supporting the work and research of nurses focusing on the categories of mental health, rural health and veteran healthcare. Applications will be accepted through December 1, 2019. Recipients of three individual $10,000 grants (one per category) will be announced in April 2020, and funding will be awarded on June 1, 2020.
"We are thrilled to partner with Sigma to move toward a better future by supporting early career researchers and emerging leaders committed to the country's underserved populations," said Wanda Montalvo, PhD, RN, the Executive Director of Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare. "We look forward to receiving the applications of nursing scholars and working with them to advance their careers, research, and healthcare industry as a whole."
"Sigma is proud to partner with Jonas Philanthropies to support nursing research that will improve the healthcare of these vulnerable populations," said Sigma President Beth Baldwin Tigges, PhD, RN, PNP, BC. "Through these new grants, qualified nurses will be able to continue changing lives and advancing healthcare through nursing research."
Applicants must be registered nurses with a current license and doctoral nurse scholars (earned PhD, DNP, EdD, DNSc, PhD-DNP). The proposed research must address a pressing health care issue that impacts vulnerable citizens of the United States in the areas of Mental Health, Rural Health or Veterans Healthcare, including but not limited to underserved older adults and children. Special consideration will be given to Jonas Scholars and Sigma members.
Those interested are invited to submit a completed research application packet and signed research agreement via Sigma's online submission system, which can be accessed here.
Applicants must be ready to implement their research project when funding is received and complete the project within one year of that time. Ten percent of the grant will be withheld until the final report is submitted via the online system to Sigma. The final report, including a completed abstract, will be submitted to Sigma's Virginia Henderson Global Nursing e-Repository and will be provided to Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare, Executive Director and Grants Manager.
About Jonas Philanthropies
Jonas Philanthropies is transforming healthcare for the better by investing where it matters most, in solutions that can be scaled for the greatest impact. Its programs address high-need issues and audiences with high-impact solutions: promoting leadership in nursing and veterans healthcare, preventing and treating low vision and blindness, and protecting our children's environmental health. For more information about Jonas Philanthropies, visit jonasphilanthropies.org, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.
About Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare
Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare (JNVH) is the signature program of Jonas Philanthropies. In partnership with schools across the country, Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare identifies and invests in high-potential doctoral nursing Scholars who will address our nation's most pressing healthcare needs. These nurses will go on to fill leadership roles as faculty, clinical leaders and researchers. For more information about JNVH, visit jonasphilanthropies.org, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.
The Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is advancing world health and celebrating nursing excellence in scholarship, leadership, and service. Founded in 1922, Sigma has more than 135,000 active members in over 90 countries and territories. Members include practicing nurses, instructors, researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and others. Sigma's more than 540 chapters are located at more than 700 institutions of higher education throughout Armenia, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, England, Ghana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malawi, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Swaziland, Sweden, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, the United States, and Wales. Learn more at www.sigmanursing.org.
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During its March 24 to 28 sitting in Dominica, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) will hear a number of outstanding matters.
Among these is a motion from Chartered Accountant Kieron Pinard- Byrne who is seeking final leave to appeal to the Privy Council in his matter with United Workers political leader Lennox Linton.
Earlier, Pinard-Byrne sued Linton for defamation in in the High Court and won but Linton appealed the matter at the Court of Appeal and won when the ECSC ruled 2-1 that Linton had "qualified privileges" when he accused Pinard- Byrne in the Layou River Hotel building scandal. Pinard-Byrne wants the law lords of England to review the ECSC decision.
Another matter expected to occupy the attention of the judges of the Supreme Court is an application/motion by convicted murders Herbert Xavier et al who are seeking the leave of the court to rely on affidavit evidence. They are also appealing a High Court criminal appeal against convictions for murder. They were convicted in 2012 for the murder of their brother Harrison Williams.
The jury in the High Court decided that on September 24th 2010 at Soufriere Lauretta and Herbert Xavier and Manuella Williams who was involved in an altercation with their brother killed him during the fight. Herbert Xavier is represented by Wayne Norde while Lauretta Xavier is represented by Dawn Yearwood Stewart; Roland Charles is the lawyer for Manuella Williams.
Their lawyers are not appealing the sentence the judge imposed but have filed about 10 grounds of appeal against the conviction.


text:
Why Do We Celebrate Earth Day?
https://hightowerlowdown.org/podcast-player/15173/why-do-we-celebrate-earth-day.mp3
Why all this hoopla about Earth Day, grump the barons of Big Oil and other corporate plunderers of our natural resources?
But the global demand to "Save The Earth" is not hoopla – it's an imperative struggle for human survival. And it doesn't just celebrate a planet, but the feistiness of the human spirit, the tenacity of millions of everyday people committed to the ethic of good stewardship.
People like Diane Wilson of Seadrift, Texas. A fourth-generation shrimper on the Gulf Coast, she is the personification of persistence, having spent 40 years battling the raw greed of Formosa Plastics, a Taiwanese chemical giant whose gross pollution has devastated the fishing ecology and economy of Gulf waters in her home area. And – Hallelujah! – last August, Wilson's indefatigable spirit prevailed, for she won the largest private citizen's lawsuit in US history against an industrial polluter!
She's getting no time to savor the victory, though, for another multibillion-dollar polluter, named Max Midstream, is attacking this same fragile ecosystem. Max proposes to dredge a deep channel through Matagorda and Lavaca Bays so massive oil tankers can reach a huge crude oil export terminal that Max intends to own there – a channel that would plow straight through an underwater Superfund site, unearthing deposits of deadly mercury that aluminum giant Alcoa had carelessly dumped there for years.
But look out, Max – here comes Diane again! Just as she did in the Formosa fight, she's putting her own health on the line, having launched a hunger strike to draw attention to the profiteering maneuvers of this latest corporate plunderer. She's petitioning President Biden to cancel Max's dredging permit.
That's why Earth Day exists and persists – to celebrate and extend the fighting spirit of grassroots champions like Diane Wilson. To sign her online petition, go to bit.ly/StopDredging.
Every month, Hightower knocks on your door...
Now, pull up some chairs and get ready for a sparky conversation!


text:
The Best Sites to Visit in Chicago
Toni Hoy, Leaf Group
Chicago is known as the Windy City. (Photo: sears tower chicago image by Gregory Pilich from Fotolia.com )
How to Visit Chicago in September
Ideas for a Weekend in Chicago
Weekend Getaways in Chicago
Fun Youth Activities in Chicago
Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, is a fascinating place to visit. Getting around is easy by car, bus, train, taxi or even on foot. Lake Michigan provides a natural backdrop for the Chicago skyline. Chicago is a culturally diverse city with a host of adventures for sports fans, history buffs and shoppers.
Get a bird's eye view of the city from the skydeck of the Willis Tower with its interactive displays or take a multi-media tour of the Hancock Observatory. Stroll around Millennium Park where you'll find Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture, affectionately known by locals as "the bean" which reflects the Chicago skyline. Navy Pier offers a host of attractions including shopping, rides, entertainment and boat tours of Lake Michigan. At night, head south to Grant Park for Buckingham Fountain's colorful light and water display. Chicago is also the home or Brookfield Zoo and Lincoln Park Zoo.
Check out Chicago's Museum Campus, a nature park that connects the Field Museum with the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium. The Field Museum hosts special exhibits and the Adler Planetarium has interactive space exhibits. There's also the Art Institute of Chicago, which boasts the largest collection of Impressionist paintings outside the Louvre Museum in Paris. South of downtown Chicago is the Museum of Science and Industry.
Tour the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb. There are a variety of boat tours that include dining, cocktails and dancing or take the haunted cruise. See the city by foot, bicycle or on a horse and carriage ride.
On Michigan Avenue you'll find Water Tower Place, an eight level atrium of upscale department stores, restaurants and shops. Also in the Michigan Avenue area are some of the most popular designer clothing and jewelry stores in the world. Shopping in the State Street area offers many of the big chain department stores, casual dining and souvenir shops.
Chicago's dining experience spans from fine dining like Charlie Trotter's to novelty shops like Ed Debevics, Johnny Rockets and the Hard Rock Café. There are a variety of ethnic restaurants in the greater Chicagoland area, some of which can be found in Greektown or Chinatown.
Football fans can catch the Chicago Bears playing at Soldier Field. Baseball fanatics can choose from the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field or the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. Basketball fans can see a Chicago Bulls game at the United Center. The Chicago Blackhawks ice hockey team also plays at the United Center or head over to the Allstate Arena and watch the Calder Cup championship, Chicago Wolves hockey team. Soccer buffs can enjoy a Chicago Fire soccer game at Toyota Park.
The Official Chicago Visitor's Site; Tours and Attractions; 2010.
Chicago Traveler; Chicago Tours; Chicago, IL; 2010.
Frank Lloyd Wright Tours
Toni Hoy has written articles on child welfare for "Rise Magazine." She has made presentations to state departments, legislators, and advocacy groups on mental health care. Her video, "He's My Son" is gaining national attention. She holds a B.A. degree in communications from Thomas Edison State College.
sears tower chicago image by Gregory Pilich from Fotolia.com
Attribution: Jleon and Mcshadypl; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Attribution: Victorgrigas; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Attribution: Lacrossewi; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Attribution: Allen McGregor; License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
Hoy, Toni. "The Best Sites to Visit in Chicago." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/sites-visit-chicago-24526.html. Accessed 19 July 2019.
Hoy, Toni. (n.d.). The Best Sites to Visit in Chicago. Travel Tips - USA Today. Retrieved from https://traveltips.usatoday.com/sites-visit-chicago-24526.html
Hoy, Toni. "The Best Sites to Visit in Chicago" accessed July 19, 2019. https://traveltips.usatoday.com/sites-visit-chicago-24526.html
Cheapest Motels in Chicago
Places to Go in Chicago With Teens
Outdoor Adventure Travel and Tours in Chicago
Chicago Sightseeing Attire
The Best Way to Do Sightseeing in Chicago
Bus Tours in Chicago
How Do I Find Discounts for Dinner Cruises in Chicago?
Family Friendly Things to Do in Chicago
Family Vacation to Chicago
Hotel Suites in Downtown Chicago
Things to See & Do in Chicago
Chicago Activities in March
Chicago Sightseeing Sights
Restaurants With Good Views in Chicago, Illinois
Images related to Chicago
From top left: Downtown Chicago, the Willis Tower, the bucetar, the Chicago "L", Navy Pier, the Field Museum, and Millenium Park
Pottawatomi Fashion at the Field Museum in Chicago
Greetings from Chicago Mural - Logan Square, Chicago
"Six Corners" sunset in Wicker Park, Chicago.
Chicago skyscrapers July 10, 2012, from John Hancock Center looking south.
Great Things to Do in Chicago
Attractions & Big Cities in Illinois


What is Swiss DolorClast Method?
Home Page > Products > Clinical Equipment > EMS Swiss DolorClast > What is Swiss DolorClast Method?
The advantages of Swiss DolorClast radial shockwave therapy in a nutshell.
EMS offers two Shock Wave technologies to provide the appropriate solution for every pathology.
ONE method, many indications. The Swiss DolorClast® Method is a clinically proven therapy.
Frequently asked questions by clinicians.


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Episode 33: Abby Covert Makes Sense Out of Messes
Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 44:21 | Recorded on December 3, 2020 | Speakers: Abby Covert, Joel Goodman, Jon-Stephen Stansel
Abby Covert joins the show to talk about information architecture, usability research, and adding humanity into the design process. This episode is sponsored by Squiz.
Transcript for Abby Covert Makes Sense Out of Messes
This episode is sponsored by Squiz
Specializing in higher education, Squiz creates extraordinary, personalized experiences for a digital world through our site search platform (Funnelback), CMS, student portal, integrations hub, and more. It's time to move beyond antiquated systems to an open, flexible platform. Trusted by hundreds of top institutions across the globe, Squiz is your partner to move forward, faster toward a connected campus.
Learn more at https://squiz.net
Joel Goodman: Hi there. This is the third episode in a series on user experience design. And this conversation with Abby Covert happened back in December of 2020. We're grateful to her for being on this episode of Thought Feeder. It's also sponsored by our friends at Squiz.
You can learn more about their digital experience platform at squiz.net
Jon-Stephen Stansel: Welcome to the Thought Feeder podcast. I'm Jon-Stephen Stansel and with me as always is my partner in crime, Joel Goodman. And today on the show we have Abby Covert. Abby is an information architect and the author of "How to Make Sense of Any Mess" and boy, do we have messes to make sense of.
So thank you for being on the show, Abby, let, let's start with just a little bit, tell us about yourself, the work you do and what drives you to, to make sense out of messes.
Abby Covert: Well first, thank you so much for having me. So yeah, I guess. Where do I start? I think messes are pretty inherent in being human. So that's, that's one I've been exposed to them since pretty much the day I could perceive things around me. I also came from a pretty unique background, I would say . My grandfather is someone that in my life I've discovered was perhaps one of the first information architects by profession, but he did not know those terms.
So my whole life, I was really exposed to his work. Um, He worked for the military first and then later moved onto wall street. But his real passion in life was moving the world from paper to punch cards. And he spent a lot of his career doing communication and influence around that migration because it was just such a huge leap for people to make to think about things in these structured kind of database ways.
So I actually inherited his life's work when he passed a few years ago. And until that point, I kind of knew that we had similarities, but when I started to dig through his actual portfolio, I realized like, Oh man, this was like, in me from the very beginning. And then looking back on it, I'm like, Oh right, I was totally the seven year old that like made a card catalog for our family library and then got really mad when people didn't like obey the rules of checking things in and out. And you know, it kind of just touches every part of my life.
So. So, yeah, I guess it was always a thing that I wanted to do. And then in terms of my education, I was homeschooled. So I spent quite a lot of time kind of contemplating existence in my room by myself. So I'm very introverted in that way. And then when I looked into kind of like the academic situation that I was going to find myself in undergraduate, I really thought that I wanted to lay out newspapers which I don't really understand the, like, impetus of but I think it had to do with kind of like structuring things into kind of categories and labels and boxes.
And so in high school I did some volunteer work that was in desktop publishing. So it was kind of like my entry into software and understanding like you can manipulate things for other people to consume using a computer. And yeah, once I got into college, I learned all about this like digital world.
I moved into an, a multimedia program and then ultimately discovered information architecture as a concept. And that really became sort of like the central thesis of, of my work going forward. So I've been a professional information architect since 2004. And yeah, I've, I've worked in all sorts of contexts. I've been agency side, I've been in-house , I've been a consultant. I've been an author, a teacher and, yeah, just really love talking about messages and helping people make sense of them.
Joel Goodman: So JS alluded to this, but you know, most of the people that listen to our podcast work in higher education and higher education. Oh, man,
Abby Covert: What a mess.
Joel Goodman: WHat a mess?
Abby Covert: I mean, if not before then in 2020, for sure. Right.
Joel Goodman: exactly. but, but I think like, you know, when we think about, especially like large scale digital projects, whether it's like full transformation or it's kinda more of an evolution of you know, we built our website, our very first website in 1998 and it was just these static HTML files. And then we finally moved to a content management system sometime around 2006. This is, this is, from my life around 2006. And you know, and then but we didn't really think about all the content that was there and then, Oh, we need to have a redesign four years later, but you know, like.
For people like me that come in from an agency standpoint and go into help institutions figure out what's going on with their website, a lot of times we'll just enter into giant messes of, they may have like a legacy site and half of the pages are linked to, from their modern, you know, non-legacy site.
And they're trying to, I don't know, like there seems to be this. thought that you can just redesign a website and that's good enough for, you know, that, that fixes things. And when I say redesign, I mean, visually redesign a
Abby Covert: yeah.
Moving the furniture around. Yeah.
Joel Goodman: yeah, but, but it doesn't help a lot of times, you know, you turned around like a university will spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars with an agency to redesign their website. But they won't allow or even think about what's happening on a, content the side, on organizational side and the website launches six, eight, 12 months later and it does nothing, you know, like it, maybe looks a little bit better, but it does nothing. and I think a lot of times just thinking through how you're going to fix that mess, or even recognizing that there's a mess in the first place. It's just daunting. Right? And I think part of it, it might be a defense mechanism in the industry where you just like, you don't want to look at it. You don't want to deal with it. It's a lot of work. You got a thousand other things going on.
But I wondered if we could start kind of at the beginning of why really thinking through the architecture and the organization of the content of the pages of the assets of everything across a digital presence is important for, I mean, on, in my opinion, it's important for basically every single thing that comes out of, you know, that comes after that it affects it and touches all of it.
But yeah, could we, could we kind of start there and your thinking around that.
Abby Covert: yeah. Okay. So I think what you're getting at is sort of like, why the architecture part? Like we have all this stuff. Stuff goes in places. When we get stuff can't we just put it in places? Like why, why do we have to do that step ahead of time to decide where we're going to put the things in the future and also to deal with this mountain of mess that is ahead of us in terms of what we currently have?
So I'm going to start with with a bit of a metaphor about grocery shopping. So let's say that you're grocery shopping for yourself and you're putting away the groceries in your home. Okay. You've been putting away your groceries in your home, the way that you've been doing it for a number of years, it's a pretty rote activity, right? You're just like. Enacting all of the rules that are in your mind.
Now, if I was standing there as a researcher and I asked you to tell me why you put all of the things away, the way that you did, you would tell me a pretty intricate set of rules that were very unique to you and the context that you have, or maybe the members of your family have with the things, the pieces of content that you're putting away in your fridge and pantry.
Now, let's say that I now take you out of your home. And I put you into my home. Okay. And I give you my groceries and I ask you to put away my groceries. When you open up all the cupboards, everything is bare. So you have an empty pantry, you have an empty refrigerator and you're going to put away the groceries wherever they go.
Now, by doing that, you're going to probably get all the groceries away. But now when you try to get me later on to file groceries, the same way that you did in my home, you're going to really start to struggle. Right?
So I think like this, hopefully this metaphor kind of lets your, your listeners understand that like it's not actually the organizing part that is hard. It's the deciding how to organize part that is hard.
The other part that's really important here is that architecture emerges when it hasn't been put there on intention. So when you put the cereal in the refrigerator, instead of in the pantry, which I think is asinine, but you might think as normal, like that's creating a structure. Now, did you sit down and make a map that said, Oh, all the cereal is going to go in the refrigerator? No, you didn't. But you did make an architectural decision about where a person is going to find content.
So it feels like in a lot of cases, back to the, the fear component that you mentioned, it feels like in a lot of cases, people look at these huge messes that are ahead of them and they just don't start because they're afraid of starting. And one of the first steps that I recommend in these kinds of situations is drawing a picture of the mess that is in front of you. Not the solution, not the like ultimate end goal of how you think the thing should be, or you wish it could be, but actually the reality of it. And the reason that I ask people to do that at this stage, when they're like, you know, showing this kind of fear is because once they look at it, there's two things that happen.
One, they can't unsee it, so they're compelled to change it. And two it's actually not as scary as they thought it was. And I have found those two things to be the reality every single time I have ever given anyone advice on any mess ever. Regardless of the size or the severity or the number of systems involved or length of time that it's been accruing because at the end of the day, it's just it's sort of like a thing we all have to do.
And it's just a matter of kind of like deciding that now's the time and facing it and being brave. Yeah, bravery is just, it's one of those sense-making skills, but at the beginning of my career, I, I just really underestimated because you're right. It is scary. Scary to look at all that and be, quote, "in charge" of making it better.
Jon-Stephen Stansel: Yeah, I totally agree. I love the idea of actually drawing it out because you know, When it's in our heads, we've got it there, but when we get it out on paper or however, we, prefer to get it out there. It, it makes a lot more sense, you know? And, and one thing that, that strikes me, Is, one thing you say is your book is not just for website.
information architecture can apply to all things. You know, I think you said this book is for, for people who make it things. And, you know, I think generally when we think about web architect or information even saying web right architecture, we think about websites, but it's not just websites. Right. You know this applies to graphic design. This applies to, you know whatever it is you're, you're, you're making for me working in social media and working in social media, in higher ed, where we have, you know, I often say, you know, Nike has like one account to worry about, right.
then, you know, they might have customer service or whatever, but, you know, there's @nike, right. In higher ed. We have @The_University, every college, every department, you know, the structures again, kind of like you're saying, it's, it's just, we didn't think about how we were going to organize it.
We just did it.
Abby Covert: Yeah, it's emergent. Yeah.
Jon-Stephen Stansel: So I think we can, can use information architecture to help higher ed social media. But you know, whenwe have maybe hundreds of accounts, where would you suggest just using social media as a, as a, as a example for things outside of the web where would we start to clean up this mess once we, once we've written it down?
Abby Covert: Yeah. So I think that it's, I'm so glad that you called out to your listeners, that it's not just about the web and that that's going to be applied to all mediums. I think that's really important. Along with that though. I think we need to understand that each medium, that we're making sense in needs to be understood as its own medium.
And so when I'm doing e-commerce, I need to understand the patterns of e-commerce. When I'm doing content management systems, I need to understand the patterns of content management systems. Right. So I feel like when. When you're looking at the medium of social media, you need to have a real intimate understanding of that medium as something that you're working with. As one of the materials that you're working with.
And so if you were to sort of like, look at the mess that you find yourself in, let's say you have hundreds of social media accounts for this one university, and you're trying to sort of get to a place where you have one holistic communication strategy to rule them all. Right? If you were going to do something like that, It would involve having sort of like a come to the carpet moment with all of the different people that manage all of those different accounts.
If I was taking on a challenge like that, I would recognize first the deep humanity that's part of the problem. So every person that has one of those accounts I would go ahead and say is like, you know, some sort of like a a visionary, right? They like set up the social media account for their part of the university because they saw it as something that needed to be done maybe before there was guidance on it, or when there was very light guidance on it. Or maybe because they were afraid there might be guidance one day and they didn't want to fall victim to it.
I've, I'm not saying I've heard all of these examples in my career, but I have
Joel Goodman: That's definitely (happened)
Abby Covert: So when you go into that, with that, that understanding that humanity, and you go to each one of those people and you talk about your vision and you get their perspective, and then you bring all of those people together around a campfire, and you talk to them about the power of social media and the power of uniting the social media strategy so that you can lift all boats, right? That's when they don't mind that you take away their credentials and tell them that their avatars have to look a certain way or that you need them to, you know, use a certain style when they're citing things or linking to things.
Like that's when you can start to have those conversations. But what I see happen too often is the opposite, right? Somebody with a bold idea to create unity comes in and crashes, everybody's little kingdoms and goes, you can't do that. You can't do that. You can't do that. Why would you do that? You know, this is not proper. This is not the way you do things.
And they sort of like You know, just kind of bull in the China shop through the change, and then people end up getting annoyed and, you know, going and fiefdoms and you know, all those things. I'm not saying I've ever seen any of this happen JS. I'm just saying I have, and don't do that.
So yeah, I think like if you were going to tackle that, that sort of a thing, you'd have to look at social media as a medium in itself, and you'd have to see that people were kind of the center point, right?
Joel Goodman: Do you think it's important for brands like in relation to this or brands, companies, institutions, organizations, to think about the way that Their content and their information and their accounts and everything that they do like holistically? Because I like part of the thing that I worry about is that for an institution, if you've got just, it'd be, because you'd mentioned fiefdoms, the term in higher ed is silos, which
Abby Covert: Oh, I was going to say department, but,
Joel Goodman: We always say silos and it drives me nuts. I'm just tired of it. But it's, you know, it, it really is that it's, Someone feels that they can do it better, or someone doesn't feel supported by the other offices or someone just needs their corner of control. And so you get all of these, almost autonomous units all around the university that are acting on their own.
But I wonder if there's benefit in terms of developing a coherency from your social accounts and maybe even the content you're putting on them, to how people get from those to your website. Or from the way that search results end up showing up in search engines, third-party search engines and not site search, and how that kind of flows. Like if you can generate continuity. And if there's, if there's a way that having a holistic approach helps that if there are ways to do that, even like, I mean, what, what is the best, you know, a trademark, a registered trademark, the best way to do that.
Abby Covert: Oh, man. Okay. Well, I will not give you the registered trademark The Best way to do that because I I'm a big believer in the idea that good is always subjective. It's always based on your intention. So I would say like, when is thinking about things holistically from a structure standpoint, when does that behoove you?
I would say when it is not serving you, well, the way that it is structured today. So that's something that I think people try to falsely go for is like this seeking of perfection of like our website doesn't look right. It doesn't feel right. It's, it's old. We haven't touched it in five years, but like, what is actually wrong with it doesn't become the central part of the conversation sometimes ever and often, not until much later in the process.
So I would start there with just like the idea that, like, it's not always a thing that you need to do just for doing its sake. So let's say that like you, as a practitioner are annoyed, that the tone of voice that is used across social media and the online properties are different. Right? Let's say that one is a super casual and one is super academic and you're just annoyed by it. Well, that's fine. You're annoyed by it. But when you look into it, who is it actually holding back? What are the impacts of the thing? And do you actually have the decision-making power to change the thing or to influence the thing by the people who can change it?
And if you do, and you have reason to, to come to that proclamation, then do it, but also know that if you're not the decider part of making that proclamation. Is actually bringing the decider along with you too, to understand the reason for it, because it can't just be, Hey, you know, Hey Susan, I know that you own the web and I own social media.
And I just think that the style guide should be the same. Well, Susan's looking at a mountain of content going, "I don't have the staff to go and update all of my content to be like your content. Why don't you update all your content to go like mine? Yours is shorter, J.S."
So you see what I'm saying? So Susan and J.S. In that moment are not on the same team, but there's a moment where you could be right. If, if you discovered something about like, so Joel, you're talking about like, is there a proper way to connect the pieces together? Part of the problem in this scenario is that nobody owns the connection between the two things. Right. It's like the spaces between the places become the parts where the friction is introduced.
That's where the embed URL didn't actually reconcile itself properly. And you end up on something dead in the middle of an otherwise beautiful page. Like this happens to people, especially on the web all of the time. There's also the reason that public parks often have little worn trails through grassy areas because people aren't paying attention to where people actually want to walk.
They're just putting lanes where they want to put them based on. I don't know the way that it looks in the way that the building is or something. So with all those things considered, you have to start to change the way that you think about ownership. If you really want to tackle these kinds of problems, right?
Somebody owning social media, you have to draw the lines. Do you just own the feed or do you own the experience from the time that somebody clicks on that link until it's resolved somewhere? Cause there's a, there's a, a much different process and mentality and resource schema that you would put into place from that.
And I feel like. So often those are the things that are broken, right? You can have like the most wonderful piece of content in the world. You can have the most salient tweet about it, but connecting those two things together is remarkably hard to do consistently across all platforms, you know, with transclusion and you know, all the, all the fancy jive, always changing.
So yeah, it's not easy, but I have a, a theory that it's all about people and their relationships and, and the people in the space has between yeah. Take Susan out to lunch, J.S. Just take her out to lunch and say, Susan, we got to talk about our style guide.
Jon-Stephen Stansel: W w once it's safe to, to do that without social distancing I'm game for it until then Susan and I are going to get to zoom a little bit.
Abby Covert: Yeah. Zoom lunch, man. Actually don't, don't eat lunch on zoom. It's so weird. Everybody knows that.
Joel Goodman: No one to watch anyone eating.
Jon-Stephen Stansel: And you know, that, that brings, it brings a good point and, and talking about, about the spaces in between and, and bringing the decider along. And sometimes I think the deciders live in those spaces in between a little (bit)
Jon-Stephen Stansel: And, with the exception of taking the decider out to lunch,
Jon-Stephen Stansel: I think some of the times the struggle comes with, that leadership thinking that items that are cluttering our websites, some of that disorganization is what is vital to the website. You know, that everybody has their own little pet projects. Okay. We can't not have this on the homepage because, you know professor Z won't be able to find his you know, portal to Banner or whatever. So how, how do we, how do we get that decider on, on board with, with restructuring and, and cleaning up the (mess)
Abby Covert: Hmm. So I'm going to go with your very specific example of professor Z not being able to
Jon-Stephen Stansel: say professor X, but then I remember like, Oh, they're actually
Abby Covert: No, we can't talk about that. Yeah. We have to make up a fake professor that we can talk about. Okay. So professor X, so let's say that that's actually the thing, right? Like you have a real salient strategy for how you want to change the architecture of something to remove this link that professor X is like, I need this thing. Right?
If you were to do that, you would need to go through the process of really determining two things. One is that professor actually important to the overall project? Or do you just, do you feel annoyed that a single person is getting that kind of weight, you know? Cause it could be that the impact of removing that link and the downstream effects of doing so could actually have negative impacts on the people that you're trying to create this website for.
So often what I find in questions like that is that there's a deeper question, which is, do you actually know the purpose of the thing that you are building and the people that you are building it for? And once you know it, do you agree on who those people are and those purposes with the people that have brought you here to do that thing? Because you could think that, you know, what the purpose is and who the people are, and you could have beautiful personas and, you know, a PowerPoint deck of the purpose that you want to bring for those personas. But if you show that to this person who is in charge, and the only comment they have back to you is if you remove that link from the homepage, Professor Z is not going to be able to find his cheese.
you can't let that comment crush the whole schema. Right. You have to work through the iteration for what it is.
So in that situation, I would probably go at it with like the "toddler whys", you know? Like, okay. So let's talk about that.
Why is it that professor Z uses the homepage to get to that thing?
Oh, well, professor Z is not really great at technology. So, you know, it's just the thing.
Oh, okay. So professors, he's not good at technology.
So how did it come to the point where professor Z goes to that site?
Oh, well his graduate research assistant set the website, to his homepage on his browser.
Oh, okay. Cool. So why did that do?
Oh, because he couldn't figure out how to use the bookmark menu.
All right. Great. Now we can talk about a different solution that does not involve having a link to this thing for one person on the homepage. It involves one graduate research assistant changing one setting on one professor's desktop computer to go to a different link instead of the one that we currently send him to.
And we could make them a whole page that says, good morning, professor Z. Welcome to the day. Here are all the links that you need today. And by the way, here's a link to a lesson on how you might learn how to use the technology that is important to your job here at the university.
I think that often when the decider is making a statement like that, like, Oh, we need, or, Oh, we can't we shouldn't like, there's always something underneath that and it often is coming from a place of fear of, of like change and the ramifications of the change. So they're not thinking about, you know, the link itself. They're thinking about all of the emails and phone calls that are going to get when the link disappears. Right. So you have to resolve that part sometimes to get people over that hump.
Joel Goodman: J.S., I think Abby just solved, like the, maybe number three problem with higher education websites throughout all of history.
Abby Covert: just go change the links in their browser.
Joel Goodman: Well, I mean, JS and I recently recorded an episode about news pages and news stories and how, news is presented on university websites. And then also how that carries over to, social media, Twitter, and things like that. And just kind of the, the fractures that happen when a university media relations team decides that they need to set up a news, Twitter account to put out all their press releases on.
But their goal isn't actually matched up with reality. They think, Oh, people in the press want to see our stories separate from all of our marketing content that we're putting out on the main university website. But then the question is, Does the press actually even follow your account that's putting out the press releases?
Abby Covert: Honestly in a lot of cases that I see and not necessarily in education, but just like in marketing versus PR for example, you see just a fiefdom. You're just like, Oh, well I control this account and I have a certain number of posts in a week. And that's my team's calendar to control. I'm not going to just give you some of my posts and I don't want your stuff all up in my stuff.
And like the minute that the ownership streams cross people have to make decisions about how they're going to do things together. So it makes sense that instead of that, they would just go, Oh no, we'll just start our own account. Right. And until the ramifications of that decision are illustrated at a high enough level to someone in charge of things from that umbrella perspective, kind of do whatever they want. Right?
So that's what ends up Too often happening to organizations is they sort of like they're like really big ships and they can sail around for a real long time and they keep getting all these little barnacles all over them. And like how many social media accounts is it before it's too many barnacles and you have to like, take your ship out and start to, you know, scrape off the hull?
Otherwise it's going to slow you down. Right? But you can sail around with quite a few barnacles. So it's, once again, it's like the things that bother you as a practitioner are not necessarily the things that are going to be the most impactful things to change all the time.
So it's about understanding that it's more than just heuristics. It's more than just aspiration that it really is about meeting a need with architectural decisions. And sometimes that means that like the architecture is kind of janky, you know?
Joel Goodman: Yeah. So along those lines we're and also connecting back to what we were talking about with kind of how architectures tend to emerge even if you're not being intentional about it, they just actually kind of show up. So I've kind of used that approach in my past work where instead of just letting them emerge naturally and, and letting chaos reign, so to speak until it becomes ordered in some way .
But like, I really liked this approach of, basically using typical UX research methodology to figure out what, the best, you know, again, registered trademark information architecture organization of, of web pages, organization of, you know, whatever it is, even, leaning into like conversion rate optimization practices for just content on a page, sort of a thing. I like using this side of researching with real people, figuring out who the target audience is, researching looking at all the data that's there and then letting letting that architecture kind of emerge out of the needs that, that I know the real people have versus just letting it happen without any barriers, without any, without any input. And I, I'm wondering if you see that, kind of the role that the actual user, the actual participant, the actual target audience, you know, however you wanna put them in there, the role that they play in kind of uh, cooperatively developing information architectures and orders to the, the content and the data that we have.
Abby Covert: Yeah, that's a great question. So I would say like, if you're doing information architecture work and you're not doing research with your end user I guess you're doing stark-itechture?. Like I don't, I don't know if that's like actually a concept we talk about in digital, I guess we should maybe cause I'm sure that many people are doing that.
So that's just like point 1. In case there's any question out there of whether or not you can just drive to the taxonomy store and go, I'm making an e-commerce taxonomy for, you know, 36 to 42 year old people who have German shepherds. Like you can't. You, you just can't do that.
So you have to do the hard work of understanding the audience. You have to do the reconciliation, even if you yourself are very close to the audience of how you might differ and how your own bias might change the decision architecture. So there's, there's that part of it.
I also, I, I feel like there's, there's something to say about just like understanding that users are not going to make the architecture for you, even if you give them every single opportunity to. So I'm going to call out card sorting as like the activity that I see designers make the mistake of thinking users are going to do their work for them the most often.
So, it's pretty common knowledge that when your usability testing something that when a user struggles with something that you don't ask them how to fix it. You're just watching them struggle with it, and then you're going back to your work and you're kind of fixing and iterating it through. But what I see happening with card sorting as a methodology when you're testing an actual structure is that people assume that there's going to be some arrangement of cards that the user makes themselves and that is going to be the architecture.
So it's like I did a card sort with 20 users and I have 20 architectures that came out of that. Now what do I do? Because they think, which one do I choose? How do I Frankenstein them together? And, and ultimately what that lands people with is this feeling like there is that taxonomy out there that is perfect. They just have to go discover it, right? That somebody has it. And they just have to ask the right person the right set of questions and it's going to be discovered.
What happens in the reality, I think of, of good architecture work is that people are taking research as an input, and they're not seeking users to make the architectural decisions for them. They're instead using a user's input as just one of the very many inputs that they have into the process.
Because along with that, you really have to be balancing what the business or the organization needs from the thing that you're creating. I mean, if users want something, but it's going to drag down the, the core metric that is paying for the thing you're building, it doesn't really matter what the users want, right? And that's something that I think a lot of people really struggle with is like, there's like, almost like this altruism of user-centered design. Like there's a penultimate doing well for the user, but in reality, it's, it's about helping organizations not be evil in the pursuit of their goals, right, and the "their goals" part is that's not, that's not just sometimes that's all the times.
So, you know, if their homepage needs to reduce time on site, you know, I worked with a client one time that they wanted their app to reduce time on site because they wanted them to pick up the phone. And that seems very strange if you take all of the context of you know, their business challenge, the like industry that they're in the user that they're after. But if I was to fill in all those details for you, I can tell you right now you would understand the "because reasons." And I think that too many people don't allow themselves to understand that that's probably true about the thing they're working on too, is that the thing doesn't exist in the form that you need it to, you will need to do the hard work and no user is actually going to do it for you.
Joel Goodman: and you got to think like, if you're doing the right research, there's so many user voices speaking into it anyway, and they're going to be there's nuance within that. People want slightly different variants and versions of, of the same thing.
Abby Covert: Well, this is why you gotta be, you gotta be really careful with methodology too. Like I, I got a, a mentoring request from somebody pretty recently who had done an open card sort where they got over a hundred respondents. You just can't like, I'm sorry. You basically like good, good for you. You have a very lot of data. What to do?
I, you know, I don't know! That's too many! That's too many structures. And so we had this really interesting conversation about like the role of open and closed card sorting and what method you use for what intention, because like, they were not far enough in the process to be asking that many people, their opinions yet they were actually really early in the process and they were asking a really open-ended thing.
And so that method actually would have done them much better if it had been a smaller pool of people to look at, you know. Versus like, I have a structure I want to test, let me throw hundreds of people at it and see what the outliers are.
Joel Goodman: Yeah. So to put it, to put it in higher ed terms, you got to have some goals before you figure out what the tools are that you're gonna use to reach those goals. And then you should probably have some data to help inform that also.
Abby Covert: mean, you know, yeah. It's sorta that's yeah, no big deal.
Joel Goodman: Awesome. I've done similar. Actually, I had, there was a project I worked on where the primary goal was it was, we were redesigning a site we were redesigning basically the content and structure of pages, as well as just kind of general, general navigation of the site. And it was very much around how do we get the people on the site to call or just fill out a form so that we can call them back.
And then their internal metric was, as soon as we get this request for information, we're going to try and call them back within certain number of seconds, sort of a thing. And so they were making this, these UX decisions across the entire organization. It wasn't just, here's a digital thing, but it was, it was a recognizing that, there really aren't lines and barriers between the digital and the temporal.
Right? It's like the,
Abby Covert: Not for the user!
(I don't know why there's) Still this thinking everywhere. You know, like
Because of the way people are hired and paid. I mean, like, it makes, it makes so much sense. It's like you would go back to the silos conversation. You know, organizations are set up in hierarchical structures where people have lines of what they are and are not accountable for and responsible for.
And there's incentive schemas that dictate the way that decisions are made for all of those individual people. If you have individual incentive schemes across all of those different silos, the likelihood that what's going to come out at the top is going to be holistic is very low. So it's, it just, it makes so much sense.
It's like, why is it like this? Because it was built like this. That's why, because reasons.
Joel Goodman: Hadn't thought about (that)
Abby Covert: Yeah. But it, but it works for what it was built for, right? Like organizations were not built that way because of like wanting to get the best output for creative decision making right? They were built that way for efficiency.
And is it efficient? Are we efficient? Pretty (much)
Joel Goodman: that's yeah,
Abby Covert: Yeah, we're efficient at not doing very good work sometimes, but we're efficient. So yeah, I mean, architectures are always going to deliver the value for which they were created to deliver. And that's, that's what an org chart was created for
Jon-Stephen Stansel: Or charts.
Abby Covert: the original information architecture, the organizational chart.
Jon-Stephen Stansel: Well, Oh, you want to talk about, about space in between like there's so much space in between on that org chart. And I think social media is a prime example of that. Where everywhere I've worked in social media it's been at a different department, whether it's under marketing media relations, and even in higher ed it's in subheadings.
So it's in marketing, under enrollment management. Currently I am, I am in marketing under advancement and fundraising,
Abby Covert: yup. Because reasons. Yeah.
Jon-Stephen Stansel: And it covers the entire unit and it doesn't fit into one space. There's a media relations aspect to it. Yes. There's a marketing aspect. There's a customer service aspect and finding those connections and, and what that authority is, where okay, well, I'm not in the media relations office, so I don't really have authority over media relations and finding those connections is such a, a difficult thing. And I, I think maybe cleaning up that mess and looking at that org chart and finding some of these new emerging fields, of re-evaluating, where they fit in I think it's really important. I've seen so many schools where social media is in a certain department because they were the first ones to think of it and they created the account and that's where they are,
Abby Covert: Yeah. I mean, yeah. And there's so much about like the department that people are within versus the label that they're given for their role. And those things can be very different. Like I've had roles where my title in the HR system was not the title that was on my email signature. Right.
And we all have had that, that joyous moment, right? Where like you don't fit in the box that the system gives us. So we're going to make a, a fake box for you to go in, and then you're going to have your own label, but it's all boxes and labels, and it's not actually all that different than making sense of messes on websites or, you know, in, in my pantry or, you know, last weekend I helped my husband sort all the wood in our garage and I'm gonna go ahead and say that I used the exact same process I would use if we were tackling the org chart in your organization, or if we were tackling a website for that organization.
Now I will also say it is very common that whatever the organizational structure of the organization, it tends to be the default structure everybody goes to for the website. and that's something that you'll see often or for the brochure about the organization or for whatever other medium they're working on collaboratively.
It sort of like becomes this built in structure that we all rely on to make sense of each other. And we can almost convince ourselves that it makes sense outside of the organization at times, where we think so much, that this is part of who we are as an organization, that our users also care about it that way.
And so then you see, you know, things being buried under labels that don't make sense to users because that's a name that we use internally.
Joel Goodman: I want to underscore this so much because it's because it's very, especially in higher education and there are a lot of universities and colleges that have done the work to move this along and, and progress themselves out of it. But there, I think there's long been this assumption and I think it's an assumption that just doesn't, it doesn't go checked at all, for the most part, but that, because we are structured as university and we live in these structures all the time and work and operate in these structures all the time, it makes complete sense to someone that has never interacted with our organization whatsoever.
And so, I don't. I don't,
Abby Covert: I mean, if you don't, if you don't dwell on it very long, it is reasonable to think that the thing that makes reasonable sense to you will make reasonable sense to other people. And it, it like once you've done the work. Of thinking about it. You can't undo that. And so I see people change, you know, like that's the good news on this, is I see people change. I see people go from, no, I need to, I need to do it in my words, because that makes sense to me and other I'll just communicate through it is sort of the, the way about, I'll just send another email, explaining that that's the link now. Or, I'll just, I'll send a tweet that we've named it this, instead of that, you know, all these things, but at the end of the day, it really just takes people looking at the thing and saying, what's the impact. What's the impact of doing it this way? And is it okay?
Joel Goodman: And it's nice, like higher ed has been moving in that direction, which is great. It's there a lot more. I get a lot more RFPs or, actual people coming and talking to me for help, where they, they really are there. You know, our site has been built, under the base of the org chart model of what we have internally. And we know that prospective students don't know anything about it, and we know that it's not being effective for our goals. We need someone to help us figure out what. W what that organization, like what the main content should be and to reorganize, this sort of thing. And it, it's happening. It's weird to me that it's been happening for like a decade and it's still not completely taken over higher ed, but I, I, uh, I don't, I, I started thinking about like Marshall McLuhan. It's like websites as an extension of the organization as media as extension of man. Uh,
Abby Covert: It really is. It really is. And I feel like, you know, it's hard to, especially for people that have been working in this medium of digital technology for, you know, the, the length that the three of us have, it's maybe hard for us to understand how new we all are at this and how we really are emerging. I mean, like I'm still having a really hard time with the 140 character thing.
Like I.
Jon-Stephen Stansel: It's 280 now!
Abby Covert: I know, I know, and I'm wasting a whole lot of space, but like, I can't get myself out of the mentality that I have 140. And like I find myself saying 140 in, in passing in conversation, like, and there's, or even like the, the most recent thing on, on Twitter with retweets. I mean, that just like blew my mind that like, you just like have to take that extra step of a blank tweet.
Joel Goodman: Purposeful friction, like.
Abby Covert: Or even the idea that we went from, like, uh, like we had to name the things and that's been emergent, like a quote retweet was that was a label that a designer at Twitter had an agonizing amount of meetings deciding with somebody else. I guarantee you. If that designer's listening today, I'd love to hear the story.
You know, there's all these things that I think we are deciding as they come. And like, I speak to a lot of people who are newer in our industry and they're really expecting that there's like a manual somewhere that if they find the right person, we're going to hand it to them. And y'all, it's not there. We are writing the manual as we go and it's changing every minute.
And like, do I think that we should be farther by now? I mean maybe. Like, I think, I think that the web is kind of trash, but like it's sort of beautiful trash. Like I was listening to something yesterday. I don't don't remember what it was, but the sentiment of like, if this whole year had happened 10 years ago, we wouldn't have video technology the way that we do now to bridge that gap.
And like, is it trash that we have to deal with this whole new, like realm of harassment via video chat and people like doing awful things with this new medium? Absolutely. That's, that's disturbing. We will work through it, just like we work through every other thing and we have to go through the ugliness and the dark times. And so, yeah, I think like with education, should you guys be farther by now? Like maybe, but this is also not your focus. Like the digital technology part is to get to the part that, that you're actually doing.
You know, and it's as something that schools were handed as sort of like this whole new bag of tricks, when, honestly, from what I can understand, they weren't all that comfortable using the old bag of tricks right? They weren't all that good at advertising and marketing in the prior to the digital world.
So it's sort of like never been solved in any medium, if you asked me or from what I've seen, And so, yeah, it's not all that surprising that the same problems would exist now, just in a digital way. I don't know. Maybe that's just me.
Joel Goodman: J.S. And end it there. I think we should. Yeah, I think that's the mic drop.
Abby Covert: I have a mic. I'm not dropping it. They're
Joel Goodman: either. Yes.
Abby Covert: to
Joel Goodman: I mean, this is great, Abby, thanks so much for talking with us. you, do you want to plug your book and your work and like anything that, that we can do to help, promote the work that you're doing we want to help with, so
Abby Covert: Oh,
sure. Yeah. so let's see things to plug well World IA Day, World Information Architecture Day is an event that I hold very close to my heart. It happens every February. it is going to be remote for the very first time in 2021. we actually got in right under the wire and did a live event last year, right before things shut down. So, yeah, please support that. It is a free event that's happening in, I think up to 40 something, local communities. So it's local organizers, it's all volunteer driven. if you have organizations that are looking for. recruiting in the areas of information, architecture, content strategy, UX, and just technology as a whole, it's a great sponsorship opportunity, especially in those local meetup environments. and then for me, abbycovert.com is where you can find my work. I recently launched an Etsy shop. so that's, uh, you can find that Abby the IA on, on Etsy. Um, yeah, I think that's, that's probably about good.
Joel Goodman: Thank you so much for listening to the Thought Feeder podcast. If you'd like to listen to back episodes, you can visit us at thoughtfeederpod.com. We've got transcripts of all of them as well as ways where you can subscribe.
We're also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, Google podcasts, Amazon, actually, I don't know if we're on Amazon yet. We're on a bunch of podcasting, uh, aggregators so wherever you listen to podcasts, we're probably there. We'd appreciate a like, or rating there, wherever it is that you listen to us. You can also follow us on Twitter @ThoughtFeedPod.
J.S., It's been good to talk to you. We want to thank Abby Covert for being on the show today. Abby, thank you so much.
Abby Covert: Thank you both.
Joel Goodman: And once again, we want to thank our friends at Squiz for sponsoring this episode of the Thought Feeder podcast. Specializing in higher education, Squiz creates extraordinary personalized experiences for a digital world through their site search platform, Funnelback, their CMS, their student portal, their integrations hub, and tons more.
It's time to move beyond antiquated systems to an open flexible platform. Squiz's platform is trusted by hundreds of top institutions across the globe. And they want to be your partner to move forward faster toward a connected campus. You can find out all about their products at squiz.net. They're also on Twitter and LinkedIn and everywhere else.
So make sure to check out Squiz and again, a huge thank you from both myself and J.S. For sponsoring Thought Feeder.
Episode 32: University Site Search
Episode 34: The Weight of Leadership with Jaime Hunt


CCSSO's Chris Minnich and Superintendent Denise Juneau with a class of third graders in St. Ignatius, Mont.
Leaders from the Council of Chief State School Officers visited Montana recently to learn about Superintendent Denise Juneau's Schools of Promise program that aims to raise achievement and expectations in some of the state's lowest-performing schools, all of which are on Indian reservations.
CCSSO is looking to Montana for guidance in developing an equity plan that other states can replicate.
The organization of school chiefs began their annual policy forum discussion with this video.
Video produced by MontanaPBS for CCSSO.