Speed. An Interesting Idea.

Of all the information being shared on the Internet, nothing moves faster than interesting ideas. If you have interesting ideas, people will read them. People will share them.

Why? Because you can invite people to share an idea. The trouble with sending a message is that you have to interrupt people so they'll listen. I don't like being interrupted and I suspect your audience doesn't like being interrupted either.

For example, Seth Godin makes an interesting observation about speed. Speed is important. Not the kind of speed you get when you hurry up. He's talking about the kind of speed you get when you change the way you do things.

For example, editing HTML on your local computer and then sending those changes to your web site is slow. It's even slower because you're doing it. It's not that you are slow. It's that your process is slow.

It's slow for two reasons.

The first reason is obvious. With OpenEdit you can make changes directly to any page on your site. You just sign in, go to the page you need to edit, click the edit icon and make a change.

The second reason isn't as obvious. The second reason is that you are making all the changes but many changes to your web site should be made by the source of the information.

Let me explain. Chris, Ian, Taylor, Axis, George, and Matt are making changes to OpenEdit everyday. They know how it works. They see what isn't working and they are making the changes that will impact how it is going to work. They are the source of the information that needs to be in OpenEdit's documentation. Speed is having them make changes and tweaks to the documentation as they develop new features. When something needs a little explanation, they can jump over to the documentation and make a little note. This doesn't mean they do all the work. I edit. I check for broken links. I apply the meta data. I also document the tools within OpenEdit that I use. Not only is this process really fast, it also creates a much better result.

How fast is your process? Is it fast? Does it produce a quality result? If you're not sure, ask your audience. They are the ones that matter.