Reader feedback for New Thinking
"I really enjoy your newsletter. It helps to keep my web direction on track and resist all the diversions that get in the way from the previous Tuesday. I agree that you cannot separate web content from customers - I have a constant conversation with colleagues explaining that just because an action involves technology - it does not mean it is best done by a technician."The perception that IT knows it all , means months spent changing it. I ask colleagues - would they ask the plumber who is fitting the kitchen where should they keep the cutlery? Or would they leave the joiner to fit the kitchen by himself without ever asking you, the customer?
"It is very refreshing to get that customer focus reminder every week- long may it continue!"
Cathy Gormal, Information E-learning and web support co-ordinator, Renfrewshire Libraries, UK
"While I have been to a number of your seminars over the past two years and read numerous publications you have written, the New Thinking subscription is probably the most valuable information you give. It is the follow-up to your teachings and always timely.
"Understanding web publishing requires re-iteration without inducing boredom. New Thinking is consistently re-enforcing and always "hits the nail on the head"."
Dean Cobussen, Director, Cobussen & Cobussen Ltd, New Zealand
"Thank you for your newsletter! In a short and simple text, you make me think (seriously) every week."
Jose Mateus (information designer, Portugal)
"I keep a quality tally on articles that I read based on number of brain tickles it generates. I call it my "Oh-Yeah?!"-factor. I have ben your subscriber for a couple of years, I think, and NEW THINKING has never failed to wake up the old gray matter. Either by presenting something new to think about or just triggering something meaningful from the old archives."
Matti Salminen
"It is hard to take out five minutes of our busy time to do an enjoyable reading, but New Thinking is always worthy. Every Monday I learn something new. You give a different perspective. You show us how to learn about Content Management from everyday situations, with illustrative examples that we have all experienced, like "everybody skips Flash intros" or "the sophisticated Copenhagen Airport system for luggage information that is always wrong" to name just two of the latest. Your ability to make us laugh and learn from everyday life surprises me in each New Thinking message.
"Thank you for giving us five wonderful minutes: useful for our jobs and amusing for our minds. It is very hard to find serious professional reading as pleasant as your New Thinking. Thank you for sharing with us your bright mind. Let´s hope to enjoy it for many years."
Eliana Benjumeda, Manager Director, Infoline Information Brokers, Spain
"New Thinking is the best single resource I have found for helping me make sound decisions about website development. Gerry's experience, expertise and common sense shine through in every issue. Whenever I am trying to make sense of a challenging project I look through back issues of New Thinking and usually I find the answers. Everyone involved in developing website content would benefit greatly from subscribing to New Thinking."
Richard Groom, Owner & Senior Writer, Peterborough Copywriting Bureau (UK)
"Just wanted to let you know that your newsletters are very informative. They have helped me out a great deal in my quest to understand how people view the web. Thanks for all the help!"
Michael Phillips, Graphics Specialist, Municipal Employees' Retirement System, United States
"I just wanted to tell you that I found your weekly newsletter through Peter Bogaards' Info Design news site and have very much enjoyed your insights and have shared your articles with many friends. Keep up the good work!"
Colleen Taugher, WSU Center to Bridge the Digital Divide, Pullman Washington, United States
"Your newsletter is great - and really helps me to focus on what I need to be doing here! It is particularly useful for me when I need to highlight the impact of good quality web content on our future interaction with our customers.
Cathy Gormal, Information E-learning and web support co-ordinator, Renfrewshire Libraries, United Kingdom
"Thank you for your newsletter. It is encouraging to hear another strong, clear voice of reason out there regarding content management and information design. So many technologies vie for the attention of website project managers and others involved in decision making regarding websites, and confusion and stagnation are the usual result.
Bill Zicker, Managing Director, setlinc.com
"I look forward to your weekly articles in New Thinking. The topics help keep me and my team on track as we work to improve our websites. It's uncanny the number of times that the topic of your letter was the very topic we were discussing the day before. We think of ourselves as "Gerry disciples" - and tell folks as such. Please keep the letters coming."
Paula Vanderburg, Director, Internet Marketing, La Quinta Corporation, United States
"I subscribe to your newsletter. It's one (among VERY few) newsletters, where, If I accidentally mark it read and haven't read it yet, I mark it unread again, in order to make sure I read it.
"One major advantage, is that you only have one story a newsletter. So It's possible to read it every time.
"So, go on, and send them away, I'll surely read them. I have 3 or 4 in my inbox, waiting to be read. I'll take a few more right now."
Jakob Boyer-Dræby, Portal Manager, www.dhs.dk, Danish Commerce and Services
"New Thinking never ceases to amaze me. Each weekly missive is like a mini neck massage, a pep talk, an "atta girl." For the subject matter is always pertinent; it inevitably covers a topic that seems to be consuming and concerning me as a Web Content Editor. Gerry's ability to capsulize information positively and succinctly has me looking forward eagerly to each issue."
Holly Anderson Camerota, Web Content Editor, Office of College Relations, Connecticut College, United States
“I enjoyed thinking about your letter--your style is thought provoking and interesting to read. In fact, your thoughts about managing change are applicable to many areas of "technical culture". That cultures change slowly should be a given, but in this Internet age we begin to think that if we push hard enough we can speed that up. I am reminded of the line in a Tennyson book about the tombstone somewhere in Afghanistan or British India that read "Here lies the man who tried to hurry the East"”
Will Sawyer, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
"I have been working in the computerized information field since the 1970's, first with mainframes, then in-house PC's and finally the Internet. I think I have enjoyed my work so much because I could relate to the users and wanted to help them access the information they needed. I saw how often the technical-type information person talked above, around and down to users.
"All of this is a preface to saying how much I enjoy reading your articles, because they speak to what I have always considered most important in information dissemination, i.e. the recognition that a Web site does not exist to give technical folks a job, but to provide information in the most accessible way for the user (which may be for the user's sole benefit or in conjunction with the marketing strategy of a company). So much of what I have thought, and now what I read in your Newsletter, seems to me to be common sense, but it isn't very common.
"It's just nice to know that there is someone else out there that doesn't talk in jargon, gets to the heart of the matter, and yet never speaks down to his reader."
Gail Rayburn, USA
"Thanks for putting the time and energy into producing your newsletter. I quote from it at my editorial board meetings on a regular basis. Common sense really isn't, is it. Common, I mean."
Anne-Marie Dorais, Web manager, HORIZONS intranet site, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada
"Your advice and recommendations are a pleasing and useful contrast to the hyperbole some parties consider to be 'thinking'. When the day arrives that we can consider modifying our web site I shall require that the implementers study the complete works of Gerry McGovern first!"
Christopher K. Thomas, Measuredmarkets Inc.
"Your newsletter is one of my regular features and I enjoy it time and again. It's quick, simple, it totally makes sense, and it's always to the point. Great work, keep it up!"
Ewen Le Borgne, Electronic Information Specialist, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, The Netherlands
September 15, 2004: Of all newsletters I subscribe to, yours is ABSOLUTELY one of the most useful of them all. It's nice and short, too. Thanks!
Christine Calvert, Oslo, Norway
"I find your New Thinking email enormously useful. I come from a book publishing background and your newsletters have helped me translate that experience to websites." Fiona Camarri, EcoRecycle Victoria, Australia
"I just read all your newsletters of the past three months. Your newsletter is the only one I keep and read it when I have time."
Peter Heinold, Siemens
"I always read your newsletter and I always enjoy it and I often wonder why. It is because I have the feeling that you read my mind. The subjects are most of the time the subjects that cross my mind too. Your ideas are practical, I can use them immediately. The comparisons are striking and convincing. I recognise the experiences in my own practise. They are (like your books) of great help. They are concise and to the point and focus perfectly on what knowledge flow management (as I call it) is all about."
Mart Boden MSc, ING Group, Corporate Audit Services, Information and Communication Support
"New Thinking has been very valuable for my strategy role. Thanks for the work you do!"
Terry Lambert, Sales Support - Web Enablement, IBM Corporation
"Gerry: you are a breath of fresh air at the start of my week. As a non-technical person who dreams of running a virtual business, it’s so easy to get scared by industry jargon, both the sound and the sheer volume of it ... You write and speak with clarity and wisdom. Your ideas are logical, sensible, and sound."
Barbara Densmore, Working Smarter SP Ltd., Canada
Previous: 2002-2003 feedback for New Thinking
Subscribing and Unsubscribing
Subscribe to an RSS feed
If you need to change your address, please unsubscribe your old address, and then subscribe with your new address. Thank you.
