October 29, 2008: Now publishing... webinars!


For a year or two—even before Rosenfeld Media
<http://rosenfeldmedia.com/>actually had published a book—I've been
wanting to extend our scope to
webinars. It seems like such a natural complement to book publishing. Books
alone are, well, books. Books and webinars? Now you're talking *content
ecosystem.* Authors who've assembled content for their books have at least
one webinar in them. Some topics don't merit book treatment, but definitely
make sense as webinars. And when we're not sure, we can test topics (and
people) out with the webinar format before committing to a book, which is
far more expensive to produce.

This ecosystem discussion is, not surprisingly, very publisher-centric. But
what do customers get out of webinars? That's still very much an open
question. And personally, I've had mixed reactions to webinars, both as a
customer and as a speaker.

But I'm optimistic. Not only is the technology becoming far better and
cheaper, but let's face it: travel is becoming prohibitively expensive.
Webinars may be the "poor man's conference," but these days there are a lot
of poor men (and women) out there who want to improve their design skills.

That's why Rosenfeld Media is collaborating with *Victor Lombardi's* Smart
Experience <http://smartexperience.org/> to produce a new series of UX
webinars. The Future Practice
series<http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/webinars/>will tackle the cutting
edge of modern UX practice.

Our first two webinars presenters just happen our first two authors;
following are the dates and their topics. Use code *LBRWBNR* for 20% off
your ticket when you register at the Rosenfeld Media
site<http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/webinars/>:


- November 13 (1-2pm EST): *Modern Web Form Design* with Luke Wroblewski.
[details
<http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/webinars/webforms/>/register<http://rosenfeldmedi\
a.com/checkout/?&ns=addcart&ccp0--prodaddtocart--ref=Web%20Form%20Design%20Webin\
ar>
]
- December 11 (1-2pm EST): *Using Mental Models for Tactics and
Strategy*with Indi Young. [
details
<http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/webinars/mental-models/>/register<http://rosenfel\
dmedia.com/checkout/?&ns=addcart&ccp0--prodaddtocart--ref=Mental%20Models%20Webi\
nar>
]

I'm really pleased to be working directly with Victor, my colleague, friend,
and neighbor here in Brooklyn. And hats off to *Jared Spool,* who's provided
both inspiration and advice. No one does virtual
seminars<http://www.uie.com/events/virtual_seminars/>better than UIE,
though we hope to come close.

Above I mentioned that the success of webinars has a lot to do with
technology costs coming down and travel costs going up. But I think there's
one more important factor: the user experience of attending a webinar is
improving, slowly but surely. Victor and I know that the webinar experience
can and should be better, and darn it, we're going to try our best. What
would you suggest we keep in mind as we develop our webinar series? We'd
love your advice!


PERMALINK

http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2008/10/now_publishing_webinars.htm\
l


CRASS AND COMMERCIAL

Lou's last workshop of the year: *Site Search Analytics for a Better User
Experience* (November 11 in Washington, DC). Details and registration:
http://louisrosenfeld.com/ssa/


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