The latest book club took place on Easter Monday, which means we had a smaller crowd than usual… However, I left thinking the smaller the group, the better-we had a fabulous conversation, and even if we went off track once or twice we still covered everything.

Also we were beta testing a new format for book club: Instead of reading the same book, everyone picked their own book to discuss (well everyone but Scott, who instead tried to steal Treena’s book, but that’s another story.)

Here’s a quick recap of my book:

  • The Numerati - I impressed everyone with my handouts (pictured with me below), but the truth was I only read the first 40 pages. However it wasn’t because it was a bad book, in fact I’m *really* looking forward to reading the rest of the book. It’s all about the mathematical elite who are able to harness the unbelievable amount of data that’s being collected online (and even offline through methods like Grocery store loyalty cards). A fascinating read and the implications about what these people could potentially do with all that data is both exhilarating and frightening. I recommend it! **Update I’ve since almost finished the book and still stand by my recommendation.

Treena was also gracious enough to provide a review of her book, Designing for the Web by Joshua Porter:

  • I’m delighted to present a brief recommendation for ‘designing for the social web’ by Joshua Porter. This book is the ideal reference text partner to ‘Don’t make me think’ by Steve Krug applying the same example-driven and simple approach to the design of social websites that Krug applied to traditional website design. Porter’s book combines analysis of many well known sites, with social media case studies (including ‘Dell Hell’) and clear steps to implement sites that encourage the actions you desire of your users. He covers why people participate online, the usage lifecycle, overcoming barriers at each step of the usage cycle and growing your user base. It should be on every practitioners bookshelf – developers, user experience designers, product managers – and is useful for those farther away from development who want to understand the social web. Joshua Porter can be found on twitter as @bokardo and his blog is http://bokardo.com/

Thanks Treena!

And finally, our new Ottawa SM Book Club tradition, the ‘family photo’. Thanks to Mar for introducing us to Hipstamatic a very cool iphone photo app:

March Book Club

Don’t you think Scott in the middle in the Argyle print makes this the best photo ever?
I love it!