Myself and Aislinn from iQ left the wellies at home and enjoyed a nice day out at the world's biggest agricultural fair - the National Ploughing Championships - in Kilkenny this week. (A short video of the onsite attractions taken with my mobile phone is shown below.) In between gawping at giant tractors and high-tech slurry spreaders, we conducted interviews with farmers and other agricultural professionals. Our aim was to gather perceptions about the utility of the web to their trade.

Good but...

In summary, they have a positive perception of the internet. However, issues including a lack of broadband availability and poor design hinder their use. Several individuals said that sites built for them must be more 'farmer friendly'. Meaning? Less clutter, clear benefits, simple processes. Seems that farmers understand usability better than most.

As a green-type of guy, I follow an "Energy Efficiency" blog. Recently, the blogger was commenting about Website Maintenance. I couldn't help myself, I had to comment. Here's a snippet of what I had to say. "Basically, don't make your site bigger than you can maintain. Would you build a house with 200 rooms, 12 bathrooms, 4 wine cellar, 3 garages and stables - if you could only afford to heat a 1 bedroom flat?" Read the full post.