Google Wave

02Oct09

We’ve (FONA) been using the socialtext platform for a few months, and i can see a lot of similar types of communication patterns with Google Wave there: wiki page editing, inserting of comments, collaborative editing, micromessaging, private IM client, etc…

Google Wave, with just a few people working on a wave together, is going to seem frenetic. Its a good thing we’ve been exercising our multitasking mental muscles, because these waves will really stretch us.

Google wave is a giant mash up, wrapped in hair ball, dynamically updating one key stroke at a time. It is going to be fun!

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Tags: Google Wave, Socialtext

Situational Software

10Aug09

We’ve recently launched Socialtext where I work (a fast growing, dynamic flavor creation company in the Midwest). It has been interesting to see how this advanced social-wiki, micro-messaging, blogging, content management platform is being adopted by different teams in different ways. Because the platform is very easy to use and very adaptable, I see non-programmers using the platform tools to build their own social applications (project coordination, team communication, performance dashboards, locating someone with expertise, organizing bodies of knowledge, sharing training videos, building reputation capital, etc.). Each team is getting a feel for how to customize their own content. This feels very fresh and built-for-particular-needs compared to using impersonal, generic applications designed for no one in particular.

Thank you, Socialtext, for all your hard work developing and hosting (for us) the platform, which frees us up to do the ever-and-always-changing work of organizing information in a social-technically-enhanced way to help us move faster and make better decisions together.

This post was inspired by a 2004 Clay Shirky blog post titled Situated Software and a wikipedia entry on Situational Applications.

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Tags: Collaboration, Social, Socialtext, Software

Email is a channel technology

27Feb09

I got this from Andrew Mcafee: Email is a channel technology. It creates a private conduit between the sender and receiver. Other parties don’t know that the email was sent, and can’t consult its contents. Wikis, del.icio.us, Flickr, Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube, on the other hand, are all platform technologies. They accumulate content over time and make it visible and accessible to all community members.

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John Maynard Keynes This is a Nightmare quote from 1930

19Feb09

John Maynard Keynes quote from 1930 that felt like it could have been written today:“This is a nightmare, which will pass away with the morning. For the resources of nature and man’s devices are just as fertile and productive as they ever were. The rate of our progress toward solving the material problems of life is not less rapid. We are as capable as before of affording for everyone a high standard of life … We were not previously deceived. But today we have involved ourselves in a colossal muddle, having blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the working of which we do not understand. The result is that our possibilities of wealth may run to waste for a time — perhaps for a long time.”

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Tags: economy, History

Every Christmas can change the world

01Jan09

Great video on the true meaning of Christmas, put together by adventconspiracy.org . Thanks to my friend Jay Nichols, wallacejnichols.org

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Socialism, Democracy, and the role of faith

07Dec08

Thoughts on the recent economic melt-down:

If a people is not guided by an inner compass of morals magnetized to truths set forth in sacred literature like the Bible, then true liberty will be abused by the strong to obtain as much as they can, the rest of the world be damned. If we cannot depend on the generosity of the resourced to empower and lift up the under-resourced, then “fairness or equality” will be redistributed by a socialist regime – which has never been successful in creating a vibrant, growing society or economy.

A great quote from the year 1835:
“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty can not. Religion is much more necessary in the republic which they set forth in glowing colours than in the monarchy which they attack, and it is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed and what can be done with a people which is its own master if it be not submissive to the Divinity.” From Democracy in America, By Alexis de Tocqueville

“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”, also by de Tocqueville.

“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, ‘equality’. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

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Tags: de tocqueville, democracy, faith

I think we’ve almost arrived at the day

07Dec08

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money”, by Alexis de Tocqueville

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Tags: de tocqueville, economic crisis

twitter visualizations

04Aug08

visualize twitter connections

Check out this cool twitter visualizations application.  Very fun.

neuroproductions

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my strengths

26Jul08

strengthsfinder 2.0

I recently took the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test on-line. I took the strengthsfinder 1.0 version about 4 years ago, and some of my themes have changed.

Below are my top five themes of talent. The greater the presence of a theme of talent within a person, the more likely that person is to spontaneously exhibit those talents in day-to-day behaviors. Focusing on natural talents helps people build them into strengths and enjoy personal, academic, and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.

These are my themes: Achiever, Ideation, Maximizer, Connectedness, and Strategic. How well do you think these themes describe me?

If you would like to read more detailed descriptions of the themes, click here.

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Tags: strengths, strengthsfinder, talents

treefort fun

26Jul08

Emeli in our treefort coloring

My kids spent ALLLL afternoon up in our treefort today. They brought up pillows, blankets, popcorn, drinks, markers, paper, boombox, et al. I snuck up to check out what was going on, and I must say it really was cozy.  They are trying to get me to let them sleep in it over night.  hmmmm?

At first I was reluctant to let them bring everything up there, but then I thought, “you know, I hardly let them do anything really crazy. Why not say yes?  Be a nice daddy!”  As parents, my generation (I’m 41 now) are pretty restrictive with kids, in my opinion.  When I was a kid I could run around the neighborhood almost all day long without letting my parents know exactly

Quinn in the treefort

where I was.  When I was around 8 years old I could ride my bike by myself all over my hometown of Barrington, IL.  I usually needed to let my mom know where I was headed and when I’d be back.  But I had a lot of autonomy.  My kids have very little autonomy.

I must say “no” a thousand times a day. But sometimes I say “yes”, and today it all worked out well.

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Tags: emeli, quinn, treefort