Saturday Morning Ramblings

Back to Reality

2010-06-05T09:29:00.000-05:00

Ahh, Saturday morning. Coffee, my iPad, easy chair. Rude awakening, I've got a boat load of work to do. That's all for now, I'll be revealing why I haven't posted since January in the next couple of weeks. Later.

Commitment

2010-01-30T13:49:00.000-06:00

Last week as I was struggling to come up with a topic for my post, I thought of the people that have the same dilemma, columnists, clergy, etc. How do you generate creativity on demand? Some days it flows, some days it doesn't. This week I had the same issue, what can I write about? As I was driving to pick up my Saturday lunch from Subway it struck me, commitment. Whether its the Sunday sermon, your weekly column or getting up and running 26 miles, these are commitments.

I can't think of a greater commitment right now than Bruce Johnson's run across the United States to raise money and awareness for the Community Crisis Center of Elgin. Last week's post, Community Spirit, touched on this and I'll go into more detail today.

Bruce gets up every morning and runs 26 plus miles to achieve his goal of running across America. Think about it. Every day, seven days a week for almost four months running in the rain, cold, heat whatever the conditions. Sharing the road with vehicles or not sharing. The hills and long straight endless stretches. The dogs and deer and buzzards oh my. He already did this once in 2005 so he doesn't have anything to prove. He is doing this because he made a commitment to a cause he strongly believes in.

He isn't alone in his journey. He has his faith, his support driver Dave, 1320+ fans on Facebook and the people he meets along the way. We can all help the cause by donating and keeping in touch with him through Facebook, Twitter, UnitedStatesRun.com and Cinchcast. Please reach out to any connections you might have along the route and see if they can run with Bruce for a stretch or raise awareness in their communities.

Community Spirit

2010-01-23T11:09:00.000-06:00

Community spirit is alive and well in Elgin, Illinois. The volunteer ethic is a fabric that weaves through this city and drives people to care and to take action. The last three days are an example.

Thursday, a benefit for Haiti at Elgin Public House. Over 80 people attended a benefit for the Red Cross relief efforts and to learn about the culture of Haiti through art, music and stories provided by Elginites with Haitian backgrounds.

Video from event:

Pictures from event:

Friday, the Boys and Girls Club of Elgin annual dinner. An inspiring speech from the Youth of the Year and a challenge from board member Tim Williams to support the club so that youth in our community don't become one of the statistics. A new twist this year was texting in your donation and then displaying it on the big screen.

Saturday, the PADS of Elgin annual dinner with a Dancing with the Stars theme. Local people strutting their stuff on the dance floor to raise money for our homeless shelter. PADS provides more than just shelter, they use case management to change lives.

During the next three months, local resident Bruce Johnson is running across the United States to raise money for the Community Crisis Center of Elgin a domestic violence shelter. Now this is a commitment. Getting up each and every day and running 20 plus miles, think about it. You can follow his journey or donate to the cause.

Are you feeling the spirit? Want to get involved? You can start with one of the organizations above or access more information on volunteering and supporting local efforts at the United Way of Elgin.

When Good Technology Goes Bad

2010-01-16T11:44:00.000-06:00

Ever have one of those weeks when technology turns on you? I did.
Sunday, it was my notebook.
Monday, it was a computer in the office, the router at a client and a server at another client. All before 10am.
The rest of the week was spent repairing, replacing and reinstalling.

These are some tips to ease your pain when this happens to you and it will.
1) Make regular backups
2) Have documentation for your passwords, router settings and support contacts
3) Keep all your CD's, activation codes, downloaded software, etc. in one place
4) Alternative methods to access email (mobile device, webmail)

I joked, after performing one task this week, that it took three computers and an iPhone to get it done and a co-worker said like four weddings and a funeral. Yeah, kind-a-like that.

Olfactory Delights

2010-01-09T08:15:00.000-06:00

It's been six months since my last post in this every Saturday blog. Well I lasted until July in 2009, let's see if I can make it through the whole year in 2010.

This morning I was treated to coffee in bed which triggered this post. Normally, I grab my coffee, start downing it and turn on the computer. Barely time to smell the coffee. On this day, I had the opportunity to really enjoy the aroma of the coffee as I slowly awakened. It was if I could almost taste it. That started me thinking about some of the smells that can recall vivid memories from the depths of our minds and as a result, this post.

I have heard that of all the senses, the sense of smell is best at starting the chain reaction in our brains that pulls in memories. My personal experience can attest to that theory. For example:

The smell of the first day of spring. Not the official day. No, I mean the day when you open the door and are greeted by that combination of warmth, flowers and whatever else tells you spring is in the air.

The scent of Sparta, Wisconsin. Whatttt? (Imagine Craig Ferguson saying what) I was riding the Sparta/Elroy Trail when the smell brought me back to the time I spent with my dad in the summer of 1966 at Camp McCoy (Fort McCoy now). That will be another story.

A combination of cigar smoke and the mist from a hand sprinkler brings me back to the days when I sat on the front porch with Uncle Ed as he watered the grass.

The aroma of sweet barbecue sauce simmering on a grill brings me back to Maui, where someone was always cooking something delicious on the grill several floors below.

What olfactory delights do you have buried in the depths of your mind? Take a break from your hectic world and spend a little time enjoying your senses.

Enjoy Life

2009-07-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you just have to sit back and smell the coffee. That's what I did today. Relaxing in the gazebo on a beautiful Sunday morning. Realizing that there is an active wildlife community right in my backyard. The Morning Doves are especially animated and noisy. They must know I'm writing about them since they just landed on the roof.

Watching the robins, squirrels and rabbits. Yes those rabbits. I'm beginning to identify with Elmer Fudd every time I find another chewed up flower. Time to try adding Cayenne pepper to the beds. I'm fine with them eating anything they want in the lawn, just stay away from the flowers. If you see me in a funny hat carrying a shotgun, you'll know the pepper didn't work.

Check Your Golf Bag

2009-07-05T20:44:00.000-05:00

I came home from church today to find the items in the picture above. My son proclaimed, "Dad, I found this stuff while cleaning out your golf bag."
1) Can of Old Style. My first thought was, I hope it's empty. Yes it was. Even had the removable pop top. I don't litter.
2) Pack of Kools, empty. Remember I don't litter. I didn't smoke but my brother did and smoked Kools. Must have been from the last time I golfed with him at Salt Creek. As I recall there were power lines running through or next to the course.
3) Receipts from Edgebrook Golf Course from 8/15/1975. It was 1975 and a Cook County Forest Preserve but it was only $2 for a round of golf. It's $25 now. I shot my best round there in the pouring rain. I felt like the priest in Caddy Shack, minus the lightning.

I guess he figured the clubs were fair game because they've never been out of the basement since he was born and he needs to take up golf being a business major.

So an important Public Service Announcement to all you moms and dads out there. Check your golf bag and anything else you haven't used in decades before your kids do!

P.S. If anyone would like a vintage beer can or pack of smokes let me know.

The New Water Cooler

2009-06-28T09:43:00.000-05:00

I believe that Twitter and other social media have replaced the traditional water cooler as a place to meet and converse.
First, the water cooler has disappeared from the office environment. Second, workers have disappeared from the office landscape. They work from home, coffee shops, telecommute, etc. Technology has also eliminated the need to leave your desk when you are in the office. Except for food and health breaks there isn't a need to leave your cubicle (I've heard they are working on this). The new office is virtual and mobile. This leaves little opportunity for social interaction in the workplace and people seek this in varying degrees.
Try viewing your social media streams during office hours and see if there are a lot of water cooler type conversations. I find this particularly true in the small office and independent consultant arena. The topics tend to be the weather, what I did this weekend, did you hear, my kids, the latest celebrity death, etc.
By the way, I will be posting to this blog on Sunday mornings during the summer. Somehow I have the urge to do other things besides laze around the house on Saturday mornings.

Facebook, An Escape or Not?

2009-06-21T10:47:00.000-05:00

I've missed my Saturday morning deadline two weeks in a row, good thing it's not print. It will be a short post today, Father's Day you know.

A casual observation I'd like to share. The more mundane a Facebook status is, the more comments you'll receive. My wife Ruth and I have discussed this several times. Write about your husband's sudden attraction to gardening you get nine comments. Write about transparency in government and get two comments.

Is it because Facebook is an escape and you'd rather ignore the pressing issues and concentrate on the lighter fare? Or perhaps commenting on the serious topics will cause a series of pro and con responses that you'd rather not have to keep up with. Whatever the reason, you just know what will bring a response and what won't. There are very few surprises.

What has been your experience? Please comment. Oh wait, maybe this is too deep.

Will Google Become the New Microsoft? Part Deux

2009-06-14T09:59:00.004-05:00

This is a rerun of my 8/27/2005 blog post titled "Will Google Become the New Microsoft?"

Original post with some editing:

I have seen many posts on Google as an operating system recently. Is this where we're headed? Will the infatuation with Google change if it takes over as king of the software world? Will there be an anti-Google sentiment. I'd love to have a single point of reference for all my information, remember Bill Gates' "Information at your Fingertips", but I get nervous about any one company possessing it all.

Watch the video Epic 2014. It is a great, eight minute video on where we've been and some fiction on where the authors feel we might be headed. Remember this was from 2005.

Supporting posts:
Om Malik's post, Google the Ultimate Deflator.
Jason Kottke's post, GoogleOS? YahooOS? MozillaOS? WebOS?.
One more story, Google OS by 2010 on osnews.

Google, it's not your father's search engine. What do you think?

Google = search engine. Yes, but since 2005 we have come to rely on it for so much more. YouTube, Google Docs, iGoogle, Google Maps, Picasa and the list goes on. The Google Browser predicted in 2005, it's here and called Chrome. They just announced Google Wave, which is reported to be the solution to the social media nightmare of managing multiple feeds. Is it the EPIC product mentioned in the video?

The fictional struggle between newspapers and the web is today's reality, see AP lawsuit.

I will rerun this post in 2013 and compare the predictions to reality. By the way, you won't be able to read it in a blog since the written word will be dead and everything will be on video. I'll post it from my iPhone 7G using the MyTV application.

Nothing to Report Today

2009-06-13T18:52:00.000-05:00

No rambling today, tomorrow is another day. It was a week filled with information from three users groups and a Friday that thought it was Monday. Today was eight hours of training in WPF. Not a typo :). A Microsoft acronym for Windows Presentation Foundation. They had to throw in MVVM and XAML (Pronounced zamal).

Now do you understand why I have nothing to ramble about? Wait, I am rambling. Look for the real post on Sunday morning.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2009-06-06T10:03:00.000-05:00

This past week I actually enjoyed helping my mom with her garden. The fact that it is only 10 x 10 had something to do with it. The other reason is she enjoys nurturing it and watching it grow which warms my heart.

My other garden is my children. The Girl is interning with me two days a week. Right now she's working on Twitter backgrounds with more graphics related tasks to come. It is a joy to share knowledge with her and learn something myself. The Boy and I will be constructing a Rock Band gizmo today. It brightened my day to learn about his project. I get to dig my collection of jacks, cables and circuit boards out of the basement and share my soldering skills with him.

Finally, my bride, the two kids and their significant others had the opportunity to share a nice dinner at Al's Cafe on a beautiful evening topped off with their famous chocolate malts. It does not get any better than this.

Sometimes the simple things in life are the most rewarding.

Can Passion and Livelihood Coexist?

2009-05-30T11:41:00.000-05:00

My friend Drew sent me a video that started the wheels turning.
The video was Rod Rakic presenting "Building a Social Media Utility and Living to Talk About It" at the Chicago New Media Summit 08. The basic premise is you shouldn't try to achieve a balance between life and work, you should strive for work/life integration. It's twenty minutes well spent and will help you to understand the rest of this post.

I have tried the balance approach and envisioned a group of rectangles within a square representing four aspects of my life and the time devoted to each. The goal would be to allocate my time so that the ratio matched the perfect balance I had set for myself. The problem is that these are mutually exclusive so adding to one takes away from the others.

So the answer is not to separate the goals but attempt to combine them as circles that intersect instead of rectangles that don't overlap.

Enough about squares, rectangles and circles. It's bringing me back to high school Geometry class and my teacher asking if I was having a vision as I stared off into space.

A lot of imagery in this post but here's one more. Picture this, a man at a busy intersection holding a sign stating, "Will work for my passion" Now keep that image in your mind.

PS Note to brother. Notice no mention of the Tw or Fb word.

Twitter is... a Human Seismograph?

2009-05-23T10:14:00.000-05:00

If you were following LA tweeters last week, then you would have heard about the earthquake first hand, before it hit the news wire. Here's a couple of screen grabs from my Twitter stream.

Twitter, blogging and camera phones have transformed us into citizen journalists. Need more examples?

When Captain Sully skillfully landed his Airbus 320 in the Hudson, the image was captured on Twitter. ABC 7 Chicago seeks content from the public.

On the scene, instant images and stories. More eyes on the street, much like the concept of community policing. They can't be everywhere. With this comes some issues. We are not trained and are not held to any professional standards.

Remember, always consider the source, this is the internet after all. Recently, some people I follow started creating phony ReTweets (RT). They made up tweets and added "RT @recognizedname" to make it appear that "@recognizedname" tweeted it. (I was going to use "somebodyfamous" until I searched it and found out there really is somebodyfamous) Is it too easy to fake a tweet? What happens when a respected Twitterer with a five figure following falls for a fraud sourced story or a phony RT? They want to be the first in this crazy world of instant news and jump on the story so they can get the scoop and publish it without fact checking.

The tools we have at our disposal can be used for good and bad, you must decide the direction.

Multiple Social Media Persona Syndrome MSMPS

2009-05-16T09:00:00.001-05:00

Do you have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, etc, etc?
You might have MSMPS.

Don't be alarmed, it is a good thing. Your friends on FB are different than your followers on Twitter and your connections in LinkedIn. At least they should be. The information that you deem to share with the world should be filtered by the social network you post it on. For example, my FB network is mainly composed of my family and "friends", LinkenIn has my business contacts and Twitter, well it is everything else. I decide if something goes on FB and Twitter or just one network.

How to deal with MSMPS.
1) Tailor your profile on each service to the audience but remember everything you put on the internet can be available to all.
2) Don't publish every post to every network, be selective. Use Selective Twitter on FB.
3) Use a tool like Seesmic Desktop or Tweetdeck to aggregate your feeds.

Life is good for now but as new features such as Facebook's Open Stream API are released there will be new challenges to maintain multiple social personas.

Goodbye Pontiac, I Knew You Well

2009-05-09T09:22:00.001-05:00

GM's demise of the Pontiac brand saddened me. My first car was a '66 LeMans. I've owned three Bonnevilles and two Grand Prix's. Just the names embody speed. Bonneville, LeMans, Grand Prix, Grand Am, Trans Am and the king, GTO.
Some GTO videos:

The red glow of the instrument panel and the layout of the controls was cockpit-like. You were the pilot and the car could fly. Goodbye old friend, I knew you well.

Life Long Learning

2009-05-02T08:43:00.000-05:00

I'm recovering from three days at the CMSExpo, a conference for users, developers and vendors of Open Source Content Management Systems. Basically they are frameworks for creating web sites that use dynamic content driven by a database. The products have names like Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Alfresco and Plone. Not exactly household names, well maybe WordPress because of it's popularity as a blogging tool. I use recovering because even though they say the mind is a sponge, mine was well saturated by the end of the day. The point of this is life long learning. You are never too old to learn new skills. In fact, I believe that learning keeps you young.

I have gone through periods of "No More Information" where I shut down, wear blinders and focus on day to day activities but what I've found is that I'm happier and more productive when I expose my mind to new concepts. In the last six months, I've attended seven user group meetings, three Tweetups, three conferences and one Facebook Developers Garage, clicked on hundreds of links from Twitter, blogs and Facebook, and Googled something everyday.

In closing, the mind is a terrible thing to waste, so go out and fill it. And don't worry, it won't explode.

Instant Gratification

2009-04-25T10:52:00.000-05:00

From Wikipedia:

Gratification is the positive emotional reaction of happiness in response to a fulfillment of a desire. Maturity is often defined as the ability to delay gratification (patience), and progress as the real or imagined perception of movement towards gratification.

The recent infatuation with Twitter can be seen as a manifestation of instant gratification regarding information. Twitter is the sound bite of the written word. I have fallen for the trap myself. See my previous post Surfing Evolution. In the short time since that post I've noticed that I'm relying more and more on Twitter to feed me the newspaper headlines and then using the headline to determine what to drill down on. I feel there needs to be a balance between being informed on what's happening this very minute and information that has been researched, analyzed and given thought. The text bite is good for knowing that your Metra train is delayed. It is not good for selecting your elected officials.

When making an important decision, don't base it on a ten second sound bite or a 140 character tweet. Take some time to read, listen and formulate your opinion before pushing the send to brain button.

Photos as Visual Clues in User Interfaces

2009-04-18T11:06:00.000-05:00

Our minds are very good at recognizing subtle changes in visual content. Take a website that you visit on a regular basis. They change a color or font size and you take notice. I'm not talking about the recent Facebook layout changes. No, I'm referring to small changes. This effect is more pronounced on sites with basic content and not a lot of glitz.

My recent experience with this has been with Twitter. It is not a change in their design but rather with the profile pictures of people I'm following. Robert Scoble recently made his profile green and Hulk-like. This made it stand out but I still knew it was him. The visual clue that I was alerted to deals with our brain's facial recognition system. I am following two people who have similar pictures. Blue background, white shirt and both male. See below:
1)

Every time I see a tweet from these two gentlemen I need to look at the Twitter name to confirm the source. In the setting above they don't look that similar, even to me, but imagine the Twitter layout with many images and rapidly scrolling through the list to find something interesting. If it only occurred once I could ignore it but it seems to happen every time I come across their images.

Two events this week caused me to focus on this topic. One was an episode of Hak5 that had a segment on a facial recognition application for Facebook the other was the presentation on Artificial Life by Larry Yaeger at the Chicago ACM meeting. Our brains can make the same mistakes in recognizing images that computers do when not presented with enough data, context or time to complete the analysis.

Slightly off topic but this is a ramble. David Byrne of Talking Heads fame has a book/DVD, Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, which explores using PowerPoint in ways you've never seen before.

This brings me to the lyric, "I've changed my hairstyle so many times now" from Life During Wartime, Talking Heads. Does anyone have a class to train men to recognize a change in their significant other's hairstyle? I'd pay for that one, because I've already paid.

140 Characters Or Less

2009-04-11T09:01:00.003-05:00

Twitter's limit of 140 characters can be good and bad. It forces us to get to the point in order to convey our message. On the other hand it can lead to unintended consequences when computers or humans shorten a longer message.
Two examples:
I captured this two months ago.

Just this morning, I ran across this:

At first glance, I thought it was referring to an organ-selling operation by way of my brain's highly trained tweet word extender function. Then I checked the link. It is an opera not an operation. The non-Twitter headline is "Barrington native stars in an organ-selling opera". The tweet was only 74 characters so another 6 to add "stars " would have clarified it.

Flutter is proposing a 26 character limit. Watch the video here:

It's a joke, or is it? What if someone presented Twitter 3 years ago in a similar fashion? Would we have taken it seriously or thought it was a joke? Do we take it seriously today? How many if you have gone to your boss and said, "You need to Tweet."?

Who would have thought that Twitter would take off. But for a generation of texters accustomed to 140 characters or less, this is a way to share their thoughts with the world. The rest of us are just catching up.

Don't Fear the Tweetup

2009-04-04T09:55:00.001-05:00

1. Tweetup
An organized or impromptu gathering of people that use Twitter. (A meet up of people that 'tweet' using Twitter.) from urbandictionary.com

Don't be afraid of Tweetups. It is just a way for people that use social media to actually socialize. This is a good thing. We can get out from behind our computer screens and cell phones and meet people face-to-face. Those of you that feel intimidated by social technology can flaunt your people social skills and learn something about the tech side in return.

I recently attended three tweetups.
Last Thursday was the Social Media Club of Chicago's B2B Social Media Tweetup. I didn't physically attend this event. A last minute client emergency prevented me from going to the tweetup but I was able to attend virtually via the webinar and the Twitter hashtag. This was a formal panel discussion on how to use social media in the B2B world followed by social interaction.

Wednesday's tweetup was in downtown Elgin at the Douglas Street Sports Bar. This was the first tweetup I organized. The Downtown Neighborhood Association promoted it with an email blast, Twitter and Facebook. 35 people enjoyed Speed Learning on Twitter, Facebook and blogging. We gave away three Swingline Red 747 staplers as raffle prizes. Watch the movie Office Space if this doesn't make sense. There will be more tweetups in Elgin, just follow @downtownelgin on Twitter to keep in the loop.

Friday's tweetup was in Schaumburg at John Barleycorn. This was organized by CHI Suburbs Tweetups. I met marketing people, PR people, software engineers, programmers, web developers, neighbors and more. This was just socializing, no formal presentations.

As you can see by the examples above, tweetups can take various forms. So the next time you see a Tweetup announced, don't be afraid, and remember it is an opportunity to network, socialize and maybe learn something new about social media.

Are You a Geek or a Nerd?

2009-03-28T08:00:00.003-05:00

This article Austin Nerds Vs. Austin Geeks|Austin Social Media got my attention. A good topic to discuss at the Elgin Tweetup on April 1st. Plenty of both types should be present.

Am I a geek or a nerd? Both, I was a nerd, now I'm a geek. IMHO

My Nerd qualifications:
Wore glasses since 3rd grade
Chemistry set
Electronics kit
Lane Tech High School (Why is it called College Prep now, tech not good enough?)
Slide rule club

My Geek transition qualifications:
High school computer science class. Fortran programming using punch cards.
TRS80 computer
HP41C calculator

Now, I'd like to think of myself as a Geek
iPhone
Twitter
Blogging
Attended PyCon this week. (Python programming conference)
Actually know what a lot of tech acronyms mean

Are you a Geek or a Nerd? Always one? More qualifying traits? Please comment and/or take the poll below.

Earbud Zombies

2009-03-21T09:20:00.001-05:00

I first noticed this phenomenon while parked in front of my son's dorm. Students filed out of the door and most were wearing earbuds or inserting them as they left. My second realization was on a Metra train. When I glanced at the upper deck, I observed that everyone was wearing earbuds.

The earbud is not new. I will regress, something I find myself doing in almost every post lately. This must be a sign. Anyway, my brother had a white, 7 transistor radio and it came with an earphone. Didn't need one for each ear since it was AM radio. We listened to WLS and WCFL. Dick Biondi was one of the DJ's, sometimes I think I still hear his voice on the radio, must be a lost radio wave out there somewhere. Another reason the earphone wasn't popular was because you couldn't annoy your parents with your music.

The earbud creates isolation for the wearer but it also limits identity. Lets examine this further. When people read newspapers and books on the train you could see which paper or what book they were reading. This gave you some insight into their being. Was it the Sun Times, Tribune or WSJ. Were they reading the sports section or finance. Was it a romance novel or a self help book. See what I mean. Now with the Kindle, iPhone ebook readers and earbuds you don't have a clue who this person is.

Wouldn't it be interesting if there were some device to allow you to see what people were listening to or reading? Imagine a cartoon bubble above everyone on the train. Tribune, Mozart, Sun Times, podcast, this blog post (highly unlikely).

This has inspired me. I'm off to the basement laboratory to create such a device. It could be worth millions. But wait, I wonder if the government already has something like this. Suddenly I'm not inspired anymore and I'll be packing tin foil on my next train trip.

Saturday Night at the Movies

2009-03-14T08:40:00.001-05:00

Do you remember Saturday Night at the Movies? It struck me when I noticed the line of people at the Red Box machine. You know, the one conveniently located in front of Jewel.

Back to Saturday night. When I was your age, we didn't have OnDemand, Hulu, TiVo, Netflix, DVDs or even VHS tapes. Entertainment 24x7 ha, we had it 2x1 and it was special. You would take a bath, get in your PJs and plop down in front of the TV with a bowl of Jiffy Pop (no microwaves yet) and watch the blockbuster film that was in the theaters several years ago. And get this, the whole family watched it together. During the week there was the build up. Commercials promoting the event, the days passing and getting closer to Saturday. It was something to look forward to. There was excitement and anticipation.

Have I moved on? Yes, I use TiVo (love it), Netflix, DVDs, but sometimes when I'm browsing the multitude of choices and can't find anything to watch, I hearken back to the days when a network executive made the decision for me.

P.S. Full disclosure on the blog title, Saturday Morning Ramblings. Sometimes I'm inspired during other moments of solitude, shower, train, etc. but I only post on Saturday.

Twitter on Main Street

2009-03-07T08:00:00.001-06:00

This past week Main Streeters from all over the country and the world traveled to Chicago to take part in the National Main Streets Conference. The theme was "Becoming Main Street 2.0", which focused on social media and the web.

Social media was also used to connect both attendees and interested netizens via Twitter and a blog. You can view the Twitter stream here and the Live Blog here.

Monday, I presented "30 Minute Crash Course: Facebook", to a group of eager attendees. I booted up a good 20 minutes prior to the session, got the projector synced to the notebook and had the PowerPoint up. Then I plugged in the power brick and bam, the demo gods stuck, reboot. Fifteen minutes later, back up again but missing left side of slides. The show must go on, already behind schedule and this is only 30 minutes to demonstrate how Facebook can put more faces on main street and how to create a Public Profile page. Enjoyed the expo reception and being introduced to the National Trust team by Norma Miess, the former ED of the Downtown Neighborhood Association of Elgin. Ran into, Dan Rinsema-Sybenga, another CommunityWalk user from Muskegon, MI while chatting at the Google Maps booth.

Tuesday was Bash day for me, no presentations. Several hundred of us gathered at the River East Art Center, 435 E. Illinois Street to network, eat, drink and dance (not me).

Wednesday was the Breakfast Tweetup and one more presentation.

Tweeters at tweetup, Curtis Gibbs(CRA/LA), Andy Chapman(FoxWebCo), Marianna Hayes(HALO), Eric Richardson(blogdowntown.com) and Andre Natta(CMCS). This was my first live tweetup. I attended one in Springfield last week but that was virtual.

This time the presentation karma was good, New room with a good layout, microphone and first session of the morning. Plently of time to get everything set up.
No sooner did I finish my presentation than Facebook released a new layout for pages. That's technology. Good thing I didn't show an entire page, only sections, which are still the same. The crash courses seemed to be a hit. A good way to get a taste of social media.

I wonder how many communities will have adopted the Web 2.0 skills developed this week when the conference is held in Oklahoma in 2010.

Surfing Evolution

2009-02-28T08:00:00.001-06:00

I am evolving.

First I surfed the web via a collection of bookmarks. Going from site to site and using my brain to filter the content and determine if anything was new. Way too much information to process.

Then I discovered RSS Really Simple Syndication. This is it. What more could I need. Soon, Bloglines became my home page and I only saw content that was deemed worthy of the RSS feed.

Lately I've been hanging out on Facebook and Twitter so my view of the web is being filtered by the friends I keep. See any potential problems here? Bloglines is still my home page but I find myself glancing at it for a moment and then moving to FB and Twitter, which by the way, have moved to the number 1 and 2 positions on my bookmark toolbar.

Oh, I've flirted with iGoogle and still use it daily to determine my mood based on whether the Dow is red or green and some interesting links pop up in the CNET widget. Can they really use the letter "i" to start a product name without being sued by Apple? iGuess so, they are Google. I will stop now, I feel like I'm being channeled by Andy Rooney.

Are you evolving? What is your home page? Top bookmarks? Talk to me, the lines are open.

Facebook Wrinkles

2009-02-21T10:21:00.000-06:00

Last week Facebook made the headlines with the change to it's Terms of Service (TOS). The users revolted, the media picked up on it and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg retreated. News flash, read the ten pages of legalese before clicking the Accept button and see what rights you are giving up.

Another wrinkle. I can use that term because of my age. The demographics of Facebook users are changing. There is a shift to us older folks, see the trend in this article from istrategylabs. I wonder if that will cause some of the young whippersnappers to shift to another social platform we haven't heard of yet, or will they be able to coexist with another generation. Remember the mantra from the 60's, don't trust anyone over 30? Well, all those people are now in their 60's. It is a little scary to see Dennis Hopper as the spokesperson for Ameriprise. I still picture him rolling down the highway on a chopper. Then again, maybe he still does.

See you on Facebook, wrinkles and all.

Forward Together Forward

2009-02-14T10:01:00.001-06:00

One year ago today we learned of the tragedy at Northern Illinois University. The news came in different forms. The impact on five families was devastating. It was one of those events that I will always remember where I was when I heard. Like President Kennedy's assassination, like 9/11 and like the shootings at NIU.

It was shortly after 3 pm on 2/14/2008, I was in the hallway at my Mom's apartment when my cell phone rang. It was my son Ryan. "Dad, there's been a shooting, I'm in my room, we're on lockdown." Words I thought I'd never hear and at the same time, words I was thankful to hear. Many phone calls that day would start out the same but end with different results. The families and friends of many NIU students and faculty heard the news from others sources and then endured the unknown while waiting to hear if their loved ones were safe.

The first question I asked him was, did you call Mom? Yes, he had left a message. Then I started thinking. Is the gunman still loose? I thought of Virginia Tech. My thoughts turned to the friends with students at NIU. Are they ok? I called my wife Ruth. Did you get Ryan's message? Do you know what's going on? Have you heard from anyone? She was in a meeting in her Springfield office when Ryan called. She saw the call and let it go to voice mail. Sometime later a staffer came in and said we need to talk to you, can it wait, no, we need to talk to you now. They told her what had happened. She checked the voice mail with the reassuring message. "I'm ok".

Throughout the rest of the day I listened to the radio, watched TV, made calls, answered calls, prayed. My brother called from Germany sometime before 4 pm. "Is Ryan, alright? I'm watching this terrible scene at NIU on CNN." Ruth called with pieces of information. 14 transported to hospitals, multiple fatalities, shotgun involved, status of kids we know at NIU, gunman is dead.

I watched as the scenes from Columbine and Virginia Tech unfolded. Horrific, terrible images but somehow they were removed both in physical distance and emotional connection. But this was different. My son was there. He was in Cole Hall at 11 am that day. I sat in Cole Hall as a student. My dorm was across from the site of the tragedy. Ruth is an alum. Ryanne Mace of Carpentersville was one of the victims.

A year has past. I attended the memorial for Ryanne Mace. I went to the Campus Memorial Service at NIU. Thursday, I attended the remembrance at ECC. Life goes on but we can never forget what happened that day.

Links
NIU Remembers: A Legacy of Character 2/14/2009 - Watch archived video of the ceremony >

NIU memorial site

WBEZ program The NIU Community Reflects on Last Year's Shooting aired on 2/13/2009 on Eight Forty-Eight

Super Bowl Social

2009-02-07T10:16:00.000-06:00

Is social media social?
Unlike most of America, I didn't spend last Sunday eating nachos and drinking beer at a Super Bowl party. However, I did participate in a virtual party. What say you?

No, I didn't plan to have a virtual party, it just happened. My bride Ruth and I sat down in front of the medium sized TV with our portals to the outside world on our laps. I was expecting a boring game with great commercials and a quiet evening at home. It didn't turn out that way.

First, it was a real football game, not like the Super Bowls of late. Second, while peering into my portal, I discovered #superbowlads on Twitter. Hundreds of people tweeting about the ads and the game. Sometimes it was more about the game. In between tweets, I was checking Facebook to see what my friends were up to and commenting on the game. At one point I texted a friend who was actually at the game. Occasionally, I even watched the game. Come to think of it, this is not that much different than a real Super Bowl party. It just contained less calories.

I don't remember last year's Super Bowl, but I do know that I wasn't on Facebook and although I had a Twitter account, I wasn't Twittering.

What will Super Bowl 2010 bring? Maybe I'll go old school social and attend a real party with pizza and beer and not even look at my mobile portal to the world.

Job Skills 2.0

2009-01-31T09:10:00.001-06:00

Oh, how the job skills have changed over the years.
Thirty years ago it was WPM (Words per Minute) on the typewriter. Not as many acronyms back then.
Twenty years ago it was knowledge of word processing and spreadsheets.
Ten years ago it was the internet and email.
Today, is it social media?

Do you know how to use Facebook, Twitter, IM, blogs, YouTube, Digg, etc.?
Do you even know what I'm talking about or is it all Greek to you?
Are you seeing want ads and resumes with these skills?

Please weigh in on Job Skills 2.0 with your comments.

iPhoneanalysis

2009-01-24T12:41:00.000-06:00

What does your iPhone reveal about you? I'm not talking about all the personal data or the accidental phone calls or even the unintentional photos. I'm referring to the home screen on your iPhone. Here's mine.

Let's start with the Dock. What are the four apps? What order are they in?

1) Phone - This is a phone after all, isn't it.

2) Mail - What would life be without email? (Showing my age, aren't I)

3) Google - Oh great Google, let me ask you a question.

4) Calendar - What I'm supposed to be doing instead of posting to this blog?

Next up is the bottom row. That doesn't sound right, oh well.
Text - above Phone, both communication apps. My kids respond to text, don't answer the phone.
Gmail - above Mail, OK, makes sense
Voice Dialer - above Google Search, both voice and search. Starting to see a pattern?
Facebook - above Calendar, meeting and connecting with people, OK

Above the bottom row. This is where things start to become a little less clear. My priority apps shift to the right side and move up. Twitterrific, Weather, Stocks (used to be not such a priority, now used to determine mood)

Then I shift back to the left side. Google Maps (How did I get here?), iTunes (mostly used while on the train or when cleaning the house, in other words, infrequently), Camera.

Top row, not covered by sides. Photos, very light use. Safari, I tend to use bookmarked shortcuts or just Google it.

Interior four. Calculator, Settings, Contacts (tend to use Voice Dialer) and Evernote. Handy to have on home screen, no particular priority, not related to adjacent apps.

In a nutshell, no comments please.
Highest priority apps in the Dock, left to right, followed by the bottom row, then the right side, then the left side, then the four in the center, last but not least, or are they, the two apps at the top center. In general the upper left is less important and lower right more important. Or should I say more frequently used? Beyond the home screen is best saved for another post. I've already revealed more about my psyche than I should have.

How much can we learn about a person by examining their iPhone home screen? More than reading their palm, no pun intended (pre Pre). Do they organize the apps in some sort of left to right, bottom to top priority? Or do they just let them fall where they may in a free spirited artistic display of their personality. What Freud could have done with iPhoneanalysis.