eContent

Managing Your Most Important Asset: Knowledge

My alma matter, Dartmouth (albeit Tuck ... my MBA is from elsewhere) has an excellent podcast, Information as a Strategic Asset. Just this weekend I presented at Minnebar 2008; my topic was social search within the enterprise. What are you doing to leverage that knowledge?  Can you imagine querying external Google, but securely receiving both internal and external results? I can!

Remember, information and knowledge comes from people. Some additional research on the Dartmouth web site brought me to this white paper, Web 2.0 and the Corporation (pdf). The information and comments are from an executive roundtable co-hosted by IBM and Tuck last year (CIOs and other senior execs from 3M, BT Group, JPMorgan Chase, Cisco, DISA, Eastman Chemical, IBM, ING, Ogilvy, and Time Warner Cable). Some companies get it ... some don't.  Which camp are you in?

Finally, here is a photo of me presenting at Minnebar 2008. I was doing a lighting demo on the Engineering Learning Wiki. My thanks to Luke Frankl and his camera! He also caught this nerd in the front row of seats at the very end of Minnebar 2008... using his Nokia N800 tablet! You may wish to read my other Minnebar 2008 post.

Sichuan Earthquake Relief

Last month while speaking at the China Tomorrow Education Foundation annual benefit dinner, I met John Heide from TryThisFilms, and learned of his documentary ... Made In China. This email excerpt is from him:

I'm sure you've heard about the catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan today.  Having spent time there filming Made in China, I feel a very close connection to Chengdu and rural Sichuan. 

As you may know, NPR's All Things Considered has been preparing to broadcast live from Chengdu next week, so some very immediate reports have come from their hosts and reporters on the air and at their Chengdu blog -

NPR Chengdu Blog

I hope you'll join me in supporting relief efforts in Sichuan. Among the many international aid agencies, Mercy Corps' website is now taking donations for the Sichuan disaster and they are working with a partner agency in China.

Mercy Corps

Thanks.
Best to you             -
John

Minnebar 2008: Geeks 1 Minnesota Fishing Opener 0

Today is a national holiday in Minnesota, Fishing Opener. When one survives another bitter Winter here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (actually 15,000+, but we're modest), the need for some outdoor fun is HUGE. Yet, this geek / fisherman is attending, along with 400 other nerds on a Saturday, Minnebar 2008.

If you've never attended an "unconference" (Wikipedia link), you need to get with it! Earlier today I personally presented on Social Search in the Corporate Environment. Later I attended a session on using mashups in the enterprise ... and this afternoon I am looking forward to the "lightning rod demos".  Anyone may demo, but with an extreme time limit (3 minutes??). If you want to learn about tens of new ideas quickly, this is a great deal.

Finally I just attended the State of the State: Technology in Minnesota. We may not be Silicon Valley (who cares?), but we have our own start-up success stories. This panel responded to questions about what is takes to create a vibrant development community here in Minnesota.

While most of you will not care about the answer to this question (Minnesota development community), the key takeaway from a barcamp is the phenomenal interaction among attendees. Attend a barcamp in your local area.

In fact ... information can just flow in to a person. While creating this post Adam Des Autels stopped by to chat. He had attended my session this morning, and knew of my love of intelligent RSS. His recommendation was to check out a new RSS aggregator that uses fuzzy logic to improve you results ... sounds very neat.  I've taken an initial look at PARTicls, and it deserves a thorough review. Time to attend another session!

Engineering, Technology and Culture

The University of Illinois has hosted an event with the same name, Engineering, Technology and Culture. You can access webcasts of many presentations. The conference overview is described with these words:

"Although everyone benefits from the products of engineering creativity and productivity, engineering and technology are seldom studied by scholars as human activities. Thus engineers, engineering, and technology are under-represented on the intellectual landscape in a way that is inconsistent with their importance in the twenty-first century. The study of engineering and technology from a philosophical, historical, cultural, behavioral and sociological perspectives is essential to address important contemporary problems at the interface of technology and society."

Take a web link to either the 2007 or 2008 conference. You'll find some unique and intrigueing presentations to watch ... such as "Engineering Hip Hop: Crossfaders, Mixers, and Digital Turn".

I will definitely add this to my seminars page of the Engineering Learning Wiki (and the embedded Google search engine).

GMaps Pedometer ... Tracing our Tracks!

I discovered this tool while reading PC World yesterday evening ... very cool. Expand the thumbnail image to see how GMaps Pedometer uses Google Maps to easily track and measure a running or walking route ... even when footpaths are involved. This will come in handy later today when I do a 20 mile training run in preparation for Grandma's Marathon.
.

Podcast Interview with the USAF Chief Scientist

The United States Air Force's chief scientist, Mark Lewis, spoke at the 15th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' space planes, hypersonic systems and technologies conference. During the interview he speaks to the topics of hydrogen fuel, space tourism and other issues.

• Podcast Overview
• Access Podcast

After downloading the podcast, just rename the file extension from aspx to mp3.  It will play fine.

Nature's Scientific Programming

Although I consider myself a software geek, I know very little about this field ... Genetic Programming. However, before you think I'm talking about genetic engineering of plants and animals, read on. This field studies nature, and tries to learn lessons for solving technical problems ... an intriguing idea. You may now download a very detailed manual on the process, A Field Guide to Genetic Programming. Here is how the book's web site describes the area:

"Genetic Programming is a systematic, domain-independent method for getting computers to solve problems automatically starting from a high-level statement of what needs to be done. Using ideas from natural evolution, GP starts from an ooze of random computer programs, and progressively refines them through processes of mutation and sexual recombination, until solutions emerge. All this without the user having to know or specify the form or structure of solutions in advance. GP has generated a plethora of human-competitive results and applications, including novel scientific discoveries and patentable inventions."

I am definitely adding this manual to the Engineering Learning Wiki's manual section. If you are interesting in learning more about this discipline, a trip to the University of Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory would be worth your while. Besides, any lab which refers to their blog at IlliGAL must have a sense of humor. I leave you to figure out the play on words!
.

1 if by Land, 2 if by Sea, 3 if by MinneBar

Okay ... I've been pushing the unconference. You don't even have to come to Minnesota. However ... if you were in the Twin Cities this weekend, you could attend with me. My thanks to Brian Kopp for saying my presentation sounded worth attending.

If you have no idea what an "unconference" is, link to this earlier post ... learn ... and attend one in your region. They are held all over the world.

12 Years at #10 Downing Street (a web birthday)

Most of us don't get to hang out in Silicon Valley. I decided to take a few days of vacation and come out to Mountain View and see some friends. Little did I realize that my trip would bring me out to ground zero during the 15th anniversary of the world wide web. Link to the Web Guild to read the announcement and watch the video.

I decided I couldn't let this historic date pass without some recognition ... ponder ... ponder ... how does one say Happy Birthday WWW ? With web sites! Thus via the Internet Wayback Machine I decided to give you the history of the web ... #10 Downing Street style!

The oldest year I could find was 1997. Click upon any thumbnail for an expanded view.

1997 on ...

Air Traffic Flight Patterns

The next time you're trip is delayed due to the high volumes air traffic, envision this! (beautiful air traffic plot animation set to music ... one day in the life of air traffic over the United States):

• Animation
• UCLA Web Site

Virtual Machine Shop

One complaint I often hear from older engineers is how many of their younger brethren don't have hands-on experience in the "shop". If that description might apply to you, or you just could use some occasional help with a machining problem, link on over to the Virtual Machine Shop! It has some great drawings, tutorials, animations, etc. I added this content to the mechanical engineering section of the engineering learning wiki.
.

The Cultural Aspects of Product Design

Toyota has changed the economic and business landscape. Author and professor Jeffrey K. Liker explains that this success was the result of consistently applying four key management principles for organizational excellence-Philosophy, People, Problem Solving, and Process. The Lean Blog has now published a three part series / podcast of interviews with Professor Liker on his new book, Toyota Culture. In this book he notes that a key aspect to Toyota's success is culture ... in fact it is the "heart and soul of the Toyota Way"

• Jeff Liker Interview - Parts One | Two | Three

A Keynote Speech to Deliver

I'm off to Seattle early tomorrow for the annual China Tomorrow Education Foundation annual benefit dinner. I will be one of their keynote speakers. I owe a dept of gratitude and thanks to my buddy, Dj, who has taught me the meaning of dedication and compassion. While I help the children from afar except for an occasional trip to southern China, Dj left a high paying job with Microsoft to help educate the children.

If you have a few extra dollars, help me rebuild the LingYun dorm.  Send a pledge via email to Rich Hoeg, at rhoeg@comcast.net. Thank you!

• Loppets and Legos for LingYun (4 minute video)
• Loppet for LingYun ... A Frigid Success (we're off to a good start!)
• Both multimedia modules may take a moment to load ...

Create Your Own WikiBooks PDF's

Stormbringer commented yesterday about a very cool tool, WikiBooks2PDF. This simple and easy to use tool allows one to convert Wikibooks to pdf for offline use. Just do the following:

1. Link to Wikibooks
2. Find the "book" in which you are intersted
3. Copy the URL
4. Link to WikiBooks2PDF
5. Paste the URL in the window indicated
6. Voila ... about 30 seconds later!

Wireless Sensors Networks+

Following up on yesterday's post (my thanks to Peter Skomoroch over at Data Wrangling Blog), I've added the following courses to the Engineering Learning Wiki and it's embedded Google Co-op search engine. The links given below take you to the correct wiki section.

• Convex Optimization - Stanford University
• Fundamentals of Physics - Yale University
• Fundamentals of Wireless Broadband Networks - RPI
• Machine Learning - U Cal Berkeley
• Thermodynamics - Cambridge University
• Wireless Sensor Networks - University of Freiburg

Remember to check out the courses page of the Engineering Learning Wiki. This page has the search engine and lists the LARGE curriculums (i.e. not just individual courses).