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A London Think Tank ... and a glass of wine!

As I head off the grid for nine days in northern Minnesota (no phone, no TV, no microwave ... just R&R with my family in the deep woods with a glass of wine!), it somehow seems appropriate to leave you with this post ... and thought from Demos, A London based think tank (thanks to Jane Hart for the link).

Hopes and dreams matter...

Personal dreams must be taken more seriously, especially during a recession.  Demos travelled the country asking people about their lives and what they wished for in the future. Far from a 'broken society' we found an optimistic, realistic and altruistic Britain.

In addition, you'll find a report on the state of education in the United Kingdom ... The Edgeless University. The full report may be downloaded from this link. Here is a very brief overview, which could really be about almost any service affected by technology. Do you fear it, or embrace change? Time for my first glass of wine!

The Edgeless University argues that this can be a moment of rebirth for universities. Technology is changing universities as they become just one source among many for ideas, knowledge and innovation. But online tools and open access also offer the means for their survival.

CalTech NASA Study on Micro-Blogging ROI / Business Value

I just found a great research study on effective internal use of micro-blogging to enhance collaboration in a distributed engineering environment ... or should I say it found me via Twitter (thanks to Carrie Young).  One of my favorite quotes from the executive summary: "93% of the answers were from a different NASA center". Explained in my own words, the NASA pilot participants received answers to their technical questions from fellow employees who they often did not know ... and who did not work at their own location. If you focus upon collaboration inside the firewall, and are exploring the use of Web 2.0 tools for the enterprise, this is must read. After all ... you have an elite university (CalTech) reviewing a complex distributed engineering environment (NASA). NASA's pilot project used Social Cast, but I found the findings to be software tool agnostic.

• NASA Collaboration Study: Executive Summary | Full Report

You may also wish to see my prior post on Collaboration in the Cloud.

The New York Times or Wikipedia?

I originally learned from WikiAngela that Google News was testing the idea of adding Wikipedia as one of the prime news sources on their Google News. Selected Google News accounts are now being presented with links to stories from the expected players ... the New York Times, NBC, the Associated Press, etc., but also Wikipedia. Well, my account is apparently includes in the test. Take a look at the screenshot included below (click to view full at full resolution). Consider the implications!

Mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Another sign of the digital age, after 74 years, Kodak is going to take everyone's Kodachrome away! From Paul Simon's famous song:

"They give us those nice bright colors. They give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world's a sunny day," he sang. "... So Mama don't take my Kodachrome away"

The Conversational Web

I'm trying to determine the ROI / business value of social media sites for my company. A common assumption is that if one's company is not end-consumer focused, there may be less value found upon social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. However, if you are trying to take the pulse of the "conversational web", these services handily beat traditional web sites. Over the past 24 hours I've discovered the truth of that hypothesis. In my case, I ran Grandma's Marathon yesterday during "black flag" weather conditions (i.e. dangerous heat). I decided to create an animated slideshow with music of the experience.

Being curious about yesterday's race, I queried Google on "Grandma's Marathon". Almost 100% of the first 20 results (farther down that most people would ever read) are traditional news media reports of the race. However, if one runs the same query via Twitter Search, the results are dramatically different, you learn what it's like to actually run in the race. The first tweet was by Graeme Thickins, a web 2.0 reporter who actually linked my video.

Thus, always know your audience and your purpose. One needs to stay abreast of both the traditional and conversational web. You'll be better able to understand the parts to the puzzle.

Black Flag! (Grandma's Marathon)

Lake Superior did not provide her air conditioning today at Grandma's Marathon. Instead the wind blew from the West and the heat rose to dangerous temperatures (87 degrees at the finish). I hope you enjoy the short video; you'll learn what it's like to run a "black flag marathon". The Northstar Nerd ran a personal worst by almost 50 minutes (5 hours 17 minutes), but I finished. Next Winter, I promise I will never again complain when cross-country ski racing in a sub-zero Loppet! The cold will feel heavenly!

(Follow this link for a higher res version of my video. Most photos were taken by my family, but some are from the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Duluth News Tribune).

Paraphrased from the Duluth News Tribune:

The medical director, Steve Harrington, almost shut down the race down while it was in progress: "Race protocol calls for the medical director to confer with executive director Scott Keenan on matters of an unsafe race. They discussed the option of stopping the marathon and having runners brought in off the course by bus, and Harrington said it very nearly happened."

There were 577 runners treated at the finish-line medical tent. Most were treated for hyponatremia (low sodium) and hyperthermia (heat stroke), with one runner showing a temperature of 108 degrees.

Gold Cross Ambulance had 83 calls with 53 transports, including 36 to Duluth hospitals, the most in Harrington’s time with the marathon.

Black Flag Marathon on PhotoPeach

Corporate Collaboration Tweet-Up

Two peers of mine are going to lead a Tweet-Up on collaboration "inside the firewall". As an interesting juxtaposition of various Web 2.0 tools, they will have this conversation via Twitter. All are welcome to attend and participate. This live event will be at 12:00 noon Central Daylight Time on Wednesday, June 24th. The Twitter hashtag for this event is behindthefirewall

More information on the event may be found via Arik Hanson's blog. The other leader is Rick Mahn who leads collaboration efforts at Land-O-Lakes Foods.

Twinked-In (Twitter plus LinkedIn)

I am proud to announce the merger of Twitter and LinkedIn. The new company's name will be Twinked-In! The new logo is already designed! Okay ... maybe these two firms don't know they're merging, but imagine ...

... Do you really want to know what I had for breakfast (bowl of cereal ... follow my Nerd Tweets). Maybe you're a friend and you are curious how I'll do in this weekend's marathon (Grandma's Marathon in Duluth). However, you may be interested in following my professional posts ... but the signal to noise ratio when using social media like Twitter is driving you crazy! Thus, imagine Twinked-In. Via LinkedIn (and other social networking sites) I already have some good filters in place. Why can't I use these filters to easily turn "on and off" the content I wish to monitor? (no ... the answer is NOT Tweetdeck).

My point is it's just to darned difficult to create effective, and valuable Twitter networks. In my case, I've invested the time to create my various "groups", but most people will give up before they reach nirvana. Social networking sites are great, but once again there is too much static. Is this what Google Wave will be all about?  Yesterday I was interviewed by two Microsoft usability experts. They were researching forward looking users applications and interfaces. Filters!

Here are some LinkedIn filters I would use in conjunction with Twitter ... first my connections (with sub-filters): (November 10, 2009 update to this post)
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(click upon any image to view full sized)

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Or perhaps my groups (with sub-filters)

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Finally, I could use Search with filters (in this case on MEMS)

Renaissance Computing

Renaissance computing ... the concept seems weird. Although the Northstar Nerd has been involved with the web since the early 90's, the idea that we may have gone through a "dark ages", and are now in a renaissance is strange. Having said that, I am impressed with the Renaissance Computing Institute (Renci) out of the state of North Carolina. This combination of research colleges and universities is doing some great work, and has provides some great online resources to challenge your brain. For instance:

• Molecular FedEx® trucks in Action
• Multi-Touch

Regardless, while I don't believe were in a renaissance, and I hope were not in a dark ages with respect to the computer age, I like the work of Renci. It gets an A+ and an addition to the Engineering Learning Wiki and it's custom Google Search Engine.

Market Disruption

Innovation is not just nice; it's a requirement. Take a look at the chart below which is a prime reason the newspaper industry has tanked. Throwing up walls around your products will ultimately not work; one must take risks and move forward. My thanks to Graeme Thickins for the Tweet about the Business Insider "Chart of the Day". Click upon the chart to view full sized / resolution. It will allow you to read all the data points and explanations.