(See previous post for an explanation of what this post is.)OK, I
realize we're getting a little too deep into 2004 to still be throwing
around Best of 2003 lists. But this is the list I had in mind when I
came up with the idea for the music club … and it's the music that's
still in heavy rotation on the iPod.January's my biggest music month
of the year. Being located in l'il ole Charlottetown, it's pretty
difficult to stay in touch with the new music scene with Magic 93 and
Truro's Big Dog as your primary sources. I...
DAve's ConventionBlog07/23/2004 03:09 PM Dave Winer's built a Convention blog iste that aggregates blogs from
people attending the Convention (not just the credentialed ones).
Looks great. Thanks, Dave....
Dave's Convention aggregator07/23/2004 03:09 PM Dave Winer's built a Convention blog iste that aggregates blogs from
people attending the Convention (not just the credentialed ones).
Looks great. Thanks, Dave....
Jeff
Sandquist is trying to guess what Dave Winer is up to. He has a
great idea. Instead of putting the onus on weblog writers to add
metadata to our posts (I hate putting titles on my posts, for
instance, or even clicking a box when I post) why not give that power
to readers? Let them add the metadata that will make weblog posts more
useful to more people.
By the way, I added a title to this post, but not to the others.
Just so those of you who are reading in RSS news aggregators can see
what it looks like when I take the time to do that.
Dave's Quick Search Deskbar v3.1.8 Beta
Dave's Quick Search Deskbar v3.1.8 Beta12/03/2003 11:08 AM Dave's Quick Search Deskbar launches Google, Yahoo, Switchboard, and
dozens of other searches directly from your desktop taskbar. You type
your search and hit Enter for a regular Google search. It also
features a calculator, clock, translator and currency converter.
[Freeware 463 KB]
Well, thanks to readers much
more tech-savvy than I am, I think I may be able to get Google to
start
picking up my posts again, and, by tightening up the code of my
blogroll, also make the page load faster for those patient readers
with
dial-up access. So far I have moved the blogroll to the right hand
column, so Google will not get bogged down in the blogroll code and
give up before it gets to the actual posts. In the process I messed up
the masthead, so I've adopted a simple one-piece masthead
temporarily.
If this post works properly, I'll then make an additional change to my
blogroll, stripping out the table HTML and replacing it with a simple
list separated by line breaks. Next post will report on the results of
that. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
DAVE'S NEW BUSINESS BROCHURE
DAVE'S NEW BUSINESS BROCHURE01/22/2004 02:12 AM Here's a first draft of content for the bifold brochure for Meeting of Minds, one of my two new
businesses.
Please excuse the formatting. Comments are welcome. I'll show you
the draft brochure for The Caring
Enterprise Coach later this month.
Welcome
to a meeting of minds
Meeting of Minds
is a collaborative, equal partnership of experienced independent
consultants,
technologists, innovators, learning experts and information
specialists. Our
partners each possess unique and specialized skills essential to the
delivery of our offerings. We have no hierarchy, no physical assets,
no
front or back office, no overhead, no bureaucracy, and no employees.
We
pool our intellectual assets – expertise, skills, experience,
networks,
and leading edge thinking, tools and technologies. We bring agility,
economy,
efficiency, reach and depth that no limited, hierarchical professional
services organization can match.
The products and
services of Meeting of Minds fall into three clusters:
A major challenge for
business in
the 21st century is improving the productivity and effectiveness of
increasingly specialized, mobile, business-critical, time-challenged
front line
workers, and at last realizing, as a result, a healthy return on the
business’ major investment in deployed information
technology.
The traditional model
of
‘knowledge
management’, where top-down, centrally managed, standardized
knowledge
bases, loadsets and ‘productivity suites’ are pushed,
cookie-cutter
style, to all your employees, have not worked. Nor have attempts to
‘capture’ internal best practices and know-how in massive,
central,
indexed
repositories.
The Meeting of Minds approach is
completely different, and is based on our members’ learnings from
failed knowledge management and one-size fits all IT deployment
programs worldwide.
In contrast to the
traditional model, our approach is personal and customized to the
needs
of each front-line worker. It extends the boundaries of your
organization by allowing everyone to tap into the personal internal
and
external networks of everyone -- to bring to bear, just-in-time, the
best
minds on the planet to solve your business problems, not just the
information that your employees happen to have written down in case it
was needed again.
Our four offerings in
this Cluster
are implementations of a new set of front-line focused technologies
called Social Networking Applications, voted 2003’s
“Technology of the
Year” by Business 2.0
magazine. They are:
Personal Content Management:
Simple, leading-edge tools and processes that allow individuals to
organize, manage, add to and share the knowledge that they have on
their desktop. These tools, customized and stripped down versions of
commercial 'weblogs', also allow this personal, organized collection
of
knowledge to be shared, simply and automatically, with others at the
individual's discretion, and likewise permit your front-line people to
browse and subscribe to the personal knowledge collection of others,
inside and outside the organization, reciprocally, worldwide. The PCM
tool therefore serves as the individual's proxy, e-filing cabinet, CV
and calling card.
Expertise Location:
Simple, boundaryless networking tools that allow individuals to find
world-class expertise inside or outside the organization to solve
large
and small business problems quickly and effectively. These tools,
customized versions of commercial social networking applications, can
tap into PCM knowledge and the assessments of others outside the
business to enrich and extend the search for expertise, automatically
collect and maintain a 'super address book' of expertise to provide
instant, multiple points of contact with identified experts, and can
even be used to contract to buy from or sell to those outside the
organization.
Simple Virtual Presence:
Simple, professional laptop based tools that provide one-click
multimedia access to anyone in each employee's 'super address book',
and virtual presence at any conference. Used in connection with a
rotatable laptop camera and headset, these tools simultaneously show a
view of the person you're talking to, the document or presentation
you're collaborating on, and any sidebar instant messaging
conversations you're participating in.
Personal Productivity Improvement:
Short, focused, pre-researched, one-on-one sessions with each of your
front line people that address the specific technology and information
challenges of each individual, configure their computer for optimal
personal use, provide useful leave-behind reminder tips ('cheat
sheets'), and identify and report back to management systemic
knowledge
and technology problems that are hampering employee effectiveness on a
wider scale. These sessions hone employees' problem-solving,
researching, analysis and communication, consultation, collaboration
and technology use skills in the context of what they do in their
individual roles, in ways that work for them.
Social
Networking Applications, properly designed and implemented, are as
easy
to use as a telephone, and function intuitively, allowing individuals
to do electronically and virtually what they now do physically, in an
analogous manner, without the need for substantial training.
These products and
services can be used to
innovate, reinvigorate, enhance, and improve the effectiveness and
value of your IT, Learning and Information/ Knowledge Management teams
and processes, and enhance the productivity of everyone in your
organization.
We work closely with
the
people at
both the top and front lines of your organization to achieve these
improvements. We do not reduce cost or the need for people in your
organization. Instead, we enable your existing staff to do
significantly more, in areas that are strategic, even critical to your
business’ success, and to do so more effectively.
Traditional,
Failed Approach
Meeting
of Minds Approach
Content
Management Strategy
Large,
centrally- managed repositories
Personal,
individually- managed repositories
Knowledge
Acquisition Strategy
Internal
employees contribute to central repositories
Individual
repositories are connected peer-to-peer
Knowledge
Deployment Strategy
Centrally-available
knowledge is promoted
Individual
repositories are 'published' and 'subscribed' to
Knowledge
Re-use Strategy
Search
repositories for previously contributed knowledge
Just-in-time
canvassing of 'community'
Boundaries
of Knowledge
Sourced
from and shared within the organization only
Sourced
from and shared anywhere (subject to security policy)
Critical
Connections
People
to (internal) knowledge
People
to (internal & external) people
Critical
Knowledge Tools
Intranet
search engine and internal community of practice 'spaces'
Standard
'loadsets' and productivity suites for all staff
Customized,
personalized tools for each person
Technology
Training Strategy
Standard
group training and computer-based instruction
Individual,
face-to-face productivity training
Solution cluster 2: INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY &
ORGANIZATION
Management today has a love-hate relationship with infrastructure. On
the one hand, it is the long term investment in technology,
intellectual capital, and learning that helps the people in the
business do what they do best, effectively, and provides enduring
competitive advantage to the company. On the other hand, much of this
investment is in areas that are not core competencies of the
organization, and it's difficult for management to measure and justify
its value, especially when today's mantra is to outsource everything
possible, especially in areas of fixed cost.
Meeting of Minds
can help you identify which technology, information, learning and
other
infrastructure strategies make sense for your business, and whether,
and how, to outsource. Our three offerings in this Cluster are:
Infrastructure Strategy Alignment:
We help you assess alternative infrastructure strategies, bringing to
bear competitive intelligence on which strategies have and haven't
worked for other companies in your industry. Then we show you which
alternative strategies are most closely aligned to your short and
longer term organization-wide business strategy, and help you find a
migration path that will give you the infrastructure you need, where
you need it, in both the near and long term.
Infrastructure Reorganization & Outsourcing:
We take a look at your overall infrastructure resources and
investment,
and the value they provide to your business. Then, drawing on leading
global practices in infrastructure organization and management, we
help
you determine whether, and how, reorganization of your infrastructure
groups and redeployment of intellectual resources can benefit
operational effectiveness. If outsourcing is a logical alternative, we
work with the existing staff to help them be part of the solution --
helping them set up new infrastructure specialty houses that can
improve their job satisfaction while transitioning them from an
employee to a supplier relationship with you.
Infrastructure Future State Visioning: At Meeting of Minds we
take a long view of business change. We know that sometimes what
provides short term pain creates long term pain, and that many
businesses are undone not by poor business management but by failure
to
anticipate and adapt to unexpected innovations and environmental
changes in the industry. We closely monitor what's happening at the
leading edge of intellectual capital development and management, and
how today's emerging infrastructure tools will transform the way
business is done tomorrow. Future State Visioning can provide you with
a dynamic scan of the horizons of your business and industry, and
allow
you to anticipate and capitalize on future trends, and stay on your
industry's leading edge.
SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE: KNOWLEDGE, TECHNOLOGY &
INNOVATION SCORECARD
Here are ten questions that will help you self-assess the current
state
of your knowledge, technology and innovation infrastructure and
processes. If you're not able to answer 'yes' to each of them, Meeting of Minds would be pleased
to help you get you there:
1. Are you aware of, and satisfied with, the return your business is
getting on its investment in information, technology and
learning?
2. Do you know what the prevailing 'information behaviour' of your
front-line people is -- how they use information, where they look for
it, what sources they trust, and how they learn?
3. Are your people able to effectively use the technology and
information that is available on their laptops/desktops -- can they
find what they need quickly, reliably and efficiently?
4. Do your people travel only when other effective means of
communication, meeting and collaboration are unavailable -- do they
even have these alternatives at their disposal and are they
comfortable
and effective using them?
5. Are you, and your senior IT and KM people, aware of the existence
of, and potential value of, Social Networking Applications, and why
Business 2.0 magazine called them 2003's Technology of the Year, and
why some people think Social Networking will be the successor to
Knowledge Management?
6. Do you know the pros and cons of central vs decentralized vs
outsourced models of infrastructure management -- technology,
knowledge
and learning -- and are you confident your company has it right?
7. Do you know how much of your revenue is coming from new and
innovative products vs. incremental and 'sequel' products, and is it
substantial enough to achieve your revenue goals even in the face of
new competitive price pressures?
8. Are your best and most creative people happy, fulfilled, charged up
about their jobs?
9. Do you really understand how the producer-customer relationship has
shifted in unprecedented and inexorable ways in the past decade, and
how your business should adapt or even reinvent itself around a new
relationship with customers?
10. Are you on top of the latest techniques in business management --
viral marketing, working capital outsourcing, scenario building -- and
are you using them effectively to help your business succeed?
Solution cluster 3: RE-ENERGIZING BUSINESS INNOVATION
In the early years of the 21st century the focus of business has been
on short-term productivity and cost management, and many businesses
have taken their eye off the ball of innovation, the longer-term
engine
of business success. At Meeting of
Minds
we're watching for you, tracking innovations, notably in some
unexpected industries and countries, that will transform business and
produce new products and services with unimagined benefits and render
today's products and services obsolete. Here are six of our offerings
in the Innovation Cluster:
The New Business Incubator:
Your most creative people are also likely your most entrepreneurial
and
least risk-averse. Taking a page from some of the world's most
innovative companies, we can help you set these people up in their own
new business incubator, and set them free to do what they do best.
We'll teach them the basics of entrepreneurial business management --
a
program we call Entrepreneurship 101 -- and work with you to set them
up in a separate autonomous business, where they set the rules, they
decide on priorities, they source and manage their own budget, they
take all the risks, and you are their #1 customer.
The Innovation Amplifier:
Drawing on our knowledge of how innovation succeeds in different
business environments, we can assess your existing innovation
processes
and your 'innovation culture', and help you introduce proven
techniques
and methods that will give you a better 'environmental scan' of
emerging trends and technologies that could have application in your
business, better connectivity with your most future-astute customers,
skill in 'thinking customers ahead' to assess the commercial value of
new ideas, an ability to 'fail early' to cut the costs of unsuccessful
innovation, and the competence to commercialize and implement
innovative products, services, processes and technologies
effectively.
Economic Scenario Builder:
Using a variety of financial forecasting and sensitivity models, the
Economic Scenario Builder can answer your 'what if' questions about
the
impact on your business of sudden changes in interest rates,
unemployment rates, currencies, tax rates, GDP growth rates, trade,
social and environmental laws and regulations.
The Customer Handshake:
The latest innovation in Customer Relationship Management is a very
old
idea: build your contract with customers on trust, transparency, and a
simple 'handshake' commitment to mutual satisfaction. The concept uses
simple-language agreements and tools that replace today's adversarial
relationship with customers with a collaborative, 'win-win'
relationship of respect and compromise.
Working Capital Monitor:
Inability to properly manage cash, receivables, payables and
inventories is the #1 cause of business failure. The Working Capital
Monitor is a tool for forecasting and optimizing levels of each of
these assets.
Viral Marketing Toolkit:
Capitalizing on the explosion of connectivity and information in
today's consumer society, and new knowledge of how ideas are
propagated
and catch hold, one person at a time, the Viral Marketing Toolkit
shows
you how to promote your products and services without coercive and
expensive advertising.
Sample credentials: dave pollard, founder
Each of the members of Meeting of
Minds
is an independent businessperson. When you decide to contract with us
to help your business succeed, we work with you to select the team of
Meeting of Mindsexperts best suited to the
particular project.
Each of our members has unique, deep and exceptional business skills
and experience. As an example, here are some of the credentials of Dave Pollard, the
partnership's founder:
Thirty years of
business experience
Ten years as
Chief Knowledge Officer of Ernst & Young in Canada, and as their
Global Director of Knowledge Innovation
Director of the Center
for Business Knowledge, the world's largest and most award-winning
centrally managed knowledge organization
Core Member of
Ernst & Young's Innovation Team and author of the firm's Idea eXchange innovation
database
Fifteen years
advising
entrepreneurial businesses on all aspects of business success --
financial and operations management, start-up, forms of business
organization, financing, acquisitions & divestitures, IPOs,
process
improvement, technology and general business advisory services
Author of many
published
articles, presentations, book chapters and speeches on social
networking, knowledge management, innovation, the virtual workplace,
and the future of business
Last winter
I
wrote
about the growth of Internet Radio, and many of you told me about your
favourite online music sources. As a result, I've started listening
quite regularly while I work, enough to have assembled a small list of
favourite stations and tools:
Favourite rock music station: Rock Chicks Radio
- 128kbps Stereo - All the great women of rock, and interactive: you
can get them to add your favourite singer & song to the rotating
playlist of about 300 songs, send 'dedications' that will come up
everytime your favourite song is played, and vote on songs and
increase
the amount of play they get.
Favourite African music station: Pan-African All-Stars Radio
- 64kbps Stereo - I love modern African music, especially West/Central
African soukous. This station plays a great variety from throughout
the
continent, and they have a very informative website as well.
Favourite Latin American music station: SalsaStream - 96kbps Stereo -
Readers know I'm taking Salsa dance lessons (coming very
slowly, by the way, but great fun). But I've loved Latin American
music
for years, and this site has great sound and lots of variety.
Favourite folk music station:Omzig Kicks Ass - 64kbps Mono - Scroll down the
list until you find 'Omzig'. As much as I like Hober Radio, this one's at least as good.
Great mix of old and modern folk.
Favourite eclectic mix music station: Radio Paradise
- 64kbps Mono - This station bills itself as an 'intelligent music'
station and plays a wide variety of consistently high-quality, often
little-know and rarely-heard music.
Favourite classical music station: InLiv
e Katharsis
- 128kbps Stereo - Scroll down the list until you find 'Katharsis'
(not
a 24-hour station so if you don't see it, it's off-air). This is a
tough choice, since there are some excellent alternatives from France,
Switzerland and Russia. But this station, surprisingly from South
Korea, has excellent sound and plays not only an excellent selection
of
music from Medieval to Contemporary Classical, but seems to pick the
best possible performances of each composition. When it's off-air I
listen to MagnaTune
all-indie-performers' Shoutcast Classical Radio station.
Most
unusual station: Radio
KanKan
- 24kbps Mono - The country of Guinée in West Africa is one of
the
least-known in the world, but a source of great music (including some
amazing electric/tribal instrument fusions). This station and its site
play a lot of music and also take a courageous stand against it's
government's corruption. Some fascinating local stories, that tell you
more about the people of this land, caught between the indigenous,
French colonial and Arabic cultures, than you'll ever get in a book.
They're also nuts about football (soccer). In French.
Favourite Internet Radio Directory/Player: ShoutCast with BOOMBox.
The BOOMBox player is free to download. Access to hundreds of Internet
Radio stations (including all of the above), which you can listen to
with one click (no need to go through the station's website). Very
comprehensive list of stations, and well-maintained. Uses ShoutCast as
its streaming system and works best with the sister WinAmp player
(which is also free online). Set up your own favourites list and then
browse through your favourites with one-click.. Identifies the
selection currently playing as you browse. Also one-click recording
capability. No annoying ads. I'll never go back to Netscape Radio or
Yahoo Radio. If you can't find what you're looking for in the BOOMBox
list, the ShoutCast page has more detailed listings and info on the
available stations, as well as popularity ratings and one-glance look
at what's now playing on all the stations on a particular genre.
Sure beats the hell out of ClearChannel. Check 'em out, tell me what
you think, and what your favourites are.
Comdex Las Vegas 2003 Focuses On Windows Server 2003 For Business Productivity
PHPCon East 2003 - (April 23-25, 2003)02/01/2003 05:58 PM PHPCon announces PHPCon East 2003 in New York City. This
conference features two days of technical learning with speakers such
as Rasmus Lerdorf, Michael Radwin, and Jeremy Zawodny. PHPCon East
also adds a third, full day of tutorials offering practical, cogent
PHP solutions and ideas including: MySQL and PHP; Building and
Consuming Web Services with SOAP; Getting Started with PHP; High
Performance PHP: Profiling and Benchmarking; and more PHPCon East has
discounts for early registration, students, non-profits, and
Tutorial/Conference packages. Early Bird Deadline is March 31st. For
more program information, visit the PHPCon website.
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: November 02, 2003 - November 08, 2003 Archives
March 2003 Column> What's New 200303/11/2003 09:44 AM My March 2003 column is complete and titled " What's New 2003". It
mentions Internet "What's New" resources that I articulate in my
various national key note presentations, workshops and
television/radio interviews. Other resources are also available to my
radio interview listeners by clicking here.
Office 2003 Sample: Building Office 2003 Research Services That Work Offline
Office 2003 Sample: Building Office 2003 Research Services That Work Offline06/15/2004 12:27 AM To work through this demonstration, you need Microsoft Visual Studio
.NET 2003. With Visual Studio .NET, we use the wizards to build a
simple, custom Microsoft Windows service that launches Cassini, a
managed code Web server that is described in the article, on the local
computer. This Web server hosts the research provider consumed by the
research task pane in Office 2003 editions. The code samples are
provided in Microsoft Visual C# development language.
Outlook 2003 Sample: Custom Calendar Providers for Outlook 2003
Outlook 2003 Sample: Custom Calendar Providers for Outlook 200305/19/2004 12:03 AM This download provides sample files for use with the MSDN Article
"Custom Calendar Providers for Outlook 2003." To view the article,
click the link available from the Related Resources box.
Stephen Toub walks you through customizing native Outlook integration
with the Lists Web service from Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
to build a custom Web application that actually serves up custom data
instead of that from an events list.
Word 2003: XML Toolbox for Microsoft Office Word 2003
Word 2003: XML Toolbox for Microsoft Office Word 200312/03/2003 12:40 AM This toolbox assists the XML content author and developer working with
the new XML features of Word 2003.
The Word XML Toolbox requires that .NET Programmability Support is
enabled. For .NET Programmability Support to be installed during the
Office 2003 setup, the PIAs require the .NET Framework 1.1 already be
installed. It is recommended that you install the Microsoft .NET
Framework 1.1 before you install Microsoft Office 2003. With the .NET
Framework 1.1 already installed, a complete installation of Office
2003 will install all of the PIAs.
Conférence PHP Québec 2003 - (Montréal, March 20&21rst, 2003)
Conférence PHP Québec 2003 - (Montréal, March 20&21rst, 2003)01/29/2003 12:48 AM The PHP Québec association announces the Conférence
PHP Québec 2003. The conference will take place in the
École Polytechnique de Montréal, Québec, Canada.
The Conférence PHP Québec features two days of
conferences, with outstanding customer cases from Canada, and cutting
edge technical sessions, hosted by international experts. An
exhibitor room will showroom professional solutions. Learn more about
those exciting days at phpconf.phpquebec.com.
Windows SBS 2003 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 Known Issues
Windows SBS 2003 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 Known Issues04/03/2005 03:56 AM Before installing Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 on Windows Small
Business Server 2003, it is recommended that you read this document to
learn about the top known issues that you may encounter when
installing the service pack. Although Windows Server 2003 Service Pack
1 has released, it is recommended that you wait to install this
service pack until Windows Small Business Server 2003 Service Pack 1
releases.
In brief: 27 Feb 200303/13/2003 10:20 AM Google's first use of its new Blogger acquisition. Implications of
audio blogging. Templating in Python. Data mining of comments.
Emulators and virtual machines. XML and publishing. XML and regular
expressions. XML and the RSS validator. "dive into mark" mobile
edition. (931 words)
Last winter
I
wrote
about the growth of Internet Radio, and many of you told me about your
favourite online music sources. As a result, I've started listening
quite regularly while I work, enough to have assembled a small list of
favourite stations and tools:
Download: Windows
SBS 2003 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 Known Issues
