What were they thinking?

Yes, Boston was a mess for periods most of the day today. The "incident" even interrupted my train ride home. We were on the train 5 minutes away from departure time when the announcement came to disembark. "There was a change in schedule for this train. Please return to the station platform."

As we did get off, a squad of transit police with a dog team arrived and proceed to go through the train. Other T personnel were around somewhat ineffectively letting those near them know that when the sweep of the train was complete, the train would be allowed to leave.

I say ineffectively as those near them got the word and it spread second hand down the line. The announcements for other commuter train departures continued uninterrupted. Something was up with our Franklin line train but that was not announced on the main speaker system.

We did leave 20 minutes late after the sweep completed successfully.

Only after I got home did I find out about the rest of the story. The news will continue to cover the latest updates on this marketing stunt that in today's environment, should not have started and seriously took a wrong turn in Boston today.

boston mooninites

Might work late Feb 9th

Heard this afternoon that Jewel will be doing a FREE concert in Boston at South Station on Friday, February 9th.

Gee, I might need to work late or just hang around to catch this one.

Via the Starts & Stops blog.

Don't be alarmed

if the page doesn't fill in immediately. The posting of all the pictures of the 2000 bloggers takes a little time to load. It does not display properly in Internet Explorer but does display very well in Firefox.

I'll keep this dated out a bit to keep the reminder handy.

Feel free to scroll on down and read the current items.


Thanks for coming by to visit!



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Fast Company's Top Jobs for 2007

With my parent hat on, I find and review the outlook provided by Fast Company on the Top Jobs for 2007 with a keen interest. Not that I am looking, but I do have two fine young ladies in college who will be looking soon.

I find it interesting that by my count 7 of the top 10 are design related.

Experience designer, web designer, security systems engineer, urban planners, viral marketers and media promoters, talent agents, and art directors.

(1) Medical researchers, (2) buyers and purchasing agents, and (3) news analysts, reports, and bloggers are the other three in the top ten.

What's that? Bloggers in the top ten. Wowza!

You can read their full listing here. They also have this in a slide show format.

Design certainly is a common item across the seven. I think that communication skills, project management, and internet savvy will also be good skills to have.

What else would you add to the list of skills needed for the future?

Rabbit tracks

rabbit_track2
Originally uploaded by shersteve.

With the little dusting over night, we were able to wake up and find that there are other creatures that live in our neighborhood.

They left their mark as they crossed into the stand of trees.

Review: Trinity Rep - Our Town

Dolores and I joined her sister and husband in Providence Saturday night to catch Our Town at Trinity Rep. Trinity Rep is an excellent theater company, nationally known and in our own backyard. We have been to many performances over the years and have never been disappointed. This performance of the American classic play Our Town is no exception.

In an interview the director, Brian McEleney, reveals how Trinity decided to present Our Town with it's own twist and yet keep true to the play. Brian says:

... the play is pretty perfect the way it is. The content is self-evident: Wilder essentially shows us the least interesting people he can find, and makes us see them as fascinating. They’re just like us. We all have daily lives, birth and death, love and marriage. He redefines history as a story of millennia of people living lives, as opposed to a story of wars and politics and elections.

The real challenge is style. In 1938 it was revolutionary to say that costumes, sets, and props get in the way of us seeing things in a new way. We’ve all had the experience of seeing a play or a scene in a classroom, a studio, at a reading, with nothing but actors -- it’s riveting. It can be so much better than when it’s surrounded by the “trappings” of theater. We get to make that imaginative leap. It’s one of the reasons I was eager to do this play. However, what was revolutionary in 1938, this lack of theatrical convention, , is not revolutionary at all at Trinity Rep, thanks to forty-three years of Adrian Hall and so many of the artists who followed him. Presenting Our Town as it was originally intended here and now, could have the opposite effect with our audience.

So that was my big question: how can we present the removal of theatrical conventions in a way that will be startling and fresh? The idea I came up with, with the help of our designer Michael McGarty, was to take Wilder to the next step: put the back stage front and center, actually put the dressing rooms on stage as well. We won’t just see the daily life of people in Grover’s Corners but the actual lives of the actors in real time, a two-level upstage, dressing rooms with lighted mirrors and cots and clothes racks and all that stuff. The green room, the back stage with sign-in board and couches and the coffee table for playing cards, and all that stuff that is actually there. The play that Wilder wrote will happen in the downstage area.

This works very nicely. The audience is allowed to take their seats in the theater about 15 minutes before show time. The cast is already present on the second level doing their final preparations; a card game on one side, some stretching on the floor in the middle, some make-up and costume adjustments being made, all as if we weren't there. You can even hear the stage manager warning; "ten minutes to show time", then "five minutes", etc.

During the one intermission, the cast returns upstairs and remains "on stage"; touching up their make up, changing their costume, some played in another card game, and a few hit the cookie jar for some refreshments. While the audience was out and about, some remaining in their seats, to continue to watch the "show".

Talk about audience participation! The setting enabled the text of Our Town wonderfully.

Trinity always uses the aisles to send the cast members in and amongst the audience. We were sitting up on the right side facing the stage and during the second act, Constable Warren stood next to me to deliver his lines (I was sitting at the end of the row) when he was making the rounds of Grover's Corner early one morning.

In the last act, the Stage Manager says:

We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.

Trinity has succeeded in finding a way to present the essence of what Thornton Wilder wanted. If you get a chance to visit Trinity, Our Town is on stage through March 4th.

book quotes coming

You are likely to notice that this during week there will be several quotations from This is Your Brain on Music, The Science of Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin. I just completed reading the book and when going through it found so many sections to mark up that I won't possibly be able to use them all in the forthcoming book review. Hence, I'll sprinkle them in individual postings here, at Tertiary Education and at Passion for Good Customer Experience to use them up. The quotes are simply too good to leave sitting alone in my notebook.

What's cooking? - Chicken & Basil Rice Stir-Fry

Tried another recipe this weekend from the batch mentioned here earlier this month. This was also "okay". Next time I'll make some additional modifications to it. These modifications I'll note at the end of this posting. I'll let you get the full recipe first as it was provided, so you'll be able to make an informed decision.

Chicken & Basil Rice Stir-Fry

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound chicken breast halves, cut in strips
2 large yellow bell peppers, sliced into thin strips
1 large zucchini, sliced into thin strips
1 small sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
2 1/4 cups of water
1 package Knorr-Lipton Chicken Rice Sides

(1) Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over mediium high heat and cook chicken about 4 minutes. Add peppers, zucchini, onion and cook about 4 minutes or until vegetables are tender and chicken is thoroughly cooked. Stir in basil, remove and set aside.

(2) Add water and Rice Sides to skillet and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 12 minutes or until rice is tender.

(3) To serve, arrange rice on platter and top with chicken mixture. Garnish with fresh basil.

Steve's modifications

I got one piece each of zucchini and summer squash and used one red pepper along with the onion. The color mix was good.

I would use garlic flavored olive oil to saute the onions before adding and cooking the chicken.

I would actually start the rice sides before the meat and vegetable stir fry. The rice sides package says it takes 7 minutes after boiling. The instructions above said 12. Previous experience with Rice-a-Roni said 20-25. It did take about 20 minutes for the rice to be cooked and most of the moisture to be absorbed.

I would also use our regular wok for the stir fry. I did use my old seasoned cast iron and it worked nicely but the wok would be easier.

Cooking in two pans would allow the rice to be started earlier. Then after about 10 minutes start the stir fry and both should be ready about the same time. If you follow the original recipe, you do use only one pan but the meat and veggies are sitting for the rice to cook for 20 minutes and would require re-heating to serve.

Enjoy!

Goodbye MelDivas!

meldivas_godbye1
Originally uploaded by shersteve.

Yes, sad day for Franklin. MelDivas Coffeehouse has closed effective 1/27/07.

Dolores and I found out on our walk this morning. Alas due to the cold wind yesterday we passed up walking and now find out we passed up on our last MelDivas coffee.

I wish them well as the persue their new adventures.

Beyond Broadcasting 2007

For those local to New England, this event is being held at MIT.

For those outside, the remote capability through Second Life was effective for the 2006 version.

I just registered and plan on participating.

Yes, it is cold

What else is there to say?

This was the outside temperature this morning.

Perfectly 0.0 degrees F.


Stay warm!

Deja Brew - production results

You may recall a couple of weeks ago it was a brewing night. Last night was the bottling operation. These cases are samples of our efforts.

A quality check taken during the bottling operation revealed that these were good to go.

Wonder where the six are?

In the refrigerator getting appropriately chilled for the weekend!

For the record we made 3 kettles that yielded just over 19 cases of 12 x 22 oz bottles. Good stuff!

My previous writings on Deja Brew can be found here, here and here.

The Deja Brew website with more info can be found here.

Google Docs post to blog

For those like me who have multiple blogs, the Google Document "post to blog" feature does not work so well.

It does not provide a choice for which blog to post the document to!

So if your reader picked up a posting here today for Tim Draayer's Live Your Best Life, sorry about that.

Click on over to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Blogosphere to read where it really was published.

White

Yes, a little snow has finally made an appearance here in New England. An inch of fluffy light soft white stuff arrived over night. The browns and greens and grays that existed are now white today.

Cooking Lesson Learned

Regular readers may have noticed that I like to cook. One aspect of cooking that always is intriguing is being efficient and in particular using left overs creatively. A spiral ham for the holidays left a ham bone which became split green pea soup. This was one time when we did not have enough ham to also make a ham hash (maybe next time).

We had some egg nog left over and I have been trying to find a use for it. Other than served with a shot of brandy as a nice night cap, that is.

Since it is egg and milk, why not use it to make French toast?
No, not good. It soaked the bread too much and burned too quickly.

Why not use it in a pancake mix? After all you add egg and milk to make pancakes?
No, also not good. After multiple tries, the mix was either too thick or too thin. When too thick it did not cook well enough before burning. When too thin, it was messy and again tended to burn too quickly.

So for any knowledgeable cooks out there, what is it in egg nog that prevents it being used in these ways? Is there some way to compensate?

Or do we just drink it?

thanks for any assistance you may provide.

Fire place, game ready

The cold remains outside as the fire roars.

A nice lasagna in the oven, hearty brew in the frosty mug, we're ready for the game.

Go Pats!

Maybe the Peace Train is coming

Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come

Cat Stevens wrote and sang those words many years ago.

Steven Georgiou, born in 1948 to a Greek father and Swedish mother and raised as a Catholic, became the pop singer Cat Stevens in 1966. Unfulfilled by the trappings of stardom, he spent years searching for a spiritual path. He investigated Buddhism, Taoism, and numerology, but nothing felt right until his brother gave him a copy of the Koran. On Dec. 23, 1977, the musician converted to Islam, soon after changed his name to Yusuf Islam, and then -- as far as the general public was concerned -- disappeared. As far as Yusuf is concerned, "I got a life."

And now Yusuf is back. Interesting story. Read more of it here at the Boston Globe article by Joan Anderman.

I grew up loving the song. I have the Tea for the Tillerman LP album still. I am looking forward to figuring out how to transfer/encode the song from the LP to my iPod (yea, I could probably buy it, but that is the easy way).

The lilting folk-pop on "An Other Cup," Yusuf's first collection of mainstream music since 1978, sounds comfortingly close to his early work. His warm voice has hardly aged. Despite a more explicit spiritual bent, the artist's sentiments remain essentially unchanged. And the timing of Yusuf's return to the spotlight, during a period of bitter discord between Islam and the West, is no coincidence. As a high-profile Muslim with a distinguished musical legacy and a global audience, Yusuf has set out not simply to straddle worlds but to build a bridge between them.

A worthy effort! I hope for the peace train to come.

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Now I've been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Faux paus

During a conversation over the Christmas holiday break, I was made aware of committing the ultimate clothing violation by wearing a black belt with brown shoes.

I used to have a reversible belt. You know those that are brown on one side and black on the other. It was convenient and cheap but alas it did not last. So I bought a good black belt and let it go at that.

But oh no, I could not continue to do this. I needed to change my ways.

So I broke down and on one of my shopping trips last weekend, I did get a new black belt and a new brown belt. Now I can go forth without shaming those who could admit to knowing me.

Should I ask if I can wear my black belt with navy blue pants as long as I wear black shoes? Or should I reserve the navy blue for the brown belt/shoe combination?

Successful weekend

How do you define success?

For this weekend, by how much was accomplished!

Plenty of time in the kitchen

• Steak slow cooker dinner (Sunday)
• pea soup (Sunday) (planned for Tuesday dinner)
• beef stew (Monday)
• syrup (Monday) (for pancake breakfasts)

defrost freezer (Sunday/Monday)

caught up on shirt ironing

replace VCR, rewire home system to ensure devices work together
(reduced number of remotes from 6-4) (Don't get me started on a "universal", I don't believe one exists for the combo we have; trust me, I've tried)

Completed verification of the answers to all questions for the Level I USA T&F Coach Exam (yeah!)

oh, and I did manage to do a bunch of blogging related things

At home

original poem

What is?

a poem for my wife, Dolores, on our 24th Anniversary in August 2006

The Scorecard

a poem dedicated to my father, Gerald Sherlock

Waterloo Road

original poem

What was said to the rose?

original poem

Waterloo Sherku 3

a sherku for LJCohen

Waterloo Sherku 2

a sherku for Lori Cotler and Glen Velez

Waterloo Sherku 1

a sherku for Candace

Waterloo Sherku

a Sherku for Edmund Baranowski, the Wandering Poet

Opportunity Links - Stop & Shop

Enjoying a mix of things this weekend (with the stock market closed for MLK Day, this is a holiday and three day weekend).

Stop & Shop, our local grocery store, now "super" store sent a mailer that arrived either Wed or Thu last week. "All the Ingredients": Nice little brochure, kind of seasonal magazine (Winter 2007), glossy pictures, brief articles, some recipes and the requisite coupons.

Some of the recipes sounded really good, both with simple ingredients and easy to make so Dolores and I decided we'd try one this weekend. As we prepared the shopping list on Saturday morning, I noticed that many of the items referenced in the recipes were "on sale". What a coincidence!

The only thing I missed (until starting to write about it this morning) were the coupons. They were on the inside cover/first page but in our copy mostly stuck together so it seemed as if the cover was thicker. No big deal. The coupons are good through the end of February.

Here at least is a good example of an integrated campaign. Brochure with recipes highlighting the use of products that are also conveniently on sale the week of the brochures arrival.

The store web site has no copy of the brochure, at least that I could find.

I did find it interesting that both the Store Locator link and the Weekly Circular link take you to the same page initially. You need to provide your zip code and choose your local store in order to get served the weekly circular appropriate for your store/area. Must be a better way to figure out how to do that without making it seem like you clicked on the wrong link.

Oh, the meal turned out very nicely thank you. It was steak with pasta sauce, onions and garlic cooked in a crock pot and served over pasta. Unfortunately their web site provides no recipe to link to so here goes:


Slow Cooker Pizza-Style Steak

2.5 lbs boneless chuck steak cut into 1/4 " slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
1 jar (26 oz) pasta sauce
8 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 " cubes

(1) Season steak, if desired with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
(2) In 12 " skillet heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat and brown steak in batches. Turn into slow cooker (crock pot).
(3) In same skillet, saute onions in remaining olive oil and add garlic, stirring frequently for about 30 seconds. Spoon over steak in slow cooker. Add jar of pasta sauce. Cover and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours, or medium for 8 to 10 hours, or until steak is tender.
(4) Stir in cheese. Serve over pasta.

This is the basic recipe. I will probably "kick it up a notch" (yea, Emeril!) the next time by using a sauce with some veggies in it, or adding some veggies separately for a little more balance. We did have a green salad on the side this time for balance.

Have you done a recipe like this before?
How do you cook it?


Enjoy!

Quotes & Links

From Nancy White at Full Circle Online Interaction Blog

Through our content, what we choose to write about, we provide the fodder for other people's perception of us. Our public identity.

With blogging, we can certainly set out to project a particular identity. But what I sense is that our ongoing words in our posts really create the identity. Particularly when so many people are reading blog posts through their feed readers without all the bling we put on our blogs that might give more overt cue about how we wish others to perceive us.

Read her full posting here.

Also from Nancy

As I read the findings, the first thing that strikes me is that this report talks about the need for technology stewardship. Who are the people in your community or organization who have an interest in and sufficient technology skills to help you scan, select, implement technology and, very importantly, steward technology in use? This is the intersection between technology and practice which feels so natural for early adopters, but may be a barrier for the rest of us.

Read her posting and down load the full ICT report that she references (available in PDF).

From Andrew Taylor writing at The Artful Manager

Artist/director/maven Peter Sellars got right to the point in his conference keynote for the American Symphony Orchestra League, suggesting that the contemporary standard for the American orchestra doesn't serve the art, doesn't serve humanity, and disconnects the two in the process:

If you want to respect your grandparents, take care of your kids. You can't keep your grandparents alive forever, but they're still with you in your own children. In America, we fell in love with an artificial life-support system that wouldn't let certain things die. Telling ourselves it was out of love that we were doing this, we starved the kids.

Any business that still has things on the shelf from 50 years ago as its primary offering...it's a little odd. Everybody's saying everything but the obvious -- it's dead

Read Andrew's full post here.

From Ken Thompson writing at The Bumble Bee

... I offer here my team profiling checklist which can be used to rapidly profile an organisational team or multi-enterprise network across eight different dimensions.

It can be worked through with a senior member of a forming team in as little as 15 minutes.

I don’t pretend it is exhaustive but I do guarantee that if you use it properly it will identify at least 3 things about the team which you did not know about or were making invalid assumptions aroundwhich will impact on your virtual team support plan!

Read Ken's full post to obtain the full profile.

Wow, plenty of good stuff in those links!

Enjoy!



Technorati Tags: biotema, bumble bee, full circle, artful manager, ICT

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Podcast Collection

This is the collection of podcasts I have created thus far:


March 2007
Conversation with Phil Gerbyshak


Passionate Runner now has an official podcast, through Feedburner and iTunes

January 2007
How to read this page

November 2006
The JJL Anthem
Today's IPO - How I blog

October 2006
What comes next (for Joyful Jubilant Learning)
Orange numbers (poetry)
Fire Circle Story

September 2006
Podcamp Boston Recap
Evolutionary Blogging


Technorati Tags: podcasts, learning, podcamp, Jouful jubilant learning

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How to read this page

Some tips on navigating my blog page, a quick view of what I have laid out for you to read and click through here in the three column template I use.




Length: 00:05:19


The text version is available here.

Twogether through the years

Twogether through the years
Originally uploaded by shersteve.

Re-touched the photo to fix the sequence. Starting from the top left the pictures work across and then down (Left to right) to progress backwards in time.

What can I say?

Marvelous years. Two wonderful young ladies to be proud of.

Deja Brew 2

I made my second trip to Deja Brew last night. Three more kettles were lined up for the group to brew three more beers. This time around we made

"Old Man Winter Ale" - A very nice winter warmer. Malty and high in alcohol!

"Piper Scottish Ale" - Our version of Bellhaven 80 Scottish Ale

"Lawnmower Lager" - A great summer beer, easy to quaff whilst using power tools

We go back in two weeks to bottle and taste our results.

If you are in or near Shrewsbury, MA, give Deja Brew a whirl. It is a good time for a group with relatively easy work and good liquid results!


Technorati Tags : brew, beer, wine, soda, community, viral+marketing, DIY

Steve Garfield's Vlog Soup

Video blogger extraordinaire, Steve Garfield does a regular feature called Vlog Soup. He surveys video blogs, finds ones he likes and shares with his own video posting.

Kinda of a Hitchhikers Guide to the Video Blogosphere!

Interesting videos!

Follow the link to see for yourself!

Beth is looking for some help

Are you creative with photo mashups? or editing?

Beth is looking to celebrate her milestone birthday, yes, the big 50 later this month by running a little contest.

Create the winning birthday card with her starter photo and your favorite charity will get $50.

How about that!

Check out the details, tips and even some tools on her blog post here.

Woodstock Chimes

One of the nice Christmas gifts we received this year was provided a prominent place on our 3-season porch.

These Chimes of Kyoto from Woodstock Percussion, Inc. should add some wonderful sounds to the porch when the windows are open and there is a gentle breeze.

New England Sunday

For those watching the Jets and Patriots, you know the weather here in New England is glorious this Sunday afternoon. Gillette Stadium is not from from home here in Franklin.

Wait, isn't this January? Isn't this supposed to be winter?

Yes, get used to the new world of weather. This is one aspect of An Inconvenient Truth.

On the thirteenth day of Christmas

Thirteen?

Not really, I mean you can have as many as you want, but the 12th was the really the last day of Christmas and was celebrated in the Feast of the Epiphany yesterday.

Today, the lights come out of the windows. The tree was stripped of its lights and stand (the girls had already removed the decorations) and moved to the edge of the road where it will be picked up and recycled by the town next weekend.

Dolores handled most of the other decorations as we returned the house to order.

The twelve days of Christmas?
Check out all twelve in the links below

one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve

and all twelve are also here.

Enjoy!

Personal finance has to make cents

Humberto Cruz has a good story and great advice for anyone looking for the real word in personal finance.

... by following two basic rules -- always spending less than we made, even during the lean years, and investing systematically in simple but diversified portfolios...

Read his full story in today's Boston Globe (free registration maybe required).

How simple is this?

Very simple and very practical. If you are not following these two basic principles, please re-think what your strategy is.

His noble excellency

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: His Noble Excellency Stephen the Extemporaneous of Melbury Bumpton Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Ad Comment Alert

Be aware of a commenter coming along advertising an application that automatically and easily creates backlinks for bloggers on WordPress blogs. Interestingly, it found two of my Blogger blogs and left comments on the postings related to the z-list meme.

Comments were left simultaneously on both blogs (hard for a single person to do with the amount of text left behind) so I expect he was using the tool.

Needless to say, I am not reprinting the text. I am not adding to the link traffic they are looking for. I did go ahead and delete both comments.

I am as desirous of links as most any normal blogger.
I am not in it for the money.
I am in it for the conversation.

Forewarned is forearmed!

Quotes & Links

From David Warlick writing at 2 Cents Worth

One thing that has happened to information, that should be impacting what and how we teach, is that information has become the raw material with which people work. We mine it, we work it, fashioning it into an information product that will be valuable to other people, and then express it in some compelling way. It may be a story, a report, a song, or a design. It may be a piece of computer code, or a sales pitch for a new marketing or distribution technique. It may be a new experience that people will enjoy. It may be a new way to grow wheat that is resistant to whatever wheat needs to resist.

We still teach too much as if information is the end product. We teach it, you learn it, we test it. Instead, we need to present information as a raw material. You access it, and then you do something with it, that adds value in some way. You construct your own knowledge.

Once again, I’m not saying that processing information replaces memorization. It’s just that learning to work with information is as important — as critical — to our students future, as learning it.

Also from David

... we are asking too many questions that require an answer, when we should be asking questions that require a conversation.

From Wil Richardson on Mogopop

Now I know this first attempt isn’t anything stellar, but seriously, in about seven minutes I put together this little aggregation of photo, video and text that you can now download to your video iPod (and, perhaps someday, your phone? Maybe?) and get a quick idea of what, um, my daughter looks like, the Wikipedia definition of Web 2.0 (needs some formatting) and a short clip of some kids at a workshop I did in the U.K. I know, I know…not much that’s useful there…except the concept.

So imagine if you will, a whole slew of quality content like this that learners can access and port with them, or better, learners putting together resources that can be shared with the community to further their thinking and discussion, or perhaps portfolios of work, or maybe personalized reflections in audio, video, text form, or… All deliverable to your iPod (or, perhaps someday…) What else?

From Dave Snowden writing at Cognitive Edge

Now we can look at natural numbers. Again this is illustrated in the picture. Informal communities link back to natural levels of trust, they need to be less than 15. For expert communities some degree of knowledge of the other participants is necessary, but deep trust is not. SItuation trust, contextual and professional trust all come into play. The 150 limit therefore cuts in here. For a formal community it does not matter, you have enough structure, and the material is at a low enough level of abstraction that anyone can use the material. For a crisis you need very small focused teams which is where the 5 limit fits in.

Now a critical qualification here. The numbers can relate to individuals,and they are good guidelines as such. However given the way social computing works we don’t have to restrict participation in this way if instead we think about identities or coalescences. Provided the central actors are limited by the numbers, the number of actual people can be large. Look at the number of lurkers in any virtual community, while the active participants tend to be about 15 overall, 5 in any particular thread. By observing natural clusters in the use of social computing tools, those clusters can be given roles or functions in wider groups. In effect this is a nodal network. The nodes stabilise their linkages and act as a focus for activity. By using simple analysis software you can not only monitor those patterns, but you can also measure and target their connectivity.

One final point here. All communities are networks, in so far as they are linked, but not all networks are communities. A community has a common purpose, it may not be stated, but it is known. It is the way we do things around here, which is not a bad definition of culture.

Plenty of food for thought in those nuggets. Enjoy!

Baslock's New Year's Eve Party

The happy bakers (top left),  lessons in Magarita 101 (top right)lead to some dancing (left), grazing the table of delights (bottom left), and ultimately the count down to the new year (bottom right).

When the Baslock's get together good times happen.

We enjoyed our New Year's Eve. I hope you enjoyed yours!

... See my Tabblo>

Happy New Year 2007