Rapid Fire Learning

Expanding upon this comment I left on Rosa Say's Talking Story blog for the February version of Rapid Fire Learning

February, the shortest month, is still long on learning experiences! Here are my five:

1 – It was good to step back in front of the group of eager learners at PodCamp WesternMass and take them through Blogging 101. I wrote up the notes I used for the session and broke them out into individual pieces of Blogging 100 (the principles), Blogging 101 (the setup), and Blogging 102 (the doing). You can find the collection here

2 – The fickleness of New England’s weather is no longer unique to our area, it seems everyone is having many changes to adjust to. For the folks in the Washington, DC area who doubt climate change is here, it was time for a good lesson.

3 – Each new day is a commencement on the remainder of life, it becomes a it becomes a good day when any combination of two of these three things occur. It becomes a great day when all three things occur: you learn something, you help someone, you laugh

4 – Took the opportunity to combine some fun and games with the learning I share each day by creating Twitter Bingo. What? Yes, the details can be found here.

5 – The job search continues. I have been fortunate to find more opportunities to apply to. So I am leveraging the network to ensure that the application gets seen. I have confidence that once I get to the in person interview, things will work out the way they should. My resume is being re-done to more properly include the blogging, social media and "community information director" role, I have created for myself. Hence the “essence of Steve” is being further refined. 

I manage change to create a good experience. I help people (and business help their customers) navigate the intersection where business process meets technology.

What did you learn this month?

The future is all a game!

Sunday video time. This one is fun to watch but it also asks a lot of questions. Are you ready for some questions? They save the best questions for last, of course.

And what the future world looks like starts about 20 minutes into this but don't skip to that part. You do need to be reminded of the past that builds and enabled the present which sets up for the leap to the future.

Life is a continuum. The question is, will we like what it will be when we get there?

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5

Well?

What do you think?


Hat tip to @ZeFrank for the link

Two TED Talks for Saturday

Two TED Videos to share this Saturday:



and then this:



Enjoy!

#the5 for Friday

It is Friday and time for Five for Friday. This will be easy as I have already done #the5 so I can combine the two!

Lessons Learned Webcasting with Ustream Producer http://bit.ly/bzYX9H "There are a number of "lessons learned"! #the5

How Millennial Are You? Take the Quiz http://bit.ly/9MO3co "quiz could be an eye-opener" double dare you to take it! #the5

YouTube 101 - Privacy Settings, Sharing, and More http://bit.ly/dkutnb "a little knowledge can be a powerful thing" #the5
 
Stop Talking About Yourself http://is.gd/9dP9S @chrisbrogan asks "How much are you promoting others?" #the5

Pepsi Charity Contest: Learning From Mistakes and Level Playing Fields http://bit.ly/ahLqFo "design is so important" #the5

What do you have to share today?  

Sanders says "feed your mind good stuff!"

Tim Sanders, Love is the Killer App, and Saving the World at Work gets to the power of thinking in this brief video clip.

Well worth the just over the minute it will take to listen to it

The Power Of Thinking For Leaders from Tim Sanders on Vimeo.

Now what good things are you going to feed your mind with today?

job search notes: page change detectors

A new site to add to your collection of site associated with job search is one by Matt Youngquist who writes at Career Horizons, The Blog!. He has a great tip in this posting:

... there’s a little-known type of online tool that many of you might not yet have come across, but that could potentially play a useful role in your job hunting efforts if you acquaint yourself with one of these applications to a certain degree.  These tools are known colloquially as “page change detectors” and basically, all they do is monitor a certain web page (or 2, or 20, or 200) that you designate out in cyberspace, notifying you (via e-mail or other means) immediately if the content on the page changes for any reason.

Matt goes on to explain further and then to provide this:

As far as which page detector program to use?  The good news is there are plenty of different options available, and most of them are absolutely free.  Among the more popular ones I’ve come across are:

FollowThatPage (http://www.followthatpage.com)
Page2RSS.com (http://page2rss.com)
WatchThatPage (http://www.watchthatpage.com)

Thanks for sharing Matt!

Y@H is Alive and Well at Bryant University

The Y@H contributes to the Haiti Relief Effort with Alive & Well on Tuesday March 2, 2010.

Y@H is Alive and Well at Bryant University in Smithfield Rhode Island at 5PM at the Janikes Auditorium, doors open at 4:30.

$10 General Admission Tickets are  available by calling (401) 232-6160. 

All proceeds from these tickets will go toward Bryant in ACTION for Haiti - Bryant's own Haiti Relief funds. 

Bryant University

 

If you haven't heard of Young@Heart before check out my prior posts here and here

Choice of language colors the conversation

"in the cross of two shadows, there lies a darker diamond" I wrote that many years ago. I come back to that from time to time. Recognizing patterns, recognizing intersections.

Kate Rutter writes:

Here’s the skinny on what I call Page Rage. Page Rage is the emotion that overwhelms you when you realize that continuing to use the term Web Page curdles opportunities for evolving user experiences. Why? Because the word is an artifact of the woefully outdated book metaphor — a metaphor that limits thinking.

The word “page” means paper and books. And although it never made literal sense, it was a helpful metaphor when the digital stuff on the web was mostly about static content…when it behaved more like books. But the capabilities and possibilities for digital interfaces have shifted dramatically.

You can read her full explanation in this weeks Adaptive Path Newsletter here.

Bill Glynn writes:

Equally disconcerting is the union’s rejection of the Superintendent’s plan, not based upon the plan’s potential effectiveness, but based upon selfish and misplaced priorities. It’s impossible to determine from this article exactly how the union came to its position and whether or not that position actually reflects the view of the faculty at large. However, the union’s position is troubling. When demands to negotiate take priority over the overwhelming need to work together, that’s a problem. When more time is spent searching the fine print of a contract or seeking a legal opinion than researching best practices for motivating and connecting with students, that’s a problem. When education is waning and students are suffering and the voice of the teacher goes unsolicited or is organizationally silenced, that’s a problem.

I suggest that you go and read the full posting on the Franklin School Committee blog here.  The Central Falls High School teacher situation is not good. It will not be solved (if it can be) in the newspapers and blogs. Especially when the readers are presented information where the words chosen are already coloring the points of view. Negotiations can not be conducted in a public discourse when the goal of newspapers is to sell papers or the goal of TV is to attract eyes to sell advertising.

The darker diamond that I opened with indicates where the two articles (Kate's and Bill's) come together. Kate is struggling with describing a website in page references where the page is not reflective of the "thing" itself.  Bill is assuming that there was no negotiation and that the teachers priorities are misplaced and selfish based upon what has been written in the papers. I read between those same lines and see a different story. I see negotiation. I see desire to help. I see a breakdown due to a miss understanding of an issue that has played here in Franklin and may indeed return.

The real issue is time. The teachers did agree to the extra summer work. They did not agree to the extension of the school day as the compensation was insufficient.

Yes, Bill can apply all sorts of adjectives to the situation. He has. Just be aware that there is an inherent bias in the words chosen. Just like Kate's issue with talking about web pages. The web is so much more than a page but continuing to talk about a page is limiting. Accusing the teachers of "selfish and misplaced priorities" assumes one takes the higher road. Taking a higher road will not resolve a negotiation that requires coming to a meeting of the minds in the middle.

What language would you choose to use?

#the5

The five items to share today:

Steve Strogatz - Explaining the Magic of Math http://bit.ly/bvaA77 me: great series underway, play with numbers! #the5

The Hottest Men in Social Media http://bit.ly/cJUTg8 start your day with marketing over coffee with @cspenn, @johnwall #the5

Hacking Education From the Outside In http://bit.ly/bV5fFg "products that are more “learner-centric.” #the5

Reminder: Risk = Reward http://bit.ly/9izOcA "The paths in your head are your enemy" @julien #the5

The Real Roots of the Crisis http://bit.ly/c448Cw "America's real bankruptcy is a bankruptcy of the soul" #the5


How do you play Twitter Bingo? 
Check out the simple guidelines here http://bit.ly/c3Nrya
     

job search notes: Too many LinkedIn profiles?

To expand upon a comment I left for Neal Schaffer at Windmill Networking about merging multiple LinkedIn accounts I have the following:

If you don't have or know the password, Neal's confirmation of working through LinkedIn support is the way to go.

If you do know the password, or think you can figure it out, then these steps should work for you.


How many profiles do you have?
Search LinkedIn for your name and location to see if you have just one, or more than one.

The gentleman I worked with had three profiles. Each had been set up with a different email address but he felt he knew the password and in fact was able to access each profile.

We sized up the three profiles and determined which one to keep.
How? Which one had the most contacts, the most recommendations, was the most complete?

Once you know that one, choose the account profile with the least info.

1. Access the account
2. Export the contacts on that profile
3. Copy out any recommendation information there
4. Copy out any other info you would want to keep
5. Delete the account by going to Account Settings
6. Use the duplicate profile as the reason for deleting the account

When you are done, re-do the inquiry on your name and location. You should see only two profiles now. One you want to keep and one you want to remove.

1. Access the account you want to remove
2. Export the contacts on that profile
3. Copy out any recommendation information there
4. Copy out any other info you would want to keep
5. Delete the account by going to Account Settings
6. Use the duplicate profile as the reason for deleting the account

When you are done, re-do the inquiry on your name and location. You should see only one profile now.

Now using the exported contacts, craft an email to send to let them know what you just did to simplify your profile on LinkedIn. Let them know that you will be re-inviting them to connect on LinkedIn.

Go in to your good profile (should be the only one left in LinkedIn now) and re-invite each of the contacts that they removed from your "old and now deleted" profiles.

If you did have any recommendations on the old profiles, send a separate and personal email to each of those who left you a recommendation. You can include the copy of the recommendation that you made before your deleted the profile. This will save them time remembering what they said about you once upon a time. We did this for the gentleman who had the three accounts and he was able to get the recommendations added back to his good profile.

With only one profile, you can nurture your network and be sure that people will find the right you!

#the5

Good items to share today:

Open Thread: Old Fogeys v. Young Whippersnappers, Ageism in Tech http://bit.ly/b2UuT0 the ugly truth, ageism is alive and well! #the5

Silvia Tolisano on Skype in the Classroom and Digital Storytelling http://bit.ly/czVR6E great tutorials, well worth sharing #the5

How to Track Twitter Friendships for Business and Pleasure http://bit.ly/caeXlk @cspenn another use of YahooPipes #the5

13 Ways to Move Your Facebook Fans to Action http://bit.ly/9h5E0k me: good checklist of things to do #the5

How Can I Merge Two LinkedIn Accounts into One? http://bit.ly/aqr9Cr me: it takes time but you can move info from 1 to the other #the5


How do you play Twitter Bingo? 
Check out the simple guidelines here http://bit.ly/c3Nrya

Twitter Bingo

There was a farmer who had a dog,
And Bingo was his name-o.
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o.

When joining in with the group to sing and clap along, I never bothered to think what, if anything, the song meant. Did you?

You were probably were too busy trying to keep with the rhythm and clap along at the right time just like I was!

You were more intent on listening for the numbers as the caller would read out loud "B5, N37, G48..." when playing the game of Bingo.

You wanted to complete the row of five numbers, or four if you could use the free space!

You can play bingo today with Twitter. Expanding upon Christopher S Penn's use of #the5

• Pick five items to share via Twitter and tag with #the5
• Set up a search for the #the5
• See if one you have shared gets shared by someone else
• If you get a match, connect with the person doing the sharing. You have at least one thing in common, there may very well be more
• If you get five matches, the day could very well be a lucky day

With two sessions of 10-15 minutes each, you get a good start on your life long learning. This Twitter Bingo will let you learn, share, search, learn some more, network, and keep the life long learning cycle going mixed a dose of some fun.

How far will this take you?
That is entirely in your hands!

Go have some fun learning!

Note: retweets of #the5 count as a match

#the5

Our Perception of Others – Kitchen Table Talks http://bit.ly/d9CZJm me: practical insights from @chrisbrogan #the5

Feeling Good Isn’t the Same as Feeling Strong http://bit.ly/accyYH "Here is the aha! awareness to have" advice from @rosasay #the5

The doormat, the jerk and the lizard brain http://bit.ly/9EDT2t "Fear is the driver here, it's fear that pushes people" #the5

The Five Profitable Positions in any Marketplace http://bit.ly/aqDhp4 "if you know your position, you know how to compete" #the5

The way we dance http://bit.ly/9aEwSH me: Christina's wonderful and loving words about her son #the5

What do you have to share today?     

#the5 for Monday

good Monday morning to all, have you read the MondayMorningMemo? http://bit.ly/adilCF #the5


mindful monday:remember http://bit.ly/cQLXsJ "This week, remember how to see" good advice from @pattidigh #the5


School sport as an indicator of Talent http://bit.ly/aKhcMT "Maybe athletics should be added to reading, writing and arithmetic" #the5


Crisis and obsession http://bit.ly/9UOwWq "don't assume anymore that execution will simply happen"@tomasacker with good advice #the5


Beach Walk 758 – In Honor of Bode’s Gold http://bit.ly/cUMLAP "What if competition were not just about winning" take a walk this AM #the5


Enjoy!

transparency, choice, accountability

"How do we make things better without spending more money?"




Food for thought

Remembering Lucille Clifton

Lucille has passed on from this world. I had the pleasure of hearing her during the last several Dodge Poetry Festivals that I attended. She was special.

From 2008:



From 2006:




"Who can distinguish one human voice amidst such chorus of desire?"

Job search notes: net job losses graphically shown

Not to be overly negative about this but the graphical depiction of the job losses by metropolitan statistical area is very impressive.

Click through to view the chart here, press the arrow button to start the time line moving from 2004 to the present (actually the data is up to July 2009 at this time).

Before you go; as depressing as the numbers appear, remember that there is hope. The data is updated as of July 2009 and there are more recent signs of job growth. Is it sufficient yet to get us out of the hole we are in? No, but the signs are promising.

Be positive in your job search!

Create your own Olympic light show

I saw Bernie's post yesterday:

According to Switched The ten, online user-controlled (yes, really, go ahead and try it while you still can) search lights currently installed on each side of Vancouver's English Bay is the work of none other than Major Fun Award-winner Rafael Lozano-Hemmer!

"Ah!" says I, and also "ha!" How satisfying it is to see a Major Fun award-winner earn something closely equivalent to gold medal Olympic recognition for playfulness.

And also that my buddy Rick Hamrick had tried one.

I did it myself this morning. It was quite easy to do, although I wasn't really sure what it would look like.

Note: I normally use Firefox but for some reason, the live video wouldn't show. I tried IE 8.0 and the same problem, it was loading and loading forever. I switched to Chrome and the live video popped right up without delay.

You can view my Olympic light show here:
http://www.vectorialvancouver.net/archive.php?id=13482

Personal pizzas

Friday night was a good night for personalized pizzas. The English muffin kind.

Quick and easy to make, they provide an opportunity for real personalization when the tastes in the household vary. Toast the English muffins first. Then be as creative as you'd like: tomato sauce, spices, cheese, pepperoni, or vegetable toppings (onions, peppers, olives, etc.).

This can be a good idea for a kids party. Let them get involved with making their own. This helps to foster good choices a la the Jamie Oliver video I shared here last week.

Put the completed individual pizzas on a cookie sheet, into the over on Broil setting, and watch carefully to remove just when the cheese has melted and started to show browning spots (or to what ever degree of doneness you prefer!)

Add a beverage of your choice and voila, a meal easy to make and easy to eat!

Enjoy!

LinkedIn Data analysis

The LinkedIn Blog posted today:

One hypothesis is that many of the employees left the financial industry.  According to the LinkedIn data set, that just isn’t true. There are a handful of people that did transition to other industries and start new careers, but most stayed in the financial space. To be specific, other than two acquiring companies (Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch and Nomura acquired Lehman Brothers’ franchise in the Asia Pacific region), Barclays was by far the biggest beneficiary, scooping up 10% of the laid off talent, followed by Credit Suisse at 1.5% and Citigroup at 1.1 %.

I commented on the posting as follows:

Interesting analysis! Having left Fidelity then going back inside to spend some time on a contract, I know that there are LinkedIn profiles for folks still showing they are at Fidelity and that is not true. Is that an exception? or are there other profiles incorrectly reflecting a change in status? How much would that throw off this analysis?

Bottom-line, it is a data point. Be careful how you use the data.

The assumption is that folks have accurately reflected their status in their LinkedIn profile. Some number I have recognized have not. What is that percent? How can we arrived at a good number? Not sure, in the meantime, I would be careful with the numbers.

"The real heroes did not come back"

On this day 65 years ago, the assault on Iwo Jima started. The battle lasted 35 days. Some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific Theater took place before it ended.

Jerry was part of the 1st Joint Assault Signal Company, 4th Marine Division that went ashore in the Blue 1 sector. He was also one of the lucky ones who walked off the island.

He has told us many times, "The real heroes did not come back".

On this day and for the next 35, let's remember all who served in the Pacific Theater, in particular those who served on Iwo Jima.

If you would like to know more about Iwo Jima, the book by James Bradley "Flag of our Fathers" is well worth the reading time. There are two movies by directed by Clint Eastwood, one based upon the book and one from the Japanese point of view that deliver a credible rendition of the battle. Jerry said, "it was very much like that." Flag of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima

Jerry talked about Tinian and the recovery on Hawaii before going to Iwo Jima in this audio

Jerry clarifies his statements about life in the foxhole in this audio

Jerry talks about the 1st Joint Assault Signal Company

This was originally posted to Jerry's Story, my blog to record the oral history of my father and our family.

job search notes: there's an app for that, plus

Making the rounds of my RSS Feeds, I have the following to share:

1

Hill's book is invaluable for anyone who wants to get their life and career on a better track. What Don has done is codified the work. That's the app. If Hill suggests a process, Cote has a worksheet. For now, it's on paper, but they're working on an electronic version, as well, for those folks like me who live and die by their smartphone and Outlook.

Read more about the integrity gap here

Here's an "app" for the integrity gap

by Jeri

2 

Building a network is one thing but building a network of advocates is another thing.  In order to have a quality network that is there to help and support your efforts, you need to find ways to develop a network of advocates.

This picks up on what Brogan/Smith talk about in Trust Agents. Read the list of ten ways here

Ten Ways to Build a Network of Advocates

by Jason Jacobsohn

3 

...vwhat people really fear is the unknown. It’s the stress of that moment before you know if you’ve won or lost—before you know if everything will turn out all right—that people fear.

And avoid.

What’s nice is, you can work with a fear of the unknown.

The unknown can become known by asking some questions and doing some research. Jason provides some

Practical Inspiration: You Are Not Afraid of Failure

by Jason Seiden

4

How creating a profile in one space can help you to springboard into another space

This is amongst the questions that Michael gets into when he interviews Darren Rowse of Problogger. You have a profile on LInkedIn. Why not consider establishing a blog? Listen to the interview here

How Bloggers Should Use Twitter (a Darren Rowse Interview)

by Michael Stelzner

5

The more folks who know you, the better your chances

Great advice and positioned within all that Kevin did for the past several months. Read the full posting here

Tips From a Seven-Month Job Search

by Kevin Mergens

What job search tips or tricks would you share?

PC Friars

Dad and his brothers used to have season tickets for the Providence College Friar basketball games. As the season ticket prices increased, including a charge "for the privilege of being a season ticket holder", they stopped. Now with two of his brothers passing on, I try to take Dad to a couple of games. We didn't get to go last year due to Dad's health problems but he can get around well enough now. We saw the Friars play West Virginia Wednesday evening.

Technically the first half was a basketball game but I am not sure what PC was doing. There was a passive attempt at defense and no cohesion on offence at all as they found themselves down by 20 at the half.

The second half was slightly different as their full court pressure defense actually was active and caught West Virginia by surprise. They ended up quickly cutting the margin to 10 scoring on defensive turnovers. Their offense continued to be non-functional from a team-perspective. They would come down, make one pass and the player would go one-on-one. If they got in trouble, they would look to make a desperation pass, otherwise, the other four stood around waiting to see what would happen. Occasionally, the player would get fouled. More often than not, he'd miss, WV would get the rebound and with four or five passes get an easy score. The deficit got to just six points twice during the second half but each time WV got its act together and pulled away.

The Friars were at a size disadvantage but didn't play like a team at all to compensate. We are due to return for another game later this season. I wonder what we'll see then.

There is too much hoopla around the Friars glory days. I realize that college basketball is now an event and not just a game. This team did not play anything like its predecessors and the hoopla was embarrassing.

Snow update

Snowing in Franklin, MA this morning. There was about 2 inches on the driveway when I shoveled. The snow was changing while I shoveled. It went to big flakes, then to the little powder spots and just after I came in, it stopped.

For this storm, the forecast seems to be good thus far. It did call for 2 inches by noon, then more this afternoon. Stay tuned!

Catch my disease - PCWM2 video

@writerjax put together her recap of PodCamp WesternMass 2 with this mix of video and photo slide show. Yes, I appear here a few times. Watch for the tri-corner hat!



It was a good time. Thanks @writerjax for sharing this.

For other recaps by PodCampers check out the PodCamp WesternMass website

Music by Ben Lee with "Catch my disease"

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to view the video.

Explore, create, share!

There is a response to the Kaplan University ad. Dr. Punya Mishra, of Michigan State University has edited a cool retort:



Explore, create, share!


If you have not seen the Kaplan University ad, you can view it here:



Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to view the video.

job search notes: career one stop

The US Dept. of Labor did some crowd sourcing to compile resources to help the job seekers. I found their site last year, registered, suggested and voted on some site that I had used and found helpful. I received the following email:

Thank you for participating in the Department of Labor’s Tools for America’s Job Seekers Challenge.  This was the Department of Labor’s first foray into the use of crowd sourcing and other web 2.0 technologies, and we consider your participation a major factor in the success of the Challenge.

Over the course of the three month challenge, over 16,000 registered users cast 30,000 votes for the 634 submitted tools.  The Department of Labor has examined these tools, users, and votes for fraud, abuse, and other questionable content and has posted the top tools in alphabetical order on www.careeronestop.org/jobseekertools .  We also intend to make the www.dolchallenge.ideascale.com  available for some time to allow job seekers, the workforce community, and the public to browse and use all submitted tools. 

During the next few weeks, the Department of Labor will upload all submitted job tools to www.careeroenstop.org so job seekers, the workforce community, and the public will be able to link to these tools from a single site. 

The Department of Labor will continue updating this list of online job tools, and hopes to conduct more “Tools for America’s Job Seekers” challenges in the future.

Thank you again for participating in the Challenge, and be sure to check out the top tools on www.careeronestop.org. 

So, without further delay, check out the tools at www.careeronestop.org

Dolores, Happy Valentine's Day

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways via the photo archives.

I love that you love going to the NE Revolution soccer games

I love that you love to walk

I love that you let me go to PodCamps and other unconferences!

I love that you love to hike in the woods

I love that you enjoying exploring the history of our country

I love that you join me for bike rides!

I love that you appreciate my work around the house!

I love how you let me go to the Lowell Folk Festival!

I am so glad you have a sense of humor!

I love how you have helped our girls become young women!

I look forward to celebrating more anniversaries!

Happy Valentines Day, my love!

Fight obesity!

There are a number of problems in this world but many of them pale in comparison with obesity.

Jamie Oliver did this talk at TED recently. It is a powerful and yet easy message to take a step on. Today.

Powerful? Wait until you see the wheelbarrow!

Hitchhiking with Aloha

It started while hitchhiking. Not the kind of hitchhiking where I am standing by the roadside, one hand in my jeans, the other stretching out my thumb up looking for a ride, any ride, as long as it is headed to Chicago for SOBCon!

No, it was hitchhiking through the blogosphere, clicking a link here, and a link there. Following a stream of conversation, a train of thought, a host of images, a world of wonderful learning. Sharing what I found and learned along the way.

And there she was, talking story. Her accent is so enchanting (though I did not know that then). We hadn't talked. I read, and read some more. She wrote, and wrote some more. I commented to add my two cents, here and there. She commented back. Sent an email. This was new. This was different. Miles away yet on the same wave length!

She had just published her book: Managing with Aloha. I clicked through, hitchhiked to Amazon.com, ordered a copy and read it cover to cover when it came in.

As I continued to visit, I found I wasn't the only visitor to talk story. She had a group of followers, growing in number as they too arrived, and became engaged in talking story. It was this thing called "aloha". One word with such a richness of meaning.

We did a good thing. We decided to surprise her. Actually Dave Rothacker, author of Rothacker Reviews, gets the credit for starting it. He had received a copy of Rosa's book directly from her. He signed it and sent it on. Rosa recalled with pleasure that the book began its journey

the first of thirty one trips to nineteen different states across the USA. In between were stops in Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Those were the homes of the first thirty-four bloggers of the Ho‘ohana Community. Dave, with Stacy Brice of Virtualosophy as his very willing accomplice, had decided that a properly marked up MWA at the hands of the Ho‘ohana Community would be a good Christmas gift for me (Rosa). A private Google Group was started to track the book’s progress, password protected so that any ego-surfing I’d do wouldn’t allow me in, and the surprise would be kept intact.    

I did my part. Receiving it from Felix in Spain and sending it on to Yvonne in NY. It ultimately made its way to Hawaii where it was well received and treasured.

Rosa joined myself and a few others to explore Synergy across the miles. The group blog achieved synergy and we went our separate ways.


Rosa returned to Talking Story and amongst other efforts started a Joyful Jubilant Learning celebration in September 2006. The line up for that first month was http://talkingstory.org/2006/08/line-up-for-learning/

The energy and engagement during September carried the group forward into a new group blog, aptly named The Joyful Jubilant Learning blog. This group effort continued. Monthly themes were developed like 

• March reserved for A Love Affair with Books (book reviews by members of the community) 
• 7 Wonders of Learning (to celebrate 07/07/07) 
• and Rapid Fire Learning (a quick recap of five things learned during the month)

However, all good things do come to an end. JJL was no different. The group blog closed up at the end of January 2010, coincidently with our 1000 post!

But this is not really an end.
This is a new beginning.
A commencement of the rest of our lives.


The Ho'ohana Community powered by Aloha is still strong.


It is strong because at the heart of it is Rosa Say.


Someone who without question walks the talk!


Someone who has shared her Hawaiian principles with us so that we can go forward and share Aloha!


Someone who someday I will hug in person.

We have hugged virtually many times. Rosa was with us in spirit when there was a small meetup of the Ho'ohana Community for SOBCon 2008. Terry Starbucker, Phil Gerbyshak, Joanna Young and I managed to all get here for the conference. 



Mahalo, Rosa!


So how has Rosa helped me? Let me count the ways:



Ho'ohanohano - is at the root of my work on Franklin Matters growing its reputation as a respected source of reliable local information on what matters in my home town of Franklin, MA.

'Imi ola - drives my writing on Steve's 2 Cents revealing the good experience in daily life and in particular developing the "job search notes" series to share the learning I have found or accumulated in my personal job search effort.


Ho'okipa - inspires my volunteer efforts to meet and greet folks at the Welcome/Registration desk for over a dozen unconferences since 2006.


Lokahi - is at the heart of my efforts to bring teamwork and collaboration to every group I am part of; together with the "power of we", we accomplish more.

Some of the other values of Managing with Aloha overlap with those mentioned here. I could go on but Ha'aha'a in particular, is holding me back. This shouldn't be about me. I will succeed when others have achieved their goals. That is what I am looking for. I learned that coaching my track and cross-country runners. All the preparation in the world, still required their execution at the time of their event. I needed to prepare them to handle themselves in the event no matter what occurred. Only when they achieved their personal best was I able to count that as a success.

So how can I help you?


------
Flickr photo credits:

The first two photos are from

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rthunder/3084964169/  by http://www.flickr.com/photos/rthunder/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosasay/2627701146/  by http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosasay/

The last two photos are my own.

This is my entry for the "Blog it, Earn it" SOBCon 2010 giveaway

#sobcon2010  #blogitearnit