Coincidence of 'play'

The podcast I was listening to on the ride home one night referenced play. Marc Maron interviewed Josh Groban and in the course of the discussion Josh mentioned that he is learning to fly and close to getting his pilot's license.  Coming off his hour or two of flying where he has had to focus on the controls inorder to fly the plane, leaves him in a position to make his best decisions.

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_507_-_josh_groban

The podcast I was listening to on the ride in the next morning was all about play. Krista Tippett interviews Stuart Brown  who is the founder and president of the National Institute for Play. He is co-author of "Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul."  The whole episode (approx 50 mins) gets into the benefits of play for children and for adults.

http://www.onbeing.org/program/play-spirit-and-character/143

And the third reference (three times the charm!) was the daily poem from poets.org/

http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem-day

"'Popcorn!' was spurred into being by seeing a status update or tweet by the poet Dorothea Lasky (the DL of the dedication) that went, I believe, 'Let us all make room for the new.' Messing with the syntax and making the result my first line allowed me to insist on our role in making—and subsequently apprehending—new reals. It's not an original idea, but I do believe that one of the best ways to make room or to room make is to indulge in serious play."

You are your network!

On the network theme, have your looked at your LinkedIn network? Did you know you could?

Yes, you can. LinkedIn Labs has a visualization tool that takes your connections and shows how they inter-relate with each other. This can be a very powerful way to see what you have and what to do next.

You may recall my story of having left Fidelity at the end of 2008 with most of my 200 connections from Fidelity. Knowing what I knew about the changes and the likelihood of getting back there permanently, I needed to expand my network. Methodically, I did grow my network to over the 900 connections I have today by focusing on the other areas of my interest, particularly social media , local journalism (place blogging), and non-profit volunteering.



As I participated in the various New England PodCamps and other unconferences, I made connections to grow my network.

What does your network look like?

Where should you expand?

You can step up your InMap here http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com

Tree replaced by network

The tree of knowledge was a good metaphor for describing our knowledge of life and how things connected one another. The concept has been around for quite sometime. The tree as metaphor is now becoming recognized as not sufficient enough to really explain the connections. This RSA Animate video shows how the network or web of life is a better view.



Of course, if we are fortunate to stick around for awhile, there may also be a better metaphor discovered as our understanding of life continues to develop.

What do you think about this?

Big buttons

For Dad, who is now legally blind, this big button phone helps him stay connected. We have pre-programed his frequently called numbers into the one touch dial buttons along the top.



What buttons do people have to push to get a hold of you?

How easy are you to reach?

How welcome is your front porch?

job search notes: How do I check the status of my LinkedIn invitations?

A frequent question I am asked about LinkedIn is "How do I check the status of my invitations? Were they really sent?

The two page doc included here takes you through the steps:

LinkedIn - How do I check the status of my Invitations?

Basically, you sign into your LinkedIn account. Go to your Inbox. The default position shows your sent messages. Change the view to show your Sent Invitations. You can now view each one individually and 15 at a time, page by page.

If an invitation has not been accepted in over three months, I usually resend (or at least check on the email address before resending). If after a re-send, and then more time, the invitation is still not accepted, I would withdraw the invitation. As this point you know only that the person is not active on LinkedIn and wouldn't be much help to you unless they were.


How do you handle aging invitations?


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

making connections

I frequently wonder how connections are made. What is it that suddenly makes a connection? Being in the right spot at the right time, more importantly, being open to receive and understand what is around you has a good deal to do with it I think. Elizabeth Gilbert talks at TED about creativity. There is a connection between creativity and making connections. Listen for yourself.




What do you think?

Is there a connection?

PodCamp Boston 2 - Registration help needed

With over 1,000 folks registered to participate in PodCamp Boston 2 next weekend, the registration desk could use some help.

If you would like to spend an hour or two either Saturday or Sunday morning assisting with the registration/check-in process, you can send an email to "podcampbostonvolunteers" at gmail dot com.

I volunteered lasted year and will be there again this year.

Why?
The registration desk is a great opportunity to meet and greet the folks as they arrive.

Matching names and faces of the folks in the flesh with whom you have read, or heard, or viewed previously is a great way to help and make the connection. A true win-win situation!

Why not consider joining me at the desk?

One Web Day

One Web Day is being celebrated today. It really should be celebrated everyday. The web is so special. Allowing connections, conversations, news, ideas, stories and experiences to spread so quickly. Bringing people together that perhaps would not have been together without the web.

The web is a very appropriate term to describe the connections being made. I was fortunate to be in the middle of this:

So...

• Martin at d2 wrote this post
• Steve from The Hitchhikers guide to the blogos#$&re liked it, commented, and linked to it.
• Martin then subscribed to the hitchhiker feed (so did I)
• The hitchhikers then linked to cph127
• Martin liked that too, so much he mailed Hans Henrik the founder
• They liked him too and invited him to join their ranks
• His first post, information atmosphere is up - read it

Strangers.
Continents apart.
Collaborating.

One month, start to finish...!

I am only surprised that it took one month to do so. Today's search and RSS capabilities would likely make it quicker.

Bottom line, on this One Web Day, don't take access for granted.

Celebrate it.

Celebrate it like your birthday, everyday when you rise.

Rapid Fire Learning: August

Dean Boyer raised the bar during August at the Joyful Jubilant Learning group blog. Merriam Webster says that August is "marked by majestic dignity or grandeur". It is quite fitting indeed for this month. All the more so when paired with time as the one variable to manage carefully. The least little slip, it is gone and no longer available.

1 - In consideration of how little time we have, I have re-ordered my writing. Coincidently following a fellow blogger, I consolidated my writing on "good experience" and "tertiary education" (life long learning) into this blog, letting the other two slip into archival mode. This elevates my poetry blog into a more prominent position. Eventually this will become a podcast to join my other two podcasting efforts; Passionate Runner and Jerry's Story.

2 - Celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary contributed to the "time factor" this month. Here I am, still believing in Peter Pan (I'll never grow up) and I have been married for how long? Fortunately, the time has past with a great partner; my lovely wife, Dolores. Oh, and our daughters; they are wonderful young ladies. Someday, I'll re-do a MasterCard commercial for them!

3 - We drove to Niagara Falls to celebrate our anniversary and spend some quality time together. The girls gave us a basket and a CD with "music for the road". The wine glasses were hand painted by a future famous artist. The drive itself along Interstate 90 in places parallels the Erie Canal. If we had attempted this trip back in those days, the journey from Albany to Buffalo would have taken us 7 days and not the several hours it did. The New York State Thruway Authority provided a "History Happened Here" kiosk at the Chittenago Travel Plaza where I learned that:

If you were a traveler on the Canal 150 years ago, your boat would pass Chittenago Landing, a major boat building and repair center, about three miles from here. As your boat was being pulled by a team of horses at four miles per hour, you would have time to notice the general store, blacksmith shop, sawmill and other buildings. It would take you seven days to travel from Albany to Buffalo. You and almost 100 other passengers would fill the 80-foot boat, and pay five cents a mile for your trip on America's first modern waterway.

4 - The power of water is incredible. The majesty of Niagara Falls can not be understated. My first video blogging attempt tries to capture some of this immense majesty. The Niagara River approaches the Falls calmly and rolls over with a thunderous roar. The Maid of the Mist and a rainbow happened to cooperate and appear during the video. 35 million gallons of water per minute! Wowza.

5 - Continuing to look for ways to make connections, and to use Web 2.0, keeping it simple, I decided to build on something I had seen a couple of other bloggers do: Wordless Wednesday (here and here) and of course, add my two cents to it. While I have many connections around the world, I was looking to add to my "local" connections and created the "Where am I?" game for Franklin. Don't worry, the thinking cap is on for how to expand this concept to the wider world of my readership. If you have any ideas, please leave me a comment or send me an email (shersteve at gmail dot com).

How was your August?

PowerPoint Tip and Cognitive Theory

According to the article in InformationWeek's IWDaily newletter:

PowerPoint's hypnotic effect is no coincidence, according to an Australian researcher who found reasons why the Microsoft software-generated slide presentations put spectators to sleep.

The brain simply isn't wired to absorb information in two simultaneous forms as well as it takes in one type of information. Processing the written and spoken word at the same time creates quite a challenge for the mind, according to John Sweller, a researcher from the University of New South Wales.

So who is this John Sweller?

A google query brought up this wikipedia entry where I find out that he is known for an informational theory called "cognitive load".

In my simple terms, I understand cognitive load to be an explanation of how the brain processes information. There are three terms related to this theory.

1. Intrinsic cognitive load - that which is inherent to the topic (presenter has no chance of altering this), the presenter can split the explanation of the topic into schemas and subschemas and have one build upon the other to paint the full picture
   
2. Extraneous cognitive load - when describing a square with words vs. drawing a picture, the words are extraneous
3. Germane cognitive load - the manipulation of the schemas and subschemas in telling the story

Interesting stuff.

The next time you have a chance to do a PowerPoint, keep it simple!

The week that was, the month that will be

Friday already, the weather is pounding the Northeast after running rampant through the middle and southern states.

A good day to stay indoors and read. After all, this completes Read Across America week.

The big three highlights for you to consider.

(1) The Owen and Mzee story as told here and here
The story of friendship between two animal species has a message for us all. The story of how Isabella became the author of two books is enlightening. The connections and sharing made possible by the web is one of many stories that can be told of the power of the web.

(2) Ray, in his own words from the Show with ZeFrank
Sportsracers may already be familiar with the story of Ray's song. Certainly with the sportsracers collaboration in remixing it, in creating the video, in finding Ray (in two days) and ultimately in this video where Ze delivers the CDs to Ray and captures Ray, in his own words. Priceless!

(3) A Love Affair with Books
The third highlight continues for the rest of March. Yes, really. Jump over to the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog for the Love Affair with Books. 24 writers sharing their review of 24 books they have read. Look for my entry on March 7th.