May 25, 2008 | blog
Hi folks, hope everyone is having a good weekend everywhere! I’ve been quietly busing working on some improvements for the blog here and getting ready for my wife’s birthday today. So, I’m a little thin in the post department this weekend, and I apologize for that. Have been finding a lot of organizational work on the back end, thinking, coding, and a little writing.
It’s been three weeks since SOBCon08 and a lot of what I learned there and talking with folks has started to coalesce and become clearer. So that thought process and the results are taking up quite a bit of time to organize and plan around. Thanks to all the folks who I’ve talked with and learned from this past month, it’s been really fun.
Now, make sure you get out and do something this weekend – have fun!
May 22, 2008 | blog
So I was working on some planning for various things when I ran across this post by fellow blogger Joanna Young. It really got my attention on planning and generating ideas.
I’d heard a lot about mind-mapping and the great results that many accomplish by using the technique, but for some reason over the years, I’d never tried it out. Sure the odd brainstorming session at work, but nothing to promote my own agenda. Aha! Another tool to use for my own purposes!
So being the typical geek I am, off I went to find a simple, inexpensive (read: free) tool to do this with. I’ve found a few to try and will do a roundup of what I found – but won’t try to do a review by any means. However, the consensus from my Twitter friends is that pen & paper rules the day.
With that said, here are some mind-mapping sites & software that my Twitter query came up with:
There may be one or two I somehow missed – but that’s what I find in my Replies & DM pages.
I’d like to thank Twitter friends @inkedmn, @andytinkham, @suzemuse, @joannayoung, @amypalko, @rosasay, and @pfhyper for their suggestions and sharing their successes with me! You guys are great.
I happened to work through two mind maps in an hour or so that got a great start on direction on business plans, and some post ideas. Have you tried mind-mapping? What were your results? What tools did you find that work best?
Technorati Tags: Mind Mapping, Organization, Thinking, Brainstorming, Twitter, Rick Mahn
May 6, 2008 | blog, happiness
Hi all! One of my friends from SOBCon08 suggested that it would be nice to have a feed just dedicated to my Happiness posts. So that’s what I did. You can subscribe to this feed and get just those posts you’re looking for and nothing more.
Since I can’t remember who made that suggestion, please let me know so I can set the record straight and let everyone know.
Well I do remember! In a discussion with writing/blogging friend Joanna Young at the conference, we had talked about the mixed social media, personal branding, and other content. While we talked about possibly moving it to another site, it occurred to me to try a separate feed for the happiness posts. I think it works. Thanks Joanna!
May 5, 2008 | blog
Life is the great adventure. At times it can also be a bit perplexing, like how do you know when you’ve turned a corner in your career? Especially in these interesting times when social media is attracting so much attention, but has so little meaning in the “real world”.
Exploration of blogging and connecting people is a lot of hard, but rewarding work. It can sometimes be challenging to keep up with both the real work and the need to connect with people and learn new things as a human being. Where is the reward for all this work?
That’s where I’m at right now. I’m a technology geek that’s really good at big-picture problem solving – been doing that for 20 years. However, I’ve spent the last two or three years learning that I like interacting with people and seeing them connect with peers to accomplish new things. I have no pretensions that I’m critical to any of this, only that I enjoy it.
So what’s the next step? I blogged about that awhile ago, and am becoming more convinced that, for me, a move towards blog consulting and working with corporate blogging efforts is needed. It’s one direction that I’ve been exploring and I see many possibilities of such a shift. Especially as new discussions of blogging and it’s value have again started turning up in the blogosphere and the MSM again. Of course it’s what we’ve always known about new media, it’s just people taking another look at a disrupting technology rather than dismissing it.
Most bloggers start blogging for many reasons, I happened to start because I needed an outlet. (Blogging friend Steven Hodson has a great related post titled What do I owe my readers? that I recommend reading as well.) I also started a couple other blogs because I thought (like many) that it was an easier way to make a living. I’ve since figured it out that it’s really very hard work that requires a substantial time investment. However instead of the monetary payoff I thought I’d find, it turned into something that I’m passionate about.
After a few years of blogging and trying to find my path, I realized that I’d been following it fairly well but hesitant to commit to exploring it. I’ve been holding back from what lies over the edge. It’s something I now need to explore vigorously.
The biggest thing I’ve discovered that brings me to the crossroad I mention is that I like to teach, to share. I really enjoy communicating technology and concepts to people to help solve a problem or grow their opportunities. It’s an incredible feeling to see the connection made, a concept take root and someone realizes something they didn’t the moment before.
It reminds me of a moment in art class back in 9th grade. There was another student who was having problems getting the perspective “just right” on a drawing of his family’s farmstead that he was working on. He said that it just didn’t “feel right” in his drawing and thought that the silo would look better on the other side of the drive leading up to the barn. So our art teacher looked up from the picture at him and said “so…, move it”. I saw it in my classmate’s face, he got it. He suddenly looked around the room and proclaimed (loudly I may add) “I CAN MOVE BUILDINGS!”
I’m sure you’ve seen something similar, but it’s that moment of realization that is what I want more people to experience with technology. To understand what I’ve known for years. To see the usefulness of the technology, and not for the technology itself, but because it actually solves a need or problem. That is one of the things I want to do.
The work I’ve don to date has been fulfilling and rewarding. It’s taught me many things outside the scope of technology. It’s pushed me in all the typical, usual business-oriented things that any cube-dwelling, corporate ladder climbing individual might need. It did not, however, bring the warmth and excitement to my heart of seeing just one person “get it”.
That is what I believe I need to do – help people have those moments, help them connect with peers to make that happen, and be there as a resource along the way.
Photo credit: Zeitspuren
May 4, 2008 | happiness
Exploring my humanity, one blog post at a time.
