NorthStarNerd.Org

Technical Conferences

I intend to both attend and speak at eLearning DevCon 2007. My two presentations at DevCon will revolve around knowledge management. Specifically, I will speak to the internal corporate use of blogs, wikis, and tagging tools. Although I've never been to this particular conference before, there are several key points which attract me ... and I would challenge you to consider when looking for your own professional development events:

• This is a working conference ... focused on good topics.
• Golf courses are NOT near by
• Attendees actually live in dorms (University of Utah)

These three facts may not seem like much, but when one stops to consider that the main value in any conference is your fellow attendees, and what you can learn from them, the immersion method (i.e. dorm rooms) will help encourage collaboration. I really can't stress this point to highly. As the cost of the conference escalates, and the lodging resorts become fancier, one's learning suffers.

Last year I attended Wikimania (my thoughts), and stayed in the Harvard Law School dorms. It was a great experience. If your travel budget allows, this year's event will be in Taiwan. (Wikimania 2007)

Minnesota Forest Fire

This is way off topic, but of personal interest.  Most folks have heard about all the fires in California.  After all, it's California ... Hollywood, millions of people, leading edge culture.

Here in Minnesota we are dealing with much BIGGER forest fires.  I own a small northwoods cabin. Although my cabin is safe, you may enjoy this photo of the "water bomber" taken from my dock.  The plane swoops down, scoops up water without stopping, and then makes a bombing run on the fire. I've also included this link to a story about the forest fires. The size of the fire is 86 square miles, and growing.
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Our Children's Sloppy Dress

My wife returned recently from a college exploration trip with our son to Michigan Tech in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As our family works our way past the mid point of our college visits, here is one fact that amazes me. Most kids dress like slobs when they visit colleges, and don't show much respect for college officials. Let me explain ...

The college admissions process is competitive, particularly for scholarship dollars. Thus, my wife and I have insisted that each of children wear nice clothes ... and no sneakers, during their visits and meetings with the various colleges. However, most of the other children arrive wearing blue jeans, shorts, t-shirts, and worse. Given that the admissions staff, and professors, are often in coats and ties, shouldn't it be obvious that one should show respect, and be well dressed in return?

I've noticed that the treatment our family receives on visits is often better than other families.  I wonder why? Is it because we respect the process. Given Erik's background, he will get into most schools to which he applies, but I have to believe our attitude towards these visits will help in the pursuit of scholarship dollars.

In closing, it is almost comical how many times I've seen kids wear college sweat shirts from "other schools" while on an admissions visit.  While at Purdue University, one boy showed up wearing a Notre Dame sweat shirt!

The Power of Web 2.0

On this blog, and other places you've heard about Web / Enterprise 2.0.  However, what does this concept really mean?  If you're not certain, I invite you to view this video by Professor Wesch from Kansas State University:

• Web 2.0 Video / Tutorial (via CoRrElate)

eContent Blog Translations

Well ... this is nothing fancy, but I've built my own eContent blog language translation service using Google.

• eContent Blog Translations (linked also from the header and right column)