NorthStarNerd.Org

Welcome to the Brave New World ... Hopefully Not Fahrenheit 451!

Just took a late lunch, and had a fascinating read from the WSJ: "Your E-Book is Reading You"! This is great 4th of July or Canada Day reading material!

I don't know why it had never dawned to me that device manufactures (Kindle, iPad, Nook) are collecting the equivalent of web analytics on our "book reading habits". For instance ... with respect the Hunger Games trilogy ... "Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same line from the second book in the series: "Because sometimes things happen topeople and they're not equipped to deal with them."

Or ... "The perfect man, according to data collected by digital publisher Coliloquy from romance-novel readers, has a European accent and is in his 30s with black hair and green eyes. Optimal chest-hair level: 'slightly hairy.' " (definitely not me, folks, except for the green eyes!)

Apparently the device manufacturers are only just starting to share this data with publishers. I'll leave you with one more quote from the article: "For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read, transforming the activity into something measurable and quasi-public." Use of these kind of analytics will transform the use and publishing of books. As a user of Google Analytics for years, "I get it"!

Just in case the WSJ ultimately removes the article from their free web site, here is a pdf copy hosted on NorthStarNerd.org. However, the WSJ article has  a video interview and slideshow in addition to this article. Worth a visit.

Welcome to the Brave New World (pun intended); Hopefully not Fahrenheit 451! 

Photo credit: Wall Street Journal and William Duke

Microsoft Buys Yammer ... Confirming Cat 2.0!

I've used Yammer for 3.5 years, and have extensive experience with running a large corporate wide Yammer network. Thus, earlier today I was pleased when my black tabby cat's opinion of Yammer was validated! Microsoft purchased Yammer. This also confirmed what I have known for some time ... microblogging adds value to the enterprise by optimizing collaboration.

As a member of Yammer's Customer Advisory Board, I offer my congratulations to Yammer! It's been a fun ride over the past 3.5 years, but more importantly I've seen the perception of Yammer change from a interesting experiment in business collaboration, to an important tool for enabling global internal business conversation.

Here is my cat's post from January 11, 2009, and a more serious post further down from Yammer's earliest days.

Cat 2.0 or ... Cyrus Joins Our Corporate Yammer Network! (Jan. 2009)

Last night I went to a neighborhood party, but forgot to shut my laptop down. Cyrus, our black tabby cat decided he wanted to understand what Web 2.0 and company wide chat via my Fortune 100 firm's Yammer network was all about. Anyhow, Cyrus settled down on my keyboard and invoked some commands ... and even took a screenshot via SnagIt (like a dummy ... I did not save the screenshot). Four times Cyrus asked (via my profile) ... "what are you working on?" Ultimately he received a few responses.  The first response was "writing some reports for root cause investigations"! Thus, if you want to get true value out of company-wide chat ... use your cat! Here are two screenshots of our Yammer network responding to Cyrus masquerading as me, and of course, a photo of Cyrus! Click to expand any image to full size.

You need to understand that my cat loves the warmth of my computer, and enjoys walking and sleeping on my laptop ... thus his clandestine entries by stepping on various keys!

Click upon any image to view at full size.

   
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Yammering Together (Dec. 2008)

“The best innovations occur when you have networks of people with diverse backgrounds gathering around a problem,” says Robert Fishkin, president and chief executive of Reframeit Inc., a Web 2.0 company that creates virtual space in a Web browser where users can share comments and highlights on any site. “We need to get better at collaborating in noncompetitive ways across company and organizational lines.” (From the NY Times: For Innovators, There Is Brainpower in Numbers)

How did I learn of this article? Yammer! A colleague at my company posted some information about the innovation process. Here are my comments about this kind of tool ... essentially Twitter for the corporation:

• My first impression of Yammer ... what a waste!
• My second impression ... boy was I stupid!
• Yammer introduces the unknown to me ... valuable people and ideas in my company

Let me expand. My expectation was that listening to folks ... even my colleagues post small messages a la Twitter would be a distraction, and a waste of my time. Instead I discovered:

• Via Yammer I joined groups that pertained to my job
• People from my groups who I DID NOT originally know provided me valuable knowledge

In summation, it's easy to talk to the folks you know. It's easy to seek ideas from your known peers. The big question ... how do you discover knowledge hidden to you within your own organization? My company has over 120,000 employees. So far, I don't know everyone. Yammer helps me expand my knowledge base. Thus, this experiment is worth continuing.

Finally, link to my Minnesota Yammer colleague ... and watch his overview on how to update your Yammer profile (via Slideshare).

Poohsticks at Stanley Falls ... the Movie!

Ahh ... vacation ... idle days with hikes up to the top of Wilcox Pass and its snowfields, followed by hotly competitive games of Poohsticks at Stanley Falls on Beauty Creek near the Columbia Icefields in Banff National Park.

Just in case you don't actually know about Poohsticks, this most agreeable game was invented by Winnie-the-Pooh in the 100 acre wood. There are actually official rules for Poohsticks, but given Erik, Molly and I were deep in the Canadian Rockies, we had to be somewhat liberal with the rules! There was no bridge handy, but everything else was perfect.

The key to Poohsticks is to find some sticks and a river or stream. Playing is very simple. Drop or throw your sticks in the water, and then see which stick gets to the finish line first. In official Poohsticks, you drop your sticks into the water on the upstream side, and then see which stick first reaches the downstream side of the bridge. In short, this is a great Summer time game!

In our case, what could be more perfect than playing Poohsticks later that afternoon way down the mountain side using the snow runoff from the snowfields of Wilcox Pass that feed Beauty Creek?!

The short hike along Beauty Creek requires a fair amount of elevation gain, but in just over 3 kilometers you are rewarded with phenomenal views of all six Stanley Waterfalls. However, this hike is not a good trail for children. The overhangs are dangerous and require extreme caution. I have also included a photo I took from the top of Wilcox Pass. Alhough it was the middle of June, snow was very much still in evidence.

Click upon any image in this post to view at full size / resolution.

And finally, Poohsticks ... the movie!

 

Lake Louise Avalanche Video

Vacation! Spent yesterday hiking the Plains of Six Glaciers trail at Lake Louise, Alberta. Molly and I are taking our youngest son, Erik, on a hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies for his college graduation trip. This particular hike was a 14 kilometer round trip from our cabin, but gains 2300 feet in elevation just to keep things interesting! At the top of the hike is a mountain chalet which is run as a tea house. The staff lives there all Summer, and their supplies come in by one large helicopter drop and then pack horse the rest of the Summer. The trail had only opened seven days ago ... as Winter takes a long time to give way to Spring at this elevation. One half of our hike was across snow fields even in mid June.

Our hike was fantastic, and eventful. We saw lots of wildlife ... grizzly bears, mountain goats, Clark's Nutcrackers and much more ... and oh yes, on the way back down we were blocked by an avalanche. It was both neat and scarey to hear the telltale signs of an avalanche coming down the mountain ... and then watch it unfold in front of us ... wondering how we would eventually transit the large snowfield in front of us. The best way to describe the avalanche was a roaring torrent of snow. Wide eyed we watched huge chunks of snow burst over a cliff above us just like a raging waterfall. Thankfully we were safely 300 yards to the side and almost even with this cliff in terms of elevation when the avalanche started. We stood for over ten minutes and watched nature's spectacle in front of us, and debated the best way to proceed down the mountain.

I hope you enjoy my photos and video. This post 100% uses Blogsy from my iPad. It's nice to leave my laptop behind on this vacation. My apologies if the post formatting is not quite as crisp per normal. I'm still learning Blogsy.

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Ray Bradbury ... My Friend!

A friend of mine died this week, Ray Bradbury. Actually, I never met the man, but he is still my friend! Since I started this blog in August of 2006, Mr. Bradbury has been the subject of my own posts many times:

• Brave New World, Take 2
• 25 Years of Technology and Culture
• Libraries, Enclyclopedias and DoDo Birds
• Classic Sci-Fi Cover Art

Mr. Bradbury has often been quoted on how libraries opened his world, and introduced him to thousands and thousands of people.  Via my own librarian (Thanks to a Great Librarian),  I was introduced to science fiction and his writings in specific. Let us hope that our great libraries never reach the point at which paper burns, Fahrenheit 451. However, libraries can burn without fire if our society does not remain diligent.

Quoting from the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University:

"How ironic that Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, with its book burning firemen, was published in 1953 and would once have been entering the public domain on January 1, 2010. To quote James Boyle, "Bradbury’s firemen at least set fire to their own culture out of deep ideological commitment, vile though it may have been. We have set fire to our cultural record for no reason; even if we had wanted retrospectively to enrich the tiny number of beneficiaries whose work keeps commercial value beyond 56 years, we could have done so without these effects. The ironies are almost too painful to contemplate."

As parting gesture, here are two classic covers from of some of his most well known books. Please consider visiting this site from vintage papaerbacks. You can have fun exploring more classic sci-fi covers.