Gini Nelson's Engaging Conflicts

To business owners — including mediators, attorneys and other conflict specialists– who already blog, this article is dated (2004). For those who are newer to the concept of using blogs and other online tools as part of professional, business and personal development, it’s useful.

As his (2004) bio states (he is now Managing Director at FastCompany.TV):

Robert Scoble is one of bloggingʼs best-known personalities. He is Microsoftʼs technical evangelist for the US .NET Platform Strategy. Before joining Microsoft, Scoble held a variety of jobs ranging from planning conferences at Fawcette Technical Publications, to being director of marketing for weblog software producer UserLand Software, to being sales support manager at NEC Mobile Solutions. He has a 10-year-old son and enjoys technology of all kinds, from playing with his Tivo and Xbox Live system to tinkering around with digital cameras.

Here’s his article The Corporate Weblog Manifesto from ChangeThis. As he says in his introduction:

Thinking of doing a weblog about your product or your company? Here are my ideas of things to consider before you start.

His points include:

• Tell the truth. The whole truth. Nothing but the truth.
• Post fast on good news or bad.
• Use a human voice.
• Make sure you support the latest software/web/human standards.
• Have a thick skin.
• Underpromise and over deliver.
• If your life is in turmoil and/or you’re unhappy, don’t write.

You can find the article at ChangeThis or download it by clicking here:The Corporate Weblog Manifesto.

As his bio states:

Chetan Dhruve has worked for several organizations including IBM, Cisco Systems, and the Department for International Development (the aid wing of the British Foreign Office). He has an MBA from Cass Business School (London), an MA in International Journalism from City University (London) and a BSc in Physics, Maths and Electronics from Bangalore University (Bangalore).
Summary:

• Your behavior is affected by the system in which you live and work.
• At work, you don’t have the right to choose the person who has power over you — your boss. That makes him a dictator, and you a subject.
• The system is hence that of a dictatorship. Your boss, you and your colleagues all behave accordingly.
• To change the system to a free system, subordinates should be given the right to vote for their bosses.
• The result will be a more productive and successful company, and a more successful and healthier you.

I came across his article Why Your Boss is Programmed to be a Dictator at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

Did you vote your boss into the corner office? If not, perhaps your boss is a dictator. Chetan Dhruve explains why bosses become dictators.

You can find the article at ChangeThis or download it by clicking here:Why Your Boss is Programmed to be a Dictator

As her bio states:

Randah Taher is a project developer and consultant who worked in montreal for 7 years before moving to Toronto, Canada, where she currently resides. She works with learning, non-profit organizations, and social enterprises, and is involved in projects concerning youth, education, and community revitalization. She consults and trains groups in creative problem solving tools, innovative strategic management, restructuring and program development. Randah is the founder of My Arabic Story, a cultural hub with worldwide volunteers, which narrates folktales by storytelling, doing puppet shows, and recording CDs.

I came across her article 10 Guidelines for Effective Brainstorming at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

Creativity can be taught, nurtured, and enhanced. It does not belong solely to the artist among us, and certainly is not genetically limited to the gifted.

You can find the article at ChangeThis or download it by clicking here:10 Guidelines for Effective Brainstorming

As his bio states:

Malcolm Gladwell was born in 1963 in England and grew up in Canada. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto in 1984. From 1987 to 1996, he was a reporter for The Washington Post, first as a science writer and then as New York City bureau chief. In 2000, he published The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Since 1996, he has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.

I came across his article The Talent Myth at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

When Malcolm Gladwell wrote “The Tipping Point”, he had a sensation on his hands. Called “one of those rare books that changes the way you think about, well, everything” it quickly climbed the charts to become a bestseller. Now Malcolm writes a manifesto for ChangeThis on the seemingly paradoxical truth that talent is not a firm’s greatest asset.

You can find the article at change this, or download it by clicking here:The Talent Myth

As I’ve said before, here, I adopted coffee as my drug of choice while in law school. A relative just sent me a post with coffee art, lovely photos, here. It starts with this (but I can’t necessarily vouch for it — further search found a New York barista named Sammy Lin featured for his creations, here):

There is a restaurant in Vancouver that dresses up the lattes. You get to watch them create the pictures.

What can be done with coffee, cream, milk & imagination.

Coffee1

Coffee2

Coffee3

Coffee4

Coffee5

Coffee6

Coffee7

Coffee8

Coffee9

Coffee10

Coffee11

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Coffee14

As his bio states:

Andrew Keen’s deeply controversial Cult of the Amateur [published in 2007] is the first book that exposes the economic, ethical and social dangers of the Web 2.0 revolution. Andrew hasn’t always been a contrarian. In the mid-nineties, he was a member of that generation of Silicon Valley visionaries who pioneered the Internet. He founded Audiocafe.com in 1995 and established it as one of the most highly trafficked websites of the late nineties. Today, he is the host of the Internet chat show afterTV.com and regularly appears on the web, television and radio. His work can be found on his CultoftheAmateur blog, his syndicated Podtech video-essay, his ZDnet column as well as in traditional publications.

I came across his article Against You: A Manifesto in Favor of Audience at ChangeThis recently. As it says:

If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Andrew Keen asserts that the same riddle can be applied to Web 2.0. While new Internet technology has revolutionized traditional media and allows everyone to be writer/creator, if everyone is writer/creator, then just who is left to listen to the cacophony?

You can find the article at ChangeThis, or download it by clicking here: Against You: A Manifesto in Favor of Audience

Ralph Perrine has an article recently published at ChangeThis, described thusly:

Ralph Perrine believes drawing to be indispensable to good planning and good collaboration-the top two critical skills for success in life. Here, he shares twelve drawings to help bring focus and clarity to teams and any personal planning.

Well, actually, only 4 drawings are presented in the article but they are helpful and were enough to send me to his website where he is selling the full set as a 12-month 2008 calendar. The 4 in the article are:

• Balancing Your Life (this one has a charming metaphor so read below for more on it)
• 360 Degree Awareness (“helps you learn to widen your awareness so you can spot opportunities and issues earlier. Great ideas, and opportunities, as well as important issues often lie in our periphery, waiting for us to connect the dots.”)
• Critical Path (“helps you think through a sequence of important items you must navigate through in order to reach an objective. Do this exercise with a group to spot risks or issues ahead of time.”)

• The Bright Core (“helps you think about your ‘playing field.’ More specifically, where you are in relation to competitors, vs. where you want to be.”) Read more »

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is originated, written, coordinated, and edited since 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell. The APOD archive contains the largest collection of annotated astronomical images on the internet.

In real life, Bob and Jerry are two professional astronomers who spend most of their time researching the universe. Bob is a professor at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, USA, while Jerry is a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland USA.

Today’s picture (which is not the photo above) is an iridescent cloud over Colorado; tomorrow’s is sky lightning.

Remember the Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/) allows you to manage tasks quickly and easily. Using maps, to-do lists, reminders and more, you can easily manage all of your work right from your computer. Never forget the milk (or anything else) again!

Who says reading science reports isn’t fun? This reported this week by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, as a service for its members and the public:

Chocolate Inventors Were Trying for Beer [from the Times (London)]

Humanity’s love affair with chocolate began at least 500 years earlier than was thought previously, scientists have discovered.

Chemical residues found in pottery vessels from what is now Honduras have revealed that the ancient peoples of Central America were drinking chocolate beverages as long ago as 1150BC, probably to celebrate occasions such as births and weddings. The evidence suggests that they were alcoholic
drinks made from fermented pulp of cacao fruit.

The frothy, chocolate-flavoured drink made from cacao seeds that is known to have been important in the culture of the Aztecs and the Maya did not emerge until later. The findings, from a team led by John Henderson, Professor of Anthropology at Cornell University in New York State, push back the origins of chocolate consumption by at least half a millennium.

To read more:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2859190.ece
Or: http://tinyurl.com/24fs8w\