PIP-ME

Samejreltub_deliciousWordle

2009-09-04T16:41:00.001+12:00

Samejreltub_deliciousWordle
Originally uploaded by Lyn & James' NZ Photos

the subconscious mind works in a strange way when you're doing research.

This Wordle over my delicious feed sets my overall focus and is quite alarming.

RSS and the death of generalised conversation

2008-09-05T21:09:00.003+12:00

In my ever increasing utilisation of RSS subscriptions, it's been dawning on me over the past couple of months that Gen X, Y & Millennial’s who’ve taken strongly to using RSS aggregators for their daily news fix has a very detrimental effect on today’s society!

The rationale for my reasoning follows this line of thought: An individual who uses an aggregation service (such as Google Reader) subscribes to RSS feeds he‘s interested in. Those feeds are amalgamations of other individuals’ thoughts that are of interest to that subscriber. This therefore leads to an individual gaining knowledge in an ever increasing very narrow perception of society, based mostly around his ideals.

In the past a person bought a newspaper, which comprised of a varied cross section of current news. The subscriber would therefore glean information from a wide knowledge base, irrespective of his current interests. Skimming a paper raised awareness of the social structures irrespective of his immediate interests. An individual could then converse with a wider variety of people, due to his greater current news knowledge

Are we therefore creating groups of people who live in their own online communities, building an ever higher wall around their communities with a future fear that they won’t be able to converse with others of differing belief structures…..

Food for thought, am I being too alarmist here! Interested in your comments…..

My favourite Social Media tools?

2008-08-30T15:34:00.004+12:00

I've taken the mashup approach....

I'm using Twitter / Plaxo / Facebook / Flikr / YouTube / digg / Google reader / spock / Shozu and linking them together with hellotxt.com (via my mobile and/or Web) to centralise latest activity posting to... plaxo / twitter / linkedin / facebook.

I'm also using friendfeed to create a "lifestream" to amalgamate my delicious / digg / blog / flikr / google reader favourites / twitter & utube postings.

I'm using shozu.com on the mobile to post images to flikr and video to UTube & my blog whilst out and about I'm also utilising Spock & Linqia to get my profile out there....

If you want to know more, please do not hesitate to drop me a line ... it's all mashing together quite nicely :)

A personal example of how one should use LinkedIn?

2008-08-01T21:21:00.003+12:00

Since joining LinkedIn mid 07, prior to leaving a role I'd been in for 7.5 years, I felt it was a tool whereby I could connect with a number of my work colleagues to stay in touch. Since then, I've adopted Christian's philosophy and became a Linked In Open Networker (LION) and since Dec 07 have met a load of great "like minded" individuals.

In summary the advantages are see are as follows:

* A pool of highly skilled individuals only to willing to assist each other
* In a sticky quandary in a work situation... a connection WILL have the answer
* By being an open networker your pool of resource to call on exponentially increases As Ivan Misner has quoted

"Successful people do not achieve their success on their own; instead, they surround themselves with a well-developed, sophisticated support network."

The secrets of the utilisation of LinkedIn are out there for all to see. You just need to know where to look. The essence is "givers gain". We're all here to assist each other and I'm seeing the power of the collective really reap dividends. All this matters in my industry because being part of a charitable organisation we have to make limited capital have a far reach into the psyche of the population. I tap into my network for ideas and vendor contacts to utilise the latest web2.0 technologies to put us ahead of the game when we're competing for the conscience of a nation. Hope this is a thought provoking answer and hopefully the links below, including my blog rant will take you off into new directions.

Good luck in your quest for LinkedIn fulfillment.

Links:

http://connections.thepodcastnetwork.com/
http://www.linkedintelligence.com/

I also suggest these experts on this topic:
John Veitch
Stan Relihan
Christian Mayaud

"Net-work" involves activity - otherwise it would be called "Net-DoNothing"

2007-08-16T19:35:00.000+12:00

Since becoming an active user of LinkedIn I've realised that there is a great strength in joining forces with like minded individuals. It's called Network because there is a degree of activity required to maintain connections in the world around you.

As Ivan Misner has quoted "Successful people do not achieve their success on their own; instead, they surround themselves with a well-developed, sophisticated support network." -

In my daily role, connecting with IT specialists and others that can aid me fulfil my duties in the organisation to achieve beneficial outcomes by showing genuine interest in others is not only courteous but by building a connection it can be mutually beneficial in both the short and long term.

Arnold Sanow wrote a really cathartic essay entitled "20 Ways To Make Yourself More Memorable". In it he re-enforces some base philosophies that emphasise the act of common courtesy.

Several techniques can Aid you in this objective:

The S.O.F.T.E.N. technique - S=smile, O=open posture, F=forward lean, T=stay out of their territory, E=eye contact, N=nod to show understanding.
G.A.I.N.S exchange - Goals / Accomplishments / Interests / Network / Skill (by doing this you strengthen your relationships)

As long as you follow the basic rules and show genuine interest in all your connections then it can be a mutually beneficial experience... Go on, do it today.... Having 1 connection in LinkedIn is not an option.... Don't "Net-DoNothing" - "NetWork" !!!

Web 2.0 - why does it differ from Web 1.0?

2007-06-17T19:07:00.000+12:00

10 differentiating factors between Web 1.0 & 2.0.

#1
Web1.0 - Reading
Web2.0 - Writing

#2
Web1.0 - Companies
Web2.0 - Communities

#3
Web1.0 - Client Server
Web2.0 - ClientLess

#4
Web1.0 - HTML
Web2.0 - XML

#5
Web1.0 - Homepage (static)
Web2.0 - Blogs (DYNAMIC)

#6
Web1.0 - Portals
Web2.0 - RSS

#7
Web1.0 - Wires
Web2.0 - Wireless

#8
Web1.0 - Owning
Web2.0 - Sharing

#9
Web1.0 - Top Down
Web2.0 - Bottom Up

#10
Web1.0 - Them
Web2.0 - Us

Technical Tips - Windows Shortcut Keys

2007-06-17T18:59:00.000+12:00

Do you ever get frustrated when you're switching between the mouse and the keyboard. Forget the Mouse.... Use the keyboard.

Here are some shortcuts that work in most MS applications.. Give them a go, you'll fingd that your typing speed increases by using them.

Alphabetical list by Shortcut Key

Alt+tab Switch from one window to another
press Alt+tab to show a list of open windows
hold Alt+press tab repeatedly to select a window
release Alt to switch to the window you selected

Ctrl+a Selects or highlights all of the document
Ctrl+b Bold - applies bold to highlighted characters
Ctrl+c Copy - copies highlighted text to the Clipboard
Ctrl+d Font change - opens font dialog box
Ctrl+e Edit mode (Lotus Notes)Ctrl+end Jump to end of open document
Ctrl+f Find - displays Find dialog box
Ctrl+h Replace - open Replace dialog box
Ctrl+home Jump to beginning of document
Ctrl+i Italics - applies italics to highlighted characters
Ctrl+k Clear all character styles (bold, italics, etc.)
Ctrl+l Link - displays Link properties dialog box
Ctrl+m Mail - opens Mail window
Ctrl+p Print
Ctrl+r Reload current document into Edit window
Ctrl+right or left arrow key jump one word to the right or left
Ctrl+s Save current document
Ctrl+t Apply fixed width character format to selected text
Ctrl+u Underline - applies underline to highlighted text
Ctrl+up or down arrow key jump one paragraph up or down
Ctrl+v Paste text from Clipboard at the insertion point
Ctrl+w Close current document
Ctrl+x Cut out highlighted text & place a copy on the clipboard
Ctrl+z Undo last action

Esc Close a dialog box without performing any action
Shift+arrow key Highlight textShift+space Non-breaking space, to insert a soft return

LinkedIn or not LinkedIn that is the question?

2007-05-20T19:49:00.000+12:00

Since being invited to join LinkedIn (ref http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/33970-2308560) two months ago, I've been digging deeper into the whole online networking space. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkedin )

A network is a key environment to pool information and, if done astutely can reap great dividends. The age of the recruiter finding you a job is waining. In LinkedIn, if you have a large enough network then you have direct inroads via trusted advisors to get into interviews via internal referrals.

Networking in its strictest form is an age old phenomenon and as the "how to build your network" article (accessible here http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/ftp/uzzi%27s_research_papers/uzzi_dunlap%20hbr.pdf ) states, they have to be carefully constructed.

A couple of great introductions to the benefits of using LinkedIn are as follows..

http://www.diblog.com/2004/04/how_to_build_yo.html - an article by Walter Adamson. Walter provides compelling evidence that a network is not a spam of everyone a person knows, but is a carefully contrived strategic tool.
Guy Kawasaki goes further @ http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/ten_ways_to_use.html and gives advice of how you can tailor your profile to gain maximum benefit.

To make this succeed then having some well connected individuals in your level 1 connection swells the number of searchable contacts tremendously. One of those super connected individuals, Stan Relihan explains on the http://gdayworld.thepodcastnetwork.com/2007/03/28/gday-world-219-using-linkedin-as-a-business-tool/ podcast the benefits of using LinkedIn as a business tool (well worth listening too!)

A final word of caution has been spelt out by Mark & Mike on Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/05/building-a-network/). It pays to have a diverse network, because if you stick to one company and you all get laid off what are you going to talk about... Another day out of work eh :(

Take my advice - pick the best people in their fields of expertise and network up...

The collective is where its at..

PM related audio files - all found on iTunes

2007-04-25T12:43:00.000+12:00

PMI Information Systems SIG
The Project Management Podcast
David Maister's Business Masterclass
Controlling Chaos
The Project Management PrepCast (Free Edition)
Jerry Manas: Project Mgt Podcast Series
The PMO Podcast
•Shaw Project Management
Lean Agile Straight Talk podcast
Project Management Knowledge Base
Project Management Training & Management Consulting Services, Courses - TSI
PM Lessons Learned

How to Use Outlook Out of Office Assistant

2007-04-25T12:41:00.000+12:00

If you intend to be away for a period of time and will not access your email, you can switch on the Out of Office Assistant to give
information to people emailing you in your absence. This can be done using Microsoft Outlook

To activate the Out of Office Assistant
1.In the Inbox, click on the Tools menu and then choose Out of Office Assistant. The Out of Office Assistant dialog box is displayed.
2.In the Auto Reply only once to each sender with the following text box, type the information you wish to give to email senders.
3.Turn on the Out of Office Assistant by selecting the I'm currently out of the Office option. Note: The Out of Office Assistant can be turned off by selecting the I'm currently in the Office option.
4.Click on the OK button.

Rules
You can use an Out of Office rule to automatically forward incoming email to another address. You can use this to forward to another Exchange mailbox or to an external address.
To create the rule:
1.In the Inbox, click on the Tools menu and then choose Out of Office Assistant. The Out of Office Assistant dialog box is displayed.
2.Type or paste your message into the AutoReply text area.
3.Turn on the rule

Top 10 OUTLOOK Keyboard Shortcuts

2007-04-25T12:39:00.001+12:00

1. Use Outlook Help -- Press F1
2. Send/receive mail on default accounts -- Press F5
3. Go to the Inbox -- Press Ctrl+Shift+I
4. Create a new message -- Press Ctrl+Shift+M
5. Create a new contact -- Press Ctrl+Shift+C
6. Create a new appointment -- Press Ctrl+Shift+A
7. Print the selected items -- Press Ctrl+P
8. Reply to the message -- Press Ctrl+R
9. Cancel the current operation -- Press Esc
10. Mark as read -- Press Ctrl+Q

Bonus: Go to the Outbox -- Press Ctrl+Shift+O

Managing Email with colours and Fonts

2007-04-25T12:34:00.000+12:00

One of the easiest ways to get control of a crowded Microsoft Outlook inbox is to colour-code incoming messages. You can colour-code according to the sender or the subject. Then you can see at a glance that the red messages are from your boss, the olive green from your project manager and the blue are responses to your London hotel vacation inquiries. Here's how to do it:

With Outlook inbox open, click on a message you want to colour-code.
Click the "Organize" button on the toolbar, or select "Organize" from the Tools menu. The "Ways to Organize Inbox" customizing dialog box will open.
On the left, you'll see a list of ways you can organize the items in your Inbox. Select "Using colours."
You'll see that the sender's name has been inserted for you, as well as a colour. The default colour is Red: This appears automatically. However, you can change the colour to any one of 16 different colours. Click on the dropdown list box arrow to select the colour you want. Please note that some colours (such as yellow) are difficult to see on a white background, and of course it's impossible to see white on white.
Select the colour you want applied to messages from this sender, and click the "Apply colour" command. This colour is now applied to any messages from this sender currently in your inbox, and any new messages will also be coloured.
There's more you can do your make inbox messages stand out than merely applying a colour. You can also customize messages with font changes. Here's how:
With the inbox open and a message you want to customize chosen, click the Organize button on the toolbar.
Click "Using colours" in the list on the left. Then click "Automatic Formatting" on the top (to the right of the "Ways to Organize Inbox" title).
The Rule Box will open. You'll see that some Rules have been created for you automatically; you created others when you applied colours to certain messages. Click on the "Font" button.
The familiar Font dialog box opens. Make any changes that you want to make. You can change the font face, the size, the formatting, and so on.

(A hint: Don't go too wild here. If you make too many font face, style and size changes, your inbox will be a mess. Restraint is your watchword.)

How To: Customise the OUTLOOK Interface

2007-04-18T16:32:00.000+12:00

Over the past couple of years I have come to treat OUTLOOK as a great friend. It has an interface that is fully customisable. the following tips are an extract from a 'howto' doc that I put together and passed around my work team.

OUTLOOK can be customised extensively in order to fit into an individual’s work pattern. The following sections give a quick insight into the possible changes that can be made to make your experience as psychedelic as you’d like. Possible customisations are categorised as follows:

1. OUTLOOK Bar with Groups & shortcuts.

The OUTLOOK bar enables any OUTLOOK folder of file link to be added as a shortcut to this bar.

In OUTLOOK if you chose View / Outlook Bar, a grey bar will appear on the left hand side of your screen.

Groups… To Add a Group: Right mouse click on the grey area and “Add New Group”, you can call it whatever you like, but the order of that group will not change.

To Rename a Group: Right mouse click on the grey area and “Rename Group”.

Short Cuts…
These are links to your mapped folders in OUTLOOK or accessible files on a file server. To Add a new Shortcut: Right mouse click on the grey area and “OUTLOOK bar shortcut”, you can call it whatever you like and then point out to the appropriate OUTLOOK folder of File System Folder/File accordingly.

2. Current View Customisation with Mailboxes.

Mailbox views in OUTLOOK can be customised quite heavily. These can roughly be categorised accordingly;

a. Fields
This view enables any OUTLOOK field to be viewed in your default view. The default view shows the “Frequently Used Fields”, to show all select “ALL Mail Fields.
Once you have all the fields chosen, the order can be changed by selecting the right hand column and using the Move up and Move down buttons.

b. Group By
This enables your inbox to be categorised by selecting up to three grouping categories.
Once chosen this creates a grey box at the top of your inbox with the appropriate grouping schema. This can easily be changed by dragging the appropriate box off this area or re categorising by dragging it down the hierarchy listing.

c. Sort Filter
This is the most basic of customisation and allows entries in the inbox to be sorted accordingly. A small triangle appears in the category heading line to signify that the column has been sorted.
To refine the sort, please click on the category title and this will resort and change the direction of the arrow accordingly (Up arrow - Ascending, Down Arrow - Descending).

d. Other Settings
This choice allows you to set the default font and size for your OUTLOOK Email box. You can also display gridlines around the cells to make viewing a lines’ entry slightly easier.

e. Automatic Formatting
This is by far the most powerful option. You can set a number of rules up to colour code items based on certain criteria.
E.g.: a rule can be entitled “read receipt requested” with the following options identified:
i. Font = 8 point Tahoma RED
ii. Condition / Advance tab = Field > All mail fields > “Receipt Requested” equals “YES”

3. Other customisation tips:

Calendar:
1. By right mouse clicking on the grey date bar on the top of your calendar view and choosing “automatic formatting”, you are able to customise the default view quite extensively.

e.g.: To make all my personal entries with LUNCH in the subject = GREEN, the following condition can be applied

1. Name of the condition = personal
2. Colour for this condition = green
3. Press the “Condition button” / go to the advanced tab.
a. In the field combo box select “All mail fields” & subject
b. Condition = “contains”
c. Value = "LUNCH"
4. “Add to the list” (other additions can be added as well!)
5. finish by closing the dialog box by selecting Ok x2

All 'LUNCH' entries should now be green!

let me know how it goes. It's a great tool and over the next few posts I'll elaborate on other Outlook tips & tricks.

A light hearted look at new "work-place vocabulary"

2007-04-12T19:31:00.000+12:00

TESTICULATING - Waving your arms around and talking bollocks.
BLAMESTORMING - Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
SEAGULL MANAGER - A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
ASSMOSIS - The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.
SALMON DAY - The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die.
CUBE FARM - An office filled with cubicles.
PRAIRIE DOGGING - When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.
MOUSE POTATO - The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
SITCOMs - Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business".
STRESS PUPPY - A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE - The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
ADMINISPHERE - The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the "adminisphere" are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is often affiliated with the dreaded "administrivia" needless paperwork and processes.
404 - Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found", meaning that the requested document could not be located.
OHNOSECOND - That minuscule fraction of time in which you realise that you've just made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all')

Writing comments in Cards.. Use a Quote!

2007-04-12T19:00:00.000+12:00

Ever short of that witty repost in a birthday card.... why not use the references below to search for the ideal congrats comment....

http://www.junkfoodforthought.com/ From Jack Tourette, an extensive collection of quotations on a wide range of topics. Includes unusually good citations and brief biographical information for authors.
http://webpages.ainet.com/gosner/quotationsarch/ Previously available only by Gopher (anyone remember that?) This is a collection of archived quotations. Some excellent topical collections are included.
http://www.theotherpages.org/quote.html By Steve Spanoudis - Many (about 25,000) quotes, organized into 30 loosely-defined categories. Most with attributions. A bit hard to search for specifics, but one of the best pages out there for sheer number of good quotations.
http://www.bartleby.com/100/ The classic quotations reference, brought online by Project Bartleby. It's the 10th Edition (c) 1919, but still an excellent resource. Searchable, too! (See our Books page for the current edition of Bartlett's)
http://www.greatest-quotations.com Huge amount of quotations, easy searchable by subject, author, theme and at random. The design is minimal but the selection of quotes is impressive.
http://www.quotearchive.com A nice collection of "Quotatons and Proverbs from Aeschylus to Zuppke." Formatted and organized well.
http://www.quotegallery.com Gallery of more than 8000 famous quotations, categorized and searchable. Well designed and very accessible. Nicely done!
http://www.quoteland.com/ This page's title modestly proclaims "Quotations on every topic, by every author, and in every fashion possible." It doesn't quite have *everything*, but there are lots of good quotations here. The author section is excellent. Includes a search engine and random quotations.
http://www.quotations.co.uk/ A collection of more than 13500 quotations, with a good search engine. Their search engine found more hits for the word "cabbage" than any other I've tried. They also sell a reasonably-priced software package for finding and organizing quotations.
http://www.aphids.com/quotes/index.shtml A large database of quotations. You can browse by subject or author, or search by keyword. Also includes a special collection of quotes on Love and Marriage (mostly positive ones, not cynical ones like you find at our site.)
http://chatna.com/ A decent collection of quotations, indexed by author and subject. Includes an assortment of motivational, literary, political and humorous quotations.
Http://www.useful-information.info/quotations/famous_quotes.html A collection of famous quotes organized by subject. Mainly positive or humorous quotes suitable to use for speeches, web sites, cards, and celebrations. Nice and readable.
http://www.quotablequotes.net Searchable database of several thousand quotations, which you can also browse by topic.
http://www.dhq.nu/wanderingmind/index.asp An extensive collection of quotations organized into topical categories. Many unique ones here and I've never seen a "Physiognomy" category anywhere else.
http://www.artisanindustrials.com/quotes.html Inspirational quotes to elevate your human spirit.
ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/local/quotes/ The quotations archive at the University of British Columbia - many collections from the net.
http://spiritsong.com/quotes/
A large collection of quotes meant to be read like a book. There is no sort of organization or any search feature, but you can listen to a song by Cyndi Craven while you read the quotes (presuming you haven't sensibly turned off the audio on your browser.)
http://bellaonline.com/site/quotations Comprehensive collection of quotes on topics like - love, children, creativity, friendship, inspiration and more...
http://www.deepbox.com
http://www.myquotations.com/ Go beyond what the typical famous quotations websites allow! Add your own quotes, create your own quotations collection, and so much more at MyQuotations.com.
http://www.quotableonline.com Quotable Online is a collection of over 12000 quotations that is searchable by author, subject and source.
http://www.quotedb.com Over 2,400 sortable and rateable quotes from over 400 authors.
http://www.quotegarden.com/ A decent collection of quotes organized by subject and occasion. I've found some unique ones there.
http://www.top-quotations.com/ A reasonably large and diverse collection of quotations indexed by author and by subject.

Why am I doing this!

2007-04-12T12:10:00.000+12:00

Over the course of my professional career I have come across a number of really useful time saving tips and tricks which I'd like to share with the wider community.

Ever since being shown the light, via a Personal Efficiency Program, run by my good friend and mentor, Russell Eastwood. (Here's to you Russ!) I've been interested in pushing the bounds of day to day activities.

The content within the blog are tried and tested by myself and have added greatly in my day to day activities. I have been requested to share my knowledge by other work colleagues, so in an effort to spread the word have decided to place them all in one location where everyone can benefit. Hopefully these are not the ramblings of a mad man.

I hope you'll find them useful; I'll be posting regular monthly updates so please drop on by :)