The View from Up Here

Max and Min

2011-11-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

I always knew Thinkgeek was the best. If you have ever browsed their catalog, you know they have the coolest stuff. If you don't know anything about them, click the link above...I will wait until you come back (this could be a while...).
Earlier this year, Thinkgeek moved their headquarters. When they moved, they developed a problem. This must be close to a perfect world, because their solution to their problem was to send boxes of borked stuff to people, for free. Full backstory here.
Obviously, I signed right up (of COURSE I was thinking of the children!). I was hopeful, but the hope faded over time. The word after not even a month was that the program was VERY popular, with thousands signing up. I stayed patient, but mostly through forgetfulness.
Today, that patience paid off. Thinkgeek officially rocks. I pulled up to the house earlier, to see two identical boxes on the front porch. When I looked more closely, and saw the shipping labels, I realized what I had received. Essentially, Plains and Peaks Mensa Gifted Children Program has adopted two new mascots, Max and Min! Their original pedigree is Wowwee Rovio, but they were returned/defective merchandise, so where they will end up remains to be seen. I can not wait to get the kids going on either refurbishing these mascots, or making creative use of the leftover parts. If they can be made to work properly, maybe they can stream our monthly meetings to those members who can not come along with us! I can just picture these guys roaming some of our more interesting outdoors!
Lots of pics to come: before, during and after. I am really excited, and I hope the group will be, too.

The Future Begins Next Saturday

2011-07-08T13:52:00.000-06:00

The Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off today at 11:29AM EDT. The current mission, STS-135, is not only the last for Atlantis, it is the final Space Shuttle mission ever. In many ways, this makes me sad. I remember the first shuttle flight - I was in elementary school, and a huge fuss was made. I remember the tragedies. I remember the milestone trips, such as the one to repair the Hubble telescope. I have been known to peek in on launches, landings, and mission activities on even the most mundane of missions.
Mundane! What is mundane about a reusable manned orbital vehicle? Once STS-135 is complete, the US Space program has NO manned space vehicles. This may seem like the saddest aspect today, but I propose that it is the most exciting! The current lack of a US manned space program is propelling commercial activity like nothing else could. See my earlier post on this subject. The retirement of the Space Shuttle is a step towards a very exciting future for space travel.
With the future of space in mind, I am very pleased to introduce some of the more basic space flight concepts to a few members of a whole new generation. The Plains and Peaks Mensa Gifted Children Program events for the month of July are centered around model rocketry. On Saturday, the 16th, I am hosting a build session. This session will also be attended by members of our local model rocketry club: COSROCS (Colorado Springs Rocketry Society). These members have graciously agreed to also give a 15-30 minute presentation on the basics of rocket flight. A week later, these masterpieces of model rocketry will be flown toward the heavens, at the COSROCS monthly public launch event, weather permitting. If conditions do not allow for a launch to happen on the 23rd of July, I will plan to have our members bring their creations in August (August 27, per the COSROCS site).
My members are being encouraged to bring an interested guest, and those guests will be able to participate in both the building and the launching. I am also welcoming interested members of the general public, to sit in and watch the COSROCS presentation, observe the rocket building session, and the public is always invited to COSROCS launches. If you have children who may have their spark of interest lit by fiery, noisy, fast, sleek, self-built creations, please consider bringing them by. The future of space is in the hands of our current youth - let's get them started! Please see the events calendar at the Plains and Peaks Mensa website for details about the events (times, locations): http://www.plainsandpeaks.us.mensa.org/

A Different Way to Look at Social Media

2011-05-06T09:55:00.001-06:00

Have you heard all the buzz about social media, yet are choosing not to dive into it because you think you don't have enough to say?
Or.....maybe you HAVE tried it, and gave it up because it seemed nobody was listening, and you felt that your thoughts and opinions weren't important enough to keep spilling them out into the void. A void that reinforced your beliefs because you were unable to create a respectable following.
Well, you may not have been "doin it rong", after all. It turns out, there is more than one way to get value from social networks. Maybe you need to shift your definition of "value". For some people, the most effective way to get the most from social media is simply to shut up and listen.
This advice goes against ALL the current coaching for social media. It seems to me that everyone is saying that if you don't make noise, you won't be heard. And if you are out there, and not being heard, you should get out. Or make more noise. This advice, for some people, may be very well causing them to be explicitly destroying the value they can gain on the social web. If you are trying to shout over the din, and not listening, instead, you are going to miss all the valuable information that crosses these wires.
Why isn't the value of the "social media introvert" being recognized? I don't know. I simply know that I have seen that it is not. For instance, if you have a twitter account, run it through Twittercounter (http://twittercounter.com/) and use the "Profile Checker". It tells me that my 0.4 follow ratio (following far more than are following me back) is BAD, and waaaayyyy below their recommended ratio of 5 (followed by lots and lots more than one is following). Why? I use that particular Twitter account to COLLECT information, not send it out. It doesn't matter to me how many follow. For one thing, I don't tweet much there, either. That was another "problem" the profile checker mentioned. If I don't have much to say, why would I talk more? I am following the right people with that account, and am getting every drop of value I could ever want from it, and then some.
Believe me, for those who are gathering information in an area of interest, a place like Twitter is a motherlode of valuable links, expert opinion, and insightful conversation. All for absolutely free. And to get this value, you never have to tweet a word, nor gain a single follower. Why is this fact ignored so completely?

Surprising New Tool

2011-05-04T09:23:00.001-06:00

It's a game, and it is remarkably fun. It is a little addicting. OK, OK....very addicting.
It is also surprisingly more than just a game. Empire Avenue (http://empireavenue.com) is a social media "stock market". You can buy and sell shares in others, while they do the same to you. Of course, trading volume affects your share price and status on the market, but so does your online social media activity. The more social media feeds your connect to in Empire Ave, and the more active you are on those connected sites, the higher your share price.
The site is VERY well-designed. A great deal of thought has gone into it. I would watch the members of this team in their future projects - they know what they are doing. In more areas than just game design.
Since starting to "play", I have connected my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. Actually, I have only connected one of my two Twitter accounts. That is a current limitation that I have noted. It would be nice to get the credit for my activity on both. Watching my activity on these sites, I have found myself paying attention to how it affects the performance of my shares on EA. With my increased awareness of my presence on social media sites, I feel compelled to increase my activity on those sites. In short, I feel like EA is helping to train me to be a better participant in the social web. It is a feedback/reinforcement system that rewards effective social communication, and punishes the ineffective, or non-existent.
EA is even one of the driving forces behind FINALLY firing up this old blog of mine. Yes, it's on Blogger (it's free and I have had the account for years, so I just needed to start writing, no hard decisions about it). It's been satisfying to put a couple of posts up, too. Like something that has been on the "back burner" for years, that I can finally check off the list!

When I grow up....

2011-05-03T15:15:00.001-06:00

IF I grow up, I have decided, I want to work in commercial space. I don't mean the Aerospace/Defense industry. Been there, done that. It doesn't feel like real space. Besides, I think eventually the corporations that currently hold the largest stakes in the industry will go the way of NASA in it's current space role. This is, of course, just my opinion.

I mean true commercial space. With the winding down of the Space Shuttle program, some commercial firms are making headlines and grabbing important work on the next generation of people-movers. And cargo-movers. I think in the next couple years, this industry will truly flourish, and may even regain the excitement that NASA's Space Program had back in the sixties.

I think that if we let these commercial firms truly compete, and focus on achieving necessary missions with all the constraints of an open market, true innovation will emerge. Quickly. We could rapidly find ourselves surrounded by the technologies that currently only dominate deep sci-fi novels, and heady scientific papers involving theory.

The next few years are going to be exciting times for the commercial pathfinders to space. The next few decades and centuries after that will be so amazing as to be unthinkable today. I want to be there.

Current Status

2011-05-02T14:45:00.000-06:00

I got an email this weekend. From a local Mensa member offering help with my Gifted Children Program.
I wrote a very long response, and thought I would post it here, as a kind of status on the program. Updates and developments will be posted here, too.

"...Thank you for getting in touch! The Plains and Peaks Gifted Children Program
is barely six months old at this point.
I will let you know where we are, what we have done, and if you see any way
to help, please speak up.

First, and I think most importantly, I have tried to have a submission in
the newsletter, and at least one event on the calendar for every month. The
newsletter is important, because it is truly the only way to reach the
membership.

The events we have held to date are:
October: hayride at a pumpkin patch
November: Miss Kathy's Critter Caravan at the Briargate library
December, January and February had no events due to holidays and my personal
travel schedule
March: Geocaching at Garden of the Gods Park
April: "How It Works" at the East Library (I brought a malfunctioning inkjet
printer and some tools to take it apart and "reverse-engineer" it)
May: Will be a "Games Night" at the East Library on Monday, May 9, from
6:30-8 PM
I have a loooonnnngggg list of other ideas for future events. They include
events heavy on science, math, and even on the arts.

I have been building a list of contacts - both local and national - that
will make good resources for families of gifted children.
I have also been trying to build an email distribution list of our local
gifted children and their families, in order to keep them informed about
future events, outside activities that may be of interest, and to poll for
opinions on topics and activities.

Now, the challenges:

Participation. There has not been a single attendee at any of the above
listed events, aside from myself and my own children. There was an adult
member who showed to the April event, with the noble intention to help with
the event.

Organizational limitations. Mensa has chartered this program to maximize
benefit for its members. In our local chapter, we have all of three to four
actual members under the age of 18. However, we have many many members that
are parents of children under 18. By the rules of the program, any and all
of the children of members are eligible for the Gifted Children Program
events. However, they may or may not be Gifted themselves, and may or may
not be interested in those subjects and topics that one would expect of
Gifted Children.

Lack of demographics. American Mensa does send me a monthly report of all
local members under 18. Great. Any time there is a new addition to that
list, I send a personalized welcome letter, with an open invitation to make
our Gifted Children Program THEIR program. I ask about interests. I ask
about what types of activities they would like to see. I hear crickets.
Aside from that, there are NO reports on adult members who have children. I
have no insight whatsoever as to how many members are parents, what the ages
of kids may be, etc.

Despite the challenges, I enjoy the role. I maintain optimism that if I
persist in my efforts, the program will take off. In other parts of the
country, they have wildly successful programs. I truly look forward to that
day: for myself, for my own kids (who are both gifted, and the reason I dove
in and started this program), and for all the gifted children in the area
that a thriving program will serve.

Sorry - a little long-winded, and probably far more response than you
expected. I do, however, welcome your offer of help. As I said...if you see
a way that you can put your talents to work in support of the program, I
look forward to getting you started!
Thank you, and great to hear from you. Feel free to contact me at any time.

Sean McCormick
Gifted Children Coordinator, Plains & Peaks Mensa
http://www.plainsandpeaks.us.mensa.org/
sean.mccormick.us@member.mensa.org
Cell: (719) 651-6706
Twitter: @plainspeaksgcc
..."