Yesterday morning I spent a few hours with one of Quaero’s new software partners. The goal of the session was to educate each other on how we execute, not at a business level, but at a day to day project delivery level. We discussed methodologies (we are an agile shop and they stick to waterfall), design approaches, technical capabilities, and other “in the weeds” topics that are at the core of our respective company’s beliefs. At the end of 2 hours, both of us felt a greater appreciation for what each other does and knew the discussion would pay dividends as we continued our journey together. Through this mutual openness and mentoring, we were able to take a partnership that was simply a signature on a contract to one that is mutually beneficial to each of us…beyond the normal sales leads and marketing support.

Whether you are a consulting company working with a software vendor or a parent raising a 9 year old, partnerships are an integral part of our lives. Your boss is a partner in your success (or should be). Your wife or husband is your partner in life. The owner of your local pizza shop is your partner in food consumption. The person sitting next to you on the bus is your partner in public transportation. Your dog is your partner in getting outdoors. The dude with the headphones on in the cube across from you is your partner in corporate survival. The list of partnerships that we engage in on a daily basis is endless.

What do these everyday interactions have to do with the partnership I have with our software partner? The answer could be nothing or everything depending on what you do with them. In all cases it comes down to open communication and bi-directional discussion. (Yes…even with your dog. Just ask Cesar Millan.) If you don’t take the time to work openly with, support, and understand your partners then the full extent of the relationship will probably never be achieved. If you do spend time to nurture the situation, the partnerships have a chance to go beyond what is on the surface and turn it into a relationship that is beneficial to both of you. In addition, a little nurturing may also tell you that a partnership is not worth your time, which can be just as important for someone who is already overbooked in life.

Give it a shot. The next time you are about to have a meeting with one of your partners, try to answer the following questions and see what happens:

• What can I teach this person about me?
• What can I learn from this person?
• How can I make this person more successful?

Trust me. Your dog will love you for it.

What are you doing to build stronger relationships with your partners?

Enjoy.

Today I was walking out of a local coffee shop and saw a woman coming towards the entrance. She was about 30 feet from the  door so I had every right to just keep on walking. Instead I decided to wait and hold the door for her as she made her way up the stairs. As she approached she made no eye contact with me. As she walked passed me through the door she didn’t even pause to slide me a quick thank you or a smile. I even followed up on the phantom Thank You with a “your welcome”  but that did not slow her down. She was stuck in her own little world walking with an air of righteousness that made me laugh out loud inside my head while holding back my innate desire to stick my foot out.

The whole scene was disappointing but it is something I am seeing it more and more these days. For someone who is far from perfect but does try to take that extra step where I can, it is becoming more and more frustrating to deal with this fall of gratitude.

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

• You let a pedestrian cross in front of you and proceed to watch them take their time slothing across the street without even a wave of the hand in thanks.

• You walk behind a person as they enter a building and have the door slammed in your face when it could have easily been held for you.

• You are about to walk into an elevator and a person who could have seen you coming if they just looked hits the “close door” button right when you are about to get in.

• You sit on a train and see an elderly person standing and  holding on for dear life while a group of teenagers take up 4 seats.

• You sit next to someone on the train, at a sporting event, or some other public place and they talk on their cell as if no one else is around them.

• You have someone not use their turn signal and almost cause you to slam into them?

• You pay for something and not get a thank you from the cashier?

Each of these things happened to me more at least once last week alone.  I believe each of these stem from something that becoming less and less important in this world. The act of treating people the way you would want to be treated.

Whoever came up with this simple statement was dead on and should be given a monument. We can all do it starting right now. Think about the impact your actions have on others and find ways to make that impact a positive one for everyone involved. I strongly believe that this self-awareness can only lead to stronger relationships, more opened doors in all aspects of your life, everyone treating each other like a person versus a category, and the great feeling of receiving a thank you for something that took little or no effort on your part.

Go ahead and try it. No one has the right to the thanks or the help of others but everyone has the ability to offer both to everyone around them.

I will get off my soap-box now. Thanks for listening.

Enjoy.

As I do on most Saturdays, I went to my local record store, Newbury Comics. They were having a moving sale which meant there was less to choose from but I could buy twice as much as I normally do. What a good start to the day.

As I browsed around, I began to think about how I choose the music that I buy. In most cases it is based on recommendations from friends, songs I have heard on the radio, or MP3 blogs I have read. Sometimes though I walk into a store, as I did this morning, with no set list of music in mind. What drives these types of purchases?

Personally I think it is instinct. This innate knowledge of what music you will like is based an unlimited number of factors that blends your own life experiences with the music genre’s that are laid out before you. This powerful combination of memories, images, sounds, emotions, and curiosity in conjunction with how music is inherently categorized helps guide you through the sea of artists and ultimately deliver you what you want, or more importantly, what you need. What’s great is that your needs could change every time depending on the moods or thoughts that are following you around on that specific day.

Try it out sometime. Go to a record store without a game plan and let go. Of course you will end up with some duds every once in a while, but in most cased I bet you will be surprised at the great things you end up with.

The albums that I bought today represent what happens when I let my instinct take over. Today it all worked out nicely.

So what factors going into the music purchases that you make?

Enjoy.

People often ask me why I use Twitter. Until recently I found it hard to explain. I have to admit, it took me over 5 months to post my 2nd update after my first “Trying out twitter” post. It just didn’t click with me the first time around. Until I took the time to use it for a while and successfully make that step across the “Ah Ha!” threshold, it just seemed a bit pointless. Why in the world would someone care that someone they don’t know is about to hit Starbucks or buy a new drill at the Home Depot?

The answer is simple…at least for me. After I took the time, Twitter opened my eyes to a world that is full of people who want to help me, people who are looking for help from me, interesting points of views with a fresh voice, new friends, new opportunities, and of course companies that want to help improve the experience that I have with them.

Ok Ok Ok. I know. That sounded more like a sales pitch than I wanted it to. I told you it was hard to explain. You need something more concrete.

Let me share an experience I had on Twitter that shows the power of this little communication engine in action. Sharing my actual experiences with JetBlue (@jetblue) and how they used Twitter, on 2 separate occasions, to enhance my customer experience and address my concerns in real time, sheds more light on the power of Twitter than any white paper or elevator pitch ever could.

This is how JetBlue, and the people on Twitter, used Social Media to treat me like a human:

Leg #1 – Boston to Denver

I was taking JetBlue for the first time on a 2 day business trip to Denver. On the flight out I think someone accidentally hit the thermostat with their carry-on because I swear it was a minimum of 80 degrees on the plane. When I arrived, feeling even more filthy than I usually do when getting off of a 4.5 hour flight,  I decided to shoot this tweet to Jetblue and let them in on my discomfort.

In under 2 minutes, JetBlue responded with this tweet acknowledging my concern. It may seem like a small thing but think about it. Here is a huge organization listening to me complain about the temperature on their plane over a channel that is far from mainstream. Even more impressive is that it was not an automated response. There was a real person writing that little note. It may not sell more plane tickets but it definitely made me to tell this story.

Leg #2 – Denver to Boston

Now it was time for the return flight home and this time it was a red-eye. I was already grumpy about having to try and sleep in a seat designed for a 10 year old child so I decided to get there a few hours early, relax, and do some reading. I used one of the kiosks to check in and headed up to the counter to check in my bag. Low and behold, there was no one at the counter. It was a ghost town. My plan was shot. Perturbed with iPhone in hand,  I turned to Twitter and shot this Tweet over the bow of my new friends at JetBlue.

Not only did JetBlue respond to me directly, but other folks who follow me on twitter also gave me insight based on their own experience. JetBlue, with the help of the crowd, was again able to turn a situation that would have normally annoyed me into one of understanding and outstanding customer experience.

JetBlue gets it and Twitter helped them deliver it. Just Awesome.

There are many other company’s that leverage Twitter to enhance the experience of their customers and even more individuals who are looking to enhance the lives of the people around them. Get out there and experience both for yourself. Get involved and be amazed at what you will find and how many times people and company’s will surprise you.

Got your own Twitter “Ah Ha” moment? Please comment and keep the conversation going.

Enjoy and of course follow me (@daveraffaele) on twitter.

When asked to bring a food item to a holiday party or other gathering, it is always nice to have a “go to” dish that you know will be a hit. The Raffaele Family-style Antipasto is my weapon of choice. It is a dish that my family, to this day, starts every family dinner with but for others the Family Style Antipasto is received as a special treat. I have decided to share this recipe and let everyone see how easy it really is. A 1/2 hour of prep and a 1/2 hour of configuration and you will put on quite a show. Try it at your next party and I promise folks will enjoy it.

Keep in mind that this recipe is just a guide. Since I tend to wing things in the kitchen, these measurements are only rough estimates. Have some fun with it. It is almost impossible to mess up.

(Thanks to this guy for lending me this picture. Though mine does not look quit like this, I thought it set the mood nicely.)

Raffaele Family Style Antipasto

Ingredients

Tomato Salad
8 – 10 Vine Ripe Tomatoes (Cut them to bit sized pieces that can be eaten with a fork. Not too small. This is not salsa)
Chunk of your favorite Mozzarella Cheese diced
1/2 Cup Freshed Basil chopped
1-2 Cloves of Garlic chopped fine
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 Cup of Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper  to taste

Main Ingredients (All of these can be found in your local grocery store. For the bottled items, I recommend Pastene, but use others if you would like)
12 oz. Bottle Pepperocini drained
2 12 oz. Bottle Giardiniera (Pickled Vegetables) drained
1 Roasted Red Pepper sliced
2 1oz. Marinated Artichokes drained
Assortment of your favorite olives
1/2 lb. Sharp Provolone Cheese cut in small finger food chunks
1/2 lb Genoa Salami
1/2 lb. Prosciutto

Optional Incredients (These are just other things I have seen on an Antipasto. Be as creative as you want here.)
Anchovies
Marinated Mushrooms
Sun Dried Tomotoes

Preparation
A few hours or the night before you need to serve the dish, combine all of the ingredients for the tomato salad in a bowl, cover it, and put it in the fridge. Every once in a while use a large spoon to turn the ingredients in order to allow the liquid to soak into all of the ingredients. Over time the vinegar (which tends to break things down over time) does some work on the other ingredients and the flavors really begin to blend together to produce a very flavorful salad. Continue to turn the ingredients until it is tie to plate the full dish.

Even though the next step in preparation could be done a few hours in advance, I prefer to put things together right before serving because I think the ingredients remain more fresh and the marinated items do not have a chance to take over the flavors of the other ingredients.

In order to plate this, you will need a large flat platter or serving plate. The first things I layout are the meat and cheese. I roll each piece of salami and prosciutto into a tube. I then alternate a piece of salami, a piece of prosciutti, and a piece of cheese to make a ring around the outside of the plate. Next I use a large slotted (you do not want to make you plate all soupy) spoon to create a pile in the middle of the plate with the tomato salad . Now, you should have space remaining on the plate between the meat/cheese and the tomato salad. This space will be filled up with the remaining incredients. I usually layer them in this order: (Giardiniera, Artichokes, Olives, Roasted Pepper) Once layered, it is ready to impress. Just throw it on the table, stick a couple of big serving spoons into it, and you should be able to keep a good sized dinner party at bay until the main course is served.

Enjoy.

If you are a Tag Cloud fan then Wordle is your Nirvana. Paste in a block of text, Blog URL, or a del.icio.us user name and the service will create a random word cloud based on the contents. You can change the look and feel yourself or just hit random to have Wordle determine the look and feel for you. Once you find the tag cloud that suits your personality, print it, save it, or share it in their public gallery.

Feedly has made reading my RSS feeds more enjoyable. If you are a Google Reader and Firefox user, this Firefox extension converts your RSS reader into an online magazine. Not only does it include a slick interface but it also makes scanning through the mountain of information you receive easier by allowing you to group and view your content how you want to see it. Getting to the stuff you want to read and clearing out the stuff you want to ignore makes living in this content driven world just a bit easier to manage.

The Richard Solo was one of the first iPhone battery backups on the market. At around $60, this little gadget was a no brainer for me. Before I go to sleep at night I simply plug my battery backup into my iPhone and then plug the battery into the wall adapter. When I wake up in the morning I have a fully charged iPhone and a fully charged back up. If I am on the go and start running out of juice, I just plug in my Richard Solo and continue using my iPhone without skipping a beat. It is great for the those long coast to coast flights.

Follow me long enough on Twitter and you will know that I am a supporter of the Hype Machine. Anthony, the founder of the machine, has built a site that has gone beyond being just a MP3 blog aggregator and has morphed into a engine of music exploration. Follow your favorite MP3 blogs, listen to new music as it is released, and find new artists that you would never have known existed. The Hype Machine’s set of tools make it easier and fun to do all of these things. Check out the 2008 Zeitgeist for an introduction to the power of the Hype Machine.

If you own an Apple TV or Airport Express, you know how nice it is to listen to your iTunes music over your stereo. But what happens if you are on a website  (i.e. The Hype Machine, MySpace, Blip.fm) that has a built in flash music player and you want to listen to those tracks over your stereo? Airfoil comes to the rescue. This little $25 application, which is available for Mac and Windows, lets you stream any sound that your PC makes through your Apple TV and/or Airport Express. Go ahead and try it out. Everything sounds better through a real stereo system.

Enjoy.

This afternoon, 5 inches of fresh snow and a few free hours turned into a walk around Henry David Thoreau’s old playground, Walden Pond. Even though the sun wasn’t able to break through as expected, the lack of wind and the fresh snow made it a great day for a walk around the pond with the camera. Here are a few pictures I took as I walked with the snowshoers and cross-country skiers enjoying the day, clearing my head, and pondering what it felt like to be Mr. Thoreau.

Enjoy.

The Jing Project allows you to take screen shots (png) or video captures (flash with audio) on your computer and quickly share them. I used Jing for all of the images you see in this post by simply going to each site, clicking on Jing’s little sunshine in the corner of my screen, selecting image capture, and then highlighting what I wanted to capture on the screen. It was 60 seconds of work and included the upload to WordPress. What’s great is that it works just as well on Windows as it does on a Mac. They also have a pro version that allows you to export smaller video files (flash files can get big) and much more. Jing is a top 10 application for me. Oh yeah, did I mention it was free?

The folks over at IKEA Hacker take Ikea’s modular design to a new level and create really cool and functional mashups that anyone can replicate. As someone who used Ikea to renovate and furnish my first condo,  I can truly appreciate what the hackers do with this stuff. I wish Ikea and the hackers existed when I was in my 20′s. I would have had the phattest pad.

I Love Photos’ wants to make your digital photos more functional. Their first free product launch (for mac only) runs a face recognition process against your photos and allows you to assign each face it finds to a tag or set of tags via a nice drag and drop interface. When I tested it out, the product found my big head pretty easily. I tagged all of the photos that included my face in them as “Huge Noggin” and now all I have to do is click on that tag to see all of the pictures that contain me. I am interested to see how this product evolves over time. I wonder if they will start to identify landmarks and other non-facial targets as well. I am not a huge fan of having to use more than one application to manage one subject area (i.e. photos) but at least I Love Photos offers bi-directional syncing with iPhoto, my main photo management system.

I am always on the lookout for WordPress plugins that can make my blog better. Meet Your Commenters plugin adds a new screen to your Dashboard and leverages Google Social Graph API to deliver enhanced information about the folks who comment on your site. It is a great way to learn more about your readers and find other social networks on which you can interact with them. As the Social Graph becomes more robust, I expect this plugin to become an even better way to get to know your peeps.

The other day  I was looking for an iPhone application that would let me stream Woxy.com internet radio over my iPhone. FStream for the iPhone is offically my favorite for iPhone internet radio streaming application. Based on the open source Mac version, this simple app allows you to add radio stations easily and quickly become a portable, streaming radio superstar. I can now get in my car, plug my iPhone into the auxiliary jack, open FStream, and flip between my internet radio stations like it was my car stereo. You can also use it as a voice recorder but until my online brain, Evernote, lets me down, I will probably never use that feature. FYI, some other internet radio stations I enjoy are Seattle’s juggernaut KEXP.org and LA’s NPR station KCRW.

Enjoy

iCall is a company I have been watching ever since I saw this video:

As an iPhone user and someone who tests the limits of his cell phone minutes each month, iCall is a very exciting possibility. Think about it. If I am at work or sitting around my house and I get a call, iCall will allow me to take the call over my wireless network rather than burning minutes. Even better, if I am on a call and come across a wireless network, iCall will allow me to transfer the call in real time from the cell network to the wireless network. Very sweet.

In addtion to the soon to be released iPhone app, iCall also offers a desktop version (Windows Only) that allows you to make calls from your PC.  iCall has also built this little web widget that allow you to make unlimited 3 minute (the 1st 20 seconds is an ad) calls over the web.  Go ahead and try it out. I had issues the first time I tried but after that it worked like a charm.

So what’s the damage for something this slick?

Well obviously it is not going to be free but the iCall plans do seem pretty reasonable. If the service works well and you can reduce the amount of money you shell out to AT&T, then maybe $10 for their unlimited plan could be a huge win. We shall see.

The iPhone app has been in review since October 2008 but iCall claims it will be released any day now.

Enjoy.

I just picked up a new lens for my Nikon D70s yesterday and it has quickly pumped life back into an old hobby. I have been using the Nikkor 18-70mm that came with my camera for the past 2 years. It is a great lens but I really have been hankering for a some more zooooom. After putting the purchase off for a while I finally bit the bullet and dropped the pesos for the Nikkor 18-200mm. I could not ask for a better everyday lens. Read Ken Rockwell’s review if you are interested in hearing more about it. Up close or from a distance this lens has got it covered. The only other lens I need now is the Nikkor 12-24mm super wide angle and I will be all set.  I may just have to sneak that bad boy into the wedding registry.

Sp, with my new gear in tow I headed out this morning to take some pictures. I find that getting up early on a Sunday morning with nothing but a cup of coffee and a camera is a great way to clear the brain and prepare for the week ahead. Here are some shots I took on my journey around Harvard Square. I plan to do this every week and with a few photography lessons strewn though out the year I am hopeful, and excited, to see the progress I make with my pictures.

Enjoy.