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Originally uploaded by Renaissance Revolution

This is my picture of the day. I have decided to take a picture every day for some period of time. It is kind of a snapshot of what I do, who I am, and gives me one moment every day to share my creativity with the world. So far, it looks like I will upload a photo, then go back later an straighten it out, and add a caption. Soon, should be able to do most of this from the get go.

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Originally uploaded by Renaissance Revolution

caleb

Originally uploaded by Renaissance Revolution

I would like to introduce you to my nephew. I am getting hooked on taking pictures with my mobile phone, since that is the only digital camera I have.

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Originally uploaded by Renaissance Revolution

mc dees icecream makes me happy.

I found this video on a blog I have started reading called kottke.org. The video is about a supposed pbs series on intelectual high school students. Hillarious imho

So, I have come to discover that I am addicted to learning new things, reading new books, discovering new places. I am in the processes of determining what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I think this is a part of me, for better or worse.

For Better
I never have qualms about reading a new book, incorporating a new idea into a proposal, or trying out new/beta software to see if it increases my productivity. I am always on the lookout for new trends, ideas, books, or ways of incorporating those ideas into my life.

For Worse
Because I am always in search of new things, I often do not take the time to perfect old things that once were new and are now not. Addicted is the correct term for my habit of learning.

I mentioned in a previous post I am reading Here Comes Everybody, which has the tag line “the power of organizing without organizations”. I am almost finished reading it, and the revelations just keep coming. As I was at Eller, the business college at U of A, I was frustrated by the knowledge of powerful organizational tools out there, and the lack of adoption by entrenched organizational culture. Of course the tools like social networks and wikis were fairly new, and only cutting edge schools were using those tools, it was still a source of frustration for me.

This book is putting into words the feelings I had about past and future organizations. Groups are easy to form these days. They can also break apart easily, and are not necessarily geographically centred. Clay Shirky explains so many of aspects of group formation, and the dynamics today’s digital tools have changed. I get very excited about what companies and organizations will look like once these digital tools become prolific and part of our cultural framework.

In fact, part of my difficulty in choosing a career, has been my preference and search for early adopters of these digital tools. After reading this book, I realize it will take time for these tools to reach a high level of adoption, and for the technology to dissolve into cultural norm, before they will truly become useful. (if I have lost anyone, it is only when you can say you googled something, and not have to explain what google is, that the conversation can be about your chosen conversational topic, and not about the technology involved.)

Despite my desire to be the digital prophet to large organizations, proclaiming the coming of mass collaboration, preaching the benefits of crowdsourcing and customers as partners, I do not have experience or credentials to consult companies on these topics. My ardent passion is not enough to be an outside influence, but I would love to work within a company and encourage their level of adoption. But which company? Who knows.

I am currently reading “Now What: The Young persons guide to choosing the perfect career”. So far, it does a great job breaking down the career path. I am using Mind Meister to mind map my notes, and to share that mind map with anyone who reads my blog (which currently, I believe is no one, but will hopefully change).

I will use the tag “now what” to designate the next few posts I write about the book, and the direction I am thinking of heading in for my own career. Of course, this is an approximation, since I have around 50 hobbies, and would love to have tons of different jobs over my life (especially if past performance is an indicator of future patterns).

I will try to embed the wiki inside a post or two, which should not be too hard.

This is a new section I will be doing. It is basically what it means for me to do stuff online. Sure there are the usual suspects of writing in my blog, or checking my facebook. But somehow I fill up quite a bit of time doing stuff online. Some of it I find quite productive and enriching, some of it a complete waste of time, with onlya sliver of ever having a possibility of ever ever ever being useful (read twitter here).

I hope to uncover why some of the things I do I think are truly useful, and why some of the pointless things are…….. well pointless.

I have been working with my business partner on making garden gnomes to sell online. We have a corporate website, a wiki, and all sorts of other great collaboration tools. I am a huge proponent of wikis, but my fascination with ideas does not always translate into practicing what I preach.

We have setup a socialtext install of the open source version of their wiki software. I love how it is put together, and is a great solution, if only I knew how to organize it better. Since Jeff, my business partner, and I are leading the way in the company for it’s use. The term Ross Mayfield of socialtext uses, is “gardener”.

I sympathize with dewy, from the dewy decimal system (no clue if it was a real guy, anybody feel like wikipeding it, post in the comments). How do you categorize ideas, projects, and tasks that are all related to each other? As I figure this out, I will write my conclusion. Or better yet I will find someone else with a degree in project management who has a nice blog on the subject, and link to them!

ta ta for now.