What Does It All Mean?

Just for fun, today I visited Digg the Candidates - a spot on the popular social networking site that ranks the current Presidential candidates.

It would seem that although online supporters are very passionate about their candidates, they simply don't reflect the "real world" - and by that I mean the general results (to date) in the Primaries. While Web2.0 helps those who are passionate about a candidate, spread the word, it doesn't necessarily mean that anyone is listening.

I think what the chart above tells us is how younger voters are leaning. Watch the exit polls from the coming primaries and see if you don't spot the same trend - especially in the Democratic race.

I think it's no surprise that the leaders from each party (on this list) seem to have the easiest time raising money online, which is then (ironically) spent on traditional media (TV, radio) to get their campaign messages out to the rest of the population.

But watch this trend over time. If Obama doesn't win the Democratic nomination this year, he's already garned huge support online (at sites like this as well as his own candidate site). This is a huge asset that he can reuse in another four years - an asset that some of the other candidates simply don't have.

If I was a member of congress, I'd be spending time building an online community, whether my re-election was imminent or not. In future, I bet it'll be the fastest and most efficient way to raise money and to keep a potential campaign team constantly "engaged".

It's all about "reach". And garnering each constituent's permission to conduct a conversation.

Top Ten Things to Do Waiting for Next Packers Season.

Top Ten Things to Do Waiting for Next Packers Season

1. Play Jeopardy theme song in your head after asking yourself, will Favre return?
2. Put HGH in Al Harris' cereal to help him keep up with tall receivers (like Plaxico Burris) next year.
3. Recite the Mike McCarthy mantra. "We didn't take advantage of the opportunity we were presented. We'll learn from this and continue to develop".
4. Practice "off season" tailgating skills at Brewers games.
5. Thank God you're not an avid Milwaukee NBA basketball fan.
6. Launder your Ryan Grant jersey.
7. Begin calling sports radio shows with your Packer's NFL draft selections.
8. After losing a bet, stick your tongue to Vince Lombardi statue on coldest day in Green Bay.
9. Practice for next post season at Lambeau by watching the SuperBowl outside, shirtless.
10. Refurbish worn out cheesehead.

The Hero Wall

Many years ago, I had an idea. I wanted to dedicate a wall in our office to "Heros" - pictures of people who provided each employee with inspiration in their daily lives. The photos might have been of family, friends, community leaders, military, sports, business or political leaders.

The idea was, that eveyone in the office could identify three people who inspire them the most, and put their images on the Hero wall.

I was going to create an "inspiration gallery". It was to be a conversation starter - to provide each employee the opportunity to explain to their co-workers why the photos were especially meaningful to them - a personal daily reminder to "be all we can be".

I wondered whether personal inspiration could be contageous.

And it would have been a way to encourage my staff to look for inspiration all around them.

In the end, I never tried the experiment. Frankly, it might have made some of the staff uncomfortable and I didn't want to run afoul of HR, in case the staff wanted to post religious photos or controversial figures. It might have been a distraction more than an inspiration and in the end I decided that didn't want to take the risk.

Had I had the courage to proceed, Bill Strickland might have been one of my photos. Until yesterday, I had never heard of Bill Strickland. Thanks to Guy Kawasaki's blog, I was introduced to him via his inspiring talk at TED.

After watching the 30 minute video I dare you to be uninspired.

LinkedOUT

Late last week I noticed that I had inadvertently created two accounts at the popular business networking site LinkedIn.

One was a very old account I had created at a former employer just to try out the service and had forgotten about. I had long abandoned that account (it only had 3 contacts).

About a year ago I created a new account, where I cultivated loads of contacts and even got four or five recommendations from colleagues. Over the past year I've recognized the benefits of building up an electronic network and LinkedIn was my preferred provider.

And so to clean up the two accounts, I sent an email to LinkedIn customer service (the ONLY way they can be contacted) and requested that my old account be deleted. LinkedIn doesn't allow you to manage (delete or merge) your accounts. They have to do it for you.

You can guess what they did.

That's right. Instead of deleting the old account, they deleted the new one. All my contact information lost. All my recommendations gone.

They never sent any verification email - is this the right account? They just deleted it.

I had a bad feeling about the request from the beginning. I had sent the email request from my active account (because my old account was created using a (now) obsolete email address). I specifically mentioned that I wanted the account with all the contacts KEPT and the one with the three contacts deleted.

And so now I get to see whether LinkedIN can recover my data.

Until then, I'm LinkedOUT.

Engineering Made Easy?

Engineering even I can understand.

Today's the Day

My son, Jeff has the afternoon booked off work.

He requested the time off several weeks ago - the moment he learned Steve Jobs' Macworld Keynote address would be available later today at the Apple website.

What is it about the Apple brand that would cause my 16 year old to interrupt his life to take notice?

Perhaps it's the aura of rebellion that the "Think Different" brand evokes. Perhaps it's the fact that he already owns a Mac Mini and several iPods. Perhaps it's his experience with OS X, purchased the first day it was available at the Mac store. (In fact, Dad still has the T-shirt given out to the first 500 customers who waited outside in line, that chilly evening.)

I remember that same feeling once before.

It was at Lotusphere many years ago, during the launch of Domino 5.0.

Over 12,000 avid fans attended the event in Orlando, late in January. I led a contingent of about a half dozen of my developers, managers and engineers. Our company had, years earlier, made the decision to use Lotus Notes enterprise wide. And we were happy with the decision.

Some very bright team members made Lotus NOTES so much more than email. We built knowledge management applications, project management applications and employee review applications with the platform. Our corporate intranet was built on the Domino platform.

We hung on every word of each conference session. The keynotes were like rock shows. You could feel the energy in the crowd. People believed in the product and the applications it made possible. Lotus was innovating at light speed. They had features and capability that Exchange just didn't have.

Not only did Lotus have customers, they had fans.

Perhaps it was a sense of community, rising up against the Microsoft machine. Perhaps it was a sense of adventure. Whatever it was, it was exciting.

And I plan on recapturing some of that feeling this afternoon - when Jeff and I listen to the Macworld Keynote together.

Biting the Hand That Feeds You

Today, Gizmodo bragged about disrupting the CES show in Las Vegas, by using a handheld IR device to shut off display screens throughout the trade show.

The boast was made by way of a video they shot while disrupting the presentations of the very vendors who they rely upon for new product updates or advertising revenue.

Was this an example of blogging suicide or a funny prank?

You decide.

The Dawn of Helpdesk

Since the beginning of time, man has struggled with change. This is hilariously exemplified in this video.

I recently rediscovered the video on my PC and forgot where I originally discovered it. If anyone can cite the original source, I'd be pleased to include the information here.

The example is priceless.

[Update]: I did find this video on YouTube here.

Dave's Despair

Despair is one of my favorite websites. If you've never been there, the site features business related cynical (tongue in cheek) artwork, calendars, mugs etc.

The site is the antithesis of the upbeat, motivational Successories products.

On a recent visit to Despair, I discovered their DIY section, which enables you to upload photos and create your own posters.

Here's what I came up with. What do you think?











This site is fun and VERY theraputic!

Smile!

Getting a little paranoid about being observed? We're watched at the ATM, at the mall, at the gas station. in office elevators, in traffic.... pretty much everywhere.

It's not going to improve anytime soon. Look no further than this site which searches the internet for video cameras and then posts the images on their site.

Each video feed is identified to some degree. And locations are searchable.

Just for fun I searched on Wisconsin video cameras and found I could observe several University of Wisconsin cameras in Madison as well as many DMV Emissions Testing facility cameras.

When Google starts offering a video feed search engine (they aren't planning this - as far as I know) then whatever semblance of privacy you thought you had, will be completely lost.

Smile!