Welcome to the SilentProject

I am a Geek

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:22:54 +0000

I am so sorry gang, it’s been months since i updated this small dusty part of my digital-ness-isity! rest assured more hilarity to follow! in the meantime check out www.geekadvancement.com

Penny for your thoughts? How your 2 cents add up to a lot of change…

admin — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:32:20 +0000

My choice of career was accepted enthusiastically by my parents when I chose a major in college, and it was lamented just as enthusiastically when I graduated with an IT degree in the midst of the tech bubble collapse. As fluid as the technology is and as stormy as the seas of the industry are I have become used to changing (for the most part) how I think, what tools I use and what works and what does not; IT has largely been “rolling with the punches” since 2001(ish).
With all the focus on change at the government and policy level have we thought about how we manage change? Or how it starts? Is a grassroots approach always the best or do we occasionally need to deploy the cold-war-esque Iron fist?
I have found that largely it is easier to apologize than to ask for permission; if you ask someone you give them the first right of refusal when that has already rested with you (after all you already THINK it’s a good idea). I try to foster creativity in my employees, part of my job is to say “no” to crazy ideas but to say “humm give it a try” to others. Often the least obvious and most Macgyverish solutions are the ones that bring a project or solution to completion when things look darkest. As agents and creatures of change we must keep pushing the envelope, try to show people how things could work better but we also have to remain receptive to new ideas. (cliché but its true) When we manage change are we managing it on an institutional level or at a personal level? Or Both?

Aaaaand we’re back!

admin — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:17:58 +0000

Sorry for the lag everyone these last few weeks have been brutal. Ask me about the leaks from the “pool on the roof” at work…but here we go nonetheless. I have about four mostly finished blog posts in the wings so look for a rapid fire series of updates as I get the time in the next few days or so.

What’s in a Tweet? Why I do and why you should too.

admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:31:47 +0000

I am an avid Twitter(er) I have TweetDeck on my machine at work and on my laptop at home, I have a twitter app on my BlackBerry and you can watch the evolution of my usage by a quick skim of the early days of my feed. I Tweet because I find it fun and fascinating, I am exposed to people I would never normally have the opportunity to interact with even passively. As a technology professional getting a glimpse into what an industry leader or commentator is thinking or reading is priceless; and if I get the chance to pass that on or comment myself so much the better.
At least to the crowd I run with on a daily basis Twitter is something of a foreign commodity, I have a few friends and casual colleagues online but by and large I get the “Well I have HEARD of it” or “is it like FaceBook?” responses when I talk passionately about it. My wife (@kcampbellb) is fighting the addiction hard but I think she is crumbling, another friend (@digiphile) tweets like it is his job because…well it is. I don’t aspire to become one of the Twitterati but if I can drive some traffic to my blog or meet some new, cool people or stumble into something amazing then I will continue to be fulfilled with my 140 character relationships.
A lot of fuss is being made about these “Web 2.0” companies not having sustainable business models and how overly trendy all these web based applications are but if you think about it all sorts of things have begun as community driven grass-roots movements and initiatives. Political campaigns community organizations etc. You just need the weight of people who feel that they are worthwhile behind them, would I pay for Twitter? Probably, assuming that the people I cared about following did too; but that’s beside the point. What Twitter is doing is facilitating dialogue; we have taken relationships both personal and professional and put them out in the “cloud”. It’s not as stuffy as LinkedIn and it doesn’t have the pictures of drunken revelry that FaceBook is clogged with; it’s a platform for communication that can be both inane and profound, worthwhile and worthless and I am proud to be a part of it.

The New President’s Digital Quandary

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:38:21 +0000

I was reading this article and I found myself laughing. I have been following the struggle for presidential communication rights since the election and I can’t help but wonder what I would do in that situation. “The leader of the free world wants a laptop so he can surf the web and keep up on his webcomics. make it happen” I refuse to believe that with all the money we spend within the government that we can’t make one man’s mobile device secure; but when you think about the $500 hammers and $200 toilet seats the cost of the $3500 smart phone swings back into perspective.

We have an entire BRANCH of the federal government devoted to securing our communications channels so I am almost positive that they can keep our new president connected. (It is rather scary to think about what they would set the password requirements on your e-mail to be). We should also go wardriving down Pennsylvania avenue to see if there is a new access point called “MrThe Prez” or “1600PA”. I bet there is also a decent chance of spotting the President with a laptop and a homebrew antenna trying to poach wifi from some kindly soul with a “linkysys” AP nearby.

So if he can’t keep connected through conventional means and we have an “all paper oval office” how can we expect our leader to stay in touch? That is a HUGE disconnect, which should not be allowed. If he can order an airstrike anywhere in the world on a moments notice he should be able to look at cnn.com, browse Craigslist for great deals on a new couch for the residence and see un-filtered news feeds from around the globe. Yes we have a huge intelligance apparatus yes he can just all NOAA but does he WANT too? should he HAVE too? Or can our federal government get the man a damn PDA and a laptop?

The “Connected at Birth” posit.

admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:38:32 +0000

Some very good friends of mine are expecting their first child in a few months and I am hugely excited. They have tentative picked a name for their firstborn and were frankly puzzled when I suggested over dinner that they should sign him up for E-mail addresses etc. so that he has them for when he comes of age. Which dovetails into a what a co-worker told me about his daughters school not aggressively teaching penmanship in lieu of typing, as all their homework is online.

So I am forced to ask the question: When is it too early to start your child on a digital path? should we forgo the ABC’s in crayon for the tiny keyboard on an EEEPC? Should your toddler be able to type when he can talk? Should Gtalk and Gmail be a good way for him/her to communicate with family and friends?

Discuss because I am all for it!

Designing IT?

admin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:33:01 +0000

I am reading The Designful Company (Amazon Link) by Marty Neumeier, awesome book and it inspired a “Woah” moment from this One of the things I miss the most from my time at a medical device startup was watching the product designers work, whether it was the engineers or the design guys it was fascinating. I loved wathing the model making and the 3d printer was pretty sweet; and that I think is what is missing from a lot of IT, that iterative thought and the acknowledgment of weaknesses. What worked great a few minutes ago is now broken by something else, IT MAKES technology work for an enterprise, it rarely DESIGNS it to work from the get go. You can make the argument about software development or applications or databases etc. But what about the hardware, or telecom, or infrastructure for that matter? Are we designing solutions or applying a template? Does the software we buy and customize really do the job or does the job end up conforming to it? I found with one CRM roll-out that we were defining the business processes as we went, we would get ideas from the system. Admittedly a young application roll-out but still..

New Theme

admin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:06:41 +0000

I did it, I added a new theme and tweaked some font sizes! A small achievement for some on you I know but for this guy it is a large..baby step.. forward

Mac-y Goodness!

admin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:32:07 +0000

well it looks like with MacWorld tomorrow the curtain will be lifted on some new toys for mac-o-philes. Pretty decent rumor roundup at http://bit.ly/hJvK I still want to snag a macbook proto play with but I am not sure if the cost is really worth it. I got a pretty impressive Asus this summer for way less than half the cost.

Hi there!

admin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:07:08 +0000

I just realized as I was adding links to the sidebar that I have an absolute ton of stuff I wish I could cover for links to blogs tools webcomics etc. Yikes! I am learning wordpress as I go here so bear with me as the site may change drestically and randomly or end up broken entirely.