"C" Words

Tom Asacker is closing the book on 2005 and setting his goals for 2006.

Clarity
Conviction
Connection
Curiosity
Celerity
Celebration

These are the "C" words Tom has outlined to guide him for the new year. 6 good ones!

Check out his full posting on A Clear Eye.


PS - Which also reminds me that while I finished reading his new book, A Clear Eye for Branding, I have not yet written the review on it. This is something I should do soon.


asacker
brand

'Twas the blog before Christmas

'Twas the blog before Christmas, when all through the house
No blogger was stirring, no hand moved the mouse.
The postings were stacked by the tag cloud with care,
In hopes that more readers soon would be there;

The users were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of updates danced in their heads;
And me with my podcast, downloaded like that,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out from my laptop there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my desk to see what was the matter.
Away to the portal I flew like a flash,
Tore open the reader and refreshed the cache.

The enclosure attached soon gave me to know
That new entries were here, more news I should know.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a raft of new updates, eight headlines so clear,

With a quick Wiki update, who could it be?
Our investor, of course, a leading VC.
More rapid than eagles his portfolio came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Blogspot! Now Feedster! now, Movable Type!
On, FeedBurner, FeedBlitz! (On Marketing Hype!)
To the top of the feed! To the top of them all!
Now blog away! blog away! blog away all!"

As valuations that before the wild bubble do fly,
When they meet with a fund, mount up to the sky,
So up to the top of the investments they flew,
With RSS data, and named it Web 2.

And then, with a twinkling, I read in my news
Each notable posting, contrary views.
As I drew back my hand, and was turning around,
Down to my trackback he came with a bound.

His comments were brief, what was ado?
Were adwords OK? Did users click through?
A bundle of mashups he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

Our AJAX - how it twinkled! Our tagging - how merry!
We socially networked to his brand new BlackBerry!
Our RSS valid, we were well syndicated,
We subscribed to the feeds that we loved (and we hated);

The stump of our web site held tight in our teeth,
The hyperbole encircled his head like a wreath;
We tagged Technorati, we blogged with the best,
On Feedster we surged and made the A-list.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And marked us on Frappr, and Flickr he searched.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
Updated his blog, up our OPML rose;

He sprang to his feed, gave his investments a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"

**

With best wishes from FeedBlitz to everyone this holiday season!

(c) www.feedblitz.com 2005
Full reproduction permitted only with full attribution and links intact.

Technorati: FeedBlitz RSS Bloglet

Strength-based Leadership - David Zinger

I found David Zinger and wrote about his blogs on the Hitchhiker Guide to the Blogosphere. I think his writing on strength-based leadership is something this group would be interested in.

For example:

Leadership is strength, love, and energy. Effective leaders know and leverage their strengths every day. They love themselves and their followers while also caring for their organization and results. Powerful leaders manage their energy and mobilize the energy of others. Strength, love, and energy maximize engagement. This weblog is David Zinger's contribution to your strength-based leadership development.

And from his posting on Networking Buzzzz:

Keith Ferrazzi was a co-author of Never eat alone: And other secrets to success, one relationship at a time. Brian Uzzi is a co-author of How to build your network.

Two authors with 4z’s in their names are contributing to a renewed buzzzz on relationships, connecting, and networking.

And from his posting on 12 Days of Strength Leadership:

This post invites you to engage in the 12 days of strength-based leadership. There is a specific leadership action attached to each post.

Choose one or two actions to begin. One of the principles of strength training is to gradually build up your strength - this will add muscle to your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual actions.

If you click on the post, it will take you to the complete article for each action.

Enjoy!

Breaking Stride

Feeling a little out of sorts tonight. Bloglines is down. Oh, they told us in advance so I have no complaint. But I miss it.

On the one hand it is hard to admit that I do, but I do. I had put away some stuff in my Discoveries folder to write for the Hitchhiker's Guide and I haven't posted there for over a week. So Bloglines will be my new excuse to not catch up.

I even tried reading the blogroll on my own page and kept closing the window, instead of paging back. I got so in the habit of closing the window after clicking through from Bloglines.

But breaking stride is a good thing. Kind of like going camping in the woods, and living out of a tent for some time. When you come home, you have a renewed appreciation for running water and a soft bed.

Being mindful of your surroundings. Stopping to smell the roses. Well, not really in New England at this time of year, its more like checking the snow/crystal formation along the gutter. The slow water trickling along creating a world of sparkle.

Appreciating being able to write. To cruise the net, even without my Bloglines partner.

Thanks for the inspiration Patti!

Now, I really should get to wrapping some presents. That can't wait.

Carnival of 100 Bloggers, Issue 1

Check out Issue 1 of the Carnival of 100 Bloggers featuring Rosa Say, Trevor Gay, Pet Campbell, Ken Camp, Rebecca Thomas and Troy Worman.

My jargon is better than your jargon

I wish I had seen this sooner.

HowBlog

How? Yes, you.. we... us... them... how do we blog?

This started as a simple question that Frank posed and now will be a series of posts this week by some significant A listers.







Bottom line,
A list or long tail...
starting with a keyboard or a pen or a microphone...
no matter the technology for capturing or delivering...
in the beginning was the word...

Actually in the beginning,
the thought came before the word!
The thought begat the word,
the word begat the publication,
the publication begat the conversation

and the conversation goes on.

Intrusive Mobile and Internet Technologies: an etiquette for socially responsible use

From The Bumble Bee, I find this posting on Intrusive Mobile and Internet Technologies: an etiquette for socially responsible use.

The diagram below attempts to summarize the 4 parties and 6 different rights
they hold:

I like it. This uses a common sense approach and lays the etiquette out in an easily understandable format. Now, we need to get the senders and receivers to buy into this so the disinterested parties (who currently are probably the most abused) can get some relief.

I say the disinterested parties are the most abused because that is what I have seen in my experience. When I have been engaged in a conversation, and the other party is interrupted, they are generally most apologetic. In the same circumstance, I as a rule, do not allow interruptions.

But the disinterested parties, of which I tend to be one commuting via train regularly, ah there is a different story. Many times, the phone rings (1 - we heard it) and then the conversation starts (2 - we are now involved, like it or not). It is amazing what folks will talk about in public. When they get on a phone, they must think this bubble envelops them and they disappear to the rest of the world. Now there is an idea!

A cell phone with an enveloping bubble that encloses the phone person when they are on it in a sound proof chamber.

Hmmm, how could we do that?

I need to go to the drawing board....

Back later...

PS - If you have any ideas, drop me a line or feel free to comment!

Be careful who you partner with!

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer had this article on Monday that I am finally getting around to write about today. It is not one that will become old and obsolete but the longer I wait to let you know about it (assuming you have not heard this through other channels) the more dangerous it could be. Bold is mine for emphasis.

A steady stream of irritations and upsets from people and things around us can literally make us sick or slow to heal.

Psychological stress and physical ills have become so well linked over the past few decades that researchers into the brain-immune system connection have a name for the specialty -- psychoneuroimmunology.

Two studies published Monday further illustrate when and how stress affects the immune system.

A report in the Archives of General Psychiatry finds that routine marital discord can slow the body's ability to heal from trauma or surgical wounds by as long as two days. The second study, by Australian researchers working with mice, fingered a specific stress hormone that appears to disrupt the work of immune cells.

So when you hear someone say about someone else, "they make me sick"... there is some truth to that statement. They certainly don't help you heal quickly.

In the first study, a team at Ohio State University led by Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychiatry and psychology, and her husband, immunology professor Ronald Glaser, found that married couples who showed high levels of hostility to each other needed two days longer to heal from wounds compared with couples whose hostility levels were low. Even typical married couples who argue for just a half hour slow their ability to heal from wounds by about one day.

So be careful with how you let your partners affect you.

Stay positive!

Don't let their negativity hinder you in any way.

Read the full article here.

The road witch trial

Found this via Mark Hurst at the Good Experience Blog who is periodically announcing the speakers for the upcoming GEL Conferences.

One of the speakers at the Copenhagen conference will be Ted Dewan (bio), who recently pioneered a new way to slow traffic on his residential street in Britain.

Check out the new way!

What I like about this is the simplicity of the solution. (Yes, Trevor... can't get away from this theme these days!).

What will slow down speeders?
Objects.

What kind of objects?
Something they would not want to hit.

What don't they want to hit?
Something that they would rather look at.

Of course, if you haven't followed the link yet to check out Ted's solution, do so please!

Do you have a speeding problem in your neighborhood?

Wouldn't this be worth a try?

Simplicity - Blog of Note

Trevor, I don't know if you noticed but as I was signing out of Blogger today, I happened to see that Simplicity was listed as a Blog of Note.

Congratulations! Nice work!

PS - I captured a screen shot just in case!

Synergy and Flow at Base in Brief

Check out this thought-provoking post by our friend Felix!

We are branded continuously by our actions. If we are conscious of this, as Goffman asserts, and we act to censor ourselves, then we are continuously branding ourselves.

It sounds like a lot of effort. And it is. Some are better at dealing with this than others. When two or more people have synergy, this overhead, this self-censorship, is less necessary.

When we are ourselves, when we act with integrity, the branding effort, the development of our reputation, is more natural, and with others, the forming and storming and norming of the team flows. This is the stuff of synergy.

Synergy and flow at base, in brief, is begot by character.

...

Maybe there is

Maybe there is something to that coffee fix, java jolt, that some folks need in the morning. My wife is one. I have not gotten hooked although on the weekend I will have a cup to keep her company.

The Seattle Post story highlights some research where caffeine does have an affect on the frontal brain, home to the areas that control attention and concentration.

More research needs to be done of course... but maybe there is something to get started with coffee!