Day off

I abstained from the computer for most of today, taking advantage of a company holiday.   Recently, I’ve felt a bit overextended and chaotic in my approach, hacking  away at existing task lists while struggling not to chase every shiny object that arrives in my various in-boxes.

Today, it was nice to drink coffee on the couch,  put my car back together (see the ABS controller issue a couple posts back),  work out for the first time in months, take my cat to the vet (learned all about proteins and  histamine receptors), played with our dogs, and capped the evening with a long, relaxing walk on a greenway with Leslie after dinner out.   It was a decidedly analog day, and absolutely what I needed.

Reluctant to tweet…

I’ve ignored twitter mania with determination thus far.   I highly recommend Adam’s write up on twitter usage.

Twitter strikes me as the social media equivalent of the Nextel phone – the push to talk walkie-walkie that I’ve also shunned.   Sure, these technologies can be used artfully and for constructive purposes, but I find them self consumptive, and devoid of deeper context. 

In the early days of “cell-phonery”, one of my personal peevs was being in the middle of an important, real face to face conversation with another person only for their phone to ring and have them hold up a hand telling me they needed to take the call.  Sure, there are legitimate emergencies – wife having a baby, kids hair is on fire, etc.   But too often it was some moron calling to say “Whazzzzzup!”  Remember those?  

The push to talk feature only seemed to amplify this behavior, and I came to detest working on a project with someone while their phone constantly chirped as members of their social circle repreatedly “hit them” on the phone.   How presumptive this technology – pushing a button, beaconing a response with no regard for what the other person might be doing at the time.    Even worse were the behaviors created on the recipient end.    While building my house I noted the prevalence in the construction industry - Nextels were ubiquitous.   While a worker wouldn’t answer his ringing phone to accept a normal incoming phone call, he would respond to the voice equivalent of the instant message.  Why?  The expectation of brevity?

I’ve viewed twitter in much the same regard.  The sea of tweets that must be followed -would be robbers of focus and time.  How fragmented we are becoming.  We seem to reward and revel in our digital  A.D.D.   As twitter becomes even more mainstream, it is being seen as new ad space, virtual billboards, virtual junkmail full of coupon offers floating about.  The rush to monetize it, or chase the follower metrics as some kind of social status.   Blogging was last year’s bully-pulpit and twitter is on course perhaps to replace it.   While merchants flock to monetize twitter, I have to wonder how long before they are extorted by twitterers with high follower counts and a sense of self importance?   

Maybe I just don’t get it.  My betters in this space are on twitter and I may well have to embrace it one day.

ABS controller repair – Z06 corvette

Removing the failed ABS / Active handling control module from my Corvette was the only really productive thing I did all weekend.   Aside from mowing the lawn and a bit of half hearted piddling on the shop, most of the weekend was whiled away playing with the dogs, doing laundry and watching ‘Dexter’ episodes with the wife.   

For more than a year, the traction control and anti-lock brake features have been offline,  the glowing failure lights and scrolling messages of Service Traction Control, Service Active Handling, Service ABS have greeted me every time I’ve started the car.   Not wanting to pay a thousand dollar plus bill at the dealer, I’ve procrastinated this repair for a while.   After a bit of exploration on some forums, I find that the electronic control unit is the likely culprit, specifically a power relay sealed inside.   The control unit can be separated from the hydraulic pump and valve assembly by disconnecting two connectors and removing 6 small torx screws and gently prying to break the seal.

Here is the module removed.   I tried removing the 4 top cover screws as well, planning to find and replace the power relay myself.   Alas, even with the screws removed, I was unable to separate the cover – though I could cut the silicon seal with a razor blade, I was unable to open it.  No matter, I found a company online that will service these for $150, so I’ll ship it off today.

For those who might be curious, this is what the business end of this control module looks like.   These 12 cylindrical assemblies appear to be electromagnetic coils that actuate hydraulic control valves.  The valve assembly has 12 corresponding stems which mate up with these coils when the assembly is installed.   It appears as though the brake on each of the 4 wheels can be independently controlled whether or not you are pressing the brake pedal by one of three circuits. 

 This allows the car to unlock a wheel that is locked (ABS) while the others are still rolling and you are pressing the brake pedal, or to apply variable braking force to different wheels to help recover the car in the event of a skid (active handling), or to reduce the difference in rotating rates when applied in combination with a reduction in throttle position  (traction control).   All in all, a very smart system that works to undo some of our driving mistakes.   

I’ve missed these features, especially in the rain.

UPDATE 7/3/09:  I received back my repaired module from ABSFIXER this week, installed it and found my problems were resolved.  The repair was done overnight, and most of the down time has been due to shipping both ways.  I was being thrifty and selected a slow shipping method.   For $150, this is an absolute deal on the repair.  Kudos to Brandon at ABS.

Social Milestones

  Most of us have an inherent need for validation and acceptance.    This basic human need, and the way in which social networks fulfill this need helps explain many online behavior patterns.

There are rank and reputations systems built into many social networks to provide rewards for positive participation bestowed by the system, or by fellow participants.  

In the community I manage, as well as one I participate in as an ordinary member, we have a peer recognition system called kudos.  Kudos are a way that other members can recognize your posts as being particularly valuable.   

 It’s symbolic, but track-able onleader boards, and bankable in a reputation system in which the community’s collective opinion on the most valuable members is filtered and piped as one variable, into the ranking system that controls permissions.

In my personal journey of self discovery and growth, I find myself in a rather unique situation.   Among other things, I manage a forum community for my employer.  As part of my strategy, I actively recruit super users within our community to assume volunteer leadership roles, solving problems, providing advice and counsel, and helping both other customers and our company to be more successful.   I know that many of these super users look upon me as a gateway to the company and have hopes and expectations that through our interactions,  they will be able to influence the future course in varying increments. 

In a parallel situation, I participate as a budding super user in another community and have the opportunity in so doing to see things from the vantage point of my customers – from the other side of the glass.   I desire to provide advice and counsel, to see my inputs come to fruition in the course of future products and services.   I want what our customers want. 

Signs of recognition and acceptance, milestones in the progression of social networks are not limited to the online world, although the real world doesn’t provide visible kudo counters above our heads to track progress.   Often the cues of advancement are more subtle and we have to look for them.   

For some time, I’ve brought customer widgets into a lab and gotten involved in the evaluation and repair of them.   Initially, my efforts were misunderstood and the bureaucracy was featured, but as I interacted with the technicians and engineers over time, personal relationships formed and I was increasingly accepted.  A couple weeks ago, they even volunteered to set up a bench for me as I had begun to do some of my own work.   Today, I was gifted a nice screw driver set by someone with whom I just hadn’t clicked.  

Another technical team several floors above extended the offer to clear out a desk that I could use in their area, effectively inviting me to come and work amongst them.   Like Dian Fossey, the gorillas  are finally inviting me in.  I spent the afternoon there and plan to spend more time in the coming days and weeks.  Sometimes, the weak ties become the strong ties in organizational relationships.

Impressions from WordCampRDU 2009

WordPress isn’t kids stuff.   I understand that now.

About 3 years ago, I started blogging and signed up for a WordPress account because it was easy, it was free, and it was recommended without reservation by David Churbuck, a man who knows a thing or two about blogging.   At the time, I took it on faith that there was something special about the platform to deserve this recommendation, but I didn’t know just what.

Several of today’s sessions at WordCamp, really changed my perspective about what WordPress really is. It isn’t just a blogging platform. It can be a content management system, and even a reasonable e-commerce platform for a small business.  Through the use of some plug-ins, a person can build out a flexible and powerful website.

Shayne Sanderson capably demonstrated how easily Instinct’s e-commerce WP plug in could be installed and configured.  I was impressed by the sophistication of the integration, the support for pages, shipping calculator, inventory sku management with stock counters, cart capability, and multiple checkout transaction gateways.  Reading around the blogosphere following the presentation, I can see that experiences on the product may have been mixed a year ago, but it looked pretty good today.  I don’t know that I would recommend it as a platform for enterprise class e-commerce, but it seems like an option worth exploring for someone looking to grow beyond an ebay store.  Possible candidates might be a T-shirt or screen printer, an artist or potter, a custom fabricator, or even a coder who wants to enable downloads for a fee.  (want to start your own app store?)  

Brett Bumeter of Softduit Media  also had a great presentation and demonstration of WordPress as a content management system.  While it may not scale indefinitely, it is far more customizable that I imagined, especially using an application like  Artisteer to create custom themes with drop downs and tiered menus to manage pages, and support more complex designs and visions. (click over to the softduit site to see example of the drop downs)    Brett morphed several themes, demonstrating how easily menus, headers, column layouts and overall appearances could be changed in seconds.   Pages began to look more like conventional web pages, and less like canned blog pages with link lists and sidebars full of widgets.    I mentally combined this CMS session with the previous e-commerce session and quickly realized how WordPress could be used for far more than just blogging.

While WordPress is fairly SEO in it’s own right, the individual blogger can always employ a few additional tactics to improve their results.  Andy Beal  shared several technical tips which have both short and long term benefits to search efficacy.  He also revealed a few clever tactics for post re-titling, improving the post slug, as well as some evolutionary tuning of a post’s focus.  Hats off to Andy for sharing specific things we can all implement today on our blogs.

Kevin Pollak delivers…

“Frankenstein never scared me… Marsupials do….because they’re faaast…”  

We all came to see it, Kevin Pollak  doing Christopher Walken.   Leslie and I love Christopher Walken and his quirky style, and we love Kevin Pollak.  What could be better than Kevin Pollak doing Christopher Walken, live on stage twenty feet in front of us?  Fifteen mins ahead of the show, the audience was settling in, and as we made small talk with the half dozen couples around us, it was clear that everyone was here, first and foremost to see Kevin doing Christopher.  He didn’t disapoint.

We caught the show at Goodnights comedy club last night.   Who would imagine that little old Raleigh would have one of the ten best comedy clubs in the country?   The wall full of signed photos by the elite who’s who of comedy that have performed there over the years should expunge any residual doubt as to the veracity of that claim.  Leno, Seinfield, Pollak, Carrot top, DeGeneres , Rosy, Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy… row upon row of them.  Amazing.

What an extraordinary experience to see a celebrity actor and comedian in person.  Who and what they apear is carefully crafted on TV and in the movies – a function of makeup, lighting, script, location and circumstance.  To see them in person, sweating under the lights, being human, connecting with the audience in person is a unique and special opportunity.  The real deal, not an airbrush retouched facisimile.   I saw the performance, but I think I also got to see a glimpse of the man, some  portion of personality that shines through from one role, one performance to the next.  

Kevin Pollak is the man.  For those who may be unfamilar with this part of the routine…

Wordcamp RDU 2009

 Saturday June 13, 2009 is Word Camp RDU 2009.   WCRDU09 will be my first WordPress blogging event and I hope to emerge with a greater understanding of the plethora of tools available on this platform. 

While I’m generally familiar with WordPress, as it is my blog platform of choice, and also in use by my employer to power our corporate blogs via WordPress MU, I know I’ve barely scratched the surface.   I hope Saturday’s sessions will improve my technical proficiency.

Looking over the roster of speakers, Andy Beal emerged as the sole familiar face.  (Note to self – have to get out more)  Andy’s been on my blogroll for a while, and I’ve seen him now and again, last at internet summit 08 event  inNovember, and will make a point of attending his section to see what he has to share.

When does Batman ever sleep?

Community, blogs, Facebook, and the burgeoning sea of tweets – the growing ocean swell of social media that a brand champion can scarcely risk turning his or her back on for more than a few hours .   A vendor making a presentation on social media monitoring and analytics today really nailed the point when they said, “When does Batman ever sleep?”   The accompanying graphic in the chart deck showed all of the caped crusader’s arch enemies.  It was an easy concept to grasp -  If it’s not the Joker, the Riddler, Scarecrow, Penguin, Catwoman, or Two-Face, then it’s someone else.    Customers to be redeemed,  brand defacing vandals to be thwarted.

How do practitioners prevent all these events, mini-crisis, and personal relationships from becoming a gravitational vortex in their lives?

I think the answer is that one must have a strategic plan to scale investment and organizational involvement along with the increases in the volume of engagements through social networks.  I need to make a time budget, and ensure some hours each and every day are devoted to driving that strategic plan forward.

Another door, another week

Returning from my trip, the previous weekend was a jumble of laundry, a cookout, odds and ends around the house, and a last batch of chart-making as I polished up my presentation for our SVP.  The week passed with narry a blogworthy moment, the presentation being delayed to the following week (today) and consolidated in time allotment so that I’ll have to say in 10 mins or less what I had hoped to communicate in 45 mins.  

The long weekend slid by, and as it did, we paused to reflect on our freedom and remember all those who have given their lives to establish and maintain it, from the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the revolutionary war, the civil war, the world wars I & II, through countless other conflicts large and small.  I hope that our leaders pause to remember this as well, and consider that our own legislation can be a far greater threat to our personal freedoms than any threat from foreign power.   Sometimes, the pen is indeed mightier than the sword and I hope that wisdom will continue to prevail over political pressures and expediencies of the day.

As the weather was pleasant, I spent a lot of it outside working in the yard, on the shop,  and walking amongst the many projects I have scattered about.   I did manage to get the second shop door installed.   I moved the crane to the opposite end of the building and set up, dropping the cable down through the open roof as before.

A single choker strap around the mid point worked well to hoist the rolled door.

As I reached the top, I turned the controls over to Leslie and climbed a ladder to guide the rolled door onto the brackets.  A slight inclination of the boom shifts the door toward the wall, bringing it into alignment, and then the cable is let out to lower it into place.

Remembering the lessons from the first door, we guided it into the tracks and installed all of the stops before proceeding further.  It operates but I’ll need to tune the spring tension a bit.   It’s an interesting feeling to now stand inside the walls with the doors closed and the space defined.  While still open to the sky, it feels more and more like a building.

Conference wrapped, and I’m back home…

It’s Sunday, and I’ve finally slept off the result of Friday night’s red eye flight home.   As an infrequent traveler, I stand in admiration of those who criss cross the world, showing up with their ‘A game’ after hours in a confined space that can rumple one’s clothing, constitution, and psyche in equal portions.

Thursday’s sessions were generally very good – Sean O’driscoll’s keynote was great.   He shares years of experience and insight with humility, and a healthy measure of humor.   Presentations by RightNow, SalesForce, and Omniture demonstrated the power of integration and the kind of business intelligence that can be extracted from community, as well as the power to integrate with call centers and internal knowledge bases to deliver an excellent experience.   A community can add value to almost any business, but that value is dramatically increased as it becomes a more integral part of business operations from product design, to customer self service, and even empowering customers to do the marketing and selling for the company.  

Thursday night it was off to the ballpark to watch the SF Giants battle the NY Mets.    This was my first, in person, MLB experience and it certainly felt very different that watching the Durham Bulls at home.   There are points to be made in favor of both minor and major league ball for the kind of performances that one is likely to see, and I’m certainly glad for the experience.   Sitting in the stands, and listening to various levels of conversation and observing personal dynamics as people networked was pretty cool too.

Friday’s highlight was some demonstration of new features from the product roadmap in rough draft form.   The visions and directional statements of strategy were becoming tangible and demonstrable examples that will be shortly available to clients.  SaaS models are exciting to watch evolve.   The session wrapped with an hour long imagineering session led by the heads of product design and development – one leading the group, asking a series of leading questions to build group consensus and then narrow the focus on a particular area of the product to re-design.   In the space of 45 mins, with the head of design doing fantastic magic marker progressive wireframes on a half dozen posters, we concluded the session having just redesigned some key aspects of the way the product functions.  This was a great practical demonstration of co-creation.

Knowing a bit about the online personalities of some of the attendees, it was interesting to see how things played out in person.  What personality types were frequent contributors – asking questions, or interjecting opinions during the presentations.    My conclusion is that some personality types will be frequent opinion contributors in person or online.  

The conference was over by early afternoon, and most attendees left to catch early afternoon flights.   Having a late flight, I hung out in the lobby bar and worked remotely.  So doing, I was afforded the opportunity to catch up with Joe Cothrel and Matthew Lees for a short walking tour of some of San Fran, including a bit of Chinatown, and partake of a great dinner at one of Joe’s favorite haunts.   I’d read several of Matthew’s white papers including one on ROI, and so it was awesome to meet him in person.  I was honored they invited me to tag along.

The work week looms, along with a presentation I must make on Thursday to our SVP.   I’ve got a lot of charts, and a lot of stories I could tell – some which  now seem more or less relevant having come out of this conference.   What are leaders in other industries doing that I can borrow from?  What are the largest opportunities, and priority focus this year?  What investments are required?