Author: spierzchala

In 48 hours, we have seen posts from Lawrence Lessig and Joi Ito reminding us that life is about more than blogging, about more than presentations, about more than being on the road 250 days a year.
What have we gotten ourselves into? Two of the most invigorating minds of the digital generation have declared that they need to focus on what is important, or focus on renewing what made them so driven to begin with.
Perhaps we should all step back and realize that running at the redline for as long as we have been (I have only been running this hard since 1999) is not for us, either personally or as a society.
Maybe it’s time to declare Break from Blogging day. I suggest June 4 3, 2005 (a Friday).
Walk away from your computer. Go outside. Go for a walk. Write a long journal entry, ON PAPER. Read a book.
Just don’t blog. Don’t read them. Don’t write them. Just be the person you are.
UPDATE: I am an idiot. Friday June 3, 2005

Look! A G5 Powerbook!

A paltry 18.2 pounds!
Via Neuvo

Tim Porter hits on why MT may not be the best blog platform for those who prefer to spend more time blogging than tweaking a complex environment. [here]
I use b2evolution, and it just works. I only play with it to tweak the design. The rest of it is handled internally.
What platform do my readers prefer? What makes that platform appealing to you?

Rick Segal goes on a riff about blogs and conversations, and how many execs don’t get it.
Earlier today, I talked about how Scoble was lucky. [here]
What kind of company do you work for?

If you thought this was bad, SAP strives to exceed its previous level of obsfucation.
Nicholas Carr quotes from the transcripts at the Boston SAP Sapphire conference.

Let’s look through this thing. Remember we had the fridge. We decided to retire the fridge. We’re going to talk about a new metaphor from now on. What is NetWeaver and how does the whole thing come together? We talk about what we call the body of information. If you think about how the body of information is constructed, there are multiple pieces in there. It’s the mirror, if you want, of what we had with the fridge. The only difference from the fridge is that all the pieces have to work together. The face is the portal. If you think about the brain behind the face, there are two halves. The analytics, the structured side; knowledge management, the unstructured side. The brain is critical not only for storing information but for processing. Anything that comes through the brain gets context. Through this brain, and what’s supporting it, is probably the backbone of your body of information: master data management. If you don’t have master data management, your body may be there, but it may not be able to move. And that’s very critical to understand. Every information that goes through, every transaction that goes through, at some point in time touches master data, and if you don’t have a coherent master data strategy and a coherent master data management server, you will not get an agile body. MDM is one of the biggest things that is happening right now in NetWeaver. Through the backbone, you get a lot of events. The events contextualize themselves through master data into the brain and then get back and thrown into the rest of your body. That network is like your nerve system.

Brain. Melting. I. Must. Follow. Blindly.
Via Chris Selland

My copy of Business Week came today, and promptly went in the trash. It contained a scent sample, and made the whole house curl up their noses.
And then, when I went to their site to express my displeasure, and was greeted with this.

TODAY IS MAY 21, 2005!
Business Week: please get your act together.

Tyme hits for six with this posting about how Scoble is unique in the world of corporate blogging.
I have to agree with her on her opinion. In discussing the possibility of establishing a blog at our company, the conversation between myself and the other contributor came down to one final point: could our company handle the content that is necessary to make a corporate blog work?
In most companies, blogging about work, even if you don’t talk about futures, financial, and other company confidential information, would most likely get you removed from your desk by a large security person.
And before I get flamed, we all know it’s true. Companies, despite lip-service to the contrary, don’t like transparency, because they cannot control the message.
As an example, if the corporate commandos at Microsoft discover who Mini-Microsoft is, he will be looking for a new job. I have no doubt about that.
So, Scoble, be glad you are unique. Live in the moment. But keep your resume up to date, because somedy you will need it.

Travis: play with this beast!
Via Travis Smith’s Flickr Stream

Ok, Ricky has come up with the coolest little GTD/iBook hack. [here]
This is astounding. Very simple. Very elegant. Extremely useful.
Ricky, I salute you!