The Integrative Stream

Japan

In Japan right now. My network connectivity is somewhat limited, and I can’t figure out this keyboard. Great trip so far, however. Probably won’t be able to post much about it until I get home. I have, however, already had the most expensive glass of wine of my life.

And Shibuya is just cool.

Bill Crawford’s Flightlab Blog

Another Crawford blog: Bill Crawford’s Flightlab Blog. If you fly airplanes, ideally upside down, it’s going to be a good blog to read. If you’re not a pilot, these are probably the best posts about spin control that you’re likely to read.

Dad’s been writing columns about aerobatics since opening a flight school down in Plymouth a few years ago. They’ve been published in a local airport newspaper. The web is, perhaps, a better place for them. Mom is thrilled.

Flying, incidentally, is a habit that the men of my family seem to take up in their mid 30s. A few more years and I’ll need to start looking for hangar space.

Micropresentations

The best presentation may not be much of one at all. Seth Godin points out most presentations are given to large groups of people who aren’t very good at presentations. Maybe we’d all benefit if the people giving those presentations had access to an alternate methodology. Specifically, walk up on stage and ask “Any Questions?”

It’s an interesting idea, although I’m not sure that I buy it. I tried an experiment in my MIT Communications for Managers class, which backfired rather dramatically. Since PowerPoint feels artificial and enforces a linear view of events without a whole lot of nuance, I gave a presentation backed with only a few PowerPoint slides that I pulled out at various points. My theory was that narrative, punctuated by a few visual aids, would be more effective.

I got marked down because I didn’t include a slide with an agenda.

Moderation Patterns

I think patterns, whether in software development, architecture, or any other repeatable activity, are a very important thing. So much so that I wrote a book about them. So it’s interesting to watch the efforts at creating pattern languages for the social networking sphere. I’m particularly amazed that nobody has come up with a better web based group discussion system than the one I wrote back in 1995. Which was no different or better than the ones a lot of other people wrote at the same time.

Although I missed it, it appears that Clay Shirky gave an interesting talk on social networking patterns at the O’Reilly Emerging Technologies conference. Worth a read, and worth following the links.

Along the same lines, I’ve noticed a massive uptick in the comment spam on this blog over the last few days. Over 20 of them yesterday alone. I’ve closed off comments on some of the more popular posts, and will probably upgrade the blog software this weekend in an effort to cut them back further. Since I pre-moderate everything not posted by an approved user the spam doesn’t actually show up here.

Wal-Mart Bloggers

I barely have time to keep up with prolific business blogger Starling Hunter. Since I’ve been thinking about online promotions lately, this post on Wal*Mart’s blog strategy is a good read.

The Business of America is Business: The NY Times Takes on Wal-Mart

McKinsey on in-house software development

McKinsey & Company has an interesting article on in-house software development. Some good points on the challenges of productizing in-house innovation.

Registration required, but it’s free for their web exclusive articles.

The McKinsey Quarterly: The next generation of in-house software development

WSJ.com – Hospital Link Could Catch Outbreaks Early

Subscription required; writeup of the CDC’s BioSense system.

WSJ.com – Hospital Link Could Catch Outbreaks Early

Carnival of Biotechnology

Carnival of Biotechnology. You can never have too many. The first edition. Not that much in this week’s edition, but it’s a good idea.