Time to leave my Winter sports and return to engineering. Recently I posted how I disagreed with Thomas Friedman … the world is not flat … instead I posted that it is a "Hodge Podge World" (includes my video presentation). I may have disagreed with Friedman in this arena, but his arguments from his recent Op-Ed piece in the N.Y. Times have a lot of merit. He states:

"You want to spend $20 billion of taxpayer money creating jobs? Fine.
Call up the top 20 venture capital firms in America, which are short of
cash today because their partners — university endowments and pension
funds — are tapped out, and make them this offer: The U.S. Treasury
will give you each up to $1 billion to fund the best venture capital
ideas that have come your way. If they go bust, we all lose. If any of
them turns out to be the next Microsoft or Intel, taxpayers will give
you 20 percent of the investors’ upside and keep 80 percent for
themselves.

If we are going to be spending billions of taxpayer
dollars, it can’t only be on office-decorating bankers, over-leveraged
home speculators and auto executives who year after year spent more
energy resisting changes and lobbying Washington than leading change
and beating Toyota."

I think Mr. Friedman makes a lot of sense. Read his entire column.

Last July I started my Engineering Blog Quest (original post and it's six updates). My goal was to identify blogs run by individuals which focused upon technology … without trying to sell you anything. In other words … folks like myself who were participating in the world of Web 2.0 with the simple goal of furthering knowledge. I have posted my results / links to the Engineering Learning Wiki.

My goal with this post is to demonstrate that corporations can have engineering / technology blogs that are "soft sell" and provide useful information. Here are two excellent examples:

• From Edison's Desk – GE Global Research Blog
  (and)
• Randy's Journal – Boeing VP of Marketing

Here are two good examples of recent posts … first from Boeing:

• Video Showing World Air Traffic Over a 24 Hour Period
  (I.E. seems to be required to view … scroll down to video)

And continuing the aviation theme … from GE

• Biofules for Aviation

Thomas Friedman says " The World Is Flat". I say, Not! It is a hodge podge world. Interpretations of where we are heading is not easy … thus whether you are in Bethesda or Bangalore, watch my short video (4 minutes). Using population and natural resource data from the University of Sheffield's WorldMapper combined with music from the Renaissance, I try to raise some issues. It is "Western" viewpoint that the Age of the Renaissance was an "Age of Enlightenment". At that same time, "Eastern Thought" regarded the West as Barbarians! My thanks to the Virtual Byrd Choir.

• High-Res Powerpoint Version With Links: PPT | MP3 (download both files)
  (files must be in the same folder … the slide show is automated )
  

 Here are three screenshots from my Presentation (click upon to view full sized) …
.
 

And my video … obtain a higher resolution view by clicking upon the four small arrows next to the word "vimeo" in the player found below.

I hope you find this research enlightening.

If you do software development, you owe yourself a trip to Stack Overflow … both for the blog and the podcast. After all, any blog that introduces me Bug Bash Cartoons definitely understands this domain. Make certain you click upon the cartoon to view it full sized! I have added Stack Overflow to the Engineering Learning Wiki.

I was skeptical when I joined Yammer at work, but I was wrong BIG time. I felt the constant updates from my peers would be a distraction. Instead, I learned the power inherent in a network of technologists with similar interests. Via Yammer, folks who I did NOT know would join the same groups … or by reputation follow me. The end result was my knowledge has been, and is continuing to be extended. This has benefited both me, and the job of perform on a daily basis.

Thus, I am forced to address the question of Twitter. Will a similar Web 2.0 service from outside my company provide equal value? After all, I don't have my company's pre-defined network. Remembering a presentation by Guy Kawasaki that I attended in the early days of the internet many, many years ago … he said with respect to eCommerce and eBay: "If you have never sold something upon eBay, you can never understand it!" I took that advice to heart and went home … signed up for eBay … and within a week sold to large lots of accordion sheet music for almost $100. I was amazed.

Therefore I have decided to give Twitter a test. The service gives the advice to "not overly think your micro-blogs". I ask, is the world ready for the Northstar Nerd as he posts about testing wax for the Mora Vasaloppet 42k Classic tomorrow (I think purple)!

Once the decision was made to join Twitter, the next question I had to address … how should I define my network? I decided to use my LinkedIn contacts … I followed the Twitter instructions and exported my 275 contacts. After an analysis I discovered 40 of my LinkedIn contacts are on Twitter. They became the basis for my initial network.

I will be happy to add anyone who reads this post to my "Followers" … or you can just follow me:

• My Twitter Page
• Send me an email requesting a follow you (richardhoeg@gmail.com).

Here is a screenshot from my first activity … I noticed while typing this post I've risen from 2 to 5 followers (yippee … I guess?!). Click upon the image to view full sized.