Many people understand that occasionally one needs to DeFrag your hard drive … remove and reorganize the clutter … then add new content. The same holds true for your brain. In slightly less than a month I will head to Denver, Colorado for DeFrag 2008. This conference bills itself as accelerating the "aha" moment in Enterprise 2.0. I will be both a speaker and panelist … in other words I will engage and participate. My topics will revolve around social software in the enterprise.

My question to you … have you defragged your brain recently. While this conference may not be perfect for you, please understand that my participation at DeFrag is on my own nickel and vacation time. As technologists we have a responsability to maintain our knowledge. For example, this past Spring I spent most of a weekend at BarCamp Minnesota. I don't want to imply that my company does not provide me technical training. In fact, next month on my company's dime I will attend some Sharepoint 2007 training. However, if you want to succeed, you need to invest in yourself. Think of it as an ongoing research and development project. In these tough economic times, you will be glad you did!

Finally, if you want to attend DeFrag 2008, use my speaker code "rh1" and save $200 off the conference fee.

I used to think of LinkedIn as a glorified Rolodex. Although it was useful to maintain contacts with business associates, there was little value that a participant derived from this social network. Although it was nice to see how many contacts you had, other than consultants who were trying to sell themselves by answering questions, the value to the discussions was almost nill. Thus,the question … what is changing my mind? The answer is their groups (and groups search / updates). My contacts, although great people, were generally folks whose work and "personal stories / research" I already knew. LinkedIn was not helping advance my knowledge.

While this observation almost sounds trite, and too obvious. If you are involved in benchmarking and researching new ideas, the groups search capability now allows one to explore domains and people outside of your own contacts. It is exactly that need which one needs filled … to get outside of what and whom you know … to move forward.

At present I have about 250 contacts. By using the new weekly update email, I find it valuable to see what groups my network of contacts is linking to. As an example, I recently found the Web 2.0 and Mapping Social Network group. Some research revealed that this group (many similar titled groups exist) actually has an active membership that wants to exchange knowledge. Although I don't work in Silicon Valley, via the groups web site I am able to participate in their meet-ups and watch some of the quick demos of new ideas.

As always, you get what you put into any organization, but I am now able to find new groups with which to exchange ideas. I always scan the membership up front, checking the kinds of companies and job titles from which the membership is taken.

As you watch McCain or Obama speak, do you ever wish you could have your own personal teleprompter for creating eLearning modules? If the answer to that question is "yes", and it should be (having a good script enhances your content). The question arises how can you effectively read your script, look at your animations, and create your modules?  … by using CuePrompter.Com (no charge). In fact, if you're smart, you read in your script, and then add in your animations later. The process is easy. Just link to CuePrompter, and paste any text into the window … select some options, and voila! (my thanks to the SnagIt blog for letting me know about this tool)

Give it a try. For your convenience, here are the beginning verses from Alice in Wonderland:

• The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

• Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time, as she went down, to look about her. First, she tried to make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed. It was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE," but, to her great disappointment, it was empty; she did not like to drop the jar, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

Here is a screenshot of the process. Click to expand to full size.
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Happy Birthday to Google. They are ten years old in my 52nd year. Who would have dreamed how the web and Google would affect our lives? In honor of their birthday, Google has created a web site which reverts you to the year 2001 … A Googler's Odyssey:

• Google 2001 Index and Search
• search against the 2001 index
• pull up either the 2008 or 2001 web site result

Have some fun. Google has used the Internet Archive versions to make this service. For your fun, I've compared the Beatles. The 2001 web was pretty basic, and required the user to make some choices. Today's site uses Flash, music and animation … pretty cool. Click to expand any image to full size.

I've noticed a reasonable amount of buzz around the net about Wordle. I decided I needed to check out this phenomenon … and I find Wordle is addicting, but more importantly it can help you see relationships in your words. In short, Wordle lets you take any text or web site and get a graphical representation of the word relationships. I find I like Wordle's which are mainly horizontal, and somewhat circular.

I've created two Wordle's for your review. The first is my LinkedIn profile; the second is this blog. I challenge everyone to Wordle your resume or LinkedIn profile; you might not be emphasizing what you think you are! Make certain you click upon each Wordle for an expanded view. In this instance, a picture is worth a thousand words! Creat your own Wordle via this link.
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