In this age of information, and rapid change, the ability to intelligently assimilate information and make correct product development decisions is imperative. Product life cycles are shortening year by year. The answer seems to be innovate or die. However, in this era of constant changes, it is also necessary to continously optimize your design / product development process.

Yesterday while conducting research, I stumbled upon an excellent resource, the Lean Advancement Institute at MIT. Although the root page seems to imply a membership is required, I was able to freely browse the portal and access / download valuable information and reports. Here is just one such example … a 61 page MIT case study on the Implementation of Lean at Rockwell Collins (pdf). This site from MIT will be added to the Technology Management Section of the Engineering Learning Wiki.

If the subject of lean interests you, link to my earlier post named: Moving Ahead, Or Are You Stuck in the Past?

Are you a member of this clan? Do you wear this Tartan?

Is your technical documentation constructed like this?

• Do not use this device in the extremely thermal, cold, dusty, and watery circumstances.. (see more)

Considering most users don't even read user manuals, it is imperative your examples (or training) are constructed crystal clear … and with the true user in mind. With those thoughts I invite you to listen to both of these excellent podcasts

• How to Create User Centric Documentation and Training.
• Using Video in Training and Documenation

My alma matter, Dartmouth (albeit Tuck … my MBA is from elsewhere) has an excellent podcast, Information as a Strategic Asset. Just this weekend I presented at Minnebar 2008; my topic was social search within the enterprise. What are you doing to leverage that knowledge?  Can you imagine querying external Google, but securely receiving both internal and external results? I can!

Remember, information and knowledge comes from people. Some additional research on the Dartmouth web site brought me to this white paper, Web 2.0 and the Corporation (pdf). The information and comments are from an executive roundtable co-hosted by IBM and Tuck last year (CIOs and other senior execs from 3M, BT Group, JPMorgan Chase, Cisco, DISA, Eastman Chemical, IBM, ING, Ogilvy, and Time Warner Cable). Some companies get it … some don’t.  Which camp are you in?

Finally, here is a photo of me presenting at Minnebar 2008. I was doing a lighting demo on the Engineering Learning Wiki. My thanks to Luke Frankl and his camera! He also caught this nerd in the front row of seats at the very end of Minnebar 2008… using his Nokia N800 tablet! You may wish to read my other Minnebar 2008 post.

Today is a national holiday in Minnesota, Fishing Opener. When one survives another bitter Winter here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (actually 15,000+, but we’re modest), the need for some outdoor fun is HUGE. Yet, this geek / fisherman is attending, along with 400 other nerds on a Saturday, Minnebar 2008.

If you’ve never attended an "unconference" (Wikipedia link), you need to get with it! Earlier today I personally presented on Social Search in the Corporate Environment. Later I attended a session on using mashups in the enterprise … and this afternoon I am looking forward to the "lightning rod demos".  Anyone may demo, but with an extreme time limit (3 minutes??). If you want to learn about tens of new ideas quickly, this is a great deal.

Finally I just attended the State of the State: Technology in Minnesota. We may not be Silicon Valley (who cares?), but we have our own start-up success stories. This panel responded to questions about what is takes to create a vibrant development community here in Minnesota.

While most of you will not care about the answer to this question (Minnesota development community), the key takeaway from a barcamp is the phenomenal interaction among attendees. Attend a barcamp in your local area.

In fact … information can just flow in to a person. While creating this post Adam Des Autels stopped by to chat. He had attended my session this morning, and knew of my love of intelligent RSS. His recommendation was to check out a new RSS aggregator that uses fuzzy logic to improve you results … sounds very neat.  I’ve taken an initial look at PARTicls, and it deserves a thorough review. Time to attend another session!

I discovered this tool while reading PC World yesterday evening … very cool. Expand the thumbnail image to see how GMaps Pedometer uses Google Maps to easily track and measure a running or walking route … even when footpaths are involved. This will come in handy later today when I do a 20 mile training run in preparation for Grandma’s Marathon.
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