I just found a great research study on effective internal use of micro-blogging to enhance collaboration in a distributed engineering environment … or should I say it found me via Twitter (thanks to Carrie Young).  One of my favorite quotes from the executive summary: "93% of the answers were from a different NASA center". Explained in my own words, the NASA pilot participants received answers to their technical questions from fellow employees who they often did not know … and who did not work at their own location. If you focus upon collaboration inside the firewall, and are exploring the use of Web 2.0 tools for the enterprise, this is must read. After all … you have an elite university (CalTech) reviewing a complex distributed engineering environment (NASA). NASA's pilot project used Social Cast, but I found the findings to be software tool agnostic.

• NASA Collaboration Study: Executive Summary | Full Report

You may also wish to see my prior post on Collaboration in the Cloud.

I originally learned from WikiAngela that Google News was testing the idea of adding Wikipedia as one of the prime news sources on their Google News. Selected Google News accounts are now being presented with links to stories from the expected players … the New York Times, NBC, the Associated Press, etc., but also Wikipedia. Well, my account is apparently includes in the test. Take a look at the screenshot included below (click to view full at full resolution). Consider the implications!

Another sign of the digital age, after 74 years, Kodak is going to take everyone's Kodachrome away! From Paul Simon's famous song:

I'm trying to determine the ROI / business value of social media sites for my company. A common assumption is that if one's company is not end-consumer focused, there may be less value found upon social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. However, if you are trying to take the pulse of the "conversational web", these services handily beat traditional web sites. Over the past 24 hours I've discovered the truth of that hypothesis. In my case, I ran Grandma's Marathon yesterday during "black flag" weather conditions (i.e. dangerous heat). I decided to create an animated slideshow with music of the experience.

Being curious about yesterday's race, I queried Google on "Grandma's Marathon". Almost 100% of the first 20 results (farther down that most people would ever read) are traditional news media reports of the race. However, if one runs the same query via Twitter Search, the results are dramatically different, you learn what it's like to actually run in the race. The first tweet was by Graeme Thickins, a web 2.0 reporter who actually linked my video.

Thus, always know your audience and your purpose. One needs to stay abreast of both the traditional and conversational web. You'll be better able to understand the parts to the puzzle.

Lake Superior did not provide her air conditioning today at Grandma's Marathon. Instead the wind blew from the West and the heat rose to dangerous temperatures (87 degrees at the finish). I hope you enjoy the short video; you'll learn what it's like to run a "black flag marathon". The Northstar Nerd ran a personal worst by almost 50 minutes (5 hours 17 minutes), but I finished. Next Winter, I promise I will never again complain when cross-country ski racing in a sub-zero Loppet! The cold will feel heavenly!

Follow this link for a higher res version of my video. Most photos were taken by my family, but some are from the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Duluth News Tribune.

Finally, view my 2010 Grandma's Marathon Man Cam Photos. The weather was much nicer (i.e. cooler), and I improved on my 2009 result by one hour!

Paraphrased from the Duluth News Tribune:

The medical director, Steve Harrington, almost shut down the race down while it was in progress: "Race protocol calls for the medical director to confer with executive
director Scott Keenan on matters of an
unsafe race. They discussed the option of stopping the marathon and
having runners brought in off the course by bus, and Harrington said it
very nearly happened."

There were 577 runners treated at the finish-line medical tent. Most were treated for
hyponatremia (low sodium) and hyperthermia (heat stroke), with one
runner showing a temperature of 108 degrees.

Gold Cross Ambulance had 83 calls with 53 transports, including 36 to Duluth hospitals, the most in Harrington’s time with the marathon.

Black Flag Marathon on PhotoPeach