Monthly Archives: July 2008

Communities within Slideshare

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So my presentation on Community Management as a Core Competency of Open Source recently passed the 7000 views mark. I admit that I find it somewhat incredible that one can create a lecture that gets viewed this many times. But still more interesting is seeing how the content and community around Slidecast has evolved.

Presently my presentation is the 74th most viewed slidecast on Slideshare – it just got run over by “What Teachers Make” which blew by it on its way up the charts (and rightly so, it really is quite good even if it doesn’t have sound). I am also pleased to note thought that my bit recently passed “Paris Hilton Photo Collector” and is moving in on the Beautiful Women of Japan and 50 Funny Cats.

I’ve been visiting slideshare a fair bit since I first posted to it 8 months ago. What has been interesting is that as it has gets more popular it seems that both the slidecasts get better (for example “What Teachers Make”), and that the more interesting slidecasts are polling better (note “What Teachers Make” meteoric rise). Indeed my own presenetation’s relative rise against cats and sexy women is further example of this trend. A year ago it seemed at least a fifth involved scantily clad women – but the days of those slideshows doing well appears to be in relative decline (they are still there, don’t get me wrong). It just appears that once  you are this deep in the long tail, lots of other content is more interesting to people.

All this is to say that yet again Andrew Keen should be roundly ignored, but then the very fact you are here probably means you were already ignoring him…

What? No op-eds?

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So, some of you may have noticed that it’s been a bit since Taylor and/or I have published an op-ed. There is a good reason for this. You can read all about it here.

It is a piece we’ve been wanting to write for quite some time – it is nice to finally have found a home for it. Yesterday we shipped off the final draft to the wonderful people at the LRC who – along with a few of our friends – have been very supportive and helpful.

Obviously when the LRC publishes its September edition and the piece is out I’ll publish a link.

Someday I hope to give a speech this good

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Just listened again (for possibly the 3rd or 4th time) to Clay Shirky’s speech on software, community and how we can do big things with love.

Confused?

Listen to the talk.

It’s short, there are lots of references to software programs that you probably won’t know – and don’t need to know. Underlying this is one of the greatest explanations why much of what we thought was solid is dying and what we believe is ephemeral is thriving.

It does mean that the ability to aggregate non-financial motivations, to get people together outside of managerial culture and for reasons other than the profit motive has received a huge comparative advantage. It also means that many of the future commercial opportunities are going be inextricably intertwined with that type of work and those types of groups.

Obama vs Bush: What the hidden microphones reveal

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So apparently during Obama’s visit to the British parliament a casual conversation between him and Conservative leader David Cameron was recorded.

It reminded me of when, during an earlier campaign, Bush was caught speaking with Cheney while the microphone was on. Just so we can all see how similar these two politicians are I thought I’d put their unscripted comments side by side:

Bush

Obama
Bush: “There’s Adam Clymer–major-league asshole from The New York Times.”

Cheney: “Oh yeah. He is. Big time.”

[To be more fair I could have used this back and forth between him and Blair, but it ain’t much better. Apparently diet coke is better than coke and the middle east issue is best addressed through the use of swear words.]

 VS. Cameron: “You should be on the beach, you need a break. Well, you need to be able to keep your head together.”

Obama (agreeing): “You’ve got to refresh yourself.”

Cameron: “Do you have a break at all?”

Obama: “I have not. I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked in the White House who — not Clinton himself, but somebody who had been close to the process —  said that, should we be successful, that actually the most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking. And the biggest mistake that a lot of these folks make is just feeling as if you have to be — ”

Cameron: “These guys just chalk your diary up

Obama: “Right. In 15 minute increments…”

Cameron: “We call it the dentist’s waiting room. You have to scrap that because you’ve got to have time.”

Obama: “And, well, and you start making mistakes, or you lose the big picture. Or you lose a sense of, I think you lose a feel– ”

Cameron (interrupting) “Your feeling, and that is exactly what politics is all about. The judgment you bring to make decisions.”

Obama: “That’s exactly right, and the truth is that we’ve got a bunch of smart people, I think, who know ten times more than we do about the specifics of the topics. And so if what you’re trying to do is micromanage and solve everything then you end up being a dilettante but you have to have enough knowledge to make good judgments about the choices that are presented to you.”

So yeah – with luck we are in for a real change.

West vs. East

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So I’m in Toronto for 24 hours of meetings. I love Toronto, lots of excitement and energy in this town which is why I love coming here so much (trust me when I say I’m putting my Vancouverite cred at risk for saying this publicly).

That said, I landed and it was raining. Odd, I’m always getting mocked out east for having weather like this at home…

So, with a bit of a wry smile, I’ll admit I did get just the tiniest bit of enjoyment reading this piece.

Especially when, out in Vancouver, we are enjoying weather like this.

Come out west, we’ve got a hot patio with some cool beers waiting for you.

Google Walk

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No it is not the swagger of a recently bought out start-up founder, it is the very cool new feature google map just threw in.

Normally, when you get directions on google maps it assumes you are in a car, so shows you the fastest route as if you are driving. This means that it takes detours around one way roads and the like.

Now, there is a “walking” function so google maps computes the fastest route as though you are on foot. Very cool. Now, what would be really nice is if it “balanced” distance with vertical height so you could pick the flattest walking route. I tend to gravitate to railway tracks. Cool thing about railways is that they can never exceed a 3.5 degree grade (or so I read somewhere once) so I always like walking tracks cause it means I know I’ll never hit too steep a hill.

Very excited to try this feature out. For an avid walker like me having this feature in my blackberry is key. Very psyched.

H/T to Jeremy V for emailing me the link.

so dave, what do you do? (or my life, on a powerpoint slide)

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So more than once people have asked me what I do… and sadly the answer is never easy. All the titles I’ve heard feel a little overwhelming, mostly because I don’t think I’ve done enough to earn any of them: public policy entrepreneur, public thinker, writer… Indeed, I most often use negotiation consultant and public policy analyst – but these fail to capture the threads of ideas that I’m attempting to weave together.

Herein lies the main challenge. Because I have picked up a number of diverse threads, my life sometimes looks scattered. (Admittedly, occasionally it is). But I see the connections between these disparate areas and I draw strength and ideas from the connections between them. Consequently, I need to do better at explain these connections, and why the matter, to others.

In pursuit of this goal I’ve created a map of my (work) life. Outlined are the three main themes I focus on and then, to show how my activities map against them I’ve listed a) some of the issues I tackle, b) the organizations I work with, for or sit on the advisory boards of, and c) some conferences where I give talks. Some stuff may be missing (indeed, if you see something please send me an email or comment below).

Better, I hope this might inspire you to map your own life. If it does please let me know, I’d love to see it and link to it.

At the very minimum, I hope this leaves you understanding me better.
note: you can click on the image to make it bigger

www.reformtheUSgovernment.com

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So it seems that more and more interesting internet driven projects, designed to reform the US government, keep taking flight.

My man David B., fully aware of my own passion for reforming the Canadian voting system recently connected me to a great site called whytuesday.org. The simplicity of their approach is genius, asking people, elected officials, and pretty much everyone in between: Why do we (or Americans that is) vote on Tuesday?

Do you know the answer?

(clue: the reason is REALLY archaic)

(hint: the answer is here)

Why Tuesday?’s goal is bigger than changing the day of the election – but it the simple question is a great entree for getting people to think more broadly about electoral reform more broadly. Best of all they have allies on “the inside” (of Congress), one of whom is even acting as a correspondent! Very cool.

My only critique of the site is that I could not find any information supporting their claim that voter turnout would increase if elections shifted to the weekend. Maybe it’s there – but I couldn’t find it.

The other great project I’ve been following is Change Congress started by one of my heroes, Lawrence Lessig. Obviously lots going on with this project. But what really struck me as clever is how Open Congress has been telling its supporters to “tag” their donations to congressional candidates so they know they are receiving money because they took the open congress pledge.

So how do you “tag” a donation? You simply make sure that it ends in .09¢. Neat eh?

I only wish Open Congress had a list of all the candidates who’d taken the pledge (as opposed to just recent pledges).

Social Media Cartoons that are ha ha funny

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Rob Cottingham – friend and all round wonderful person – has had his cartoon Noise to Signal syndicated on ReadWriteWeb.

I encourage all geeks and non-geeks who need a laugh (and frankly we could all laugh a little more) to go check it out.

You might also pop by the Social Signal website where two of the coolest kids in Vancouver are transforming companies (and the world!) through social media.

For those who like blogs – RSS Bandit

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For PC owners who like reading blogs I’d like to point you to RSS Bandit. It’s a program I started using a couple of months ago to track and read my favourite blogs.

Obviously those of you with Macs have other software you can use, but as a PC user I’ve found RSS Bandit has been great. One of its best features is that it downloads blog posts to your computer so that you can read them offline. As many of you know I travel a fair bit and I now often get caught up on a number of my blogs while flying. Very handy. Obviously just having all your blogs in one place is itself pretty handy – better still, keeping track of the posts you’ve read and those you haven’t is also helpful.

Oh, and as a bonus, it is both free and open source.

Of course, if any of my intrepid readers have found other blogging software they like please let me know, or better yet, post a comment.