Google Campfire One

Interesting...

• Major Google Announcement Monday Evening: Is it BigTable?
• Source: Google To Launch BigTable As Web Service

Transparency in Work and Life

Transparency is probably one of my favorite words to use to describe one of the initiatives I want to achieve not only during my career, but to a degree, in my personal life. Let me explain with a set of problem/solution scenarios.

Problem at work: You are on a project with a team. The team needs to not only brainstorm ideas on how to approach the work, but also share it, communicate it to the client, and get their feedback. The problem is that everything is done through conference calls, long-winded meetings, various documents, and on top of it all, emails that may not necessarily include everybody that needs to be on it. It's one ugly mess of old business, and it seems to hinder performance/productivity. And what I mean by this is the ability to get things done, through-put so to speak, the actual work. Things get done at a slow pace when it could get done sooner only if everybody were on the same page and speed.
Solution: Stop having all those meetings! Am I the only one who feels that organizations seem to groom individuals to thinking that meetings are necessary where someone has to speak to everyone on topics that could otherwise be posted online? Use some better collaboration tools! There are tools out there that facilitate sharing, communicating, retrieving feedback from all parties involved. There are bulletin boards, content management systems (CMS), Wikis, forums... the list goes on and on, all of which topple over using email. Obviously we can get into more detail, but the meat of the solution is stated.

Problem at life: You don't know what you are doing in your personal life. You feel lost, upset, and/or even depressed.
Solution: The solution is basically to look for a solution because there is no formula to fixing everything in your life. And this can be done by reaching out to people, talking to friends, family, or maybe even complete strangers. Maybe someone out there has a good answer or can provide you with the means to find it with good advice. The essence is to reveal your vulnerability, achieving this level of transparency, so others too will do the same and the sharing of knowledge can begin.

This post probably comes off as pretty cheesy, but that's ok. I'm a pretty cheesy kinda guy and this is where I organize some of my ideas I wish to share and make transparent.

Related post:

• Email Sucks for Collaboration

BattleStar Galatica Season 4: Best Show on Television

BattleStar Galatica (BSG) returns this Friday (April 4, 2008) and I am so very excited. Time and time again, I have said that it is the best show on television. Upon first glance it looks like a sci-fi space show for nerds-- a show about space battles and futuristic technology. But it oh-so-much-more than that.


I challenge anyone to watch the mini-series (leads up to Season 1) and a few episodes of Season 1 to NOT get hooked to the dramatic, political, philosophical stories/topics it brings to light. BSG shows how humanity's struggles on these ideas are timeless and can certainly cross genres. The story will draw you in, and convince you that all the other shows you watch, can't even compare.