How Social Networks Can Actually Help

Sometime in the past couple days, something really bad happened and I lost all but 2 entries in my Powerbook’s Address Book. Just me and Apple Computer. Thankfully, I could pull them off my Treo.

As I corrected a number of importing errors and generally cleaned up the address book, I thought about how many old addresses, bouncing emails, and disconnected phone number might be in contained. It’d be nice if the person owning that information could edit it as it changed and my address book would update accordingly.

Over at Linkedin I could download a vCard for all my contacts – with the self-entered information. That’s helpful once, not ongoing. And it only handles about 10% of my current contacts.

That being said, helping friends maintain current contact info is how social networks can actually be useful and not just “look how many friends I’ve collected” novelties.

How Wikis Work Best

Hugh Macleod released the HughPage, a wiki for bloggers, yesterday. As always he concisely captures the power of a wiki.


“The Hughpage wiki is up and at your disposal….Just blogged about something that doesn’t have a section? Then create a new section by yourself. No need to ask first. Exactly.”

Like describing the idea of wikis in general, he concludes:

“This is either a totally great idea or a totally insane idea. Maybe a bit of both…”

(Yes, Working Pathways is listed in the Blog and Podcast Consultant sections.)

I’ve worked with wikis for project documentation and team communication. Their power is in their organic growth and how they put the responsibility of accuracy on the reader. When I talk with others about wikis, one question always arises:

What if somebody writes something that’s not good?

At the heart of a wiki lies 2 equal responsibilities;

  1. The Author is responsible for writing accurate, useful, and interesting things.
  2. The Reader is responsible for changing things to make them better.

For the most part, these 2 responsiblities quickly make a very comprehensive knowledge base. If for whatever reason they fail, there’s always rolling back to a previous version of the page.

On a related note, over at MNteractive.com we’ve been playing with a wiki to create a Minnesota internet talent directory.

First Crack 53. Laptop Bag Comparison – Targus vs. Timbuk2

A compare and contrast of my 8 year old Timbuk2 messenger bag with my new Targus CityGear LA laptop bag.

This is also my first crack with enhanced podcasts, using ChapterToolMe to include additional photos of the laptop bags within the podcast.

Listen to the Laptop Bag Comparison – Targus vs. Timbuk2 [9 min]

Back from Boulder, Thanks All Around

Balance Rock

Jen and I just returned from Boulder, Co via Rapid City, SD and Kansas City, MO and I wanted to send out thanks to everyone helping to make it a fantastic journey through the midwestern states. In roughly chronological order, I’d like to extend a big thank you to:

  • Jen for booking the hotels and being in the car with me for 6+ hours a day for 6 days.
  • The RVing clerk at Wall Drug for recommending the Mt. Rushmore lighting ceremony.
  • Deadwood, SD for reminding me every town has a story to tell.
  • Lindsay, Brian, and Sidney for their exceptional hospitality and driving recommendations through the Rocky Mountain National Park.
  • Two Hands Paperie for giving Jen her paper fix and putting a spring in her step.
  • Jen Bohmbach for originally recommending the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House and joining us for dinner. Try the Persian Vegetarian Kooftah Balls and you can thank Brian also.
  • Roland for suggesting we stop at the Garden of the Gods.
  • Brian, our server at the Kansas City Kona Grille for a meal (amazing Maui Tacos with catfish) I’d gladly pay double for and service to match. Special bonus thanks for recommending the local Latte’Land when asked where to get a good cup of coffee. Yes, a Kona Grille would be an excellent addition to the Minneapolis dining landscape.
  • Griffin Technology’s iTrip and MacAlly’s PodCig for filling the long stretches of South Dakota and Wyoming with our favorite driving songs.
  • Chrysler for making a car that stays cool on the inside even when it’s 100+F outside.

A couple dozen photos are now up over in my Flickr site in the Boulder Road Trip 2005 set.

First Crack 52. Reviewing Roger Ebert with David Orenstein

David Orenstein on his love of movies and the Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival.

Theremin and Network are also on my list of all time favorites.

Part 2 of a 6 part series on the life passions of Parsinen Kaplan Rosberg & Gotlieb’s partners and staff.

Listen to Reviewing Roger Ebert with David Orenstein [20 min]

First Crack 51. Reviewing Ralph Lauren’s Car Collection with Howard Rubin

Howard Rubin on his lifelong passion for cars and the Speed, Style, and Beauty: Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Timeless automobiles on Howard Rubin’s list:

Part 1 of a 6 part series on the life passions of Parsinen Kaplan Rosberg & Gotlieb‘s partners and staff.

Listen to Reviewing Ralph Lauren’s Car Collection with Howard Rubin [20 min]

Great Service at Acadia Cafe and Highland Grill

This week included 2 of my best restaurant experiences ever.

  • Highland Grill
    771 Cleveland Ave S, St Paul, MN 55116

    The service at the Highland Grill is always above par yet today they even outdid themselves. Our server was personable, chatty, and just indignant enough to remind us this was her turf. She made spot-on recommendations and when my dining companion asked about hot sauce, she brought him his own bottle of Tabasco and a side of their special spicy concoction.

    Jen highly recommends the calamari tacos.

  • Acadia Cafe
    1931 Nicollet Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55403

    Same here, very personable staff with spot-on recommendations. I threw her a ringer when I ordered the Gueze Giradin. Which I couldn’t pass up. Here’s an mp3 of the story on my first Gueze tasting. She handled it expertly.

Notes from Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, RSS, and More Talk

Great turnout at my MN-ASIS Brain Food Sampler talk earlier this week. We covered quite a bit of ground in 30 minutes, thanks to everyone attending for the great questions. Here are Ann Treacy‘s notes, published as her latest Byte of the Week email newsletter (Thanks again Ann):

“Last night I went to a great presentation by Garrick Van Buren to the Minnesota chapter of the American Society of Information Science and Technology. He was terrific! I am killing two birds today by writing up my notes and sharing them with you and ASIST. So today’s Byte is an annotated bibliography of many of the resources Garrick mentioned on wikis, blogs, RSS, and podcasts.”

  • Garrick’s web site – includes links to various blogs, wikis, and podcasts, including Garrick’s podcast, First Crack.
  • WordPress – software to help you create/maintain a blog. As their site says, they’re “free, yet priceless.”
  • Audacity – open source audio recording for creating a podcast.
  • Audio Hijack Pro – upgraded software for creating a podcast.
  • Audioblogger – easy tool for creating podcasts, much like blogger.com for blogs.
  • WikkaWiki – software to create a wiki (a wiki is akin to a shared blog).
  • NetNewsWire – an RSS reader – for info consumers.
  • Feedburner – Helps you generate and track an RSS feed that you have created – for info creators
  • MNspeak part blog, part wiki, part old fashioned web conference.
  • Trackback – this is the Wikipedia definition of Trackback, a concept that allows and tracks posts among blogs with a reduced chance for spam.
  • Technorati – a search engines for blogs (aka the blogosphere).
  • Google Patent – we mentioned this last night, this is my [Ann’s] favorite article on the topic.