March 17, 2011 by Jeff Pabian

cycles of improvements

A good friend of mine shared something with me that was really cool. Surely, you’ve heard to TED Talks. In case you didn’t here’s a brief description:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

And that’s taken right from their website.

I honestly don’t watch enough of them. Some of videos I seen are “knock-yer-socks-off” type of good. Most everything I’ve seen so far has been really inspiration.

So, my friend shared with me, TED Curator Chris Anderson on Crowd Accelerated Innovation, which was featured in Wired. I’ll embed the accompanying video here. I think both the article and the video have profound impact. Anderson’s video focuses on videos, but I feel the same sentiment can be applied towards Twitter and Facebook, and other social media outlets.

What I find interesting, is the concept of people who have passion and are self-taught, can raise the bar on those classically trained.

Innovation is hard work; it based on 100’s of hours of research, practice… abscense of desire… it’s not going to happen…

– Chris Anderson

Continue reading →

December 31, 2009 by Jeff Pabian

non-traditional job interviewing advice

Following up with my previous post about non-traditional resume help, I had also given a few pointers to friends about interviewing. I’ve distilled them here:

In this economy, there are tons of people out looking for jobs and willing to take anything. If you are a senior person, and you apply for a junior position, you probably won’t get the job. Employers are savvy about this, and realize once the economy gets better, you’ll probably leave as soon as you can for a better paying job.
And you should, (if you got the job!)! Companies lay people off all the time; it’s a business decision. You and your family should be your number one business. Think of it as a business decision that is good for you and your family!
Remember that the interview is for both involved parties. You should be interviewing your new company, boss, position, growth potential, quality of work/life balance, etc. See how they treat you during the interview process. Did they offer you bathroom breaks, sometime to drink or eat?
Are the people interviewing you qualified to assess your skills and/or qualifications? If your hiring manager is not knowledgeable in your skill set, there will be some frustration around expectations. I was recently asked to interview a candidate for a Cisco Network Engineer position. I know nothing about the technology, I was brought in to evaluate the guy’s personality. But I was able to asses his ability to learn, lead, personality, and if he could get the job done if given what he needed. I would not have been able to gauge his technical skills. I was upfront and honest about this.
If you get pre-screened by HR or the recruiters, they’ll ask you what you make now or what you made before. DO NOT give them a number until it comes down to an offer. If you give them a number, and it’s lower than the range for the position, they’ll give you that. You can always say, “Before I give you a number, I want to learn more about the position. Until then, it’s hard for me to give a number that I think is appropriate…” or something along those lines. If they press you for a number, I would give them a number around 10% above your current or last salary amount. Don’t tell them, “I’d like to make, $XZY.” Instead, make it a definite statement, “I am looking to make $XYZ!”
Remember, if you get an offer, to consider the total benefits package; vacation, sick time, work at home policy, breaks, insurances, etc, commute, along with the salary. Work is not just about making a salary. It is also about these things, too.
Vacation is always a negotiation-able. While HR says, “Nope, our standard policy is two weeks” you can always work out a deal with the hiring manager. Just get it in writing from them in case you move under a new boss or he moves out of their position.
Sometimes, a severance package is also something you can negotiate for. “Since I was laid off at my last job where I was at for twelve years, I would feel more safe if some accommodations were made if I was to be let go within my first six months while I am here.”
When you get an offer, ALWAYS say, “Thank you. I need 24 hours to think about it.” If they say, no, then you don’t want to work for them. You do need to think over every offer and at least sleep on it and talk it over with the family. Be sure to get back with them either way by the time you committed to.
Be prepared to ask questions or do the interview yourself. Some people just aren’t good interviewers. One guy I interviewed with when I was being interviewed was clearly uncomfortable so I began asking about his family, kids, etc and we talked for the whole hour about that sort of stuff.
This is a good one, but kind of scary. When the interview is over, ask them if they have any reservations on hiring you. This might catch them off guard, but otherwise it will throw the door wide open for more discussion if there is any concerns. The interviewer might say, “Well, as a matter of fact, I am a little concerned about your lack of experience in XYZ…” This gives you, as the interviewee, to specifically address this. In this case, maybe you answer, “While I haven’t done XYZ, I have done ABC which is the same skill set…” who knows. But if this guy was worried and the interview ended and it never came up, it could hurt your chances when the other candidates are considered.

I hope you find these helpful. These come from mypersonal experience as well as some other job finding groups I belong to. If you have more ideas, I’d love to hear them!

December 10, 2009 by Jeff Pabian

non-traditional resume help

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of proofreading of resumes from people who are close to me. I really love helping people I care about since there are only a few things someone can do to really make their resume stand out among the sea you get, especially in this economy.

I’ve been a hiring manager for many years and since I was laid off in 2007 I had the pleasure of going through the interview process many, many times. I would be hard pressed to call myself an expert, but I am surprised at how much people don’t generally know.

When I got laid off, I had been at the same company for more than 12 years, and I didn’t have much of a network, social or otherwise, to speak of. As I’ve said before, before it was called social networking, it was called, “managing your online presence.” Social Networking sounds a little cooler, but the premise is the same.

A couple of things became really clear to me when I was laid off. First, I was way off on how much I thought people were connected or dependent on the Internet. I assumed, incorrectly, that everyone was “connected” and “online.” There are a ton of people who don’t have broadband internet, who don’t use email for business, etc. It was a real eye opener. Second, not everyone is ready or wants to be connected. Who wouldn’t want to drink from this magical fountain, I thought? Hmm, not everyone, that’s for sure.

Don’t get me wrong, this IS changing as broadband gets cheaper and more accessible, (yes, not everyone can get broadband believe it or not).

I was talking about resumes, wasn’t I?

Okay, let me get back to my point bout being a hiring manager. Listen to this very carefully. You’ve heard it before, but hear me now:

Your resume is your first and sometimes only impression you have to make on the hiring manager.

Especially, in this economy, there are many many qualified, top quality candidates out there. The problem is, most of them have sucky resumes. Yup, I mean it. For every open position I post, I might get close to 100 resumes to review. As a hiring manager, I might want to do phone interviews with 10 of them, and bring in maybe four or five for actual face-to-face interviews. How am I supposed to weed through the stack? Believe me, I have my methods; I can smell a baked resume, (recruiters love to bake resumes), and as hiring manager I alway try to see life from the candidate’s point of view. I’m often willing to overlook some of the minor glitches in a sucky resume if I can find some way to relate, but if I can’t… I’m on to review the next one.

Now, in this post, I’m not going to tell you the do’s and don’t of the resume. There are plenty of resources out there so I’m going to give you the highlights as I call ’em.

If you got laid off, and some sort of engagement with an outplacement agency is part of your severance package.. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!!! It will be extremely valuable. They might have a resume workshop, give you a chance to network, etc. You never know. I took advantage of it. I have talked to many people who decided to blow it off. I think that was short sighted. It helped me tons and my I think my resume is pretty good and truthful.
You got to be truthful. Find some examples online of resumes that match what you do. You’d be surprised what you can find. Personally, I don’t think there is ANY shame in finding a resume example you like and cut and pasting your info into it. Make sure it is YOUR info in the example’s format.
Make a text version of your resume. Be it Notepad on Windows or Textmate on Mac, copy n’ paste your resume into your favorite text editor and make sure it formats well. Many sites and recruiters require this. Have it ready beforehand.
Keep your resume on Google Docs so you can get a copy anytime, anywhere you can get a Internet connection. You never know when a lead might come through.
Consider having a chronological (traditional) resume and a functional one. Google the difference.
Consider non-traditional places to look. When I was looking for a job, Craigslist was pretty active. They say 80% of the jobs are “hidden” and you have to network your way into them.
Go to networking events.
This was actually pretty cool and I still use it. Print up some business cards with your personal info on it. Consider these your “Calling Cards” and carry them with you. Link to your website, provide your email address, phone number, and an elevator pitch. Give them out to anyone who might remotely seem like they might be able to help you find a job.

I also got a slew of interviewing tips I might share in the next post.

What other tips do you have? Please share them!

October 16, 2009 by Jeff Pabian

Hello my dear friend! I’m a pure student…

This cracks me up. I have been getting a ton of spam comments from the .ru TLD, and it always begins with either:

Hello my dear friend! I’m a pure student…

Interesting CMS. What software do you use?

Or some variant of the above. C’mon, guys, if you are going to try and trick me, you got to do better than that. At this point, I am almost insulted at this feeble attempt. But that’s not really what I wanted to write about.

Tonight I’m sort of reflective. So much as happened since I last posted. Certainly some of it is good, some of it is exciting, and some of it has certainly been a challenge. I spent the last 30 minutes trying to find a Youtube vid that represents my mood, but unfortunately, I think the risk of misunderstanding is too high, so therefore, I refrain.

I usually post about technology or funny things, but so much has been queuing up, it’s hard for me to decide where to begin.

I am still madly in love with my T-Mobile G1, the Google/Android based phone. I saw that Google had an Éclair delivered to their office: Each release of the Android OS has been named after pastries: Cupcake, Donut… Éclair is rumored to be Android 2.0…
I actually had my first Corny Keg experience with my homebrew in anticipation of our neighborhood Oktoberfest. Pics and vids to follow, (it’s this weekend).
I’ve been rehabbing a rental house in my spare (but limited) time.
I’ve been learning Python, (but had to use Perl in a recent pinch).
More and more people are asking me for help with Trixbox and Cisco SIP phones.
I’ve been to HP HQ in Houston, TX for an executive briefing; I was blown away and met some really cool people.
I am meeting with Cisco regarding their UCS offering.
I’ve been meeting with Microsoft (and attend the ‘Technical Decision Makers Launch’ of Window 7, Server 2008, and Exchange 2008.
I am planning on attending the VMWare Users group event in Atlanta on November 5th, 2009. Maybe I’ll see ya, there?
I’ve been enjoying Google Wave! (Sorry, I haven’t been able to send out invites, yet… so don’t ask!)
I have a new WinCE based GPS that I am hacking, (oh yeah, I forgot about this, but it’s a big ‘un!).

So I’ve been busy, but it’s been good. Any of the above items could be a separate blog post.

I’ve been really impressed with Google Wave. It ain’t perfect yet, but I see the potential of it. I might even go as far to say that it could be Email 2.0 but I probably need to elaborate on that. Along the same note, I wonder if Twitter is the new USENET. <- If you don’t get that, don’t worry about it. But if you want my highly entertaining, hand waving monologue on this, let’s meet for a beer!

September 20, 2009 by Jeff Pabian

How I manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc

First, this is not going to be an article on how to make money with Twitter, social networking, or Facebook. This is simply a post about how I’ve recently came to peace with managing my virtual life.

why?

Good question. Let’s face it, in this day and age, when anyone wants to find out more information about you, they’ll hit Google and put in your name. As a I hiring manager, I would hope any potential employee I’m interested in is involved and engaged in some online community. As a potential hire, I am proud of the work and contributions I’ve made to the Internet at large, and I would hope to stand out against my competition. If I ever decide to look for job in the future, look at the great network I have to work with.

It’s also fun! I don’t need to bore you with examples of friends I got back in touch with, or how my current position I got through networking. I’d rather share examples about new friends I’ve made, many of which I’ve never physically met, but we’re connected to each other in other ways.

It’s a great resource! I am sure many of you have had an experience where you said something on Twitter and then a company spokesperson, or someone you didn’t know offered help. A couple of months ago, I tweeted some things about the book “Visible Ops Handbook” and I started tweeting back and forth with the authors, who were really nice and helpful. How cool that I can connect with an author of book that really helped me!

The future knows no limits! Let’s just say, that one day I might get tired of being in IT Operations and I want to social media or product development instead? It could happen. And if I wanted to reach out to get inspiration and encouragement I got a place to go, and one never knows where my connections could lead me. Who knows, maybe you really can make millions on Twitter, (although… for the record, I seriously doubt it).

what?

Okay, of course I use Twitter and I love being able to integrate with Facebook. I also started using twitterfeed and tonight I just started using HootSuite. Sure, I also use the other usual suspects, too. But just not as much:

friendfeed
Ping.Fm
Bright Kite
FourSquare
CoTweet
Plaxo
plurk
LinkedIn
Brazen Careerist

I’ll explain how these tie in later.

how?

Hang with me on this. This all ends up everywhere, but I’m gonna break it down for you. Consider this: Twitter essentially feeds everything!

twitter + facebook

This is the first step. You got your Twitter account, right? And you’re on Facebook? Sure, there was a Twitter Facebook app, but as I have evolved with my Twitter usage, (we’ll still get to that), I didn’t want to bombard my Friends on Facebook with everything. Especially since they can be a different audience. I saw one of my friends was using a Facebook App called, “Selective Twitter Status.” The way this works is you just put this hashtag in your Twitter update: #fb

Then it will be posted on your Facebook profile. If it doesn’t have #fb it won’t be posted on Facebook! By the way, the icon above is a link to the app.

twitterfeed + twitter + bit.ly

Remember I said Twitter is the source? I started using Twitterfeed to post articles I normally post to Twitter. Basically, once you create your Twitterfeed account, you subscribe to RSS feeds. Then if you are willing to try to grok the advanced features, you can really do some cool things.

I have my favorite RSS feeds, set to check hourly, and then post one or two articles. I don’t want my followers/readers to get burdened with too many automatic posts. Now here’s the secret sauce! In the Advanced Options, I can prepend something. So if I want it to go to Twitter and Facebook, I simply tell it to append #fb to the post.

Okay, so what’s the big deal about bit.ly you ask? bit.ly allows you to shorten URL’s, which is critical to keep under the 140 character limit for Twitter. Now, if you actually take the time and go sign up for a bit.ly account, you get some cool things like a handy dashboard and your very own bit.ly API key! You can do all sorts of cool things with this if you use TweetDeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite, Twitterfeed, etc. You will be able to see what’s getting the most bang for your buck. I can now see how many of my followers are clicking on my shortened URL’s and adjust accordingly. Remember, I don’t want to flood my followers/readers so they’ll unfollow/unfriend me.

posterous.com -> twitter + facebook

This is one of the cooler sites that integrate with Twitter, I believe. I would consider it a supplemental blogging site. It’s not my main blog and it isn’t something I post to all the time. Rather, it’s something I use to post cool news articles I come across in my daily Internet journeys. I have it set up that posterous.com posts both to Twitter and Facebook, so I don’t use the #fb here. You can see my Posterous here, if you want:

http://jpabian.posterous.com/

what about ping.fm?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome! But I went to relying on my apps posting to the various sites as opposed as letting a single place do it. I started having too many double posts on my sites, so I figured with a little trial and error, I could make it less annoying for my readers/followers.

other tools?

I use Twitterberry on my Blackberry. I love how easy it is to fire off an update. I also have UberTwitter on my Blackberry, but don’t use it too much.

I use Twidroid on my T-Mobile G1. It’s much better than it was when it first came out. It’s a full functioning Twitter client.

On my Mac, I used TweetDeck and just went to Seesmic.

On my WinXP desktop, Adobe Air has an issue, and Tweetdeck and Seesmic won’t work, but Twirl does. You just got to remember to use the #fb hashtag.

As I mentioned, I started using HootSuite. It allows you to schedule tweets. For example, my wife, @lilyan is going to be on the Today Show on 9/21/2009 at 8:30 so I want to be able to tweet about it to remind our friends. I schedules several Tweets over the next few days to remind people, and I did include the #fb hashtag.

that’s it?

Yes, for now. But I am always looking and trying new and different tools. But the way I’m doing it now is pretty manageable and is working well for me.

You have questions or suggestions? I would love to hear them so send them along!

Thanks!

September 7, 2008 by Jeff Pabian

wherever I go, there I am…

I never really stopped to ponder how far I have come. A lot has happened, and it happened pretty quick but it was a natural progression. Last week, my Mac Book Pro started acting funny. I was experiencing lock ups and it got so bad, I couldn’t get anything done. I saw some error messages in my log files that would suggest that the drive was beginning to fail. Fast forward to last Wednesday and I am again using my MBP with a new hard drive.

But while it was in the shop, I was still productive and busy… and here’s how I did it.

Portable Apps

For some reason, I got a bug up my butt. I needed a usb jump drive. I needed one bad. Okay, I didn’t have a really good reason when I actually bought it, but I knew in my bones I needed one. Microcenter has a house brand of memory sticks. I got a 4GB on for something like $12. I installed three things on it right away.

Web Browsing

So I got portable versions of Firefox for both Mac and Windows. I have been using My FoxMarks to sync my bookmarks between multiple browsers amongst the multiple computers I have. It’s a great Firefox plugin so I know my latest bookmarks are with me whichever computer I am on.

Email

Email is also available for me anywhere I go. I’ve been using IMAP forever so all I need is a configured client or even a web browser to access my email from anywhere. So, on my portable apps, I have a configured portable version of Thunderbird.

I also use Gmail for most of my emailing so between IMAP and Gmail, I’m covered.

If you have a webhosting account, most WebHosts offer IMAP as one of the services they offer, along with a webmail version to access your email.

Chatting / IM’s / Instant Messaging

Naturally, I installed the portable version of Pidgin on my thumbdrive, but lately I’ve been using Digsby on my Windows machines. By using one Digsby login, it has ALL my IM and social networking stuff:

Facebook
Twitter

That works for me and a Mac version is rumored to come out soon. But regardless, I am able to access all my IM contacts with ease, no matter where I’m at.

My Documents

All of these portable apps are handy, sure. But you are probably wondering what I did to keep my most needed documents and files handy in the event I need them.

I started using Mozy to back up only my documents. Buried on their site, you can find the free plan that allows you to back up 2GB of files. It’s pretty handy to access my stuff online when it’s needed immediately.

Of course you can use Google Docs, but Mozy is also pretty slick.

In the end, everything worked out. My MBP was covered by my warranty and I got a new 200GB drive out of the deal, (my original drive was 160GB). And I was able to do a complete, 100% restore via Timemachine on my Mac. But having that USB drive with all those portable apps helped me make it while otherwise avoiding Mac-withdrawl.

August 13, 2008 by Jeff Pabian

cms for the masses

I love Drupal. What? You haven’t heard of Drupal? Well then, you just don’t know what you’re missing. Drupal is a robust, open source CMS application written in PHP and using MySQL. I’ve played around with Joomla, and it’s pretty cool. But when I had a big project for a real “content management system” I went with Drupal and never looked back.

The original goal of my original project was to come up with some way for multiple users to submit and publish content on a community website. I was in the position to upload and edit multiple PHP pages to make any updates or changes to the website. I figured there should be a better way. That’s where Drupal came in.

I set it up for my son’s school. It was very successful. I handled the administration and the care and feeding of the webserver, and a real marketing pro handled the content part of it. As of tonight we have over 200 registered users and a ton of anonymous users. I’m proud of it.

At work, we have a fine “oral tradition” that our newer employees, (myself included) are having a hard time getting our heads around. I installed Drupal as a way to address this. So far, so good. Many see the value of what I’m trying to do.

Now, add a dash of “social marketing” into the mix. I am a big fan of transparency. I want to lay my cards on the table and let you see what I’m working on, what my team is working on, and help you understand the challenges we face. It would be really great if I could get my team blogging on our departmental Drupal site. I’m not yet convinced they are comfortable with this. As I said in previous posts, opening up the Kimono a little bit can be a little uncomfortable.

What are your thoughts on getting your team to participate in this sort of communication? How would you sell your team on doing this? I realize that this might add some additional overhead to the workday, but I wonder what the ROI is on this sort of PR. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts. How can social martketing help an department within a company?

August 11, 2008 by Jeff Pabian

lord of the dance

Surely you’ve heard of the Stone Roses. They had that hit song in the 90’s, “Fool’s Gold.” Yeah, it was a great song and was over 10 minutes. Ian Brown was the singer you heard. He’s great. He’s been busy since the Stone Roses. He’s got this song that I can’t get the lines out of my head…

Is it the questions or the answers that’ll lead you to the Lord of the dance?
I admire your style
Love your smile
Cross the street
Is it your destiny or circumstance that leads you to the Lord of the dance?

I’ve been thinking about who, or what is The Lord of the Dance. And more importantly what is it that exactly leads me there.

Life is funny

Life is funny, because nothing can be as it appears and what happens tomorrow can be something you just don’t expect to happen. I’ve had great pain in my life and sometime it would have been easy for me just to give up and take the easy way. Other times, the situation was just something I had to deal with. It wasn’t something that was going away or change quickly. I had to learn to take it one day at a time. You know, I’ve always heard people say that, but now I know what they meant and how to do it. It saved my life.

But there have also been great and wonderful surprises. I have meant so many wonderful, cool, interesting people on the social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn and one Web2.0 services like Twitter. I’ve mentioned before how I felt it was best to keep a low profile on the Internet and poo-poo’ed any idea of pulling back the Kimono, so to speak. But I made the mental leap, and I am so thankful for my online network of friends. Many of these people I have met in person, but many I have not. I am looking forward to making new friends and contacts and being open with all of them.

Questions and Answers

I used to play a lot of “What if…?” games with myself. Like the Buddhist teachings, this only added to my misery.

The Four Noble Truths present a formulation of the Buddha´s understanding of the nature of dukkha, or “suffering“^[13] , the fundamental cause of all suffering, the escape from suffering, and what effort a person can go to so that they themselves can “attain happiness.”^[14]. Roughly put, and on a very basic level of understanding, they state that, firstly, life as we know it ultimately is or leads to “suffering” in one way or the other. That, secondly, the cause of this “suffering” is attachment to, or craving for worldly pleasures of all kinds and clinging to this very existence, our “self” and the things or people we – due to our delusions – deem the cause of our respective happiness or unhappiness. That, thirdly, the “suffering” ends when the craving ends, one is freed from all desires by eliminating the delusions, reaches “Enlightenment”; and that, fourthly, the way to reach that liberated state is by following the path the Buddha has laid out.

I hope I didn’t loose you with that quote. My point is that instead of sitting around and lamenting why things are they way they are, I could be doing something for myself. My “enlightenment” happens to be when I play with technology and when I can do something for someone else, be it my work, a friend, a relative, a family member, or a stranger (don’t get me wrong, I got prejudices around strangers, too). With my new found respect for taking things “one day at a time” if I can do just something every day to better myself or learn something I’ve always wanted to learn, I am making progress.

Destiny or Circumstance

Remember that climber that got trapped and had to hack off his arm to survive? That was a remarkable story. You can read it, but I heard that guy interviewed. He didn’t give up, give the terrible circumstances he was in, he made his own destiny; he didn’t give up. He kept a level head, thought things through, and made some tough choices. During this time, Outside magazine published an article on people who were “lucky.” More or less, it said people tend to make their own luck and was back with some studies. For example, they put a $5 bill on the ground and people just walked by it, no one saw it. Then, a guy who said he was lucky, walked by and saw the money on the ground. They suggested that “lucky” people are actually paying more attention to their surroundings than those who were “unlucky,” whether they realize it or not. I’d like to think that’s how I am, or that’s how I’d like to be.

So, who is the Lord of the Dance?

I think we are our own, “Lord of the Dance.” That is to say, there is a little Lord of the Dance inside of us. Certainly, there are things we do, choices we make who help define who we are and where we are going. And sometimes is it really hard… super hard to see the end of the tunnel or to have faith that there is an end to the tunnel, but there is. And while I still don’t know if it’s the questions and answers or destiny or circumstance that will get me there, (honestly I think it’s both), I’ll know the real Lord of the Dance better;

I am my own Lord of the Dance.

August 7, 2008 by Jeff Pabian

i feel like a new man

Wow, it’s been a crazy couple of months. I’ve been settling into my job, (which I am so happy at), I’ve been wrapping up some projects, and I’ve been finishing up with some clients AND trying to develope some new business leads.

My job is going great. One of the things we were really lacking, (my department) was a robust ticketing system. Someone suggested RT::Request Tracker. I had never heard of it before, and I am very impressed. The best thing, I believe, is that every browser works with it, and works well. It’s all Perl based so one can grock it fairly quickly. But it’s also very powerful and configureable. It was a bitch to install it since it required so many Perl modules, but I stuck with it and got it going.

I might have mentioned before that I am a big fan of Drupal. We set up a departmental portal recently using Drupal. I like it. I used Drupal for our son’s school and was very impressed with it:

Home of the Mustangs: Imagine International Academy of Mableton

One of the things I would like to try to promote is the social networking tools like Drupal or Twitter at work. I would like to have a departmental blog. I feel it is very important to communicate the work we are doing, (which is nothing short of excellent). I’m not sure how my reports will feel about it. We’ll just have to see. If you got some ideas or thoughts around bring social networking into the office, please let me know.

On the productivity side of things, I’ve been loving Remember the Milk. They just release a Firefox add-on that integrates with Gmail. It’s pretty slick and I use it quite a bit. I see they also released some clients, but I haven’t had a chance to monkey around with them, yet.

I also spent some time tending to my long neglected WordPress installation. I need to read documentation more closely. I got my tags issues all straightened out and things are humming along nicely.