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Category: Uncategorized

Thank you, Dr. Randy Pausch

I want to thank Dr. Randy Pausch for recording his Last Lecture so that it can viewed by millions, or rather, so it can inspire millions. Dr. Pausch died yesterday, July 25th, with his pancreatic cancer having the final say. CrunchGear brought me the sad news while I was searching for something else. I don’t remember how I learned about the video of Dr. Pausch’s lecture, now called the Childhood Dreams lecture. I remember thinking that I didn’t have time to watch a video that was over an hour long. I was just going to look at the first few minutes…. An hour and a half later, I was forwarding that video link to friends. To say that the lecture is inspirational is an understatement. Carnegie-Mellon had the concept of a lecture series where professors gave a lecture as though it was the last one they would ever give. They…

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Reading Virtual Communities by Howard Rheingold

Slow, but steady. Isn’t that how the tortoise won the race? I made a note to myself to read Howard Rheingold’s Virtual Communities years ago, and now I am actually doing so! The real motivator for reading it is an upcoming keynote by Rheingold at the STC conference in Philadelphia, June 1-4. I’d like to attend the keynote having read the speaker’s book. The book is slightly historical, but I find the mix of history, internet, geeky stuff, and human behavior utterly fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed the Victorian Internet, I have Where Wizards Stay Up Late in my to-read pile, so reading Virtual Communities is a no-brainer. Oh, and I borrowed his Tools for Thought from the library in MIT’s reprint from 2000. The online version of Tools for Thought looks like it might be from 1985. Despite its age, the online version from 1985 can still be an interesting…

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WordPress 2.5 fun in April

Once again, a lovely time was had by all at the WordPress.dk meetup on April 6. The only essential item that did not live up to expectations was the sunshine. But what did we care about grey skies – we were indoors! Jacob Bøtter, our host who graciously let us meet up at Wemind A/S, bid us welcome and talked a bit about corporate blogging. I thought he presented a lot of very interesting ideas. Jacob talked about contacting members who were set up to collaborate on a blog and encouraging them to comment on posts, for example. This is supposed to be contrary to blogging because the desire to blog and comment should be driven by a real interest and not because someone tells you to blog or comment. Jacob seems to be touching on the subject of change management more than blogging. I think anytime a new method…

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