The basics for developing culture:
Identify stories, sybmols and rituals
Hinduism and Divine Empathy as a model for good customer service
Thoughts inspired by:
The quest to find the next big thing often overwhelms the usefulness of the old things. This quote resonated with me this morning.
“I love to hear about the next big thing, but I’m far more interested in what you’re doing with the old big thing.”
Seth Godin – Bring me stuff that’s dead, please
photo credit: Victoria Reay
Read MoreMinnesota Public Radio asked for comments and thoughts in the aftermath of the Arizona shootings. I had some thoughts and so I sent them. This weekend I found that I was quoted on Bob Collins’ News Cut Blog along with my good friend Jon Bohlinger in the article: Assessing Arizona.
Here is what I said:
Read MoreI think this brings up major concerns regarding the political divide in our country. Politicians and the pundit-style shows have established a mindset that we have a two-sided system where one side is pure good and the other side is pure evil. As a country we need to acknowledge that there are shades of gray and that everyone wants to do what they think is best for the country, even if I disagree with it. What impact will this event have on the public’s access to politicians? Currently politicians spend most of their time with lobbyists who have paid for the privilege. Commoners have lost their access and now will lose even more.
“RSS is quiet and fast and professional and largely hype-free. Perhaps that’s why it’s not the flavor of the day.” – via Seth Godin – In Defense of RSS
I can’t agree more. While I spend less time in Google Reader than I once did, I prefer the experience of reading my own curated feed to wandering across one solid link on some microblogging site somewhere. I have recently installed two programs that have made me appreciate RSS even more: Pulse for Android and Kindlefeeder.
photo credit: HiMY SYeD / photopia
Ellis Epiphany
So, I’ve been a bit busy lately. As a result, my plans to customize the blog template and add some spiffy content has fallen by the wayside. My tweeting, tumbling, and many other things have fallen by the wayside. See, I have continued to fall in love with the most adorable little girl in the world (see photo)
I mean seriously. I hate to tell you all, but if I ever complimented the awesomeness/cuteness/wonderfulness of your children before I had my own child… well, I had no idea. It turns out my daughter is so much more awesome/cuter/more wonderful than your kid.
(Image: 325/365 – Baptized and lovin’ it., used by permission from micahtaylor’s photostream)
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On occasion a blog can be a nice place to feature wonderful things said about yourself, right?
The wonderful ladies over at Kane Consulting have said some nice things about me. You can read it yourself right here: Kane Consulting Gives Thanks. I am honored to be included in such an excellent list and flattered to have such nice things said about me. I must say in response, I am also honored to have the opportunity to teach with both Jen and Kary in the Spring. There will be some great things coming to Concordia University, St. Paul in the Social Media world very soon.
(Image: Thank You, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from robertvega’s photostream)
Configuring and dinking around with this blog has reminded me why I went to Tumblr for hosting.
Short story… I have a friend who will go out for dinner. She orders a salad and the waitress begins listing the 45 different salad dressing options. My friend stops the waitress and says, “Pick 5 of them and I will select which of those 5 I want.” Sometimes less is more!
That being said, I am not going to give up on this, but I may have to spend some quality time convincing myself that functional is better than fancy.
(Image: Colourful salad dressing on sale, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from 27124035@N06′s photostream)
Read MoreI caught the trailer for Influencers: How Trends & Creativity Become Contagious on Laughing Squid and thought it was worth passing onward. I am always impressed with the study of how influence happens. Bonus points for the inclusion on the study of what makes the creative class tick.
A noteable quote is, “”You must help identify younger talent and be the mentor for someone else.” – Sky Gellatly (blog, twitter)
INFLUENCERS TRAILER from R+I creative on Vimeo.
Read MoreI am in the process of moving away from tumblr to a self hosted WordPress install. Things are weird right now. Thanks to Tumblr2WordPress for making this a possibility.
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The future of labor belongs to enlightened, passionate people on both sides of the plant, people who want to do work that matters.
Seth Godin on Whatever Happened to labor
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If you live in Minneapolis or St. Paul and have an interest in a B.A. or an M.A. degree from Concordia University – St. Paul, check out the Concordia Cafe. I teach COM530: Interactive Media Management in the M.A. in Strategic Communication Management as well as MKM346: Electronic Marketing in the Marketing and Innovation Management program. You should attend if you’d like to learn more. Of course, I currently work at Concordia University as the Assistant Director of Computer Services as well. So, I have some bias toward the institution, but i believe it is well founded.