Digital Roots

The intersection of the Internet, Local Communities and Good Bread

Web Ink Now: Social Media is the new punk rock

Posted via web from madbaker’s posterous

Buried Trolley Line on Albert Street

I took this photo while walking to work last week — it's a bit of urban archeology as a City work crew (who is re-paving Albert Street Bridge) uncovered the old trolley lines that used to run the length of Albert Street.  

Posted via email from madbaker’s posterous

The Great Eastern: Available on MP3

Whenever one of the kids is listening to ‘classic rock’ on CD I think back to a great CBC radio show called The Great Eastern. Billed as “Newfoundland’s Cultural Magazine”, it was a stunning window into the culture and lifestyles of our newest province. The show ran from 1994-1999 and I absolutely loved it when it was on the air.

Thanks to the Internet, my iPod, and a fellow I only know as gporter, I’m reliving this funny part of my life through the Great Eastern archives. All the old episodes are there along with show notes, music playlists and other extras.

I’m listening to season 2 now but still haven’t found the part with the classic rock on CD collection. It’s from the end of one show where the host, Paul Moth, is comparing bland new digital recordings with the full bodied expression of an LP on coal-fired radio, using Led Zepplin’s Whole Lotta Love. Good times, good times…

Thank you gporter, whoever you are…

I need to start watching more Charlie Rose

I don’t really watch much TV and I watch even less current affairs but lately I keep been pointing me to the Charlie Rose show.   Now there’s a fellow who understands how the Web works.  Or at least he seems extremely interested.

Case in point:  Mitch Joel is really digging into how traditional print media is dying due to the changes brought about by the Web.  He pointed me to a recent Charlie Rose episode with the CEO of the Associated Press and Arianna Huffington, where they describe to wildy different futures for journalism and aggregators of journalism.  

My favorite Charlie Rose episode is an interview with Marc Andreessen that aired in February.  It’s a rapid fire hour where Marc talks about where the Web is at and where it’s going.  

 

Thanks to Mitch Joel for pointing me to the Andreeson interview too.  Maybe if you don’t have time to watch Charlie Rose, you should just go read Mitch’s blog.  He’ll let you know the best stuff to watch!

[Damn! I can't get any consistency with the embedded video. Sorry about that. Check the link to the Charlie Rose site for a larger view]

Siting a School in a Sausage

Here’s a lesson about how Collaboration, Consultation and Compromise might not, in the end, come up with the best solution.

The topic:  We’re building a new school in our neighbourhood.  Not to accomodate an influx of new kids, but to cope with the long slow decline in enrollment in the neighbourhood.   Three existing schools serving just over 500 kids [pre-K - grade 8] today and projecting out to just over 400 kids in the future.

The Good News:  We’re getting a new school!  One that will reflect all the best things in new teaching methods and a greater range of learning patterns.  A school built to bring out the very best in all our kids.  One that will set them up well to live and work in the new Creative Age.   Very rare to do this in an older neighbourhood and almost unheard of in Regina.

The Bad News #1:  Complete lack of agreement on what ‘Big’ or ‘Small’ is with respect to school size or what’s the optimal size for new ‘team teaching’ methods.  Instead, we’re bound to an arbitrary number of 200 kids as a minimum number for a school.   The result:  We’re not combining three schools into one, but instead three schools into two. 

The Bad News #2:  The two schools we’re combining are at the edges of the neighbourhood.    We need to pick one of the existing sites for the new school.  The end result is a serving area that looks like a big sausage with a school at one end.

The Bad News #3.  Because we’re only building a school for 225 kids, we’re not building a ‘full size’ school.  We’re getting a small (class C) gymnasium.  We get the bare minimum of project rooms and no specific project rooms for things like music, dance or the arts.

We’re really setting ourselves up for a problem in the future.   Even if you believe that 250 kids is an optimal school size and 200 is a minimum cut off  (and I’m convinced that’s still too small), the numbers just don’t add up well for two schools.

Best Case: 8 years from now we’ll have two schools just barely above the minimum cut off (203 kids per school.)  Each school has their nose just barely above water.

Worse Case:  One school is well above the cut (300 kids) and this school is overcrowded.  The other school is well below the cut (100 kids) and is on the list for closure.  It makes no difference which school is big or small here.  Either there are too many kids packed into a very old school or we built the new school way too small. 

In my mind, there’s an easy way to fix this — combine all three schools now and put a new school in the centre of the neighbourhood.     The school is built big enough from the start, with a full slate of features.  400 students is still not a Big School, even in Saskatchewan (Warman, SK for example is dealing with schools that can’t even hold all their kids.  500 kids from K-5 means grade 6-8 are in the high school.)

It’s getting to the point of groupthink.  The best ideas of individuals are combined to do a dumb thing, but we can all say we collaborated in the process.  And $15 million down the tube building something that will be either way too big or way too small.

POW! A book about Surprise that I would love to read

One of the things I try to do in all my work is to take a new approach or a fresh angle at solving an old problem.  Whether it’s transforming my community association to be more about looking out than looking inward, or bringing brand new bread to my neighbourhood, or even a new style of presentations to my day job, I want to Wow people.

Andy Nulman is a man who has indirectly guided me along this journey.  He’s the author of one of my favourite blogs and has just finished a new book called POW! — Profiting from the Power of Surprise.  It’s a book I’ve been waiting for.

In support of his book launch, Andy’s giving away 200 copies of his new book to bloggers who link back to his site.  I’d gladly link back for free, but just in case, here’s my address Andy  :-)

Mark Dyck

2904 Wascana Street, Regina, SK S4S 2G8

Have You Read the Tribes Q&A Book?

I must have been abducted by aliens and had my memory wiped out since I completely forgot to tell you all about the Tribes Q&A ebook. It’s another collaboration from Seth Godin’s tribe of followers — some of the nicest, smartest and most creative people I’ve ever met.

This ebook answers some of the questions that seem to come up when people try to apply Seth’s ideas about forming and leading tribes.   I could go on, but fellow triiibster Paul Durban is a genius at expressing ideas through pictures, so let’s have Paul explain it for you.

Tribes Q&A Trailer

In case you also missed the first e-book, containing over 200 pages of tribe case studies, you can find that one here. My case study made it in too — it’s on page 91!

Who is your strategy document for?

If you’re a leader within a large organization, sooner or later you’ll need to develop a strategy — recommendations on how to respond to an event or take advantage of a change in the world. You’ll do some research, talk to people and think a lot.

When the vision is clear in your head, typically the next step is to get everything down on paper so your strategy can get vetted, approved and implemented. Here’s where everything slide sideways quicker than a Texas driver in an ice storm.

One Size Does Not Fit All

You need to remember that a LOT of people need to know about your idea, from the top executive to the worker who will eventually implement your vision. And they need to be treated differently. “Maximize shareholder value” might have meaning for the CEO but it sure sounds like vapour to someone who is working with customers all day.

But Everyone Loves a Story

Execs may claim to be all about the numbers, but they still need to get some emotional attachment before your big idea will really resonate. Storytelling, examples, pictures, colour all help spread your idea and make it stick with people, no matter who they are.

So what should I write?

If your idea is important, and it needs to spread, then you’re going to have to spread your idea many ways. Time to get over the false hope that a single document will inspire everyone in your company to see the light. Here’s some ideas on how to get different audiences to respond to your strategy:

• You can’t avoid the standard documents: Execs probably require standard documents like business cases, standard item descriptions and presentation layouts. They’re not fun but they’re required. Do them.
• Make it fun and make it real: Leave the business case in your desk and take a strong presentation on the road to talk to workgroups. Lots of colour, pictures, stories and a strong image of the future. You’ll gain credibility and some allies.
• Give them something to share: An entertaining ebook that describes your vision and the journey to achieve it is a great giveaway to help your allies spread the word for you.

It’s worth it!

Sure, it’s a lot of work building a collection of documents and presentations to get your ideas across to a variety of audiences. But it’s a really big idea, right? Right? If it’s not worth the effort then you’re better off stepping back to the research / talking / thinking phase.

Photo by Noeluap.

Is that all there is?

Has this ever happened to you?

Yesterday, about 150 corporate marketers trudged five blocks to the local hotel, went into the dull beige ballroom and sat in row upon row of hardback chairs for another “quarterly rollout.” We started with “the numbers” (three charts, small font) then list after list of what we did and what we’re doing next quarter. The call for ‘any questions?’ was met with silent stares. 90 minutes later we stood up, stretched, and trudged back to work.

Is that all there is? You get 150 people in a room to bore them to death? Honestly, a single slide with a picture, or colour even, would’ve knocked people out of their chairs. In this case, the only leaning forward was to look at a blackberry email.

It is so frustrating when people blow wonderful opportunities to inspire, delight and energize. Boring 150 people at a time is criminal, but how often do we do this in our small groups too? How many of your community meetings just drone on through the same agenda month after month? How many of us, in an attempt to include everyone, talk to noone in particular?

If you do this, even a little, please get help with your presentations. There are lots of good presentation examples available.

Photo credit: Stephanie Booth.

Working, Writing

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Worried about sharing your cool idea? Try a FriendDA.

Posted by Mark

at November 3, 2008

A recurring Triiibes mantra is “Ideas that Spread, Win.”  In fact, having a good idea spread is more important than getting credit for it. That’s a tough one for me, as much of my professional life is making darn sure my company’s secrets stay in the company and I’m afraid that attitude has leaked into my personal life too.   So I’ve been on a personal journey to share more ideas, more often, to more people.   Yet, it’s still a struggle, especially when it comes to new business ideas, like my bakery.

All of this made me very receptive to the ideas in this post. It’s from Rands in Repose, which is on the top half of my ‘must read’ list.

In this case, Rands comes up with an elegant, and possibly tongue in cheek, way to pitch your next great idea to a friend to get some feedback. It’s for those really good ‘uns — the Next Big Thing that you Actually Might Implement.

I’m in a 12 step program to help me freely share ideas, but what about you? Are you the type of person who worries about other people stealing your ideas? Then maybe a FriendDA is the tool you need!

Living, Working

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