“When we change the way we communicate, we change society. The tools that a society uses to create and maintain itself are as central to human life as a hive is to bee life. Though the hive is not part of any individual bee, it is part of the colony, both shaped by and shaping the lives of its inhabitants. The hive is a social device, a piece of bee information technology that provides a platform, literally, for the communication and coordination that keeps the colony viable.”

That quote is from the first chapter of Clay Shirky‘s book Here Comes Everybody. Let’s try some simple word replacement here…

“When we change the way we communicate, we change society. The tools that a society uses to create and maintain itself are as central to human life as BrainPark is to work life. Though BrainPark is not part of any individual person, it is part of the work environment, both shaped by and shaping the lives of its people. BrainPark is a social device, a piece of workplace information technology that provides a platform, literally, for the communication and coordination that keeps the organization viable.”

Hmm, not too bad. Ambitious yes…..Thanks Clay….

Chip Wilson, founder of lululemon was on The Hour last night. He made a comment about doing great things. He said that mediocrity fears great things and therefore people doing mediocre things will always attack people doing great things.

While the scales are significantly reduced, my experience tells me Chip’s bang on. I’ve witnessed this over and over again in my limited circles. People who aren’t skeered will look at someone attempting great things and think ‘how can I help? how can I be a part of that?’

So if you’re truly attempting great things then expect attacks and don’t be deterred. Keep an eye out for people who support and rally around you and don’t stress the rest. Hey, maybe you should just say thanks to an attack and take it as a compliment? Look at it as a sign that you’re doing something great?

I just received a copy of Clay Shirky‘s new book Here Comes Everybody. I love his subtitle “The Power of Organizing Without Organizations”. I can’t really comment on the book itself as I’ve barely read the first chapter.

To be honest I don’t have high hopes as I don’t typically enjoy these types of books. I did, however, really enjoy his post Situated Software so if that’s an indicator then maybe this will be a good read? I’ll get back to you….

I’m planning on attending next week’s MontrealPython2 event. If you have any other suggestions on what I should get myself into while in Montreal, please let me know.

We’re closing in on next week’s DempCampGuelph5. We already have a healthy list of people wanting to demo and I’m excited about how many new people we have interested in demo’ing. I love watching our core attendees step up and demo but I love new blood.

I still get questions about this event that I’d like to clarify. This event is completely and utterly OPEN! We want you to attend. All you have to do is show up, enjoy some free food and pints courtesy our sponsor communitech.

So stick your name on the list and come join us next Wednesday!

You do NOT have to demo. You do NOT have to speak at all. You can skulk in the corner if that’s your deal. When you are ready, however, we’d love to hear what you have to say or see what you can demo. These events are first and foremost about community. It’s a chance to come out for a pint, meet other people in our community working on similar projects, and actually see what some are working on. That’s it. Everything else is gravy.

Chris fired me this post by Mike Arrington a week or so ago.

“I routinely declare email bankruptcy and simply delete my entire inbox. But even so, I currently have 2,433 unread emails in my inbox. Plus another 721 in my Facebook inbox. and about thirty skype message windows open with unanswered messages. It goes without saying, of course, that my cell phone voicemail box is also full (I like the fact that new messages can’t be left there, so I have little incentive to clear it out).”

Mark Hurst referenced this post in a recent email as well and makes some great points about the psychology of email overload.

“One benefit of declaring email bankruptcy, I think, is the ‘proof’ that you’re plugged in and important. Surely if you have so much email that you can’t manage it, lots of people are asking for your time and attention! Work must be a constant adrenaline rush! Wow!”

We certainly need to be aware that some people actually derive feelings of importance from being utterly overloaded by email. Hopefully they are on the fringe and most of us are ready to get a hell of a lot more productive when it comes to inboxes. Mark makes a key point about how Arrington is dealing with this issue:

“But consider the outcome of this strategy. Arrington effectively has no email, since he’s liable to delete anything he receives without reading it first; and he has no voice mail, since he leaves his voice mail box in the full state. Here is a leader of Silicon Valley who is no longer able to use technology. Strange.”

Mark thens makes the point that throwing more technology may not be the solution:

“I agree that *some* new technology is needed, but it’s probably not a snazzy thing that Silicon Valley geeks would drool over. Whatever it is, Arrington really wants it”

While I agree for the most part, Mark does refer people to his technology by pointing them to gootodo which strikes me as contradictory. With our focus at brainpark, we view all this as symptoms that we hope bp will tackle and at least help with. As always, the solution may not be had by focusing entirely on the symptoms. We talk a lot about the promises that technology has failed miserably at. This includes effective communication, less duplication of work, etc all aimed at allowing you move up the heirarchy and do something fun or hang out with your family.

I average less than one conference a year so I’m no expert. Basically I can’t stand most of them. I did, however, attend Neil’s Business of Software conference in San Jose last year and decided half way through it that I wouldn’t miss the next one, if there was another. Well there is, and this year Joel Spolsky is helping Neil organize it and it’s being held in Boston. The lineup is already impressive including Joel, Seth Godin, Eric Sink, Richard Stallman, and Jason Fried.

I’ve already purchased my ticket as last year’s attendees got early dibs. The rumour is that the remaining tickets will be publicly available soon so get on the mailing list and seriously consider making the trip.

The other conference is an easy commute to Mesh in Toronto. I missed last year’s due to client meeting conflicts but I was at the first. I found it to be less technical and more marketing focused but regardless it’s a chance to meet and hang out with people in our own backyard.

Writing javascript is right up there on my list of things I enjoy with smashing my face on large bits on concrete and listening to Ben‘s mom sing. Based on the lovely demo’s I recently saw at DemoCampGuelph (shameless plug, April 9th, why won’t you be there…) I tried out extjs and yui for brainpark.

There was no real differentiator for what we needed on brainpark. They would both accomplish what we need to do today. I started with extjs and had that up and running in no time. Upon further inspection I gave yui a cursory test drive and was equally impressed. For the time being, yui has won out. The difference maker? Licensing. All things equal, I’ll run for a bsd license over some dodgy commercial one I don’t even understand.

Does that mean I won’t pay for software or will only use open source? No way. If, at any point, it becomes clear that extjs will save us developer time over yui then we’ll assess the license and go from there. Absolute minimum, yui comes with a community filled with yahoo’s developers and a license that effectively says “Take it down to the copy center and make as many copies as you want.” That’s an active community I have faith in and I’ll take that anyday over a commercial community staffed primarily, or entirely, with developers paid for by licensing revenue.

This is good, link from Mark Hurst.

In honour of the day, we’re having stew and guiness of course.

Cripes I have to celebrate today. Not doing so would be like Mark not taking Canada Day off.