the thinking.

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Wanna be starting something? Tech advise for the entrepreneur.

So you're smart. You've got an idea and you want to change the world (or at least your world my making some cashish). These days, it takes more than an idea to make it happen - especially when you are competing with the Kardashians and the Republican presidential candidates (and their inverted sense of elegance and poise) for air-time.

If you are wanna be starting something but aren't sure where to start, you might find the following helpful.

Can Technology throw a party and save the Universe?

I went down to the city of New Orleans about a month ago in a quest to continue to explore how what I do for a living can make a difference for the world. Don't worry, it wasn't all so serious.

How the Revolution will be Wired

Communication is becoming increasingly web-based as the use of database-driven social media tools and apps becomes standard for social interactions, business, networking, and project management.While this technology is being used by many, it is in the hands of relatively few.  Larger businesses and organizations with the resources to build and maintain comprehensive custom database driven technology platforms have an edge in a market where a users attention and participation online is a benchmark for success.

Facebook in Fur

Facebook broke Google's lead last week for most visits to their site. Facebook had been getting a little over 2% of all visits on the world wide web a year ago, and topped off last week with 7.07% of the market share – beating Google's lead by 4 hundredths of a percentage point. What this means is that out of the estimated 200 million websites and services on the internet, 14% of all traffic was directed at two of them last week. One of them a (diversified) search engine, and the other a social media tool.

Should Non-technical Organizations model Agile principles? (no brainer)

Organizations are nothing without structure.

Structures give people avenues for interacting with one another, and when there is a desire to accomplish work collectively they give us tools with which to share that work. There are many ways that organization an organization can choose to structure itself ranging from the very hierarchical structure in the armed forces to collaborative consensus models.

Mapping for Food Security with Online Web-tools

I was recently in New Orleans working with different organizations and government officials to better understand the opportunities that data-driven websites and online information systems would present in mitigating the effects of tragedy. In their case, the tragedy has happened, and they are very aware that it might happen again.

The Future of Education Software

Those of us who have integrated our work lives into our homes successfully understand the way working can feel when it is integrated into our living. It goes way beyond just being able to work in our jammies, and listen to the music we want and fix ourselves tea. These little freedoms we have in controlling our work environments add up, and eventually we are left with a sense that our work hours integrate into our lives seamlessly.

Cloud Computing and Free/Open Source Software

Within the field of technology, there is an undeniable bias towards web applications. There are a number of reasons for this. While still nascent, the internet is the most stable infrastructures in large part due to it's lack of centralization. It is also one of the single most readily available communication tools (probably right next to the telephone).

Values / Organizing Principles

Regardless of whether organizing principles or central values underlying the process of software and technology development are stated, they exist. The benefit of being intentional in codifying these values at the beginning of a project is in the degree to which they create an environment for collaboration and inform the process of integrating technology into the larger context of the project.

Website Development Primer for Non-Profit Organizations

Creating a website involves the coordination of different technological and design systems. This primer is aimed at demonstrating the steps and what is involved with developing websites using content management systems.

Can user generated content change the world?

An organization is a collection of people and resources whose common goals create an interdependence between them. The methods used to achieve these goals create flows of information, services, people and resources that mirror exchanges between stakeholders in the different communities they touch. These infrastructures (and the organizations that utilize them) become more effective the more they mirror the human systems which depend on them.

Fishing in a Bottle

I was told to put fish in my office.

I don't want to give away too many trade secrets.  My sister said it was good for feng shui and encouraging abundance (money).  She said that I should get Betta fish because they are nearly indestructible.  So I got two, just in case.

Finding money in Trees

As all business people do from time to time, I was sitting in front of my computer yesterday and wondering if I was going to have enough work in 6 weeks to sustain me.  It's something that can eat away at a person.  It's a fear that we are almost encouraged to have these days.  When we talk about it with friends or colleagues, they shake their heads and agree.  And so we think we find our fears, sadly, justified.
Until we look out into the world around us - at really what's going on.  I don't mean this is a zen way.  Let me explain.

Send Multiple Emails with Actions Module

This is a matter of making a simple modification/patch in the actions.module.  The patch is at:

http://drupal.org/files/issues/actions_multiple_email_recipients.patch

The modified action.module is attached....

Taxonomy items not appearing in View Filter

There is an error in the taxonomy/view relationship in which the first taxonomy item on a view is for some reason absent.

The bug is in the taxonomy module in the views_taxonomy.inc file. The correct views_taxonomy.inc file is attached.

It needs to be placed in the /modules/views/modules folder.

http://drupal.org/node/199675 is where the changes to the patch are listed...

http://www.varesano.net/blog/fabio/drupal+how+clear+filter+cache is where you learn how to clear the filter cache...

Cultural Viruses

There is a kind of information exchange or cultural programing that holds a particular interest for me as a technologist. 

We are aware that there are certain kinds of knowledge that stem from direct cultural context.  An example would be music or food.  These arguably are linked in some way directly to the land or culture they originated in.  And although when people move, they take these cultural tastes with them, they are visible even when they mutate into some sort of form.  An example would be that Mexican food in New Mexico is very different than in Texas.  Or that Ca

Pro-Creation: it's as fun as it sounds...

If I were to adopt a polemic, this would be it.

In any sense that these little two words together might be interpreted - as in:

Creative Strategies for Survival

I don't need to say why this is important right now. We all get it and experience it every day. Survival is getting tricky for all of us but especially for organizations who rely on grant and foundation money for their bread and butter.

Working Smarter through Tough Times

We have resources available to us that we don't see.

In lean economic times, it makes sense to account for the various flows of information and resources that travel through an organization. Mapping these flows enables us to take a birds eye view and see visually things that otherwise would be invisible.

How to get the most out of your geek.

Technology is great until it doesn't work. And because most folks who use technology haven't had the stomach to look under the hood, when things stop working it requires the assistance of someone who knows their way around a computer.

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