.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;} Searching for the Moon
My original blog - I have moved to http://shannonclark.wordpress.com so this remains only as an archive.
 
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Searching for the Moon
by Shannon Clark
 

Friday, November 29, 2002


Salon.com Books | Literary Devices

(note the link above may only be good for 2 weeks from Nov 29th, after that, check Zoetrope's website?)

Very interesting "fiction" by Powers weaving fiction into apparent non-fiction and into the fabric of the Web.

11/29/2002 02:06:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 27, 2002


Happy Thanksgiving

and yes I will resume posting here more often

I just realized it has been a while since I posted here, life has gotten very busy and very crazy. Tomorrow is a day of slight rest for me, not sure what exactly I will do - probably spend the day catching up on my reading (magazine, perhaps a real treat of a book, probably some of a friend's manuscript - though that I may have to read in the privacy of my own home... )

All resting in preparation for dinner with my parents - which will be nice, though short both because it will only be three of us this year, my sister and her boyfriend spending this Thanksgiving with friends in New Hamshire - and me having noone to invite home for the meal. A first in a very long time - so it will be a strange sort of meal for me - I'm used to Thanksgiving dinners with friends and family, just my mom and dad will be somewhat odd.

Then Friday will be a busy day for me - spent cleaning my office and clearing my workspace and my mind for a very busy December ahead.

I have a lot of projects going on in December, many of which will be starting in December and growing at an accelerating pace into more work in 2003. 2003 looks to be potentially a very good year - but also a very busy one.

So this week will be a week to catch up a bit on some of the deferred aspects of my life.

For a start, I did some shopping this afternoon - bought new sweaters, socks, underwear, gloves, shirts etc - all the neccessities of life which I have had a long need to refresh a bit.

Now my goal is to first cleanup and clear out my office space - starting with two years of papers to get it to a more orderly and organized state.

Then I will be starting on my home, working methodically through my boxes of accumalated papers - sorting them into categories (and hopefully filing many in the plastic bag filing system - i.e. trash bags). As I work my way through I will be organizing the piles into a couple main categories.

1. Critical Important Stuff - i.e. legal documents, warrentees, etc - which go someplace easily findable

2. Important stuff which must be filed - i.e. old paid bills and the like

3. School related files - old papers and the like - goes into a box of "School Stuff" for future reference and/or sorting

4. Writing piles - my collections of past writings, and equally important past critiques, as well as past journals - these should get organized so they are at least all in one place.

5. Non-paper stuff

a. Books - go into a pile to be dealt with when my bookshelves are put together and my books are shelved - very big project, but a very important one!
b. Useful stuff - office supplies and the like (put into a pile to be brough to my office in most cases)
c. Silly fun stuff - such as stuffed animals and the like - put somewhere to minimize dust but kept around
d. Memory stuff - presents from friends, photos, etc - stored safely somewhere
e. Art - may be stored, may finally be displayed!!!

6. Immediate stuff - current bills for example (should NOT be in other piles.. but you never know)

As I work through the boxes and the piles (which are much alike) I will probably be finding all sorts of things I have thought lost.

Another task will be to deal with some accumulated "stuff" which I should have dealt with long ago. An old monitor that is busted, beer that I will never drink (but old and stale - can't even give it away). My plan for this stuff is to piece by piece take it out to be brought down to our dumpsters. It will feel great to have this junk out of my house.

A big one which will be both a blessing and curse - my old futon frame, which no longer works, and the futon mattress which has lost all shape - when they leave my house a piece of my past leaves, and my living room will look much more empty - but at the same time, until they leave I will never, I suspect, get a new couch - with them gone, I might actually look for something to replace them.

In a similar but more major step, I should get rid of one of my desks which I do not use, the desk chair that I do not use (though that is not a critical piece, doesn't take up much room, the "kitchen" table that wobbles and is essentially useless, and all sorts of other items like that.

When the boxes are dealt with throughout my home, and the piles reduced to know elements and sorted stuff stored safely in sturdy places. Then I will have a closet to reclaim for useful purposes. This means dealing with misc. items in that closet, such as my mostly unused but possessing two flat tires and a broken seat bicycle, and my old golf clubs (i'm keeping my newer good ones). All sorts of other odd items will be found and recovered and should then be thrown away for the most part.

Then I will move on to slightly harded but important decisions and areas, such as clothes I will never again wear, kitchen dishes, utensils, and tools I will never use (indeed have never used).

In short, my plan for this weekend, and for all the weekend between now and the end of the year is to do a massive "spring cleaning" - okay, not in the spring, but needed none-the-less, and will let me start the new year on a fresh footing - albiet one with less stuff by far.

If, as I hope will be the case, my financial situation is improved as work is flowing in at a more rapid pace, then I will actually start upgrading, replacing, and enhancing many of the items of my life.

First, if I have dealt with my personal items and have the ability to consolidate them into one compact area, such as my large hall closet, I will pay to have my apartment deep cleaned - not a cheap prospect but very much needed. At the same time I will replace burned out light bulbs, including in the hard to reach areas, and pay to have a plumber look at my strange kitchen faucet, and perhaps upgrade some hardware in my bathroom and the like.

Second, with a cleaned home, I will, if I have the money, start by making sure my bookshelves are all functional - this may in a few cases be rather tricky.

Third, I will pay to finally more my TV to the "correct" side of the room (opposite where it is now - meaning I have to run a large amount of cable around to that side. As I do this, I will also upgrade to a DVD player as well as an actually functional VCR (perhaps one unit?) and perhaps a TIVO? Perhaps also, if I feel comfortable pay for premium cable to get some uncensored stations and stations which show movies uninterupted. Feeling like splurging, I'll also get a TV stand for the first time in my life and have a TV not sitting just on the floor of my condo! - what a radical move.

Fourth, I will start shopping for two or three of the missing pieces of furniture from my life. A large, very comfortable leather couch. An extremely comfortable chair to read in (perhaps two). Two chairs to go with a games table. Some place to store and keep games (which means also moving my game collection from my parents into my own home finally! A working/reading area in my bedroom that I might actually use - this means a really good radio, a really comfortable chair, lots of lighting, access to a good CD player, and someplace to keep a cup of coffee handy. Functional improvements to my kitchen, perhaps not the complete rehab that I really want - but at a minimum someplace to sit, more storage (highly functional), the "right" sets of pots, pans, and tools, and a few other minor enhancements.

Fifth, I will renew important stores in my life - such as my spice collection which is woefully old, and basic neccessities of the kitchen such as waxxed paper, good cutting boards, certain sizes of knives, and other little things missing from my kitchen at the moment.

Sixth, if I am truly feeling comfortable with my finances, I will take on some reoccuring expenses but ones that will benefit my life - such as a bi-monthly visit from a cleaning person to keep my condo in good clean shape. Perhaps also start attacking minor household enhancements such as improved lighting in various rooms.

Seventh, I will start planning for the really major changes to my condo which I would like to have happen - a new floor in my living room; gutting my kitchen, opening it up to the living room/dining room, and adding new appliances; real closet organizers for my oversupply of closets; a new, better, nicer carpet in my bedroom; and a more modern and finished bathroom - perhaps a jacuzi tub, definitely a vanity that fits the space correctly, a real shower door, etc.

At least that is a big part of my plans for the new year, as well as the rest of this year. Working hard enought to afford enhancing my life, and working hard enough on my life to get out of what ruts I am in and get rid of the junk, keep the good stuff, and use it and enjoy it more fully.

The fundemental problem is that for the past three years I have basically not spent money on myself (not that I have had much to spend), and I have lived a life that includes too many nights such as tonight where I am at the office well past dinnertime.

My first goal is summed up by - " make my condo someplace I might take someone home to" - this is a very big step and will take me a lot of hard work and probably a fair amount of expense.

Getting to the point where someone (a special female specifically) would spend the night is another milestone.

To someplace where she might stay for an extended time - a bigger milestone indeed.

Someplace where I can once again entertain, invite friends over, and share myspace with friends - that is yet another big goal.

In short - lots of work.

11/27/2002 09:21:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, November 22, 2002


Open-door policies - Tech News - CNET.com

Very interesting article which mentions a friend's company (TouchGraph) and discusses practical web services applications!

Cool stuff.

11/22/2002 07:47:00 PM 0 comments

Thursday, November 21, 2002


Andersen Shredder, buy one for the accountant in your life

As I previously mentioned, my company runs auctions for other firms. In the most recent batch of items (mostly servers and networking equipment) is one, medium sized Shredder "fresh" from the Arthur Andersen auction of last month.

To follow the fun - take a look at the Andersen Shredder auction on eBay.

Hopefully a bit of amusement for the holiday season - and a conversation piece for someone.

11/21/2002 09:36:00 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 19, 2002


No One Lives Forever 2 Full Q&A!

Intriguing example of AI in games (not the type of AI I write, but probably a lot more fun to work on/with)

11/19/2002 04:00:00 PM 0 comments

Monday, November 18, 2002


O'Reilly Network: PHP magazines: Buy early and buy often! [November 18, 2002]

I'll be keeping an eye out for them.

11/18/2002 07:50:00 PM 0 comments
selling a piece of history

infamy perhaps

My company, JigZaw runs auctions for other firms. We are about to start an auction of a set of servers and office equipment. That's the boring part.

The exciting part - we are selling a shredder from Arthur Andersen. Yup, a piece of Chicago history, for sale, starting in a day or two, on eBay near you.

11/18/2002 06:15:00 PM 0 comments
Amazon.com: Electronics: Segway Human Transporter -- First come, first served for delivery starting March 2003

It's available - pricy but you too can be the coolest geek on your block (heck, in your city)

11/18/2002 04:01:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, November 15, 2002


This is a book I plan on buying when it is release. This is also a test of how well my firm's Pieces Bookmarklet works in generating HTML for insertion into a blogger blog.


Hidden Warrior
by Lynn Flewelling
Hidden WarriorList Price: $6.99
Price: $6.99
You Save: $0.00 [0%]
Sales Rank: 616,720
Availability: Not yet published
BUY IT NOW!
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • ASIN: 0553583425
  • Publisher: Spectra
  • Publishing Date: July, 2003
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Powered by JigZaw, Inc.


11/15/2002 03:16:00 PM 0 comments
magazine: Introducing the Microcontent Client

Anil Dash has updated his article for Magazine (his online magazine - go figure) about the Microcontent Client - good read and interesting to see the evolution of his ideas.

11/15/2002 11:03:00 AM 0 comments

Thursday, November 14, 2002


Lorem Ipsum - Nov 13th post

Jed, who works at Macromedia, writes a bit about Contribute, Macromedia's new blog-like technology.

11/14/2002 03:19:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 13, 2002


Underway in Ireland

Bernie has some nice things to say about JigZaw's Pieces Bookmarklet.

11/13/2002 05:30:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 12, 2002


My bookmarklet - beta

It is launched and up and running at services.jigzaw.com.

If you are intersted in using it and/or have feedback on it, please contact me.

11/12/2002 12:04:00 PM 0 comments

Sunday, November 10, 2002


O'Reilly Network: Web services are alive and well at Amazon [November 10, 2002]

Article from Oreillynet about articles on Amazon.com's web services - I should read this carefully and perhaps contact some of the people mentioned when we (JigZaw) launch our own web services based application that uses Amazon.com's services.

11/10/2002 04:27:00 PM 0 comments
In reply to a comment posted on Estate Taxes

when I figure out the permlinks here I'll link back to the original post - it was my post of Nov 4/5th about voting

The Estate tax may (or may not) impact a number of families in any given year, but it has an effect far in excess of the impact in a given year - namely in what it encourages (and discourages) families and small businesses do when planning finances.

First - it is a moving target for something that is unplanned (i.e. few people know when they will die - variable estate tax laws make planning very complex).

Second - for most of this decade it has been triggered not at $5M but at $2M - a much lower number that far more families and small businesses can hit - based solely on the appreciation of a person's primary asset a home as well as perhaps a life insurance policy or retirement/pension policy.

Third - An estate tax is fundementally a tax on appreciated earnings/assets (it is the assets angle that is particularlly galling) - these assets represent the accumalation of a lifetime - during which taxes have presumably been paid on interest, realized capital gains, property (in the form of property or sales taxes) - why should the government tax this for a second time due to a transference of these assets to another party (or in most cases parties)

Fourth - "luck" has nothing to do with it. Family wealth is the result (in almost all cases except perhaps lottery winners) of a lifetime of effort, hard work, and carefully planning (and the power of reinvested savings - compound for long enough and we call can be millionaires).

Fifth - The estates that are most penalized by estate taxes are the estates where the primary assets are non-liquid ones - such as small family busineses (or farms), art, homes etc - here the estate taxes force a variety of all bad solutions. One, the assets may have to be sold to pay taxes (which are due rather quickly) being forced to sell something almost never results in selling it for the best price or to the best buyer - in the case of a family business this can be devestating to the business, the business owners, the employees, the customers, and the surrounding community. Two, the primary approach to avoid the asset sales is the use of life insurance policies - to provide an influx of cash for the payment of Estate taxes - this requires an ongoing expenditure of significent real cash over time to pay for these insurance policies - while the insurance companies presumably invest this premium payments, this means that the insured have less resources to invest in their business or community. This is an impact to the economy as a whole - diverting resources to insurance companies instead of local business (either as investment into a local/family owned business or in the form of additional spending by wealthy people - which benefits the businesses they spend with)

In short I do find the Estate tax very eggregious - the recent raising of the bar on it is very welcome, but the pernicious effects of it still pervade the economy as a whole, and fixed bars (as in the case of the Alternative Minimum Tax as well) will not keep pace with historical inflation and asset appreciation - even assuming low historical gains in property values, homes alone often double or treble or more by the time most families have paid off their mortgages. We have entered into a period of fast rising percentages of home owners - as these home owners pay off their mortgages and hold appreciated assets their estates will presumably rise in value.

It is a complex issue, and there are always seemingly good plans and places for money to be spent - the challenge of government or businesses is deciding where to spend (and where not to) and how to obtain the resources to spend. This will NEVER satisfy everyone - but perniscious sources of funding that have crippling effects to a large number of people would be one place I recommend not looking for earnings - and would recommend looking for other sources/means for those earnings.

11/10/2002 03:58:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, November 08, 2002


On the right and wrong ways to deal with a customer

or how much difference the right attitude makes

I am back up, my DSL horrors resolved. As I suspected, it took the right tech all of <2 mins (1 of which was having me powercycle the router) to correct the error.

My morning however did not start on a good note - I called Ameritech/SBC support and talked with one of their support people (who will remain nameless for obvious reasons). Rather than believing me, or even really listening to me, or reading over my files which should have shown that I have been having problems for going on two days now - he insisted both that this was "beyond the scope of support that Ameritech provides" and that I would have to go through a very long, obnoxious, and time consuming troubleshooting process with him (one that I had already done, but since it was "not in our records" he was insisting that I do it again).

After spending more time than I liked talking with him, probably almost 20 minutes, I got so fed up I simply hung up on him. And then yelled and cursed him out (thankfully noone else was here at the office).

I waited a while, to calm down - and to catch up on the 175+ emails in my in box (moved my mail to a backup server before leaving the office last night).

I called back, chose a slightly different path through the phone maze, and got through to a much much better support person.

He I will name, Issac at Ameritech/SBC Yahoo! Internet technical support was the type of support person you want to get. Calm on the phone, clear in his questions, and reasonable with what to ask of me - he noticed that I had a long history, and before even asking anything else, asked if I minded if he put me on hold for a moment while he reviewed the records. We talked a bit further, and he agreed to bypass the troubleshoooting and just directly call the Level II tech support (he noted that there was a note in my files that the one group I had thought should be working on it had indicated that it was really something that Level II could fix).

Very clear, very informative, and willing to listen to me, the customer - and agreed with me clearly that not getting the service that I had paid for was certainly a problem and something that Ameritech should resolve. Furthermore, he understood exactly why I would have a static IP address, and why not having it would be a problem for a business that needed it.

So, he then got Ray from Level II support on the phone. Again, a very good support tech - he asked a very minimum of questions, confirmed the information in his records (and my identity - reassuring security procedure) and the proceeded to right on the phone make the simple change that could fix the problem. He unassigned and reassigned my static IP address (doing it so quickly as to surprise me) - he then asked that I powercycle the router - when I asked why, he explained exactly why. I then told him I had to shut some things down - put him on hold, shut off my applications (mail) and then powercycled the router.

Almost immediately we were back up - he knew exactly what IP address to ping - and was already pinging it, and as the router came up we confirmed that I was up and functioning (and my website was live) and the call ended.

So, in stark contrast to the first support person I spoke with this morning, Issac and Ray listened, read their own systems information, were proactive, and acted to quickly and simply resolve my (their customer)'s problems - and furthermore they were successful in doing so quickly.

Net result - if all support people were like them I would be a much happier customer.

Now my next challenge will be calling and talking with the Billing department to get some credit for the time service was unavailable.

I think I will also send a written letter to Ameritech Support thanking Issac and Ray by name for the great job they did - having done support in the past myself, I know how hard and thankless a job it is - I suspect a written letter of thanks would be helpful to both of them (and an easy enough gesture on my part).

Now for the fun of catching up on my lost time!

11/08/2002 10:21:00 AM 0 comments

Thursday, November 07, 2002


DSL horrors

or why my site, my email, and my company basically have been off line for 24+ hours and appear likely to be offline for another 24+

Ameritech/SBC/Yahoo! DSL is currently suffering a major outage in Chicago.

Most annoyingly, this is an outage most painfully felt by their business users, specifically those business users who have static IP address (i.e. those of us paying probably the highest rates) - and most of us paying far more than just our DSL rates to SBC every month (indeed they are one of my largest expenses each month unfortunately).

For this, I get poor to medicore service when I make the simple, basic request that the service that I am paying for, in fact, be provided!

As of 8:45pm last night (Nov 6th) my DSL went out. At the moment it is up for use via dhcp, but that leave me without the static IPs that I have paid for - which means that my mail server (most crucially), my web servers, and my development servers are all unavailable.

Further, if I configure my server (for example) to work at present, it will not when they do in fact fix the service.

I have called them at this point almost 7 or 8 times since last night and for most of that time got a basic run around and promises that "it will be fixed soon/in 2-4 hours/by this afternoon at the latest etc"

So, what happens most recently? I called back after dinner, hoping that they would have some good news for me - that finally it will have been given to the actual techs in the actual field who can make the simple changes to their router that would solve my problems (specifically moving me from what must be a royally busted router to one that is correctly configured).

I learned that these techs had all gone home for the evening (so much for 24/7 support) and that the earliest that I could get connected to them would be 8:00am tomorrow morning. It has also been hinted that they may not infact get around to even looking at it until 24 hours after my ticket was submitted (i.e. around 5-6pm tomorrow evening) - how long after that before they in fact fix it... who knows.

Highly annoying, I've blabbed about this at Ecademy as well. if you want to see more of the same.

In any case if you have been trying to reach me today - please, please resend your email should they get returned as bouncing - and I will respond to everyone when I, in fact, get my mail finally.

11/07/2002 10:43:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, November 06, 2002


ia/

Very cool site - may quick get added onto my daily reading list - this is a site about Information Architecture - which is a topic I am very interested in and think a lot about.

ia/ news for information architects

11/06/2002 07:26:00 PM 0 comments
Using my own tools - and some advice

I have often suggested to friends who ask that they read the following book.

The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses

by Amar V. Bhide
The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses List Price: $35.00
Price: $35.00
You Save: $0 [0%]
Sales Rank: 82,937
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours
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  • Format: Hardcover
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  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Publishing Date: 23 November, 1999
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I generated the above listing by using a bookmarklet that my company is developing which uses the Amazon.com Web Services and which will eventually integrate our own technology as well. Please contact me if you are interested in learning more and participating in our Beta Test.

11/06/2002 03:36:00 PM 0 comments

Monday, November 04, 2002


Vote

really I mean it

and while I would like you, my readers, to vote for intelligent, responsible public servants, voting for someone who represents you is the crucial thing here

I am staunchly, fiercely independant in my voting.

2000 was the first year I voted for a major party candidate for President (Gore), previous years I voted for an independant candidate (Perot).

My challange is that I am strongly a social liberal - I do not want social conservatives holding major (or minor) offices, where they can seek to impose their beliefs onto everyone, and where their wrongminded views (such as anti-aboration, anti-family planning, anti-gay etc) policy views can become the law of the land and the views held by the judges and leaders of our country.

But on the other hand, I am also strongly anti-union, for very similar reasons - I am against anyone seeking to impose their views and opinions by force onto others. Unions, are, I find, generally counterproductive entities - they enrich a few senior members, create a generally inflexible and unadaptable work environment, and act as a drag on the economy as a whole.

This is not to say that I think employees should be underpaid and overworked - I very much do not. But I do think that unions tend to create environments that are against creativity, impose higher costs, for little to no gain for most parties involved.

Union dues and other costs (whether paid by the employees or the employers) are monies taken away from either the employees directly, or from the company to invest in other ways (including higher wages, better environments, better technology, additional training).

The higher costs and inflexibility created by unions must then be passed along to the rest of the economy - certain businesses are less productive, likely charge higher wages, and are likely less competitive than other firms. Look at industries such as the Steel industry here in the US - strongly unionized, very badly managed, and now imposing trade restrictions in a vain attempt to prop themselves up (trade restrictions that even most Republicans agree are one of the worst moves of President Bush's administration). Or look at the recent labor dispute with the longshoremen on the West Cost Docks - this was not a dispure about wages, benefits, or even working conditions. Rather, it was a dispute against the installation of labor saving technologies - because this threatened union jobs. So, a few thousand union makework jobs (which if they could be replaced profitably by technology they are) are now holding up process across the country and productivity in every sector involved in trade or export. This in turn means less selection for shoppers, higher costs, and reduced profits for firms in all sectors and industries.

So, in any case, every election season is a dilemna for me - there are very few Republicans I will vote for, as most have been tainted beyond comfortable levels by the social conservative parts of the Republican ticket. At the same time, the more that unions support the Democratic candidate, the less and less happy I am with them.

I do vote, indeed I have voted in every election for which I was legal to vote in (may have missed one primary) - but I do so unhappily many years.

I do not think that I am alone in my political position. I am liberal on social issues - I feel the government should not be imposing religious positions (such as anti-abortion or anti-gay) views on the rest of the country and indeed the world. Further, I feel strongly that the seperation of Church and State is key, that Free Speech is vital. I may infact go further in some positions than most liberals - I'm very open to the concept of legalization of many currently illegal drugs - not, mind you, because I have any interest in them myself, but because I think that regulated but legal they take currently illegal and out of the system transactions and make them legal (and thus also taxable). I personally am not interested in current legal drugs such as alchohol, let alone illegal ones - but I do think that legalization, regulation, and taxation has much greater net benefits to society than the current "war on drugs" - and that this benefit extends around the world.

At the same time, I think that sensible tax policies would tend to be many of the positions taken by Republicans (though I differ with them over the "tax cut" - I think it was a stupid piece of policy, not just because they took ten years to implement it. Mostly because rather than cut taxes that really impact the majority of people's bottom lines - such as payroll taxes, or cutting tax situations that have significent negative impact on the investment climate - such as the double taxation of dividends, or the crazy loophole filled corporate tax policies - the tax cuts were very strange.) I'm also a strong opponent of estate taxes - why should the accomplishments of a lifetime be cut in half (or worse) when someone dies?

Further, I think that taxes such as the Alternative Minimum Tax are the real hidden flashpoints of tax policy - because they have not been adjusted for inflation, they will be imposed on a growing number of very typical average American families. This burden imposes little real benefit to the government, plenty of pain and costs to the economy, and leads to counterproductive incentives.

Further policies such as the current Medicare/Welfare ones which penalize people for trying to make money (very rapidly, well before earning a living wage, people start to lose benefits of far greater value than their earnings - such as health care or child care support!).

I am a business owner - so I might be expected to be a Republican.

I am a White, urban male - so again, I might be expected to be a Republican.

I live in Chicago - so perhaps I would be expected to be a Democrat.

I am neither - though at the moment, I plan on mostly voting for Democrats this

But you, the reader, get out there tomorrow and vote.

11/04/2002 06:03:00 PM 0 comments

Sunday, November 03, 2002


Collaboration - a real example (posted to Ecademy blog)

I posted the following to Ecademy

This weekend I was working with a friend to help her finish her PhD dissertation (she is defending it Tuesday!).

The first way we collaborated was simple email - she send me document(s), I read them over, edited them, and sent her back my notes/changes/updates.

We also played the voicemail tag game - her office has very poor cell reception - and no landline (academic office - no "real" phone near her office, at least the one with her computer) - so all afternoon and evening we have left voicemails for each other, or have been able to talk, but not when we both were in front of a computer.

So, I suggested that we try using Yahoo! Messanger (since I have that open, and I recalled that she had an account as well) - however, first we exchanged a series of emails to get from her to me her Yahoo! account name. Then, once I had added the correct account name - I tried sending her a message - but she then emailed "having problems with Yahoo..."

Not sure what the problems are - but the underlying point is that though all this technology is available - sometime the "old" methods of emails and phone calls work just fine - albiet a bit slower than IM might be.

So, we have ended up doing all of this via a large series of rapidly sent/replied emails - modifying the subject lines as neede - crude but workable. Probably the most emails I have ever exchanged with one person in a matter of hours (over 50 I think).

My point is that you adapt to what is workable - and though there are many alternatives - often the simplest (but with a structure imposed) solutions are the best.

We adopted a one-editor philosophy, she would inform me of changes to make, I made them in the text, and then confirmed with her what I had done - this resulted in one edited final document, a clear trace of what was done (and why), and the final document has now been sent to her for further editing (passed off the editor's role)

11/03/2002 11:21:00 PM 0 comments
 
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Shannon John Clark (email me), b. 1974.

Male (to hold off the assumptions), currently in Chicago, IL.
I am active on many other forums and sites around the Internet. If I am online, feel free to Skype me.
You are also welcome to connect with me on Omidyar Networks on LinkedIn or Ryze.com and my blog on Ecademy or see more about me at MeshForum or my corporate site, JigZaw . I also maintain piecing IT together, as my corporate blog for JigZaw Inc.