Technology is like a bad pop song. As soon as you find something that you like, it gets run into the ground until you can’t stand it. Thousands of people start doing something similar. Tagging is the buzzword that allows you to place keywords on objects (web pages, pictures, blog entries… I just used a buzzword to describe a buzzword… there is something wrong with that).

Tagging is so popular b/c people think that if enough people tag items, it will eventually have an inherent organization. The biggest problem is that there is so much information and no (good) way to organize it.

The typical hierarchical system works fine for me but when you have millions of files, it just doesn’t work right. So, technologist then decided, “Let’s put keywords on every entry and allow people to share these keywords”. So, if you’re looking for AJAX, you will the web sites that I look at. Or, if I’m looking at “Books To Read” I will see a list of books that you think I should read.

So, why is tagging so hot? It’s easier than “social/group learning”… it’s all about organization. How can we organize the abundant information that we have. Tagging has just become a solution to the problem. But, tagging isn’t perfect. Information gets added daily.

Some other solutions that you may or may not have seen include:

1. Tagging - place keywords for everything on the web.
2. Check the Source - Information about AJAX is more reliable if it comes from a PhD in Computer Science that a high school kid.
3. Back Track - The more people that link to document, the more popular it obviously is.
4. Social Ranking - If I think this site is a great resource for technology information, I should be able to tell other people.

So, the million dollar question is “How do we organize all of this information”?

      

Just listened to an interesting recording by Venture Voice that interviewed Brad Feld. Feld started off as a high risk entrepreneur (software company and bootstraped) and moved into angel investing, and then started an investment company.

He pinpoints my reasons to focus on product development rather than services. As he grew to 20 people or so, he ran into scaling issues. If he grew to 40 people he’d obviously double the revenue, but his profit would probably be exactly the same.

He advises consulting companies to start small, bootstrap, and make sure that you create more demand before adding more people. Very slow, clear, profitable growth. He says, like most people, he stumbled into a consulting firm. He also talks about consulting companies wanting to become a product based companies and failing… or just talking.

He also talks about how to get funded which why, I think, most people are listening. He says a lot of good thing such as “The Business Plan Evolves… it’s never complete”, “Intellectual horsepower has to be tempered with experience”, and “I think the business plan is a really, really useful tool for an entrepreneur in terms of framing out what he or she is thinking about building.”

If you’re like me, which I think the people that read this are… I’d recommend you read this.

      

Browsing the web I ran into a very neat web site. BugMeNot.com was created to quickly bypass the login of web sites. They think that requiring a username and password is unneeded. So, they’ve created a site that allows you to post username and passwords to any site that requires one.

That means, no more submitting your personal information! And this decreases SPAM.

I’ve been using it a lot and have lately found that some of the usernames and passwords are not always 100% accurate. But, either way, its a great idea and I recommend it completely.

      

For the last four years I’ve been telling everyone how PDA’s were going to take over as a leader in IT. I’ve pushed mobile development to no ends. I purchased my first PDA about 5 years ago and fell in love with it! I thought it was great that you could get every bit of technology available at your fingertips. The surprising thing is that it hasn’t taken over the world. There has been technology that has come and gone since the creation of the PDA. And it has just blown me away.

I’ve had people ecstatic about their new iPod… But when I tell them that my PDA can do everything their iPod does it doesn’t excite them at all. But honestly, it does everything! In addition to playing mp3s, I can also store my appointments, tasks, emails, contacts, and even make a phone call!!!

92% of new hard drive-based MP3 players sold are iPods. Mac World says in 2004 they sold over 8.4 Million iPods!!! To compare, that’s less than 1 million PDA’s shipped! 9.2 million units were shipped in 2004

How can a product that has so much more than a competitor just barely squeak by in sales, loose horribly in popularity, and gain so much customer loyalty. Yes, customer loyalty… ask someone with an iPod to trade it in for a Dell mp3 player with twice as much storage, and they’ll laugh in your face. But this entry is not a rant about iPod’s being a glorified mp3 player; its about the lack of penetration of PDAs.

My conclusion is that it’s a lot like the beginning of laptops. Everyone thought that their were going to be new spin-offs developed with this technology. Instead, it seems that it will just be a bi-product of some of the larger companies. Dell and HP will develop the hardware while MS and other large developers will manage the software. When the laptop was developed, everyone thought that in 5 years you wouldn’t see a desktop… but they’re still around and still more prominent than laptops.

I love PDA’s but I don’t think they’ll storm the market anytime soon.

There are a few things that could prove me wrong. These things might increase the usage of PDAs.

• Phone Technology – As cellular phones become more popular, it increases the need for other mobile technology.
• Mergers and Acquisitions – As companies continue to merge and combine corporate knowledge and products, the usage will inevitably rise.
• iPod – Even though I just complained about the popularity of the iPod, it could easily adapt to the customers wants/needs. You can now play video on your iPod, why can’t you sync it with your Mail program, to do list, contacts, etc. iPod could soon become your PDA.
• Google – well… not just google but any company that is trying to push the limits of technology. New opportunities create new opportunities. I love http://maps.google.com and we’ve already seen a lot of neat mashups.

      

If there is one thing I’ve learned about the world from my 23+ years of experience, it has got to be that “Talk is Cheap”. I get numerous “brilliant ideas” and hundreds of “lets do this together”. Generally when people say, “I’ve got a great idea…” It means, “I’m going to tell you this in hopes that you’ll make it happen and I’ll get rich from an idea.”

Brilliant ideas are worthless unless their implemented. If you have a brilliant idea and want to be rich from it, realize that you’ll never get rich from it, unless you are willing to implement the idea.

Enough ranting.

So, lets say you have a great idea. How can you take it to reality?

Let’s move past that, once you’re bringing an idea to reality, how do you foster the growth process?

Here are some things that I recommend. They are in no particular order and are all very important.

Having a “yes” person/group – This could be your wife, best friend, parent, or just someone that loves the idea. This person or group tells you how successful you’ll be one day, explains that you can do anything, or tells you why you deserve every reward you get. They keep you going because they never tell you about the sleepless nights, problems you’ll run into, or anything negative. They are 100% positive and are very crucial to continue your battle.

Ideas and Brainstorming Team– At any point, if you become complacent or come to some type of block, these are your people. These people understand that negativity is horrible to brainstorming. So, they play off of bad ideas. Why you say, “I want a product that cleans my house.” Instead of saying, “that idea is impossible.” They say, “It will have wheels with the ability to remember its path”. They are witty and usually don’t care about scientific, technical, or financial boundaries. All they know is they need to think out of the box.

Lists and Accomplishing Tasks – Creating lists is very motivating. Being able to make a list of all the things you have to accomplish allows you to calm down and prioritize your tasks. Marking through tasks once their complete allows you to see everything you have accomplished. When you create a to-do list, it is simply a goal list for today. Today’s to-do list should allow you to accomplish this month’s goals. This month’s goals should allow you to accomplish the quarter’s goals. This quarter’s goals should allow you to accomplish this year’s goals… and so on.

Delegating Responsibility – When you go to sleep and wake up to hear that someone just closed a deal for you, it picks you up for weeks. Knowing that you can be twice as efficient because you’ve delegated some responsibility to someone else, allows you to focus on what you do best.

With these things, I hope you can continue whatever goals you are trying to accomplish.

      

The best arguers I know have a special knack that enables them to predict any criticism that could come against them. Additionally, a good arguer confronts the argument and defends his original argument with facts.

Doing this really throws an audience for a loop. Generally, the audience isn’t looking for ways to criticize a speaker and by taking a criticism, analyzing it, and showing that your argument holds true, it shows that the speaker has thought deeply about the subject.

A great way to predict any criticism is to surround yourself with people that do not always agree with you. Try joining groups that are out of your “norm”. Or, try creating a group of friends that are completely different. Or try hiring people that don’t always agree with you. Friends have a horrible habit of sugar-coating things or saying things to avoid confrontation… The protagonist cannot exist without the antagonist.

      

Everyday I get spam that tells me what stocks I should buy. It’s a good thing that my spambayes throws these away b/c I would probably lose a lot of money.

Here is a guy that keeps track of the latest spam stocks…. it’s pretty neat and shows you have horrible these companies have been performing. Out of the 35+ stocks that have been sent to him, only one has actually been a winner. You can get better odds at Vegas.

http://www.spamstocktracker.com/

Any company that thinks trying to spam “the hottest company on Wall Street”, is bound for failure, under poor management, and should be shorted as soon as possible.

Dear Publicly Traded Companies:

It is a bad idea to send Spam to potential investors.

Your friend,
The Common Internet User

      

Enthusiasm is contagious but if the original carrier is quarantined, enthusiasm quickly dies. Don’t let it die. Keep the enthusiasm in everything you do. If you properly share your vision with others, they’ll catch the bug. If you properly share your enthusiasm with those who see your vision, the bug could last for a very long time.

It’s easy to lose enthusiasm. So, if you catch it, hold on to it. Build on it. And share it with everyone you can.

Its really easy to share, just be passionate in the things you do. Be real. And don’t hesitate to shout to the world.

      

I’m very happy to tell everyone that I am now a Board member for the EAST (Enviornmental AndSpacial Technology) Project.

      

Tonight, in about 5 minutes, I installed a wiki for the office. Some of you many have heard of Wikipedia which allows ANYONE to edit the pages. This creates a “community” learning enviornment. It’s a great concept and has been extremely successful at Wikipedia. If you haven’t checked out Wikipedia, I strongly suggest you go and do some research there. If you’re too smart for an encyclopedia, I’d suggest you go there and share some of the knowledge by writing new terms and adding to existing topics.

In an office enviornment there is a lot of information John knows and should relay to Chris. An office could use a wiki to share this information.

Tonight, in about 5 minutes, I installed a wiki for iProv. You can see our wiki at www.iprovinternal.com/wiki. Now, I know its cool and I think it will be extremely useful. But, my questions is, how can we take full advantage of this?

My current ideas include:

1. Customer Relationship Mangement
2. Public To Do List
3. Business Plan Development
4. A Democratic Policies and Procedures
5. Coding Standards
6. Books to Read
7. Things to Buy

What are other ideas?