Looking for a Thing

Published by Robi | Filed under Brain Buster, Professional

Single white, well tan actually, male looking for a thing. No not a fling but a thing. I am tired of too many emails, IMs, hallway conversations and poor attempts at collaboration spaces. Never knowing what was read, by whom and when must go. Accountability and reliability are a must. English as primary language, security, spell checker and reporting are important. Redundancy preferred. Hoping for long term relationship establishing context, would be happy with a beta.

 

Delivering Contextual Sense. Part 1

Published by Robi | Filed under Brain Buster, Professional

Every living element has inputs and outputs that define its impact on the environment it is in. Let’s put semantics aside for now and accept that a living element could be a person or even a product (there is a reason for a product life cycle). It is these interactions, inputs and outputs, between living elements that is significantly enhanced by relevance. Understanding this relevance is the basis of having contextual sense (robibanerjee.com/?p=270), and the relationship of these living elements can be enhanced by technology. This is Delivering Contextual Sense.

Let me provide an example. Two strangers can have a face to face discussion. They are both living elements and have joint points of relevance,  they both might speak the same language, they are in the same physical place, at the same time and each have their own lives with different characteristics. However, they can still have a conversation that might be either good or bad.

Let’s take a more specific example of a mother scolding her son. My mother happens to be a saint and I was perfect growing up so the picture here is purely hypothetical. They are both living elements, with inputs and outputs, having a conversation where the mother is helping the son understand something. This discussion might only have a small impact on their lives or drastically change them, however, it is the relevance of the situation they are in that makes contextual sense (you rarely see a stranger scolding someone else’s kid especially in front of the kid’s parent). Ideally, the mother teaching the son. Currently the conversation is happening face to face. This is where it gets exciting. In the continuous evolution of the information age this conversation could have been adjusted (I am avoiding being a proponent or opponent) by the use of a land line phone, a cell phone, an IM, an email, a blog, a text message etc… That is a simple example of how the use of technology can impact living elements.

Whether we accept it or avoid thinking about it, products and services are being created to assist us in our daily lives. Everyone excepts that some are good and some are useless, that is common sense. Contextual sense is understanding the environment these living elements are in and their interactions. Delivering contextual sense is the appropriate use of technology to further enhance those interactions.

What makes someone blog?

Published by Robi | Filed under General, Professional

Realizing that I am still in my infancy of blogging, I did take the opportunity to reflect on lessons learned. For years I have watched, with interest, as bloggers would come and go. How different forms of publications tried to use blogs as an effective media (fascination with traditional print success and failures) and how companies struggled with internal communications (blogging should never try to replace a well designed collaboration space). Buzz terms come and go as do the majority blogs. This all has lead me to my point of view (as of today) on what makes a person want to post stuff on the Internet.

1. It is a hobby for them. A form of recreation. The successful bloggers are the ones who have found that “runners high” with sharing on the web. It is part of their routine that keeps them grounded and moving. In many cases it is a form of discipline that the author forces upon him/herself to put the fingers to the keyboard and type.
2. They have a topic of interest they feel strongly about and a community has risen around it that reinforces the authors desire to post. When a community fails to rise around the view point, eventually, the blog will either fade away or morph into something new.
3. It is their job. Just as in many other aspects of life when something moves from just a trend or perceived fad of early adopters to something with mainstream potential people want to make money off it. How does that happen? How do you get in early enough so you are a perceived leader? It does take more then a link to twitter and the fact that you are willing to write through out the course of the day. You have to have something that is relevant to the readers or the world. A compelling point of view.

For me it is a little of all three. The most important component being that right now it does give me an appreciation for the creation of content and its application in life. You need to think of it, write it and share it for it to exist. How much you think, write and share on a specific topic is the real question with both personal and professional implications.

Syracuse University – Men’s Gymnastics

Published by Robi | Filed under Amusing, General

It is a sad day when photos of you from previous years leak out on the Internet. I am partially to blame for this one and have decided to get a head of the wave of emails I have already started receiving. Just to provide context, I was a member of the Syracuse University men’s gymnastics team. Every year we would come back during the Christmas break in preparation for the upcoming season. It was during this period of time that we were very bored and did nothing but practice (ok we did a few other non productive things). After the last practice, before school began, we would dress up in outlandish outfits and go bowling. Pictures like this are the outcome.

 

Best wishes to all Syracuse University Athletes. Let’s go SU Lacrosse.

The great Apple mystery. Solved.

Published by Robi | Filed under Amusing, General

Sure enough with in hours, the great Apple mystery has come to an end. Nothing new. However, you can still see the image they had directly below. Feel free to spend your hard earned dollars at http://store.apple.com.

The great Apple mystery

Published by Robi | Filed under Amusing, General

Is the world coming to an end? Has a cure for the swine flu been discovered and delivery is only available via iPod? What possibly could be happening? See for yourself http://store.apple.com/ 

Waiting for MB, 555 or WWW to weigh in.

Defining Contextual Sense

Published by Robi | Filed under Brain Buster, Professional

 After significant thought around information management and the related convergence of business ideas with enabling technologies what always ended up in the middle of the discussion(s) was context. It was the big hairy eight hundred pound gorilla that people were challenged in addressing. This made no sense to me other than the fact that the topic is so broad. Unfortunately, this seemed like the critical part of the equation. How do you understand the context associated with the elements that are converging? If it is understandable, is it possible to create a process that can be automated or repeated on a consistent basis. If so that is something very special.

The above question / situation lead me down a path of understanding what makes sense. Traditional speaking when someone mentions senses one of the immediate thoughts is the five sense.

1. Sight or vision  is the ability of the brain and eye to detect electromagnetic waves within the visible range (light) sensing the image as “sight.”
2. Hearing or audition is the sense of sound perception.
3. Taste is the chemical sense that has four well-known receptors detecting sweet, salt, sour, and bitter,
4. Smell is the chemical sense of odor.
5. Touch is the sense of pressure.

However, despite the science behind the five basic sense, they seemed limited. And they are. If you continue to apply the concept of senses in our day to day lives there are more. Some have the scientific support behind them and some are more intuitive.

• Sense of Balance (vestibular sense) – the sense of body movement.
• Sense of Temperature (thermoception) – the sense of heat.
• Sense of time – the minds comprehension or perception of time.
• Street sense (Street wise) – An intuitive awareness or sense of city life.
• Common sense – what people perceive or sense as common natural understanding.

 

These all make sense and have a purpose in our daily lives. Traditionally, contextual sense has referred to the architectural industry as a methodology to handle complex design situations. My conclusion is that Contextual Sense does exist in the realm of information management and the convergence of business ideas with enabling technology. To date it has been intuitive and loosely defined. This has created the opportunity for innovation supported by Contextual Sense as long as it is delivered in an appropriate format. This leaves the door wide open for an upcoming post on a new set of services that I am currently offering “Delivering Contextual Sense.”

Thursday 4.30.2009

Published by Robi | Filed under Amusing, Ramble

Today is the very special two week anniversary of the relaunch of robibanerjee.com. Thanks for all the love and support. In the next two weeks look for roll outs including RSS, Twitter, polling and geo-data analyzation. While you wait for these exciting new features and desire a smile. Enjoy the following two links.

 1. A quickie, yet a must. How to use bacon. http://www.recipestar.com/pages/bacon_life

 

 

 

 

2. 8 PowerPoint Train Wrecks. In the “so bad it’s good” category, we honor eight PowerPoint Slides that will make you say, “Holy $#@%, What were they thinking?”

http://www.cio.com/special/slideshows/2009/02/bad_powerpoint/index#slideshow

Internet Usage – Pew Internet Findings

Published by Robi | Filed under General, Professional

Always looking to improve my point of view on internet usage and rationale, this slide show was interesting. Even though the point os the slide show is geared towards health care, slides 3 – 8 gave perspective on communication trends. If you are more curious in the health care component (as well as generally how people get their information from / about the government) check out slides 23 – 33.

Tuesday 4.28.2009

Published by Robi | Filed under Uncategorized

My introduction to Percieved Existence – If I type a tweet and no one reads it… Did I ever really type it. Somethings just never get old.

Working with Dr. Perry (in case he reads this I am avoiding the nick names we used)

Several years ago I had the privilege of working with a gentleman named Dr. Mitchell Perry. He was / is a clinical psychologists who provides consulting for companies and provides insight into communication skills and handling people (www.jmperry.com). Overall, it was a very interesting experience and the fact that I am still thinking about it says something (other than the fact that I have a nice prison tat of “STAR D” some where on my body – inside joke… no prison tats). Recently, I have been trying to practice three of the many things he taught me.

1. If you are trying quit a bad habit. As opposed to trying to stop doing it, start doing something else. You hear this in many places and it I think it works. Success.
2. Always provide three options. Whether dealing with your family or other professionals, it is human nature to prefer three choices. Two implies that one is right and one is wrong. Give them three and they have the mental way out. This is now challenging for me because my five year daughter has picked up on it and if I only give her two choices she now asks for a third. Partial Success.
3. Avoid using the word “not” Say what something is as opposed to what it is “not.” This is exhausting and the source of my rant. The concept is simple as opposed to saying what something is “not” say what it is. “Not” is instantly a negative and creates mental baggage. When you say what something is (even if it is a problem) you begin to mentally digest it. So this is my primary ramble of the day… it is exhausting. Partial Success It is NOT fun and I am NOT  doing a good job at it. Sometimes the word NOT is like the bat I want to hit someone with.

On a more positive note. Today was a great learning day. There are some really amazing new products out there for network analysis (bandwidth usage, opportunity for prioritization of mission critical apps, security, virus protection, real time reporting and communication, etc…). I have under estimated the challenge associated of having a nice handle on a broad array of new tools available. Things in the IT world have changed and continue to change so quickly for the good and the bad (seems to easy to just create a new acronym / buzz word for something that has existed for years).