An essential idea for the 140 character world
140 character world
Three Nuggets of Wisdom for the New Year
Jan 6th
Grandma as a young girl during the Great Depression
Happy New Year!
I hope you had a joyous and thankful holiday season. I always find this time of year great for reflection and optimism for the new year. I found that even more true this year as I approach my 40th birthday this month.
Approaching these milestones of learning, I took the opportunity of family time during the holidays to gain insight from my grandparents, all in their mid-late 80s, about what I needed to know for the next 40 years of the journey.
They shared three nuggets. That’s it. No big deal. Just three nuggets.
Eat right. It’s no coincidence this one is from my grandmother who looks as good and as smart today as she was 20 years ago.
Keep your mind active. Find activities that challenge your mind. What I took away from my grandmother, who battled back cancer, is always keep learning.
Believe you’re younger than you are. Playing is important. I liked this one the most partly because it’s something I love to do and partly because it was said by my oldest relative; my wonderful great aunt is 88.
Endings are important. They are the doorway to what’s next. As we bid farewell to 2011 and walk through the doorway into 2012, I felt those pieces of wisdom were something we could all use.
Wishing you and your family prosperity and good health in the new year,
glen.
Exploring Authenticity @TEDActive … Jeffersonian Style
Mar 7th
“What does it mean to be a leader and be authentic?”
So began a two and a half hour round-table discussion with 12 business leaders immersed at TEDActive in Palm Springs, Calif. last week. Simulcasting the Long Beach, Calif. TED production for over 500 learners from all over the world, TEDActive is designed for in-depth conversation and stimulating projects.
Slipping away from the official TEDActive events for an evening, the 12 of us engaged for a night more unique and interesting than I think any of us had expected. It was a Jeffersonian Dinner.
Sharing my thoughts at Le Vallauris restaurant for our Jeffersonian Dinner at TEDActive 2011. February 28 - March 4, 2011 Palm Springs, CA. Photo by Michael Brands / TED.
You get 12-15 of the most interesting people with which you would like to have a conversation seated around a table with the goal of thoughtful discussion around a few big questions. Mix in some great food and an express desire to hear one person speaking with 12 minds focused on one discussion, and you have just what Thomas Jefferson intended with his famous Monticello dinners of transformative connections.
When John Miles, the Chief of What’s Next at a great values-driven organization, Integritive, pitched me the idea to help curate the group, of course I was all in.
The question posed was quite appropriate as we had heard that day both Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company, and Ingrid Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi, face the test of being authentic and leading a global public corporation begun in what seems like another age as their company’s products and the needs of the world struggle to align.
Whether it was MIT Media Lab cognitive scientist Deb Roy analyzing media and social network behavior to give us “a telescope into our own behavior,” or Al Jazeera’s Wadah Khanafar professing the power of social networks and universal values, or General Stanley McChrystal responding to the changing needs of leadership with more transparency with his troops, the TED conference illuminated the reality: the evolution toward authenticity is undeniable.
Our discussions didn’t end at dinner and were carried back to the TEDActive venue around the fire pits and bar. Over the next several days many attending that night commented on the elegance and engagement from the Jeffersonian Dinner format. TEDx organizers – the many amazing individuals that have contributed to put on local TED-style events all over the world – who were part of the dinner commented on including the format into their events or even doing it monthly salon style in their areas.
Posing for a picture to conclude the inaugural Jeffersonian Dinner @TEDActive 2011
So extremely thankful for a great week @TEDActive, especially for the thoughtful leaders who ventured to experiment with the Jeffersonian format, I showed up as a student with my pack full of what I know and added in the knowledge from each of you. Knowing that authenticity means you make mistakes and being proud to admit you’re wrong.
Still learning,
glen.
Also check out these great blogs, articles and sites:
- The Jeffersonian Dinner Format
- Thinking Bench: The Wisdom of Authenticity and Leadership amidst the Social Data Revolution
- Wired: TED 2011: This Week at the TED Industrial Complex
- Nilofer Merchant: Is TED Elite?
- Daily Beast: The Coolest Talks at This Year’s TED Conference
- WorldBlu: Bringing Authenticity to the Workplace
The Wisdom of Authenticity and Leadership amidst the Social Data Revolution
Feb 26th
Wisdom 2.0 Conference Tech Panel: Consciousness in a Constantly Connected Life (from left to right): Wisdom 2 founder and panel moderator Soren Gordhamer, Zen Teacher Roshi Joan Halifax, Digg Founder Kevin Rose, Zynga Co-Founder Eric Schiermeyer, Twitter Strategic Advisor Chris Sacca, and Google VP Bradley Horowitz
“Somebody’s an asshole in real life, and they’re going to be an asshole online.
You can’t fake it.”
Chris Sacca, investor and Strategic Advisor for Twitter began his final words on a tech panel on Consciousness in a Constantly Connected Life at the Wisdom 2.0 Conference yesterday pondering that first statement posed to the panel.
With the backdrop of 2,000 years of computing on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif, Sacca explained, “The more these platforms are built and the more transparency and authenticity emerges, the more people fact check you and security check you and truth check you, either you’re so good at faking it, and you become that thing, or you’re just exposed.”
This evolution toward authenticity was echoed at SFNewTech’s Social Data Revolution panel two nights earlier in San Francisco.
SFNewTech - Social Data Revolution (from left to right): SimpleGeo's Joe Stump, Skout's Christian Wiklund, Presdo & LinkedIn Founder Eric Ly, Hummer Winblad's Lars Leckie, Wikinvest's Michael Sha, and former Amazon Chief Scientist Andreas Weigend
“You can no longer be a closet asshole and be a nice guy when you first meet people because if you are an asshole somebody’s going to take a picture of you spitting on the homeless guy,” Joe Stump Co-Founder of SimpleGEO and former Lead Architect at Digg said to the SFNewTech audience.
“I just read this last night: there was a txt from a student who said I held a professor’s hair back while she was puking, if she doesn’t give me an A on the exam, I’m going to be posting the pictures all over Facebook.
“We have to be our true selves. We can no longer have multiple versions of ourselves, and I think that’s going to be a drastic shift in human behavior over the next 5–10 years.
“You cannot hide who you really are, and I think that is scary for some people. You have to be who you are and accept that and move on.”
As a CEO, I’ve found it nearly impossible to have a separate business and personal persona. To effectively engage, motivate and collaborate with the team @mojointeractive, I believe connecting with them on Facebook, Yammer and Twitter all help us align our core values.
I’m a better leader, facilitator and collaborator when I understand what my colleagues value. When, for instance, someone posts about completing a half marathon on Facebook and then posts on Yammer of a milestone on a big company project that affects us all, there is a strengthening of empathy and trust, cornerstone emotions for accountability to each other.
A single persona of authenticity signals to those around me that my values are consistent across my life and if you like what you see, what can we collaborate on so we can build something great?
Between the balance of presence and mindfulness with the always now, instant feedback, data streaming social data revolution, the questions being asked at these two conferences are some of the most fascinating being discussed on our connection with technology.
A powerful moment is taken when reflection on your authenticity and your relationship with technology is considered.
NASA’s Vision on Final Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery
Feb 25th
The magic and power of Discovery as she lifts off one last time. Photo taken by mi amigo @ryloguy
Captivated by the launch of Discovery today and then by the post-launch press conference at NASA, I IM’d this to a friend about the conference:
—
me: really enjoyed the post-launch press conference
him: what’d they talk about?
me: that almost no-go issue
some of the things they’ve done toward the end of the program
team taking pictures as it rolled out and a time to reflect on the vehicle many people have spent their career working on
the scope of trying to understand spending your career on something like that was pretty awesome
him: wow.. nice
me: also, the international scope of the space station. all the various traffic heading there besides the shuttle and all the countries that coordinate and celebrate the launch. people up from china & japan space team watching and congratulating
“the ballet and dance of countries coming together”
him: definitely seems to be one of the few things we come together internationally for thats peaceful
me: what they are doing in PR to show public the benefits of experiments that go on with the program so we better understand the ROI to fund it more (we not meaning me, of course)
him: im curious what public perception is now days
me: challenges with researches not wanting to reveal experiments until it’s been proven and peer reviewed … which hurts getting that information out
but they are working on an international effort to communicate how humanity is benefiting
fascinating
—
As I write this, Discovery’s payload doors are open, and it’s set to dock with the International Space Station Saturday with two spacewalks planned for this mission. Remembering the Hubble 3D movie I saw last year and wrote about. That movie gave me a perspective on a space shuttle mission like nothing else. Highly recommended. Discovery launched Hubble and was the vehicle for the second and third service missions explored in the film.
The crew and the legendary space shuttle Discovery returns in 11 days.
CES Notebook Part 2: Lady Gaga’s Unlikely Polaroid
Jan 19th
Dolby Playground
Presented below are the dirty details of Part Two from my roundup of the annual tech-fest known as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas earlier this month.
In Part One, I explored the Rise of Smart TV and the surprising amount of makeup worn by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Here are my remaining CES highlights (at least the ones fit for publishing) …
Nothing to GaGa Over -> One of the first stops I made at CES was the Polaroid booth. I was really interested to see how this company was transforming itself, and I wanted to get my eyes on the new sunglasses from Lady Gaga.
Seeing new instant picture technology and cameras from Polaroid was great. There is definitely a market for these as prints are still fun to give out at parties and events.
What’s most fascinating is the business partnership with Lady GaGa who was recently named creative director for a line of imaging products. It’s definitely an interesting alignment in the re-invention of Polaroid. Would Lady Gaga do anything to embarrass the brand or this line of products? Risky.
Alas, the actually sunglasses proved too elusive to get my eyes on given its limited show time as Polaroid executives kept them as a meet and greet trophy.
Lady Gaga & Polaroid
3D Invasion -> This was no joke. So many 3D televisions coming to the market as well as 3D video cameras starting to become affordable. 3D is here to stay.
Bottom line with 3D is how comfortable are the glasses. After trying on several different pairs, the only glasses that worked were ones that felt like real glasses you’d slide on for a sophisticated look that hold clear lenses and didn’t make one eye look foggy. Space age looking glasses with funky lenses will fail.
Toshiba was showcasing a 3D experience that gives the illusion of depth without glasses. The line was too long, and there is no date set for when these will be available in the U.S. anyway.
Panasonic 3D Full HD
Most Impressive Technology -> Credit Card technology may seem boring on the outside, but I was so impressed with the circuitry running inside the flexible Dynamics’ credit card. All your credit cards integrated into one card with pass code protection and dynamic number generation gives users the ultimate in fraud protection.
Envision a future with one card where you switch between all your various rewards programs and even use points from your favorite store program to purchase your goods at the point of sale. While at the store, take $50 off using your points and pay the remainder of your purchase with your airline miles card since you’re planning a vacation.
The early use of this technology is currently running in a pilot program with Citigroup with select customers getting the trial Citi Thank You Prestige 2G Card later this year. #want
Dynamics Credit Card
Sounds Even Better -> Tron streaming from a Nokia n8 with an HDMI output to racing and trash talking side-by-side with Need For Speed World, the Dolby CES booth was a playground… a beautifully lit, perfectly sounding, 5.1 playground for audiophiles and novices alike.
Most impressive was the demo for Dolby Home Theater V4, which drastically improves audio quality on a PC. Listening to YouTube or other poorly mixed, low-quality user-generated entertainment content is now an earful of pleasure.
Ever turn your speakers and the application volume to full and can still barely hear anything? Dolby’s new PC technology boosted and enhanced it to a level that left this Mac-user in audio envy.
Well, that about covers it. From the Rise of Smart TV to Lady Gaga, CES 2011 put me through a whirlwind weekend. Highly suggested to check out CES at least once, though my body was sure glad when it was over.
-glen.
CES Notebook Part 1: The Rise of Smart TV
Jan 16th
Registration at CES on a cool crisp January Las Vegas day
Relaxing and restful do not describe time spent at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Attending my first CES last week, I stood overwhelmed as I entered the central conference hall, overrun with technology lovers swarming the floor, all illuminated by wall after wall of beautiful, glowing television screens.
Here I was about to get a glimpse at our potential future. I note potential since not everything with CES buzz makes it in the marketplace.
There have been high-profile products launched with great press at CES only to flop (think the Palm Pre and just about everything from Balmer’s Microsoft). So, I was eager to see if some of the much buzzed about technologies had any legs.
I suffered the pain of hours and hours pushing through the crowds, pounding those cement floors of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and schlepping myself back and forth from the hotel through traffic-packed Las Vegas streets. Seriously, this place is crazy busy during CES.
I wouldn’t feel sorry for me either. It was pretty darn fun.
Without further delay, here are my CES highlights…
Most Unexpected Moment -> Wandering through the show floor with my amigo @ryloguy and finding the NBC Universal booth with Hardball’s Chris Matthews broadcasting live, interviewing the hard-nosed and gorgeous CNBC anchor Maria Bartoromo. They went toe-to-toe on key economic issues in a way only sharp, think-out-loud minds can do. Impressive to watch live.
Chris Matthews live = lots of make-up.
Hardball with Chris Matthews at CES
Geek Cool -> I first ran into one of these bad boys at the Web 2.0 Summit in 09. MakerBot – the open-source, 3D printer – is for the inventors and dreamers in all of us. $1,225. Too cool … video from CES. #want
MakerBot at CES
Most Interesting: The Rise of Smart TV -> One of the most fascinating categories for me at CES was SmartTV. Comcast cable is okay in San Francisco, especially with their new iOS Xfinity app and online access to shows. When I’m working out of the @mojointeractive office in Orlando, I’m stuck with BrightHouse, which is horrible. Both companies have a terrible on-screen UI.
So when presented with new ideas to deliver content to my HD television, I’m eager to sort through the options, and there are certainly lots of options these days.
Here are some notes on the systems I saw at CES:
- YahooTV – Looks really good. Yahoo team did a nice job presenting, showcasing its library of apps to access with integrated Connected TV Store. YahooTV integrates with lots of partners including Toshiba and was showing in their own booth as well in those of partner. I thought this was extremely smart given the massive size of the show floor. Impressed. Downside: Will a restructured Yahoo stay in the TV business?
YahooTV at CES
- Tivo – Actually a pioneer in Internet connected services on the best DVR box around. I like the direction of adding more of the Internet services including Amazon On-Demand, Hulu Plus, Netflix, YouTube. The iPad app looks excellent. An app store would be a smart move. Downside: Early success pegged them as a DVR maker, not an Internet connected device.
- LG Smart TV – The UI looked great on this system. Looks like a good option for those wanting an easy integrated television option. Will have 150 apps at launch. Downside: LG (Little Gold) makes my washing machine, right?
- Samsung Smart Hub – Slick interface on this upgraded version. Huge advertiser for CES. Ads were everywhere for this product. About 200 apps. Downside: Touchscreen remote difficult.
- Vudu – Very impressive service and makes me want to ditch my Netflix streaming. It has more up-to-date content then Netflix and more HD content with Dolby Surround Sound. Now streaming 3D content. Rumor to be available on Boxee at some point. Downside: Where is my iOS app?
- Google TV – I fell in love with this device when I first played with it at the Sony Store. I really liked its remote in my hand, some gaming design in there no doubt. Despite stories that Google didn’t want this at device at CES, it got huge play in the Sony booth, and I also spied it in the Intel booth. Downside: It’s buggy. Cannot deny. Access to content may always be an issue.
- TCL – As much as I liked efforts from Yahoo, LG and Samsung UI, gesture technology is the future. Xbox Kinect is so impressive and seeing it for a Smart TV seems so natural and exciting. Downside: Who is TCL?
TCL Gesture Technology at CES
- Boxee – Got to finally see the Boxee Box at the Intel booth. It was much smaller than I thought. Downside: I want to love this company, but when will this software ever be ready for prime time? Too buggy.
- AppleTV – Well it wasn’t at CES, but I wanted to include it on this list. I have the old AppleTV and expect to upgrade when the AppleTV app store is launched. Interested in how this device will develop without a hard drive. Downside: Connection issues can be frustrating.
Exhausted yet? I sure was after a full day working this floor. I ended up getting one of those chair massages after day one. Best $25 I ever spent.
This week I’ll post CES Notebook Part 2 featuring 3D, Lady Gaga and an earful of pleasure.
-glen.
Where to think? Computer History Museum – Mountain View, California
May 12th
Computer History Museum
Found this spot outside in the sunshine during one of the breaks at the Wisdom 2.0 Conference held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
After hours of considering the flow of information in our always now, instant feedback 140 character world, and the authenticity of each of us within this reality, soaking up the sun and taking a moment for mindfulness seemed perfect.
I sat on the corner of this garden area right out in front of the museum and played with the rocks. #contentment
Wisdom 2.0 Notebook: Managing the Stream
May 6th
The Babbage Machine. "Another Age Must Be the Judge." - Charles Babbage 1837
Balancing. Breathing. Listening.
It was the closing circle to a weekend of presence and focus, both being in the moment as well as being in the flow of ambiguous focus. We were considering the confluence of mindfulness and the always now, instant feedback, data streaming 140 character world.
Describing the weekend of the inaugural Wisdom 2.0 Conference is a little like trying to understand the focus one needs to study multiple realities & string theory while equally contemplating the existence of the creator itself… basically not usual casual conversation.
At least it led to the most attentive audience, something Chris Sacca acknowledged during the #Wisdom2Conf opening panel at the Computer History Museum. Having done so many tech conferences with fellow panelists Greg Pass (Twitter) and Bradley Horowitz (Google), he laughed at himself – clearly he was a stand-up comic in one of those multiple realities – b/c most conferences had everyone’s head stuck in a device giving him only a few fragmented moments to make an impact.
He captured the stream of this conference as good as anyone.
“Life is not a race to he or she who answers the most email,” Gopi Kallayil, Google Marketing Manager, said after giving us his three goals for each day:
- Get a good night’s sleep.
- Take time for mindfulness practice, which for him is his non-negotiable commitment to yoga. For me it’s my morning affirmation of thanks to my friends and family as well as the opportunities the day will bring. He suggested to start by keeping the bar low and doing a one minute meditation — a moment to close your eyes and take a few conscious breaths (easy and helpful).
- Engage in a physical activity — good for your body and your mind.
Rashi Joan Halifax gave a great quote: “Every stick has two ends.” She was describing all the benefits of our hyperconnectivity while highlighting the sense of false connectivity. I like this quote because its wisdom application is universal.
My closing circle summation… In our hyperconnected 140 character world, what if authenticity — on both ends of the stick — ultimately is our non-negotiable pursuit?
Operation: Tile Me Beautiful @mojointeractive
Mar 1st
Operation: Tile Me Beautiful
The office is a buzz @mojointeractive as the staff walks to each person’s workspace with the eye and questions of someone strolling through an art show.
What material did you use? How’d you do that? That is so creative.
This wasn’t an art show of course. It was Monday morning at Mojo Interactive HQ in Orlando, Fla. However, this was unlike your standard office Monday.
Today was the due date for Operation: Tile Me Beautiful.
It was a month ago when I changed my title from CEO to Chief Imaginaut with the expressed goal of injecting a new burst of creativity and imagination into our organization. As my first order of business, I announced a contest to decorate a ceiling tile (or multiple tiles, as many did). For each tile designed, I would donate $20 to the Red Cross for Haiti relief (and now for the Red Cross to assist with this weekend’s earthquake in Chile).
As a chief executive a good part of my job is looking at metrics to identify trends and make decisions accordingly on strategy and resource allocation, but not everything that drives a successful organization can or should be measured.
There is an intangible energy you feel when you’re in a business. It’s the secret sauce behind meaningful success.
Today that energy is bursting. The creativity each person brought to the project is truly inspiring.
And as we walk the halls bustling to meetings in the days and months to come or take a visitor on a tour, each and every person will have their unique personal reminder of the imagination and creativity we all have inside us.
What’s inside of you?
Update: March 3, 2010
Photos of tiles created for Tile Me Beautiful can be found on Mojo Interactive’s Facebook page
Using social media tools to enhance your life, not dictate it
Feb 10th
From USAToday article 'Friends' no more?
It’s the morning after giving my TEDYou talk on the importance of finding a space and time to reflect in the whitewater of our 140 character world. I woke to open my hotel door at TEDActive to see a front-page story in USAToday about social networking sites becoming too consuming for some users.
The article quoted Genevieve Bell, a cultural anthropologist with Intel:
“This always-on lifestyle is being pushed as desirable, (but) there’s a deeply rooted human need to have downtime,” says Bell, director of user experience at Intel’s Digital Home Group. “Perhaps tuning out of social networking is just a way of recalibrating that need for downtime.”
“We’re starting to ask, how does all this (technology) truly fit into our lives?” she says.
While the article points to a few users exiting the social space completely, I cannot deny the great benefits of the systems. Leading up to TEDActive, being able to connect to those going to Palm Springs on a Twitter list started by @ptrcksmth and then actually meeting many of them here has been an incredible networking tool.
Having @integritiveJM know about the pre-Super-Bowl corn hole game @mojointeractive was a perfect ice-breaker.
And leaving the iPhone in the hotel room to engage with the community is how these tools can enhance our lives, not dictate them.
Are you being tossed around by the 140 character world? Or is it a powerful tool to improve your life?
Now back to meeting more incredible people @TEDActive.
