Endless Knots

If you can't join 'em, swim 'em

Virtual teams gone to the next level. And, ahem, they're in my beloved home state of Pennsylvania, or, as my father preferred to call it, Penciltucky.

According to Tamar Lewin ("For Colleges, Small Cuts Add Up to Big Savings"), who follows education for The New York Times, budget cuts caused some virtual creativity to transpire between two colleges, one near Philadelphia, the other on the opposite side of Harrisburg:

At Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., the women’s swim team held a “virtual swim meet” with Bryn Mawr College, in Pennsylvania, about 112 miles away. Each team swam in its home pool, then compared times to determine the winners. (“We probably saved $900 on bus travel,” said William G. Durden, Dickinson’s president.)

Interestingly, all the other anecdotes in the story are about typical cost-saving measures, like cutting out a traditional bus tour, eliminating window washing, and picking up trash weekly rather than daily.

I wonder how many other places are being as creative as Dickinson and Bryn Mawr. And I wonder who won. Just spent about half an hour searching for the results and for reactions from students, trying to find out how the whole thing worked. How, in fact, did they "compare times?" Did they have video? Audio? If anyone knows, please post. This is interesting!

Blogging for real writers - redux

Come join me for "Blogging for Real Writers," which I'm teaching for the first time at Solstice Summer Writers' Conference this coming Monday, June 22, 4:30. I taught Version 1.0 of this course in the Pine Manor MFA program, then revised it for the leadership of the Army's Command and General Staff College, and now am buffing it up again for Solstice's fifth anniversary year.

At Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, Mass., directions here.

"Everything Matters!" - the world according to Ron Currie

It's almost publication day (officially June 25) for Ron Currie's new book and it's being eased into existence with a generous introduction from none other than The New York Times's superb reviewer, Janet Maslin--see yesterday's insightful study, "The Sky Is Falling Soon! (And Junior Is Agitated)."

Her praise is unqualified for Everything Matters! (a prophecy cum coming-of-age set in rural Maine) and the set-up for many similar reviews to follow, which is just what a supremely talented writer needs in an era where publishing on paper is in peril, where people are watching every penny, and I'm sure there are three more phrases I can think of where all the important words start with p.

And the review is very long, sports a great picture of Ron, and makes all of us who've been on his team since before any publisher even knew who he was very happy. I love this guy so much he's a category here (one of a very small number of writers dubbed "Endless Knots Writers), even gave the book party for his first book, God is Dead."

Here's a taste of what Maslin says:

What these opening passages also announce is that Mr. Currie is a startlingly talented writer whose book will pay no heed to ordinary narrative conventions. His thoughts on cosmic doom somehow take the form of a joyride. He survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice of his own. He seems equipped to succeed at almost anything...

PS: Just tried to look up his reading schedule for the book and found this picture on his site, which I apparently snapped, taken in our dining room. Something very recursive about all this. He'll be at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., on July 8 at 7 PM. Other places too and I'll post as soon as he sends me the schedule (come'on, Currie).

It's good to be green

Further to my post earlier today, Tweeters are changing their locations to Tehran, changing their time zone to GMT +3:30, and coloring their avatars green.

I got this tip via: "@ronanvance This from @johnperrybarlow @warrenellis change settings to GMT +03:30 & home city Tehran to confuse the Iranian censors"

Thanks, guys. Here's the link to all the tweets on #Iranelection.

 

How Twitter Changes Everything at Enterprise 2.0

When I was thinking of a title for a session on Twitter at the Enterprise 2.0 conference next week here in Boston, I, of course, had no idea what would transpire in Iran a few months hence. But here we are, witnessing the power of 140 characters, the energy that can be released with the greatest economy of writing.

Journalists, commentators, bloggers, and tweeters alike are struggling to find the proper analogies for what is going on, even as they pile on far more than 140 characters.

People have turned their Twitter avatars green in support of the protests.

Type "#Iranelection" in the Twitter search bar and endless tweets come up. Just since I started writing this post, 846 more tweets have come up with the same hash (#) sign.

If you're puzzled by many of the words in this post, you're in good company: "I don't know a twitter from a tweeter but I know it's important," said Hillary Clinton, explaining why her State Department asked Twitter not to take down the site for planned maintenance yesterday.

The same kinds of massive outpourings of messages, videos, and posts are finding their ways onto other social networking sites; executives from Facebook, YouTube, and, of course, Twitter suddenly find themselves doing interviews with the top broadcasters, who themselves are struggling to understand what this is all about.

Something is happening and none of us is precisely sure what it is, this "social" (is *that* even the right word anymore?) networking thing.

Which brings me back to my title - and our panel next week at Enterprise 2.0: "How Twitter Changes Everything," on Tues, June 23, at 3:30.

I think it will be unlike any panel those of us on it have ever experienced and we invite all coming to the conference to turn out for this one. Together, we can add our collective intelligence to understand how very short bursts of information can support massive change in "businesses," even the business of statehood. Here's the panel description for the conference:

How Twitter Changes Everything

Nearly impossible to describe without experiencing it (though countless try through analogy), Twitter has soared in popularity. Its  7 [now about] 20 million-and-counting users seem to agree that it facilitates a kind of communication previously unknown, allowing large numbers of people to exchange ideas in extremely short bursts in nearly real-time.

Among its appeals: tiny posts demand succinctness and clarity; you can reach tons of people/colleagues/customers in a second; it's superb in emergencies; communities of vaguely-connected folks can form quickly and naturally around shared interests; you can test ideas through instant polls...the list goes on.

Join this group of dedicated tweeters for a participatory session about how Twitter differs from other social appliances and how your business, organization, practice, and/or communication style can benefit. Come with stories!

Moderator - Jessica Lipnack, CEO, NetAge

Jessica Lipnack writes, speaks, and consults about collaboration. Co-author of six books, she is an expert on virtual teams, networked organizations, and social media. A long-term member of the Enterprise 2.0 Advisory Board, she stays in touch with a wide network of practitioners and thinkers, including the participants in her sessions.

Speaker - Bill Ives, Social Media and Blogger Consultant

Bill Ives currently provides consulting services on business blogging and other business uses of social media. He has over 25 years consulting experience in business uses of new media. Led the knowledge management client practice at Accenture. Holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Toronto and did a post-doc at Harvard studying effects of media on cognition. Published over 100 articles on business uses of the web, knowledge management, learning, and psychology Currently co-writing two Corante blogs, FastForward and AppGap, about enterprise 2.0. Writes Portals and KM blog http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/

Speaker - Clara Shih, Social Networking Alliances and Products Strategy at salesforce.com and Author, The Facebook Era, salesforce.com

Clara Shih joined salesforce.com in 2006 and is responsible for Enterprise Social Networking Alliances and Product Strategy. Previously, she was the product line director of AppExchange, salesforce.com's online business applications marketplace, for which she led the development of the Checkout payment services for partner applications. Prior to joining salesforce.com, Clara worked in strategy and business operations at Google and as a software developer at Microsoft. Clara holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from Stanford University, as well as a Master's Degree in internet studies from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar. Clara is the author of a new book on social networking for business entitled, The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff (Prentice Hall 2009). Clara developed Faceconnector (formerly Faceforce), the first business application on Facebook. Clara twitters as @clarashih and blogs at http://thefacebookera.com

Speaker - Isaac Garcia, Co-Founder and CEO, Central Desktop

As co-founder and CEO of Central Desktop, Isaac oversees business strategy and sales for the company. Isaac has a proven record in both early-stage technology companies and enterprise sales & marketing. He started his technology career in 1996 as the first sales rep at Quote Desk Software, which was later acquired by CNET Networks, Inc. in 2000. As a founding partner at Upgradebase, Isaac served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing where he oversaw all business development and sales for the company. During his 3 year tenure at CNET, Isaac served as a Director of North America Enterprise Sales for CNET Channel. As Director, he was responsible for the acquisition, sales and management of global partnerships with Microsoft, Google, EBay, Yahoo, Insight and BestBuy. Isaac led and managed CNET's global partnership with Microsoft to launch the Windows Marketplace campaign in 14 countries, the largest sales and marketing campaign ever launched by Microsoft. Isaac received a BA in English from Ambassador University and attended the University of Northern Colorado Graduate School where he studied English Literature for a Master of Arts.

Speaker - Patti Anklam, Independent Consultant, Net Work

If it's Friday, it must be Adobe Connect

All of a sudden, the webcams, used principally for family connections for years, are workhorses (so to speak). All of the meetings we've had with Cisco of late have taken place in Webex, culminating in the extravaganza last Tuesday that combined Telepresence, Webex, and Cisco IPTV.

Then on Friday, for another client who shall go nameless but whose name you know, another webcast, this time via Adobe Connect, topic = "Leading and Motivating Remote/Virtual Teams."

An increasingly familiar format: slides on the left of the screen, occupying about 50% of the layout, me in the upper right, then a pastiche of chat, presenter, and poll windows that popped up to survey the crowd, none of whom was co-located either.

The polls serve a useful purpose. For example, how many of you are multitasking, we asked? 100% responded 100%. (At least they were paying enough attention to respond, I quipped.) Feedback like this mid-presentation helps guide what to say next, much as it does in a face-to-face preso when you ask people to raise their hands.

At the same time, people were throwing questions into the chat box, a long list of which now await answering as there wasn't time to in the session to respond. Likewise, the questions help frame Part 2 of this webcast "series." Last week's event centered around the most scarce of current resources, real-time interactions; the next centers around over-time communication.

Which brings up this last point, which really belongs in yesterday's post: If people are spread all around the world and the time difference spans 15 hours, where is the meeting taking place and what time is it? Online and cybertime are the obvious retorts but think about it. If our communication travels via packets, all split up into tiny digital bits, where is "here," and if it's 6 AM for Amy, 9 AM for me, 2 PM for Jim, and 9 PM for Neil, what time is it "now?"

Of a summer's evening at Solstice

You know I don't post many press releases - except when it comes to Solstice Summer Writers' Conference, holding its fifth session next week. Solstice sponsors readings where extraordinary writers, who are also extraordinary readers, hold forth, sometimes sharing their most recent work. What better thing do you have to do on a warm summer evening? And, yes, I'm teaching blogging again during this conference on Monday, June 22, at 4:30. Come!

PINE MANOR COLLEGE ANNOUNCES ITS ANNUAL SOLSTICE SUMMER WRITERS’ CONFERENCE READING SERIES

[Chestnut Hill, MA, May, 2009]  Pine Manor College announces its annual Solstice Summer Writers’ Conference Reading Series, to be held June 22–26, 2009. All readings begin at 7:30 p.m. and are held in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College — unless *otherwise noted — located at 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill. The President’s Dining Room is in the Rosemary Ashby Campus Center. Copies of the authors’ books will be available for sale after all readings, and there is plenty of free parking!
 
*Monday, June 22 at 8:00 p.m.: David Yoo (author of Girls For Breakfast and Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before); Martha Rhodes (founding editor of Four Way Books, and author of three poetry collections, including At the Gate); & Pablo Medina (author of Points of Balance/Puntos de Apoyo, The Cigar Roller, and co-translator of García Lorca’s Poet in New York).
                                                                                              
*Tuesday, June 23 at 3:30 p.m. in the President’s Dining Room:
Past Conference participants Ching-In Chen, Dave Zeltserman, Laura McCullough, &
Michael Sussman read from their recently published books.
 
Tuesday, June 23 at 7:30 p.m.: Solstice Programs Director Meg Kearney (author of An Unkindness of Ravens and The Secret of Me); Stephanie Elizondo Griest (author of Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines and Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana); & A. Manette Ansay (author of eight books, including Vinegar Hill — an Oprah Book Club Selection — and the forthcoming Good Things I Wish For You).
 
Wednesday, June 24 at 7:30 p.m.: Marie Myung Ok-Lee (author of five award-winning young-adult novels including Finding My Voice); Nickole Brown (author of the poetry collection Sister, and longtime marketing director of Sarabande Books); & Peter Selgin (author of Drowning Lessons, Life Goes to the Movies, and two books on the craft of fiction writing).

Thursday, June 25 at 7:00 p.m.: Tanya Whiton (published in literary journals including Northwest Review and Crazyhorse); Kevin Boyle (National Book Award winner for Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age) & Mark Turcotte (author of The Feathered Heart and Exploding Chippewas).
 
*Friday, June 26 at 4:00 p.m. in the President’s Dining Room:
2009 Solstice Conference Participant Reading.
                                                                                                 
Friday, June 26 at 7:30 p.m.: Lee Hope (winner of the Theodore Goodman Award for Fiction); A. Van Jordan (author of Rise, M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, and Quantum Lyrics); & Special Guest
Andre Dubus III (author of four books, including the recent New York Times bestselling novel The Garden of Last Days, and House of Sand and Fog —an Oprah Book Club Selection adapted for an eponymous Academy Award-nominated motion picture).

Trip report: A brief foray into the future

 

Several firsts at once for a keynote I gave last week for Cisco, topic, appropriately enough, "Virtual Leadership:"

1. A truly global audience--from California to London to Singapore and many spots in between, with about 90 people in all.

 

In this picture, London, Raleigh, North Carolina, and me, the invisible photographer in Massachusetts

2. Everyone attended virtually. Everyone.

3. We used Telepresence, Cisco's technology that provides hi-def, interactive videoconferencing.

 

I could mute the mike on my desk

4. Telepresence was then combined with Webex and transmitted via Cisco IPTV, which meant that people could see me, see my slides, send questions...and probably multitask all at once.

 

When I was on mute, there was a screen icon to remind me

According to the host, Cisco's VP of Worldwide Inside Sales, Jim Blum, it was only the second time Cisco tried anything like this, the first being in May of this year.

And, as per above, it was my first time.

 

When my time was nearly up, a stopwatch appeared on the screen, first at 10 minutes, then again at 2 minutes

It worked perfectly, with no glitches technically.

Going back and forth between me and Jim, while with a slight (perhaps a second or two) delay, was seamless.

So...what is Telepresence and how is it different from normal videoconferencing, the herky-jerky, irritating, low-resolution, out-of-synch, wish-it-were-always-better technology? It's really hi-res, the screen is huge (see picture), the audio is perfect, and it really does feel almost-sorta-like you're with the people. Very different from Skype, iSight, the built-in video on my Mac...really different from any video conf I've ever done.

It's not just that you're seeing a really clear picture, i.e. watching the news on TV, but the newscaster is talking back to you. Quite phenomenal.

And low impact in a number of ways. No one traveled except to their local laptop - and in the case of Jim, his direct reports, and me to a Telepresence room. Now do a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much this meeting would have cost if 90 people had been convened. Instead of coming together for "three intense days," as Jim said they did last year, they came together over about a week with highly focused, highly interactive virtual meetings.

Good for reducing stress on people and on the planet.

If this is the future of virtual meetings, sign me up. Presenter evaluation, meaning how I'd rate the environment--and the preparation--provided by the client? A+

For the Birds of Paradise lovers

Perhaps like you, I receive many links to stories and, when I have a second, as I did this morning, I click on them, skim a couple of grafs, send some good writing vibes to the author, and click on.

Today's link to Margot Berwin's story (in Anderbo, which I blogged about some months ago), "Hothouse Flower and the 9 Plants of Desire," an excerpt from her novel by the same name,  quickly removed the mouse from my hand because of my deep and abiding love for the bloom above.

For years, I filled the house with Birds of Paradise whenever we had parties. Friends knew of my affection and brought them too. Beauty, elegance, complexity, exoticity (?), longevity all in one. It never occurred to me to buy the plant itself...so Berwin's story, which begins with her being sold a bill of Birds, caused me to sit back in my seat, fingers off la cliquer, and enjoy.

It's not just about Birds of Paradise and it is. And the novel is now on my list. Original, insightful, and all the Anderbo excerpt lacks is illustration like the picture above that I stole from the City of Stanton, CA, website: "Stanton Women's Civic Club in October 1959, the Bird of Paradise was selected as the City Flower." If the Women's Civic Club is still in existence, they should make Berwin's story required reading.

Ooops, I forgot to mention: Julia Roberts bought the film rights. Nice book cover too.

Kudos to Laila

Photo from table at Newtonville Books**

Always a big moment for the author when the first full-fledged review appears in The New York Times Book Review. Today, it's Laila Lalami's turn with the publication of The Secret Son, which Gaiutra Bahadar reviews.

I met Laila through Zoetrope, where she opened a very popular "office" called Short Story Collections prior to publication of her first book, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. This led to a strong enough connection that when that book came out, Xujun Eberlein, author of Apologies Forthcoming, also a "member" of Laila's office, and I hosted a luncheon for Laila here at my house. A picture of Laila on that very nice day and big congrats to Laila as word spreads of her talent.

**It's a Zoetrope tradition that we snap pictures of one another's books whenever we see them. This one, from my phone, as usual, sent to Laila about a month ago when she was in Boston on her book tour.