local leadership...

while observing and commenting on the local election here in sherwood park - strathcona county, i've decided that the one who gets my vote will be the one who demonstrates emotional intelligence, lateral thinking, is a great communicator and who realizes that just because we're essentially a bedroom community that doesn't mean we have to act like one...

there's a lot of great things about our community and yet there's still work to be done...we need a leader who has charisma and understands that the world is flat...

shift happens...

ken lesniak for mayor...

i just finished meeting with a volunteer who knocked on my door from the ken lesniak for mayor campaign

she was very passionate about communicating that ken has something new to offer the community in addition to "proven leadership". she referenced the strong political network that ken has and how adept he is at building consensus among his peers, a skill that incumbent olesen has been lacking when you track her progress on several issues surrounding regional collaboration. right or wrong this seems to be a clear point of attack for both lesniak and jewell.

i was encouraged by the volunteer to contact ken lesniak directly by email or phone which i have done and we'll see if there is any response and if so what the result of that conversation is...

business philosophy: best practice vs. fresh practice...

does your company push to evolve? do you innovate whenever possible?

do you spend any of your time laying down under your desk? sound silly? maybe and it will change your perspective, put your mind in a different state of thought...

many companies stay put in the comfort rut or "best practice rut". spend some time today with your feet up on your desk, stop looking busy for busy sake, put the cell down, don't answer emails for the afternoon, 1 out of 200 are really important anyway the rest waste your time...want to do some real work? get out of the office, smell the street, taste and explore something new today.

look at the behavioral traits of your customers in a different way. focus on creating a "buy list", reasons (you currently think) as to why customers buy your product. then spend time confirming the list and then create a new list of even more reasons to buy...

strathcona county...

i am on the fence as an undecided regarding the upcoming civic election in strathcona county...

i've had the chance to meet two of the three competitors for the top job. in order of appearence, cathy olesen earlier this year and more recently ken lesniak for 2 or 3 minutes...i still haven't met brent jewell as of yet.

frankly, it's still too early to decide who to vote for...i will say i'm disappointed in the current state of things, i'll save those specifics for another time. history records that more than once on this very blog i congratulated olesen for standing up to mandel in edmonton, (during the height of the regional planning issue) someone who just seems like he needs to put in his place from time to time...that said we need to get moving forward and i don't think olesen has anything new to offer the situation...the mere fact that 2 councilors have been motivated to run against her sends a clear message of issues behind the scenes...

could lesniak or jewel do any better? not sure at the moment. i will say that (in my opinion) all three candidates need to learn more about information technology in general. why is that important? simple, this world is run on it and if you're going to guide this community effectively into the 21st century you can no longer afford to be an info tech neophyte. for example, this election could be more easily won by not only doing all the usual glad handing in public but also launching an aggressive online communication blitz too. what i don't think the candidates know is that much of the advantage could be done for minimal cost and effort. a website is only the beginning, i get the sense however, they feel it's the end of the line in terms of being tech savvy...is it ignorance or arrogance? and anyway what do i know, i'm not a pro-politician like these three...

one gap in my opinion is that strathcona county needs a tech strategy for business...an ICT cluster strategy of its own perhaps, a tech strategy that enables community members to leverage technology that other communities have already adopted successfully... sure growth and regional planning are critical issues, there are many others...i'm going to watch how each stacks up on all of the issues...

my impression of each so far --- the incumbent olesen is unapproachable and disingenuous. i really don't want to say that about her and yet there it is...jewell wants to win so bad that he and his campaign are making obvious tactical mistakes (despite best intentions) which are back firing on him at the moment. lesniak seems to think everyone knows him and the other candidates already (also seems to have the "old guard" on his side), and apparently there's nothing new to say...this is the impression given. (as a person he did seem approachable) however, mr. lesniak i don't really know you or the other candidates all that well. what do you really stand for? my family and i have only lived in sherwood park a short time, like a portion of the local population. that said, rumor has it that you and premier stelmach are old pals and socialize regularly at your home...good? bad? who knows...

anyway it's late and for now my vote stays put - none of the above. hopefully i and the community will learn more at the upcoming political forum on oct 3rd and again on the 4th.

in the meantime i challenge all candidates to do publicize their own version of this.

building contractors are going to fall...

in Alberta the housing market has been crazy for sometime now...the new housing market as well...

sooner rather than later, builders who have not been futurecasting and paying attention to the business, economic and political signs past the saw dust they're making are already in trouble.

many have extended themselves to put more inventory out there and will no doubt go under...

the prices have finally reached their ridiculous peak and at $215 per sq ft to build new why would anyone with half a brain agree to do that??? especially when $50K into a home reno may serve them better...

this is an exercise in pure and simple unbalanced greed...unfortunately this market shift just like the mortgage crash in the US will take down some probably otherwise decent builders in it's wake...

for more information

browser vs. desktop...

technology is growing and evolving as it always does...for the average user like you and i that means companies such as google and others are working to get our traffic by developing "their" version of a standard product, in this case, ms office vs. google docs or ms powerpoint vs. google presentation.

(by the way, i love competition, anything to reduce those ms prices.)

this is part of the trend to assist "us" (the average user) in moving online, many of the world's Internet super users have been completely mobile with their laptop or even mobile device for years now...i'm not there yet. frankly, i just got a blackberry 8800 earlier this year, in some ways i'm ahead of the trend and in others not so much, further proof is provided when you see my 1968 matchless G15 hybrid (british motorcycle)...and i will from time to time hook up to a free wireless network here and there over coffee but that hardly makes me a war-driver or super free spirit in Internet terms.

interesting side note, in edmonton, the largest city near where i live they've just only now begun to experiment with laptops in the classroom. so it's only a matter of time before the school system wakes up even further and adopts the online workspace as a trend...maybe that's stretch. i'm not talking about distance learning for university students here mind you...i'm talking about grade 6. there will most certainly have to be more online resource development before that can truly take place though...

also, before more of the average business users and students go completely mobile and do all work online there still needs to be more product development and enhancement. there are three concerns i see that exist before a tipping-point can take place and mass adoption of this new style of work can begin...

1. trust. having all your work and life sitting on someone else's server is still a concern for me.
2. behavioral change. we're used to doing things a certain way, especially working offline and always needing a connection can be an issue...
3. functionality. these online versions have some advantages and yet are still lacking in a lot of ways.

anyway, food for thought and that's my two cents for today...

plaxo identity aggregator coming....

plaxo is pretty cool and will be even better shortly...check this video out on the scobleshow.

web 2.0 goes enterprise...

well look and ye shall find...following up from a post yesterday about combining 2.0 with enterprise...looks like there are pioneers out there...not many but here we go....

great web resource...

here's a cool blog called webware about the latest in web apps and general developments...rafe needleman is the man behind it and it's really, really well done...

quote of the day...

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from
achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the
wrong mental attitude."

- Thomas Jefferson

2.0 plus enterprise...

watch for a company or group that will focus on integrating web2.0 technologies, social networking ideas and so on into critical enterprise level applications...

i definitely smell opportunity here...the key will be to find the early adopters of this type of mash...

also watch for more social networking integration all your profiles in one location...i think that's going to happen too...

just a couple of thoughts i was having...

do they "want" to buy it?

i apologize in advance this is going to get a bit scattered this morning...i've got all sorts of Sunday chores to do but feel like blogging so i haven't really thought my thoughts through...instead i'm going to act like a software company and launch the beta then come back and edit later...all the while i'll let you experience the transformation IF i actually feel motivated to come back and change anything later...

are you building a product or delivering a service that people actually "want" to buy because it flawlessly understands the market? or are your customers simply putting up with the trash your pushing for lack of a better solution? are they frustrated with the fact that you don't listen to them?

some in the software game have the right focus and more importantly, philosophy - (I give you 37 signals) and some in fact could care less (that list is too long for today's rant), others still are simply stupid and you know the rule..."you can't fix stupid". (this is the longest list in my opinion, unfortunately.)

for a long time many in the software industry (the honest ones) have said "humans actually suck at building software" ...maybe they're asking the wrong questions in the focus group, i don't agree with focus groups as a general rule anyway...they're based on a flawed process...

(want to know if you've got a winner? when people are standing in line at the pre-sale stage because they helped design and build it by contributing openly.

go beyond the few meetings your having now and try sending your programmers on a field trip, i...the more introverted pop-swilling geeks out of their cubicles and smelling the streets the better i say...you can think of it as another opportunity to use twitter.

Guy Kawasaki calls them "bozos".

so if you think you and/or your web development firm, software development firm, application development team rocks and truly understands your customer's world, i'd like to hear from you...identify yourself and let everyone know how you understand them and how your product or service actually puts dollars in their pocket at the end of the experience GUARANTEED...which should be the beginning of the experience.

ELIMINATE THE BOZOS from software and web design...we small business owners want results.

edmonton chamber of commerce...

this morning i had the privilege of presenting to the opportunities unlimited networking group at the edmonton chamber of commerce. my goal for the morning was to simply inspire those in attendance to take a step towards a new direction involving the establishment of a global network for their businesses...

i do hope that everyone was able to take at least one thing away with them today in terms of new information, idea or source of inspiration to improve their business and lives in general.

if, as Tony suggests folks from the group are visiting then i would once again like to thank-you for the gift of your time and attention.

i'd also like to take this opportunity to ask you for open comments on the presentation, if you have any suggestions regarding how i could improve, change or adapt the message i'd love to hear from you here or by email...thank-you for the questions and interest in the subject matter at the end of todays presentation...

i didn't get to talk with everyone this morning individually but i love coffee and great conversation.....(hint)

finally here are some of the links to check out when you have a moment...

www.xing.com www.blogtalkradio.com

www.myspace.com www.technorati.com www.youtube.com www.facebook.com http://www.linkedin.com/

www.helium.com www.tagcloud.com www.feedburner.com http://www.squidoo.com/fusedlogic/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/schwabe35/

good luck to everyone today and in the future, may your profits be large and your life be balanced....

hugh's list is pretty cool...

in some ways Hugh Mcleod is sort of feeling a lag in energy and confidence as is evident to me in his cool list that i found oddly enough by dropping by Seth Godin's blog this morning. By the way Seth, i just finished reading "the dip", sorry for taking so long but you were backed up on my list or reads and "the 4-hour work week" beat you to the punch. this is my one day to blog, can't you tell?

anyway, Hugh...keep up the very cool work, your audience is growing like crazy...

my mom on facebook???

ok, let's set the stage. my mom is a fantastic lady and she really means well when it comes to her computer, the internet and technology in general. she took a couple courses on how to use windows and navigation the internet. she recently set-up and installed an all in one printer and wireless mouse...she's cooking right along.

then yesterday my wife tells me that my mom has joined facebook and made contact with a friend from the old days...i know this friend of hers and so that's really cool...

however, the point of this entry is not to boast about my mom although that is a very worthwhile thing to do, rather it's to illustrate the growth in appeal and reach of facebook...my mom is definitely part of the low and slow adoption rate group of the longtail, and so facebook is proving to be a major player in the social networking arena.

well anyway don't be surprised if some day soon i'm linking to my mom's blog on birds or something...

prices falling???hopefully so....

om malik on his massive blog gigaom is following up on a story related to the price drop for the student version of office 2007...i personally use openoffice as my FREE source for this suite of tools...open source strikes again. long live competition!