kathleen forden

For as long as I can remember I was schooled and saw others schooled in the art of sharing.  When my son was younger I can remember reminding him to share his toys with other children.  Extra piece of food at a meal?  Share it.  See someone who needs something you have?  Share it.   It’s something I always believed helped make us better people in the long run.

Now as an adult I realize that society has changed and sharing is now more suspect than not.

So why now am I even bothering to keep doing so?  Like most of the living I have had decades of life altering experiences , many heart wrenching life stopping moments and every thing that can be experience between.  I recently decided to change my life in more ways then one.

I changed my lifestyle to a more healthful one, changed my personal life to leave behind baggage I’ve held on to way too long, changed my career path and decided to expand my horizons about how I define sharing.

So what is the definition of sharing?

1. To divide and parcel out in shares; apportion.
2. To participate in, use, enjoy, or experience jointly or in turns.
3. To relate (a secret or experience, for example) to another or others.
4. To accord a share in (something) to another or others.

Basically for me sharing is the new way I tithe back to society.    I use to tithe to the religious organization I was reared under and with.  Then as I became more aware I tithed to the local homeless shelters and food banks.  Then domestic abuse shelters and finally I found what works best for me.

Everyday I try to tithe 10% of my waking hours and a 10% of my income to those around me.  It might be the down on their luck couple at Circle K without enough gas money, it might be part of the lunch I brought, it might be the smile I share but basically it’s something I offer and experience daily.

Sharing your smile, lunch, a book or just a joke  which can brighten your day more than you  realize.  So what if occasionally you encounter nothing but negative around you and feel like not bothering.  Share something and feel the difference around you!

Here’s to the power of sharing!

Wow, as I sit here tonight thinking about the bubble of 1999; I can’t but help to see similar signs of that time now in 2011.  Linked In, Facebook, Pandora, and more are all heading towards public offerings.  The valuations are again in the stratosphere, like in 1998 and 1999.

Are we doomed to repeat the past?   Thinking back to that time, I’m realizing quite a few of my successes and my failures.  What I did well, I did really well,  what I did bad I did really well, to paraphrase Mae West.

So what have I learned:

• That we all need heros and mentors
• That it’s OK to fail, it’s how you handle it that matters more
• That walking away and taking a timed break will do your heart and passion good
• That you should celebrate your success when it happens and learn from what worked and what really didn’t
• That we need to build relationships, projects won’t sustain your business, relationships will

So here I go, I’m back to trying to learn from Bill Gross of Idea Lab again.  Over 14 years ago he was my hero, on the cover of Inc. Magazine and launching a Start-Up Factory.  He was my role model on what was possible in business.  His start-up Idea Lab was the inspiration for the name of my second software development start-up Idea Avenue, Inc.

After recently connecting with someone that worked closely with him around that time, I find myself following him again.  This time it’s his blog at www.billgross.com.  I urge you to read it and learn about the man and his principals, then go to his business at UberMedia to learn what they are doing to help change the world, 140 characters at a time.

Here’s to sharing a great resource whom offers sage advice on everything from business to saving our planet.

Mapping the internet as it goes truly global (Image: Matthew Hurst/SPL)

Imagine what browsing the web would be like if you had to type out addresses in characters you don’t recognise, from a language you don’t speak. It’s a nightmare that will end for hundreds of millions of people in 2010, when the first web addresses written entirely in non-Latin characters come online.

Net regulator ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – conceded in October that more than half of the 1.6 billion people online use languages with scripts not fully compatible with the Latin alphabet. It is now accepting applications for the first non-Latin top level domains (TLDs) – the part of an address after the final “dot”. The first national domains, counterparts of .uk or .au, should go live in early 2010. So far, 12 nations, using six different scripts, have applied and some have proudly revealed their desired TLD and given a preview of what the future web will look like.

The first Arabic domain is likely to be Egypt’s and in Russia orders are already being taken for the country’s hoped-for new TLD. The address HOBЫЙyЧеНЫЙ.pф – a rough translation of “newscientist” with the Cyrillic domain that stands for Russian Federation – can be registered today.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427395.800-2010-preview-the-polygot-web.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Animated time-lapse map of county-by-county unemployment rates in the U.S. since January 2007.   Jarring.

Evolution of unemployment in the US, down to the county, from 2007 to 2009

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Wordle example of blog

I love seeing data in a Visual Data Diagrams almost as much as I love Augmented Reality.  It’s become my second biggest interest in emerging technologies lately.

Thank you IBM Research for allowing Jonathan Feinberg, the ability to reuse code he wrote on your dime to develop this awesome, fun, cool, educational application.

Try it – you too will fall in love – http://www.wordle.net/

<from the site>
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.</from the site>

<excerpt from Wikipedia> The stone is said to have been presented to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn;[1] popular legend holds that this was a piece of the Stone of Scone. This stone was then installed at McCarthy’s castle of Blarney. When the castle was rebuilt in 1446, Dermot McCarthy had the stone preserved in the new castle.

The proprietors of Blarney Castle list several explanations other than the Stone of Scone for the ancient origins of the stone, many of which suppose that the Stone had previously been in Ireland but was then taken to Scotland and returned to Ireland in 1314.[1] The theories listed include those that the stone:

* was part of the wailing wall in Jerusalam brought to Ireland during the Crusades.
* was half of the original Stone of Scone – presented to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn.[1].
* was the stone that Jacob used as a pillow, and was brought to Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah.
* was the pillow used by St. Columba of Iona on his deathbed.
* was the Stone of Ezel, which David hid behind on Jonathan’s advice, while fleeing from King Saul, and may have been brought back to Ireland during the Crusades.
* was the rock that Moses struck with his staff to produce water for the Israelites, during their flight from Egypt.
* was related to the stone was known as the Lia Fáil or “Stone of Destiny” – part of the king’s throne, with mysterious powers.

None of these provenance stories account for why a stone of such significance and antiquity would be used in the construction of a fifteenth century castle, inconspicuously incorporated into an exterior wall and exposed to the elements. Apart from discoloration and wear caused by human contact, the stone is not readily distinguishable from its neighbors. </excerpt from Wikipedia>

Cultures, People, Google Logos, World's Celebrations

I’ve been a fan of the Google logo directory for a few years now.

http://www.google.com/logos/logos09-1.html

This morning I was just reviewing the new logos for the last year when something hit me.  I’ve been visiting this site because it shows creativity and imagination with each cool design.   But, I also love it because it reminds me that we live in a global society.  A fact this is sometimes easy to forget when you are managing all your “life responsibilities”.

Each culture has their own traditions and holidays represented on these pages.  Scrolling through the logos and reading each holiday  is a quick way to feel just a little bit more connected with all the other folks out there beyond our cubicles or homes.

Go visit and let me know what you think.

http://www.google.com/logos/logos09-1.html

It’s time to start looking at the missing pieces with Augmented Reality being pushed today.  Demos and videos make it appear as if it’s possible to do anything with AR.  Not entirely truthful as we don’t even have set standards.  There are still other issues to face that are the same as any other venture.  Finally, there are still technical challenges that we need to meet.

This column by Ben Lorica mentions them all and in great detail, it’s worth the read.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/09/resetting-expectations-some-augmented-reality-links.html

Think Culture Europeana

Great interactive museum online with works of art from throughout Europe