Day: May 19, 2006

Imagine how useful it would be to have a wiki. Now how do you sell it to Leadership?

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http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/05/12/1539231&from=rss

Enterprise Applications
Putting MediaWiki to use in an organization
Friday May 19, 2006 (05:01 PM GMT)
By: Mark Alexander Bain

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Imagine how useful it would be to have an online knowledge base that can easily be updated created by key people within your organization. That's the promise of a wiki — a Web application that "allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit all content, very quickly and easily," as Wikipedia, perhaps the best-known wiki, puts it. Why not bring the benefits of a wiki to your organization?

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Imagine all you want! Leadership doesn't understand it. You can talk until you are blue in the face. They can't understand it. And, you can't make them. Talk's cheap. And, that Leadership, who you are trying to sell, has been sold and bought the Brooklyn Bridge so many times they don't even listen anymore.

Thus, you can't get it in the door!

I knew what the benefits were from using wikopedia and the wiki at http://wikiw.freetalklive.com. But, until you have your "own" demo, you don't KNOW what it could do for your organization.  

I suggest throwing it up on a laptop for demonstration purposes.

Some caveats. Any relatively modern virgin windowsXP from Dell should be good enough. I say virgin because your companies deploys as a standard image may interfere with your deployment. I say virgin also because I had played with Perspective prior to attempting MediaWiki and it needed a wipe to get it to work. But for one kilo dollar of hardware, zero software dollars, and at most 4 hours of clock time, and you can have your demo.

In my case, I use my Verizon Wireless Broad Band card and DynDns as well to make an internet accessible demo. I have actually supported five users (admittedly slowly) in simultaneous updating pages.

A demo will open the eyes of most Luddite of Leaders. A demo they get. They see it. They touch it. And, they "know" it's not that bridge. Or that they are not commissioning a trek into the unending budgetary swamp. They can make the leap from small demo to big demo.

After all to them it just feels like a funny website. But they'll "get it" when they see it.

That's what I did. It makes it visceral, easy to see, and touchable!

Now you are not going to garner the huge knowledge gains from a corporate wiki by running a demo. The value is having the enterprise version out, available, and open for use.

But you have to get to that point. This is how to do it.

Heck, if you're in a pickle, gimme a yell and I'll rent you my laptop for a day. ;-)

Google’s Notebook is a winner imho when I’m doing web research

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

I "prospect" for my fellow alums for a number of different purposes. What started as doing an alumni ezine morph into agreat job networking tool. Google's Notebook makes the process even easier.

FOr example.

I'm mining Ziggs. I have Zigg search for "manhattan college". It pops ten or so links per page for pages and page. Arghh.  It was too hard to go line by line and not lose one's place. I do this when time permits.

Now, with GNoteBook, I bring up the page with the links. Open each link in a new window.  Highlight what I want name and email. Tap on the note icon and it's capture. Pretty swift.

You need a Google email to use GNoteBook. If you need and invite, yell. 

llegals granted Social Security?

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http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060518-114132-2456r.htm

llegals granted Social Security
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 19, 2006

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The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment — even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents.  

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Another socialist idea bites the dust. Think "Social Security Insurance", Medicare, and its ilk are broke now. Wait until everybody starts to draw.

Seems to me like we need to end the Ponzi scheme NOW!

Those already collecting continue paid by taxes. Those not yet collecting get a Treasury "Recognition Bond" dated for when they will retire. Those that are not yet in the system are on their own. 

José Piñera did it in Chile. 

http://www.socialsecurity.org/pubs/articles/12-13-04.html

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A defined-benefit system is not only hostage to demographic trends, it also has a fatal flaw: it destroys the link between individual contributions and benefits, or, in other words, between personal effort and reward. 

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You think that is harsh? Just remember that when the Titanic went down more First Class Men were saved than Third Class children. It's a tough world out there. Survival of the fitest. We make things harder on ourselves than it has to be when we delude ourselves into thinking Mommy Government will take care of us or Father State will protect us. Want to be secure in your old age? Save your own gold coins. What protection? Protect yourself and your neighbors.

Anything else is delusional! 

We need to get out from under the Socialist Ponzi scheme deliberately misnamed "Social Security Insurance" before it sinks us as a people.

When running multiple platforms, use dedicated email to ensure consistency.

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I use lots of platforms — LUGGABLE, OLDLAP, DSKTOP, WORKTOP, SPOUSETOP, ANCHOR, JOKE, BROKETOP, and OFFAL. Each of those has, or had, a specific purpose. When I wonder how I keep, kept, or am keeping everything straight, I always come back to "email". Each machine has it's "own" email address. "Directives" can be sent from a "master" email to these secret email addresses and form a todo list when appropriate. It should be possible to form up a private Google or Yahoo group to keep it all flowing nicely. Interesting concept? It works for me. When all you have is a hammer, then every problem is a nail. Pity what happens to a screw!