PiqueroBlog

Family First

2009-12-24T20:24:00.001-06:00

It’s the Christmas Season, and we have commitments to relatives that are going to take a lot of time. Probably won’t get to the next podcast until January.

It also looks like I’ll need to break the project management discussion into two podcasts. It appears there is additional functionality in Ver 8. So I’ll need to address that as a second podcast.

Podcast 10 Is Now Available

2009-12-13T17:45:00.001-06:00

The tenth of our podcast series is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #10. The student maps, a syllabus, and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 of Mind Manager installed, either the product or the trial version.

In this tenth episode we look at Presentation Mode.

Presentation Mode lets you use the map itself as your presentation vehicle. We also look at Exporting the map into a Microsoft Power Point deck.

I am interested in your opinions. I am also interested in what future topics would be of interest. We are nearing the end of the series, give or take an episode. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .

Podcast #9 Is Now Available

2009-11-25T18:02:00.001-06:00

The ninth of our podcast series is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #9. The student maps, a syllabus, and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 of Mind Manager installed, either the product or the trial version.

In this ninth episode we look at structured Brainstorming.

We use maps for creativity techiques, such as Fishbone Diagram, SWOT Analysis, and a Morphological Box as examples.

I am interested in your opinions. I am also interested in what future topics would be of interest. We are at the half-way point of the series, give or take an episode. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .

On Track, Sort Of

2009-11-23T23:14:00.002-06:00

In the back of my mind I was aiming at having Brainstorming done by Thanksgiving. Not that it's a Turkey Episode or anything. Just a convenient target.

Podcast 9 is written and partially recorded. Should have the Podcast and post production done by Thursday.

I always do the student maps and then the script. Had some difficulty deciding if I wanted 3 or 4 examples. I went with 3. The episode should time out to 20-21 minutes.

Podcast #8 Is Now Available

2009-11-13T16:25:00.001-06:00

The eighth of our podcast series is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #8. The student maps, a syllabus, and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 of Mind Manager installed, either the product or the trial version.

In this eighth episode we start the discussion about Brainstorming.

We use the built in Brainstorming Mode function to show how a typical free form Brainstorming Session would be captured usuing Mind Manager. And, we talk about adding relationships between topics.

Progress On Next Episode

2009-11-11T21:25:00.000-06:00

Got Podcast #8 written and the student maps built.

Only started recording tonight. I’ll probably finish on Thursday. Web work still needed but should have it up sometime on Friday.

The topic of the podcast is Brainstorming. It’s a topic I enjoy talking about. The trick will be to keep the podcasts short. At the moment I’m only thinking two episodes needed. We will see.

Podcast 7 Is Now Available

2009-11-03T22:42:00.001-06:00

The seventh of our podcast series is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #7. The student maps, a syllabus, and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 of Mind Manager installed, either the product or the trial version.

In this seventh episode we wrap up the meeting minutes discussion and example.

Icon Markers, Text Markers, and using the Filter capability are discussed.

Promoting The Podcast

2009-10-31T12:20:00.003-05:00

I'm learning a bit about feeds and interpretations. While Juice only showed the six MP3 files, when I tried to add the feed to PodcastAlley I got a lot of warnings. It was clear that it was trying to read each post as a separate podcast.

My brute force solution is to create another blog, PiqueroPod in Blogger. Then limit the entries to podcast announcements.

This seems to work. The new feed is here .

I will continue to post announcements of new podcasts both here and at PiqueroPod.

Podcasts and Feedburner

2009-10-28T20:45:00.002-05:00

This is kind of neat. I'd found an article on How To Podcast. As part of the steps they mentioned setting up a feed at Feedburner.

Feedburner appears to be under Google now, so my Google account is adequate. And it integrates easily with Blogger.

I followed the Feedburner "How Tos" and created a feed for Piqueroblog. But more important, the RSS feed works in my "Juice" aggregator. The Aggregator is smart enough to pull out the MP3 links. The title is the blog post title, but the URL is the Internet Archive address for the file.

I've added the RSS subscription widget at the bottom of the right hand column.

You still need to get to the Supplementary Materials, however. They are also listed in the right hand column or you can bookmark the listing page for ready reference. I usually have that updated before I update the blog.

Podcast #6 Is Finally Uploaded

2009-10-27T12:55:00.003-05:00

Had a few technical problems trying to get Podcast 6 up to the host. Found an alternate route (IE instead of Firefox).

So, the sixth of our podcast series is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #6. The student maps, a syllabus, and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 of Mind Manager installed, either the product or the trial version.

In this sixth episode I continue working with my meeting minutes and post processing.

In addition to building the next week’s agenda from the previous week’s meeting notes, we examine the “Outline View” for map editing.

I’m interested in your opinions. I’m also interested in what future topics would be of interest. We’re at the half-way point of the series, give or take an episode. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .

Back From Wisconsin

2009-10-24T16:52:00.001-05:00

Had some free time during the vacation to work on the scripts for the podcasts. I finished the script for Pod#6 and got most of Pod#7 written. Finished the script for Pod#7 last night.

That’s the good news. I also picked up a cold while I was in Wisconsin. I can type and cough but not record and cough. I’m hoping to be unclogged enough to get Pod#6 done this week-end. Then have Pod#7 up before Halloween.

I decided to break Pod#6 into two parts. Both deal with Meeting Minutes. Pod#6 is map reuse and Outline View. Pod#7 addresses Markers and the Filter functions. Together, a single podcast would have been too long.

Progress (or lack there of)

2009-10-11T20:04:00.001-05:00

I probably won’t get Pod#6 created before going out of town for a week. So Pod#6 will be toward the end of the month.

I would remind visitors that I have links to all 5 podcasts and the supplemental material for each podcast in the right hand column of this blog.

So, if you’re here because of a tweet or an email, that’s the place to look. Or you might want to bookmark this page which is a list of the Podcasts and their materials.

Podcast 5 Has Been Published

2009-10-07T20:54:00.001-05:00

The hits just keep on coming. The fifth of the series of podcasts is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast 5. The student maps and syllabus and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 installed, either the product or the trial version. The trial is only good for 30 days.

In this fifth episode I continue the example of Igor’s Balloon Factory. The business context is meeting minutes and distribution. The example is a weekly sales meeting. This will be the first of two parts, as the example is useful for more note taking discussions.

We work some more with topic formatting. But the main emphasis is on Export to other formats. This allows distribution to non-mapping users.

If you are a Version 8 user, make sure that your Adobe Reader is Version 8 or higher. Otherwise, Mindjet Player won’t work.

I’m interested in your opinions. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .

Recording Done

2009-10-06T21:37:00.001-05:00

Got Pod#5 recorded. Still have to do post production on all the data and files. And I need to update the web pages. Run time is about 29 minutes. A bit longer than I like, but a lot of it is waiting for Export to run.

But, most important, I need to test it with a Ver 8 installation. I don’t want another surprise. I also want to test the pauses.

Exporting takes some processing time. I want to make the dead air seem reasonable in length. I don’t want the listener constantly stopping and starting.

Need to test things more often

2009-10-03T20:55:00.001-05:00

Well, one lucky break and one not so lucky find. I was testing the Export to Mindjet Player function in Version 8. First time I’ve checked the podcast maps in Version 8. Oopps. The hyperlinks that had a file name like Pod#3 in the title didn’t work. Something about that "#" character.

I needed to update all the file name for student maps. What was in my favor is that I made a knowledge management map that was linked to all the files for each episode. So I knew which ones needed a name change.

Also in my favor, I haven’t really advertised the podcasts yet. I can change the Supplemental.zip files now and once people start downloading them the problem won’t be there.

I was waiting until I had 5 podcasts up so that a person could download a 30 day trial and learn something. Otherwise they would be listening to one or two podcasts and then waiting for me to post more. All the while watching the trial period run out.

Changes made. Files Replaced at the server. And, blog entries for Pod One through Four with an UPDATE Notice.

Mind Manager Basics Podcast #4 Is Up

2009-09-29T16:43:00.003-05:00

The fourth of the series of podcasts is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #4. The student maps and syllabus and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 installed, either the product or the trial version. The trial is only good for 30 days.

In this fourth episode I continue the example of Igor’s Balloon Factory. The example discusses using Mind Manager to help organize your thoughts for a Paper or Report. I use writing a business plan as the target paper.

A key point is that there are two maps involved. One is audience analysis and paper objectives. The second is the paper content and organization.

We work some more with topic formatting, using boundaries and color. We explore Growth of Subtopics, which drastically alters the look of the map. And we work a bit with Callout topics.

I’m interested in your opinions. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .

UPDATE (Oct 2009) Looks like my file names like Pod#1 cause problems with some applications, and in particular hyperlinks in Ver 8. All files have been changed to reflect this change (Pod#3NAICS.xls ==> Pod3NAICS.xls etc.). So when you “hear” Pod #2 in the podcast think Pod2 .

Productive Week-end

2009-09-28T19:52:00.000-05:00

Got Pod#4 recorded. Still have a number of files to package and need to make updates to the web site. Should be up by Tuesday night.

This one is getting closer to what I envisioned. A little theory and a little instruction. Ran about 22 minutes. That’s about the length I’m aiming for.

Mind Manager Basics Podcast #3 Is Up

2009-09-22T20:36:00.002-05:00

The third of the series of podcasts is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #3. The student maps and syllabus and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

The series assumes you have access to a computer that has Version 7 or Version 8 installed, either the product or the trial version. The trial is only good for 30 days. (So you may want to wait until additional podcasts are posted if you’re going the trial route.)

In this third episode I introduce Igor’s Balloon Factory. I need a business example to weave a story line through the other podcasts. The goal is to show how maps can be used in a business context, not just features of a software product.

This episode ran a little longer than I anticipated (about 31 minutes). I took a simple map built using the start-up defaults and then added more color and formatting. The episode also looks at hyperlinks and connecting to internet sites.

I’m interested in your opinions. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .

Reuse Lessons

2009-09-22T14:27:00.000-05:00

Starting to piece together Podcast #3. I’m not an audio engineer but I’m starting to hear distortion. Particularly when I combine music and voice.

What I think is happening is the sample rate for my MP3 components is too small for reuse. Storing it at 48 kbs sounds OK as an MP3, but then sweeping it in to reuse for the podcast gets a little fuzzy. I suspect it is like the echoes and ghosts you get on the four or fifth generation of a paper copy.

I re-recorded one of my voice overs and stored the whole works at 128 kbs, for the reuse MP3. Seems to have cleaned it up. But then I may have been hoarse when I recorded the original.

Weak Excuse

2009-09-15T20:12:00.002-05:00

Has visitors over Labor Day, wife giving her "old" truck to her niece. Decided to get sick the next week-end. And now I've got a research proposal review due on Friday (9/18).

Picking away at it, but Episode 3 isn't ready yet. Hope springs eternal for this week-end.

Mind Manager Basics Podcast #2 is Up

2009-09-04T15:56:00.003-05:00

The second of the series of podcasts is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #2. The student maps and syllabus and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

In this second episode I step back and look at the layout and structure of the user interface. Why are the functions arranged the way they are? What’s a Ribbon Interface? Where did my “File” commands go? And other mysteries of the universe.

I’m interested in your opinions. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .

Mind Manager Basics Podcast #1 is Up

2009-09-04T15:46:00.003-05:00

The first of a series of podcasts is now up and available. The audio portion can be found here as Podcast #1. The student maps and syllabus and other materials have been stored here as Supplemental Material .

I’m trying to break the material up into 20 to 30 minute episodes. Sometimes less. I will also try to give the student an assignment, like finish the map we started. The actual time you spend on each episode will be more than the audio run time.

In the first episode we jump right in to build a simple business map. I walk you through step-by-step. Not a lot of tricky formatting (that comes later). I even tell you what the end result looks like (it’s in the supplemental material).

Why a podcast and not a video on YouTube? Well, the quick answer is I don’t have video capability. But whenever I watch video tutorials I’m watching and not doing. That means furious note taking and then going back and trying it myself. I’m hoping with a podcast that you can listen and perform the actions in the tool yourself. And as a result get a better learning experience.

I’m interested in your opinions. Write a comment to this blog post or drop us a note at Podcast =(at)= piqueroinc.com .

"Houston We Have Ignition"

2009-09-04T15:21:00.003-05:00

The web site and the blog have been updated. The next two posts will be the individual episodes.

Notice I've put the Podcast and Supplemental Material links over on the right hand column of this blog.

The web page, with the same links, is stored under the E_Papers section of the Piqueroinc.com website.

I've set an informal target of doing a new episode every two weeks.

Progress Report

2009-09-02T12:40:00.004-05:00

I’m about 90% of the way through Episode Two. Recorded the instructional portion last night. Thought I’d review my checklist.

Audio Capture and Editing Went with Audacity. Getting better with practice.
Find music for (a) Free and (b) Useable for (marginally) commercial purposes Located a music site that has Creative Commons music. SectionZ has some useable techno music. Found some that is reminiscent of disco music. Took some 15 and 30 second bumps.
Podcast Hosting (other than piqueroinc.com [bandwidth]) Using Ourmedia and the Internet Archive for the audio files. I think I’ve figured out how to link to the MP3.
Examples and Student Map hosting (maybe/maybe not piqueroinc.com) Going to store the supplemental files under the E_Papers section of the Piqueroinc web site.
Framework for a Series Syllabus ( segment topics/features covered) I’ve mapped out 10 episode. Slightly different sequence than the Fundamentals class outline.
Create a new company for series examples (Igor’s Balloon Factory(IBF)) Not much progress other than planning on IBF as the example.
Revise the Student Maps to reflect my objectives Ongoing as I develop each segment.
Build a Knowledge Management Map to keep track of components Ongoing but started with first two episodes.
Script the episodes using Mind Manager (and save as Show Notes) Ongoing. I’ve scripted the first two.
Record and edit the materials Pod#1 complete and Pod#2 is 90% complete.
Build a better references list of resources for follow-up information Ongoing. Updated my master bibliography, still more work to go.
Treat This As A FUN Thing to do, once I commit. (like now) It is fun to solve problems.

Hosting The Podcast

2009-08-28T18:43:00.001-05:00

I’ve decided to go with Ourmedia as a hosting source. They are associated with the Internet Archive. There in lies my lesson learned today.

I figured out how I’ll modify my web pages to accommodate the podcasts. The one loose end was the hosting site for the much larger podcasts (around 9 to 12 MB).

Went to the library to take advantage of the WiFi connection. Uploaded Podcast#1 but it didn’t seem to store. Got an email that said it was given a name, but no result. Tried a smaller MP3 but had a similar result.

What I didn’t realise is that I need a password account for Internet Archive as well as Ourmedia.

Uploaded another test file from home after I established an account. Worked and appears on Ourmedia.

Next step is to sort out the Creative Commons license.

I also want to record a second podcast before posting the links.

Podcast #1 Almost Complete

2009-08-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

I’ve got the first Podcast complete, I think. The MP3 is 25.8 MB and runs a little over 27.5 minutes. I have to resolve my hosting strategy before I publish it.

Actually, I need to finish at least two more. Then the audience, if any, can have more than one episode to base their opinion on.

It took about 12+ hours to produce, but a lot of that was learning the tools and scripting the episode. I’m using Mind Manager to map/write the script. I create topics and sub-topics, much like the paragraphs in the instructor manual. Then as I read them or decide to modify the description, I can move the topics around. I found I was more comfortable reading them like cue cards.

I’m surprised at how much space the audio takes. I suspect it is a function of how many mistakes I make. “Audacity” is probably saving everything so I can “undo” edits. There are two components. (1) The project, an “.aup” file and (2) a project_data subdirectory. The subdirectory has a bunch of audio files. For the podcast, the .aup was 50 KB. The sub-directory, however, contained 308 objects and consumed 297 MB of space.

I’m guessing that podcast #2 will have less editing since I have the music bumps, intro and outro segments done. Those reuseable segments should just drop in for future projects.

I took the time to think about reuse before I started. I’m keeping MP3 segments for future podcasts. I also started a Mind Manager Map for Knowledge Management (KM). I keep track of each component, by name, and hyperlink to the MP3. The KM map also records and links to any student maps.

Podcasting Primer

2009-08-11T13:17:00.003-05:00

Found a resource on the web that provides a Step-By-Step approach to podcasting.

Jason Van Orden has posted a multipage article on How To Podcast. Fairly straight forward descriptions without a lot of technical jargon.

Of particular interest is the Audacity audio software and the video tutorials that Jason provides to get you a quick start.

New Project

2009-08-09T23:31:00.004-05:00

Been absent from these pages since the Houston gig. I got diverted by a trip to the Antarctic and getting a photo journal pulled together afterwards.(Hey, when you’re retired what’s a month or two?)

Starting a new project that will cause more frequent posts to this blog. I was inspired, I suppose, by a discussion with someone I hadn’t talked to in a few years. We were discussing MindManager Ver 8. The discussion lead to podcasts and training.

I have toyed with creating a series of podcasts that talk about Workshop Planning. But, never really had the motivation.

Last May I bought an MP3 player, for noise while I walk. I’ve been downloading a lot of Skeptical podcasts after reading about “The Skeptic’s Guide To The Universe” in Wired magazine. The variety of podcasts I’ve listened to since then have convinced me that “I can do that!”

So I was primed for the conversation.

A lot of decisions and resources to locate. I already teach MM Fundamentals, so content per se and structure isn’t an issue. I’ve got to solve and implement the following (not in priority order):

Audio Capture and Editing
Find music for (a) Free and (b) Useable for (marginally) commercial purposes
Podcast Hosting (other than piqueroinc.com [bandwidth])
Examples and Student Map hosting (maybe/maybe not piqueroinc.com)
Framework for a Series Syllabus ( segment topics/features covered)
Create a new company for series examples (Igor’s Baloon Factory)
Revise the Student Maps to reflect my objectives
Build a Knowledge Management Map to keep track of components
Script the episodes using Mind Manager (and save as Show Notes)
Record and edit the materials
Build a better references list of resources for follow-up information
Treat This As A FUN Thing to do, once I commit. (like now)

This is probably the tip of the iceberg, but gives me a current “mission” for Piqueroblog. Keep a diary of how it’s going. It is still business startup for low costs.

Finally Had The Class In Houston

2008-11-07T20:00:00.001-06:00

Got home from Houston Tuesday night. Taught two full day classes on the Mind Manager Fundamentals. Had about 12 students in each class.

The sell/perform cycle on this one was longer than usual. The original contact had been in mid-May. After comparing schedules we looked at mid-Summer. Then it took an unexpected turn. Instead of 8-10 students, we were looking at the potential of 33. That had to be two days instead of one.

Now room scheduling became tricky, since we needed two consecutive days. We settled on Sept 15 & 16. Unfortunately, Hurricane Ike came ashore, at Houston, on Sept 12. So the class was cancelled.

We finally got the class scheduled for Nov 3 & 4. So, I drove over Sunday afternoon, conducted the two classes, and drove back Tuesday night.

In preparing for the class I found one change I wanted to make, since this was primarily a research organization. In the thinking styles section there is reference to the Idea Cycle. Typically this is a progression from Create – Organize – Present – Action

I modified the chart to have a more research oriented set of phases. Hypothesize – Filter – Plan – Propose – Test – Observe. It covers the same four larger steps but is more focus on experimentation. It is also consistent with the DMAIC cycle used in six sigma process improvements.

DBA

2008-08-15T20:54:00.004-05:00

I'm thinking of offering photographs through a micro-stock site. I usually (c) Igor's Laboratory rather than Piquero Insights. I've been using Igor Laboratory since college. I have it on my amateur radio QSL cards.

So, to differentiate my teaching and consulting from the photo efforts, I've used a different name. But it doesn't make sense to create a new corporation or LLC. I decided to register an "Assumed Name" with the county. Essentially telling the county clerk, "Here's who this business really is." Costs $16 and a trip to Georgetown, but other than that it's not a painful process.

Now the real entrepreneur is the guy that called me at 9AM to ask if I needed credit card processing for Igor's Laboratory? Obviously he checks the county's public records every morning for new businesses. Can the credit card offers be far behind?

Meta Data

2008-07-15T19:01:00.001-05:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that there are actually two maps in a process map, the meta data and the process steps.

What I was driving at is kind of a mixture of project management and six-sigma. The following map is an example of what I would consider meta data for a process. This is important information to have about the process that wouldn’t be in the steps of the process.

I remarked to my audience that this map is more suitable to upper management discussions about the process. If you can’t articulate a value to the customer, why have the process at all.

You would normally attach or hyperlink important documents to this map. In this example I have hyperlinked to the process map for Approve Invoice. That’s why there is a little icon in the lower right of the central topic.

I uploaded the map to Flickr. Click the map to go there and see a better image, many sizes are available.

A Flowchart Map

2008-07-14T17:33:00.006-05:00

The second example demonstrates the same idea of a process description. This one is more on the order of a clockwise map. The first step is at the one o’clock position.

This map is a rewrite of a flowchart in a whitepaper put out by Saferpak. The paper discusses how to construct a process flowchart. I wanted to show the steps for constructing a process description.

Notice the decision step in the lower left-hand corner. I’m using relationship arrows to make the flow explicit.

My real reason for constructing this map was to think about how MindManager could be used to contruct a process flow. The little red checkmarks are steps that can take advantage of MindManager’s capabilities. (On second thought, you can also use MindManager to brainstorm "who to invite to the meeting.")

I uploaded the map to Flickr. Click the map to go there and see a better image, many sizes are available.

An Example Of A Process Description

2008-07-14T17:06:00.002-05:00

A comment asked if I had any examples. I do, though some are more complex than I care to share. Some examples have company information. Instead I'll use two of the maps I used during my class. They are simple examples but make the point.

In James L. Riggs’ textbook Production Systems: Planning, Analysis, and Control (1970) there is a section on process charts. These are more the standard industrial engineering approaches, but the "process" on page 251 is simple and easy to identify with.

This map has been color coded to indicate who is doing the step. I’ve used a callout to indicate that a step is actually a process itself, this would link to another process map.

I uploaded the map to Flickr. Click the map to go there and see a better image, many sizes are available.

Process Mapping

2008-07-12T21:06:00.003-05:00

Had the class and a constructive discussion about using MindManager for process definition and discussion. Once you get past the clockwise layout of most maps it gets easier.

I wanted to emphasize a couple of key points:

Each process has two or more maps. One is meta data about the process. The second and other maps describe the steps of the process.
The use of color, putting borders around groups of topics, and using callouts help you explain key points.
Colors and icons can be filtered. I can reduce a complex map to just the topics of interest, i.e. the ones that need attention or elimination.
Data gathering is a two person task. One person builds the map and the other facilitates the meeting.
Keep it under 10 steps. A complicated map is probably hard to follow, and probably describe collections of steps that could be their own "process map"

There is a lot of power to using a hierarchy of maps and taaking advantage of hyperlinks to other documents. That becomes second nature after a while. It getting started that is the challenge.

New Business

2008-06-27T20:36:00.001-05:00

Going to be a busy Summer. Two classes to teach but with different challenges.

One is a repeat client, which is always good. Training someone who missed the class. But, spending time on my real professional interest; we’re going to do a short introduction to process mapping. That will be after the July 4th weekend.

And a new client at the end of August. The challenge here will be to develop a module for Mindjet Connect, the latest release has collaboration capabilities.

I’d beta tested the Connect version. Used a couple folks from the training class, in Detroit, last year. So I’ve got notes about what did and didn’t work. But I need to think of example to demonstrate the capabilities.

Business Networks

2008-06-22T21:01:00.002-05:00

Just finished reading a blog post , by Guy Kawasaki, on how to use LinkedIn more effectively.

For example, the post notes that you can personalize your profile URL. This can put your name in the URL rather than a system generated name. Makes it easier to bubble to the surface on a search engine query.

It also pointed out using customized buttons to make it easier to find your profile.

I've added the button to the links section of the blog, down near the bottom. I suspect it works inline too. Like this:

LinkedIn is essentially a professional social network. I've received a couple of invites, so I decided to put my profile into the works. It doesn't cost anything to join, only if you want advanced features.

Web Maintenance

2008-06-09T22:37:00.000-05:00

Spent this afternoon reworking a web page. Pointed out two important lessons, or at least reinforced something I already knew.

Your local PC back-up copy of the web site may not reflect your actual web site content.
Files transferred to a new laptop may not contain all the versions of the web site.

These become important considerations when you're 1100 miles from home and can't fire up the old laptop.

The site has evolved over the last 6 years. Some changes were experimental, but some were important at the moment. Then, having solved the project at hand, that section was left alone. You sometimes forget which files were the active versions. That's the case at hand. My "new laptop" version has files from 2004 but I made some additions in 2006.

What initiated this effort was the work about a month ago when I installed Google Analytics. I checked it yesterday and found that most search referrals are for "Brainstorming Examples" and the common entry is page PiqueroHome-181.The text on PH-181 is a little longer than I'd like. And, Brainstorming is only one example of many of the sample maps on the page.

I decided to rewrite the page and make sure the Brainstorming example was within the initial view. That's when I realized I didn't have the "master" of the current page.

Got it done. So if you're interested, here's the new page.

Web Site Tracking

2008-05-18T19:12:00.000-05:00

I tested Google Analytics with both the blogs and the home site. I placed the code snippet on 5 pages. Seemed to work capturing 4 of the pages. So, it is possible the “body” segment doesn’t execute in the index.htm. It all takes place in the frame. At least that’s an explanation.

I updated 10 more pages today. That should give me coverage for the major paths through the site. It’ll take a little time for my testing to be reflected in the reports. I should leave the site from different pages to see how that shows up. Also need to visit the site an hour later, just so it looks like a different visit.

I don't sell product through the site. It is mostly an information source. But I'm intrigued to see if it can report navigation.

Analytics

2008-05-16T21:41:00.001-05:00

Added a Google-Analytics account to the 9EdgeDown Blog. Very similar to "sitemeter" in that they give you a code snippet to install in your web page. In this case the older template version of blogger, I didn't convert Piqueroblog, at first.

I had trouble registering the site using my Firefox browser. So, tonight I switched over to IE and the continue buttons appeared. May be that I had popups blocked in Firefox.

Opportunity Knocks

2008-05-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

Got a call from Houston. Possible class this Summer. Still in the very preliminary stages but she didn’t seem put-off by my answers as far as cost & time. Her principal currently uses Version 6, has upgraded to 7. There’s been some promotional offers of late that has him interested in getting the staff trained.

For the most part, I’m more economic if you have more than 5 people you want trained. One person’t travel and living for a hotel stay is cheaper than 5. And the 5 don’t have to take time out to travel.

In a way I charge for my travel time, just like my prep time is built into the rates for a class. Other than copies of some material, I have very little additional expense to Piquero when I teach another class. And I now have a laptop that runs Ver 7. The old one was just that, too old.

I’ve “commuted” to Houston before, in a previous life. Taught classes in Dallas too. It’s a long ride, but if you pick the right time it isn’t too bad. It’s the drive home, at 5pm, that’s the killer.

Load and Download

2008-04-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

Well, 95% success with the new laptop. Got most of the software I want loaded and activated. My only failure seems to be my accounting program. The reboot didn’t behave properly. It may have been my fault for removing the CD before powering down. It launches the "splash" but doesn’t come up.

As it stands I have the Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, and Power Point), the Lotus apps (Word Pro, 123, and Freelance), and Microsoft’s Visio. MS Office was preloaded. I also installed Mind Manager Ver 7 and Paint Shop Pro 8.1.

I installed the PeoplePC dial-up program. The laptop has a wireless antenna built in, so I can use hot spots like the Round Rock library for higher speed access. Used the high speed access to download the Firefox Browser and the Adobe Reader.

Now the challenge is to migrate the needed files. I had always separated my engagements into subdirectories under a “Client” directory. That means duplication of files but an easy structure to migrate. And Jump Drives make the task easy.

Hardware Upgrade

2008-04-25T14:56:00.000-05:00

Got the new laptop in the mail yesterday. Now starts the task of getting the settings and the software loaded. Part of the trick is remembering where the software is.

I normally use an analog connection. As soon as I established that connection, the web browsing got real slow. The anti-virus software is smart enough to start an automatic update. After 17 meg (at 45 kbps) I disconnected.

Today I'm at the library, which has a free hot spot. The live update was a total of 45 meg. A lot quicker through the wireless network. But, it forces a system reboot to take effect. Got to finish this post.

Class A Success

2008-04-19T17:44:00.000-05:00

Got through the classes yesterday. The feedback was positive. As usual there were some lessons learned.

One of the boxes on the Word Export Settings Dialog allows you to generate and embed a table of contents. This would be useful for larger multi-page documents.
Your throat gets sore after 5 of the 7 hours. I learned that in Detroit and forgot. Next time I'll bring some hard candy with me.
Always make sure the IT Tech is available at the start-up of the class. We didn't have any major problems, but some of the computers were asking for a sign-on (which was "enter").
At the end of the class it took an admin sign-on to remove the Mind Manager programs. The Tech had loaded them the day before but didn't think signing on as administrator was out of the ordinary. The student sign-on didn't allow the deletion of programs from Control Panel.

And, most important event, I got the check the same day as the class. Always nice to get paid promptly. Industrial clients are often 45 days, standard terms.

Another Class

2008-04-11T20:07:00.000-05:00

Gearing up to teach another Mind Manager Fundamentals class next Friday. This one will be slightly different because of time pressures (for the client).

Instead of the normal 7+ hour Fundamentals, I’m going to be teaching two 4 hour classes back to back. The students are all pretty busy. So giving up 4 hours was doable, while 7 hours was not.

After the classes last Fall I went through the manuals with my technical editor eyeshades on. The new training director at Mindjet used my notes (which I sent him) to update the student manual. So, I now have 12 of the new student manuals for the class.

Adjusting the class wasn’t too hard. I dropped the Project Management and the Knowledge Management Modules. I’ll need to trim the thinking styles presentation.

Virtual Worlds

2008-03-16T20:01:00.000-05:00

While I'm on the subject of business and the web. How about the merging of your real life office with a virtual world application.

An article by Dave Greenfield titled Doing business in the virtual world discusses industry trends in that direction. It appears in the March 10th (2008) issue of eWeek.

In a nutshell, it isn't just telecommuting by taping into the corporate network. This more like having people interact in virtual conference rooms, like they would in Second Life.

ARGs

2008-03-16T19:20:00.000-05:00

A little out of the ordinary for this blog. I read a paper on gaming that was very interesting.

First, the article is Alternate Reality Gaming by Jeffrey Y. Kim, Jonathan P. Allen, and Elan Lee. It is the Feb 2008 issue of Communications of the ACM (Vol 51, No 2). It is a very readable article, no equations. Unfortunately, unless you can get to the ACM portal, it isn't available on-line.

Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) is a mixture of web based puzzles and real-world information transfer (in the case sited through payphones). The ARG was a marketing effort to promote Halo 2. By the time the game ended, 12 weeks, they'd had over 3,000,000 unique visitors.

It is a viral marketing approach. A creatine way to generate buzz for a product. But the article describes the make-up of the design team. And, how they kept the gamers engaged. You don't always find business breakdowns for tech projects.

It peaked my interest because of marketing. There will be more ARGs in the future. It is something I need to be able to discuss with some of our high tech SCORE clients.

Frozen Topics

2007-11-10T19:24:00.000-06:00

We had a problem come up in the Dallas class that again shows I have much to learn about the Mind Manager tool. After "brainstorming" the topics appeared to be frozen in place, you couldn't rearrange to positions on the map. And, that begs the question of unlocking them.

Brainstorming is a 3 step process. (1) ideas (2) groups and (3) ending the session. Near as I can tell, moving the groups to the central topic and “removing” the group topic, without closing the brainstorming session, freezes the topics. There seems to be something about brainstorming mode being active that sets a flag of some kind.

I found that saving the “frozen” map, and then reopening the map releases the topics. You can move them around.

I also found if I follow the three steps, as the tool suggests, that the topics will behave normally. So the key is to group your ideas but close out brainstorming mode before dragging the group to the map.

On The Road Again

2007-11-04T19:13:00.000-06:00

Just returned from Dallas. Went up to teach a Fundamentals class. Had about 9 students in the group.

Most of the students were in the Quality Assurance group of the company. So, I used some examples of process audits that they had sent before the class.

We spent the last hour of the class talking about real world ways to use the Mind Manager tool. The class examples are fine from a teaching viewpoint but I think it helps to bring their everyday workplace concerns into the discussion. We demostrated brainstorming by looking at potential specific ways they could use Mind Manager, tomorrow, on a current project. It generated a large list of ideas.

For me that means the class gave them enough insight into the tool that they could see the applications.

New Tricks For An Old Dog

2007-09-30T15:57:00.000-05:00

It is often said that teachers learn more from their students than the other way around. I suspect that's true. I had some time to kill in DTW on the way home, so I did an After Action Review on what I learned.

5 to 6 people trying different things during an exercise finds new stuff (and features).
Check all the hyperlinks on the presentation map the day before.
The zoom box on Pan & Zoom can be stretched and compressed, with a corresponding zoom in/out of the map.
Resources can be entered as Bill;Mary;Dave but will each create a separate icon marker.
Mingle with the group during the exercises to help, they are more likely to ask questions.
Quiet ones ask all their questions during breaks, expect that students take breaks but you're "on" all the time.
Use a map for the day's agenda, add links to the documents for each topic. (see #2)
Use "pps" files for shows, ppt brings up the editor.
Right-Click on news feed directory on map parts, the menu asks if you want to add a news feed. This is easier than the macro route.
Visit the facility the day before and make sure everything is set up. (I knew this but wanted to have a top ten list.)

I'll bet there was more, but these are the ones that jumped out at me.

Web Site Update

2007-09-29T16:14:00.000-05:00

I've got a project for the week-end. Noticed that I have some out of date information on my web site. I'm going to use the excuse of being capable of teaching Mind Manager Version 7 as a good reason to update the web content.

Mind Manager Training

2007-09-28T16:15:00.000-05:00

Managed to visit Detroit in late September without being snowed on! Except for spotty rain showers it wasn't too bad. The flight delays were systemic but understandable for frequent fliers . Arrived too early - gate wasn't empty. Last flight out, we delayed to get the stragglers before pushing back. This stuff happens all the time.

If I had been running to get that plane 'cause my Washington flight was delayed into Dallas, I would have been very grateful they waited 15 minutes. Unfortunately, been there - done that, and have experienced both possible outcomes.

Detroit beckoned because I had been asked to Train the Trainer for Mind Manager Ver 7. A two day class. It was a fun experience. The class is populated with people that, for the most part, know the product. Unlike the Fundamentals Class, where experience with the product is not-so-good to expert. The class size is smaller, we had about four, so the interaction and one on one coaching is more prevalent.

Classes like that, when you're teaching, cause you to more than just "brush up" on your skills. You have to prepare for the class by using functions and features that you don't use much in everyday operations.

Found a couple more Mind Mapping sites to add to the Creativity link list.

Syndication

2007-09-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

Upgraded the blog's template in blogspot. The conversion wasn't too painful, mostly putting the custom code in the right places. Sitemeter and the Eco-System links are back on the sidebar.

I converted because the new template tools make adding links easier. And the new template provides for an Atom XML Feed.

I'm still tinkering with the Bootstrap On-line capabilities. They allow for feeding your blog (in Bootstrap) from external sources. I'm testing that feature with this post.

Social Networks

2007-09-06T15:52:00.000-05:00

I've received an invitation to have an Austin SCORE presence on the Bootstrap Online Social Network. I am only vaguely familiar with Facebook or MySpace, though I understand the concept. And, for small business marketing, I certainly understand the value of networks of people.

I'm exploring the various ways I can increase the SCORE Chapter's marketing. And I'm learning a little about current web tools that I hadn't bothered to learn personally. Blogs I've been playing with for a couple years now.

Facebook or MySpace strike me as places to meet high school kids. They rarely have business problems or hire consultants. Bootstrap, however, is at least attempting to attract entrepreneurs.

Marketing The Workshops

2007-09-02T22:02:00.000-05:00

Last month I picked up additional workshop efforts. The task of getting the SCORE workshops onto various calendars and into the Austin American Statesman has defaulted to the workshop committee.

I've created a new blog, Austin SCORE blog, where I can post workshop announcements and notes after the workshop. The primary goal is to have a more permenant web presence for workshop descriptions. Craig's List should scrub postings after 45 days.

I also added a site meter to watch the traffic.

The Long Tail

2006-09-04T15:19:00.000-05:00

Followed up on a Wikipedia link from the Web 2.0 discussion. The link lead to the October 2004 article in Wired by Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail.”

A lot to mull over in the article. Most of his examples are from the entertainment industry. But that doesn’t invalidate the observations for other industries. The main argument is that removing the physical shelf space and distribution of physical media opens up the larger audience of “non-hit” customers. Sometimes sales in the non-hit “tail” can equal to or exceed the mass culture hits.

To succeed, however, both the hits and the non-hits need to be available. The popular items become the lure for new customers. Then, making recommendations help move the customer “down the Long Tail.”

This seems to be a double edge sword for the small business person. Hard to compete on the high volume side (direct competition with Wal-Mart for example). But Chris points out that the big retail chains only stock the hits. There is a huge number of products and subgenre that the big stores can’t economically or physically stock. The small business person, however, can attack the niche demands.

But attacking the niche may not work for all products. Chris also points out that many businesses only draw from a limited geographical area. The larger client base of the Long Tail may not be within 3 miles of your retail location.

I’m not sure that says everyone needs to be online, exclusively. It does argue for an online presence and a distribution strategy for non-local customers.

I understand Chris has expanded the article to a book. And he has a blog concerning The Long Tail.

Technorati Tags:The Long Tail, Web 2.0, Social Bookmarks

Web 2.0

2006-09-02T18:34:00.000-05:00

I haven't looked into this name too much. Not everyone thinks it is appropriate. I'll do a little further research and figure the nomenclature out.

In the interim, I thought I'd look for more applications, like the Writely app in an earlier post.

I found a blog entry by Christian Mayaud, which referenced an extensive list originally compiled by Bob Stumpal. This has mutated into an Open Directory of Web 2.0 Items. A much better list than I could compile myself.

I'll need to explore the Directory further. A very large mixture of personal oriented sites, but also some business related sites. That's my real interest.

The initial poking around yielded an article by Dion Hinchcliffe, looks like a column/blog associated with ZDNet (an electronics publisher). The article has a list of apps, but more important a graphic that seems to be the continuum from Technology to Social for Web 2.0 applications. Worth the read.

UPDATE: The Wikipedia entry credits O'Reilly Media with coining the phase as currently used. Some of the common characteristics: web as the platform, data driven with the user having control over the data, and networking effects such as social networking.

Collaboration

2006-08-31T19:04:00.000-05:00

I need to get out more. I'm getting my high tech news from a site devoted to the SCO & IBM law suit. Groklaw is a fascinating read. So what has that got to do with collaboration?

Getting documents and court filings posted as text is a group effort. In this post they also discuss the tools they used to edit the OCR created text file. They used a Google tool called Writely.

Writely is a free application (in beta test I think) that lets you edit a document via a web browser. It allows you to upload and download documents. And, multiple people can view and/or edit the document simultaneously. (Multiple people editing can work, but you need to coordinate your efforts.)

I can visualize multiple people writing sections of a final report, for example. And, we don't have to send the file around or merge it at the last minute.

This paradigm also means I wouldn't have to carry diskettes or a jump drive. I can reach it from any computer, and download it, if that's what is needed.

I've only begun to play around with an existing document, that I uploaded. The interface is similar to some of the text note capability in MindManager. I can't begin to say how well it would work for a complex document with footnotes and an index.

There is a similar application called Google Spreadsheets that allows a spreadsheet to be shared.

Record Keeping

2006-08-31T18:33:00.000-05:00

End of the month, and the records and forms have to be filed for SCORE. The web based system is convenient, I can now work from home. But, it only sweeps in records by entry date.

So, if I wait until Friday it won't count for August totals.

It has been a busy month. In addition to the normal 3 workshops we typically hold, we had 4 orientation workshops. We also put on a workshop for "Capacity Building For Nonprofits."

That means 8 separate Form 888 records.

Process Mapping

2006-08-09T19:39:00.000-05:00

I received a comment on a post from last February. In part, Hiram asked an interesting question:

"We want to start process mapping but just don't know where to start. ... Can you recommend any good resources (books, papers, websites, etc) on process mapping that give a good description of the OVERALL process? I'm especially interested in knowing what to do after the process is mapped."

A fair overview can be found in the Wikipedia entry for Business Analysis.

Office processes can be mapped and improved just like the manufacturing flow can be mapped (the later being called a Value Stream Map in many cases).

There are actually a number of techniques and graphic conventions for doing a process map. I used to consult and employ IBM's DesignFlow conventions. LEAN manufacturing advocates use mapping symbols similar to those in Gary Conner's book Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop. Some advocate using industrial engineering standards, like ASME Standard 101 Operation and Flow Process Charts.

A common characteristic in these techniques is the identification of transportation of work, delays, and queues (or storage). If you have a "lean" orientation, transportation and waiting represent prime targets for elimination (just a few of the wastes to be reduced).

As this paper points out, there are a handful of reengineering methodologies, all have a similar framework. In Short; Plan, As-IS, To-Be, Implement, Measure Results, and Repeat. The charting techniques usually play a major role in the As-Is phase.

Just mapping the process tends, in practice, to be a flowcharting exercise. It isn't always done to a very great depth but it should be as deep as possible. One trick is to use swim lanes for each actor or role. Then display the process steps in the respective swim lanes. One lane might be the receptionist opening the mail and sorting it into stacks (probably at her/his) desk. Then a clerk (another lane) picks up the stacks and delivers the mail to various inboxes. The inboxes each have their own process lane.

It doesn't take long to have a complicated diagram, but that's OK. It forces you to ask the question, why is the invoice bouncing around between these various departments?

Identifying the problem is only half the journey. Creative solutions and getting at the root cause of some procedures (we've always filed the fly-paper report etc) takes team work and brainstorming. But if you don't take the time to do the As-Is you'll miss a lot, and probably doom your new system or procedure because you've left something out.

Case in point: streamlining the process by having the receptionist do data entry, but forgetting that John in distribution adds a tracking number that is the database "key" for the (separate) distribution system. The receptionist may need to have access to the distribution system.

Ran across this bibliography, fairly impressive list. Some have links to other sites. It is part of the National Archives Site (NARA ALIC). Plenty of literature on Business Process Reengineering / Change Management in the bibliography.

My temptation is to say start with a process you can change, i.e. you have the signature power to make it happen. Decide what metric will define success (time, quality, waste etc). Don't leave the key measure of success to a vague "improve the process."

Then work it as a team. Everyone knows a secret part of the process that some people don't know. Your getting close to success when someone says "I didn't know that happened in xxxx, I thought yyy did it."

The more people know the whole picture, the better the redesign/improvement will be.

There are sites and then there are sites

2006-08-07T20:10:00.000-05:00

Continuing my browsing of sites "Powered by Mindjet."

Some are full sites, where the person has tried to make a web site for their business/club/church. These usually have the defaults replaced with real addresses. One wonders how much spam "info@company.com" gets. That's the default webmaster.

I've found some interesting course outlines. In this case the map was used to organize the syllabus and then produce a web-based "lecture." It shows, I think, how the MindManager tool can be used for organizing your thoughts.

There is a final category of sites that contain little to no actual data. Possible just posted as an example or test case, but never removed.

Finding The Right Search Term

2006-08-06T19:50:00.000-05:00

Started playing around, looking for sites created from MindManager software. Turned out to be a little trickier than I thought. The internal page verbiage doesn't always have the phase I'm looking for.

But, I stumbled on a site the had been created with Ver6. There is a tag line at the bottom, "Powered by Mindjet ..." That turns out to be the magic phrase. Google yielded about 295 hits in English.

So I'm going to work my way through them, a few at a time, and see what variety is there. Then build the booklist in del.icio.us to get a feeling for that tool.

Learning New Tricks

2006-08-05T18:35:00.000-05:00

It's pretty clear I'm not up on all the latest web techniques and tricks. Since I'm not into cell phones, IM'ing, and retired ... I don't have a lot of reasons to keep up.

I occasionally use Technorati tags, just to see how they would work. But haven't been a regular user.

One of the blogs I scan, almost daily, Outside The Beltway, began using this string of little icons at the end of each post. Don't know when he started. I just decided to investigate what these things were all about.

The icons are connected to Social Bookmarking sites. Similar to Technorati, but with a twist. The idea is to have your bookmarks on the web, so you don't always have to be at your home computer.

I can understand the problem. With two computers, the back room desktop and my business laptop, I occasionally find that the favorites lists aren't the same. Ditto when I'm on a computer at SCORE, none of my bookmarks are on those computers.

I picked one of the services, del.icio.us, to start experimenting. OTBeltway has about 16 different sites in his string. All the links do is supply all the information that you would have to type to bookmark the blog item.

Playing around with my new account, I found some additional MindManager(c) sites. This one is interesting because it lists sites that were built using the Mindjet MindManager product. (Mindjet has the copyright for MindManager.)

This might become a new project for me. Finding sites built with various versions of MindManager. MM has an export to web function. In fact, that is how I built the basic navigation graphics for Piquero Insights, Inc., my own site.

Technorati Tags:MindManager, Consulting, Social Bookmarks

Six Degrees and Aisin

2006-07-11T20:03:00.000-05:00

In an earlier post, I mentioned I was reading Duncan J. Watts' book Six Degrees.

That was before I reached Chapter Nine. Turned out to be about my favorite topic, "Manufacturing." In particular, lean networks and the Toyota Production System (TPS). There was a story I hadn't heard about, the Aisin fire and the rapid recovery of the entire supply chain. Particularly interesting when I contrast my experiences at Big Blue to various production challenges.

I've only recently, last year or so, been actively studying lean theory. That's probably why I hadn't heard of it. There are case studies as well as technical papers discussing the incident.

Road Warrior

2006-07-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

Not really. Though I have been traveling a lot over the past seven weeks. Drove from Texas to Milwaukee and back. And, flew out to Washington DC for a family reunion, wife's side.

Picked up a book at the library for reading on the plane. Duncan J. Watts has written a book on the math behind social network analysis. Six Degrees was published in 2003. It is interesting, though a little more math oriented than something like Gladwell's Tipping Point. Many of the same themes.

I picked it up because of the metrics phone call. We are trying to account for the number of "connections" at a large conference. Rather than just count attendees at a large conference, there should be a multiplier. Something like, the typical attendee has a network quality conversation with at least 10 other people. Something beyond, hello & how are you.

We theorize that a small group meeting would see everyone interact. But in a large group, like a conference, the number of interactions would be more than one but not with everyone.

Chugging Along

2006-05-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

It's that time again. The workshops are out of the way for another month. Had one all day Saturday, 2 hours on Tuesday, and then the all day Wednesday workshop.

The metrics discussion is going nicely. We've had three calls. The team has been contributing and the discussion is generating results I hadn't expected.

Instead of just trying to use web visits as a metric, the team is looking at behaviors and how we can measure them. We seem to be looking at web visits as a proxy for counting people looking for information.

With luck we can couple that with a connected click that assumes they found something. That's a big assumption, but it fits well with an additional metric of asking if they are satisfied with the information.

Degrees of Separation

2006-04-27T20:12:00.000-05:00

Blogging has been light, between workshops and outside efforts it has been easy to let the blogs slide.

One of my distractions has been preparing for the metrics discussion that we kicked off in LAX. The first conference call was held today.

I went surfing tonight for “Degrees of Separation” which is a way to look at connections. I found this article by Neal Leavitt. The article concerns the Tide Coldwater viral marketing campaign.

The campaign, which incuded free samples of the product, also tracked the way the referrals spread by providing an interactive map. The interesting part, predictable I suppose, the word of mouth or email was very narrow in a demographic they wanted. So targeted message and increase of web traffic.

The article doesn’t really talk about increased sales. Advertising, after all, is primarily concerned with making people aware. The lesson for small businesses is you need to focus on sales impact, not just awareness.

Back In Texas

2006-03-31T19:04:00.000-06:00

Just spent most of the week in Los Angeles. Had a couple of back to back SME functions. One was a leadership conference, the other was a workshop on Lean tool and die making. Both were taking place with Westec as a backdrop.

The workshop turned out to be a dud. No one attended.

The leadership meeting was a follow-on to one we held in Oconomowoc last fall. There were about 60 people in attendance. Last year we had brainstormed "vision." This year the topic was metrics.

I got some favorable comments on a technique I used to collect ideas. The technique is called "brain writing." Mostly, I think it was because they hadn't seen the technique before. The technique generated about 200 ideas, which is modest with 60 people. But we only ran it about 10 minutes.

Ros Jay discusses the tool in her book "The Ultimate Book of Business Creativity." She attribute the creation to the Batelle Institute in Frankfurt, Germany.

I've found some references on the web, for example here and here. I use the technique as one of my examples in the brainstorming class. I use a sheet of paper rather than index cards.

Public Relations

2006-03-12T19:48:00.000-06:00

I've been searching the net for small business topics, in particular, the various forms of financing. I'm helping one of the SCORE volunteers develop a workshop on Alternative Sources of Capital.

My search led me to an Inc. Magazine article on borrowing from friends and family. But that's not what this post is about.

The sidebar had a number of related article links. Three of them were about blogs and blogging.

When Blogs Go Bad, by Jory Des Jardins, ran in the November 2005 issue of Inc. Magazine. In a nutshell, some marketing ideas can be misunderstood. How do you do damage control in the blogosphere?

Blogs have attracted a lot of attention in the marketing community. It is another channel for building relationships and brand loyalty. Not all the blogosphere is political commentary. But once again it is the two-way nature of the technology that gives it an appeal.

Multitasking or lack there of

2006-03-11T19:29:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been posting on blogs, just not here. I am informally supporting three technical groups in the SME organization.

One group, The Human Side of LEAN, has a weekly phone call on Tuesday nights. I've been posting my meeting minutes there. I use Mind Manager to take notes while I have the conference call on the speaker-phone. Keeps me engaged.

The second group is a task force. The blog portion is some discussion and a repository for public whitepapers. We didn't make it "visible" on Blogger. The team is using a combination of email, word documents, and some blog activity. We are considering going to a secured bulletin board.

The third group isn't very active, yet. We have a monthly call concerning LEAN Tool & Die Making. We have a conference coming up at the end of the month, so a lot of time being spent getting ready for that.

One thing I've found is engineers aren't always aware of newer technology outside their field. A lot of folks use the web but haven't every read or used blogs.

Process Reengineering

2006-02-20T21:21:00.000-06:00

Old habits die hard. I've always been interested in system analysis and in particular, business process mapping. This isn't the same as mind mapping.

I was looking for a reference to IDEF design methodology. The topic had come up in a meeting last week. In the process I found a good site that had some basic descriptions of LEAN and Six Sigma. The description of IDEF wasn't that great but the LEAN discussion was.

I did find some IDEF descriptions in a paper. Figure 3 is a nice view of the basic IDEF0 diagram.

Linking and Permalinking

2006-01-26T18:51:00.000-06:00

I'm helping some of my SME contacts work through some of the blogging processes. That was part of the reason for this blog, so long post about to begin about linking.

This example will be a "live" link to Juergen's blog to show how the post would look. I hope he doesn't mind if we send a little traffic his way.

There are two parts to the process. (1) Creating a hyperlink and (2) Knowing the address to hyperlink.

Here is how the sequence would work. I'm going to use one of Juergen's blog entries as an example.

On January 24th Juergen posted some thoughts to his blog. The post was at 9:02pm. Suppose that entry was a longer article. How do we find the "address" of that article?

[A] If you look at the timestamp, you'll notice it is blue, and in reality it is a hypelink. Just point to it with your mouse. Depending on your browser, the http string probably shows at the bottom of your screen. In this case, the "address" is
"http://juergenboenisch.blogspot.com/2006/01/
i-had-interesting-discussion-about-how.html" (single line)

In blog parlence this is called the permalink address. It is the address in Blogger's database, and will always be available. Hence "perma"-link.

[B] Now rather than retyping all that, "Right Click" on the timestamp. The options dialog/tool that pops up allows you to "Copy Link Location"
which puts the whole thing on the clipboard. (I'll assume you've used cut and paste before.) I would copy it into notepad as temporary storage, or Word, or Wordpad, because it is likely you will be arranging and copying something else before you need the address.

[C] Open a second browser window and log into Blogger.

[D] You want to create a new post, let's say in Human Side of Lean. You might cut and paste text from your longer post, or type your own summary/opinion.

[E] Crucial step. Highlight (left click and drag) the word or phrase you want to serve as the link. Now look up on the tool bar of the edit for posting dialog. There is a little globe with a infinity sign on top (it is actually two links of a chain but my resolution isn't too good). Click on the globe (with text highlighted in the body) and it brings up a dialog asking for the URL.

[F] Paste that address, the permalink, there. (Remember the dialog starts with http, and so does your address. Make sure you don't have http://http://xxxxx.) Hit OK. This wraps the html anchor code around the link.

[G] Post it. Your done !

More Metrics

2006-01-19T18:56:00.000-06:00

I had a phone call to discuss the new blog for LEAN Tool & Die Making. Many of the members are "new" to blogging, so this discussion covered a lot of how-to-do things.

One of the discussions/demos involved the statistice provided by Site Meter.

It occured to me that there is another free service provided in the blogosphere. N.Z. Bear has an application called the TTLB Ecosystem. This application looks at traffic (via Site Meter) and links within registered (in the Ecosystem) sites.

The SME blogs will probably be less than "Insignificant Microbes" for awhile, but this will provide another measuring stick for connections.

Horse Of A Different Color

2006-01-16T19:25:00.000-06:00

I have started to pull together a blog for another SME group. There isn't any content yet, so I won't post the address until later. I think I found a template that I like, but the color scheme is a bit odd, mostly rose and pink variants on the links.

Most of my HTML knowledge is a little old. So are my books (dated 1996). I probably need to get a newer reference. The colors weren't set in the "body" tag, or at least I couldn't find a "link=" or "vlink=" tag. On the other hand they had "a" , "a:visited" , and "a:hover" color definitions. That looks like the ones.

But what to set the colors to? What are the hexidecimal definitions? Nothing in my old reference book, and the web address they showed didn't seem to work anymore.

Google and the web to the rescue. Found a site by VisiBone that displays the color and the hex code for that color. Just what I needed to change the template colors.

Of course, my color sense is like my taste in food, pretty poor. At least if anyone complains I know how to change them to something else.

UPDATE: The team liked the idea so the LEAN Tool & Die Making blog is up.

Connected World

2006-01-13T20:24:00.000-06:00

In yet another example of our connected world, I've been adding items to the Human Side of Lean Blog. In the process, learning new things. That, of course, is what I wanted to document here.

My latest adventure has been to add images to the post. This was particularly important because I wanted to add a Mind Manager map. I thought I had to have the image on a separate server, like my web site host. Or, sign up for one of those on line photo share sites.

Nope. You can upload as part of the post. Blogger stores it.

The trick it seems is that the HTML code is placed at the top of the post. The code and "span" handles the alignment, i.e. Left-Center-Right. Then what you do is cut and past into the section you want the picture to appear in. Like so:

The connection part is not just playing with another blog. In the process I realized I have three or four web pages on the Piquero site that needed updating. Particularly the ones that have sample maps.

And, I updated my home page to point out this blog is up and active.

LEAN Enterprises

2006-01-10T20:32:00.000-06:00

Just got off a weekly phone call that is run by an SME Tech Group. The discussion centers around the people aspects of LEAN implementation. I discovered that they have established a blog for discussion. The conference calls and the blog are called "The Human Side of LEAN."

Information about the conference calls, held each week, can be found on the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Site.

Hit The Refresh

2006-01-02T20:33:00.000-06:00

I've noted that my browser effects my ability to "see" changes. It is probably some default setting I need to fix. The browser wants to save time (my slow analog line) so it retrieves pages from the cache. In order to "see" my new posts, I usually have to hit the refresh buttom to get the latest blog entry.

We used to classify this as an operator defect, not a defect with the browser.

Consulting Tools

2006-01-02T20:21:00.000-06:00

I had a bit of luck during the holidays. A book I’d wanted was checked back in, just before New Years.

Elaine Biech has written a number of books on marketing and consulting. This one, “The Business of Consulting,” was written in 1999. [ISBN 0-7879-4021-6] What I didn’t realize is that all the tables and checklists were on a diskette.

I got the wild idea of turning a few of the checklists into MindManager maps. This should be easier since most of the text is already typed into the Word documents on the diskette.

The conversion isn’t direct. Just importing the document into the map will give marginal results. The fun is looking at the chart and deciding how I can effectively use it as a MindMap.

My first run at it is a type of SWOT analysis for consultants/entrepreneurs. By changing the columns to branches, the checklist becomes interactive. As you decide whether a trait is adequate or needs improvement, you move the trait to the appropriate branch. Here’s the first pass at ordering my traits as a consultant.

The images are "jpg" versions of the map. As a map they can be edited and enhanced with text notes and links.

Technorati Tags:MindManager, Consulting

Where To List

2005-12-26T18:54:00.000-06:00

I began to look at blog registries. Opportunities to make the web aware that you exist. One was arranged like the categories in Yahoo. I didn’t see any categories that matched consulting or old computers.

I did look at a number of their Business & Professional sites. A lot of real estate agents and affiliations programs. I’ll just need to keep looking.

Ten Mistakes

2005-12-24T08:29:00.000-06:00

Plenty of blogging articles out there. Noticed a site called Blogarama, essentially an index/category listing of blogs, in the sponsor buttons on another site. I checked it out, along with the other "publication" sites for blogs. Blogarama has some "How to Blog" articles on the site.

One in particular was titled "The Top Ten Mistakes To Avoid When Blogging." So far I'm not drifting too far into troubled waters.

I was right to create two blogs, maybe not for the extra work of posting, but to keep the themes separate. 9 Edge Down is where I want to discuss old computer systems. PiqueroBlog is about small business & knowledge management (KM), the current KM topic is starting a blog.

Business Queries

2005-12-23T19:36:00.000-06:00

I don't know what it is about December, probably the holidays from work and wishlist making for Christmas, but I always seem to get one or two inquires about MindManager around this time of year.

I am a certified trainer, but haven't been aggressively marketing my services. The queries usually originate from the Mindjet site, where my name is listed.

I've added a new blogroll category to this blog. I'll start collecting MindManager/Business Mapping blogs in that list.

I have some sample maps over at my business site.

Technorati Tags:MindManager

Adding A Counter

2005-12-18T18:26:00.000-06:00

Adding the Site Meter (hit counter) turns out to be painless.

I added one to this blog last night. Then I reviewed the code they added to the template. It contains some specific ID information, which is no surprise.

I used the path of least resistance this time. Give the application the blogger name & id and then let them add the html.

It's now Sunday evening and I've added a site meter to 9 Edge Down. So far the traffic is nil on this blog. I suspect for a while it will just be traffic from me between the two sites. I'll give it a week or two, the robots will have found me by then, and then take a better look at the statistics.

Now it's on the Step Three, "Comments" (at other sites). I'm going to leave trackbacks for another time.

Adding A Link Section

2005-12-18T17:54:00.000-06:00

Compared the two templates last night. This one had links in the sidebar on the right. The book I've been using as a loose reference, Essential Blogging, suggested that you look for the lines that come up Edit Me. Sure enough this blog's template had them.

The 9 Edge Down template, "Dots," didn't. So, I copied the code over into the template. Simple html, a title and an unordered list (ul,li tags). The sidebar is on the left for 9 Edge Down but that isn't relevant to the code.

The sidebar appears to have limited width. The links wrapped to two lines. I'm not real sure where the overall layout control is. I tried to expand the sidebar to 300px but that gave funny results. The sidebar was "first" and the main content didn't start until after the sidebar. Foo!

Found a simpler solution. Used a FONT tag to reduce the text by 1. That seems to work for now.

I probably need to get additional information on the templates.

Claiming A Place In Technorati

2005-12-17T19:51:00.000-06:00

Greyhawk's Step Two was to "Get a Site Meter." I don't anticipate that being of much value for this blog, at least not while I'm building it. There is another service, however, that I am interested in learning about.

That service is Technorati. It is blog oriented, and I've always been interested in its usefulness. Since my business web site is not a blog per se, I never felt the need to register with Technorati. I focused on getting my business site registered with search engines.

Claiming a blog (i.e. registration) seemed easy enough. Until I got to the screen where they asked for my blog's id and sign-on. That made me a little uncomfortable, so the first time through I went through the hard way.

The hardest part was finding a likely place to put the javascript tag. They suggested that it be put in the sidebar section. I found a likely place aand everything seemed to work. Except there wasn't any logo displayed. I began to feel like my html ability had gone from some to none.

I let it drop for the evening. Figured I would address it Wednesday.

Wednesday I fired up the blog with a different computer, different browser. Ta-Daaa... the logo and the serch bar now appears. Nothing changed except the browser. Doesn't make sense they would only work with IE. Might be the settings on the browser at home.

Nope, works just fine with Foxfire too.

My guess is that I put it in an acceptable position in the template, but my preferences to the Technorati database wasn't getting updated as fast as I was bouncing between blogs and Technorati. I had a similar expeience with this blog. The name was appearing as the URL for some time, and then it changed to PiqueroBlog. Database lag isn't a new phenomenom, just something I need to keep in mind.

So, I have a little more confidence that I can change the template. A similar trick will be needed for the site meter. That's the next stop.

On To Hit Meters

Pixels and Punched Cards

2005-12-15T16:14:00.000-06:00

I had chosen a template called “Dots.” As a background they were remeniscent of console lights on an older computer. What I really wanted was some punch card images. Fortunately, I have a few old decks hanging around the house, and I have a scanner.

I guess it is the sign of a true pack-rat. A couple of card decks for FORTRAN programs. Computers don’t have card readers these days, and few PCs need FORTRAN compiler. But I haven’t thrown the card decks out. [Like I said pack rat!]

The scanned images were ok, but going to be too large (250K). And if I used them for repeatable background images they would be extremely “busy.” The dots were bad enough.

Looking at the template for the blog, the background was 5 or 6 different versions of the dots. There was one light image that made up the bulk of the background. So, I decided to leave that.

I created a new top of the main page image, a strip of about 25 columns that showed the printed “9,” the column numbers, and a few of the 9s had been punched out. I cropped the image until it was roughly the same size as the 3 dot graphic I was replacing.

I also took a chunk of the whole card and used gamma correction (correction isn’t the best term here) to “wash” the heavy black numbers out. This became the graphic wallpaper for the main posts.

I uploaded the images to my own web server. Then I replaced the template’s URLs with pointers to my images. [I image I could use a free photo host but I already know how to upload and access images from my own pages.]

So, with a name like “9 Edge Down” a top banner is the 9 edge of a punched card seems appropriate. The background, if you look closely is a punch card number pattern that overlays some dots/console lights.

I’ve noticed the LCD screen in my back room is very sharp and shows the colors and patterns. The graphics aren’t as visible on my laptop or on the computer I’m currently sitting at to write this post. [Sitting in St. Louis airport on my way to Tampa.]

I may have gotten the graphics right. More by accident than skill.

On to Sitemeters and Technorati.

"9 Edge Down" Comes To Life

2005-12-14T21:51:00.000-06:00

Step 1, according to Greyhawk, is to “Get A Blog.” Since Blogger is free, that sounds good to me.

I took a short detour to my local library, however, and picked up a book called “Essential Blogging” [ISBN 0-596-00388-9]. It has 6 authors. It is published by O’Reilly & Associates. [UPDATE: Amazon.com lists the lead author as Shelley Powers. The authors in total are Shelley Powers, Cory Doctorow, J. Scott Johnson, Mena G. Trott, Benjamin Trott, Rael Dornfest.]

The book compares various tools. And it has a few chapters about Blogger. That looked like a good addition to the help files.

In true engineering fashion, I jump right in without reading the book or the help files.

Creating a blog was pretty simple. Using the standard template got me up and running in a hurry.

I’ve worked a bit with client portals, so the notion of having to “publish” the pages before they show up wasn’t a foreign concept.

What I wanted first on the list is to control comments. While part of the blogosphere is the interaction, and I welcome suggestions and comments, I don’t really want to get long political arguments started.

One of the options in the settings was to restrict comments “to members of this blog.” No problem, registration is free, let’s look at that process by creating a second user.

So I sent an “invitation” to my business email ID. My assumption is that I create an authorization list for commentors.

But after I answered the email, accepting the invitation, my new id appears as a contributor, a co-author, who can create new posts. That isn’t what I had in mind.

I don’t want to open it up to the whole world, yet, so I changed the settings to “registered users.” Now you need a Blogger ID, but that’s the only restriction.

I played around with comments. It appears the administrator can delete comments, there’s a trash can icon. Another commentor can only delete the comments he/she added. The trash can only shows up on their comments.

So, right from the start it was useful for me to have two IDs.

Now, off to monkeying with the graphics.

Where to begin...

2005-12-14T21:15:00.000-06:00

I’ve been a long time reader of political and mil-blogs. While I have a background in technology, I am more of a consumer than a supplier.

I’ve programmed my own web site, for my consulting business. But I avoided a lot of the flash graphics and animation. The site provides potential clients with more information about my company and services.

And, as I’ve chased various technology issues, I added white papers and sample diagrams and mind maps.

So, enough experience to be dangerous but not over confidence about programming skills. That’s not my primary business. I’ve written enough programs, on enough machines, for manufacturing floor applications. Hence, the foray into blogging with a concentration on old computing hardware.

I was scanning the Mudville Gazette one evening and found Greyhawk’s post on “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Blogging.” That was interesting, but I didn’t have time to pursue it last September.

Over Thanksgiving I set a goal to start a blog before Christmas. I realize this isn’t particularly aggressive. On the other hand, there isn’t a lot of money riding on it and like most hobbies it all depends on what else is going on.

I now have a playpen, with two blogs. I should be able to experiment with pings, trackbacks, and all the other blogging toys without screwing up someone else’s blog.

This one: PiqueroBlog will be my diary for building 9 Edge Down. All the customization experiments will be on that one.

On with the testing!

Learning To Blog

2005-12-14T17:28:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I started a blog with the intent to post interesting things I've run across about old computers. The blog is called 9 Edge Down.

It is clear that I have a lot to learn. Starting with an attempt to limit comments, not that I expect thousand a day anyway. But in the process I created an extra ID.

What to do? Deleting would be too easy.

Ah HA! I know. Create a second blog to record what I learn about building the first blog.

And that's what you will have here. One blogger's journey through getting a blog up and running the way he wants it to be. I'm sure this isn't novel. But this lets me keep the original block less cluttered with programming issues.