On Information Aggregation

As I see friends post links to very interesting articles, pictures, photos, and websites from a variety of sources, my mind quietly explodes with the sheer number of interesting combinations these pieces could produce. I wonder if we took the creators of this media and put them all in a good dinner party, what would come of it?

It leads me to think that the act of taking source info and getting real meaning from it, the critical voice, is probably the most important and most value added exercise found on the internet. It is also the least structured. Its the lack of structure that frustrates me, as even art is meaningless without some rules or context surrounding it.

So what does this mean? It probably means that I write a terrible research essay, which I will neither confirm nor deny, but there must be some guidelines at the blog-level, a framework for taking multiple sources and mixing them together.... I'm sure Google does a form of this in their search rankings, but there should be more, a search framework for blogs, essays, etc that could really make information come together better, and allow the people to benefit from it.

Is this the semantic web? (3.0)? It might be, but the first big question that comes to mind is how general info and its meaning could be categorized. Is there a 'Tag' dictionary out there? Can natural language be parsed into a set of universal questions... even that simplification is unworkable...

So, I'll leave it at that, if anyone stumbles upon this post, and knows of some good info aggregators, let me know.

Since I link here, I might as well post something...

Very short, here is a status update on me.

1. Completed my MBA this past fall (thank the gods), no plans on moving, but wanted to broaden and shift my knowledge and domain experience to the business side.
2. I keep coming up with crazy and exciting new ideas. If anyone is good at taking inventive ideas and providing a good sounding board for their commercialization, or, having pulled out of the market and is looking to invest elsewhere, send me an email (I promise no fat bonuses, at least for a while)
3. Very interested in Neuroplasticity, and how it relates to learning and development. I have a son who has some learning difficulties, so I might have to become knowledgeable in the field to provide him some help.
4. Taking Yoga, and really liking it. The top half of me is very flexible, the bottom, not so much. I might have to get strung up like VanDamme in Bloodsport before I can pull of poses like the ones I saw yesterday. And I quote: "My arms go where???"

Let take bets on the when the next posting will be, say 3 months....

Updates

Just wanted to keep this thing a little more fresh.

I heard an article on CBC Radio's Metro Morning today. A talk about adult ADHD, where suffers have difficulty planning, finishing, and keeping focused.

Now I'm not saying I have this, but not updating this blog is only one of my many symptoms that could suggest that I do have a touch of it.

So, the question is, are there drugs that would make me a better planner? Would I end up wearing a tin foil helmet?

If you start seeing daily posts, you'll know something is up? :)

Reanimated?

I do like the idea of blogging, and I appreciate technology trying to meet me halfway. But you know, it would kind of be nice if I could just take my random thoughts while washing dishes, or feeding my son, and dump them into a blog for some permanance. Of course only the good ones.

Oh and with about a year lay off on posting, I am back at another try. I'm not optimistic, even now instead of typing this I should be doing about 15 other much more important things. I know there are at least 15 because I have a list. Lists, even they have gone high tech...

I wont' get into it now, but I should do a post on list-tech like rememberthemilk.com and tadalists

Later,

A week from hell...

I will just say that it is over, and that is good.

But what can I do, keep slogging away!

Now if I can just convince my professors to put their assignments online!

Michael

Yarg, new assigment due this week

My strategy prof likes to drop the bomb.

I enjoy my Thanksgiving weekend not noticing the late posting of the week's assignment.. which is due tomorrow. So I have to spend tonight reading what is probably 50 pages of theory, then creating something that is more structured that the mass of porridge that will be between my ears after all that reading and lack of sleep from last night.

I'll have to double check the due dates, maybe I can hand it in tomorrow....

Ok off to proof another assigment during lunch.

Michael

Thanks given

A nice long weekend is almost over, just doing some last minute reading for an assignment due tomorrow. Looking pretty good so I should go a grab some sleep. I think the caffeine is out of my system now from the post dinner coffees and teas.

I got a B+ on my last assignment on innovation, I kind of knew it was not going to be an A material turn in, I was really behind that week...

What I really have to get going on is the Independant Studies and catching up on my 1st year marketing course. Damn those all online courses! I started catching up last week, but it only took 2 hours to get all the reading done and most of it I had already learned in my other classes, so I'm not sure If I will ace my test this week (first online test by the way) but I guess I am ready for it. Now I just have to get that case study done as well.

I do notice that some MBA fatigue is setting in, it's been 5 weeks now, so I'm hoping that the new courses will reinvigourate me. I do need to keep trying to tweak the demands on my time and get a real system going. Luckily for me work is not crazy at the moment, but I need to get the other areas ship-shape before it does, on top of actual work, process must be looked at.

So let set some goals:

• Do at least 1 hour of reading every day (including note taking) - school
• Grab a few items from the pile of outstanding tasks and put them on deck for the week (personal/home)
• Set aside 30 minutes of admin time where I can go over what I did and my progress for the week (when? it needs to be a time when I am not distracted and not too tired.. aha, that would be never then....)
• Get to work by 8:00 am at least 3 times a week

Ok I could come up with some more important ones but I think that is fine for now. Any more and it would be one of those lists that I make that just get written and filed away.

Hmm I think that is enough for now....

First Post

Hello Readers of this blog! For now this is me typing to myself.

This blog will attempt to record the next few years of my life as I head into what I will now coin the 'murky years' where I am:

• Going back to do my MBA
• Getting ready for the birth of our second baby (not til March)
• Putting in a full days work
• Causually learning new languages
• Writing this blog (heh for now...)

It's late friday afternoon and things are a bit slow here so I will probably put a more complete first post in tonight, but quickly these are the goals I want to achieve in writing this blog:

• Chronicle the next while in my life (I do tend to repeat myself, I know)
• Tend to the urge to write something from time to time
• Push myself a bit more, I think the act of recording what I do will hopefully entice me to do more when given the opportunity. (Funny, how posterity can do something like that)