I listen to a lot of audio books. I have had a subscription audible.com for over four years and have amassed a personal audio book library of over 150 books. For $21.95 per month I can download any two books in the audible.com collection - usually the retail value of each book is in the $30 - $50 range, so I figure it’s a pretty good deal.

I typically use my phone for the listening, which is nice because you always have it with you and it enables you to make really good use of car time. Currently I use an iPhone, prior to that I used my Treo, before that I used my Audiovox PDA running Windows Mobile (*cringe*, but I thought it was cool at the time). I have learned a ton doing this and would sooner lose my Tivo than my Audible subscription. I highly reccommend developing an audio book habit if you don’t have one already.

Of the 150 books in my library, I have gone out and purchased physical copies only three times. I am just finishing Kieth McFarland’s The Breakthrough Company and will be going to the book store to buy the physical book as soon as I’m done.

The majority of business books seem to focus on either the start-up stage of a company (think Starting on a Shoestring by Arnie Goldstein) or large company issues and sustainability (think Good to Great by Jim Collins). The Breakthrough Company fills a gap by focusing on the stages between start-up and massive. It profiles nine companies (much in the style of Good to Great) and through research and comparison has teased out principles and tactical priorities that have differentiated successful, growing mid-stage companies from those less successful.

If you don’t have the time to read it, go to Audible or iTunes and give it a listen - it’s well worth the price of admission.

I recently did a round of interviews on behalf of a client who is looking to take on signifcant web projects in 2008. It was different than the interviews we do at ArcStone - we’re large enough to have relatively fixed roles in the programming / development department (if not for the operational / sales side - but that’s another post). Our client needed someone who could not only do the web development, but also help them take their idea from 50,000 foot concept to specificaitons that non-technical staff could understand.

We posted for the job on Craigslist and Careerbuilder and narrowed it done to four candidates. The experience underscored for me how important the analytical aspect of web development is. I cut two of the interviews short with this question, “If we came to you with a high level outline for a web application, what would your next step be?”

There are a lot of correct answers - write user stories, refine the specifications with a detailed project plan, do wireframes, create work flow diagrams, etc. - but two of these “experienced” candidates totally blew the answers, hemming and hawing. Aye carumba - what are they teaching the kids these days?

When choosing a web developer, find out what their approach is when they plan a project. Make sure it will work for your organization and hold them to it - if they don’t do the planning, kill the project - you will be happier and more successful with someone else.

Birth is a messy operation. The creative process is messy. A software application that is gonna scale better not be messy.

Giving birth to a new software application puts you in the very zen-like place of being both messy / not messy.

Does anyone hear the sound of one hand clapping?

ArcStone is in the final pangs of the Wonderfile birth process. We have our first paying Wonderfile customers - yeah! We have a number of consulting projects that leverage Wonderfile’s SOA (Service Oriented Architecture - in plain English: using web services to access Wonderfile functionality from any web site). And we find ourselves in the unique position of having developed a really useful tool - a fantastic, shiny Swiss army knife for tagging and file management.

We love it, we understand it - the tool works for us - but we’re finding that those who jump into Wonderfile just don’t get it.

I have come to realize, that most of our clients aren’t ready for Wonderfile as a general tool. They just don’t have the time or inclination to fully grok it - there’s no way there gonna buy it.

I know that our customers (and people in general) will buy a solution to a specific problem. People will visit Google and look for solutions to ease their pain / scratch that itch.

What is more likely to happen? Xavier has to manage leases for his company - keeping track of all the docs, expirations, etc. He goes to Google - does he search on “file management keyword search tagging reminders” or “lease management systems”? My money is on “lease management systems” - he has an itch that needs scratching in specific terms, not general. The more specific we can be with Wonderfile driven apps and Wonderfile marketing - the more successful we’ll be.

That’s our charter and the next round of work for us - tailoring Wonderfile and marketing it to solve specific problems in specific markets.

The product development folks call this “development to commercialization” - I call it ArcStone’s biggest marketing challenge for 2008.

Wonderfile driven apps - coming soon to a web site near you.

OK - this is a little off topic, but I’ve been having a lot of very vivid dreams lately.

Last night I dreamt that I was praying with Mark Johnson (Mark works with me as part of the executive management team at ArcStone and is the managing partner in charge of our association CRMs AMO and CMO).

In the dream we were saying the prayer together in the morning before we started work.

When I got up, I wrote down the prayer. It has a ring of authenticity (being made of dream stuff and all), and I like it - so I thought I’d share it here….

Local software / tech pioneer and serial entrepreneur Dan Grigsby makes a compelling case about the depth and value of Minnesota’s contribution to the software industry. According to Dan, Minnesota has a quietly innovative and expert software development work force - with major players opening development offices here like Microsoft, Oracle, etc. Dan states that Minnesotans can get the work done for about half of what it costs on the coasts (I don’t know if it’s half, but I’d agree that there is probably a steep discount).

With the weaker dollar (and even without) does it make sense for coastal businesses to outsource software development to the Midwest? Is Minnesota ready to capitalize on this movement? Are we ready to support and assist software entrepreneurs and truly foster the software industry in MN?

No, we’re not. I have not been impressed with local associations or any state agency sponsored effort to promote our software industry.

If you look closely at where future innovation and good jobs will be had in the 21st century - you’ve got to bet on the Internet and software. Yet Minnesota does not have an organization dedicated soley to moving software ahead. This has got to change.

(more…)

Our family got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas and it has transformed our living room. Aside from a few broken glasses (we’ve only had one semi-serious injury with my seven year old flipping over an end table - don’t worry, he’s OK) we have had a blast gathering around the TV. All four of us standing, talking, and playing a variety of games. Even my wife likes it - after being dead set against any video gaming in our house, she is regularily initiating Wii activity (yeah!).

If you have never played the Wii - it is an amazing piece of tech. Tactile and responsive, it is a blast.

Our latest Wii adventure is Guitar Hero III - Legends of Rock. Now you have to understand that I have played guitar for 25 years. When I mentioned to a co-worker that I was planning on getting Guitar Hero he said, “Yeah it’s really fun, it’s addictive, but you already play guitar.”

With Guitar Hero they’re doing a ton of clever things - too many to run through here. The basic experience though is right on. Guitar hero lets you rock.

You can lose yourself in the song - totally immersed, concentrating, losing track of time and space you hear the music, sense the crowd. It is very close to truly rocking out - achieving a musical flow experience that normally takes years of practice to get a glimpse of. Music is about becoming one with your instrument, joining your voice with others - being able to suspend time and thought.

Guitar Hero spoon-feeds that “flow” experience - enabling you to rock immediately - insant rockification. I predict (hope) the current Guitar Hero frenzy will isnpire a new legion of dedicated real world rockers. Where will they go to get their gear? Guitar Center of course, that’s where you go in the game to buy fancy axes you pay for with your hard earned gig bucks (you can even click on the Guitar Center logo - clever, evil marketing folks).

Fortunately for me there does appear to be some overlap between real world guitar chops and Guitar Hero. This advantage inspires me to throw down - any ArcStonian who can outshred me gets a guppy named in their honor….

There have been a lot of rumors about Google releasing a mobile phone. Well folks - they’re not gonna do it, they’re just going to give away the software for you to create your own phone. I’m calling mine the _Phone.

Available as of yesterday, programmers can download Google’s SDK for Android. Android is Google’s open source mobile phone operating system. This is probably a very good strategic move for Google - remove obstacles for accessing its applications, making it very, very easy to work within Google’s burgeoning framework of applications from Google Docs to Google Maps….

Anyway - I’ll let Sergey tell you all about it.

Great strides in the brain / computer interface domain recently. Researchers at the Wadsworth Center (apparently affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh) have created a brain/computer interface which enables severely disabled people (completely unable to move their limbs) to do complex computing tasks like writing Word documents and sending email.

They have even taught a monkey how to control a robotic arm to grab food and feed itself. All with the power of the mind.

Read the original article.

It gives me hope that I might see the day where I can toss out my keyboard and mouse and simply put on my thinking cap…

Wonderfile works very much like your brain when it comes to retrieving information. Most people think – “Ahh let’s see, I need to find that file - I was working with Charlie on the Frederickson project, it was last summer, and we were using an Excel spreadsheet.” Most people don’t think in terms of a file location in some obscure path on their hard drive.

So I’ve learned the trick to making Wonderfile work well is to organize your libraries like you think. Neuroscience has shown us that the neocortex organizes around a seven level hierarchy. Certain brain areas then specialize for processing smaller and smaller chunks of the same kinds of information and store them in those areas for later retrieval.

Wonderfile is built around a three level hierarchy. With libraries set-up for certain areas in your life where the information will not typically overlap – the same kinds of information, like a library for your music, your designs, your research. Within that library you set-up categories, and then tags.

We figure if your brain needs seven levels – three levels ought to be enough to handle your files.

Well we did our first public demo of Wonderfile last night at Minnedemo. I think a good time was had by all. Our demo went fairly smoothly with no significant hiccups. A heartfelt thanks to the ArcStone contingent and some friends who came to show their support.

If you’re into web tech and you live in the Twin Cities you really should go check out the Minnedemo community - it seems to be vibrant, interesting group of folks. I know I’ll keep going to their events.

We’re dialing down our initial Wonderfile beta to just five external customers this next week on the 15th. I think I was a little over ambitious on my earlier blog post. We’re going to take a couple weeks to make a few refinements and do video tutorials so users can better understand how to set-up their libraries and get the most out of the system. We want to be truly well prepared for the bigger beta - we’ve been so focused on developing the app itself we haven’t gotten to some of these other essential niceties. We’ll get it tidied up and then off to the beta test. I’ll post more as things develop.

Tags:Wonderfile