You probably are, but feel that way because it’s not as much as you like. This is a reminder to do a little each day. Send that email, read that article, do what you need to do.

Yes you are busy with work, life, whatever. But! 15 minutes a day is almost 8 hours per month. Bump it up to half hour and that’s 15 hours a month. And you get the gist.

Now go forth n get ‘er done! (Larry the cable guy reference).

I won’t continue rambling into who knows what, I will just share what I realised on the beach:

Sometimes we complicate things. It’s always unnecessary. Sometimes people do it to add self worth, or to feel important. Some do it because they are bored with life. Who knows how many reasons there are. Fact is people need to stop doing it.

The struggle is real, but not that real. I find I do this alot, constantly put myself in positions to push harder. Not to say we must not always try to achieve more, but sometimes mentally we get so used to this push push, that we just make things hard for ourselves. Sometimes it is ok to take it easy, to not worry, to just be at rest. We all need it at some point. My uncle calls this the sufferer mentality, my mother calls it madness. The point is, break free from your cycle.

Finally, focus on the value of life, not what you do in life. I think that’s pretty self explanatory.

Until next time…….

BTW I know this is a pretty boring read without pictures. Hush.

What’s new?

Well several things. This should probably be broken into several posts but……. well maybe I will do that later.

In January we successfully had Slash Roots Developers Conference, which is also the Developing Caribbean Open Data Conference. This was held simultaneously in Jamaica, Trinidad and The Dominican Republic. Check the details at http://developingcaribbean.org Much props to the organising team and MSB for pulling off this event.

February brought many challenges. In the space of one month I lost my Grand Aunt and Grandfather. Very difficult time. I think I will have to do several posts on this. Both of them achieved great things technically and introduced technology to Jamaica. But most importantly they are family and friends.

During this process I was also reminded of the lesson to keep the balls juggling. I nearly lost a major customer due to things falling behind during this difficult time. Lesson learned. No man is an island, we all need help and we all need to appreciate those who help us. Also communication with customers is key.

March so far has been very busy, not much I can speak about due to NDA’s. However I can tell you I was invited to lecture at UTech on March 5 and 8 on innovation and how it promotes entrepreneurship. Much thanks to Lisa Shaw for inviting me, I had a blast interfacing with the third and final year students. So many students planned to start their own business and some even shared their ideas with me. Really cool stuff, right here in Jamaica. Look out world!

Big event for March so far was rolling during a rally on March 4. I was co-driving for Thomas Hall in his Toyota Starlet. Basically we went around the corner sliding a little wide, the back tyre caught a rock and we started the tumble. Thankfully we are both fine with no injuries. Thomas is trying to get the car repaired for the next event. In the mean time we have to buy new safety gear. Photo below:

Sorry about the long read. I have installed the WordPress app on my tablet. Will try doing some shorter, more frequent updates for the rest of the year. In the mean time, live long and prosper!

I read this interesting study on whether talent or hard work counts for the most in achieving success. of course, hard work won out over talent. Here are some excerpts:

People of great accomplishment tend to be highly intelligent. Yet, the view that creative geniuses accomplish more on account of their inherent ability does not stand up. When intellectually gifted children were followed up in middle age, their creative achievements were astonishingly small according to a celebrated study by Lewis Terman. High intelligence may be necessary for creative accomplishment but it is clearly not sufficient. Achievement in most creative fields calls for a lot of work and effort. Mastery requires many years of single-minded pursuit. Music and performance arts are something of an exception where child stars emerge much more quickly thanks, presumably, to specialized talents with which they may indeed be born given that musical ability runs in families. For most other endeavors, achievement is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.

The concept of genius is nothing but comforting fiction. For it helps explain why most of us do not achieve at the highest level in our chosen field: we are not geniuses. The trouble is that there is little compelling evidence in psychology for any such latent superiority. The concept of the genius may be comforting to the rest of us. Yet, it remains a fiction. 

But the following excerpts on IQ and financial success were also very interesting:

An interesting article by the economist Garett Jones of George Mason University on “National IQ and National Productivity,” essentially shows that a nation’s intelligence level is associated with a number of important economic outcomes. (Me: hence what is happening in Ja. with our educational abyss within the general population.) In the article, Jones stresses that “policymakers should include measures of national average IQ when reporting a nation’s level of human development” as at present no nation appears to do so. He also points out that one way of raising a nation’s IQ level is to allow smarter immigrants into the country. (Me: This is not a new concept, for years company’s have sought the brightest employees that they can get to increase their growth and profitability. Look at Apple. Or even IBM, worldwide as here in Ja., which has kept IBM relevant.)

Now psychologists Heiner Rindermann of Chemnitz University of Technology and James Thompson of University College London have published a paper in the journal Psychological Science on the concept of “Cognitive Capitalism: The Effect of Cognitive Ability on Wealth, as Mediated Through Scientific Achievement and Economic Freedom.” The authors examined cognitive ability datasets from over 90 countries to show that average IQ is essentially the decisive factor of human capital and that it is really the top 5% of a country’s population – or the smart fraction - that largely impacts a nation’s wealth. The authors write that “Cognitive ability influences wealth through its effects on high achievement …” (Me: that is high achievers are generally smarter people. As the first paragraph says: People of great accomplishment tend to be highly intelligent.)

Dr. Rindermann told me that because the modern cognitive demands of work and everyday life are growing, essentially “wealth has become cognitive wealth,” and in particular “high ability wealth” or the smart fraction of the population is what matters.  It is the absolute ability level of this fraction of the population that makes the difference (to a country’s wealth).

The article then goes on to speak of China — with a larger ‘smart fraction’ of people — as compared to the USA and the inevitable outcome.

Do you agree?

http://www.marcandangel.com/2010/11/15/12-dozen-places-to-self-educate-yourself-online/

It features 12 dozen places to educate yourself online. Personally I am a fine of MIT’s Open Courseware, but the link lists several other sources covering:

• Science and health
• Business and money
• History and world culture
• Law
• Computer science and engineering
• Mathematics
• English and communication
• Foreign and sign languages
• Plus More

Hope you enjoy!

This is pretty cool because now you can see how your contacts are connected. But how else can data visualisation help us?

Location:

I have been trying to track keywords and events based on location via social media tools for a long time. The issue with social sites like Twitter is that people don’t set their location correctly. For instance if a Twitter user enters Jamaica as their location then it assumes Jamaica, New York, USA, not the country. Also people use other terms like jamdown, jamrock, or just cities like Kingston or Montego Bay. When trying to find tweets from a specific area even if the person matches the keywords the location may be off.

So I first considered creating a list of Jamaican twitter users, however how will this be updated (migration etc.)? Then I thought of tracking interactions and then flagging users as Jamaican, but once again that would require alot of human interaction. Ideally I want something automated and dynamic. InMaps gave me a potential answer. Track interactions between users and then group them into subsets just like InMaps. Couple that with a metrics system, where a user with properly filled out Location or listed under multiple twitter lists with specific keywords or Klout has a higher metric than others. When users are associated with other users with higher metrics it helps to create focal points for the network.

Online communities are associated by content, relation (friends, family, groups, alumni) or location. By establishing the link between individuals online we can create a dynamic social mapping tool more accurate than what currently exists, even more accurate than what the user them-self knows. This would allow analysis of keywords by social-location-grouping or possibly by profession, education, and more.

What are your views?

LIKE many others, I have been following with considerable interest the reminiscences of Leslie Galbraith in fellow columnist Mark Wignall’s Sunday space about the part he and others played in the development of electronic sound reproduction in Jamaica.

As we are aware, the sound system is an outgrowth of radio, which, in its early incarnation, used vacuum tubes to snatch modulated magnetic radiation from the ether and convert it into a form the human ear can detect.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/A-sound-pioneer-s-resonating-chords_8469303#ixzz1FvD8d81B

….The question soon came up: What do we do about his Facebook profile? We had never really thought about this before in such a personal way. Obviously, we wanted to be able to model people’s relationships on Facebook, but how do you deal with an interaction with someone who is no longer able to log on? When someone leaves us, they don’t leave our memories or our social network. To reflect that reality, we created the idea of “memorialized” profiles as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who’ve passed. We understand how difficult it can be for people to be reminded of those who are no longer with them, which is why it’s important when someone passes away that their friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialized. For instance, just last week, we introduced new types of Suggestions that appear on the right-hand side of the home page and remind people to take actions with friends who need help on Facebook. By memorializing the account of someone who has passed away, people will no longer see that person appear in their Suggestions. When an account is memorialized, we also set privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. We try to protect the deceased’s privacy by removing sensitive information such as contact information and status updates. Memorializing an account also prevents anyone from logging into it in the future, while still enabling friends and family to leave posts on the profile Wall in remembrance……

The form for reporting a deceased friend on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=deceased Twitter handles it similarly by requesting that you email them, but they close down the account:

If we are notified that a Twitter user has passed away, we can remove their account or assist family members in saving a backup of their public Tweets. Please contact us with the following information:

1. Your full name, contact information (including email address), and your relationship to the deceased user.
2. The username of the Twitter account, or a link to the profile page of the Twitter account.
3. A link to a public obituary or news article.

You can contact us at privacy@twitter.com, or by mail or fax: Twitter Inc., c/o: Trust & Safety 795 Folsom Street, Suite 600 San Francisco, CA 94107 Fax: 415-222-9958 We will respond by email with any additional information we might need. Please note that we cannot allow access to the account or disclose other non-public information regarding the account.

Now that I know what I need to do, I just need to face the music and submit as necessary R.I.P.

Since then people have been killed, injured and kidnapped in Egypt as demonstrations continue.

Earlier today Kenneth Cole, a popular clothing brand released this tweet:

Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KCless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®Kenneth Cole
KennethCole

Here is an image just in case the tweet is removed:

I will put this in my books as what not to do for social media marketing. What do you think?

Update! Kenneth Cole has tweeted this in response to the uproar on twitter:

Re Egypt tweet: we weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment -KCless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®Kenneth Cole
KennethCole

I am not sure if that counts as an apology, is there any way for them to recover from this blunder?

Update 2! A fake account has been created on twitter: @kennethcolepr which is tweeting more scenarios that Kenneth Cole tweets could disregard history. The smoke is building, will this go viral? 2700 followers in 2 hours.