Oh yea!

By the way, Merry Christmas everyone! And I sincerely hope that everyone is having a memorable and smashing Holiday!

We put the "fun" in dysfunctional!

Those are the famous words that my uncle always utters (or yells depending on the average BAC level of the room) at family get-togethers. I just love the holidays. Whether it's everyone getting drunk (except me since I'm pretty much a teetotaler) or everyone getting drunk, the holidays are just a warm time for us all. Unless you're sober. Nothing is worse then being sober in a room full of drunks. Not only are they loud, but they're red-faced and in your face. Rude and crude. Resplendent in their praises and despondent in their rationality.

To be fair, I love my family. I'm a family man and I think that there is nothing more important than family. However, being the only sober person at family gatherings can be a little alienating and even humiliating. Alienating because you don't find the jokes that Uncle Walter told about the RV trip to Intercourse, PA to be all that funny --hehe. Humiliating because your parents always have to sing your exploits. Like how you managed to hook up the speakers for them or buy something from iTunes.

It's good to be home. It always makes me feel good and warms my heart to see family and friends again after a long time. Yes, I ACTUALLY have a heart although you wont see it again for another 365 days so enjoy it. But I digress. Being home is fun but it is also sad and, for me, a little disheartening. Sad because you realize that after being away from home you never really can go back. People change, places change and most importantly, you change. It doesn't feel the same anymore. I feel like sometimes I'm an impostor living in my past when I return home.

But hey, today it was 61 degrees and clear and tomorrow it's going to be the same. So there is something nice. Although it's a full day with the extended family and my girlfriend's family/friends. Oh god get me back to DC.

3/5 of the way

Ok, so, here is my first "unofficial" post! Yay! I like to think of myself as a somewhat tech-savvy guy. I know what the iPhone is and I know what Facebook is. Hell, I even know what the Internet does. But what the hell are people talking about when they say, "So and So is only 5 days?" I see this crap in the status bar on Facebook all the time. Can someone please tell me what this means?! I'm partially hoping that it's simply horrifically bad grammar?

Well whatever. I don't really care what little Mary-Ann and Lexus and Mercedes are up to. I just wish people could use proper grammar. I understand that English is a living language but I will be damned if I my younger cousins start emailing me saying things like LOL and BRB and all that texting crap.

On a brighter note, I finished 60% of my finals. I now have another seven days until my last exam. Normally I would be pretty pissed but I have got to clean up my apartment so this gives me the excuse that I have been looking for. On an even brighter note, I'm going home in eight days. I can't wait to have In-N-Out, Mandarin Gourmet, Su-Hong's, Ming's, Cicero's and Kikusushi again. Oh yea, and I can't wait to see my family too... Honest.

I cried when Will & Grace ended... not... maybe...

You know, for once in my life, I'm actually sad to see a class end. Usually I can't wait for it to end. Mainly because I do this when I'm done with a semester, or a life. Usually, I wake up in the morning dreading going to classes but whenever I woke up on a day when I had this class, I would actually feel good about going (and I didn't even need my uppers!). Our class was very informative and fun and I learned more in this class then I have in any other class at American. Now, isn't that sad? $40,000 a year and I can clearly remember only one class... Did I ever mention that I hate academia?

I have to apologize to people at this time. I have to become a little retrospective. Social Networking is an amazing concept. Regardless of my previous rant about it having its limits; I think that it is the new wave of the future. Whether or not that is good is not up for me to decide. I just use and abuse, I don't think or decide. God I love being an American.

Since this is the last "official" post for our class, I found myself at a fork in the road. I wish I could add a "yellow wood" but I'm not that skilled. To post further or nor post further that is the questions which does not preoccupy my mind right now. I've already decided to continue posting my rants and ravings for the time being although I can't speak for anytime later than a week. I'm so deep.

Well, what do you know, I made a decision and I thought about it... I was wondering why my head is spinning... I wanna go to Wal-Mart!

What can social networking do for you?

I love technology. There, I said it. I'm like Wired. I think that technology and science are the one and only way to go. So naturally, you would think (or at least I would think) that this article that espouses how social networking and Web 2.0 can make life bit-rate perfect would be right down my alley. WRONG! I think that social networking is really cool and I think that it has its uses. But who the hell is going to transfer money from their bank account to a supermarket to help a homeless person?

Call me heartless (I actually am heartless but that shouldn't surprise you by now) but the author of that article is full of sh*t. You see, the publisher of the article, CNET, is headquartered in San Francisco. Now, San Francisco is the mecca for the counter-culture and GLBT community but it's also a mecca for something else. You wonder where Guliani sent all the homeless in New York? Well, just train your eyes on the city by the bay.

San Francisco is very tolerant of the homeless. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about them. Anyway, basically what I'm saying is that the CNET article is trying to appeal to the Snob Hill (reference to Nob Hill) techie elitists. So I guess that I would fall more in line with this guy's views of social networkings' potential. But only to an extent. I'm sorry but anyone who disses Wikipedia (praise be to it!) is a heretic. Oh... I guess I'm in the other camp now...

UGC, BRB, LMAO, TNT, TBS, Blah blah blah

UGC, MGC, LOL, OMG... Ugh! What is up with all these stupid acronyms? Why can't people just say it? User Generated Content, American Broadcasting Company, Turner Network Television, Secure Socket Layer, etc.

Anyway, that was my "three week to the end of the semester" rant. Kinda short but oh well. Where was I? Oh right, UGC (grrr....), to me, is icing on the cake for a lot of programs. Some of the best examples of user generated content can be seen in computer games like The Sims and The Sims 2, Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (mainly through the online battle simulation Team Fortress) and even some MMORPGs like Star Wars Galaxies. DISCLAIMER: I haven't played computer games in a long time so forgive me for my out of date examples. In fact, companies like Maxis (developers of the Sims series) and its parent company Electronic Arts, have an entire site devoted to user generated content for some of their games.

This content really provides a great way for some people to be discovered (similarly to SecondLife only not as lame) and it adds a personal touch to the game. Games like The Sims and The Sims 2 (these games are simulation games that focus on living out a virtual life) work best when a ton of new content (like clothes, furniture, cars, building materials, etc.) is created to expand the game. Sure, official expansion packs like Sims 2: Pets, "": Vacation, "": Hot Date all provide a lot of fun new content and animations but there is still something quaint about using (forgive me) UGC.

Web is to Polarizing as ...?

The Web has polarized politics? I find that somewhat amusing considering that politics (which has been around a lot longer than the Web) was already one of the most polarized aspects of human society. Politics, like religion, does a marvelous job at mixing and stirring irrational beliefs to the point where the only outlet is through emotional outbursts. I have to laugh silently to myself whenever I see people "heatedly" talking about some political issue. Whether it be about the massacres in Darfur or the current administrations draconian (you didn't honestly think I would hold back, did you?) view's about stem cell research, it never fails to give me a little amusement to see people turn red faced and start raising their voices. To be fair, I'm not that passionate of a person so to an extent, I have to admire people like that. They believe in a cause and are willing to fight for it; or, at least, speak a convincing lie.

But, I can't understand why some people think that the Internet has polarized politics. Politics was already polarized to the point where you can't sway people anymore. Just like polarized sunglasses reflecting the glare of sunlight, political beliefs reflect the light of truth from reaching so many people. What the Web has done, in my opinion, is actually filter some of that political glare. It is the new 100% polarization lenses that allow us to look past the talk and show -- in essence, the glare of politics. We can now see these great icons of American "beliefs" for what they really are: people.

Saying the Web has polarized politics is the exact same thing as saying that the gun created murders.

Friend me on LinkedIn!

So the next big thing in recruiting is networking and blogging?

That's not very surprising considering what Fay Hansen wrote about social networking sights (i.e. LinkedIn and Jobster) being a great tool to reach passive audiences. LinkedIn and Jobster both provide great tools to build your network and contacts and it allows recruiters to pro actively search and receive contact details from qualified, potential employees without the expensive third party filter.

Of course, other organizations such as Yahoo! posting their jobs on Craigslist is an interesting counterargument. I don't know why the internet giant isn't using its own free Yahoo! Hotjobs especially considering that only a few days ago, a woman was murderd after she responded to an add posted on Cragislist. If I were in charge of a multibillion dollar company I wouldn't want to associate myself or the company with something like that.

I believe that online networking sights and blogging are good tools for companies to use when looking to recruit new employees. But I also think that more traditional measures like job fairs and referrals (not through networking or blogging sights) are still good channels of communication with potential drones :) .

There IS Such a Thing as a Free Lunch

As someone who likes to mooch off other's kindness, the idea of the business lunch is perfect. The boss takes you out, you eat to your heart's content, you talk about business (which isn't THAT perfect), life (which is even less perfect), etc. After the conversations, and usually pressed for time, your boss whips out his or her plastic and all is well with the universe. Without going into semantics, I would have to say that the best type of business lunch is dim sum. You are constantly barraged by waiters and waitresses who offer you some INCREDIBLY del.icio.us (sorry, I just wanted to put that) food and the best part is, you don't have to pay for it! It's a poor college/intern kid's dream come true.

Saying that, you can then understand the initial horror that I felt when I read the title of the ABC News article, Will the Web Replace the Business Lunch?

Of course, upon reading the article and finding out that the article really talks about the dynamics of interviewing and resume writing I was -- to say the least -- relieved. But, not long after feeling relief, I began to feel a little annoyed... similar to how I felt about the Working Together... When Apart article. What is it with the media and misrepresentation? I know that my last rant was about stating the obvious but I feel like it stems from the same problem that the media is filled with a bunch of baboons (or, to be PC, orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees) from the planet Soror.

But I digress, the ABC News article was interesting and it makes me feel relieved (not to the same degree about finding out that business lunches have been spared) to know that I can put my information on a website like LinkedIn and ZeroDegrees and just wait for the fish to start biting. Its like that banking commercial where all those bankers(?) compete with each other to win the love of the cute little suburban family. That makes me feel good, especially since I'm being offered a job instead of a mortgage that I could never hope to pay off. In a lot of ways, sites like LinkedIn minimize the hassle of trying to get your resume out into the "market."

Similarly, the Collaborage article, Fifteen Uses of Professional Profiles within the Enterprise offers a pretty good summation of most the other articles that relate to professional social networking sites. I mean basically, your entire interview is laid out on a webpage for anyone to see. Not only does this reinvent the workaholic's dating game, but this also gives me the luxury of sitting on my butt doing nothing while other people are looking for me. Would I actually do that? ....I think I'll plead the fifth.

I think it is great that there is a growing demand for sites such as LinkedIn and software from developers like Visible Path, (software that allows companies to integrate all the social networks within the organization) featured in Six Degrees of Cooperation, is great because I believe that the more transparency that exists between people will result in more cooperation and productivity.

No Sh*t Shirlock

Don't you just love it when you see a report on the news or read an article in the paper that states something that is already completely obvious? I remember hearing a report on CNN a few years ago that espoused the benefits of exercising. In fact, I think the report said that exercising will likely increase your lifespan. When I heard that definitive line from the anchor's mouth, my mouth dropped down to floor. Of course exercising increases your lifespan. I don't think that people exercise with the intent that they keel over after. Although, every morning after I run I feel like keeling over.

Now that I'm thinking about it... I also remember hearing a story that said something like eating healthy and exercising has been PROVEN to reduce stress. Well DUH (I would like to use another phrase but I might get in trouble for naughty language). As if I and the rest of frickin humanity didn't know that. I now have the expert opinion of CNN's medical correspondents to make me sleep better at night knowing that my exercising is actually helping me instead of killing me. When I read the article "Working Together...When Apart," I had a similar reaction.

Generally, I enjoy reading top-ten lists. I find them interesting and insightful when they relate to something that I care about. I work for a fairly large (4,000+ employees) international corporation spread over four continents so I really do appreciate the convenience of virtual teams. And since I'm working remotely, I can really appreciate the value of instant communications tools. And this article did a good job at summing up some useful tips when creating virtual teams but there was one thing that should not have been put on that list.

Before I go into more detail the bad tip, I did find the overall article interesting and well thought-out. I thought that tips seven and ten were the most important in their impact on me. I agree completely with the idea that you should not force virtual teams to meet together mainly since it is not a practical endeavour most of the time. I also think that using volunteers is a great way to motivate people to work on projects that they are interested.

BUT, the one thing that made my mouth drop open this time was tip nine. Tip nine states that "ensur[ing] that the task is meaningful to the team and the company" is essential. I would imagine that most people reading a publication from MIT would be smart enough to realize that corporate teams should already be working on meaningful projects for the company. I detect a little CNN here people.

Actually -- I am grateful that MIT told me about tip nine. Finally, I can sleep at night knowing that the market research work I did for VeriSign was actually BENEFICIAL to the organization. Man I'm glad I decided to work on that instead of with the group whose job is to decide what tile colors go best in the bathrooms. MY GOD!!! Next thing you know, they're going to start proving that employees who are happy are more productive! Or that higher sales and lower COGS will result in higher NI!!!! REVOLUTIONARY!!!!

Now I Have an Online Reputation to Uphold Too?

Reputations are HUGE in business. They are a driving force that have the ability to bring great wealth and opportunity to those that have a good reputation. Of course, those types of reputations take A LOT of work. Countless hours brown-nosing (although, hopefully, not enough for others to smell it), myriads of social interactions and occasions and a ton of years all go into building a reputation. Oh yea, delivering on promises and providing timely, high-quality work are also must-haves as well.

It doesn't really surprise me that reputations are starting to move into the online realm and that they are diversifying. There are countless different types of reputations out there now. I think that Rob Hoff made an interesting point on the Tech Beat blog about how reputations can be imported into other areas of ones life given that the context that the reputation is in is the same for both aspects.

Also, the ideas book was interesting as well in how it showed a kind of balance between online reputation building and software agents that go out and search for items that might be of interest to you depending on what you buy. I think it is interesting that reputations seem to be gaining power in the online world. When you think about it, something as rigid and "class-defining" doesn't seem to be what the Internet is all about. That persons opinion matters more than yours or that person is the AUTHORITY on this topic. I guess it's just hard for me to wrap my head around reputations in the Internet. It does bring up an interesting question though. Will the Internet mirror how we interact with each other eventually? Will people be considered authorities within the Internet and use their discretion to exert their will on others?

Some Late Night Thoughts

So here I am sitting in my girlfriend's apartment at 2:30 in the morning trying to figure out how to write something coherent at this time of night when a few things occur to me. One, I should probably be sleeping right now instead of doing homework. Two, not all fast food is created equal (this might explain why I'm doing one instead of sleeping). Three, we have entered what VeriSign would call the "Any Era." I actually want to take this opportunity to mention what VeriSign is doing in terms of streaming content.

About a year and a half ago VeriSign began the "Three-Screens Initiative." In a nutshell, the Three-Screens initiative is the ability to stream live content from the Internet to your computer, phone or mobile device. But that definition really doesn't do the technology justice and since I work in a completely different department then our content distribution teams I really can't adequately explain how exciting this stuff really is. Imagine being able to watch a show like American Idol on your TV, computer or cell phone and then during a commercial break receive discounted tickets to concerts with similar genres. Or imagine that you can instant stream movies from the Internet to your TV, computer or phone. VeriSign actually owns most of the infrastructure that regulates the flow of traffic on the Internet.

Also, VeriSign owns the registries for all the .com and .net domains so basically whenever you are going between websites (like google.com and cnn.com) you are being "transported" via VeriSign's servers.

VeriSign's website link is here but since VeriSign primarily deals with B2B transactions the corporate page is not that interesting to non-users.

The link to the three-screens campaign is here. I recommend that you at least watch the introduction because it's a advertising campaign (IMO).

And of course, if you would like to know more about VeriSign's most profitable business (and the technology that I know most about) then click here to learn more about SSL. But, I have to warn you, this stuff can VERY VERY VERY boring and is only exciting if you pay for Extended Validation... oh god I should probably be sleeping right now. :)

One of the myriad reasons why I hate Kogod.

*****DISCLAIMER****** THIS IS NOT MY OFFICIAL BLOG POST FOR CLASS NEXT WED.
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

So I'm just sitting here watching Full Metal Alchemist and trying to think of ways I can explain to my Web Programming professor that I'm going to fail the take-home exam that's due on Friday. A take-home exam... something that by the very definition should not be challenging but should just be tedious and time consuming. But looking at this five-paged monstrosity is making my head spin. I can't even understand the questions themselves, much less fathom an actual answer.

On a brighter note: work is going pretty slow right about now. I submitted a proposal to my manager at VeriSign but I have yet to hear back from him; that's not really shocking considering how busy he is. In the last month and a half he has been in Boston, Amsterdam, Las Vegas, Cape Town (South Africa), Frankfurt and Seattle. Being the director of VeriSign's most profitable BU makes you a pretty popular guy in the company.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a product management intern at VeriSign: a company that specializes in SSL encryption. If you look at my Facebook profile I think I mentioned something like Product Marketing and or Management which are both wrong. I've just been too lazy to change it. Anyway, I suppose that the main reason that I'm writing (or typing since we should all be PC) this post is so that I can lambaste the Marketing department at Kogod. I'm taking the Principles of Marketing class and we have this "term paper" which is total crap. We have to write a five page business memo to the CEO of a company that we are "consulting for" and then write an 8 to 10 page "marketing strategy."

If there is one thing that I have come to realize from working at VeriSign is that people DO NOT have the time to read a bunch of crap on market trends, demographic shifts or statistical models. One of the projects that I am working on is market segmentation data on VeriSign's enterprise customers (basically, really big companies with lots of money) which number about 3,000. Now, shifting through 30,000 line items on an Excel spreadsheet, downloading 12,000,000 corporate profiles from Hoover's, and one month after being assigned the project, I delivered a ten minute presentation. Manager's don't want the nuts and bolts of the data. They want a concise and precise summation of it. Why do you think it is called an EXECUTIVE summary? I find it hilarious that the geniuses in Kogod think that this is the proper way to teach us how to communicate and strategize when it comes to marketing. By writing a paper??? COME ON PEOPLE! Instead, have us write a three to five page summary of our findings and then have us present an oral presentation to the "CEO" (aka professor).

That is what the CEO and the other executives at VeriSign have their employees do. I know that every corporate culture is different but I would imagine that most executives and C-level peeps at a lot of other companies would agree with this.

Well, that felt pretty damn good. I like getting things off my chest. If you managed to stomach my incessant ranting and raving and made it this far then thank you and congratulations. I know that it must have been pretty terrible to have read this.

Ah hell people, why DIDN'T you take the blue pill?

The Matrix changed the way that sci-fi movies were viewed in the US. Before the Matrix they were thought of as cheesy time-wasters that only appealed to pizza-faced teenagers in high school. But, withe the release of The Matrix, sci-fi movies have become more socially acceptable (like they were in the late 70s with Star Wars and Alien). The Matrix played on on the idea of virtual reality -- hence the whole people plugged into a big computer program thing -- and the irony that our conceived, virtual world(s) would eventually become our "real world."

This idea is not new to sci-fi. Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451 (published in 1953) brushed on the idea of simulated entertainment with the lead character's wife being a junkie with an entire virtual family. Subsequent movies have since made virtual reality a more believable idea. Movies and shows such as Ghost in the Shell (also a TV show), The Island, Total Recall, Star Trek (through use of the holodeck) and The Thirteenth Floor (novel and movie) all use virtual reality in some way or the other -- usually in a negative light. Games and software (like Second Life), however, appear to be accelerating the idea and social acceptance of virtual reality as a way of life.

Originally, "virtual worlds" were places were young people used avatars to fight off monsters in fantasy lands. Games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Guild Wars are all examples of this older form of "virtual playing." Now, a new idea is starting to sweep the online community: "virtual living." Second Life allows it users to actually manage land, businesses and to an extent, people (like the owner's of clubs who allow "dirty" dancing). Also, Second Life allows you to generate actual money from the virtual money used in the game world. This is quite a revolutionizing and exciting concept. I personally love the idea of virtual reality because it has the potential to save us from ourselves. We could potentially be uploaded into a computer network that would simulate a paradise where there is no war or environmental degradation. People could have unlimited life (so long as the hardware is maintained), land, money, etc.

The "ever-knowing" architect in The Matrix Reloaded stated that a virtual paradise would never be accepted by our flawed, mammalian brains but let's be serious here. If you can get killed in the Matrix and the damage that you experience in the "virtual world" can harm your "real body" then I would imagine that we could accept a virtual paradise.

Blogging Can Be Conducive to a Gross Example of Modernism

So I'm currently sitting here in our "stunning" and "alluring" library at AU and I've come to a few realizations. One, this library feels like some medieval fortress crossed with a government bunker mixed with a 70s style office interior. The library could probably survive a direct impact from a meteor or an asteroid. This is where the library gets its bunker heritage. As for its medieval heritage all you have to do is look at the arrow slits for windows... And this just occurred to me: the library was designed to survive a direct impact by a space rock and then server as a fortress for when civilization is blown back to the stone age! As for its interior well, can you say creepy shrinks office from 1976 complete with cheap furniture and insultingly bright fluorescents?

My second realization was how much blogging has grown on me over the last few weeks. I had always known what blogging was but I wasn't really into it. It was like that with e-mail, IM, Myspace and Facebook as well. It takes me awhile to warm up to it but once I do I can't stop using it. I have to get the latest update and learn the latest terminology.

When we first started this class I thought that blogging was going to be an exercise in repetitiveness because I assumed that even though we could talk freely we would have to do a review on our assigned readings. Needless to say I was ecstatic that we didn't have to. I was also happy to find out that I enjoyed reading blogs. I have a really bad habit of skipping and skimming through reading assignments for school and for fun but blogging is different. Maybe it's because people are "talking" when they blog so it feels more personable and intimate? That's what I think. For me, there is nothing worse then having to read a treatise on some crap that I could care less about for school.

That's why I have really taken a liking to corporate blogs mainly because it allows you a snapshot into corporate life at some of the worlds largest and most powerful companies. I think that Scoble and Israel said it right when they said that blogging allowed Microsoft to go from being an evil corporate super-power to a more humane, customer-oriented organization. I can back up the authors with firsthand experience on my part. The company that I work for has an internal blog that the CEO updates a few times a week. I think it really helped me as an employee see the direction that management wanted to take the company in and it gave a level of intimacy that I think is sorely lacking at our offices around the world.

Adding Peeps to My Blog

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to THANK everyone! So I'm going to post your links to my blog

Mike's Blog
Colleen's Blog
Kahled's Blog
Joe's Blog
Prof Melander's Blog
Sarah's Blog
Erin's Blog

Social Networking & The Hitcher: Failing to Maintain a Proper Social Network Could Get Your Throat Slashed

So I'm sitting here in my apartment having just finished watching The Hitcher. It's your typical slasher movie (meaning that it sucked) but, and forgive me for sounding cliche, I just started thinking about Social Networking (hah.. please). The movie takes place in New Mexico and needless to say, two young people fight for their life while fending off a crazy Sean Bean. About three-quarters of the way thorough the movie the killer gets caught. But -- and GET THIS! -- he breaks free of his cuffs and kills the cops transporting him. While people are being stabbed, shot, or burned to death it struck me that if there were a better social network in place to back up those cops then they would have lived. They were traveling down a deserted road in the middle of the desert. Just like hermits or people on the periphery, they did not have the social network in place to effectively use, say, the information broker who would have told the cops (and Hollywood execs) that shooting the guy in the head is the only way to go. Forget about Miranda and the BoR, that dude had to go down.

Anyway, another thought just struck me: if people were doing that whole peer-news reporter thing then people would have known about this crazed killer. I don't know what people think of this but this is just a perfect example of how we need more Social Networking in life. If not to help save people from crazed hitchers on the roads then to let the movie producers know that movies about a killer murdering motorists was already done by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and we all know how we feel about copycats. And don't even get me started on Vacancy...

Mimicing the Master Plan?

Hey everyone!



Isn't it amazing how everything is interconnected? I was looking at the slide show "Social Network Analysis" (http://www.slideshare.net/DERIGalway/valdis-krebs-social-network-analysis-19872007) and it was fascinating to see all the different contexts that networks can be formed in. In particular interest to me was the protein and Jazz networks considering that they looked so similar to one another and yet they are completely different phenomenons formed from seemingly different circumstances - like the opposite sides of the same coin. On the one hand you have a system that has been created through billions of years of evolution crafted from countless stimuli acted upon organic compounds. And on the other hand you have a system or network that was created in far less time and was not created through evolution save for the biological need for humans to socialize. This got me to thinking about why a social network would mirror a protein network. So like an intrepid explorer (yea right! :) ) I took to the NET and eventually stumbled upon a picture that captured my imagination (for about as long as it takes me to type this blog). The link to that picture is here: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/images/Zhang_neural_stem_cells04.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/zhang.html&h=225&w=300&sz=1101&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=xQQxtTx-1Skc5M:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dneural%2Bcells%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den.



I don't know about all of you but when I think of the human brain I think of it as some different part of me. A thinking part, but a separate entity all the same. It takes me a few moments to realize that the mass of neurons displayed in the picture on the above link is me. It contains everything makes me unique; my fears, dreams, likes, emotions, and memories are all stored within gray cells that look like weird microbes. What is truly compelling about that image is how much it looks like all the other networks that were shown in the slide show or the simplified diagram in the "Six Myths" article. I think that there is a definate correlation between our biological networks and the human networks that we design. Think about it: every network (biological or human) are contain peripherals, central connectors (and bottlenecks) and subgroups.

Could we have built our society (physically and socially) based on our evolution as a species and biological community on Earth? Maybe throughout the eons our DNA evolved to compel us to build an existence based around an apparently stable biological network. I would like to think that there is some elegance to the way the universe works; from the largest galaxies to the smallest molecules... there's something rather romantic in that, wouldn't you say?

Thanking the Man (kinda) and Mobs for Morons

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a great Labor Day weekend. I just finished reading the Harvard Business Review article on informal network. I thought it was fascinating to read about all the different people that make up these "underground" networks. It was actually fun to read about the different people and then figure out who in my organization is like that. I work for an Internet security company (I think I mentioned it in class last Wednesday) and there was one person that really exemplifies one of the positions within the network.

The article stated that there is a central connector within the org that everyone gossips to. There is a guy in my group who fits that description perfectly. Everyone (including myself) always goes and chats with him. He and I would always talk and joke about whatever came to our minds (it helped that I used to sit directly across from him). He is a very charismatic and likable guy. He and I really developed a rapport which was helped -- I think -- buy the fact that we were the two youngest guys in our group (and row). Everyone would talk to him and he would go out of his way to events that happened in their lives. In fact, he seemed to remember everyone's name who worked in our building which is no small accomplishment since there were at least 300 people in our building and probably half of their names were difficult to pronounce.

I also read the Mobs book but I made absolutely no sense to me. I think it said that the more complicated networks get the more they fragment but that could just be my toddler-like interpretation of what seems like a very complex issue. I think it is very fascinating but I think that the book is written in a way that makes it very difficult for me to understand it. I don't know about any one else but I for one am happy that we have multiple reading options open to us...

Hi! I'm Tim Peterson and this is my first post to my first blog... spicy... Because everyone nowadays cheats and plagiarises I have to say that "on my honor, all posts on this blog are my own." On my honor... what the hell is this? I'm going to school not being inducted into the Free Masons.

But anyway, I guess a little about myself: I'm a third-year student attending American University and I'm double majoring in Marketing and Information Technology.

Well, I need to actually finish this assignment so I'll talk to you all later!