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I sat for another interview today. Very interesting people (four of them at once this time) and very intense and engaging conversations. Throughout the two-hour discussion they referenced things I have written on my blog (the Director, in fact, commented that she had recognized me in the hall because of the photo on my blog). I do, of course, provide a link to my blog on my resume, but I never interviewed with people who had read it much less asked about things I had written. It was truly eye-opening and made clear to me that blogs are, if not the new resume, a powerful addition to one. Imagine that in addition to the hard facts found within one’s CV (dates, responsibilities, accomplishments), potential employers also can learn more about you and your thoughts by reading them over a long period of time. Even the things you link to can be revealing. Granted my blog also includes a lot of personal and perhaps silly things, but these posts also provide a view into my personality, which is equally important when judging a potential employee.

Here again is a link to Steve Borsch’s blog entry about why he blogs and why blogging is important for personal and professional reasons.

The one thing I missed most on our recent stay in a rented Condo up in Jackson, NH, was music. We had a TV with video and DVD players, but no music. I bring my iPod with me, but with the kids it’s nearly impossible to ever wear headphones. So, I found this little set of Logitech mm50 speakers at BJs after doing a little research on the market. Some of the features that makes this unit attractive: 7-hour built-in rechargable battery–which simultaneously recharges the iPod–really sweet surround-sound settings, nifty little remote (the size of a stick of chewing gum and likely lost within the first day or two), chained wiring between the unit and a PC (update the iPod while still in the speaker dock), and nicely fitted carrying case. Plus, the thing sounds really amazing! Bose does offer something really excellent in this space, but it is $300 and far too nice to carry around. This little gem was $100 and sounds spacious and large: wonderful rich bass, clear and clean mids and highs, and really wide head space. I am just thrilled about it. So, our beautiful trip to the Cape this past week was sweetly augmented with the sounds of Boosty Collins, Fela Kuti, Pat Metheney, Bob Marley, John Coltrane, lots of great Salsa, and of course, the obligatory batch of the Wiggles and other childish pablum. Satisfy my soul.

The Cluetrain Manifesto

This is the stuff David Churbuck has been talking about on his blog and is also the driver behind some of his efforts at Lenovo. David’s focus is to reach out to their customers in new ways that foster a closer and more participatory relationship. Many claim they do this, but I think Lenovo is going well beyond the lip-service (David even posts his cell phone number as an example of personal comittment). I cannot comment further on a lot of this because I am new to this space and just now understanding web marketing and some of the new models for building community; I write about it here mostly to make others aware.

With this Lenovo experiment, I am mostly interested to see if the blogging and interfacing catches on. For example, I love my Toshiba laptop. I love the design, the power, everything about it. If I need support, I’ll go to their site or make a call (I haven’t had to yet, fortunately). But I don’t think I’m that interested in reading news from their corporate team. That’s the interesting part to wait and see, how Lenovo will build that audience and participation.

Within the Manifesto, however, the emphasis and understanding of the importance of the intranet is something that resonates with me. I have long been a huge proponent of the intranet as hub of corporate culture and community (and the extranet as its external partner). That this document gives voice to that in human terms is relatively new to me (and apparently others as well) and very exciting as I seek to define myself and my potential roles in this space.

I also find it interesting that all these years after the invention of the Internet that still so much conversation is based on the power of hyperlinks. Such a simple part of the overall structure and capability of the web has such force. Hyperlinks radicalize common hierarchical structures. Hyperlinks extend beyond what we might otherwise group in logical fashion.

I’ve heard his name before but Doc Searls’ (co-author of the Manifesto, writer, speaker, and many other things) and his weblog are also fascinating sources. Try working your way through some of the great bloggers he lists in his extensive blogroll.

Here also is a nice quote from J.P. Rangaswami on Building Society for the 21st Century which helps to clarify some of this philosophy:

Use what you stand for to attract the customer. Use what you do to retain the customer¹s trust. Ensure that the customer is always free to leave, and paradoxically he or she will stay. Who is this customer? Your family. Your friend. Your employee. Your business partner. Your client. Your citizen.

In a world of empowered individuals, everyone’s a customer.

The unedited version of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road is soon to be released (Boston Globe, July 27, 2006). This great news for scholars and fans alike. There’s lots of new passages that were left out of the original print edition because of content but also because of characters’ resemblances to real people.

This novel to me always brings with it a certain sense of sadness. In as much as this was the work that brought him overnight fame, it also is the work that caused Kerouac so much distress in his later years. He wrote many other great works and said so many other great things, but always seems to be remembered–outside of those who knew his work better–as the King of the Beats and all that was attached to that myth. He was a great and explorative author but for many will forever be remembered as some hippy drug-addict traveling the country with his hippy drug-addict friends.

Too often, Kerouac is defined by this one novel. While it’s true that he wrote the book in a three-week burst of energy and creativity, like many authors and musicians, he also had spent a very long time gathering the notes and impressions to fuel that creativity. (My favorite disparging remark about Kerouac’s writing was Truman Capote’s, “That’s not writing, it’s typing!”) But Kerouac, like the great Jazz musicans evolving all around him, was an innovator of his times: brilliant and mad with the fever to write (he and his self-proclaimed millions words required to be a good writer), admired and scorned, troubled and misunderstood. His legacy, more than this one book, is a collection of works that train a keen eye on the American Dream and its failure for so many, on a subclass waiting to break out of traditional roles, and ultimately on himself and his place in the world. Equally, his works and inspiration are evident in the works of generations of artists, like Bob Dylan, the Doors, King Crimson, and so many other writers and poets and musicians.

Years ago I drove up to Lowell and visited the Edson Cemetary where Kerouac is buried. Sure enough, the site was strewn with pictures, poems, smoked roaches, whiskey bottles, and other little fragments left from visitors. I mostly enjoyed seeing a woman walking past the cemetary pushing a baby carriage, an image I knew would delight Keruoac.

“Life is holy and every moment is precious.”
~ Sal Paradise, On The Road