Validation – a short film (16 min) about the magic of looking for the best in people:

This film tells the story of a parking attendant who gives his customers REAL validation by dispensing both free parking and free compliments.  It’s a great reminder of how we can all create a better world, instantly, by sharing a smile and a few kind words.  It will bring a smile to your face and maybe even some joyous tears!

This movie has played at 34 film festivals worldwide and won 17 awards.

Directed by Kurt Kuenne / USA / 2007

• Man on Wire
• Wear Sunscreen
• Watch Matt Dancing Badly Around The World
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Tell me a Secret!

A while ago I got myself a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Shoes (the KSO model) to try the new trend of barefoot (or nearly barefoot) running. After a week or so and feeling pain in my knees and hips I decided that this was not for me and shelved those goofy shoes immediately…

Until now…

A friend recommended the book Born To Run by Christopher McDougall. This book inspired me to give barefoot running another try. In the following I like to share what I learned from this book, from various articles on the Internet and my personal experience with barefoot running.

Born To Run is one of the best books ever written about running. As G. MacDonald – one of the reviewer’s on Amazon puts it: “If, when you finish with this book, you don’t immediately get yourself outside and run like hell, then there’s probably not a drop of living blood in you. This book is the perfect antidote to everything that’s wrong with modern running and the way to find everything that’s still so right with it.”

Book Description: Born To Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong. It’s a great read, but also very eye opening concerning the running shoe industry.

The book is mainly about the Tarahumara – a hidden tribe of Mexicans living in the Copper Canyon region of Mexico. The Tarahumara are legendary for their ability to run extreme distances in inhospitable conditions without breaking a sweat or getting injured. They are superathletes whose running method would place them among elite runners of the developed world even though their society and technology are 500 years behind it. They often live in caves without running water, and run with only strips of old tire or leather thongs strapped to the bottom of their feet. They are virtually barefoot.

Tarahumara running is based on endurance not speed. This fact is exemplified by their hunting practices. In order to catch such wild animals as deer, wild turkeys, and rabbits, the Tarahumara simply chase after the animal until the animal drops from exhaustion. Their hunting practices are widely known in Mexico and ranchers have been known to hire the indians to chase down wild horses .

“We’re designed for persistence hunting, which is a mix of running and walking,” says McDougall. “What’s built into that kind of running is a sense of pleasure. You are designed and built and perfect for this activity, and it should be enjoyable and fun.”

After reading this book it was obvious to me that during my first barefoot running attempt I made every mistake possible: Too wide strides, too long distances to start with and not changing my running style at all. To successfully accommodate to barefoot running it was important for me to learn how barefoot running is different from running in my thickly cushioned trainers.

Some background:

From the Zenhabits article The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Barefoot Running:

For decades now, runners (including me) have been sold on the need for good running shoes — if you want to prevent injuries, invest in good shoes. Proper cushioning, and sometimes rigid motion control or stability features, were needed, and if you had injuries, you probably had the wrong shoes.

But recent studies have proven what traditional peoples have known all along — that running barefoot strengthens your feet and is a more natural way to run. Running in cushioned, motion-controlled shoes is like having your neck in a cast for a month — when you take the cast off, your neck muscles will be weak. You also pound your feet much harder with running shoes, causing problems not only with feet but knees and other joints. We’re making our feet weak, and pounding them hard — it’s no wonder we have all kinds of injuries.

From the Wired Science article To Run Better, Start by Ditching Your Nikes:

“People have been running barefoot for millions of years and it has only been since 1972 that people have been wearing shoes with thick, synthetic heels,” said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.

Strong evidence shows that thickly cushioned running shoes have done nothing to prevent injury in the 30-odd years since Nike founder Bill Bowerman invented them, researchers say. Some smaller, earlier studies suggest that running in shoes may increase the risk of ankle sprains, plantar fasciitis and other injuries. Runners who wear cheap running shoes have fewer injuries than those wearing expensive trainers. Meanwhile, injuries plague 20 to 80 percent of regular runners every year.

How to Run Barefoot

As funny as it sounds but most barefoot runners use minimalist footwear – so called barefoot running shoes. Those shoes are designed to remove the cushioning and motion control of traditional running shoes. In this way your feet is able to strengthen and feel the ground more while still giving you the protection against getting cut on the soles of your feet. Some of these barefoot running shoes look even more technical and advanced than regular running shoes.

If you’re interested in trying out barefoot (or nearly barefoot) running, keep in mind that it will take your body some time to get used to it. Many people – myself included – make the mistake of doing too much, too quickly. That’s a big mistake. It can lead to pain and injury. Here are some tips to get you started:

• Start slowly: Do quarter-mile runs at most, and build up gradually. Keep barefoot running to no more than 10 percent of your weekly regimen, especially at first.
• Don’t try to run with the same running style you use in shoes
• Shorten your steps: Don’t extend your legs as far as you do with shoes. It should feel almost like you’re running in place.
• Land on the forward part (forefeet or midfeet) of your foot instead of your heels. If you feel yourself landing on your heels, shorten your stride. Be aware: Too much on your forefeet can make your calves sore.
• Keep upright and balanced. Your feet should be hitting the ground almost directly underneath you, not in front of you.
• Stay light. You should feel like you’re light on your feet, not pounding at all. Barefoot runners tend to be a little more springy in their step.
• Run quietly. If you are making a lot of noise with your steps (as shoe-wearing runners do), you’re pounding too hard. Try to run softly, quietly, like an animal.

“The human foot is a work of art and a masterpiece of engineering.”
—Leonardo Da Vinci

“People who don’t wear shoes when they run have an astonishingly different strike,” said Daniel E. Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and co-author of a paper appearing in the journal Nature. “By landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shod runners generate when they heel-strike.

The following short video shows a heel-first strike in a traditional running shoe (left) compared to a midfoot strike in Vibram FiveFingers (right):

After learning all of this and putting it into practice I successfully accommodated to running in my Vibram FiveFingers. This time I really took it slowly and changed my running style over a period of four weeks. I haven’t yet switched to barefoot running completely but as my feet are getting stronger I am enjoying it more and more. Running barefoot is about connecting with the ground, about feeling, about freedom and lightness and most importantly about having fun.

Many runners shelved their high-tech trainers in favor of naked feet — or minimalist footwear like the Nike Free, the Newton All-Weather Trainer and the glove-like Vibram FiveFingers. If you’re still skeptical at all about running bare-footed, or with very minimal foot protection here are some further resources that will give you great insight into why you should consider it:

• Born To Run (book by Christopher McDougall)
• The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Barefoot Running (article by Leo Babauta)
• To Run Better, Start by Ditching Your Nikes (Wired Science article)
• Vibram Five Fingers Shoes: The Barefoot Alternative (article by Tim Ferris)
• The painful truth about trainers: Are running shoes a waste of money? (article by Christopher McDougall)
• How To Run Barefoot (article by Jessica Porter)
• Running Barefoot, Forefoot Striking & Training Tips
• Wikipedia: Barefoot Running

• Is Your Office Chair Killing You?
• Wear Sunscreen
• Top 10 Tools for Learning
• Time Management
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt

Do you feel some pain in your lower back? A light numbness in your rear and lower thigh? Are you feeling a little down?

These symptoms are all normal, and they’re not good. They may well be caused by doing precisely what you’re doing – sitting. All of these can be symptoms of not having a proper chair to sit in when doing desk work. Research in the diverse fields of epidemiology, molecular biology, biomechanics, and physiology is converging toward a startling conclusion: Sitting is a public-health risk. And exercising doesn’t offset it.

"People need to understand that the qualitative mechanisms of sitting are completely different from walking or exercising," says University of Missouri microbiologist Marc Hamilton. "Sitting too much is not the same as exercising too little. They do completely different things to the body."

Feeling first signs of the above mentioned symptoms I was looking for a new office chair and came across Herman Miller’s Aeron.

The Aeron Chair is a popular office chair introduced by Herman Miller back in 1994. The chair is popular for its ergonomic design, which ensures comfort and an excellent fit for the user. It is definitely one of the best chairs around for computer users and for general office use and use in meeting or conference rooms.

"The human form has no straight lines, it is biomorphic. We designed the chair to be above all biomorphic, or curvilinear, as a metaphor of human form in the visual as well as the tactile sense. There is not one straight line to be found on an Aeron Chair."  says designer Bill Stumpf.

Its novel design has gained it a spot in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.

Have you ever wondered why people purchase a high-end chair like the Aeron even if it costs nearly a thousand dollars? The answer lies in the health benefits. If you get the right size and adjust it properly, most people can sit in them all day long without feeling uncomfortable.

Other popular high-end chairs to look at are Herman Miller’s Mirra, the SwingChair, the Ergohuman Mesh Chair and the Liberty Chair from Humanscale.

Many office workers swear by them. But are those high-end chairs worth the money? What do you think?

• Born To Run
• Wear Sunscreen
• UI Platforms: Which One Would You Pick?
• Top 10 Tools for Learning
• Time Management

The historical film Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crow has a fictional storyline. It is only loosely based on historical events.

It’s interesting to read how Marcus Aurelius described the character of the real Maximus:

“Maximus set an example of self-mastery, steadiness of purpose, and good cheer that no circumstance, not even illness, could extinguish. He combined in beautiful measure gravity with charm, and he did whatever needed to be done without making a fuss. Everyone believed what he said was what he thought and that he never acted with an intention to do harm or give offense. Nothing surprised or frightened him, and he never seemed to be in a hurry or slow to accomplish a task.

He was neither intimidated and embarrassed on one hand, nor aggressive and suspicious on the other. So giving, forgiving, and loyal was he by nature that he appeared to be a man whose virtues were inborn rather than acquired. It is unimaginable that anyone ever felt inferior or superior around him, perhaps as a result of his pleasing sense of humor.”

- Excerpt from the Emperor’s Handbook by Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180 AD) -

• Man on Wire
• Validation
• The World’s First Computer Bug!
• It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure

The following essay was written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997. She described it as the commencement speech she would give if she were asked to give one.

When you read the speech below, you will be able to relate to some of the things Mary had written and you will enjoy reading it as much as I did.

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ‘97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-old I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single "Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)", released in 1998, by Baz Luhrmann. This song was a number one hit in several countries.

• Validation
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
• Nick Vujicic – A Man With No Arms, No Legs And No Limits!
• Man on Wire

Two planets meet in outer space.

The first one asks: "How are you?"

"Not so well", the second answered "I’ve got the Homo Sapiens."

"Don’t worry," the other replied, "I had the same. That won’t last long."

In this spirit watch George Carlin explaining why the planet is just fine. Very funny!

• What’s Easier? To Change Yourself or the World Around You?
• Watch Matt Dancing Badly Around The World
• Microsoft Surface Parody
• Bobby McFerrin Hacks Your Brain with Music
• Wear Sunscreen

This is based on an ACTUAL ;-) radio conversation between a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier (U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln) and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995.

Canadians:  Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid collision.

Americans:  Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Canadians:  Negative.  You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans:  This is the Captain of a US Navy ship.  I say again, divert YOUR course.

Canadians:  No, I say again, you divert YOUR course.

Americans:  THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES’ ATLANTIC FLEET.  WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE  DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15  DEGREES NORTH. I SAY AGAIN, THAT’S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH – OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

Canadians:  This is a lighthouse.  Your call.

• Saving the Planet!
• Watch Matt Dancing Badly Around The World
• The World’s First Computer Bug!
• Microsoft Surface Parody
• Bobby McFerrin Hacks Your Brain with Music

What do you need to make your life look better? Will a dime do?

In a classic study at a German university, Psychologist Norbert Schwarz in the course of a day occasionally placed a coin equivalent to a dime on a copy machine for the next user to find. Later, everyone who used the machine was interviewed about their lives.

People who found the dime reported greater levels of overall satisfaction with their lives than those who didn’t find a dime.

“It’s not the value of what you find,” Schwarz says. “It’s that something positive happened to you and surprised you”. Very minimal things can temporarily put you in a good mood.

Every time something happens that is over your expectations will put you into a better mood. Often it’s the little things in life that make us happy.

Knowing about this you can surprise other people by doing something kind they did not expect. For example:

If you are a woman and and receive flowers (e.g. at your birthday) put it on the desk of a female co-worker the next day and ask her to pass it on to another female co-worker the following day. In this way the whole office will be happier for a while ;-)

With the Kindness Chain, Oprah Winfrey introduced a similar idea in one of her shows:

All you have to do to start your own Kindness Chain is to do something nice for someone else… that’s it! Encourage them to "pass it on" so the chain isn’t broken.

What did surprise you recently? How did you surprise others in a positive way? You are invited to share your own stories in the comments below.

• Wear Sunscreen
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
• Nick Vujicic – A Man With No Arms, No Legs And No Limits!
• Juggling Five Balls Of Life

Have you ever told a stranger something that no one else knows about you?

PostSecret.com offers people a way to let out their raw feelings. It began as a community art project in which Frank Warren invited people to send in secrets on creatively decorated postcards. Every week he posts twenty of these anonymous postcards on his blog, PostSecret.com

My first day in Paris I had purchased three Antoine de Saint-Expery’s "Little Prince" postcards from a small shop near my hotel. When I got to my hotel room and prepared for bed I placed the cards in the nightstand drawer and went to sleep. While I slept I had an extraordinary dream that would change my life and eventually lead me to the PostSecret project.

- Frank Warren, Read the full story behind PostSecret

People share their anger, fear, desire or pride on those postcards. They range from happy to sad, motivating to thought provoking, but are always incredibly moving. Here are a few examples:

Some secrets resonate in us more than others, but can you really say that any of the feelings expressed are completely alien?

To see more secrets like this subscribe to the blog at PostSecret.com or get one of the PostSecret books.

• Wear Sunscreen
• Validation
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Story Power! Tools to Create Engaging Content
• Story Power! Brain-Friendly Content through Visuals and Storytelling

Information overload has been around since the introduction of the printing press; so why do we still consider it to be a new problem?

Clay Shirky, New York University new-media professor, writer, and consultant argues that the problem isn’t information overload, it’s filter failure:

“What we’re dealing with now is not the problem of information overload, because we’re always dealing (and always have been dealing) with information overload…Thinking about information overload isn’t accurately describing the problem; thinking about filter failure is.”

Watch the video below to hear Clay Shirky’s well-argued points:

The  Gutenberg economic logic of publishing required that publishers act as filters. The Internet reduces the economic risks of publishing by allowing more and more information to be published at almost no cost.

This means it’s increasingly important for us to create better filters. Having access to information is great, but we need to filter and focus based on what we want to accomplish and what we need.

What kind of filters do you have in place to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed by too much information? Let me know in the comments.

• Top 10 Tools for Learning
• How to Support Knowledge Sharing in Your Organization?
• What Everybody Ought to Know About Twitter?
• Wear Sunscreen
• Top 6 Tools to Support Knowledge Sharing in Your Organization

The Black Forest (German: Schwarzwald) is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. It is not only one of the most varied, but also one of the biggest and best known holiday regions in Germany.

Full Album | Slide Show | Show Map

There are many old towns in the Black Forest. Popular destinations include mountains like the Feldberg, the Belchen, the Kandel, and the Schauinsland. The highest peak is the Feldberg with 1,493 meters (4,898 ft) above sea level.

Other attractions include lakes like the Titisee and Schluchsee and waterfalls like the All Saints Waterfalls and the Triberg Waterfalls.

Thermal baths like Baden-Baden, Badenweiler and Bad Wildbad have a long and rich tradition. Nowhere else in Germany you will find as many springs in such close proximity. The location, at the border of Germany, Switzerland and France places guests within easy reach of diverse cultures and varied landscapes.

• Tasmania
• Carinthia, Austria

In a previous article I showed you why it is beneficial to support Knowledge Sharing in your organization. If you haven’t read this article yet go and check it out first: How to Support Knowledge Sharing in Your Organization?

In this follow up post I will show you the top 6 tools you can use to as part of your Knowledge Sharing Infrastructure. The main focus is on how those tools can be used to to support parts or the entire outlined concept.

1. WordPress and WordPressMU

WordPress is world’s leading blogging platform. It is free and easy to use. The open source project is driven by a dedicated community. Due to its plug-in architecture and strong user community there are tons of plugins available for WordPress.

A self-hosted version that can be installed on any server is available. WordPressMU is a special version of WordPress that allows multiple blogs on one installation. WordPressMU could be uses out of the box to establish a corporate blogging system.

Pros:

• Best blogging solution available
• Very easy to use

Cons:

• Lack of social networking features beyond blogging (The new BuddyPress project tries to deliver something on this front)

2. Drupal

Drupal is best open source content management system available. Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites. Like WordPress it also has a very strong user community and many plugins.

Pros:

• Great CMS Platform
• Social Networking Features are available.

Cons:

• Complex system, harder to use than WordPress
• Social Networking features are not integrated out of the box.

3. SharePoint

SharePoint is an integrated suite of products to create a Microsoft intranet and collaboration portal.

Pros:

• Technology might be already in use in your organization
• Integration into the corporate IT Infrastructure
• Many tools available (File Repo, Links, Wiki)

Cons:

• Document Management Centric
• Hard to customize to specific needs

4. Yammer, SocialCast

Yammer is a private Micro-blogging service for in-company use. In addition to Micro-blogging there are discussion boards and users can form/join groups. SocialCast is a Yammer competitor.

Pros:

• Easy to use Micro-blogging solution
• Good support for Member profiles

Cons:

• Yammer can not be self hosted

5. Status.net

Status.net is a self-hosted open source Micro-blogging server.

Pros:

• Similar to Yammer and Twitter but open source and self-hosted
• Good for the Micro-blogging and Member Profile part

Cons:

• Focus just Micro-blogging. Needs to be integrated into an overall platform

6. The Elgg Social Media Platform

To realize the outlined concept the integration of different tools like Profiles, Microblogs, Blogs, Wikis into a common News Feeds is key.

The Elgg Social Media Platform is the fastest and easiest way to realize the outlined concept. Elgg is a free, open source social media platform. It is more than just social networking but can support a huge variety of social media tools like bookmarking, blogging, wikis, files, RSS feeds, micro-blogging and more – all in one platform.

Elgg allows individuals to create, organize and manage their own personal resources and contacts, as well as work with others – co-creating and sharing content and resources – in groups.

Why Elgg?

There are a huge number of different social media tools available. Although some people can cope with working with a large number of tools; others are overwhelmed by this – and is even putting them off getting engaged with social media. 

Using the Elgg social media platform within an organization means:

• You don’t have to rely on cobbling together a mish-mash of stand-alone social media tools
• You don’t have to worry about the security and privacy of data held outside of the organization
• You can provide a seamless environment where members can use a range of social media tools

If you need help setting up your own Elgg environment you can contact the the Elgg consultancy services.

• What Everybody Ought to Know About Twitter?
• Top 10 Tools for Learning
• Story Power! Tools to Create Engaging Content
• Project Natal
• Microsoft Surface Parody

The number and volume of information resources on the Internet and our corporate intranets is enormous and growing exponentially. People spent a lot of time trying to find information to accomplish their tasks. Improving this process increase the competitive advantage and accelerate the adoption of new and worthy ideas.

Know-how is Know-where. The quality of decisions depends on existing knowledge. The one that use, create and share knowledge efficiently will succeed. It is not possible to keep all relevant knowledge in mind. A big challenge is having the available knowledge where it is required.

To identify relevant content it is necessary to look through many resources for those of specific interest; it will also be necessary to continuously monitor available resources (e.g. blogs, twitter, etc.) to detect new useful sources or to decide that others are no longer of interest.

This means it’s increasingly important for us to create better filters. Having access to information is great, but we need to filter and focus based on what we want to accomplish and what we need.

You can achieve this goal by connecting your team to a knowledge network. Members of each community of interest are expert in their topic and have fun sharing their knowledge and expertise with others. The infrastructure powering the knowledge network will provide straight forward tools to support social interactions, shared creation, information research, collaboration and communication. The integration into daily business is important.

The heart and soul of a Knowledge Network are the people contributing to topics of their interest and improving the quality of these topics.

The infrastructure of a Knowledge Network consists of a number of topic spaces, member profiles and shared tools. A community of interest grows around each topic.

Each Topic Space has a dedicated moderator and you may use any number of Shared Tools like a Dashboard, a News Feed, a Blog, a Microblog, a Wiki, Links, Files and aggregated Feeds. The integration of these tools with an overall news feed is important.

Each Team Member gets its own personal space and can choose to add from all available shared tools like a Blog, a Microblog, Files, Links, etc. The profile can be personalized by your team members. At least it contains a portrait image and a short role description.

Project Spaces are just special topics. The shared tools are the same. They provide a starting point for each project and contain pointers to all the relevant information. Furthermore they can be considered as shared space for ad-hoc collaboration around project specific activities. Traditionally you would do this via email. The problem is that it is locked up in our “inbox silos” and thus not accessible to any other interested team members not part of the distribution list…

To keep up to date with the activities on a certain topic you can visit the web interface of your knowledge network, turn on Email notifications or subscribe to the news feed in your aggregator of choice.

In a follow up post I will show you tools you can use to support Knowledge Sharing in your organization.

• Top 10 Tools for Learning
• It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure
• What Everybody Ought to Know About Twitter?
• Wear Sunscreen
• Top 6 Tools to Support Knowledge Sharing in Your Organization

In an previous post I showed you how to create more engaging content which is fun to read and easy to memorize: If you haven’t read this article yet go and check it out first: Story Power! Brain-Friendly Content through Visuals and Storytelling.

In this follow up post I will show you some tools you can use to create visuals that allow your readers to "get" something as quickly and clearly as possible.

Stock Photography

It is much more effective to use pictures and words than just words alone.

Thanks to web sites like iStockPhoto, you can get just about any image you can imagine for a couple dollars. If you use the image just on your web site you can get away with the lowest resolution/least expensive version of the photo. Here are some examples where I used stock photography to make content more appealing: Eagle or Seashell?, Fly like a Penguin!, Juggling Five Balls Of Life, Find What You Love.

Comic Strip Tools

Just take a look at the Google Chrome Comic book with artwork by Scott McCloud to understand the power of comics to transport information.

ToonDoo, KerPoof and Bitstrips are all examples of free tools you can use to create your own comic strips.

As per ToonDoo’s terms of use, you are free to use any cartoon created by you as long as you include title, author name and ToonDoo watermark. When those  mandatory elements are included, you are free to embed ToonDoo‘s or screenshots.

I used the excellent ToonDoo Maker to create the comic strip for the Designing the ULTIMATE Twitter Client article.

Chart, Sketch & Wire Frame Tools

I love wire frame tools. They allow you to sketch an idea as quickly as possible without worrying about the visual design.

For user interface related mockups try Balsamiq Mockups. You can see it in action in the following articles: About bSix12, Put First Things First, Designing the ULTIMATE Twitter Client

You can also try Lovely Charts. It is a free online diagramming application, that allows you to create professional looking diagrams of all kinds.

Drawing & Photoshop

You can create your own visual by using an image editing software like Photoshop and a drawing tablet like the Wacom tablet. For more detailed information read Kathy Sierra’s excellent article about how to add graphics to your blog, book, or presentation.

For the following article I used Photoshop to create a visual that helped me bring the point across: UI Platforms: Which One Would You Pick?

Videos & Screencasts

YouTube is the most popular video sharing website where you can upload and share videos. If you want to use a video, you can embed it into your own web page or blog. On this blog I use embedded YouTube videos a lot. There are some excellent videos hosted on YouTube to learn from.

Here are some examples of featured YouTube videos on this site: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt, Time Management, Find What You Love.

We learn a lot by watching other people doing things. This is why screencast’s  are a powerful learning tool. It is like looking someone over the shoulder and learning from that persons experience. My favorite tool to produce screencast’s is Camtasia Studio.

• Story Power! Brain-Friendly Content through Visuals and Storytelling
• How To Setup a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog
• What Everybody Ought to Know About Twitter?
• Wear Sunscreen
• Validation

Chris Argyris coined the terms "Double Loop Learning" and "Single Loop Learning. Single loop learning has often been compared to a thermostat in that it makes a "decision" to either turn on or off. Double loop learning is like a thermostat that asks "why" — Is this a good time to switch settings? Are there people in here? Are they in bed? Are they dressed for a colder setting? — thus it orientates itself to the present environment in order to make the wisest decision.

Single Loop learning as the most common style of learning is just problem solving – improving the system as it exists. This type of learning solves problems but ignores the question of why the problem arose in the first place.

Double-Loop learning involves questioning the underlying assumptions behind techniques, goals and values. Double loop learning uses feedback from past actions to question assumptions underlying current views.

A person who is double loop learning is asking a series of "whys" (similar to Sakichi Toyoda’s technique he called the Five Whys: When confronted with a problem you ask "why" five times. By the time the fifth why is answered, you should be at the root cause of the problem).

This is a skill that is essential for higher-order problem-solving and leadership. It is the ability to question and change the rules of a game. It is an application of Einstein’s dictum:

The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. You have to rise above it to the next level

• Wear Sunscreen
• Top 10 Tools for Learning
• Time Management
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Shu Ha Ri: The Stages of Learning to Mastery

In this fun and entertaining 3 minute performance from the World Science Festival, Bobby McFerrin uses the pentatonic scale and an audience’s expectations to demonstrate neural programming of our brains. Brilliant!

• Watch Matt Dancing Badly Around The World
• Saving the Planet!
• Microsoft Surface Parody
• What’s Easier? To Change Yourself or the World Around You?
• Wear Sunscreen

This was written by Brian G. Dyson the CEO of Coca-Cola (from 1988 until 1994).

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – Work – Family – Health – Friends – Spirit, and you’re keeping all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.

They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.

How?

1. Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.
2. Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.
3. Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
4. Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.
5. Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
6. Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us together.
7. Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
8. Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
9. Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.
10. Don’t forget that a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
11. Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.
12. Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.

• Wear Sunscreen
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
• Nick Vujicic – A Man With No Arms, No Legs And No Limits!
• Fly like a Penguin!

Tasmania’s diversity and relatively compact size makes it a perfect holiday destination. The landscape can change from rainforests and highland lakes to long white beaches within a 90-minute drive.

Full Album | Slide Show | Show Map

One quarter of this beautiful state is made up of wildlife-saturated national parks. Tasmania is famous for its wilderness, which ranges from the wildest of ocean dunes to near-impenetrable rainforests, rugged mountain ranges, soaring sea cliffs and fragile alpine moorlands.

Tasmania has a wonderful heritage of historic buildings, many now adapted for use as B & B accommodation.

• Carinthia, Austria
• Black Forest, Germany

Recently I attended a presentation by Alistair Cockburn. He is one of the initiators of the agile movement in software development and one of the 17 authors of the Agile Manifesto. During his presentation he introduced the Japanese martial arts concept of Shuhari and it’s applicability to the learning process in general and the mastery of development processes in particular.

The Agile Manifesto

If you haven’t heard about the Agile Manifesto here is a summary. It is the core of agile software development processes like Scrum, Crystal or XP. The Agile Manifesto is a statement of the principles that underpin agile software development:

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

The Stages of Learning to Mastery

People learn skills in a 3-stage progression: Shu / Ha / Ri

1	2	3
Shu: Follow Learn a technique	Ha: Break away Collect techniques	Ri: Fluent Blend techniques

From Agile Software Development first edition, 2001:

People who are learning and mastering new skills pass through three quite different stages of behavior: following, detaching, and fluent.

People in the following stage look for one procedure that works. Even if ten procedures could work, they can’t learn ten at once. They need one to learn first, one that works. They copy it; they learn it. In this stage, practitioners measure success by (a) whether the procedure works and (b) how well they can carry out the procedure.

In the detaching, or Level 2, stage, people locate the limitations of the single procedure and look for rules about when the procedure breaks down. They are actually in the first stage of a new learning; namely, learning the limits of the procedure. The person in the detaching stage learns to adapt the procedure to varying circumstances. She is now more interested in learning the ten alternative procedures, in learning when each is most applicable and when each breaks down.

In the third, fluent stage, it becomes irrelevant to the practitioner whether she is following any particular technique or not. Her knowledge has become integrated throughout a thousand thoughts and actions. Ask her if she is following a particular procedure, and she is likely to shrug her shoulders: It doesn’t matter to her whether she is following a procedure, improvising around one, or making up a new one. She understands the desired end effect and simply makes her way to that end.

In other words a Shu person knows exactly one technique and will stick to it whether it is appropriate to solve the particular problem or not. Only a few persons will break away and learn other techniques and eventually become Ri persons. A Ri person has developed a large repertoire of techniques and applies the best possible techniques to solve the problem at hand.

• Wear Sunscreen
• UI Platforms: Which One Would You Pick?
• Top 10 Tools for Learning
• Time Management
• The World’s First Computer Bug!

Lewis Gordon Pugh, the first person to swim at the North Pole, talks about his using extremes to accelerate the conversation about global warming. He talks about his record-breaking swim across the North Pole. He braved the icy waters to highlight the melting icecap.

Lewis Gordon Pugh was the first person to complete a long distance swim in every ocean of the world and over a period of 20 years he pioneered more swims around famous landmarks than any other swimmer in history. During this period Lewis witnessed the oceans change rapidly due to pollution, over fishing and climate change. He campaigns for the protection of the marine environment and a low carbon society.

Pugh teaches us that you should strive to push yourself to your limits.

• Nick Vujicic – A Man With No Arms, No Legs And No Limits!
• Wear Sunscreen
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
• Man on Wire

In his famous 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, Steve Jobs, the CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks – including death itself.

In this inspiring speech Steve Jobs tells three stories about his most pivotal points in life:

Connecting The Dots

The first story is about connecting the dots.

Steve Jobs tells the story about his parents, explains why he dropped out of college and why this was a good decision for him.  He explains how his fascination about calligraphy in college led to the innovation in beautiful typography on personal computers ten years later.

…you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards

Find What You Love

The second story is about love and loss.

Steve Jobs tells the story about his rise and fall with Apple.  He explains why getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to him, how he fell in love with an amazing woman who would become his wife and how he returned to Apple after a remarkable turn of events.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Your Time Is Limited

The third story is about death.

Steve Jobs tells how he was diagnosed with cancer; how he barely escaped death and how the awareness of dead is the most important tool he has ever encountered to help him make the big choices in life.

"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Read the full transcript of Steve Jobs’ address here.

• Wear Sunscreen
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
• Nick Vujicic – A Man With No Arms, No Legs And No Limits!
• Juggling Five Balls Of Life

Jane Hart a Social Learning Consultant and the Founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies maintains a list of the Top 100 Tools for Learning.

This valuable resource is compiled from the feedback of hundreds of learning professionals all around the world contributing their personal top 10 tools.

Here is my contribution for this year’s list:

1. The Web

According to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, the main objective of the World Wide Web was to be a space for sharing information. “It seemed evident that it should be a space in which anyone could be creative, to which anyone could contribute”, he wrote in his first blog post. It was, in other words, supposed to be a groupware application.

He designed and implemented the first web browser to not only display the content of web pages but also to edit and save a new version of that page. Early Web pages were fully collaborative. Mosaic, the browser that popularized the Web in 1993, allowed pages to be viewed and not changed. The original collaborative nature of web page browsing was lost.

Despite the fact that the Web took off primarily as a publishing medium people invented other ways like blogs, forums and wikis to make it the creative space Tim Berners-Lee envisioned right from the beginning.

For me the Web is without a doubt the number one tool for learning. It is the foundation that allows us to share our passion and knowledge with the rest of the world and to collaboration around shared content with others.

My favorite web browser to access the Web is Google Chrome: It is fast, user-friendly and convenient.

2. Google Search

Google search was originally developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997. It achieved better results for many searches with an innovation called PageRank. It ranks web pages based on the number and PageRank of other web pages that link there. The page rank of a web site is an indicator of the popularity of this site but it does not say anything about the quality of the content. However the premise is that people will link to sites with good content and and thus make it more popular. You can think about PageRank as a voting system for web sites.

For me Google Search is still the best way to find information on the Web.

3. Twitter

Twitter is a free online service that enables you to broadcast short messages of 140 characters or fewer (aka status updates or tweets) to your friends or followers. People interested in your status updates then subscribe to follow your messages and you can subscribe to follow others.

With status updates you can answer the question “What are you doing?” However many users go beyond this simple question and use status updates to share links to interesting content, photos, videos or music on the web. You can learn more by reading What Everybody Ought to Know About Twitter?

My preferred way to access Twitter is SharedMinds Desktop. With SharedMinds Desktop you can browse though all your tweets quickly and show links, user profiles and twitter search results right there in the same application. This will make you more productive and enhance your Twitter experience. You can download a free version here.

4. Blogs

In addition to Twitter, reading blogs is still one of my favorite ways of learning about new stuff. Blogs are special web sites that provide an RSS feed of published articles or posts in reverse-chronological order. RSS is a document format which allows you to keep up to date with the content on sites all across the web.

When you subscribe to an RSS feed, the feed reader will check the website you subscribe to for new content. If there are any new articles, they will be displayed directly in your feed reader. The feed reader of my choice is Google Reader.

If you like to start your own blog you can check out WordPress.com, Blogger.com or TypePad.com where you can start blogging right away. For bSix12 I decided to setup a self-hosted WordPress blog. For writing blog posts I am using Windows Live Writer.

If you haven’t already subscribed to bSix12 you can do this here.

5. Podcasts / Audiobooks

Podcast and audiobooks are great tools for learning . There are many situation in which you can listen to audio while doing other things like driving to and from work, cycling, jogging and so on. In this way you can make use of otherwise unused time. Or you can save time by listening to the audio versions of books. Sometimes I find myself to tired even to read and an audiobook is a good alternative.

A very good site to find podcasts is www.spokenword.org. A great resource for free audiobooks is librivox.org. A good selection of audiobooks can also be found on Amazon.com.

6. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free, collaborative encyclopedia and a fantastic information resource. It is a starting point for most of the things I research.

7. Books

I am not spending as much time reading books as I where used to but books are still very important. For me the best place to discover new and interesting books is Amazon.com.

8. Videos & Screencasts

YouTube is the most popular video sharing website where you can upload and share videos. If you want to use a video, you can embed it into your own web page or blog. On my blog I use embedded YouTube videos a lot. There are some excellent videos hosted on YouTube to learn from.

We learn a lot by watching other people doing things. This is why screencast’s  are a powerful learning tool. It is like looking someone over the shoulder and learning from that persons experience. My favorite tool to produce screencast’s is Camtasia Studio.

9. Social Bookmarking

My favorite social bookmarking service is del.icio.us. It is a service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The search functionality is very powerful and for certain keywords I get a better search result than with Google Search.

10. Note Taking & To-do List

My favorite note taking application is Evernote. This is how the developers themself describe it: “Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at anytime, from anywhere.” It provides advanced features like OCR. This allows you to search for text inside images. Notes are synchronized between your devices and applications.

My favorite to-do list tool is Remember The Milk.

What are your favorite tools for learning?

• What Everybody Ought to Know About Twitter?
• Top 6 Tools to Support Knowledge Sharing in Your Organization
• It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure
• How to Support Knowledge Sharing in Your Organization?
• Wear Sunscreen

With SharedMinds Desktop you can browse though all your tweets quickly and show links, user profiles and twitter search results right there in the same application. This will make you more productive and enhance your Twitter experience.

 Download now – It’s free

Open Gallery | Slide Show

SharedMinds Desktop has unique features like a powerful view engine, an integrated web viewer and flexible sorting and filtering. It supports twitter search, conversations, twitter lists, multiple accounts, multi-select, easy retweeting, URL shortening, image sharing, a single inbox and has a small memory footprint. It is a native Windows application and supports many different visual styles. For further information see the quick start guide.

 Download now – It’s free

• SharedMinds Desktop – Quickstart
• Designing the ULTIMATE Twitter Client
• What Everybody Ought to Know About Twitter?
• UI Platforms: Which One Would You Pick?
• The World’s First Computer Bug!

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a free online service that enables you to broadcast short messages of 140 characters or fewer (aka status updates or tweets) to your friends or followers. People interested in your status updates then subscribe to follow your messages and you can subscribe to follow others. Whenever you start to follow somebody on Twitter you will instantly receive their status updates and you can read all of their messages in one place.

You can use a web browser, instant messaging, your mobile phone or you can choose from a gazillion of third party applications to access Twitter.

Watch the following CommonCraft video, which explains Twitter in Plain English:

How to get started?

The best way to find out what you think about Twitter is to experience it yourself. Go to Twitter.com and sign up for a free account. I recommend using your real name as your user name. In this way your friends will be able to find you easily.

Each user has his own profile page, in the form of Twitter.com/username (Example: my Twitter profile page is Twitter.com/RainerFalle). To customize your profile page write something about yourself, upload a picture and customize the look of your profile page. Your picture will appear next to each status update you send.

Your profile page will show information about you, who you are following and who is following you. It will also display your recent tweets (known as your timeline).

Now that you have a Twitter account, tell your friends about it!

Finding and Following people

Your Twitter experience will be defined by the people you choose to follow. Who you follow is completely up to you. During the sing-up process, Twitter will suggest some people to follow. If you are new to Twitter you can start following some of them to get used to the system.

If you already know people on Twitter you are interested in, start following them. You can use Twitters people search to find people by name. It is a little bit like coming to school for the first time. Nobody will tell you hey here is your list of new friends. Over time you will figure this out on your own.

A good way to find new interesting people is to take a look who your friends are following. Take a look at the pictures in the sidebar on your friends’ pages. Those are the users they are are following. If you click on one of those pictures, you’ll go to that user’s page.

Every time you came across a persons Twitter profile take a look at their recent tweets. If you like what you see click the “Follow” button. Following someone simply means receiving their Twitter updates. When you follow someone, every time they post a new message, it will appear in your Twitter home page. How many people you follow is up to you. Some people follow a small number, others can cope with hundreds if not thousands. Remember you can always stop following people if you are not interested in their updates any more.

When people follow you you shouldn’t feel obliged to follow them back. Just follow who is interesting to you. If you don’t want someone to follow you, e.g. a spammer, than you can easily block that person.

Sending Twitter Messages (Tweets)

There are three types of Twitter messages: status updates, @replies and direct messages.

With status updates you can answer the question “What are you doing?” However many users go beyond this simple question and use status updates to share links to interesting content, photos, videos or music on the web.

An @reply is a public Twitter message directed at a specific person. An @reply is a tweet with @username at the beginning. Your message is understood as being intended for that particular person, although others will be able to see it. However, @replies won’t show up on your followers timeline unless they are the intended recipient.

To send direct messages (DM) enter d username message (e.g. d RainerFalle How are you?) These are private messages that only the named contact will see. Direct messages appear in a special Twitter inbox. You can only send direct messages to people who follow you.

To send Twitter messages you can use the Twitter web site, instant messaging, your mobile phone or a third party applications like SharedMinds Desktop. In all these cases, your "followers" will see your tweets on their own timelines immediately.

Sharing Web Links

Since you have only 140 characters for a Tweet every character counts and nearly everyone on Twitter uses a URL shortening service like http://bit.ly. For example the URL  http://bSix12.com/put-first-things-first/ can be shortened to http://bit.ly/1AX7Pw. Most Twitter clients like SharedMinds Desktop support URL shortening.

Sharing Images

Twitter doesn’t have built-in support to attach images to its 140 character messages. However there is a large number of third-party services to fill that need. Image sharing services like TwitPic and YFrog let you attach a photo and include a shortened link to that photo. Twitter clients like SharedMinds Desktop have integrated support for various image sharing services.

Retweeting

When you see a tweet you really like, you can "retweet" it. Retweeting is when you take the twitter message someone else has posted, and resend that same message to your followers. In this way the message is magnified, and may go viral.

The syntax of your Retweet should start with "RT" or "Retweet" followed by the username of the person who tweeted it and then finish with the content of the actual tweet (e.g. RT @KathySierra: Lovely post on design, simplicity, user experience: http://twurl.nl/61z016)

Originally Retweets where not part of the Twitter’s core features. It was started off as a pure convention between Twitter users. Due to it’s popularity Twitter added native support for Retweets.

Twitter clients like SharedMinds Desktop have a "Retweet" button that allow you to retweet as an orignial “old-school” Retweet or as a new style Twitter Retweet.

Twitter Search

To find out what people are talking about right now you can use Twitter Search. Take a look at the trending topics – the most common phrases appearing in messages right now. They are visible in the right-hand column of your profile page. Click on a trend to see the real-time search results for this trend.

Twitter Search is a very powerful tool to find out what is happening right now. There are many ways you can search and filter Twitter messages: by trending topic, search for #hashtags, keywords, phrases, people, language etc.

Watch the following CommonCraft video, which explains Twitter Search in Plain English:

#Hashtags

On Twitter a topic with a hash symbol (”#”) at the beginning is called a #hashtag. For example if you see a tweet like “Having fun at #mix09” then #mix09 is a #hashtag. You can use #hashtags to categorize or tag content so that related tweets can be grouped together. If everyone agrees to append a certain #hashtag to tweets about a certain topic, it becomes easier to find that topic in twitter search. The #hashtag is a favorite tool at conferences and events that allows you to talk about the event in real time and to connect to other people more easily.

Twitter Lists

Twitter Lists are a new way to organize the people on Twitter. It’s a way for you to group together other users on Twitter so that you can get an overview of what they’re up to. Lists can be public or private. Public lists will be visible in your public profile and other users can follow your public lists.

Watch the following video to learn more about Twitter Lists:

Twitter Clients.

Although many people use the Twitter web page to write and receive their tweets, there are other more convenient ways to do this. For instance, you could use a Twitter desktop client like SharedMinds Desktop, TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop. Those clients make it easy to organize, view, reply and retweet Twitter messages and to share links and photos. They all come with integrated Twitter search and support a lot of advanced features like multiple Twitter accounts.

Further Reading

• The Twitter Book – A Sneak Preview
• Twitter Glossary
• The Twitter Guide Book
• Twitter Reading List
• Twitter 101 – A special guide
• 10 Stunning (And Useful) Stats About Twitter
• The 11 Types of Followers on Twitter

• Top 6 Tools to Support Knowledge Sharing in Your Organization
• Top 10 Tools for Learning
• Story Power! Tools to Create Engaging Content
• SharedMinds Desktop – The Ultimate Twitter Client for Windows
• SharedMinds Desktop – Quickstart

After creating the earth God started to design creatures.

At first he created the Seashell.

The Seashell had quite a boring life: The shell opens, water runs through; the shell closes. Open, close, open close… all day long.

Next God created the Eagle.

The Eagle had the freedom to fly over oceans and land and he had the ability to reach even the highest mountains. For the Eagle there were almost no limits – but for this freedom he had to pay a price! Day in and day out he had to fight for prey to feed himself and his offspring. It was not easy – however he was happy to pay this price.

Finally God created Man. He showed him the Seashell and then the Eagle and asked him to decide which life he wants to live.

- After an old Indian creation myth

Even today we face the same big choice:

Do you want the life of the Seashell or do you choose the life of the Eagle?

• Wear Sunscreen
• The Inspiring Story of Rick and Dick Hoyt
• Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
• Nick Vujicic – A Man With No Arms, No Legs And No Limits!
• Juggling Five Balls Of Life