"It's less important to get a good answer than to get someone to listen to your question in the first place"

At least that seems to apply to millions of people on the Web as Jacob Leibenluft finds in his article:

A Librarian's Worst Nightmare. Yahoo! Answers, where 120 million users can be wrong.

Also worth to notice is his comparison with the Wikipedia model.

I made the above video clip from still pictures of the total lunar eclipse on February 20, 2008.

The “human network” needs to overcome language barriers

“Welcome to the human network”, the Cisco corporation’s tagline, should not come as a surprise in these times where the Web continues expanding and finding more applications. From a technical point of view, it is a slogan that makes sense coming from a networking and communications technology company. But, what do they mean with human? Do they only mean “English speaking humans”? Why the language barriers are impediments for a real human network? Find out more below…

If at home or work you use a Linksys router to connect to internet you are using one of Cisco’s products to be part of a network, a communications network. But these are also the times of Web 2.0 and Cisco and others are also talking of how we use the technological products. As their ad says, these are times where “people subscribe to people, not magazines”. If you use internet for something more than checking your email perhaps you have had a taste of Web 2.0 (like the one I am having) and therefore an impression of what they mean with "the human network".

As a non-native English speaker, who has lived in English speaking countries, I know that watching their TV gives me an idea of what is their present culture and everyday life. Of course, I also know that this vision is biased by the filters that the broadcasters, the media and the governments apply to it. That's why the Web has come as a valuable space where individuals are writing, singing and speaking their thoughts. Their thoughts and lives are expressed in ways that we have the opportunity to see in sites as YouTube, Blogger, OpenDiary and Jamendo, to give a few examples.

I find the development of Web 2.0 fantastic but I also have noticed an important piece missing in the development of this human network: THE OVERCOMING OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIERS. My observation is based on my belief that you only can understand your neighbor if you understand their background. And it’s many times their language what shapes that complex thing which makes them be what they are and how they see you. For this network to be really human it needs to provide a way to overcome cultural and language limitations, of course, without annulling them.

More and more websites are taking one step to overcome the language barriers: the inclusion of their service in different languages. Take for example the popular social-networking site Facebook which now has been open to the Spanish language. Actions like this allow different groups of humans to have access to the same service. Nevertheless, the challenge of making these groups to interact and mix with each other remains.

Finally, let’s not forget that only a small percentage of the total population in the Earth has access to internet. The optimistic in me wants to believe that, as an inherent effect of the development of the human network, eventually more and more people could have access to it. We will see.

If your mind were a dwelling... how it would be?

And the answer for jAz is:

Roulotte (caravana). 1955. Remedios Varo

Is email (and Facebook) taking over your time at work?

Let us face it. For those of us who have as part of our work a computer connected to Internet, the sources of distraction can be as many as how deep we are willing to dive into the web. It is not an easy situation because, as I mentioned in a previous entry, the web offers you tools that can actually improve your work and ultimately your life. But what happens when dealing with email and/or checking on Facebook at work starts to take over your production time? Well, Internet itself gave me some answers...

There is not always a clear distinction between what is a waste of your time and what can be... let's take it to an extreme, saving you to pay loads of money to a therapist because of your over-stressed life. Distractions have a healthy side and alcohol, tobacco and video games can give you a healthy happiness despite their toxicity. It turns out, as with many things, that the secret of a balanced life is in how much we "consume" of something.

With email and websites like Facebook it becomes even more blurred the distinction between good and bad. I am not going to discuss here the implications that Facebook is having in the lives of those of us who have adopted this site in a routinary basis. Let's focus instead in how to deal with email at work and hope that something can be extrapolated to other areas.

I am not re-inventing the wheel, but just passing on the advices that I read one day to tackle the amount of time spent on the email at work. In fact the original article has as title: How not to check email at work. I am going to summarize here what I have been trying to apply:

1. Turn off notifications and sometimes even keep the email manager closed.
2. Check the email when making a break and apply the 4 Ds:

• Delete it - delete if it has conveyed its purpose
  
• Do it - reply if under 2 minutes
• Delegate it - forward if actionable for someone else
• Defer it - put away [folder/star, etc.] for later

Ever tried to quit smoking or keep your visits to the gym on? Yes, it has to do with our will, identification of priorities and perception of time. I remember watching a documentary about the life of Charles Dickens where it was stated that he used to spend four hours every morning to deal with his mail. We are not as famous as him, but emails arrive quicker to our inbox these days =)

How are you dealing with email (and Facebook if it's the case!) at work?

Not another Sunday

So here I am this Sunday praising internet for what it has given us. This means praising YOU, the people who makes this wonder to shine. (I know I am not being original, Time magazine said it first)

Precisely the Bloggies 2007, let's say the Oscars for blogs, are open now to vote for the best of 2006. I am glad to see that one of my favourites, the Postsecret blog has been nominated in different categories.

The web is full of stuff but still can contain the most simple thing, in the form of a rude postcard (you have been warned), to be the expression of a many times misunderstood feeling =) By the way, if you clicked the link and before you start arguing that this is a very unique men "doing", check the Girl with a one-track mind blog out.

La 69.G (apologies...but for a version in other languages of this post try the translation bar above)

!Y este va para Juan!



?Que cual es mi interpretacion de la cancion "La 69.G" de Sabina?

Pues bien Juan, asumiendo que la connotacion sexual de 69 y punto G no te son ajenas dejame preguntarte, ?cual es tu estacion de radio favorita? En Mexico, durante muchos anyos me desperte escuchando Monitor, cuando estaba en Radio Red FM 88.1. O recuerdo a la estacion Alfa 91.3...

Asi para mi, La 69.G de Sabina es esa "estacion de radio", pero aun mas, ese lugar, esa frecuencia, esos cuates, esos compas, ese momento para relajarse y pasarsela bien.

Sabina es un buenazo para las metaforas y para describir la vida cotidiana. ?Alguna vez has buscado refugio en la almohada y esta te ha dado la espalda? ?Donde buscas refugio cuando te cansas de crecer, cuando los problemas y retos de la vida cotidiana te acosan, cuando los suenyos tardan en venir?

Para algunos es la television...para Sabina es la 69.G.

En Mexico ha sucedido que una cantina, un bar toma el nombre de "La oficina". Uno tiene que recordar esto cuando las estadisticas nos dicen que la gente pasa mas tiempo en su trabajo que en la casa :)

Por eso Juan, y por Sabina, escogi ese nombre para este lugar. Asi que bienvenido, pasale, ponte a gusto y gracias por haber firmado el libro de visitas.