Endless Knots

Come with me, meet a writer

Eric Van Lustbader

Readers of my many posts to Zoetrope.com know that I have an almost infallible penchant for meeting writers on the train going to and from New York. I choose a seat, invariably next to a writer. Or one sits down next to me. Or one is behind me in the cafe car. Or one strikes up a conversation on the train platform (no, that's a lie - he turned out to be the CEO of Houghton Mifflin, a publisher, but still...).

Well, today, was no different. Actually, it was different. I wasn't on a train. Indeed, I wasn't in any conveyance when I arrived at Salander O'Reilly Gallery to meet my friend Neelon. He'd told me that we'd also be having lunch with his boyhood friend, Eric, whom I, well, frankly, I didn't give Eric another thought before arriving. Hello, hello, handshake, let's look at the art, etc...you know how early conversations go when you have not a clue as to who the other person is. But inevitably the what-do-you-do question pops and soon it comes out that he's, yes, a writer, but not just any writer this time, as the auteur in question, Eric Van Lustbader, has a book on the NY Times best-seller list, The Bourne Betrayal. Turns out, thriller fans, Eric has the franchise from the Robert Ludlum estate to continue the Bourne adventures -- this being Eric's 25th book.

Genetic New Yorker

New York, NY (June 29, 2007)—Love it, hate it, everyone has an opinion of New York. I was reminded of this in early March in the middle of nowhere. Sorta literally. I was on a bus travelling a private road over a pass to Doubtful Sound off the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand when I heard this: “Times Square is my favorite place in the world!” It was the shriek of a passenger with the very-long “i” accent, a Kiwi for sure.

Times Square is not my fave place in the world but I heart NY. By geography, I cannot claim NY as my hometown; by genetics, I can. All four of my grandparents passed through Ellis Island and settled in NY; my parents and all their brothers and sisters were born there; my brother was born there as were all my cousins. I alone was born outside the fold—in a small, rural Pennsylvania town--where the idea was to get back to NY as often as possible.

So I do. I just spent several packed days here again, this particular visit loaded, as usual, with family, friends, and near always art.

Here are my top picks (and indeed all my art stops) on this trip:

I died and went to Truckee for dinner

The fires at Lake Tahoe (sad, drought, brave firefighters, very sad) remind me of a circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe that I made two years ago. A US Forest Service exec, who'd engaged me to do a workshop for his organization, asked if I'd like to see the lake. No hesitation in responding to that invitation. Here's the report I posted to the first edition of Endless Knots in July 2005:

So a sheltered woman from the East walks into a casino in the West, stays for a week, and never touches a slot machine (even though her cousin sends her numbers to play and there are, say, 10k machines outside the bathroom, on the way to restaurants, on the way to conference rooms, mine called Pinion).

The US National Forest Service got me there. Remember Reinventing Government, the craze that swept the world in 1993? There were reinvention efforts everywhere—towns, states, countries, even. In the US, the effort that began in the Executive Office Building under then Vice-President Gore still lives today in the government’s Reinvention Labs in the US Department of Agriculture. Thanks to Libba and Gifford Pinchot and their pioneering efforts at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, I was invited to spend last week working with TEAMS, one of 10 “enterprises” in the Forest Service. (To save money, they held the event in a hotel that was entirely neon—inside.)

It's Tuesday: Wear Pink

Good friends of mine, whom I'm apt to reference frequently (and already have), are making many new friends in their travels, including SuperStar. This monkey, who lives just south of Bangkok, loves watermelons. But, alas, SuperStar is not properly clad for today. Each day of the week in Thailand is associated with a different color: Monday is yellow -- and because of great love for Thailand's long-reigning king, who was born on a Monday, many Thai wear yellow shirts on the first day of each week. Tuesday=pink. Send me your pictures if you decide to wear pink today. (Or don't as you know I'm apt to post them.)

Of course you may be wondering (again) what this has to do with networks and collaboration. It's a bit of a stretch, for sure...but, I am mind-blown once more at how easy it's been to learn the Thai colors of the week, to see pictures that my kids took just a few hours ago half-way round the world, and to get up in the morning and have a cup of coffee with them via videochat as they're preparing to go to dinner. Admittedly, I have to get up rather early in the morning (we each have our quirks, this mine) to have a good long talk...but there it is. Thank you, Ms. Internet (she must be a woman to provide such providence for nurture).

Even NPR is worried about Antioch

My old friend, John McChesney (take no offense at the "old," John :), who taught  literature at Antioch for six of its most rambunctious years, went back for the annual college reunion last weekend and posted this story to "All Things Considered." More typically of late, John has been reporting from Iraq, where he's been embedded with the Arkansas National Guard (and worrying his friends to death).

I was not surprised to get a call from John when the Antioch news broke. Everyone who's ever loved the place is worried and talking...And the college chat rooms are running wild with rumor and innuendo. As an alum, I too grieve for the Antioch that we all loved; as someone who's served on the board and who's had to make hard business decisions, I am relieved that the Board of Trustees pulled a sinking ship to drydock before it took on too much water.

But, I'm very uncertain how to reach my fellow alums, who are disturbed, furious, and hurt about being left out of the decision. Process is very important, always and forever, but even when it's flawed, the right decisions often are made. We need all our diplomats to step forward now and work together to build a viable college for the 21st century.

Riffing on Enterprise 2.0 in Boston Globe - June 25, 2007

Rob Weisman, The Boston Globe's technology and business reporter, does a nice wrap-up of the Enterprise 2.0 conference in today's newspaper. Of particular interest to us here at NetAge are these great quotes from the session we ran, Enterprise 2.0 in Action: Reports from the Frontier. Rob writes:

In a panel titled "Enterprise 2.0 in Action," however, companies cited competitive advantages they'd gained from new collaborative technologies. Team work spaces, Internet meetings, and audio conferencing helped connect research-and-development teams from around the world at Volvo, said Carole Boudinet, the company's manager of collaborative work solutions. Boudinet said Volvo created a worldwide network of "culture ambassadors" and "collaboration consultants" to accelerate the adoption of collaborative tools.

Sujatha Bodapati, founder of ProdexNet, a San Jose, Calif., company that designs customized software and other products, said wikis, message boards, and other "virtualization" technology has allowed her company to move its research operations to India.

"There's no other way to be a global company than to be a virtual organization," said Jeffrey Stamps , co founder of NetAge Inc., a Newton consulting firm specializing in collaborative technology.

Who are these fine people? Sujatha Bodapati is indeed founder of ProdexNet and AssetPulse, both based in Silicon Valley, whom we met several years ago when we started developing OrgScope. Suji told the story of how ProdexNet engineers in Chennai, India, worked seamlessly with Jeff Stamps for 19 months using only asynchronous technologies -- in this case, BaseCamp, a wiki for product development -- to design and code the product. For the first 18 months, they didn't even have a phone call -- and when Jeff and the lead engineer, Ritesh Rajani, finally spoke, they talked about the weather, food, and their respective ages. In his remarks, Jeff said that each not knowing the other's age was an advantage -- as 40 years separated them -- and they could easily have dismissed the other on the basis of that difference alone. PS: Suji's company AssetPulse has some very cool technology for tracking assets--like hospital equipment, for example--using tiny chips, or as those in the know call it, RFID.

Carole Boudinet, based in Lyon, France, manages the Collaboration Work Solutions Center at Volvo IT.  We've had the  chance to work with Carole and her colleagues for the past couple of years as they've developed a unique approach to collaboration and virtual teaming. Tor Eneroth, a savvy Volvo IT executive team member (he presented at Enterprise 2.0 in '06) who spearheads Culture and Values at the company, introduced the concepts at a senior leadership team meeting. With a firm focus on the people aspects, the company proceeded to equip its staff with the tools and processes needed for better collaboration. After a year of preparation, including the development of a communication campaign and extensive internal consultant training, they offered the collaboration service to AB Volvo Group. Some 55,000 people are now equipped with the technology for better virtual teaming, with the processes for good collaboration built into their tools.

Finally, a nice quote from Jeff, who really deserves his own bio page (we'll have to work on that).

Were you in this session? If so, please post a reply here, giving your impressions.

And for the visually oriented, here's a picture of us -- from left, moi (I facilitated), Jeff Stamps, Sujatha Bodapati, and Carole Boudinet, with thanks to Michael Sampson for taking the pic. Did anyone take a picture of the audience? That would be good here too.

 

Bored on conference calls? Relief!

Lest we drop a key thread in this blog (by virtue of my "other passions"), here's a bit of collaborative advice that I published a while back in Line56, which apparently is being rehabbed at the moment. If you've been on a conference call that caused more yawns than yabbers (possibly you're on one as you're reading this), read on...

Teleconference Boredom? Five Steps to Relief

Don't drag the central location conference speaker across the table. It's painful for those dialing in.[1]

The reminder above to avoid hideous noises while on a teleconference call, though primitive, rings true.

Witness yesterday: “First let me promise you there will be no trains coming through on this call.” Dave   Rimmer, a Shell U.K. Exploration and Production Information Manager, was recalling a previous teleconference with us in Aberdeen, Scotland, and him in Lowestoft, England.

When Dave’s on a teleconference and a train goes by, as it does every half hour or so in the U.K.’s most easterly town, it sounds like the engine is full throttling out-of-control down the phone line, rather frightening if you’re unprepared. Much like the screech of the dragging phone, it does damage to our overly-exercised eardrums.

Antioch goes on co-op

For any of its graduates, Antioch College's co-op program, which sent its students out to work for about six months of every year, was its crown jewel. Out in the real world, the thinking went, students would learn how to put their ideas and their ideals into practice. I loved it as it gave me time to apply what I was learning and to think about  my next steps. The Board of Trustees, which governs both the college and the five graduate and continuing-ed campuses across the US, has, in effect, sent the college on co-op. For the next four years, the college will close as a study takes place to redesign a 21st-century institution.

The NY Times, AP, LA Times, and just about every other publication that can get its hands around this story has been covering it. Most, including an unthoughtful op-ed in the NY Times, focus on the superficial aspects of the story -- Antioch's rep as a haven for mad(wo)men, where faculty let the students run wild, and the administration offers the same to the faculty, while the trustees look the other way.

I am a proud graduate of the 1970 class of Antioch College and a former member of the Board of Trustees. The cacophony of complaints that is blasting out of Yellow Springs, Ohio, the beautiful little village where Antioch is situated, lacks grounding in the reality of running a small liberal arts college without an endowment. The NY Times printed four letters to the editor in response to the knee-jerk op-ed it ran on June 17. But it didn't run mine:

To the Editor:
Michael Goldfarb’s swan song for Antioch College (“Where the Arts Were Too Liberal,” Op-Ed, June 17, 2007) violates two key principles of obituary writing. First, be certain the “person” is dead; and second, fact-check the forensics before reporting cause of death.

Two thumbs-up for this hospital

Next time I need a hospital, I'm booking a flight. A young woman I've had occasion to meet sadly needed to see a doctor while on Koh Samui, an island off the coast of Thailand, where she was engaged in deep studies of the culinary arts. There, a doctor's visit usually involves a hospital. Take a look at her description and should you have the need, be sure to dress up.

Here's a picture of the Out-paient Dept at the Hospital, along with its description:

Our OPD with 10 examination rooms serves as an OPD for all of our specialist doctors. The waiting area is cozy, comfortable and homelike. Complimentary refreshments are available in the unit. For non-Thai speaking customers we provide a one-stop service within the OPD area.

New Yorkers: "orderline" opening June 28, 2007

From time to time, art, here. I'm particularly interested in this two-person show. Keen readers know why :).

Eliza Stamps, Blighted, 2006,
ink on graph paper, 19 x 24 inches 

orderline, a two-person show with drawings and textiles of Eliza Stamps and paintings of Matt Phillips, opens 6 PM, Thurs, June 28, 2007, at Mehr Gallery. The show is curated by Anastasia Rogers of Petra Projects. Through July 25, 2007 at 436 18th Street (at 9th Ave), NY, NY.