The next likemind will be Friday, December 3, 2010 in dozens of cities around the world.

Note this is not the usual 3rd Friday of the month, as there is a combined November/December likemind each year due to the holidays.

In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more on likemind, read this great article on likemind Chicago from the Newcity and likemind from the New York Times. Follow @likemindchicago on Twitter.

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Announcements • Business • Technology • Thrive • likemind • (0) Comments • Permalink

As you read this I will be frantically packing my gear and even some clothes for the Microsoft TechEd Europe Conference in Berlin, Germany next week, from November 8-10. I have been invited to the conference by Nokia and the people at WOMWorld/Nokia.

For those not familiar with the conference, it is one of many such global events held my Microsoft every year. I attended a few back over a decade ago when I was working on the KWorld project at KPMG and Microsoft was a major partner with us. Sessions and speakers talk about the current state and future direction of technology and how Microsoft products fit into those directions. In short, it's a geefest! My connection through Nokia is around enterprise mobile technology, otherwise known as how businesses are using smartphones and other portable wireless devices.

Questions And More Questions

In addition to the speakers and breakout sessions I will be attending, I, along with Dennis of Wap Review, will have the opportunity to have face-to-face Q&A sessions with several Nokia executives who work with enterprise mobile. I am eager to hear what they have to say, and of course already have a list of questions in mind. If anyone reading this has any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments.

This should be an interesting conference, and a great learning experience. Nokia soon will be releasing its E7 device, the enterprise version of its recently launched N8 device. I am of course hoping to get my hands on an E7, as well as talk about it and the entire enterprise mobile arena, which is certainly a busy place.

An Amazing City

Of course I will be taking in some of Berlin. I visited the German capital several years ago, and had a great time. The mix of culture, history and modernism makes it a must-visit place. Not to mention some great chocolate!

Watch The Hot Iron and @thehotiron and #tee10 – the conference’s hashtag - on Twitter for updates on the event and any notes and news from the conference. I will write a recap when I get back. I should close with the fact that Nokia is sponsoring my trip, and here’s more information about my relationship with Nokia which is being stated specifically to keep the US Federal Trade Commission off my back!

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Announcements • Mobile Technology • Strategize • Technology • (3) Comments • Permalink

Recently Google changed their search results page to incorporate something called Google Instant, whereby as you type the search results on the page change. This type of “instant” technology has been met with mixed opinions, where some love it and others hate it, and I am in the latter camp. This “instant” idea was recently applied to Amazon.com book searches, and I have to admit I do love ShelfLuv.

ShelfLuv is the brainchild Pek Pongpaet, a Chicago user experience designer and developer, among other hats he wears. For the sake of full disclosure, I know Pek. One of the benefits of knowing him is seeing the ideas he makes into reality, and one of them is ShelfLuv. Rather than just refreshing a page with book suggestions, he created the visual of a bookshelf to show the book suggestions based on the keyword or keywords you enter. As the words change, so do the books on the shelf. And when you click on a book, you can see a brief description, review and excerpt if available. You also have the option to view similar books.

Below is a screenshot of ShelfLuv where it displays 4 books written by one of my clients, Steve Jermanok who blogs at ActiveTravels.

ShelfLuv is definitely something you want to experiment with for yourself. For example, I typed in 3 words, one at a time – new, England and Patriots. With each word, the selection changed from new releases to knitting books to books on my favorite football team. It is not only a unique way to shop for books, but a great example of how a great presentation layer on top of technology can make all the difference in the success of any Web site or service.

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Announcements • Technology • Thrive • Web Design • Web Development • (2) Comments • Permalink

This past Friday was likemind Chicago. This monthly meetup (with the exception of 1 date for November & December) brings together an eclectic mix of people. Where typically people work in and around the Web, media, advertising and marketing, it also brings out a number of people who work in different fields who have interests in these areas. We meet at Argo Tea on Adams and Dearborn Streets at 8 am, where their great teas and coffee compliment what’s happening.

Myself and Bruno Pieroni “host” the meetup – we greet everyone, but we are by no means the pivot point of the gathering. Over the past couple of years we have been proud to host the local meetup of what is a global networking meetup. We have had people from around the world – literally – come by as they attend a likemind gathering in their home city. We also have many people who come by each month, and some who come once and we never see them again.

Where Were You?

On average a dozen people come to likemind, and I have always wondered why more don’t. Where we meet at 8 am, surely people are up at this hour. Maybe people indicate on Facebook they are coming but don’t really plan to. Rather than overanalyze this, I thought instead I would share some of the topics of conversation at last Friday’s likemind, and leave it to you to determine if you are missing out on anything!

Here goes, as many as I could write down, in a somewhat chronological order:

• Pek gave a demo of his “Amazon instant” Web app called ShelfLuv and iPad app BizTome
• Erin talked about SteepandCheap.com where she got her 66 North jacket, and we talked about how it was an Icelandic brand, and told the story about an employer who bought a coffee pot for a late-night project
• BookBook is an iPad case that looks like a vintage book binding
• Ryan showed us his Droid X, which he bought to “fit in” with everyone else’s smartphones
• There is a likemind Chicago location in Foursquare, and Mike took the mayorship from Bruno
• Kate said the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is more than butterflies
• Talk about various marathons around the US
• How Foursquare’s School Night badge is awarded for checking in anywhere after 3 am, even at work
• Bruno referred to a colleague as, “my other Pek” and talked about an app he created called GeoPollster which integrates with Foursquare and you can tag a location with a political party
• Interhoods is a location-based designer and developer showcase, now in Chicago, New York and San Francisco
• Sortfolio is another location-based showcase, which presents project price ranges
• A lot of discussion around passive, recurring revenue
• Victoria is working on a Web site for the Girl Scouts
• Mike inserted QR codes into conversations whenever and wherever possible
• Discussion on examples of augmented reality
• Comparing TEDx Windy City vs. TEDx Midwest vs. TEDx Naperville
• Mike brought up the Nokia Qt mobile development platform and some wondered why they hadn’t heard about it
• Discussion around where people worked and some asked Mike about OfficePort Chicago
• The Windows 7 Phone compares with Android and the iPhone

As well, a few things were talked about which some felt were private conversations and shouldn’t have been mentioned here!

All this, in just under 2 hours. Would you have learned something being there? Could you have contributed? Watch for the announcement of the next likemind Chicgao on our Facebook group.

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Business • Strategize • Technology • Thrive • likemind • (14) Comments • Permalink

Contaminated water tanks, oil leaking into water supplies, high levels of prescription medication found in drinking water, political corruption surrounding paying for water, water management agencies offices in high-rent areas, high taxes on bottled water…

…And all of these things are just in and around Chicago!

There’s no point in reiterating how important water is to all living creatures. Living in Chicago, where the entire eastern border of the city is surrounded by Lake Michigan, I am constantly reminded of it. Yet, for some reason, many tend to forget the real reason for all of what is done to get all the clean water we need. Today is Blog Action Day, a day where bloggers around the world write on a particular topic. This year, it is water.

Whenever conversations around a global concern take place, people tend to forget what is immediately around them, their backyard. As my Mom always said, charity begins at home. Keeping her great advice in mind, I propose not only thinking locally and acting globally, but acting on both.

Act Locally

Many people don’t know how the water gets to run out of their faucets. Here’s your opportunity to go out and find out what you don’t know. In Chicago, the city has a water management department and as well there is a regional water authority, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. I will be honest in that I don’t know too much about either of these departments, other than the latter has prime offices just off the Magnificent Mile and people buy billboards in their bid to be a commissioner of this organization. The also manage a system called “Deep Tunnel” to prevent overflows and flooding.

So why would you want to know this? Understanding the political ecosystem is usually as important as the environmental one, as the former has to do with how much you pay for your water, as well as the safety and purity of the supply. Though they should be straightforward systems, they tend not to be, and it can be summed up in 1 word – politics. I’ll leave it at that.

Knowledge is power, especially on the local level, and if you need to act – or react – you can be ahead of the game in knowing who is responsible.

Act Globally

Unless you’re planning on traveling the globe to do so, your options to help people’s water supplies around the world are limited. Here’s a great way to help such a cause while learning from great entrepreneurs – buy a copy of the Age of Conversation 3!

You may recall I talked about this great book, where myself and hundreds of people around the globe contributed to a truly collaborative story. The book is also a not-for-profit endeavor, and all proceeds from it go to Charity: Water an organization where all proceeds go to helping people around the globe, and they have the photos and geo-locations to prove it. Simply buy a copy of Age of Conversation 3 from Amazon or any other outlet and you have helped the cause. I’ll even autograph it for an extra donation!

We can all do our part to help – for the benefit of others as well as ourselves. So think before you take that drink of water today, all 8 glasses of it.

Did you enjoy reading this? You are welcome to subscribe to The Hot Iron by RSS feed or by email.

Announcements • Blogging • Diversions • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink