What is this world coming to? This is a question I occasionally find myself asking myself or others around me. Even though these days most things don’t really surprise me, sometimes you have to wonder about what you are reading and seeing in the news.

But maybe that’s it – it’s what I read and see in the news. If you hear bad news (or even good news) it is a short, sound-byte driven story that has very little depth. On the surface, a news story could be the worst thing to possibly happen in the world. But with more depth and information beyond the brief story, it may reveal a story that could still be bad – or good – but the more you know, the more you know. This is the idea behind the book All The Troubles In The World.

P.J. O’Rourke is a conservative political satirist. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he makes his point with sarcasm and dry humor that would find someone on the polar opposite politically giving an occasional chuckle. This book, written in 1994 (and sitting on my bookshelf since then), is, as stated on the cover, “the lighter side of overpopulation, famine, ecological disaster, ethnic hatred, plague and poverty.” Lighter side? I asked myself that prior to digging into the dusty pages of this book, one which did give me take-aways.

My biggest takeaway is that you really do need depth to a story. We don’t have time to look into every nuance or wrinkle in everything we see in the news, but more information on the people and scenarios that encircle a story help give it context, and help one make their own opinions on it. Many news Web sites have “related links” to other stories pertaining to a certain news story. I often find myself at Wikipedia when I want a start to get depth in a story.

Another takeaway from the book is you need multiple perspectives on a story, or really anything. There is plenty of talk about liberal or conservative biases in the media. While I am well aware when I see something being spun in a certain direction in front of me, I am able to discern the shaft from the wheat, and see what is truly happening and what is not.

A final takeaway is that we need more humor in our lives. As I write this, I admit I have been grumpy throughout this day. If I had a little more humor or something funny happen to me today, I probably wouldn’t be so grumpy. O’Rourke does this funny very well, in a brainy sort of way.

I recommend All The Troubles In The World to anyone who likes P.J. O’Rourke’s work, or anyone who recalls the news and events from the early 1990’s. It was interesting to read this and think back to that time, and see what has changed, and what has not.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Book Take-Aways • Diversions • (0) Comments • Permalink

I got an email recently from Gary Sharma that his Web event guide, garysguide.org, now has a Chicago edition. You can view events and post your own, as well as subscribe to an RSS feed of the events. Companies can submit a profile, and I did so for Dunkirk Systems, LLC. The RSS feed continues to drive me back to the site, where I browse other events and information. There are also editions for other major cities.

Where some may say, “oh no, not another events site,” I welcome it. Many similar sites have come and gone, and worse, others have come and stagnated. Good luck to the Guy With The Red Tie!

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So you’ve uploaded all your photos to Flickr or Facebook. Now what? Sure you can click the next and previous buttons to go through them, but it is just your standard slideshow. What if you could make a flashy and interactive presentation of your photos, without having to upload them to yet another photo service?

This is the jist of FotoViewr. It allows you to create a free 3D photo gallery by simply directing the service to your photos. It is currently available for Flickr, SmugMug and there is also a Facebook application. The beauty is you don’t have to log in! All you do is enter your Flickr username – without the password – and it will find your photo galleries. Below is a gallery using the “Wall” style with photos from past likemind Chicago coffees. As you can see you can embed a gallery into a Web page, and you can also send a URL link to one.

FotoViewr was created by a local entity in Chicago, and was actually demoed at a past likemind. More is in the works for FotoViewr, and you can follow its activities on its blog.

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It’s Helsinki or bust, as I have been invited to participated in a workshop for mobile phone giant Nokia, who is based in the Finnish capital. I received the invitation a few weeks back from WOM World, who describes themselves as “a Nokia-sponsored blog covering what’s being said in the social media about Nokia devices and services.”

As a self-described New England Yankee, I of course received this with some skepticism. Why me, and are they really going to fly me out there? The answer to the latter question is yes, and I am booked to fly out the week after next.

As for the former question, I believe it is because of what I have written previously on The Hot Iron with regards to mobile phones, especially unlocked phones vs. locked phones. Though the phone attached to my belt as I write this is a Palm Treo 680, I have owned Nokia phones in the past, and currently own one I bought when traveling in Denmark a few years back, namely because Verizon Wireless wanted to charge me literally hundreds of dollars to get a phone I could use overseas for a week. Needless to say that was one of the reasons I switched to T-Mobile.

So what will this workshop consist of? From their description, it will include: “...a number of workshops that’ll see discussion with participants, and with Nokia guys, about the future of different online arenas and mobile technology. Workshops that we hope you’d like to join in with and make yourself heard.” The fact that I will be part of a conversation with people from around the world on mobile technology, not to forget Nokia staff, is an amazing opportunity. Motorola’s headquarters is only a short drive from where I live, and I have never received such an invitation.

My head is already full of ideas and questions I want to add to the conversation for this workshop. If anyone else has anything they would like me to bring up please feel free to post them as comments. I have also received links to other bloggers who will be at the workshop and I hope to connect with them before the trip.

Also, if anyone has any recommendations on what to do when in Helsinki, please let me know!

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Business • Technology • (9) Comments • Permalink