New avatar…

Amy created a new avatar for me tonight, with several layers and filters to give it that aged look. We’ll work on some additional ones that I’ll use here and there for fun, I usually don’t have an avatar, but she’s been learning PhotoShop and is creating some great work.

More w.blogger customizations…

I’ve made another step in functionality using w.blogger. Using the Custom Tags feature, I’ve been able to program the bulk of the Technorati tag fuctionality shown below in this post. In previous posts, I’ve crafted them all by hand. It is not fully automatic, however it takes the bulk of the work out of each tag that I add to a post including the icon and the text formatting.

I’ve been teaching myself the structure and layout of WordPress so I can program my own site. I’ve got a full install of WordPress on my own server at home with its own ‘net URL for complete testing. As soon as I believe that I’m up to speed enough, I’m going to set up a hosted version of WordPress so I can use all the functionality of the product. WordPress.com is a bit limited in options at the moment, even though the performance is fantastic.

Technorati: w.blogger, WordPress, Tagged Internet

Blogger.com having issues?

It seems that Blogger.com is having issues at the moment – too bad, I was just going to post on the recent news about VMware’s announcement that their VMware GSX product was going to be released next week as a free tool to compete with Microsoft’s Virtual Server 2005 product. Guess I’ll post it here instead – can’t wait for this myself, as I’m more interested in running VMware than MS Virtual Server/Virtual PC. I’ve got a virtual system at home hosting a full WordPress installation so I can use it for testing different things before trying them here – very useful!

 Technorati: VMware GSX, Microsoft Virtual Server

Work Blogs

Today want to talk about Work Blogs, or blogging within a work environment. There is some small discussions at work right now about blogs and wikis, and if they are useful tools for our corporate culture. Traditionally, we are like many companies in that we don’t jump on the latest trends in technology just because it may be ‘cool’, but in recent years we have invested more time and resources in leveraging the best technologies for the business and its employees. Thats not to say that we are up to date on all things, one of the areas that could stand improvement in-house is communication, again like most companies.

There are many opportunities for simple communications all parts of the business through blogs – whether their individual employee blogs where workers can post on topics of the day, or departmental & group blogs where workers can post on a common blog about status within a team and so on. Project related blogs are another option, where project team members would be able to post on status, issues, remediation, solutions, communications, costs, ideas, etc… The point being that the potential is endless for more simple communications with a company.

If I could point to one post on one blog that I belive speaks to the importance of corporate blogging today this is it. Written by Richard Edelman, it speaks from a PR point of view from someone who is quite well known in that field.

I’d like to invite anyone from my office to view my blogs and see what I do on a personal side with blogs. Its my outlet for ideas and conversations. I’m not into keeping a diary or journal, and don’t feel comfortable posting my “most inner secrets and fears” to a blog – or grips either! The last thing I think someone wants to read about in a blog is how bad my day/week/life is – who cares? But the release of a stream of ideas that someone (hopefully me) can leverage and move forward is a power tool, and I want to be right in the middle of it.

What I’d love for my supervisors and managers to take away from by personal blogs here on the ‘net is that they should be “transparent” as many in the blogsphere like to say. Naked Conversations by Shel Israel & Robert Scoble is one book I recommend to anyone contemplating work blogs & corporate blogging. This “transparency” is the true power of a blog, whether its for an individual, team, department, or company – simple clear honest communication will leverage the time and resources invested in blogging – anything else will be a disappointment in the technology in my opinion.

Please visit Rick’s Ramblings, a Blogger blog where I cover tech news and my thoughts on technology.
Of course there’s this blog (Rickster) here at WordPress where I talk about many random things on the use of technology, though it seems at the moment that I’m rambling about blogging quite a bit here.

Technorati: Blogging, Corporate Blogging, Wiki, Robert Scoble, Rick Mahn, Richard Edelman, Naked Conversations, WordPress, Blogger

w.blogger working!

Finally, I’ve got w.blogger working, I found this support page that lead me to the correct settings to get the client logging into WordPress. Very happy now, just need to be able to forward my domain to WordPress and all should be good.

Technorati: w.blogger, blogging, XML, RPC

Blogging for a living…

It’s an interesting concept, and while I don’t believe that I’ll be making a lot of money at this for a long time, the aspects of pushing the boundaries of business communication really interests me.  I’ve been working on getting some pieces in place for consulting services for awhile now and I belive that I’ll be adding blogging as a service along with messaging, systems management, and other traditional IT consulting services.

The idea that businesses are waking up to the idea of direct communication with employees and customers has a huge potential that I’m just starting to truly understand.  My biggest question as a corporate employee at the moment is – do these businesses really understand what blogging will bring?  Do they truly understand that blogging will bring transparency to their communications faster than they will be able to adapt, and may make traditional businesspeople nervous?  That what is today considered internal communications are so much easier to communicate to those outside the company?  I don’t mean intellectual property – that can be pulled out of any unhappy employee.  What I mean is daily communication that happens as easily as talking at the “water cooler” with your coworkers.

 It’s a new communications universe that is exciting to me because I see the opportunities it brings, but it may be frightning to those traditional coporate-minded execs.  Some will see the light though and leverage it to grow their business.  That will be good, because it could be growing mine!

Learning WP…

OK, I’ve spent the entire evening reading dozens of blogs about WordPress, and have found a ton of interesting information.  Last night I set up a Win2k3 server and installed XAMPP with WordPress 2.0 (now upgraded to 2.0.1).

I’m doing a little research on how to install themes, plugins, manage the system and so on.  My plan is to find a host (any experience with GoDaddy?) and manage my own WordPress blog so I have more customization options as I want to grow.  That of course is not to say I don’t like the service on wordpress.com, but I do want to have complete control of my blog, so hosting my own is the way for me.

 WordPress is very impressive!

Risk Aversion

Here is an interesting post about risk-aversion and how it impacts individuals and organizations.  Great read, highly recommended.

via: Scobleizer

Company’s Mid-Winter Party

We just had our company’s mid-winter party tonight. What a blast! I thought it would be dull and boring – another corporate event. I was wrong. The company went all out, it was a fantastic dinner with a great band afterwards. I’ve not had this much fun at a corporate sponsored event in many many years. The company has made its 9th record year of growth, and I’m proud to have been a part of that – whether I made a big difference or not. Many of my co-workers in IT made it to the event, quite a surprise to all of us! We ended up shutting the place down at midnight (we live in Minneapolis, MN) and it was a great time without being “wild”.

To everyone who attended tonight, we’ll see you Monday – try to rest up tomorrow!

To the party planning commitee, who was made up of about 4 people, all I can say is Thank You for a great time and a well thought out and executed party.

New Links Page…

I’ve added a ‘Links’ page, but it does not seem to be showing up at the moment. I’ll update when I get it working. Strange…