Accidentally on Purpose Blog

White-board session about the impact of information technology on companies - on how they perform and how they compete.

Lee has done it again!   This one should be played on broadcast TV for the masses.

Electing a US President in Plain English

Clay Shirky is one of my favorite thinkers & presenters and his recent Web 2.0 presentation on the cognitive surplus has helped me immensely.   Lately I’ve been struggling to keep all that’s in front of me in focus –  a cognitive bender if you will.  

I don’t watch a lot of TV and I don’t read a lot (at least not for pleasure.)   The latter being more of an occupational hazard as a result of my day job — my feed reader is in a perpetual mode of edit as I try to parse my ever growing lists of feeds.  As for the former, I’m not much interested in most of what the broadcasting community has to offer.  Its been ~47 years since Newton Minnow, delivered his famous “wasteland” speech to the National Association of Broadcasters — IMO, not much has changed.

Shirky’s presentation made me think about my current situation and after a long hard look I realized I was falling prey to dogma. I found myself floundering against what was expected of me from various points of view (family, friends, colleagues, etc.) not that all of these things were bad mind you, its just that for the most part, I was feeling “trapped” by other people’s thinking and that isn’t always the friendliest of places.  

My cognitive surplus was actually a deficit.  Shirky presented the challenge in a way that allowed me to think of my predicament in a new way.  It was the inspiration I needed to think through my situation and devise a plan to divest myself of what was burdening me and focus my new found time on the opportunities that would keep me motivated and productive.  Where you find the time is a personal endeavor — I hope Shirky’s insights inspire you in a way that helps you find the time.

Part 1

Part 2

World Team Tennis (WTT) anyone?   We’re fortunate because my family and I can walk to the event in about 7 minutes (that’s a good thing) The bad news — it was 94 degrees outside (34.5 C for the rest of the world!)

Unbeknownst to many, Delaware has its own team the Delaware Smash , its owned by Billy Jean King herself.   Tonight the Smash are playing the Kansas City Explorers an its presented in such a intimate location — the parking lot of the DuPont Country Club!  

Advanta, whom I’d like to thank, makes WTT possible as a national sponsor.   They even provide free tennis racquets for all the kids that attend.   I don’t know how many years we’ve been going to see the Smash play — the crowds are into it, the players have a lot of fun and while you haven’t probably heard of many of the players - they are all incredible athletes! 

Some are even exceptional like Liezel Huber (Delaware Smash) - Ranked #1 in the world in women’s doubles and has won 27 career doubles titles, including Wimbledon and the Australian open or the Bryan Brothers (Kansas City Explorers) - these guys have won every men’s double title in tennis!  Other players you may have heard of:

• Venus and Serena Williams
• Lindsay Davenport
• Sam Querrey
• Anna Kournikova

You get the idea — world class tennis in your own backyard!   Doesn’t matter which team wins or looses — the point is — its a blast!  One big disappointment this evening was that Liezel Huber was a no show again this year.  Last year she was busy playing and ultimately winning the women’s doubles championship at Wimbledon — gotta cut her some slack on that one. 

Here are a few photo highlights of the evening:

The Bryan brothers: Mike & Bob the #1 doubles team in the world

The aforementioned parking lot - now tennis court

And the women’s doubles, during warm up

Mid way through the match the Bryan Bros. posed for some pictures with some of their fans.   I was lucky enough to get them to pose with my kids while still on the court.   As soon as they send me the photo I’ll update this post with what will likely be one hell of great memory for my kids.