Kevin Smith sighting...

I met Kevin Smith last night while eating dinner with coworkers and clients in Pittsburgh. Read all about it on Peter Wilt's blog!

Disappointment?

Ah well...unlike 1984 I am not choking back tears with a half-eaten english muffin pizza on my lap while I watched 'Fridge' Perry roll across the defensive line and into the end zone. I am also not experiencing that sinking feeling of complete and utter failure like when Bill Buckner hammered the last nail into the coffin of 1986...a moment I will always refer to as the 'play heard round the league'.

There was, very likely, a moment of complete and utter silence across the entire metro Boston area tonight...at least the 30 people in my house fell completely silent for a good 30 seconds while they tried to understand how this was happening late in the fourth quarter...how could this be?

This kind of disapointment is like an old, well worn article of clothing...when you slip it back on after a couple of years in the closet it feels just right. No matter what...it was an amazing season. My friends and I watched 18 of the 19 games in my living room this year...only interrupting the flow once because I was stuck in Baltimore on business. I woke up at 5 AM that day to drive back to Boston just in time for kick off at Eric's house.

Sure, this is probably now the biggest choke in football history...but I wouldn't trade this season for any sports series in my lifetime. My friends and I are tighter than ever. Thank you 2007 NE Patriots!!

Honestly, I love technology...

I was fortunate to visit the offices of Attivio this week for a reception party where they announced the launch of their search platform. They had many interesting applications of the underlying technology to demonstrate their capabilities which you can explore in their web site (which my company built!)

The boy in me was most fascinated by the RFID located in my name tag. While they singed us into the party they asked some simple questions. In my case, where I had lived, went to school and worked in the past. As I wondered around the office space the RFID in my name tag was tracked by receivers strategically placed near large, flat monitors mounted on the wall. If I wandered within 10-15' of a monitor it would register my presence and the presence of those around me. Using their underlying database technology it generated tag clouds weighting items I had in common with the people around me more heavily.

Very interesting.

Google Groups for Collaboration

I have used Google's group application as a collaboration site on three very large scale software projects in the last 6 months. It works really well!! There is a simple file sharing repository, page creation and user administration with varying levels of access and update.

The coolest feature is the messaging component. When users reply to notes through the system it tracks responses and keeps a record of the dialog. Giving stakeholders the ability to communicate this way is very beneficial. One feature which seems very obvious but is missing is integration with Google documents, another favorite application.

Using the file sharing application makes it so incredibly easy to keep the client on track with the project deliverables and milestones. All the revisions and notes are stored in a central, accessible location which greatly serves to reduce time wasted on explaining why things happen the way they happen. When the progression of the project is right there for everyone to see everyone benefits.

Setting up a Group is about as easy as setting up a Google email account. Once you have Gmail check out the groups here!

Time to make the donuts...

The professional sports league and teams CMS web portal I am working on is coming together on a time line so accelerated and rigid I am being forced to rethink everything I know about managing projects. Although this pace would not be possible to sustain year round there are definitely some things to be learned from being able to focus all of ones attention on a single project for 4 weeks of 14 hour days. Hopefully soon I will be able to write a proper blog entry which discusses some of the things I have learned...but for now...time to make the donuts.

January 15 is the 1.0 release date.

My Brother is amazing...

My brother Max is back in the news again...

This time for the #1 best new restaurant of 2007 in the San Francisco/Bay Area!!!

Consider: Max and his business partners; Rich and Rebekah Wood opened the Wood Tavern in one of the most popular food markets in the entire world...check out the articles!!

SF Examiner Article

Two weeks ago they were named in the top 10 best overall in the Bay Area:

SF Gate Article

Picking up the pace...

I am building a content managed web site for a professional sports league including membership portal and online community. I started yesterday and the phase one release must deploy for a specific event in mid January. It feels good to be working on a project with very specific parameters, a fast pace and very few constraints. Because of confidentiality I can not talk much about the client but I will say it is a league with national visibility and the site is going to have many of the features one would expect from MLB or NFL .com.

Sadly, this does not leave much room for blogging. I am hoping to do some research on online communities and do an entry in addition to picking up my discussions on process and pricing over the coming few days.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays!

Ciao,

Jake