Finding Ways to Learn from Wordle

Earlier today, I gained a whole different insight into my own resume. How you ask? I used Wordle to take a look at my resume as a word cloud.

It resulted in my being rather surprised that it was not precisely communicating what I had aim to communicate. It isin't the exact representation of who I think I am professionally. How intriguing... and pretty cool, I'd say. What can I learn from this? Use other descriptions and words for the cloud to become precise? Is it possible to have a precise cloud? Do I even want to do that?

I then remembered being surprised in the same way a few months ago regarding something else that is dear to my heart. And that is reading. I know what kind of books I like to read. But the tag cloud had showed me differently.

I have tagged many of my books in LibraryThing and when I looked at the cloud it did something to me that was something in between amusement and annoyance. My own personal idea of what I like to read is different than what the tag cloud showed me.

For example, the tag cloud shows that a majority of the books I've read are set in England. That is not how I would have identified my reading. Yet it gave me a different perspective on myself in a silent and subltle way. In a powerful way, I'd even say.

Still what does it mean? What can I learn from it? Not sure how to approach this new way of looking at myself or the things I do and produce in a word format. According to this technology how am I then represented? Do I even know myself?

What are the thoughts from others who will look at my cloud? Does it mean next time I send my resume a prospective employer they will plug it into wordle to see if my experience is giving them what they are looking for? How will this change things?

So now, I have an urge to put everything I do into Wordle! Can't help myself. I composed a detailed email earlier and it went into Wordle! My latest presentation? Sure! Why not honey? Put it in Wordle. This Blog entry? You bet! See for yourself!

Cisco Cius

The innovative Cisco Cius (pronounced "See Us") is an ultra-portable, mobile collaboration business tablet that offers access to essential business applications and technologies.

It can be held in a wired docking station for desktop use and then carried as a mobile tablet when needed.

 Tablet Highlights:
• 7” diagonal, high-resolution color screen with contact-based touch targets delivers an elegant, intuitive experience
• HD Soundstation supports Bluetooth and USB peripherals, 10/100/1000 wired connectivity and a handset option
• Detachable and serviceable 8-hour battery for a full day of work
• Highly secure remote connections with Cisco AnyConnect Security VPN Client
• HD audio with wideband support (tablet, HD Soundstation)

Update to my evening at WIT

I was blown away by how good the evening turned out to be at WIT (Women In Technology).  The ladies I met were so highly professional and friendly. Made three awesome contacts and looking towards many years of being a part of this wonderful group.

The evening's format was that a moderator would ask the panelists for real life situations when they were not in managerial positions and how they dealt with those work related issues.

Many topics came up some of which were the following: 
- How to be aware and avoid making political mistakes. How to deal with the after effects of having put your foot in your mouth.
- How to align and identify mentors
- Prepare mini elevator speech
- Do not dis-associate with an out of favor boss
- How to avoid office gossip
- How to deal with difficult bosses and possible reasons for their being so difficult
- How to use humor to help you survive difficult situations

- You are not what you do, you are many other things: Mother, Wife, Daughter, Aunt, Friend - Remember that

- If all is tough in your department, for example, your boss is being devalued still remember to do a good job and let your work shine through

- Never be complacent, always have a plan

- Stretch vertically/apply yourself horizontally

- You have a lot more power than you think

Many of these topics are also discussed in "Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office" written by Dr. Lois Frankel. I highly recommend it.

The Office Chessboard: How to Play a Win-Win Game

How to Play a Win-Win Game. Hmmm. It seems to be the story of my life lately. How do you play the game? How to stay at the top? It seems the rules are different for women. I'm increasingly worried about not being marketable and doing everything I can to stay in the game and to be on top of the game.

Recently, I started reading: Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office. The sub-title is: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers.

101!!!??? Really?

When you talk about 101 mistakes you know you might find something of yours in there, so I decided to give it a shot and read it ... and I did find mistakes that I make. And let me tell you, I didn't like finding it. And it made me cringe. But I'm glad someone actually could tell me and fortunately it is a book -- and it's only you and the book that will know how to improve yourself. 

Going back to my event this evening, And being in a win-win world, I'm hoping to get a better grasp on the following and hear what professionals have to say. Whether they have different ways of dealing with the following and what can I learn from others:  Dealing with Conflict at Work

• Handling Personality Struggles
• Coping with Sabotage in the Workplace
• Managing High-Performance Teams
• Understanding Low Performers with Connections

Sounds like it'll be a great evening and lots to learn.

Useful Firefox Plugins for Web Product Managers

I found a great article on the Web Product blog listing the top 11 useful Firefox plugins for Product Managers. See full article here. They are:

1. Webdeveloper: Allows you to manipulate any web site easily.
2. Firebug: Allows you to quickly inspect and analyze the HTML code of specific parts of a website. (Can I say that I love it???)
3. Fireshot: This Firefox plugin allows you to quickly make and edit screenshots of webpages. (Excellent for Bug Reports)
4. Colorzilla: Analyze the colors of websites
5. FireSizer: Makes it possible to switch to common browser screen resolutions

6. FireFTP: Easy FTP tool ( I personally use CuteFTP)
7. LinkChecker: This one helps you to avoid broken links on your page
8. MeasureIT: Simply measure the size of an element in your page
9. SEOQuake: Answers SEO questions, such as PageRank and Keyword density.
10. Seledium IDE: Allows you to record and replay every action you do with your Browser

11. Stumbleupon: A great source of inspiration...

Social Web: 10+1 changes for 2010

Below is a great post on the expected trends in the Social Web for 2010.  Top Three are:

1. Twitter becoming the leading News system. I can totally see that happening. Specially in arenas such as sports where you can have direct access to people twitting from the locker rooms which later on make their way into the sports sections.

2. Advertising Avalanche. Makes for an interesting thought with a billion people involved in the social web.

3. LinkedIn. About time this app makes it's way into being more of a social web networking. I'm always trying to figure out what is acceptable and what is not. Should be interesting to see the developments with this app in 2010.

For more of the article see: 10 +1 Trends and changes for the social web 2010 by Axel Schultze.

Foursquare becoming Mainstream?

There is speculation on how successful will Foursquare be? Will it be as mainstream as Facebook? Or Twitter? We shall wait and see.

A few days ago I wrote about Foursquare and I just read that it has past the 1 million mark and adding 15,000 users a day. The company is up for sale and it was recently offered $10mm. However, this offer has been rejected. And I can see why. It has huge potential for making money. Can you imagine as stores offer exculsive discounts to Forsquare users? Or they can fill their stores during off hours? What a great way to have people come your way. And I'm sure I'm not even thinking of the apps' full potential in social networking.

I'll eagerly be following this company and it's successes. http://foursquare.com/