New J-O-B

I accepted a new position on the Enterprise Portal and Intranet Applications (EPIA) team within Freescale IT. We are responsible for maintaining a lot of Freescale's internal websites. We don't do the external site (www.freescale.com), but we sit next to the people who do.

On the technology front, I'm looking forward to learning a lot of new stuff, like Struts, Python, and NetWeaver. I'm also looking forward to sharing what I know about Spring, Rails, and Maven.

On the people and experience front, I am excited to meet Freescalers from many different parts of the business: sales, engineering, finance, and human resources.

On to the next chapter...

Japan Pictures Available

Our Japan pictures are available here:
http://kuenzli.org/stephen/

I am working on several posts about Japan, as well.

Arigato Nippon - Haiku

your land is serene
your people are enchanting
thanks for all the fish

Yodatastic version:
serene your land is
enchanting your people are
for all the fish, thanks

The Tipping Point - Book Review

The Tipping Point is a Design Patterns book for creating social epidemics. I feel like I can utilize Gladwell's concepts regarding epidemics to reach, grow, and serve customers better.

Verdict: This is good stuff.

The book describes "how little things can make a big difference." This idea is certainly not new and you could imagine plucking this phrase from a context of quality, customer service, or even oil filters. The 'little things' Gladwell describes are sociological in nature and he distills his thoughts into three change agents.

The Law of the Few
Gladwell postulates that fads, epidemics, and other changes that occur in large groups of people are actually the result of the influence of a few highly-influential people -- the Pareto Principle (aka the "80/20 rule"). He calls this the Law of the Few. The key roles in the Law of the Few :

• Maven - someone who is the go-to person for answers on a broad topic such as shopping, travel, or computers; this person is compelled to stay at the leading edge of knowledge on the topic and shares his knowledge enthusiastically with everyone around him
  
• Connector - someone who interacts meaningfully with hundreds or even thousands of people on a regular basis; Connectors are the reason "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" works
  
• Salesman - someone who is highly effective at persuading other people to take action; the effectiveness is derived from not just the logic of the Salesman's argument, but in the emotional connection made with the person being persuaded

Stickiness Factor
Gladwell also argues that whether an idea bursts into popularity or fades into the darkness is also influenced by the idea's Stickiness Factor -- which is merely the tendency for an idea to stay alive within a community. I especially enjoyed this section as Gladwell described not only how Sesame Street and Blue's Clues were made sticky to the target audience, little kids, but how they measured and improved stickiness before broadcast.

Power of Context
Gladwell's third and final "little thing" is the "Power of Context." The idea is that people are influenced by the environmental factors around them: weather, road closures, location of friends, and usability. Brilliant.

Conclusion
The Good:

• case studies and other examples of the tipping point theory in action
• naming the three key roles that create social epidemics is an effective shorthand

The Bad:

• a bit redundant at times
  
• re-invents Metcalfe's Law, by quoting Kevin Kelly and his "fax effect"
  

None of the ideas presented are particularly brilliant when taken alone. The brilliance is in the ability to synthesize these ideas into a strategy that enables and supports Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen in doing what they do naturally -- start an epidemic.

Sayonara Nippon - Haiku

our journey nears end
your train took us there quickly
memories remain

Yodatastic version:
nears end our journey
quickly your train took us
remember we will

I don‘t need no stinkin` toothpaste

Jen and I made it to Japan. Despite all the warnings about hours-long lines, we breezed straight through check-in and security. Perhaps we made our own good fortune by checking our toothpaste. We flew in style on a 777, which had the more room in economy class than I thought was possible. David and Akiko met us at the gate and escorted us through a great first day in Japan. Highlights of the day include seeing the Rainbow Bridge, which is done in the style of the Brooklyn Bridge and our first course of Japanese sushi, which was excellent. We have a great picture of Jen eating shrimp. Mmm...Creamy!

We are staying at the Toyoko Inn in Chiba, which we quite like so far. We will be staying at several Toyoko Inns during our trip. Ok, we are off to the train station to meet David and Akiko in Ichigawa, which is where David lives. We are going to try and go to the Tokyo Fish Market and see kabuki in the Giza district.

Fun, fun.

TTYL.

Preparing for Japan

Jen finished up the itinerary for our trip to Japan this morning around 2AM. We leave on Thursday, and it is shaping up to be a great trip! I am really looking forward to relaxing and snarfing sushi. We will spend a lot of time traveling on airplanes and trains this trip. I plan to use that time to read The Tipping Point and A Short History of Nearly Everything. Here is the where part of our itinerary:

1. Dallas/Ft. Worth
2. Tokyo (Narita Airport), staying in Chiba so we can see Jen's brother, David
3. Kyoto
4. Osaka
5. Oshino (Mt. Fuji area)
6. Tokyo

We are going to do this trip backpacker style -- at least we're using backpacks instead of suitcases. I think I convinced Jen on our trip to Costa Rica that backpacks are the way to go -- especially when traveling by train.

Sayonara!