David Knoke: Social Network Analysis (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences)
Linton C. Freeman: The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science
Malcolm Gladwell: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Malcolm Gladwell: Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
George S. Day: Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals That Will Make or Break Your Company
Since I do not have a dedicated comment feed, I'm including the link to the comments thread - lots of dialog on a recent post continues:
http://mikeg.typepad.com/perceptions/2008/03/microsoft-conti.html#comments
I've been a little consumed lately with following my favorite teams in the NCAA tournament - it has been a yearly tradition and addiction for a long time. But this post is not about a sports team but it is about a team that my family is involved in. So my apologies ahead of time for stepping away from my normal blog "voice". For those that read or subscribe to my blog on a regular basis, you probably know that the overall theme of my 750+ postings since February 2004 have been primarily related to my work with some occasional commentary on topics that help fill out my personal profile (such as my musings on the NCAA tournament, UConn, Green Bay Packers and Boston Red Sox).
I'm going to bend that rule just a little bit to draw some attention to an effort my daughter Meagan is undertaking. Meagan has participated in Relay For Life for the last four years. This year, she is also on the organizing committee and for the third time, she is captain of a Relay For Life team. To support her effort, you'll notice a slight design change to the right sidebar of my blog where I've added a widget that points to her team's landing page. Once there, you can find out more about her effort, donate if you choose to do so, learn about her team members (we'll all be listed at some point) as well as get information on our town's event and about the Relay For Life effort overall. It's a worthwhile effort that our entire family supports (my daughters - Meagan, Denise, Rachael as well as Cathy and myself).
And now, back to our regular schedule of postings...
Well, overall - not too bad. 36-12 for both the men's and women's brackets. For the men, Georgetown was my biggest letdown. It's true that I am a die-hard UConn fan but they have been inconsistent from time to time so it was disappointing to see them exit early but not as shocking as Georgetown. I was a little surprised that Pittsburgh folder early as well. For the women's bracket - Oklahoma losing to Pittsburgh was a pleasant surprise (great win for the Big East - 5 Big East teams in the Sweet 16 shows how competitive the Big East has become.
Heading into the final rounds - I still believe Kansas and UCLA make the finals and Kansas will win. For the women - it still comes down to UConn and Tennessee with UConn winning.
Men's NCCA Tournament (heading into the Sweet 16)
Round Winning Picks Losing Picks Round 1 26 6 Round 2 10 6 Total 36 12
Women's NCCA Tournament (heading into the Sweet 16)
Round Winning Picks Losing Picks Round 1 24 8 Round 2 12 4 Total 36 12
Perhaps not as many surprises. It seems like this year will end up with a classic UConn / Tennessee battle with UConn winning the championship.
Rutgers could upset UConn given the competitive nature of the team and history against UConn. A possible match-up with Maryland could also prove interesting given Maryland's talent. I don't see Tennessee being upset before the final game - maybe LSU has a shot if they were to win over North Carolina.
Some entertaining videos from the Microsoft Office Developer Conference. I think I've worked with these people over the years <g>
Office Developer Conference 2008 SWAG Guy
ODC2008 Architect Guy is a really funny video describing architects.
Mike Walker's Ramblings about Industry Architecture : Funny Videos from ODC 2008
Would Yahoo! start selling off some assets if the right offer came along. Given its focus on Microsoft's offer - and survival in general - would the company welcome such deals? For instance, if someone came along with the right offer for Zimbra (Cisco comes to mind), would Yahoo! let it go? I wonder...
For the past few weeks I've been using Zimbra's new Prism-based Desktop. Verdict? It rocks. Take a look at the UI below:
Zimbra's new Desktop: It rocks
Interesting article from Fortune - on the one hand, it is comforting I suppose to see Microsoft (as well as other sites) concerned about the confidentiality aspects of harvesting contact information and correlating relationships across sites. On the other hand, if the quid-pro-quo "deal" aspect of this is true (see assertion below), then it's a pretty obvious how deep (not) that concern for members is...
Now, with the emergence of social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, I've discovered to my happy surprise that my contact list has a hidden value far beyond my personal convenience. Sign up for virtually any social network these days, and you'll be asked if you want to upload your contacts. Click yes, and your computer will automatically check the names of your contacts against the names of registered users and, just like that, connect you with your in-network buddies.
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Since last summer, lawyers representing the company have been sending cease-and-desist letters to startups that offer new users the ability to import their Microsoft Hotmail contacts. In a move that Valley guys are deriding as ham-handed, Microsoft is offering a quid pro quo: Third-party sites can access Hotmail contacts if they make Microsoft's instant-messaging client available to their users - for 25 cents per user per year. Then the company says it will waive the fee if the sites make Messenger the exclusive in-network messaging client. Such a deal.
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Microsoft insists that its primary concern is our security. These little startups are storing your password along with your address book, says Brian Hall, general manager for Windows Live. "We want to make sure our data are kept between our users and our servers."
Perhaps an edge-case scenario, but if Nokia wanted to make a dramatic move... just thinking-out-loud...
The battle for Internet turf is no longer just a figure of speech. Nokia (NOK) on Feb. 11 announced a quartet of new handsets designed to more closely link global positioning systems (GPS) with the mobile Internet, bringing the Finnish company into more direct competition with Google Maps and staking a bigger claim to the emerging market for so-called location-based services. The announcement came on the same day that Google (GOOG) encroached on Nokia territory by demonstrating a prototype of its Android operating system for mobile phones.
Both companies are betting that where people are located will become an important part of how they use the Net. Nokia is trying to claim that arena with handsets such as its new, top-of-the-line N96. The device allows owners to shoot videos, "geotag" them with info about where the images were taken, and upload to a Nokia Web site that sounds suspiciously like Google's YouTube.
Is Yahoo! that fountain of youth for Microsoft? Very astute (and intriguing) angle re: generational transitions - argued in the article below - especially given the departure of long-time Microsoft leadership recently.
If Microsoft was willing to use Yahoo! as a mechanism to culturally transform itself rather than simply absorbing Yahoo! and dissolving it at some point down the road, this deal might turn into something much different. A "Yahoo! DNA infusion" would bring onboard people who would not be locked into pre-conceived notions of the world around them and the role of technology (e.g., "Fortress Windows"). Such out-of-the-box thinking might unleash some compelling marketplace dynamics.
The same could be said of other traditional enterprise vendors that perhaps look at the competitive landscape through a mirror more reflective of past experiences than future possibilities. In addition to Microsoft, are other "captains of industry" (e.g., Cisco, IBM, and Oracle) capable of transforming their own respective organization as generational transitions ripple across so many societal, economic, political and market trends?
What we have here at Microsoft is a generational transition like we've seen in many other industries as leading companies go from robber barons to industry stalwarts. Look at railroads and oil in U.S. business history and you'll see the same thing. And just as in those industries, Gates and Ballmer know that Microsoft's style has to change with the times, but even more importantly to them Microsoft has to change because they simply lack confidence that any successor can do as well at playing hardball as Gates and Ballmer did.
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Same for Microsoft, which with its Yahoo acquisition will quite consciously try to convert itself into the next General Electric, a company that uses its sheer economic power to make most of its money. All those golf games with Jack Welch were for a purpose. That's why Microsoft is assuming debt to buy Yahoo. It is a logical thing to do and will be accepted by Wall Street much more easily than if Ballmer explained that Microsoft was restructuring and acquiring debt to make it possible for the company to not just pay $44.6 billion for Yahoo, but probably another $100 billion for the other acquisitions that will shortly happen to position Microsoft in the GE space, where it will be protected from bad guesses on technology shifts.
Bill Gates is no fool. His company's pirate days are waning and a bold move is required to prove that to the world. Yahoo has no choice at all and can do little but quibble over price. Notice, too, that an all-cash deal gives Yang and Filo no stake in the combined company. They are gone.
For the most part, I keep this blog pretty much focused on my research efforts, related industry news, Burton Group activities and occasional posts that provide some insight to me personally. I'm passing this pointer along because (A) the product was created by a friend of mine and her sister-in-law, (B) the product is actually quite creative and really useful and (C) I always find it fascinating how things can become viral.
So here's the information: the web store is Jill-able and a short YouTube video is embedded below.
