Collaborative Thinking

A Display Of Sportsmanship Worth Noting

Having coached Little League/Ponytail softball for 11 years, this story just struck me as an inspiring and selfless act that deserves attention (it has gotten a lot of coverage). The teams involved were battling for a playoff spot. The player who was hurt (Sara Tucholsky) was a career .153 hitter and this was her first home run - ever. She was a senior and it was senior-day. The opposing player (Mallory Holtman) who came up with the idea to help her was the all-time home run leader for the conference. While the team that carried her around the bases eventually lost the game, they accomplished something much more important.  Watch the video - it will make your day.

Actual Video

Additional Stories

What is sportsmanship

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

By Travis David Sports Writer

Central Washington's Liz Wallace (left) and Mallory Holtman (right) are pictured carrying Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky around the bases. Tucholsky was injured as she tried to round the bases on her own after a home run. (Submitted photo).

... As I was skimming through espn.com the other day I came across a very touching sports story involving sportsmanship in the positive way. The story came from a Western Oregon and Central Washington (Div. II) softball game on Saturday in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game.

Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky stepped to the plate in the top second inning in a scoreless game. The senior was batting a woeful .088 on the season heading into the game. Then on an 0-1 pitch she belted a three-run homer over the center field fence for an early lead. The homer was the first of Tucholshy's career.

As Tucholsky was approaching second base when rounding the bases, she realized she had missed first base, and as she was circling back to touch the base, her knee gave out, collapsing just short of first base.

Before head coach Pam Knox motioned for a substitute runner to take the place of the fallen batter, opposing first base man Mallory Holtman, who is incidentally the career leader in home runs for Central Washington, and Central Washington's shortstop Liz Wallace picked up Tucholsky and carried the injured player around the base paths, helping her gingerly touch each base and giving way to a swarm of Tucholsky's teammates waiting at home plate.

At the time it was made clear that if Tucholsky could not round the bases on her own power a substitute could be brought in and take over at first base, giving her credit for only a two-run SINGLE and not a home run. But Holtman, a senior herself, playing on senior day knew that her and her teammates could help and it still count as a home run.

Greene County Daily World: Story: What is sportsmanship

Re-org at Microsoft relocates UC head to its emerging markets unit

Anoop Gupta resurfaces in the Unlimited Potential Group:

Taking Poole's place at UPG is Anoop Gupta, whose most recent project at Microsoft has met with some success: Unified Communications, the company's strategy to move telephony onto the PC platform where the software industry can have a stake. Gupta is a veteran researcher and educator, having served over a decade at Stanford University as a computer science professor, and thereafter having served Bill Gates as his personal technology assistant.

BetaNews | Re-org at Microsoft relocates UC head to its emerging markets unit

Apple snags 14 percent of US-based PC retail sales in February

Impressive. 

Growth in Apple's personal computer business continued to outpace the industry average last month, with Macs accounting for a 14 percent unit share and 25 percent dollar share of all US-based PC retail sales, according to market research firm NPD.

The results -- first revealed in an investor note from Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves on Monday -- represent 60 percent unit growth and 67 percent revenue growth over the same period one year ago. At the same time, overall US PC retail shipments grew just 9 percent on a 5 percent increase in revenues.

AppleInsider | Apple snags 14 percent of US-based PC retail sales in February

Burton Group Catalyst Speaker Submissions

Catalyst (North America) is Burton Group's premiere event for technologists and executives. If you are interested in speaking at our Catalyst event, please see the links below to submit a proposal (note the deadlines):

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What A Yahoo! Acquisition Might Mean To Microsoft

Notes from the conference call this morning:

• Press release: "Transaction valued at approximately $44.6 billion in cash and stock; provides 62 percent premium to current trading price for Yahoo! shareholders; combined entity to create a more competitive company, providing superior value to shareholders, better choice and innovation for customers and partners"
• Updated: Forgot one thing Microsoft also picks up that is interesting: Yahoo! Pipes and Yahoo! Mash.

Benefit #1: Yahoo! helps Microsoft when it comes to search/advertising.

Solid business boost for Microsoft without doubt.

Benefit #2: Microsoft becomes a stronger social media player

Through Flickr and del.ico.us, Microsoft gains additional assets that help with its community-building and social networking efforts across consumer segments. Also, Microsoft's ability to leverage the install base of people using Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger is also compelling.

Benefit #3: Infrastructure matters. Microsoft's cloud just got bigger.

Data centers are not cheap - economies of scale kick in.

Benefit #4: Combining Talent pools.

Yahoo! has some brilliant people. While not every idea played out effectively - the creativity of Yahoo's employees (including those over at Zimbra) are clearly additive to where Microsoft wants to go concerning social media, collaboration, etc.

Benefit #5: Derivative impacts to the enterprise

Yahoo! recently acquired Zimbra. Zimbra has one of the most modern platforms for enterprise messaging (in terms of user experience, architecture). Zimbra has made inroads in some market segments (e.g., educational institutions). While some platform components may not fit cleanly (those based on Java and XMPP), there are synergies overall with what Microsoft is delivering re: Office Live Workspace. I'm sure the Exchange team would love to chat with its Zimbra counterparts on what works and lesson's learned. In fact, I think the user experience around Zimbra Collaboration Suite is so good that the Office and SharePoint teams would benefit from such insight. Also, it would be interesting to explore the possibility of Microsoft leveraging del.ico.us as its strategic tag/bookmark component within SharePoint as well as Office Live efforts. Microsoft also picks up some interesting mashup tools and social networking technologies: Pipes and Mash.

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

A fascinating article that should be of interest for parents but perhaps also somewhat relevant to those involved in organizational development within business organizations:

A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade school. He completed his assignments easily and routinely earned As. Jonathan puzzled over why some of his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he had a special gift. In the seventh grade, however, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests. As a consequence, his grades plummeted. His parents tried to boost their son’s confidence by assuring him that he was very smart. But their attempts failed to motivate Jonathan (who is a composite drawn from several children). Schoolwork, their son maintained, was boring and pointless.

Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.

The result plays out in children like Jonathan, who coast through the early grades under the dangerous notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them as smart or gifted. Such children hold an implicit belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making striving to learn seem far less important than being (or looking) smart. This belief also makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.

Praising children’s innate abilities, as Jonathan’s parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and even marriages from living up to their potential. On the other hand, our studies show that teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.

Scientific American: Nothing Says "Early Earth Was Cool" Like World's Oldest Diamonds

Burton Group Telebriefing: Deciphering Social Media

Open to the public...

12/4/2007 at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT / 19:00 UTC/GMT / 20:00 CET

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12/5/2007 at 9:00 AM ET / 6:00 AM PT / 14:00 UTC/GMT / 15:00 CET

Deciphering Social Media

Social media is a critical issue for all organizations. While there are risks to address, social media offers organizations tremendous opportunities to deliver products and services that enhance customer, partner and employee relationships. Executive teams are also exploring how social media catalyzes innovation efforts and transforms work models. In this TeleBriefing, industry luminary Anil Dash, chief evangelist of Six Apart, and Chris Howard, VP and Service Director of Burton Group's Executive Advisory Program, join Principal Analyst Mike Gotta for a lively discussion on the challenges and benefits social media presents to the enterprise.

To register for this Burton Group telebriefing, click here.

Glance Networks: Screen Sharing + Remote Control

What I like about Glance is that it does exactly what I expect it to do, direct and simple. It does not eliminate the use of other web conferencing tools that provide greater functionality but often those tools can be cumbersome to use in certain situations or require intrusive registration or involve large downloads.   

Glance Networks, Inc., creator of the “one-button-simple” Glance^® desktop sharing service, today debuted a new lightweight remote control feature. Now Glance users can easily share their mouse and keyboard with other participants to quickly demonstrate software, co- edit documents, collaborate on designs, fill in forms and more — all online.
....

Glance’s lightweight remote control feature lets any session become a collaborative experience. A Glance host can share control with guests at any time. The host instantly regains control by just moving his or her mouse. To let a guest take back control, the host simply pauses.
....

In addition to remote control, Glance’s latest software release includes an increase in session size to 100 participants, providing more than enough capacity to use Glance for nearly any training session or webinar. ....The release also adds more methods to keep session participants connected — even if their network unexpectedly drops or briefly fades.
....

The new Glance version is available today for Microsoft Windows^TM PCs at www.glance.net/download. An upcoming version for the Apple Mac^TM will be announced soon.

CRM Today: Glance Networks Debuts Remote Control for Screen Sharing

Verizon Wireless wants to sell your personally identifiable data

Having covered privacy earlier in my research career - this is really a bad practice, apparently (a) a default opt-in unless you proactively take steps to opt-out and (b) no subsequent notices (although if you happen to find out, you can then opt-out). Wow ... I suppose someone had to top what Comcast was doing...

Last week, it was revealed that Verizon Wireless is mailing a notice advising wireless subscribers that if they fail to Opt Out within 30 days, Verizon will begin SELLING their Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) to “third parties and affiliates”.

CPNI information includes all the calls you place or receive on your cell phone (along with date, time and call duration). Verizon intends to allow “targeted ads” created by their affiliates sent to your phone.

Network Instruments has been following this issue closely and has posted a sample e-mail that anyone can send FCC commissioners:

» Outrage: Verizon Wireless wants to sell your personally identifiable data: here’s how you can stop this | IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband | ZDNet.com

Comcast, BitTorrent and spam - oops, sometimes it's not spam

If all Comcast was blocking was "spam" or other illegitimate use of its network I think people would be pretty understanding (read the ZDNet post below) - but

In all the words being written about Comcast’s violating net neutrality and throttling down BitTorrent, no one has pointed to their excuse.

Bandwidth. (To the right, a yummy pork shoulder and ham product from the good folks at Hormel.)

Many small ISPs, especially if they’re based on WiFi, routinely throttle down BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer applications. They have done so for years. Their bandwidth costs them real money, and the only way they say they can assure adequate speed to all is to minimize the movement of big files.

» Comcast, BitTorrent and spam spam spam | Open Source | ZDNet.com

Such is not the case - legitimate traffic is also being impaired by Comcast interfering with the traffic - and doing so in a way that is somewhat deceptive when business organizations using Lotus Notes perform root cause analysis:

I can confirm that IBM Lotus tests, along with customer tests, indicate the same behavior in Notes/Domino uploads.  A TCP reset is introduced into the stream, one which does not originate from the Domino server.  The effect is to terminate the upload/sending of data from the Notes client.  The Notes/Domino engineering team attempted a workaround, but this was unsuccessful.

We are now tracking this issue as SPR# PAZR77TSW7.  As it happens, I reached out to a contact at Comcast yesterday, someone I found through LinkedIn.  By their title and job description, they sound like they could be helpful, but I've received no response as of yet.  Unfortunately, the AP article hits the same brick wall as Kevin and others have -- Comcast denies doing anything, so how do you log an issue?  Perhaps the increased visibility of today's story will help get us past this issue.  Maybe some digging (digg this or the AP story) will get further attention.

Ed Brill