Blog about Sourcing... and Stuff

More “un”… more “fun”? For having never been to an “un-conference” before it was quite a unique experience, and certainly one I’d advise everyone attend at least once in their career. For me, the laid back atmosphere, lack of structure, and overall flow was really very nice and extremely refreshing. There was/is one problem however and it’s kind of a subject which I’ve been meaning to voice my opinion on for quite a while but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Before I get into everything, I want to thank everyone who put TruUSA together…  Great Job Guys! Looking forward to the next one I can make it to!  Big thanks to Bill Boorman who got me a spot leading a track which was AWESOME!   Although he couldn’t make it… #ashcloud…  he was missed.  Extra big thanks to Geoff Webb, Marie Journey, Julia Stone, Maha Akiki, and although he couldn’t make it either, Jim Stroud (PS:  I brought comics and everything… you were totally missed)  I had my doubts and lots of questions, but I think I get it now.  And I like it… a LOT.  Ok, where was I…

To be brutally honest, I kind of got caught up in a work project during the first 2 days #TruUSA and didn’t really spend a whole lot of time socializing. I heard the things going on around me, but I anchored into wherever I sat down in the morning and didn’t move around much. Even when the room was empty during sessions which took place in other areas of the lounge, I stayed and continued doing my thing. I’m really glad I did however because it gave me the opportunity to think, but more importantly connect one on one with several people as they passed through. This is what I came to the event for and why I was excited to attend.

On day two, I had the chance to just sit and chat with Marie Journey for close to two hours just going back and fourth mixing and matching ideas. I’ve been Marie’s #1 fan since SourceCon10’, and while I’ve listened to her talk about video, sat in on her tracks at both SC10 and TruUSA, and even watched of her videos, it was never something I’d considered using myself. She wound up giving me more insight on video while I talked up my automation ideas and before we knew it, we’d each learned something valuable and had an understanding of the application of each to our daily lives. My eyes opened quite a bit to idea of using video once I understood how to leverage it for myself. Concepts are great, but it’s the application that counts, and combining ideas, sharing, removing our defensive filters, and being True… no bullshit… yeah, that’s how to advance and progress as quickly as possible.

While the first two days I didn’t really have much interaction with the event itself other than being essentially a “fly on the wall”, I did take hear a lot of things that I’m sick of hearing. I’m not speaking specifically to anyone, I gripe probably as much as anyone if you let me, but the number one overall issue most of us have problems with is…

Flash forward to day three for a moment. Twelve people in room; sharing their “secret sauce”; nothing but pure true learning taking place. This made my two days of being a fly on the wall totally worth it. What I got out of #TruSource was something way beyond anything you’ll find at any presentation at any conference or at any large scale webinar. A collective group of people who “get it”, and are willing to “trade” ideas. Keyword in that sentence “willing”, not forced, not there to socialize, but want to learn, implement, and utilize immediately. We all need to retain our value and we all have our specialties, but combining them is where the money is at.

People talk about this all of the time in our industry but seldom address it publicly, and it’s the idea of “idea” theft. Yes, it exists, yes it sucks, and yes, it’s got lots of people, including myself scared to share ideas. Honestly, I think it’s only natural seeing as how sourcing is now even finding itself progressively more outsourced and it’s these “tips and tricks” that give us as individuals brand value. The last thing I want is something that I came up with to be re-packaged and branded under someone else. Giving credit where it’s due is critically important because now more than ever personal branding isn’t an option. What’s more important though is talking to the people who came up with the idea and collectively expanding upon it. Willingness to collaborate, learn, adapt, and really see the application and value in something speaks volumes… Hard to be willing when we’re all afraid to be sharked, and that’s why #TruSource was awesome. A small group of talented, bright, and trustworthy people all in it for progression and advancement; doesn’t get any better. For everyone who cut out early and missed it… I was let to ramble for close to 2 hours spilling my guts about some of my newer favorite toys… something which seldom happens.

Ok, now that I’ve covered Tru’s high points, let’s talk about “problem solving” and less about “our problems”. I like to solve problems, riddles, and puzzles. For me, just listening to the problems of the people who attend these events is my greatest inspiration and point of creativity. When solving any problem, you have to look at the situation objectively and start from the bottom. Here it is… the biggest problem I heard all event long… ready for it…

UPPER MANAGEMENT – COMPLIANCE – METRICS

As sourcers, it’s often been called into question whether we’re just lackeys to the recruiters we support, of if we stand on our own ground. Well, if we are truly at the bottom of the chain, then we’re the product problem higher up the ladder. The work we do is valuable.  The skills we have as individuals are VALUABLE, but what’s more VALUABLE than that is what we can achieve collectively. A lot of sourcers live contract to contract working with new people all of the time just trying to make ends meet. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the opportunity to stay with a company for longer than six months? Maybe make some real changes? Maybe see a big idea of yours implemented and learn from those results?

Yes! Oh wait… no… can’t do that as short term contractors. Top down management? What? Yeah, hot topic of #TruSource, I said it. If we’re on the low end when it comes to decision making, then who’s on the high side? Ask yourself this question if you work for any large corporation…

How many names up the food chain do you know and have you met?

Your boss obviously… maybe your bosses boss… but who do they answer to? Who are the people deciding what concepts work and what don’t? Have you met them face to face? Do they have any experience in first hand sourcing? Well, for me, I see that as the first critical piece of data to source in order to solve this problem.

I’m always delighted to see managers at these events because I always hope they take something of value away. Most conferences though, people don’t say what they’re really thinking because, they’re at these events to make good impressions. Can’t blame them, the market is rough, and making connections is a valid reason to bite your lip. So how/where/when can these issues be addressed? That’s right you should have guessed by now… the opposite of a conference is… “un-conference”! Problem is, management isn’t really at these events, and if they are, the person they answer to isn’t.

You hear “Sr. Executives” a lot in response to change… but who are these people, and why aren’t you shaking their hand at events? Fortunately for me, Accenture has been a beacon of hope and I’ve had the opportunity to meet and speak with Sr. Executive Management, and change is on its way. But I don’t know if I would have been so inclined to do so without the support of my co-workers.  Let your altruistic flag fly people!

The best ideas, the best chemistry, and the quickest way to a happy earnings report is to invest in people, invest in their ideas, and understand that great things take time. If you’re one of the “mystery managers” I’m referencing, and you actually do care about what’s going on, I don’t think there is any better venue in the world to pay attention to. Odds are, the people who you need to hear from don’t even know your name let alone what you look like. Attend; hear people remove their filter, be a little more off the record, and focus on the potential people hold and their ideas which are often shut down by cookie cutter policies that you play an instrumental role in moderating.

If you’re one of those people who feels trapped by this… and one of the people who feels the need to vent/complain… I completely sympathize, but how about instead of wasting your breath complaining to other people in the same spectrum about the same things at every event, try reaching out to someone within your organization, putting in some extra effort, learning the names of the people who can make changes, and showing them your value. Maybe… just maybe… some of your ideas will stick… and maybe you’ll see things you want to happen actually occur all the while building credibility and merit. Willingness goes a long way, and those who try may fail… but sooner or later they’ll get a win, and it will be all the more worth it.

To quote one of my favorite movies of all time said by one of my favorite actors…

“Worrying is like a rocking chair. It’ll give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere”

Ryan Reynolds – Van Wilder

Same goes for rhetorical arguments. Tru Change comes from Tru Sourcers.
You’re better than that. Run with your ideas. Focus on the now.
If you have problem, source for the solution.
Above all, make yourself a commodity and not a convenience.

See ya’ll in Amsterdam in June for #TruAmsterdam

#totallyworthit #truSource #secret #share #invent #change #progressive #tru #c4c #truUSA #coneofsilence

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Hanging out at “The Brink Lounge” @ #TruUSA! Kicking ass, taking names. Good times. Oh yeah, and “The Onion” is here… next door… ZOMG Need to get autographs! Stay tuned for updates… and maybe some videos… and some other fun stuff.

This is part 3 of my Mozilla coverage and I wanted to discuss one particularly odd, yet incredibly useful addon/application.  This one is by far the most useful of the ones I’ve reviewed so far and let me tell ya, my uses for it just keep growing by the day.  The name of this wonderful creation is Prism and here’s where it’s hiding.

What does it do?  Well, in a nutshell, prism is capable of taking a web page you’re viewing and turns it into an independent application with it’s own set of independent passwords and such.  So let’s say you have multiple twitter accounts, and logging in/out is a pain.  All you do is visit twitter.com, turn the page into it’s own application.  What will then happen is you’ll have the choice to select where you want it added and what you want to name it amongst other features.  You would then select let’s say… “desktop” and call it “Twitter Account 1″.

From there, you would look to your desktop and see there now an icon for “Twitter Account 1″.  Double click on the icon and it’ll open a single browser window to the twitter home page. Simply login, tell it to save your pass/user and remember you.  Now close it.  Go back to your FireFox browser and add another to your desktop calling it “Twitter Account 2″.  Repeat the steps of opening, saving passwords etc…

Now, you have 2 icons on your desktop, which can both be run simultaneously, displaying both of your twitter home pages and logging you in automatically each time.  You can use this for anything…. including your ATS, CRM, Web calendars, Emails, etc…  Yes, tabs are great, but when it’s something specific you want, you can add that icon/app to any of your shortcut bars like quicklaunch, rocketdock, start menu, etc…  and it’s 1 click to login to whatever place you want w/o having to mess w/ tabs.  Then just use alt+tab to switch between and you’re golden!  I highly advise checking this app out, it’s just…  too good not to!

Here’s the link for the addon download.  You can also chose to install it as a stand alone application which in and of itself is pretty cool…

Mozilla Prism Download site

Cheers^^

In continuation with my series of recommendations for Mozilla tools, thought I’d follow up with one I’ve really quite come to enjoy.  It’s called Snowl and it’s essentially a media/news aggregate addon built into FireFox.  Snowl has been out for a little over 2 years I guess and it seems like something you’d give up on…  but they haven’t, and neither have I.

With so many of these out there, you might wonder why it is that I’m enjoying this so much…  well, the short answer is…  LAYOUT LAYOUT LAYOUT.  Yes, I have Seesmic and Tweetdeck, and belong to every Twitter/Feed tool out there… but this one… something about it.

You can download SnOwl here.

It’s not something for everyone, and it’s still in beta, but it’s pretty cool.  I have the people I read on a regular separated by blog and tweet, and while i’m surfing the web, i can keep an eye on anything coming from them.  The breakdown is really sweet, and you can use it as side or top bar function.  You can also use their “River” of news which is a play on “stream” I guess which is kind of unique. It’s almost like reading your content in a newspaper format.  Kind of like if it were all spread out on large sheets of paper and you can flip pages, sort by subscription, or look at the mass group of all.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the best solution right now, but it beats having to constantly visit the twitter home page, or open my deck or seesmic everytime i want to see something going on.  The biggest downfall about it is the ability to send back.  you can’t just click for auto-reply or dm…  you have to type the persons name in when you want to send… I think anyway, haven’t found any other way to do it.  But it’s a time saver when it comes to app switching and just reading and keeping up on your core content.

Give it a shot, let me know what you think^^

Cheers^^

Today I’m going to being a series of postings covering some lesser known tools published by Mozilla.  For those of you who weren’t aware of anything beyond FireFox, I have to tell ya, you’re missing out.  Mozilla in addition to FireFox, offers an email client similar to outlook called ThunderBird, a scheduling/calendar agent called Sunbird, a hybrid email client/browser/social media handler called SeaMonkey, and a LOT of other stuff.

For today’s post, we’re going to go a bit deeper than some of their more main stream products and discuss a very cool new FireFox tool called “Weave“.  Weave is in the Mozilla labs and is still in early phases of development, but what a time saver!!!

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you just formatted your pc and were missing all of your saved passwords and bookmarks etc?  Or what about being at a friends house and not being able to show them something or share your bookmarks with them?  Well… the second one is a little “risky” depending if we’re talking work or pleasure, but what it boils down to is this.

Weaver is essentially and online backup of your history, bookmarks, passwords, tabs, and preferences.  So once you’ve backed up everything into weaver, all you need to do is install it on another pc, enter your user and pass, and wallah!  It’s like you never left home!  Definitely worth checking out, especially from a business aspect.  Let’s say you had a series of corporate bookmarks and such that you wanted to share w/ all of your colleagues.  All you need to do is give them your user/pass and BAM!

Take a look, have fun, enjoy.  Cheers^^