Thoughts
Ideas that transform people, businesses, and industries
Deeply rooted in our organizational ethos is the celebration of authentic and unapologetic “thought.” We believe each member of our team brings with them a unique view of themselves, our clients, and of the world we live in. We make a point to not only articulate our individual experiences, senses, emotions, and actions internally, but to share them with you here.
Working from home WORKS!
I recently attended a networking and discussion group focused on working from home. I was surprised to find myself sitting around a circle with a group of non-believers. I was advocating for working from home while the other ten attendees (some of whom had personally...
Why do CIOs hire IT strategy consultants?
"Isn't that their job?" asked one of my husband's relatives at a recent family reunion. They were a bit flabbergasted that we had a whole business focused on helping CIOs do their strategic work. In case anyone else out there is wondering, I thought I'd share some...
Diaries of a working mom chapter 12b: Back to work, again, really!
When people ask me how much time I took off after Leo's birth, I always give the caveat that I came back in very different circumstances than most women. I was working from home, part time, with full time childcare. I was able to see the little guy throughout the day...
How to prevent “Apple Picking”
Last month I wrote a blog titled, The Dumb Thing about Smartphones. The conclusion of the blog was that smartphones are great, but that they are also fragile and easy to steal. I wrote the blog after reading an article describing a rise in the occurrence...
A Game of Phones
As kids we all played the game of telephone. Whether it was because we lived in a day where we didn’t have actual cell phones and angry birds in our pockets, or that there had not yet been an injunction on the production of lead based toys, which caused us to believe...
The Dumb Thing about Smartphones
I love my iPhone. I love having just about everything I need at my fingertips (even if I only use about 10% of it 90% of the time). Thanks to some innovative programmers your phone is also a car key, a credit card, a music player, a map, a gaming console,...
Diaries of a working mom chapter 12: Back to work, again!
Our baby is here! Little Leo was born April 11th and he is doing great. I am recovering well and very happy not to be pregnant anymore. We are all enjoying the innocence and cuddliness of a perfect little newborn. The other day, my nanny-share neighbor came into...
We are our own Big Brother
I never read George Orwell’s novel “1984” and I’ve certainly never seen an episode of CBS’s “Big Brother”, but I do understand the Big Brother concept: a society under complete surveillance and control by their government. Since the writing of Orwell’s book any act,...
Open vs. Closed (a Blog by Sarah Johnson)…
Seymourpowell Design Researcher Sarah Johnson recently commented on the Seymourpowell blog on how 3D printing is a growing technology which currently relies heavily on open sourcing: “Open source technology harnesses the power of transparency of process – the...
Moore’s Law and the Law of More
Moore's Law states that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit (and thus processing power) will double every two years. In parallel with this is what I like to call the "Law of More", which states that the amount of patience we have as...
New Year’s Resolutions: Less and More
It is January 31st, so I guess I'm finally ready to commit to my new year's resolutions. This year, instead of specific goals, I'm going to try a less/more mentality. Here goes: Spend less time reading email and more time reading more interesting things like blogs,...
It’s a “Big Data” World… After All…
The article is fairly benign, but the title is alarming: “Big Brother Mickey Mouse to monitor behavior via Disney's MyMagic+ RFID wristbands”. If you’ve ever been to Disney World, you know that the fun and excitement is often mixed in with frustrations. Waiting in...
If Joshua Bell played the violin in a subway station and people were around to hear it would anybody listen?
Likely we have all read some version of the story of famed award-winning violinist Joshua Bell playing his instrument incognito in a Subway station. If you haven't, you can read a version of it here: http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp The idea was to put an...
4 Keys to Successful Networking
I've never been great at networking. I understood the importance of it and often found it quite fun, but just never actively did it. More recently I've started to really push myself into the networking world and here are 4 things I've found to be of great...
Present Telepresence Robots Present
I do a lot of telecommuting for work, as many people do these days, and therefore am intrigued by any potential changes or advances in technology geared toward this type of thing. So, when I read a recent article on informationweek.com comparing telepresence robots, I...
Dropbox as the bandwidth cOoKie monster
At Thought Ensemble, we've used Dropbox for almost 4 years so I've seen how the product can support growing businesses as well as personal users. Its functionality has continued to improve though I know it doesn't have some of the security bells and whistles that...
3 Microsoft Software Application tools I Wish Worked in Real Life
I, as no special exception to the average American, use my PC on a daily basis for work, shopping, bill paying, reading, learning, socializing, and looking at pictures of cats while watching videos of people being hit in the groin in various Rube Goldberg-esque...
HTML5 is done. Let er rip.
"Stable target"--per the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) concerning HTML5's final rollout The HTML5 standard is complete. Isn't that fantastic??!! And with that, developers around the world just started crying about all of the mobile app dev hours they've spent working...
12,000,000 Years Online
My normal morning routine is to listen to an hour or so of news while getting ready for work. This morning, I couldn't help but notice how many of the stories were tech stories: Avis buys ZipCar (an online car sharing service), Google Maps putting Apple Maps to...
Test your life
I’ve done quality assurance (testing) on several software development projects and have learned a lot about testing along the way. Though there is a lot to consider when testing software I’ve found that many of the practices are useful in everyday life (even if they...
Nordstrom intercepts my multitasking
I just had an impressively spooky experience. I'm hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law on their couch, doing what people do these days when they communicate; we are having about three conversations at once, all while on our phones, iPads and computers. We...