I've been reading a rather difficult book in my iPad using the Kindle software.  I have to give these technologies credit for helping me get through a book which I would otherwise put aside by now, although not for lack of interest, but from fatigue.

The author Dan Roam is an unabashed enthusiast of using simple, hand-drawn pictures in the business context.  I picked up this book on the hope that the techniques illustrated (pun intended) in it could become part of our innovation arsenal and I think it does that but…

It looks like I am not the only one reacting strongly to Roberto Verganti’s dissing user-centered innovation.  I discussed it with a couple of folks, including Tim Kastelle who did an excellent job of putting his finger on what's wrong with Verganti's message.  Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as going too far and Verganti jumped the shark on this one.

Last night, at the San Francisco New Tech event, more than 50 people checked-in using Foursquare.  Only a handful of people did it via Gowalla.  Nobody used Yelp.  That pretty much does it for me: I am focusing on Foursquare from now on.

Aha Mobile is an iPhone app that gives you real-time traffic information you can use safely while driving.  It includes social media/crowdsourcing elements and it even helps you find the nearest public bathroom!

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Blogs, Luke Hohmann talks about how Innovation Games can help improve the Democratic (political) process.  The nice thing is that they can also be used to improve the democracy@work process.

As a Sun Microsystems alumn, I feel compelled to offer an opinion on the upcoming purchase by Oracle, in particular about the future of MySQL.

Great post by David Meerman Scott, "Top Ten Tips for Incredibly Successful Public Speaking."  Speaking in front of an audience is not easy, even if you are "a natural."  It is a craft, and these tips will help sharpen your skills.

One of the golden rules of good presentations is to NOT hand out the slides at the beginning of the presentation. My own preference is not to hand out slides at all, but the organizers and the audience want something tangible to fondle. Now, I think I've found a great solution.

I’ve just read Guy Kawasaki’s rule on how to create effective MS PowerPoint presentations. According to Kawasaki, “A PowerPoint presentation should have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font smaller than 30 points.”