Cam Findlay

Archive for the ‘Communities’ Category

A great video I had to share from the TEDxUSC conference earlier this year on tribe leadership, some useful insights and ways we can all become more inter-connected and interdependant. Joining your tribe to others and other tribes to others you don’t know will push things forward. If you enjoy this then check out the Seth Godin video I posted earlier in the year (be warned it a full hour length talk from him) or check out his book tribes.

Just a quick update, lecture for my uni paper have finished up for the year… I’m currently on some study leave to prep for the exam… wish me luck.

So whats next for the blog? Well I have planned a series of posts with some great info on how to become more independent from your computer and make use of some of the great cloud computing tools available out there.

Also before I forget a big shout out to Simon Waterhouse a great photographer and designer here in Christchurch for his help on the photos and design of my personal development plan(PDP) assessment. Be sure to check out his great photography here www.simonwaterhouse.com

Another shout out to the great guys at Silverstripe CMS… i used this to power my PDP website… once I had the design I was able to integrate and drop in the content in just under 4 hours work! A killer speedy content management system for anyone looking to jazz up their website.
My final big thank you goes out to Juliette Powell, Author of “33 Million People in the Room” who sent me a signed copy of her book… made my day! A great read if you are interested in social media, co-creation, and where things are headed online. I was lucky enough to meet her at a conference this year and really enjoy her contributions online through twitter and facebook.

On the leadership tip, I will leave you with some words of wisdom from the women herself, Juliette Powell, enjoy….

Last Thursday and Friday (8-9 Oct) I was lucky enough to be part of the very first national New Zealand Iaido Seminar held at the Auckland Kendo Club in of course…. Auckland.
It was a 2 day intensive training, grading and a good opportunity to network and meet the others throughout New Zealand swinging a sword in this age old martial art.

The plans moving forward are to start building numbers and really promoting Iaido in NZ and I am hoping that I can add my knowledge of social networking and online communities to work towards this.

Thursday saw a full day of training and learning some new kata in the Kendo Federation Seitei Iaido which consists of 12 kata (I know up to number 11 at the moment!)
It is interesting learning from others as each teacher does seem to put their own knowledge and spin on each kata.  At the end of it all I think gathering as much knowledge as you can from as many teachers as you can and then combining that with what feels natural with your own movement and focus is the way to go.

Thursday evening I dug deep despite extreme tiredness and a rather painful toe injury I performed the best I could at the grading and came away with a 2nd Kyu (ni-kyu) grading! A jump of 8 grades as I had been previously ungraded.

Friday saw more training and a Shiai (competition) and something even more fun… getting to invent our own kata!

The “build your own” kata concoctions were all very interesting with one of our (chch) dojos students ideas using an umbrella as a sword took it top marks.

The 2 days were a great challenge that everyone who attended met and got something out of…

Before I left for Auckland I flicked to a random page in my copy of Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s “Hagakure” (a classic Japanese warrior code text) and thinking back on it now it shared some insight into the days ahead, it read:

The talented rise to the challenge-
There is a saying, “As the water rises the boat rises”. When a person of talent … encounters a difficulty, his [or her] heart rises to meet the challenge, and the greater the challenge the more he [or she] is spurred to take it on. – Hagakure, Book 2, Line 42

Rather fitting I think! A big thanks to all those at Auckland Kendo as to all those who attended the Seminar. Look forward to next year!

For those in Auckland next week and interested in Japanese swordsmanship be sure to check this seminar out.

The Auckland Kendo Club is hosting this event for all NZKF
Members currently training in Iaido or for members who would
like to try this art for the first time.
Date: 8th & 9th October
Location: Auckland Kendo Club, 165 Pilkington Rd, Glen Innes
Start time: 9am – 5pm
Drinks provided
Meal out on Thursday night
Seminar Fee $30
Grading – Thursday night at 6pm / up to and including 3 Dan
For more information please contact either –
Brent Hansen – brent.hansen@frucor.com 021 352 605
Alan Stephenson – kendoalan6@hotmail.com 021 677 364

See more about the Auckland Kendo and Iaido Club

I finished reading Seth’s book tribes a few weeks back and really enjoy his work… Check out this great video, I will be posting a few other videos and interesting internet/techy/new thinking bits and pieces over the next couple of weeks as there are no journal questions for the next 2 weeks as we are on a break from university.

I think I am lucky in that those people who I mentioned back in an earlier post about positive energizers would also be people to help me in heading towards my calling.  I also am lucky enough to have meet a few great people through the X:Media:Lab conferences that I am sure would be interested in any technical related work that I undertake and perhaps offer mentoring.  I also have a great following on Facebook and Twitter that could offer feedback or perhaps even be people I help out with my ideas and technical skills.

What are you naturally good at and what talents do you have?

• Good at listening and understanding others.
• problem solving and learning.
• translating “geek”… that is I have always been able to communicate technical concepts clearly and concise to people that aren’t very technical.
• Anything technology and computer related, programming, web development.
  
• I often see opportunities and uses for technology to make working easier.
  
• Helping others understand and make use of new technology, website, social networking.
• I have a good feel for music, i have played several instruments, DJ’d and written music.
• I have recently found a “talent” within my chosen martial art, iaido which also offers time to work on a clear mind and a greater sense of spirit.
  

What are the images you associate with you doing work that you love?

Gadgets, computers, communities of people both online in forums, social network and offline in professional networks and hobbies, music, solving challenging problems, writing useful website code.

Think of the three greatest/most significant experiences/achievements of your life. What are the images that you associate with them?

1. Completing my Diploma of Multimedia – Being creative with computers, solving problems, working with clients and to a brief, self paced learning.
2. Getting my current job at RockStar Recipes – Getting to combine computing with music, teaching others to play guitar, building an online community around learning, solving technical problems and contributing to the vision of the organisation.
   
3. Attending the X:Media:lab Conferences – Getting to learn about the latest technology and ideas, meeting the worlds best in my industry, being able to speak on a highly technical level and being understood by others who are as technical as myself.
   

If you were to do work in the future that you loved and that was totally aligned with these images what would it look like? How would it feel?

I would be using the latest new technology on the internet to help people communicate there would be a sense or feeling that I am contributing to making the world online a better, easier and more fun place for everyone to interact, have conversations, do business and hopefully it would be so easy, integrated and intuitive that everyone can participate and contribute without the current technical barriers.

Below shows some activities in my life where I experience “Flow” that being a place where my skills and challenges meet to allow me to perform at my very best. It also shows some of my core values and sense of purpose around these activities.
(Click the diagram to enlarge)

These are just 3 of many areas in which I find a sense of flow there are many more but focusing on these ones for now they have helped (and continue to help) me become more integrated and differentiated in my life by:

Participating in communities are various types gives me both a place to learn from others and a place to share my skills to help advance the goals of that community. I find that there is a sense of community in just about everything I do. Being part of the “Dance Music Community” and helping run events and share my music with others as a DJ and music producer. On the web development and coding side of things I am part of the “Open Source Community” where ideas around building great websites, producing reusable code that anyone can use, modify and make better drive this movement and foster a place where I can again learn from other open source participants and at times contribute back so that others may learn and make use of what I have learnt.  I am also part of a community with my Iaido training which is a subset of the greater community of people doing martial arts (Budo) in a quest to build character, mind, body and spirit in their lives.
I find that for all of my broad range of skills, talents and hobbies there is a community of people (either online or offline) that can benefit from my participation and contribution into that community.

Show that young people are a positive part of your community

Celebrate International Youth Day and Hoodie Day by holding a mufti day at your school or orgnaisation on Wednesday 12 August, and raise funds for young people and older people in NZ.

Donate the funds you raise to Hoodie Day organisers NZ Aotearoa Adolescent Health and Development (NZAAHD) to show your support for other young people in NZ. NZAAHD works to support, inform and connect organisations that work with youth across New Zealand . NZAAHD will pass on 10% of funds raised to their partner organisation Age Concern – to help show that young people care about their older people! Age Concern work to serve the needs of older people in NZ.

I came across this great article and video through a friend of mine on friendfeed.com and just had to post it up on my blog.  I think any budding entrepreneur or online community should be able to take something from this as it just shows that we have resources greater than we can even imagine just waiting for us to tap into them! I would love some comments and feedback about what you think of the video and article.  What do you think you would do with the $5?…  Enjoy.