This is one person's perspective on components of great customer service. I thought it was a nice perspective, and general enough – even though it's focused on software. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html 1. Fix everything two ways 2. Suggest blowing out the dust 3. Make customers into fans 4. Take the blame 5. Memorize awkward phrases 6. Practice puppetry 7. Greed will get you nowhere 8. (Bonus!) Give customer service people a career path

What does it take to get a technical user group started and then sustained? We started with bribery (free books!) and a great talk from a local expert, followed with many pitchers of good beer. And lots of home-baked cookies. Now we have a group that meets every month and always has interesting things to talk about. I'd like to present a case-study that describes my experience with the Portland PostgreSQL Users Group. I'll list our starting ingredients and motivation, describe the methods we used to get people to the meeting, and the tactics to keep people coming back. I'll draw on some popular books (i.e. _The Tipping Point_, Martha Stewart's _Entertaining_, Douglas' _PostgreSQL_), feedback from our members and members of other successful user groups, and maybe an academic paper or two on community building.

Technorati Tags: community, ideas, pdxpug, talks, usergroups

Here's what I wrote after listening to an NPR story about sleep deprivation and teens. Here's what I wrote to NPR:

I waited to hear something about diet and exercise in Allison Aubrey's story about teens and sleep. The message seemed to be that 2/3 of teens suffer from sleep problems, and to solve the problem parents need sleep specialists to tell them what to do. I had a hard time with the implication that a melatonin pill is easier and more effective than removing TVs and computers from bedrooms! C'mon! Parents need to help their kids make healthy choices that are sustainable. Part of that is putting limits on entertainment. Another part is showing their kids that exercise and diet are the keys to long term health and a good night's sleep. We'll see if I'm famous tomorrow.

http://www.pressroom.ups.com/multimedia/av/advertising apropos of miranda july. and the commentary: http://www.slate.com/id/2164266

Technorati Tags: graphicdesign, mirandajuly, whiteboards, ups

http://www.darthvaderballoon.be/en/index.html

I guess I should have read the whole article first. There are plenty of fun wording issues to ridicule… http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=34902 U.S. Greenhouse Emissions Slowly Begin to Drop Source: GreenBiz.com WASHINGTON, April 17, 2007 — In the EPA's annual national greenhouse gas inventory, the agency has found that overall emissions during 2005 increased by less than one percent from the previous year. The drop follows a steady increase over the last 15 years, when greenhouse gases climbed 16 percent between 1990 and 2005. The Department of Energy reports that greenhouse gas emissions have risen an average of 1.2 percent per year each year.

From a thread that came up today on 'post-mortems': I've been searching around for a replacement term for a long time: Retrospectives After Action Reviews Neither really roll off the tongue, but they feel a little better than post-mortem. But really – the questions to ask are the most important: What did we learn? What are we going to do better next time? What are we going to do? If there's a problem, what changes will solve it? And what is the commitment to make that change?

Technorati Tags: projectmanagement, postmortems

I've had a few ideas for writing: * managing for technical people * project managment * gardening * chicken tending That probably adds up to: * how to be a serial hobbiest I don't know. This is probably something that I actually know about. Maybe i'll just mix myself a drink and enjoy my day off.

Don't know if you've heard of Miranda July, but I thought her new site was pretty neat. == ● No One Belongs Here More Than You == http://www.kottke.org/07/04/no-one-belongs-here-more-than-you (from kottke.org) Miranda July, who you might remember from her film Me and You and Everyone We Know, has a book coming out in May, a collection of stories called No One Belongs Here More Than You. The book has a web site that's one of the most effective and creative I've seen in a long time. Here's a screenshot of one of my favorite pages, just to give you a taste: Continue reading →

A Corner Deli with International Appeal http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/business/smallbusiness/03zingerman.html?ei=5090&en=8ffda96a63afa3a2&ex=1335844800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1178731475-WoFVZHbhY5WXSRjFkn0nCQ

“Our goal in 2020 is to leave our world better than it was when we came here,” he said.

Originally saw at:

http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/zingermans_a_ci.html

What I was most taken with, however, is that that Saginaw and Wienzweig have grown this business by focusing in the quality of their products and service, and on treating their employees very well, and treating profit as a secondary goal.

Technorati Tags: 2020vision, business, morale, nytimes, quality, sustainability