This Link will lead you to this social-networking-map in full size,
which is a lovely Data Visualization which i love,
you can see in this post here about Management Data Visualization all kind of samples of Management related Data Visualization images.

The issue I want to raise here besides my appreciation for the designing of this concept,
Is the fact I didn’t find ICQ in there.

Now I have a special place in my heart for ICQ,
and since they still have many millions of users, I think they should have ben represented in this image,
But all I could find there are some “receding glaciers of AOL” and “AIM Tundra”.

I think ICQ was the Origin of the internet socializing idea, and some kind of a relic at least should be in it,
although ICQ is still alive and kicking, and in the process of changing ownership – ICQ Sold to the Russians.

So, My question for the day is:

Can you Find ICQ in the picture, Boys and Girls?

Technorati Tags: funny, network, Social Network

From Wikipedia:

Visualization is any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message.

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly^[1], such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education.

These are techniques to deliver a large amount of data in a simple and quick way which will be easy to grasp the amounts of data involved.

The Concept seen above is the Microsoft’s Education Competencies representation,
It is showing the full set of skills a successful manger should hold,
The PDF can be found in Microsoft’s Education Competencies Website.
The Wheel lists all the different area a new manager should be trained for.

Periodic Table of Data Visualization

The Periodic Table of Data Visualization,
segments the different areas where data visualization has been efficient so far:

• Data
• Information
• Concept
• Strategy
• Metaphor
• Compound

Data Visualization collections

Some more good resources online about data visualization:

Smashing Magazine Data Visualization collection
A beautiful collection of modern approach to the subject, with many samples.

Gapminder Statistics Visualisation
The Gapminder stats tool can show you how your data changes inside a time frame

Creating your on Visualization Tools

Wheel-Like Data Visualization With MooWheel
MooWheel is a mootools based script which visualizes data and connections between items like a wheel.

TouchGraph google browser
free Java application to explore the connections between related websites

Technorati Tags: dashboards, Management, statistics

In the last half-year I have gone through a personal change,
Taking a new job has changed me and the way I work.
In my last Position I was doing 70% hands on and only the rest Team Leader work,
But now I am spending 95% of my time not doing Technical things any more,
And this has been a dramatic change for me.

I am a technical person, very technical, and actually even a Geek too,
and suddenly I work mostly with people, and my main function is to help them do their Technical stuff the best they can.

after 3 months I got my first Panic attack. I have stopped doing what i was best at and started doing soft skills things, In which I do not know yet how Good I am.
This was a scary moment, and I have started to question myself:
Was this the right change?
Is this really what i want? maybe going back is easier?
How can I become good at it?
what is really my new Job? what does it takes to succeed at it?

I have gone through the crisis after doing a lot of thinking and soul-searching,
and decided to push back harder, to do the extra mile and learn to be the best I can,
I have started reading managing books and listening to lectures and Pod-casts,
And all this have helped a lot.

but, I have read an Article this week that would have saved me a lot of anguish If I’ve read it sooner,
and I think every new manager should read it too as part of his early training – so you know what you are getting into.

“Becoming the Boss” by Linda A. Hill

This Article at hbr.org has resolved so many of my fears and helped me relax,
I’m not alone at this! I’m not the only one going through this process and having a hard time!
Most new managers find their first major Role filled with unknowns life changing decisions.
The new job is more demanding than what they imagined, and the skills and methods they have excelled at over the years are not relevant to what is needed to succeed in the new managing role.

The article talk about a “Gap between the current capabilities and the requirements of the new position”,
This is something I really resonate with,
it’s not learning new technologies or applications that I’m missing,
it’s a whole new set of qualities I need to develop within me, and this is 10 times harder.

Security Blanket is another term used in the Article – after switching to management,
The technical worker is no longer increasing his technical skills,
And this is a scary decision to take.

Another Hard change for the technical person when becoming a manager is the need for good people skills:
“Unless they identify and build effective relationships with the key people the team depends upon, the team will lack the resources necessary to do its job”,   so now it’s not only creating good relationships with the team, but important relationships with people across the organization is needed to succeed at the job.

I recommend reading this to everyone who has started a new managing role, or even thinking about it,
the managing role is not what it seems from the outside, this article helps to build a better understanding of what it is and what it isn’t, and what is expected of a new manager.

This Article can be found at http://hbr.org/2007/01/becoming-the-boss/ar/1

Technorati Tags: books, boss, Harvard Business Review, Management

Every one makes his one way in the world,
and every manager creates his own path,
but it is always helpful to get help from people who already walked the path,
and have research numbers to back them up.

So I’m searching for resources on the Managerial profession,
and Today I have listened to an interesting Podcast, or at least the first half of it,
Which talked about Staff Meeting, the importance of them,
The fact that they should be weekly – and that’s very important apparently.

I haven’t been running weekly staff meeting until now but scheduled random staff meetings,
but I will schedule them weekly for the next few months to see how that affects work.

the podcast can be found on the Managers Tools website

And another nice page I have found there New manager start from Basics page,
which organizes their important podcasts by the best order for new managers.
the main topics from their basics page are:

• one on one meetings
• feedback
• coaching
• delegation
• running effective meetings

I will be going through these podcasts in the coming days, be sure to follow the posts !

Technorati Tags: Management, meetings, podcast

I just got my own copy of the new Zappos CEO book -
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

I’ve read about Zappos for a while now, and they have an interesting Edge to their system -
Deliver WOW – I never understood slogans like that,
But I was happy to get my new copy of the “Advance Reading Copy – Not for sale”

Who doesn’t like to get things for free ?

It did bring a smile to my face – so maybe the delivering WOW does work ?

Book review will follow shortly

Technorati Tags: books, Management

Changes are good.
Changes are bad.
Changes are scary.
It is time for a change.

My posts to the site have changed, I have started the site as a Linux how to,
but started writing about WordPress when this wonderful platform became very interesting,
and switched to talk about Solaris, when I started meddling with that OS too.

I have changed jobs, started doing different things, and now its time to slightly shift the focus of my blog too,
apparently soft skills are not easy for this Linux girl.
and I have a lot to learn, a lot to understand and some thoughts shifts to carry out,
and I will follow this learning experience here,
with my thoughts of the process.

And ill start with the first Management book I’ve read which was very good:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

This  book goes over the main laws of leadership,
it talks about qualities a leader should have and lists out the points each of us should check if we need to strengthen them in us to get better results.

After reading the book I started to get an Idea of how much more i need to learn, and how much more I still don’t know that I don’t know

wish me luck – this is going to be a life long journey …..

Technorati Tags: books, Management

Some people just know how to write better,
I’ve read this blogger – http://blog.cubeofm.com/
He doesn’t exactly talk about how to make money of the internet,
although he had mentioned he is making a nice sum of money out of a few internet based projects,
he does talk about some of the methods he uses.

One of these was discussed in this post: The subtleties in outsourcing using RentACoder
where he talks about what the site is offering, what kind of different coders are available there,
which is best for which project and how to best work with the site.

Another very good post – and judging by the amount of tweets the post is showing one of his best is
Your high IQ will kill your startup where he talks about skill vs. intelligence and explain in great writing,
why you need to keep practicing.

this touched a cord in me when thinking about my early school days and how easily being good at everything turned arround on me when i had to really sit down and studying – which i never actually done before,
and then my grades suffered.
this post also connected well to the book i’ve just read – Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
where he also talk s about the importance of training, and how no wonder talent just got there by strolling,
but only with a lot of years practicing behind him.
Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hours rule – practice and learn something for 10K hours – And you will be
a World class talent at it.

Highly recommended – go read the posts and the book

In this age when all our information is exposed to the world,
our images are floating everywhere and you don’t know anymore where and what is written about us,
the good people at HoHli have created a new search page that will gather all your information at one place,
showing you details about yourself or anyone else from many social networks and search engines at once.

output comes from:

• Blogger
• Myspace
• Google Images and search
• Yahoo Images and search
• Digg
• Twitter
• and more …

Searching for yonitg information:

A little scary seeing all that information out there.

Go ahead, search for your name at:  http://analyser.hohli.com/people

put a comment here with how much details you found about yourselves that you didn’t know was out there

Technorati Tags: Online Tools, statistics