Inside VT KnowledgeWorks

Business Blogs - To Blog or Not to Blog?

Do all entrepreneurs need business blogs?  Should the CEOs of the 30+ companies at VT KnowledgeWorks start blogs?

"Several years ago, the mantra was 'Every business needs a website.'  Today it's 'Every business needs a website with a blog.'"

That's a quote from a May 2008 article in Entrepreneur by John Jantsch.   

Even though I write blogs and value blogs, I hesitate to use words like "all" and "every" and "forever."  I begrudgingly appreciate my lessons from the school of hard knocks about the elusiveness of absolutes.  Often the answer to a question is, "It depends."

Here's one simple question that might help with deciding "To blog or not to blog?"

Do you write short e-mails or long e-mails?

If an absolute truth about e-mail exists, although I hestitate to make an absolute statement, one isn't better than the other.

But, if you write short e-mails, particularly if you use phrases or one-liners, your direct, to-the-point terseness may leave you very frustrated writing blog entries in which one tends to elaborate, albeit briefly, upon an idea. 

If you write long e-mails, particularly if you deliberate upon them, edit them, even spell check them, writing blog entries may be a natural extension of how you think and how you communicate your ideas to employees and customers.

Do all entrepreneurs need business blogs?  To blog or not to blog? 

It absolutely depends.

***

Another point of view from The Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki:

"This is a directory of Fortune 500 companies that have business blogs, defined as: active public blogs by company employees about the company and/or its products.

According to our research, 61 (12.2%) of the Fortune 500 are blogging as of 5/13/08. The table below lists these companies, a sampling of their blogs, and links to Fortune 500 business blog reviews."

The Scoop - Tech Nite 9.0 Winners

The Tech Nite 9.0 Awards Banquet honoring the NewVA region's technology companies, leaders, entrepreneurs, and educator, was held on Thursday, May 15, 2008.

The winners were:

Rising Star Award
TORC Technologies

Entrepreneur Award
Victor Iannello, Synchrony

NewVA Leadership Award
Joe Meredith, VT Corporate Research Center

Innovation Award
Intrexon

Educator Awards
Bill Birdlebough, James Breckenridge Middle School, Roanoke City Public Schools
Gary Gogerty, Roanoke City Public Schools

NEWVY Award
Pat Matthews, Mailtrust

[Added 5/16/08:  Here's a link to the entire list of nominees, finalists, and winners.]

Cat Wiki

I adopted a cat in Tampa, Florida on November 2, 2004. Estimated to be five years old, she was left at the Humane Society as a stray after one of the hurricanes.

I had never had a cat. I was lonely and soul-weary and friends urged me to get a cat. So I read books and articles and Web sites about cats. I dreamed of a young, golden cat.

I wasn't allowed to take home the cat looking up at me from one of the bottom cages on October 30. The Humane Society doesn't permit adoption of black cats before Halloween.

A classic childless pet owner, I am fascinated by my cat.

Seth Godin says there are three kinds of blogs: cat blogs, boss blogs, and viral blogs.

I think there should be a cat wiki. My cat's wiki.

As a collaboratively generated, online compilation of information, my cat's wiki--as Wiki Guru Thomas Stone recommended in the Element K webinar I attended on 5/13/08--would be seeded with already-known or already-created documents. I could quickly write a billion wiki entries with product reviews of cat trees, treat-filled cat puzzles, and electrically heated cat beds.

The collaborative part would commence with entries from the one billion veterinarians I took my cat to for not drinking water (one rarely sees them doing it), for throwing up (How did I miss the sections in the books on hairballs?), and for scratching and scratching (Fleas? How could my indoor cat have fleas?). Those entries would conclude: "Overall Impression:  Cat, healthy. Owner, nutty."

More collaboration would come from one billion wiki entries from my cat's pet-sitters. I know some might urge me to feel deep embarrassment about hiring pet-sitters for my cat, but I signed a contract with the Humane Society stating that I would take full responsibility for the care of this small, dependent being.

I got a late-life master's degree in counseling so I am familiar with the psychology of pet ownership and how owners project their own unmet needs onto their pets. Fine. Whatever. While I was finishing that late-life master's, my cat spent 16 hours alone. I came home to find her wild-eyed.

Professional pet-sitting service visits began every weekday. I have kept the notepads--our own private wiki--on which the pet-sitter and I exchanged and documented observations and developed theories about my cat.  No more wild eyes.

That type of content would be fine for a blog except that pet-sitters move on to other jobs and that's what Stone calls a "brain drain" from an organization. When a company's employees leave for whatever reason, they take their knowledge with them. But if all the knowledge is stored in a company wiki--easily revised and updated, both searchable and browsable--the people can leave, but the learning achieved on the company's time remains.

My cat's pet-sitters might have benefited from being able to consult a wiki about my cat. Or maybe I would just wanted them to add to it so I could read about my kitty. Hmm. I can imagine a parent wanting the same for his or her child--a complete compendium of thoughts and observations about the child starting from the birthing room. My Kid's Wiki. Probably a business in that.  Yep, just checked.  MyKidsWiki.com is available.

My Tampa hot house flower cat and I moved to Blacksburg, Virginia in July 2006 (hence the heated cat bed). We've both got new men in our lives. I've got a husband, and she has John Havran.

It's hard to find a pet owner in the area who doesn't know, and revere, John Havran.  He cares for dogs, cats, horses, goats, sheep, chickens, tortoises, even hedgehogs.  Google what you have to do to care for hedgehogs and you would contract with John on a daily basis, too.

Since Google is now a part of speech, I assume "wiki" is or will become a verb as well. So, I'll say that John Havran doesn't wiki, but I wish he did.  I would search and browse The John Havran Wiki first before I called him in a panic about the most recent thing my cat does or does not do.

Well, I can see how cat blogs get started.

Anyway, what does a cat wiki have to do with the local high-tech economy, entrepreneurship, and high-tech start-up businesses accelerating and incubating at VT KnowledgeWorks?

Jim Flowers, Director of VT KnowledgeWorks, is thinking about wikis. So I'm thinking about wikis.

• Several times per week, I consult the best-known wiki, Wikipedia.
• I studied this Element K white paper on wikis.
• I attended an Element K webinar on wikis (Thank you, Laurie Enos of Element K, for permission to post these webinar PowerPoint slides).
• I read this Wall Street Journal editorial on wikis.
• I recorded my first understanding of wikis in Wikis - A Metaphor.

My preliminary conclusion on wikis?  Synergy.

Whether for a cat or for a high-tech start-up, a wiki could provide a chance for synergy, for the whole to be greater than the sum of any of its creatively collaborated upon parts.

I would still like to write a billion entries for my cat's wiki.  And I would love to read what all the people in her life had to say about her as they extended my entries or added theirs.

But the synergy of a company wiki might free up everyone to pursue their own interests and their own dreams.

Probably a business in that.

Yep, just checked.  WikiSynergy.com is available. 

Wikis - A Metaphor

If a blog is like a dinner party, a wiki is like a mailbox room.

I worked at a one-building organization, before e-mail, with one mailbox room and one workroom. All the people there were specialists in a field, many had advanced degrees, and all were well-read and well-traveled.

While getting a cup of coffee or using the office equipment, the workroom-denizens would discuss the latest developments in art, literature, music, technology, language, local politics, national politics... Because of the location of the restrooms, one received a continuing education mini-workshop several times per day.

The equivalent of a wiki--a collaborative collecting and creating of information--occurred in the mailbox room. Daily, I would find in my mailbox a follow-up note to my participation during one of the workroom discussions. It would be an answer to a question, a suggested book to read, the book itself, a photocopy of an article or a page of an article, even an erudite and passionate essay on the subject of the hour.

Even before e-mail, this organization was "green"; often the written conversations continued on the same paper. In my mailbox, at the bottom of a note I had written to someone else, would be a follow-up note. I would write a follow-up to that follow-up and put it the answerer's mailbox. When I returned to my mailbox, there would be an update, revision, or elaboration upon our discussion.

The mailboxes were a crisscross of 50 paper-sized slots, each full of one-to-one information. Each day, those mailboxes represented 1/365 of the stored, collective knowledge and wisdom of the organization.

How the mailbox room was not like a wiki is that I only had access--and permission to read--the slips of paper in my box. In each one of the boxes was the learned, thoughtful written correspondence of experts. We had no access to each other's expertise except in passing or if engaged in a one-to-one correspondence.

I feel such nostalgia and regret for that lost knowledge.

Wait!  Many of the people at the organization are still there. I'm going to pitch them a wiki! A wiki is a crisscross of stored information, but it's online, created by individuals, added to by other individuals, added to again by the original creators. But it's not stuck in the mailboxes. It's searchable and--through a category structure--it's BROWSABLE.

That means I could search the wiki for "segue." (One of the most amazing conversations I heard in the workroom was about the origin of this word and its growing use in everyday language--with thoughtful commentary by a linguist washing his lunch dishes, a mathematician looking up from the textbook he was writing, and a scientist making her photocopies.) In the wiki, I could again savor the major points made by the major players in the conversation.

Then I could browse all that wisdom. I could scroll through other topics: other words, other articles, essays, documents written by particular individuals, all linked, just like the mailbox notes and the workroom conversations.

Because everyone openly writes the wiki all together, with original documents still present so the progression of the information collection can be viewed, I could ask one of my questions--and read one of those beautifully worded, informed, thoughtful answers.

Online, not on paper. Right there. Not lost forever.

High-Tech Live - The Show

I'm writing this while attending a webinar!

It even asks us to do online surveys then the presenter tells us the results right then.

I'm listening--insight report later!

I wrote this earlier this morning:

In High-Tech Live - Pre-Game Show and High-Tech Live - Almost Time, I wrote about the Element K webinar on wikis I would attend on Tuesday, May 15, 2008 at 2:00 PM EST.  I also shared that Laurie Enos of Element K sent me this white paper:  Would a Wiki Help Your Organization? 

Here's an interesting editorial on wikis from the Wall Street Journal on 5/12/08.

Tech Nite 9.0 Stars from VT KnowledgeWorks

Tech Nite 9.0 is like the Academy Awards of the local high-tech economy.  I can hear one of those great announcer's voices reverberating over a microphone, "And the nominees are..."

"And the Tech Nite 9.0 Award Nominees are..."

As I wrote about here, I'm going to the Tech Nite 9.0 Awards Banquet honoring the NewVA region's technology companies, leaders, entrepreneurs, and educator, on Thursday, May 15, 2008.

In business attire. 

And I'll take my printout from The NewVA Corridor Council (NCTC) Web site.  I've marked 11 of the 29 Tech Nite 9.0 Award Nominees from the business categories in yellow highlighter.

That's because 11 of the 29 nominees from the business categories are associated with VT KnowledgeWorks.

Here are the companies and individuals associated with VT KnowledgeWorks among the Tech Nite 9.0 nominees:

Rising Star Award
NBE Technologies
Common Knowledge
Click & Pledge
TORC Technologies

Entrepreneur Award
Guo-Quan Lu, NBE Technologies

NewVA Leadership Award
Doug Juanarena, GenTek Ventures
Joe Meredith, VT Corporate Research Center
Brett Malone, Intrexon

Innovation Award
NBE Technologies
Intrexon
Portaqua

Look at all the high-tech stars!

I bet a lot of name-dropping goes on at the Academy Awards.  Everyone wants a little stardust to sprinkle on them. 

Did I mention that 11 of the 29 Tech Nite 9.0 Award Nominees in the business categories are associated with VT KnowledgeWorks? 

Did I mention I write about high-tech stars in the VT KnowledgeWorks blog?

Oh, I did?  My, my.  Silly me.   

Business Acceleration - An Extreme Sport

My trainer at The Weight Club, Don Belote, did a single, partial dead lift of 1045 lbs.

He's 52 years old.

That's my trainer.

When Jim Flowers, Director of VT KnowledgeWorks wrote the post Fit for Business, I think he was open to me "weighing" in. I look fit and I am in business.

I have a complex relationship with athleticism.

When I knew I was returning from Tampa to Blacksburg, I found The Weight Club site and studied the pictures of the trainers. I wanted the one who looked like he knew about pain.

In December 1998, I was making a bed, lifted the corner of the mattress, and felt stabbed in the back. I've had chronic back pain since.

The back story is a hard one but the saddest part of it is that after dozens of treatments--injections, reiki, massage, drugs--the only relief I got was from physical therapy. Extreme physical therapy. One of the many specialists I saw urged me to "make a tree trunk" of my abdomen in which the spine could rest, elongate, be supported.

The time, effort, and emotional summoning that required was almost beyond me. Turn human tissue into tree bark?  Most chronic pain sufferers give up on physical therapy because it just doesn't seem to work. The increments of improvement are so small. It seems, and truly may not be, worth it. One loses heart. Even after extreme physical therapy, my back aches. It just doesn't stab me.

But I felt filleted and despairing when I had my first appointment with Don Belote in July, 2006. He understands extreme. Like an entrepreneur, he's tough, alert, tenacious. Slowly, slowly...

The result of my flight from pain? I look fit.

In June, 2007, I married a really cool guy. Turns out he's a triathlete. Triathletes swim, bike, and run, all in a row.  That's extreme.

I got a bike.

The bike made my back ache. Told Don. Can now ride the bike.

When I ride my bike, yes, I pedal along the Huckleberry Trail, but I'll confess that I do a drive-by. Or a cycle-by.  

I veer off course, head to the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, and buzz VT KnowledgeWorks. All the windows are tinted, as they should be--proprietary, ground-breaking stuff is going on in there!--but I peer into the one where I know Schultz-Creehan has its Micro Machining Center, then circle to where Cooperative Leadership Institute is working on cutting-edge leadership training that includes The Box (I hope they'll let me look in it), then I swing to the back to wave at Lindsey Eversole, Member Services Manager. Even though I can't see her, I can see her light, which is kind of the way she is in the world.

The first time I did a cycle-by, I was thinking of VT KnowledgeWorks as an incubator.  I was checking on the entrepreneurial baby chicks.

It ain't no incubator.

Jim Flowers describes what really happens at VT KnowledgeWorks:  "Accelerating business formation."

I now do cycle-bys for the thrill. Every entrepreneur I've met at VT KnowledgeWorks is hard, hard at work, muscling through business models, research, development, production, innovation.

Acceleration. Extreme acceleration. Like the kind needed for a 1045 lb. partial dead lift.

[Added 5/13/08:  Here's an article from the Roanoke Times on people in the New River and Roanoke Valleys who commute to work by bike.  As I mentioned in my Nano Wish List, I haven't decided about this yet.  I don't like the way my hair looks after wearing the hat.] 

If You've Had an Idea...

"Almost everyone who has had an idea that's somewhat revolutionary or wildly successful was first told they're insane."

A quote from Larry Page, co-founder of Google, from this 5/1/08 interview in Fortune Magazine.

Fit for Business

A guest blog post from Jim Flowers, Director of VT KnowledgeWorks:

An entrepreneur has to be free of physical issues, if possible.  It is a tough, demanding career choice.

There's been a decent amount of publicity lately about the 10,000 step target for personal fitness.  If you Google 10,000 steps (like this good one), you'll find dozens of sites that have jumped on the bandwagon, most of them selling pedometers.

If you're like I am, with too many time commitments, and perhaps an aging body, you may not be a good candidate for serious training.  But almost anybody can walk a little further.  An acceptable pedometer costs about $15 at your local sports store.  Many of them come with a 10,000 steps program in the package.  That's the total financial risk.  $15 for a healthier, more energetic life.  Duh!

Try this.  Get to work a little early every morning.  When you get out of the car, don't go inside.  Instead, walk for 30 minutes at a brisk pace.  At one step per second, that's 1800 steps.  At a nice quick 2 steps per second, that's 3600 steps.  All before work.  Substitute 5 face-to-face visits for local emails.  At 100 steps per visit, that's another 500 steps - and you've had a much more effective interchange with your colleague.

Add a walk at lunch time - another couple of thousand steps.  Park at the wrong end of the mall.  Another thousand or two.  Mow the grass.  Don't just let the dog out.  Go for a walk.

It's actually not hard, especially when you're wearing the pedometer and checking it every now and then.

No gym fees.  No mid-day showers and clothes changes.  No pumped up jocks making you feel inadequate.

Couple this with giving up French fries, and you're on the road to a killer outlook - something every entrepreneur needs, of course.  Yes, just French fries for now.  In a month you'll be ready to kick the ice cream habit, too.

Yeehaa!

P.S.  Yes, I’m doing it, with a $15 pedometer from Dick’s.

I do my 30 minutes by walking around the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center set in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of southwestern Virginia.  Starting and finishing at the VT KnowledgeWorks building [at the bottom left-hand corner of the picture] at the top of the hill, I manage a couple of hundred feet of elevation gain/loss and about 3000 steps.

Some days I can slip in a circuit at lunch time, too – another 3000.

Jim Flowers
Director, VT KnowledgeWorks
2200 Kraft Drive, Suite 1000
Blacksburg, VA 24060
(540) 443-9100
www.vtknowledgeworks.com

Is My Glass Half Full of Nanotubes?

"How many nanotubes can safely be in a glass of water?"

Exploring the topic of nanotechnology safety, this was a hypothetical question posed by Matthew Hull, CEO of NanoSafe, Inc.

Having never heard of a nanotube, I envisioned them floating like gel capsules in my water glass, slipping with either menace or irrelevance down my throat.

According to this Wikipedia article on carbon nanotubes, "Determining the toxicity of carbon nanotubes has been one of the most pressing questions in Nanotechnology. Results from various scientific tests on cells have so far proven confusing, with some results indicating it to be highly toxic and others showing no signs of toxicity."

Hull pointed out that nanotechnology is developing so rapidly that safety requirements haven't caught up with the technology.

Hull helps nanotechnology companies answer the hard question:  Do we proceed with the nanotechnology we've developed even though hazards haven't been determined?

Hull advises companies that do proceed to think this way:  "Let's pursue the technology but do it with the latest technology and detectors to mitigate environmental, safety, and health risks."

I have no conception of how many nanotubes are in my glass of water, much less whether or not the quantity is a safe one.

I haven't seen nanotechnology.  I've only heard and read about it.  I would like to see it.  I would like to try to understand it.  I worry that my education, and the complexity of nanotechnology, might not be a match.

People fear what they don't understand.

What I appreciated about Matthew Hull is that 1) his business is nanotechnology safety, and 2) he knows his subject well enough to explain it using a metaphor.

For now, I'm okay with not knowing how many nanotubes are in my glass of water.

NanoSafe, Inc. helps organizations manage nanotechnology environmental health and safety (EHS) risks. It offers a full range of consulting, research, and testing services to clients throughout industry, state and federal government agencies, and university laboratories.

NanoSafe, Inc. is a member company of high-tech business accelerator and business incubator VT KnowledgeWorks, located at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.