As I mentioned in an earlier post, for the past several months I’ve been involved in volunteering for a non-profit organization called The Greater Contribution. The organization makes micro loans to entrepreneurial people, mostly women, in Africa. These loans, often as little as $50, help them start and build businesses that will sustain them and their families. The goal of the program is to help pull them out of the grinding poverty through their own efforts. One of the great things about the organization is that it also mentors the borrowers through business education and assistance in order to assist them in becoming self sufficient, real members of the commercial economy. If you are interested in seeing who the organization serves or if you want to help, visit www.greatercontribution.org or you can link to the site by clicking the link under Philanthropy on my blog page.

My role in the organization is to develop a technology strategy that will build an online digital presence, and to that end, I’ve been having a great time! In my opinion, technology is merely a means to creating relationships, whether it’s between sources of data, knowledge with action, people and ideas, or connecting people with each other. I love to build connections and relationships through technology, and the organization allows me to be creative in how I go about doing that. It’s really exciting to think outside the box , figuring out how to develop the building blocks that make up technology in order to attract the attention that the organization needs to continue serving those in need.

As anyone who has been involved with a non-profit organization knows, doing the most things possible with very little capital takes perseverance and real skill. Additionally, it takes the generosity of organizations who donate services, materials, software, and even cash to the organization to help defray the expenses of serving those in need. It also helps to have ‘secret weapons’ like TechSoup. I’m a big fan of TechSoup (www.techsoup.org) – they are an amazing group who organize companies that donate (or provide at very low cost) technology to help non-profit organizations like the one I work with. What a great resource these folks are for the non-profit world!

A big thumbs up for TechSoup!

Well, that’s the update for the moment, now I’ll be getting back to using technology for creating a memorable digital presence for The Greater Contribution. And as always, feel free to comment — I welcome any suggestions you may have!

Cheers!

I’ve been using the book and teaching myself VB using Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate 2 (RC2). And I’ve gotta tell you that it’s been an interesting experience. RC2 is a beta release for VS2010 so it’s expected to have its share of bugs and not-quite-ready-for-prime-time issues. The amusing part is determining whether what I’m experiencing is a result of my nascent programming skills or truly a deficiency in the software.

Each time I had an issue I’d troubleshoot my code, since clearly I must have done something wrong, hit a control key I shouldn’t have, or got my syntax wrong — it couldn’t be the IDE (Integrated Development Environment), could it? I mean, really! Funny thing about that, though — I found that it wasn’t my coding or typing skills after all but in fact it was a problem with one of the helper components in the IDE interface. Download a patch and I’m off and running again.

Yeah, ok, maybe I shouldn’t be trying to learn something new in something half-baked  But, then again, I never was one to blindly follow the crowd. Oddly enough, the experience has been rather entertaining as well as very educational. And to be sure, due to the nature of RCx releases, I’ve been forced to learn more about the IDE I was using than I otherwise would have with a stable release such as VS2008. Figuring out how stuff works has always been my forte  and there’s nothing like having a challenging problem to solve!

Anyway, my venture into VS2010 to learn VB is quite the experience, and surprisingly I’m having a lot of fun with it. I’m looking forward to further adventures with Visual Basic and the challenge of VS2010 RC2.

The TEDxConejo conference had many local, talented people give presentations of their ‘Big Ideas’. These presentations were streamed live to the web as they occurred – which, naturally, included the various technical glitches that always seem to happen when one is working with technology in front of a live audience

There were several talks on nutrition and the effect that it has on the health of our country, and ideas were presented to remedy the problem. There were outstanding performances by several talented individuals from the local high schools. One of the performances actually brought tears to my eyes as I listened to two incredibly talented young women perform a hauntingly beautiful and poignant violin and piano duet. These young adults also made presentations on leadership, organized philanthropy, and cancer research. Conejo has a veritable treasure trove of talented and community minded future leaders in its high schools.

There were speakers who talked about education and new thoughts on delivery, neuro-research and the science of meditation, the science of visualizing and ‘audio-izing’ data,  micro loan financing for entrepreneurs in developing countries, along with many other interesting talks.

A truly fascinating lineup of presentations!  I can hardly wait for next year’s TEDxConejo conference which is sure to be as interesting and even better than 2010 was.  It was great to be part of the first TEDxConejo — I was impressed with the community involvement in the program, not to mention all the volunteers’ time and effort that went into making this event happen.

For more info on TED visit www.ted.com where you’ll find TED Talks on video that will amaze and fascinate you, and some that will just blow your mind with the ‘whoa!’ factor.  For more about what I got to experience today at TEDxConejo, go to www.tedxconejo.com.

Part way through the meeting, another member arrived whom I’ll call Mindy. The members at the table all stopped talking and one said ‘Oh, look! There’s Mindy – how wonderful she looks!’ and when Mindy walked over to the group she was greeted with smiles, hugs, and warm words of welcome. Mindy has smiling eyes, a ready smile with an infectious laugh and an aura of happiness around her. What’s also striking about Mindy is that she makes you want to laugh and share in her exuberance. Once Mindy settled in she said she had great news to share. She started by saying that she was happy and grateful for every new day, considering each one a gift to treasure.

You see, Mindy has terminal cancer. Just six months prior her doctors had given her only a few weeks to live, but Mindy refused to accept that as final. By using various treatment methods, Mindy fought back and reduced the cancer by 50%. The positive response to the treatments slowed the cancer’s progression down, though it did not eliminate it.

The good news she brought to share with the group was  ‘My doctor said I had at least another two years to live and I feel so thankful for it!’ Mindy said this with such grace and equanimity that her joy of living was a nearly palpable aura around her. It was obvious that her outlook on life was one of excitement and anticipation, and that she truly looked forward to every minute of it. It was also abundantly clear through her ‘bucket list’ that she was not afraid of dying, but only of not completing the list. A truly amazing woman.

As the newest member of the group, this was the first time I’d met Mindy and heard her story. Once I overcame my shock and disbelief, I was humbled by the quiet grace and gentle acceptance Mindy had of her situation. I was also staggered by Mindy’s strength, the strength required to be the kind of person who’s brilliant soul shines through despite the unfortunate roulette that gave her cancer. With a terminal diagnosis, many of us would pull away in anger and turn inward, choosing to hate the world. Others would bemoan the fate that gave us the disease, and in our hurt and fear lash out at others. Incredibly, Mindy doesn’t allow the situation to rule her, but rather she views it as an opportunity to share her joy of life with everyone around her.

Knowing that time is limited and is a  thing she can’t control, Mindy has chosen to live each moment joyfully and to its fullest. After hearing her story, I wondered if I could be as accepting and as strong as Mindy, and it also made me re-evaluate my own life goals.

So, I ask myself — if today is the first day of the rest of my life, how would I chose to spend it?

My answer is that I chose to live each day without looking back, leaving the past behind and having no regrets for today. I chose to live life for the present with an eye on the future. I chose to stop wasting time on things that really don’t matter, and to start spending it with the people I care deeply for and on things that are important to me. I chose to stop worrying about things I can’t control and to enjoy more of the things that I love to do. I chose to live without regrets and as if each day is my last. Like Mindy, I chose, wholeheartedly, to live with joy.

Speaking of blackberry, if someone had told me 5 years ago that I would be as dependent on that phone/pda/email/web/etc. electronic gizmo for organizing my life as I am today, I would have said they were delusional. I must confess that, clearly, I was the one who was delusional because I really don’t know how I’d manage my life without it. Ahhhhh, technology! Isn’t it great!?!

Oh, and if you want to follow my nascent – and hopefully not embarrassing — introduction into the twitterverse, I’m at @stephgonzaga.

TED.com is a fascinating site. The variety of innovative ideas and new thought on an amazing variety of topics is a polymath’s dream.  Some presenters are big names, while other presenters are talented, regular people who are clearly passionate about their ideas and innovations, which makes their presentations truly inspiring.

The video above adds science to what many of us already knew about managing and motivating people in business today, and not just those of us in the technical fields. Dan Pink’s thoughts on changing 21st century management focus from the carrot-and-stick approach, are in essence, to pay individuals fair compensation and give them autonomy to do their jobs as they see fit for the purpose of serving something larger than themselves.

He argues that business will see greater innovation and productivity, and the individual will find greater satisfaction — a win-win situation. The argument here is that if you’re allowed to do what you like to do and you’re paid fairly for it, you’re going to be productive, continuously improve and contribute in a positive and meaningful manner, which is better for any business.

From a personal perspective I found this to be true in my work experience  - I was allowed to do what I did best as part of a larger picture, and they paid me a fair wage in return. It doesn’t get much better than that — I got to be productive and continuously improved at what I loved to do while contributing to a larger goal … and they paid me for it!

So, if one is paid fairly and allowed to do what they do best for a larger purpose, then it seems reasonable that productivity, continuous improvement and innovation are bound to follow.  Sometimes  ’tried & true’ needs to be tossed for new ways that make more sense.

via xkcd: Snow Tracking.

It’s unconventional, yet on so many levels this made me laugh long and loud.

Life really is funny

To this end, I was recently introduced to a philanthropic organization called The Greater Contribution which does exactly this through a vehicle called ‘micro loans’. Micro loans are just that: they are loans in small amounts, as little as $50, which are made to people in impoverished, third world countries such as Africa and Haiti.

The loans are made to the worlds poorest who can then start micro businesses and through their own efforts, build a sustainable income to support their families. The funds that make up the loans come from generous donors and when the loans are paid back the funds are lent out again and again. The poor in third world countries are an excellent credit risk as they pay back their loans at an impressive 97%-98% rate, usually within four months.

I was impressed when I saw what could be accomplished with so little. People in these impoverished areas want to be self-sufficient; they are not afraid to work hard and building their own business is a great motivator. Recipients of these micro loans are able to pull themselves and their families out of pervasive grinding poverty. Micro loans are an innovative way to help others, and the Greater Contribution has a wonderful story to tell about the program.

Want to help? Check ‘em out at Welcome to the Greater Contribution!

I had a recent experience where I received an email on a cc:  that excoriated another individual. The email was clearly intended for a single recipient; however, it ended up being sent to everyone on the cc: list. The sender had ignored some basic rules (common sense?) and ended up sending the reply to everyone in the email stream including the person who was being trashed in the email. Ooops.

Here are five simple rules for using email without looking like a newbie, or worse, a complete idiot.

1. NEVER, EVER send an email when angry. If you must, write it and save it in draft mode – chances are that a fresh look later will make you glad you didn’t send it.
2. Email is electronic (duh!). ALWAYS assume that it will be forwarded beyond the original recipient. That way you’ll never be surprised that whatever you said ‘grew legs’ and now everyone knows.
3. NEVER send something in writing that should be delivered verbally and/or face-to-face – see number two above.
4. ALWAYS re-read what you wrote – at least twice – before hitting the send button.
5. Avoid using ‘Reply All’ as if it were the plague. Seriously. Not only will it reduce the email in others’ inboxes, but it will help one avoid making embarrassing and unintended booboos on responses intended for a single recipient.

Oh, and I should also mention an item on using company email —  avoid career damage by assuming that the company email account is NOT PRIVATE, and is likely monitored and accessed at will by the organization. So it might be a good idea to consider whether or not those, er, ‘booty call’ emails really need to be sent from the company account.

Being the geek and the sucker I am for new technology, how could I resist? So, I elected to try the digital option. This option consisted of sitting at a machine with special lasers and a digital camera, and looking in various directions while digital scans or “snapshots” were taken of each eye. The tests took a little training as one must be positioned exactly and look precisely in the direction indicated. The entire test took about 15 minutes.

It was painless and didn’t require a follow up visit with a chauffeur afterwards due to the eye drops given for dilatation. What a bonus! The best part was that directly after the test the Doctor showed me the scans and gave me a tour of the back of my eyes — how cool is that?!?

The additional benefit of this technology is that the scans are archived so that they can be compared over a distance of time by any doctor or specialist, which is useful for patients who may have retinal conditions such as macular degeneration that need careful monitoring. Without the ability to capture a snapshot of the eyes, one must rely on the diligence and accuracy of the optometrist’s documentation. The link below is a description of the device and how it works.

Total Eye Care – Learn about the Optomap Retinal Exam.