Negotiation Skills

I had a friend in law school who had a five year old daughter.  When Gail was taking Mediation and Negotiation, she said it as the easiest class she ever took, because she got nightly practice with her child, sharpening and honing the skills in her own little real-life lab.  Now that I am a [...]

Social Contracts and Constructs

A friend of mine from out of town came to spend the night- he had a speaking gig nearby, and so he came to the “Hoffman B & B”- bed and breakfast at our house.  It was super to see him, and I am so glad he stopped by.  He also did something really nice- [...]

Quick thoughts on Education….

I got a postcard today from a virtual charter school.  One where kids can essentially take all their classes from home, on the computer.  I called them up, not because I am dying to enroll my kids, but because I wondered if they could take some of the classes- like a language class, or maybe [...]

Community and Critique

I love that the internet is a small town.  I love that I know people through certain channels, then run into people in real life where we share friends.  probably the best example of this is when I met Alex Hillman of Independents Hall at a meeting about Blog Philadelphia and Podcamp Philly, and found [...]

Redesigning the Conference Experience

I’ve been involved with the Podcamp and the Podcamp Foundation from very early on, having attended the first Podcamp in September, 2006 and having helped organize four others so far. Most of you know this. What’s intriguing though, is the thought of redesigning the conference business as a whole.
I was bouncing ideas around [...]

The Joy of the iPhone

My husband was kind enough to give me my christmas present early- a new iPhone.  While I could go on and on about the coolness of this toy, I want to talk about the consumer experience first.
When you get the iphone, it’s in a box that is spectacular.  It’s pretty enough to the eye.  Black, [...]

A quick post-

We just saw Enchanted- a Disney send-up of Disney tales.  My younger son was perplexed- Why did everyone end up with the wrong person?  Explaining to him that life often means emphasizing contrasts versus similarities is pretty deep stuff for a boy of nine.
Girls grow up with fairy tale ideals more frequently than boys- we [...]

The Quiet after the Storm

My folks are still here, and they stayed with the kids so my husband and I could go out for dinner alone.  We tried a place we’d never been before, and had a perfectly pleasant meal, quiet and without the chaos found at the local chain places during the holiday season.
A lot of  people in [...]

I have a dream….

….that this next year we take Podcamp and make it like Summer Camp.
….Phase 1: We find a place where there can be a multi-day, even weeklong retreat of New media Folk and their families.  Kinda like the Podcamp Cruise idea, only somewhat more back to basics.  Shoot, I’d have everyone here at my house, but [...]

Gratitude

Leading up to the US Thanksgiving holiday, I’ve been writing about what I am thankful for. Oprah Winfrey tried to incorporate this sense of thankfulness when she was pushing a “gratitude journal” a few years ago. This was a way to write down the positive things in your life, a way to count [...]