The full story of Uganda: A little goes a long way can be found on the website of Frontlineworld, and there you can find the full length video – but that site does not allow embedding, and the stream is slow and freezes every few seconds, so I got it from causecast.org instead.

Ok, I want to ask you something. Minimize the feedreader, the e-mail client and tweetdeck. Done?

Now maximize this window.

Thank you.

Ok, just joking, but, did you notice how much we “multi-task”? We are at so many place at one time that, well. we are nowhere actually. We read a blogpost while simultaneously respond to tweets while chatting in Skype. Whatever we do, we either are doing something else at the same time, or already thinking about the next task. So, we are not there. And it’s not good.

Disclosure: Yes, I am absolutely guilty of riding more than one horse at the same time. That’s why I started to write this post.

Slow down. Take a deep breath.

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has written a wonderful book titled Flow. Tom DeMarco in Peopleware also wrote about the effect. When you gather your mind, your attention and do one and only one thing, getting into the Flow, concentrated, effective and enjoying it.

You know, the thing that happens in the Magical Hours of After 5PM, when the office is empty, everyone went home and you actually can do some work. No phones ringing, no boss running in and dragging you away for a meeting, no co-workers jumping on you: “Hi! Can I disturb you for 5 minutes?” which is a pointless question, as you are already disturbed, dragged out of the flow, and it will take about 15-20 minutes to get back into it – if it happens 4 times a day you lost 1 hour of effective work time.

But we all know this, I don’t want to talk about that.

However, did you notice that you actually bring it into your out-of-office life too? Always doing 3 or 4 things, not really being anywhere. Joanna Young wrote about The Art of Paying Attention. You can say it’s not about “don’t multitask it’s about watching flowers”, but do you think if she tried to watch the flowers AND watch the bees AND tweeting about the flower AND Qik it at the same time she would have enjoyed it and really notice all the things about the flower?

I know that “faster, higher, more” is the way we ought to live, but do yourself, and those around you, a favour. When you don’t have to multitask, then don’t do it.
Pay attention to the post you read, the people you are talking to and do only one thing at a time.
I am well aware that being able to multitask is a kind of achievement and it is regarded as the most desirable skill in the whole world, but frankly, if you think about it it simply means you don’t think that much of the tasks you have to do. They are so simple, menial and irrelevant that you can do them with just a small part of your attention.

And before you go to the next site, post, tweet, watch this video – Mihály Csíkszentmihályi talking about the Flow.

The Wee Free Men. The Nac Mac Feegle. The ones who have been expelled from Fairy Land – after breaking up the place for the thousandth time. They steal, they drink, they fight, and are mortally afraid of their names being written down – ’cause of the lawyers you know. They are around 6 inches tall, blue and covered with tattoos of all kind, fast and strong – well, when you are small and you steal cattle, you must be strong, right?

You could say they are not the most likeable fellows – not to their face and not too loud though. Did I mention they like to fight? And they are strong? Right.

So, what can you learn from them? A lot. Especially on how they see life and the world around them.

“We’d best move on. We lost some of the lads.”

The excitement drained away.

“You mean they’re dead?” Tiffany whispered. The sun was shining brightly again, the skylarks were back..and people were dead.

“Ach, no,” said Rob. “We’re the ones who’s deid. Did ye not know that?”

No, I am not saying that we should think we are dead. I certainly feel alive. But please bear with me.

“Well, if you think you’re dead, then what are they?” she went on, pointing to a couple of small bodies.

“Oh, they’ve gone back to the land o’the livin’, ” said Rob Anybody cheerfully. “It’s nae as good as this one, but they’ll bide fine and come back before too long. No sense in grieving.”.

…

“But you are alive!” she said.

“Ach, no, mistress,” said Rob, helping another pictsie to his feet. “We wuz alive. And we wuz good boys back in the land o’the livin’, and so when we died there we wuz borned into this place.”

…
“You mean. you think.that you sort of died somewhere else and then came here?’said Tiffany. “You mean this is like.heaven?”

“Aye! Just as advertised!” said Rob Anybody. “Lovely sunshine, good huntin’, nice pretty flowers and wee burdies goin’cheep.”

“Aye, and then there’s the fightin’,” said another Feegle. And then they all joined in.

“An’the stealin!”

“An’the drinkin’an’fightin’!”

“An’the kebabs!” said Daft Wullie.

“But there’s bad things here!” said Tiffany. “There’s monsters!”

“Aye,” said Rob, beaming happily. “Grand, isn’t it? Everythin’laid on, even things to fight!”

Terry Pratchett – The Wee Free Men

Are the wee free men right? Or are they totally wrong? Who knows – we can’t state anything with absolute certainty about the Discworld -, but one thing is clear. The way they look at the world is refreshing.

There are nice things, just as advertised, it’s a kind of heaven after all, and there are bad things, worthy challenges for a real men. After all, if there were no monsters, no challenges to overcome, no fights to win, it is kind of boring. And if it is boring, it can’t be the heaven, right?

I am not saying that we should look upon every problem as a new, exciting challenge – thinking of war, famine, poverty, and such. But when you meet something more mundane, don’t roll over and play dead, whimpering softly.
After all, without having challenges, you won’t appreciate the moments when the wee burdies go cheep.

Now that gave me a lot more responsibility and work, which I don’t mind, because I am positively excited about the project. Yes, this is me all excited.
You may have noticed I did not go all Amway on you about the project. Should I? Just joking.

But I am excited. I think the result of the project can be something useful and popular, something that helps people with their job, and that’s a good thing in my opinion. But this blog is not about Yazix, for that check the Yazix Blog.

What I wanted to write about is this whole crisis thing. Of course, people way smarter than me write about how it is bad or good for the markets, we are constantly bombarded by how tough times are, and that we are going to die, and all, but I wanted to write about it from a diferent perspective.

We have all read that there are touh times, people are getting laid off, employment is hard to find, money is tight, even I wrote about it how difficult it is to land a good job. But I want to bring up the other half of the crisis. Opportunity. There are half-joking ideas like Naomi at Ittybiz who, upon hearing that people – suit wearing, iPod owning people – live in tents has concluded that it’s high time to start a Yahoo Tent store – and I say half joking, because only the style is funny, it actually can be a good business idea, no? Go over there and read her post. I will wait. Note: NSFW.

Then there are initiatives for “charity projects”, where you work for no pay, but to hone and maintain your skills, and network with people – which is a good idea -, and not on some hidden corner of the web, there is a new group on LinkedIn called Code Angels.

But what about starting something that you was thinking about but did not do because it is risky? I wonder, if being in the middle of a crisis, being unemployed will make people more risk averse or more risk embracing.

I know that I choose the latter path. For me, Yazix is a “venture” project – I work with the hope of having a gain in the far future. If the project flops, I will be left with a fuzzy warm feeling that I have learned, and worked, and gathered experience, and n0 money to show up for my efforts. If it works out it will be “happy days again”. Would I have done it in non-critical times with a full time job? Probably not. I would not have had the time, I would have needed my free time for myself, I would have had no need for it, you name the excuse. No pressure to take the risk, we are all comfy, we are all good.

But as I have ended up unemployed I have two options:

1. Look for a job, which is a bit hopeless right now, and between offers and interviews sit at home and watch TV.
2. Join a risky project and work, build my experience, learn, and hope for the best – and look for a job (which still is sort of hopeless, btw).

I take the risk. What can I lose? My TV time? Not that I watch too much TV, so lets make it game time. Not a big loss if I put it up against the “what can I win?”.

So, question is: what prevents you from taking a risk if you don’t have a job and don’t get paid anyway? Is a certain zero income better than a “possible X” income where X is bigger than zero? I think that in this situation you should take a risk, instead – or beside :) – of complaining about the economy, how the local currency crashed, how inept the politicians are, how there are no possibilities, how… You get the point.

Not to mention that when the economy recovers, and you will be able to find a job at last, your CV will have a brand new entry and not a 6 months long gap. Just saying.

When you have nothing to lose, it’s high time to take a risk.

You can tell I am a bit behind, as their Introduced the Kiva API 5 days ago, but you know, better later than never.

The Kiva API begins as a set of RESTful web services, focused primarily on the tasks of fetching public data from Kiva.

They already posted a few ideas, which are mostly tracking what happens – but everything starts out like that on the net, so I am confident we will see some more transaction oriented ideas too. My favourite ide is the “integrate it with a map”, but I am afraid in the first wave we will see a lot of “tweet your loan” apps.

And they take – at least so far – a rather community oriented approach to the whole API thing as their Welcome to the build.kiva.org post states

Moreover, this is a place where you can help us shape the Kiva API. ?You’ll find our API roadmap and evolving designs on our Wiki, and we expect these to change in direct response to your participation in the community. This site is yours too – let us know what needs to change and how we can make it a more powerful tool for everyone building Kiva. ?(If you like what you see so far, help us give thanks to our designer-friend, Omar Lee.)

Yes, they started an build.kiva blog, so you can follow on the events – grab the RSS Feed if you are interested. I think there will be a lot of really cool apps soon, and hopefully the site will get a lot of exposure.

The ORG “Sound of Copyright” Conference that took place in the European Parliament last week is over, and there are concerns still, as news-mail I received today shows .

Consumer groups, musicians, academics and industry stakeholders, together with a cross party panel of MEPs, hit out at the “fairy tale” of copyright term extension at the ORG “Sound Copyright” conference in the European Parliament last week.

One by one speakers rubbished the proposal to extend copyright term as outgoing ORG Executive Director Becky Hogge pointed out that “All the evidence shows that the term extension directive will do very little and almost nothing to help the poor performer and everything to line the pockets of the world’s record labels.”

You can see the opening speeches by Becky (1) and by Pekka Gronow (2), sound archivist and professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Helsinki. Professor Gronow’s account of the conference is also available on his blog (3). We’ll update you with more video and speeches very soon.

(1) Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzcm43pABBE and Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4_t9m6tRyI
(2) Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T3D-HYnIAc and Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtuGn2S74I
(3) http://blogit.yle.fi/node/2625

Next week the Legal Affairs (JURI) committee will likely vote to push the proposal to a full plenary vote in Parliament in March against fierce opposition (4) from the representatives of 42 consumer rights organisations (BEUC), 29 privacy and civil rights organisations (EDRI), over 650,000 library and information professionals worldwide (IFLA), ?ORG (UK), Consumer Focus (UK) and the EFF (US). ?With this in mind we urge you to contact your MEP (5) either in Brussels or at their home constituency and let them know why term extension should be rejected.

(4) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2009/01/21/consumers-citizens-and-information-professionals-around-the-world-unite-to-condemn-copyright-extension/
(5) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/10/07/make-sure-meps-hear-your-views-on-copyright-term-extension-get-in-touch-today/

MEPs are coming under increasing pressure from industry lobbyists now claiming parity with countries with longer copyright terms as a justification for term extension, despite the European Commission ?denying that ‘comparative advantage’with longer terms was a basis for the extension (6 – See P. 11, 12.). Show your MEP our cartoon “How copyright extension in sound recordings actually works” (7) and get them to sign our petition (8) and reject copyright extension!

(6) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/uploads/commission.pdf
(7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijON_XODUk
(8) http://www.soundcopyright.eu/petition

IP watch covered our event (9), and Cory Doctorow writing in the Guardian (10) echoed the chorus of concern and disapproval already voiced in international press from the International Herald Tribune (11) to the Financial Times (12).

(9) http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1403
(10) http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/26/cory-doctorow-copyright-law
(11) http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/24/opinion/edbaldwin.php
(12) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ba280756-ca07-11dd-93e5-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

Our cartoon “How copyright extension in sound recordings actually works” has also been translated into French (13), Italian (14) and Spanish (15), with versions appearing on Facebook and Blip TV. Now reaching a total of 30,000 views it hit the top 10 most popular political videos in the week that Obama was elected! Tell your MEPs to reject term extension now! (16)

(13) http://www.framablog.org/index.php/post/2009/01/25/allongement-droits-artistes-musique-majors-europe
(14) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LprDgb8LFaY&feature=channel_page
(15) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gQkbwCugQdc&feature=related
(16) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/10/07/make-sure-meps-hear-your-views-on-copyright-term-extension-get-in-touch-today/

If you can, try to contact your MEP and voice your concern – if you have – and urge him to represent your, the voters interest, not that of the Record Label Lobby.

Business Analyst Times

Within the past year, BA Times has quickly become the ultimate destination for the ever-growing Business Analyst community.

Our team keeps the site consistently updated with the latest news and in-depth articles within the industry, ensuring that BA Times is at the forefront of relevant content surrounding all developments regarding business/systems analysis, CBAP Certification, industry events and cutting-edge BA insights.

Most importantly, BA Times is committed to the advancement and recognition of the Business Analyst Community.

If you are involved in Business Analysis, or just want to see what BAs on your team are concerned with, check out this site. There are a lot of useful and interesting stuff.

Project Times

Business Analysts and Project Managers go in pairs – tightknit couples you could say as BAs act as PMs a lot of times.
So here is the site for the Project Managers, same platform, same style as the BA Times.

Modern Analyst

Modern Analyst is another great community with loads of articles, posts, discussions and whatnot.
If you are working as a system or business analyst, and has a website, you can get it on their Resource Directory for free as a member.

Requirements Network

Yet another site for BAs, or anyone interested in requirements, with blogs, forums, podcasts and whitepapers.

Catalyze

Catalyze is a community for professionals who define and design software applications and websites.

Yes, blogs, forums, resources and events. And community.

They all are good and useful, with lots of great discussions and posts and articles. Check them out, and see if you like.

Karen D. Swim released a new e-book title “Write your own resume”. Being in the middle of job seeking, and frankly, being a person who never could write a decent resume I was quick to jump for the possibility to get this book.
Yes, the fact that Karen is a friend made it pretty easy, as she e-mailed it to me.

As I said I have never been too good with resumes – I am pretty bad with self-marketing, and I can easily dismiss things I created or acomplished that should not be dismissed.
Naturally I wanted to learn all the secrets to the resume writing. Well, it is as suspected, most of the secret is hard work and knowing what to do. Surprise.

“Resume writing is part art and part science. The art of resume writing is one reason it is difficult to judge a resume writer by one or two samples. Resumes are individual. Your value proposition is unique to your experiences, approach and skills. I have presented general guidelines only, as there are a number of variables that are completely subjective. The key is to know your market, and design your resume accordingly.”

That’s the Summary of the book from Karen. There you go, if you translate it, it says: “you gotta work pal”. Actually I was hoping it will be more along the “add personal details, shake it, et voil?, our Wonder-Resume Cooker 2009 produced a freshly baked, marvelous, killer resume. Here’s your new job”.? Ok, a guy can dream, no?

What’s in the book? First of all a really concise check list of materials to be used in your resume.

I got a bit scared seeing the item “Social Media Profiles”.
Being the net-addicted social media dweller, it will take at least a week to get all of them – 3 days to remember every one of them -, but then it’s for my future job. And I need a comprehensive list anyway.

Then after you get everything together Karen leads you through the outline of your resume with examples, and explanations of whats and whys.
I for one always understood that you have this plain text up front, and I was told what kind of info should go there, but never the why, and the goal of the section. Knowing that honestly makes it a bit easier to fill out that bit

And then there is the tips section called “Writing and Design Tips”.
A lot of them are common sense – don’t mix 34,956 different types of fonts -, but as we all know common sense is not that common.
When the inner-designer is released it can run a pretty scary amok on everything we do. Don’t let him.

All in all, the whole book is 23 pages full of useful tips and guidelines in an easy to digest format.

Admittedly not everyone will be able to write a outstanding resume after reading the book, but what is important everyone will be able to write a better resume at least, and everyone will be able to work better with a professional resume writer.
Like starting with a huge armload of material prepared for her instead of spending a week after the first talk to gather these materials, or simply understanding what the resume writer needs and why.
Understanding is the foundation of successful teamwork – and successful teamwork means a higher chance of a successful result.

So I say check “Write your own resume” out – and if you think share your opinion here.

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice. – Seth Godin

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What does it mean? Basically, they intend to double the term of copyright for sound recordings, extending it to 90 years – that’s about 3 generations.

That would mean that a song written in 1960 will not go into the public domain until 2040 – and you can’t make and copy your home video legally if in the background you can hear this music, for example.
Or, as is the case, you can’t get some of these legally until 2040, as about 75% of the music ever produced is not available commercially.

The Term Extension Directive has been condemned by Europe’s leading intellectual property research centres, studies proved it counterproductive and basically a bad idea.

Nonetheless, the European Parliament is going forward to vote on it – and if they have to choose between the no-name customer’s right or the recording company profits I think we can see the winner here.

Now, let me share with you an e-mail I’ve received from the Open Rights Group.

Dear Sound Copyright petitioner,
The European Parliament is set to vote on whether to double the term of copyright in sound recordings. Sound Copyright invites you to register your concern at an event on the proposed Term Extension Directive, on Tuesday 27 January 2009 in the European Parliament in Brussels:
http://soundcopyright.eventbrite.com/
This flawed Directive has been unanimously condemned by Europe’s leading intellectual property research centres. The European Parliament must address the mounting concerns of consumer groups and copyright users if they want a modern, workable intellectual property policy.? Please, if you can, come to Brussels and register your concern. If you can’t make it, please invite your MEP to attend on your behalf.

Looking forward to seeing you in Brussels,
Becky Hogge
Executive Director, Open Rights Group

===Sound Copyright News===
How you can help the campaign:

1. Come to an event on 27 January in the European Parliament in Brussels to hear academics, musicians and activists discuss the Directive with a roundtable of MEPs
   http://soundcopyright.eventbrite.com/
2. Invite your MEP to attend the 27 January event on your behalf (you can get their contact details here: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members.do)
3. Invite your MEP to sign the Sound Copyright petition
   http://www.soundcopyright.eu/petition
4. Ask your MEP to watch the Open Rights Group’s cartoon “How copyright term extension in Sound Recordings actually works”
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijON_XODUk

===

Spread the word: How copyright term extension in sound recordings actually works
The Open Rights Group and animators Eclectech, whose work has included pieces for Friends of the Earth and No2ID in the UK, have produced a short animation explaining “How copyright term extension in Sound Recordings actually works”. Check it out at the link below and show your friends and your MEPs why term extension is a really bad idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijON_XODUk

===
Andrew Gowers hits out at “out of tune” term extension.
The former editor of the Financial Times, Andrew Gowers, hit out at the UK Government’s? suggestion that they should consider a copyright extension as “out of tune with reality”.? Gowers original evidence-based review for the UK Government concluded against extending copyright.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ba280756-ca07-11dd-93e5-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

Ask James McGovern, who is a prominent member of both OWASP and Kiva, the micro-lending website. Well, one point of connection is the obvious, if you are a website dabbling into financial stuffs you need security.

The other is the OWASP Lender Team, started by James, which I have joined back in September.

Now I ask you, yes you, to check out Kiva, and if you think you can afford the luxury of lending a few bucks to someone who really needs it, do it. And if you are interested in software security, join OWASP, both on Kiva and on the OWASP website.