fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Guide to the Types of Collaboration with Brands
Tags: Collaboration, Instagram Influencers, Influencer Marketing, Marketing, Brand Strategy

By Pritika Matkar

Image credit: Hobo Video

It is a well-established fact that influencer marketing works for a brand. These social media celebrities do have the power to ‘influence’ people and drive the audience to purchase a product or a service.

About 63% of marketers these days work with at least ten influencers on every campaign. They rely highly on these influencers, mainly micro influencers to sell their products.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

It is the efforts that an influencer puts in making a connection with the audience and creating personalized and well-researched, authentic content that drives any campaign to success. It is worth mentioning that these influencers have the power to make or break any marketing campaign just through their posts. This is where it becomes essential that the brands work in developing a good relationship with the influencers, and vice versa.
Are You Tracking Your ROZI?
By: Amar Jeer
Tags: Collaboration, Leadership, Tech, Business, Productivity

Photo by Tomas Yates on Unsplash

ROZI, Return On Zoom Interaction, aka the next company KPI. Companies have been forced to adopt the work from home culture, and for a lot of those businesses it’s here to stay.

Before the pandemic, employees who requested to work from home one day a week, had to prepare this detailed reasoning while giving the assurance that they’ll in fact work and will not miss a beat. All this anxiety ridden justification. Some companies viewed work from home as an excuse to be lazy and “bum around” at home, so they didn’t allow it, while others saw the value in it one day a week to help their employees not burn out. Either way, there was a trust element that was being tested.

If the pandemic has had any positive effect, I think it’s strengthened the trust between employer and employee, especially among those that have embraced the work from home policy. In spite of being remote, companies have been pleasantly surprised with their ability to achieve significant milestones:

Public Filings

Successful M&A deals

SPACs

New Product Launches

Looking tops down, these are great company achievements, but there was a lot of ground work that was done to accomplish these. Thats where the ROZI comes in.

Photo by Firos nv on Unsplash

I can see us in the near future adding the ROZI as a KPI to companies across the board. A way to track our productivity, especially in those highly collaborative Tech groups, by measuring monthly and quarterly Zoom input vs our output. Basic variables within that input ranging from:

Number of Zoom meetings in a given time period

Minutes spent per Zoom call

Number of attendees per call

Optimal number of subjects or categories covered per meeting

We can even dive a level deeper within these variables and explore: When do a majority of the “wins” occur on a Zoom call? In the first 7 minutes, 15 minutes? 30 minutes? We know the human attention span is 8–12 seconds, and that upon meeting someone for the first time, individuals will create a solid impression within their first 7 seconds of meeting you. So why do we need any meetings that are over 30 minutes or 1 hr long? I would predict those 1 hr+ meetings are at the bottom of the ROZI pool.

There are a lot of layers to this analysis and I can go on for pages, but one thing for sure is that companies are not just going to switch over to permanent remote policies without continuously measuring and tracking the output on the backend. So if you see a Chief of ROZI role pop up at your company, don’t be too surprised.
Why “students x students”?
By: Students X Students
Tags: Collaboration, Creativity, Personal, Students, Enjoy Writing

We are normal people. And just like many normal people, we were not big fans of writing. We wrote our essays in class just to fit the rubric given to us and never went beyond thinking of writing as a way to get an A in a class.

Then we discovered Medium.

A place where we saw what depth is in writing. A place where we noticed firsthand the impact of writing and its significant influence.

We began to write our own articles.

Some of us wrote informal personal articles, and others wrote informational articles. They were all impactful not just to the people who read them, but to the writers as well. We began to enjoy writing.

We began to understand that writing is more than just conforming to a set of grammar rules. Writing is fun. Writing is a way to delve into our innermost thoughts and surprise ourselves with new nuanced ways to think about topics we never knew we cared abut. Writing helped open up paths for introspection, paths for exploring interests, and paths to impact the people around us. While we didn’t become famous on Medium … yet :), we knew that our writing had the potential to do something great, at whatever scale it was received.

Then came the big question. How do we spread our work effectively to others, after we put so much work into our writing? We turned to publications across Medium as an answer, but noticed a couple issues.

These publications are built for adults. The ones reading our work were not the people we directly worked with on a day-to-day basis and thus we received little to no attention on them when publishing. These publications create endless streams of content. Articles are constantly churned out each second of each day on many popular publications. And thus, many are not able to read our work and provide comments and learn from it.

We wanted to influence the people who we would grow up with, and the same old publications did not work for us.

So we decided to start our own.

With the concept “for students by students,” our goal is to provide students the ability to feel more excited about writing as a way to express themselves, rather than just getting a good grade.

Writing should be about encapsulating yourself in a piece of literature, not following an archaic rubric to receive a letter grade. Writing should be about learning more about yourself. W riting should be about influencing your peers and other students like you across the world to think differently and take their own lives by charge. Your writing should be uniquely your own.

And we are here to help you do just that.

Looking forward to writing alongside you,

The students behind sxtudents
About Me — Mandy Capehart. I am insanely interested in all of the…
By: Mandy Capehart
Tags: Collaboration, About Me, Learning, Growth Mindset, Coaching

About Me — Mandy Capehart

Photo by author

Hi, new friends!

It’s an honor that you would make time to read my story.

My job title has changed a number of times, but the undercurrent of learning never stops.

In addition to being a writer and editor, my background includes coffee, wine education, travel, finance, teaching, journalism, anthropology, religion/spirituality, music, cooking, graphic design, marketing, social media, storytelling, interpersonal communication, personal development, photography, public speaking, large event coordination… at what point does a hobby become a resume line item?

I’m also a small business owner, a mom, a wife since ‘07, and PNW native. I read around 50–60 books a year. I’m a “show, not tell” kind of human — as often as it’s possible.

Here on Medium, I’ve recently started a new publication called “Ask A Grief Coach.” My hope is to offer empathetic grief support in a public forum specifically for those who have unasked questions. Maybe we don’t know what we need to hear until we hear it.

I am a certified life coach, focusing on cognitive behavioral techniques. My passion is to move the needle for someone; anyone — through relationship, writing, or advocacy.

I am also a certified grief coach and founder of The Restorative Grief Project. The Restorative Grief Project is an online community focusing on one another’s stories and new methodologies for grief, creating a safe environment for our souls to heal and our spirits to be revived. My manuscript is in SFD stage, but will be released in 2021 as a standalone book. You can sign up or learn more at www.mandycapehart.com/grief.

Sometimes I get a little spicy; a little salty on social media. I am definitely not for everyone.

But what’s life without some flavor?

INSTAGRAM — — — — — — — TWITTER — — — — — — — FACEBOOK

Let’s work together!

Best Way to Connect: MandyCapehart.com

Restorative Grief Project

Join us at www.mandycapehart.com/grief! Content and copy editing, and content creation

Hourly rates.

I am available for Medium articles as well as larger projects. Design & marketing work

Hourly and project rates.

I am available for small business story and ad development.

Just starting out? You have a story to tell; I have the words to help. Coaching via Zoom

Schedule a consultation!

Accepting new clients for life & grief coaching in 2021. The Uncomfortable Grace Podcast

We are always on the lookout for courageous storytellers and earth shakers. Men and women with bumpy roads, willing to share the details of their failures and the gracious circumstances of their recovery.

Check out our ‘cast and if you’re interested in collaborating, connect!

My monthly newsletters include exclusive writings, project updates, and referrals to other beautiful creatives in my community. I would be THRILLED to learn more about your projects as well!

Subscribe: https://www.mandycapehart.com/contact-page/

A few pieces I’m quite proud to share:
It’s hard not to take it personally when a collaborator “ghosts” or doesn’t pick up the phone.
By: Madeline Taylor
Tags: Collaboration, Self Sufficiency, Singer, Music, Power

I can’t help but think about power. About how much it takes to build the skills that allow you not to depend on anyone to realize your ideas. And how lonely/isolating that might be. Or how liberating.

Self-sufficiency isn’t about individualism or separate-ness. It’s like making a budget: the goal is to minimize your needs, so you can build what you want in a way that’s informed by, say, your values. When it comes to working with people, my best experiences happen when I feel like we’re helping each other in a unique way, and not like I need something from them.

(but what of doing one thing really well? Why do I have to be a multi-instrumentalist just to get things done? Am I looking at this wrong? Is this where Iwas always headed, and maybe the suggestions of what i could be were too narrow? I suspected, but it’s hard to stand by something you haven’t made yet, and that doesn’t yet exist in the world. This is Seth Godin’s definition of imposter’s syndrome. All innovators are…)

Words like entitlement and possessiveness come to mind. I think these things crop up when there’s a power deficit. Like, when you feel disempowered, because the part you play in a process isn’t as valued and it shows by the lack of institutional, structural support — I’m talking about the state of the artist here — then it makes sense that one might be more sensitive to the inconsistencies of people I can’t imagine I’m the only singer who feels this tension.

I think, “is it me or is this unprofessional? And if it is and I want to change it, can I? How?” Does this not sound like some sort of abusive relationship where the abused feels like they don’t have choices?

I’ve heard people speak about self-esteem like it’s this internal thing. Esteem is and has always been informed by what a culture values. Culture informs how we imagine ourselves and how we’re informed to think about our relationships to everything and everybody in the world around us.

If it’s normal to encourage singers to just be singers, and if working with machines and software is a largely gendered idea (that is, the messages we receive about being proficient in, say, recording technologies, is informed by informed by fixed ideas about gender and which bodies get to perform in what ways), then that’s an awfully compounded set of cultural norms to subvert.

Feelings aside, it has to be done. Ay ay ay. It’s not my fault, these circumstances. But it is my responsibility to change how I respond. I need to learn how to compose, record and mix my songs.

I’d like to write about this at some point. How the bodies we’re born into are ranked into a hierarchy, and how the reinforcement of that structure gives context to the things I’ve experienced as someone aiming to be creative for a living in this body.

(I hope I do this again tomorrow: write. post.)
French EDM Music Producer Damien Ranners Eyeing U.S. Artist Collaborations
By: She Got Game
Tags: Collaboration, EDM, French, Producer, Paris

Paris, France

Currently based in Paris France, Parisian Music Producer Damien Ranners is taking his talents to the U.S. Market as a collaborator with talented U.S. based singers who like him are mostly inspired by EDM.

Ranners describes his signature producing style as progressive melodic house, with a pinch of Trap, and a wide background of electro R&B and hip-hop as well.

In the early 2000’s Ranners was active as a musician on the French hip-hop R&B and reggaeton scene working with French producers and UK artists like Karl Williams, Suzanne Thomas, also Mariano, Berny Craze, Menelik and more. Also talented in TV production, his voice and music design is well known in advertising circles.

“French EDM Music Producer Damien Ranners is creative, comical crazy cool and his beats are fire.” Faith Willows, Miami Patch National Freelance Arts & Entertainment Writer.

Ranners is searching for talented EMD artists in the U.S. who want to collaborate and take their careers to the next level. Check out his latest videos to get a snapshot into his musical world, and get a feel for his style.

To learn more about Damien Ranners visit his website or connect with him on social media @damienranners.
Clockbeats/Matchfy & Violet Market
By: Francesca Berti
Tags: Music, Collaboration, Spotify

Violet Market collaboration

The music industry opens up to something new: songs have become investable and tradable assets. Thanks to Violet Market, we begin a partnership in order to benefit labels and artists, especially during these difficult times.

We will handle marketing strategies and targeted promotions for Violet’s listings.

Music companies that own a catalog of songs can list these tracks on Violet platform, just like equities on a stock market.

On Violet Market the songs get in fact divided into virtual shares and become accessible to anyone that wants to buy and trade them.

Music owners can quickly capitalize on their assets and get economic support that can be used for marketing, A&R and new productions. Labels can also invest in other songs, thus diversifying their portfolio. But above all, they can reduce risk by transferring it to others.

Violet Market

Buyers obtain a participation-right to royalties that derive not only from music sales and streaming but also from licensing fees and placement fees. And obviously, they can exchange shares with other investors, seeking for a short-term return.

Violet Market and CEO Gianni Chiarparini aim to create a liquid market that is parallel to the traditional consumer-market, by gifting everyone with the opportunity to take part in the music industry and helping to generate cash for artists and long-term profits for investors.

Visit Violet Market
Just Add Water
By: Patrick Muller
Tags: Collaboration, Museum, Library, Reading, Art

They tell me Medium readers need images or, better, animated gifs to be captivated by an article. (This article has none.) You’re better than that, right?

Batteries not included.

Some assembly required.

Just add water.

For me, a work of art is raw material until it engages individuals and communities and sustains conversations with them. (If a painting or song falls in a forest, it indeed makes no sound.) When these conversational relationships emerge, the work truly becomes art.

If you want an illustration of my philosophy, there’s one close by.

In summer 2019, as part of its “Revolution 1989” exhibition, the National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library (NSCML) built a replica section of the Berlin Wall. Des Moines activist and artist Jordan Weber used a remnant of that wall in a collaborative project with students from two Cedar Rapids high schools (Metro and Washington.) They created a little free library. It dovetails nicely, of course, with the African American Museum of Iowa’s (AAMI) current exhibition, “Unwavering: 21st Century Activism.”

According to the work’s description, “This (collaboration) allowed the students to grapple with themes of social justice, social protest, and counteracting systemic oppression with community good.”

This work spans two exhibitions, links four organizations (two cultural centers, two schools), brings dozens of individuals into direct or indirect interaction, and offers a new treasure to the community.

Some assembly required. Check.

As more collaboration, this are is jointly owned by AAMI and NCSML.

Batteries not included. Check.

The library is currently on display at AAMI, and you may take a book from it or donate a book to it.

Just add water. Check

Water added.
Hello World
Tags: Collaboration, Mentorship, Digital Transformation, Sustainable Business, Growth Mindset

Time, Growth, & Rewards

Canuklabs Inc. was born on the 04th of December 2020, after 4 friends tired of being told by countless organizations and individuals that they “knew” better” or “had things under control” about business growth, but to consistently make the same mistakes and fall short.

We have put together our 25 years of combined experience to enable organizations and individuals to bring their ideas to life, grow their existing business and do all of it in a sustainable-sure-footed manner.

Each of us bring together different expertises to building digital business in the 21st century. From Product Development, Software Engineering, Machine Learning & AI and Digital Marketing.

With the skills section out of the way, we are firm believers of enabling individuals to forge ahead their own path in a sustainable and responsible manner with measurable goals. As much as we recognize the age old “Gut feeling” we have also internalized the saying “what cannot be measured, cannot be improved”. Combining these two philosophies we are able to provide a tailored framework, that strikes the balance between “optimism” and “realism” to keep organizations excited about their products and at the same time grounded in core principles. This is in our opinion (as idealogical as it sounds) helps organizations be agile (to react to changes and quickly) but decisive and sure footed in their growth strategies.

Another tenant is learning and Knowledge Transfer. We are firm believers in life long learning and we want to instil that value in our customers as well. To that matter we strive to enable our customers to keep going beyond our engagements, with the correct tools, knowledge and frameworks.

So in a nutshell we like to think of ourselves as “Growth Mentors” who work with individuals and organizations to build, learn and grow their ideas and business. Providing them with the correct knowledge and tools to forge their identity and grow their organizations in a sustainable manner well beyond our time of collaboration into the future.
Clockbeats/Matchfy & Violet Market
By: Francesca Berti
Tags: Music, Collaboration, Spotify

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
How NEWNESS Does Instagram
Tags: Collaboration, Marketing, Design, Branding, Social Media

What is your creative strategy for Instagram?

If it’s not fun, uplifting, or educational, don’t post it. It’s less about projecting a certain brand image, and more about sharing content that brings joy or shows something NEW.

Image courtesy of @newness.tv

How do you maintain a consistent brand identity in your posts?

You’ll notice design decisions on our site and Instagram that balance the line between building a recognizable platform and focusing attention on our platform’s creators. For example, we use black backgrounds to “turn the lights off” and bring focus to the Creators’ content, much like in a dark movie theater (while still using our primary green as an accent, of course).

Image courtesy of @newness.tv

How does Projector help you build your content?

We create nearly 20 assets per week, and 90% of them are made in Projector.

We use the GIPHY integration a lot! We recently uploaded some brand elements for our Creators to use onto GIPHY, so it’s been a really nice seamless experience to use across platforms.

The GIPHY integration in Projector

With our ethos of constantly evolving our brand, there are so many times we want to try out new visual elements on social or warp something for a video. Projector seems to be one step ahead of us when it comes to anticipating our visual needs. This range really allows us to draw inspiration and expand our visual language whenever we feel stuck.

It’s lightweight enough for a non-designer to pick up quickly while still being robust enough to create company-wide templates.

How does Projector help you plan your content?

We have templates set up in Projector. We use it for all of our social planning.

Every week we duplicate the stories we have for IG posts and stories.Then, our head marketing person lays out the social media flow for the week, looking at the calendar of everything going live. Someone on the team reaches out to creators to feature them while someone else writes the copy.

The marketing team handles 75% of the design using our Projector templates, and then the Head of Design puts the final polish on it.

Finally, we round it off and put our final assets into our Projector presentation.

Our branding agency also uses Projector (instead of Google Slides) to easily grab assets we’ve created and use them in other places.

Image courtesy of @newness.tv

Why do you use Projector over other creative tools?

Projector is a much more approachable version of pro design tools without all the frills. It was such an easy transition for me when I was first trying out the product and looking for something to make it easier to collaborate on creative projects with our team.

How do you use Instagram to build your community?

NEWNESS is not so different from being part of a book club, or a Dungeons & Dragons group, or a running club. On NEWNESS, beauty is the conduit.

We hope that people will meet on the platform as strangers, and eventually leave as friends!
It’s good to talk…
By: Luciano Visentin
Tags: Agile, Collaboration, Shared Understanding

Having been at Sainsbury’s for more years than I’d like to say, I have built up a network of people across many different teams. I’ve always worked in “IT” but have moved around a fair bit, now residing in “Digital”.

I’m loving my last move to work in the digital space, and am now a keen advocate of agile (after having had bad experiences of people cowboying the term to cut corners).

Something surprises me about agile though, which is the focus on collaboration, interactions and conversations… this surprises me as I think it’s just common sense, to speak to people, build a shared understanding and work together to get things done. Actions may not always be “right first time” but as long as you involve the relevant people in the conversations then you’ll stand a pretty good chance of heading in the right direction and when it goes wrong, talk about it and try again and again and again…

I guess some people need common sense written down for them hence the agile manifesto.

So what has this got to do with my network of colleagues…

Over six months ago we surveyed the engineers in the office to understand how things are going and allow them to feedback anonymously about any areas for improvement they might have. In amongst the feedback about the office being too hot/too cold/or people cooking fish in the microwave, we also had a fair few bits of feedback around our network. Engineers couldn’t get to the resources they needed as they were blocked by corporate policy or the tools we used didn’t respect proxied connections.

What was “wrong” with our network ? Well, nothing actually but it wasn’t designed around a modern software engineering function which builds software using the open source tools and tech. Our network was designed as a classic enterprise network which is reliable, secure, protects our colleagues and the business allowing them to do their jobs.

There had been friction, tension and people implementing their own work arounds (think 4g hubs and guest networks), not great for colleague retention, not great for protecting our digital assets and not the most efficient use of resources.

Why hadn’t anything been done previously ? This is difficult to answer, people fire off emails (typically to the wrong people) or raise single support tickets but no one just sat down with the right people from the Network Team and had a chat…

I don’t think I need to say much more, we spoke to the relevant people, painted the picture of what were the challenges and how we would like to work, they listened and understood. Together we built a shared understanding of the ‘need’. There were some bumps along the way however the developers and network engineers collaborated on each one and put us on the right path.

Now… would anyone like to have a chat about microwaves and fish ?
Our Y Combinator Interview
By: William Whatley
Tags: Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Design, Technology, Development

The Application

Back in September, Alex and I were traveling in Oaxaca, the southern state of Mexico, coming to an end with our MVP iteration of Parakeet — we had begun in February and had locked down in the house to complete our latest product.

Oaxaca de Juárez, México -- Photo by Samuel García on Unsplash

Sitting in a beautiful hotel lobby in the historic city of Oaxaca de Juarez, I had a day of meetings scheduled with YC alumni. Thankfully, they had given me their time to help improve our chances of success by talking about their personal experiences.

In the application alone, we learned a lot about our startup — when you’re in the weeds, designing and developing an application in no more than 6 months, it’s easy to lose track of messaging and other critical aspects of your brand and offerings.

Fast-forward 1 month later, in mid October, and we received incredible news via email — that our application had been accepted and that YC was interested in meeting us for an interview.

To add a bit more context, this was my 3rd time applying for YC — prior, I had built a video streaming application called Subchannel in 2017 and a farm-to-table application called UrbanCrop in 2019 — both applications were rejected and I had never received an interview spot. So to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement.

Reflecting back on my two previous applications, I quickly noted some of the key differences that had set Parakeet up for success this time around:

Keep it short and sweet

I have a tendency to write what could be short, very long.

The reality is YC partners have 1000’s of applications to read, and it seems obvious, but if your answers are not clear, concise, and to-the-point, most likely, they’ll skip over it and mark it with the big rejection stamp.

In addition, YC partners — rightfully so — have a belief that if it takes you a long time to explain what you’re doing, you yourself probably don’t really understand your company.

I built Parakeet to solve my own work-related frustrations

Although I was and still am genuinely passionate for Subchannel and UrbanCrop, I had no experience with anything related to making videos, nor was I a farmer. This time around, I built something to solve key pain-points in my day to day job as a software developer and project manager.

I feel confident in my ability to execute effectively because I know and understand team collaboration and effective communication, which is what Parakeet is all about.
Card Sessions: Small Group Genius
By: John Kellden
Tags: Collaboration, Proprioception Of Thought, Small Group Genius, Cards, Card Session

In a network, joint sauntering guided by proprioception of thought.

Small Group Genius: Four skills and literacies

The generative and productive ambiance in a small group is a function of four skills and literacies:

Questions

Ability to formulate and hold space for great questions.

Ability to formulate and hold space for great questions. Social Computing

Skillful digital interaction, conversations and transactions.

Skillful digital interaction, conversations and transactions. Group Ambiance

Sensibilities and literacies related to enaction and proprioception of thought.

Sensibilities and literacies related to enaction and proprioception of thought. Framing and Reframing

Emerging and unfolding lines of inquiry, co-evolving with intelligence turned ability.

Human evolution guided by proprioception of joint thought.

The case for proprioception

Ellen Fridland

Abstract

In formulating a theory of perception that does justice to the embodied and enactive nature of perceptual experience, proprioception can play a valuable role.

Since proprioception is necessarily embodied, and since proprioceptive experience is particularly integrated with one’s bodily actions, it seems clear that proprioception, in addition to, e.g., vision or audition, can provide us with valuable insights into the role of an agent’s corporal skills and capacities in constituting or structuring perceptual experience.

However, if we are going to have the opportunity to argue from analogy with proprioception to vision, audition, touch, taste, or smell, then it is necessary to eschew any doubts about the legitimacy of proprioception’s inclusion into the category of perceptual modalities.

To this end, in this article, I

(1) respond to two arguments that Shaun Gallagher (2003) presents in “Bodily self-awareness and objectperception” against proprioception’s ability to meet the criteria of object perception,

(2) present a diagnosis of Gallagher’s position by locating a misunderstanding in the distinction between proprioceptive information and proprioceptive awareness, and

(3) show that treating proprioception as a perceptual modality allows us to account for the interaction of proprioception with the other sensory modalities, to apply the lessons we learn from proprioception to the other sensory modalities, and to account for proprioceptive learning. Finally,

(4) I examine Sydney Shoemaker’s (1994) identification constraint and suggest that a full-fledged notion of object-hood is unnecessary to ground a theory of perception.

Keywords

Proprioception, Perception, Non-conscious perception, Perceptual learning
Why Remote Work Gives Us More Freedom in Software Engineering
By: Porsche Digital
Tags: Collaboration, Remote Working, International, Software Engineering, Tech

Team setups are less determined by location but even more by skills and diversity

But let us start with one of the few things that have not changed in 2020: Our role as the Software Engineering & Deep Tech team within Porsche Digital. We support the product teams with developers and ensure technically high-quality product development by, among other things, ensuring that the development processes, standards, and quality of software development are maintained across all locations. Each cross-functional product team, therefore, has one or more developers.

What we have learned in the last months: Full remote work can make collaboration easier. If no one’s in the office, it makes no difference where the team members are located — everyone is informed equally and in constant exchange. To give one example: There’s a project team with three developers located in Berlin and one in Ludwigsburg. If the Berliners are working together on-site in the office and the colleague from Ludwigsburg only joins meetings via video from time to time, he will probably be less informed and up to date regarding the project. Also, there’s a high probability that he won’t feel as much connected to the team. But when all team members work remotely, there’s no imbalance. Of course, working in different time zones — like with our colleagues in the US or Shanghai — makes collaboration more difficult. Still, smart tools and great communication in agile teams enable us to master this. The team setup is determined less by location and more by individual skills and diversity.

Full-remote also makes it easier for us to recruit even more broadly and to include freelancers from various locations in our projects — the knowledge barriers are easier to overcome if everyone works from a distance. We also succeeded in integrating our new locations in Zagreb and Barcelona in 2020.

Asynchronous working methods are gaining in importance

What was already important for our global work process has become even more important through remote work: The ability to make collaboration independent of time. To this end, we have further expanded our work model and common standards with regard to the documentation of tasks. This enables us to work together smoothly, even if it is not always possible to exchange information with team colleagues. We have succeeded in ensuring that the restriction of face-to-face meetings has led to more individual freedom of working time — without compromising the transfer of knowledge.

This year has sharpened our focus on what actually makes our cooperation work — it is about meeting the individual requirements of the teams, employees, and projects in order to make the cooperation meaningful.
The story of Fan-Frickin-Tastic
Tags: Engagement, Collaboration, Writing, Self Publishing

The story of Fan-Frickin-Tastic

I started this story in the spring of 2020, when I and my family were under lockdowns. I wrote a few chapters, then I set it aside. It wasn’t until I got into cryptoart and NFTs did it occur to me to publish the stories as an interactive NFT serial project.

The story begins with a trio of college kids, who have been trapped in a bunker, escape back to the surface. The world changed right above their heads, haha, and they’re faced with a mystery and adventure. So am I, and so are my readers, because I’m leaving aspects of the story open for voting! I have ideas and options of where things will go, but it’ll be influenced by the polls.

In the first installment, issue, or chapter (I’ve got to decide on one, I suppose), readers can vote on which of two items are discovered: a broken walkie-talkie or a rifle with a messed up barrel. It doesn’t make much difference to them in the moment, but it helps me choose a direction and gives them a powerful tool. Do they take the walkie-talkie to try and increase their communication abilities? Or do they take the potential weapon? What good is a conversation when you’re dead? How good is a rifle in the world they know nothing about? Will that save them from the true threats they face?

See what I mean?

So while the choice might seem a little inconsequential in that moment in the story, it has a huge impact on the direction the story takes. It’s scary as the author to allow random people to guide me (I’m pretty good at story-telling, I must say), but the voting angle is part of the experiment for me. Sure, things might go sideways fast, but they also might move into arenas unforeseen, to my readers and to me.

Finally, it’s just kinda cool isn’t it? Writing a story, selling voting ability, essentially via cryptocurrency, and creating a sort of social engagement at the same time! The story will be posted on my website so that anyone can read, so at the same time, this is enhancing my ‘brand’ (barf-in-my-mouf) as an author.

I’m not sure how many tokens to create of it, nor about how much to sell them for. I’m inclined to sell 50 or 100, just so that I can get more people involved in the story and the voting, but with gas prices on Ethereum, it’s hard to predict how people will react. Finally, I’m not sure anyone has ever done this-has ever published a story in a NFT’s metadata-so it might be too big of a leap for people and the project might not get traction.

…I guess in that case, I’ll be more in-charge of the story… That doesn’t seem so bad after all.
Exploring Alternatives: Wondershare Mockitt for Prototyping
By: Dan Kossoy
Tags: Collaboration, UI Design, UX, UI, Prototyping

For transparency: This article was sponsored by the Wondershare Mockitt team. That said, I’m genuinely happy to share my thoughts after having had a great experience with the tool and getting the opportunity to learn something new.

To quickly introduce the product for those who are unfamiliar, Wondershare Mockitt is a prototyping and collaboration tool, similar to the likes of your Figmas, Sketches, and so on, with a few unique features here and there that made using it an enjoyable and easy ride, with a fairly low learning curve to getting started.

To test out this new tool, I tried my hand at creating a rough prototype of the Instagram mobile app for iOS. Here’s what that process looked like:

Set-Up

Like Figma, Wondershare Mockitt can be both downloaded (on Mac and PC) as well as used online through a web browser. I went ahead and took advantage of the browser version here, as a way to get up and running as quickly as possible.
Addressing Challenges with Rigor and Compassion!
By: Cde Foundation
Tags: Collaboration, Teacher Preparation, Education, Philanthropy, Labor Management

Read the complete 2020 eBlast here: cdef.ink/2020DecEBlast

As 2020 comes to a close, we know there are few words that can accurately capture this incredibly challenging year. Like you, we may need much more time to reflect before we can fully comprehend the impacts — harmful and, in some cases, promising — of our unprecedented shared journey. And yet even as our minds and hearts continue to process it all, the CDE Foundation team has sprung into action, more motivated than ever to serve.

How can an organization possibly navigate the interwoven crises and growing social momentum of multiple ongoing pandemics — racial injustice, COVID-19, poverty, structurally oppressive social determinants of health? We did what we know best: nimbly collaborate with existing and new partners to connect public needs with private resources, strengthen teams’ abilities to build resilience together, counter isolation and overwhelm with engaging virtual learning communities centered on equity.

Most important of all: stay focused. In a year offering anything but clarity, live into your values, and do what is right. That is always how we have built community and it will remain how we catalyze a better world in 2021.

Our list of thank yous is also a list of people and organizations who inspire us. Please visit our website and program pages for a look at the many, many passionate folks we are lucky to call partners, especially our friends at the California Department of Education led by State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and our Board of Directors.

We appreciate you! — the CDE Foundation team.
Christmas Roses:
By: David Wade Chambers
Tags: Roses, Australia, Photography, Flowers, Gardening

Christmas Roses:

Photo by DWC with iPhone 11

This rose, Joseph’s Coat, (see above) was planted by my father-in-law in 1984 when he came to live with us shortly after his retirement. Out of the 50 or so roses I have grown in our coastal garden, this one is the easiest and most enduring of the lot, disease resistant and relatively pest-free. It doesn’t even seem to require as much fertilizer in order to flower abundantly. However, over the last few years, its flowering season has grown shorter, so I intend to gradually increase the frequency of feeding.

Photo by DWC with iPhone 11

I chose the Friesia rose to commemorate the life of my esteemed colleague and close friend John Southin, late of McGill in Montreal. We were close colleagues for seven years. This variety has deep yellow blossoms borne mostly in solitary clusters with semi-glossy light green foliage. Like Joseph’s Coat, it is highly disease resistant. Don’t miss the little bee from our own hives. We’re hoping for a great season of honey and beeswax after last year’s widespread smoke damage caused by Australia’s climate fires.

Photo by DWC with iPhone 11.

Ashram flowers throughout the season. Its color is a solid apricotty orange. Shining dark green foliage has excellent disease resistance. Large full blooms ideal for picking. Fragrance: mild, fruity.

Photo by DWC with iPhone 11

Dark Desire is my favorite red at the moment and not just because of the delicious name. Fragrance is strong, sophisticated, and sensual. In the bud, it is almost black. Oklahoma (not yet in bloom) can be just as dark but its fragrance is almost too sweet, and unless perfectly grown its flower head can become too heavy and droop. But I will always keep an Oklahoma, even if just in memory of where I grew up.
First Test: A Review
Tags: Test, Australia, India, Cricket

But beneath that the cold survived. In the jammed footwork of a before-his-time-deemed-star opener Prithvi Shaw, in the rather celebrated “resilience” of Pujara easily turned into “lack of intent” in the present management(which to be fair cannot be held against the player who seems to have a fair idea of his role in the team which he carries out without the need for glitz), and in the rather alien pink ball which the team only ever dealt with in the confines of their own lair.

Come opening day of the Adelaide Test. The nervous energy in the lesser experienced was hard to miss, with Shaw, Mayank and Vihari being susceptible to and falling for deliveries on the pads or beating the edge to knock the stumps, Mayank at least after showing some promising grace to watch out for. What followed was a strange day- a largely uncharacteristically reserved Kohli but very effective as the anchor, even with an inexplicable rustiness reflective in errors like a potential short run.

Miscommunication always seemed to be on the cards, as it has been for quite some time without any dawn of rectification, and it really is an ominous sign when the intent to score between the stumps, the biggest strength of the side’s(and one of the world’s) biggest players, turns out to be a signature on the death note in the hands of the switched on Aussies. But these were only minor scratches visible when looked for(as I’m aware I will be found guilty of doing).
Week of 20 December 2020
By: David Wade Chambers
Tags: Sunrise, Australia, Photography, Kangaroos, Birds

After we feed the birds, inevitably there is the odd feather or two left behind, especially from the various species of cockatoo. Every week or two I clean up feathers ranging in size from about an inch (2.5 cm) up to a foot or so. The two blue feathers above are from the bright red and blue Crimson Rosella (a mid-size parrot). The bedraggled black is from either the Pied Currawong or the Australian Raven. The little bedraggled yellow is from the crest of a Sulphur Crested White Cockatoo, as is the yellow and white wing feather. The yellow and brown one is from a yellow winged Black Cockatoo, one of Australia’s largest birds. The black coloring has faded to brown from extensive weathering over time. The Black Cockie does not feed at our station, although I do know that they eat seeds. They regularly fly overhead in the warmer seasons.

In Australia, in our little coastal community, backed by the Great Otway National Park, feeding the birds is greatly discouraged by environmentalists. Although I consider myself a strong environmentalist, I do believe that feeding the wild bird population can be a good thing IF you know what you are doing. It’s a long and complex story, and it is true that many people with good intentions do more harm than good: feeding the wrong food, in the wrong amounts, at the wrong times, in the wrong seasons, and in the wrong way.
Catch 36!
Tags: Test Match, Cricket World Cup, Australia, Cricket, India

The day started at 36 for 9 on a bright sunny morning of Melbourne Cricket Ground.

For an average Indian cricket fan, 20.12.2020 will forever be remembered for the greatest debacle where 11 batsmen couldn't reach a double-figure score in the afternoon at Adelaide Oval.

It was tragic to see Indian batsmen being preyed by the hunters, which were if not tamed, were neutralised in the first innings.

As the seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours. It took hunters only 128 shots to hunt down their prey who showed no intent to fight it out & the salt was rubbed on the wound when we lost our strike bowler to a well-directed, brutal bouncer.

The scorecard read 36 for 9 & the first thing that struck was disbelief. How could they do this to us?

Fast forward to 26.12.2020, bright sunny morning with a week of retreat & healing of the wounds. The preys were back, but this time role had reversed. They were the hunters & they were looking for the blood.

It took them 26 balls before the first drop of blood was smelled. It gave them a sense of purpose & intent which was shown by them as the hunting progressed.

The hunters were now coming in a pack & preying on their prey with nonchalance.

As the day was coming to end, there was a sense of uncertainty, the roles were reversed and now hunters were to be hunted.

The first blood was drawn in the first over & a sense of uncertainty engulfed among the lakhs of viewers.

It took a young man & hard-wired cricketer to take the game forward without any more casualties.

The day which started at 36 for 9 in their minds, ended on 36 for 1 in reality.
These days I find Umair Hague an alarmist.
By: Joseph Mariadassou
Tags: Racism, Australia

A white person can erupt in rage at you, over anything, anytime, but you can never respond in an angry way to a white person. A typical scenario of White Rage goes something like this. A minority does something innocuous. Tot…