Welcome back! It's good to see you again. Please note that I am now publishing all new material at my hub site: In Context Blog

Ever since I read Steve Leveen’s Little Guide To Your Well-Read Life, I have become a fan of writing notes to myself in the margins of my non-fiction books. I have found that it helps me to remember what I have read, and leaves a “tag” if I need to go back and refer to something later. I also use a 3″x5″ card as my bookmark for writing longer notes, marking interesting quotes, or capturing questions that occur to me while reading.

If I am planning to do a review of the book after reading it, I also use that notecard to track all of the page numbers where I have highlighted something for quoting or special mention. The Innovation Tools Weblog has a post on how Don Snyder uses his index card bookmark:

“The front of the card is horizontal and contains spaces for book title and author’s name to allow for easy filing. The card opens like a book and the inside is ruled to allow for journal-like entry of important points in the book. I list the page number and then the concept I wish to note. The back of the card includes additional ruled lines for final points. I also included a spot on the front of the card to list the most valuable lesson I learned from the book, as well as a favorite quote… Once a book is read, I can replace it on my bookshelf and file the card/bookmark in my office for future referral. I can file books on subject, author, or title - and information is always on-hand.”

Snyder uses an 8″x6″ ruled card of his own design for these notes, there is a more complete description at Snyder’s BrainBlog. (Which, by the way, also has an interesting post about “old” books being made into “new” journals. I have a feeling that at least a couple of my friends that are into notebooks and DIY stuff will appreciate what hobo arona is doing here.)

This has given me an idea for a formatted notecard to use while reading, specifically designed for taking notes.

Here ( note-card-template.pdf ) are two free downloads, a super-simple note card and “pocket” template (and a more detailed one here [ note-card-template2.pdf ]) that you can glue into the front of your book, like Library books had, back in the day. I may do something more elaborate, and offer it in the store with the GTD Calendar and the Review Workbook.

Over the past few months this blog has grown and I have become more involved with several online communities. One of which (D*I*Y*Planner.com) has been a tremendous resource for me as I went through the steps of designing my own calendar pages to use with my GTD practice. Through DIYP I came to know Ryan Rasmussen, the Emerging Media Specialist at the Levenger store in Chicago, IL. His assistance and introductions to other collaborators has been very influential in the direction this blog is taking.

I thought that I would share Ryan with my readers, and ask some questions that may help others grow in the Web 2.0 world and the new knowledge economy.

I will let Ryan go first, with a short introduction (re-posted from another of Ryan’s conversations):

Thank you for the encouragement. I am happy to share what I have learned as a result of hands-on experimentation.

I took a lesson from Tom Kelley in my approach. He prescribes a new face of business - that of the anthropologist. Embedded within vocal communities, I have found that using the emergent tools of the environment to spark discussion through collaborative new product development (otherwise known as “hacking”) generates a great deal of positive feedback. The result is a spike in consumer generated marketing, and a steady stream of collaborative ideation that gives consumers a voice in the direction of ‘their’ company.

Is innovation and marketing the objective?

Conversations are the objective. I encourage others still hesitant to join in the discussions to break away from checklists and short-term goals that are designed to be measurable [ex. E-mail 15 “talkers” -> check]. The real value of open customer engagement is long term. Every example of remarkable customer service and interactivity that is open to search engine traffic becomes a footprint in the history of one’s brand identity. Weave inspiring narratives throughout the net that will compel future customers to fall in love with your own unique customer experience.

Through persistent, genuine interaction, passionate customers convert from “talkers” into “teachers,” thereby amplifying the voices of every new community they encounter.”

That is an impressive goal. I can tell that you have definitely been influenced by the Cluetrain Manifesto as well as Tom Kelley’s concepts of innovation. You definitely have created an online persona that has quite a reach. In fact, Ryan, you have your own avatar from Second Life that is part of your “brand”, is it not?

But let’s get back to the real world for a minute, I have some background questions that I would like to ask, starting with:

Where do you call home? Boone, Iowa. I grew up on a parsonage in the middle of a cornfield.

Where do you live and work now? Chicago. I walk to work along Lake Michigan to the Water Tower, located next door to the Hancock Building at the North end of the Magnificent Mile.

How did you get to where you are? That is, your experiences and study?

Education? An indecisive moment in High School, choosing between a bachelors degree in either computer animation or organic chemistry, led me to Bowling Green State University. My dramatically shifting course of study eventually fell into a three-pronged approach to jazz performance [alto saxophone], figurative drawing, and the critical study of English dramatic literature [Jonson, Middleton, Shakespeare] under the auspices of New Historicism. (Yes, I was that guy.) ;)

I completed the GMAT a few months ago, and am applying for part-time admittance to Northwestern. (Incidentally, I was just offered the opportunity to give a guest presentation on social media engagement before a class I would likely attend.)

Work Experience? Three years ago, I started at Levenger as an hourly Sales Associate in retail. After a subsequent promotion to Co-Manager, I began to experiment publicly with social media. An urgency to innovate was the result of attending a presentation by Tom Kelley. His words helped me to realize that creative ideation and the ability to brainstorm were fundamental to the success of a business. I saw an opportunity to actuate innovation for a company I cared for, which eventually led to my additional title, Emerging Media Specialist.

I then askedRyan, are there any interesting or unusual things about you personally, or unique experiences that you may have had? He included this picture of himself, rowing a boat through Versailles:

• I was married to my wife, Allyson, by a pirate aboard a pirate ship in the Treasure Island Bay in Las Vegas. Our families watched dockside across 50 feet of water, as the ring-bearer swung down a rope from the top of the mast during the ceremony.
• For five years, I improv’d jazz and blues sax in Northwestern Ohio with groups ranging from the soul-swinging be-bop of Eddie Valentine and the Cupids to the space-jam discord of Huge World Explosion. I recently attempted to form a junk-band using local networking site Yelp.com.
• My favorite playwright is Ben Jonson.
• In the last four years, I have grown to become a cat person thanks to one Johnny Cage aka Mr. Buttons.
• I am completely fascinated by the study of emergent technologies, pervasive computing, and the future of how we will define what it means to be human. I enjoy learning from Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Paul Saffo, Stewart Brand, and the instrumental ideation of the Long Now Foundation.
• My post-elementary school aspiration was, “to become the next Jim Henson.”

I take it from your tumblelog at Collaborative Ideation that you are a big reader.

What was the last fiction book you read?

Millard Filmour, Mon Amour by John Blumenthal

Non-fiction?

The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business by Rolf Jensen

Those are no lightweights! Okay, here we go with the really tough interview questions:

What would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment? I am in the process of planting those seeds. For now, I owe my greatest gratitude to my wife, whose love and influence has been immeasurable.

What is your next big goal? I would like to learn more about, and ideate strategy from emergent RFID technologies and portable content for the consumer products industry. As a peripheral study, I would also like to make an educated forecast of the future role of paper and writing instruments in a paper-less office. [virtualization, E-paper, the development of metaspace from the metaverse]

Excellent! Thank you so much, Ryan, for taking the time to share some of yourself with my readers. I trust that you know you are welcome to write a guest post anytime you would like. Have a great day, I know we’ll be hearing more from you soon.

You can read a profile of Ryan, written by Andy Sernovitz, here.

I have loaded some new pics to Flickr, showing the different sections of the Organizer as it goes throught the beta-test.

The full post is not ready, but you can check out the work-in-progress here.

Tom Kelley has written a new book, and the team at Levenger seems pretty jazzed about it. Check out the mini-review where Kelley describes how he used his Circa notebook as a ubiquitous capture device:

I started capturing ideas on 3×5 cards, and although that method seems to work remarkably well for Tom Peters (at least seven international bestsellers so far), I personally found the size a bit small for this stage of the ideation process. I was dashing off quick notes, clipping quotes out of magazines, drawing diagrams to represent the ideas visually, and found myself eager to “color outside the lines” of the 3×5 format. I next experimented with large custom-made (and very labor-intensive) cards I cut from 8-1/2x 11 card stock, but they got unwieldy.

Finally, on The Ten Faces of Innovation, I tried the Levenger Circa notebooks in the junior size, turning them sideways and using the grid-style paper so I could write horizontally or vertically. It was perfect!

I will wait for Rasmussen to drop by and tell me what he thought of the book (if he’s read it). I am also going to need some of that grid paper for my new calendar/organizer.