Daily Thoughts 05/19/2012

15th century classroom, 1915, Pre-Reformation Scholars in Scotland in the XVIth Centur, W. Forbes-Leith
Daily Thoughts 05/19/2012

I spent a little bit of time checking my social media accounts and email.  People are starting to post about Book Expo America which I am looking forward to.  It will be a chance to talk to people and network.  It will be interesting seeing what new things are coming out at Book Expo America.  I always like walking the event floor.

I spent some more time learning CSS on Codecademy.  It is one of those things where the more you practice the easier it gets.  Right now, I am learning about borders and padding and the box model.  EPUB documents which is a standard put out by the International Digital Publishing Forum use XML extensible markup language which is a variation of HTML.  There is soon going to be a new release of EPUB called EPUB-3 which will allow a greater variety of formatting and content for standard e-books.  It will also be use HTML5 which can be used to build apps for both personal computers and smart phones.  This should make apps much more open than they currently are.

I learned that although you don't have to do Codecademy in sequence, in order to finish the sections, you do need to follow from the beginning.  Some of the parts of the section on CSS towards the end have bits on Javascript which I have not learned yet.

I have also been spending more time thinking about what I am doing, thinking, and saying as well as relaxing lately.  I have not been reading quite as much.

I have been thinking a little bit about the startup environment that I found most interesting.  I find Codecademy http://www.codecademy.com , Skillshare http://www.skillshare.com  and General Assembly http://generalassemb.ly all very interesting because they are all acknowledging themselves as educational startups focused on new ways to learn and teach things.  I have also noticed that New Work City has hosted some Skillshare classes.  Meetup in a way often focuses in similar way.  You meet with other people to discuss things.  Also, My Metro has been very focused on helping individual professional development.  It is a new function in the New York Metropolitan Library Council. http://metro.org/individual-membership/

One of the interesting thngs about General Assembly is that exists to generate entrepreneurship and has a number of companies in residence that can stay for approximately one year then move on from the office space and training space.

Web Bits

E-book Consumers Read More Books Says Pew Report
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/51359-e-book-consumers-read-more-books-says-pew-report.html

Daily Thoughts 04/05/2012

The Letter, Julian Weir, 1919

Daily Thoughts 04/05/2012


I watched some more of Time Management Fundamentals on Lynda.com this morning.  I also read some of The 250 Job Interview Questions.   The book goes through hundreds of different common job questions with standard answers that people might give.  It is very straightforward.  It helps you think about what people might ask.  I finished reading it on my Kindle Touch.  It gave me enough of a basis to understand the most likely questions I would get.

I also took a tour of General Assemb.ly http://www.generalassemb.ly today.  It is an educational startup.  It is also a kind of meta startup or a startup which helps startups.  They rent out their space to select startups, offer discounts to classes and provide support to their member startups.  So far they have only been open for a single year.  Once the size of a startup reaches about fourteen people, it leaves the General Assembly space.  I found this to be a bit different.

There are also people who rent use of the communal space where people can work.  They also host Meetups.    I took the class on Publishing, Art, and Technology earlier..   I also took their Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship online at http://www.startmaking.com   A lot of their classes are focused on entrepreneurial skills;  ruby on rails, css, html, angel investing, web design,  and similar matters.

I had a chance to ask about different things they do there.  A lot of it is about helping people make connections and grow a business.  Some of the skills are very entrepreneurial, not the kind of thing which is taught in a university setting.

It feels similar in a way to Skillshare http://www.skillshare.com which is another edicational startup that teaches a variety of skills.  I took the Introduction I to Business Development at Skillshare.   Skillshare is running a conference on April 20, 2012  which it is calling Penny University http://www.skillshare.com/penny

On the way home, I read some more of Sacre Bleu by Michael Moore.  I am finding it relaxing and a bit odd.

Web Bits


The Rise of E-reading
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2236/ebook-reading-print-books-tablets-ereaders

 How Publishing Execs Should Use Social Media to Help Their Companies and not Get Fired
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/how-publishing-execs-should-use-social-media-to-hel-their-companies-and-not-get-fired/?et_mid=548033&rid=233624721