January 2008
Conference Calls: Twelve Golden Rules
The most widely used tool for mobile, distributed and virtual teams is still the plain old telephone conference call. However it is also the most badly used! So whether you are talking over Skype, mixing it with screen sharing and messaging, using your corporate PABX or just calling in to an external service if you follow these 12 simple rules you will get much better calls.
Lions v Buffalos v Crocodiles: Gunfight at OK Coral
Watch this amazing video “LEONES VS BUFALOS VS COCODRILOS“ of a co-ordinated attack by a pack of lions on a baby buffalo which turns in to a battle of the species with a few big surprises thrown in.
Sniffer bees firm seeks funds
Rory Cellan-Jones reports on Inscentinel, a young British company, which trains bees to detect explosives without harming them The bees are trained by rewarding them with sugar whenever they detect the target substance.
Teams: Mother Natures Master Class, on ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Show
Ken Thompson and Scott Andrews discuss how we can make our teams, groups and communities much more satisfying, more productive and more agile by adopting some simple principles which Mother Nature has successfully evolved over millions of years to organize her teams. To listen to the show click here or to find out more about ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business RADIO SHOW click here
Self Organisation and Indian Traffic Jams
This little video from Paul Kedrosky's blog shows that in the right conditions and with the right players "self-organisation" can be the best solution to a group problem.
Small Team Collaboration: Seven Key Beliefs To Work As A Great Team
What makes great teams such? Is it just a coincidence that some teams consistently outperform others or is being a high performing team due to specific traits of those who make the team up? Robin Good and Ken Thompson suggest the team's beliefs are the key.
Evolutionary algorithms now surpass human designers
New Scientist magazine reports that with the availability of ever more powerful computers, the advent of distributed computing "grids" and the emergence of multicore chips, evolutionary or genetic algorithms are now developing better designs than human designers. However there are concerns that some of these designs may be unpredictable as no human designer knows exactly how they work.







