Tom Peters has prepared a list of 27 ideas for improving the health care industry.

My personal favorite from the list is:

“MOVE HEAVEN & EARTH TO IMPLEMENT ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS. NOW.”

There are privacy concerns surrounding this issue. If we were to assume that privacy still exists in America, we might want legislation to ensure that electronic medical records are created, maintained, and managed in accordance with the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. The privacy risks are not insignificant, and I believe they can be effectively dealt with.

Delphi has been making a lot of news lately. Apparently a protest against Delphi management has been planned for the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

“Our primary short-term focus is to reach consensual agreements enabling competitiveness for Delphi’s core U.S. operations by modifying current labor agreements and realigning Delphi’s global product portfolio and manufacturing footprint to preserve the company’s core business”
– Lindsey Williams, Delphi spokesman, as reported by Andrea Leptinsky of the “Detroit Auto Scene”

What a clever way to describe offshoring!

When I read such blatant garbage it makes me suspect fraud and mismanagement.

Note to Delphi brand team: When I googled Delphi, the first result was www.delphi.com (good work!). Unfortunately the title for your website contains a significant typo — “Driving Tomorrows Technology” would correctly include an apostrophe in tomorrows to indicate the possessive. Since you’re not feeling very possessive, maybe you won’t mind me using your logo? Thanks. I’m trying to help.

I spent this week in Petoskey, Michigan. Petoskey is a nice, small town on the shore of Little Traverse Bay. I’ve been to Petoskey many, many times in the past and it’s always a good place to relax.

Things I’ve noticed during the trip: Read the rest of this entry »

The last time I went to a theatre to see a dance performance was back in never.

Since then I’ve learned about Project Bandaloop, during a bicycle mural tour of San Francisco. Bandaloop helped design and dedicate one of the more interesting murals in my neighborhood by staging a dance performance on the side of the building. The dance involved artists suspended by ropes and harnesses, and it incorporated visual elements of the mural into motion elements of the dance.

Like I said, I’m not really a dance enthusiast, but you have to acknowledge it’s a pretty cool concept.

Tonight I’m going to Theatre Artaud to check out the show.

Thanks to Project Bandaloop and photographer John Mireles for the photo.

Want to promote your business to San Francisco’s mission district community?

Depending on your business model, you might consider advertising in the local periodicos. Periodicos are freely available in local restaurants, convenience stores, and other locations. Some are neighborhood specific, others are regional, and distributed in the Mission.

Here’s a list of periodicos to get you started: Read the rest of this entry »

Business has been picking up steadily in the past few months. I’m getting busier and I’m still learning how to incorporate the blog into my work schedule. Today is a catch up and get ahead day for blogging.

I’m studying a few sources for improving the blog. The stuff I’m into includes:

• Blogging, Biz Stone, New Riders, 2003.
• blog!, Kline and Burnstein, Squibnocket, 2005.
• Weblog Handbook, Rebecca Blood, Perseus, 2002.
• W3schools.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night a friend and I spread out a tarp and a blanket over a nice patch of soft grass in the corner of Dolores Park. There was a full moon I guess, or at least it was full enough for us. The whole downtown sat there like an airbrushed backdrop to a souvenir photo shoot. The halos around the moon might have been smog. The distant lights may have been a mirage. It felt real and authentic at the time. Who is to say it wasn’t?

Matt Smith of the SF Weekly.

The current SF Weekly features a Matt Smith editorial about the commodification of San Francisco culture. Matt leaves it “for the reader to decide”, but what he consistently suggests in this piece is that San Francisco culture has been thoroughly co-opted and corrupted. Read the rest of this entry »

Ohh, digitizing. Don’t you just love digitizing?

Yeah, maybe not.

Lately we’ve been helping customers digitize information — bookkeeping information, marketing information, inventory information, management information. Digitizing is a fancy way of describing data entry. But the scope is much bigger than simple data entry. If you design a database effectively, it will literally provide a structure that your business can use to improve decision making.

Businesses digitize information so that they can make better use of it. Digital databases have many advantages over other methods. The advantages include:

• Sharing information
• Storing information
• Analyzing information
• Reproducing information
• Monitoring and responding to dynamic information

If you don’t yet have any form of customer database, there are many books, software tools, and webpages available to guide you in developing one. Here’s an basic and useful set of notes to help you get started designing your customer or donor database.

Sunday the 4th, tomorrow, is the date of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s annual Winterfest celebration. It’s been a big year for local bicycling, and I’m expecting this to be a good party.

1.) I haven’t been hit by a car driver in 2005. Hell yeah! Crazy thanks to SFBC and city bike lanes!

2.) Rusty Cranium is performing with bike rapper Fossil Fool and the Soul Power Mobile Party Team.

3.) The Soul Power Mobile Party Team was seen by over 150,000 people in 2005, and the show is getting bigger and better.

Come check out the Soul Power Party Room at Winterfest, SOMArts, 934 Brannan St. San Francisco.

Thanks to Susan Zolezzi and Fossil Fool for the photo.