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Category Archives: green
Office Buildings Are Obsolete and Offshore Drilling is the Result
These days, office buildings simply seem like an outdated concept, a horse drawn carriage in the age of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet, a stereo turntable in an iPod era. Of course towering skyscrapers and massive office buildings composed of brick and mortar, conference rooms and cubicles made sense at one time, but with the advent of pervasive internet connectivity and virtual meeting tools, these office buildings are rapidly becoming obsolete, resulting in unfortunate collateral damage like massive oil and gas consumption, unnecessary expense and wasted productivity. Office buildings, though seemingly innocuous, are one of the key catalysts causing us to use 350 million gallons of gas per day, and waste millions of hours of valuable time and productivity. My days are now comprised of a handful of Skype calls, several web meetings, eMarketing, SEO (search engine optimization), website makeovers, blogging and Social Media Marketing and Networking, all done in the internet cloud. Continue reading
Tuesday’s Mail – Should Your Tax Dollars Subsidize Direct Mail?
I respect the right of these companies to market their products and services, I just don’t think we should subsidize it, or expend time, money and gas to deliver it. Candidly, I’d like to see less trees, energy, cost and waste that is associated with the creation and delivery of paper in general. Direct mail, now known as snail mail, is an anachronism, a phonograph type solution in an iPod age. The post office, which has been running losses of over $1.5 Billion per quarter, recently offered the following statements in their 10-Q quarterly report. Continue reading
$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better – Book Review
Steiner takes the reader chapter by chapter, illustrating the changes to our lives as gas increases incrementally from current levels to $20 per gallon. He offers some fascinating prognostication including the demographic shift from suburban to urban living, changes in purchase habits, travel habits, consumption and of course driving. He also examines some very interesting innovations in fuel conservation evolution. Some of his conjecture is quite thought provoking, but in a few cases, some fundamental questions of mine remained unanswered. Continue reading
Paper Based Publishing May Disappear but Writers Will Be Here Forever
Seth Godin offered an interesting blog post this morning, “Without fortune cookies, are there fortunes? A magazine with a million subscribers might spend more than a million dollars to deliver a single issue to its subscribers… the freelance budget for the writers and photographers (the real reason people read the magazine) is less than 15% of the cost, perhaps a lot less… Continue reading
Posted in eco-friendly, green, Virtual Business
Tagged eco-friendly, Virtual Business
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Mathworks Won’t Work Virtually?
Mathworks has a “water cooler philosophy”, meaning they seem to think it is necessary for people to gather around a water cooler or that they should be physically present in a conference room to yield improved collaboration and “flashes of genius”. Thus, they applied to the Town of Natick to dramatically expand their brick and mortar campus, against the vehement objections of abutting neighbors. But the development was readily approved by the Natick Planning Board, which allowed The Mathworks to essentially max out on parking, density, height and lot capacity. Continue reading
Is Education Going Global and Virtual? The International Baccalaureate
An article caught my eye this morning about a local Massachusetts Elementary School which is considering an internationally recognized, global education, curriculum. called the International Baccalaureate…In our new, “The World is Flat”, highly interconnected globally community, wouldn’t it make sense to incorporate common educational elements across all schools? Can we add weekly web seminars from talented and renowned teachers and subject matter experts from Europe, Asia, The Americas and other regions? Could this virtualization of education reduce costs, improve education and increase awareness? Continue reading
Posted in eco-friendly, Education, green, Virtual Business
Tagged Global Education, International Baccalaureate, Virtual, Virtual Education
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Freezing rain, snow and wind in Boston – Brutal Morning Commute for the Non-Virtual
The weather outside is frightul – but my virtual morning commute was delightful. The temperature was in the low 30′s this morning providing the backdrop for a combination of freezing snow and rain. Unfortunately the storm hit during the morning commute making a typically bad commute, simply terrible. Of course, in my virtual office I was comfortable and ready to go at around 7:45am, with my Starbuck’s Pike’s Place coffee, and a good internet connection. Continue reading
Tis the season – can you say it with an eCard?
The holiday season is upon us and I enjoy the many cards and photos that friends and family send. From a virtual perspective, would I enjoy them as much if they were eCards and images? It takes a lot of … Continue reading
My 2 Cents about $20 A Gallon
Have you read $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better by Christopher Steiner? It’s a very interesting read as he predicts what the future will look like with … Continue reading
Why – because Generation Y Gets It
Enter stage left, or at least from the room to the left, my 20 year old daughter, college student and blogger. She works virtually as an intern for Mother Nature Network (MNN). Continue reading
