Justin G. Roy

Chris Brogan posted 20 Free Social Media Books on his blog last week.  Great list that I thought I would share with architecture or engineering firms. 

Sounds like social media is here to stay, with many more firms getting involved.  I would love to hear about any consulting architecture or consulting engineering firm who is using social media to help others as well as themselves.  

Click here to access the list of eBooks and links.

“….Turn your have-to-do activities into get-to-do activities…..If you think about it, most of our activities are really opportunities that we’ve lost our gratitude for. We think of work as something we ‘have to’ go do, but when we first got the job, we thanked our lucky stars that we ‘got to’ have this career opportunity.” – Tim Sanders

This post is probably one of my favorites to date from Tim Sanders.  As a recruiter for the architecture and engineering industry I have seen many good people let this type of mentality burn them out.  However, the people who have the mind-set of tomorrow is another day will continue to be successful. 

It always amazes me when somebody complains about a long list of to-do, or a long list of responsibilities, or that they have to-do something different.  If those people want compadres in their list of complains, they can head over the the unemployment line and see how far they get.

Click here to read the post.

Feeling sick? Have a headache, stomach cramps? A debilitating and severely contagious illness? Don’t go to work! While going to work when sick is not advised, as it can create the spread of sickness throughout the office, and results in low productivity, many employees simply stick it out and go to work sick.

I found an interesting article that examines this point, analyzes why sick employees slug it out at the cost of many (coworkers and dollars), and looks and what’s being done to try and cure the sickness of ill employees heading in to work. Read the article here.

“Is Social Networking and Blogging Bad for Business?” That’s the title of an interesting article published in Calibre that explores a number of common pitfalls that can cause damage to a company with blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

The article also offers some helpful tips and solutions for companies to consider when it comes to blogging and online networking. Certainly these mediums can be beneficial, but only when managed appropriately.

Read the full article here.

Tim Sanders wrote another very interesting post last week on the importance of learning your customers business.  Tim talks about being client-focused and competing on relationships rather than price. 

Great advice for anybody who is involved with business development for architecture or engineering firms.   

Click here to view the article.

Inhabit had a post on their blog about Park(ing) Day, which is something I can honestly say I never heard about – but is a pretty neat concept.

Park(ing) day is on September 19, 2008 and is a day that encourages people to transport parking spaces into mini-parks.  here is a description from Inhabit:

This annual event is a guerrilla gardening take-over of public spaces otherwise designated for cars and turning them into “park(ing)” spaces, or public parks. Growing year to year, Park(ing) Day 2008 is going to be a global experience that shows how green our cities could be if designed for people instead of cars.

Last year 58 park(ing) spots were identified in San Francisco, 45 in Los Angeles, and 25 in NYC with additional participants in Washington DC, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, St. Paul, Boston, Austin, Salt Lake City, Tampa, and Miami. Park(ing) Day is reaching worldwide to London, Bremen, Utrecht, Barcelona, Valencia, Munich, Rio de Janerio, and more.

Originally conceived by ReBar, a San Francisco-based art collective, in 2005, Park(ing) Day is an international one-day event that calls all artists, activist, and citizens together to temporarily take over parking spots turning them into temporary public parks. Not only does it make us rethink the way streets are used, but it calls us to call attention to the need for more green space in our urban environments.

Are there any architecture or engineering firms participating this year?

Click here to view the post.

John Milkovisch, a retired employee of Southern Pacific railroad, spent 18 years ornamenting his home in Houston, Texas with about 39,000 beer cans.

After he retired from Southern Pacific Railroad, John Milkovisch turned his 6-pack a day habit into an 18-year home renovation project. Using Coors, Texas Pride, and several brands of Lite beer, Milkovisch decorated his Houston, Texas house with aluminum siding made from flattened cans, streamers of beer can pull-tabs, and an odd assortment of beer can sculptures. Milkovisch died in 1988, but his house his house has been renovated and is now owned by the non-profit Orange Show Center for Visionary Art.

You can see a picture of this wierd architecture at About.com:Architecture