Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Writer's Notebook: Creative Blogs

It's been a busy Fall for me and I've been enjoying the transition from the summer here in southeastern Massachusetts.  I got back from a trip last weekend and discovered, much to my surprise and delight, that my friend Pat Bertram, author of Bertram's Blog, had been nominated for a Kreativ Blogger award for her blog AND passed the nomination for that same award and recognition to this blog.  

The award looks like this:  

I'm very pleased to be nominated for this award and it's much more meaningful when it comes from Pat, a blogger and writer who has done a remarkable job in the blogosphere and other social media in leading discussions about writing in a way that builds community among writers and helps us all get better at what we do.  

About six months ago, I recast this blog to focus primarily about writing and travel, with occasional forays into other areas such as personal technology and music.  I still find it hard to make the time to post regularly, but I'll continue to post when I've got thoughts, pictures or other cool discoveries to share.  So, to Pat Bertram and Bertram's Blog, thank you very much.  

Now for the fun part -- passing on the nomination to three other deserving recipients. My stint in the blogosphere has included lots of interaction with both the community of fiction writers and with my many colleagues in the telecommunications industry.  I blog on matters related to Voice over IP for the Dialogic Corporate Blog and like the split of keeping my business blogging mostly separate from this more personally focused blog. 

So what do I like in a blog?  I like people who are innovative and use their diverse backgrounds and expertise to comment on topics in multiple areas, bringing new insights from these connections.  

With that in mind, I'd like to nominate the following blogs for the Kreativ Blogger award:  

Fractals of Change - written by Tom Evslin - I've known Tom since we worked together on fax standards in the early Nineties and he's had a fascinating career and so-called retirement in the time since.  After leaving his post as CEO of Voice over IP startup ITXC, Tom launched his blog.  He comments on a broad range of topics ranging from the high tech world to public policy.  Like me, he is also a writer and self-published a novel a couple of years ago.  His is a fine blog that I enjoy even when his busy real life reduces the number of posts.  

Communications - written by Brough Turner - I've known Brough over ten years and he has typically brought keen insight and a unique slant to whatever catches his eye.  This past year, we've worked together at Dialogic, and it has been fun to be able to talk without the constraint of being competitors in the workplace.  In his blog, he tracks topics such as the pace of broadband development throughout the world and the social implications as people from third world countries suddenly have tools that connect them with the rest of the world.    

Coming full circle, the third blog I'd like to recognize is from a writer that I've gotten to know over the past two years from our online writing group on Gather.com.  The blog is The Paper Tiger, by Other Lisa aka Lisa Brackmann.  Lisa blogs about writing, her cats, life in Venice, California and, most of all, about her many visits to mainland China.  Lisa is a fine writer and her first novel Rock Paper Tiger, set in China, is due out next spring.  In her blog, we get a current view about what's happening in China for real people in places such as bars, restaurants, museums and so on.  It's not political so much as chronicle.  Lisa offers fascinating glimpses from a western perspective into an often hidden country. 

So, I hope my readers will take a moment to check out these blogs and see if you like what you read.  Please let me know what you think or if there are other blogs you think are a good fit for the creative blog criteria I outlined.  Until the next time  . . .

Writer's Notebook: More on OneNote

In a recent blog post, I ruminated about the possibilities for using the OneNote software that comes with some versions of Microsoft Office 2007.  I'm pleased to say that I've been using OneNote both at work and at home, and it has really helped to declutter my life.     

So what do I mean by this?  As a writer, I've always got multiple projects going.  For example, I'm doing editing on one of my manuscripts.  Right now, I'm fine tuning the language in certain sections based on feedback from one of my beta readers.   However, the best phrases often occur to me when the word processor is not open and the computer might even be off altogether.  OneNote is a very lightweight way to take the odd scribbled notes -- from those times when the computer is down -- and file them away under a page devoted to current edits on the manuscript in process.   Later, when I'm ready to edit again, the notes are there, waiting for me to put them to use.  

In my work as a product manager, I've recently been in the throes of a product launch.  This entails a myriad of tasks and a boatload of details.  I've now covered a planning page devoted to the launch with all of these tasks, together with links to a variety of documents which have moved from draft to finished state, all safely under the watch of OneNote.  I know there are other ways of managing such tasks, but OneNote has seamlessly jumped into the breach, aiding and abetting me in this complex project, acting like the assistant  I might have had back in the days before the current lean and mean corporate era.  

My conclusion?  OneNote is the kind of software tool I've been looking for to help me organize my personal life and rely much less on scraps of paper.  I can definitely recommend it as being the most useful software tool I've encountered in recent years.   If you want to try it out, you can either buy the program standalone or get it in one of the many versions of Office 2007.  It's worth the effort. 

An Experiment: Making a DVD for the Holidays

I conducted an experiment today which turned out well. I decided my in-laws and my parents would enjoy a collection of family photos, and music that my son and I had recorded at various times during the year.

I pulled up the Windows DVD Maker under Vista, identified which photos I wanted to arrange in a slide show and then pulled in music that I'd recorded earlier this year for the First Tracks songwriting contest, along with with my recording of Calico Jack, a song written by two of my online friends.  You can listen to these recordings online here.  Then I asked my oldest son to contribute music that he'd recorded with his trio in the last couple of months.

In about two hours, I'd assembled the entire thing, a slide show with background music. The program has a useful preview feature, so I was able to weed out pictures with issues. Next, I burned the DVD. My in-laws were visiting, so I played the DVD for them after dinner. It provided an excellent way to share my travels and family pictures, not to mention the music. I've already burned another copy and printed out a jewel box cover to bring to my parents this weekend.

This technology stuff is pretty cool when it works!

Here's a couple of pictures that I used for the menu:  

Chinaman's Hat on Oahu, Hawaii

 

Carousel in front of Hotel de Ville, Paris, France

Happy holidays to all of my readers.  

Web 2.0 and Business Communications

TMC Editor Rich Tehrani just published an interview with me in one of the TMC blogs.   The title of the article is a bit misleading, I think, but the content is fine.  

In the interview, I talk about key trends for the year in Voice over IP and related parts of the telecom industry.   I tried to be consistent with my company's view on these matters, but the opinions are my own.  

The article is:  Dialogic: Communications Developers Should Focus on Web 2.0 and Open Source

If it were up to me, a more realistic title would have been:  "Coming soon: Web 2.0 Tools for a Business Near You".   But the TMC editors saw it differently.  

If you have any comments on the interview, let me know.   It also mentions that I'll be speaking at TMC's Communications Developer Conference on September 16 in LA.   My session is called "IMS and ATCA".   If you're in town, please stop by.