I’ve been trying to come up with a good topic for a blog post for quite some time now. Some ideas that crossed my mind included the BP oil spill, Mel Gibson’s psychosis, and Clarizen’s Integration with Zendesk, yet none of them made it past the first paragraph. For some reason I was uninspired by writing about the ranting and ravings of a clearly sick man, nor the horror that is the worst environmental disaster humanity has ever seen. And while the Clarizen/Zendesk Integration is a phenomenal tool, it too failed to inspire my writings.

I read a great tweet this morning:

Predictability, or lack of predictability in some case, is what makes life interesting. At times there is comfort in knowing there will be meatloaf every Monday night for dinner, or that there is no rain forecasted for the foreseeable future. But at other times it is the dynamic pulse of life that drives us, the lack of predictability that keeps us on our toes and compels us to bring that umbrella, just in case.

Three things about human nature that you are probably pretty familiar with. One…People like to be nay sayers. It is easier to bash someone else’s initiative than come up with your own. When it comes to introducing Social Media into your organization, you are certain to come up against a slew of reasons why it can’t succeed. Two… people don’t like change. Some of the reasons Social Media can’t succeed are more legitimate than others. But as it is human nature, people will resist change including the introduction of cool new tools that will probably significantly improve productivity. And three…people are risk adverse. People prefer to keep it safe and not step into the wilderness (not true of everyone obviously but lets agree that in a corporate environment, risk is its own beast and needs to be approached carefully).

If you have been following my posts recently (Part 1 and Part 2 of the Social Media for Project Management Series), you can see that working in the marketing department at a project management company has made me a bit fixated on social media and its impact on project management.

I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Harrin from PM4Girls – and I want to plug her new book ”Social Media for Project Managers” coming out in October . She was kind enough to share some of her insight on the topic at a live APM podcast on June 10, 2010. As Clarizen’s Director of Marketing, both social media and project management are topics that are near and dear to my heart so I was thrilled that Harrin was speaking on the topic. And she didn’t disappoint. In my last post I discuss the evolution of the Internet and Online tools that are now becoming critical mainstays in all business activities, including project management.

Exciting times at Clarizen! We just moved into our new and expanded offices last week and are now 100% devoted to working towards V4.8 release closure while also preparing for our second local user conference coming up next week. Whew!!

In Elizabeth Harrin’s (PM4Girls) latest Podcast about Social Media in Project Management (download the full podcast here), she describes Social Media in the work environment as “Collaboration and Communication with Purpose”. While the term “Social Media” is the generic name for web based tools created in the belief that the internet will help people with interaction and conversation, “Social Media for Project Management” becomes a functional tool that allows project members to better communicate and collaborate in a functional and meaningful way.

Avinoam Nowogrodski explains how Clarizen helps companies become real time enterprises

In my previous post, I cited Elizabeth Herrin’s post "Social Media in a Project Environment – The Results" when I discussed the hesitation companies seem to have in adopting Social Media in the work place both as a form of communication and collaboration and as a method of gaining information and exposure to the outside world.

Five years ago I made the mistake of graduating from college. Why was this a mistake you ask? Well if you are a recent (and yes, I do consider 5 years ago recent thank you very much) grad then you know that life after college is frankly not what was expected. College life is fun and exciting, even attending lectures is amusing (assuming of course you have a game boy advanced, or these days, an iphone). Real life...not so much. Most of us graduate college thinking that our degrees are all that we need in order to succeed.

Strange numbers, four-toed statues, smoke monsters and electromagnetic anomalies are just a few of the major mysteries that the Lost writers have tormented us with over the past six years, and with the conclusion of Lost only days away I have just one question: "Did you even try to plan this out first?". It seems that many Lost fans out there are perturbed with the lack of answers, and yes, even the addition of more questions in the past few episodes.

The CODiE is one of the highest honors a developer can receive. Originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, the Software Publishers Association (later named the Software & Information Industry Association – SIIA), the CoDiE been awarded to the best software products for the last 25 years in a variety of categories, for being “prestigious representation of outstanding achievement and vision in the software and information industry”.

Over the past month the Clarizen Team has made the switch over to Salesforce.com for our CRM needs. Being one of the few people in the office who knew the ins and outs of our previous software I found myself smack dab in the middle of the implementation and soon was given the responsibility of managing the switch and the change requests that came tumbling after. I learned quite a bit from the project I was given and have listed some key tips and tricks below that I would recommend for anyone who is in charge of such an endeavor.

Social, the buzz word used in every aspect of personal, professional and even political life today. The ability for people to communicate about everything and anything at all times and to a wider and wider audience has turned into the norm with people searching out ways to communicate with each other at every opportunity. It answers a fundamental human desire to communicate and be heard by as many people as possible and drives a different type of informal discussion tying together disparate groups of people.