Links for Tuesday, May 21, 2007

• TDavid: 7 Guidelines For a Better Present and Future Life – “The eighth rule (bonus) – Because I like bonuses I’ve added one here for readers who made it this far in the list: serendipity. Remember me writing above that by doing several things you could increase the odds of having a happier present and future. I believe fate plays a role and that some amount of luck is involved. Even if we do everything right, we can still fail.“
• Steve Rubel: The Most Essential Career Skill You Need to Succeed – “So as I thought about it, the most important “tool” you can have today in business is insatiable curiosity. The minute you lose it, you’re dead.“
• GigaOM: Virtual World Population 50 Million by 2011 – “Considering the largest existing worlds, including South Korea’s Cyworld, and its 20 million uniques, World of Warcraft with its 8 million subscribers, and Europe’s Habbo Hotel with its own 7 million regular users, that guess is actually on the conservative side.“
• Mike Elgan: Three Laptop Tricks for Better Presentations – “Some guy in a generic suit with a fake smile and a clicker stands uneasily in front of a room full of people who would rather be somewhere else. The clicker controls PowerPoint on a laptop, which sits on a nearby podium or conference table, and is connected to a projector. He slogs laboriously through slide after boring slide, glancing at them to remind himself what he’s talking about. He goes through whatever’s on the screen — charts, graphs, bullet-points — and makes comments about each item. The audience fights narcolepsy as they’re gently lolled into a passive PowerPoint stupor.“
• Garr Reynolds: Presentation Tips – “For professionals today, presentation and public-speaking skills are more important than ever.“
• Steve Rubel: The Participation Ladder and Its Impact on Marketing and PR – “This got me thinking: what can the Participation Ladder teach us about PR and marketing? The answer is a lot. If you work in either of these professions, cut the above chart out and stick it on your wall. For each program, assess where your audience sits on this continuum. Are they inactives, creators or somewhere in between? The key is to then devise the right kind of communication strategy depending on what you discover. Let’s put this into action.“
• Gizmodo: Dreamliner: Boeing 787 LEGO-like Building Begins, Kicks Airbus Nuts – “Boeing has started building their new flagship: the 787 Dreamliner. The cool thing about the 787 is that it only requires them to put together six big composite parts to build the final airframe and operators don’t have to use huge tools and overhead cranes: all the parts can be slid along on the construction floor and put together like giant LEGO pieces.” – Via Scoble’s Link Blog, with very cool picture.