I’ll wrap up this short series about open-source software by talking about just a few more applications that caught my attention while doing the research for these posts:

PDF Creator is an alternative to Adobe Acrobat; it enables the creation of PDF files (and a number of image-format files, for that matter) through the printing subsystem of Microsoft Windows, and also facilitates the merging of many PDFs into a single file.
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My previous post about open-source software included links to Google’s and Ohloh’s online directories of open-source apps, operating systems, and tools. Today I stumbled onto Wikipedia’s list, which is very nicely arranged as a complete portal site. Check it out and see if there’s not something there that you can use.

If you want to make yourself instantly more creative and productive on behalf of your clients or employer, at no additional cost to you or them, please read on:
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There are some trends I really like; I like the .MP3 format for music, and I like music download services and file-sharing networks for getting only the songs I want, and no more. I like free web services (blogs, networking sites, search services) that empower people to learn, communicate and interact in new and compelling ways. I like free samples of anything at CostCo or Sam’s Club.

And since mama didn’t raise no fool, I really, Really, REALLY like free software.
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As long as we’re talking about outsourcing, here are a couple of book-ends to my last post that will add some context and clarity:

First, a short interview with Tom Friedman is enlightening for his take on the outsourcing of white-collar jobs. If you think that it’s just the overpaid tech folks that are being hit with the blunt end of the trend, guess again:
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The New York Times published an interesting piece on September 25 concerning globalization and the outsourcing of jobs. Things have now come full-circle: The outflux of tech jobs to Indian companies like InfoSys, Tata, and Wipro is beginning to outstrip the firms’ ability to staff positions using Indian labor, resulting in the re-outsourcing of jobs back to local centers that can provide both lower labor costs and special proficiencies:
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My informal chats with people tell me that a lot of you are benignly acquiescing to LinkedIn — accepting invitations, browsing contacts, and doing basic people searches — without necessarily knowing how to use and get the most out of LinkedIn as a networking tool.

Here are some links to LinkedIn-related content that just may help you to realize more value from the service:

1. Help and FAQ; includes Top 10 Questions
2. LinkedIn … Why? — from the NY Times
3. LinkedIn News Roundup — Links to independent reviews & tips
4. Networking Web Sites: A New Job-Search Arena — from CareerJournal.com
5. How to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job

Have more tips or advice to share, about LinkedIn.com, or networking in general? Start a conversation — post a comment.

The Google-sifting for this post started innocently enough by turning over the web rocks of a relatively benign topic, “employee disengagement.” My intent was to present counterpoint to my post about the business model and employee-centric culture at Southwest Airlines, but my searching quickly devolved into a torrent of depressing content about concepts like “bully bosses” and “desk rage.”
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My favorite, and perhaps the most famous concept from Jim Collins‘ Good To Great is the Hedgehog Concept:

Are you a hedgehog or a fox? In his famous essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” Isaiah Berlin divided the world into hedgehogs and foxes, based upon an ancient Greek parable: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”

The gist of this parable is that the fox, with all of his cleverness, speed, and agility, has no tactical advantage over the dowdy hedgehog, whose “one big thing” is knowing how to curl up into a needlish ball when the craftier fox tries to eat him for lunch.

The hedgehog’s advantage is that he knows his one big thing, and stays true to this innate gift rather than trying to outfox a fox.
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In case you’re wondering what is meant by the phrase “work-traveller,” let me start by saying that it is the assertion of a paradigm about our work-lives, in three lofty parts:

First assertion: “Work,” the stuff we do willingly for love or money, should not connote a static job, and not necessarily a singular career either. By our idealized definition, work is a continuous journey and each of us is the traveler. It should unfold as a long pleasure trip — a series of destinations to which we travel, have great times, make good friends, get to know different cultures, and learn new ways of seeing and doing. At journey’s end, we come back refreshed, with great life-memories of the experience.
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