Today is the 55th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt. Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal. What a monumental accomplishment. Since 1955 over 2,972 men and women have climbed the 29,029 foot / 8848 meter mountain located n the border between Nepal and Tibet, where all of the worlds 14 Eight-thousand meter peaks are found. A few weeks ago PBS Frontline did an excellent program called the Storm Over Everest which recounts the May 1996 storm on Everest that trapped three climbing teams on the mountain. It’s a fascinating story by filmmaker David Breashears, who was actually part of the rescue 12 years ago. For those of us who will never have the opportunity or ability to make the trek ourselves, I thought I’d share a really cool link to a panoramic view from the peak just to put the grand scale of the mountain in perspective: Panoramas.dk.

Here are a few interesting facts about Everest from Infoplease:

• The Japanese-run Everest View Hotel is at 12,779 feet the highest hotel in the world. Guests fly to an airstrip in the Khumbu region of the Himalayas and are then transported by yak to the luxury hotel. Because the sudden high altitude is a shock to the unacclimated human body, the hotel constantly pumps fresh oxygen into each room. Everest can be seen at a distance as long as the weather is clear.
• The Sherpas are a people of Tibetan ancestry who migrated to Nepal about 600 years ago. Sherpas are renowned for their ability to tolerate high altitudes, for their mountaineering abilities, and for their extraordinary fortitude. Many use “Sherpa” as their surname. Because nearly every Himalayan expedition relies on Sherpas as guides and porters, the word Sherpa has often been used as a generic term to mean a member of a mountaineering or trekking support team. Among the most famous Sherpa mountain climbers are Tenzing Norgay, who, along with Edmund Hillary, first summited Everest, and Appa Sherpa, who has climbed Everest more than anyone else—fourteen times.
• According to National Geographic, Everest grows about 4 millimeters a year: the two tectonic plates of Asia and India, which collided millions of years ago to form the Himalayas, continue to press against each other, causing the Himalyan peaks to grow slightly each year.
• Sir George Everest was ambivalent about having the highest mountain named after him—he thought a Tibetan or Nepalese name would be more appropriate.
• Following in their fathers’ footsteps: the sons of Hillary and Tenzing summited Everest, as did Mallory’s grandson.
• The earliest British expeditions tackling Everest wore tweed jackets, woolen underwear, and leather boots.
• The white plume characteristically seen blowing off the top of Everest is the jet stream, a wind current reaching speeds up to 250 mph. To a climber, it sounds like a 747 taking off.
• George Mallory never meant his famous quote—”Because it is there”—to be the definitive word on why he wanted to climb Everest. It was an exasperated response to an irritating journalist who had been badgering him with an endless series of obtuse questions.
• According to Adventure Statistics, through 2007 the number of climbers summiting Everest reached at least 2,972, and the number of deaths on the mountain reached 208.

All this thinking about Everest got me thinking about the “mountains” I climb on a regular basis. Sure, most of them aren’t nearly as challenging as Everest, but nonetheless they do challenge me. This has challenged me to evaluate the way I take on challenges and what I can do to become more effective in times of difficulty and crisis. It’s obviously a matter of personal style and no two-styles are the same, but in the end we all conquer our fair share of problems. I don’t have any definitive answers but as I figure things out I’ll be sharing them with you. How about you? What do you do in times of crisis or challenge that help you be more successful and effective?

Photo by Dr. Pat

Heraclitus said that the only thing that is constant is change. With everything that has happened in my life over the course of the past 8 months, I would have to say that it’s a truism. Some change is good, other not so much. Regardless, change happens and ultimately your perspective on change has more to do with what you do with it as opposed to the actual change itself.

It’s not breaking news to share that I haven’t been posting at levels consistent with what I had been doing prior to the period I mentioned above and I definitely hadn’t been posting at a level I consider effective or essential to maintain a consistent level of readership or even really consider myself a blogger. It wasn’t for a lack of desire, interesting stories and experiences to share or new learning and worthwhile finds, rather I found myself at a bit conflicted.

A lot of my absence has been due to trying to find a new normal after Laura’s car accident back in September. I was, and continue to be touched by the outreach of my friends and fellow blogger, but I make no apologies or excuses for that period of time. I simply did what I felt that I had to do. We all have those experiences in life…something, large or small, that fundamentally alters the fabric of our lives and causes us to stop and rethink everything that we had done previously.

However, the one thing that I have learned in life and it’s especially applicable to blogging, is that anything worth doing is worth doing well and it takes discipline, persistence and perseverance. Some days are easier than others but in the end what you get out of it is directly proportional to what you put into it. I simply fell out of my daily blogging routine and I really struggled to find my footing. I made one attempt to get back into the saddle a few months ago but the confluence of my new position at work that was (and still is) taking more than its share of my time and the fact that I made a decision that I was going to narrow the focus of my blog, left me without a whole lot of time, and more importantly very short on inspiration.

My original goal was to provide a fresh perspective on working at an association as someone who was brand new to the association world. I thought I could combine 10 years working doing technology work in corporate America with my thoughts and experiences as I progressed with my passion for learning, social media and technology. As I reconsidered my purpose I thought I would limit my focus to social media as it applies to the association world. My restated purpose was far too narrow and my excitement for writing waned largely because my finding my focus led me to feel like I lost my voice.

For the past few weeks I have really been contemplating how best to proceed I made the conscious decision to persevere and yet again refocus. I also came to the conclusion that in order for me to get as much out of my writing as I put into it I would have to broaden my focus and instead of being razor sharp with what I write about, I would inject more of myself back into the mix. Finally, I decided that I would continue talking about social media and technology but also pepper in other areas that I am involved in on a daily basis such as virtual communities, knowledge management and creating, innovating and maximizing my own use of the web at work and for fun.

It’s a new beginning of sorts, but really it’s a return to who I am and what I am most interested in. I’ll be able to be well rounded, well read, and generally enamored with all of the potential and possibilities that lie in this thing we call the Interwebs and share all of my thoughts, feelings and opinions in a much easier manner.

As part of this refocusing exercise I also decided to “reboot” my blog and give it a brand new look and feel. That is yet another reason why it’s taken me so long to get back up and running. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a passionate Ubuntu Linux user. I made the jump almost 6 months ago and have been learning my way through the whole process. My goal with my new site design was to not only give my blog a new aesthetic but also in doing so use only open source and free tools to accomplish that end. I have come a long way in what I know about Ubuntu and probably even further in developing both on a Linux system and at this level for WordPress. I will definitely be sharing all of that learning too.

The long and short of it is I am back, and hopefully this time for good. I do ask for your patience and support as I get back into a regular routine and iron out any inconsistencies with my blog. For now things look good, but I also know that life has a way of throwing you a curve from time to time. All of you can help me along: what are some topics you’d like to see? What is intriguing you? What is driving you crazy. This is a great chance for you to help me get going again while at the same time get some insight into areas that you are interested in.

Wikipedia describes doldrums the following way:

The doldrums is a colloquial expression derived from historical maritime usage for those parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a low-pressure area around the equator where the prevailing winds are calm. The low pressure is caused by the heat at the equator, which makes the air rise and travel north and south high in the atmosphere, until it subsides again in the horse latitudes. Some of that air returns to the doldrums through the trade winds. This process can lead to light or variable winds and more severe weather, in the form of squalls, thunderstorms and hurricanes. The doldrums are also noted for calm periods when the winds disappear altogether, trapping sailing powered boats for periods of days or weeks.

The first instance of the word doldrum came into the popular lexicon during the early 19th century. In it’s original usage, it was used to describe a dullard: a dull and sluggish fellow. It was likely derived from “dol”, meaning dull while it’s form was taken from “tantrum” or a fit or display of bad temper. A doldrum was quite literally an individual who engaged in a fit of dullness. The term came to be used to describe a general state of low spirits. In The Island, a poem about that described in part the mutiny on the Bounty, Lord Byron used the term in a nautical context:

“From the bluff head where I watch’d to-day, I saw her in the doldrums; for the wind Was light and baffling.”
[Note: baffling winds are those which are shifting and variable, making progress under sail impossible.]

Shortly after that usage, the phrase “in the doldrums” came to be used to refer to sailing ships that were becalmed and not able to progress. After reports of ships becoming becalmed in the horse latitudes, it was mistakenly thought that the reports were actually describing the location as opposed to the actual state of the vessel. This colloquialism came to be inextricably tied to the region after being referenced in Matthew Maury’s The physical geography of the sea written in 1855:

“The ‘equatorial doldrums’ is another of these calm places. Besides being a region of calms and baffling winds, it is a region noted for its rains.”

So what does this lengthy dissertation on doldrums have to do with associations, technology, knowledge management, learning, social media or my blog in general? Right now it seems to perfectly describe my state of mind personally and professionally. As I referenced in an earlier post, I recently transitioned positions and am responsible for a high priority and highly contentious project concerning the future of our online communities. As a result I have had a very hard time managing my days. In fact, the sentence from the Wikipedia entry: “this process can lead to light or variable winds and more severe weather, in the form of squalls, thunderstorms and hurricanes. The doldrums are also noted for calm periods when the winds disappear altogether, trapping sailing powered boats for periods of days or weeks” seems to accurately describe the past few weeks. I no sooner survive a storm at sea and begin to regain my composure and start thinking about my blogging when I either can’t find my flow or simply lose some of my motivation. I suspect it’s simply a matter of time until I get back into a routine and am once again able to integrate blogging into my daily routine. When I return look for a new look and feel for the site and some added features on the site.

Until then, I simply wanted to let everyone know where my head was at. And keeping with my theme of sharing some of the more interesting finds that I come across, I’ll share with you something that really got my attention this evening: Yahoo’s! oneConnect. According to TechCrunch:

OneConnect will pull together contacts from your mobile phone, Yahoo address book, and social networks, including: Bebo Dopplr Facebook Flickr Friendster Hi5 Last.fm LinkedIn Myspace Twitter You will be able to see whether your contacts are online, recent messages, status updates, uploaded photos, and other activity streams for each one. Of course, you will also be able to send them messages via e-mail, IM, and SMS. The mobile app will save SMS and IM conversations as a single thread, even if you are texting and the other person is using Yahoo Messenger. The app also supports AIM, MSN Messenger, and Google Talk.

Yahoo didn’t invent anything here, but simply integrating all of these services is powerful stuff. If you think about it, oneConnect is a mobile portal for the social Web. It connects you to your friends online and then gets out of the way.

You can read more at TechCrunch or at Yahoo! I have been contemplating the idea of Social Network Fatigue, and suspect I am not alone. I think that applications like this would likely go a long way to helping relieve or eliminate that.