028 This month’s tip:

Take a deep breath.

The extra stress of the holidays, spread liberally on top of our already stressful lives, can sow chronic grumpiness throughout the land. Too many chores, too little time, and too many people crammed into the stores. That's a shame, because it really is a wonderful time of year. Have you considered how still the air is just before a winter dawn? Or watched dogs chase each other through the snow? Or let yourself follow the memories that come to you in the smell of wood smoke? Why not?

Our tip this month is a simple one. Learn the lessons of Scrooge and Tiny Tim, take a deep breath, and count your blessings. That's a little corny, we suppose. Maybe a little too Frank Capra. But if you can't indulge in a little honest corniness at this time of the year, you'd better take a really deep breath.

 

December 2005 - Volume 3, Issue 12

’tis the Season

Time flies when you're having fun, and this is actually the third holiday issue of Directions. We're continuing a K Street tradition by offering a shorter, simpler December issue: less for us to write, and less for you to read. For all our readers, we thus offer the gift of some extra time. Who wouldn't like more of that?

Since this is the last issue for 2005, we'd like to take the opportunity to thank you all for staying tuned over the past year, and wish you the best for 2006. Plus a special thanks to those who participated in our readers' survey last month, in which we asked for ideas on how to improve Directions.

Most of those who responded seem to like it the way it is, with a mailer as a kind of index and the articles themselves on the website. People also like the mix of content, and style of presentation, although we did get a few requests for more shocking exposes. We'll see what we can do about that next year...Happy holidays!

The Best of 2005

Another year-end tradition established in 2004 is to look back over the past eleven months, and highlight some of our favorite articles. These include both articles we liked ourselves, as well as some that drew positive reader feedback. If you've read them before, we appreciate you may not want to read them again. However, the odds are that not everyone has read every article in every issue, so you still might want to take a click:

Dropping the Virtual Ball - A website can be an outstanding tool for communicating with customers, employees and the world at large. However, in the rush to establish a presence, many companies are overly casual about the details of site management. That's a problem... read the article

Now You're Cooking - Accessible language and simple examples can go a long way toward making Knowledge Management seem less highfalutin and academic. It's really a pretty simple idea, and is something that people have been doing for a very long time... read the article

It's Not Your Mother's PowerPoint - Microsoft PowerPoint is a double-edged weapon, and in the wrong hands it can be a platform for confusion and obfuscation. In the right hands, it can be a very powerful communication engine. The difference is thinking a bit outside the box ... read the article

Duz email mak u stupit - A study at the University of London suggests that "infomania,"  a term which refers to excessive dependence on email and text messaging, can actually produce a temporary decline in effective IQ. And no, this wasn't an April Fool's Day item... read the article

The Butcher Man - Knowledge Management is happening all around us, all the time. This is a parable of knowledge sharing and community, as observed in the day-to-day life of a small town in northern New Jersey... read the article

KM, Communications & Katrina - The Gulf Coast of the US is still trying to recover from the hurricanes of last fall. The immediate aftermath made it clear that problems in communication can make a bad situation much, much worse... read the article

We hope you like them. If you had any favorites from 2005, please let us know. We love to hear stuff like that.

Still More Good Clicks

In the final bit of K Street holiday tradition, we're pointing out some websites that will drive money to good causes, just by virtue of visiting them. The donations are made by advertisers and sponsors who've signed on to make small contributions for each click registered. The contributions are small ($25 for every 1,000 clicks) but they add up. Most of these sites let you make one donation every day, so think about making them a habit.

If you do, you can...

Fund food for animals
Save baby seals
Help pay for free mammograms
Stop violence against women
Help feed the hungry
Buy books for kids

This year, we're also making note of another site that's not built on a money-for-click model, but is exploiting web technology as a tool for good. Kiva is a distributed microloan site, at which you can lend small sums to support growing businesses in the developing world. You either get your money back at the end of the loan (without interest), or if the borrower defaults, you can claim the loan as a donation. It's a relatively new site, having opened for business in October 2005. So far, there have been no defaults.

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