Fascinating Insights from the First Ontologist Workshop at Max-Planck-Institute Leipzig
Having joined the OBML workgroup’s 1st workshop at the University of Leipzig Max-Planck-Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology for the last two days, I am left quite impressed.
Not only by the presenters’ track records, but also by the sheer number and diversity of researchers and practitioners Prof. Dr. rer. nat habil. Heinrich Herre managed to bring together for the event. Commonly such gatherings here in Germany would consist of ten people at most — this time there were more than 50 experts, including international guests, from institutions and companies all over the country.
Nevertheless, something extremely re-assuring that I am taking away is not only the obvious development progress in the ontology sector, but also the fact, that even the most renowned experts in the field struggle with the very same technical insufficiencies as we do, when designing new data models for our SemaWorx application base.
Therefore we also had a very enlightening (entertaining goes without saying…) evening at local Cafe Madrid, where over the delicious meal discussion focus lay more on the practically achievable short-term benefits of current semantic modeling approaches, rather than their long-term optimization wishlist (hopefully I didn’t get this imprecise now… ).
This time the public event includes an update by Ines Falkenhan on Family Affair: Balancing Family And Work for working parents living in the Leipzig area.
In case you are not from here or don’t know the Radisson, this map will assist you finding us. The facility exists right opposite from the well-known Augustusplatz.
Darmstadt: Even more regulars joining Cosima’s IT table on each month's second Tuesday
O.k. it’s been some time, since I visited or even wrote about the tables for coding regulars taking place the second Tuesday every month in Darmstadt. What has changed since then not only is that you now get your invitations mostly via XING instead of e-mail (though you’re of course still welcome to join unannouncedly as well…), but also location and size: the crowd regulars gathering there seems to have grown pretty much from intimate (once) to almost intimidating size; rarely finding a pub capable of seating the now at least 30 people together every month. Even though I did not meet with all too many acquaintances, I had a very pleasant evening with wonderful insights from most any part of the IT industy. Convince yourself and drop by next time you’re in the area…
Book Review: Never Eat Alone — with Keith Ferrazzi
Do you know, what it’s like to drive a real Ferrazzi ? Well, as far as this book is concerned (with a German Edition available as well), this Ferrazzi (model "Keith") clearly is driven by making both a connection and a difference.
Once you got used to sentences starting with expressions such as "networking super-hubs like me" , you find this book to be a suprisingly complete guide to enhancing your very own interpersonal skills — always one connection at a time. At the beginning Keith Ferrazzi convincingly explains, why he believes reaching out to other people and offering your help being together the most effective (if not the only) way towards a happy as well as successful life, constantly telling examples from his own experience. You learn how to define your personal goals and then identify the right people to help you complete it. Then one gets instructions on how to get into the right mindset, while avoiding common pitfalls. Afterwards, Keith Ferrazzi teaches you the trade of how to successfully making connections, from in-advance research on the people you would like to meet, over pre-warming "cold" phone calls and adding meaning to small talk by showing some vulnerability, to detailed advice on how to make sure, the people you once contacted won’t forget about you, while you still successfully survive the information flood caused by phone calls, appointments and contacts you gather. Then you proceed to the advanced concepts, containing guides to mastering typical business scenarios: You learn to systematically expand your network by e.g. finding "anchor tenants" out of other social groupings, getting most out of conferences by adding your own events and finally, well, not eating alone by inviting other people for dinner. Here it has to be said, that Keith Ferrazzi knows the art of pulling together the right people inside out and that his single chapter of tips on running successful dinner parties probably makes up for more substance than some entire magazines devoted to solely that topic.
Though some of the author’s advice may need some adjustment to your particular cultural environment, following his guidelines building your own brand by neither giving in to hubris, nor getting boring, will inevitably allow you to get along with other people in your own life much more joy- and successfully.
Want to give Ferrazzi’s practical approaches a try ? Take this video as an example:
Unfortunately the book-accompanying website has been replaced by the one of its reportedly even more renowned successor Who’s got your back ?. But it’s still worth a visit, especially for Keith Ferrazzi’s blog, containing a multitude of valuable networking tips (many of which "never eat alone" discusses in greater detail…), and its community section where you can connect to and exchange with many other people practicing Ferrazzi-style business networking.
It did not take the first federal officals getting infected with Swine Flu recently, that media have been filled with material of a possible upcoming "New Flu" (to avoid the impression you’d only get it from pigs…) pandemic. Although most everyone seems to be talking about it, I felt myself way too uninformed concerning proven facts about the current information, in order to be able to tell reasonable cautiousness from public paranoia. Which is why I decided to put together the most helpful material I found in this blog post, to save you (if not from the flu) at least from the hassle to collect it all again on yourown. Despite the fact that, as that early statistics become available, the H1N1 subtype of Influenza Afatality rate shows to be 'only' no higher than the one of 'regular' flu so far (surprising 5,000 to 7,000 lethal cases in Germany each year), the media echo is still overwhelming compared to other and far more lethal virus epidemia around the world — as plausibly demonstrated by Hans Rosiling of Gapminder in the following video.
On the other hand, the virus is spreading at an impressive speed, including the ominous potential to mutate into a less treatable variant. That said, even considering the current less fatal course of disease within industrialized countries, one will not want to get infected.
To get your personal round-up on H1N1 I recommend the comprehensive introduction by the WHO's Dr Margaret Chan inside the official Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 section on their website. The available material discusses topics such as travelling (many cases are brought in by tourists returning from vacation), food safety (yes, pork is save when prepared at above 160°F/70°C) and prevention (yes, there are measures, which help preventing you from getting/spreading the virus).
So if I become sick upon returning from a holiday trip or even right in the middle of a workday — how can I tell if I probably got infected with H1N1 ?
The most reliable sources (there’s also very profound coverage by ZDF) I found say, that almost two out of three people catching the virus like won’t realize it at all while their immune system will successfully prevent them from getting sick. The others will likely recognize symptoms like sudden fever, cough/sneeze, fatigue, diminished appetite, nausea and/or looseness often within few hours, but at most up to 3 days after being infected. Since flu is an airborne infection you usually get it from interacting with or at least being near to infected people. Self-protection goes a long way here, so recommendations go from, most importantly, regularly and thoroughly washing hands — at least every 3 (!) hours and for half a minute — not forgetting to clean the spaces between your fingers as well. After washing hands keep them cleaner by, yes, choughing or sneezing not into your hand (not even the left one), but into your sleeve and towards your elbow — and of course away from other people. Since you can distribute the virus even without being sick, including going through the entire flu without actually realizing yourself, it is highly recommended to avoid crowded places whenever possible (especially once the illness has reached pandemia state) and of course not e.g. share drinking containers with other people. If you can’t avoid such gatherings, like on planes (and your boss didn’t approve the business class upgrade "for health reasons" ) or buses, face masks also cannot inhibit virus distribution reliably, but do fairly good at preventing people from infecting each other in tight spaces. In buildings regular aeration helps to avoid accumulation of airborne germs and viruses. Finally, it be a good approach to reduce potential threats to your own immune system, such as excessive drinking or sun bathing.
What if one shows the mentioned symptoms ?
If nonetheless you finally think, you may have cought a Swine Flu virus somewhere, it may be wise to as soon as possible (as successful therapy relies on early apllication), not to go and visit your doctor (risking to confront other already weakened patients with a highly infexctious virus), but ask her to come and see you at home instead. Final assurance can only be reached by laboratory examination. A possible infection usually lasts between 5-7 days. Limited volumes of vaccine are expected to become available for the immunization high-risk groups like hospital staff from November this year. In case of any doubts or questions, the German Federal Ministry of Health offers a toll-free hotline: +49 (0) 800 / 44 00 55 0 can be reached Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays until 12 a.m. — in special cases the service will be made available at additional times.
SemaWorker is the complementary weblog to the SemaWorx project, dealing with the capabilities of Semantic Web XML technology to solve everyday challenges. The work is mainly taking place in Leipzig, Germany.
I'm Bardo Nelgen and in charge of the SemaWorx project management. [ e-mail me ]
— this time there were more than 50 experts, including international guests, from institutions and companies all over the country.
