Hello and Farewell

On Christmas day, just after 5.00pm, my wife gave birth to our daughter, a precious gift.

Through the power of the internet, and the assistance of my nephew in Adelaide, my mum was able to see up to date pictures of our baby girl and rejoice.

Yesterday, December 30 around 10.30am , after a relatively short illness, my mum died, peacefully, comfortably and with the solid conviction of the promise of eternal life.

Hello and welcome Kaelyn. Farewell Mother.

Not Long to Go Now

As I write this post, I find myself contemplating convergence... of new life coming and another ending.

Much of what drives the content of this site is the convergence of generations - the boomers, the gen Xers and gen Y.

As we wait in anticipation of our baby girl, my mum is dying. How more convergent do the generations get?

There is much to look forward to.

Note to Self: Stop Thinking About It

Note to self:

You are preparing for a baby to arrive into your life and into your world. Get used to the fact that it is a world that is almost beyond recognition of the babies born twenty years ago!

We are shopping for baby gear online and bidding for some items on eBay. We know everything there is to know about how this baby is developing. We get and receive daily reports via email and Internet. We have access to a knowledge base that is beyond what we could have conceived twenty years ago (pardon the pun).

We will be "mature parents" though not necessarily the oldest in our pre-natal class. We will be savvy parents - savvy about the technology, the attitudes and the new world - and savvier than many.

Action:

Just go with it. Act as if it's been like this all your life. It's the only sensible thing for Boomer-Gen-X expectant couple can do... and stop thinking about how much everything has changed in twenty years. Celebrate the moment. Hang on and enjoy the ride. Thank God for the opportunity to live the adventure (previous post)

Crikey: Life's an Adventure

The deaths of wildlife warrior Steve Irwin on Monday Sep 4, and then motor racing hero Peter Brock in quick succession on Friday September 8 has given many of us pause to reflect.

Both were men of renown, with Brock, the stuff of legend in the Australian car racing scene over three decades, and Irwin the cocodile hunter having established fame on a world stage.

Like many Australians, I mourn their deaths - both sudden and unexpected, though both somewhat predictable in hind-sight. "Death by mis-adventure" is what will probably appear on their death certificates. "Life lived as an adventure," I would also like to think.

There are so many elements and so much has been recorded about the lives of Steve Irwin and Peter Brock, so my own contribution to the musings is modest. I simply acknowledge that they gave so many people hope.

They successfully tapped into and effectively influenced multi-generations - Brock, a War baby in his sixties, had a legion of fans across Boomers, Gen X and even Gen Ys. Steve Irwin had universal appeal across generations, across cultures and across the globe. Both brought messages of value to millions. Messages of passion, safety and the environment.

We all feel a little sad, and sympathetic towards those closest to these remarkable Australians. In time, we can see them as figures who helped shape or define our world and maybe even who we are or aspire to be like.

Mostly, I hope it gives us another reminder to be glad of our God-given time, that even our heroes are fallible and our human condition is frail, so we should all make the most of our time, our skills and our gifts - and inspire others to do the same.

Crikey, Steve and Brocky sure did!

Miracles in Edgely ND

After the school reunion in Iowa City, our next port of call was Edgely, North Dakota. Not heard of it? It's just a few miles from Ellendale, and pretty much at the centre of Mid-west Hometown, USA.

Our mission: real-time hugs with our dear friend (and Gen-X) Michelle, finally meet her wonderful husband Clete and stay in touch with the delightful darling Summer.

Earlier this year, in April, Michelle was involved in a serious auto accident. Doctors in Fargo assessed the impact of her spinal injuries as "unlikely to walk again." After her first round of surgery, they told Clete it was even worse than they initially thought.

Fast forward to August 14, and, on our arrival at their beautiful farm, who should be walking up to the front door, beamimg and glowing with vitality? Our Michelle, body-braced and crutches, but positively gleaming.

Miracle you might say? What is the miracle? Michelle regaining feelings, muscle tone and the ability to dispense with her wheel chair despite a seriously damaged spinal chord? Well maybe. God does amazing things, and sometimes He makes us recover from physical injuries and confounds medical science. I'm told these sorts of miracles happen in hospitals every day.

Here are the miracles I saw in Edgely ND:

Indomitable God-given spirit in a wonderful woman; Unbridled joy as old and dear friends reconnect; A home where love is clearly overcoming pain and adversity; A proud family coping with huge challenges and dealing with them one day at a time; A community collectively embracing a family with love and compassion; and friends, artisans, craftsmen, teachers and business people of Edgely and the surrounding district rallying around and sensitively giving this family room to breathe and space to recover - body, soul and spirit.

Michelle is an extraordinary woman. She has achieved extraordinary things and has truly let her light shine. And her recovery, still with a way to go yet, is miraculous. The miracles of love continue to ripple all over the district.

Filled with admiration for her work and determination, I told her as we left that my heart was singing with joy for her recovery, while weeping with the grief of parting again, at least until we see you again in Australia.

Hugs, laughs, tears, joy, quality talk and fond fare-wells. Without doubt, there are miracles in Edgely ND. God bless you all.

School Reunion, so much more than reminiscing

Still feeling the rush of the good vibes of our US visit, Martha's high school reunion provided so much more than reminiscence and curiosity sating.

Last weekend in Iowa City, I accompanied my darling wife to her twenty year High School reunion. In all our previous visits to the US, we had never ventured beyond the Minnesota border, so the road trip alone was always going to be exciting.

[NOTE TO DEAR FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN THE TWIN CITIES: I love spending time with you, and most of my time in the USA in Minnesota. The chance to learn more about Martha's past in Iowa is just too enticing]

Here are a few of my experiences and observations:

Our hosts, Bret and Val, are a couple of the world's best quality and nicest people. Bret, a long term P&G company man (and Martha's class mate) represents so much of all that is good about the USA and peace-loving Americans. He is a seriously good guy, and had he not been such good friends with Martha, probably would have married or at least, dated her.

His wife Valerie, also a native Iowan and a damn fine theatre nurse, exudes intelligence, compassion, empathy and love. She is someone who has accepted some challenges, including those associated with having a brain injured child. She lives her life in a way that brings joy to many, especially Bret, Orion and Aiden, and leaves no doubt in anyone else's mind that they can participate, co-operate, share it... or get out of the way. She makes good decisions. As a couple, Bret and Val support each other and could epitomise the good stuff we scarcely hear about Americans these days.

The reunion of West High's Class of 86

The fact that there were two high schools - "City" and "West" in Iowa City speaks volumes. No stories of when "we beat City" or claims of victorious raids or other rivalry, just a calm recognition that, although City won everything, we are proud of our West heritage.

Bret, surrounded by classmates, some who had travelled a long way to be there and some of whom still live locally but with whom he had lost contact, could not stop beaming. This was infectious.

"Brian," and you know who you are, re-introduced himself to my increasingly beaming wife as the boy she had kissed - his first snog. Martha later told me that there were at least five classmates there that she had snogged.

As a classmate's spouse, I felt welcome and increasingly curious to learn about what such a significant part of my significant other's life represented. It was fun to meet other people in a true spirit of friendship and celebration, and where most were able to check any remaining high school insecurities at the door.

As the only Australian present, it was easy to converse with everyone. My name tag, like all of the name tags of the classmate spouses, was inscribed with the name of the respective classmate to whom I am married. It gave me a good sense of authentication, and secretly, I was thinking "well she night have dated or snogged you, but she married me!" Perhaps not all of us checked their insecurities at the door, after all!

High school crushes, friendships renewed, contact details updated, reminiscing complete for now, the ripple effects of the event will continue. Who knows what will happen to this remarkable group of people who happened to form the graduating class of West High 1986 in the next twenty years? If I am invited, I for one want to know. What a wonderful collection of Gen-X, and now, all with a permanent link with this Boomer.

More about the road trip and our reunion visit with a great friend in North Dakota in the next post.

History of Generations - between Malls

I am posting this from Minnesota, USA where my wife and I are catching up with family and friends, and preparing for her school reunion a few hours drive South in Iowa City.

Not only is our partnership one that transcends generations (this boomer is married to a Gen X), it is one that traverses the great and often misunderstood cultural divide between Australia and the USA. Her twenty year school reunion will offer great opportunities for me to examine these divides!)

Over lunch today, a dear friend Lynn, who also happens to be expert in the Enneagram and has counseled many people in relationship matters spoke about her recent developing interest in figures of history.

As well as seeing the Ben Franklin as a wonderful example of a seven for instance, she has noted that these generational divides are not merely an invention of the 20th century but offer perceptive students of history opportunities to see the patterns we may otherwise believe we Boomers, Gen Xers, Gen Ys and Norties invented.

“Not so,” says Lynn, and she piques my interest to read more about such notable figures of history in the last couple of centuries. Ironically, it might be very boomerish of me to be interested in an historical aspect framed by enneagramatic modeling.

My Gen-X wife, true to her tribe, simply processes the notion that these generational patterns may be being repeated, dismisses it or gives it cursory attention, and gets on with her current project (today shopping for our new year baby). My well-educated Gen Y sons would scarcely see the relevance, as they know that nothing of any value has been developed or discovered prior to the PC, the Internet and SMS.

Just as I convince myself of my trans-generational, cross-cultural position, I am confronted with this boomeristic interest in history… to see what we can learn from patterns of out past viewed with yet another lens. How boomer-like and how culturally arrogant of me to discover this notion.

I find the Enneagram to be a most useful model for seeing ourselves and each other. I celebrate that there are boomers like Lynn who are not only expert in it, but who are also able to see subtle patterns in people. [Lynn, after all, is an important part of our story.] She will, I am sure, challenge our rising power generations to learn from history or be bound to repeat it.

Meanwhile, this trans generational boomer will get on with his trips to the malls – be they outlet, mega or regular. What a wonderful place is Minneapolis. More about my observations at my wife's school reunion will follow.

Blogging, not talking

Mark Jones continues to raise some very significant, though subtle issues here. (A link to his post is in the heading)

To blog or not to blog appears to be a vexing question for many corporations at the moment. It's a topic of several conversations in which I have both participated and heard about lately.

The agenda is a mixture of:
Regulating the blogging activity of employees; maintaing the appearance of fairness and openness; protecting stakeholder interests; and supporting a modern day civil liberty (the right to virtually congregate.)

Under the cloak of the blogsphere, some executives can be brave, or at least a little braver than they might be in other "more traditional" communication channels.

I grieve the circumstance where bloggers are gagged - or worse, deliberately spin company lines and attempt to appear "open.”

Like any channel of communication we have a duty to not abuse it by damaging others, but it emerges as a significant pillar of our democracy, along with off the record conversations with journalists.

Great Expectations

I am today thrilled to report that Martha and Tom are about to move into a new market segment and expect a baby on or about Jan 4.

Our lives are blessed in so many ways and we look forward to receiving this latest gift from God with joy. So far, Martha is doing brilliantly, and we pray for her continued good health and safety.

We now reserve the right to engage in baby-related conversations at any time with anyone, and use pregnancy and baby analogies in any or all of our communications.

Without doubt, this news will change the flavour and content of this blogsite forever. It is yet another example of our Boomer / Gen X partnership.

I work in the tech sector, I live straddling market sectors, I love across the whole range.

Comments, suggestions ideas are welcome.

To blog, or not to blog

I have recently started a new position with an ICT research organisation, with responsibility for its online communication channels.

It's a role that is still being defined in many organisations, one that recognises the need for someone who straddles the "IT" and "Business" or "Corporate Comms" functions of website development together with project management.

It is as though the experiences of my last five years have prepared me for this job. I have been devoted to learning all that I can about the implementation of content management systems, the conflicting requirements of internal users and target audiences as well as the nuances of project managing in an environment where stakeholder interests range from mild to intense, even hostile.

In the user needs discovery phase of my new website redevelopment, I am faced with a new, and possibly not-too-uncommon dilemma - to blog or not to blog... That is the question! (apologies Mr Shakespeare)

As a knowledge organisation, do we encourage our research staff to blog? Do we facilitate it? Do the opinions of blogsites originators carry more credence or liability if they identify themselves with their employer? Does a Microsoft or Sun employee's blog carry with it some higher value, and therefor responsibility? What about the ensuing comments? Who's responsible for anonymous defamatory comments on a blog site? (Jason Akermanis, for one, would like to know!)

We find ourselves in a murky area where "mainstream publishers," lawyers, Internet service providers and litigious plaintiffs are circling.

To some degree, I say "blog and be dammed," but I find myself staring down a queue of bloggers whose online activity I can either support, promote, facilitate and in some way, moderate or pretend it's not there, keep it underground. And not only do I want these people to continue to produce content of value for our website, I need to find an appropriate response, a viable policy about enterprise blogging.

Does blogging dilute the value of the enterprise website? Where do blogsites fit in the context of user experience.

Perhaps we are not far from a time when real knowledge organisations truly reflect the aggregated knowledge of its workers and then some, if the sum of the parts is truly greater than the whole. Do such websites become well dressed portals to hundreds of blogsites? Or like Sun Microsystems do we aggregate and index the top 50 staff blog sites?

To blog or not to blog is NOT the question. It's how do the knowledge sector enterprise stakeholders leverage it, manage the risks and maintain some shred of freedom of collaborative open thought and discussion.

To squeeze one more pun into this post, the cat is clearly out of the blog.

Blogging

Job Titles by any other name

Have you noticed how difficult it can be for someone to describe what they do for a living these days? You don't have to manage anyone to be a manager. Many job titles are ambiguous. Many knowledge or information based jobs didn't exist 10 years ago.

There's a distinctly interpretive version of almost every job title. Even the classical professions of doctor or lawyer give rise to a follow up summary statement, if not a descriptive paragraph about what kind of doctor or lawyer.

Everyone, it seems, has to be a specialist. Accountants, tradespeople, managers, engineers, miners, boat-builders, nurses, pilots, athletes, actors, consultants, journalists, teachers, even aeronautical engineers and nuclear physicists and of course, IT professionals all have a significant bit of explaining to do about what they do for a living.

And these days, when we ask that question, we've come to expect a conversation, not just an answer.

A friend of mine recently asked me what title she should give to a new role she was looking to create in her organisation. The title, it seems, will help attract the right kind of candidate. "And it's a specialist senior role. I don't want just a regular [burger]," she explained.

Descriptive add-ons including Senior, Consultant, Specialist, Analyst, Coordinator are used to distinguish a role from that of a regular burger.

As a professional communicator with a background that includes sales, marketing and project management, it disturbs me that our job monikers have taken on such importance. It's all about branding, but when it comes to job titles, we are suffering from incurable brand confusion.

Being a sales person, sales executive, or sales assistant is an honourable job. Like every other profession, it can be done by dishonourable people. If you're in sales, don't call your job a consultant, analyst or "solution provider." Let's reclaim ordinary job titles, and if we need to be brand conscious, take responsibility for our own brand, the name on our driver's licence.

When in comes to job titles, we don't need spin. We need integrity.

Job Titles

Job Descriptions

Expectation can move mountains

A friend of mine recently commented, off this blog, on the miners in Beaconsfield (see earlier post Miracle Rescue, Miracle Information) and described the situation in terms of the expectancy surrounding it.

For over a week now, families and friends, rescuers and supporters, local and global communities, and especially media crews have developed some major expectations of seeing miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb come up through the now famous gates of the mine. News updates have been continuous. Here's the latest on NineMSN.

Unavoidable speculation and anticipation about when they would be freed has led to frustration and disappointment.

These mining communities seem to be pretty canny though.

These people seem to understand that things will happen in their own time and order. Somehow there is a great wisdom in accepting that you can't go rushing the disturbance of the Earth. Even if you can, you must not, regardless of the expectations and the enthusiasm to re-unite these men wit their loved ones.

So since the discovery of the miracle of their survival, more than a week has gone by. A week of expectancy that soon they would be rescued. Several times we've thought it would be today, or tomorrow morning, or it will take about 24 hours to get them, no 48 hours... I wonder how it must feel for the actual miners doing the drilling, blasting and digging?... and for Todd and Brant who by now must have built up some huge expectations of being with their families... soon.

Along with the miracle of their survival, and their eventual rescue, we are witnessing a great example of the miracle of our information age and an indomitable spirit of expectancy. Some of the best things happen out of expectancy, and it's a powerful force.

Some people wait a whole lifetime for their beloved football team to win a premiership.

Despite the lack of precise information about when, we can stay as informed about the progress of this miracle rescue as we want, because it WILL happen. To anyone feeling jaded by it all, think of the jubilation and joy that will be experienced when it does happen.

Keep the faith. Sydney Swans eventually won a premiership, and Todd and Brant will be out... safely and soon enough.

Where's the Leading Edge?

There used to be an easily recognisable leading edge in information technology.

For processors and printers it was how fast, for data storage it was how much for how much, for everything else it's bigger, brighter, smaller and snappier for less.

In software, the leading edge was often around operating systems and relational databases. At one stage there was an undeclared pissing contest among O/S and database vendors as to which had most influence on the leading edge of IT.

I caught up with an old (youthful) Gen X friend in the business today. He has not only established a successful online information business, but is constantly looking for and finding ways that the Internet, and more specifically, Web 2 is opening up new frontiers. He's not your typical entrepreneurial business type, just someone with a passion for building and nurturing businesses that extend the edge of the technology to deliver products and services of value - faster and snappier for less.

"The trouble is that whatever is developed, anyone who hears about it wants it. But they don't want to pay for it," he observed.
"No sh*t, Sherlock," I thought to myself. Someone builds a better mousetrap and finds that not everyone who beats a path is willing to buy. Some fundamental economics and marketing lessons here.

My friend spoke of a new application he is helping to bring to market. It's at some edge, an edge that appeals to a market that wants to develop their own forms and capture information interactively in there own emails or websites - the stuff that developers charge squillions for. This "application app" is at the leading edge. But whose edge? If it doesn't interest you, not yours.

We both acknowledge our own crusty cynicism about claims of being at the edge of technology, the state of the art and so on. But if there is something that empowers us to be more productive, have more fun, reduce the time we have to spend away from those we love and move us all a little closer to the nirvana of a transparent, accessible Internet, Web 2.0 or blogsphere, it's an edge I'm interested in.

By definition, your view of the edge is determined by where you're standing. The leading edge is an arbitrary and constantly moving point. I hope my friend and his application developer find a market, make squillions and contribute to the global web tapestry.

Cheers to anyone who creates a new edge. I'm getting dizzy looking at all the new edges in web technology. I'm just going to pick a point on my virtual horizon, sail not too close to the edge but anchor in places that offer me a chance to enjoy the view.

My own edges will be on different planes, and will probably be achieved with the aid of leading edge application apps.

Time to make a living

A recent post on Squash that alludes to time "Making a living in the smallest possible time" caused me to reflect (and I had the time!)

In it, Phil Sim credits Paul Graham with some commentary that supports the idea encapsulated in the heading. Not far beneath the surface of this commentary is some sadness. While I hope that neither Phil or Paul have recently experienced bereavement, nothing makes us more respectful of time than death.

Other than actual death, everything else is an artificial deadline. And in our extravagant use of language in business, we speak of deadlines, even drop deadlines. Our lives - and our computers, the Internet and virtual worlds - are defined by chronology. This is a universally accepted measure broken into years, months, days, hours... nanoseconds.

As Phil seems to imply, I completely support the idea of making a living in the smallest possible. I spend time dreaming of ways to earn a living that will support me without taking up my time. I have a long list of things I'd like to be doing other than making a living, and I am forced by my circumstances, nature and patterns of behaviour to compromise this conflict.

We speak of realtime, Internet time, face time and "time for a chat" (usually not good)

Recently, I have come to understand time in a different boomerexy way.

Theologians, philosophers and rhetoricians make various interpretations of kairos. To me, kairos captures those moments in your life that give it definition. The time you kissed, had sex, proposed, married, became a parent, got fired, dumped or failed some test, won something or were elevated in some way for the first time.

While chronos time ticks along as I contemplate making a living in the smallest possible time, it's kairos moments for which I live. I'm no less committed to getting the money thing sorted out, and I am increasingly conscious of leveraging my making-a-living-days more effective, but kairos time can not be compressed. After all, how long does a decision take? Not the processing, contemplation, procrastination... a decision.

Seems we're all a few (kairos) decisions away from making a living. In the meanwhile, using your precious chronological allocation to hug someone you love (or better still, tell them), be with them or do that thing you've been meaning to, it's a small concession with potentially great reward. Do it even if, as a result, it takes you a moment longer to make your living.

Cardio-Technology Smokes - NOT

I had a check-up with my cardiologist today. This, by the way, is something baby boomers and an increasing number of Gen Xers need to do. Me, because I have a bit of heart disease in my family history, and well, because I can.

Both my GP and my cardiologist say things like, “There are some risk factors you can’t do anything about: your age, your genes and sex.” For some reason when my (female) cardiologist – we’ll call her Doctor P cause that’s what her surname starts with – says that, at some level, I always snigger. I know she means gender.

Anyway, the other factors are behavioural – exercise, diet and not doing dumb things like smoking.

So this tech savvy blogger is in the office of the office waiting for Dr P, and it occurs to me that my consultation will be more valuable if she has ALL the latest information. Like the results of the recent blood tests ordered by my GP.

So I mentioned this to the receptionist / office manager thinking “she can probably access it online, or the pathology company can send it electronically…”

Not so. Amidst the technology available to the leading edge of cardiology (and I mean everything that goes beep and scans for tiny little defects of the chest region) accessing blood tests over a secure session on the Internet has a way to go.

Almost to my joy and with some sense of nostalgia, the information was retrieved from the pathologist by way of a personal phone call and a subsequent fax.

My consultation went well. Thankfully, I’m in the low risk area. I DON’T SMOKE. Age, gender and genetic disposition allowing, this correspondent will be around for several Internet generations.

Meanwhile, I will discuss with the bride what we can do about the sex thing.

Miracle Rescue, Miracle Information

As a miracle rescue unfolds in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, spare a thought not only of the two men who at this stage are believed to be in good condition, but also for the community for whom this calamity has been their focus for five days.

Clinging to the remotest hope that the miners could be found alive, family, friends, colleagues, rescue service people and everyone linked to this mining town community have desperately held out for any news.

Even as rocks are being removed and rescuers inch closer to the surviving miners, the community craves news, reports and updates - information.

Letting people know and ending the anguish is almost as important as rescuing the men.

The miracle is not just in their survival and rescue. It's also in the spirit of a community, joined by millions via information channels.

We will, no doubt, be deluged in media coverage of this miracle. Squillions of hits on websites will follow. And is it not about time we all had a news story to celebrate and give thanks for?

God bless the survivors, the rescuers and the global community now linked by this story... and thanks for the fact that we will have all the information we want about this miracle.

Blog your way to recovery

Imagine the scenario. You have survived a serious car accident. You are in hospital for an extended stay – surgeries, physio, medication and extensive healing required.

Amidst your pain and treatment, your hospital carer sets you up with a patient blog site.

If it was me in the body brace and bandages, I suspect the last thing I would be thinking about is sharing my thoughts on a blog.

Well this is the reality for a dear friend, Michelle in a hospital in Fargo North Dakota, USA

Clever people these hospital carers. One way or another, Michelle gets her “story” out and so begins the Internet element of her healing.

A not-for-profit organisation called CaringBridge, inspired by personal tragedy, has made it possible for 38,000 hospital patients to receive five million guest book messages and 235 million virtual visits. Who knows how significant millions of expressions of love and support for people at one of their lowest points of their life could be?

Instant virtual community of friends and family are connected via her site, and all are able to keep up-to-date and in some way participate in her recovery.

My friend Michelle has received hundreds of messages. She has a long way to go in her recovery, and her CaringBridge site will be part of it via her individual journal, guestbook, photos, tributes and links.

ANZACS and Living in a TRADITIONAL Internet Age

We just celebrated – if that’s the right word – ANZAC Day in Australia (April 25), a day that is not only the most universally acknowledged national holiday in Australia (quite a few people have issues with “Australia day”), but one that continues to attract cross generational appeal.

The story of incredible loss and sacrifice combined with courage and a barely understood quality called Aussie mateship gave rise to the ANZAC spirit. It took another world war and more than twenty years before a fledgling tradition was claimed.

Those who were there at the time remember. Those who grew up with the aforementioned and heard the stories honour them. Those who are not connected by family links to ANZACS have learned to respect what it all means. And now, two or three generations on, ANZAC Day is a time-honoured tradition.

As my first post, and with respect, hopefully not my last post, I have been wondering what it takes to establish a time-honoured tradition. For many, the concept of Internet time has changed the reference points for time. We have come to expect information, goods and services, relationships, transactions, education, negotiations, consultations, aggregations and almost every other *ation to be available instantly. The concept of delayed gratification is academic or even quaint.

This is not a rant about Internet time, just a slowly cooked opinion that time and tradition are NOT relative terms, nor can either be hurried up. We live in an age that readily dismisses traditions or traditional approaches, yet one that desperately wants to establish them. I’ve heard the qualifier “traditionally” applied to sporting teams with barely a decade of history, to TV talent shows after three consecutive seasons (can anyone name our first three Australian Idols), and even to computer operating systems (ahh Windows 3.x).

Will any of our stories of today become true traditions? What will the benchmark for “time-honoured” be? My guess is that we will find tenuous links being made to or claimed as traditions. On a global scale, traditions can be established as quickly as a major act of terrorism or some natural catastrophe occurs.

But tradition is not a currency easily acquired. While the Internet, and especially Web 2.x offers us who are blessed to live in a free and technology accessible nation the chance to share it, learn it and even influence it a little, I just wonder what traditions we will leave behind us.

Perhaps in a generation or two, people will be reading these blogs in the same way we flick through our grandparents’ letters or diaries from a bygone time.

For any traditionalist who happens to land on this blog, hang in there, grab on to your seat, enjoy the ride, and know that YOUR knowledge of time-honoured tradition can not be overtaken. Who knows, it might be up to you to pass on the tradition.

Let’s hope it’s not only by blog or email.