Got interviewed recently by TheSambarnes which is a unique Web Project Management website. They have previously interviewed people like Brett Harned who is Senior Project Manager at Happy Cog in US, Dean Flynn Program Director at IE from Melbourne, Martin Crockett Senior Project Manager / Producer at Pirata London in the UK and more.
Want to read how to someone who started in the toilet business ended up in web project management? Then read the next in the Web Project Manager Interviews series, this time with Nick Pan, Director of Projects and Qais Consulting, who says with regards to new project opportunities “…you’ve got to know when to hold ’em and and when fold ‘em.†Read the full article »
If web is your day gig, I’ll love to get some feedback from fellow peers.
There is a magical feeling from taking an idea you have in your head, then spending time on it to make it happen. The above is how I decorated my desk over Christmas 2010. Used waste A3, A4 paper and some sticky tape.
When was the last time you created something? (instagr.am don’t count)
A few tips on how to get started:
It will be cool – No matter what it is, be it a doodle, a paper folding thingy, a song, a pot, a sculpture, a website, a scrapbook, a dish, as long as you do it, it will be cool. You do it for yourself, not anyone else.
See it through – If its not completed, its nothing. If its done half way, its nothing. So don’t worry about what other’s think or give up half way, just keep at it till the end. If you are drawing or painting, draw more, colour more, fill up the canvas.
Create with others – Have fun and create something together with others. Just take an idea and run. Its meant to be fun and not a project that have a client and budget constrains.
No expectations – Don’t pressurise yourself and set a super high expectation. Just go with it and see what happens.
Don’t stop – Once you’ve created something, don’t stop. Keep at it, start a second thingy and a third and a fourth and…
I think there is something with making things using our bare hands that gives us a special satisfaction.
Go create something. Do it this week and you will be amazed by what you can come up with.
On 19 Jan, I attended #SGGovCamp organised by Microsoft Singapore and the stage was set for people from the government, from the private sector, technologists and even web enthusiasts came together to share ideas.
There were lots of talk about how Gov2.0 should happen and someone also mentioned about Citizen2.o where citizens should also step up. I believe we all want to move forward, but somehow it seems to be not happening fast enough. Dr. Pallab Saha picked up a bottle of water and asked, “where do you think the bottle neck is? Its at the top.”
He also shared on “Embracing Gov 2.0: What Does it Really Mean?” during the panel session and his quick pace on those few slides really packed in a punch for the morning session. Just his “Gov 2.0 Maturity Matrix” slide would cause quite a few civil servants to sit up. It address how so many government bodies adopt Web2.0 technologies while having Gov1.0 mindset which cause them to become pretenders that did nothing more than change the facade. I’ve done quite a few projects just as he described.
Dr. Pallab Saha. Photo from Microsoft Singapore.
In the afternoon session, there were a lot of talk about making data open and Project Nimbus was brought up. It tries to avail datasets to the general public and even provides sufficient documentation for anyone to create innovative applications and tools based on these data.
Stuart Smith brought up how US and UK opened up its data and how tools have been pouring in. There were even usage that the governments would not have even imagined. He also highlighted Guardian’s Data Store which used open data for journalism. Its pretty neat.
Should Singapore government open up its data? If so which ones? Its a chicken and egg situation. If the data is not made available, no innovation can happen. If there are no success stories, data owners might not be motivated to make their data available. I think running a country is very much like parenting. Kids always want things their way without knowing what’s good for them. However, parents also don’t give kids enough responsibilities, so how do you expect kids to be responsible? I say, lets give it a go and see what happens, I do think we are now in a good position.
I can’t wait for the day when the Gov2.0 mindset is prevalent and www.data.gov.sg open its doors, that will be the time Singapore takes its quantum leap. That will be the time where we will have more information to make better informed decisions.
When we shifted into Punggol back in 2003, we felt that the whole place is so nice and quiet. It was clearly the perfect place for cafes and chill out places. Only after EIGHT years did it really happen. Now we have Popeye’s and also Frienzie Bistro & Bar, soon we’ll have a seafood restaurant and a sports hub. How nice.
Popeye’s
Popeye’s started its business at Punggol on Christmas of 2010 at Punggol East and it was the start of good things to come for us Punggolians. We went there for lunch on the opening day and like any digital native, I checked in on their Foursquare venue and posted the above picture up.
Till date which is less then one month since its opening, there is already 837 check-ins with 533 people in total and 18 photos uploaded onto Foursquare. There is also a flurry of foursquare venue’s being added. Clearly some people could not find which was the correct one to check in hence close to 15 were actually created. I manage to merge them together and now, if you want to check in, pls check-in to this one.
Address
10 Tebing Lane #01-05
Punggol, Singapore 828836
Frienzie Bistro & Bar
Frienzie Bistro & Bar
This place opened just last weekend and the place looks great! I’m looking forward to have my first meal and drink there tomorrow night. They serve Pasta, Pizza’s, etc. I will update this post again tomorrow when I have a closer look at their Menu.
On Foursquare, the same thing happened again. People went crazy and started creating quite a few venues. I’ve just sent in a merge request, let’s hope it gets fixed soon and people start checking-in to the right venue.
Address
10 Tebing Lane #01-02
Punggol, Singapore 828836
Parents, Siblings, Spouse, Children, Friends, Colleagues, Associates… The list goes on. Many of us have a decent normal family relationship, it’s just everyone else is weird.
Things start to change when we get married. We start to have to accept another family as our own and our understanding of a normal family starts to change. We then start to create a new normal within our own immediate family.
Relationships between people differ a lot and that’s why we have lots of associates or friends but very little close friends. There is a natural I-want-to-hang-out-with-these-people attitude for some and this can happen with any individual or groups of people in our lives. It can happen between siblings, cousins, school mates and even colleagues. Unfortunately, we have limited time and we are selective, hence there are very few people that we really hang out with.
Life is short and we only have that much time on this earth. How are we spending our time with people that matter to us? How are we sharing our lives and how are we impacting lives around us?
When we finally get to spend time together, why throw it away by twiddling with our mobiles.
Colleagues
We spend roughly about 8 hours every workday with colleagues to do stuff together. Some stuff are amazingly fun to do, motivating and we get to learn loads from the work and also from one another. Some work however are really dumb, but unfortunately someone needs to take out the trash.
Can colleagues be / become friends?
I’ve worked together as a team with many people and we worked really hard together, I believe they know who they are.
There was a situation once where I forgot to think about spam issues on a web project and when the work was submitted for QC, the developer asked me what are we going to do with spam. I panicked and its was a very facepalm feeling. The developer smiled and told me, no worries man, i’ve added a captcha to it and have also added it to the documentation. OMG! I was like, thanks man, you da man! We have since evolved from colleagues to friends.
This is just one example, there are countless examples I can think of where colleagues have stepped out of their job scope / comfort zone and did more than they officially should for the sake of others within the team and its really heart warming. Of cause it’s always a 2-way street and nobody is trying to backstab anyone and no one is trying to slack on their job. Its time like these you know who you can count on.
I’m thankful for the relationships I have at home and also those I have in the office. I’m glad that I’ve come to know many wonderful people in my life and I cherish the wonderful relationships we have and will continue to have.
