What is a Community of Practice? I don't want to sound like a name dropper, but Nancy White is a friend of mine. Really. Nancy travels around the world facilitating the creation of communities, both online and off.  I never really understood what she does as a Communities of Practice expert, but this post she shared, authored by Darren Sidnick explains "Communities of Practice" very well.  Lots of good reminders to those of us on the technical side of online communities that a Community of Practice is all about the people in that community, or as the concluding section reads, "The tool is not the community."

A Free eBook on Personal Branding is Smart Branding. Chris Brogan releases a free 15 page PDF titled "Personal Branding for the Business Professional." This is a smart play, as I'm probably not the only person who subscribed to his blog as a result of reading the eBook.  The "Personal Branding" PDF was a quick read with useful information, most notably the final sections on passion-based decision making, something I believe very strongly about.  You could even say I'm passionate about it.

That's the Conquistador. They run tight. I laugh out loud every time I watch the new Gates-Seinfeld ad.  Can't wait for more!  I just don't get how people can criticize Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld together.  I never saw the ad on TV, but the video had me on "Shoe Circus."  My first laugh is the expression on Bill's face when he says "Leather..." One TechDirt reader commented, "When I heard they were hiring Jerry, the next question I asked was 'Did they hire Don Rickles?'"  Wait just a minute there, buckaroo. Don Rickles rocks!!!  I was watching Run Silent, Run Deep on DVD just last week on the kitchen TV and happened to mention to my wife that I thought Don Rickles, apart from being a great comedian, is a very handsome man. "Don Rickles is NOT a handsome man!" my wife said with wayyy too much emotion. "Don Rickles is TOO a handsome man!" I snapped back at her.  Things went downhill from there.  Fast.  I guess we can't enjoy domestic bliss all of the time.

Farming in the Sky. I really enjoyed the September Popular Science for two reasons, 1) a short but visionary piece on the future of mobile computing based on seven MIT student applications for the Android on page 60, and 2) the centerfold--full four-page fold-out spread!--of a vertical farm skyscraper.  Rotate the magazine and fold out those pages to see robotically managed hydroponic and aquaponic crops, vertical axis wind turbines, 100 tons of sewage converted into 19 megawatts of electricity...whew!  (Is it me, or is it really warm tonight?)  Short of having the complete experience for yourself by grabbing the issue from the rack at Borders and gazing over the centerfold, here's the PopSci video of Farming in the Sky.

And you thought search worked okay. This Steve Rubel post on social searching reminds us that there's another level of searching Google hasn't touched yet.  Not only searching within communities which is lacking, but weighting those searches with a trust component and restricting searches to criteria like your Facebook Friends.

Friedman's new book is out! My pre-order of Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America" arrived today from Amazon.  WOO-HOO!  I can't wait for tomorrow's Nordic Track session to get started. Friedman was on NBC's Meet the Press this past Sunday.  Inspiring, but the interview was too short!  I'm keeping the faith for a Charlie Rose interview.  You'll find his interview with Brokaw on Meet the Press here.

The Palin photo was a fake! I can't believe I unwittingly posted a Photoshop'd image of gun toten' Palin on the last Everyman. I'm so sorry about that. Here was my "trusted" source.  The original Flickr photo's author, Doctor Casino, is quite an interesting cat.  There were a ton of comments on the photo, one which read, "You rock. My own personal amusement at the Palin meme aside, it's nice to see someone acting like a decent, intelligent human being, capable of writing sane and intelligible answers to a fairly mixed set of comments," to which Doctor Casino responded, "Aww, thanks! Just the good old-fashioned values I learned hanging out at rock quarries in the deep South, shooting cans with BB guns."