David Kluskiewicz

Ubuntu and Freedom

// June 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Experimenting with Ubuntu has definitely expanded my technology mind. I’m no programmer, but with a few hours of reading and experimentation, I was able to turn a beat up old IBM T40 ThinkPad into the start of a home server. (I couldn’t help but follow the lead of my intern who, in an afternoon, turned a slugging Dell into a custom built web server.) I can store files on it, access it from anywhere there’s an internet connection, and print wirelessly from anywhere in my house. Without purchasing a single piece of hardware or software.

Thanks to Matthias Kretschmann for publishing a nice tutorial for configuring a file server. And thanks to the Ubuntu community for sharing tips in the forums.

Sure this may seem like tinkering, but it represents an attitude that I want my kids to embrace as they grow up – one that I need to practice again. I want them to look beyond brands and see the physical materials that they can turn into anything. A 1.5MHz chip, a 32GB hard drive and 500Mb of RAM, all objects that might have been considered “so 2001″, were resurrected into a stellar utility for the home. It’s tough for a brand to do that. And, it’s nowhere near as satisfying as crafting something with your own hands.

Social Media for More than Just Consumer Brands

// November 21st, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

A presenter at yesterday’s Using Web Social Networking Tools to Create Business Opportunity event from the Connecticut Technology Council insisted that insistent that social media was only for B2C (business to consumer), which I thought was completely incorrect. Though I know that people at large consumer brands live and breathe social media, I also believe that those of us in the knowledge economy can benefit as well.

Business-to-business social media will be extremely valuable in the next couple of years, as more people become comfortable with conducting non-core business in public. Because so many of today’s businesses ventures are built on strong relationships and niche experience, we will need sources of real information on our colleagues, partners, customers and vendors. A resume will not be enough. A web page won’t provide the right information. We’re going to need data, over time, that gives a little insights into someone’s thought process. Blogs, profiles, twitterstreams, I think, do just that. They prove that an individual is thinking, processing, editing, developing, etc. These media may not always have the polish of a presentation piece, but they show the character of individuals, which is more than a resume or purchase order ever could.

Other takeaways from panelists:

• Don’t be a shameless self-promoter
• Share just enough non-professional information to remind people that you’re a human, full of thought and not under the control of some PR machine
• Share your experiences. You never know who else could benefit, or be inspired by you. And, when someone gets to the point of soliciting business, you could be top of mind.
• Go and experiment.

Kluskiewicz: Disambiguation

// August 6th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

You might be in the right place. Are you looking for David Kluskiewicz?

If you’re spelling my name phonetically, here are some of the ways you might have spelled it:

Kluskevitch

Kluskevich

Cluskevich

Cluskevitch

Cluskiewicz

Food is Cutting Its Travel Budget

// June 25th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Public Farm One proves that urban landscapes are not completely unfarmable. In fact, with just recycled materials and some solar panels, the Work Architecture Company has created a sustainable farm with 51 varieties of plants. Oh, and it’s in Long Island City (Queens, NY).

The constant rise in food prices is proving that suburban living is unsustainable. With the average piece of food travelling 1,500 miles to get to our plate, alternatives like this are going to sprout up everywhere.

Source: Cool Hunting

Connecticut’s 10 Gigabit Network

// January 10th, 2007 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

What can our state do with unprecedented capacity to transfer data?

Connecticut has one of the world’s fastest fiber optic networks. With speeds of 10 gigabits per second, the Connecticut Education Network boasts upload and download times 1,000 times faster than the average home broadband network. Provided a user’s computer has the processing power, this can provide access to high-resolution media and…. not sure.
The $40 million installation brought capacity to the state, but the plans for utilizing it are still unclear. Access is available only to public education institutions in the state, many of which don’t have the infrastructure to connect to it. To date, no major curriculum initiatives are underway either.
What could we do with our network? A lot. A contest held in 2000 by the National Laboratory for Applied Networks (now defunct) recognized the work of several engineering teams who pushed the 1 Gigabit/sec limit. Their work centered on access to large data sets, especially ones that included high resolution images. Other entrants suggested that very fast networks permitted grid computing, harnessing the power of multiple machines simultaneously to perform extremely complex calculations. Whether these demanding applications would be useful in Connecticut’s public school’s remains to be seen.

Kentucky Launches a Small Business Matching Grant

// January 10th, 2007 // No Comments » // Uncategorized, connecticut innovation

State supported early-stage funding is tough. Even though the payoff could net new jobs (and new income tax revenue) many states find it hard to take the risk. After all, they’re gambling with taxpayer money.

Kentucky has found a good way to mitigate some of this risk and still stay in the game to attract and retain its young innovators. They follow the Fed and assume that if a company qualifies for a Small Business Loan, it won’t burn the state’s cash.
Technology & Innovation – Funding| The Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development

Glastonbury Chamber Intrigued by Blogging

// September 22nd, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

This Wednesday, members of the Glastonbury, CT Chamber of Commerce explored blogging. Yes, even in the land of steady habits, traditional businesses are asking smart questions about new technologies.

In my part of the presentation, I floated the idea that blogs were brands based on behavior. Unlike logos and taglines that evoke a feeling, blogs are a way to differentiate your business based on your behavior – how you react to challenges and opportunities, how insightful your opinions are, and how well you empathize with industry problems. Based on the nodding heads, I think its safe to assume that this resonated.

Blogging is small and medium-sized businesses’ access to branding by action. In Connecticut, where relationships often trump sizzle, there is tremendous potential for blogging to differentiate niche businesses in the global marketplace. Someone in CT might be the next global microbrand.

Visually-Oriented Thinking

// July 12th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Visual decision making is on the rise. A recently debuted application called Mindjet has capitalized on the demand for unstructured brainstorm data. Now, even without a whiteboard, workers everywhere can produce complex pictures of ideas that they are not prepared to explain.
Will imagery and visual presentation enable us to share ideas previously too difficult to simply write and talk about?

Is there a limit to the wisdom of crowds?

// July 4th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Radio Open Source’s debate between Jaren Lanier and David Weinberger makes us aware of the impact of anonymity online. Would the internet be a greater source of information if identity were known? As I see countless social computing applications – digg, del.icio.us, essembly, pandora – the one component that creates a great experience is the knowledge that a real person with an evolving intellect is on the other end. As soon as anonymity plagues a section, the quality of the content begins to decline.

Open Source » Blog Archive » The Limits of Crowds

Treat Every Action as Public

// July 4th, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

In the information age, we need to treat every action as if it were being recorded. To many, this can seem terrifying – the knowledge that anything you say can be turned against you. But, there is a positive side as well. Individuals are once again building up personal histories.

In a recent speech she gave in Hartford, Doris Kearns Goodwin described the way in which Lincoln and his peers wrote detailed letters (some never sent) throughout their lives. The focus required to chronicle thoughts and ideas the way Lincoln did is rare today. We barely have the time to write complete sentences in our emails. But, this trend toward sloppy communication is reversing. Slowly, we are becoming aware that what we do today needs to be structured in such a way that it can be used for a very long-time.