The Boston Post Road

The Boston Post Road was a system of mail delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into the first major highways in the United States. The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Route 1 along the shore via Providence, Rhode Island), the Upper Post Road (now US 5 and US 20 from New Haven, Connecticut by way of Springfield, Massachusetts), and the Middle Post Road (which diverged from the Upper Road in Hartford, Connecticut and ran northeastward to Boston via Pomfret, Connecticut).

Tomorrow, my two sons and I embark on our first official “road trip” for business. We have 20+ years of family vacations under our belt, but this is not personal. This is “business”. We have meetings all day long on the way to Boston. Rye, New York, Stamford Connecticut, and then a few meetings at www.Quinnipiac.edu. Then, we're off to Boston for a week with MTP vendors and clients. I think we have a few NHL games on the docket as well (Go Devils!). We have our Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot, so we are “in” the office even when on the road (the legal speed limit, right Tommy?) and zipping up the highway. We have our laptops, iPads, iPhones and Bluetooth headsets. If we wanted to, we could host a full-blown webinar from the back of the Navigator, but that would just be showing off.

In some towns, the area near the Boston Post Road has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places since it was often the first road in the area, and some buildings of historical significance were built along it. The Boston Post Road Historic District, including part of the road in Rye, New York, has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The Post Road is also famous for milestones that date back to the 18th century (many of which survive to this day).

At last count, we have 390+ people working at www.MTP-BPO.com and they are located in every corner of the globe. Our current big thing is “distance learning” via www.NYDLA.org and it is my contention that in today's world EVERYTHING is distance learning.  While in Boston, I’ll be hosting a webinar with thousands of people invited to attend (a few hundred should show up). So, I will be virtually attending a virtual meeting (virtually) since I am on the road, and not back in the home office, but how would they know where I was unless they read this blog?

When they were building the Boston Post Road, it was a technological marvel. It changed the country, and it was the model for what can be done. The information superhighway or "infobahn" were popular terms used through the 1990s to refer to digital communication systems and the Internet. 

The Boston Post Road. The Information Superhighway. What’s next?

I’ll be sure to blog next Sunday on the results of the trip - unless we post it on YouTube first. Let's hope we are all still speaking to each other come this time next week. This will be my first time riding in the back seat instead of doing the driving. 

“Jeeves, bring around the long car, we are going to Boston. And don’t disturb me while I am working.”  

Feeling Fluish

If you are thinking about getting the flu shot this year, check this out: www.flu.gov

If you do a Google Search for “Flu” or “Flu Shot” you will find many articles and posts, many more than you would ever need.  But the flu is serious business, especially for young kids or the elderly.

www.Flu.gov is a federal government website managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201

Which means that you and I jointly own the www.flu.gov website - we paid for it. So, since you and I paid for it, you might as well check it out.

I was due for my annual physical and I planned on getting my flu shot this week. Guess what - they are all out. My local physician is all out of flu vaccines and they don’t know when they will be getting in a new supply.  

www.Flu.gov can help. It shows who has the vaccine in stock, driving directions, hours of operation for dozens of locations. It is a wealth of information. And all of this information is free, it is easily accessible, and it can save a life (maybe the lives of your children or your grandparents).

If my local physician was not out of flu vaccine, I would have never Googled “Flu Shot”. I would have never known about this great website that you and I paid for with our tax dollars.

I wonder how many other cool websites are out there that you and I own, that we never knew about?

In The Pink

Meaning: In perfect condition, especially of health.

Origin

The general usage of this phrase has altered somewhat since it first entered the language. We now usually see it with the specific meaning of 'the pink of condition', i.e. in the best possible health. It is to assume an association between 'the pink of condition' as the best that one can hope for.

Full disclosure: I think that I have a man crush on www.DanPink.com  All of his books are great. His Ted.com talk rocks. I have been chasing him to give a keynote for our team and his last email to me on the topic said “One day, Tom.... one day”. Dan has figured out a way to masterfully bridge the virtual and “real” worlds via technology. 

I was going to buy his new book anyway. But if I pre-ordered his book, the promises from the website were too good to ignore:

Anybody who ordered the new book To Sell is Human — hardcover or e-book, from any bookseller — before December 30, 2012, received the following:

1. A free 20-page PDF workbook, based on To Sell is Human, giving you a two-week plan to get better at selling and a head start on those who won’t have the book until January.
2. A free New Year’s Day webinar – with an exclusive look at the ideas, people, and publications that Dan will be watching in 2013 along with a chance to ask Dan questions live.
3. A free customized Field Notes memo book – Dan's favorite notebook of all time, printed in a (very) limited edition batch commemorating publication of the book.
4. A free signed To Sell is Human bookplate.
5. A free audio download of a one-hour special edition of Office Hours (which won’t be available anywhere else) featuring exclusive interviews with Robert Cialdini, author of the classic book, Influence, and Adam Grant, the Wharton professor’s not-yet-published study is one of the biggest pieces of news in To Sell is Human.

All five freebies were cool - but #2 above was amazing. Do you remember your New Year’s day? (...it was only a few days ago).  What were you doing at 1pm EST on 1/1/13? I spent my New Year’s day with Dan Pink. From his home office, he hosted a live webinar. He fielded questions from a worldwide audience of first movers. This was an invite-only event for those people who bought his book before 12/30/12. Me in my home office in New Jersey, Dan in his home office in Washington DC, on a national holiday. It was very cool indeed. It felt like I was attending a virtual book signing.

Dan’s website is well done on many levels.  It is clean, well thought out and easy to navigate. He is an author, and he makes it easy to buy his books. He is a speaker, and he makes it easy to contact him for speaking engagements. His website has an elegant use of video, audio, and social media. His website is a tool - it is a portal to the world of Dan Pink.

OFFICE HOURS  http://www.danpink.com/office-hours

About once a month, Dan opens the phone lines for an hour -- and special guests and Dan take your questions about work, business, life and everything else. Think of it as "Car Talk" . . . for the human engine.  Do this - sign up for Dan’s newsletter. Listen to some of the archived “Office Hours” and tell me what you think. I don’t know of many people that have so successfully bridged the virtual to the real world.

A great number of the people who read my blog have a website (or a blog) of their own. Most have dabbled with Twitter, Facebook and maintain a LinkedIn account. Some folks that are reading this will launch their own eBook this year.

If you are looking for a shining example of what works (including a glimpse into the future of global distance learning), the multi-disciplined world of www.DanPink.com is a good place to start.  

Class dismissed.