Top Ten Links Week 40 – Broadband, Time Management and Productivity

My personal select top ten from the links I shared on Twitter 10/1/2010 through 10/7/2010. The best of the best and/or the most important stuff I tweeted last week

1. broadband is the great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century #broadband – a broadband.gov post from Phoebe Yang – Senior Advisor to the Chairman on Broadband. It’s no great secret how I feel about broadband and the digital divide.

2. Three more folks on the Bloggers@IL2010 list and now WordPress.com and WordPress Self Hosted are tied again.- Going to be at Internet Librarian and blogging your sessions? Let ITI know so you will be on the resource list for those who can’t attend

3. 8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity And Stifle Your Success via @copyblogger @DanielPink

1. Creating and evaluating at the same time
2. The Expert Syndrome
3. Fear of failure
4. Fear of ambiguity
5. Lack of confidence
6. Discouragement from other people
7. Being overwhelmed by information
8. Being trapped by false limits

4. E-rate in a Broadband World – This week, the Commission released the text of an order that modernizes and upgrades the E-rate program to bring fast, affordable Internet access to schools and libraries across the country.

… the Commission conducted a survey which found that almost 80 percent of E-rate recipients believe their current Internet connections are not sufficient to meet their current needs.

To begin to address this gap, the Commission’s order will make it easier for schools and libraries to get the highest speeds for the lowest prices by increasing their options for broadband providers. The key provisions in the order include:

• Allowing participants to use E-rate funds to connect to the Internet in the most cost-effective way possible, including via unused fiber optic lines already in place across the country and through existing state, regional and local networks;
• Making permanent a waiver that allows schools to create “School Spots” by opening up their doors to greater community use of E-rate supported services and facilities. Schools are already taking advantage of the existing waiver allowing them the option to provide Internet access to the local community after regular school hours. We’d love to hear your community use “success story” so please let us know if you are opening your doors as well.
• Launching a pilot program to support off-campus wireless Internet connectivity for portable learning devices;
• Indexing the cap on E-rate funding to inflation so that the program can more fully meet the needs of students and communities;
• Allowing the program to support connections to the dormitories of schools that serve students facing unique challenges, such as Tribal schools or schools for children with physical, cognitive, or behavioral disabilities;
• Bolstering protections against waste, fraud, and abuse by codifying competitive bidding requirements and clarifying restrictions on gifts from potential service providers; and
• Streamlining the E-rate application process.

5. I’m working on this and I’m so busy RT @gretchenrubin: No More Complaining, “I Feel So Tired.” – I’ve learned that saying how busy I am only makes me feel more busy and hurried and doesn’t accomplish anything.  Luckily I don’t often complain that I’m tired but I can apply these same principals to complaining about how busy I am.

6. The real cost of free –  well-written, calm take-down by @doctorow

7. “If you want everyone to have the same mental model of a problem, the fastest way to do it is with a picture.” Great article on why sometimes the best, most clear form of communication is not words.

8. Schedule Your Work to Avoid Choking Your Calendar with Interruptions via @TheLiB @Lifehacker#timemanagement – a must read post on time management and productivity.

In my experience, most people don’t schedule their work. They schedule the interruptions that prevent their work from happening.

9. great tool for those like me who are super sad Google Reader discontinued page change tracking Page2RSS

10. Scientific American: Why Broadband Service in the U.S. is So Awful#KnightComm #broadband

The average U.S. household has to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an Internetconnection that the rest of the industrial world would find mediocre. According to a recent report by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, broadband Internet service in the U.S. is not just slower and more expensive than it is in tech-savvy nations such as South Korea and Japan; the U.S. has fallen behind infrastructure-challenged countries such as Portugal and Italy as well.

11. Gmail Priority Inbox: 5 Tips for Better Productivity #timemanagement – Just when I thought Gmail couldn’t get any better they rolled out Priority InBox. I love it! I get a lot of email and I’m a busy lady. These 5 tips from Mashable will help you conquer your email

1. Prioritize Filters
2. Customize Sections
3. Start With a Clean Slate
4. Use Your “Inbox” for Folders
5. Test Priority with Multiple Inboxes