Communication Bandwidth and Effectiveness

Communication Bandwidth and Effectiveness


I've had some thoughts swirling around my head for a while now -- it's time to get them out.

It is said that 90% of communication is non-verbal in nature.

Let us express the entirety of the message that someone wishes to convey using an arbitrary measurement, such as "units." The higher the communication bandwidth or freqency response, the more message can be communicated at any one time. A purely text- or voice-based communication vehicle (email, instant message, phone call) is unable to convey a message as well as a multi-channel or broadband mechanism such as VTC or face-to-face. In text-based communications, in-band mechansisms to improve encoding the parts of the message that would traditionally be conveyed via alternate channels have grown (versus being explicitly or purposely developed) out of necessity -- emoticons, acronymns (e.g. LOL).
If 100 "units of message" can be conveyed face-to-face in 1 minute, lower bandwidth mechanisms such as email would therefore take more time and effort to convey the same 100 units.  This lack of efficiency and increased work also provides foothold for the introduction of error, resulting in an decreased signal to noise ratio [edited: lower signal, more noise].  Errors in these mechanisms can be considered a miscommunication, which often result in subsequent additional work to correct and realign efforts that were either not started or progressing in a different direction than intended. Over time, habits have been adopted in an attempt to add redundancy to these systems, such as following up an important email with a phone call.
Video teleconferencing with HD video and HD voice is the closest commercially available mechanism to face-to-face high-message-bandwidth communication.  Widespread adoption of HD VTC down to the individual employee level should yield more efficient communications and less rework, and make for fewer face-to-face meetings.  Fewer meetings means less travel time and expense, and a reduced need for conference rooms.  It also improves the cultural acceptance and environment for telework, which again drives down travel expenses and reduces the need for office space.
The implementation of HD video telecommunications to the desktop will be the catalyst responsible for driving more efficiency and cost-savings in the workplace and across our organizations than any other 'single' change.

[edits/additional thoughts]
By "face-to-face" above, I mean in-person meetings. Maybe when my son is my age, "face-to-face" will connotate a physical meeting.

Sweet n' Savory Crepes

Sweet n' Savory Crepes



Filling:
2 cups chicken, cooked & cubed
1 large sweet potato, cubed
1 pkg chicken gravy mix
1 Tbsp curry powder

Other:
Salt (for boiling water)
Brown sugar (topping)

Boiled the sweet potato in some salted water, and after it is tender strain it out, reserving the water. Add the cooked sweet potato, gravy mix, curry powder, and enough water to blender to make a good puree. Taste to make sure you have enough salt/curry.  Pour potato puree back into the pan you cooked the potato in, stir in the cooked chicken, and bring it to a quick boil, adding enough of the reserved water to keep the mixture at the right consistency for filling/topping, then remove from heat.

Make the crepes according to Alton's recipe ( http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/crepes-recipe/index.html ).

Lay out a crepe, top with a couple Tbsp of filling and roll it up (be gentle - crepes are fragile).  Repeat. After you have a few rolled crepes on the plate, put a few more Tbsp of the filling on top, sprinkle a Tbsp of brown sugar on top of that, and torch it to caramelize the sugar.  A broiler might work, but it could burn the crepes too so if you don't have a torch, I'd recommend just sprinkling the sugar on and just letting it melt.

Me, in the Crowd

Scott Adams (Dilbert creator) maintains a pretty funny blog.  His post today got me thinking, so I'm including a link to his post "You in the Crowd."  For those who know me, I'd like you to leave me a comment (anonymous is ok) on here with your three short descriptors of me -- how would you describe me to someone who didn't know me if you were trying to help them locate me in a crowd? (physical & mental/attitude descriptions are ok)

http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/you_in_the_crowd/

Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta Rounds

Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta Rounds

• 4 slices Texas-style toast
• 4 Ramekins (or something else round and bakeable)
• 1 red pepper
• 1 large (or 2 small) chicken breasts (3/4 lb)
• hard goat (or other flavorful) cheese (1 c, finely grated)
• 4 thin slices of tomato
• 1/4 cup basalmic vinegar
• basil leaves (~8-12)
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp flour
• seasoning (salt, pepper)

Roast red pepper (cut in half, deseed/vein, put cut side down on foil on baking pan, cook an hour at 350-400 or until skin blackens, wrap up in it's foil, set aside for 5 minutes or until cool, peel & discard skin)
While the pepper is roasting, marinate the tomatos with the basalmic (I used a small ziplock) -- turn occasionally.
Cook up the chicken.
Chop up the red pepper & chicken and mix in a bowl with some seasoning (you may want to use some olive oil to help it out) until it starts to want to stick together.
Mix in the egg and flour
Use ramekin (or other round) to cut out circles from the toast.
Separate chicken & pepper mixture equally into the ramekins.
Bake the ramekins and toast until the toast is as crispy as desired (but not too soft).

Plate up the bruchetta: put down the toast, top with the chicken & pepper "patty", a slice of marinated tomato, and 1/4 of the cheese. Broil or torch until the cheese is brown, top with basil leaves and serve.

Cranberry Sangria Jam

Cranberry Sangria Jam

• 2 (12 or 16oz) bags of cranberries
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 oranges (zest & juice)
• 1-2 limes (zest & juice)
• Red wine (make sure it's something you'd drink!)
• 1 pouch liquid pectin (optional)

Put the cranberries in a colander, give them a quick rinse and pick out any bad ones or stems.
In a large pot, put the cleaned cranberries.  Zest and juice the fruit into a large measuring device, and add enough wine to make around 2 1/2 cups total liquid.  Dump it into the pot.
Boil for about 6-8 minutes until a lot of the cranberries pop and are soft.  At this point, I decided I wanted more "jam" less whole berry, so I used my stick blender.
I've also been told that the cranberries have a lot of natural pectin and would probably thicken up on their own, but since I added the fruit juice and I wanted it definitely "jam" like, I added a pouch of liquid pectin (Certo) at the end and boiled it for one more minute before putting into jars.

Makes enough to fill seven 1/2 pint jars.