MetaFilter posts tagged with organization

organizing without organizations

gen — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:38:12 -0800

Clay Shirky, professor at ITP - NYU, often linked to at MeFi, presents at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society on the ideas in his new book on organizing without organizations. Shirky blogs about his book and the coverage that it's getting.

The head of a small company may still choose to be a tyrant; a large organization is compelled by its structure to be one

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:25:52 -0800

In an artificial world, only extremists live naturally. Or: You weren't meant to have a boss. On the other hand, maybe you are.

Turn Your Bookshelves into Art

thebellafonte — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:31:41 -0800

Brilliant bookshelves by color. What's that? You can't find The Scarlet Letter? Did you look under lipstick red? Colourlovers is a design blog where color-crazies go to peruse palettes, make their own swatches, and find color combination inspiration. The site also features posting capabilities (not unlike MetaFilter) where members can bring the brightest and latest to the attention of their colorful constituents (like this chess set.) If you're as into color and organization as me, you probably let out a hefty sigh after seeing the shots of these shelves. It's beautiful but it's also... comforting. Like the way a Germaphobe must feel after opening a pantry full of perfectly-lined spray bottles, rolls of paper towels, and rubber gloves. Or maybe your first thought was "is this practical?" Or "my books aren't that colorful." As some of the pictures show, this organizational structure allows one to station a book by any present color, whether it's the predominant color of the cover, the text of the title on the spine, or even the little red house emblem of the publisher. Hues allow for much flexibility and even whites are varied, some having a hint of green to them, some a whisper of yellow. There doesn't have to be a white section; these frosty shades can slide seamlessly in and out of the regular rainbow. And if you do judge a book by its cover, this could be an even more efficient method of cataloging than alphabetical.

A Pile of Index Cards

chunking express — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:09:34 -0800

A Pile of Index Cards. A somewhat byzantine way to organize your life using index cards.

100 great tips to improve your life

Floydd — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:39:02 -0800

Find inner serenity by making it easier to find your keys. Become an early riser. Create a "Landing Strip" to become more organized. All these and more at 100 Great Tips to Improve Your Life.

Psychopathology of the Boss

shivohum — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 22:17:58 -0800

Boss Science: The Psychopathology of the modern American corporate leader. The personality which wins the promotion game has dubious overlap with characteristics of effective leadership. Many organizational psychologists argue that the "emergent" boss is often a narcissist who, because he "manages to act like he already is the boss," is "socially skilled at adjusting his personality," and is charismatic, rises and entrenches himself to the detriment of the organization. Some, though, "extol[] the virtues of the narcissist’s selfishness, ethical blindness, and lack of empathy as indispensable to being an agent of change in a large corporation—or the world."

To Write Love On Her Arms

allkindsoftime — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:09:55 -0800

To Write Love On Her Arms is a story and the response to a story. I first saw the shirt on Switchfoot's Jon Foreman and thought "Hey that's a cool shirt." Months later I saw an ad and went to look them up. That's when I found the story. As their MySpace page points out, they are not a 24-hour helpline, nor are they trained professionals, but they do "hope to serve as a bridge to help." Its a small organization right now, using a unique method of achieving recognition and exposure, but it is an important "movement of love, a commitment to begin answering these needs and offering hope to the many who struggle with depression, addiction, suicide, self injury." (from the FAQ)

I, For One, Welcome Our New DIY Overlords

rossination — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:45:16 -0800

D*I*Y Planner : Tired of all those pricey organizers of dubious usefulness being sold by overpriced retailers? Why not roll your own with Douglas Johnson's DIY Planner?

File it, pile it.

marvin — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:00:49 -0800

BumpTop is based on the long standing idea of piles as a desktop use metaphor, this seems to bring it to life at last. Will this sort out your desktop?

Design Your Life

OmieWise — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 05:13:55 -0800

Design your life. Design as a way to think about life.

A Wiki-Organizer

BuddhaInABucket — Thu, 12 May 2005 21:01:35 -0800

TiddlyWiki A wiki-style personal organizer, perfect for the obsessively organized. (via lifehacker)

Creating an organizational system

ColdChef — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 18:14:24 -0800

How do you make a “trusted system”? A planning and organisational system which can be relied upon to contain your events, tasks, projects and thoughts?... One of the biggest obstacles for many people is how to create a system that is always there, at the ready, and worthy of your trust.

Faceted hierarchy as killer app

fatllama — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 17:26:48 -0800

Recently we've all been thinking about flat (or better, faceted) hier archy web apps that organize email, photos, bookmarks, and general knowledge. The common threads are metadata (tags, categories, labels) that enrich relationships within and hence searchability of large collections. But besides marketroid hype (buzzwords, snark) and a computer that plays Twenty Questions what else can we do and study using faceted data structures: searchable culture references in The Simpsons, library science, computer filesystems, A.I. development, models for human memory and cognition?

Unionized Clergy?!

Coop — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 14:07:49 -0800

Unionized Clergy?! Some members of the clergy with the United Church of Canada are looking to unionize over four thousand pastors across the country. Their compliant, bad working conditions and sweatshop wages. Bad working conditions? Give me a break. via

Snake in the Grass?

Ignatius J. Reilly — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:05:30 -0800

Rally the Real Grassroots? Many Americans look to the Dean Campaign and MoveOn.org as a new kind of grassroots politics, but is there model really that unique? The Chrsitian Coalition has been organizing along similiar lines without the internet for years, and now the Bush Campaign is throwing their hat in the grassroots ring after sending out this e-mail: [text inside]

XQUZYPHYR — Thu, 17 Oct 2002 12:03:00 -0800

The National Organization to Shoot Bill O'Reilly Into the Sun. Complete with mission statements, fundraising information (they've raised $145 so far out of two billion dollars,) and vital related links to pages about O'Reilly, Jesse Jackson, and Squirrel sex (not all at once, though.)

adrianhon — Wed, 28 Nov 2001 08:36:10 -0800

"The Web, left to its own devices, would be the exact opposite of that: It's like a giant city with no neighborhoods; it needs these kind of meta-filters, these second-level kind of things, whether it is Yahoo or Google or Slashdot, to rein in that chaos and turn it to something more organized." From the second page of an interview with the author of Emergence, Steven Johnson (also co-founder of Feed).