Bruce Tognazzini, rather well known UI designer, say it is time UI designers got some respect.  In his It's Time We Got Respect article, he starts off rightly so with proper branding of the profession.  He suggests unifying 'soft' titles into one powerful and memorable name: Interaction Architect.  Sounds about right and the name is good too.

I am all for this except there are those like me who are more than just a Interaction Architect, a hybrid of various talents.  My background domains are Game, System Software, Desktop Application, Developer Tools, Web Application, Wireless Applications and GUI.  My roles are Architect, Leader, Designer, Manager, Prototyper, Implementor, and Entertainer.

I am clueless as to what my title should be.  Swiss Army Knife seems appropriate but doesn't reflect the focus and passion that powers me.  Not having a good name for one's profession can be very frustrating.  Not only that, my ambiguous role often cause confusion and turmoil in companies large enough to have political atmosphere.

Heck, it also confuses me enough to pause whenever someone asks me what my profession is.  In the past three years, I have been occasionally using:

I am a Rainmaker.  I do anything and everything, including moving mountains with chopsticks, to make it rain.

I am sorry if I danced on your back in the frenzy…

I got tired of my picture, so I took a new one.  No glasses this time but with a four day old beard.  My hair is so thick and thorny that wife can't kiss me and my son has learned to avoid me when I have beard on my face.  A good way to torment people I love.

I wish I could grow a full beard instead of four islands of hair.  My father had full beard when he was in highschool and I was told that my grandfather was practically covered with hair, chest and all.  So the hairy gene weakened over three generations to a point where all I can muster is a distraught accountant look.

What is really unfair is that the baldy gene hasn't weakened at all.  According to my father, the gene will fire when I am about 50.  Great.  I got less than ten years to go.  I hope they come up with the antidote before then.

Everyone needs rich clients, everyone except the rich clients themselves.  As for me, I don't care whether they are thin or not.

When I look at www.gotdotnet.com and www.asp.net sites, I can't help wondering why Microsoft chose to stop there.  It would have been far more interesting to let developers run and showcase live ASP.NET applications instead of just having workspaces and downloadable files.  If ASP.NET ISPs can do it, Microsoft can do it too and it won't cost them much either.  Scoble should do it for Longhorn as well to demostrate the remote WinForms applications written specifically for Longhorn.

This well written post was not what I needed to read this morning, but I recommend it nonetheless.  Mornings are for solutions, not problems.

Update #1: Shelly finished the four part series article on permalinks.  They are rather verbose and poetic so I haven't read rest of the series yet.  Anyway, they are here.

I just got my invitation to BloggerCon 2003, hosted by amazing "Dave".  Although I can't make it to the conference due to previous engagements, here are some juicy bits about the conference to entice you to go:

• Time is October 4.  Place is Harvard Law School.

• It's a one-day Saturday conference, with an all-day open house on Sunday for impromptu meetings and discussions about anything you want to talk about.

• This is a user's conference. Technology is important, but at this conference the people who make the products are here to listen, to learn how people use the software, and to learn how we can improve it. This guarantees that something will actually get done here. It's an important role-reversal.

• Presenters include Glenn Reynolds, Joshua Marshall, Doc Searls, Scott Rosenberg, Adam Curry, Elizabeth Spiers, Jim Moore, Susan Mernit and more. Moderators: Lance Knobel, Ed Cone, Christopher Lydon and myself. And new discoveries, people we hadn't heard about until we set out to find the most interesting and eclectic blogs and bloggers.

• We're going to talk about how weblogs are used in politics, business, journalism, the law, medicine, engineering and education.

• We're going to have a lively discussion including Web Energy and lots of philosophy, great art and technology and lots of ideas.

• Our local host committee of Boston-based bloggers includes Cluetrain author David Weinberger, InfoWorld's Jon Udell, author Halley Suitt, MIT's Andrew Grumet and Tracey Adams, Harvard librarian Jessica Baumgart and Larry Bouthillier from Harvard Business School. They're here to make sure you find what you're looking for at Harvard and in the Boston area. If you have ideas for speakers, or people we should invite, please let any of us know, including the local hosts.

• Anyway, it's time to say that seating is very limited, so if you want to come, please sign up right away. The cost for this incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience is a mere $500, and if you're a student (please provide a photocopy of your ID) it's only $250. Harvard affiliates also qualify for the discount (Harvard ID, or harvard.edu mail address). We're using the money (where needed) to get the talent in and out of the city, and to put on a few great parties so we can all mingle, share ideas, and learn a lot.

You can reserve your space, right now, at this URL:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/apps/bloggercon

Looks like it's going to be a great party of a conference.

I have been thinking about changing my career.  Software consulting is not exactly hopping these days and, while I am able to make a living, there is no bright future to look forward to.  So I am considering following options:

1. Startup – pick an idea and raise it like a child.
2. Software Investing – build software for startups in return for equity.
3. Idea Investing – provide ideas to companies in return for equity and/or percentage of revenue generated from the idea.

#1 is the most difficult for me because I am practically drowning in ideas everyday, each one as alluring as supermodels.

I have done #2 before, made money on one out of three.  Not a bad odd and I get to play around more often than #1.

#3 is what interests me the most at the moment.  Companies often stagnate and can't think outside the box.  There is no big opportunities in teaching people how to think differently, but companies can use great ideas.

So I spend a few days with company executives, analyze their business, and come up with ideas and solutions.  If I don't come up with anything they find valuable, it's a wash for me and cost the client no more than my travel expenses.  If I do, equity, royalty, or consulting fee follows.  It is a long term investment in my part, investing ideas instead of capital.

If nothing works, I can get a job as an evangelist. <g>

One interesting use of mobphones, programmable cellphones a equipped with digital camera, is faxing.  Just snap a picture of a document and enter a FAX phone number.  Voila, a fax is sent!  I have no idea if anyone has done this already, but it makes perfect sense.

Ideas are like Lego blocks.  The hard part is distilling composite ideas into their component blocks.  Rest is not only easy, but fun.