I was instantly taken by the goal of the summit: “engage with like-minded people who are interested in pursuing big goals while changing the world. Speakers and workshop leaders will merge inspirational stories with practical info, showing how they’ve crafted their own adventures and helping you build yours”.

Not until June of next year.  Until then, I’ll have to march forward on my own.

More expected today.

Steven Tedjamulia, the Sr. PM for Vignette Community Applications gives a good tour of the 7.1  product (see the video).  New with this version are idea management, presentation management, and video.   The UI is nice and intuitive for community members to use.

I expect to see more CRM companies jumping into the community space.  Given CRM companies existing product platform and relationships with clients, it makes sense to bundle these together as an integrated offering.

Expect to see more over the weekend.

Conducted by Dr. Arnold Ludwig, the study surveyed “1000 original thinkers in a wide array of professions – art, music, business, science, politics and sports. In his research spanning close to 10 years, he studied these people’s mental fitness, their chosen professions and the relationships between their mental health and career selection” (quote taken from the actual Idea Connection blog post, not Dr Ludwig)

Results from his study (”Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences”) showed that:

• 9 out of 10 poets studied had diagnosable mental disorders (!)
• 77% of fiction writers had mental disorders
• 74% of theater people
• 73% of painters and other visual artists
• 68% of musicians (not sure if there is a difference between classical/jazz vs. rock)

I commented on the blog post.  I pondered not the actual results, albeit I do find them interesting.   What struck me was the “why”?  Why does there seem to be a correlation (at least based upon this one study)?

My theory based upon not one shred of empirical evidence: people with mental illnesses see things (no pun intended) that others do not.  Specifically, these people see connections where many see noise among verse, ideas, patterns, and themes.  Perhaps the mental illness removes filters that allows for these connections to be drawn.  After all, creativity is seldom drawn from obscure hard to access information.  Actually it is quite the opposite.  The raw materials for creativity are often in front of our noses.  It is the catalyst and connections that are seemingly evanescent and hard to pin down.