Over the last four months, I’ve gone from being focused on the "flipper, flappers" and the "dweebezaarb’s" with technology to a significantly more holistic view of it and, quite frankly, everything else. The quickening of my recent experiences and research has informed my perspective, my thoughts and my direction with technology, and there might be a nugget or two in this post for you too.

You might be like I was just a short time ago… solely focused on the technology and only somewhat on the human spirit, motivations, and the essence of what an offering would deliver. Like me, you’re probably 100% focused on "What’s the value proposition?" or "I’ve got to hone the elevator pitch" thinking that will ensure people will flock to your offering, instead of understanding where the power of what you’re delivering lies and what the ultimate essence is of it. My thinking used to be solely focused on determining if my deliverables only had "X" functionality or "Y" user interface elements or "Z" flipper, flappers…then people would come and it would be successful. If it were only so.

What has happened to me since January is being heads-down on a program entitled "A Better Way to Work and Live" with the guys at Entrevis. I’ve also become a member of Heartland Circle (founded 10 years ago by the former publisher of Utne Reader and his bride) and attended Thought Leader Gatherings and more. Both groups are providing thought leadership, holistic perspectives and worldviews, and what it takes to turn vision into action.

My awareness has been rising exponentially. I’ve learned more about human motivation, the incredibly powerful "search for meaning" that is occurring right now (especially amongst baby boomers), and the cacophony of conversation that is publically exposed in the blogosphere, in forums, on websites, and connected in ways that we’ve never seen before in the short history of the internet.

If you read, go to conferences or engage in meaningful dialogues with people more informed in areas you’re not, you too will understand that major shifts are occurring worldwide in an dizzying array of areas. Awareness of global warming, avian flu pandemic preparedness, geopolitical struggles, internet making "the world flat" and connecting consciousness in new and profound ways, macroeconomic shifts that is driving a new perception of value (open source software is the most easily recognizable example), and much more will surely drive you to reach many of the same conclusions as I have: it’s imperative to understand the whole; how all of this is interconnected and influencing each other; and holistic thinking *must* be a part of your life, career and strategic thinking. It’s even imperative it become part of ideation or creation sessions you have with others.

When I think, for example, of delivering a social Web hub to connect people (like so many others have already done), I look to the big thinkers in many of these areas for data that can inform my thoughts and approaches. What I’m open to and thus finding is stunning. If you want to read more and start to get your head around much of this, here are a few to get you started:

• A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. If you read "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, then read this and understand how higher level, associative and pattern matching thinking skills (connecting the dots) is the next wave of human thinking in the emerging Conceptual Age

• The Divine Right of Capital by Marjorie Kelly. An indictment of our current corporate way of consuming resources at the lowest possible cost and irregardless of the cost to society…in favor of the maximizing of profits.  Not an "oh those companies are evil" type of indictment, but rather a look at the systemic model that encourages this behavior with little or no incentives to behave otherwise

• Presence by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers. This book is a non-New Age view of the importance of holistic thinking. It’s really an awareness builder and a challenge to business leaders around the world to shift their thinking from a myopic view of their business, industry or community and toward a holistic view that everything is interconnected and they have to play a role in solving societal and global problems.

Seek. Ask questions. Think about what informs your life, your work, the products or services you design and deliver, the stuff you spread on your lawn or how much gas you use, and your overall impact with everything to which you’re connected. At the very least, look at the energy and consciousness raising that is going on around you and understand what those with higher consciousness are buying, doing and consuming. It will help you deliver value in new and potentially more profound ways.

Was at a meeting yesterday at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio in San Francisco. When we drove in, I noticed a sign that said, "Internet Archive" by a non-descript, old Presidio base building. It was the HQ of Brewster Kahle‘s Internet Archive (IA).

I was compelled to pay ‘em a visit since I’ve been enamored with this phenomenal project since its inception, and often use the Wayback Machine, various content, or poke around inside Ourmedia.org (housed and managed by the IA). A guy named Tim and I headed over there right after the meeting. A sign on the door said they were open on Friday 1-4pm for drop-in’s (appointments only otherwise) and we turned around to leave. Tim said, "Hey! It’s after 1pm and it’s Friday" so we went inside.

Since everything is stored as bits on servers housed elsewhere, there isn’t much to see. Didn’t matter. As a huge fan of the IA for a very long time, it was simply a delight to be there. Bumped into JD Lasica again (heads up Ourmedia, is an author…more here) and we chatted briefly. Our tour guide Paul gave us a nickel tour and we chatted a bit.

If you’re not aware of IA…you should be. In the future, cultural anthropologists will praise the foresight and vision of Brewster Kahle. Even I am so delighted by the old training films, World’s Fair footage, old auto commercials, and other elements that give even the casual observer a glimpse into culture and times gone by.

This past weekend my bride was out of town and I invested oh, say, 15 hours in voice over internet protocol (VoIP) testing. It wasn’t pretty and I’d like to share my experience with you in case you’re considering Skype or Gizmo for actual telephone usage.

I was a very early adopter of Vonage back in 2001. At that point I liked it and was pretty pleased with the capability (and promise of being able to take my Vonage ATA box with me, connecting it to any high speed connection, and getting my phone calls).

My all-you-can-eat use in North America, for $24.95, is great but it’s another $9.95 per month for the "soft phone" (an application to use your Vonage number from a computer, say, a laptop in a Wifi-enabled coffee shop or hotel room). Rather than do that, I thought I’d join the other 100 million users (alleged on the Skype site) and use "SkypeOut" minutes to call landlines or mobile phones.

I also thought I’d try the Gizmo Project. Why? Skype is a proprietary protocol and Gizmo leverages the Session Initiation Protocol (called "SIP") and there is a huge amount of energy around it…though it’s not nearly as mature as Skype and is light years away from Vonage. I can still see how SIP is gathering steam and I spent hours on forums, reading about it, looking at equipment at VoIP online stores, and realizing that — once quality of service issues are worked out — there’s going to be an explosion of SIP products and services.

Purchasing a $10 SkypeOut credit and the same in Gizmo "Call Out" credits, I went to work testing them. Using my high end Logitech headset or my new $179 Jabra Bluetooth headset (when connecting to my laptop) I called friends and family in a wide variety of configuration setups. I even stopped by CompUSA and bought the SkyTone USB phone, thinking I’d plug it in to my laptop and answer calls from it on the road rather than futzing with headsets.

I tried 3 way calling. Conference calling. Dialing out to mobile phones. Setting up simultaneous ringing. All kinds of things. While the quality on Skype or Gizmo was roughly the same (though Gizmo consistently had echo that my other party could hear), it was never good enough for me to consider using it as my primary phone. Skype-to-Skype or Gizmo-to-Gizmo was fine, but most of the use for me would be calling landlines or mobile phones. For that, it sucked.

What about Vonage? Though their customer support is worse than Qwest (the pinnacle of horrible customer service), I consistently found myself hanging up from SkypeOut or Gizmo CallOut and calling back in to the conference call or the other person. I now realize that I’m sticking with Vonage, their quality of service is on-par with traditional, plain old telephone service, and I may even buy some of their stock post-upcoming-IPO.

When I think about how much effort I put into figuring out if either SkypeOut or Gizmo CallOut were ready for prime-time (they’re not), I realize how incredibly simple Vonage has made VoIP and this is what I’d recommend to anyone considering going with this method of telephony.