The (not so) Daily Chris

For four years now, GlobalSpec, Inc., (the parent company of CR4) has honored the achievements of unsung engineers whose work has helped to change or improve the world we live in. It was in this spirit that the Fourth Annual GlobalSpec Great Moments in Engineering Award was presented to a team of engineers from General Motors in recognition of the 35^th anniversary of the development of the catalytic converter for automobile use. This was in essence, the first "green" automotive initiative.

While the catalytic converter was not new, the GM design team lead by Richard Klimish, Ph.D, designed a converter that could survive in the harsh environment of the automotive undercarriage. This was no small feat. The converter had to handle a wide range of flows, temperature conditions and environment issues (snow, sleet, frost). Couple this with limited placement options, the need to operate optimally for at least 50,000 miles, and maintain low cost, and you have a true design challenge.

One of the key challenges involved the packaging of the converter, which required welding high chromium steel and aluminum together. Another challenge, getting the proper platinum/palladium mixture was solved in a unique fashion. Platinum ore deposits are usually mixed with palladium, and the composition percentage varies from mine to mine. GM contracted with a mine in South Africa to produce a given amount of platinum/palladium per year and as such, designed the specs of the converter to match the composition of the ore from the mine. This was cheaper than smelting the individual elements and recombining them at x percentage.

The GM engineering team noted the high level of support provided by Robert Stemple and GM Chairman Ed Cole as a leading reason for the project's success. They forced one design across all of GM's imprints and smoothed the away the cross departmental politics that are often tougher to solve than the engineering challenges.

Attending his fourth GlobalSpec Great Moments in Engineering Award ceremony was Tom Brownell, Senior Vice President, Production & Engineering at GlobalSpec and one of the company's founders. He had the following to say of the rationale behind the award: "Engineers don't always get recognized for their feats, but they don't do them for the recognition. They do them for the challenge. That's why they're engineers."

Past recipients of the GlobalSpec Great Moments in Engineering Award include:

• 2007 award winner - DynaTAC Engineering Team from Motorola
• 2006 award winner - Jason Jr. Engineering Team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• 2005 award winner - NASA's Crew Systems Division (1970)

If you even mildly follow the business of "Internet Business", then I'm sure you're aware that the hottest trend is the rise of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Gather and even professional connection sites like LinkedIn. For the uninitiated, social and professional networks put the premium on interpersonal relationships – finding actual friends or professional contacts, acknowledging them as such, and fostering direct involvement at the personal level. Networking isn't new – the key sites have all been around for years, but it has become the place where astute advertisers are putting their money. And every time you turn around someone else is touting their new network – be it the New York Times (TimesPeople) or the fictional Dunder Mifflin Infinity site from TV's "The Office."

The latest trend in networking is the growth of the professional vertical networks (or ProNets) that are focused on a specific job type or industry. For example, Research Scientists have Labmeeting, CIOzone is available for IT Managers, INmobile for Wireless Industry Executives, and Reuters Space for Financial Fund Managers (it must be fun to be a part of that network right now). These networks aren't trying to compete with the Facebooks or LinkedIns of the world. Instead they are looking to fill the specific informational needs of their industries. In their worldview, professionals can be members of two or more networks, one for everybody they know and one to focus on their professional needs.

While social networking sites continually attempt to increase the size of their networks, ProNets are aware of their niche presentation. Some sites, like SERMO for physicians, seek a high level of exclusivity in their membership. If they can't verify your credentials as an MD or DO and your place of employment, you can't get in.

In the interest of complete disclosure, GlobalSpec, the parent of company of CR4 is seriously investigating the development of a ProNet for Engineers. I'm curious about your thoughts on such a network. As of this moment, there isn't a ProNet for "us." Our very own social media site CR4 does contain some aspects of one, but it differs in very specific ways. CR4 is a community site designed for users to exchange ideas, retrieve answers to important questions and keep track of industry trends. While members may find and communicate with each other via their posts or by joining an affinity user group, meaningful individual connection is not as important as the exchange of ideas.

So:

1. What would you expect to find in a professional network aimed at engineers?
2. What specific tools and technologies would be of greatest importance?
3. How would you expect such a site to differ from CR4?

So what exactly do Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer have sitting on ice in Palo Alto, CA? According to them, the 7 foot, 7 inch, 500 lb "ape-man" carcase that they've frozen is the Bigfoot of legend. Today, in conjunction with a group called Searching for Bigfoot Inc (hmm, the picture links on the homepage are broken, that seems strange...), the two gentlemen will release the evidence they've collected and make DNA samples available to a molecular biologist, an anthropologist and a paleontologist.

Well, if you happen to be in Palo Alto today, and are a credentialed member of the press, drop by the Cabana Hotel-Palo Alto between noon and 2 where they'll unveil their evidence. And if you do, let us know what they've got...

I received an email this morning about a computer game called Time Engineers; designed to teach pre-college students fundamental engineering concepts as part of the game play. The game takes the player from Ancient Egypt, to Medieval Europe, through World War II, wherein the player must learn concepts like boolean equations, force, vectors, friction, flow, velocity, etc., to complete tasks.

I have not played the game, so I can't provide specific details, but I did check out the demo and it seems to carry the weight. If you have a kid with interest in these topics it might be worth checking out. Note: it is a "for sale" game.

Is anyone familiar with this game, or others that could be used to help educate our kids about engineering concepts?

This is one of the most common questions asked of me about CR4; asked only slightly less than "What does the name CR4 mean?" The latest request about this came in on Saturday. So, I'll take this opportunity to "officially" answer both questions as well as specific ones asked in the post. Keep in mind this goes back nearly four years so some of my reminiscences may seem rosier then they really were.

CR4 as a concept dates back to about October of 2004. GlobalSpec, Inc., the parent company of CR4 was receiving lots of questions from its users about technical questions related to engineering projects, theories, concepts, ideas….stuff like "how do I build a robot for Battlebots" and the like. In fact, many of the early challenge questions come from users searching for answers. While many of these questions were outside of the realm of our business mission, they were fun to answer and it felt great to help our users. Unfortunately, the more you answer such questions, the more that you receive – and there are only so many hours in the day to get your work done; and worse, sometimes even with all our experience, we just didn't know.

At this point, a number of us came to the conclusion that as a group, our GlobalSpec user body had infinitely greater experiences than our team. "So is there a way to tap into this knowledge base?" A few of us were involved with entertainment or hobby/affinity online communities and we thought, "Hey that just might work."

With a growing work load, time was of the essence, so we tested a number of software platforms looking for a good mix of forums, social networking tools and blogging in hopes of launching something quickly. We settled on open source software called Slash, which is a low powered version of the software that runs the site Slashdot and began testing it in-house in December of 2004.

By late March, we felt we had worked enough bugs out of the system for it to go live, but we still needed a name. Now, if any of you have tried to name something in late Web 2.0 world, you know that just about everything that means anything is taken/copyrighted. Don't believe me; check out this quiz: Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character.

Anyway, we spent a number of days trying to come up with a name to embody the site that we envisioned. Our original concept was a relaxed place where you could be part of the action or just watch the world go by. Sort of like a Starbucks, but less caffeinated. One night, after bouncing this around a bit and getting a bit punchy as it was getting late, we started thinking about other places that us "corporate types" hang out and chat. The lunchroom in front of the water cooler, the corner office…. This lead to such creative names as "The Engineering Water Cooler" and "Engineers Corner" (I think that's where Pooh and Eeyore went to build things).

Eventually, the conversation turned to meeting rooms from jobs that we'd worked previously. Quickly, we had the mythology of the room with the plush chairs, furthest away from the bosses office…you know the one…where there's always a box of donuts, where your buddies can always be found discussing obscure concepts like how to make a ship out of ice. So we settled on the "Conference Room" idea. But you can't just call it "Conference Room" its got to be something Conference Room or Conference Room something. Well, how about a number:

Conference Room 1 – "No, it sounds like we're trying too hard."

Conference Room 2 – "Why would we want to be two – one is better"

Conference Room 3 – "No that's worse than two."

Conference Room 4 – "Yeah, that works."

Unfortunately, Conference Room 4 (along with almost all the low number conference room ideas) was already trademarked. So we abbreviated it to CR4. Why? It's mysterious (as I said it's the #1 question asked of me) and it's vaguely technical and cool.

I'm getting very long winded here, so I'll continue tomorrow with the launch of the site and its growth over time.

Also, while I have your attention, if you are interested in online communities and how your company can use Web 2.0 techniques to improve your relations with your customers, I urge you to attend Community 2.0 2008. It's in May (12-15), it's in Las Vegas, and I'll be presenting my paper You Won't Be Myspace: How to Manage the Expectations of Your Executive Board While Creating the Most Practical Community for Your Company. More on that later in the week….