What is information?
It is the answer to the question asked.

What is a data system?
A system that holds data?

What is an information system?
A system that help you answer the question asked (often using a data system)

So... if information is the answer to the question asked, then what is the question?
A mechanism is needed to help us focus and to ask the right questions. The mechanism should allow us to focus on the things that are important in the organisation.

Does such a mechanism exist?
Yes - Theory of Constraints.

How does the mechanism work?

There are many ways to understand Theology and many definitions. Basically Theology boils down to the idea of God. Using this definition everyone has some form of theology be it Theistic in nature, Atheistic, Secular, Agnostic, or otherwise.

The goal of the course "is not so much to teach good theology, as important as that is, but to teach people to think."

There are several way of looking at Theology:
Irenic Theology:
* Theology that is done peaceably, accurately representing all views, even when you oppose them. (the main way this course looks at theology)
Polemic Theology:

Over the last three months or so, my Church homegroup has been slowly working our way through a series called "The Theology Program" http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=28 which is from Bible.org. The program was suggested to us by one of the members of the Manawatu apologetics society http://manawatu.christian-apologetics.org. The program is a series of videos by two well educated christian men who seek to teach theology is a balanced, realistic way. This series of blog posts outlines the course and some of its basic teachings.

Here are a few links about nutch related things:

1. Install Java
2. Get ant http://ant.apache.org/
3. Get Nutch running with Jetty http://wiki.apache.org/nutch/GettingNutchunningWithJetty
4. Configure Nutch http://peterpuwang.googlepages.com/NutchGuideForDummies.htm
5. Integrate it with your browser http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/searchguide/en-en/default.mspx and http://godbit.com/article/build-a-search-box-for-firefox-2ie7

My thoughts on how to expand your mind (in a good way)
1. Find really clever people, read their material, listen to their talks. Learn to think like they do.
2. Study outside the box. The best breakthroughs come from cross-disciplinary sharing. Learn in one area and apply in another.
2. Stay on the cutting edge.

The sources that are currently shaping my thinking:
* The theology program http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/ttp/home
* Kevin Roberts & Naomi Kelin (marketing and human nature)
* Eliyahu Goldratt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliyahu_M._Goldratt
* TED http://www.ted.com/

Human beings are powered by emotion, not by reason. "The essential differences between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action, while reason leads to conclusions" - Donald Calne.

Primary emotions. These are emotions that can be felt alone. They are very intense and cannot be controled:
* Joy
* Sorrow
* Anger
* Fear
* Surprise
* Disgust

Secondary emotions combine head with heart. These require another person around before they can be worked up:
* Love
* Guilt
* Shame
* Pride
* Envy
* Jealousy

.. and the greatest of these is love ...1 Cor 13:13

I've been reading Kevin Roberts blog recently http://krconnect.blogspot.com (he's the CEO of of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide). He's a very smart man who has learned a lot about marketing/how people tick.
Today I picked up a copy of his book Lovemarks. Over the next week, I plan to blog a few thoughts about it as I read.

To start here a few quotes:
* "Women wear clothes to make them feel good and to feel sexy. Women turn themselves on. Men like to look at women be turned on-to feel sexy is too know you're alive."

Earlier this week I released the FusionCharts drupal module.
http://drupal.org/project/fusioncharts

There are a number of charting modules available for Drupal these days, but in my opinion, this is the best. It has an API that allows charts to be drawn from a SQL query, or from an array of data, or for graphs to be created using a user interface, or from the views module.

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a powerful technique for harnessing the intuition of managers to achieve "The Goal". In Goldratt's book The Goal, which is about production systems, he defines the goal as "To make more money now and in the future".

I've just watched a presentation by Eli Goldratt about the holistic approach to implmenting TOC. Here is a synopsis.

About 2% of all people who read 'the goal' have implemented the Goal even though everyone agrees it is good, and is common sence.