Project Place PM Software and Training

Project Place offers a range of services from webinars, a blog, to PM software.  They offer quite a bit of services and is free for small projects - but also have enterprise opportunities.
I have been looking for an opportunity to use it for a small scale project and try it out. Implementing technology to a project team is always an interesting and challenging circumstance.  You need folks to buy in and use the software.  You can only test out a piece of collaboration software by yourself to a certain extent.  But all software packages have good points and bad, some may be able to work out - sometimes you may need to test other solutions - but care needs to be taken as multiple changes in technology can be even more difficult to manage.

At any rate, I like the information this company provides, I think that helps adoption, and knowing if it is a good fit for your environment in the first place.  Further, even without adoption there is a wealth of knowledge that is useful in terms of PM techniques that are worth exploring.

What Type of Collaborator Are You?

One way to look at how you handle collaboration, along with how those you work with act. Knowing a bit about how other people work can help you navigate interactions.  

Mindjet has a blog that has a number of short, to the point entries that are both fun and useful for getting work done.

Entertainment Design & Technology Blog

Jeromy Hopgood writes a blog called Entertainment Design & Technology. It is fairly new and has limited content, but the posts are interesting. I linked specifically to an entry about doing visual research.

Theatre Terminology

New York Stagehand offers a post about stagehand terminology. It hasn't been updated for a while but has some interesting terms. Further, the initial post is fairly comprehensive - including terms that I haven't heard before.

50/50 estimate

I was taking a look at a new blog, Project Junction, and came across a bit that says that microsoft project assumes that when you estimate time that you estimate that it is a 50/50 chance that it will be correct. The blog goes on to say:

Very few people give you a 50/50 estimate when you ask for a task duration. Unless you train the estimators each person will give you their personal estimate based on his/her risk tolerance. It might be a 90% estimate from Ms. Risk Averse and a 30% estimate from Mr. Everything’s Easy.

I know that you can give the same set of drawings and infromation to multiple people and you will get different answers from everyone, but I am not sure that I think estimating to a 50% chance of meeting a deadline really works in our world where the deadline is less than flexible. This creates the challenge in estimating hours - it is easy to estimate a safe number of hours that will allow you to get the job done. And if you are held to the hours that are estimated, the hours will naturally lean towards less risk. It is hard to estimate tightly - where there is enough hours to complete, but the hours must be efficient and effective.

Thoughts?

Square Clamps

Finding ways to clamp onto pipe provides lots of options: kee klamps, speed rail, lighting c-clamps or mega clamps, or even leg sockets for platforms.

Berge Equipment offers several styles of clamps for square tube (1.5"), including a flange. Most of the clamps connect a pipe or tube to a square tube for railings.

The light Source has clamps for 2" box that are similar to cheese boroughs.

Palay Display carries a clamp that allows you to insert a 5/8" threaded rod on the top for construction specialty racks.

Wagner offers square tube flanges and flange covers.

For casters, Service Caster has square sockets for stem casters.

And for capping the tubes look to alliance plastics.

NRG Researchoffers a clamp that is reminiscent of a beam clamp. Once again you are limited to a 5/8 stud or receptacle for hanging from the clamp.

Also check out J W Winco for more options and their blog. The blog, by the way is actually very informative and fun - definitely worth a read.

Shape Products has a variety of square tube components (curved pieces, corners, flanges)

And for splicing two tubes together take a look at wagner.

For legs, the Leg-a-Matic II can be used with either 2" square or 1 1/2" sched. 40 pipe.

I suspect that the options are greater for round tube / pipe because it is more difficult to weld since you have to shape the round tube to match correctly (though this this is easier with the correct tools, or you can purchase shaped connectors to weld on).

ISquint @ USITT

isquint is another source of good information about the conference in Kansas City. It is written by Justin Lang, and he covers alot of ground, particularrly about new technology.

Rosebrand Blog

Rosebrand has started a blog called Know How. Started just a few days ago, but it looks promising:

The objectives of our blog are to inform, educate and entertain those who are members, or followers, of our industry. We'll be posting "how to" information, design & production tips, amusing project stories and news items.

Take a look!

In-House Production

Today I was doing a little work involving mounting an I-beam & Trolley to truss, and was doing some looking around for hardware and came across this site. In-House Production has a few training videos, a blog and some other information about rigging that is worth a look.

Blogs of Note

A blog at PraxisTheatre.com asked 10 questions to Gordon P. Firemark:
http://praxistheatre.blogspot.com/2008/09/10-questions-gordon-p-firemark.html

(It also asked 10 questions to a variety of other people as well)

Gordon has a blog of his own at:
http://theatrelawyer.com/

I think the blog entry is interesting for several reasons. First, I think we often need to ask those questions of ourselves. What is going on - what is current, what is important. You can easily get sucked down the path of day to day living that it can be hard to see the forest because of the trees. Secondly, because theatre law is an area that is very gray.

You should also check out Andrew Larimer's answers relating to how Hurricane Katrina affected theatre in New Orleans.
http://praxistheatre.blogspot.com/2008/08/10-questions-andrew-larimer.html

Tutorial Websites

I have been reading the "Dumb Little Man" blog lately, and it has a variety of information. Most is off topic for here, but I thought this particular blog was relevant:
http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/07/15-awesome-tutorial-websites-you.html

The blog lists a variety of Internet sites that have tutorials. I have mentioned many here including How Stuff Works and Instructables. The blog adds to that list, including some sites that are useful for computer and software help.

Speaking of Carpentry Blogs

Evenfall Woodworks is another interesting blog regarding carpentry. The link below will take you to an entry regarding the "foibles of tape measures", which isn't a bad thing to be reminded of!

http://www.evenfallstudios.com/woodworks/2008/08/19/the-foibles-of-tape-measures/#more-88

Blog of the day

Looking for something new and interesting regarding whats current in the world of carpentry I came across this blog:
http://www.robertkarl.org/woodworkingblog/

Given my like of historical building techniques I particularly like the blogs about the roman tools. Also there are tons of photos that illustrate the steps he took when he was building something - like the feather boards that he details.

I hope you check it out!

Book List for Designers

http://www.designsojourn.com/30-essential-books-for-industrial-designers/

The above link talks about what books industrial designers should read or have. While not every book on the list is applicable to theatre, I think there are definitely some that would be good reads, and helpful.