A few months back when the Chicago Bulls announced they hired Vinny Del Negro as their new head coach, many people in Chicago said, “who?” I was not one of them. As someone who grew up in the Springfield, Massachusetts area in the 80’s, it was hard not to hear about his stellar school-boy record and play at NC State under legendary coach Jim Valvano. He then went onto play in the NBA as well in Italy.

The Bulls is Del Negro’s first coaching gig, as his previous non-playing experience in the NBA has been in the front office. Many people panned the team for picking such a green candidate, not to mention one at a young age of 42. What most people don’t realize is that he is not the first person from western Massachusetts who came to Chicago to make a name for themselves. A 21-year old native of Conway, Massachusetts, a few miles from Springfield, came to Chicago in 1856 to try to make it in the business world. His name was Marshall Field. Word is he did pretty well here.

Four years ago I arrived here in Chicago and started Dunkirk Systems, LLC, after several years in Boston after my start in western Massachusetts. Where I don’t have a monumental building on State Street or an NBA coach’s income, I can't complain that business has been great!

Welcome to Chicago Vinny, and good luck! Well, except when the Bulls are playing my Celtics.

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There they are, after the job listings, education and accolades. They are like little merit badges, pinned to the scout’s uniform that is your professional profile. Each one identifies you with something, perhaps something greater than you yourself. But why are they there, and how did they come into being?

With no apologies for the drama, I am referring to LinkedIn Groups. If you are on the business social networking site, you probably are a member of a group or 2. Or many, many more. I too am a member of many, and as well am an owner of one and a manager of another. It’s an interesting tale, one that has evolved, and one I would like to share.

One day I got an email from my friend AJ, inviting me to be a member of the ex-CSC Alumni LinkedIn group. He had just created it and wanted me to be a manager and backup resource for it. I said sure, why not? We both worked for CSC and with him Down Under and me in the States, we should be covered. The role of a manager is to approve or deny membership in the group, and now to moderate discussions. People submit to be in the group, and upon review they are accepted. As anyone can create a group, it is up to them to set the rules for inclusion. As thousands if not more have worked for this global firm, we didn’t surely know all of them and that was the only way to verify people – with honesty.

And the fun began. Originally the only way to learn of a group was for the owner or manager to promote by email, or to see the group icon on someone else’s profile and click it to get to the request page. Today there is a search function on groups. When search went live, we found there were other CSC Alumni groups already, but ours was (and is) the largest. Interestingly, many people requested to join the group who never worked or were affiliated with CSC, or never replied to our request to verify their past employment by adding it to their public profile.

Coming off the success of this group, I decided to create one for former employees of IDX Systems Corporation, a healthcare software company acquired by GE Healthcare a few years ago. This allowed me to go through the group setup process myself. I created an icon for the group (or merit badge as I called them before) and where I did not use the IDX logo I did match its Pantone color. After a couple of days, the group was approved and I contacted a few people to be of the first to join. I also asked a trusted, former colleague at IDX to be a manager on the group. With similar experiences to what I found with the CSC group, the IDX group is close to 500 as of this writing.

Now what? LinkedIn is rolling out additional group features, including the ability to message the group and discussions among group members. So far, these features have been slow to take off. But I like LinkedIn Groups and it has been a great way to reconnect with former colleagues and grow my own network.

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The next likemind will be Friday, October 17, 2008 in dozens of cities around the world.

In Chicago, it will be at Spa Cafe, 112 W. Monroe, between Clark and LaSalle Streets in the Loop. Note this is a new location! The Gallery 37 Cafe closed on us last month without notice, and we needed to find a new location. Spa Cafe is a locally owned place with good coffee, tea and morning goodies, and a good setting for people to gather.

Check out the Spa Cafe Web site for more information, and you can find your way with a Google Map to Spa Cafe here.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al.

No RSVP is required. You are also welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group.

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As a reader of The Hot Iron, you may have read a post or 2 about unlocked phones here. However, my opinion on unlocked phones predates this journal, and was first framed on my honeymoon of all places.

For the sake of a simple definition, an unlocked phone is one that will work on any mobile provider’s network. This is facilitated by inserting a SIM card (see accompanying picture) for the provider into the phone. Where unlocked phones are prevalent in Asia Pacific and Europe, they are fewer and far between in the US. T-Mobile, my mobile provider for example, uses SIMs which can be used in unlocked phones. I own an unlocked Palm Treo 680 and my SIM works in it. When WOM World lent me a Nokia E71 for evaluation prior to Nokia OpenLab, I simply moved my SIM to it and I was on the network.

Back to the story. When my lovely new bride and I went to Australia on our honeymoon, we stayed with our friends AJ and FJ for a few days who were great guides to their homeland. When we got to their home, I took my Motorola StarTac phone (which I miss dearly, but I digress) and joked it would be a paperweight while I was there. AJ told me to get an Australian SIM and the StarTac would work. I explained to him it was a locked phone from Verizon Wireless and there was no SIM slot. He did not believe me and challenged me on it. I pressed my case, then, um, gently tossed my phone (as I recall it) to him and asked him to find it.

A couple of days later, AJ told me he was surprised there was no SIM. He showed me his Nokia phone, which at the time was not available in the US. It had a color display and a Web browser and over dim sum I was able to surf to GoPats.com. It would be 4 years later I would get smart and finally get my first unlocked phone. I have sworn going forward I will only purchase unlocked phones.

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