Researching Web 2.0 concepts and ways of collaborating; some interesting links, hopefully I will get to refine this post.
How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom And Power to Construct the Future
Excellent treatise addressing the problems of interpersonal communication, group collaboration, and the limits of "participative democracy." Most interestingly, the author presents a language-based system (the Structured Design Process, or SDP) for resolving complex problems as a group.
In leading technical teams for various enterprises over the years, I've often thought that one of the single largest barriers was the lack of a set of clear conceptual models: so many issues are caused simply by the fact that people are on different pages. It's why we have the fields of law and mathematics (among others of course), each of which works to express concepts in a concise, well-understood formulation (the "language" of the field).
A few excerpts:
"As human evolution is experiencing the complex challenges of the Information Age, humanity cannot take responsibility for guiding its evolution without the capacity to surface the will and wisdom of the people by engaging them in meaningful dialogue in the context of the emerging Agoras (meeting spaces) of the 21st century Global Village."
"Participative dialogue is the essence of democratic design. Its origin in the Agora of Athens is the iconic forerunner of the Structured Design Process (SDP). SDP is a designing process that updates participative democracy so that it can function in the agoras of the Information Age.
"Governments, corporations, and other groups have failed to master the participative democracy and interdisciplinary dialogue that they espouse. This failure trumpets the need for an effective structured dialogue process that will enable stakeholders to design their futures. The largely unstructured dialogue in the Greek agoras was a wonder for its time, but it had great weaknesses. When we try to guide our Information Age organizations with the same unstructured dialogue, those weaknesses increase exponentially."
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Friday, December 05, 2008
Maintaining a Fine Cherry Countertop
We installed a fine Brazilian cherry countertop on the kitchen island as part of a major kitchen remodelling in 2005. When properly maintained, the cherrywood has beautiful, deep warm glow to it; but over time this glow had faded a bit. The countertop is supposed to be cleaned and recoated monthly with a quality tung oil finish, but the vicissitudes of a hectic life with two kids have pushed this off for over six months.
Usually I just clean the counter with hot soapy water, dry it well, then rag on the a Waterlox sealer. But I thought it needed a fine-grit sanding to remove all the (admittedly minor) scratches and restore the like-new glow. I was definitely worried about putting sandpaper to this fine surface, so I Googled the web for things like sealer countertop oil sand grit fine waterlox.
After putting the kids to bed, I took the plunge.
Update 12/09/2008 (four days later): after three coats of finish, the cherry wood now has a beautiful shimmery depth, almost like a semi-liquid pool. (It actually looked pretty fantastic after the second coat.) The wood is positively glowing -- I will post pics when I can -- see album links below.
Details: After all my research on grit, technique, etc., I started by thoroughly cleaning the countertop with warm soapy water and a sponge, using a mild abrasive pad as necessary to remove anything that wasn't coming off easily. I dried the wood, then sanded it carefully with a rubber block and 240-grit paper, making sure to keep downpressure light and even, and stopping frequently to knock clumped-up dust off the sandpaper surface. While I light-sanded the entire surface, I tried to identify visible scratches and evenly take the countertop surface down enough to sand them out. When I was done, I used a tack cloth to remove most of the dust, then executed final cleanup & surface prep with odorless mineral spirits.
I then put on three coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish, letting each dry overnight (the can said 6 hours). I ran the kitchen island fan on low to vent the minor fumes. I made sure to put each coat of Waterlox on a little heavy -- a little more than just coating the surface. I put enough on to ensure coverage without pooling. I used a single sheet of Bounty paper towel, folded a couple times, as the applicator: a rag soaks up too much of the sealer.
Between each coat, I used a fine steel wool (#00 or #000) to lightly sand down the entire surface, removing slight imperfections (swirls, bubbles, or hair!), resulting in a glassy smoothness. Even strange little discolorations in one area I sanded all but disappeared with the application of the sealer.
Conclusion: I was cautious about putting sandpaper to a cherry countertop that cost almost as much as my wife's car, but the results looked stunning. Total time invested over three days: about 5-6 hours.
Links
See the counter I'm talking about in my Picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/KeithBluestone/CountertopRefinishing
More links from my searches here: http://delicious.com/KeithBluestone/waterlox
We chose Craft-Art (in Atlanta) to supply the countertop (link). For the Waterlox, rather than try to run around & find it in a store, I actually just clicked it up from Amazon:
Research
This was one of the more helpful articles, from the Environmental Home Store who appear to be fine hardwood installers (http://www.environmentalhomestore.com/pdfs/totally_bamboo%20installation.pdf):
[After surface prep] you are now ready to apply your choice of sealer. Select any of the great finishes currently available... We do not recommend any water based finishes, as they tend dilute the natural colors and appearance of depth; nor do we recommend plain mineral oil or chopping block oil as they tend to dissipate quickly and require weekly re-oiling. We highly recommend Waterlox (www.waterlox.com) a tung oil/resin finish. This is very easy to apply with a brush or rag. It is best to apply two or three coats of the sealer and two or three coats of the topcoat. The top coat is available in gloss or matte finish. One of the best features of this finish is the easy upkeep, simply recoat every three years, or as needed. Follow the instructions on the can for best results.
Also: http://www.signaturecustomwoodworking.com/waterlox-tung-oil.html
Usually I just clean the counter with hot soapy water, dry it well, then rag on the a Waterlox sealer. But I thought it needed a fine-grit sanding to remove all the (admittedly minor) scratches and restore the like-new glow. I was definitely worried about putting sandpaper to this fine surface, so I Googled the web for things like sealer countertop oil sand grit fine waterlox.
After putting the kids to bed, I took the plunge.
Update 12/09/2008 (four days later): after three coats of finish, the cherry wood now has a beautiful shimmery depth, almost like a semi-liquid pool. (It actually looked pretty fantastic after the second coat.) The wood is positively glowing -- I will post pics when I can -- see album links below.
Details: After all my research on grit, technique, etc., I started by thoroughly cleaning the countertop with warm soapy water and a sponge, using a mild abrasive pad as necessary to remove anything that wasn't coming off easily. I dried the wood, then sanded it carefully with a rubber block and 240-grit paper, making sure to keep downpressure light and even, and stopping frequently to knock clumped-up dust off the sandpaper surface. While I light-sanded the entire surface, I tried to identify visible scratches and evenly take the countertop surface down enough to sand them out. When I was done, I used a tack cloth to remove most of the dust, then executed final cleanup & surface prep with odorless mineral spirits.
I then put on three coats of Waterlox Original Sealer/Finish, letting each dry overnight (the can said 6 hours). I ran the kitchen island fan on low to vent the minor fumes. I made sure to put each coat of Waterlox on a little heavy -- a little more than just coating the surface. I put enough on to ensure coverage without pooling. I used a single sheet of Bounty paper towel, folded a couple times, as the applicator: a rag soaks up too much of the sealer.
Between each coat, I used a fine steel wool (#00 or #000) to lightly sand down the entire surface, removing slight imperfections (swirls, bubbles, or hair!), resulting in a glassy smoothness. Even strange little discolorations in one area I sanded all but disappeared with the application of the sealer.
Conclusion: I was cautious about putting sandpaper to a cherry countertop that cost almost as much as my wife's car, but the results looked stunning. Total time invested over three days: about 5-6 hours.
Links
See the counter I'm talking about in my Picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/KeithBluestone/CountertopRefinishing
More links from my searches here: http://delicious.com/KeithBluestone/waterlox
We chose Craft-Art (in Atlanta) to supply the countertop (link). For the Waterlox, rather than try to run around & find it in a store, I actually just clicked it up from Amazon:
Research
This was one of the more helpful articles, from the Environmental Home Store who appear to be fine hardwood installers (http://www.environmentalhomestore.com/pdfs/totally_bamboo%20installation.pdf):
[After surface prep] you are now ready to apply your choice of sealer. Select any of the great finishes currently available... We do not recommend any water based finishes, as they tend dilute the natural colors and appearance of depth; nor do we recommend plain mineral oil or chopping block oil as they tend to dissipate quickly and require weekly re-oiling. We highly recommend Waterlox (www.waterlox.com) a tung oil/resin finish. This is very easy to apply with a brush or rag. It is best to apply two or three coats of the sealer and two or three coats of the topcoat. The top coat is available in gloss or matte finish. One of the best features of this finish is the easy upkeep, simply recoat every three years, or as needed. Follow the instructions on the can for best results.
Also: http://www.signaturecustomwoodworking.com/waterlox-tung-oil.html
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