You may have heard of William Brown, a Claris Networks employee who gave up riding in cars and grew a very suspicious beard. The following is the true story behind Brown’s undertaking, and will appear in the Amish Times Handwritten Pamphlet within the week.*
Who ever said an Amish lifestyle and a love for technology cannot coexist? William Brown of Knoxville, Tennessee has found inner peace in a new branch of the Amish lifestyle that respects aspects of traditional practices while embracing certain emerging technologies. What’s more, Brown has become a demi-celebrity among Amish Millennials, who have named his lifestyle-melding “CosmopolitAmish.”
Soft-spoken and reserved, Brown decided against telling his employer, information technology company Claris Networks, about his lifestyle change. Claris’s management fully endorsed Brown’s decision to sell his Jeep in the Spring of 2011, and ride his bike or run to work. Originally, he claimed it was simply a physical challenge, but soon, Brown felt it best to disclose his full reasoning. “Simply ‘twasn’t proper,” he said. “When the brethren at Claris smiled upon me and commended my full, almost spiritually blessed beard growth, my heart of hearts did smite me within. I had to tell them. I’m Amish, and I’m proud.”
Brother Brown has always had a desire to fuse his secret appreciation for both the Amish lifestyle and his uncanny proficiency with information technology and remotely managed computing services. “It never seemed possible to be both Amish and technical at the same time,” Brown said. So he gave up the Amish. He even moved away from his Amish-saturated hometown, Morristown, Tennessee to the big city, Knoxville. But nothing changed. His heart was Amish AND his heart was techie. After years of inner torment, Brown decided to reevaluate the Amish teachings to see if they could mutually coexist.
“I went on a spiritual retreat,” Brown said. “I spent a week in a log cabin and took nothing but my Bible, Pennsylvania Dutch-English dictionary, my Dell laptop, my smartphone and my MiFi hotspot. I even uninstalled Labtech!” After a week in isolation from society and deep prayer, Brown reached a conclusion. “I will be committed to technology, but I can no longer NOT be Amish.”
People often ask him, “How can you be both?” Brown loves to describe how he spiritually justifies his new lifestyle, which he likes to call “CosmopolitAmish.” He has created 3 tenets of CosmopolitAmishism:
1. You must grow an awesome beard
2. You must not own Jeeps.
3. Your use of technology must ONLY be for the benefit of others.
Brown says he only uses technology at work, so he can support others, who do not share his Amish beliefs, as they labor to financially support their families.
Brown has become a celebrity in his hometown, Morristown, Tennessee, where over half the population is Amish. The young Amish especially, seem to respect his radical lifestyle. He desires no fame. He asks for no hootings and hollerings. However, though exceedingly humble, Brown even said off the record, “The young, modestly-clad ladies often scream for me as run to the grocer. I simply smile upon them and nod my beard.”
*None of this story is true. We just like to poke fun at our friend William!
Brown decided to give up his car and travel everywhere on foot or bike as a way to inspire others. “I’ve always been pretty active, but not everyone has. So I thought I would try to inspire people to live a more active life, and lead by example. I don’t expect everyone to do what I’m doing, but even making little health changes, like parking farther out in the parking lot or giving up Coke, can benefit us significantly.”
With oil prices rising, giving up his gas-guzzling Jeep had a monetary incentive as well. “I think I’ve run and biked about 700 miles in the past two months. Of course, I’m travelling much less in general than I would if I had my car, but I’m on track to do about 2,100 miles over six months.”
Even if oil prices average $3.69/gallon for the next four months (which is unlikely), and assuming William’s Jeep got 16 miles to the gallon, his six-months of non-car travel represents nearly $500 in gas money saved. William has traveled less over these past two months than he would otherwise, which also converts to significant pocket cash. It’s easy to call him a crazy man, but with gas prices on a trajectory of ridiculous, he may be on to something!
When asked about the most difficult part of his undertaking, William said it was “not getting to do more trail running.” That’s right. Odd as it sounds, the hardest part of this whole thing for him is not being able to run
more. He did admit another difficult aspect: “Bad drivers. I’ve had stuff thrown at me, been cursed out and almost been hit by a distracted minivan driver.” He encourages drivers to give cyclists the legal distance of three feet when passing.
Giving back to the community is another important aspect of William’s six-month trek. Throughout the month of May, he will be collecting money and shoes to help people in need. In a partnership with
Soles 4 Souls, donated, lightly used shoes will be redistributed throughout the world for people without them. For each dollar donated, Soles 4 Souls can distribute one pair of shoes to the needy.
At Claris Networks, our people are our greatest asset, which is why we are honored to work with inspiring, ambitious East Tennesseans like William Brown.
To keep up with William’s journey and read his inspiring blog visit
www.TodayIRun.com. To help William raise money for Soles 4 Souls visit
Cloud computing, mobility and the tablet go hand in hand…in hand.
It’s not just consumers who are buying up iPads and tablets. More and more businesses are snatching up tablets for corporate use. It’s not just small businesses either. One article reports that 80% of the largest Fortune 100 companies are developing/testing apps specifically for the Apple iPad. This article at
VentureBeat quotes a Samsung’s chief strategy office, Omar Khan, as saying, “We want each company to hand out 50,000 tablets instead of 50,000 laptops.”
Of course, many of these companies will leverage public and private cloud computing networks to deliver unprecedented levels of business function and mobility.
Smartphone/tablet manufacturers would love to see their mobile tablets overtake the PC market. But will it? Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, spoke to the PC versus Tablet question in early 2010: “When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this is going to make some people uneasy” (source:
Mashable). The iPad will not make the PC obsolete, but it does demonstrate a growing realization that fewer and fewer functions a PC provides are actually needed in peoples’ workday.
For many people, a tablet connected remotely to a network distributing its mission critical business applications via the cloud is the most efficient way to work. The following questions will help determine if you or a group of people in your company should consider a tablet for the workplace.
· Are you frequently out of the office?
· Do you frequently operate from multiple locations within your office?
· Do you rarely use Excel? (If you don’t know how to make a pivot table, you should probably answer “yes”).
· Do you value simplicity and efficiency over power and options?
· Do you primarily need access to web based applications?
It may take some creativity and forward-thinking, but some businesses may be able to perform better if they ran leaner. Have you considered a tablet for business? What are some ways you would use a tablet in your work setting?
Well, the cloud itself can't do all those things, but a new breed of exercise equipment can help you meet those goals.
One of the advantages businesses that employ cloud-based technologies enjoy is scalability. For exercise company Core Performance, that is particularly true. Core Performance is using cloud computing technologies to support a network of “smart” exercise equipment. This cloud-supported equipment learns your body and fitness goals and adjusts for you, giving you a personalized workout.
With applications hosted in the cloud, each of Core Performance’s machines can adjust to each individual’s particular needs on a particular day. As you work out, the machine monitors your heart rate and adjusts to help you, even showing video of how to do an exercise correctly.In an article with NetworkWorld, Core Performance CTO Jon Zerden describes the advantage cloud-based business model:
"If we had 10 trainers, we could train them on the best methodology in the world. We could keep them updated as research about the most efficient programming evolves, and we could allow them to distribute that information," Zerden says. "The problem with that scenario is, how do you go from 10 trainers to 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 trainers and maintain that consistency?"
Along those lines, if you haven’t seen the video “An Internet of Things” you should watch it. At least so you’re not completely blown away by the technologies coming down the pike.
Would you care if your computer vanished? Is this the face you make when you think of losing those crucial files? Last week, WBIR News Channel 10 had an interesting conversation on their website and Facebook page about backing up your important computer files. Everyone knows the nightmare of losing important data, home videos, vacation photos, family projects, personal/professional research, etc. Dan Thompson chimes in on the issue.
Personal data backup is important. From a corporate standpoint, however, it is not even an option. Data backup is absolutely critical. It is, arguably, an ethical issue. A study by
Gartner reports that “43 percent of companies were immediately put out of business by a “major loss” of computer records, and another 51 percent permanently closed their doors within two years — leaving a mere six percent survival rate.”
With clients, employees and families depending on the survival of a business, it is absolutely critical to safeguard, to the degree that one can, the security of mission-critical data.
That said, do you think corporate data backup is an ethical issue?
Have you experienced a significant loss of personal or professional data? How did it affect you?