My Curious Life

It’s all Khoi Vinh’s fault. He admitted, with shameless abandon, that he’s outright excited about the upcoming Transformers movie, despite the hand of Michael Bay directing it.

So, in the spirit of honesty and transparency, I’ll admit that I’ve been anticipating the movie’s release for months. I was a fan of the original Transformers cartoon-sales-pitch-in-a-box from the 80’s, and I can’t say that I ever grew out of it. The loss of my beloved Transformers in a tragic garage sale mishap while I was at college … well, it was setback in the ongoing preservation of my childishness childhood.

Here’s hoping that Michael Bay hasn’t tarnished the childhood heroes too much, though I don’t think even he could make it worse than the Go-Bots.

Again, apologies for the lousy quality of my phone’s wimpy camera (time for an iPhone, maybe?) but this sign just made me chuckle …

Do Not Post Signs On This Yard posted as a sign on the yard … actually, posted about every five feet along the fence of the yard, for an entire block. Ah, the irony!

A number of weeks ago, Wired invited its readers to submit a photo for one of 5,000 individualized covers to be printed for the July 2007 issue of the magazine. Dumb luck had it that my submission got picked to be one of the 5,000.

After the initial glee and gloating (Glenn, na-na-na-na-na!), I had forgotten about the whole thing until the magazine arrived in Monday’s mail, with the photo of my wife and I on the cover.

Wired’s tie-in for all of this is the hyperlocal, totally personal geoweb. It’s an interesting read that does pose some complicated questions … questions that are already on the table as more devices become GPS-equipped, trackable and interactive. Just look at the security issues surrounding the new U.S. passports with RFID chips and you get a glimpse of how this new global geo-presence can be both a blessing and a curse. Pair it with something like OpenID, and, well, things get exponentially more interesting … sure, I can be found anywhere, but which part or parts of my identity do I disclose and to whom?

In all honesty, I’m more optimistic about the potential of these technologies than pessimistic … though I’m sure there will be bumps in the road. I think we’ll see some privacy issues come flying to the fore as we as a society become more aware of our movements, but it seems that the new generation is more willing to make their lives an open book and will simply push through the changes necessary to keep reaping the benefits of being hyperlocal.

Aside from feeling like I’ve been out of circulation (in the design community sense) for way too long, I’m also finding that the whole co-working thing is reminiscent of the time I spent in my high school years hanging out with other like-minded creative folks (shout out to Eric, Nabeel and Dean … why don’t you old farts blog?) and my time in Europe, where you didn’t know anything unless you hung out at the coffee shops. It’s really amazing how the presence of other inspiring people can bring out the best in yourself and the work you do.

I came across a great video on co-working thanks to Tara Hunt’s blog, and I’m shamelessly using a quote from the video by Chris Messina for the title of my post. I think that co-working (or any shared, in-person meeting of open minds) can be a great petri dish for growing new ideas or helping older ideas grow and flourish. Chris nailed it by calling it accelerated serendipity … a beautiful description!

So, waking from my collaborative slumber only recently as part of Fourio, I think I’m going to have to check out the local co-working place, CubeSpace, and see if the next Fourio group think should be held in a more serendipitous locale.

Came across ComputerWorld’s Top 10 Dead (or Dying) Computer Skills list the other day and was reminded of how far things have come in the technology industry in just the past twenty-some years. My kids take the internet for granted, and can’t imagine life without an MP3 player (or at least an “old” CD player) that will let you skip to the song you want.

It was like a trip down memory lane to look at some of the things on ComputerWorld’s list and see a number of technologies that I either dabbled in or outright immersed myself in (can you say ColdFusion and Netware?).

Even now, I have a hard time remembering life before the web … the days when getting directions to somewhere was an art form, finding a phone number required using the phone book, and operator assistance actually involved a living person.

So I wonder where the next 20 years will take us? The next 10? What technologies of today will show up on the top 10 dying list in 2017?

Regardless of the answers, I honestly can’t wait to find out. There’s a good reason why this blog uses “curious” as part of its name.

It’s always exciting when something you’re involved in gets mention in the Wall Street Journal. NetworthIQ has been the pet project for some time now of my friend and co-founder, Ryan Williams. It’s been his baby from the get-go and he’s really spent a lot of time and effort in developing a tool that fills a specific need in the personal finance community.

Here’s hoping that visitors from the WSJ will see the value and sign up in droves. I only wish we’d had time to get the upcoming redesign in place. *sigh*

Andrew Keen released his controversial The Cult of the Amateur book on the world this past week, then followed it up with a ChangeThis manifesto that proved to be equally brash and, in my opinion, extremist. Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels that Keen is doing this for effect (and book sales).

Keen argues that by making everyone an author of content, we will drown in a sea of mediocrity and bring an untimely “death of traditional mass culture”. He predicts the disappearance of big media as individuals essentially trade mainstream media for democratized content published by throngs of amateurs, resulting in the “disappearance of shared cultural understanding and experience.”

While I am by no means an expert at media trends and consumer consumption of the media, I find Keen’s arguments to be very ineffectual, sounding more like something one would expect from the media giants who are struggling right now to adapt, rather than as a rational analysis of media and its future.

It seems to me that in the past, popular culture has been molded by a limited and selective set of media produced by large corporations who tried to target the largest possible audience. This was a direct result of the need for special skills or training and the cost of production being so high.

As the internet has exploded and lowered these barriers for an ever greater number of media producers, the range of possible audiences has increased dramatically. This seems to be one factor that Keen misses … the notion of expansion of culture and audience, rather than contraction. In addition to larger, more expensive and expansive media productions like movies and television, new audiences of varying sizes have sprung up around specific topics or interests and any number of other factors in a multitude of combinations. These new audiences are subsets of the larger culture, with their own additional shared media experiences and cultural references.

Look at all of the email, blog and video sharing of things that capture our attention and interest … commercials, videos of a kid with a lightsaber, stupid email jokes and horrible chain letters. These are new cultural artifacts and references that we share, and they hold just as much significance and relevance as a blockbuster movie or top ten single.

I would expect that as traditional media adapts to this new and changing audience makeup, large media outlets will begin to focus on the things that they do best … entertaining and informing via channels that are better served by large budgets and dipping into the professional talent pool and ever-expanding pool of amateur talent to produce mega-blockbusters and cultural icons. At the same time, semi-pro and amateur producers will continue to fill in the gaps, producing smaller and more targeted productions for the varied niche audiences.

To survive these changes, big media needs to reconnect with its audiences (yes, there are more than one) and start following their interests more closely, perhaps even grooming more amateur and semi-pro talent and watching where it goes. If something semi-pro or amateur takes off, throw those big budgets and Hollywood muscle behind it to make something even bigger.

The whole thing boils down to the fact that the audience is no longer captive … we seek out shared cultural references and experiences on our own now, rather than waiting to have them spoon fed to us. And there are more audiences than ever, in more places than ever, which means that these shared experiences and references may overlap in strange and interesting ways with the various audiences of which we are a part.

A disappearing audience? No, I think not. Perhaps Hugh MacLeod said it best … Keen’s world may never have existed at all. I guess in that case, Keen’s work might be an interesting work of fiction that might find its own audience somewhere.

Ignore the fact that I was passed by the world’s fittest 70-year couple, a 14 year old kid with ADHD (makes him run faster I bet) and gaggles of women who were barely out of breath. Instead, focus on the fact that despite cramping up just after mile 12 and coming across the finish line with a bloody nipple (sorry for those who are faint of heart), I managed to pull off a nice, average 11 minute mile for the full length of the course and was still able to walk later in the day. For my first half marathon, I’m feeling pretty good.

All in all, I was very impressed with the Helvetia Half Marathon and its organizers. It was well organized, well staffed, fantastically supported and quite scenic. I’m definitely adding this as an annual event on my calendar. Here’s a look at the course courtesy of Runpix.info:

Assuming that I can keep up my training, my next target for this fall will be the Portland Marathon. And in the meantime, I’ll be buying stock in Bodyglide and finding a solution to the, ahem, chafing issues elsewhere, too.

Okay, so I was back at the vending machines again today, feeding my need for carbonated caffeine, and lo and behold, the Post-It wars had continued, with new entrants into the fray commenting on the dialog itself, as well as throwing in a plug for their favorite novelist in a rather novel way:

Adding to the irony is the fact that a conveniently located placard right above the item selection buttons indicates the internal number to call for assistance, though perhaps it’s just a bit too specific about what kind of assistance is offered:

Funny how we humans like to leave our mark and make our needs known, eh?

It’s funny how humans find a way to communicate, even when no contextual means exists. I saw this interesting (but amusing) use of Post-It notes in the common area of our building today … my apologies for the poor quality, my phone’s camera is pretty low res:

We have a large call center group on the same floor as the common area, and apparently there is a strong uprising afoot at the change in refreshments in the vending machine. Note that not just one Post-It was enough … the machine had to have several, some strategically placed to indicate specific products (Diet Cherry Coke Zero) were not desirable, others grouped to convey a particular message (Diet Coke in a can is better than Diet Coke in a bottle). Then additional notes were added by yet another individual in a sort of “me, too” emphasis to drive the point home.

For those who know me better, not only do I have the design disease (visual symptoms here courtesy of Flickr), but I tend to have a strong affinity for (okay, addiction to) Post-It notes in general. I once had a wall fully covered in Post-It’s of varying sizes and colors in my office that often drew small crowds of awestruck onlookers. So when I see Post-It notes used as a means of communication (other than just for brainstorming), I can’t help but smile with childish glee.