enjoying a new Gnarls Barkley video

I like how GB has chosen to highlight specific words from the lyrics into the video. Even without the visuals, I think this'll make a nice tune to run to when I need to dig deep training for the triathlon.


Give the video a look-see here. It's called "Going On":



Can't see the video in this post? catch it here instead.

tweets o' the day

• 11:20 off to the SF farmer's market as a mom's day request
• 12:41 at the ferry bldg. first time inside tho have lived in the area for 8 yrs
• 14:59 at SF Aquatic Park enjoying the sun and watching the swimmers. glad I'm not in there with them today
• 20:38 great mother's day in SF today. i always forget how close we are to the city and how much fun it is to spend the day there.

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tweets o' the day

• 07:04 off to masters swim class. wish me luck
• 09:02 2100m swim workout complete... now to go help clean up my daughter's school. full day today

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tweets o' the day

• 09:03 @wenderful so what'd you have for breakfast?
• 09:06 happy to have Twittersync now working with my FB account.
• 09:35 Retweeting @cashel: folks pushing "tax cuts" should call them what theyare: mandatory, negative interest loans from our kids and grandkids
• 10:14 glad to be able to cash in all these miles for flights home for the family
• 10:29 have you voted for your favorite subway busker yet? great videos on NPR blog to help you make your choice snurl.com/2833e
• 11:04 all this triathlon training has done some good. my BMI has dropped from 28.5 to 23.8 in the last ten months, and my resting heart rate is 46
• 11:10 @joshuagay thx! am a fan of J Friel's training books, & looking @ G Bernhardt's training plans now as I ramp up see snurl.com/283c1
• 11:15 @kaparkins please have a bloody mary (or three) for me at the Monteleone!
• 11:18 still lmao at this "when obama wins" widget. way to go twitter-space: kottke.org/when-obama-wins/
• 13:28 Retweeting @lindare: A perfect analysis of what makes Twitter so beguiling: blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1296
• 15:36 IT/Web coordinator wanted for a microenterprise network based in the DC Area snurl.com/284r0
• 17:11 love looking up flights and being offered a lower fare option where I can save $16 but spend an additional 4 hours in transit. no thanks
• 20:07 my better half just informed me the heater has been turned off until the Fall. hooray for energy savings
• 20:55 @davetaylor I agree, Flock still seems buggy to me, with none of the extra social feeds streaming properly
• 21:03 @kaparkins T-money lives!

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IT/Web coordinator wanted (DC area)

I've had a chance to get to know the good folks over at the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network and I'm a big fan of their work and what they're trying to do to build capacity in microfinance development practitioners.

They've got an acute need for a good IT/Web person to help them get their infrastructure under control as they prepare to breathe new life into their web-based networks and communities.

For the full details of the DC-based opportunity (deadline for applications is end of May), download the job description from this page. The summary is below:

Since its founding in 1985, The SEEP Network has developed a significant membership base of microfinance and microenterprise development practitioners and has created a wealth of technical resources, tools and trainings that are widely recognized throughout the microfinance sector. SEEP enjoys a history of meeting the needs of practitioners through programs and services that allow for innovation through collaboration of key stakeholders. In 2006, membership was expanded to include international networks and organizations, setting the stage for a new set of challenges and opportunities such as the continued provision of quality services at greater distances, peer-to-peer learning involving multiple languages, increased requests for dynamic working groups located on different continents, and new designs for other activities, such as The SEEP Network Annual Conference. As it continues its internationalization and growth, SEEP is seeking an exceptional results-oriented and dynamic individual to join its team and contribute to its long-term success.

The Information Technology/Web Coordinator is responsible for software, hardware, and network support, training, and troubleshooting on a wide range of applications. S/he is also responsible for the organization, appearance and functionality of The SEEP Network’s external and internal websites.

Are you interested or maybe know someone who might be? please pass this along.

tweets o' the day

• 08:39 just ate the first ripe home-grown strawberry of the season. delicious!
• 14:23 twitter updates stopped streaming into my FB status. reinstalling twitter FB app to see if that fixes things
• 14:23 nope. tweets still not showing up in FB news feeds. grrr
• 14:32 @bo your tinyurl to your resume is broken (need to remove the period from the end of the link)
• 14:37 testing twittersync
• 14:50 @EndTheRoboCalls thanks for the tip on Twittersync! snurl.com/27yli
• 14:53 can someone please tap the breaks on today's breakneck pace? I need a bit more time to finish this stuff
• 15:40 a fair & quick resolution: FL & MI broke rules, rest of states followed rules. penalty is: votes don't count. done snurl.com/27yth
• 16:46 getting ready to host a farewell party for a great community manager who's moving on. Nice to reflect back on the 2.5 years he's been here
• 21:26 a good night at darts. i've won all 3 games I've played and we're up 6-3 so far (first to 9 wins)
• 22:19 gulp. our lead is now 7-6 (first to 9 wins)
• 22:46 @wenderful welcome to Twitter!
• 23:41 squeaked out a win 9-8 whew

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tweets o' the day

• 11:28 half the day is gone. slept thru the first quarter, tho. no shut eye for the next 12 hours so I can get my work done
• 11:54 If you don't like change , you are going to like irrelevance even less - General Eric Shinseki

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tweets o' the day

• 06:40 off to run the Burke-Gilman trail over to Fremont
• 07:49 great views of Seattle skyline on the 5mi run this morning. overcast and cool, but great weather to run in.
• 11:11 Verna Allee: in existing institutions, all accountability is upward (to boss). In networks, accountability is to each other
• 11:16 @bo nice glasses. you've got good taste, my friend!
• 11:50 Allee: management is simply paying attention to what we want to achieve.
• 12:22 Alan Briskin - The capacity to honor the collective consciousness and to act on behalf of the whole is truly the work of the next 100 years.
• 15:30 wondering if the clouds will break enough to see Mt Rainier in the next 120 minutes, or I'll have been to Seattle 5 times without seeing it
• 16:40 @perezda welcome to twitter!
• 18:17 I'm now 0-5 in Rainier sightings while in Seattle. sigh.
• 20:48 touchdown sfo
• 22:10 i need to fly more often: great to see a 12 point lead evaporate so nicely while I was in the air
• 22:47 @Constance see you next week!

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tweets o' the day

• 08:01 just coming to grips the Sharks hockey season is over. at least it's just four months to training camp
• 11:51 geeking out creating a complex data merge template
• 13:11 first data merge form built, next two will be a snap
• 14:08 packing up, off to SFO shortly
• 18:21 touchdown at sea-tac
• 19:18 in U District of Seattle. Got a recommendation for a great running path from the hotel clerk: Burke-Gilman trail (heading W from here)
• 19:30 @krob WOOF to the U!
• 20:24 yelped a sushi restaurant in Univ District. Great reviews missing imp item: closed mondays. doh
• 23:25 calling it a night. see you in the AM

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tweets o' the day

• 17:35 just back from a weekend of camping with the kids. little sleep, lots of dirt, tons of fun. can't wait to do it again
• 22:09 going to triple overtime. what a game
• 22:12 @krob barely breathing, and busy catching up on TiVo (learned not to live tweet games out of real time earlier this postseason) :-)
• 22:56 going to overtime #4
• 23:25 crap. the Sharks lost at 9:03 of the 4th overtime. season over

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tweets o' the day

• 09:52 just did my first masters swim workout. it. kicked. my. butt. (I needed that)

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tweets o' the day

• 08:38 @chep2m great to see you at CIE yesterday!
• 09:04 cheapest gas I can find this morning: 4.09/gal ugh
• 13:53 trying to reassemble my calendar and sync it to BB. please kill me now
• 14:05 there's a special place in hell reserved for code jockeys who write the commands to erases old calendar info without asking permission 1st
• 14:28 I know it's SOP, but I still get nervous erasing my BB's calendar in order to re-populate it. Too many botched Windows installs in my past
• 16:35 @pierre yes, back wheel to curb, 90 degrees (more or less depending on whether you're on a hill)
• 17:01 idea: a transcription service for dyslexic students. kid recites topic, typist captures & emails back. too sophisticated for dictation app
• 17:04 idea cont: needs human editor on capture side to alleviate dyslexic's inability to proof it themselves. offshore potential (via skype)?
• 17:07 getting excited to take my daughters camping with a couple other families tomorrow. mt diablo here we come!
• 22:57 I'm still tingling after watching the Sharks come back to win it in overtime. Game 6 on Sunday :-)

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tweets o' the day

• 09:28 Retweeting @howardgr: Blood is beautiful and it Takes All Types takesalltypes.org/ to save a life. (great little FB app!)
• 09:49 if they make this Uno in a hi-viz yellow color, I'll be all over it: snurl.com/26nra Endos forever
• 11:13 more reason to love working at Omidyar Network: employee gifts to nonprofits now matched 2 to 1 (up to my first $5K in donations). sweet
• 14:52 @chep2m I'm going to CIE, too. see you there!
• 18:40 found a must get app: PicLens from cooliris.com you'll be blown away
• 21:27 back at the dart board . not throwing so well tonight

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How did Nate Taylor pull off "Lights Out San Francisco"?

I was able to carve out some time Thursday to attend the Stanford University d.school's "Creating Infectious Engagement" event on campus.

The first presenter to inform us how he (they were all male, fwiw) leveraged infectious engagement was Nate Taylor, Executive Director of Lights Out San Francisco (info@lightsoutsf.org). Taylor gave a short talk about how he went from idea to event in just six months by focusing on a single, simple idea and allowed people's enthusiasm to power it to come to pass.

The genesis of the Lights Out San Francisco project was that Taylor left his job as Director of PR for Google to in search of "his next big thing." While on travel in Sydney, Australia, he was dining in a  restaurant when suddenly the lights went out. All the staff were very calm and collected and produced candles for folks to dine by and carried on almost as usual. Why? Turns out it was the Lights out Sydney event, an event designed to help Australians be more aware of their energy consumption overall and at a singly moment (an hour), cut down on power use tremendously.

Intrigued, Taylor started researching and found out that Lights out Sydney included 2 million people participating and there was actually a 10% energy savings over typical Saturday night in Sydney.

Taylor knew he wanted to make the same thing happen in San Francisco, but how? His game plan:

He identified an organizing principle

- Give folks one simple action to fight climate change

- Give them something tangible they can do to make a difference

- Connect them to communities around them

What the LoSF organizers did:

- created a community based group

- assembled a steering committee to guide the work

- set a specific time and date - turn off lights in SF for one hour on 10/20/07 from 8-9pm 

- set up as a Tides Center Project (acted as fiscal sponsor, thus allowing them to avoid having to create their own 501c3)

- create a website

Started simply: Google page creator

developed into a full site w/blog

Built a coalition (enlisted the restaurants, as they were critical to the original inspirational story

- Authored and passed City & Golden Gate Bridge resolutions

- Focused efforts on turning lights out on city landmarks

  e.g. GG BRidge, Bay Bridge, City Hall, Alcatraz, Transamerica Pyramid, etc

- Adjusted campaign mid-stream - decided to give away 100K Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs

  - changed call to action to "1 hour, 1 bulb"

- Add to Web presence with Facebook, My Space and campaign banners

- Had a volunteer field campaign - feet on the street.

- Did fundraising, getting small amounts of money from lots of sources. They went to a series of companies to get money (not just one), with blessing of environmental groups (who informed them who to avoid getting money from because they were "tainted" sources)

- Had a big event with music, etc

Once the event was announced, people called from all over to say "we want to do it, too" and Taylor convinced them to not do it with the SF event on 10/20, wait for Lights Out America on March 29. (Picked 3/29 because Australia had picked the date as a follow up)

Still, they made tools for these other cities to use that could replicate, were scalable and assisted the organizing

In hindsight: what worked?

- press works if you can giet it, crafting the story/vision is key

- volunteer outreach

- CFLs handing them out, it was like gifting the city in the weeks before the event as a PR campaign

- Focusing efforts on landmarks, not on EVERY house in SF

- Hosting a central event for folks to rally at

- Creating an authentic community-based effort and $ from many sources

- Making web tools replicable

- Handing off to the WWF the responsibility of doing the follow-up March 29 event which WWF branded as its own (Taylor and team created the playbook and handed the entire campaign to WWF, did not wind up working for them -- but WWF built off the momentum created at the SF event)

What didn't work?

- posters, printed materials (cost a lot to develop and only used 25% of it)

- partnerships with the larger institutions

  - Big Associations (leant name only, no energy toward the cause)

  - Environmental groups (they weren't into the project as Taylor and co were working with PGE, so the enviro groups actually protested LoSF!

- Percentage goals - according to PGE, they saved no energy (the PGE machine was not sensitive enough to measure small amounts of savings)

Bottom line: Taylor feels they didn't go far enough

What's next? (Chapter 2) More than Just One Hour ... make lasting change

Chapter 2: The Facts

 - lights and appliances are on in buildings in downtown SF at night, all night

- just the tall commercial buildings in SF use ~ 100 megawatts between 8pm and 8am and that's enough to power ~100,000 homes

- there are 350K homes in SF

- How do we reduce the power consumption at night when very few people are working?!

d.school asked him to tell us "what is infections action?"

1. zero in on one simple idea

2. connect with real people on the ground (relentlessly and enthusiastically

3. don't over-design from the start

4. keep the focus as local and specific as possible for as long as possible

5. be honest, humble and open

Remember: "Good Things Happen in the Dark"

interested in helping Nate with his chapter 2 work? send him an email at info@lightsoutsf.org

social networking the blood donors

Thanks to a tweet by @howardgr this morning, I was introduced to Takes All Types (TAT), a new nonprofit that's tapping into the broad social network of blood donors.

Now, I'm not sure about their claim that communication is the main issue around the seeming constant blood shortages throughout North America, but I can't argue that tapping into the networking abilities of existing donors isn't a great next move.

I've been donating blood since I was 16 (through good times and bad) and it never ceases to amaze me the bond I feel with fellow donors as we're going through the process together of saving lives one pint at a time.

I've added the TAT app to my own Facebook profile, and signed up to be notified when I can donate again, even though I already know it's June 21, the same day of my next triathlon (I'll donate a couple days later). If nothing else, I can now raise better awareness amongst my network to join me in giving blood as often as we can.

tweets o' the day

• 08:03 Debated with my better half whether we can turn the furnace off for the season. I lost. OPEC, you're welcome
• 13:18 @krob now you're just showing off!
• 13:58 can't believe it's already 2pm PDT. nice productive morning, but still where the heck did the time go?
• 16:02 watching Justin Dillon's documentary on human trafficking. I want to go home and hug my daughters tight
• 17:02 the documentary's still a rough cut, but man does it need a clear call to action. I'm tired of being left at the altar of wanting to do good
• 17:42 anyone seen a documentary that has a txt number at end to get you to sign up for more info to be sent to you later? not URL or email but TXT
• 21:35 so happy the sharks are stil in it
• 21:41 @frandallfarmer nice hand!
• 21:50 @DaveTaylor close: paired an HDMI with a mac mini (to a plasma)

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tweets o' the day

• 08:57 got in my last solo swim this morning (1100m) before joining the Masters program. we'll see how the group thing goes...
• 09:31 @sbraiden am riding both kinds of bikes now: the one with pedals for "work" & the one with engine for "fun" (or is it the other way around?)
• 11:19 just gotta wonder when the spammers are going to get smart enough to convert [at] and [dot] into the real deal and attack the digerati
• 11:31 @acarvin on my NPR profile page, I'd want to identify my local station and have links to where else I'm creating content (blog, FB, FF, etc)
• 13:58 @sbraiden no motorcycle treks since last summer. happy to focus on endurance sports for now (triathlon, mt whitney, alcatraz swim, etc)
• 14:11 In sending out news to list of confidential clients, some noob reveals email addys of ALL clients. hello BCC? should heads roll for this?
• 15:58 not sure what bothers me more about Mazda's car crushing. the decision itself or my acceptance of the decision snurl.com/26e1j
• 16:34 so nervous: puck's about to drop on Game 3 of Sharks v Stars
• 16:51 the refs have GOT to bring their A game, too. what a poor whistle.
• 17:16 marleau scores a shortie! sharks up 1-0
• 18:36 c'mon Sharks! ow tied 1-1 after a 5-on-3 goal by the Stars (delayed tweeting here, paused the game to feed the kids)
• 18:52 ugh penalty shot for the Stars... c'mon Nabby
• 18:53 Nabby saves it! still tied 1-1. I think I'm gonna faint
• 19:06 @krob still 2 min left in the 3rd on our viewing, but i can relax now :-)
• 19:12 @krob paused it, but are now caught up, so I can groan and cheer in real time with the action between the Sharks and Stars in OT
• 19:15 @krob point taken. glad that los Gigantes are not pre-empting the Sharks OT. (Comcast SportsNet seems to have learned their lesson)
• 19:24 in other news (not Sharks-related), it would be hard to resist a $199 iPhone snurl.com/26eui watch out @rodot !
• 19:27 !@#$*@#$ Sharks lose. down 0-3 in the best of seven. it's a deep deep hole
• 19:48 @lopta what kind of bicycle?
• 20:30 @lopta nice wheels. both look more than ready to handle the challenge (and you'll be shedding those kilos, to boot!)
• 22:21 still reeling from the Sharks loss, but am now trying to decide between half marathons in Oct: Rock n Roll or Silicon Valley

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a robot fixes itself? beats those little dancers

Hot on the heels of yesterday's post about those (uninspiring) dancing Sony robots, I've found another robot video that's much more impressive in terms of functionality. (I'll kick this robot habit soon, I promise)

The folks at UPenn have created a robot that'll reassemble itself after it's been kicked apart.

The YouTube video comes in at just over 3 minutes, but you get the gist of things at the 60-second mark. I almost fast-forwarded to the end, but they blessedly sped things up at the 90-second mark to reduce the overall time by at least half, I'd guess. See for yourself:



And while this particular robot is a rather crude structure and there's a bit of rigging going on in how gently it was kicked apart, it's not too difficult to envision the trajectory of improvements on this kind of robotic ability.

The latent sci-fi geek in me just got a little giddy.

tweets o' the day

• 08:05 Starting the first of three bonus days of work this week (biz trip canceled). Now to make the most of them!
• 11:18 will take advantage of the fact the car's been sitting in the cool garage to go get it washed at lunch (just say no to cracked paint)
• 12:42 great impromptu meeting of many in the Mt Whitney Climbers club at lunch. Our climb is just 11 weeks away!
• 16:13 note to self: apply sun screen early and often during long bike ride. My shoulders are going to peel. Aren't I too old for this?
• 18:45 love that a 69 cent piece of plastic can quickly fix the irrigation line I oops! severed yesterday. all is ok now

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Media is a triathlon

I missed Here Comes Everybody author Clay Shirky speaking at Web2.0, but as I suspected, there are multiple ways (including video) to actually experience the content without having made the trek north to SF to be there in person.

Now that Clay's posted his "lightly edited" transcription of his Gin, Television and Social Surplus presentation, I can call out the money quote (emphasis below is mine):

Media in the 20th century was run as a single race--consumption. How much can we produce? How much can you consume? Can we produce more and you'll consume more? And the answer to that question has generally been yes. But media is actually a triathlon, it's three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share.

And what's astonished people who were committed to the structure of the previous society, prior to trying to take this surplus and do something interesting, is that they're discovering that when you offer people the opportunity to produce and to share, they'll take you up on that offer. It doesn't mean that we'll never sit around mindlessly watching Scrubs on the couch. It just means we'll do it less.

As a new entrant into the field of triathlon, I totally get the analogy here.

And just like training for the sport of triathlon (swim, bike, run), you're likely to already be good at one of the activities, but you've got to focus on all three events to finish the race.

I came into triathlon training as a better biker than a runner, and I was a non-swimmer. So I leveraged my skill on the bike with getting better at the run. And I had to focus a lot of time and energy on learning to swim.

Seems there's a similar approach to be taken with media triathlon training, too.

I dare say most of us are excellent consumers. After all, we've got decades of training to get good at sitting back and being entertained.

The "sharing" is likely the next easiest skill to pick up, and good creators of content, professional or otherwise, knowingly bake the "share" feature into everything they create.

It's the production that is potentially the hardest skill to learn, yet the tools for producing are getting easier to master all the time, too.

To produce something like the Wikipedia, Shirky (and Martin Wattenberg at IBM) have estimated it's taken over 100 million hours of thought. That sounds like a lot, until you realize that Americans spend 100 million hours in front of the television each weekend just watching the advertisements!

I'm astounded to think what might happen as we turn these couch potatoes consumers into media triathletes.

Heck, if I can do it swimming, biking and running, I'm sure others become triathletes flexing their mouse.

look, robots dancing! (yawn)

In my travels around the net, I found a video of a foursome of Sony Robots dancing to amuse the gathered crowd of pressmongers (somewhere in Japan?).

At first blush, it's an impressive sight to see how anthropomorphic the machines are (not too much of an uncanny valley separating us).

However, I found that as the robots started going into more tightly choreographed moves, I was completely un-impressed with the show.

Why? Well, the most impressive part of synchronized dancing (singing, swimming, whatever) is the fact that there are many completely independent actors that have disciplined themselves into acting as one.

When it comes to the robots, it's simply executing a script that someone else has written. No drama. No suspense. No "what if they mess up?" It's really rather dull.

Take a look and see if you agree:

tweets o' the day

• 09:34 sign of a good concert: listening to Swell Season the next morning while eating your pancake breakfast with the kids. what a great show
• 10:47 irrigated the garden yesterday, planting new border shrubs today (so very nice out!)
• 22:42 still reeling from watching the Sharks go down 0-2 in the Second Round (at HOME!) grrr

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Set List: The Swell Season at Paramount Theather

Still basking in the glow of a great performance of The Swell Season, the touring name that Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (from the movie Once) are playing under as they tour. We caught them April 26, 2008, on their Bay Area stop at The Paramount Theater in downtown Oakland, a truly remarkable specimen of Art Deco glory... I'd see another show there in a heartbeat.

I'd surprised LeftCoastMom with tickets to the show a couple months ago, and boy was it worth the wait.

The show opened with some traditional Irish songs performed by guys that Glen used to busk with, Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Liam Ó Maonlaí (thanks, Andy, for catching the last names). I'm still amazed at what two guys with a drum, a piano and their talented voices can do to captivate an auditorium. They did a great job warming up the crowd for what was to come.

When it was time for the main act, Glen strolled on stage alone, unplugged his guitar from the amp and walked to the very front of the stage to play "Say It to Me Now" without any amplification whatsoever. The crowd was silent, the space was filled, and the show had gotten off to a rocking start. You can tell that Glen's spent quite a bit of time busking. His interplay with the audience was fantastic, and I can't remember the last time I laughed so much at the between-the-songs banter.

1. Say It to Me Now (Glen playing unplugged, completely)
2. Your Face (Markéta and Glen)
3. Lies (Frames join M&G on stage)
4. This Low
5. Your Love Makes Me Cheerful (new song by Glen)
6. When Your Mind's Made Up
7. Fancy Man (new song by Markéta)
8. Falling Slowly
*everyone leaves but Glen*
9. Leave
10. What Happens When The Heart Just Stops
11. Lay Me Down
*end solo*
12. Fogtown - Michelle Shocked cover (Glen playing with Markéta and Ronan)
13. Once
*encore*
14. If You Want Me
15. The Blue Shoes violin solo by Colm Mac Con Iomaire
16. True
17. Fitzcarraldo
18. Star Star
19. In to the Mystic - Van Morrison cover (Ronan and Liam joined in for this one, too)

What'll stick with me the longest is Glen's amazement with how long this popularity arc is soaring. His words: "I feel like I just tried to kick the ball across the garden, and it soared past the garden, over the wall, down the street, across the river and it's just kept going. Half of me wants the ball to keep going, and the other half wants my ball back." Heres hoping both halves get what they want.

BONUS: While searching for the name of the Fogtown song, I found this YouTube of a previous performance of Fogtown by G&M from Nov 2007, and it gives a good sense of just how much passion they put into each performance. You can find a whole batch of other related videos by clicking the video below.

tweets o' the day

• 06:17 off to run sawyer camp trail at dawn to clear the mind and hit the reset button
• 07:59 7.5 mi and 1100 calories later, I'm ready to start the day
• 10:14 donatinf a pint of O positive at Stanford Blood Center. crowded this morning (good!)
• 11:39 @artbrock LOLz. believe me, I'm going to be doubly sure there's no blood in the water around me
• 11:41 bp was 90/50 at blood donation time (thanks to the run this AM). Luckily, had enough water in me, so they let me give. Next appt: June 21
• 12:45 driving next to @krob on the 101. shoulda carpooled :)
• 17:52 getting ready to go to Oakland to see Swell Season at the Paramount. Dining in Rockridge... going to take our chances with Yelp
• 20:23 sitting in the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. wow. the art deco is stunning, and we get to hear music too!
• 21:23 great opening act. wish I knew their name

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tweets o' the day

• 10:06 after handling a conf call from home, rode the bike into work. beautiful morning here in tjhe Bay Area (again)
• 10:50 R U a Portishead fan like me? Stream their new album (due out 4/29) here: snurl.com/25sy8
• 13:47 lifehack,org sez: Remember that whatever you pay attention to grows in your mind. snurl.com/25tti
• 14:11 trip to MEX canceled. trying to be strategic in refilling the three days now empty on my calendar next week. hints on how to do it?
• 15:19 ugh, as a tirathlete in training, I do not like these kinds of stories, 1st fatal shark attack in CA (SoCal) in 4 yrs snurl.com/25u8l

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Enjoying Portishead's Similar Artists

At long last, Portishead's issuing their third album (not counting the live one), appropriately named Third.

I was more than happy to find a stream of the full album over on last.fm and tweeted my joy:

"R U a Portishead fan like me? Stream their new album (due out 4/29) here: http://snurl.com/25sy8"

Moments later, they yanked the full stream and reduced what's available to just the usual 30 second previews of each track. ::sigh::

However, I've taken solace in listening to Portishead's Similar Artists (per last.fm), and it's really helped provide the fix I need. Enjoy some yourself (Massive Attack, Tricky, Morcheeba, Hooveryphonic, Sneaker Pimps, etc):

tweets o' the day

• 13:14 13 hours into Thursday, and this is my first tweet? busy morning (hoping my trip to Mexico is still a go)
• 13:17 Will YOU participate in Shut Down Day on May 3? "only" 24 hours completely off-line. snurl.com/25nxp
• 14:49 I realize half way thru this cookie it's a terrible waste of caloric intake. into the trash it goes. add another mile to the run in the AM
• 15:26 watched someone eat an apple, a pile of sauerkraut and minnows (sardines) for lunch. eesh. to each his own, I guess
• 15:34 @lopta LOL, he was a she and distinctly american :)
• 20:06 happy to hit a 99 out to win my first game. (yes, it's dart night!)
• 21:33 @grundy excellent post! tinyurl.com/5cxvbl now I've got some thinking to do
• 21:57 @krob me!
• 21:59 our team is up 9-2 with 6 games to play. time to increase our tie-breaking stats :)
• 22:25 up 10-3 with 4 games to go. I went undefeated tonight. w00t!

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tweets o' the day

• 10:27 @penelopetrunk don't be so sure they didn't know!
• 10:48 @grundy topic for blog: how do you know you're ready to get away from your friendly game and enter the casino (or not)
• 11:56 @grundy ask and ye shall receive, eh? looking forward to the post
• 12:37 Standing back so as not to get hit by the re-spinning of success despite missing that desired double-digit victory in PA by thismuch
• 14:00 joy of being a season tix holder at playoff time: just sold tix for 1 game I can't attend & it pays for a third of the whole regular season
• 15:14 @davetaylor don't forget to relieve teh worriers with a "we don't use this info for anything but to send the message" disclaimer
• 15:17 oh man, I just realized it's 62 days unitl my next triathlon. gotta jump back into the training program tout de suite
• 17:21 @rodot live-tweet the whole thing, my friend!
• 23:06 ok, gotta call it a night. tweet you tomorrow

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Global News 2.0

Alisa Miller (President of PRI) put together an informative presentation showing just how distorted our "world view" is because of the amount of time that American news outlets actually report on non-US events (worse if you exclude Iraq events).



I had the chance to talk with Alisa shortly before she gave this preso at TED. I was floored to hear what she was going to reveal to the TEDsters. Here's hoping it's inspired change among the attendees. I know I'm being more selective in where I get my non-US news from... how to infect others?

tweets o' the day

• 09:04 Anyone used a Philips VOIP841 Skype phone on an Airport wireless network? Thinking of getting one, but all it mentions is "PC" no "Mac"
• 11:42 @jerrymichalski twitterfox seems to work ok
• 11:55 if the lady's going to run a red light right in front of me and I have to slam on my brakes OF COURSE I'm going to honk. sheesh
• 14:24 so much to do, so little time
• 15:55 d*mn dog decided the new blueberry bushes are good chew toys. hope we can salvage the two plants most heavily damaged. grrr
• 17:15 our chickens are a year old today. Happy Birthday (Earth Day) to Sophia and ZsuZsu! snurl.com/25d65
• 19:29 @lopta nope, still in the same orange eglu. gave them two heaping scoops of scratch, tho
• 19:30 c'mon Sharks, let's win game 7 (they're up 1-0 in the first)
• 21:36 sharks are 45 sec from the 2nd round of playoffs. up 5-3
• 21:38 sharks win! 12 wins to the cup :)

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tweets o' the day

• 06:50 lacing up the shoes to go on a nice Monday morning run before breakfast
• 08:46 ran, showered, dressed, ate. time for a little email before heading into the office. Mondayalready feels productive
• 08:53 happy to finally welcome @urbanchickens to Twitter!
• 09:30 @grundy couldn't agree more!
• 12:22 excited to be going to Mexico City on Sunday. Will try to remember not to tweet en español
• 13:19 couldn't have written this post by @makriese better myself: snurl.com/2571f
• 13:42 blood donation scheduled for Saturday morning. this'll be my third pint so far this year... aiming to give three quarts by end of year
• 14:07 taking twittearth for a spin (thanks @kaparkins) tinyurl.com/4336wg
• 17:02 our trip to Teotihuacan next week has been confirmed. w00t!
• 17:18 just noticed my voting pref input buttons for individual FB news feed items have disappeared. Can't "X" or "check" items anymore. hmmph
• 17:20 oh,wait. I can control ALL FB news story types (via preferences link @ top of feed) and friends I want to hear more or less from. sweet
• 17:41 @krob We'll be taking the tour nice and slow, no worries! Lots of time to tak pix and tweet our progress

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tweets o' the day

• 11:56 @chep2m congratulations on the win!
• 11:59 getting the girls ready to go buy some gardne plants. tomatoes, squash, peppers oh my
• 15:15 costco is slammed. is there a storm brewing that's inspiring folks to horde?

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tweets o' the day

• 06:29 watching the sun rise over the SF Bay.. big day ahead planting the garden
• 09:04 watching YouTubed bollywood clips as lapware with my3-yr old. She wants to dance!
• 15:48 behind a forest green Tesla at the stoplight. what a beautiful car (electric or not)
• 17:31 blueberry bushes are planted, garden bed is prepped for planting tomorrow. time for a beer :)
• 17:38 @chep2m good luck in the race!

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tweets o' the day

• 11:09 not sure I'm liking FB chat bar at the bottom of the page. will give it a chance, tho
• 11:37 @dangillmore Open the context menu for twhirl's dock icon (on OSX) / sys tray icon (on Windows) and select the "Reset windows" command.
• 13:14 just got back from eating Thai for lunch with a coworker who's glowing in her second trimester. excited for what's to come
• 13:16 our blueberry bushes have arrived. going to plant this weekend and harvest berries june and july
• 17:12 shutting down to go man the grill... it's backyard burgers tonight at our house. yum!
• 17:56 I lied. NOW I'm shutting down to go grill (am hungry now, too!)

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tweets o' the day

• 06:30 pulling together a presentation on climbing Mt Whitney. Excited to be going back on July 11 to do it again.
• 08:47 @sharakarasic jealous you could stay extra days in NM. Any pix of the snow in Santa Fe?
• 10:25 somewhere in the blackberry-notifylink-meetingmaker chain, an app has seen fit to erase my calendar info again. i'm so over this
• 13:41 celebrating staff birthdays and a wedding
• 16:18 @tempo hey, happy birthday!
• 16:36 Am glad to be an Economist RSS subscriber. But when I get 91+ items each week when full print edition gets pushed out, I mark all as read
• 17:32 off to throw some mean darts. Gotta beat this team tonight.
• 20:35 c'mon Sharks, let's try playing with a lead for a change
• 20:38 @chrisbrogan trip 20, trip 16, double 20
• 20:42 go Marleau! sharks lead 2-1
• 21:40 Sharks win! 13 wins to go to the Cup

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tweets o' the day

• 09:01 made it home to CA from ABQ in time to walk my daughter to school. worth the missed sleep
• 10:00 back in the office, great to reconnect with my coworkers and get back into the flow of things
• 12:00 @rohitbhargava drink plenty of fluids! you're probably still suffering the effects of the high and dry altitude.
• 12:11 putting off the office:mac 2008 upgrade. Hearing too many horror stories about upgrading to do it myself yet. anyone convince me otherwise?
• 12:58 another reason to love the San Jose Sharks: tinyurl.com/6mfjp9 (thanks, @makriese)
• 16:06 just had an informative meeting with Sue and Erik of Wikimedia Foundation. Great to hear about their work & their goals for the years ahead

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tweets o' the day

• 05:26 Finally got a decent night's sleep in. No more soreness left over from the triathlon: I feel like a new man.
• 06:35 still waiting to learn the results, but posted part 1 of my first triathlon experience (setup to swim to T1) at tinyurl.com/6gdjrf
• 08:34 amazed to see how excited audience is at prospect of winning a Kindle. reminds me of the Wii fascination, but for learned folk #ocbf2008
• 08:37 David Silver (a VC) looks to bring cash quickly into online communities to avoid needing to fund an institutional round #ocbf2008
• 08:43 I wish TBFracing.com had an RSS feed so I didn't have to keep re-visiting the site to see if the triathlon results have been posted
• 08:53 Aaron Strout summarizes Lost: "a bunch of people on a plane crashed on an island, are trying to figure out what's going on" #ocbf2008
• 08:57 Strout: Best Buy's internal community has reduced turnover to 8% among employees participating in said internal commty #ocbf2008
• 09:15 Strout: communities are all about passion for a topic. don't lose sight of that. people participate where they find value. #ocbf2008
• 09:37 Tri results in: I finished in 1:55:42, placed 283 of 386 finishers. Split times to come later today.
• 09:59 @hjstrout holy... nice quote in the New Mexican! tinyurl.com/5aljw9
• 10:01 Chris Wolz has a nice old-school blog recap of Day 1 of the conf: tinyurl.com/4j2kor #ocbf2008
• 10:48 Strout: the more we see social media permeating business, the easier it is for folks to network to DO business. #ocbf2008
• 11:00 Joe Cothrel: if the jobs haven't changed in your company, you're not doing community #ocbf2008
• 11:08 thanks @sharakarasic for setting the bar so high on effective live-tweeting! #ocbf2008
• 12:42 great lunch of tamales, fajitas and bizcochitos. Comfort food New Mexican style. #ocbf2008
• 14:15 we've never had control of our corporate brands. with the rise of social media, our lack of control is too painfully obvious #ocbf2008
• 15:34 brands I'll always associate with New Mexico: Allsup's, Baillio's, Blake's, Sonic, Hatch
• 17:08 I'm crushed. Bobcat Bite, home of best burger in USA, is closed tonight. don't know why. usually open Tues-Sat
• 17:31 back at Tomasita's for another sopaipilla rellena. yum!
• 17:48 getting a lesson om how meth is destroying the indian nation from a guy three tables away. shut up already!
• 17:55 now I am (we are?) learning 75 pct of all rattlesnake bites are to 25yo males trying to pick them up. wikipedia here i come
• 18:00 the "teacher" just left. smiles all around as normalcy returns to Tomasita's
• 18:01 @krob nope wouldn't be surprised. I was young and dumb once, too :)
• 18:09 adios, santa fe. it's been fun
• 19:16 entertained by a phenomenal sunset the whole drive from santa fe to abq. wow
• 21:26 wish I could get my eye-Fi card to work on the hotel wifi. having to upload via the Flickr tool instead.
• 21:31 omg, Thornton scores with :07 left in the 3rd period. Sharks WIN!!! Just 14 wins to take the Cup.
• 21:58 time to shut down here in ABQ and try to sleep before the alarm goes off at 4:30a for the flight home to SFO.

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tweets o' the day

• 00:54 it's quaint that ABQ still has an "aircraft viewing area." you'd think the TSA'd have said no to it
• 02:14 20 hrs after the day of my first triathlon starts, it's finally over. g'night from santa fe
• 06:34 good morning Samta Fe. you're looking beautiful as ever
• 08:42 made it thru the intros at #ocbf2008
• 08:44 #ocbf2008 amused listening to Bill butcher the pronunciations of New Mexico city names (he's not from around here)
• 09:00 #ocbf2008 Alan Weber (co-founder of Fast Company) gives his 4Cs for magazine success: community, context, conversation, co-creation
• 09:03 Weber: don't look for ROI but look for ROP (Return on Purpose): what's the point of the exercise? why form the community? #ocbf2008
• 09:15 Rohit Bhargava is SVP, Digital Strategy & Marketing at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence now at #ocbf2008 thinking beyond the community website
• 09:18 Bhargava: #ocbf2008 Keys to thinking beyond your website: 1 learn where your customers are, 2 be part of that conversation
• 09:18 Bhargava: #ocbf2008 more keys to thinking beyond your website: 3 focus on WOM, not conversion, 4 measure your level of engagement, 5 Expand!
• 09:30 TBF Racing said triathlon results would be posted Sunday night... still waiting to find out my split times.
• 09:56 when people are talking about you where they are (not on your own site), you can bet the degree of authenticity is higher #ocbf2008
• 10:45 commty members want consistency even tho biz personnel change constantly. help bridge these changes in personnel to manage brand #ocbf2008
• 10:50 Apple calls their community staff "hosts" and not "moderators" as a deliberate word choice to set the tone #ocbf2008
• 10:54 use personas or no as commty managers? eBay started with personas but changed. It confuses the member (persona = act in character) #ocbf2008
• 10:56 at Apple, all commty hosts use first name, last initial as handle. personae not interchangeable (varying tone gives it away) #ocbf2008
• 10:57 @leelefever tinyurl.com/6p287g YAY!
• 11:00 eBay panels are F2F with members: people come as attractor, leave as a promoter. that's how to leverage the network #ocbf2008
• 14:42 is live-tweeting an event better than live-blogging? I think so: tinyurl.com/3oqrb5 #ocbf2008
• 15:15 Robin Harper (Linden Labs): L'Oreal marketing via SL. See flickr shots of their fashion show: tinyurl.com/45aoot #ocbf2008
• 15:17 Harper: Nesquick created its rabbit avatar and sent it to SL parties and gave away bottles of product. Then created skate park #ocbf2008
• 15:18 Harper: Then created the Nesquick skate park (bunny avatar attends, natch). Estimates 36M impressions via this campaign #ocbf2008
• 15:18 Harper: Nesquick bunny now a recognized celebrity within Second Life #ocbf2008
• 15:24 pictures of Nesquik Quiksk8 park: tinyurl.com/6bxu98 #ocbf2008
• 15:31 Ravi Mehta: value from virtual gifts: functional (real $$), expressive (showing off), social (as in gesture), brand (exclusivity) #obcf2008
• 15:41 who's making money on SL? fashion industry thriving, land business (commercial real estate, rentals), services (scripting, etc) #ocbf2008
• 15:43 anyone know an app that'll reverse-cron order a set of tweets for easy pasting into a summarizing blog post? #ocbf2008
• 16:58 I've got half an hour to tour the Plaza at Santa Fe before the next function. wish me luck, I'm going in...
• 20:43 just ate a sopaipilla rellena with green chile at Tomasita's in Santa Fe. delicious!!

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a better way to broadcast: live-tweeting or live-blogging?

I'm at the Online Community Business Forum in Santa Fe, NM, and this is the first time I've attended an event where so many other folks are live-tweeting the proceedings on Twitter (follow me: itsthomas).

Thanks to the mad twitter skills of @sharakarasic, @dwitzel, @astrout, @hjstrout, @scottmoore and @frandallfarmer all using the #ocbf2008 tag, I'm now changing my mind about the best way to capture an event so others can follow along.

I used to think live blogging was the best way: within minutes (or within seconds if you're good) of an event being over, the rest of the world could absorb the content as if they'd been there themselves (minus the ability to raise one's hand and ask a question). Thanks to tagging, one can quickly get a list of all the live bloggers in a room and read each of their takes on the discussion. Somewhere in the crossover of all the blog posts was certain to be a fairly decent sketch of the actual proceedings.

Now that I'm watching the results of a group live-tweeting an event, I can see even greater benefits to the micro-blogging of germaine points via Twitter:

1. Twitter shows what topics are resonating greatest with the audience: the more folks tweeting the same thing, the greater the impact the idea is having. One would have to look across several blogs to find shared topics (if they were shared at all) and triangulate in on the temporal overlap of points.
   
2. The Tweet stream self-corrects: if one twitter post captures a statistic or quote incompletely or incorrectly, there are likely other tweets around it to correct or refine the point. Again, the temporal overlap is missing in blog posts, so it's difficult to cross-reference outside the micro-blogging stream.
   
3. Via Twitter, those outside the room can jump into the room: replying to a live-tweeter with a question to pass along to the speaker is more than possible (still waiting to see it, though). Live-blogging after the fact simply does not afford this luxury of jumping in from afar.
4. Twitter gives folks a leg up to network in the time between speakers: You've just spent an hour live-tweeting the same event, what better way to begin the conversation about other interests you share, and cement them over time by following each other on Twitter.
   

Just as savvy speakers have been able to leverage back-channels to see how their talk is going and course-correct mid-presentation, a savvy speaker can peer into the Tweet stream to see whether their message is hitting home (or even simply making sense).

While I began this event by live-blogging the first two speakers (Alan Webber and Rohit Bhargava), I think I'll be switching to live-Tweeting from here on out. You can follow along on our group effort using Tweetscan on ocbf2008.

Tip of the hat to Andy Carvin (@acarvin) for drawing my attention to the power of live-tweeting by including me in the many events he attends through his own twitter prowess.

Who have you found to be good at live-tweeting? or do you prefer the live-blogging style?

What do you think?

fwiw, here's my live-blogging of two sessions at OCBF2008 with Alan Webber and Rohit Bhargava

Rohit Bhargava speaks at Online Community Business Forum

Rohit Bhargava is SVP, Digital Strategy & Marketing at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence (follow him on Twitter at @rohitbhargava)

Thinking Beyond the Community Website

Concerns heard during the intros this morning:

• selling the value of community
• getting new users to sign up
• building up the superusers

These are all marketing challenges, no?

Here are the keys to thinking beyond your website

1. learn where your customers are
2. be part of that conversation
3. focus on Word Of Mouth, not conversion
4. measure your level of engagement
5. expand!

Case study: WineLibrary.TV is a community that @santagaryvee has built

Case study: Rohit just launched a book called "Personality Not Included" and has created a new blog about it, a Facebook group to create a community around the book.

It's about getting where people already are. He's the one who invited folks to send him five questions and Rohit would answer each set of questions (no cut and paste) to provide custom interviews for these bloggers. Rohit had 50 bloggers submit questions so on day 1 of the book launch, he had 50 blogs pointing to him.

On top of that, he then had folks vote on which blog had the best interview questions (more traffic spread around), so that keeps the excitement running.

Salient point from an audience member: Don't confuse visitors to your web site with the community of people interested in your work: the community is independent of technology, and they will manifest across many platforms: yours, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

UPDATE: Is live-blogging (this post) or live-tweeting the better capture? My thoughts posted separately.

Alan Webber at Online Community Business Forum

Alan Webber, Co-Founding Editor of Fast Company magazine, opens up the Online Community Business Forum here in Santa Fe, NM.

In early 1990s when he and Bill Taylor got together to build the magazine, they believed a great magazine succeeds because it identifies a community that already exists but doesn't know it's a community yet. The magazine becomes a strange attractor that pulls folks together.

According to Webber magazine is nothing more than a giant satellite dish in space - a vehicle for collecting stories about people, ideas and information that can then be deployed in other media.

They determined Fast Company would give folks the opportunity to come together where THEY wanted to come together.

Keys to community: context is king - a point of view, a perspective, that gives the community a reason for being and a trajectory into the future. Remember: the purpose of a community is to do something.

Back when, they were still in a world where marketing was moving from monologue to dialog. FastCo took revolutionary prop to instead of being the last word, was the first word in starting a discussion.

Company of Friends was the business society of the future: the chamber of commerce waiting to be formed: FastCo's job was to enable (not monetize, not interfere).

You're going to tell us what you need to know, and we'll go find the answers to help you grapple with the problems you're dealing with in your life

4Cs of successfully engaging people via a magazine:

• Community
• Context
• Conversation
• Co-creation

It used to be we struggled with finding the technology that could support the 4Cs.

Challenge now: we've got the technology, but are searching for the purpose.

RoP: return on purpose: what's the point of the exercise?

UPDATE: Is live-blogging (this post) or live-tweeting the better capture? My thoughts posted separately.

tweets o' the day

• 05:43 awake early. triathlon starts in 3 .5 hrs. power bar for breakfast. wish me luck. tweet you on the other side!
• 12:19 my 1st triathlon done. yay!
• 12:46 will know my stats from the tri when they're posted tonight. was hot and sunny, but finished under 2 hrs (whew)
• 16:13 made it from sacramento (tri) to SFO (plane) on way to Santa Fe (conf). what a day and still 8 hrs to go
• 18:42 landed at LAX. here for 90 min before departing to ABQ. hope i can foind the Sharks game on TV here at the airport
• 20:45 in my seat on the flight bound for ABQ. hope the Sharks hold on to win while I'm in the air
• 21:28 #1 for take off from LAX. full engines. full stop. jheading back to gate. waiting for parking space. doesn't bode well
• 21:42 pulled up directly to the Unoted maintenance hangar... is this a good sign?
• 21:44 and the sharks lose 4-3. boo
• 21:47 door open. maintenance guy now in cockpit. do I hope he's in there a long time or short time?
• 21:49 good news: if they clear this plane, we go. if they fail this plane, another one is waiting for us to swap into
• 22:09 plane has been cleared to fly. now just "waiting on paperwork" (aren't we always?)
• 22:37 still no paperwork. sitting on tarmac. won't make it to ABQ before 1 am (plus hour drive to Santa Fe)
• 22:43 story has changed. pilot says now waiting on phone call for clearance. fuel truck on way "in case" to make sure we're topped off.
• 22:45 we're cleared for take-off. w00t! (holding breath til wheels up)

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tweets o' the day

• 10:37 just picked up my wetsuit. now to pack up the gear and drive to the race site
• 12:47 van is packed. family inside. we're off!
• 15:54 in Roseville. checked into hotel, now to go to the race course to ride the road circuit
• 18:18 the lake is very low. it's a third of a mile from the shore to the transition area. swim time will suffer
• 19:29 getting ready to get my pasta on before the race starts in 14 hours
• 19:46 it's prom night in Roseville. you can almost smell the awkwardness

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tweets o' the day

• 10:04 back from a great breakfast with BenBins (not *yet* on twitter), wish we didn't live on separate coasts
• 15:49 how did it get to be 4pm already?
• 22:44 overzealous rent-a-cop gave me a parking ticket and placed it on top of my parking permit. grrr

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tweets o' the day

• 09:40 20 minutes left until I dive into back2back meetings for the next eight hours. see you on the other side
• 09:52 sweet. first hour of meetings canceled. the rest are still on, tho
• 18:15 meetings over. good content, but too long trapped in rooms. off to go throw some arrows
• 20:39 c'mon Sharks. you gotta score now
• 20:42 and they score! sharks lead 2-0
• 21:36 sharks win 2-0! 15 wins to go
• 21:42 teammate just shot a ton-80. way to go Patrick!

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loic lemeur talks with michael tchao about Nikeplus and Seesmic

Love it when my worlds collide like this. Loic Lemeur (Mr. Seesmic.com) posted a seesmic video wherein he's showing Michael Tchao (of Nikeplus) how seesmic works and talks about the number of runners on Seesmic.

I'm a HUGE fan of Nikeplus and have found it invaluable in my own training. If it's not too late tonight, I'll have to post a response to Loic's video to say hi and share my own Nikeplus story. (I run on Asics, btw).

tweets o' the day

• 09:06 i love hockey playoff season. the Sharks are finally getting coverage in the Mercury News (3 pages today). Game 1 is tonight
• 10:41 @davetaylor congrats on the MSM gig!
• 11:56 i heart caller ID... keeps me in the flow instead of sidetracking to decline telemarketers
• 15:10 getting ready to get my photoshop and illustrator on
• 17:10 off to see the Sharks win Game 1 of Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Look for me on TV :-)
• 18:50 the shark tank is all decked out in Stanley Cup decorations. just 16 wins away
• 19:13 the Tank is LOUD tonight
• 19:47 sharks down 2-1 at first int. lots of hits
• 20:41 sharks down 3-1 at 2nd int. the home crowd's getting nervous (and the refs are blind)
• 21:42 sharks lose 3-2 boo

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tweets o' the day

• 09:34 waiting so long at the dealership, the courtesy shuttle doesn't feel like a courtesy any more
• 11:45 I hope when WaMu got its $7B in new capital someone's requiring them to correct the spelling in their ads to "woo hoo" (not whoo). geesh
• 14:21 just gave my input on the topics of the book " Psychology of Facebook," you should, too: tinyurl.com/5m75af
• 17:22 @lotd " The perfect plan/Is not the man/Who tells you/You are wrong" Time Has Got Nothing to Do with It - Peter Murphy
• 17:47 time to leave the office... got a board meeting to run for the SCVDA dart league

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tweets o' the day

• 08:42 taking more too-big clothes to charity this morning, one of the benefits of losing 35lbs while training for a triathlon!
• 12:41 ignoring the reply in my inbox to my craigslist post selling my motorcycle. not as easy to let go of it as I thought it would be
• 17:29 off to buy more chicken feed. given the rise in the price of eggs, our backyard chickens are pretty cost-effective omelet sources
• 23:20 having a tough time blogging and playing poker at the same time, but I'll manage
• 23:44 hoping the visitor who's generated 100 page views on the urbanchickens.net blog is finding what they're looking for

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this is Sharks territory

this is Sharks territory
Originally uploaded by thomas pix

The 2008 Playoffs start Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames.

My better half and I will be at the game to watch the Sharks take a 1-0 lead in the series. (I think they'll take the series in 5 games)

Will you be there?

Go Sharks!

tweets o' the day

• 09:44 getting ready to do my last big workout before the triathlon. the rest of this week is reduced effort in prep for the race Sunday
• 11:02 off to do a 22 mile ride and a 2 mile run... rain or no
• 14:59 recovered from the workout watching the Sharks lose a meaningless game. Playoffs start this week v Calgary. go Sharks!

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tweets o' the day

• 07:25 on my way to SF to swim in the bay at Aquatic Park. cold already just thinking about it
• 08:06 water in the bay not smooth, but not too choppy either
• 09:32 survived my first open water swim in SF Bay. I should warm back up by Tuesday
• 12:47 in hayward picking up a table we ordered weeks ago

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tweets o' the day

• 00:49 g'night all. tweet you in the AM (pacific time)
• 08:34 trading my swim workout for a run today. tomorrow morning will be swimming in San Francisco Bay. brrrr
• 08:55 listening to my youngest sing along to the Aristocats. delightful sonic snapshot to carry with me to work
• 09:24 @lotd "Early morning, april 4/Shot rings out in the memphis sky/Free at last, they took your life/They could not take your pride" pride, u2
• 13:34 nice to see @cshirky holding his own with @StephenColbert: tinyurl.com/5v7axb
• 16:03 Thinking I may cut out a little early to go run off some of this nervous energy. Triathlon's just 9 days away.
• 19:51 just got back from a short motorcycle ride. damn I love my bike

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clay shirky on the colbert report

We had the pleasure of hosting Clay Shirky at our office the other week as he swung through the Bay Area on his book tour. He was a delightful speaker and I really appreciate how he was able to engage everyone in the conversation, not just those of us longtime fans of his geeky stuff.

Great to see him get his five minutes on the Colbert Report. He's in his element here even though he admits to getting nailed by Colbert:

tweets o' the day

• 09:07 just uninstalled the FB FunWall app. Deceptive UI keeps tricking my peeps into spamming their friends with FunWall posts. good riddance
• 09:50 @artbrock you'll have to check my other blogs to see what's up in my life besides egg production in the backyard
• 10:23 @lotd "Are you with me/Nothing to trust in/You have the answers?/What are the questions" Are You with Me, Vaux
• 12:49 Anyone else sick of this FunWall message propagating by preying on the crappy UI of the Slide app? it's an ILoveYou 2.0 virus for FB
• 12:54 Headmaster's Ritual showdown: Smiths original (tinyurl.com/2u82nu) or Radiohead cover (tinyurl.com/34lerq)? I'm torn
• 16:04 in a meeting at the same hotel in santa clara where i house-hunted from back in 2003. has it been 5 yrs already?
• 18:52 lucked into a "health and fitness training for triathletes" session at sports basement. good stuff!
• 18:53 fact: you lose aerobic fitness at a rate of 9 percent per week of inactivity. 6 mos to build: 10 weeks to lose. ouch
• 00:17 seething listening to the spin re FL and MI primaries on the Tonight Show

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wading into the world of realtionship management via CRM

Part of my function at work is to help our philanthropic investment firm understand its own aggregate social network so we can begin to leverage these connections to more effectively achieve our mission of creating opportunity for people to make their own lives better.

Put another way: we need to understand who we know and what they know and how to get to them.

Right now, each of us tracks our own individual networks using whatever works best for us as individuals (LinkedIn, Facebook, Address book, rolodex, those squishy bits between our ears), and most of us are really good at managing our own networks. Simply put: we wouldn't even be working here if we weren't good at networking.

But we're going to start growing gangbusters here, and with each new hire, the likelihood of overlapping networks grows and the likelihood of well-intentioned retracing of steps increases.

So how do we roll up each of our networks into a shared network that each of us both contributes to and leverages in a way that doesn't suck the social capital out of these connections?

• Is it a hoarding bias we have to overcome? No. I haven't encountered a single person who doesn't want to offer up all their contacts for the benefit of the group.
• Is it a technical problem we have to solve? Yes, partly. It's not a matter of simply dumping everyone's address book into a big shared file on the server. That's a band-aid solution. We need something that meets the who/what/how criteria on-demand and accurately.
• Is it a human process problem? Yes, partly. This touches on the squishy bits between our ears method that all of us use to track our social networks. We're going to have to find ways that are in-the-flow of our work to capture and record the states of our networks. No matter the technical solution, there'll have to be some process changes, and if I had to guess, this'll be the most difficult part of the relationship management problem

Understanding this network is key for us to best manage the whole investing process from deal flow pipeline to deal-making to post-deal portfolio management. I'm not looking to implement the Pipeline-to-Post-Deal management solution in one fell swoop, mind you. I think a shared contact database is the best place to start, and we can build out from there.

As a first step, I'm looking to hire someone to do a survey of similarly structured organizations (Venture Capital or Private Equity or Financial Services) to see how they handle CRM, especially how it integrates into the deal management process from pipeline through deal-making and out to post-deal management systems. All my informal surveys so far have yielded a hodgepodge of home brewed solutions like "we track in a big Excel spreadsheet" or "a custom Access database" or "we leave it up to the individuals to track that stuff."

I've got feelers out to a couple folks to see if they'd be interested in doing this survey on our behalf. Do you know of anyone you'd recommend for the project?

tweets o' the day

• 09:01 today's four hour meeting was canceled, I can feel the forthcoming productivity boost already
• 11:21 @ckreutz can you share your epiphany re: WYSIWYG editors not being necessary?
• 11:55 @ckreutz agreed that function distracts from content, but I'm surprised at how much lack of function inhibits wiki adoption by newbies
• 13:22 @lotd "I never married/never had those kids/I loved too many/now heaven's closed its gates" sunny road, emilana torrini
• 13:31 watching coworkers use the microwave makes me think a lot of these folks are the "set the damn marshmallow on fire" type of s'mores makers
• 16:28 our Urban Chickens fan page on Facebook just picked up its 100th fan. woot! tinyurl.com/35z8ys
• 21:30 kids are in bed, kitchen's clean, living room is tidy... time to play online poker and blog (multitasker I am)!
• 23:29 time to call it a night. c u all tomorrow

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tweets o' the day

• 00:45 amazon deal of day is the clapper? are you KIDDING me?
• 09:15 @lotd lotd: 'do i lie like a loungeroom lizard or do i sing like a bird released?' Weather With You - Crowded House
• 11:53 Bonny Doon Winery: great wines, arty web site, crappy digital customer service (2 out of 3 shouldn't be that bad, but it is)
• 13:33 going to Mexico City end of April: what's not to be missed on a free afternoon in DF?
• 16:23 @joi congrats on the just-posted CC news. keep up the great work!
• 16:50 hip-deep in CRM research... the onslaught of acronyms is astounding... alphabet soup, indeed.
• 18:27 out on a date with the wife: the lst Sharks home game of the regular season
• 20:16 and Grier scores with :10 left in 1st period. Sharks lead 1-0 at 1st Int
• 21:04 2nd int: sharks lead 3-2
• 22:03 sharks won 5-2! w00t

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Take two minutes to get smarter about the Middle East

I'm almost too embarrassed to share my ignorance, but maybe it'll help you over the learning hump with me. Regardless of your views on what's going on over there, get your basic facts straight via what every American should know about the Middle East, a great list complied by Daniel Miessler.

After starting off with this preamble, he goes right to the list of basics:

For example, frighteningly few know the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and most think the words “Arab” and “Muslim” are pretty much interchangeable. They aren’t. So here’s a very brief primer aimed at raising the level of knowledge about the region to an absolute minimum

This should be required learning for everyone. American or not.

tweets o' the day

• 09:10 Easing back into tri training, Did a two mile run this morning and felt pretty good. 13 days to the race!
• 13:37 back from a great lunch with a twitter-shy coworker. Here's hoping she joins us to tweet sooner than later
• 15:31 hands-only CPR technique finally approved (no more mouth-to-mouth!). at last, the homophobics, can help: tinyurl.com/38bcgd
• 17:04 work day almost over. to-do list at home is mowing lawn and planting tomatoes before heading off to weekly poker game (and winning!?)
• 22:18 licking my wounds from poker. bad beat on an early all-in. at least the big winner's initials were TK, too

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