I take great pains to keep up with news and info related (directly or indirectly) to my particular areas of expertise. During the week, I typically filter out all the links, articles, tutorials, tools, etc that appear in my RSS subscriptions, Twitter feeds, newsletters, and general perusal. At work, this gets translated into emails I send out to my fellow developers in the hopes that they may glean something useful, or at the very least have an interesting read. For myself, these end up in my vast, every-lengthening bookmarks list, which I have been suprisingly slow to add to a service like Delicious.

So, I’ve decided to start making posts of Useful Things, and because I’m all crazy about acronyms and stuff I’m going to call them LUTs. I thought about calling them Selected Lists of Useful Things… but I think we know what that would end up shortened to. Anyone reading these gets the added benefit of the info already being filtered out from all the plankton that drifts through the media ocean each day. And like any journey, it begins with this first step:

List of Useful Things – Week of March 14^th

Resources

Debugging tools for IE

http://samuli.hakoniemi.net/debugging-and-testing-in-internet-explorer-made-easy/

I don’t develop in IE (at least, as a primary). Part of that is a residual disgust with Microsoft from the IE6 regime years, but largely it has to do with the fact that there have never been quality tools or approaches for debugging issues in IE, compared to tools like Firefox and – more recently – Chrome. The tools listed here put a heavy dent in that viewpoint.

jQuery References

http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/javascript-ajax/uncovering-jquerys-hidden-features/

http://addyosmani.com/blog/50-jquery-snippets-for-developers/

You can never have too many lists of snippets or brief how-tos on hand. These links provide a fairly extensive, if arbitrary, list ranging from simple items to things I barely know anything about. Especially useful is the concise explanation of event namespacing and what that means for rolling your own plugin.

User Experience

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/essential-controls-for-web-applications/

A well-developed list of UI controls for use in, well… anything. Screenshots and examples included! A good, quick-reference list for inspiration on your next UI project or redesign.

http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?156

PDFs and pages of process diagrams relating to design, development, UI, and UX.

http://www.jankoatwarpspeed.com/post/2010/02/26/table-ui-patterns.aspx

The title says it all: “Ultimate guide to table UI patterns”

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/03/11/forms-on-mobile-devices-modern-solutions/

Working on an iPhone app, or Droid doodle? Some examples of input forms on mobile devices/OS’s.

Articles

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/25/designing-user-interfaces-for-business-web-applications/

Containing some reference items but largely dealing with the theory behind designing for business applications versus traditional websites, a well-written article that lays out the processes involved and some best-practices for creating the levers and switches users will flip to run a web app.

http://vimeo.com/9641036

A fantastic video visualization of data pertaining to web usage, social networking, communications usage, etc, etc. Superb visual motif and a fun little soundtrack:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/9641036[/vimeo]

Tools

http://gomockingbird.com/

A completely free, easy-to-use, web-based wireframing app. Exports to PDF or PNG formats. Create an account, save your work, share it with other people. Safari, Firefox, and Chrome only.

]]> http://ryanburrell.com/2010/03/lists-of-useful-things/feed/ 0 http://ryanburrell.com/2009/08/a-thousand-directions/ http://ryanburrell.com/2009/08/a-thousand-directions/#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:46:13 +0000 Ryan Burrell http://ryanburrell.com/?p=543 There have been a lot of huge changes in my life recently, both for myself and for people that I know, my career, and the industry I work in. It’s left me reflective on where to head from this point, and what possible outcomes the future may hold. I thought I’d expound on those directions a bit and offer some brief advice on plotting a course for the future.

Changes

First, the updates. My wife-to-be and I have purchased a house and moved in. I’ve really grown to understand the limitless value of family and friends in our preparations for the move, and then in the move itself. Several friends of mine from high school days have recently got married, and I’m reminded of how fast my wedding day is approaching. We’ve had nothing but support and help from heaped upon us as we try and deal with all of these busy events simultaneously.

On the note of weddings, it’s been interesting for me to observe the odd paradox that exists over the wedding ceremony and the marriage. So much emphasis is placed on the wedding day that couples have an unrealistic set of goals for what a successful event should be. The quantities of money spent on that single day are staggering in some cases, and we have resolved to stick with a budget and focus on the meaning of the day instead of the superficiality of it. Conversely, we as a society seem to view the actual marriage as more of a convenient merging of bank accounts and properties, instead of the joining of two people into a commitment of lifelong companionship – the substance with which civilization and the family unit it built upon. I cannot express the depth of how thankful I am to be blessed with someone like Brenda to fill that role, and have vowed that come what may I will not fall into the trappings of the dark side of the American Dream.

With the expenses and responsibilities associated with the wedding, home ownership, and planning for a future family… I’ve started to really evaluate my career path and goals for the future. My freelancing work has been very sparse lately because I haven’t had much time to devote to finding and pursuing leads. My current job hasn’t been quite what I had hoped it would be, but I felt I needed to take it to fill in the gaps and pay the bills. Some new opportunities have presented themselves, and I’m exploring those to see where they may lead.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where my niche may lie. I’d love to make a living blogging about what I love, but I have a hard time determining exactly what that would be. To make matters worse, I don’t really enjoy writing that much… but I can write extensively on things I’m interested in. World of Warcraft, gardening, game reviews, cooking… but these are all things that have been done, and done over and over again. I’m encouraging Brenda to start working on a sewing blog, as it seems to be something she’d love to devote herself to do full time.

The web is at an interesting crossroads, with the odd ideals of XHTML fading away and the semantic focus of HTML5 on the way. I’m skeptical though, because the track record of technologies and their implementation and support by major browsers has been hit-and-miss. The web is moving toward an understanding of context that it hasn’t had before – the ability for algorithms and queries to understand not only a set of key terms, but how those terms relate to the whole of the content they are presented in. Ideally, this will produce a more reactive set of capabilities that allow for more responsive searches and finding of information. HTML5 and CSS3 are fantastic in their capabilities… if we can ever get them all available for public consumption.

Google is poised to enter the world of the operating system, to insert itself in direct competition with Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft recently acquired Yahoo and will be providing search services to that franchise in an effort to build their defenses again the impending Google tide. There are a lot of major players in the game going forward, and it will be interesting to see how Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, and Mozilla transform in the future. Looking back, I’m amazed we have such technologies as Gmail, Google Voice, Air, Flex, ASP.NET, Spotlight, Firefox, and the iPhone. What will the next few years bring?

Pointers

I thought I’d write down some advice from things that I am attempting to do myself. Some guidelines for going forward, if you will. There’s no way to know what tomorrow will bring, but there’s no sense in not making the most of what you have for the future.

Be a good steward

This applies to everything. Everything. What we have right now is a gift, and it’s our responsibility to take what we’re given and do the most with it. Financially, emotionally, physically, relationally… everything. Set a goal for what you have, either sustainability or growth. This is especially true given current economic situations.

Be on the lookout

Always be perceptive to advantages. Either in your career, for your family, or for others. Alert friends to things that may help them in their jobs or at home. Make investments that will pay off for your household in the long run. Stop focusing on this moment exclusively and look around the bend…

Appreciate

… but don’t forget to enjoy right now. All the life changes I’ve experienced lately have helped me to remember that time marches on, and at some point we are all parted from each other. Take the extra time and spend it with your friends and your family. Start a small garden or planter and revel in the growth that occurs. Take an evening and sit outside and feel the cool air and ponder the sky. This is life, and it is good.

Be positive

This is tough for me, because I think people who tout this phrase are generally clueless about the truths of life. Yet, I can’t think of a more concise way to put it. Despair does no good, and cynicism clouds reason. Don’t be a fool or encourage naiveté, but stay open to better views.

Keep your head up.

Zeldman recently redesigned his website. His site has never been over-the-top, it’s always had a large focus on his content and writing, with the bare minimums everywhere else – always appealing, never obnoxious. So, I went there with an expectation of reserved greatness. What I saw left me… nonplussed. There wasn’t anything wrong with it per se, it just lacked… something. Zeldman was touting it as back to basics, but I received it as moving toward mundane.

And then I noticed the comments. Dozens of people with the typical trollish statements of “Wow! This is awesome! Thanks!” and just as many responding with quips of “Simple and easy to read” and praises for its minimalistic nature. More still dropped in some line showing their devotion to Mr. Zeldman by referencing that they owned his books or that they’ve “loved everything you’ve done.” It hit me: I don’t like this. Jeffrey Zeldman, scion of all that is good in web design and content presentation has made something that is, even despite my subjectivity toward his previous work, really not very good. I was amazed, and here were all these members of my peer group praising the work – largely it seemed because of who had done it and not what had been done.

We see work that has been done, work that we appreciate for its innovation, its aesthetics, its rock-solid professionalism, and we inscribe that in our minds and hold its creator(s) up as a source of inspiration. But eventually we grow in our own skills, trends change, and we discover that we don’t have to blindly go with what we’ve been told is good. Eventually through our perseverance and striving to become better at what we do, we achieve a place among our peers where our judgments can become more objective and our opinions worth something. We move from staring with starry-eyes up at a gleaming figure to being able to look across and share a handshake. And eventually we move higher, and find our next role model to guide us on our climb to improvement.

I’m not Jeff Zeldman. I’m nowhere near as successful as he is, and I know that he has more experience in almost every facet of our shared profession. But I think I’ve reached a point in my career where I can start looking elsewhere for my inspiration, and working to blaze my own trail forward.

I’m the happy owner of a modest library of books that span the gamut from sci-fi fantasy to reference tomes to game manuals to religious works. They aren’t categorized in any form other than an arbitrary one that makes sense to me. Some of them I haven’t read in years, and may never read again; some I haven’t read at all. Yet, their sheer weight of presence in my home is inspiring – the collected thoughts of hundreds of writers, teachers, philosophers, and artists. They take up a lot of space, in the form of three large bookcases dedicated mostly to their storage and display. Some are aged, their pages stained or torn, their bindings coming apart. They can’t be searched or have their content manipulated. They simply exist as a package, a small capsule of knowledge or collection of stories.

I was listening recently to NPR on my morning drive to work, when a story came on about a business that produces specialized printing stations designed for book publication. The printers themselves, while no small technological feat, weren’t really what caught my interest in the story. The whole goal of the installation of these modular printers was to give the general public access to the hundreds of thousands of books available in their digital network. In addition, anyone who had their own books or writings in the proper file format could stroll up to one of these devices, upload their data, and have a printed, bound, and fresh copy of their own writings in a matter of minutes.

Think about this a moment: we live in a world where everyone has some form of mobile digital device. E-books can be downloaded to PDAs or cellphones. Audio books exist in every file format known to man and there exists a very small segment of our population that doesn’t have access to some form of media player device, whether it be personal or through some public use. There’s even a little piece of hardware dedicated to electronic reading, produced and sold by the largest online book source and retailer in existence. Why would anyone in their right mind be striving to give people the ability to print books at their leisure when they could just as easily skim one on their iPhones?

When you read, you automatically form an intimate connection with the medium in which you are reading. The more personal the subject matter and the more interesting it is to you, the deeper that connection can become. Yet, because of the nature of our digital tools – the Web, networked services, content providers – the intimacy that we would normally form is inhibited by the very generalized applicability that make those services and devices useful.

Let’s go back to my library with its motley collection of Terry Pratchett novels, Dreamweaver reference guides, and Eyewitness Handbooks. If you were to thumb through the pages of any random book, you’d most likely find bookmarks, creased page corners where I’ve marked my spot, and maybe even scraps of paper of whatever else was handy at the time. My books have become something more than just ink on compressed wood pulp; they’ve become a companion and guide to what they contain within. Each has a personality, defined by weight and paper thickness, type size, texture, smell, and color. While the cover wrappings identify the book, these are the attributes that truly define it – and its contents – in our memories.

There’s something about the printed word that I don’t think will ever go away; not with e-books, not with the iPhone, not with PDFs, not even with the Kindle. Having a book and being able to hold it, to thumb through the pages, smell the ink, hear the crackle of pages, actually have to use a bookmark, is something that no amount of electronic wizardry can replace. I can’t imagine a time when bookstores exist to peddle streams of data, broadcasting wifi copies, and selling disks of Wordsworth. Each book – from novels to encyclopedias – is its own journey, and I think those deserve to take up a little extra space.

In general terms, I felt that the conference excelled in its presentation, organization, and facilities. I didn’t list anything I disliked about regarding these areas in my last post, because I don’t feel there was anything worth complaining about (well, the wifi was a little spotty). The conference coordinators secured a variety of fun and posh sites for the various legs of the event. Thursday night: opening party (with free wine and beer) and at Slowdown. Friday day: extensive conference with powerhouse speakers at the renovated Kaneko library. Friday night: closing party at the Nomad lounge (with, once again, free wine and beer). All locations were situated in about a one square mile area in downtown Omaha, close to a variety of hotels… all of it being right off the highway. Accommodations were definitely not a source of complaint.

The conference area at Kaneko had been decorated and laid out in a way that was interesting and stimulating for the attendees. Several art installation pieces had been added, in addition to a nifty touch-screen interactive display provided by Phenomblue. The conference area easily held the 450+ attendees, with big screens so everyone could see even at the very back. Fruit and refreshments were available freely throughout the day. Breakfast was provided at the conference area, and there were plenty of breaks for networking. There was even a BigOmaha iPhone app that had been developed specifically for distribution at the conference to encourage attendee participation.

Needless to say, we wanted for nothing at the conference, which left us to focus on the presenters.

Jason Fried

Jason is the president and founder of 37signals, a Web interface design and usability consultancy based in Chicago. He spearheaded the concepting, design, and development of Basecamp, 37signal’s web-based project management tool for designers, freelancers, and creative services firms.

BigOmaha Guide

I’m not a fanatic about 37signals, but I’ve read a fair amount of their blog posts on Signal vs. Noise and I’ve always been very interested in the viewpoints described there… having had to deal with a variety of work situations that had more processes and cultures. Jason didn’t say anything I hadn’t heard him say before, but he had some extremely pertinent and interesting points:

• Knowledge: Share it. Businesses tend to horde their knowledge and expertise, lest the competition trample them. Jason advocated following the example of world-famous chefs, like Emeril Lagasse or Mario Vitale, who freely share their knowledge and reap huge business rewards from it.
• Byproducts: Every action you take produces a byproduct. 37signals started out as just another creative firm. They quickly found that the tools they needed to do their job the best they could didn’t exist… so they built them. Next thing you know, Basecamp and RAILS have come into existence.
• Failure: This was kind of a buzzword at the conference. Apparently there has been a big push in entrepreneurial circles to fail early and fail often because many investors gauge your potential success on how much experience you’ve supposedly gained from your mistakes. Jason debunked this, saying that failure for the sake of failure is ridiculous.
• Focus: Your business focus should be on things that don’t change. “No one is going to say in ten years ‘Gee, I really wish this stuff cost more’ or ‘Why doesn’t this take longer to ship to me.’ Customers always want lower prices, faster delivery, more options and features, etc. Focus on those things, and the details will follow.”

Jason is a bit of an enigmatic figure, enhanced by the reclusive way that the 37signals crew conducts their business. All-in-all, the speech was relatively brief yet informative. We quickly discovered that Jason hates most words in the English dictionary, such as “goals”, “plans”, “investments”, etc. At one point he described 37signals’ lack of planning saying “We have no idea what we’re doing. We just take each day as it comes.”

Micah Baldwin

Micah is VP and Chief Evangelist for Lijit Networks, a Boulder, CO startup that provides publishers a robust search and stats tool. Lijit is Micah’s sixth startup, having sold his last startup, Current Wisdom, in the beginning of 2007. You can read more about Micah’s philosophy of success through failure at his blog, Learn To Duck.

BigOmaha Guide

I have to be honest about Micah: I really have no idea what his presentation was about. Something to do with failure, and that it’s OK to fail as long as failure is an event, and not your journey and/or destination. The difference between being a “failure” and being a “loser” is how you handle the pitfalls.

Good advice and viewpoints, but what I feel I learned the most about from Micah is how to present yourself to your audience, whether it be techy-geek conference attendees, customers, or business investors: Be Yourself. Micah was, I think before anything, blunt and open about his experiences and standpoints and explained situations that led him to give the advice he did. Micah didn’t speak about his current business venture, Lijit, but instead focused on those events that had led him through his many ideas and startups. He summarizes: “Sometimes the best way to learn to duck, is to get punched in the face.”

Jeffrey Kalmikoff

Jeffrey is your average 29-year-old tattooed metal-head with an eye for design and a nose for tomfoolery. The focus of his work is as chief creative officer for the Chicago-based, community-business-centric skinnyCorp who is best known for their multi-million dollar tee shirt business, Threadless.

BigOmaha Guide

I think I’d have to say that my favorite presentation was probably Jeffrey’s. Jeffrey combined the business sense and advice of Jason Fried with the openness of Micah Baldwin to produce a highly interesting and entertaining speech. Jeffrey advocated building brands that evoke a feeling a friendship, and growing that friendship into a greater sense of community. Threadless exists solely because of an active community of contributors and readers, without which the company would simply be another t-shirt shop. Jeffrey recommended taking steps in business to become more open and transparent with customers and users, because this helps bring them into the community mentality. Ownership of a product, site, location, etc. shifts from the individual to the group as a whole.

His slides kicked ass too.

Ben Rattray

Ben is the founder and CEO of Change.org, a social network for nonprofits, political campaigns, and engaged citizens around the world. He’s also a frequent speaker about how organizations and activists can use the social web to advance social change and is a graduate of Stanford and the London School of Economics.

BigOmaha Guide

Mr. Rattray gave a presentation that, at first glance, may have seemed out of place at an entrepreneurship conference. Instead of focusing on business ideas and keys to success, Ben implored the audience to use their skills and resources to do something that matters. Success is a shallow thing if you’re the only one benefiting from it. Ben had several poignant statements about using your time wisely, in both the metaphysical and realistic sense. “If you’re not doing something that you are passionate about, then you are wasting your time” and “If you are doing something, then you are actively making a choice to not be doing something else during that time” are a few of the ones that stuck in my mind.

Ben also offered some sobering reminders that seem to be left out of advice given to starry-eyed thinkers wit big ideas. Mr. Rattray related that whatever you do, sacrifices will be made. Sometimes they are in the form of assets, be it money or time. Other times they consist of relationships, friends, activities, or hobbies. The path to making something greater than yourself isn’t easy, but life is too short to aspire to achieve mediocrity or less.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk, self-trained wine expert, is revolutionizing the wine industry. His blog, Wine Library TV (affectionately known as The Thunder Show), boasts a cult-like following resulting from his enthusiastic, unconventional, and often irreverent wine commentary.

BigOmaha Guide

I’d never heard Gary speak before. I’ve viewed a couple of his WineLibrary casts, but I being a relatively uninitiated wine drinker (I’m more of a beer man), wasn’t overly impressed. It’s just not my thing.

Gary the Motivational Speaker is something to behold, however. As a rule, I generally think that if you need to hear someone spout out absolutisms to get motivated to do something, you’re probably not bound for greatness anyway. But Gary does have an intense energy, and the way that he shows his obvious passion for life is definitely inspiring. To summarize his topics would be difficult, because he spoke on a wide variety of subjects: business, life, family, passion, success, etc. The gist: Get out there and grab what you want, and don’t make excuses for yourself. Don’t settle for what you don’t want, and never feel like you don’t deserve to be 100% happy with your life all the time. High talk, but something I think everyone needs to hear and be reminded of occasionally.

Shira Lazar

Shira has worked for companies such as Yahoo!, AOL, Movies.com, Hollywood.com, and Verizon. Recently, she has been the host & moderator for several tech conferences including Twiistup, Digital Family Reunion, and Girls In Tech.

BigOmaha Guide

Shira started out as the first face we saw at the conference, acting in her role as MC and general host. I’d like to preface all comments I make with a disclaimer that Ms. Lazar may be the most witty and intelligent person on the planet. That being said, she came off as a complete airhead for most of the conference, to the point where you could hear a collective sigh from the audience whenever she took the stage. She tried to participate in the wind-down of whichever speech was currently going on, typically displaying that she knew next to nothing about what was being said. I suppose that Shira fulfilled the role of MC admirably, but her demeanor and commentary was in stark contrast to most of the obvious professionalism being exhibited by the other participants.

Micah Laaker

Micah leads User Experience for the Yahoo! Open Strategy, helping developers/publisher build inside the network and expand Yahoo! off-network. His work includes My Yahoo!, the ACLU pizza film, an MF Doom music video, 2 technical manuals, Tall Tales illustrations, the SVG-powered BattleBots site, and hip hop powerhouse music label DefJam.com.

BigOmaha Guide

Micah started his speech saying that “this is all going to be about my ego.” Everyone laughed; if only we knew that his statement were true. Another disclaimer: from his commentary, I do feel that Micah would be a neat-o guy to hang out with and trade stories. However, his presentation lacked… everything. I don’t know really what it was supposed to be about – ostensibly info on how awesome all the work that Yahoo! has been doing for its developer network to make it easier to use their powerhouse to drive data to your site. That would have been a nifty presentation. Instead, we were treated to the professional life story of Micah Laaker… which would have been appropriate as an introduction, but not as the bulk of the presentation.

Micah went through and did relatively thorough explanations of his childhood, his early starts into creative design, and eventually a lot of talk about his big break: DefJam.com. The meandering path eventually lead to talks about all the awesome things you can do with Yahoo!’s services, like Pipes, but with the caveat that Micah didn’t really understand a lot of the inner workings and that it was very technical and boring. And in conclusion thank you for your time. That was the entire presentation. Micah was second in line after Jason Fried from 37Signals, so I felt a bit gypped.

Adriana Gascoigine and Girls In Tech

Adriana is the Director of Corporate Communications for hi5. Launched in 2003, h15 is now one of the world’s largest social networks – ranked as a top 20 website globally and the #1 social network in 31 countries. In March 2007, Adriana launched Girls In Tech, and organization focused on touting women’s achievements in tech and beyond.

BigOmaha Guide

This was my least favorite presentation, for a variety of reasons. Where Micah Laaker’s ramblings may not have had a point, they were at least interesting. The Girls In Tech presentation lacked point, purpose, power, and anything remotely interesting enough to draw attention. All the other speakers (including Mr. Laaker) focused on offering some sort of advice or motivation. The Girls In Tech presentation was purely an organizational sales pitch, and a very poor one at that.

The speech went something like this:

“Hi, I’m Adriana Gascoigne from Girls In Tech. Girls In Tech is an organization that promotes women in technology careers. We promote women in technology careers because there need to be more of them. There need to be more women in tech careers because there aren’t enough. We’re starting a local chapter here in Omaha, which is awesome. Thank you for your time. Questions?”

Abbreviated, but not exaggerated. I have never been opposed to the movement for equality for minorities and women in the workplace, but there has to be some sort of point to it at least. Arguing that the reason that there need to be more women in a field because there “aren’t enough” is horrible reasoning. During the ending Q&A section, an audience member asked how much is enough. Ms. Gascoigne dodged this question, making some sort of oblique reference to wanting to view more statistics on ideal demographics. In addition, I find the idea of arguing for more women (or men, or cows, pullets, robots, whatever) in anything based strictly on there not being an arbitrary number of them, very silly. Especially if you’re arguing for equality across the board. If everyone is equal, does it matter that there happen to be more cows than robots working in the soilent green factories?

Lastly, Ms. Gascoigne never actually explained what Girls In Tech does. They are a chapter-based organization that promotes women in technology fields, but what does that actually come down to. No mention was made of fundraising or promotional events, professional services, PR campaigns, etc. An audience member (a women engineer, I might add) asked if GIT sponsors programs for schools that raise awareness for younger girls about possible tech career paths they hadn’t considered. Ms. Gascoigne skirted this question as well, referencing that there were a lot of programs like that out there, and citing NASA as an example. That’s all well and good, but what exactly is it that you do? It took a trip to the GIT website to discover the one-line answer: “Some of these resources include, educational workshops and lectures, networking functions, round table discussions, conferences, social engagements, and recruitment events.”

Matt Mullenweg

Matt is the founding developer of the popular open-source blogging software WordPress and writes a popular blog, Photo Matt. After quitting his job at CNET, he has devoted the majority of his time to developing a number of open source projects. In late 2005, he founded Automattic, the business behind WordPress.com and Akismet.

BigOmaha Guide

I’m a huge fan of WordPress, though I recognize its flaws and areas where it is lacking. So it’s no surprise that I was really very excited to hear a speech from its father figure, regardless of what the talk was specifically about. However, my dreams were shot when it was announced that Matt had canceled and wasn’t going to be attending the conference. I found out on a WordPress discussion board via LinkedIn that Matt didn’t cancel, but instead wasn’t able to make the connecting red eye flight to Omaha because of delays in previous flights down the road. That sucks. I’m sure he would have given a great presentation.

Joe Olsen

Joe Olsen is the CEO and co-founder of Phenomblue, a multi-platform interactive software creation company. His footprint on today’s emerging media landscape has been recongized via several industry-specific awards targeting everything from his collective creative to the concept and delivery of complex design and digital systems.

BigOmaha Guide

I’d heard of Phenomblue in passing, but my work and interests typically travel in different circles. Still I thought the perspectives of an interactive software and installation developer would be interesting and unique given the hype and dominance of web applications, UX, and UI. Instead, Mr. Olsen came out on stage to perform a lengthy introduction to Jeffrey Kalmikoff and to encourage everyone to “be a balla” in their business. He even had us do the Branson-esque divided room chanting where one half of the conference hall yelled “Stop Hustlin’!” and the other half followed with “Start ballin’!” Had it not been for other other fantastic speakers up to this point, I would have been seriously questioning if the 7 hour trip northward had been worth it.

Ok, enough of the bad. Next time, I’ll do a review of the awesomeness that I was treated to, and breakdowns on individual speakers and their topics.

Thumbnail image credit: Zoran

I wanted to start this brief series of articles on the BigOmaha conference with kind of an overview of what went down, and my overall impressions.

BigO was started to “bring forward-thinking creatives, entrepreneurs, and innovators to Omaha.” That’s a pretty broad goal, and the dynamic at the conference reflected the breadth of purpose. Clarification wasn’t made about the conference centering around Web-related practices and approaches, so a wide variety of disciplines made a show. I spoke to several web and software developers, but also to a fair amount of graphic designers (working mostly in print), PR consultants, and even a few accountants. The age groups were just as random as the career base, and the visual demographic was a mixture of suits and sandals, cocktail dresses and jeans, punk hair and baldness.

The really huge range of attendee demographics could have been a big factor in the success of the conference, and I think that it was for quite a few people. However, I personally found it to be a difficult barrier to overcome because there was little common ground to be found in most places. I made a concentrated effort to introduce myself at the various parties and break periods, but wasn’t able to find much to discuss with those that I met. Jarad Johnson, one of the other three Springfieldians to make the journey north, related a similar story where he tried to get to know a fellow attendee. It went something like this:

• Jarad: “So, what do you do?”
• Attendee: “I’m a developer.”
• Jarad: “Oh, neat! So do you do mostly frontend or backend?”
• Attendee: (frowns) “Uhh… mostly commercial real estate?” (confused)
• Jarad: (blank stare)

The messages shared by the speakers were universally applicable to most businesses, so I don’t think that anyone would have been wasting their time attending the conference. But because all of the speakers and the information presented was geared toward a more South By Southwest style crowd, I would tend to think that a lot of what was discussed may have fallen on deaf ears. You could also make the argument that those industries that have traditionally been blind to the Web are the ones who probably needed to hear it the most.

As far as the actual organization of the conference, the amenities, the preparation, etc… I was impressed. The branding done for the conference was extremely consistent and had a lot of whimsy, which made it very memorable (bravo, Oxide Design). Other than the lanyards we had to wear being a bit finicky, all the materials we were given were put together nicely. The actual conference was held at the Kaneko library, which was one hell of a space. I wish we had a library half as nice as that one in Springfield – and it wasn’t even finished yet. Downtown Omaha is really very beautiful, and the conference held its opening and closing parties at some really nifty local venues.

The speakers were, on the whole, exhilarating. I’ll get to some of their ideas and topics in later posts, but there was a powerhouse lineup of Jason Fried, Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Micah Baldwin, and Gary Vaynerchuk that made for a lot of really interesting and (I hate using this word) inspirational talks and discussions. Some of the speakers were extremely disappointing, and I’ll get to that in a later post as well.

This was Year One for BigOmaha, and I think they did a really fantastic job overall with giving it a good jumpstart that may make it grow into something to rival SXSW, An Event Apart, or Web 2.0 down the road. Props to Silicon Prairie News for taking a shot in the dark. More to come once I get my notes organized. In closing, I’m attaching some scans on my notebook from BigO, with some random observations I felt compelled to write down:

For anyone who hasn’t been following me on Twitter (and I’m sure that’s about 99.9% of all human beings), I made the journey up to Nebraska this weekend for the BigOmaha conference. I was hit by a massive thunderstorm, Google Maps had me circle through Kansas City once just for the hell of it, and I discovered that Iowa doesn’t have any major roads that aren’t A) under construction or B) covered in roadkill.

I went in with zero expectations, hoping the  chunk of spare change I spent would be worth it. I’ve been looking for something, I have no idea what it is. I wasn’t expecting this conference to hit me with a flash of insight as to what to do with me life, but I thought it’s as good a place as any to start.

Over the next week or two (depending on how much I write), I’m going to be posting some summation articles of the speakers and topics at the conference and my observations during my time here. As I site here writing this in the hotel a few blocks from where the event took place, I’ve got a huge mix of feelings about a number of topics. Check back in the next few days for my take on what happened here, and some of the ideas I’ve taken with me.

I’ve been a recent convert to using Twitter, and while I hate to give it any more press than it has already received… I just have. Name-dropping aside, my experience with Twitter has encouraged me to take a step back and look at this whole social networking thing and really evaluate why we do it, and to look a bit more objectively on the culture of the Web as a whole and its impact on society. Below are some random observations and thoughts that have occurred to me as of late:

Communication is… good?

In general, I think most people would agree that the ease of information sharing brought about in the revolution of the Internet Age and the way it facilitates open communication is a good thing. Yet, at the same time I believe that most people who would agree with the previous statement are thinking in terms of scientists huddled around laptops, basking in the glow of shared info from their colleagues at the Anaheim Center for Diseased Rodent Studies. Our idealization of “communication” is that it is used for the betterment of mankind in political, artistic, or scientific endeavors – not to discuss the latetst episode of American Idol and how the judges were sooooo stupid or to share a video of a guy getting lit on fire in a banana suit. With the light-speed info sharing methods we now take for granted, both ends of the communication spectrum are consistently expressed.

Enter social media and networking. It’s not really a new idea, but more the result of a variety of practices and approaches that have coalesced into a single category that we can finally put a label on – because anything without a defined label or buzzword is terrifying. But that label makes all the difference. Telling someone to place all of their contact information on their website would make them leery of solicitations, fraudulent deals, etc.; telling them to place their information on a social networking site like Facebook or LinkedIn because “everyone is doing it” generates a mob mentality that ends in approval. There’s something about the idea that taps into the core need of all human beings to find acceptance among the whole, to feel that they are a part of something larger than themselves – even if it is a group discussion on how hawt John Stamos was on ER.

The phenomenon of transparency

The truth of humanity in regard to communication is that any advancements that are made and used for this ambiguous “betterment of mankind” end up also enabling us to express the more immature, intolerant, fearful, and emotionally needy sides of ourselves. The more frequent and easier the communication, the more those deeper facets seem to want to emerge to the forefront.

I was recently working with a photographer, who related a story about one of his clients. A bride-to-be contacted him with a meeting request. He immediately searched Facebook, found her profile, and proceeded to discover everything about her that was possible. Within minutes he had learned what sorority she was a part of, her favorite songs, the names of all of her friends, viewed several photos of her in a bikini, knew the names of her family members, her birthday, and about three different ways to contact her. He then spent a few additional minutes going through her wall posts and groups, gauging her personality, tone, and interests. He then called her back a few moments later and was able to strike up a conversation, schedule the meeting, and place in a few favorable comments based on his info.

There are a lot of interesting things about this story to me, and it’s not an uncommon one. The obvious business potential is there, and with it the ability to get to find more about someone you see as being interesting. There also exists the possibility for more sinister applications ala cyber stalking or the Craigslist Killer. But what I find most interesting is the willful sharing of those things that form the core of your private life. Pictures, memories, conversations, relationships, love interests… all these things are present for public perusal.

The idea strikes me that by baring all your thoughts and feelings to society as whole, you somehow cease to be an individual and rather become another object within the culture – something more than just bits of data yet still less than a human being. The difference is in the anonymity, the lack of control that the owner of the information has over who is viewing it, the socially-accepted voyeurism. I don’t really have an explanation for it, but I do believe that it is at its core a representation of the state of a person’s self-esteem indicated by how much information they choose to share in the vast and public world of the Web. We all have egos, and the ease with which we can share those things about our lives we think other people may find interesting serves to enhance those egos – for good, bad, or whatever else.

Redundancy

The communication aspects that are the hallmark of the Web haven’t changed; Email is still the main method in use, with a sizable share going to instant messaging as well. What has changed is the internalization of these methods. Nearly every social networking site boasts email alerts from a variety of events: friend updates, public messages, private messages, status changes, group invites, etc. The difference is that each soc-net site has a specific goal to keep you coming back to login, eat a little of their bandwidth, and (most importantly) view their ads – and to this end does not allow you to respond to any of the email updates via your mail client. Some services, like Facebook, have now even built in a closed instant messaging system to encourage more user time spent on their site.

It’s a bit of a paradox. Most soc-net services allow some form of API integration for external use, yet only for the reasons of directing traffic back their site. This is a solid business approach, and I applaud the proliferation of API integrations. However, the internalization of these communication systems leads to an intriguing set of infrastructure considerations. Let’s take the example of Twitter, for instance. In its relatively short lifespan, Twitter has encouraged a countless number of apps and services to be created specifically to manipulate data and resubmit it. What happens if Twitter is dissolved, or (more likely) Ev Williams gets an offer for 20 billion dollars, sells it out, and the purchasing company overhauls it? Assuming even moderate changes to the system, a host of developments could be rendered useless. The same could happen to any other major web service: Flickr, Amazon’s Cloud services, Google’s App Engine, etc, etc.

When we build on these infrastructures or add our content to them, we’re going on faith that nothing is going to happen to these companies. This is the crux of the Web 2.0 generation of media. Can you image what would happen if Flickr lost all of its data? It sounds unimaginable, but similar incidents have occurred, like Magnolia being wiped off the face of the earth. These ventures exist to provide excellent services to their users and drive ad revenue, but one must keep in mind that many of these services also don’t charge a dime for the vast majority of the people who use them. I have to wonder when the sheer volume of bandwidth, data, cost, time, and users will reach a critical mass and another large provider will go down. Or perhaps we have the beginnings of the foundation for all Web interaction to come, the bedrock of providers upon which Web 3.0 will be erected.

Trying to keep up

Sharing information is now so ridiculously easy, especially with the advent of Twitter and its entourage of submission applications and methods. Once something is bounced into the tweetsphere, it grows and leaps from user to user in a way that the word ‘exponential’ can’t begin to describe. The speed at which something can be presented, reviewed, and either rejected or assimilated into the general Web culture presents an interesting set of circumstances and results.

In a medium where the entire planet can know in an instant that an event has occurred, the focus on keeping up to date shifts somewhat. In previous media cultures, we have rushed to stay ahead of the pack, to keep our eyes on what’s next so that we had an advantage over everyone else. Now, it’s nearly impossible to make a prediction of what new information developments will occur, what trends will develop, what events will garner attention and fame. Instead, we must now rush to keep up with each new facet in the day-to-day jumble, and hope that those ideas we’ve spent precious moments examining will turn out to be of sustainable value.

And lest we forget

Web culture is no longer its own paradigm. The Internet isn’t populated only by geeks, scientists, and IT professionals (though some of us wish we still lived in those glory days). It is now such a general part of our lives as to no longer be any different than the TV we watch, the radio we listen to, and the magazines we read. In past decades, a resounding “NO SOUP FOR YOU!!” would meet with immediate recognition and a smile for Mr. Seinfield. In the same way, we now giggle at references to “pwnage” or “You’ll run as fast as Kenyans!!” or the prevalent theme of zombies and pirates that seem to have become a staple of the Web.

But the key is that we aren’t giggling about these things in chatrooms or emails (at least not exclusively), but instead at our social events where we may share stories about a web comic we’ve read, a video we watched, a new service we’ve started using, or a new site that has these totally awesome LEGO models… We haven’t made the jump to a parallel existence where our online personas are mentally separated from our normal lives; we’ve integrated the ethereal realm of the Internet into our real life culture.

I’ll be very anxious to see where the next few years take us. The unbelievable rate at which our communicative society has evolved (and its impact on world culture) suggests that we’re rapidly approaching… something. The Epoch of Humanity? A unified consciousness? The noosphere? Armageddon? Who knows, but it’ll be a very interesting ride.