Archives for category: Concepts
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The Only Thing We Have to Fear…

January 8, 09 //
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You know, I never understood the meaning of “The Only Thing We have To Fear is Fear Itself”. I thought I did, but not until I experienced my first real recession as a professional and as a father. Now I know.

With all this Doom and Gloom around the economy and the current state of world affairs, I came across this paragraph from a president:

“In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone…”

-Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932

It’s funny how history sometimes repeats itself.  How the challenges we faced so long ago, seem to be so close to everyone once again.
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Linear Thought – The Parking Lot Manifesto

January 2, 09 //
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I often times get my inspiration from the oddest places.  Sometimes it’s watching my kids play… sometimes it’s at work.  And sometimes, it’s  while trying to find a parking spot at the local Walmart during Christmas time.

As I approached the parking lot, only a few days before Christmas, I began to dread the thought of dodging old drivers and young alike.  All vying for the “rock star” position; the parking spot closest to the door.

Living in Northern Minnesota, this is a coveted spot.  Since it can get down well below Zero degrees Fahrenheit on a regular basis… you want to try and keep the exposure to the cold and wind at a minimum.

As I entered the parking lot, I was amazed at how far the lot had stretched out beyond the typical 15 or so cars deep.  As more and more people drove in, the rows just got longer and longer.  Like a icle, drawn out by gravity… clinging to the origin of thawed water.

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A Revenue Model (or two) for Twitter

December 24, 08 //
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Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock for the past year or so, you’ve probably realized that Twitter has been one of the biggest influences on web culture in years.  It’s changed the way we communicate, how we think scaling applications, and launched countless startups based on it’s api.

Now, there have been countless blog posts, articles, and essays on this subject, so I’m obviously not breaking any ground here.  But, I thought it would be interesting to put my own two cents into the mix and propose a revenue model of my own.

Build Now, Pay Later

One thing Twitter hasn’t been able to nail down (at least publicly) is a revenue model.   They’re the poster-child of the web 2.0 “build now, monetize later” strategy so typical of startups in the past few years.  But, in today’s economy, this simply won’t fly.

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Luck Favors the Prepared…

October 8, 08 //
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Browsing through my daily blog reads for the morning, I came across this article from Seth Godin entitled; Is Effort a Myth?.

It’s an interesting little article and one that got me thinking about one of my favorite quotes of all time… “Luck Favors the Prepared” by Edna Mode in the movie The Incredibles.

This little quote has always struck a note with me because so much of our lives seem centered around luck – both good and bad… or at least, that’s the way it seems.  After all, I was lucky enough to be out with my friends that night I met my wife. I was lucky enough to see the ad in the paper that got me my first job in the web.

So, then if everything in our lives are centered around luck, then what’s the point of preparing for anything if life is centered around just dumb luck?

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Google Chrome – It’s Not a Browser… It’s a Revolt.

September 18, 08 //
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By now, most of you have probably heard of the release of Google’s new Web Browser called Chrome. You may be thinking… big whup, another browser to account for when designing a site. Well, the big picture is actually much larger than that.

The Following paragraphs will demonstrate how this just isn’t a simple new application in the market place – it’s the tip of the spear in an assault on how we view and interact with a computer.

The Revolution Will be Streamed

Before I can talk about the application itself, I first need to discuss a relatively new concept in the industry called “Cloud Computing”.

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Lifecasting as an Organic “About Us” Page.

September 18, 08 //
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With the relatively recent popularity of “lifecasting” applications, there’s been a lot of discussion in the Blog community lately about the future of the “traditional” blog medium. Many argue that blogging has lost it’s social roots and with the popularity of applications such as Twitter and Plurk, the medium may be well on it’s way to being obsolete. Below are a few notes on my position of this discussion and a possible new concept I’ve been experimenting with.

A Complement, Not A Replacement

First and foremost, I think it’s rather ridiculous to think that an application such as Twitter will ever take the place of a blog. In my opinion, lifecasting applications work more like post-it notes in 140 characters or less… not a conversation like blogging is. And yes, you could have a conversation on an application like Twitter… but, have you ever tried it? It’s virtually impossible to keep up with the constant stream of information.

That being said, I do believe that lifecasting is and will be an important part of the blogging medium. Not as a replacement, but as a complement. It’s another way of connecting with your audience on a more personal level. A way to not only tell your visitor who you are, but show them who you are by allowing them to follow you throughout the day. (more…)

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