Dear Team,

If all of the world is a stage, community managers are not the stars of the show. They're the ones behind stage, making sure everything is running smoothly. WIth everyone and their twittering plant being a social media expert these days, I'm coming up with my own parameters to decide who I think is amazing. Some new universal truths I've noticed (you know, like how all girls like candles and Dirty Dancing):

Great community managers don't ask you to buy their book

Great community managers get media attention for interesting community members, not for themselves

Great community managers ask how they can help - and actually mean it

Great community managers know metrics, but couldn't tell you how many people follow them on twitter

Great community managers make you feel as though you've got a friend

I'm going to keep these in mind and hopefully, they'll help me better at what I love to do :)

Huggles,

Blue

Dear Team,

I've officially launched The Boys Club today (prior to now, you couldn't actually, BUY tickets on the site, so I don't think it counts).

I'm a slight bundle of nerves. What if I've made a horrible spelling mistake that turns a random word into a racial slur? What if I've messed up my paypal account and all ticket sales go to charity? These are things one can never recover from. Although, they would make good fodder for my as-yet-unwritten book. Somewhere inbetween the chapters, "How come you can't settle down and make your mother happy" and "Yes, 30 is too old to learn how to skateboard, you'll probably break a hip"

Ugh...being a grown up is so grown up. I will now go and make dinner by buying it from the store. Solely to prove that I'm not THAT grown up yet.

Huggles,

Blue

Dear Delightful Blog,

I'm sorry I've been negligent - the holidays threw me for a loop. For example, I watched Batman and had some kind of existential crisis...sure sign of unplugging required. Anyway, one can only stay unplugged for so long, before it starts getting weird, so I'm back. Everything is normal - although Bruce Wayne remains a better person than I am. 

I am not a goal setter, but I have outlined a few goals for myself this year. Tryin' something different. Mixing it up, if you will. My Top 5 Goals for the year are as follows (there are others, but I'm not sure what is more boring - blogging about how I'd like to learn how to make cassoulet at home, or reading about it, either way, ick!):

5. Master the game of backgammon. Some people golf when they retire. I'm going to play backgammon. I figure I better get good now. 

4. Run a 10K in 50 minutes. This will be the most likely to slip. I run all the time, yes, but I'm a slow mofo and it is a stress management tool, not an athletic accomplishment. I like to run and turn my brain off - so I never seem to get any better. I recognize that there is value in improving my time and I think it would be something I'd feel proud of.

3. Make falling in love my other job. Does that sound like the title for a self-help book? Possibly, but I consistently make poor choices because I don't really focus on it. I'd like to change that. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I can certainly start by paying attention to my heart. I'd like a p-i-c. 

2. Visit at least 3 countries (Canada and US do not count). I'm hoping to go to Korea in the Spring - would love to hit China or Japan on that trip. I'm crossing my fingers for Italy in September...and if I can swing it, Spain in February. Last year was a travelling low for me and I don't want to repeat it. Travelling is a strange beast - I often wonder why some are content where they are and others (like myself) seem to wilt without it. 

1. Become a better entrepreneur. I avoid the hard stuff. Doesn't everybody? This year, I promise to work on that. If I have to set aside an hour of pain every day, I'm going to do it. 

Perhaps New Year's Resolutions are for chumps. That's cool. I'm just writing these down to remind myself of where I'd like to be in a year. A little public humiliation is always good for character building. If this is cringe-worthy, cut me some slack, its my first holiday season without booze.

Huggles,

Blue

Dear Team,

I've had quite a few conversations lately about suffering. I'm not referring to starving children in Africa, but rather what we do in our lives to attain a goal. 

I've never been one to have a 5 year, 1 year or even 1 month plan. I mostly go where the wind takes me. I feel now I've been missing out on being truly satisfied. A year from now, how can I look back with a sense of accomplishment, if I didn't know what I was hoping to achieve?

The things I take the most pride in are not necessarily what other would view as my greatest achievements. They are things I wanted, set my mind to and had to work HARD to get. I think it might be this way in life. You don't truly appreciate something that comes easily to you. Satisfaction comes from planning something, executing it and being pleased with the results.

At least, I think this is what happens when you are smart. The other side of that smart coin is that because you are smart, you can float through life without working hard at anything - wondering if you are doomed to never be satisfied. This makes the above a hard lesson to learn. At least, for me it is/was. 

Two books I've picked up to read:

Talent is Overrated

Paradox of Choice

Props to @killingmichael and my old man for their lengthly discussions with me on life/work/brain stuff.

Huggles,

Blue

Dear Team,

"I was sitting in my college dorm room thinking of industries that would change the face of humanity. I came up with three - the internet, the environment and outerspace and then I just got to work on them" - Elon Musk (paraphrased)

That is by far more inspiring than one of those motivational posters.

I spend more time than necessary thinking of all the great things I *could* be doing. I guess I should really just roll up my sleeves and get to work on them. It sounds so gosh darn easy!

Huggles,

Blue

The petaflop barrier: One thousand trillion calculations per second! 

NOTE: These are just my random Berry thoughts typed out, message me if you have any questions, kiddies.

Betterchoice.org Solving the right problem with the wrong time frame.

Buidling the network, not the device. Their compnay is the opposite of Tesla Motors. Who gets through this down turn? The real question is who comes up with a new biz model for the car industry.

Denmark 180% tax on gas cars - if you have an electric car for 20000 $ you should pay 60000$ for the gasoline version. Crazy!

Light notes this afternoon - Al Gore - the average age of systems engineers that stood and cheered Niel Armstrong landing on the moon 8 years after JFK said we'd have someone on the moon in ten years, was 26. That means they were 18 when JFK made the prediction. TO'R said that sent a chill down his back. God! He is a good speaker, his answers to all questions seem like he's thought them out beforehand and it is totally on the fly. Q: if you had only a hundred billion dollars, what would you prioritize? A: I don't know how else to say it, it can't be done like that. We need more than that.

Oh, highlights from last night: DJ AM is totally worth any cash you'd pay to hear him. Music was awesome, no wonder he slays hot chicks. Conference is over, I'm off to have some SF fun!

Huggles,

Blue

Whoa! My phone died last night, so not too many updates from the evening.

First thing - the food guy. Author of the Omnivore's Dilemma. Of course! Everything he said was interesting in that common sense way that you are like, "uhhh...yeah, that's exactly right!"

Cheap food isn't cheap (to the environment, to make it) cheap calories equals expensive health care. Next up was more cloud computing! Two CTOs first describe what the role of CTO means. Politics and the web - A Huff and the mayor of SF on the same couch is a lot of sexy voice on one couch. The web is to 2008 as tv was to 1960.

What is the truth and being transparent about it. Not what right, what left? Obama embodies the new Centre. Newsom: politicians aren't there yet, they don't see the correlation between the web and their campaign. Every single thing you say is all exposed. He has to watch himself sing I Left my Heart in SF and it won't go away. He says politicians are wary. New moment. The period between fake and authentic: the first time someone falls asleep in the senate, big deal, 2nd time, it won't be, etc.

There are new rules. There is no off the record now. Mayor says is is more authentic or less authentic because you are always on? I think the mayor is saying get over it, he is always 'on' now and Joe is saying, over time, it'll be acceptable to 'have a bad day' etc. It'll be you, foibles and all. GN - encumbent upon us to reconcile the 100,000s of people just a few blocks from us, that have no idea what we are talking about. Too poor for internet, etc. JT - using online to connect with offline. I.e. Find your talkers online for broader outreach. Nigeria campaign - you hold the torch of democracy in your hand. Use it. (6million cell phones)

Elected as an independant with democratic backing. More powerful with this email list than anyone else. a means to an end. Meaningless construct if you don't deliver. Obama has the opportunity to change, he just has to follow through with it now. Get it done.

Ok, AHuff has perfect everything, I aspire to have her nails, hair, etc. I could listen to these guys all afternoon. Seriously. Also: this was by far the best panel. Very cool.

Tesla motors. Uh, sweet, cool awesome! Its a hundred grand. Elan says the point to get to mass market electric cars - this is something expensive, making technology work, then optimizing. Talk about layoffs, raising money, delays difficulty in starting a new car company. Car industry still running like it is 1955 - too many country club memberships, etc. Elan - I'm a volunteer at this point. There is nothing that I can't buy and I don't really like yachts, or stuff like that. My interest is purely the environment. He is happy with GM's initiative, etc. When he was in college, he tried to answer what are the three things that can change the face of humanity? The internet, sustainable energy, space exploration. JB asks again, how much of this is ego? Says he started with the internet, and just kept going. 1st co: hopefully I can make enough money to buy food. He is smart.

The web as a platform: the guys on this panel are super geeky-adorable! What is so awesome about your platform that ppl wil need to join the revolution? Good question and a good way to look at any biz, really. Google, myspace, facebook and microsoft. The web is open, and free and great, but you guys are all building something that is inside your site. 'Engineers like to launch something' Dude from Facebook. I like this quote. Totally true.

Myspace would like to see apps with long term value. Fb would like to see enterprise apps and health. Whoa! Very interesting talks this morning. Shell and I are going to grab some lunch!
Huggles,
Blue

Click here to download:

winmail.dat (42 KB)

Dear Team,
I took the Bart this morning! Everything went smoothly, except I passed my stop and had to get off and get on another train going the other way. No big deal. Note to self: if everyone else is getting off and it is rush hour, you probably want to be getting off as well.

I missed the first talk. Kevin Kelly from Wired is up and I SWEAR ON BABY JESUS he is talking about how the future is the semantic web. Ralph de la Vega introduced by Mike Arrington. I don't like Arrington. Kind of not interesting, I'm confused by how this guy does journalism for a living, but is a really shitty interviewer. Can he not think of any good questions? Also: I can turn my phone off at night and it'll turn on when my alarm goes off in the morning. I feel like someone should point this out to Arrington who felt the need to mention that he doesn't use his phone as an alarm, as it rings all night.

A panel on health. Very interesting! Not much to write about, as I'm trying to listen, unfortunately. I'll try and recap in person if anyone is interested. New cool things: skin cells into embryonic stem cells and massively speeding up discoveryby enlisting every citizen (bascially...I think).

Came in early for what next for Media talk. Caught the last half of the Army CIO talking about how the army uses social networking. Interesting security concerns about soldiers using FB/YouTube etc and getting malware on PCs. Hahaha, if I got an email from Major O, I'd assume it was talking about the big O. The army...doesn't. Twitter and Current - what's new? What's not new? How are you going to make money? Twitter hasn't focused on that yet. Current - old fashioned biz model of getting paid on 58 million subscribers getting c. tv into their homes. Collaborated with each other and Digg for election day coverage. Viewer created ads on current - Pretty funny ad about Prius. UGC done correctly, I think. If it is ugc, current always lets you know that's what it is. Therefore some accountability as to people not just 'trusting' it is true. Saul Griffith brought a prop. An IV drip of oil. He is using it as an egg timer. He wants to know how he fits in to the whole green movement. www.wattzon.com He estimates he used 17027 W a year. I'm not going to lie, I don't really understand what he is talking about.


Mark Zuckerberg - Shell and I are both noting that he's had some public speaking training, for sure. Facebook being banned at work - MZ says that anecdotely, he hears the opposite. He says using tools within FB office gives him confidence that FB for business will happen (they have no plans to go this direction).

I'll post more later today, but need to send this draft off as it is getting buried in my inbox.
Huggles,
Sarah

Click here to download:

winmail.dat (3 KB)

I've never heard of this guy before. However, he is totally solving the problem of internet in India. Bypass it and go straight to text. 4 times the traffic of twitter.

Building philosophies of emergic innovations:

Bold and ambitious
Focus on local non-consumers
Simpler and cheaper
Limited legacy helps leapfrog

Overall pretty cool. Check out www.emergic.com
John Doerr - most important thing for new president: kick start innovation in energy. It is the challenge of our generation. 2 smaller points: we need more smart people. Did you know there's only 30,000 engineers a year in the US? We need to double that. Also, we invest in foreign students then send them home. Staple a green card to their degree.

The mortgage crisis does not explain the current situation alone. He feels americans have lost faith.

Man! I wish I was smart/laid back like JD.

Why does the iPhone matter? Because they are personal.

Most exciting companies to the iPhone: MGmoko...I think. Founded by Neil Young (search on that) games company. Gaming could be the sleeper hit of the iPhone.

Looking for applications that are tailored to the iPhone platform.

Mentions zinga. Check it out. Also, cool iris. Media for the web. It solves the problem of too much stuff. Hot, Flat and Crowded - by Tom Freedman

Next up: Zappos! Focus on amazing customer service and repeat customers. The zappos culture book. Check it out. 10 committable core values. Zappos gives tours when you're in Vegas! Do it!

Larry Lessig - Creative Commons interesting presentation. He's a good speaker. I feel a bit like I'm being Michael Moored at by a slow talker.
Jerry Yang talked about how sometimes deals work...and sometimes they don't! Lance armstrong was the closer this evening. He rocked. He is quite arrogant, but he owns it. I'm a fan. Will post more tomorrow,
No song lyrics o' the day today...
Huggles,
Blue

Click here to download:

winmail.dat (3 KB)