I believe it was my business partner Jessica who first said the word Pinterest out loud. I asked what she was referring to and I was shown this odd website that looked like a mix between an ad agency’s mood wall and some gal’s “vision board”.  I joked that I hadn’t heard of Pinterest, but that I expected the rule of threes to apply, and that I would probably hear of it again two more times over the next week.  I greatly underestimated its popularity…

I started seeing posts about Pinterest on Facebook almost immediately (or perhaps I finally noticed them).  Then there was an article about “the power of Pinterest” and how this was the next big thing businesses needed to be aware of.  It wasn’t until my sister Katie, a once-a-week at most Facebook updater, mentioned it was her latest obsession that I knew something was going on.  I decided it was time to sign-up.  I created a login, hooked it to my Facebook account, and very quickly realized this was the biggest secret in female social media ever. Pinterest is apparently the Mark Ruffalo of websites – an obsession with the ladies, that male audiences haven’t even heard of. Within a week of signing up, several female friends were following me, and I hadn’t even made a single post. Finally on Saturday I sat down and “pinned” some things. I created a board of places I’d like to visit, and grabbed a few photos from the web. The system was super easy to use. Immediately after I made those posts, I received notification that Emma Earl, Michelle Huyck, Natalie Baker and Jill Foster dug my pins.  I have no idea who they are – but I can’t remember the last time I did something online and four gals I’ve never met took interest.

Then today, my client Vanillawood asked how we can integrate Pinterest into their website.  It’s official – Pitnerest is a big deal. Launched in March of 2010, Pinterest had a quiet rise in popularity, but by December of last year, was averaging more than 10 million visitors a week, up nearly 40 times its rankings a mere six months earlier.  According to their stats, 58% of members are women (although it sure doesn’t seem that way to me).

At the end of the day, Pinterest might not be for me. While I do think visually, I tend to want more “info” than pictures and I’m not sure I’ll keep taking the time to save photos, rather than bookmarks.  However, I can certainly understand why it’s so popular amongst my designer friends who create collections of “styles” they enjoy.  It’s really a great way to collect inspiration on a design project – or in my case, reminders of all the beautiful places I’ve yet to visit. By connecting into Facebook’s Social Graph, it then connects your boards to your friends, allowing them to LIKE or RE-PIN various images.

Pinterest is only one of numerous websites with mobile applications that are leading the way in what I’m pretty certain will be the biggest online trend in 2012 – the extraction of your online social interaction from Facebook – to 3rd party tools that connect to Facebook’s Social Graph.  This will not only massively improve  the types of social interactions we can have, but might be the saving grace that returns Facebook to a useful tool in the first place.

Facebook was nice and easy in the early days. I had a couple dozen friends – all generally my age – and folks who I spent a pretty regular amount of time with offline as well.  As Facebook grew, new waves of “friends” began showing up – and before long I had made over 200 connections with friends, high school classmates, colleagues, cousins, parents of friends, friends of my parents – just about everyone I’d ever spoken to, and some I’m not sure I ever did.  What’s worse, I became bombarded by their hobbies – both good and bad.  Between Farmville updates, WordsWithFriends Requests, spiritual/motivation graphics, baby photos and relationship status updates – Facebook became less a place to “stay connected” and more like a voyeuristic nightmare.  I was reminded of being told as a child that in heaven, everyone you ever knew was there – and thinking to myself “how annoying”.  What’s worse, I became very self-conscious about what I was saying and posting.  A political rant or drunken post would suddenly touch dozens of folks with zero context to the statement, and with likely varying opinions I had no desire to attack or confront.  I began making less posts, stopped discussing politics, and tried to stop following the streams of the majority of my list, so I could focus again on those I actually wanted to.  And I wasn’t alone.  I consistently heard the groans of dislike from friends, online and off – about how Facebook was becoming too overloaded with crap. Many spoke of the demise of Facebook… that it would collapse upon itself, millions of members and all.

What’s happened instead though is a far greater solution than loosing all the connections that Facebook miraculously created – or hoping to recreate them on another platform – a digital mass-migration. Combined with the knowledge that almost everyone is walking around with a state-of-the-art phone in their pockets, this new wave of applications is allowing folks to connect with various groupings of their friends, for specific purposes.

Spotify allows me to share music and playlists with friends.  Upon connecting to the Social Graph, I can see what friends from Facebook are already on Spotify, and select the ones I’d like to follow.  It was cool learning the musical tastes of a few folks I was friends with but hadn’t previously discussed music with.  Folks can follow my lists too – but I don’t have to post on Facebook every time I like a song, nor be bombarded with updates from friends whom I don’t happen to share the same musical taste with – music interactions are kept within Spotify. Whereas MySpace had a solid music platform, Facebook has never been a great resource for sharing music – now tools like Spotify, Pandora and Rdio concentrate on solid music experiences, while leaving the social connections to Facebook.

Instagram is another such model – only focused instead on photography.  All photos get posted to Instagram, and friends from your Social Graph who’ve opted to follow you will see your pictures in their Instagram stream.  Not only does it have a more robust photography tool than Facebook, the iPhone application lets you post your photos to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or more, right from the application. So if from time to time you wish to share with a larger audience, it’s easy. I’ve also used Path which has some potential as a social app for photos, although it doesn’t have as cool of included filters as Instagram.

Beerby is another app I’ve been playing with that lets you record the various types of beer you drink – and give them a rating.  While I certainly wouldn’t want a running list of what and where I’ve been drinking to be posted on Facebook – an app that lets me and a few of my microbrew enthusiast buddies compare our conquests is a fun tool.  Again – the iPhone app makes it easy to log info while at the bar, and by plugging into the Social Graph I can easily find friends, because Facebook has already connected us. I don’t need to send invites asking folks to sign-up to Beerby – if they’re interested and have the app, we can just connect.

It’s obvious we’re going to start seeing a ton more of these types of websites/applications in the marketplace – and solid competitors to some of the popular versions already out there.  I can think of several “niche” groups I have in my life that a tool like this would be great for – including discussing politics, web development resources, blog aggregator (pull in friend’s blogs) – not to mention plugging in websites and applications I already enjoy into the Social Graph, to allow me to share content with friends.  If you currently use any apps that accomplish these tasks that you enjoy – drop me a line.

I remember about six years or so ago, I was asked to sit in on a pitch meeting, to hear an idea about a new website and give my feedback.  A bunch of men (I was probably the youngest in the room) presented and then discussed this idea for a website aimed primarily at girls who like to journal.  It was in the early days of social media, where folks still thought Facebook could be taken out, and any idea that included a website, “friends” and the potential to monetize had a cadré of angel investors fighting to throw money at it.  The only thing I remember from the talk was how sterile everything felt. This was market-research applied to a traditionally private experience – a corporate solution for a non-existant problem.  Just the thought of having advertising banners served-up based on keywords in your personal thoughts seemed beyond invasive.  They had money though – and one way or another this was going to get built. I don’t think anyone in the room “journaled”… nor would any of them ever expect to use the tool themselves.  They just thought it was a marketable idea to someone else.

What’s happening now is that the barrier to entry has been almost completely removed – and smaller shops run by enthusiasts are now able to create online experiences that serve to improve their own passions.  Rather than hoping Facebook improves its features, we’re learning to use Facebook less. By plugging into Facebook’s Social Graph, so many of the obstacles for creating an online community are eliminated.  The development costs alone to create a customer database, logins, friend connections and secure it all – would be a massive undertaking.  I walked several wide-eyed potential customers through those expenses over the years as they presented their unfunded million-dollar ideas.  Now your efforts can be entirely focused on your product – creating a great tool.  If the good folks at Beerby had approached me to build their app, my concern wouldn’t have been the beer database, or the review system… it would have been the social media integration, login system, and plugging into Facebook somehow to make posts.  With much of those concerns now eliminated, I could have focused on making a great beer app. Plus, the days of having seven dozen logins might finally be coming to an end.  One ring to rule them all.

As for Pinterest, I’m going to continue to keep playing around with it some – and I’m excited to integrate it into a client’s website – seems like a perfect tool for them – as well as all other graphic/interior designers who want to be able to discuss “styles” with clients. Or in the case of my sister Katie, a great place to discover fun craft projects and photography ideas – a place to be creative. The challenge this year will not be managing my Facebook wall, but keeping up with all the great apps to share my hobbies and interests on.  And with all the noise turned down, and organized properly, I might just learn some interesting things about these “friends” of mine.

I was talking with my friend Rachel, and she was explaining she spends more and more time reading blogs these days.  It’s not particularly surprising.  ”Blog” is really one of those non-words, because it attempts to explain far too large a category.  There are an endless variety of blogs out there, from the informative to the funny, professional organizations and people struggling with personal tragedy.  I spend a good deal of time reading blogs as well – lots are news and politics blogs and also a lot of tech blogs like MacRumors.com.  There are a collection of a few blogs though that I visit regularly. I decided it might be fun to share the blogs I read on a weekly basis.  As you’ll see, most are written by friends or acquaintances of mine.   Here, in no particular order, are my bookmarked blogs.

Writings On Traveling by Rachel Sayre
http://pentravels.blogspot.com

My friend Rachel is a constant source of inspiration for traveling.  Her blogs captures stories and amazing photos of her journeys.  Currently she finds herself in Bhutan, a small country just east of India, high up in the mountains.  She talks of daily life amongst the villagers, and random trips out into the countryside.  It’s a glimpse into a world I might otherwise never see.  Past adventures to South America were also wonderfully documented.  Check-in from time to time and see what she’s up to.

A Year of Sundays by Joel Gunz and Amanda P. Westmont
http://yearofsundays.com

Joel is a writer in my building and runs another popular blog dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock.  This new blog however is a wildly entertaining concept executed perfectly.  Joel and Amanda attend a different type of religious gathering each Sunday and review it.  Baptist churches, Buddhist Temples, and Christian mega-churches out in Beaver-tron.  Both writers review the weekend’s adventure, and their observations are both humorous and insightful.

West Coast Styling by Beatrice Thompson
http://beatricethompson.blogspot.com

Beatrice and I have been friends since meeting at a network event awhile back.  She attended art school in London while I swam in the Mediterranean in Barcelona during the months of madness a few years ago.  While she’s a multifaceted artist, her photography has always been provoking – and her photography blog provides weekly observations of the mundane and often overlooked, given its moment for reflection.  The combination of random signs, things in windows, crowded cocktail bars,  and drawn-out shadows paint a story that unfolds with each new post.

Nerd Fitness by Steve Kamb
http://nerdfitness.com/blog

As a full-time web developer, I spend a lot of time sitting behind a desk staring at my computer screen.  Steve Kamb can relate, and his blog is a source of motivation and ideas to get in better shape and live a purposeful life.  Steve is currently on his Epic Quest of Awesome, traveling around the world and accomplishing outlandish goals like flying a stunt plane.  He has some great fitness videos and lots of inspiration.

Asleep To Dream by Keely Montgomery
http://asleeptodream.wordpress.com

Keely is not only a good friend, she is a wonderful writer and her blog contains insightful observations from all facets of life.  It’s always a treat to discover a new post is up, as each story captures an occasion or occurrence she is kind enough to share, and the details of people and places that make up that memory.

The Wayne Dyer Blog by Dr. Wayne Dyer
http://drwaynedyer.com/blog/

I first heard Dr. Dyer speaking on OPB a couple years ago.  His unique combination of motivational mantras, Buddhist teachings and inspirational quotes never ceases to improve my spirits and increase my desire to succeed.  His weekly blog posts cover many of the topics he discusses in his books, with the same “excuses begone” approach to managing ones destiny.  In a particularly frantic day, I like to take a few moments to read his latest post and reflect on the teaching it provides.  Often, just the act of reflecting on the messages he’s shared, I can put the struggles of the moment in their proper context and breath a little easier.

One Sketch A Day by Rita Sabler
http://onesketchaday.blogspot.com

Rita is another talented friend of mine, and while her output doesn’t come anywhere close to the productivity levels suggested by the title of her blog, the quality of sketches she has produced makes up for that.  I not only love the style of illustration she uses, but also the witty observations and details contained in the various locales and personalities found in these sketches. It’s much like being a fly on the wall of coffeeshops and sushi bars in and around Portland. A fly with a sketchpad.

Celebrate The Passion by Brian McDonnell
http://celebratethepassion.com

Brian is not only an amazing photographer, he is also an artful story teller.  I’ve been a fan of his work for several years now, but his latest venture in the form of this new blog and a road-trip he is currently on, has combined the power of his photography with individuals who have a passion for what they do.  On the new blog, Brian gives you some background information on the people he’s meeting.  Chronicling”average” folks and sharing their stories with the rest of us.

The internet is constantly evolving, and as the owner and lead developer for a web development studio, I am in the constant state of re-teaching myself how it is that I perform the work I do. While I imagine workers in most fields need to keep aware of whatever is occurring in their profession to stay on top of their game, web development has the unfortunate bonus of also having to exist on multiple devices – whether they be physical devices like computers or phones, or even virtual devices, like web browsers or custom viewers in web-enabled apps. And don’t even get me started on the various sizes, dimensions and resolutions of monitors.

For a long time I was a Flash guru – knocking out cool Flash sites for agencies and cash-happy small businesses and spending late nights troubleshooting abstract errors. In recent years though, the calls for interactive Flash websites occurred less and less, and more often clients were looking for clean HTML/CSS websites, with a solid CMS to manage their content, a blog or news engine, and some means of chatting with their visitors, whether through Social Media or eNewsletters. When I did try to put together sites like that, I had to outsource a majority of the work as the CMS had to be developed (typically in PHP), the CSS had to be coded, and troubleshooting WordPress and the like were a nightmare. It was neither efficient nor profitable – it was time to get to work and learn some new skills.

So about a year ago I began to re-teach myself HTML and CSS.  I had a “good enough” understanding of things which I’d developed over the years, typically on smaller projects with budgets that couldn’t afford Flash development.  Unfortunately, I had a lot of bad habits and misconceptions, many of which I wasn’t even aware of.  One of the disadvantages of working in a small shop is I’m typically the “senior” everything.  Anything new I typically have to teach myself, and there’s no one there to say “you’re doing that wrong.”  So first and foremost, I needed to see what clean, well-written code looked like.  I downloaded a few site templates from ThemeForest.com and studied how they were put together, read various articles online, learned to build a WordPress theme from scratch and researched CMS solutions. I ended up switching most of my websites over to the Adobe Business Catalyst platform, which gave me more control over the final environment. This forced me not only to learn a new platform, but also a lot of Javascript to get things looking and working the way I wanted.

Still, I missed some of the motion and visual appeal of Flash. I pushed further and began studying jQuery and many of the new javascript libraries that are out there, that really achieve many of the same effects previously only available to me via Flash widgets. Not only did the image faders and banners look just as good as they did in Flash, they worked on iPhones and other non-Flash devices. I was able to fade in the content of a page, and add interactivity as well.

It’s frustrating to have to learn something new when you know in the back of your head how you’d accomplish it the old way.  But as you begin to study you discover just how flawed the old way was.  As concepts that were initially challenging became understood, I was able to push myself further and soon found myself just as comfortable in the new code as I’d been with Flash.  As more and more ‘experiments’ began to workout, the realm of what’s possible grew.  I also discovered solid resources online that I could return to when issues arose.

It’s been an exciting year of discovery, and we’re on the cusp of releasing a whole series of websites that utilize all that I’ve learned. The first out the door was Magnum Opus, which we launched this week. Their previous site was one of the first sites I built when I started my business – and it was a seven year old Flash site.  The upgrade has made a huge difference.  Not only can the client now manage their content – the site is far more visible to Google and integration with Facebook will start growing their base. It’s exciting to hand tools like that to a client and see their eyes light up when they realize they are going to be getting actionable insights and feedback from their site – and they have the capacity to truly engage with that audience.  The new javascript libraries make certain we don’t have to give up anything visually to make that accessibility possible. Gorgeous background images still fade in and out, a hovering slide-show captures the energy of their studio, and where Flash is still cool, we drop it in, on the products page.

In the coming weeks we’ll be launching a handful of other sites, including a huge upgrade to the Central City Concern website.  All built on the Adobe Business Catalyst platform and taking advantage of the latest tools and tricks. We’re super excited over at The Interactive Dept, and looking forward to some major bragging this spring.

The first week of 2011 has come to an end, and my what a week.

A visit to the oral surgeon on Monday confirmed that I had a cavity in one of my wisdom teeth, and based on the dentist’s recommendation, I opted to have all four wisdom teeth removed at once.  As luck would have it, they had a cancellation on Wednesday – and so right at the start of 2011 I took a full swing at #41 – Get A Clean Bill Of Health From The Dentist. The procedure went as well as can be expected, and other then some occasional soarness around the newly formed holes in my jaw, it really was completely pain-free and not nearly as bad as I had imagined.  Much thanks to the great staff at Northwest Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons in Milwaukie, OR. Having not been to a dentist in a decade, my big fear was that he might say something horrible like “we need to remove all four of your wisdom teeth.”  When he said exactly that, and we did exactly that, and it turned out to not be nearly as horrible as I had imagined, suddenly I find myself inspired to confront more demons, and encouraged to kick-ass on the rest of this list.

Seeing as how I spent Wednesday incapacitated on pain killers, and thursday slowly sobering up from said pain killers, I wasn’t able to get many other tasks taken care of. In fact, the only goal that has been achieved to this point is inspiring other folks to create their own lists of goals.  Very excited that others have put their goals down on paper, and will start pushing themselves like mad to achieve them.  To that end, I wanted to explain some of my process – and how I’m going about tackling all the items on my list.

The first step was organization.  On day one I sat down with my list of goals, and immediately was overwhelmed by the variety of tasks before me.  I realized the first thing I had to do was separate the goals into different “types”.  I played around with a few different terms, but eventually settled on three:  TASKS, PROJECTS and HABITS.

TASKS I see as single events (#38 – Take a Yoga Class or #43 – Go To A Blazers Game).  These are the simplest items for the most part, because they require no  training or skills, just making an effort to take care of them.  I broke TASKS up into two categories though, SINGLE-TASKS, and MULTI-TASKS.  MULTI-TASKS consist of any of the tasks I assigned a series to #3 – Cook 10 Meals I’ve Never Made or #47 – Watch 5 Chinese Films).  They are still single tasks, just ones that I need to repeat a few times.

PROJECTS are the real challenge of this adventure.  These are goals that require lots of actions to take place in order for success.  For example, #7 – Open A T-Shirt Store Online is a simple enough goal to state – but the reality of what needs to be done for that to happen is quite complicated.  So far I have researched various online portals that will produce the shirts for me, and allow me to mark them up for profit.  I believe at this point I am going to use Zazzle.com to manage the merchandise and payment/fulfillment side of the store.  My general idea is to create a store that sells t-shirts that have street signs on them.  Don’t steal that – it’s a million dollar idea, I know.  I have started listing out street sign concepts.  Luckily for years in my travels I’ve taken photos of street signs I found interesting or unique.  In addition, I am going for all the low-hanging fruit as well which are easy enough to find on Google Images.  A few days ago I thought of grabbing a bunch of famous street-names too.  Anyhow – my goal is to have 50 shirts in the store for launch.  Once I’ve selected all 50, I need to produce the graphics (no small task) – and then obviously set  up all the inventory in the store.  Finally, I need to put some budgets and time together to market the store online.  I won’t consider this a success until I sell at least one shirt to somebody I don’t know.  So, one goal “Open T-Shirt Store Online” has numerous tasks required to make it happen, and will be something I’ll have to attend to on an almost daily basis to achieve.  But I’ve been talking about it for two years – so I’m excited to see it live in March!

The final category are HABITS.  These are tasks that need to happen at such frequency, that what I’m looking for is a change in behavior, not so much a series of actions. #22 – Write Weekly Blog Posts or #31 – Meditate Daily are not so much items I will check-off on a list, but just the type of behaviors I want to see becoming standard fair for my lifestyle.  These will be very challenging in their own right, because all seven of them when put together amounts to a radically improved lifestyle, one that while inviting and inspiring, will still be a challenge to live by.  I suppose that is the whole point of this exercise though.

To assist in organizing these tasks, I’ve started using http://ToDo.ly This website has a great To-Do list engine that lets you create various projects and tasks that you can check-off as you progress.  Beyond giving you a great visual of all the work ahead of you, it also allows you to track progress as you check-off the various tasks on your list.  You can also re-order and move things around, to help focus on what you’re looking to tackle now, and what will need to wait a bit.  You can add deadlines too which also help to keep you on pace.  I don’t want to be running around like a mad-man in March because I didn’t tackle enough tasks early in the quarter.

I’ve done research now on every tasks.  For items like #44 – Try Three New Restaurants I’ve started listing out which restaurants I’d like to go to, so not only do I have the goal in mind, but also a clear idea of how it will be achieved.  That actually brings me to the single most asked question about this whole concept:

“Does The List Have To Be Public?”

Lots of folks seemed really interested in creating their own lists, and of the handful of people I know that mentioned it to me that they were, most asked if making the list public was part of this or not.  While there are no rules to this concept, and I would never tell anyone who is in the process of making a list of goals they hope to achieve in 3 months to “scrap it” just because they want to keep those goals to themselves, I would say that being public about your goals helps.  The first two steps are obviously EXTREMELY important.  Writing out a list of goals is key, first and foremost.  Most folks rock their lives on auto-pilot, not taking the time to explore why they are here in the first place, and what they would like to do with their time.  Thus, their lives are spent on the defensive, responding to events and circumstances seemingly outside their control.  By creating the focus on what you want your life to be about, you go on the offensive, and control your time.  The second step, creating a definitive deadline is what converts a dream to a goal.  Goals need to be achieved by a certain point, or else they are simply wishes.  Most of the major events in our life happen at a defined point, and thus we work well with that construct in mind.  Schools function this way, most projects at work have deadlines (if you work for a good company) – but in our personal lives we don’t often have these time constraints.  ”I want to loose weight”, “I need to save more money”, “I’d love to travel to Europe” are admirable thoughts, but unless you complete that statement with “by March 30th”, you’re only dreaming (not that dreaming isn’t fun too).

The final step though – posting your goals serves several functions, most involving encouragement.  First off, my little experiment is a spin-off of the main Goals Project, which sets its target at 100 Goals In 100 Days.  That also started on January 1st, so there are dozens and dozens of other folks right now going through a similar process to mine – and in the age of social media they of course have a Facebook Group where I can go to read other lists, and see suggestions for tackling shared goals. It’s a great community of highly motivated folks, that will become more important as the deadline looms.

As I linked my blog post from Facebook, lots of friends and family saw it.  While of course everybody has a comment on #28 – Get Laid, I remind them that this isn’t about some spiritual quest for enlightenment, this is about having fun and enjoying life.  Many friends have already joined in for several of the goals.  My friend Keely sent over a great list of restaurants to check-out, which I’m thinking will turn into a monthly restaurant outing with friends. My friend Rachel and I will be getting back into our gym routines, and my buddy Tim and I started throwing around ideas for Vacation Anticipation for the first time in over a year or so.  This and several other offers of assistance were only made possibly by making my goals public.  We are all surrounded by an amazing network of super talented and wonderfully generous folks – by posting a list of all that you want to accomplish online, you tap into that collective creativity and the “how” begins to answer itself.

If you’re not quite ready to share on Facebook, you can always just leave your list as a comment on my blog or just email it to me.  I think you should share your goals with at least a few other folks, even if you’re not quite ready to experience the peer-held-talents you’ve collected through your life.  Perhaps that’s a goal for the second quarter.

I’m flying down to San Francisco at the moment – 20000 feet in the sky – writing a blog post on my iPad. In fact, minus a few obvious items like clothes and an assortment of travel size bathroom products – I brought little more than my iPhone and iPad on this trip.

I didn’t even bring a ticket. I checked in last night online, and simply scanned a barcode on my iPhone at security and prior to boarding. Just walked off the Max and right through security.

Typically when flying my carry-on is stuffed to the gills with magazines, a book or two, a handful of cables and chargers, my camera, an iPod, along with print-outs of tickets, hotel reservations and several Google Maps I would print out with locations to the various locales I was planning to visit on my trip. I would then lug this turtle shell around with me throughout the trip.

These days I bring so much more but carry so much less. The majority of my music collection now resides on my iPhone, so no need for the iPod – although even that remarkable device was an enormous upgrade from the CD Walkman days where I’d carry my music portfolio in a separate carrying case larger than the player skipping it’s way through the music (not to mention a ziplock bag full of batteries to sustain the consistently drained device).

With my upgrade to the iPhone4 – I no longer feel compelled to bring my digital camera on most trips, as the new camera on the iPhone4 does the trick most of the time.  When I traveled to Ireland with my Dad earlier this year, I of course brought my Nikon with me because I knew there would be some great photo opportunities. But even with that camera in my bag most of the trip, I still found myself using my iPhone most of the time, as it was smaller and more convenient. Plus with the addition of video I’m slowly beginning to capture more events and experiences through that medium then simply taking pictures. The thought of bringing a video camera with me on a trip 5 years ago would have seemed excessive – but now it just sort of tags along.

With just the iPhone, you already save a good deal of luggage bulk, but with the addition of the iPad, the need for most other travel accessories vanishes.

I fly home to the east coast at least three time a year, and those 6 hour flights require a lot of entertainment. With the iPad, I might as well be sitting in my living room. I have a huge collection of books and magazines to peruse throughout my trip – exponentially more than I could have ever packed (or carried in general). Many of the popular new apps I have work just as well offline as on, so I have a sick gaming system to entertain me – and it’s size makes it a lot more usable in a cramped airline seat than even my tiny MacBook.

Speaking of the MacBook – I still take that along with me – but I find I use it less and less – and I can imagine not bringing it on a shorter trip, where I knew I wouldn’t need my major applications (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.).  I can’t imagine we’re too far away though from touch-screen verions of many of these popular apps, even if just “light” versions at first.  Adobe already has a Photoshop prototype app for the iPhone.  I imagine the integration of Photoshop or Illustrator with touch-screen technology would radically transform graphic design techniques and style.

The first time I came to San Francisco about seven years ago, was to attend the Flash Forward Conference.  The final day, they had a drawing for various prizes.  I was psyched when my name was called – but soon discovered my prize was a collection of instructional books from O’Reilly – about 15 or so 100+ page books.  Now typically, I’d be thrilled to get a huge increase to my library.  One problem… I was standing at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco – and my office was in Portland, and I had a flight to catch in two hours.  There was no way I could carry that many books out to the Oakland airport, and shipping them would have been insane.  I grabbed the five or six that seemed most interesting, and left the rest behind.  The book, even with its unmatched capacity for sentimental connection, is a horrible distribution device.  Heavy, easily destroyed, hard to share.  Digital changes everything.

So as I’m wrapping up this post, I am now back in Portland (yes, a blog post can take minutes to read, but days to write if you’re as scattered as I am).  I was running late on Sunday – and had yet another great iExperience on the way to the airport.  Having not previously checked-in, and having overestimated the speed with which the BART train would take me to SFO, I began to get that nervous feeling that this might not work out so smoothly.  Once again I reached for my iPad – and while driving through an underground tunnel I was still able to connect to the United website, check-in for my flight and have the virtual-ticket emailed to my phone.  Five minutes of my time, no ink required.

There were countless other times I took advantage of GPS and search to find various restaurants or bars – reading reviews and rating and making sure I was headed in the right direction.  Santa-con was in full force, so the camera was in steady demand as you can imagine – and because I could just as easily be reading a text-message you can get away with some great shots that might not be so wise with a bulky camera in your hand.  And finally, while walking through Chinatown on my last night I decided to start recording some video – and came across this old man playing a beautiful instrument.  Having an HD video camera to capture moments like this is just ridiculously awesome.

Thank you for letting me geek out some – but serious, I live in the future and I love it!

It’s been a rough couple weeks.

A close friend lost his sister in a car accident three weeks ago – and just when I was beginning to breath regularly again and not self-reflect the incident on my own reality and my own beloved family – I received a Facebook message from one of my closest friend’s girlfriend.

Greg. Please call me ASAP. Teyla was hit by a bus in Sydney yesterday. She is on life support at Royal Prince Albert Hospital in Sydney. I’m flying there tonight.

Teyla, whom I called Kendra (or Bendra most of the time) had been living in Australia the past three years or so, getting a Masters Degree in Nursing. She was the first friend I made in college – and the two of us along with my friend Mairin moved out to Oregon together in 2001. She was my partner in crime for living the life less ordinary – sharing my passion for non-stop traveling, meeting as many people as possible and doing all you can to make their lives (and thus your own) more fulfilling.

I immediately called Leah and received the awful news that Kendra was most likely not going to make it. It’s hard to express just how powerfully such news alters the moment – and changes your perspective on just about everything. I suddenly realized I was in Portland – and she was in Australia – and this small world became painfully enormous.

As the emotional dust began to settle in my mind – I began typing Kendra’s name into Facebook – and pulled up her profile. What I found there has been a source of comfort and insight the likes of which I never would have expected from a website. And that’s because Facebook and social media in general are more than just webpages and iPhone apps – they are becoming the virtual reflection of our relationships. What I found on Kendra’s profiles was the shared anguish of hundreds of people whose lives she’d touched. There were cousins, her sister, Leah, friends from college, co-workers, neighbors and all her new-found friends in Australia. What had been a profile she once controlled had become a shared vigil as we all hoped and prayed and wished for her recovery. It became a place to share news of what was happening to someone we loved who was so far away. As others discovered the tragic news from status updates of friends, the vigil grew.

When the sad day arrived that Kendra was taken off life-support, the vigil became a memorial, and more photos and heart-ache poured out upon its pages. People wrote good-bye messages to Kendra – but in reality they wrote those letters to everyone – sharing their unique moments and personal sorrow with the collective.

This was a stark comparison to my first experience with death and social media. In April of 2006 my good friend from growing-up, Lucas, lost his younger brother. Tim passed away in the evening – and news reached me several days later. I was completely devastated, but I credit that event with a complete shift in my life that led to a 30-day train trip across the US and Canada shortly thereafter, followed by the endless travel and the awakening that my experience, even if I lived it in full would be too short if I wasted a single moment. Events like these reminds you that the “average lifespan” is not a guarantee – nor enough time in its own right.

Some time later I pulled up Tim’s MySpace profile – and do so even to this day. As opposed to Kendra’s, Tim must have had comments locked, because it is frozen in time from the day he left. No good-byes or well-wishes from friends, just his life as it was the day he left. It acts as some sort of modern-day tombstone – a place I can return to and reflect on his young life – and all the talent and beauty he left behind. Unlike a tombstone it does not stand silent – instead it tells me of the songs and music and books he read – of the friends he had and the thoughts and opinions he shared. You never die on social media – according to MySpace Tim is 28 now – and part of me prefers that virtual illusion over the reality. I have no doubt that I will continue to return to Kendra’s profile as well, and leave comments as the years go by. It will be no substitute for the plans we had – but it can be a source of comfort when the inevitable presence of her absence is felt.

A day after Kendra’s passing I received two messages from individuals I had never met. They had known Kendra though and she had clearly told them about me – and through Facebook they decided to contact me to make sure I was doing okay. I was unbelievably touched. This is a direct result of the power of social media. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken the news to get out to me in Oregon from Australia without Facebook – and I most certainly wouldn’t have been consoled by an Aussie who never met me.

You are not alone – you never were in fact. More people love you then the mind is capable of recognizing – and any fears or personal defeats don’t have to be fought alone. Social media unlocks the promise of a community somehow lost over the last century. While advances in transportation and urbanization have allowed us to go further and live more dispersed lives – up until recently, it has seemingly only broken the social bonds of family and friendship. With Facebook and the social media revolution however, I believe the pendulum has begun to swing back. Both tragedy and personal triumphs can be shared. Rather than having a couple of friends that you do your best to stay in touch with, you can now be connected to an entire community of people, and easily keep up with the events in their lives, as they share in yours. While many folks worry about privacy concerns, I am convinced “privacy” is an out-dated concept, the result of isolation and fear of the potential harm strangers bring. The more we get used to sharing our lives with others online, the more we will realize how much in common we have – and the more we will begin to cooperate in the success of others – and collectively mourn our tragedies. New “communities” are forming – that will be larger and more connected than traditional communities ever were.

We need not fear social media. What we should be more concerned about is loosing the connections with those around us. Stay connected.

Last week I had two occurrences which made me contemplate the information revolution and how it might effect our lives in some unique ways.  Sometimes the technology comes at us so fast we forget that it hasn’t been with us for very long.  I can hardly imagine myself without a cell phone – but less than a decade ago I had never held one – let alone an iPhone on which I check my email while taking the Max into work.  So it’s equally challenging sometimes to imagine how radically different our lives will be a mere decade from now.

On Tuesday I was sitting in the corner of the Green Dragon pub having a pint with a friend when I decided to get up to use the restroom.  While heading to the men’s room, I happened to bump into an old colleague of mine who I hadn’t seen in probably four years.  We chatted for a few minutes, exchanged business cards and agreed to meet up for coffee soon. It was a great coincidence that our paths had crossed.

I’ve always been fascinated by the “bump-in”.  Not so much by the folks I bump into on occasion, but moreso by all the countless folks who must have been close – but I never noticed.  On any given day – how many friends are only a block away?  How often am I at an event in which someone I’d enjoy seeing is there – but I just never happen to realize it.

It seems to reason that in the near future – those sort of situations will be greatly assisted by software.  There are already sites like FourSquare where people check-in at various locations. Of course, there are also sites like Please Rob Me that take that data and use it against you (albeit in a funny manner).

While I don’t think I would be comfortable posting my whereabouts to everyone – I can certainly see myself allowing a select group of folks to know my location at certain times.  It could be useful in an office so co-workers know where you’re at in the building. Useful at concerts to find friends (expected or unexpected).  Suddenly you have a whole new insight at networking events – you can see the entire crowd indexed by your contact list.

As smartphones with GPS become more the standard – all types of information about WHERE you do, what you do will become available – and entirely new types of software will be developed to make use of all that data.  Just as police might now investigate phone records when a crime has been committed – in the near future I wouldn’t be surprised if GPS data of where a defendant was will become standard evidence in a trial.  By looking at entire collections of data – irrespective of the individuals – we will be able to learn volumes about how folks migrate around a city or community.  This information could greatly assist city planners, event organizers, or even transportation officials.

The second occurrence that struck me as funny occurred while riding the #70 bus in the morning.  I looked over at the passenger sitting across from me and noticed he had a name-tag hanging from his waist.  Anytime I see a name tag I’m immediately brought back to my mom’s teaching about kidnappers (whom to my young mind were all about – and ready to pounce at any moment).  Anytime I had a name-tag on, she cautioned – be extra careful that you know an individual, if they say your name. A solid lesson in fear – but wise words none the less.

And indeed, at one time, I suppose an unscrupulous type could approach an unsuspecting person and could possibly con them into believing they were an acquaintance – but for how long?  Today, however, a name can get me a lot further.  As I have no desire to lay out a full stalking of an unsuspecting fellow Tri-Met rider, I will reverse the cards and look up “Greg Spies, Portland” in Google.

Well hello.  Looks like I have some info.  In fact I have:

• My company name, what my business does and most of my clients
• My bio and entire resume from LinkedIn
• Names of fellow past co-workers from LinkedIn
• The college I attended and degree from LinkedIn
• All my Twitter posts, discussing numerous aspects of my job and life.
• Some of my friends and the groups/pages I’m a fan of on Facebook

And that’s just in the first 4 links.  With some effort I’m sure there is more (no, seriously, I’m sure there is more – I Google myself regularly… I admit it).

Now how long could someone keep a conversation going with me?  It’s a bit scary. However it’s also pretty interesting. Information is neutral – it’s what we do with it that counts.

Social media is going to expand beyond just sitting at your computer reading Facebook posts.  It will continue to infiltrate smart phones – and then eventually iPads and all the touch-screen devices that will follow.  Now if I’m in a Group on Facebook – that Group can exist in the non-virtual world as well.  If there is someone else in the coffeeshop who thinks that poodle with tinfoil on it’s head can get more fans than Glen Beck – the two of you could opt to chat about it over a latte.

I already choose as many do, to show that I’m online with Facebook.  I occasionally mention I’m going to an event or a bar.  It’s not a far leap for me to add a bit of GPS data from time to time to pinpoint my location when I’m out and about.  I would certainly GPS my photos so folks could see where they were taken.  I think as we begin to dip our toes into the hot waters of the information age, we will get used to sharing what at one time seemed personal.  Much of what folks share on Facebook and Twitter were moments we would have considered private a mere decade ago.  I have witnessed break-ups, engagements, babies, death and all the tiny details in between from hundreds of people who would be little more than strangers if we weren’t modern day friends of the information age.

Maybe privacy is the bi-product of a lonesome, isolated age – where a lack of communication forced us to suffer and celebrate in small, if not singular parties.  In this new age, we can be connected not only virtually with those around us as we are today – but also in person.  We can discover our old friend is only a few tables over – we can make a lunch decision by seeing where co-workers are at – and we can discover others nearby who share our interests.  Striking up a conversation with a stranger perhaps gets a bit easier when you have some topics to start with.

Or, as always, we can press the off switch and take a few hours to ourselves.  The key, as always, is moderation.

On Friday – in what was nothing short of a calculated, yet pathetic attempt to kill a huge news story by giving a press conference when most members of the media (including her own spokesperson) were generally at the beach on vacation – my absolute favorite Republican Sarah Palin gave yet another classic rambling speech – this time suggesting she’s doing the only admirable thing, and stepping down as Governor of Alaska mid-way through her first term.

According to Palin, “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional lame duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual.”

Unfortunately, yet again, Ms. Palin clearly isn’t aware of what she’s talking about.  She is not in any way, shape or form a “lame duck” politician.

According to the dictionary, a “lame-duck” politician is:

1.     an elected official or group of officials, as a legislator, continuing in office during the period between an election defeat and a successor’s assumption of office.

2.     a president who is completing a term of office and chooses not to run or is ineligible to run for reelection.

Ms Palin is mid-way through her first term, in a state that allows the Governor two four-year terms in office. She has not lost a bid for re-election and one can assume had a perfectly good chance of re-election, especially with the access to funds she now commands. The fact that she doesn’t want to seek another term as Governor doesn’t afford her that title – only the position of President of the United States is considered challenging and draining enough to allow for early retirement.  And even in that case, the lame-duck still stays in the pond.

She is a quitter.  PERIOD.

To ask the people of a state to elect you as their representative, to obtain that title – and then walk away from the position before your first 4-year term is complete is about the lowest form of governing possible.  Throw in the fact that she abandoned that position for several months to run for higher office – her work as Governor has been half-assed at best.

To suggest that the investigations into ethics violations are wasting Alaska’s time and money, while not recognizing that it might be her ethical violations that are the waste, are the typical Palin-esque views of the news of the day that nearly gave Katie Couric a mild stroke.  Her mind-boggling statements about effecting change from outside the system are the same “mavericky maverick” nonsense that almost made her Vice-President of this country. A state Governor enacts change. Elected officials enact change.  Pundits and speech makers collect paychecks.

Be forewarned my fellow left-wingers – she might not represent the future of the Republican party, but she represents a dark future for an uneducated and blissfully ignorant democracy.  A politician with no experience, but a suitcase full of catch-phrases. No real life lesson but a handful of quaint anecdotes.  Your average Joe-six-pack hockey mom who re-writes her resume much like a young 20-something tries to make working the night-shift at Blockbuster look like “management experience”.

Ms. Palin will never be President – but I assure you others are watching, and there will be better versions of her coming soon enough.  Folks who realize that even if you get ripped by the press and have no chance of winning – you can still land massive book deals and speaking engagements.  Pop-politics, driven by social media and a news industry hungry for sound-bites. It’s the darkside of the new media revolution – and we should all be on high alert.