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.

One of my favorite things to do is cook.  I was lucky enough to grow up in a home with fresh cooked meals prepared nightly (not including Friday pizza night of course) – and so shortly after college when I found myself living out on my own, I began to try to teach myself how to make the various meals I enjoyed while growing up.  Once I had mastered my chicken parmesan and could knock out pork-chop night by memory, I began to expand a bit further than the old family kitchen.

There are tons of great cooking websites out there, with excellent recipes rated by thousands of visitors, with delectable looking photographs of the finished product. If you have the Food Network, there’s an endless parade of celebrity chefs with examples already waiting in the oven to show-off.  But for my money – the place to start for new recipes is YouTube.

I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about YouTube for some time now, because I get the impression when I explain to folks where I’ve learned this or that, they are surprised to hear it was on YouTube. There are literally thousands upon thousands of informative videos, with an endless array of hosts and narrators, and an equally wide range of production quality, available on YouTube, all for free.  There are videos on almost every topic imaginable.  In just the last year I’ve watched videos to fix my toilet, learn the mandolin, build iPhone apps, begin studying Chinese, figure out which video games to buy, and as previously mentioned, learn to cook a wide variety of dishes.

My first foray into cooking with YouTube was about two years ago, when I decided I wanted to make one of my favorite childhood side-dishes – potatoes augratin – from scratch, rather than the box style I’d become accustomed to.  I found some basic recipes, but I couldn’t be certain how things were suppose to be prepared.  It occurred to me that there might be a video up on YouTube that could help – and I discovered Dave, the world’s greatest chef.  Well, at least that’s what it says on his apron.  I don’t know what possessed this big Carolinian to do his own cooking show – but it’s not only bizarrely hysterical, he has a damn good recipe for those taters.

Another potato chef I came across in the early days was Betty.  While I opted not to go with her canned butter spray approach – the rest of the recipe was pretty darn tasty – and I found her voice was rather nice to listen to while I followed along. When watching videos like this – I often can’t help but ponder what this person does when they aren’t using a flipcam in their kitchen.

Some of the folks on YouTube record numerous videos.  I recently decided to start learning how to cook lebanese food after I found half my budget going to Nicholas’s on Grand. I came across DedeMed – a great channel started by Denise Hazime.  In 2007 Denise found herself living on the west coast with no quality lebanese dining options, so she began cooking the meals herself, and decided, along with the help of her husband, to start a website and YouTube video series.  In 2010, her hummus recipe became the #1 hummus recipe on YouTube, with over 400,000 people watching it!  She now continues to make great recipe videos, but also sells spices and other ingredients via her website.

One of my favorite YouTube cooks is Maria, who currently has over 300 recipes on her channel, ranging through all types of dinners, desserts, appetizers, and soups. About four years ago she decided to start a blog about the dinners she made for her family – and began recording herself preparing those dinners.  Over time she’s learned better filming techniques, and how best to show various stages of preparation.   Even though her videos are well made, Maria doesn’t have a film crew, and she has a hungry family to feed, so there are no second takes, or clean cuts.  In one of my favorite recipes of her’s – gnocchi verdi – the family cat jumps in front of the camera right as she is explaining the meal.  It doesn’t phase her for a second. The purpose isn’t to create a great video or become famous – it’s to show you how dinner was made. She’s not using fancy cooking equipment and chatting with a studio audience – half the time there is a tv playing in the background and the dog is barking. But it’s the quality of the content that matters on YouTube – and her recipes are great!

As video equipment and publishing tools become easier and cheaper, more and more individuals will begin sharing their talents, passions and bizarre interests online.  Once engaged, they will begin to see not only how others perform those same tasks, but also how others present their lessons, and so the quality of content being produced will radically improve.  We are only in the first stages of a video publishing revolution, that will wildly shift where people get their information and entertainment from.  The days of content being produced by the few, for the masses is coming to an end, and YouTube is a hotbed of creative content producers experimenting with a completely new communications platform.

For dinner tonight I made Irish Stew and brown bread.  It was one of my 50 Goals For the First Quarter – and I turned to Maria for the recipe for the stew.  It was absolutely delicious – and took me back to The Lord Edward – a small pub in Dublin across the way from the ChristChurch Cathedral that my father and I had a great lunch in.  For the brown bread recipe, I came across a video clip featuring Mary Murphy from Schull, Ireland of the County Cork.  That video clip led to a blog post about making brown bread. It had a few helpful YouTube videos, the bread looked great, so I made it.  It turned out absolutely perfect.

How else but via the internet and social media could you acquire a handwritten recipe from a complete stranger?

Being a full-time web developer and all around tech geek, I spend a lot of times with various electronic gadgets that interact with almost every waking moment of my life. And considering I use my iPhone as an alarm clock, I guess I depend on several of them when I’m sleeping as well. Once you become familiar with a piece of software or a type of camera, it’s easy to stick with it and not look around for other options. From time to time though, either through necessity, frustration, or a recommendation, I upgrade these things, and almost always it’s an improvement. I’ve listed below my top five upgrades for 2010 – the new stuff I got that improved my life – or at least made it easier.

1) Upgrade of iPhone From 3 to 4.
I was a relatively early adapter of the original iPhone (one of those lucky fools who bought it at a higher price, so I got a rebate later on).  I of course broke that version, and ran out and bought an iPhone 3.  I then managed to hold-off purchasing the 3GS.  When the 4 came out though, my contract was up for renewal and I picked up the latest model relatively early on.

There are several major improvement to the iPhone 4 that makes it a remarkably better instrument than its predecessor. The new camera actually takes pretty solid 5-megapixels photos.  The 2-megapixel photos on my iPhone 3 really weren’t useful for much more than looking at them on the phone.  The HD video camera is another great new feature.  The OS has really matured as well this past year, adding multi-tasking and folders, which allows you to manage all those apps a lot easier. The App store is filled to the brim with creative and I still feel, unbelievably inexpensive applications and games to help you do everything from organize tasks and banking, to throwing birds into pigs. It’s almost silly to call it a phone, as making phone calls has become such a small percentage of what I do with the device over the past year.

2) Switching To Using Google Chrome As My Main Web Browser
As a web developer, my absolute worst enemy is the web browser.  I produce my masterpiece using the latest and cleanest code, post my files, and then begin the sad process of seeing how the various (typically older) web browsers interpret my work.  Internet Explorer has a particularly nasty reputation, but any older version of a decent browser platform can present challenges.

Because I have to test my work across all these tools, I always have a handful of browsers available to me on whatever machine I’m using.  For the past three years or more, my browser of choice has been Firefox.  I work almost exclusively on Macs, but I never really dug Safari.  I find it to be clunky, and opening new tabs is painfully slow.  Recently though – I began testing more and more in Google Chrome, and I found myself really liking the way things were setup.  Of course it has all the features any web browser has, but as is typical with Google, it’s cleaner and faster.  I also enjoy being able to sync my browser to my account, so any machine that I own (I have three I use regularly) have the exact same bookmarks and plugins.  The Google App Store is also an interesting concept I’m beginning to explore, and apps like bit.ly are starting to find their way into my workflow.

3) Purchase of Nikon D3000
While I have long fancied myself a photographer, in at least the sense that I attempt to take creative photos wherever I go, not just snapshots of me in front of things, I have always just used a hand-held Canon Powershot.  I had owned two in a row that I really loved – had recommended them to lots of folks, and still would.  In June however, I was planning a trip to visit Ireland with my father for his 60th birthday, and I figured it was as good an excuse as any to upgrade to something more capable.

I did a lot of research, and settled on the Nikon D3000 because I always enjoyed the quality of the shots I saw taken with Nikon – and the D3000 seemed to bring the most bang for the buck.  It takes gorgeous 10.2 mega-pixel resolution shots, and you can use almost any Nikon lens.  The kit I purchased came with two lenses, an 18-55mm and  a 55-200mm. The quality of shots I got to take in Ireland and ever since have been absolutely great.  Plus it’s small enough not to draw too much attention, or be a pain to take around.

I had a bit of buyers remorse at first that I hadn’t spent a bit more and gone with the next model up that also includes an HD video camera feature – but having recently just purchased a Canon Vixia HFm31 HD video camera, turns out it would have been overkill for my Nikon anyhow, so I’m glad I went with that model.

4) Switching Business Email Over to Google Apps For Business and Switching From POP to IMAP
I’ve paid for two servers for many years for my business.  Many of my clients websites are hosted on a Media Temple Shared Server, and I also maintain an old GoDaddy server for a few legacy sites.  My business email migrated from GoDaddy over to Media Temple several years ago and generally was okay.  No major problems, although a few of my clients did report issues here and there.

This year, at the recommendation of Brant Walsh over at Salem Mac Guy, our official IT solution at The Interactive Dept, we started using Google Apps For Business for various clients to specifically manage their email.  For organization under 50 users, Google Apps For Business is free, and comes with a solid email system, on par with Gmail.  You use your own URL, and clients have no idea that it’s being sent from Google.  You can use POP or IMAP, and your favorite desktop application to check and store messages.  When away from your desktop, you can use webmail with the familiar Gmail interface. We ended up bringing a handful of clients over to Google Apps For Business, and everyone seems to be happy.

I also switched from using POP to IMAP – another recommendation from Brant.  Having all my various instruments synced up with the exact same email and folders all the time is a life-saver.  Can’t understand why I ever had it another way.

5) The iPad
There are upgrades, and then there are upgrades. While technically the iPad didn’t replace another device in my life, it has replaced numerous other types of instruments and systems I would have previously used, to accomplish all the things I do on my iPad.  For example, books.  Let me make a bold prediction – I will not purchase a single physical book this entire year.  Why on earth would I?  I can just as easily download it to my iPad, and take that and dozens of other titles with me anywhere I need to.  Then there is that whole matter of cutting trees, and inks, and transporting… UGH.  Sorry printing industry, but 2011 will be the year of the digital publication, even moreso than the past year.

In addition to reading, the iPad became my new video game system.  I haven’t turned on my Wii in months now.  Games played out on a beautiful large screen that you’re holding in your hands are not only scarily addictive, but when played from the comfort of your bed before falling off to sleep (as is the case of my addiction to Words With Friends), are wonderfully convenient to sneak in time for.  The iPad has begun to replace my laptop at certain meetings and events, and with awesome new apps coming out all the time, more and more tasks previously taken care of in notebooks or desktop apps are being taken care of digitally from the comfort of the office couch. I still haven’t found a stylus that I really enjoy using – but once I can start writing actual notes on the iPad, it’s all over for paper at the office.

An old school-mate of mine who happens to share my interest in web design and serial entrepreneurship recently completed a challenge he devised called 100 Goals In 100 Days.  The concept is simple – list out 100 goals, and complete them in 100 days.  As someone who recognizes the power in setting goals – this seemed like a great concept.  However, as someone who is also easily distracted, I felt 100 goals were a bit too much to manage at once and for me personally, would be setting myself up for failure.  So instead, I’ve gone with 50 goals in the first quarter (January, February, March).  This adds up to 90 days – which is still a good amount of time to complete the tasks at hand.  In theory, if this goes well, I’ll be able to do this 4 times this year, and accomplish 200 goals in 2011.  Lets not get ahead of ourselves though – time to focus on the tasks at hand.

These goals range from business goals, to personal improvement, right up to just wanting to catch a basketball game.  It took me less than an hour to create the list, which means most of these “wants” have been floating around in my head for some time. Some will be relatively easy – others extremely challenging.    I will continue to update this post as I cross things off my list.  Hopefully it inspires others to try the same.  Having clear measurable goals with definitive deadlines is the key to success in life – hopefully this new construct will help expedite the process.

MY 50 GOALS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER

1. produce an iPhone/iPad app
2. go to the gym/workout 50 times
3. cook 10 meals I’ve never made
4. read The Autobiography of Ben Franklin
5. be able to do 100 pushups
6. produce video series reviewing iPad apps
7. open t-shirt store online
8. travel to someplace new
9. ask a girl on a date
10. update theinteractivedept.com homepage and work sections
11. find a pet web project for little $ and get passionate about it
12. learn fundamentals of the Chinese/Mandarin language and 25 phrases
13. produce a series of paintings with a theme
14. produce some large scale photos for home/office
15. write outline for my novel “East” and first two chapters
16. get in touch with two old friends
17. learn 5 scales on the mandolin
18. write a song and record it
19. volunteer a Saturday
20. learn Flash AS3
21. produce a short video about my walk to work
22. write weekly blog posts
23. get health insurance
24. go to coffee with 3 colleagues/peers
25. get weight below 175lbs
26. build website using html5 and css3
27. learn to pull an espresso shot
28. get laid
29. find a recipe for Irish stew and brown bread and make them
30. take a brewing class and make some beer
31. meditate daily
32. build something to improve apartment
33. compliment someone daily
34. write an article for publication
35. cut back on use of intoxicants
36. go to three live shows of bands I don’t know
37. fix faucet on tub
38. take a yoga class
39. get better photos of family members and frame them
40. visit doctor and get a physical
41. get clean bill of health from dentist
42. acquire a new bike
43. go to a Blazers game
44. try 3 new restaurants
45. take a tour of 2 apartments/condos I can’t currently afford
46. get a sketchpad and create a style for drawing people
47. watch 5 Chinese films
48. Get Vacation-Anticipation up and running again
49. Get rid of anything that doesn’t have a purpose in my apartment
50. inspire 3 other people to create lists of goals

ITALIC/GREEN MEANS COMPLETED

This episode is actually a composite of two design reviews we had over the past couple weeks. I love my clients – but sometimes you really just have to smile and keep your mouth shut.

For the heck of it, we’ve now recreated these conversations in this 4-minute animation.

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.

This week Apple announced their highly anticipated iPad – a revolutionary new device that creates an entirely new category someplace between the laptop and smart-phone. While the media and pundits may have been more focused on the name – my mind has been on fire the past three days thinking of nothing but the potential. I have never been more convinced that The Interactive Dept. and it’s partners of creative designers and developers – as well as photographers, videographers and writers, have a long and exciting career ahead of them. I have also never been more convinced that now is the time to work for yourself or with a small collective of creative types – because the publishing revolution has begun!

The title of this blog post comes from the title of a book by Bill Gates, written in 1995. I was a senior in high school at the time – and Bill Gates was the richest man in the world. It seemed unlikely that a dork such as this would be the richest man in the world, so a dork such as I was quite fascinated, and ran out to purchase this book the moment it hit the shelves. In it, Bill Gates explained his vision of the content revolution – of an internet that everyone participated in – video cameras and interactive touch-screens allowing for instant access to knowledge from anywhere and instantly.

“For more than 500 years, the bulk of human knowledge and information has been stored as paper documents. On the information highway, rich electronic documents will be able to do things no piece of paper can. The highway’s powerful database technology will allow them to be indexed and retrieved using interactive exploration. It will be extremely cheap and easy to distribute them. In short, these new digital documents will replace many printed paper ones because they will be able to help us in new ways.”

While a statement like this seems trite today – one has to remember that 15 years ago, the declaration that paper documents would be replaced was almost ridiculous.  Let’s recap technology for just a second:

1995 I use my parents IBM Aptiva Desktop with a 386processor, a 4800-baud modem and a dot-matrix printer and I go online for the first time with 5-hours of overpriced internet via AOL.
1996 I go to college and get a Gateway Desktop with a ginormous monitor, a bubble-jet color printer and a T-1 line
1997 I buy my first scanner – a giant flat-bed that takes up my whole desk.
1998 I buy my first digital camera.  Under 3-megapixel and a battery life of about 5 minutes it seemed.
2000 I purchase my first cell phone that just makes calls, sometimes…
2002 I get my first laptop – where I can take my computer with me. A giant, heavy Dell.
2007 I get my first smart-phone, the iPhone.
2008 I replace my broken iPhone with a new iPhone.

When Bill Gates declared I wouldn’t need paper anymore – if I had wanted to bring a map with directions on a drive, I had to go down to the basement of my house, fire up the Aptiva – connect via the phone line to Poughkeepsie ($0.35/minute at the time) – wait for Webcrawler to load up – find a mapping service via the search engine – and then try to print the map on my crappy dot-matrix printer. Today I would simply turn on my iPhone, pull up the map, and have it find me or any other location in the world and easily map the route. No need to print it either, as I can simply bookmark it and take it with me.  I haven’t had a printer setup in my apartment in 5 years. Bill was correct.

Along the way Bill obviously got side-tracked, because Microsoft certainly hasn’t been on the cutting edge of this revolution.  I like to think Bill’s philanthropic desires overshadowed his otherwise prophetic business mind – but regardless, it has been Apple that has carried the torch of this great evolution in information to our current moment.

It was Apple that changed the music industry forever – by allowing me to put every song I could have ever wanted to hear in a device I can carry along anywhere.  While Sony Executives were bragging about the endless bounds of their CD-Discman’s Skip-Protection capacity (”We’re up to two whole minutes of shaking!“) – Apple realized folks might wish to carry more than a single CD’s worth of music with them.  Oh – and while we’re at it – why not create a marketplace that makes the purchasing of music a gazillion times easier. I can now listen to music from bands who have never stepped into a corporate recording studio, whom I have never seen live.  The transaction, if any, can be conducted between us.

It was Apple that changed the telephone forever – by creating an entirely new interface and experience with a phone that for the first-time ever made having a cell phone truly useful. I could now listen (or not) to voice messages in the order I wanted to, with actual useful controls that didn’t require me to remember bizarre number combinations.  They created a phone that could be used for all the things you never imagined a phone could be used for.  And again they created a marketplace where I could easily purchase or download thousands and thousands of applications to make my life easier or more fun.

With the iPad – I truly believe Apple has created a device that will change the way we interact with tons of things we take for granted today – especially all those documents that still require paper.  For example, I still bring a notepad and pen into meetings. I don’t like the sound of typing or looking at my screen when I’m trying to discuss a project with my client so the laptop doesn’t work for me.  I would however take digital notes, or even record the audio of the meeting with a device like the iPad.   It would result in less scraps of paper around the office – I could immediately sync it with the clients files – and the ability to pull up samples of work or other websites right there in the meeting would be huge.

At home – I can finally see myself using an eReader.

I’m sorry Kindle fans, but when I look at one compared to the iPad, I think “how 90s.” I’m psyched that Amazon has had so much success, but the market for a solid eReader was WIDE-OPEN, and I think Apple has just taken over. Not only does the color screen allow for supplementary photography, video and audio – but once again they have created a solid marketplace for purchasing and downloading books from the comfort of your bed – and I’m particularly interested to see what happens to the publishing industry, as lessons from the music industry are learned, and new under-discovered writing talents begin creating their own marketplaces for selling their writings directly to the public. There is no art-form that requires so little to produce, but so much to share, as writing – and a solid eReader has been the last hurdle for unleashing the full potential of the publishing revolution.

Imagine students no longer having to lug around text-books. Think of a world where you can search for thoughts or ideas through endless epochs of written word, find something of interest, and begin reading it in its entirety – all while sitting on the train during the morning commute. Imagine a world where our need for paper is diminished, and our forests flourish.

The way scientists perform research, students study, academics write papers or even simply how a child writes a book report is going to change gradually but profoundly. Upon completion of a book, rather then a written page of “other books by the author” – those will be links – and those links will have links – and a new type of dewey-decimal system will develop of its own design based on our informational needs as knowledge is reorganized and rediscovered.

I look forward to playing video games in my hands – watching movies from my bed – and showing large and gorgeous photos and home movies to my parents.  I look forward to the next round of devices that will expand upon what Apple delivers.  I anticipate shared touch-screen applications in all sorts of places and locations we don’t experience them now. I look forward to seeing the ways we replace old technologies and concepts with touch-screen applications.

In this new world, a screen on the wall could be my light-switch, my music remote, my phone, my weather, my recipe, my security, my door bell or my art work. Apple has made the first step, with an earnest attempt to remove the keyboard and mouse. How will we develop products and interfaces that have no bounds?  That first digital camera I bought in 1998 looked like it still had film inside of it. They wanted it to feel like a camera still.  Now most digital cameras are slim and have redefined how a camera should look and work.  With the iPhone – the camera took on a whole new shape.  So many other devices still cling to their industrial heritage – but as the iPad begins to acquire their tasks, new applications and interfaces will be devised to create efficiencies that were impossible in a physical world.

Steve Jobs said in his speech this week that there will be a new gold-rush.  While I agree that there will be plenty to be made producing applications and tools for these devices – I disagree with the terminology of a Gold Rush.  Yes, there will be some wave of success at first – but this isn’t some new patch of territory that is going to be quickly discovered, claimed and cleared.  Rather – this is a new economic era.  For thousands of years, man has traded goods and services.  These primarily have been tactile items – foods, clothes, tools, etc.  Over time, things like education and knowledge became prized.  The arts flourished, and someone could be paid for their creativity.  However, there could only be so many books published, so many painting painted, so many students taught.  With the publishing revolution – that changes.  Suddenly there is an endless supply of a whole new world of products never before imagined.  I can design and build a game of my own imagination – produce it myself – sell it on the App Store – and make a full-time living having never left my home or created anything tactile.  The more our money chases virtual products of the imagination – the quicker our economy will have to evolve.

The solution to unemployment isn’t getting the old jobs back – it’s awakening to the new economy.  It’s acknowledging the publishing revolution has begun.  It’s educating the next generation of children not simply how to memorize, but to learn. I was lucky that Bill showed me the Road Ahead when I was 17. It shaped my path through college, it gave me focus in my 20s as I bounced from various start-ups.  It gave me the confidence to start The Interactive Dept – and it fills me with overwhelming excitement when I see a product that will transform the way we communicate and share ideas.

I have seen the road ahead – and it is beyond exciting.