Archive for July, 2008

pic used w/permission of Wm. Marc Salsberry of TechZulu (more pics & videos can be found at their site)

I had the pleasure of attending the LA Social Media Club event at Mahola’s headquarters here in LA this past Monday night.

Approximately 200 people in and outside of the social media realm attended the event which included dinner, drinks, networking, and a panel discussion emceed by Jackie Peters of HeavyBag Media and including Nicole Jordan from Rubicon Project, Michael Dorausch a chiropractor who’s use social media as a pioneer in his industry, Robert Richman a social media strategist, and Brian Solis, a social media guru, co-founder of Social Media Club, and principle of FutureWorks.

You can follow Social Media Club on twitter by clicking here and I urge you to visit Social Media Club’s site here for an event in your area and if you’re in LA it’s time to join the group on Facebook and start coming to the events!

I enjoyed enlightening discussions with many of the attendees including Devlyn Steele, CEO of ToolsToLife.com about the value of content and his value-driven social network, with Francisco Dao, founder of TheKillerPitch and blogger for FastCompany about PR in the social media realm, Kyra Reed and Marjorie Kase, co-founders of Markyr Media, an LA social media PR agency about the value of authenticity in social media, and enjoyed a thoughtful discussion on the evolution of web design with Andy Dugan of C/D Entertainment. I definitely can’t forget Tiffany Weller of Done! SEO who so graciously turned a dry event into a party with her wine and bartending services and TechZulu’s presence with Jennifer Stavros, Efren Toscano, and Cristina Cinque and though I didn’t get a chance to speak with him, I could see Hayden Black of GoodnightBurbank and AbigailsTeenDiary cracking everyone up.

I can’t forget Tim Street’s hilarious and poignant tweets throughout the evening, Edwin Duterte of OneKeyAway fame, John Noland Marchesini, Omar Foshizzi of WhoopTonez.net, Salvador Medrano, and last, but certainly not least, photographer Wm. Marc Salsberry of TechZulu and owner of WMSProductions for the great event pictures available on Facebook and TechZulu and for permission to use them on this post.

Some interesting points of discussion and a few of my takeaways/thoughts from the event:

• Care must be taken to remember that if you’re in this industry (”the left”) it seems like everyone and their Mom is on Twitter and is networked on Facebook. Yet, their is still a vast ocean of individuals who’ve never experienced social media (Wikipedia’s entry was showcased during the event) and its grandeur and who have no idea what web 2.0 even means. Additionally, if you’re in this industry it’s easy to fall prey to the overwhelming sensation that everything in the realm of social media and social networking is so fast-paced and saturated that you should give up on launching anything without heavy competition and earlier-to-market entrants. We must remember it takes the rest of the world time to catch on to new trends, so if you’re ahead of the curve or riding the curve, don’t become overwhelmed. Even 37Signals, with their uber-popular blog Signal vs. Noise recently wrote about how when they launched their blog they thought it was too little too late, what with the thousands of blogs cropping up before theirs hit cyberspace. Yet, their blog is now incredibly popular and widely regarded in the tech and design communities and proved to be an invaluable marketing channel helping to propel their products to success. Lesson: if you create content worth talking about, people will talk about it. Give them no choice and don’t fear the clutter. Clutter only makes you look better.
• There was some talk about social network “cultures” and how Fortune 1000s and companies in general aim to enter the social fray without context. Facebook has a culture. mySpace has a culture. Bebo and Twitter and Digg and Squidoo have cultures. I see similarities between entering social media spaces and entering foreign markets: before entering a foreign market you must understand the culture and if you don’t, you must find someone who does. I think Facebook and mySpace and other social networking channels can have cultures within cultures, in the form of groups and such. McDonalds didn’t go into India serving meat burgers and a company shouldn’t go into the social networking realm blindly ignoring existing cultures. Immerse yourself (or find others who are immersed) and give value to gain recognition.
• Corporate social media endeavors are often successful when bridging corporate with humanity. In my opinion, the best marketers aren’t marketers; they’re customers, other departments, and fans in general. Corporations that have experienced success often experience success as the result of social media being attached to an individual or group of individuals or sometimes simply a passionate fan. It’s 2008 and it’s time to bring personality and humanity to your business if you’re entering the social sphere.

Other memorable quotes included:

• “once you know where to look, you know where to be”
• “…the Internet has experienced several waves including a wave of static websites, a wave of interactive websites, and the current wave of social websites…”
• “social media is a conversation, not a campaign”
• “people make it viral”
• “there’s nothing that succeeds like success”

Can’t forget some more pics courtesy of Wm. Marc Salsberry of TechZulu (more pics & videos can be found at their site):

Last of all, I want to hear your thoughts on the event! If I left you out or if you thought a discussion point was particularly thought-provoking, please post a comment… I’ll review each comment and will incorporate them into the post as pertinent. What did you gain from SMC LA? Will you go to the next event? How would you improve it? Also, can someone post the link to the “Social Media Guide” mentioned during the evening? What other social media events in LA and beyond are worth attending?

If you want to hear about upcoming social media / social networking posts and other riffs and rants, follow this blog and join me on twitter! Until next time…!

We stand at a time in history unlike any other. Technological advances have made the spread of information nearly instantaneous. Pictures, words, audio and video fly around the globe on a network made of wires and radio waves.

A little known Republican presidential candidate with views radically different from the established elite took up to twenty percent of primary votes in some states. He broke fundraising records and built an unparalleled grass roots network using only the internet.

The ongoing war in Iraq provides another example of the ways our world has changed. Soldiers writing blogs on their experience in Iraq, tech savvy investigators revealing gross financial mishandling. Traditional media has proven either incapable of, or unwilling to, report material which could damage interests currently protecting their monopolies. Average people with internet connections have stepped up where news networks haven’t.

A major commercial band decided to release an album online, and allowed their listeners to pay whatever price they felt was justified. They distributed hundreds of thousands of copies of their work and made more money than they could have using traditional methods of distribution.

People download millions of songs, videos, pictures, and books every day utilizing decentralized peer to peer networks. Bittorrent, Gnutella, Usenet, and Freenet, all allow individuals to freely share any information which can be copied.

We live in a world where information is no longer expensive to distribute. More importantly, information is nearly impossible to control.

Networked computing has changed the world in a way that is many orders of magnitude greater than the printing press.

The fear this creates in the ruling elite is apparent. Corporations are no longer able to control the distribution of media. Media corporations face a future in which they cannot profit simply from control of physical distribution networks; Networks they gained control of through coercive means.

Information is, in a very real way, power. Every decision we make is influenced by the information available to us. Controlling people is not difficult if you’re able to control the information available to them.

The debate about net neutrality taking place right now is primarily concerned with service providers slowing down or blocking certain types of traffic. Allowing this to take place would practically ensure the end of the internet as a free marketplace.

Imposing restrictions on the web is not only beneficial to media conglomerates such as AOL-Time Warner, it’s also beneficial to those in political control.

The only way to reduce corruption in government is to hold ‘public servants’ responsible for their actions. The established media has shown itself to be entirely uninterested in keeping government accountable, preferring to buy favorable market conditions for themselves.

I normally am opposed to government regulation. However, if net neutrality legislation prolongs this age of free information, then I think it may be a good thing.

Whatever grace period can be bought, you can be assured that politicians and corporate interests will not be satisfied till they control our access to information. We must use every opportunity available to increase transparency in government, and to accelerate development of technology that will allow circumvention of controls imposed on the free exchange of information. The freedom enjoyed by many of us could be in jeopardy if we don’t.

I’ve been thinking lately about social news sites. Sites like reddit and digg. They were interesting ideas at their inceptions, but increasingly lend themselves towards complete crap.

If I see another lolcat, another duplicate article about this or that presidential candidate, or something else on global warming, I just might have to take my own life. I rarely visit these sites (that I used to spend hours on a day) anymore. I tend to let my friends filter the news for me, they seem to do a much better job than the mob does.

It’s like everyone on these sites is playing in and throwing around their own vomit, it gets ridiculous. Television is sensationalized and content censored to reflect the bias of the producers, which tends to reflect the fact that media moguls own quite a bit more than just the news outlets. There are quite a few moments though were I would rather watch television than see what new stories have made the front page on Reddit.

I love newspapers because even if they cover the same dead horse topics, there’s always the opinion page. Local papers tend to be my favorite, because of the tight knit community talking about how issues actually impact them, you look in the “letters to the editor” page, and you recognize names of people you know, and you get to hear what they have to say.

The best opinions on anything, or at least the most interesting opinions, are rarely those of the mainstream. How often do you get to hear those? Even on Digg, or Reddit, it’s hard to come by something that’s actually all that interesting, because they all rely on the mainstream media to bring stories to their attention; it’s herd behavior at it’s worst.

I do however look forward to seeing the next iteration of social news sites. I myself have dozens of ideas for how these sites could be improved, and I think there really is something to be said about leveraging the power of a group of people who have a genuine interest in news finding interesting stories and raising community awareness.

Here are two of my ideas for improving social news:

1. Eliminate the democracy. Winston Churchill said, “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” Things have not changed much since his day and age.

Editorial oversight of user submitted stories would make things a great deal better, I think, although it could discourage users from submitting material. There are quite a few ways that you could implement this while minimizing the drop in use submissions.

2. Social DKP. DKP is an acronym for Dragon Kill Points. It’s basically a currency system used in MMO’s to encourage members of guilds to adhere to a set of standards and encourage regular contribution to the guilds progression through the game.

If a site were to reward those who contributed the most with IPhones, Ipods, or new graphics cards, I’d be prepared to wager 100 DKP the quality of stories, would greatly increase.

What do you think? Can social news aggregation be improved? If so, how? If not, why?

We are conditioned to think from an early age that the wealthiest people are the ones we ought to emulate. We’re bombarded with their actions on television and in the news. Entire magazines are dedicated to following the lives of the usually rich, and generally famous.

It’s not that our parents told us money would make us happy. Most of us were told that money isn’t ‘everything’. We humans have this tendency to ignore words, then listen to actions.

When dad worked through the weekend, or mom gushed over that new diamond ring, we took something from that. A thing that makes us think, “The more money and things I have the happier I will be.” Every episode of E! True Hollywood Story reinforced that into our impressionable childhood personas. We’ve been given a mission: to consume and to take as much as we can. That is the highest honor.

“Let us work for dollars so that we may buy happiness!”

Somewhere down the road though, most of us realized it wasn’t true. Divorce, suicide, depression, Xanax, all these things gave us the hint that maybe money wasn’t that great after all. Still though, what else is there? It’s not like we’ve actually been given any other options.

We visit psychologists and psychiatrists. Trade sad little stories for prescriptions. Sometimes they make it better, sometimes the drugs do the job they’re supposed to. They’re just trying to get the levels in my brain right; that takes some time I suppose.

“One day they’ll find that perfect cocktail for me.”

I found out that the time I got lost in the grocery store as a child causes some of my problems and maybe somebody molested me as a kid. I’m going to hypno-therapy to find out. I’m learning how to tell a really good story. The more I realize everyone else screwed me over in life, the more reasons I have to cry, err, I mean be happy.

I found out that I’m in bondage to a spirit of happiness, that’s what they told me down at the first baptologist church of the fifth night. Monday night is deliverance night, Xenu showed up one time, and a picture of baby Jesus appeared in someone’s napkin after they wiped their mouth. He was in a cradle and everything, just like the nativity. I’m really hoping this deliverance session works out.

Someone told me a large donation will grease the palms of heaven, helping me out of this gosh darned happiness.

Governments create initiatives. Grand schemes to produce better fathers, reduce unwed mothers, rehabilitate people back into society. Never mind you that these seem to never work. All that is needed are bigger budgets. So raise taxes, increase budget deficits, and then once we’ve spent enough, we’ll be happy!

If I was only protected from those evil immigrants, dirty bombs, knives, drunk drivers, health concerns, tax dodgers, and dope peddlers. Then life would be great.

Has anybody seen my freaking prozac?

Politics, sex, love, divorce, suicide, drugs, religion. Wash, rinse, and repeat. Is it possible that something’s missing? Is it possible that somebody’s hiding something from us? Perhaps there’s a secret most people don’t know, perhaps we’re uninformed.

Maybe money isn’t really everything.

Is it possible that wanting something outside of ourselves, that striving to make a positive difference and having a little hope can make us into something better?

I’m living in Serbia right now, and the lack of hope is extremely apparent in most people here. When something bad happens I hear, “This is Serbia.” It’s as though being screwed over is something to be expected. People expect life to be crappy here, life tends to meet their expectations.

Throughout human history, different groups of people have said “Enough is enough.” People have decided that things must change, that the possibility of change is worth sacrificing everything for. Something strange happens in those moments. Things change when people ask for something better. At times only small changes occur, but in rare moments the entire world changes.

Could the reality of things be that we have to hope for more? That we have to expect more out of ourselves? Is demanding more out of life actually a good thing?

Can we make this world into a better place? Will those with hope band together? Will people chose to ignore the status quo?

I want to hope so.

I try to live for it. I try to show respect, to forgive, to look for the best in people. I try to remember that there’s more to this life than the television. I try to build something better, to give more and consume less. Sometimes I succeed.

I’ll keep living for those moments, and I hope maybe you’ll join me.

The latter part of last week was a whirlwind for the LA social media / tech scene and it was oh-so nice to have the weekend to relax and finally put everything in perspective!

Starting off the festivities, Thursday night was the fantastic Twiistup 4 at the Viceroy in Santa Monica, which certainly lived up to expectation, what with smart people, good conversation and walking on water (yes, it’s ok to be jealous).

Other highlights of the night included:

• BookRenter.com
  My only qualms with these guys is that they failed to show up when we needed them most. Where were you when shelling money we didn’t have for textbooks was a constant headache that had to be dealt with every semester?! Oh well, the cost of getting an education just got a little more affordable and the future’s certainly the better for it.
• AOL
  If you’ve been under the impression that AOL, like Microsoft, has over-stayed its welcome and is on its way out, something about the list of tools they have available on their ad network may lead you to want to rethink that position (apart from the phenomenal Winamp, other tools include Mapquest, Truveo, Bebo, userplane, goowy and sphere).
• ADISN.com
  Break-ups aren’t always bad events and these guys encourage you to break up with your ad network purely for your own good. Their “Break Up With Your Ad Network” cd is packed full of songs that make break-ups seem appealing and will certainly soften the break-up process.
• Phonevite
  Simply put, phone invitations on the go. Gone are the days when inviting the poker clan or changing event venues meant calling a looong list of people. Sign in, setup, record your message and you’re good to go! How many steps was that again
• Minggl
  Minggl is a social interaction manager that creates a relationship layer over the social web. The Minggl toolbar makes it easy to manage information, communication, and navigation across social networks
• ToolsToLife.com
  Voted the Twiistup Showoff Winner, this social networking website offers compelling self-improvement programs wrapped around a supportive social network. This site really excels in value-driven social networking and in our opinion represents the evolution of social networking in the coming days. We enjoyed speaking to Marketing Director Greg Johnson about this remarkable start-up.
• Twiddla.com
  A free, no-setup, web-based meeting playground. Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Browse the web with your friends or make that conference call more productive than ever. No plug-ins, downloads, or firewall voodoo - it’s all there, ready to go when you are. Browser-agnostic, user-friendly. WebEx, GoToMeeting, be warned!
• Project: Possibility
  Project: Possibility demoed under the banner of the USC innovation booth and is a nonprofit, community service project committed to creating groundbreaking open source software for persons with disabilities. Their mission is to inspire a community of persons with disabilities and software developers to work together and make a difference by inventing software that will unlock new areas of life for persons with disabilities, giving them access to experiences previously impossible to achieve.

We also enjoyed a compelling conversation with John Olsen of Liforia (stay tuned for this up-and-coming breakthrough concept in social networking) and doing an interview with Jennifer Stavros of TechZulu (and writer of a compelling sex/relationships blog to boot). Not to mention numerous free t-shirts, NeoHire’s hooka, and some interesting and enlightening conversations with some interesting people (you know who you are!).

Friday brought Social Media Camp and Mashable’s SummerMash. Talk about a full, long day!

Friday’s highlights brought along Erica O’Grady’s refreshing talk at Social Media Camp on what social networking is, where it’s going and the awesomeness of things like twitter (if you don’t use twitter, try it before you knock it and follow @ bushmanbill and @ epsilonc while you’re at it).

The following rabble-rousers also stood out during the weekend’s festivities:

• Freshbooks.com
  These guys have made invoices and time tracking sexy again (not that they ever were, but you get the point). Here’s a question for you: How the hell do you get 25 people to eat dinner with you because you run the website they use to invoice their clients? Here’s your answer: Give a shit, be passionate and make love to your customers (their words, not mine). Every time. We got the chance to hear them share about the way they work, their passion for invoices and how they listen to their customers. These guys wrote the book on engaging clients.
• Collarfree.com
  It’s true that by the time you read this, we’ll probably be rocking Collar Frees. And why not? They pay their designers well and offered us a 20% discount (because we went to Social Media Camp). They also use a cool voting style (a la HotorNot) and like Ayn Rand, which is never a bad thing.
• Yoono
  Now here’s a Firefox add-on you should not browse without. In a single browser sidebar, Yoono users can interact with the best of the Web more than ever before by discovering, communicating, and sharing with friends across multiple networks and platforms all in one place. You are now free to stop wasting time checking for updates and using up bandwidth by keeping multiple tabs open.
• RockNRollDating.com
  This upstart social network connects all you fans of punk, goth, metal, indie rock, stoner rock, jam bands, and you name it so you can find each other, catch live music, and perhaps even fall in love. Owner Daniel House explained the concept of the site to us and we think it rocks!T

The SummerMash was hosted at Rubicon Project’s trendy headquarters and featured the suave smooth social media celeb Pete Cashmore, a thirst-quenching open bar, and a swarm of tech hipsters. We also enjoyed chatting with the uber-funny Hayden Black of Goodnight Burbank and Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary.

SummerMash official pictures will be posted here and for SoCal tech/social media event interviews/coverage, check out TechZulu. And stay tuned for feedback on Digital Drinks happening today, July 21st and Social Media Club’s event on Monday, July 28th. We’ll be there so say hi if you see us and we’ll be writing updates about the events for those that don’t live in Tinseltown or can’t make the events. Until then, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

Design gurus often talk about simplicity in design. That by using less to convey your point you actually are able to convey your message to a broader audience. That you’re able to be more relevant with less rather than more.

I think this idea would be better applied in our everyday lives.

In my life the most fulfilling moments, the most life altering times, have happened when I cared very little for what I possessed, or what I wanted to posses.

Since George Carlin died I’ve been watching quite a bit of his work. He was before my time, and I hadn’t seen much of his material. With all the hullabaloo over his death I decided I should check out his work. I’ve been incredibly impressed with what he did.

It seems that he had a penchant for calling people out on their absurdities. Sometimes in a gentle way, sometimes in a not so gentle way.

Here’s a video that I really enjoyed (warning it contains some blue language):

He talks about how our houses are just a great big pile of “stuff.” I couldn’t agree more. It seems as though increasingly our lives are valued by how many gadgets we can accumulate. Life is not about enjoying the time you have, but rather minimizing the time you have to think about the life you’re wasting.

I need my Xbox360 so I can escape my job. I need my job so I can afford my Xbox360, and my lease on my BMW. College was great, and now I get to pay it off for the next thirty years. I should get a mortgage and buy a house, everyone else is doing it. That must be what will make me happy.

My parents suggested that if everyone else was running off a cliff, we should think twice before doing the same thing. Perhaps we should apply the same logic to walking down the long slow path of an utterly meaningless life.

If you could do anything you wanted, what would it be?

In 1994, Hakon Wium Lie proposed the concept of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to the world, moving web design one small, significant step closer to perfection (read a brief history here).

For the virgin, the W3C has a short tutorial for those of us who have never used CSS before. There’s also a more robust tutorial (by the W3C) here, and another by The Web Design Group here, all of which are well worth bookmarking.

In addition to the above, html.net’s CSS section is also a good place to go to, especially since it’s HTML tutorial is only a click away.

For an actual reference you can touch and feel, nothing beats The Ultimate CSS Reference by Tommy Olson and Paul O’Brien. While you’re there, check out some of Sitepoint’s other priceless titles

For inspiration, there’s cssBeauty, and the CSS Zen Garden.

And as usual, Smashing Magazine has a plethora of tools, tutorials, and techniques the wanna-be CSS expert should not live without (of course, these are not the only CSS materials they have available).

What Matters to You // Me? from Jr.canest on Vimeo.

I’ve thought about this quite a bit lately. I’ve actually come to wonder if they do help build community at all. I seem to experience less community now than I did before I had a Myspace, Facebook, or Virb membership. I think part of this is because of the isolation that telecommunications seems to foster. Talk is cheap, we can talk with anyone we want to any time we want. Since supply is so high, we value people’s words and opinions very little.

Community, real community that matters, that has the power to change who you are for the better (or worse), requires something that technology seems to make difficult. Community requires communication. For all the advances in ‘telecommunication’, worthwhile communication seems to happen less and less. I might make several phone calls a day, talk with someone on instant messenger, send a couple quick emails, or post a note on someone’s Facebook wall. At the end of the day I haven’t really said anything that matters, I haven’t left any impact on anyone, and no-one’s left an impact on me.

I spent a year playing World of Warcraft, the quintessential digital community. I was an active member of a guild raiding through end-game content. I had a great time for about 10 months, then started to get bored with the game. I cut back my play time, and found out how little I knew the people I played the game with. We had a good time together, but I didn’t know any of my guildmates. Two members of the guild actually used to be my co-workers, I hadn’t spent any time with them in real life since I started playing the game. I started spending more time with people in real life, and regained something I’d lost: meaningful community.

“Hey this is Marshall! Just returning that voicemail, where you were returning that voicemail. Uh, yeah, so call me back when you get this!”

I’ve really left voicemails similar to that. Reflecting on it, I sicken myself a little.

How does beer build community?

Try going out for a drink (or to lunch) with someone: a co-worker, family member, a bum off the street. Then have a conversation. Skip the small talk, find out what’s going on in their life. Ask about what makes them afraid, what gives them hope. Leave some of who you are with them, take something of them through the rest of your day. I guarantee that you’ll discover new ways of looking at the world, make closer friends, and have a deeper appreciation for people if you try this often enough. You may even get your toes stepped on by someone’s opinion, a more valuable experience than we like to admit.

Telephones can be great for setting up dates. E-mail is great to communicate with friends who live somewhere else in the world, or to convey business ideas. Instant messenger tends to be good for little in my experience. I abhor the Facebook wall, or Myspace friend comment features: what exactly are you going to put into a completely public bulletin on someone’s profile page? Nothing that matters. (I hope.)

Websites like meetup or eventful are pretty cool to me. It’s technology actually encouraging community, rather than limiting it. I’d like to see more of it.

Is there anything else out there that encourages meaningful interaction between individuals? How can we make technology friendlier for community? How do you minimize the isolation that tends to occur from living in a digital world? These are the things I want to know.

In no particular order, here are the links to some of the better posts in the [EssentiaList] series to keep entertained over the weekend:

1. The Secular Sabbat
2. Discover New Things Onlin
3. Take a Minute to Enjoy Somethin
4. Of Things Well Don
5. The Change, Jargon & Idea Editi
6. Cheat Sheet Editio
7. The Concentrate Edition

When tensions rise, blood boils, and pressure mounts, a defining moment occurs. In your personal and professional lives and in all relationships, it’s easy to stay breezy when the waters are calm. When a storm hits, it’s a defining moment. It’s when a balance of in-the-moment thinking coupled with “zooming out” for a larger perspective is critical.

During stressful moments, it’s critical to channel the natural physical and emotional reaction into energy that is effective and efficient. Yet, there is a huge difference between belief and action when it comes to this principle. One of the hardest things for human beings to master is using stress to their advantage. Stress isn’t a bad thing. For one, stress is a byproduct of caring about something. After all, if you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be stressed. And stress is a natural reaction with a purpose. It’s designed to trigger a response that helps you deal with the problem at hand.

So, the question is, what’s an appropriate response in the heat of the moment? First of all, you must master the art of introspection. “Know thyself” and get a sense of your emotions and adrenaline on a regular basis. Keep a “stress journal” if it helps and focus on getting a sense of when the stress occurs. In the evening, think back to the moments of your day that were more negative, more stressful than others. Try and pinpoint what caused the stress. By first becoming more aware of your feelings and emotions, it’s easier to control and channel them appropriately.

When a stressful situation occurs, it’s important to first remind yourself that 99% of the time, nothing you can do in the next 10 seconds will change anything. So take 10 seconds and breathe deeply, remind yourself that you may not have control over the situation, but you have control over how you respond, and get perspective. For instance, I live in LA and when I’m going through particularly stressful moments, I like to step outside, get a breath of fresh (hahaha) air and just look around. In the calamity and around traffic and people, I gain a sense of peace. I remind myself that yes, my problems are important and deserve my attention, but in reality, I’m 1 of 6,000,000,000+. This thought doesn’t overwhelm me, it underwhelms me. It helps me realize that I’m not that important. The world will survive if I make a mistake here and there.

After taking a few seconds to breathe and gain perspective, quickly jot down:

1. the problem at hand
2. the emotions you feel (e.g. why you’re angry, why you’re scared, etc…)
3. the available resolutions
4. the people you can count on to support you, if necessary

Next, it’s important to visualize yourself trumping the situation. Let’s be honest, in every stressful situation, you won’t come out on top. Everyone on this planet can attest to that. But again, it’s not what’s outside of your span of control that matters, it’s what’s within your grasp that matters. So focus on the things you can actually affect and fight the urge to turn a blip on your life’s radar into a life-altering event. Sometimes, the moment will indeed be life-altering. But the majority of the time, it won’t. And visualizing success will help you stay focused in a positive direction.

In the heat of the moment, your response defines who you are. It defines your strength (or weakness) and it tells people in your life what you’re made of. If you want success in your personal and professional lives, it’s imperative that you rein in emotional responses and unhealthy stress and keep a positive, grounded disposition. Others around you will become stressed if they sense your stress and it will only compound the issue. There is nothing I admire more than a person who doesn’t buckle under the weights of everyday life. And you can judge a friend, lover, colleague, or boss best when they manage to show integrity, unselfishness, and patience even when things go awry. Everyone is supportive, kind, and caring when times are easy and prosperous, but few are when things go South. Be the one who who stands tall for yourself and for others even when life throws curve balls. And understand that stress will never disappear, so if you’re looking for a less stressful life, it’s not always about keeping the bad stuff out, it’s more about dealing with the bad stuff in a better way

• Social Networking, Road Warrior Style
  “It’s a dilemma that commonly plagues business travelers: what to do with the sometimes hundreds of business cards collected during a trade show” … “SkyLounge Ltd.’s site, which launched in February, was upgraded this week to allow any user to open a virtual lounge dedicated to a company, an industry or an event. When people sign up for the service, they add their travel trip information and designate if the information is public or can be viewed only by the contacts in their own network.”
• Social Networking Takes Off
  “Social interaction platforms, including MySpace and Facebook, have grown dramatically in recent years, with more people joining every day. Once a niche activity, online social networking now engages millions of consumers and has become an integral part of many people’s lives. Currently, one out of every four people online visits social networking sites, according to the Consumer Internet Barometer.”
• STATS: Current US Social Networking Rankings
• STATS: Current International Social Networking Rankings
• BOOK: Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business
• BOOK: Social Networking: The Essence of Innovation
• BOOK: Smart Start-Ups: How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communities
• Teens Learn From Advertising On Social Sites
  “OTX, releasing new results from its Teen Topix study, the complex lives of the 13 -17 year old set, found that teens are spending an average of 11.5 hours online, doing everything from instant messaging and visiting social networking sites to shopping and listening to music, but dispels myths that this group wants to do everything online.”
• Demographic Divide Affects Social Mobile Net Usage
  “Underlying this discrepancy is a demographic divide. Younger mobile customers who are more likely to use their phones for social networking can’t afford to–while older, more affluent ones with smart phones and unlimited data plans have little interest in the Web 2.0 phenomenon. A recent study by Local Mobile Search, a unit of Opus Research, found that only 6% of cell phone subscribers in North America have accessed social networks on their phones–although three-quarters belong to such networks.”

When was the last time you saw something remarkable? When was the last time someone went the extra mile to help you out?

We all know the feeling we get when someone goes above the call of duty to do something nice.

Walter Levine built his security company into the largest in Connecticut by guaranteeing to “…deliver the service within 40 minutes after receiving your phone call, or you get it free.” Not too difficult to see the connection.

In high school, Michael Dell sent welcome letters to new residents in the city to solicit newspaper subscriptions. He earned thousands of dollars before the summer was over.

It’s true, there are countless examples of remarkable acts all over the place. The problem is that these are recounted as exceptions to the rule, and a direct opposite of the norm (which is boring, everyday, and won’t make me like you more).

Everyone wants to be treated nicely. Everyone wants someone else to go out of their way to help them out, open the door, or toss in an extra espresso shot because it helps them out. Isn’t that why we love the story of the Home Depot clerk who advised a customer to get the $6 part instead of the $60 repair kit? Or the story of the the big shot CEO who would fly his helicopter all over the country asking his employees, “How may I help you?”

In spite of the evidence, why is it the accepted tradition to not go the extra mile?

1. Dan Dennett: Ants, terrorism, and the awesome power of memes:

If you work with people on ideas, you’ve probably seen it happen many times before: a bad idea is introduced, the team goes with it, and somewhere along the line, we realize it’s all about to go very badly.

Ideas replicate (especially bad ones) with a mind of their own. Kill the bad ones, and keep the good ones.

2. From J.K. Rowlings’ talk on the benefits of failing, and the importance of imagination:
“Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.”

3. Give out good ideas for free (vid)
Not only will they get smarter, but they’ll also thank you

4. The Machine is Us/ing Us: Web 2.0 (a very infectious idea) explained in under 5 minutes (all of them captivating):