Happy OneWebDay everyone!In honor of OneWebDay (http://www.onewebday.org), I am seeking donations for a new laptop. Yes, I know. Hard to believe I am the needy one here, but both my desktop and laptop have no access to the very Internet of which I write! After I downloaded and installed McAfee's download manager and latest Internet Security Center my machine began having errors and then McAfee blocked all LSPs and Winsock. Help! I have no Winsock! And winter's a-coming! After four days of going online with tech support at my office and then going home to try the recommended "fixes" I finally gave up and requested a full refund. (I think I'll post all the chat sessions online. Stay tuned.)
OneWebDay is a great community-building concept. In the spirit of community, DailyEats.com is baking a cake (cause baking and eating are all about community) and launching a video/photos/podcast about it on Daily Eats and a few other places. And in the spirit of food...here is a review of a fascinating panel on design and dining (private and public spaces where food is created and consumed)... [http://www.pulitzer.com/thecyberscene/2006/07/design-for-dining.html] Things are heating up in the meatspace with events that kept me running all week--just like the old days! Monday, September 18 was Howard Greenstein and Chris Heuer's Social Media Club's (http://www.socialmediaclub.org) first NY networking night. Held at the BusinessWire offices, seasoned professionals like Jason Chervokas showed up to weigh in (although he looked like he lost weight!) on social media and how to grow this group organically. "Newer" folks, like Nate Westheimer (developer) and David Bradfield from Fleishman-Hillard asked questions and were helpful in the idea of a new new-media-standard press release. Howard, ever the "coach" did an energy check and made sure each person had a chance to share their viewpoint. More comments are here: http://www.socialmediaclub.org/2006/09/19/social-media-club-ny-wrapup/ and here: http://navigatecommunications.com/ Mercredi, J'ai commencer m'études en le Francais. Je rapporterai ici sur la progress... Maintenant, Je peut dire "bonjour madame, quelle heure est-t-il, s'il vous plait?, le train est en retard, bonsoir a tous, et plus!" Yeah, yeah, I know. I have a long way to go! Interactive Resources' multi-tasking and multi-entrepreneurial Christine Harmel flew into town on Thursday, September 21. Just in time for a full round of events. We met for a light beverage at The Modern and then headed over to spacious conference rooms at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner, LLP on Third Ave. and 54th for the WWWAC Old-Timers Meeting (wwwac.org). Center Hill Services president Martin Focazio did an excellent job of hosting (extra points for homemade cookies by his wife) and moderating despite sub-par software. The panelists were WWWAC co-founder Kyle Shannon (also urbandesires.com; agency.com and The Darwin Marketing Group); The Geek Factory founder Peter Shankman; Dotglu executive producer Ari Feldman (part of Kirschenbaum + Bond & Partners; also product manager at Oddcast.com & exec. producer at Heavy.com); Trigger Media prez Mike Dizon and the sharp and adorable Amelia (14-year old daughter of Martin's neighbor).
As Martin intended, it was "designed to bring the weary 40 and 50 somethings of the interactive development world up-to-date on the universe that these creatures called the "13-24 set" inhabit. We talked about MySpace, privacy (does it matter to them), design issues, purchasing software/media and how do they handle porn spam (they just delete it, "no big deal.")
The ongoing online chat and video conferencing were reminiscent of NYU's ITP's Yorb show with EchoNYC. There even was a powerpoint presentation!
(http://www.centerhillservices.com/events/events-old/events-old-files/index.html) It was a great time. Martin was fantastic managing all those elements! I was impressed and it added a delightful level of hilarity watching him master (manage?) (attempt to manage?) all the hardware and software issues. He handled it with aplomb. Also--the panelists proved witty, as well, in their humor and wisdom on the hot topics of the online bullying aspects of social networking and the (apparent) non-issue of how kids handle porn online. It was great to catch up with Joshua Freeman (eFashionSolutions.com), Peter Shankman, WWWAC president Scott Bowling, WWWAC inter-organizational liason Bob Frankel, Hens Breet, and JV Van Raalte afterwards. I'm definitely looking forward to the next one!
Also occurring this week was the Wired "Design Like You Give A Damn" panel (http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,64409-0.html) with Cameron Sinclair, Kate Stohr, Cynthia Barton and (Wired's) John Hockenberry at the NY Public Library on September 20. Next week they've got some concerts going on too. Let's see if I can break away from my busy schedule to get there. The Art Directors Club got into the event action with its debate (moderated by Brian Collins) over advertising and design as instruments for social and political change at their gallery on West 29th Street on Thursday, September 21. C'est tres bonne semaine!
