A few podcasts and video series I subscribed to recently…

I’d love to get your suggestions for other shows I should subscribe to and watch – either as podcasts or as YouTube subscriptions.

YouTube subscriptions – I’ve only added one in recent months, the fantastic Geek and Sundry  Felecia Day, The Guild, Dark Horse comics, Wil Wheaton – yup, my kinda video series and perfect for watching via my Apple TV when nothing else is on cable (i.e. most of the time)

Podcast subscriptions - I’ve added a bunch of new shows, not sure I’ll stick with all of them but I’ll give them at least a few episodes before I make that decision, but shows that I’ve added in the past few weeks which I’m really enjoying include:

• Ze Frank’s A Show (http://ashow.zefrank.com/) - Ze is back and in a big awesome way. Great videos though watching them via subscription in iTunes may be less than ideal as the show notes and comments and community are probably more fun even than the just the videos…
• Mac Power Users (http://macpowerusers.com/) – a bit long but really interesting discussions about how a bunch of people use their Macs – a great reminder to me about how little I actually leverage the great applications and technologies of my devices – macbook, iPad and iPhone. Good inspiration to get back to using tools I really should be leveraging to get more work done, write better (and more often) and get more out of my tools.
• 3.5 Private Sanctuary (http://www.35privatesanctuary.com/) – okay I confess I’m a geek and in the past few months I’ve gotten back into actively playing paper RPG’s (playing Pathfinder Society games most Monday nights and at occasional gaming conventions). 3.5 Private Sanctuary is actually a bunch of different podcasts all interesting and all a reminder of how much fun playing RPG’s can be (and a reminder of just how old many of us have gotten…) It is always good to connect, even if just via listening to a podcast, with folks who share your love of a specific niche.

I still haven’t found a great tech podcast – surprising but I don’t really want to listen to a long winded discussion for many hours – I want something which is focused, engaging and interesting – which covers news I may have missed and/or offers a perspective and summary of news I’ve seen but may not have explored fully (i.e. I can only try a few of the many new applications and technologies that launch every week).

What podcasts (or videos) do you make time for every week?

How I and I hope you will respond to May 1 “actions” in SF

I wrote the following on Facebook a few hours ago after seeing blog posts about riots and “actions” along Valencia St and 18th St in the Mission this evening here in SF.

Ugh. Sometimes I’m depressed by the idiots. Tonight is one of those nights.

see http://www.missionmission.org/2012/05/01/how-exactly-did-paint-bombs-and-anarchy-signs-escalate-to-smashed-windows/ as well as many related posts

for coverage of the depressing actions in the Mission this evening – storefronts of some of the best businesses in SF were smashed & paint bombed, many people’s cars were smashed and general stupidity reigned.

Thankfully I wasn’t in the Mission this evening – but I plan on spending money at some of my favorite Mission businesses in the coming weeks to show my support for them in the simplest way possible – and I encourage you as well to not let stupidity win.

I suspect that tomorrow will be an ugly day in SF alas (okay technically today will be an ugly day) *sigh*

What I will be doing this week and what I encourage you to do as well is simple – support local small businesses affected by tonight’s actions by voting with your dollars – and if you can’t go spend money (and show support) for local businesses in San Francisco at least help promote them to folks who can in turn send business to them.

I have been planning an event where I would take visitors interested in learning about Innovation and how to build successful, sustainable businesses on a tour of innovative businesses here in the Bay Area. While this tour would include many well known technology and Internet firms, it will also include a tour of the many neighborhoods throughout San Francisco where small, locally owned and run businesses are building amazing businesses the “right” way. These are businesses that respect their employees (and pay them well), that source responsibly (and frequently from other local merchants) and which are building focused and successful businesses in tune with their local communities. Frequently these are businesses that are highly focused – offering fewer items for sale than many businesses throughout the country and frequently not seeking to compete for business via a race to the lowest price.

Instead these are businesses that seek to sell non-commodity goods and services are fair prices that inspire repeat business. Retailers throughout the Mission (and indeed all of San Francisco) face challenges few other cities place upon their local businesses – high minimum wages, high regulatory burdens, high CA state business minimum taxes and fees and that’s just the beginning. Often retailers face months (or even years) of struggles to get their stores approved and opened in the form they desire (frequently battling complex licensing and zoning requirements) all the while trying to build a retail business in a down economy in one of the most expensive cities in the country. And yet the past five plus years I’ve lived in San Francisco I’ve seen (and had the pleasure of frequenting as a customer) some amazingly creative and great businesses open up throughout San Francisco. Businesses that get back to the basics of what makes a great business – selling what the customers want (and often didn’t know they wanted before they entered the store) and doing so in a manner that encourages repeat business and customer referrals.

As a resident of San Francisco I’m saddened by today’s actions and I can only hope that the communities of San Francisco come together to support local businesses and individuals who were impacted by today’s actions.

If this was associated with the Occupy movement it is yet another in a long string of black marks on that movement (there seems to be a lot of debate but it appears that there is some connection with the Occupy Oakland movement – though defining who is/isn’t affiliated is rather impossible. I’ve mostly stayed out of the Occupy movement debates – last year I was preparing for my wedding, this year I’m focused on building a business and helping many other startups across the country build their businesses. I also plan on being as involved as I can be in getting President Obama re-elected. The businesses that were targeted tonight in SF are about the farthest possible thing from the big “evil” corporations that the Occupy movement claims to be against. These are local businesses that are owned locally, that employ dozens of local residents, that buy from many other local businesses and which are building businesses that are succeeding while also behaving in responsible manners (paying more than fair wages, offering benefits, paying attention to environmental issues, etc. All while competing with both large corporations sourcing globally and Internet distribution channels in many cases.

note – if the comments on this post take an ugly turn I will simply turn off comments. This is my personal blog, if you want to rant do so on your own blog. If you want to add to the conversation and can do so without ranting or being vulgar please do so but I will be approving all comments from new commentators

Taking up the challenge – iBooks Author some ideas

Taking up the challenge – iBooks Author – some ideas

So there is a lot of huff & puff at the moment across the Internet about the EULA for the new Apple iBooks Author software which they released early this week. The software itself is getting mostly rave reviews for making the process of building a solid, good looking, engaging, modern multimedia eBook and especially a electronic textbook designed for tablets, really easy and open to far more people.But at the price of agreeing to only “sell” the resulting ebooks in the Apple iBooks application (so only for the iPad and other iOS applications since at least currently iBooks does not have a version for the MacOS).

However the EULA also allows for the FREE distribution of those books in any way you want – it just requires that commercial use be limited to via Apple (and subject to a separate agreement with Apple – i.e. they will pick and choose which books they distribute).

So below a few ideas which people should explore – whatever your feelings about the EULA. (and if you refuse to sign it – don’t forget that you can just not use the iBooks Creator and just write your book via more traditional tools – though this may require that you work with someone with the right (and often expensive) software and the skills to lay out the text, images etc. And building an immersive application or electronic version is yet another skill set).

1. Use iBooks Author to layout PUBLIC DOMAIN resources (see http://www.gutenberg.org/ for one) adding layout, public domain illustrations – or CC licensed works with the right licenses and credits. Then make these works available (for FREE) via Apple’s iBooks app. But also make the files available outside of that app (and perhaps explore whether Apple’s HTML5 output can be converted to another eBook format and/or rendered inside of a standards compliant HTML5 aware browser as a webpage.

2. Use iBooks Author to create updated textbooks for use by online educational offerings such as Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/) perhaps even including the appropriate videos from Khan Academy inside of your work. Again make these available for FREE – submitted to Apple for the iBooks store but also via downloads and if conversion is possible in other apps as well as perhaps as HTML5 webpages.

3. Leverage the fact that iBooks Author is a FREE application and use it to create a new form of globally collaborated upon book. Perhaps use a service such as Dropbox to share you files with co-authors across the Globe and use the free software to collaborate on writing an authoritative work on a subject upon which you and your collaborators are experts. Here if you like sell this (limited to the Apple iBooks store and possibly subject to agreements between the co-authors about the distribution of income etc) but also consider making these works FREE – and both submit them to the iBooks store but also make them available in other apps and online.

You might as “why go through all of the effort to make an iBook only to give it away?”

Consider two scenarios.

Scenario 1

You and your co-authors are talking with a prospective client. They want to see how you work and what you think about. You suggest that they go to your website, fill out a request form and download one of your “White Papers”. A 64+ page, text (and limited black & white illustrations) PDF file. They do so but barely can keep their eyes open past page 3, don’t have easy access to a printer (since they are on the road and working from their laptop) and you don’t hear back from them.

Scenario 2

You and your co-authors are talking with a prospective client. You send them an iTunes Gift which is of your book (should work whether or not the book is free). They open up iBooks, download the book and are greeted with an interactive and highly modern textbook on your area of expertise. It opens with videos of you (and your co-authors) and the text is in modern fonts and in full color with illustrations. The client reads your textbook on their next plane flight and when they land send over a contract.

Yes, “white papers” aren’t always dry and dull but these days if you are going to be giving away your content to sell your services (the model of countless consultancies) why not take a look at iBooks Creator as a possible tool to integrate content types and as a way of creating a more compelling and actionable content.

And if you are thinking about selling that content then sure you could sell it on your website (lots of tools for that) but if you have to spend the time (and money) but mostly time managing an ecommerce website you have to sell a great number of white papers. Sure 30% adds up (and if you as I might recommend sell your book not for $9.99 but for 10-40x of that amount) the percentage is all that more meaningful. But in the end if you just gave the book away you likely will make more from a single consulting project than you will from the book.

If not your consulting rates and project scope is vastly too low

Okay if you are +Tim Ferriss consider disregarding this advice (Tim’s third “4-hour” book The 4-Hour Chef (seehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0547884591/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=jigzawinc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0547884591
is now available for pre-order on Amazon – and he’s almost certainly on his way to yet another NYTimes Bestseller. But even Tim might have some non-NYTimes bestseller content that might make a good free book – compilations of blog posts + videos from his blog or video series with +Kevin Rose for example might be one idea. Go see his FOUNDATION video interview when you have some time)But for the rest of us non-NYTimes bestselling authors Apple has just given us a fantastic tool. A tool to help possibly spread education and a tool which savvy professionals may use to stand out from a sea of similar consultants.

(originally posted to my Google+ stream)

I’m thinking about pushing the “reset” button…

I’m thinking about pushing the “reset” button on most of my media consumption and rebuilding all of it this month.That means: 1) not renewing any print magazine subscriptions & deciding on a case by case basis was print publications to subscribe to for 2012. I’d like to have 3-5 magazines a month – considering The Atlantic Monthly, Monocle and possibly a few others – what would you suggest? (serious news, politics, tech or non-serious games, rpgs, science fiction or fantasy are all options) 2) unsubscribing from the 300-400+ blogs I currently get via Google Reader and adding back just the ones I actually miss not reading. I’d like to ADD a lot of ones I don’t currently read – especially looking for good, unique perspectives on Business – technology & non-tech with a strong focus on design and innovation. But equally I want to read some great political blogs, some great gaming (not just video games but also paper RPG’s and boardgames) blogs, some blogs on writing – especially science fiction, and some “geek” blogs. As well as the still active blogs of friends of mine 3) Unsubscribing from many of the podcasts I currently subscribe to (especially the ones that have remained mostly unlistened to for many months). I’ll keep a few of the gaming podcasts that I keep up with, the comics podcasts I listen to but would like to add some great (but focused) tech podcasts (audio preferred to video) and possibly some political or general interest/geek podcasts? 4) unsubscribing from still more email lists – especially the ones that have remained mostly unread and/or which I rarely engage with these days. I’d also like to add a few new ones IF I can identify really interesting & active communities (and/or exceptionally currated content sources) 5) Picking a few online communities to really engage deeply with this year. I’ve never “gotten” Reddit but folks I really respect love it deeply. Clearly there is something worthwhile happening there. Equally I haven’t “gotten” into either LiveJournal or Tumblr and both might be worth really engaging with in 2012. 6) Creating my own content. Starting with posts here in Google+ but also writing on my personal blog(s) and soon our new corporate blog (more on that in a few days) but not ending there. I’d like to write more guest posts for other media outlets, write some articles perhaps for magazines or other publications and by the end of 2012 I’d like to have at least one book if not published then in the works. Suggestions for great content I should consider adding to my media diet in 2012 are welcome – especially if you know me well and have some unique suggestions… thanks! What changes are you planning for 2012?

Looking back on 2011 and forward to 2012

2011 ends in just minutes as I write this and it has been a year of highs and lows, perhaps too many lows. In any case I am looking forward to 2012, the first full year of marriage for me – I was married this past Fall – that’s definitely a major highlight of my year. But as well there have been some major lows – sudden deaths, professional disappointments (both my own and those of close friends) all in all 2011 has been a rough year and one that can’t end too soon.

Every year however I look back on the last year and forward to the next and wonder what I will be doing this time next year, what will have happened in the year to come and what will seem so common by the end of year that I can’t even quite imagine as the year begins.

Last year at New Years Eve I would not have guessed that this year I would end the year a married man, sitting at home watching local tv with my wife – very very happily doing so. The new year will start with a day of home chores – laundry and house cleaning and then the week begins with work.

A few years ago I spent New Years Eve at a friend’s house – at the time I was single – there was a tradition in that household (I think) where you wrote down one word that would be your theme (and goal) for the year to come. My word that year was “companionship”.

In 2011 I more than got that and I enter 2012 with the best companion in the world – my wife.

I love you Usha.

Getting married [done]

[written during the weekend of the marriage but I didn't post it, posting it now before the year end]

This weekend I am getting married!

It is a big “change of life event” to use the HR terminology – more importantly and more accurately it is an important next step in my life and relationship to my soon to be wife. The next few days will be a blur of family and friends – and lots of last minute details to be sorted (and client projects to finish) but it will all be worth it when we say our vows in front of family and friends.

Our ceremony will be a short one, it will draw upon our family backgrounds but it will not be a religious ceremony. Neither my soon to be wife nor I are religious (I’m an atheist, she’s perhaps less certain about atheism than I). A friend of ours will be the officiant and the ceremony is one that we have written along with our friend. It will have elements of the Hindu traditions, it will have elements of the Jewish and even some hints of my Irish-Catholic family. But mostly it will be short and will focus on the new family and partnership we are creating together – a relationship of equals (though like many smart men I admit that most of the time I’ll be wrong…)

The weekend will have a few events and we hope our love of great, local food will shine through – as well as our intention of welcoming our friends and family and celebrating along with them. We chose to be married over Thanksgiving Weekend because it is my favorite holiday of the year – a celebration of good food and our family and friends. As a couple we have hosted Thanksgiving meals (not always on Thanksgiving Day) at which we have invited both family and friends. For me Thanksgiving is a time to invite everyone over – not just immediate family but also the family that we have made for ourselves. It is a time to share

super interesting in what +Gina Trapani is…

Oops didn’t mean to share this but leaving it here as a reminder. Still a great post by Jason (and Gina). 

super interesting in what +Gina Trapaniis doing with ThinkUp…. basically it lets you–if you have a web server (I know, not user friendly)–download all your social data and play with it.it now supports Google+, which is 80% of my social activity. It actually reminds me of Google Custom Search + Disporia is there a hosting company for this yet? Track your Google+ Data Now That ThinkUp Supports Google+ – LAUNCH - View or comment on Shannon Clark’s post »

Selling stuff on Kickstarter is better than selling equity

Selling stuff on Kickstarter is better than selling equity for most startupsI’m writing a blog post about why the Kickstarter (and IndieGoGo etc) model is BETTER than if the model allowed for the sale of equity. My main thesis is that if you are building a business you are in the business of selling something (at a price and in a volume that is sustainable and ideally scalable and growing over time). If, in contrast, you are selling your business you are still in sales just now of equity not your actual product – and if you are great at that you likely won’t be great at your actual sales of your actual product. Yes this is in contrast to the Silicon Valley mythos built up around press attention around each (hopefully larger) round of funding at progressively bigger and bigger valuations. Those are often examples of founders (and senior management) who are expert salesmen (and the occasional though perhaps to occasionally but that’s another post women) selling themselves, their brand and their “vision” over actual sales. In contrast the Kickstarter model forces three key elements that are far more likely to lead to a successful business than if the model was instead focused on selling equity (as far far too many people IMHO keep proposing SEC regulations and opportunities for fraud be dammed). Selling your vision quickly and succinctly The forcing effort of a great, short video along with a well written description (plus ongoing engagement) should not be discounted. I would guess that a majority (a large majority) of the founders I talk to are unable to sell their vision in a short, succinct and compelling message. They ramble, they sell themselves not their product, they talk about the vision for their business over the vision for a specific product. In contrast success on a site such as Kickstarter is in a very large and real manner dependent on presenting a compelling vision about what you are going to make (and what you are offering to supporters) which is so compelling that enough people want to see the final product (and in most cases get it or a copy of it for themselves). Selling to actual customers something compelling enough to part real money from them The perks and stuff you offer on a site such as Kickstarter are really important, but notably the most successful projects often have very few levels of support. They aren’t trying to offer lots of levels with lots of unique perks, instead the successful projects tend to offer three distinct levels of support. A very low level that is just a few bucks and offers just credit/thanks or perhaps a digital only product (typically <$10). A middle level that offers the first production copies of whatever is being funded (typically $25-75 depending on the object often with a US and an International shipping option). This level doesn’t have to be complicated – offer the product you will be making (the very first ones to supporters) and some small (but next to no cost to you) extra as thanks. And a third level often $500 or higher that offers a limited number (typically) of unique special perks – original artwork, dinner with the founders etc. These levels however also don’t have to be complicated – keep it simple and focus on the actual product is the recipe many of the most successful kickstarter campaigns I’ve studied have followed. Promotion with a side of hustle and more promotion Key to successful Kickstarter campaigns, the ones that grow beyong a small number of friends and family are the active and compelling promotion of your campaign. You have a limited timeframe and a discret success metric (funded/not funded) which helps force entrepreneurs to keep promoting actively and often. Hustle wins here. Social media is likely important but equally (and perhaps even more important) is knowing which social media channels, especially which small niche channels will lead to success for your specific product. Knowing this is another thing that a majority of entrepreneurs I work with fail to know – they have an idea of who their customers may be (often very broadly defined – more than you would like to see say “everyone on the planet/Internet could be my customer…”) but almost never do they know where those customers are active online – their variations, niche site (podcast, blog, magazine, video series) loyalties etc. Since the 1990′s I’ve been seeing proposals for sites that would allow for the crowdfunding of businesses – for the “democratization” of capital (and/or access to “IPOs” as it was deemed in the roaring 90′s) but all that attention to raising money all too often misses the real goal of a successful business – creating sustainable value. View or comment on Shannon Clark’s post »

My Steve Jobs memories

My Steve Jobs memoriesAs a kid I learned to program on Comodore64′s and on the Osborne “luggable” my father had from his work. My mom was a mainframe programmer but we were relatively early adopters of computers – however as we didn’t have a TV we didn’t get an Atari or other home computer for a while. But I did use Apple’s at various schools and learned to program them.In the 1980′s my parents bought one of the very first Mac’s, a Mac512 which we later upgraded to a MacPlus with a whole 1mb of memory! (they still have this – likely now it is a collectible). In 1991 as I prepared for my first year of college I bought my first computer of my own – it wasn’t a Mac, nor was it a Windows PC, I bought a used NeXT cube. The bit over $6000 I spent on that NeXT was probably among the best purchases I ever made in my life – more than college, more then my first condo. Okay not more than a certain ring I just bought but other than that, one of the most long lasting purchases of my life – as the skills I learned connecting that NeXT to the Internet have lasted to this day. In 1991 from my college dorm room which included wired Internet access I had a static IP address and had nearly 1000 users from around the globe playing the MuCK which I ran for some friends on the NeXT (named Collatz). While I wasn’t ever a highly active player of the MuCK I helped to run that experience and the ongoing experience of the NeXT OS as an interface to the Internet in 1991 has shaped me and my technical interests to this day. I purchased the NeXT largely because it came bundled with Mathematica (I thought I was going to be a Math or Physics major and had been an avid Mathematica user while working at Argonne National Lab). There are still UI and software elements of the NeXT which I think still would be innovative today – the multi-dimensional spreadsheet for the NeXT OS was really impressive and the mail included the ability to link photos to addresses (something only gradually available today via add-ons such as Rapportive to Gmail though Google is also making some strides to add this – but it still is far from standard). A few years into to college, however, i sold my NeXT and bought my first laptop, which wasn’t a Mac but a PC. That served me well as a writing tool but less well as a technology tool and the various PCs I owned in the 1990′s and early 2000′s weren’t much better. Finally fed up with Windows I switched to first an iMac for my home computer a few years ago and then added the MacBook Pro I’m writing on at the moment. Earlier this year my fiancee and I each bought an iPad and I’ve had an iPhone since the first version. I’m still not a full power user of the latest MacOS (Lion) and I don’t do a lot of coding these days (though I did hack up an iPad app a while back and may try my hand at that again later this fall) but I’m appreciative of the power of the Mac platform and the reinvigorated Apple company that is Steve Job’s legacy. View or comment on Shannon Clark’s post on Google+»

Why I don’t accept most connections on LinkedIn or circle back on Google+

Why I don’t accept most connections on LinkedIn or circle back on Google+Recently I have read articles which note that it is apparently the “accepted norm” on LinkedIn that most people accept all connection requests. Perhaps this is true, but if so it also explains why I haven’t found LinkedIn very useful since that became the norm. When LinkedIn first launched (I was one of the first 1000 users of LinkedIn) my network on LinkedIn though I kept my direct connections to people I both actually knew and would refer business to (i.e. I didn’t then nor do I now accept connections on LinkedIn from anyone I wouldn’t do business with myself) I still had a reach that included much of LinkedIn’s membership. In those early years I got a lot of referral requests for people a few degrees away from me, when the request was well written and reasonable I would forward it on to my contact who in turn knew the person who was trying to be contacted. This was a great system in that it was an opportunity for me to connect with and reach out to my contacts and in general it was highly effective as a business tool. But now that most of LinkedIn have adopted this nearly valueless method of making connections the network graph on LinkedIn is far less valuable or reliable. As a result I rarely use LinkedIn other than occasionally as a research tool (but not for network connections or referrals but rather for information about a given business – i.e. the number of current and former employees they have, their job roles and types, the velocity of turnover at that business etc). All useful but not so valuable that I use LinkedIn frequently. View or comment on Shannon Clark’s post »The Google+ project makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real-life. Join Google+