If I pointed you to this post it was because you either came up to me after a panel, or you pinged me asking to meet or talk (or have coffee, etc.), or I wanted to share with you how & why I like to answer questions so others can benefit.
I'm always looking for ways to gain and share knowledge in efficient ways. In the spirit of my posts on knowledge building and creating process (and even making a process for process), I've created a process to have interactions in ways that are efficient for all of us, and build knowledge for everyone whenever possible:
If you'd like to have a conversation on any topic, the absolute best way is to write a post in the community section of my blog.
I am really working to build this blog as a resource to entrepreneurs, and your participation means a lot to me. You can also post comments on any blog post -- I'll read & respond to each one. I'll dedicate much more time to conversations that happen on my blog, because everyone can benefit from the knowledge sharing. I greatly prefer to have these conversations in public when possible because the conversation becomes part of a public knowledge base that anyone can learn and benefit from -- this is part of the reason I said that Henry Ford would love blogs. Plus, it's part of our company manifesto to capture content (point #13!) If you're asking me something sensitive, you can just use a 'thowaway' username to keep yourself anonymous.
Sometimes I invite people to have lunch at our office in San Francisco, where we cater lunch for our employees. If we have a good conversation in the comments section of the blog and want to continue it in person, company lunches are typically a great time for me to do that and I'll invite you to join us.
If you don't want to have a public conversation, then it becomes much harder for me to dedicate my time to helping you privately. I encourage you to just anonymize any issues you're dealing with as much as possible so you can post them in the community section of my blog vs. insisting on a private conversation.
I hope you can help me build a public knowledgebase to benefit others going through the same experiences as we are.
And while I'm at events, I always try to capture the content from an event. Why have the content from a great event sit only inside the heads of those who were there, when if just one person captures the content, it can be shared with the world?
Here is a post showcasing the sub-$500 rig I use to capture content at conferences, panels, and any other public event I attend. I typically just set the camera up in the back of the room, or on a chair next to me. People look at me in a strange way when I set the camera up, because it's not yet culturally accepted to capture content. But I know that while I may be getting a strange look at that moment, the reality is that I'm capturing content that nobody else at the event is capturing, and I'm sharing it on this blog for someone like you to be able to learn from it, and that makes all the strange stares worthwhile!
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The cultural barriers to capturing content
Today I attended the GigaOm Bunker Session titled "Is App TV Coming Next?"
If you know me, you know that I believe strongly in capturing content. I believe that within 20 years, humanity will be capturing most, if not all, of its content. To me, it's a shame that we produce content which then gets lost, only to be stored inside the heads of the people who where physically present. If we're ever to make a leap in learning past what each individual can experience, we need to have a collective framework where people can learn quickly by sharing in experiences others have had. In short, I believe it should be a basic human right to capture the content you've experienced, and share it with whomever you want.
To many people, that can be a very scary idea. What if someone is having a private conversation with you, and you capture and share it with the world? And although these are very real issues, to me, they are issues that can be solved. The benefit so far exceeds the cost of figuring these issues out that it's a no-brainer (see our experiences with Stargate as an example). In fact, there are opportunities for creative entrepreneurs to find ways of easing the world into the idea of capturing and sharing content in ways that people are culturally comfortable with and that maintain people's sense of privacy.
Today I had a typical experience that highlights how far we have to go before the capturing of content is accepted. I was attending GigaOm's session on AppTV, and setting my Kodak Zi8 camera up, as I often do, to capture the session. That's when Surj Patel of GigaOm came up and told me I couldn't record the session. When I asked him why, he told me to "fuck off". Pretty distressing attitude.
Today I attended the GigaOm Bunker Session titled "Is App TV Coming Next?" If you know me, you know that I believe strongly in capturing content. I believe that within 20 years, humanity will be capturing most, if not all, of its content. To me, it's a shame that we produce content which then gets lost, only to be stored inside the heads of the people who where physically present. If we're ever to make a leap in learning past what each individual can experience, we need to have a collective framework where people can learn quickly by sharing in experiences others have had. In short, I believe it should be a basic human right to capture the content you've experienced, and share it with whomever you want. To many people, that can be a very scary idea. What if someone is having a private conversation with you, and you capture and share it with the world? And although these are very real issues, to me, they are issues that can be solved. The benefit so far exceeds the cost of figuring these issues out that it's a no-brainer (see our experiences with Stargate as an example). In fact, there are opportunities for creative entrepreneurs to find ways of easing the world into the idea of capturing and sharing content in ways that people are culturally comfortable with and that maintain people's sense of privacy. Today I had a typical experience that highlights how far we have to go before the capturing of content is accepted. I was attending GigaOm's session on AppTV, and setting my Kodak Zi8 camera up, as I often do, to capture the session. That's when Surj Patel of GigaOm came up and told me I couldn't record the session. When I asked him why, he told me to "fuck off". Pretty distressing attitude. In fairness, he did come up to me to apologize later, but his attitude highlights how far we have to go before capturing content is culturally OK. I do understand that it's GigaOm's business model to put content behind a pay wall, and that's fine. I would argue that allowing audience members to capture some content would increase the subscriber base. It exposes more people to the brand, and a professional, edited recording will always be better and more engaging than a blogger with his flip-style camera. I was disappointed by Surj's myopic view of the value of capturing content, and his aggressive response when I asked him why that was his policy. And I post this blog not to embarrass him, but because I believe in the importance of allowing people to capturing content. I'm sure some of you will disagree with me, and I welcome your comments below. As an aside, I've had similar things happen before, where groups were surprised I wanted to capture content (never so aggressively, though), and those groups have literally thanked me later and said "you were right, it provided a lot of value to us that you captured the content" after they saw the increase in interest in their brand from the video. Here's the video of Surj telling me to 'fuck off':
Go Big or Go Home - Succeeding in the Art World
On SEBASTIAN MARSHALLMy friend Joshua Spodek was kind enough to write about his experiences building out public art exhibitions. One of the lessons he has is counterintuitive - that it can be a faster path to success to get large art projects off the ground than it is to work your way slowly through the art world. Here's Josh -
Art can be an insular field and breaking in is a common challenge, so I'd like to share it with a community that values success and victory. I hope there are insights others can use and share too.
My background is in science and entrepreneurship, but I've developed a passion for making art. I'm not content with just creating it -- like any artist I want exposure and recognition (sales aren't bad either).
The challenge is that New York's art world is notoriously xenophobic and tends to promote from within. My credentials -- a PhD in astrophysics and a company running for over a decade -- mean little to them. Even making great art only gives a foot in the door.
I have a huge challenge that my work doesn't photograph at all and video doesn't capture it that well. When galleries take an interest in my work, a version this conversation happens: