Over the River

I’ve been terrible about writing lately - not only here but on ALL my blogs. It feels really lame but I’ve been busy/on the road and need to rethink my workflow. A lot of the time that’s what it comes down to for me - my workflow. It’s true with photography, with brewing, with work and even with writing. One thing that doesn’t require workflow is fun and one of the things I do for fun is play games. It’s something I’ve been doing for a long time now.

I was playing Dungeons Dragons as a teen years with friends from my town - David Shimberg. Teddy Lazotte, Mike Beaton, Dwayne Officer and my brother Dave. My parents gave my brother and I the first boxed version of D&D for Christmas one year and we were off and running. It didn’t have real dice, only paper chits to cut out and pick out of an envelope or something. We eventually moved to early console and computer games and continued to have fun.

In the mid-80s I went out and bought Nintendo specifically to play Zelda and had an awesome time doing it. I hung on to that for almost 10 years, dabbling here and there with computer games but rarely finding that perfect match of game and system capability. By the mid-90s though I’d made the jump to pure PC gaming (I’d given the Nintendo away while I still lived in SF). I was firmly embedded in PC gaming - willingly shelling out each year for new video adapters and one of the first on the block with a broadband connection.

In the late 90s I get back into consoles with an N64. That was a good system - but for all the improvements, it didn’t measure up to the original Nintendo so I stayed largely a PC gamer. Increasingly I was playing online - Operation Flashpoint, Total Annihilation, America’s Army, etc.

Then in the early 2000s I got an Xbox and Xbox Live. I got it through work for a project (though job) and managed to hook up several of my friends as well. With online multiplayer and voice - it was pretty good and I found myself sitting at the PC less and less for games. That trend accelerated as my kids got into gaming and we found titles for them on both the PC and Xbox.

In 2006 I replaced my PC with a MacBook Pro and so essentially decided to stick to console gaming. Late in 2006, when the Xbox gave up the ghost, we replaced it with a 360 and were happy. We also got a Wii and were happier still. Oh sure, I would install a game on the Mac every now and then - WoW, Lord of the Rings Online - but I just wasn’t cool with spending money every month to play (even though I am willing to pay for Xbox Live).

Then last week Gary Gygax died and there was a whole lot said and written about him and about D&D. Several years ago I’d found the original boxed set my parents bought me as a boy at a yard sale for a quarter. Everything was still intact - including the uncut chits. I decided it would be right and proper to have a game with friends so on Saturday we did.

My brother-in-law Matt agreed to be the DM (he still plays from time-to-time), my other brother-in-law James and his girlfriend Chesley came over as did John Johansen, one of my social media pals. For all of the advances and improvements in my gaming life over the past almost 30 years, sitting around a table with friends and paper and pencils and oddly-shaped dice again was terrific.

Making choices, letting chance play its part, making up the rules as we went along was all great. Working cooperatively, laughing at each other’s expense and taking breaks to eat or talk - it all reminded me what attracted me to gaming in the first place. All of us want to play again and I hope that we will. If you haven’t played around a table in years (or ever) you should give it a try again. There’s something innocent and immediate and engrossing about it that you just can’t get anywhere else.

Earlier today a colleague sent out an email to illustrate how teens are using social media differently. A woman he knows (apparently in her teens) lost the numbers on her cell. Her solution for getting them back was to create a Facebook group asking her friends to post their numbers.

While 20 people have joined the group, only three have posted their numbers - just 15 percent. Is the issue concern with privacy? Apathy?

What do you think?

I’ve been asked to get a sense of how the world of social media is feeling about the economy and the potential for a recession. If anyone has thoughts they’d be willing to share of a sense from their own travels and observations I’d appreciate it very much. You can email me or leave comments here.

I do a little writing on the side. I’m not going to say what kind of writing it is but trust me, it isn’t like this blog and it’s about the farthest thing from my work as you can imagine (so no conflict if anyone from work reads this . . .). My work has become increasingly popular and my wife has been encouraging me to make some money with it.

The thing is, I am not really tuned into business and all that jazz so the idea of dealing with it hasn’t really captured my imagination. But at the same time, I’d love to make a little extra loot. I’ve got the product piece down – and the marketing – but the business end? Not so much.

Now though things are starting to come together. Let me tell you about the ingredients that will lead to my eventual anonymous stardom:

Wordpress.com – as the initial point for publication. Why? Because it’s easy. I have a number of WordPress blogs – some that I host myself and some that I host on Wordpress. Hosting them myself lets me put ads on them but hosting them on Wordpress help grow traffic faster.

Craig’s List – as the initial point of promotion. Why? Because it’s free easy and I can set it up in less time than it will take me to write this post.

PayPal – as my method for payment. Why? Because, well, because it’s simple and when I asked my wife to look into payment systems this is what she came up with.

FreshBooks – as my billing/invoice system. Why? Well, they’re one of my clients and I really like the product (not that I don’t like all my client’s products but there’s not many of them that I can use). It looks good, is simple to use and helps me keep track of things I’m not very good at keeping track of.

A friend who shall remain nameless – as my marketing chum. Why? Sure, I could do it myself but I’m a little too close to the product to promote it objectively. She is not.

As soon as I get some paying customers I’ll be psyched - and with my new systems in place it will only be a matter of time until I am the master of my domain . . .

I’ve asked it before and I’m still interested in hearing from people – how do you handle the business end of your thing (what ever that thing might be)?

When I heard there’d soon be free WiFi on the Worchester line (which is the one I take every day) I couldn’t stop grinning. I considered it to be a potentially life-altering development. A week later and a few opportunities to try it out here’s what I think.

First of all, it is totally nice to be able to get online on the train. I know lots of people already do with WiMax and Mobile Broadband but for the rest of us it’s nice to have an opportunity. It does seem like the program - especially in the early days - is a little confused. I have seen a number of on-train networks: DemoProject, Junctionbox and Commuter Rail Connect.

DemoProject - which gave me a nice strong signal on Friday morning wouldn’t actually allow me to connect with anything. Junctionbox that afternoon gave me a connection and a strong signal but was incredibly slow. CRC is the official network and this morning brought me to the T’s terms and conditions page.

Right now the connection is technically limited to one car. I’ve looked for the network in cars not marked with the on board broadband sticker and haven’t had any luck. I’ll bet if you were in the very next car you could get on no trouble.

I get on in Natick and the signal has been strong all the way into the city. The speed isn’t terrific - 400k down and 200k up but it’s better than nothing. I haven’t seen anyone else using the connection on any of the trains I’ve been on and I wonder how slow it will be if there are 30 or 40 people sharing the bandwidth. It won’t be pretty.

I’ve been using it for pretty light online activity - posting to this blog, IM, twitter, etc. While it might not be the fastest connection you’re going to find it’s free, fast(ish) and sure makes the commute a little more pleasant. Hats off the the MBTA for taking this first step.

I wasn’t familiar with these guys until the wrote asking to use some of my photos for their guides. I’ve been seeing a number of new travel companies recently and like some of the approaches people are taking. I’m a big fan of Untravel, not so much of Urban Interactive and way of Schmap (OK, so the fact that they use my photos for free helps . . .).

This past Tuesday’s WebInno was great. The event continues to grow and, in fact, may be getting TOO big (at least for the room it is currently in). It’s size actually made it hard (and in some cases impossible) to see many of the sidedish companies. I was near the door and the conversations in the foyer - even with the door closed - made it hard to hear some of the presentations. But these are nits.

While I really enjoy the presentations and the companies, what’s most valuable about WebInno for me is the chance to see people and to get a sense of the Web market here in Boston. Based on this week’s event that state of Web innovation and interest is higher than ever. I was only able to spend time with two companies - MakeMeSustainable and Glassbooth.

I really liked what I saw from MakeMeSustainable. Their analytics and Facebook integration - with its carbon tree metaphor for building a network for carbon reduction - were very impressive. Ben Brown, the CEO, and David Delacourt, the COO, were kind enough to show me the product and to discuss how they see themselves fitting into the market.

We talked for a while about how MMS compares with Carbonrally - a company that was at WebInno a few months ago. MMS has the analytics well in hand while Carbonrally has done a great job of building on people’s competitive spirit to engage them around the issue. It’s hard to say which approach will be most successful (if either) but some hybrid would be very appealing.

I went in expecting to love Glassbooth and I totally did. Robert Boyle explained things to me in more detail than I had gotten on the site - including their plans for the future. This was something I think a lot of people wondered about - sure, it’s a great tool heading into a presidential election but what do you do afterward?

Robert explained that they hope to use the system for a growing number of elections - local, state and federal. It sounds like a plan - especially since they are a non-profit that is receiving its funding primarily through foundations. I continue to be impressed by the depth of the site and by the commitment of the people involved with it.

As for the main dish presentations - my opinion of SpotScout and Urban Interactive is unchanged from my preview. SpotScout seems like a really niche product (if I don’t take the T I just part in a garage most of the time) and Urban Interactive still seems like it could be an annoying idea. That said, I can imagine examples of Urban Interactive executions that would be totally engrossing and fun. Maybe it’s just the way it was described - with references to reality TV, etc - that turned me off.

A new wrinkle on the event was the ability of everyone to vote on the coolest main dish. SpotScout won in a landslide so they certainly had something to say to many of the attendees.

Paper Hats did well at the event. More than 20 people were willing to don the recycled headgear and allow themselves to be photographed and the Paper Hat movement seems like it is poised for some exciting growth. Keep your eyes peeled for Paper Hats cropping up wherever the cool kids congregate.

Ans speaking of congregating - post-WebInno saw a terrific traveling Tweet-up. First downstairs at Dante and then across the street at the Cheesecake Factory. It was a veritable who’s-who of wicked fun people.

The next WebInno isn’t until April so we’ll have to come up with something else to amuse ourselves in the meantime.

Did everyone else have a great time?

At last week’s MITX event I badgered the panel about the possibility to payment for content creators on social sites. I was told the question was “naive” and heard from a commenter that there was no way this would happen in for foreseeable future. To his credit, that person did mention that YouTube was doing something like this but he wondered is anything had actually been paid.

Imagine my relief this morning when I saw this article on the BBC.com. Apparently I’m not as naive as some believe and the foreseeable future as arrived!

YouTube users in the UK will be given the chance to make money from the videos they post on the site.

The project is already up and running in the US and is now being extended to other countries, starting in the UK.

In the US some contributors are already earning thousands of dollars each month from their films, according to the video-sharing site.

The amount that is earned will depend on the number and popularity of the videos, it said.

Will this eventually extend beyond YouTube and become standard industry wide? Why not?

Today is a day for paper hats. I was on my way to work this morning and realized I’d forgotten my hat. My head was cold. What could I do? The answer was simple: make a paper hat. As soon as I got to work that’s just what I did.

The result was stunning. I am so happy with my hat - and I want other people to be happy too - that I’ve created a new Flickr group dedicated to paper hats. Take a second today and do something fun. Make yourself a paper hat and post a pic. You’ll feel better, trust me.

For most of our history, creative content has moved freely - if slowly - through culture. Before the printing press, stories were passed through oral tradition of through hand written reproduction. Both of these models allowed room for change and adaptation. Once he technology of printing and publishing arrived, written content was increasingly locked, owned and protected.

The same has been true for musical content - especially in the folk tradition. Music passed from player to listener. People would learn and swap songs, change the lyrics, reuse the tune and create together. Obviously someone somewhere had written the song and the music and often it was available in sheet form for others to play. The understanding and assumption was that people would play and perform the music.

Once sound recording came onto the scene, that seems to have changed. No more sharing songs with friends. No more repurposing tunes or lyrics. Thanks to recording audio content became something that could be locked, owned, protected and commoditized. Are we better off?

There’s a relationship between the level of skill/technology needed to produce content and the lengths people are willing to take to prevent its reproduction. I mean if I relate a story I’ve read in a book no one raises an eyebrow. If I were to tell a story - or even read from a book - in front of a group, no one cracks down.

If I were to play a piece of produced content in front of that same group - whether it was sound or images - what then? Would that be OK?

One think that’s interesting to consider is that a company like Sony used to actively encourage people to reproduce copyrighted produced content. How many tape decks and blank cassettes have they sold over the past 40 years? Why was it OK to tape but now not OK to rip? And Sony’s taken the extra step to suggest that copying music you OWN for your own use may be criminal.

The barriers to producing and sharing content are down. We’re back in the content world that we have existed in for hundreds of thousands of years. Technology took the freedom to create and recreate and share away as the ability to produce and protect content became prevalent.

We’re kind of back to where we started but we need to be responsible. Wholesale copyright infringement isn’t OK but a more liberal understanding of fair use needs to be developed to allow for the resumption of non-homoginized cultural development.

Check out Tom Pettitt’s paper on the Gutenberg Parenthesis for more coherent thoughts on this whole issue.

What do you think?