What happens AFTER Kickstarter?

Ever wonder what happens to the Kickstarter or IndieGoGo campaigns you supported? If they are of a creative nature you might have gotten a copy of the book or a down load of the film, but what about all those cool gadgets?  

 

Now there is a website, OUT GROW ME which is the first marketplace for successfully funded Kickstarter and IndieGoGo projects (thank you, Swiss Miss).  And I have to say, some of them are VERY cool…. I wish I had known about this link for the holiday season… but it’s never too late to give.

Crowd Funding a Year Later: One Success – One Bomb – Part 11

Gary Delfiner, Rob Barabas, David Mandel (blog interviewee),
Aubrey Levy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A year ago we accompanied David Mandel and his partners on the Kickstarter campaign for their feature Mulligan.  Here, a year and one more Kickstarter campaign later, a wrap up.

David: you now have two Kickstarter campaigns under your belt one, the feature Mulligan very successful the other, a documentary Indestructible Baseball on the Isthmus not so. Can you tell us where the big differences were between the two campaigns in terms of preparation, staffing, ask level, execution and leverage with ‘goodies’?

Identity and the Other – Synopsis

Here the (current) Synopsis for my next film Identity and the Other:

 

How Swiss are Muslims living in Switzerland, how Swiss do they want to be and who decides if they are Swiss enough?

 

Identity and the Other explores the lives of several 2^nd generation, millennial, Muslim immigrants, which represent a section of a culturally, religiously and ethnically diverse Switzerland many Swiss feel uneasy about.

TED Talks

TED talks are highly addictive and the most welcome, educational and inspiring time sink I can think of.  Last weekend I indulged and revisited some old friends and found some new ones I wanted to share. 

 

For those of you who are new to TED, TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment and Design.  Since, TED talks have spread in many directions and in particular onto their amazing website onto which all TED talk videos are uploaded. 

Giving Thanks

Every year has its highs and its lows and even the lows tend to have silver-linings. Superstorm Sandy hit hard, even if we, as a company, had no hardship. We didn't lose power, had no property damage or major work disruptions and we are very thankful for that.

 

But it does hit home hard to see so many people and small to medium sized business owners and employees lose everything and see their life's work slip from their grip in a few hours. No amount of government support and insurance money will give anybody the hard work, time, worry, planning and love back, lost when a catastrophe - man-made or natural - strikes.

 

We wish all of those affected by Sandy no matter how lightly or gravely the strength, perseverance and tenacity to rebuild even better and stronger than before.  And mostly we wish them the strength to see a silver-lining and be able to give thanks this Thanksgiving. 

 

And on a lighter note:

Photo "borrowed" from Bar Sepia Thanksgiving mail - thank you!

 

Megatrends

I came across megatrends repeatedly doing research for my next documentary Identity and the Other and decided to do a bit of further digging. I found different definitions for different countries and cultures, no surprise there. The following seemed the most comprehensive. 

 

Megatrends are defined as forces (i.e. trends) affecting all aspects of our lives over a long period of time. Factors are:

Giving and Volunteering



Far Rockaway, NY: "U Loot. We Shoot"!

This weekend I volunteered for the disaster recovery of Sandy, and I’ll be brutally honest (when am I not): I did it because I felt survivor’s guilt, I wanted to see what devastation looked like other than on TV and yes, I wanted to help as much as I could.  The bottom line is: why you volunteer is irrelevant as long as you do.  

 

Spending a waaaay long time in various buses to and from the Far Rockaway’s I had two very interesting conversations about disasters, giving and cultural differences.

Sandy - The Perfect Storm 2012





Tag! You're it.

A perfect storm, first 1991 and now 21 years later… I understand the semantic description of a perfect storm – which is when different weather systems, geographical and thermal elements coincide to make a big storm bigger; and bigger is apparently perfect – we are in America after all. But I do not entirely understand the technically of it. I do know that we are in a low pressure system. What I don’t understand is why my building’s hot water boiler doesn’t work because it is a low pressure system. We also have our gas stove not working properly – for the same reason: low air pressure…? I need to revisit my middle school text books. There was a time where we learned all of this ‘stuff’.

The perfect storm to me is being nervous about water leakage (anybody say Hurricane Irene 2011?), busted windows (neighboring idiots who leave their patio furniture on the balcony) and fear of losing power (I’m diligently, constantly charging everything and anything). It also means many hard boiled eggs in the fridge, lots of water and even more wine in the house.

Doping and the End of an Era

Remember, cheating as a kid, or that little white lie, or the half-truth or just leaving something out? We all have done it and will do it again unless you’re a saint and if you are and are reading this blog, please do introduce yourself – I’d be honored to know you.  

 

But back to the rest of us; as the saying goes (bible I think): “he who is innocent cast the first stone”. I don’t want to throw the first stone, but as it is I’m a bit late anyway to the stoning of Lance Armstrong, but never the less let me throw my pebble too.

Aunting

I’m aunting, starting Monday – for 11 straight days.  My sister is giving me her most prized possession on temporary loan, arriving as an unaccompanied minor on Swiss flight LX014 on Monday at JFK.  Then, for the first time in my live, I will be in charge of something (somebody, sorry) more complex than my plants – the only living thing I own.  Although I have quite a few of them (plants), but I think somehow it does not compare. 

 

My friend Silvia cautioned me today: “you better not break him”. In my head I added: “or lose him”. The pressure is on: he’s also the only grandchild. Imagine I’d lose him in the subway or in a shuffle in Times Square, or a bike rider ran him over, or a truck struck him crossing the street. I’m stressed. 

When Your Computer Crashes (Yes, a PC)

Yes indeed – it did; and spectacularly so. It took my remote IT person and me over an hour to get him logged on, it was so infected.  But thankfully we have a cloud and everything’s backed up, but for the lovely document I was working on, which, you guessed it, was a blog entry. 

 

Some extensive research will need to be duplicated; some brilliant thoughts will need to be re-thought. But today where the actual machine is quasi irrelevant, crashes are not the drama they used to be.  Anybody who saves documents ONLY on their machine deserves a slap upside the head (you know who you are and you know that I know). Loosing data today should be a thing of the past. 

It must be New York

After spending nearly two months in Switzerland and a big amount of that time outdoors I saw ducks with ducklings, a 20 head herd of red deer, marmots, an ibex and even a mountain goat with a baby, but it took coming home to New York to see – on my first day – during a ride in Central Park a presumptive relative of Pale Male (our famous New York red-tailed hawk) descend from the sky and attack a unsuspecting pigeon (we call those flying rats). 

 

I’ve seen plenty of predatory behavior in New York, but this must have been the most brazen one apart from the shootout between two cars careening through the lower east side I witnessed two decades ago.

 

The crazy thing is: it felt like a home-coming.  I love my native country, I love the wonderful vacations it affords me and I love coming back to New York, to its amazing energy.  It’s not a feeling I can describe and I certainly am a peace-loving person and I HATE noise, but there’s something about New York that still holds my attention two decades after arriving and the hawk’s attempt for a mid-morning snack fits that profile.  It’s good to be home.

New York's Pale Male

Context - Part 2

(In case you were wondering: no, you did not miss out on part 1 – I just thought I’d jump to part 2, because part 1 takes a lot of deep thoughts and I’m not done sorting them out yet as I’m busy with my life and having a good time)…

 

My mother and I visited the Jeff Koons exhibit at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland this week. Two years ago we had the privilege of visiting Koons’ studio on the west side of Manhattan, thanks to an artist friend of mine who works there.  Our trip to Basel was a great full circle experience to our studio visit.

Olymic Coverage

When worlds collide...  As the Summer Olympics 2012 are wrapping up I’m a bid sad, as I missed the entire thing and for several reasons.  Most importantly, I had better things to do – like get myself out of the house and enjoy the Swiss Alps and do some moving around myself.  Secondly: I was abroad and had no TV where I stay and thirdly, it never occurred to me that the first and second reason would prevent me from seeing highlights;  I had planned on watching what interested me virally, but apparently I got stuck somewhere between TV monopoly (anybody say NBC?), the Organizing Committee of the Olympic games and 2005. Seriously?

So here we are, 2012 and YouTube has been around for, say, seven years and we’ve (or at least I have) heard a lot about that nifty synergy where videos go viral and then garner more hits (as in clicks on the web) and more interest and move traffic to the source of the video.  Sound familiar?  Well, maybe to you, but not the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, NBC nor any other TV station that paid a g’zillion to secure exclusive broadcast rights.  

What on earth was NBC thinking when they delayed broadcasting the day’s events to the evening prime time slot when the games where in London, five hours ahead of the East Coast?  Did they seriously think they could control the internet and social media?  Why not go live AND show the highlights in the evening?

Did the OCO think they could control Social Media without consequences?  They sure tried hard for the past two weeks.  What happened to our 1^st Amendment?

The OCO is taking down all YouTube video of the current games and has threatened sanctions against athletes who tweet and mention their sponsors. See this guest post on the Brian Solis blog by Eric Schwartzman. It sums up the Olympic social media fiasco beautifully. 

And go on YouTube and search ‘Olympics 2012’ and click on say, synchronized swimming. I did and for a moment I was wondering why the swim suits were a tad old fashioned, but guess what, the clip is from 1984. Click on any other video of the 2012 Olympic Games:  NONE are from the current games. 

The OCO had a great opportunity to show the world how traditional and social media can play hand in hand and benefit from one another and share synergies and allow for a singular situation where the context is perfect to create and SHARE amazing media moment after media moment.  They failed miserably; going Orwellian on us instead à la 1984 and showing us the ugly side of “Big Brother is Watching You”.

Good bye London, no tears shed as I’m clueless as to what happened and hello Rio de Janeiro 2016 – please get it right.

Pushing the Envelope

This just a quick reminder that we need to step out of our comfort zone – daily! Stepping out can be on so many different fronts. I first experienced it on a regular basis when I went from smoker couch potato to marathon runner and triathlete.  Pushing the envelope seemed easy –it was part of the training plan.  What pushing the envelope also did, it made me come alive (and it was not only because I was fitter), it made me more alert and more open to other opportunities, and it reminded me of how I felt when I came to New York in 1989 – alive and open to opportunities.  So, what’s next?  As it turns out: plenty.  

 

We are creatures of habit and even the best habits need upending every once in a while (as long as they’re legal. The shaking of old habits that is). And most importantly we need to step out of our comfort zone with our relationships and with our careers.  Both need constant tweaking and both need a daily push out of the ordinary to stay relevant, exciting and successful.  What do you do to push YOUR envelopes and what ARE your envelopes?

Crowd Funding – Where the Hell is my Gift? – Part 10

I feel like a three year old: I want my gift and I want it now.  Now, now, now!  

So, I did a bit of research and after I’m feeling more like a ten year old. Intellectually I understand the fact that instant gratification is not always possible and that a reward waits in the future, but I still want my gift now, darn it.

I have invested in three projects on Kickstarter, a book, a cultural center and a film. Of course I have not invested in either, I have invested in PARTS of either:  small parts.  And herein lays the problem.  We (the Kickstarter community) invest in our friends’ and colleagues’ projects, or causes we are passionate about and more than not they are asking for donations to cover parts but not all of their funding needs. 

If I fundraise 10K for research of a documentary film I would be foolish to promise the finished film. First off, the delivery would be a few years from now and secondly I would not be able to guarantee delivery to begin with, because too many things can happen from research to finished film.  This seems too basic to have to mention, but I guess I do: make your pledges such, that you can deliver and do so on time. And in the interim: communicate!

There needs to be as much thought given to the fundraising part as to the delivery.  The goal is not only achieving our monetary goal by a certain date, but also - and equally important if not more important - the goal has to be to deliver on your pledge promises.  The dates for delivery have to be realistic and the goods or services to be delivered have to be realistic. And in the interim: communicate! (No, not a mistake – I just want to make that point again).  Shit happens, if it does: communicate.  Things get delayed:  communicate.  The creative process is a slippery one:  if it takes a lovely detour: communicate. 

I give you the three examples of the projects I have supported.  I did re-read and watch each of their pitches and here’s what works and what doesn’t.

Although I have waited the longest for Clouse’s Houses, the author Carol Clouse did a fine job managing expectations, explaining plan B upfront and keeping her backers up to date throughout the year she said it would take to finish her book.  Her fundraising goal was $5,000 which she reached June 22, 2011 with $5,055.  I pledged $25 to receive the book and an art card and to support (most importantly) the editor of the book for whose professional services the fundraiser took place. Needless to say, the editor, Barbara Fischkin is a friend of mine.  It’s a bit over a year, but the last communication to backers was six days ago and I’m apparently getting a 2^nd edition (after mistakes where discovered in the first) and it will be shipped to me by August 1^st.  

Good job: A. Why: Communication throughout the process.

The feature film Mulligan set out to raise $10,000, which it did by December 31, 2011 with $11,528. I pledged $50 to receive a golf ball and tee, both branded with the Mulligan logo, which I received promptly, but I am waiting on the digital download of the film and the score (both promised for May 2012).  

I just mailed with David Mandel who wrote on this blog about the behind the scenes launch a Kickstarter campaign and he says “they’re on it”.  Last Kickstarter communication: April 9, 2012. 

This would seem to be a quick and easy fix. You’re finishing a feature film, you don’t have a professional staff and you’re probably juggling a few new projects to keep paying the rent.  Make sure you make one person responsible of posting updates on a regular basis and everybody is going to be happy.  But you NEED to update.  And: if you think you’ll be done by May 2012 – add three months to be safe.  

Fair job: B+. Why: they did a partial delivery early on, but then got sloppy on their communication and delivery.

Now, on to the outfit that will make a Kickstarter success harder for the rest of us who come after.  Last summer I supported the cultural center Park51 (NYChildren Exhibit: Let’s open Park 51’s doors to the world!) for many reasons, one being that I was going to show my film there in conjunction with the exhibit NYChildren which ties in nicely with my film Abraham’s Children and the cultural center itself.  Park51 reached their fundraising goal of $70,000 on August 10^th, 2011.  

I pledged $25 to receive the book of the NYChildren exhibit, which was available for purchase at Park51.  This was September 2011. The last communication to backers on Kickstarter was posted on October 4^th, 2011. No book, no explanation and this organization has professional staff.  

Failure: F. Why: no delivery, no communication AND the book exists. Double boo!

This is the moral of the story: if it weren’t for the fact that I was supporting FRIENDS I’d not go back on Kickstarter to support a project.  I think the Kickstarter model is awesome and I hope one day to be one of the successful fundraisers to be added to a list of great creative projects at exceeded fundraising goals, but without delivery of pledges it doesn’t work and will increasingly work less, if potential backers, other than your parents, siblings and spouses, shy away after being ‘burned’.  Set realistic delivery goals and keep on communicating – it takes so little to do so, so do it!

The Problem

I watched a lovely documentary by filmmaker Jennifer Fox today, My Reincarnation.  It’s a wonderful family story against the backdrop of Tibetan Buddhist teachings.  Not only did I see a schoolmate and friend from film school at the New School, Antje, in one of the shots at the Italian ashram – what are the odds and I wish I had her last name to find her - but there was this lovely exchange between the elder Rinpoche and his grandson: “If you have a goat, you have goat problems; if you have money, you have money problems; if you have a car you have car problems”. At the last example, to which the young boy can relate to, his eyes light up and he says: “Yes, the car could be stolen”.  

I have blog problems; more accurately I have a time problem. I’ve been busy, so busy with production, that thinking about what to write - which takes up so much more time than the actual writing - is just not happening.  But, now I’m back and with new material in hand.  So, stay tuned, dear reader (whoever you are) and the conversation will continue.  

And by the way: if you want to read about a Kickstarter success and hear from the horse’s mouth, read about Jennifer and her team’s efforts to raise $150K to finish the 22 year journey of My Reincarnation.

Los Angeles Shoot

Shooting in Cali - our grip

San Diego Shoot

 Shooting in Cali
 

Talking Cross-Walk System

As every New Yorker knows, we jay-walk, early and often. Yesterday, minding my own business and lost in thought I stood at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 23rd Street.  As I set my foot off the curb onto the street to cross - no car was coming and the color of the light was irrelevant - I hear an electronic, male voice "don't walk".  What? Are you talking to me? I waved my hand back and forth at the system (see picture above) and each time I crossed the sensor it would tell me not to walk.  It made me laugh. 

As I crossed the street I heard the voice give a longer sermon - I'll have to go back and listen to the reasoning as to why I shouldn't cross against the light.  Maybe they'll make a decent point other than a potential ticket.

The List – Or: Whatever it Takes

I have a list.  The list lives on my bathroom door (courtesy of Michael’s craft store and awesome pens that write on glass).  I see the list every day several times from the front as it’s meant to be read. I see the list once a day from behind as it’s not supposed to be read and I know the list by heart. 

There are only seven items on the list: it’s my job list, the über-to-do-list.  One through seven: the things that generate income or might generate income, my projects, my jobs, my films, my ‘stuff’.  It’s a very diverse portfolio.  Ever since I started the list good things are happening.  Why? 

Simple: I have the list. I look at the list many times a day, …but I repeat myself.  And that’s the point. I have a tendency to get completely immersed in what I’m doing to the point of (mild, very mild) obsession.  So the list gets me back on track.  

Item #1 is my obsession du jour, Item #2: need to schedule a half day to finish reading the article. Item #3: have to follow up with client. Item #4: a quick phone call to keep the ball moving. Item #5: need to invoice.  All my balls in the air and not, as pre shopping spree to Michael’s, two in the air and the rest collecting dust in the corner.  

ANY portfolio has to be diversified and so does mine as a small business owner and a filmmaker and a freelancer and consultant and a gym class teacher and a crazy woman.  What?  Yes, that too. I had a friend visit and I guess he couldn’t resist.  The day after his visit I realized that I had an item #8 on my list.  It read “crazy woman” and decidedly in a different hand. So, it wasn’t me sleepwalking.  I take my newest job very seriously: crazy woman, yes sir.

Stickman Addiction

I’m not one for video games or on-line games for that matter. I like Angry Birds, but wouldn’t play it for any length of time (although I did have a serious Solitaire addiction when I got my first Treo with stylus (remember Palm?), but that had to do as much with its nerve-calming properties as it did with the fact that my maternal grandparents loved to lay a “Pacience” (as it was called in Germany back then).

Anyway – I came across this website Draw a Stickman, thanks to Swiss Miss, that has your own stickman go on adventures. It’s interactive and it's cute. I love its message of creativity and if you play episode one and then two…. well you’ll see.



"My" stickman, episode 2 - Isn't he cute?



And Off You Go...!

Found through www.bblinks.blogspot.com

Links and Plain Old Plagiarism

Sometimes an opportunity or a trend just hits you over the head every which way.  You guessed it: time for a blog entry on the topic of plagiarism, or maybe we call it links, pingback, copy and borrowed.

(As an aside: plagiarize is one of my favorite English words. I learned it as a teenager listening to Tom Lehrer songs and was mighty proud to know such a difficult word – the song in question is on YouTube.  If you don’t know Tom Lehrer – you must! Harvard mathematics professor fired for singing political songs back in the 50ies and 60ies; darkly funny, cynical and on the money with his social observations.)

To the point: I met with a serial entrepreneur last week. We were connected through an acquaintance. I had looked at his LinkedIn profile, looked at his newest venture and figured he’d be interesting enough to meet.  We met and turns out he’s a twenty something. I went back to his bio on LinkedIn and looked at the dates more carefully.  It seems this young man has achieved more since high school than most of us will in a live time. He told me that he didn’t want to waste his time with University he had too many ideas of what he wanted to do so he DID them. 

I visited his blog and found a profoundly funny and interesting infographic on getting things done (I’m a fan of that; getting things done I mean), some of the infographic. I do not agree with but that’s beside the point.  On a second visit to his blog, now with a bit more time on hand to read further I see that the infographic is linked to a different source. Totally legit, but still, I felt a tiny bit put off, because for that 12-or so hour span in-between I thought he was beyond brilliant – which I’m sure he is, but not THAT brilliant – as in coming up with THAT infographic.  I was wondering if I’m just too naïve, or if I missed the point somehow.  

I subscribe to the wildly popular Swiss Miss blog, not only because I know Tina (she designed the first Clock Wise Website back in the 90ies), but also because her blog is a collection of all things design – and her taste is towards the clutter-free, clean, minimal, fun and very sophisticated.  Through her blog posts I found another design blog that I liked enough to subscribe to it as well, only to find out that I looked at the same content every once in a while. Are there enough readers or subscribers for both to duplicate? It seems so.  Do they copy from each other, or do the same people submit their ideas to both. I guess the latter.  

It begs the question however, where does link end and plagiarize start? Is this a cultural phenomenon or a generational one?  Are we faster to read a visual image and to ‘link’ it to the publisher without paying attention much to its true origin?  Why do the links on Swiss Miss not bother me and why was I bothered with the infographic on the serial entrepreneur’s blog?

It’s all about trust and context.  Today’s hyperlinks are the footnotes of yesteryear.  The difference is that formats of delivery and context change from blog to blog.  With the overflow of information I choose a few blogs and newsletter to deliver information (of whatever kind) and with that I curate content and I do so by choosing trusted sources (see earlier blog entry on trust agents).  Swiss Miss is a trusted agent and her blog is set within the context of: “I show you the design world through my eyes”. Naturally that means she goes out and curates for me, the reader, and I know that I’m looking at other people’s work (be it jewelry, art, design elements or furniture). On the other hand the young serial entrepreneur is not a trust agent (yet) and so with I was missing context. 

But there is also the cultural versus the generational phenomenon.  Americans are much more at ease in passing along a great idea without much concern about, or burden of crediting the source.  A Swiss person would much more so be reluctant to pass an idea along without making sure it was clear that they really aren’t the brilliant ones to come up with the idea in the first place – this modesty also creates a buffer of “not my idea originally” when it falls flat.   

As for the generational difference: stuff gets shared and if possible for free, this holds true for my generation to a big degree, but even more so for a younger generation of millennia, irrespective of culture. Not only geographical boundaries are taken down by the World Wide Web (sic), but also intellectual property rights are fuzzy at best, and I’m not talking about the major film studios, record labels and publishers. Context is important and ‘knowing’ your source.   

The moral of the story:  make the context of your blog entries crystal clear, hyperlink diligently and only plagiarize when you’re sure the idea is beyond brilliant and you WANT to be credited for it (oh, and take some error and omissions insurance out).   

When to Send an Email

As I’m doing some reading on my next blog post I came across this tongue in cheek post by Seth Godin on WHEN to send an email and to go with it and even funnier infographic below (or use link for bigger format).    On a more serious note, but no less insightful, a post by Chris Anderson with some really good points to consider.  

My biggest email pet peeve that makes my toes curl is when someone sends an email with the message: “see below” or worse: “FYI”.  “FYI” what? The attachment, the 10 pages of correspondence below, that fact that you just outed yourself as a complete moron?  You have no CLUE what you’re fishing for. 

I remember being yelled at (yes, in all CAPS) by a vendor (no less) for continuing a conversation with his technician but on a different topic and not changing the subject line.  In hindsight I agree with him totally (minus the yelling) when he chided us that he would be misfiling our email conversation if it didn’t have the right subject line.  I had to ruefully think of him recently when I took advantage of a new (at least to me) feature on Outlook where email ‘conversations’ get bunched together.  It was a great feature until I sent out a whole bunch of emails with the subject line “thank you”, (this to be filed under: no good deed (thanking someone) goes unpunished). My ‘thank yous’ where very varied and the different conversations had no businesses being all bunched together under one conversational string, but that’s exactly what outlook did (and don’t tell me that’s a PC thing, ‘cause it ain’t). Totally idiotic. 

As for cc’ing: most people’s banes of existence are all the cc emails that need to be digested.  Here I’m of the mind that today where I do not necessarily sit in the same office with my production team anymore I want to be cc’ed on EVERY email.  Yes, a lot of reading but it makes up for not being in the same room or office suite anymore. It keeps me in the loop, but that might also have to do with my line of business.

Next time I send out a marketing email from Clock Wise I’ll try to look at my email addresses a bit more carefully (yuikes).

Via www.FastCoDesign.com

What If?

What if my birthday were on February 29^th? I could claim to be three quarters younger than I actually am. That in itself is a very scary idea; imagine having to go THERE again. And if you wonder what “there” is, divide your age into four and remember how that felt. 

Most likely that was a time when you hated your parents, actually all grownups pretty much. You couldn’t WAIT to be grown up and make your OWN decisions and not follow those STUPID rules. Needless to say, taxes, rent, college tuition (your own or your kids), and (talking of which) kids, spouses, pets, errands, leaky pipes, bosses, deadlines and the whole lot seemed so lovely (if you knew of them at all) and certainly better than the BS you were dealing with right then: OK, I’ll turn the music down – say what? I can’t year you – speak up.

In reality of course, I’d still be mpf-old, but I would have only had mpf divided into four birthdays. That would SUCK. I love birthdays – if you have ever have been fortunate enough to be invited to one of my birthday parties you’ll know what I’m talking about. 

Here in New York we often go out to a restaurant to celebrate a birthday and the bill gets split up such that the “birthdayee” is invited.  I tried that a few times myself, but always felt bad for my less economically fit friends. 

And I must confess that once or twice I bailed on a friend’s birthday because I knew there would be some big spenders and it was an expensive restaurant. I have not taste for paying for someone else’s three cocktails, entrecote, desert and port wine – although I pull my weight in the wine category.  I find it awkward at best. 

So, I celebrate my birthday the Swiss way. I invite my friends to my house. I bake my own cake, buy the booze, prepare all the food and in general go pretty much nuts to have a great party for my friends. Not me, because after all I want everything to be perfect.  So really, it’s not a birthday party as much as it is my annual thank you to friends for being just that.  It just happens to be around my birthday.  The cake baking is up for grabs by the way… hint.

In Switzerland kids bring a cake to class on the day of their birthday to share with the others.  I think it makes an awful lot of sense, because the kids (their mom most likely) are not going to forget their birthday and so with a cake each time there’s a birthday is guaranteed – unless you’re one of the super unlucky ones to have a birthday during vacation time.  And that’s worse than having a birthday only every four years!

The Importance of Local

As I am sloshing through “Within the Context of no Context” by Georges Trow I find myself torn between total awe for his insights and alienation for his fragmented writing style and the realization that it is the style that makes the reading so thought provoking and painful but also beautiful.  I’m a fast reader and this is a slim volume, but this book is one paragraph, often just one sentence, at a time reading. I’ve been digesting “Within the Context of no Context”, morsel by morsel for well over a year. 

Today I came across ChrisBrogan’s latest blog entry about how “local” will become more and more important, and I immediately had to think of “Within the Context of no Context”.  It made me realize just how much more we feel disconnected the bigger our virtual reach becomes and that a need for immediate connectedness and belonging to a smaller subset that is ‘manageable’ might not be filled in the physical world, especially where business is concerned. 

Trow talks about those opposing forces as quadrants. The quadrant of man alone and the quadrant of all (in this case all Americans). Trow writes about the loneliness of man in terms of one person looking for a connectedness in a one-way relationship with the TV (Trow’s essay was originally published in the New Yorker and as a book in 1981) and how we personalize and ‘make our own’ the stars and TV personalities we watch every day in an effort to shrink the distance between our quadrant of physical living and experiencing and the quadrant of the rest of America. Trow might as well have been talking about the internet 2.0. 

I would that that a step further and say, that the larger our network becomes the more we become a group of one in the physical world.  In an effort to manage our growing reach, we create an “us”, which in our own eyes encompasses “all”, but really only means an “us”; a group who’s sentiments, or geography, or political views we share. Everything beyond “us” is foreign and out of our reach, sic understanding. This, also a powerful explanation for any ‘club-yness’ to the exclusion of ‘the other’ (another favorite topic of mine). 

The internet has made the stakes higher and the distance between man and the ‘rest of the world’ more distant. Trow’s quadrants have moved even further apart.  Any business who understands to fill the void between the quadrants has a lottery ticket in hand.  

If a business can reach out and have a meaningful two-way interaction with its customers on a global, virtual, all-connected platform, AND can give them their local 'heroes’ on the ground (as Chris Brogan calls them) – it will have a very powerful brand and a very strong relationship with its customers and consumers indeed.

Deal With It!

I like the sentiment of non-kvetching*. Although, we all do it we should all do less of it. I believe we are where we are in live because of the choices we have made, and yes, some bad and some good luck too. We are products of or environment in as much as we let "it" rule us. It's very strenuous to always do it 'your way' and wanting your life to be focused and full filled but darn, is it worth it!

* for non-New Yorkers: kvetching is a Yiddish word that would roughly translate into 'lamenting' or 'complaining', it has a heavy note to it and I love it because in German you "quetsch" a lemon to extract it's juice, or someone “quetsch” through at tight spot, or you "quetsch" your car into a tight space; it means to squeeze. I just love the sound of it.

My Point Exactly (pun intended)!
I ordered it.

Body Language and the Greek

I'm no expert on body language, neither am I on the work of the International Monetary Fund, nor do I have any in depth understanding on what makes the world go round in the finance world, but I do understand loud and clear what Madame Lagarde is saying to Mr. Venizelos. I just wonder what he said (or didn't) to prompt the clenched jaw and those fists (uikes).

Evangelos Venizelos and the
International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde
source unknown

Test blog from my iPad

Yours truly in Switzerland where there actually was snow and winterly temperatures.

My iPad

I gifted myself an iPad for Christmas (or Hanumaswanza as it’s called in my house – pronounced on the “mas”).  I bought it and ran off into the sunset, i.e. travelled abroad.  I use it daily for my New York Times, New Yorker and a Swiss publication (NZZ am Sonntag) and I love using Facetime with my sister and nephew. I know how to turn it on and off.  I thought that was about it; until now.  

It’s so simple, it has one button – how complicated can it get? I can, of course. I can hit the button twice in rapid succession and see that after two months of use I have EVERY application open – no wonder I’m charging like a champion.   

I can move icons, but only if THEY want to! I hate being at the mercy of “0”’s and “1”’s.  After my friend Susanne (www.smuellernyc.blogspot.com) showed me how to get an app icon from one page to another (patience is needed and there I’m lacking) it is now time to sort the apps. After all I’m Swiss and things need to have their order (being a producer and a Taurus doesn’t help either in the ‘need order’ category).  I successfully got my social apps in one line – how pretty – they are all blue, how quaint. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Skype all lined up like little soldiers.  Now on the media icons:

For the past 20 minutes I have (so far) unsuccessfully tried to get my Swiss newspaper icon to join the New York Times in the Newsstand, but as with our current banking regulations (see FATCA) the Swiss and the Americans aren’t playing nice.  The Newsstand keeps avoiding the NZZ newspaper icon – which is actually quite funny – until it isn’t and then it’s VERY annoying.  Again: at the mercy for zeros and ones.  In desperation I add the NZZ into a new ‘cluster’ I call “Reading”, but I must tell you – it tugs at me that the Newsstand won’t accept anything but the NYTimes and the New Yorker – very un-PC and not what I’d expect from an American product (even if manufactured in China).

My favorite app(s)?  I love doodling on the Drawing Pad, watching Netflix movies in my lap, playing around with Sun Scout and showing off my presentations on the Prezi Viewer.  And I do think that the New York Times interface is brilliantly done. 

Now I look forward to my “Intro to the iPad 2” class at the Apple store on Friday – maybe I’ll be a bit less at the mercy for zeros and ones afterwards.

What are your favorite apps and how do you organize yourself?

Information Onslaught

Last Tuesday I had a drink over at my neighbor’s house and saw that they had their television set to Obamas State of the Union Address. I offered to come back later or listen to it with them.  We ended up chatting while there was a long segment of congress people and senators walking into the room and greeting each other and by the time I left the President had only just started speaking. I thought to myself, that they should have started the program and timed it to start with the actual address.  

I was little surprised when the next day a poll showed that most viewers didn’t stay on the channel long enough to listen to the speech.  Of course not!  We have 8 (!) seconds (!) in a YouTube video to engage our audience, then they’re gone.  TV shows might get a whopping 90 seconds.  

There are too many things tugging at our sleeve to pay attention to things at length anymore and I’m not talking about children or attention seeking pets and husbands.  When I try to settle into a longer article I actually get a bit jumpy and page to the back to see how long my commitments is going to be and if I want to even start to engage.  Books for fun (and I used to be a voracious reader) have been relegated to the vacation back burner and even then I have to make a time commitment to read a few books.  

The other day I heard an interview on TV (while I was either cooking, exercising or cleaning up social emails) where Tom Brokaw (I think) was talking about a new book and said, that today it’s not enough anymore to read the local newspaper and a few trade magazines and listen to the radio on the way to work and watch the evening news.  We ALSO need to plow through a plethora, or should I say onslaught of information form the net.

I WISH I had time to do all the things Tom Brokaw listed – I’m glad if I manage the New York Times and my Swiss weekly newspaper and the morning news. The blogs I subscribe to get a quick glance and I have an ever growing list of blog entries I have to read, I WANT to red, but oh, so little time. 

We thought reading and writing was dead! Social media has changed that to a certain extent; even if the social media prose is not what we (old people) learned in school. I’m reading a New Yorker article (yes, I know) about the kid that was spied on by his roommate in college and committed suicide after the roommate blasted the internet with the news that he was gay and showed video of him engaging with another man.  The article shows excerpts from the texts that went back and forth between these college freshmen and their friends. I’m reading “IDC”, what?  IDC? I don’t care.  My favorite was that the article was full of “WTF”.  We can now officially use the “F” bomb in a reputable magazine because it’s not spelled out, just WFT.  But, I digress.

So, where does this leave us? In a world where we need to be ever more expert at what we do and retreat into a smaller niches to then find out that we have kinda lost the bigger picture (think onion peel) of your work world, your kids world, your community world, your country world and let’s not forget, art, literature, the latest food fad and the newest technological advances, what your phone can REALLY do and you had no clue?  This morning on the news (NY1):  the app is dwindling.  Today the average user uses less than five apps in a week. They didn’t say how much that’s down from before but my guess is SIGNIFICANTLY.  At some point we have to do the dishes and get some work done. 

I circle back to an earlier post on: Curation and the Human Algorithm. I think curation of information will become ever more important to help us manage knowledge without going under in a sea of distractions and inert information. 

How do YOU manage your information flow?  How have your habits change since the first onslaught of social media and blogging?  Are you digging out from under?