About time. And product. And being more deliberate.
I’ll be leading a session on font selection & usage at the 2010 MIMA Summit next Tuesday afternoon – Sept 28th.
As you can see from the title – the goal is to get beyond ‘web fonts’ and talk about all the different artifacts we publish and the benefits and challenges of using custom fonts consistently across the board.
Should be fun.
Update – Here’s the presentation:
This Barrel of Rocks analogy has been rolling around in my mind quite a bit lately.
Being able to explore the open spaces in an ecosystem and find one that fits is what excites me about new technologies – web, RSS, podcasting, Twitter, web fonts, Apple’s iPad, and even my new Nokia N900. I quickly lose interest if I’m not able to find a space or if it starts feeling like an iron maiden. That’s why I sold my iPad and gave away my iPod Touch – I didn’t find my space.
Last night – Twitter started the roll out of New Twitter. Word is – it’s completely built on their own API platform and formally integrates 16 other services (Youtube, Flickr, etc).
Additionally, Twitter Corp recently acquired a client in each of the major mobile platforms (iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android), and turned off username/password access to applications connecting with the Twitter API, and is migrating to their own t.co URL shortener for all URLs passed around in their service.
Each one of these points makes it significantly more difficult to use Twitter in ways Twitter Corp doesn’t intend (not unlike Apple approving every app in their app store). Each open space is being filled with a Twitter-branded or Twitter-partner service. They’ve poured cement in their big bucket of rocks.
Point #9 of Liz Gannes article at GigaOm tells the real story:
The ‘Annotations’ project was all about a fuller, more data-rich Twitter API. Of course it was put on hold – in the New Twitter world there’s a significantly decreased incentive to expose the API to non-Twitter-controlled properties.
Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if Twitter just turned off their API at the end of the year.
Reminds me of a prediction I made back in 2009.
Elsewhere:
Late last night, I emailed the first draft of the GarrickVanBuren.com eBook to those that pre-ordered it (hereby known as ‘The Backers’).
This initial draft includes 27 posts from this blog tied into 6 larger themes (“What’s Wasted”, “I Don’t Care What Everyone Thinks”, “Omnipresence”, “Self-Containment”, “Listful”, “Unexpired Potential”). As I mentioned in my message to The Backers – I’m pretty happy with the structure of the book. At this point it feels like a solid series of key frames, or the dots in a connect-the-dots puzzle.
The next iteration will be about deliberately connecting those dots. To get it, all subsequent releases, and become a member of the The Backers’ discussion list, click the ‘Buy Now’ button below.
Once or twice a semester, I’m invited to speak to a group of students at one of the many universities in this area. Sometimes I’m asked to talk about a project like Kernest, sometimes I’m asked about web design / information architecture / etc. Tonight, I was asked to talk about my business – not the work. A refreshing distinction.
One of the most insightful questions asked by a student was: Why don’t I have more employees…why am I not focused on growing my business bigger and faster?
It comes down to question of horizon and longevity.
Based on my lineage, I can count on another 4 decades – and with even modest advances in quality of life technologies – 2 more decades on top of that. That’s a lot of time to build and grow something to improve lots of people lives and persists beyond my direct involvement.
Elsewhere:
“Everything you know me for I’ve done since I was 50.” – Doc Searls
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed I’ve been pointing to posts written 1, 2,…5 years ago. You may also notice that I’ve been rambling about ebooks as well.
If you suspected I’m reviewing my 6+ year blog archive and curating it for an ebook – I am, and you are most clever.
How will this be different than just reading GarrickVanBuren.com here or in my beloved feed reader?
What about comments?
At this point – I’m not inclined to include the comments in the ebook version unless they provide significant insight or clarity to the topic – in which case, I’ll link to the comment on the live site.
When can I expect it?
I’m expecting to complete this project before Thanksgiving 2010.
For those of you pre-ordering, I’ll send out updated ebooks as each section is completed – anticipating your comments & feedback. Yes, very similar to Pragmatic Programmers’ Beta Book program that I’m so fond of.
Pre-order: $25
This afternoon, I listened to Seth Godin’s 45 minute talk about now the economics of internet-based publishing and communication are changing book publishing.
In short – ebooks aren’t it.
In fact – it’s not actually about books at all.
It’s about connecting people to ideas. Where the publisher has the people and is continually looking for great ideas to present to them. Something a kin more to magazine publishing…or museum curation…or just plain being a person.
If you’ve spent anytime blogging or podcasting in the past few years – his arguments will be old hat to you. To some degree – they echoed the recommendations I gave a struggling, niche book publisher a few years ago…before they were sold.
Pre-Order GarrickVanBuren.com eBook for Your iPad or Kindle – $25
This morning, even before my first cup of coffee – I went through my stable of Twitter accounts and started deactivating them. Easier and more straightforward than I expected.
That was before Leo Laporte’s Buzz Kill post hit my radar:
Somewhere around 2004, I remember writing a post [1] about how I saw the need for more ‘internet-enabled’ applications. Essentially – software applications native to a desktop or laptop computer that sends and receives internet-based data. A simple example of this in the Mac world is Mail.app, or Adium, or Tweetie.
At the time I wrote the post, the wins seemed obvious to me;
Still today, my workflow primarily consists of interactions with applications that live natively on my MacBook Pro and interact with assets on some server; Mail.app, Adium, TextMate, Sequel Pro, Quicksilver, Calibre, Skype. Web browsers are where I check things, confirm things, identify things. It’s not where I live and work.
So, I was a little surprised when I realized I rarely use any of the more than 2 dozen applications I’ve downloaded for the iPod Touch and iPad. And given a few quiet, idle moments the ones I had any interest in re-opening had some issue – Netflix asked for a password I didn’t have, iBooks nor Kindle had the book I wanted to read, and Music didn’t sync the songs I wanted, and Movies/Video didn’t sync over any video I was in the mood for. In the end I opened up the web browser.
This realization reinforced a sense of stuck and suck I’ve increasingly had with the iPod Touch, iPad, and Apple’s management of their iOS platform.
In that moment, I aborted my ongoing experiments with the iPad and decided to sell it. A sale I completed today.
As I was restoring the iPad to sell, I did the same review of the iPod Touch – noticing the bulk of my satisfying interactions were via its browser – I clicked ‘Restore’ [2].
Yes, this means I am currently sans portable digital media player, address book, calendar, etc [3].
I’ve taken a cursory look around for a new mp3 player – and the Sony Walkmans sound quite promising. Also, the more I investigate, the more the Nokia N900 seems like a really solid all-around device – even comes with Skype pre-installed. Though Nokia’s Ovi app market isn’t as mature as Apple’s App Store or the Android Market – I think I’ll be OK – the default browser is Firefox Mobile.
Add in something like a PogoPlug or TonidoPlug at the home base and the VirginMobile MiFi in my pocket and I’ll have browser-based access to my files and media.
No syncing. No apps. No missing something.
And no longer feeling restricted to Apple’s iOS universe – I feel restored.
Update 21 August 2010.
The most likely iTunes-replacement: Instinctiv. Super minimalist. Reads the pre-existing iTunes library. I love it. And that was before I noticed it’s in the Nokia Ovi store.
Elsewhere:
1. I haven’t been able to find it in any of my archives or in Google – it may be lost to history.
2. It’s now syncing against Jen’s iTunes.
3. It also means I’m reviewing both Songbird and DoubleTwist as a replacement for iTunes.