New Tools, New Times.
October 25, 2008
Its been about a year since I last posted here. No time like the present to begin anew. Hey, what is ‘green’ blogging, if I cannot recycle the one I already have?!
This has been an eventful year, to say the least. My time working in the search and discovery for music space continues to provide amazing experiences, contacts, learning and challenges.
With global economic scandal, oil prices soaring and then dropping, jobs being created and then lost, and then still crazy innovation in the technology community, its hard to know what to believe or trust.
One thing I do count on is that every once in awhile there arrives a new tool or company that really wows me. This time its Apture. Started by Valley entrepreneur, Tristan Harris, Apture will likely change publishing significantly, if not transform it wholly. This web publishing tool brings a deeper, richer more involved experience to light – flat text links be gone! Inherent to Apture’s key functionality is a level of engagement that is hard to explain. It must be seen and felt.
As media outlets move more and more away from the print and join the thousands of large and small publishers among the Internet editorial community, we increasingly need a standard for citation, reference points, and accountability. In the ‘old’ days, there were these people call ‘fact checkers’. We’d get a phone call from a newsroom associate editor, making sure that the facts called out in a given story were accurate.
Now, with no system of checks and balances, its the wild, wild west in the Blogosphere. We have made it harder for individuals seeking information to know exactly WHERE a source may be from, or how many other writers have cited a source. The reason the Web is revolutionary is that it is multi-dimensional. So, why are we treating it like a newspaper when its more like galaxy?
Apture is a post-publishing tool that will serve writers, media conglomerates and readers equally, breathing new life into an old medium. It is available for the following platforms: WordPress.org, Blogger, Blogsome, Drupal, Movable Type, Ning, Squarespace, Tumblr, Typepad, Wikispaces, WordPress.org, Expression Engine and more soon. Check it out: www.apture.com
-LA
Save the Date. GIT VC’d!
June 27, 2007
Girls in Tech is hosting “The Women of VC” panel on August 8th, 2007 in San Francisco.
Be there. 6:00 PM.
Stay tuned for more information.
~LA
On Assignment.
June 27, 2007
OK. I am giving myself a new homework assignment.
Harkening back to eighth grade, I have decided that the Blog does not get fed without a regular intent. And in talking with other far more advanced blogger friends, it has to become part of one’s daily routine. Like coffee, shower and morning stretch, its a muscle to exercise.
Certainly, none of us need anything more to be ‘slave’ to; to be beholden to. The perennial question: how to make this space one which feeds me, with minimal feeding and then have it produce something relatively meaningful for those who happily land here?
IMO there are plenty of web-locales which provide a service, political, or technological opinion, or in-depth analysis. The only way this joint will build momentum is if I focus *it* on the things which I am most passionate about.
Music. Technology and its most high-minded applications. Community. Poetry. Environmental awareness, and evangelism. Easy, right?
Went to Colorado to visit our rogue brother/uncle/cousin Michael “Mojo” this past weekend. Let me tell you 10,000 ft. worth of music and mountain air can do strange things to a City girl’s head. Check the bands showcased at the Music Tour and Conference.
Here is a playlist of my own which captures my current fancy, found on one of the easiest, and most results-oriented music-search and discovery engines, SeeqPod (yes indeed, I do work with these guys).
~LA
jargon this.
April 24, 2007
twitter that. jaiku this. skype that. vlog this…
Tis’ amusing to observe that once we worried about jargon .
And, now some technology tools and/or company names have become verbs, and verge on becoming jargon themselves.
Today, Wired’s Jonathan Keats posts on ‘Jargon Watch’ some new definitions of jargon, as he monitors the progression of jargon now. Ecosexuals, what?
I think that any of these newer services, such as twitter, are early indicators of the social zeitgeist. Just as Google was once a search engine. And, is now a giant company eating companies, ad revenues, and provided all of us with a new term.
What did we say before ‘Google that’?
Something which required more words and explanation to say something as simple as “go find a place where we can have dinner and then get directions…”
-LA
one degree.
April 13, 2007
Its not six degrees, or even three for me, its scarcely one.
Living in the Bay Area, working in the tech community, indulging in our music scene, and networking the old fashioned way (offline), usually ends up being fairly entertaining. No complaints, merely amusing.
Sometimes I barely have to think about contacting a person, and before I know it they are calling me or we bump into one another at NOPA. Point is, its not that strange – the world is shrinking. Communications technology like social networks are making this easier (hopefully) to manage offline and online.
Anything to keep the dialogue moving forward in an interesting and productive way. This is the reason I am jazzed about next week’s ‘Podcast Hotel’ event. (Yes, I am helping the founders out to make the San Francisco PH the best one yet!)
Hope to see you all there, in person!
-LA
be involved.
April 9, 2007
One, of many, wonderful things about the Internet is that it allows us (all) to communicate in more efficient, expanded and expounding ways.
Thanks to a lot of people, living and dead, for the fact that our World is allowed deeper access to more information, conveniently and affordably.
Easily, technology has become a great equalizer. (For people who have access to it for now, at least.) Just as with any tool, its only as good as the collective application and engagement in this vast network.
It’s SO 2001, but I do believe we have finally reached an age of virtual productivity that works. There will never be a replacement, clone or ‘Second Life’ for a face-to-face meeting. Never. I like my ‘first life’, thank you very much.
And, yet, speaking as the hybrid luddite I am, I am constantly torn between connectivity and connection; between building a Web of relevant and deep relationships online, and offline. It is simply not a case of ‘either/or’.
It is now a case of leveraging some pretty freaking cool and sophisticated technology to build greater community, knowledge base, access and inspirations and information. When gadgets and viral video take-over our ability (or choice) to be more human, not less, that is when I stop being interested.
A moment in time:
I had the privilege of visiting a friend’s property in Napa County this weekend. A place where vineyards are the tentacles that connect people, still. These vines remain a common language.
I had the good fortune of an invitation to join a long-standing friend on his boat, the Cedric, to cut through fog and mist seamlessly, only to realize that algae is the future of our planet. How is something that has been fueling combustion engines since the ‘industrial revolution’ going to be one piece of the answer to our current ‘Global Warming’ plight? And, how perfect that I was at the helm of a WIND driven vessel while listening to this discourse…
Technology, whether contemporary, Industrial age, Glacial age, or otherwise, will only ever be as good as those who employ and embrace said technology to fuel endeavors which create lasting solutions.
Regardless of partisanship, inclinations or mindshare, I encourage (all three of you reading this) to check this link out for your local hub of opportunities to become more involved.
Music is the greatest connecting force, and equalizer I can think of. Here are a couple of picks for this week:
http://www.honeycutmusic.com/
http://www.hushrecords.com/datr.htm
The Agent is less concerned with an individual stance, but more committed to an overall, collective involvement. You are some very smart people. Do something with it.
-LA
Spring.
March 26, 2007
Its officially spring and this is a good thing.
Not that I am particularly focused on the weather, per se. Its just that it always, in some organic fashion, seems to generate momentum.
Conversations between people who are out walking, vs. driving in their cars. Momentum between commerce and people. The holidays are long behind us (and who wants to think about taxes?) I am truly enjoying my new MacBook Pro. Its a most elegant machine. Thank God someone spilled a drink into the keyboard of my old Dell, or would not have had the momentum or impetus to just go get it! Took no longer than 10 minutes to be in and out of the Apple store.
Its also conference season, music festival season, and sailing season.
See you out there!
SUSHI RAN FEATURED ON NEW IPHONE.
January 10, 2007
Here is another thing I love to see…
As I clicked through (because I could not resist) the demo of Apple’s new iPhone, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my favorite local sushi restaurant, Sushi Ran, was featured in the SMS portion of the demo.
Not only is the phone sexy (regardless of some early criticism with respect to carrier lock-in to a 2-year contract – guess that is the price you pay along with the $600.00 bones for the phone available in June), whomever worked-up the slick product demo has good taste in sushi.
The Agent is frequently found sitting, sipping sake on the Cafe side.
~LA
A SIGN O THE TIMES.
January 9, 2007
As noted on TechCrunch today, among others, MyBlogLog was acquired by Yahoo.
Smart move by all.
I am curious to see how the integration goes, and hope that the application is not swallowed up by the Yahoo spider, and forgotten. I know this is one site that has taken off because the users really do use it.
As my pal Anna often likes to say “People do what they want to do, and people don’t do what they don’t want to do.” Does this mean that past behavior is the best future indicator? If so, we may not see MyBlogLog grow at the same rate it has been to date.
What I can predict, for 2007, is that we will see this social media web spin and grow, and get ‘stickier’ to catch a lot of flies.
These flies being: users, new companies, advertisers, attention, innovation, energy.
Nice.
~LA
