Genius+Power+Magic

Important Friend in a Very High Place

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

TECH MATTERS | Obama brings a Chicago take on technology to the Oval Office
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January 26, 2009
BY BRAD SPIRRISON brad@midwestbusiness.com

It is fitting that President Obama got the "thumbs up" to continue to use his BlackBerry before his nominee to chair the Federal Communications Commission was confirmed. While Obama brings an unimpeachable record of supporting tech issues to the Oval Office, it was his resourceful deployment of information technology that ultimately got him there. Now that a Chicago startup campaign has outsmarted its way to leadership of the free world, can we finally stop moaning about being second fiddle to Silicon Valley or anyplace else on the planet?

This is our moment to realize what the technology industry in Chicago is and, to paraphrase Led Zeppelin, what it should never be. Even before the fire, Chicago area entrepreneurs, industrialists and idealists understood how to harness emerging technologies to achieve their own aims. With a few notable exceptions like Motorola, it never really has been about developing technology for its own sake. Rather, the smartest businesses in Chicago know how to incorporate technology-enabled systems to sell more goods and services.

It should be of no surprise that Obama is prioritizing broadband infrastructure in his economic stimulus program. The president's establishment of a national chief technology officer post and "Google for government" pledge to bring financial transparency to federal programs reveal how he plans to use the Internet and technology to manage his own administration. Fluent on venture capital issues since his days addressing local VC functions as a state senator, Obama is reaching out to that industry with the hope of identifying breakthrough opportunities in the clean technology sector.

While Obama's embrace of new media is largely generational, his execution in using the Internet to win an election was all Chicago. If and when we get a breather from world and financial events, we should take note and celebrate the profound impact the Chicago tech community now has on them.
Influence globally, act locally

The Chicago Convergence is a local new media networking organization riding the wave of the Obama presidency. The group, which last year hosted the Chicago New Media Summit, now offers year-round events and online social networking services for its more than 2,100 "netroots" members at www.chicagoconvergence.com.  Start the presses!

"[Obama's] major global popularity has turned the world's curiosity onto Chicago," said group co-founder Bruce Montgomery. "The Chicago Convergence intends to give them something to see, experience and talk about."

Chicago entrepreneur Josh Karp on Tuesday is expected to debut "The Printed Blog." With plans to print and distribute a collection of user-generated Web posts to commuters arranged according to their neighborhood, the service, <a href="http://www.theprintedblog.com">www.theprintedblog.com</a>, is an ambitious experiment in interactive news publishing and one of many outlets seeking to turn the page on current delivery models.

Brad Spirrison is a local technology reporter and president of <a href="http://www.MidwestBusiness.com">MidwestBusiness.com</a>.

A Counter-intuitive Lesson in Clarity

I could hear the confusion, the swirl in his head about all the possible directions, all the possible opportunities.  At the same time, I could hear the self-invalidation he likely held for being someone that is not as focused as he thinks he should.

Focused, schmocused.

See, if you're an entrepreneur, you think in opportunities. 
Some people frame life: security.  Some people frame life: data collection. Some people frame life: results (Thank God, cause I need more of all these kinds of people in my life).

For those who frame life: opportunity, you likely say to yourself "If I could just focus, then I would do better", or "If I could just be more disciplined, I could make it happen".  Here's the deal, your not going to focus and your not going to get more disciplined. (btw, everyone is on a visionary vs disciplined scale).

I have two rules for you:

a) Get yourself in a position where your job is to discover new opportunities
b) Surround yourself with people who think in security, data collection and results - or - find people who must have '5-year-what-if' thinkers around. 

Rather than trying to find the 'right' occupation, relax and discover.  Your job is to create the future while everyone else is worried about today.  You worried about today five years ago.  It is too late.  Your 'distant future road map' is your gas, your juice.  Let it be.

Now, at the same time, unless you'd like to be broke, you'd better surround yourself with people who are going to appreciate your 5-year plan (they'd really love to think more like you anyway - and they know you are almost always correct) and empower them to make your plans a reality.

This 'distant future road map' is the vision you have for your company, your community or your world.  You will notice that when you aren't working on it, you are board out of your mind.  Am I right?  You must work on it! 

The counter-intuitive lesson in clarity is this: 'don't go changing', we need you and your 'what if' mentality.

Lasso the Moon

I have talked on a few occasions and in different ways about 'you as a network' and the counter-intuitive thinking of building-up others to empower your own opportunities.

After you have wrestled with this leap of faith (the awareness usually arrives by trial and error) you will be left with a question of how do I build this 'tribe' around me.  Seth Godin, in his book "Tribes" does a great job of discerning Tribe Building Tactics that can expand your toolbox. 

Everyone who has ever done anything life-altering has dealt with a question of Victim or Initiator.  Can I do this?  Who am I to think I can be the one to impact change?  I am big enough?

Sometimes there is no escaping it; the thinking that you are stuck with the opportunities available to you - the ones in front of you in this time, in this economy and in this culture - or you aren't.  It seems that if you are lucky and your opportunities are star-crossed then your ship comes in - or it doesn't.

The issue here is whether you believe you call the shots or not.  The issue here is whether you believe you can alter history or not.

The fact is that you already do, you have and you will continue to alter history.

Have you ever seen the movie 'The Butterfly Effect' with Ashton Kusher? He tries to right wrongs by going back in time and continues to discover that the alteration of a small detail vastly alters the landscape of the entire human fabric.  You saw an entire town's name changed with George Bailey (photo, RKO Radio Pictures) wished he'd never been born and found himself no longer in 'Bedford Falls' but in 'Pottersville'.  You alter history every moment with each action and non-action.

So, are you willing to take responsibility for that?  I doubt it.  You may wish you were someone more like that, but if you took responsibility for altering history, you would begin to see how much you don't initiate, that the burden is just too enormous.  You wait, survive, hold-out, play it safe.  This is the most common state of victim-hood.

You'd first have to consider that you make more difference than you think you do.  You'd have to consider that it is a greater hardship to simply survive.  To me, the ultimate form of suffering is waiting to see how something turns out. 

Why not lasso the moon?  What difference do you want to make?  On the eve of the innauguration of Barack Obama, you should consider this question seriously.  He is going to extend an invitation to alter history like no President has ever considered.  What will your legacy be?

My legacy? Pioneering Chicago as the global hub of change and innovation.

I may fail.  I will not likely see the truth of this intent, but why not try?

Working in desperation to grab more

I posted this description of myself on a new site, Incunation, and got comments about it being a great description of myself, how I work and what I do.  So here it is:

John Patterson

I am a Social Entrepreneur. I work in a unique way building social platforms that live in the real world, supported by digital environments. These platforms have existed to brand cities - elevating all involved (and yes, it works for individuals or organizations). In the way this site elevates all who participate, my initiatives benefit the commerce of a city by working to connect previously disconnected silos and resources under a shared vision. While this is not a new concept, the methodology is. I work from the context that "the health of the fish is given by the water". In other words, market success is obtained by working on building the size of the market for everyone in the market. Elevating those around you, gives you leadership status in the market - making you an influential provider of help and services to everyone in the market. The market pulls you into it as a leader vs you working in desperation to grab more of it. This fish (me) is healthy (wealthy, influential) because I made the water (everyone around me) healthy (wealthy, influential).

This is counter-intuitive, but it works - and it works brilliantly.

This is the subject of my book.  Why this is counter-intuitive is that it is not about the survival of the individual, but the survival of the group (community, neighborhood, city).  It seems like if you start working on the group, you will, by default, stop working on you.  The surprise is that when you work on the group - you ARE working on you.  You just don't think of yourself as the group.

Stop and think about the insanity of this.

Everytime there is a new buzz word or catch phrase it goes through the human fabric like wildfire.

Whazzzzuuuuppp!  OMG!  LOL! 

You are not separate from this fabric, but so much a part of it that today, the clothes you chose to wear where entirely shaped by the human fabric, not you.  You had nothing to do with it.  You just think you did [for those in doubt, imagine your clothing choice 25 years ago].

If you consider that you ARE the fabric, why would you work on you?  That makes no sense - and in fact is counter to the reality of you as a network.  THE REALITY OF YOU AS A NETWORK.  What?!?!?

Develop those around you to be really extraordinary and watch the magic happen.

Where would we be without drama?

"Where are you?"
"Melrose and LaBrea", he replied.

"Why are you over there?"

No reply.  Muffled, "huh, what!...Okay, okay!" then the phone went silent but did not disconnect. 
"Marc? Marc?" 

I had never heard that kind of fear in his voice. 
The line remained connected for 2 1/2 minutes, without a sound.

I found out some moments later that he had been mugged at gunpoint, completely unharmed and everything stolen.

It played like a great TV Episode cliffhanger.
I was freaked out, but at some point I found myself a bit 'addicted' to the drama.

It was newsworthy, exciting and frightening. (I can already hear the 'what?! - he could've been shot' comments).  But I caught myself beginning to turn this into one of the saga's in a string of sagas called 'my life' and moved on and let it go.  The people who talk me off my own cliff's reminded me "it was just stuff".

It was just stuff.  The roadblocks are just roadblocks.  The sagas are just sagas.

I find the difference between people who lead others and those who don't is this relationship to drama.
Drama can be fun, but it can also be an enormous waste of time, money and energy.

I always love the image of a trickle trying to find it's way down the mountain, it always finds a path, it doesn't care about the obstacles and it doesn't pause to reflect on the meaning of them either.

Slumdog Millionaire Remix at Pixel Brothers

Mashitude

The 2009 Installation Art Showcase

Saturday, January 24th, 9pm-12am

at Pixel Brothers Studio, 400 N Wolcott, Fourth Floor, Chicago, IL 60622

283 seats left

http://mgfest.com/09/Chicago/screenings/installationart.php

 

Addictive TV, "Slumdog Millionaire Remix"

Addictive TV's Slumdog Millionaire remix meanwhile is going from strength to strength, spreading far and wide, finding itself reported on, posted, and blogged on countless sites across the web, including the homepage of MSN, the Oscars/Golden Globe film awards site awardsdaily.com and the incredibly popular filmschoolrejects.com site who said "If you thought Slumdog was an energetic and fun film (one of the best of the year, mind you), you’ll be surprised to see that it gets better in the hands of the Addictive TV team."

Watch in Hi-res  Watch in Low-res  

 

Christian Matts, "Sorry, I'm not here right now"

At the core the installation is a simple projected live camera feed. However it plays with your expectations as it is delayed and affected by the motion in the video. Increased motion will increase the delay, echo effects and sound. Less motion makes the video run in real time. The piece explores ideas about how we view art and if art exists void of an audience. Christian Matts is a Brooklyn based video and motion graphics artist.

 
Visit www.cmatts.com  

 

Byron Durham, "REP (Reactive Environmental Projection)"

An environmental projection that reacts to ambient room audio.

A Sense of Place

The bell signals the town’s parishioners to begin their morning journey.  I glimpse the tower beyond the swaying cypress, the breeze triggering a memory of the day I discovered the sea.

Where am I?

Regardless, I set in motion a host of experiences that evoke a sense of place.  A location or context that shapes your experience of yourself and the world around you.

I have a degree in Environmental Design and mostly tell people I studied architecture (it is easier to explain).  My degree is actually about the design of environments.  What kind of environments?  My desktop is an environment, my clothing is an environment and so is my house, garden or neighborhood...my relationship, family, group or communities are environments.

Environment: The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal or plant lives or operates.

In 1985, I had the privilege of studying Environmental Design in Italy with Paulo Barucchieri (pictured).  I attended the Università degli Studi di Firenze (University of Florence) through a design program that brought 26 students together in an old Monastery buried amongst the vineyards and olive groves in a hill top villa called 'La Poggerina' (above) near the town of Ponte Agli Stolli, just a train ride from Florence.

Each morning at 6am, Paulo would prep his countryside motorcycle excursions to Vivaldi, his contagious vitality stirring our souls.  He led us across the country for 4 months, pointing out every stone, sculpture, brick, arch, column, fresco and painting - training our senses to experience the relationship between these environments and 'man's relationship to himself'.

In every instance, we were trained to understand the constructed environment as a temple to the ethos of the day and trained to understand the relationship between environment, culture, philosophy and our experience of ourselves in these diverse environments.

The importance of the relationship between the environment and the individual given by it became so evident, that the importance of this impact has never left me, and in fact, has become my fundamental philosophy.  As organisms we are in a constant dance with the experience of 'place'.  Tended to, the place nurtures its inhabitant, and creates fertile conditions.

I said in an earlier blog:

"You may have never considered transforming yourself or your situations by placing yourself in a different context (environment) – a different group, a different culture, but what if it was that simple?  I am not arguing against the ingrained rituals of your ancestry, I am just simply proposing that you may have a tool you have never used."

"If you begin to deal with the real power of this phenomenon – and you are interested in growing, developing, maturing, and thriving - you might find yourself exploring the question “what culture (environment) might I build around me if I know it shapes my behavior and opportunities as a consequence of being immersed in it?”

You will notice two questions arise 1) how do I build an environment/culture around me? And 2) if I could build one, then what would I want it to invoke in myself?

While 'place' is usually accidental or circumstantial, it can be created. 

I invite you to experiment with this phenomenon and share with me what you discover.

New Talk: The Branding Power of Worlds, Marshall Ross, Cramer-Krasselt

When you think of iconic advertising campaigns, a few brands are bound to come to mind: Corona, Target, Apple, Marlboro, Nike. Why? Because these brands have managed their communications so precisely and consistently over the years they've formed a fictional brand world every bit as convincing and recognizable as any we might find in a richly textured novel, video game or Hollywood movie. In these brand worlds, just like in the real world, life follows a natural and predictable order, governed by certain laws of nature and physics. While it takes a clear brand vision, long-term focus and steady discipline to establish brands of this caliber, these worlds provide an essential foundation for successfully migrating brand communications to the new media world.

Chief Creative Officer of Cramer-Krasselt and “chief brand steward” of Corona for 10+ years, Marshall Ross takes you on a guided tour of these iconic brand worlds and explore their new media evolutions.

BIO: Marshall joined C-K in 1995 and was part of the agency team that steered C-K to being the third largest independent in the country, garnering everything from multiple Effies to the Cannes Lion. As C-K's chief creative officer, he's responsible for creative across the four-office network and has crafted award-winning campaigns for clients including Corona Beer, Rozerem and AirTran. He was also behind one of the most successful viral campaign in history, CareerBuilder.com's Monk-e-Mail, which was awarded the AdWeek Buzz Award as campaign of the year. Before joining C-K, Marshall was a copywriter and creative supervisor at Foote, Cone & Belding. At the age of 27 he started a creative boutique, Mitchiner, Ross & Kahn, which was acquired in 1992 by Campbell Mithun Esty.

On The Chicago Convergence he says: “My hope is that the potential in the phrase, ‘The Third Coast’, becomes real. Talent seeks the coasts in this country. I want talent seeking Chicago. We’ll be as good as the people who stay here and the people we can bring here.”  Marshall is a now a Board Member of The Chicago Convergence and as a such, he and Cramer-Krasselt will be taking us on a journey to create  the Convergence brand world.  This work will take place in early 2009.

“Marshall's passion and intensity for our brand has no limits. He's both creative leader and Porsche enthusiast. A powerful combination for a brand that demands intimate knowledge and razor thin nuance be expressed in every element of the work. His vision and tenacity are matched by his willingness to listen, understand and take sometimes rough-hewn constructive feedback and polish it into the next Porsche-worthy campaign. A true partner, his ambitions for the work and for the Porsche brand is never overshadowed by his desire to help do what's right for the business.” Scott Baker – Manager, Marketing Communications, Porsche Cars North America

New Talk: Citizen Kate TV, Carey Lundin, Viva Lundin Productions

New Talk: Citizen Kate TV, Carey Lundin, Viva Lundin Productions Carey Lundin has got issues. That's why she quit her job as creative director at a political ad firm. She channels her angst, mistreatment as a child and social fears, through a character she created known as Citizen Kate, who naively trusts everyone (Picture are Citizen Kate and Senator John  Edwards). When Obama launched his candidacy, she plied her pal Kate with beers, who at the time cared little about politics, and convinced her to cover the launch. Within a week, The Economist had written a piece about this highly original approach to politics. Within three months Hollywood called. But it's taken a year and half for projects grown on the internet to get respect as original material that can make the leap to traditional media. Millions of views later, here's Carey Lundin to tell some tales of the trail, what it's taught her and what you can learn from her angst, which now, she's glad she has.

New Talk: Beware the Underdog, Ross Kimbarovsky & Mike Samson, crowdSpring

New Talk: Beware the Underdog, Ross Kimbarovsky & Mike Samson, crowdSpring First off, these guys are just great, their company...amazing.  If you don't know them, meet them.  They are on the Advisory Council for The Chicago Convergence and now winners of the 2008 WIRED Magazine Small Biz Program (pictured here). Their Talk, "Community Creatives" or "Beware the Underdog" was a big hit at the September 08 Chicago Convergence and our logo was created using the crowdSpring portal. "crowdSPRING is the community-driven marketplace for creative services, bringing the power of crowdsourcing to creative challenges worldwide. Whether you need a new logo, website, marketing materials or other creative content, you simply post what you need, when you need it and how much you'd like to pay. Once posted, creatives from around the world will work on your project and you'll begin to receive actual work - not bids or proposals - to review." PS - The Advisory Council has turned into a who's who with crowdSpring, OgilvyOne, Microsoft, NBC Universal, etc participating. Come play.