I went to the American Red Cross benefit here in Kansas City this past weekend — it’s an event fundraiser for the Red Cross. It’s only in its second year, but it’s doing well. The company I work for, Digital Evolution Group is also a big sponsor of the event. So naturally, it’s also a fun event for myself and my co-workers to let loose (we geeks still know how to party).

I snapped some photos and shot a video blog, check ‘em out. You’ll notice with this vblog — I’m trying some new things out, adding a little more mature ‘cinematography’ (if you will), basically I’m mixing up, just trying to try a different style. I want to evolve my presentation and find what works and what doesn’t. As always, love any feedback positive or negative from the community, it helps me get better!

I went to the grocery store tonight and was extremely close to scratching the chicken breast from my list of things to buy for dinner — it was hard to crave chicken when this delicious treat was staring me right in the face. Look how HUGE this cupcake is! Glorious.

Things like this, while it may seem silly to get excited about — they remind me of a quote that’s actually the tag line for a co-worker’s mommy blog:

“…it’s all about the little things in life that make it good.”

I believe happiness in life is a moment which can take many forms; sometimes even as a delicious small cupcake

I was shocked not surprised when the big ruckus was made regarding Facebook and this data ownership debate. Facebook announced a revision to its terms of service. In short, it stated:

Users can no longer delete their data, nor will Facebook remove your data it when cancel your account (pictures, text, video).

I won’t go into a long rant about it, instead I’d offer two thoughts:

1. The conversations we’re not hearing behind closed doors are likely the real story here. Facebook needs to make money. People love Facebook because we continue to get value from it. There’s endless ideas out there in how the data could be used. FB is likely putting themselves in a position to slowly utilize that data (likely in different ways, within FB.com and outside FB.com). Is it right to do? Maybe, maybe not. But they need to make money, somehow. The internal project timelines they have for 2009 for features or AD strategies are likely influencing their changes they need to make to the TOS.
2. What’s also surprising to consider is the strong expectation that in regards to your data ownership on Facebook. If you think about how closely guard privacy to our banking and healthcare information — when did Facebook move up in people’s minds to this expected level of privacy?

I’ll side with Scoble on this one — I personally go through an internal “check” process in my head when I type, click, upload or send anything: this is the Internet, I realize I have little to no control over what happens. Anyone can use my content or data if they’d like. I’m ok with that. There’s great things about the internet that are built on ’stealing’ content. Take for example geocoded photos that appear in Google Earth or on Photosynth. In my opinion there’s an implied T.O.S. you’re agreeing to by using the Internet in general. If you’re worried that your content and data is so valuable or personal — then you should likely be using other mediums or thinking twice about using Facebook to distribute it.
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Today I found myself re-thinking a quote that I heard last week about social media, one that sparked my interest.

“…still amazed that a few 20-year-olds built things that people twice their age are now experts on.”

A powerful thought. One that deserves some thought of it’s own. Is it fair to consider that the older people being recognized as experts in social media are even qualified when you factor in the measurement of time? Why should we consider people like Chris Brogan, Steve Rubel, Shel Israel and Robert Scoble to be experts? None of which are digital natives.

Webster dictionary (i know, i played the ‘the definition card’) defines that an expert is, “Having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.”

This begs one to think — how do you even measure training or sufficient experience in social media? It’s such a dynamic space that has taken many shapes and forms as different tools have been created or enhanced over the years.

Speaking of years — my own independent research on social networking websites shows that back in ‘ol 1997, www.sixdegrees.com was the first significant social networking website. From there, the next major blip on the radar was in Friendster in 2002, MySpace in 2003 and Facebook making a splash on a national scale in 2004. What I’m getting at – is that it isn’t so long ago that these social networks were all just getting started. It’s been around barely over 10 years. And the mass adoption of social networks into mainstream usage is even shorter than that.

• If the word “expert” requires that either experience or training must be displayed — have the people who consider themselves experts done that? Have they completed enough of either to quantify them as experts?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not skeptical on either social media or the influencers I’ve listed above. However, I am skeptical if anyone actually has no proof of ‘how’ they’ve done it themselves — and executed it well. The influencers I’ve listed (above) are of value in my opinion and it’s not fair to bucket them as ’self claimed’ experts (without proof). But the more important point, was that this quote makes me question if anyone is an expert at this stuff at all? Aren’t the best people out there still learning even 10+ years into their careers? (I sure hope so, or else I’m going to get bored doing my job).

This quote is from a conversation with Neal Sharma and is one I consider a powerful lesson. An “expert” is too strong of a word for anyone in the social media industry. These people who are viewed as valued sources of opinion might be better categorized as just “pundits”. The bottom line is they are great communicators and story tellers. In fact, they may be more of an expert in communication than anything else. I’m more curious to see us millennials and digital natives who have social media woven into our blood, what will we do? How will we evolve social media in the coming years?
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Hhhhhhappy Valentine’s Day everyone! In my opinion, it’s one of those holidays in which it’s all about expectations. Meaning, it’s much more healthy for your concious if you lower your expectations so that you’re either pleasantly surprised or you are not to bummed out.

Anyways, I thought I’d share my favorite Valentine’s card that I came across from a hilarious website, someecards.com. Their stuff is HIL-arious and I often wonder what it’s like to sit at the table when these guys are coming up with these one-liners. It’d be interesting to see how employees at a company like this are inspired and/or share ideas.

As dorky as it is to admit, I’m a fan of typography. So much so, I read blogs about it — and I like talking about it. I’m not expert at typography, but I’m absolutely a fan. I’d even buy t-shirts like this one or this one here.  That being said, this weekend one of my favorite typesets is this sign at the Cosentino’s grocery store. And if my typography senses are calibrated right, I pretty sure their logo is Century Gothic Regular.  I had to capture a photo of it just to satisfy my dangerous font obsession wheeeeew, don’t worry, I feel better now.

In 2008, myself and a committee of friends planned from the ground up, the 4th Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party which raised over $7,000 to a local organization here in Kansas City. One of the key takeaways from that experience was finding there’s a lot of people out there that sincerely want to do good in this world, they just don’t haven’t had the right opportunity to do it.

Enter, Twestival. In short, this event utilizes social media (Twitter) to empower an existing community to do good. It’s mission is to provide access to safe, clean drinking water to developing nations by drilling wells. The non-profit organization charity: water was clever enough to strike the attention of the Twitter community — there are over 100+ cities organizing individual events with all of them being 100% volunteer driven.

I decided, I wanted to give back — not just by attending the Kansas City gathering, but raising awareness by putting together a video blog. While I did not organize the event, I figured the least I could do was help promote it in any way that I could. What better than with a video blog!?! Note: I tried to get a little creative with this one and had a lot of fun shooting this. Let me know what you think! And more importantly, see you at Twestival! Details are at http://kansascity.twestival.com or http://www.charitywater.org/twestival.

Here in downtown Kansas City, the Scion Snowboarding Open was held in the middle of the Power and Light district. A pretty cool idea to generate PR for Scion while still making it a fairly interesting event for people to come out and see.  It definitely helped that it was a gorgeous day in KC (about 70 degrees, which is unreal for February) so I decided to walk out my backdoor to check out this event. I grabbed my camera and snapped some pics. You can see all the photos on my flickr account.

TED, the annual event that celebrates “ideas worth spreading”, had a great presentation this year regarding creativity. Ken Robinson, who is a creativity expert, gives a compelling 19-minute presentation that focuses on how schools are killing creativity. While this may seem like an extremely pessimistic view on our schooling systems — he makes some great observations.

Before I go any further, I do suggest instruct you that you need to either watch (video) or listen (mp3) to it. What you’ll hear him elaborate on is how our system of education does not foster creativity.

One quote in particular resonated well with me:

If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.

If we are funneled through an education system that injects the fear of being wrong children may lose or tarnish their ability to innovate or become creative just by that design. Ken makes a great observation and even begs us to rethink our view of intelligence in general.

My personal takeaway is more of a motivational one. It’s the simple as saying “don’t be afraid to fail”. While this can be said a million different ways, it remains that this attitude what’s important. Some people mistake it for the ignorance of what’s reality, but I think it’s an essential mindset to embody in order to succeed.

This video also made me think in what ways am I making sure I don’t grow out of creativity? Meaning, how do I make sure I’m not just conforming because that’s the way it is or that’s how it’s always been done. Education may be mining our minds of creativity, so creating an environment that is inspirational is important.

Thanks to Ken and TED for presenting this idea — which I myself am happy to pass along (their mission is to spread great ideas across the world). This is just one of many mind melting presentations TED has on their website, check out more for free at www.ted.com.
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Recently, the internet has been buzzing about the do-it-yourself blog post “Bacon Explosion” recipe. Annnnd once you see the pictures (below), I bet you can’t help but what wonder it taste like. So — my friends and I figured, what a better time to try out the recipe for ourselves than on Super Bowl Sunday (an entire day dedicated to gluttony).

I would say it is an understatement to call it the BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes. However, the NYT does it a pretty darn good job describing what it is: “a massive torpedo-shaped amalgamation of two pounds of bacon woven through and around two pounds of sausage and slathered in barbecue sauce.”

Here’s what’s in it:

2 pounds thick cut bacon
2 pounds Italian sausage
1 jar of your favorite barbeque sauce
1 jar of your favorite barbeque rub

This has only over 5,000 calories + 500 grams of fat = TASTES AMAZING! It does take a while to cook, so you’ve got to be patient. But baaaziguhlly I’d say it’s worth it to at least try it once. Check out the photos on my flickr account and the video blog I cut (below). Don’t forget to navigate over to YouTube if you want to watch it in 720p HD!

My friends and I got together to watch the Super Bowl this year. I personally rallied for the underdog ‘feel-good-story’ Arizona Cardinals. Sucks they didn’t win. Oh well. We had a great time stuffing ourselves with food — especially with the ‘Bacon Explosion‘. What’s that you may ask? Recently, there has been this popular bacon explosion recipe that has been buzzing around the internet (it’s a gluttons delight!) and so we decided to make it. I’ll have a video blog posted later this week, but you can check out pictures of our version here. Check out the photos I took at our Sup-Bowl get together and check my flickr account for more.

…while it’s extremely slapstick humor, I’d have to say my favorite commercial was the ‘Bud Light: Meeting’ commercial (below). I also was stoked to see the Transformers sequel trailer and G.I. Joe.