Derek Powazek

links for 2009-07-02

Derek Powazek — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:01:08 +0000

Are You Going to San Francisco

Mat Honan's excellent advice for wannabe San Franciscans.

(tags: sanfrancisco)

links for 2009-07-02

The Giant Squid (who just wants to be loved)

Derek Powazek — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:16:59 +0000

Len Peralta has a fantastic project going called Monster By Mail. You send him a few bucks and a name, and he draws you a monster. And for another few bucks, he’ll do a time lapse video of your creation coming to life. Of course, I couldn’t resist. Here’s the one I commissioned, paired perfectly with one of my favorite Jonathan Coulton songs. Thanks, Len!

Post from: Derek Powazek

The Giant Squid (who just wants to be loved)

Speaking Disasters and Lessons Learned

Derek Powazek — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:33:56 +0000

Scott Bekun is writing a book for O’Reilly Media, due out in October, called Confessions of a Public Speaker. He’s asking for stories of public speaking disasters. I couldn’t help but add a couple of my own.

Story 1: Always Carry a Thumb Drive

I was doing a day-long session on Community Design and had prepared an extensive set of PowerPoint slides with copious notes on my Mac laptop. But when I got to the venue a few minutes before it was set to begin, we realized that my laptop would not work with their projector, and I had to move the presentation to their PC computer. We all looked at the two computers with a feeling of doom and impotence. How to get the file from one to the other?

One of the conference techs ran off in search of a burnable CD. Another went looking for an ethernet cable. I stood there frozen in fear.

Then someone from the first row of the audience stepped up and said, “Excuse me, would this help?” and handed me a small USB thumb drive. We transferred the file and all was well.

Now, when I speak, I have a handful of those thumb drives in my backpack, just in case.

Story 2: Make Sure They Know What You’re Talking About

In 1997, after I’d been working at the highly influential HotWired website for a year or so, I went back to my alma matter to give a talk to a web design class about working in the nascent web industry.

I stood in front of the class and told what I thought were highly entertaining stories about life at HotWired for a half hour. When I finally stopped and asked if anyone had questions, one hand meekly raised in the back.

The question was, “What’s HotWired?”

Post from: Derek Powazek

Speaking Disasters and Lessons Learned

links for 2009-06-26

Derek Powazek — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:01:16 +0000

Kevin Meredith Photography

My photographer friend Lomokev has a new site up using a familiar theme.

(tags: lomokev deposkinny)
Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces by Gayla Trail

My friend Gayla Trail's book about gardening in small spaces is coming out soon. It's gonna be great.

(tags: gardening books GaylaTrail)
Nikol Knows – Milwaukee Magazine

Fray author Nikol Hasler is writing an advice column for Milwaukee Magazine. You should send her a question.

(tags: advice NikolHasler Fray)
Twitter search sites: The three best, and all the rest

Collecta is called one of the three best new search sites after only a week online. Not bad. (Disclosure: I'm Collecta's Creative Director.)

(tags: collecta realtime search)

Post from: Derek Powazek

links for 2009-06-26

links for 2009-06-24

Derek Powazek — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:01:10 +0000

Four crowdsourcing lessons from the Guardian’s (spectacular) expenses-scandal experiment » Nieman Journalism Lab

More on the Guardian's crowdsourced journalism project. (And, of course, it was done by Simon Willison – hi Simon!)

(tags: crowdsourcing community journalism)

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links for 2009-06-24

links for 2009-06-19

Derek Powazek — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:01:22 +0000

Investigate your MP's expenses

This is brilliant. The Guardian is using Wisdom of Crowds techniques to crowdsource a political investigation. Open-source journalism. Bravo.

(tags: journalism wisdomofcrowds)

Post from: Derek Powazek

links for 2009-06-19

Untitled June Update

Derek Powazek — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:50:08 +0000

My mom says she always knows when I get incredibly busy because I stop updating my website. Sad but true.

So here’s a quick list of what’s been keeping me awake at night for the last few months.

I had laser eye surgery. It hurt. A lot. And it took far longer to recover than they said it would. But now I can see clearly without glasses for the first time in over 20 years. It’s wonderful.
I’ve been working my tail off on MagCloud, which has built the finest collection of independent magazines anywhere. In a time when there’s news of another publication folding every day, we’ve got a growing community of brand new print magazine makers. Makes me proud.
My other client just launched. Collecta. It’s real real-time search. Do a search and the results come in as they happen. It’s incredible. And I got to work with some of the most badass nerd ninjas online today. I did the visual/interactive design for the site, and let me tell you, real timeliness changes everything. Designing for live flowing data is fundamentally different than designing static information. Remind me to write more about this.
And, oh yeah, Heather and I bought a house. Well, half a house. Next month we’ll be moving in to the top floor of a 100 year-old house, from which, if you look out the kitchen window at just the right angle, you can see the bay. We’re thrilled. I’ll have a back yard for the first time since I lived in one (that’s another story – it was college, okay?). Buying real estate in the middle of the mortgage crisis. I’ve always had an unusual sense of timing.

I wish I had the time to write more about all of this stuff, but now I have to sleep. Sorry, mom.

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Untitled June Update

links for 2009-05-28

Derek Powazek — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:01:16 +0000

Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen – When Word of Mouth Got a Permalink – Companies, Customers and Twitter

Heh. To be fair, I was just making a funny. I think it's great that companies are using Twitter to take care of their customers. It's just too bad they're not paying more attention to the customers that come in the front door.

(tags: customerservice twitter)

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links for 2009-05-28

Old Dog of the Sea

Derek Powazek — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:06:37 +0000

Post from: Derek Powazek

Old Dog of the Sea

links for 2009-05-27

Derek Powazek — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:03:13 +0000

Fray Issue 1 featured in FPO

(tags: fray fpo)

Post from: Derek Powazek

links for 2009-05-27