It is so easy to sit back and consume without giving much back. Turn on the TV, Netflix, Hulu, play a DVD, watch a video, listen to the radio, podcasts, read content like this on the web. It takes a different sort of person to create something instead.

A few years ago I first heard Garr Reynolds quote Guy Kawasaki, who said, “Eat like a bird; poop like an elephant.” Birds consume bits from multiple sources; when elephants do their business, it’s something… big.

I know for me that some of this tendency to overconsume stems from an insecurity I have about whether I know enough to be relevant to my target audience with the expertise I have to offer. I’ve had more than one friend in this space tell me, “You know enough, and you’ll figure out the rest along the way.”

As I read what I’ve written here, I’m reminded that my high school English teacher would not really appreciate the way I write. He’d call much of what I share “diary” versus “journal”. I don’t know if I’ll shake that or not in my personal blogs; part of my voice involves discussing my journey of learning as I go.

I don’t know if what I share here means anything to anyone. If that’s the case, I’m fine with it. Miles Davis said, “An artist’s first responsibility is to himself.”

I’m going to find ways to create more, even if it means opening up the blog page and typing what comes to mind. There may be misspellings or grammatical errors. The formatting may be off.

Image via Wikipedia

And that also means I’m reading less blogs, unsubscribing from more email newsletters, and possibly not reading as many books as I have been.It won’t be perfect. It doesn’t have to be. The main idea is to get it out.

I encourage you to reach out if you find I’m not offering more content. This is also part of my aim to Serve more in 2012.

Let’s get to it!

Resolutions are not my thing. Since 2010 I’ve used three words to set the tone for my year. That year it was “Be more helpful.” Last year the theme was “Focus, Intention, Deliver.”

This year the words are “Simplify, Serve, and Create.”

SIMPLIFY

I’m known for being able to take complex ideas and explain them in a way that is simple and easy to understand. In the way I live my life, however, that’s not quite the case. This year I’m looking to simplify my life: how I do things, what I have. This involves trimming down what I own, unsubscribing from a lot of email, and removing a lot more of the friction that exists in the processes that govern how I live.

SERVE

There is work we’re all meant to do, people we’re meant to serve. I’ve spent much of the past several years working on identifying what that means for me. For a long time I’ve been drawn to causes and non-profit work. I already volunteer my skills and expertise at a number of non-profits. I love being able to elevate a cause with story using new media.  We’ll see where this takes me in 2012.

CREATE

When I’m not creating something, I’m not fulfilled.  I look forward to writing more, drawing more, painting, recording and developing audio and video, whether for myself or for clients.

So here we are toward the end of the third week of 2012. Let’s get going.

Image via Wikipedia

Welcome to Dump Go Daddy Day.

I’ve moved my domain registrations over to Namecheap. Today only, for every domain transfer, they’re donating $1 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and their fight against SOPA.  If you’re interested in becoming one of their customers, I’d love if you’d use the following affiliate link:

Background

I think it was 2006 when a couple of other podcasters contacted me to say they had bought domain names for me. At that time, my blog websites were hosted at Blogger, and this allowed me to be able to give my audience a simpler name. And it’s more professional.

I’d heard of Go Daddy‘s endorsement of podcasting through their various agreements with other networks, as many of the shows I’d listen to became affiliates. I’ve used coupon codes to register and renew domains over the years.

Sleaze Happens

Then they started to get sleazy.  By that I mean that their online and Super Bowl ads told me that they were targeting a market that I really had no interest in being a part of.  What’s ironic is that Bob Parsons, who founded Go Daddy, also had a company called Parsons Technology, which made the QuickVerse Bible software, which we bought with our first home computer 12 years ago.

I began moving my domain registrations elsewhere. I had some domains coming up for renewal next month and had planned to move them when they were closer to expiring.

The SOPA/PIPA Thing

I’m not even going to claim I know enough about it to be an expert (I’ve included links to related stories below, however.). The US Congress has been discussing legislation to further deal with online piracy. I don’t believe that piracy is good, but I think that the way Congress is trying to deal with it through this new legislation is a bad solution.

Among those businesses to have come out in support of SOPA/PIPA, Go Daddy was one of them.  This led to many of its customers deciding to leave them in mass exodus. Today, December 29, 2011, is being known in many circles as “Dump Go Daddy Day”. (Go Daddy has since removed their explicit support in response to all the outcry to try to save some face.)

This was the rest of the motivation I needed to leave them.

So I’ve now moved my domain registrations over to Namecheap and have become an affiliate myself. And, as I said earlier, today only, for every domain transfer, they’re donating $1 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and their fight against SOPA.  So if you’re interested in becoming one of their customers, I’d love if you’d use the following link:

Related articles

• GoDaddy boycott over piracy views (bbc.co.uk)
• Stupid GoDaddy Deserves Boycott (forbes.com)
• Namecheap to Donate $1 to EFF for Every Domain Transfer on December 29 (elliotsblog.com)
• December 29 is ‘Dump GoDaddy Day’ (digitaltrends.com)
• Angry geeks fire back at SOPA supporters (rt.com)
• Anti-SOPA activists find ways to keep the Internet free (promoteliberty.wordpress.com)

Image by bitzcelt via Flickr

2011 has been one of the most challenging years of my life, I think. Most recently, this holiday season has found me the most melancholy that I’ve been in quite some time.

The depression I’ve felt has been seasonal and circumstantial. I’ve shared about this before, and there’s more that I need to share. This post, however, is not the one I’ll do it in.

Instead, as I type this the day before Christmas Eve 2011, with just over a week left in the year, I’ve gotten more in touch with why I’m where I am.

Back in January, when I cast my three words for 2011 out, I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. Those words were Focus, Intention, and Deliver. It’s been so easy, especially in this last month, for me to look at what I’d written and see where I’ve fallen short.

But if that was the end of the story, there would be no hope. Through this exercise of blogging, I’m able to see there’s more to the story.

Focus: I have indeed striven to make myself focus more on tasks at hand. I’ve had those moments where I’ve taken better care of myself to set myself up to be able to do this.

Intention: I decided at the beginning of the year to keep certain projects on the shelf as I took what I’m doing more seriously, with more purpose. I feel that I’m much more in touch with that than I was at the beginning of the year. And I’ve realized a new-found energy for some of those activities that I’d put on hold.

Deliver: One thing about deciding to follow through on commitments is that I’m more aware of “The Resistance,” as Steven Pressfield calls it in Do the Work, or the “Lizard Brain” as Seth Godin calls it in Linchpin. The more I want to follow up or follow through, the more this part of me wants to fight it. It’s been a lot stronger than I originally thought it would be, and I recognize that I need to press into it more in the year ahead.

Looking ahead into 2012, I’ve got my three words, and it’s going to take some work to see the growth in those areas, too.

As long as we’re alive, we still have time to grow and change. There’s always room for hope. As Red says, “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.”

Shawshank Redemption Ending

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRBl0GPBm4o

I really love the @GoogleTalks on YouTube.  This one from Conan O’Brien from May 2010, in addition to being wildly entertaining, struck chords with me.

Conan O'Brien (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

Keep in mind that this was done within a few months of him leaving The Tonight Show. The part where he shows how he responded is what resonated with me. Specifically:

• He saw it as an opportunity to do something he’d never tried before, and
• The constraints of social media, specifically Twitter, forced him to be more creative.

Much of life involves improvisation. We prepare and plan, but, to borrow the line from Nationwide (not a sponsor), “Life comes at you fast.”

This is one of the things that makes me enjoy being active in this space. It’s always changing, and we get to adapt and create accordingly.

@Google & YouTube present A Conversation with Conan O’Brien

I named my business Jazzmania Productions for a reason. I believe in helping connect others and telling great stories using technology where it fits. I’ve been doing it with my own projects and love being able to help my clients do the same with theirs.

Music and all that Jazz

I’m a fan of all kinds of music. I love rock and roll, classical, new wave, and I enjoy power pop. I’ve even gone country, and I like some rap music.

But I didn’t really get jazz until I got to high school.  One of the really fascinating things I love about jazz is listening to it live.  You hear a song from a recording over and over again, and you get really familiar with the different solos.  Every solo is different by design. You’re just given the constraints of how long you’re supposed to play, what tempo to play in, and what chord structure to follow.  Within those constraints, you’re free to create whatever you want.  And sometimes those constraints can be changed, too.

How WordPress is like Jazz

I’ve been blogging since January 2002, and up to Summer 2008, it was primarily on the Blogger platform.  I still have blogs over there, including this collection of quotations, but I really wanted to take advantage of what I’d heard could be done with WordPress. So I moved many of my sites over to this platform.

Even now, as I look at the screen in which I type this, I see constraints with flexibility: a blog defined around a specific topic, a sidebar to my left, boxes to my right and below with different functionality. And I see the big white text box where I’m writing this post.  Here is my jazz solo. Within this space, I can create whatever I want to create.

I’ve never researched why the WordPress developers decided to name each release after a jazz icon, but it certainly makes sense why. Check out this nifty infographic the folks at Infographic Labs produced.

The Jazzy Rise of WordPress via Infographic Labs

(hat-tip to Marketing Conversations for sharing the graphic)

Related articles

• Videos – The Year that Changed Jazz (freetech4teachers.com)
• The five minute WordPress business blogging challenge (marketing.yell.com)

Image by Edwård via Flickr

Your use of social media will vary from everyone else’s. Especially mine.  I’m continually refining how I use tools like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and LinkedIn to make them more useful to me, based on what I want to get out of them.

I know you follow on Twitter, friend/subscribe on Facebook, circle on Google Plus, and connect on LinkedIn.  I prefer to call all of this “connecting,” because whether we’re really friends or not, I usually like being connected somehow.  We’ll work on the relationship as we go.  That’s my approach.

Back in 2007 as Twitter was really ramping up its userbase, many of us who had begun to follow a lot of other accounts cried our for groups, so that we could better follow the conversations we really wanted to follow.  Facebook later came out with Lists, and so did Twitter. As I’ve used TweetDeck and Hootsuite, I’ve added connections to groups, there, too.

Google Circles fit perfectly in this space, too. Like Twitter and Facebook, you can switch from the main updates feed just to a circle’s feed to see what’s going on among your connections there.

Moreover, I’ve used hashtags on Twitter and on Google+ to track other conversations that are relevant to me.

I’ve also experimented with setting up social media dashboards on iGoogle and NetVibes, just to have the information I need in one spot.

Having these filtering mechanisms has been vital to me getting what I really want from social media platforms.

What are some ways you have set up filtered conversations?

Related articles

• The Myth Of Reciprocity And The Social Life Of Brands (twistimage.com)
• Just Shut Up – Web 3.0 and Filtering (umpf.co.uk)
• The Social Media Fatigue Myth (twistimage.com)

podcincy image via John Blue

I write this almost three weeks after attending the very first PodCamp Cincinnati, held at Northern Kentucky University‘s College of Informatics at Griffin Hall on October 22, 2011. This is the first time I’ve tried to share some of my thoughts on this blog. I’d certainly like to share about the specific sessions and content that was shared, but I feel compelled to first talk about how important it is that we even had a PodCamp Cincinnati.

Four years ago to the Saturday

Four years ago to that very Saturday, on October 20, 2007, a couple handfuls of podcasters, Twitterers, Facebookers, and bloggers met together at the Golden Corral in Middletown, Ohio, for the very first gathering of New Media Cincinnati.  It was, for many of us, the first time we’d ever met in person. Cliff Ravenscraft from GSPN.tv was there. Daniel J. Lewis was also there.

Among many of our conversations was the idea of a PodCamp in Cincinnati. Cliff had attended PodCamp Boston.  I’d been following many of the PodCamp crowd in social media for sometime and had been thinking it would be a great thing to have happen in Cincinnati, too. Cliff later even registered the podcampcincinnati.com domain name.

Growth of the Cincinnati social media community

In the months that have passed, I’ve seen how much the social media community in the Greater Cincinnati area has grown. Not only because of what we’ve done with New Media Cincinnati, but also through what other groups have done and the area’s mainstream adoption of social networking platforms.

I’ve often thought of our New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday event as an experimental playground. We’ve tried out new technology, like online streaming with UStream.tv, and have experimented with the format.  One month we even tried out the unconference concept, similar to what is done at a PodCamp.

Can we do a PodCamp in Cincinnati? YES!

After attending PodCamp Ohio, I struck up a number of chats with Lead Organizer Angelo Mandato about what was involved in planning and running a PodCamp.  Even as recent as last year, Angelo pinged me about whether I’d be interested in organizing one in Cincinnati. At the time, I was extremely busy with work of my own, so I said I wasn’t able to do it.

But there was someone who was: Daniel J. Lewis. At the end of the PodCamp/WordCamp Ohio 2010, Daniel announced that there would be a PodCamp Cincinnati in October 2011.

Benefiting from the hard work of others

Anne Castleberry and Daniel J. Lewis

Throughout much of this year, and especially in the few months’ leading up to the October 22nd event, I’ve been able to see what’s been involved in putting this event on. It’s inspiring. In addition to the work Daniel had done as Lead Organizer, I know Anne Castleberry, who takes personal ownership in making what she’s involved with be as excellent as possible, did a lot. So did Jen Mitchell, who kept everyone up to speed about session updates throughout the day. Cliff Ravenscraft sponsored the great lunch. And many others, like Mary Beth Dunn, Marty and Kathy Rose, Brandon Kilby, and others whose names I’m forgetting, worked behind the scenes to make things run as smoothly as they did.

And all we attendees had to do was pay $20, plus whatever transportation costs it took to get us to Northern Kentucky University? Wow!

Tomorrow, at the last New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday event for 2011, we’re giving away the 2011 NMC Digital Awards. I wish we could give one to everyone involved in PodCamp Cincinnati, because, to me, this was the hallmark moment of 2011 as it relates to what we’ve been working on doing since that small gathering in October 2007.

Truly, emphatically – I have never been more proud to be a part of what we’re doing in the social media community here in Cincinnati.

Notice that I haven’t even shared anything about the sessions, presenters, or venue. That’s for another post.

What did YOU get out of PodCamp Cincinnati?

Related articles

• Podcamp Cincinnati And Nothing About Steve Jobs (newmediacincinnati.com)
• The ROI of attending an in-person social media event (danieljohnsonjr.com)
• Daniel Johnson, Jr.’s PodCampCincy2011 circle on Google Plus (plus.google.com)
• #PODCINCY on Google Plus (plus.google.com)

Image by KCIvey via Flickr

Why do anything, for that matter? Well, it’s because you believe in it.

I’m fortunate to live in the United States of America, and I’m in touch with the tremendous sacrifice many men and women have made throughout history, especially in recent history, to make it possible for me to get to vote.

I think it’s easy to take for granted all the freedom I have. I don’t have to worry about my life if I criticize the government. I have the freedom to change it each year. I have the freedom to express myself online, whereas others around the world do not.

I’m grateful for all the men and women who’ve fought so that I get to vote today. Seems like such a small thing to do in return for such a great sacrifice, though.

Related articles

• If young people want to be heard, they need to start voting: (gameofroles.wordpress.com)
• Have You Voted Yet? (domesticrecluse.wordpress.com)
• Who Votes for Democracy? (dakotavoice.com)

Image via Wikipedia

How important is a birthday?

There’s a discussion on the wildly popular Passive Aggressive Notes website about remembering birthdays. To be honest, I couldn’t get through all the discussion — let’s just say it’s obvious that people have strong opinions about it.

As I type this we’re weeks away from the holiday season. Already Christmas music is playing on many radio stations, and several stores are in full holiday promotion-mode, yet Thanksgiving hasn’t even arrived.  Look for many to send Christmas and holiday greetings over the next two months.

I’m reminded of what Keith Ferrazzi says in Never Eat Alone. It’s encouraging to get a holiday greeting, but it’s something everyone sends and receives.  A birthday is something special, however.  Even though you share it with many others, that day is special because you were born.

Not that you had anything to do with that. In fact others (like Mom and Dad) had more to do with that than you did. So why celebrate and encourage you for your birthday? It’s not like you had anything to do with it, right?

I celebrate your birthday with you because I rejoice in the life you’ve lived so far. I’m encouraged because, if you had not been born, we would not have become connected.  My life is different because you were born. Not just because of that, but because of the life you’ve lived since then.

Related articles

• If you’re going to start with the Christmas music already… (christopherspenn.com)
• pantslessprogressive: Happy birthday, Meet the Press! You turn… (shortformblog.tumblr.com)