A.Connector

Sorry it’s been a while since I posted. have been very busy getting caught up on several business related and personal projects. Finally, all major holidays are over so I can just focus on the year ahead. Nice to not be rushing to finish out one year then start then stop for the Lunar New year here. Oh well reality is always going to be there just up to us to deal with it and learn how to not get overwhelmed by it, right?

Some interesting new media projects going on with friends in the US and China. The business projects are between US and China for the most part and involve some of the new services my company added to it’s menu.Hoping to help some great US destinations get some more exposure for outbound China travel.

Have recently hooked up again with some old friends which is always nice. Good to have continuity among the connected connectors. New camera has been wonderful disruptive factor and I’ve been taking some photo video walks to and from work the last several days. I can’t emphasize enough how vital it is sometimes to slow down and take more notice of the people and world around you. What is in your world that you’re excited about right now?

Depth Charge Discussions is a new video project entered into by myself and Len Edgerly, another indie media friend hailing from Cambridge,MA and Denver,CO. You can watch our first video here dealing with the topic of Len’s experiences with racism growing up in Boston. The next episode will be me sharing on my own experiences growing up in Brooklyn, NY.

It took a desperate housewife to bring some light to this issue: How is NBA basketball different than pro wrestling? In this case French-born Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs has caused his starlet wife Eva Longoria Parker to worry at times when he goes down on the court because she’s never sure when he’s really hurt or just hamming it up for the “sale of flagrant foul call” to the referees.

She says, “Sometimes he acts to get the flagrant foul or, to sell the foul more, he’ll throw himself on the floor and really play it up more than what it is.

“But I get really nervous, it’s nail-biting.”

You can view the rest of post at Dallas Basketball. So what’s up with that? OK Hulk Hogan and the Rock and the current flavors of the day are even more exaggerated but not nearly as different as we once thought. Was Jesse “The Body” Ventura more genuine as Governor of Minnesota than as wrestler?

I guess this brings up the bigger question: Is TV a purely entertainment medium and if so then how do you know what is real and what is entertainment? Just askin.

This has been aggregating inside of my internal drive with built in adrenalin-fired RAM for the last month or so. Lately as I see many of my social media “friends” blogging, on Twitter, Seesmic, Utterz, Podcasting and Vlogging some clarity and focus has percolated to the forefront of my mind.

Back in the early days, when I still listened to Adam Curry’s DSC and Podshow was just about to get started and become our community’s Satan I too began podcasting. The timing qualified me as a 2nd waver (early ‘05) as opposed to my illustrious pioneering brethren who got started in ‘04:Evil Genius Chronicles, Eric Rice and a handful of others. It was all quite exciting and we were a shiny lot. Many used knowledge of recording and recording gear as grand points of navel gazing and inane discourse acting like priests at the sacrament. Probably many podcasters were puzzled why their talking incessantly about all things podcasting and continually name-checking other podcasters wasn’t really of interest to normal non-ubergeek folks.

Even more so in the case of vlogging since there were even greater technical barriers to overcome plus the attitude of,” if your not good looking on camera you don’t belong there,etc.” Not to mention if you want many people to watch and continue watching you needed that elusive “content” thingie.

Fast forward to the future, meaning now:Twitter was born launching micro-blogging (140 character limit) IRC chat with the world,etc. all rolled into one tidy application by the folks who launched Blogger (big success) and Odeo (big failure). Seesmic which is kind of like video twitter where most people talk about some topic (clear,spurious or otherwise) and attempt to reply in spite of the poorly threaded interface of the present Alpha-device. Low video quality standard and mostly banal posts (have provided Loren Feldman much fodder) with not much compelling reason to watch other than the curiosity of seeing Twitter or other social network friends for the first time. Utterz similar thing with audio from phone to blog and alert to Twitter so your friends can follow link and listen (Seesmic also offers this function as well).

So what is happening with all this? When blogging began most people that weren’t fairly hardcore or trained writers wouldn’t venture into those spaces since they didn’t want to be show up for what they were: amateurs. Now with Twitter the barrier to entry has been lowered. Anyone can be some what interesting within 140 character limit or at least comply with the unwritten Net standard-”Don’t Suck!” So more and more people have entered this space, particularly marketing types who pitch their wares(usually self expertise) continually. Some consciously doing this, some not. Many that I encounter are suburban or rural folks that find Twitter far more entertaining than TV because Twitter at it’s best is serving as the “Cheers” of the Web: a fun place to listen to and contribute some banter. Many people on Twitter also blog but a lot more of the classic amateur style: for fun, the most genuine kind anyway.

Likewise the herd is also doing Seemic videos and Utterz audio so the equivalent of simple vlogs and podcasts. Hence the priesthood mystique of the earlier technically enabled crowd is being eroded by pc webcams and mobile phones.

What does it all mean you ask? Simply with the barrier to entry being virtually gone everybody is performing or talking to everybody. Like one big class play with scripts and free improvisation for those willing to go one step further. Is it all good or of merit? No, but neither was all podcasting or vlog/blogging. Is there still room for quality content? Probably even more now that the herd has taken control of the mic, camera and keyboard just maybe a little more challenging to get noticed is all.

Personally I’m happy that these web tools have democratized free expression/speech on the Net so well. It’s a wonderful thing when you find your inner voice and begin to try to let it out in a clear and meaningful way. Even baby’s when googooing are awfully charming and cute, and when they say their first words, boy do we light up with joy when that happens.

So where do I spend most of my time with these tools/devices? Definitely Twitter overall. Believe it or not many interesting things get said and interesting info is shared there. When I have time or am in the mood I’ll join the banter party with gusto. Utterz, sorry since I live in Taiwan not gonna make international calls but my Utterz using friends seem to like it. When notified on Twitter of their audio I rarely follow link. Seesmic, I don’t see it getting traction once it goes beyond the early adopter crowd mainly (even with Mike Arrington and Dave Winer hyping it) because many don’t have that much to say in an interesting fashion or that makes for attractive visual content. So essentially many of these Seesmic posts would work fine as audio posts and then listener could at least multi-task while listening. The time needed to follow all related posts on a topic is daunting and viewing them is maddening, less fun than watching out-takes of Dumb and Dumber. I like using Eyejot not for social media purposes but to send targeted video messages to friends or associates when that works best.

So please file this as my .66 New Taiwan Dollars for the day.

Update: Utterz now can accept audio file from PC and video.

The citizens of Taiwan voted for legislators on 1/12/08 and overwhelmingly gave the KMT(81 seats) the majority over the ruling DPP(27 seats). Many of my Taiwanese friends seemed to feel that this was more of a targeted “vote against” ruling DPP and President Chen Shuibian than a vote for the KMT or it’s candidates per se. I am very excited about this because it demonstrates an enhanced understanding and exercise of democratic principles. The presidential election is in 2 months and would appear to be a shoe in for KMT candidate Ma, but with the voters of Taiwan watching carefully his performance. Taiwan voters are starting to realize the power of the vote in sending a message to the parties going beyond political party affiliation. This is great news-people here are becoming more focused on performance and the future of Taiwan than political demagogues..hot diggety dog!

Well my plan is to stay ahead of the year. Mind you I still have that extra Chinese New Year dance to do in another month but… Been there/done that so many times now. New year, new energy,new ideas. These are all great things. Let’s see if we can harness them slightly better this year. Had some interesting thoughts in my quasi-waking up still asleep mode. It involves some Internet marketing ideas. I’ve been gradually percolating the idea of merging my resources: people skills (life,sales,management), language skills (English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish), markets (US/Europe and Asia) with the right vehicle. Nothing would please me more than perfecting this cocktail. The different bottles are just now being lined up on the bar. Nice colors and textures.

How about you? Do you have anything really stirring in you? Something that you’ve waited years or maybe most of your life for that might happen in the new year?

Here in Taiwan we get to go through 2 sets of holidays. Notice I used the term “get to go through” instead of enjoy? Well some of it is enjoyable. The first set are the holidays that most of you from US and Europe experience: Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa and New Years. Set #2 is indigenous to Asia and overseas cities that have sizable Chinese populations: Lunar New Year(Chinese New Year).

The interesting/challenging part is the business side. While most of my customers enjoying leisurely Christmas break we’re usually still kind of frantic about making sure the end of year orders that need to happen and get shipped prior to Chinese New Year do get out. The time window between Jan. 1 and CNY varies since CNY is based on the lunar calendar. This year we get about a month and a half since CNY drops Feb. mid-month.

Confusing? Well we’re used to it and when we focus we can actually enjoy 2 sets of holidays. Kind of crazy I know-but it’s our life. Ahh almost forgot-we at A.Connector wish you and your family a peaceful and healthy holiday season and new year!

As I near the mid century mark of my life(still over a year but I check on teh clendar from time to time) certain things become much more apparent. The little ordinary things in life often provide the most meaning and joy. Case in point-my son had a virus the other day and was pretty miserable after having an exam at school(Confucius must have loved exams because Chinese schools are forever giving them). His mom decided to heat up some oranges for him since the Chinese recognize citrus fruits as “cold foods” and not suitable for respiratory conditions unless heated. I went to my old school move(thanks Nana for teaching me) and did the Jewish penicillin thingie: chicken soup.

Well he was doing worlds better the next morning and my wife checked his homework entry for that day. In it was, “I’m a very fortunate child, my mom made me heated oranges and my dad made a batch of chicken soup just for me because I was sick. I’ll be rocking that one for a long time to come.

OK just to prove I’m not immune to shiny new gadgets… Actually my buddy Jeremy-the new official Seesmic blogger pointed me to this in response to a conversation on how I wish Seesmic had a privacy option to record personal video-mail messages that can be sent via e-mail. Voila(hmm that’s French). It’s called EyeJot and I even have a widget right here on right sidebar that you can record something in and send to me. So far I’m very pleased. This kind of technology was one of the few things I liked about Facebook but wished wasn’t locked up inside Facebook. Well here we are. Hope you like it.

Yes in fact-today is the 20th Anniversary of my arrival in Taiwan. Wow, so much has happened here, throughout the world and in my life during this period. Originally my plan in coming to Taiwan was to spend at least 2 years to work on my Mandarin Chinese language skills at which point I’d re-evaluate whether I wanted to stay longer or not. In fact I made excellent progress in Chinese partly due to meeting my wife Anne shortly before the 2 year mark.

I’ve had lots of amazing experiences here (mostly good) and am thankful for the friends I’ve made here both from here and elsewhere, my business associates, and of course my family. Now I have wedding anniversary #16 to look forward to in 3 days.