ShayColson.com

Why Aren’t You Creating Content?

Shay — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:37:11 +0000

Ask yourself this question right now: why aren’t I creating good
content and sharing it online?

I know you’re smart, there are things you’re interested in, and
capable of teaching me and many others something about. You’re
passionate about these things, maybe you work with them all day, or
maybe you think about them all day while you work on something else.

Why aren’t you creating and sharing content around those things? There
are no more excuses and the upsides are huge. Do you like taking
pictures of said things? Great – Instagram, Flickr, 500px and many
other tools offer the opportunity to build community and interaction
around those pictures.

Is video your thing? No problem. YouTube, of course, has you covered,
but consider Vimeo, or some new social video apps like Viddy or
SocialCam. Your goal, again, should be to convey your passion on
whatever topics you’re passionate about – people want to talk with
others who care about the same thing. It’s human nature.

Maybe you prefer the written word. Why aren’t you blogging and
tweeting? Not only can you still spread your message, but your network
will grow and flourish, creating space for friendships, relationships,
even new professional opportunities.

If you’d rather use your voice, podcasting is clearly your venue.
iTunes or SoundCloud make the distribution part a simple non-issue,
and if you don’t feel like doing large, in-depth episodes, try a
shorter version of mini-podcasts using tools like Yiip or Cinch.

You’ve got no more excuses. Whatever device you’re reading this
article on is more than capable of creating at least one (if not more
or even all) of these forms of media. The only roadblock is you. Not
sure what to talk about? Start with the things you read about. Most
importantly, just start.

To capture the value in the content you’re creating, host it yourself,
or at least capture it all in one place. Why give away your link
equity and analytics equity to ad sellers? Pony up the $10 for a dot
com and start building your own online platform.

Invest in yourself, create and share content, and flourish. It’s
really become that simple.

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Life Is Good [pic]

Shay — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:16:28 +0000

Picnic in Gas Works Park, Seattle.

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Email: The Best We’ve Done, Not Best We Can Do

Shay — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:06:18 +0000

Twitter announced
(http://blog.twitter.com/2012/05/best-of-twitter-in-your-inbox.html)
this week that they’ll be delivering the “best” tweets of the week to
your email inbox. Many have seen this as merely a natural evolution of
Twitter’s acquisition of startup Summify
(http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/14/twitter-email/) – which seems
valid.

Also, I’m all for curation services, ease-of-use, and getting me
quality content in an easily consumable format. But – I think this is
a much more significant announcement. What I see in this announcement
is tantamount to an admission by Twitter that email is the king of
digital communication platforms, and that’s not changing any time
soon.

It makes sense, of course. Email has been around for decades – longer
than Facebook and Twitter and MySpace combined. Email works seamlessly
across devices, supports attachments, HTML, encryption, digital
signatures, multiple recipients, and all sorts of other useful
features. It doesn’t have a character limit, and you can access and
respond to it when you have time.

To me, email is clearly the best digital communication platform we’ve
developed; it’s far from the best we can do.

Email falls short of capturing the way human beings communicate and
collaborate with each other IRL (in real life). You know the chain of
escalation – if you can’t get it across in an email, pick up the
phone. If that doesn’t work, go in for a face-to-face. The proof that
we need to do better here is all around us.

Services like Summify, Storify, and other “curation” based tools are
an interesting evolution, but they’re better suited for helping us
deal with the pure volume of digital content created today, not to
communicate more effectively and more contextually with other humans.

The ability to capture, share, save, translate, and distribute natural
human conversations would be as revolutionary as the silicon wafer,
networked computing, or wireless spectrums. The company that gets it
right will make billions.

A tall order, to be sure, but aren’t they all these days?

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From Screen to Shining Screen

Shay — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:05:02 +0000

There is lots of talk about the power of “the Cloud” and its ability
to transform how we work, play, and live using digital technologies.
But do regular people, folks like you and me, really see much benefit
from the cloud on a day-to-day basis?

In this post, I hope to illuminate just a few areas where cloud
services are making my work and my life more efficient and enjoyable.

The primary benefit of the cloud – a collection of servers managed and
hosted by some third party and utilized by software on your computing
device to store or process data – can be summed up in one word: sync.

Cloud-enabled software lets me work on whatever device makes the most
sense for me at the time, and keeps track of my progress and changes
as I move forward. For example, I’m writing this post on a text editor
on my iPad, which is saving the text in real time to my Dropbox
account. I could open Dropbox on my iPhone or laptop and have the
exact same text file, in the exact same state, whenever I need it.

When I’m done writing this post, I’m going to send the text via email
to a service that will automatically post it to my blog, send a tweet
about the new post from my personal account, and push the new post
down to all of my blog subscribers – it’s like magic! The automation
and integration between services unbelievably powerful – what used to
take hours can now be done simply by hitting the send button.

The same sort of thing happens with another one of my favorite
“thought management” tools: Evernote. When I forward an article I saw
and a note about it to Evernote through email or Instapaper, I know
that I’ll be able to later retrieve that information on whatever
platform I choose. As long as I’ve got something that can get online,
I can get to my notes, to my data.

It’s not all just work, however. Much of my communication is happening
in the cloud, allowing me to keep up throughout my day. My primary
tool, Google’s gMail, was – and still is – a pioneer of cloud-based
email. If I delete an email on my phone, it’s gone when I get to my
desktop. If I reply from my iPad, I can see that in my sent folder on
my phone. No need to sync, ala the old Palm Pilot days. Why? Because
it all happens seamlessly in the cloud.

The same thing is now true for my Twitter stream, thanks to TweetBot,
my new favorite Twitter client. TweetBot syncs the last read tweet
between my iPhone and iPad so that no matter what device I pick up, my
stream picks up where it left off – from screen to shining screen.
Now, if only they would make a desktop client *hint hint*, I could
always find my place in what seems like an ever growing waterfall of
content.

I’m moving my other content into the cloud as well, storing pictures
on Picasa and streaming music channels from Pandora. This allows me to
access my own channels – be the people, places, things, or music –
from whatever portal I want (phone, TV, iPad, desktop), whenever and
wherever I can get online. This revolution has come about quietly, the
requisite pieces slowly falling into place over the last 4-5 years.
But, I can tell you that without a doubt, the cloud revolution is
here, and it’s not going anywhere.

How has the cloud made a difference in the way you live and work?
Sound off in the comments below?

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Reading and Writing, Digitally

Shay — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:53:59 +0000

It used to be when people would ask what you were reading, they meant "What book are you reading?" This is no longer the case.

The introduction and proliferation of digital technologies has undoubtedly changed the way that we create and consume content, something I've written about here before. But it struck me recently just how much I read, and write, each day – though if you weren't paying attention, you might miss it.

Here's a brief recap of what – and how – I read and write in early 2012.

Reading

Almost all of my reading is now done on a screen – split pretty evenly between an iPhone, an iPad, and a Kindle. I use my iPhone and iPad to read email, read Twitter, and capture longer articles for reading later using Instapaper. I've been lagging a little on my Google Reader feeds, and recently used the almighty "Mark All As Read" button to help get myself a bit of a reset.

I use the Kindle for books and other longer-form media. If my Instapaper queue gets too long, or if the pieces I want to read are themselves of any substantial length, I'll push it to my Kindle instead of trying to slog through it on the backlit screen of an iDevice. There's just something about the ePaper screen that can't be beat for any type of extended reading sessions.

A typical day of reading includes a morning look at my overnight tweets (as a West Coaster with a strong East Coast network, most of the good morning leads are already available by 6 AM Pacific). I capture anything I want to read later using the "Send to Instapaper" functionality in TweetBot (my preferred iOS Twitter client). At the same time, I scan through emails for anything that might require an immediate response. If nothing, I'll save the longer emails for a time when I can focus on reading and responding to them.

I typically get around to reading these saved articles at lunch, or on the way home from work. I find this "down time" to be incredibly beneficial – it passes the time but also gives me a chance to consume content on my own schedule. Like live television, it's often not convenient for me when it originally airs.

After I've stoked my mental furnace with interesting material, it's time to synthesize that through writing.

Writing

Without a doubt, the bulk of my writing takes place in the form of emails. I write dozens and dozens of emails daily. Sometimes that number reaches the triple digits. While they length and level of engagement varies, the fact that these written communications are taking place is significant.

I try to keep my reading and my writing separate, if for no other reason than to take advantage of the train-of-thought, or flow, that I can achieve with each activity independently. For example, after I'm done reading through the morning Twitter stream, I'll respond to any tweets I might have something to say about, and perhaps schedule a couple of my own for later in the day.

I write best in the morning – so if I have important emails that need to get written, I'll prioritize them as a first-thing activity. This has the side benefit of allowing the recipients the whole day to respond. The same holds true for blog entries, like this one. If I have an idea, I'll try to capitalize on writing about it as soon as I can make time, typically in the morning.

For whatever reason, I just don't write well in the afternoon or evenings. If I receive an email after lunch, it's entirely possible that I'll leave things overnight simply because I know the morning response will be better than anything I can muster in the afternoon.

I also subscribe to Clay Shirky's notion of "publish, then filter." I'll spell check, of course, but I don't often proof-read. The value of letting things flow is half for myself (it captures my thinking process, which I can later review), and it's half for the the timing – I don't have time for a fine toothed comb on every single sentence.

Finally, I do carry with me a red Moleskine notebook and pen for taking notes in meetings, writing down short thoughts, and sketching in ways not currently possible on an iPad (though Paper closes that gap pretty well). Still, volume wise, writing here doesn't amount to much in comparison with everything else.

Your Turn

How has the digital revolution changed your reading and writing habits? Are these changes positive or negative? Why?

Sound off in the comments below.

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[pic] Tri-Color Street Art

Shay — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:42:36 +0000

As seen near Golden Gardens on the Burke Gillman Trail.

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[Article Response] Fitness Trackers Use Psychology to Motivate Couch Potatoes

Shay — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:21:41 +0000

I took the stairs this morning instead of the escalator when leaving the bus tunnel in downtown Seattle. Was the escalator crowded? No – empty. Broken? Nope, working like a charm.

I took the stairs because I knew it would get counted towards my daily activity levels on my new Fitbit, proving this article to be exactly correct.

The routine things you do each day – climbing stairs, schlepping groceries, pushing the lawnmower – are cast in a new light. Suddenly, they’re exercise. They always were, of course, but fitness trackers drive the point home by telling you just how many calories you burned raking the lawn. As a result, exercise becomes something you seek to interject into your life, a goal-directed activity that brings a sense of accomplishment.

In addition to seeking additional exercise, which I am, I find myself more cognizant of the choices I make in relationship to my physical activity. It didn't take too many days of seeing that "sedentary" amount of time on my Fitbit reports to find me pacing around the office while on a conference call, or standing up as I type (like I am now). Maybe these little things don't make much of a difference, but being aware of them absolutely does.

In a continuation of theme of "that which you can't measure, you can't manage," I've appreciated the augmentations of this technology, as well: food tracking and sleep tracking. Again, the major benefit here isn't that I have a calorie for calorie or minute-for-minute history of my days, but rather that I think more consciously about what I'm putting in my mouth ("Do I really want to enter this into the app?") or closing my eyes ("Wow – it's almost 10, I should go to bed.").

So yes, it is great to have these records, but that's only the first step. The awareness is what will create changes in habits, which will drive a positive impact on all elements considered – increased physical activity, more sleep, and better food choices. Combine these three into a tidy package that integrates with my daily technology?

Powerful forces for couch potatoes and athletes alike. Find the original article below.

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[story] The Cowboy Poet

Shay — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:18:31 +0000

This morning, NPR featured a story about a San Francisco poet who offers custom, on-demand poems using his typewriter. He sits down near the waterfront, where both tourists and locals congregate throughout the day. He has some interactions with his patrons, talks about what they’re thinking about, or if they’d like a poem on any particular topic, and proceeds to produce a unique, on-demand poetry experience, complete with a reading by the author as the grand conclusion.

While I haven’t visited this particular on-demand poet, the piece did remind me of my one and only pay-for-poetry experience. This is that story.

–

When I was growing up, family vacations almost always took the form of a road trip. I suspect this had to do with a combination of the fact that my dad didn’t like to fly, that most of our destinations were in the Western US, and that we were not very good at traveling light.

A typical arrangement found my dad behind the wheel, with me serving as navigator and co-pilot, with my mom and little brother in the back seat (this being one of the true perks of the oldest child). I don’t recall where we were headed on this particular trip, but I remember driving out of Idaho and into Montana through the Bitterroot Mountains, up and over Lolo Pass.

It must’ve been early Spring or late Fall, because it was rainy, foggy, and cool the whole way over the pass. We finally made it over, and stopped at a gas station soon after arriving in Montana. In the mid-90′s, travel plazas came to Montana – gas stations featuring a restaurant, large selections of food, drinks, and driving accessories, and a small dining area for patrons. It strikes me as odd that I remember this particular travel plaza was a Shell, though I have no idea where it is.

We had a pretty solid routine at gas stops like this. My mom and brother would take first turn at the bathrooms, while my dad would start pumping the gas, and I would get drinks and snacks. He and I would meet at the counter to pay, while the other half of the family took watch over what was no doubt a fully loaded American sedan. While the gas pumped, he would wash the windows, check the oil, and record some details about the fuel stop in a log book he keeps to this day for every car – where he got gas, at what price, the mileage on the odometer, and that miles per gallon for that particular tank.

On this stop, however, something was different. Looking through the foggy windows of the gas station, I saw an older man with a beard approach my dad and have a short conversation. I was passingly familiar with the concept of homelessness, but thought it was a phenomenon found in bigger cities like Seattle – not at the post-Pass fuel stations of Western Montana. To this day, I don’t know what that conversation entailed, but I do know that after we paid for the snacks, we sat at one of the grey laminate tables near the restaurant while this Cowboy Poet went to work.

Writing on a long strip of paper towel from the restroom, using a borrowed pen, the Cowboy Poet started by writing vertically each letter of my father’s name. After each letter, by inference or some sort of cowboy horse-whispering clairvoyance, he completed a sentence about the poem’s subject: ‘D’ is for…, ‘E’ is for…, etc.

More thought than I was aware of went into this poem, and the Cowboy Poet didn’t talk as he worked. This wasn’t about him, after all. It was about his temporary patron, his borrowed pen and parchment, and being stuck penniless at a Montana gas station, approaching strangers with the offer of poetry for sale.

I don’t know what happened to that poem, or to that poet, but I know that they both live on in my memory.

Sometimes the words outlast their writer, and sometimes it’s the writer who outlasts their words.

[pic] Great Old School Land Cruiser #dreamcar

Shay — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:50:29 +0000

Spotted outside Bulldog News in Seattle’s University District.

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Why I’m Quitting Instagram: One Technologist’s Perspective

Shay — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:14:44 +0000

If you’re reading this blog post, you know by now that Facebook has
acquired mobile photo sharing site (app, really) Instagram for $1
billion (more than twice what it was recently valued at by
professional investors who were risking their own money).

Many people have offered great insight as to why Facebook made this
move, and paid this price. I will leave the analysis to them (but
start with Om Malik’s article:
http://gigaom.com/2012/04/09/here-is-why-did-facebook-bought-instagram/).

What matters to me is not that Instagram has been acquired, but that
Instagram has been acquired by Facebook and I have decided to delete
my account and all associated photos. Here’s why: I am actively opting
out of the version of the Internet that Facebook is building,
including, now, Instagram.

I don’t have a Facebook account (even a fake one). I’ve never had one,
and I don’t use any Facebook-dependent apps or services. That was, in
fact, one of the great initial draws of Instagram – I didn’t need a
Facebook account to sign up, and I didn’t have to pump/pimp all my
data through Facebook’s pipes. I am so concerned that Facebook is
removing the amount of control I have over my own digital interactions
that I would rather not have any interactions there than have them on
Facebook’s terms. The bottom line with all free services is that if
you’re not paying for the service, then you’re the product.

Friends have asked, “But what about Google? You use their services and
they have all your data, too.” To which my answer is, “Yes, and no.
And it depends.” I am plenty capable of having meaningful digital
interactions outside the scope of Google, as well. I’m a huge fan of
exactly four Google offerings, and lukewarm on one. I love gMail,
Maps, Chrome, and YouTube. I’m lukewarm on Picasa. The rest? I don’t
use them regularly enough to worry about – even search. So, while
Google does know who I email and what about, what directions I look
up, perhaps some browsing habits, and videos I watch, this pales in
comparison to the data that Facebook continues to compile about their
users. Even then, the value proposition from Google is shrinking on a
daily basis as other tools continue to crop up and evolve.

I am more than happy to pay for services that truly add value to my
life. I pay for Evernote’s Premium service, I pay for Instapaper, and
I’m about to start paying for Dropbox if I can’t get some more free
space. The other free services I use (Twitter, mainly, along with
newly acquired Posterous, Foursqure, and likely-soon-to-be acquired
Flipboard) I would gladly pay for, but also feel okay trading my data
in exchange for use.

The bottom line is this: I am interested in connecting with people,
topics, and conversations on my own terms. This means that the
knowledge and connections should be tied to me – not tied to any
platform, to any particular tool or site, or to anything that I cannot
control or impact. My data is mine and mine alone, and should only be
used in ways that I dictate or consent to.

Instagram wasn’t acquired for their team, they were acquired for their
users, and the conversations, connections, photos, and data they are
generating. The sale price indicates the true value that people – real
people – have in the equation, and if we don’t stake our claim to our
own value, somebody else clearly will.

If you’d like follow me out the Instagram door, there’s a great how-to
article up at ReadWriteWeb:
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/04/09/dont-want-facebook-to-have-more-of-yo…

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