Disconnected - My 3 Rs For Early 2008

So, welcome to 2008! While I’ve never been much of a guy to make large-scale promises or resolutions at the dawning of a new year, especially public ones, I’ve always been able to find something I’m willing to toss onto a wall to see if it sticks. Some of my personal hopes and goals for [...]

So, welcome to 2008! While I’ve never been much of a guy to make large-scale promises or resolutions at the dawning of a new year, especially public ones, I’ve always been able to find something I’m willing to toss onto a wall to see if it sticks. Some of my personal hopes and goals for 2008 include local volunteering and folding 1000 paper cranes. I’ll elaborate on both of those as the days and weeks unfold, but I want to take this chance to look at my digital goals in this upcoming year.

If you follow me closely, you’ll know that I turned off my Twitter account at midnight, just after a, highly appropriate, tweet consisting of “</2007> <2008>”. I’ve had a lot of very interesting responses to my doing this, but the most common has, by far, been along the lines of “Are you crazy?!”, “Are you joking!?” or “Is this… forever?”. Watching people react to seeing someone close up shop on Twitter has given me a really neat perspective (And lots of notes) on the Twitter community. I feel I should answer the three questions most asked though - Possibly, not at all, and no, it’s not.

One of my first tasks for the year is to renew my digital world. Over the next days and weeks, I’ll be going through each and every blog, podcast, video podcast, twitter feed and so on that I follow and -evaluating their value to my life. Twitter, as much as I love it, is a non-stop distraction to me, and so I feel it’ll just be a lot easier if I step out of the stream for a while. I still get @ messages, and DMs, and will randomly hop on to read messages, but the “always on” aspect will be turned off, and my tweets will be fewer and further between.

In addition to feeds, I’m also re-evaluating every tool I use, both on the web and on my desktop, to see if there is a better one out there for me. I’ll, quite likely, be the proud owner of a new laptop in the coming weeks, and I want to make certain that the tools I’m using are the ones that will allow me to get the most done, in the least amount of time, while fitting within my existing (and currently evolving) lifestyle.

My personal branding is also being refreshed during this opening portion of the year. I began that with a “mostly done” change of the blog appearance. If you’re picking this up via RSS, stop on by the site to take a look - I’d love to hear what you think. I’ve got time set aside for things like Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter, too… So keep your eyes peeled wherever we’re connected to see how this unfolds.

There  are some other things that are being done to help with this process, too. I’m getting a new desk, for example,and re-positioning furniture in the office to help me make the most of physical space, I’m taking a look at some of the personal projects I own or play active roles in and will likely stop or change many of them (even if those changes aren’t visual) and am working my way through a number of personal productivity books in a desperate attempt to make my life more manageable.

So that’s what’s going on - and why I’ve been pretty quiet, recently. It sure seems like things are going to be busy. What about you, though? What do you have planned, digitally, for 2008?

Introducing: The Limestone New Media Group

So, last night the handful of us new media guys in town got together at The Merchant Taphouse to hang out and talk new media over a few drinks and some wings. We’ve now establish a name, a domain is forthcoming, and a frequency. We got a lot of work done too on where we [...]

So, last night the handful of us new media guys in town got together at The Merchant Taphouse to hang out and talk new media over a few drinks and some wings. We’ve now establish a name, a domain is forthcoming, and a frequency. We got a lot of work done too on where we want to go with the local new media stuff, too. More details on that will be established as we go forward - but the wheels are in motion for some exciting things in Kingston.

Thanks to David Bailey and birthday boy Francis Wooby for making the trek downtown to be a part of last night’s meetup.

Want to join us for the next one? It will be held on the second Monday of December (That’s the 11th) and will be held once again at the Merchant Taphouse once again at 7:00pm. Are you coming?

PodCamp Ottawa: November 25th, 2007

So PodCamp Ottawa is happening on November 25th at the National Arts Centre - and I cannot WAIT for this one.
No chairs. No tables. No laptops. No net access.
Now, if any of you remember my ranty rant the other day about where I feel PodCamps should go, you’ll already understand why I’m excited. This PodCamp [...]

So PodCamp Ottawa is happening on November 25th at the National Arts Centre - and I cannot WAIT for this one.

No chairs. No tables. No laptops. No net access.

Now, if any of you remember my ranty rant the other day about where I feel PodCamps should go, you’ll already understand why I’m excited. This PodCamp is ALL ABOUT shutting down the drains and getting back to learning. In fact, the guiding principals being used are not unlike the list of rules I’ve got in a notebook for another project (Details next week).

I’ll be leading a conversation at 11:00 in “conversation 1″ called “Web Applications - What’s Out There?How Do They Help?Which Do You Use? Why?”. The interesting thing about PodCamp Ottawa is that I won’t be presenting this information. I’ll be leading a discussion on it. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to do that yet - but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

There are a few Kingstonians heading up for sure, and I’m hoping a few more follow us after the meetup on Monday.

See you in Ottawa!