So I found Adam Savage’s (from MythBusters) Dec 12, 2008 presentation on FORA.tv that he gave at the Entertainment Gathering (Richard Saul Wurman’s new conference), on his own obsession with things, in this case, the Dodo and the Maltese Falcon. Along the way he discusses some of his background as a model maker, the history of these objects, and a pretty amazing community of movie prop afficianados/fanatics that he spends a lot of time with. The video includes:

• the Dodo (and how the last complete Dodo skeleton was “destroyed” in a fire) and his attempts to have his own
• the Maltese Falcon and his attempts to have his own
• the connection of the Maltese Falcon to the Black Dahlia, James Ellroy the author
• How Savage has a hand-held laser scanner that fits in a cereal box

My favorite part is the closing:

… and then maybe, then, I’ll achieve the end of this exercise. But really, if we are all gonna be honest with ourselves, I’ll have to admit that achieving the end of the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with was it?

Play it below or click through here:

How did they get the tie red while most of the rest was in Black and White? (see the comments, there will be a special, “the making of The Spirit’s Day Off!).

You can check out Bill’s own blog and videos here, and his twitterfeed here.

So you have decided to go to a conference. Maybe you got an invite in the mail or clicked on a banner. Maybe a blogger you like mentioned a show they were going to, or were speaking at, or even organizing (thanks @ChrisBrogan).

You drop some hard-earned cash (whether yours or your boss’) on a conference pass. You checked out the conference agenda, picking out the sessions and breakouts and BoF and parties you wanted to attend. You might have looked at the attendees list (if available), seeing who else in your industry, or region or field of interest is also attending.

With conferences now being net-casted on UStream, decks SlideShared, presentations LiveBlogged and Twittered and Utterli’d, why are you going? The content, the data, the decks, the presentations are all, for the most part available. Chris Pirillo, who runs Gnomedex, UStreams and the archives all of the sessions at Gnomedex. IT Conversations business model was the sharing of conference content (pay to get it right away or wait a couple weeks to download it).

The point of going to a conference is to meet people, to engage, to share your ideas not just consume someone else’s deck. Up until 14 years ago, there was an information imbalance between those who have the information about a subject or topic and those of us who wanted to know more. Conferences were meant to give people a chance to meet and share in real time and real space. Sure there were research papers, monographs, journals and books, but they were physical-world artifacts – you had to have them or have access to them.

It was gatherings/conferences/symposia that transformed affinity to community.

So here are my tips for How NOT to Get The Most Out Of A Conference:

1. Don’t approach this as YOUR Conference. You paid, you travelled to get there, you showed up, you are in attendance, and if you really dont want to get the most out of it, then good for you. You get out of it what you put into it… so give the bare minimum and get just that in return! Rock On!

2. Don’t spend the time to find out who else is going to your conference. Don’t use Summize to see who else is mentioning or going to the show (even though hashtags are wonky doesnt mean you cant track the #conference tag). Don’t check UpComing.org, the Conference website or the blogs of the speakers list. Don’t ping the people in your personal network who are also going. Dont make a list of people you want to meet at the show (I have a bunch of folks who I only know thru twtter that I want to meet at New Marketing Summit).

3. Don’t plan your conference experience. Spending time reviewing and understanding the agenda and looking at who is speaking and when is a great way to make sure you miss something you might enjoy or worse, NEED for your job/business/love of the game. Not preparing will result in lots of “session envy” when you find out how much more fun those guys in the other room had.

4. Don’t bother checking out the blogs and sites of the speakers… it helps you determine which are the sessions you want to attend and where the “gold” is at a given show, especially when you are at a multi-track conference – and no one wants that.

5. Don’t be a critical member of the audience. Don’t bother to ask yourself “is this a pitch” when looking at a conference agenda (at some shows the presenters are up there because their company is footing the bill for the mixer or coffee bar or SWAG bag). Be afraid to “vote with your feet” and walk out on a lame/boring/abusive session/speaker. God forbid you look impolite to people you wont bother to talk to.

6. Don’t participate. Don’t feel comfortable enough to ask questions. Be afraid to challenge the masters of the universe on the stage, especially when you disagree or they say something stupid. Make sure you put these folks on a pedestal, even though they are only human. Chris Brogan, Chris Pirillo and Dave McClure all put on some pretty incredible events and always take the time to talk to and appreciate the folks who show up. But you shouldnt approach them. Uh, uh. No way. Most importantly DONT thank or ask questions of the speakers/panelists after their session. They hate that (they dont want to be there either).

7. Don’t mingle. If you can get most of the content elswhere on the web in the comfort of your boxer shorts, why bother going to a show? Especially when 80% of the experience at a conference is the PEOPLE. Don’t spend time in the hallways between sessions. Don’t walk the floor, meeting people, introducing yourself. Don’t make small talk, trade business cards, join BoF discussions. If at all possible, spend as much time at a conference checking your email, answering voicemail messages, polishing your camera lenses and downloading music from iTunes. DO NOT, under any circumstances try to talk to anyone.

If you DONT want to get the most out of your conference experience, then follow the simple tips above. If you WANT to get the most out of the conference, do the exact opposite:

Prepare for the show, read the agenda, pick your sessions, get to know the speakers blogs, ask questions, talk to people, take notes and share them via your own blog and twitter/utterli/etc…

If you really want a black-belt in Conference-Fu, keep an eye out for the wallflowers and shy folks who are keeping to themselves or aren’t going out of their comfort zone- and introduce yourself/say “hi”/introduce them to someone else. Pay it forward.

Take ownership of your conference experience. And plan to have some fun.

You can find this fun tag cloud generator (provide your twitter handle and it generates the cloud based on recent tweets) here – http://www.brownphp.com/2008/08/twitter-tag-cloud-service/?member=&submit=Get+Twitter+Cloud

A favorite form of entertainment (thanks Big Rich) was the Movie Game. The game is usually better with an odd number of players (you will see why in a second), requires some understanding of pop culture and some kinda love of the movies. The rules are simple, and a lot like tag (without the running – remember, we couldnt leave the door when we were working):

1. Player A Says the Name of a Movie
2. Player B says the Name of an Actor in Player A’s Movie
3. Player C says the Name of another Movie Player B’s Actor was in
4. Rinse and repeat until someone can’t name a movie or an actor and get bounced out

How does this work with Twitter?

you @ someone on your follow/following list with the hashtag #moviegame and the movie name/actor – the tweet would look something like this:

ME:
@chrisbrogan #moviegame Movie: Full Metal Jacket

who would then tweet to Britt

@britter #moviegame Actor: Vincent D’Onofrio

who would then tweet to Micah

@micah #moviegame Movie: My Bodyguard

who would then…

Now due to the asynchronous nature of twitter there are a couple of problems – anyone can hit IMDB as they answer, there is no guarantee Britter is at her machine when her round starts, there is no “Out” as we aren’t all standing at the door of a bar freezing our you-know-whats off. But it would be interesting to see how many answers, at what time hit with twitter (by following the hashtag).

And everyone would need to use the honor system

so who wants to play?

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=91799

9NEWS caught up with Casey last month in Arvada. He was overseeing construction and fine-tuning of the TIV2. The second version of the Tornado Intercept Vehicle weighs 16,500 pounds (by comparison the average SUV or truck weighs around 4,000 pounds), boasts bulletproof windows and a specially designed chassis that will help protect the vehicle and the four passengers it can carry when it tries to penetrate a tornado.

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=44631

Ferrell has been attached to Land of the Lost for several years. The adaptation, by Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas, revolves around a disgraced paleontologist, his assistant and a macho tour guide who find themselves in a strange world inhabited by dinosaurs, monkey people and reptilian Sleestaks.

And in my mind, BritChrisBrogan is the funniest

And it has taught me so much:

• Editorial is not an afterthought
• Trust is earned
• “Are we done yet” is not professional
• Google Adwords, Google Adsense are magic (and Dave McClure is sooooo right)
• There isn’t enough time in the day
• Going to the US Open with a friend is more fun than watching it on TV
• Pretty much going anywhere is better than watching TV
• You have to be pretty hardcore to compare the NY Yankees to the Republican Party
• Writing the perfect doc or deck is impossible
• There is never enough time, there never will be enough time
• I will be going to Gnomedex as long as Chris and Ponzi invite us
• MadMen is the best show on television

More to come… couple of launches in the next couple months, interesting project for some of my friends, some travel, helping a couple of clients

Emotionally, I don’t understand why so many people get so upset at being marketed to, or at gleefully acknowledging the good that comes from crafting a social world that is dominated by people willingly exchanging skills, services, and goods. These types could be called Generation Dobler, after the famous quote from the sad sensitive man-child character, Lloyd Dobler, played by John Cusack in the 1989 film Say Anything.

Dobler certified his soulfulness by announcing that “I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.” (my bold)

I need to get crackin on a “Generation Dobler” group on Facebook

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/12/burning_man_and_gene.html

Gnomedex aims to be a tech zeitgeist – where today’s ideas and thinkers come together – although the direction of our conference may change in the following years. The conference industry certainly has affronted us several challenges, since we refuse to play the games that other conferences do. Gnomedex is still largely a labour of love (though also a small part of our business model).

http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/07/11/gnomedex-is-happening/

Most people who know Bill are unsure about how he gets it all done:
Insomnia?
An army of personal assistants who Twitter, Pownce, Videoblog, party, photograph, record and edit hundreds of hours of film for him?
A clone?

Interview with the man himself and how he started getting involved with videoblogging, and his approach/philosophy:

The exact same skills, sensibilities and sensitivities go into creating a video for the internet as go into video for television.

From McSweeneys… Awesome

And the list goes on. Mr. Prime, I am going to remind you again: Your policy with GEICO only reimburses you for accidents that occur while you are engaged in the reasonable use of your truck and trailer. As I told you when you originally purchased the policy, GEICO does not offer Megatron coverage, Starscream coverage, Soundwave coverage, Decepticon coverage, or Energon-blast coverage. Those are just not the types of damages we would expect from reasonable use.

The content management system is a whiteboard and photos
The content layer is not done in xml, its a dry erase marker
The whiteboard isn’t a whiteboard, it’s the top of her refrigerator

For the whole amazing thing, check out the site here http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/

Thanks to the amazing blog of Warren Ellis for the pointer (he was pointing out the recommendation for his new, highly anticipated new book Crooked Little Vein… which is how I find most of my links – by accident/link hopping/recommendations from voices i trust)

PAC MAN SKULL!!!!!!!!!

This is a Modest Mouse video done by Max Tyrie as told by Wooster Collective

“There is no compositing, no shortcuts, just lots of blood, sweat and tears, and a huge Kinkos bill!”…. Max

Read the whole story of how this was done at: Wooster Collective

As one of my all-time favorite novels, I am excited and scared – excited that we finally have the visual effects to make the scenes from the book work. Scared because, according to FirstShowing.net, THEY HAVE THE GUY WHO DIRECTED TORQUE AND A FREAKIN BRITNEY SPEARS VIDEO LEADING THE PROJECT.

Neuromancer was a 385 page book… Not a short story like New Rose Hotel. Not an “adaptation” of a PKD story where the only things kept from the original is the character’s name (hello, NEXT?). This is one of the foundations of cyberpunk, and someone thinks its a good idea to give the project to this guy, and not Peter Jackson, or Brian Singer, or David Fincher?

WTF?

links –
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117827827757492168.html

http://scobleizer.com/2007/05/04/msft-to-yhoo/

funny

Turns out Digg may have banned a user for posting a hack.

Jay Adelson of Digg posts the reason here.

Best story title so far:

I’m thinking of a number… it’s not my credit score

Live by the community, get pwned by teh community

The random Chuck Norris reference plus the guy using the King’s face as his avatar is priceless.