Thanks to Nick for catching me doing what I do best… checking e-mail.

A big thanks to the organizers and other sponsors of BarcampDC3. It was a great experience for everyone, and it’s hard to believe that this is the the third one, organized by essentially the same group of people.

Startup Metrics for Pirates – Jared dug in depth one of the most important concepts of the “Startup Metrics for Pirates” methodology organized by Dave McClure – converting and retaining users. One especially helpful tool to come up was Google Insights for Search, that I will immediately start using.

HTML/CSS Tips + Tricks – Russell led the most useful session on HTML/CSS tips + tricks – little bits and pieces of advice to really perfect your technique. First thing Monday AM, I was already using some of his lessons, posted online here.

Android Development – THE GREATEST TALK EVER GIVEN BY ANYONE EVER. Gyuri and I led a developer-focused session on beginning Android development. Gyuri gave a basic step by step tutorial on building an Android application, while I dug into the code for MeetroDC, an application for checking DC Metro times (Bonus Round: I open sourced the code)

Twilio Development – Two developers from the DNC gave an overview of how they used Twilio to rapidly spin out telephony-powered applications during election time. This evolved into an open discussion on possible future applications that can be built, given how easy it is now with these APIs available to developers.

Freelancing – Josh and I finished up the day by leading a session on freelancing, both moonlighting and full time. We had a great dialogue amongst experienced freelancers, newbies, and those just interested in learning more. The conversation started out dominated by legalese and fear of being “caught” – but we then focused on some of the true important topics – billing, project management, and communications. I’m thankful for everyone who came out, and especially to those who attended just to put in their 0.02. We could tell by the questions being asked and the wide eyes that this was inspirational and helpful for all involved (it certainly was for me).

As the first BarcampDC was my first foray into any kind of professional community outside my then-employer, it’s a great experience to come back each year, see how the DC community has grown, and see how I’ve progressed in my own journey. If you had told me two years ago, that I would be completely out of the government contracting world, running my own thriving business, working on multiple products, and a regular contributor to these events… I would have laughed and kept walking.

But what about startups? What about starting your own company, or joining someone else’s nascent startup? Right out of college is the best time to be doing it – low cost of living, no strings, etc. It wasn’t until I graduated and went to work as a consultant did I realize that there was more out there than a 9-5 and a paycheck. Most of the people I graduated with still are in shock that I left that world, and since then, have been CTO of two companies, as well as building my own business. I’ve been doing my best since then to try and find college students.

That’s why I’m especially thrilled that friend and fellow alum Jared Goralnick is organizing Bootstrap Maryland, a one day event targeted towards budding entrepeneurs. It’s great to see such a powerful lineup of locals making it happen, and, best of all… right on campus. Thanks Jared. I can’t wait to see how this turns out.

• Started 2008 continuing to work for the government consulting firm I had been since graduation. Had a few side projects, as well as my own startup idea, Localnik.
• Left consulting firm, to become Chief Technology Officer of a startup creative agency. Did some amazing projects. Challenged myself and pushed myself harder than I ever had before.
• Left creative agency to focus full-time on web development, finally under skeevisArts – a label I had been using for ten years. Finally could do it full time! But…
• …soon after was offered to become CTO of a venture-backed startup whose founders I had come to know and trust. skeevisArts was (and still is) going well, but this was an opportunity I could not pass up, so I took it on in addition to my freelance work. Was sole developer of the product initially, but am now growing the team rapidly.
• Celebrated three years with Alex, my girlfriend.
• Sadly, my father, after going through 2 surgeries in ‘08 and 3 more in ‘09 – passed away.

I yearn for moments of clarity. Those rare times where you put the rest of the world on pause, take a step back, and think about what you’re doing, what actually matters, and where you should go from here. Those times are rare, almost non-existent for me. With the phone ringing, the inbox never empty, and a million things to do, I’ve never given myself a chance to take a step back.

In the past few days/weeks/months, my family has been hit with some pretty big events, and put us in situations we’d never wish on anyone. Dealing with it has been hard, but it’s given me a chance to really evaluate myself, and what’s important to me. What am I doing? What should I be doing? In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? That conflict you’ve had with another professional doesn’t matter. Making that extra buck doesn’t matter. The newest social media shiny object? What good is that going to do anyone? It’s caused me, in turn, to make some big changes in my own life, as I move towards focusing on what really matters.

Family.
Friends.
Making your difference in the world.
And having an amazing journey doing it.

How to keep myself on track… that’s the challenge.

I collected all the fortunes I and my friends received, and years later, put it altogether.

Rather than taking a “usual” internship at a government agency or consulting company for the summer, I instead chose to stay on campus for the summer, and in addition to a lot of relaxing, worked at two amazing labs at UMD. One was the Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communication Networks, where I got to play around with awesome gadgets like motion tracking cameras and sensor networks. The other position, which I kept throughout the following school year, was as a researcher in the Human Computer Interaction Lab. I was tasked with working on an Java interface (using Swing) for the MALACH project, which, in a nutshell, was to allow people to browse and view a massive amount of transcripts of recordings of Holocaust victims. The recordings originated from the Shoah foundation, whose mission is to record and store all memories of survivors of the Holocaust (side note: my grandmother volunteered as one of the interviewers). So I spent the summer working under Ryen White, who now works at Microsoft Research.

As we were presented with developing an entirely new interface, we had a number of challenges. We came up with some pretty cool solutions. One thing I came up with was an interface element nicknamed PygmyBrowse. PygmyBrowse is a rather simple and easy method of bi-directional navigation of infinitely complex trees in a compact environment. I thought nothing of it at the time, but the professors around me disagreed, and suggested I pursue it further. After spending a good chunk of the semester holding user trials (in between running one of the largest student groups on campus, being actively involved in my computer, and oh yeah… double major), we ended up with an academic paper, with yours truly as the primary author. Which ended up getting accepted to a major human-computer interaction conference. Whiiich I didn’t attend, because there was one or another extra-curricular event going on (kicking myself 3 years later).

Now when you do a google search for PygmyBrowse (a lame moniker I concocted with a couple friends), it’s actually been implemented.

If I dig up the Java source code for it, I’ll release it.

You can download the PDF of my paper here, or view it on Scribd.

TechCrunch, the best tech blog out there, just reported on it. C-SPAN is still ironing out some last issues, but IT’S ALIVE!

Read it.

A very big moment!

Much more to come about it later.

I’ve been noticing for a while that, since graduating from college where I had to memorize programming languages, I learn less and less. Why should I bother to memorize the ins and outs of every system when instead I can just do a quick google search and find what I need?

As a web designer/developer, am I contributing to this? Is this a good thing or bad thing? And how can we combat it, or accept it?

One of the ideas I had come up with was a tool called YesterdayI. YesterdayI was based on a simple purpose: just write a short passage about what you did the day before. Meant as a lifestreaming tool, you would end up forming a series of small blog posts, a daily journal of sorts. Microblogging.

I built it, but, as is so common in the world of small web applications, I did a half-assed job at launching it (I’m a rockstar designer/developer, not a marketing guru), no-one used it, and by then I was already on to the next cool idea. So here it stands, frozen in time, lingering on some web-host I have set to auto-renew.

Then Twitter came, followed in suit by a dozen copycats, and made microblogging a household term. Now of course, Twitter serves an entirely different purpose, and has a whole host of features I never had thought of. But it’s always interesting to see how I was on a similar track.

I’m not complaining that someone stole my idea. I may have missed the boat on this one, but at the same time, I am well aware that ideas alone don’t matter. It’s about execution, marketing, positioning, and being in the right place at the right time.

It would be interesting to rebuild this, and see where it could go from there…

Also interesting to see how much my skills have changed since then. From the elementary javascript to table-heavy design (not to mention a generally ugly design), it’s always great to take a look back at past work and critique it, just like an author may look back at an old text or an artist look at one of their earlier works.

One of the values that was always conveyed to me was creating and maintaining a standard work-life balance. At that point in time, I couldn’t understand what that meant. Don’t you just come in the morning, do your work, and after eight hours, go home? As I was working in the government-consulting sector, with strict laws limiting the amount of hours I could legally work in a week, that wasn’t an issue. I was forced to maintain a work-life balance. My work-life balance heavily favored life – with a clear barrier delineating work time and personal time, and a set quota on the former.

As I moved on to my new role as a core member of a startup creative agency, the world flipped for me. I find myself at the extreme opposite of the spectrum, where work becomes such a dominating factor that it has all but eliminated the aspects of life one takes for granted. Eighteen or twenty hour work days. Six or seven day work weeks. Fighting for that little bit of time to go out and even grab groceries. It’s all self-inflicted, of course. I chose this path.

When you are working for yourself, or in any kind of environment with no set roles and an endless flow of both possibilities and deadlines, the work never stops. You can’t see a project and assume one of your other fifteen thousand co-workers will take care of it when you are the only one out of the three of you who can handle it. There are no timesheets, no rules.

Enhancing productivity becomes even more important.

Isolating problems.

And sometimes, leaving things on the table and getting a good night’s sleep!

It’s been exactly two years since I graduated from the University of Maryland. The picture above is from the one yesterday, where the ladyfriend just graduated.

What have I accomplished?

• I’m doing what I enjoy.
• I have a C-level position at a design firm
• I’ve lost a ton of weight, and gotten my body in to shape.
• I’m meeting awesome people, making great connections.
• While I don’t want to plan anything, I would say I’m on the right track.

What will next year bring?

• Mobile – We’ve seen this prediction at least half a dozen times. I still see too many barriers, and nothing to break through. Phone companies will still charge an absurd amount for what is nearly a free service. There are hundreds of different phone designs, browsers, and capabilities. Android will try, but it’ll be worthless if it doesn’t get accepted by the majority of carriers. And city-wide wireless? Still hasn’t been successful. More importantly, what can the mobile web really offer us? Other than giving us access to the same resources available on our desktop or laptop, what value does mobile add?
• Video – Sorry Scoble, while your followers might like to watch you talk for hours a day on qik or mogulus, doesn’t make it mainstream. I can’t imagine a time where this particular medium gains widespread adoption. Good video takes money, and can’t be distributed for free, unless there is some serious advertising revenue. Putting a camera on yourself and someone else and chatting for a while isn’t going to make any real money. The writer’s strike has completely cut off the supply of fresh TV entertainment (thank heavens The Wire is OK), but nothing has seemed to be able to fill the space.
• Recession – Crap.

I’m not going to summarize what I hope to see in the coming year in one word, or call it Year of the ____. My predictions/hopes?

• The technology entrepreneurial ecosystem will wake up, and start focusing on startups, ideas, and people that solve real world pains. We can blabber on about online video, social media, mobile web, VOIP, and on and on, but there has to be a focus on how it will actually matter to the world, not just us.
• 2008 will continue the trend of the reversing the Industrial age. Knowledge workers will move away from cubicle farms, code factories, middle management, employee ID numbers, and become a cottage industry of work anywhere freelancers, working under the umbrella virtual companies and relying on technology to reduce overhead and enhance communication.
• skeevisArts and Localnik will catch on fire.
• My life has undergone many changes in the past two years, and 2008 will be no different. I’ll realize and address my “Life Major” and, with the help of my friends, family, and peers I’ve met and will meet in the coming year, celebrate many champagne moments. L’chaim (“to life” in Hebrew).

One of Marc Andreessen’s blog posts has been the most influential and eye opening. Instead of the “if you had a million dollars”, “ten year plans” and other assorted theories of how to approach career planning, Mark has a completely different perspective.

I believe a huge part of what people would like to refer to as “career planning” is being continuously alert to opportunities that present themselves to you spontaneously, when you happen to be in the right place at the right time.

• A senior person at your firm is looking for someone young and hungry to do the legwork on an important project, in addition to your day job.
• Your former manager has jumped ship to a hot growth company and calls you three months later and says, come join me.
• Or, a small group of your smartest friends are headed to Denny’s at 11PM to discuss an idea for a startup — would you like to come along?

I am continually amazed at the number of people who are presented with an opportunity like one of the above, and pass.

There’s your basic dividing line between the people who shoot up in their careers like a rocket ship, and those who don’t — right there.

Personally, that opened my eyes. For far too long, I’ve been told to keep my eyes on the long term goals, and gather the tools and techniques that’ll get me to where I want to be. I’ve passed up opportunities because of this. No longer.

Thank you, Marc.

Read Marc’s Guide To Career Planning 1,2,3

Seth Godin Only Two Years Left – Can be applied to anything, but I’m focusing in terms of career.

Web Worker Daily (If you don’t subscribe yet, do so) Searching instead of Planning

I’ve always operated under the impression that in the technical world, doing great work far outweighs who you know and who knows you, and that “networking” is left to the business types. In the corporate world, this holds true. You do good work, you get promoted (most of the time). Any time the word “networking” or “mixer” is attached to an event description, whether professional or social, I shy away.

But outside of the closed corporate environment, how is anyone supposed to know you? What distinguishes you from the next developer/designer/writer? How do they know you are who you say you are?

There are a million bloggers out there, with varying authenticity. Everyone can send an e-mail. Cook a resume. LinkedIn is hard to get in on, and is only useful once your own network grows to a decent size. Facebook is far away from having any kind of business utility.

In the past few months, I’ve started networking. Not only networking, attending events solely for the purpose of networking. Meeting totally random people who happen to be in a similar industry. The connections I’ve gained and things I’ve learned. It may be hard for me, but it’s an investment in the future.

I know it’s hard. So that’s why I do it.

From weakness comes advantage.

And for anyone in the DC area, you should certainly check out the Capital Cabal. I’m writing this after attending my first one last night.

By seeing this happen first hand, I also realize the importance of
one’s network. Not just the network you intentionally build, the
network you already have. That’ll come in a later post.

Tech entrepreneurs, who dedicate so much of their lives to connecting people regardless of geographic location, still rely on real-world networking and face to face interaction. Online companies still need real world offices (with some exceptions). VCs and angels still want face to face presentations. And so on and so on. For things like this, the more local resources there are, the better chance of success. It’s long been said by seasoned tech entrepreneurs that the only place
to start a company is in Silicon Valley. I remember talking to the
founder of a now very popular company, and for him, the one thing that he felt he needed to make his company successful was pack up shop and move out West. He did that, and now they are huge.

It’s become crystal clear in my mind in recent months that my main focus is to launch my own startup. I’ve spent considerable amounts of time considering what’s necessary to accomplish that goal, and what resources are available to me. Persuaded by others, and backed up by reading article after article, I became convinced that what I really needed to do, before doing anything else, was move to Silicon Valley. But I like it here. Here is where I call home. Not to say I won’t ever move back out to California, but I refuse to think that I can’t accomplish anything here, solely because of where I am. If I were in Texaco, New Mexico, it would be one thing, but this is Washington DC, our nations capital.

Here is what DC has.

Talent - Step into the labs of any government agency, defense contractor, or consulting firm, and you’ll meet some of the smartest people around. Experts in their respective fields, they often remain unknown outside the confines of the entity they work for. I know this because I work around them. In this area, the way of life is working for a large firm or agency, as opposed to a startup.

Job Security - The government and contractors are always hiring talent. Coming out here with a solid technical background (citizenship a plus), you are guaranteed a job at any of these places. Depending on market forces, startups and established companies may thrive or whither away, but the government always runs, and will always need people. We’ll never see a mass exodus of talent away from this area, even if every startup dies up.

Education - I’m pretty biased here. I graduated from Maryland. I know the caliber of the students entering and graduating from Maryland. Fine, Maryland is no Stanford/MIT, but it’s already highly ranked, and climbing. I’ve seen what students like me can and have produced. Why have we not seen more come out of Maryland/GWU/American/etc… technology grads? Because the dominant recruiters at universities have been government and contractors. Most graduates never thought of anything else, other than choosing which branch of government to go for, or which firm to join. I can only think of one startup that I saw at a career fair in my four years there. None of my colleagues have gone to work for a startup, nor thought of it. As the DC tech community starts to focus away from government and more towards startups and the like, this will change. I’ve spoken with a recruiter for local startups about this a bit.

Access to Resources – New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Delaware, all within a few hours drive. Boston a little bit further. All of these, in addition to those right here in DC, have significant capital, large companies to partner with, and people. People, people, people.

The one big thing we are missing? Experience. Yes, we have AOL (for now) and a handful of other dot-coms, but not an established ecosystem. Experience brings knowledge of how to launch and run a startup. Experience helps break away from the perception that it can’t be done out here. Experience shows kids like me and younger that something else can be done other than rising through the pre-defined ranks of a big company or branch of government. I know that some of the experience is out there, but it just needs to come out. Talk.

It’s an exciting time to be in the DC area.

There’s one tactic I’ve developed which has worked wonders for me, so far. Every day, you have to accomplish something towards your goal. Every single day. Mark it off on your calendar, don’t go to sleep til it’s done, whatever you need to do. Even if you only have five minutes, spend five minutes working towards a greater goal, and you’ll accomplish wonders over time.

It may seem a million miles away – but it gets a lil’ closer every day. – Moshav Band

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In short, at the top of the meritocratic ladder we have in America a
generation of students who are extraordinarily bright, morally earnest,
and incredibly industrious. They like to study and socialize in groups.
They create and join organizations with great enthusiasm. They are
responsible, safety-conscious, and mature. They feel no compelling need
to rebel—not even a hint of one. They not only defer to authority; they
admire it. “Alienation” is a word one almost never hears from them.
They regard the universe as beneficent, orderly, and meaningful. At the
schools and colleges where the next leadership class is being bred, one
finds not angry revolutionaries, despondent slackers, or dark cynics
but the Organization Kid.

The Atlantic – The Organization Kid

One thing I learned in college is my productivity revolves almost entirely around the music I listen to. Over the many coding all-nighters (thank you very much CMPS), I experimented with different genres/artists. To my surprise, even though I rarely listen to hip-hop, especially modern day crap, there is one artist that just works for me. I can’t figure out why, maybe it’s the lyrical flow or something of the sort, but Method Man (below) brings out the best work in me.