Getting ready for SXSWi 2011!

This years SXSWi is sure to be a different experience for me from last years.  First, I was a finalist in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge and sponsored by Mashable.com.  That was a golden ticket last year to the star treatment for my first SXSWi which included radio interviews, video interviews, and VIP party access.  Although I looked, I saw no similar contests this year to enter. Oh well.

Secondly, I traveled last year with two friends and coworkers making a road trip down to Austin.  The three of us had different schedules during the day but would always hook up for dinner and the parties at night.  As a huge introvert, it certainly helped to have friends to hang out with.  MY two friends have since moved on to different companies and will not be attending this year.  Each night then will be the battle of my introverted-ness vs my need to network with other industry leaders.

Lastly, I am staying at the Hilton hotel this year directly across from the convention center!  Last year I stayed at a nice hotel but it was a shuttle bus drive away from the convention center.  That 30 minute drive made it much harder than you would imagine to plan for arriving for talks.  Staying across the street this year allows me to live "on campus" basically.  I am very excited to be so close and get to take advantage of so much.

My plan is to blog throughout the week on my experiences.  Some might be simple, short thoughts but hopefully I can capture a bit of the experience.

How Social Media Helped Me Score Points With My Wife

Hard to believe, I know, but true.  Social Media did in fact help me score points with my wife.  Big time.  Here's how:

I decided that we both needed a night away from the kids so I set out to book a get away at a local hotel as a surprise to her.  I didn't care really where the hotel was, just that it was of a certain level of quality.  I first tried standard sites like kayak.com, lastminutetravel.com, travelzoo.com, hotels.com, and on and on.  Those were helpful but only in setting a baseline for me.  There are some of these that will give you deeper discounts if you are willing to pay for the room without knowing the exact hotel.  I wasn't ready to do this though so I went on a deeper search for the best deal.

The first thing I tried was searching for sites that post discount / promo codes for hotels.  This can be REALLY useful and I highly encourage it.  Many hotels will send out emails to their club members with these codes that will then get posted on sites such as http://www.retailmenot.com/.  I found retailmenot.com to be the best at this.  Even if the hotel isn't a chain though, try typing the hotel name into google with promo or discount and see what comes up.  You might have to go through a few links but you are looking for the best deal so what's a little leg work?

Next up, I found that many hotels actually have twitter accounts just for attracting customers.  Search Google for your desired hotel name or chain along with "twitter" and you'll likely get a hit.  Visit their twitter page and look through their posts to see if they mention any codes.  Often, even if the code was posted some time ago, it will still be active.

Don't be too proud to beg as well.  I found that posting a general twitter post telling the world what you are looking for will get results.  In my case I posted that I was looking for a romantic get away for that Friday night and wanted someone to knock my socks off with a deal.  I got direct messages from travel agents and hotels all competing for my business.  I even threw out a challenge post with mentions of several area hotels I targeted and got two of them to respond that day with offers!

Once you've found the deal you want, I suggest calling the hotel as well.  Tell them your situation and that you are looking for a special weekend.  You might just get upgraded a room category or receive champaign in your room as a bonus.

Lastly, sign up for their rewards program.  Every hotel has them and even if you never plan to stay there again, you will likely get perks for being a member.  The clubs rarely (if ever) cost anything to join so there's nothing to loose.  It helps to have this on your side as well before you call and try to get that extra upgrade.  Hotels love their members.

Long story short, we had a great night away at a 4 star hotel with late checkout and breakfast all for under $100.  Sure it took some extra work but an hour of time on the computer and phone saved me almost $100.

Sometimes the virtual world can cross over and help you in real life in ways that matter most- of course, I'm talking about my wife!  Saving money was nice too.

Interesting Developments

Some very interesting developments on the Apple vs Google/Adobe front.  Yesterday, there was a blog post on the New York Times site where Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google confirmed that the next Android OS release will officially support Flash 10.1.  What a strange coincidence then that today Steve Jobs released a long missive about why Apple hates Flash.  Somewhere over in Redmond there are Microsoft geeks wondering how they fell to third place and how they can stay relevant.

Even better, The Daily Show did a piece on the whole Gizmodo iphone prototype issue with Apple that said it better than anyone else has.

This feud is just starting to heat up.  Don't expect it to go away anytime soon.

Dear Google

I’ve heard that a motto within your company is that “good ideas come from everywhere.”  If that is true, I have a good idea for you.  Trade me a new unlocked AT&T Nexus One for my iphone and start a program to do this for other iphone owners as well.  Here’s why:

Like many iphone owners, I’ve grown tired of Apple’s increasingly harsh policies that serve nothing more than to limit what I can do with my phone.  As I’ve seen the Android platform grow and the phone manufacturers catch up with the OS, Android has become more and more of a viable option for me.  The only thing standing in the way of making the leap for me is the cost. 

Personally, I work for a Newspaper who has had to cut salaries, bonuses, and cost of living increases for the past two years.  For others, I’m sure there are equal reasons for not having the money.  The $500 cost is just beyond my reach and will be for some time. I suspect this is the case for many others as well.

I believe though that there is a convergence happening that gives Google a real opportunity to seize the market right NOW.  With the bad press from Apple’s recent announcements, with the continued blocking of valuable applications from the itunes store, and with the lack of a new iphone being announced, Android can capture a huge base of iphone owners sitting on the fence.

How much is it worth to you to capture a huge chunk of current iphone owners?  How much will it be worth in the coming years as more and more services push to the web primarily?  As your own CEO Eric Schmidt recently stated, “What’s really important right now is to get the mobile architecture right because mobility will ultimately be the way in which you provision most of your services…The answer should always be mobile first.”  This is THE opportunity for Google and Android to become the default mobile platform not just for the moment, but for the next 5-10 years.

Isn’t that worth a small subsidizing fee per unit?  At the least, isn’t that idea worth ONE free Nexus One?

Also, I am a developer and a blogger.  That’s got to count for something too, right?

A word to Lost fans

Just a quick shout out to my fellow Lost fans out there that there is a really cool shirt on sale for today only.  You can check it out here.

Please pardon this brief interruption

Do you get interrupted at work?  Who doesn't, right?  Well, there is a growing movement among the forward thinking management crowd to kill as many distractions as possible.  That means no more meetings, phone calls, taps on the shoulder, etc.  As Jason Fried from 37signals puts it, we don't just start working.  We have to ramp up into work such that out of a 45 minute work cycle, we are only truly working about 20 minutes.  If we have to break that up for meetings, phone calls, shouts across the office, then we are taken away from actual work.  Jason speaks of setting a goal to kill as many normal distractions as possible. Listen to his advice in this video:


One of the stronger advocates for this current rethinking of our work is the pair behind ROWE (Results Only Work Environment), Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler.  I recently attended a seminar they The pair created the ROWE environment while working for Best Buy.  They have published a book on the subject called Work Sucks which details their principles on the subject.  Their core principles are:

• People are free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done
• Every meeting is optional
• There are no judgments for when or where people work
• Results are the only measurement that matters

The key to the success, from my understanding, is being able to measure results.  Workers have to be able to identify their goals and show their progress.  In fact, Jody and Cali strongly suggest that you first capture the productivity level in the current environment using the same goals before you make the switch to ROWE.  This lets you measure how much you improve productivity.


It's a very interesting discussion.  It seems as if there is a movement brewing to change our work environments as we know them.  There's obviously a prevalent feeling that something is broken.  Regardless of your personal opinions on ROWE or any other non traditional changes in our work environments, I think it's clear that in the not too distant future, work as we know it will look entirely differently than it does today.

Steve Jobs responds

Interesting follow up to my first post.  Apparently, there has been quite a backlash against Apple and the notorious section 3.3.1 of the EULA.  There was an interesting TechCrunch article about an exchange between Steve Jobs and Greg Slepack, CEO of TaoEffect.  Basically, Steve's response to the criticism is "We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.”


Click here for the full article.