CanConnect

With all this noise I've been making about Movember around Nashville, the leader of a cool local Cancer Community resource-- CanConnect.org asked me to write a guest post for their blog. It was posted this morning. Take a look and let me know what you think.

The Gauntlet, she is thrown down..

Our local Team Nash Stache is about to cross a milestone in its fundraising efforts for the Prostate Cancer Foundation-- we've nearly crossed the $500 mark!
That's a great achievement, thanks to generous donations from a good number of people. You can see an updated list of donors to each member of the team-- and also catch a few glimses of the Mo's in the making-- via their Mo Space Pages.
Here's the team:
Chris Chamberlain
Jackson Miller
Chuck Bryant
Justin Seiter
Tom Mason
Anneinreallife
Bo Hussung
Ryan Williams
Chad Riden
Brad Blackman

We're off to a great start and we're really going to do some good.

But I know we can do more!
We've got 11 days left in the month.. and there are 10 of us on the team.

$1,500.

That's our mark.
As the former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, might have said, "The gauntlet, she is thrown down."

Think we can make it?
I know we can.

And you can help. Just click here and make a simple $10 or $15 donation. Then pass the link on to a friend and let's see how high we can take this thing together.

New Nashville Tech Podcast..

It sounds as though a few of the local Nashville Barcampers have brewed up a quasi-technology-oriented podcast. Jamie Meredith (http://www.tmgstudio.com/) and Tom Cheredar (http://tomcheredar.com/) are among the ringleaders. They've posted one episode so far and are, I'm told, in the midst of recording another one tonight.
Check it out:
http://nashtechnica.com
I'm glad to see the BarCampNashville/ local technology-ish conversation expanding..

My boys are Digging you..

A couple of quick little (sorry for the darkness) videos of my boys singing along to their favorite Geoff Smith song, Digg the Code.
Aidan got really shy after he realized I was recording them.. and now he's TERRIFIED that our friend Geoff might actually see this video... but I've assured him that all will be fine if he does. :)

Ones and 0s video

Nashvillegeek colleague, Geoff Smith's got a cool video out for one of the songs on his new album. It premiered tonight on Geekbrief.tv.. take a look.



Ones and 0s by Geoff Smith from Cali Lewis on Vimeo.

Nashville Tech: Jackson's Take

Jackson Miller, local contract software engineer and purveyor fine second-hand hipster gear, does a really nice job offering up his thoughts on Nashville as a Technology Hub

Nashville's Tech Mushroom...

Nice article here from VentureNashville.com (mushroom? really? does that evoke the right image?) about the various tech-oriented groups around town that have been meeting. And another post here at the VentureNashville blog that re-emphasizes the point of the article.. that these informal and institutional groups (i.e. Nashville Geeks vs. the Nashville Tech Council) don't seem to naturally co-mingle.

As someone who's attended events hosted across the spectrum, and also as a technology manager from the institution to beat all institutions, the great State of Tennessee, I have a few thoughts about this:

1) nothing against the NTC, but the few of their events I've attended have largely been about Tradeshow floors. Vendors trying to sell me something. Sponsors trying to get their 'impressions' quota. And lots of business card trading.

2) NTC events seem to largely center on DATABASE SECURITY. Just my impression. Nothing empirical to back it up. Not a lot about application development, user experience, UI design, or new technologies. Again, just an impression. I could very well be wrong.

3) like most professional associations, the conversations at NTC events are mostly alot of "this is what I do; now what do you do..." it's like a series of mini-interviews. Not very comfortable. Not very natural.

4) The Nashville Geeks events are largely about socializing. Informal, yes. Not a lot of collared shirts-- mine is sometimes the only one. And not exclusively a technology audience. There are artists and musicians and writers in the group. And lots of marketing folks. Tech-oriented, certainly. Folks who like to get their geek on with the latest WordPress release or tinkering with the latest social-networking-fad-tool of the day. And lots and lots of digital photography. And cutesy business.. er, calling cards. Lots of those as well.

To be honest, in some ways, I've felt a little out of place at the Geeks events only because I'm the only person (or one of the few) there who works for a large technology shop in a fairly formalized, not-too-cool, not-yet-too-open-source environment. My group's not blazing any trails with PHP or Rails. We're building enterprise software for a large, highly proceduralized government agency. Not a lot of the other folks at the table at Noshville are in that game. And yet, all that being the case, I feel very at home there.

What's ironic is that the social/digital media crowd at the Nashville Geeks events-- the breakfasts, the Barcamp Crew meetups, the bourbon nights-- the talk at those events is a lot about products and marketing and getting messages out to consumers-- this is what social media's largely about after all, isn't it-- but the atmosphere is more collegial than commercial. I'm not being sold something at Barcamp. I'm part of something.

Interesting that Digital Nashville's first mixer the other night appears to have been the first event that crossed this apparent boundary in any kind of significant way.. and everyone, even Dave Delaney, was wearing collared shirts!... and I missed the dang thing. Ah well, I'll be sure to catch the next one.

Exciting times to be in this industry in Nashville.. Looking forward to what's to come.
God, I love this town.

A little something different..

Okay, I don't mean to shill but we bought Geoff Smith's new album the other day.. in the hazy hang-over of having just spent the previous evening hanging with friends and neighbors (while the kids were at the grandparents') at Geoff's bar, the Big Bang. Such a good time.. and I was especially happy to get SleepyMama out there.

Back in February when I first visited the Bang, at the PodCamp Nashville after-party, I knew it was a place she'd enjoy.. and although I'd been encouraging her and some of the other Moms in our neighborhood to get over there for months since, this was the first time I'd been successful.. and happily, it was an evening when I was able to come along as well.

So that's that.

Anyway, while we were there, we were talking to Geoff and he was telling us a bit about his new album he'd just released, "Ones and 0s". He called it a 'Dynamic' album, in pre-release through his RingtoneFeeder service. Dynamic meaning the album has basically been released like a podcast. Purchase a subscription, hook up the rss feed in your reader of choice-- looks like it works best with iTunes-- and get the first 12 songs right away, along with a few other goodies (iphone ringtones, the "I'm a Twit" video, and the liner notes). In iTunes, it's pretty easy, then, to move the tracks over into your music library. And then, over the next year, Geoff says he'll be sending down more material to subscribers.. karaoke versions of the songs, live recordings, who knows what..

Well, it should be fun to find out. It's just an interesting experiment to take part in. And Geoff's a local Nashville artist, and a really genuinely nice guy.. so it's not hard to support him.

So, to all the 5 of you reading this.. go out and grab Geoff's album over at Ringtonefeeder.com. You don't have to have an iPhone. You don't have to have iTunes. But you do need to have 15 bucks. Not too bad.

And if you find all this dynamic stuff too scary for now, just sit tight.. the album will be available in more traditional formats (iTunes store, Amazon, even pressed CDs).

I hope you enjoy it. We're walking around the last few days humming "If This Geek Ruled the World" all over the house.

Speaking of Geoff Smith...

It's amazing to discover the talent hidden in the people right around you.
Well, in Geoff's case, it's not hidden-- it's bursting out of him just constantly.

Nashville Geek Breakfast

Ben Folds & Kelly Stewart
Originally uploaded by kelstew

Took another headlong dive into the local tech/new media/blogger/social networking scene this morning and sat down at the 2nd Nashville Geek Breakfast over at Noshville over by Vandy.
Had a great time-- old friend Tom from back in the PBI days showed up as well-- and got to meet a number of the good people I've been corresponding with since this past summer's BarCamp Nashville.

As you can see, the company was pretty luminary this morning. Ben Folds jumped right up and took this opportunity to have his picture taken with Kelly Stewart.
No word yet from Kelly on who'll be appearing at next month's Geek Breakfast, but I'm sure he'll line up a hum-dinger.

Thanks again to Dave, Kelly, Marcus, Jackson, Kate, Ginger and everyone else for making such warm, welcoming bunch of good people to have coffee (lots of coffee!), talk a little business, and have a few laughs with.. looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.

Next up: PodCamp Nashville is February 9.

Want to go to the next Geek Breakfast here?
Keep tabs on the plans in the Facebook Group (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=7035651703&ref=mf)

Reason #453243 I'm glad to live in Nashville..

Parking Rules Defied in South Boston
Parking, snow..
This story has all the elements that make me glad I live here in Nashville now

No Geoff, here's to you...

Spent a little time tonight watching Nashville's own Geoff Smith do a live Christmas 'party', courtesy of Cali Lewis's GeekBriefTV.com uStream feed..
Good times.. a few songs.. a few toasts... and some "Friends in Low Places..."
Nice work, Geoff. We're looking forward to making it out some night to Geoff's bar here in town, The Big Bang.

Silly Nashvillians

Memo to East Nashville--

You want to live in an urban environment. You're disdainful of the suburban Brentwood soccer moms.. you like to think of yourself as hardened city dwellers. "My house has a fire escape on it," you think to yourself. You're tougher than the average pansie Nashvillian. Plus, the coffee shops are better.

Well, I've got news for you: living in a city means living with noise. It means living with planes flying over your heads.

You don't want to live under a flight path? Move to Lebanon. We can't keep the planes flying over impoverish, swarthy Antioch forever. And hey, I lived in Antioch for 8 years, with planes flying over 7 and 8 times a day. I know how it is. And I know how it is to tune that kind of white city noise out.

East Nashville, being urban is about more than funky cafes and rot-iron encircled herb gardens. It's time to put on your big-city britches... Then again, there are plenty of good homes available in Lebanon.

BarCamp Nashville

Spent a few hours at BarCamp Nashville this afternoon-- it was very interesting... though I'm not sure it was so unconference as everyone likes to say.
And it was, as expected, very warm. That was very unconference. They cranked up the A/C at the Exit/In (also unconference), I'm sure, but it just wasn't enough...

Brought Manundso along with me and, while I don't think he got quite as geeked out as me, he enjoyed the first several presentations. Presentations were mostly good. Mitch Joel stole the show, hands down.

Lots of marketing-speak-- I'm a little conflicted about technology seminars that turn out to be all about sales. But nothing here was as slimy as what went on at Oracle AppsWorld in 2003, for instance (i.e. mock-turtles and chunky eyeglasses as far as the eye could see; and not an analyst or coder in the crowd).

I'm also a little bothered by how 'planted' in my seat I felt. I'd have liked to be able to get up, move around, mingle a bit.. but space was at a premium, we didn't really know anyone as an entrypoint, and there was no real 'networking' space available-- with the possible exception of the bar.

Not able to stay much longer, unfortunately... the beer has started flowing, judging by the Twitter feed, but SleepyMom and I are planning to see a movie tonight while Aidan is at a sleepover (his very FIRST!) and Bryce spends some quality time with his aunt..

So I'm cleaning up a bit around here and making some notes about all the local talent I've been exposed to today. This BarCamp experiences really has gotten my entrepreneurial juices going.. maybe it'll turn into something.

Some of the names to note:
Dave Delaney
Marcus Whitney
Jackson Miller
Mitch Joel
Chris Houchens (the very Cluetrain presentation)

One take-away from BarCamp that I think will be valuable-- I look forward to getting more plugged into the local group here. Having worked here for 10 years, I've managed to get to know quite a few people in the technology sector around town.

What opened my eyes this afternoon is that not a single one of them showed up. So who are all these other people? And where the hell have I been? I'm looking forward to getting to know-- and perhaps working with-- many of them in future.

Bye bye Balsilly...

A few short weeks ago, it was looking like the Nashville Predators were goners.
Jim Balsillie, Captain Canada, and his sneering attorney, Richard Rodier, were crouching over the team, apparently putting all the pieces in place to move the team to Hamilton or Waterloo Ontario.
They were even selling season tickets for the "Hamilton Predators" up there...
Meanwhile, Rodier was telling us, via local sports talk radio "to chill."

Well, thankfully, Nashville didn't chill. A number of local businessmen and media luminaries got together and started rallying the city to sell season tickets and whip up support for the team. Since the lock-out, paradoxically, while the team's prospects have been consistently improving-- the new CBA that came out of the lock-out has really, I think, been a great benefit to smaller market teams like the Preds-- the 'lost' season a few years ago really set back ticket sales... and we've never quite recovered.

Now, I could be called something of a hippocrite here. I'm not a season ticket-holder.. and in fact, it's been a few years at least since I last attended a match. But it just does my heart good to see the city rise up and take hold of this hockey franchise and really get behind it.

And now, the dream scenario-- local ownership-- what seemed like such a long-shot a few weeks ago has turned the corner and appears to have a real chance at success, with news today of a binding letter of intent.

Forgive me if I revel a little as we watch the Canadian media tuck its tail a bit and wander back home.

Nashville is #1...

Yes, the Predators are best in the NHL.. and that's a big deal here.
But almost more significant is that, according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Nashville is their #1 pick for 'Smart Places to Live'...