The city of Boston recently placed a ban on “texting while driving”.  As of Jan 1, more than a dozen states also have bans on sending texts while driving.  What about reading texts or emails, surfing the web, typing a URL, do I need to continue.  According to reports, provisions allow for entering a name or phone number. This type of reaction is short-sighted and, given the difficulty to enforce, absolutely useless. Legislators are simply following suit of earlier efforts to restrict GPS operation to placate their constituents without really fixing the problem.

Prevention vs Restriction

How fast can you run?  If you are average like me, your top speed is between 13 and 20 miles per hour.  Mind you, for very short distances.  As a point of reference, multiple world record holder Usain Bolt’s speed over 200m is roughly 23+ MPH.  He is said to top out at 27+ MPH.

Have you ever tried to type, dial or use your phone while sprinting?  Probably not since you’d undoubtedly take a header before you pressed send.  Rightly so, I might add.  So, considering the proliferation of cell phones with GPS, features of the technology can be disabled if the phone is traveling faster than, say, Usain Bolt’s average speed.  In fact, software applications exist that disable texting if the phone is traveling over 10 miles per hour.

The prudent thing to do here is to require that cell phone (and GPS) manufacturers disable certain features of the phone if it can be detected that the phone is traveling at a rate of speed faster than the average human can travel.

In-dash GPS, as well as future In-car WIFI, restrict usage while driving, so why not cell phones?

Mindful of the circumstances of his action, he pressed submit.  The click of the key echoed none of the ridicule he perceived his message would bring.  He exhaled as he was comforted by his triumph over fear.  His role of spectator had ended.  Chance had no place in his future.

More like the season of buying stuff that you don’t want in order to appear charitable.  But is it generosity, guilt or something else that drives this giving?  Did you really need that 3lb tub of cookie dough or gallon size tin of kettle corn that your coworkers were selling for their kid’s school fundraiser?  Did you buy out of obligation or to invest social capital which you’ll redeem for your kid’s soccer team’s candy bar sale next month?

This and NPR’s story, ‘Selfish’ Giving: Does It Count If You Get In Return?, are the impetus for this post.

I would love to help your kid’s school buy new textbooks, offset the costs of a trip to Washington, DC or provide the soccer team with new uniforms.  Since I don’t want anything in return, I am not willing to buy something that I don’t want.  I’d be happier to just give you the portion of the proceeds of the purchase designated to the cause.  What could it be, $1, $2, or even $3?  I have a better idea.

Affiliate Aggregation

WBUR sort of does this when they ask you to “start your Amazon search” from their website.  As an Amazon affiliate, a percentage of your purchase of the Twilight Series, a Digital Camera or a Kindle is paid to WBUR.  They didn’t try to sell you any of these things.  You bought them on your own while also supporting something that you care about.  One way they are trying to increase membership is by partnering with Azigo, which will alert you of member discounts while you are surfing the web.

eScrip is one of several companies that run school or group fundraisers.  They have hundreds of retail affiliates offering cash-back on purchases to your charity.

Combining Azigo’s tools and eScrips affiliate channels, a charity could allow me to donate to their cause by buying anything I want from wherever I want.

Given our post-crisis consumer behavior, this is bound to be a more effective way of fundraising through charitable consumption.  Consider this, 10% commission on a Kindle is $26.  That’s quite a few tubs of cookie dough.

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Group buying has been all the rage for quite some time.  Evidenced by the $250 million valuation for “Collective Buying Site”, Groupon. If you are still one of the uninitiated, like I was this past spring, the idea behind group buying sites is quite simple.  Each day the site presents an unbeatable offer if you and a few hundred of your closest friends go in on the deal.  OK, you don’t even need to know these people as long as the minimum threshold is reached.  Brilliant idea, in fact.  I love it.  However, I have yet to find anything that tickles my fancy. Spa treatments are nice but don’t qualify for my lax list of needs.  I don’t necessarily care how much I’m saving if it’s for something that I wasn’t necessarily looking for in the first place.

Which brings me to something that I am passionate about, buy often and frequently share my purchases with friends.

Wine!

Go into any quality wine shop and you are presented with volume discounts; 10-15% for 6 bottles or even up to 20% for a case of 12 bottles.  I would even bet that your local wine shop would also be willing to offer volume discounts if you asked nice enough (Caveat being if the margin afforded to them by their wholesaler can support it).  It would appear on the surface that the retail wine industry is already conditioned for a “group buying” business model.

Why hasn’t someone done this already, you ask?

(wine.woot.com is trying but I am told that their legality is questionable and they can’t offer deals to certain states — MA being one.  And at least for me, it offers the same unappealing products as Groupon.)

For many reasons but primarily because federal and state liquor laws (shipping across state lines) makes them unattractive and sufficiently burdensome for the seasoned business person or investor looking for simple, uncomplicated businesses with minimal (known) barriers that will scale.  I know because I have spoken to dozens of entrepreneurs, investors and wine merchants over this past year and they tell me as much.  But when I speak to would-be consumers, they love the idea and would sign up tomorrow if possible.

So, how do we make the improbable, available?

I have many ideas.  None of which scale necessarily but all are definitely replicable for particular locales.

I am looking for help/interest from producers, importers, wholesalers, and/or retailers.  You can reach me at rodneygagnon [at] me [dot] com.  Reach out and I’d be happy to tell you more.  And please tell me if someone has solved this conundrum.  I’d love to hear about it and work with them.

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Over the summer, I read Seth Godin’s latest book Tribes.  Tribes makes the case that it has never been easier to create and lead a tribe around a product, a cause, or in the case that I would like to make here, music.  In it, Mr Godin references Kevin Kelly’s blog post on The Technium, 1,000 True Fans, where Mr Kelly argues that an individual artist only needs 1,000 fans to make a living as a full time musician. He cites strategies musicians like Jill Sobule employ to “underwrite” their music production.  This is analogous to technology startups conducting market research before spending millions creating a product that nobody wants.

But, what if you’re name is not Jill Sobule and you haven’t invested years (with the aid of the old establishment) building your brand?  This begs more to Mr Godin’s premise that with social media this becomes a much easier task than ever before. However true this is, every musician would need to employ the same, or largely similar, tactics.  And then convert casual admirers into “true fans” that will presumably plunk down $100 a year for whatever they produce.  Let’s hope that they are prolific creators because a $100 is not exactly milk money.  And, an effective social media (self-promotion) strategy demands a considerable time investment leaving little time for the plethora of content that I’ll expect for my $100.

This model is very difficult to sustain and to scale for an individual artist.

Idea: Coopetition

Coopetition is a way a group of artists can form a collaborative to benefit from the effort of the group and from economies of scale.

Let’s Call it: BandOfBands.com

At BandOfBands.com, I (the consumer) can join the tribe of a group of artists by “subscribing” to their channel.  I can download or stream (see Pandora, iTunes Genius Mixes or Apple buys Lala for why this will be important) content from my american folk music tribe.  From time to time I also get exclusive content, tickets as well as limited access to the artists.  Assuming that there are 10 artists in the channel, I feel that I’m getting a pretty good deal for my $100 a year.  Admittedly, the BandOfBands needs to acquire 10x the “true fans” they would otherwise need on their own but I contend that it’ll be easier as a combined effort.  Individual artists will always out grow the group making way for up and comers.  As well as deadbeats will be naturally jettisoned by the tribe.

For more ideas and dialogue on this topic, check out the great people at Musicians for Music 2.0. They have all forgotten more about the music industry than I’ll ever know.  I’ll defer to them to determine the efficacy of Coopetition and BandOfBands.com.  And whether it already exists.

I was recently chided for reading “nothing but self-help” books.  Even though I wouldn’t be able to find the Self-Help section in the bookstore if you paid me.  I am guilty of primarily reading non-fictional books on entrepreneurism, leadership and self-actualization, but I wouldn’t think to classify them as “self-help”.  I am perpetually seeding my mind with inspiration in the form of books and film like today.

I just watched Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Invictus, about how Nelson Mandela boldly unified his country through sport and inspired a team to achieve more than they ever thought that they could.  He gave them motivation through a greater purpose than simply winning Rugby’s World Cup.  If this type of experience is considered by some as self-help, so be it.  I’m inspired and motivated into action.

No matter where you find it, we all need to be inspired to be more than we are now and to create something bigger than we ever thought we could.  If you are inspired by Twilight or Harry Potter, who am I to criticize you.  I only care that you find your own inspiration and dare to be great.

If you are more of an Invictus kind of person like me, I’ll leave you here with William Ernest Henry’s poem:

Invictus

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Now that he has been exercised, socialized, fed, and entertained, I am free to do what ever it is I do during the day.  I never know what it is that I’ll do on any particular day any more than he does.  I can only suppose that it’s the typical life of a writer, since I still don’t consider myself one.  There are many days when I wish we could trade roles.  However, even though we live in France, I still think the French would frown upon a 40 year old man running along La Seine in nothing but a collar, begging for treats at the patisserie and sniffing all the women on the Esplanade.  So instead, I shower, shave, get respectfully dressed and walk the streets of Paris in search of answers to life’s questions.

It was that time of year again.  It’s my birthday.  This is my day to do some big thinking about where I’ve been, where I want to go, who it is that I am today and who I wish to become when I decide to grow up.  I believe Socrates was right.  The unexamined life is not worth living.  Alone with my thoughts.  That is what my birthday has always been about.  No plan, no work, no Internet, no television, no cell …

Merde! I knew I forgot something.  I barely take ten steps down rue de la Baume when I hear a horrible polyphonic rendition of Piano Sonata No. 14 emanating from my jacket pocket.  Beethoven included “Quasi una Fantasia” in the title because Moonlight Sonata, as it is more commonly known, does not follow the traditional sonata pattern.  I hadn’t grasped the irony of using that song as my ringtone until exactly this moment.

“Bonjour, Mathilde.  Ça va?”

“Oui.  Je sais. Je ne serai pas en retard.”

“What time?  Who?  Non, Mathilde, Je suis désolé.  I don’t want to meet your cousin.”

“D’Accord.  I’m sure that she is beautiful, intelligent, funny and all of those things.  But, I have retired.”

“Oui, I’m sure that sounds ridiculous to you.  But you know what?  It is my birthday and I’m going to do whatever I want to do today and I don’t want to meet her.  It’s bad enough that for the first time in more than a decade, you made me make any kind of plans on my birthday.  I will be at the theatre before the curtains open.  Je promets. OK?”

“Bon. Ciao Mathilde”

Mathilde is my literary agent.  I first met Mathilde and her husband Henri at a fundraiser for the French-English bilingual elementary school in Boston.  The family was living in Boston while Henri was on assignment from his Parisian Company.  She and Henri have two very French children; Anne Claire 9 and Laurent 7.  If there is ever a day that I miss Madame Dutertre’s French lessons, Anne Claire and Laurent are quick to the rescue.   Mathilde treats me like her little brother and Henri and the children accept me as one of the family.  Mathilde made it a habit of integrating her latest protégé into her family.  Mathilde’s protégés tended to be literarily challenged creatives.  She believed that writing can be taught but imagination is a gift.  Mathilde had her own gift for discovering and encouraging the creative tendencies in people that she believed we all possessed.

She helped me publish two books and stage a play.  The play is actually an adaptation of my first book.  When Mathilde read the manuscript she said, “terrible writing but great idea for a play. And, who is this, Benôit Royer person?”  “A play?” I thought.  I didn’t know how to write a play.  I didn’t even know how to write a book for that matter.  I just sat down one day and started typing as was apparent from Mathilde’s assessment of my writing skills.  What I immediately realized was that I was writing my own unauthorized autobiography.  Since I wasn’t quite ready for the world to know the details of my intriguing life, I adopted the nom de plum of a character in one of my French textbooks, to protect my presumed innocence.  As I fumbled to fabricate Benôit’s identity, Mathilde astutely asked where I came up with the name.  She always seemed to be one step ahead of me.

Mathilde had a way of convincing me to do anything.  Henri often claimed that Mathilde demanded that he marry her and that it was just easier to agree with her than to find a way out of it.  She assured me that I would not have to learn how to write a play.  She promised that I wouldn’t even have to meet the playwright if I didn’t want to.  I thought she was crazy but I took Henri’s advice and let her try anyway, the result of which, I am attending the opening of tonight.

How did I get here?  Am I another lousy American over staying my welcome in Paris?  Have I become a cliché or am I living the dream?  There was no better day than today to ask these questions. It was only by chance that I moved to Paris.  Well, maybe it wasn’t all by chance.  After all, I had been talking about moving to France when Bush Part Deux was Part Un.  It took almost losing everything that I thought mattered to make me give up everything that I never needed…

Over the last several years, I have presented Kayanta’s Social Advisor to more than 50 small groups and individuals.  Every meeting would start the same way.  Start up my MacBook, connect to the projector, start up Firefox for the demo, start up Keynote,  test my IR remote and away I’d go.  Invariably, when it was time to advance a slide, I’d hit the wrong button on the remote or I’d point it in the wrong direction and I’d end up defaulting to use the keyboard.  The advent of Pico Projectors and Pranav Mistry’s research on SixthSense Technology (video after jump) gave me an idea.

So, here’s the big idea.  Ok, it’s kind of a small idea but it’s still pretty cool.

Ditch the IR Remote (and the port too) and use the camera as the input device.

Take a small bit of Pranav’s work (he plans to open source it) and run it on the Mac to identify a handful of simple gestures.  Tie them into Keynote and stand in front of the camera when you are giving your next presentation.

Voila, you are now the remote.

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My mountain bike gears haven’t been this gunked up since rides in San Diego County with Greg Nesler. There were times when I felt that the next pedal stroke would break a sprocket or two free and it’d be a long walk back to the car.

Grit is an impediment to mountain biking but a necessity to break free from the confines of corporate culture and succeed in Free Agent Nation.

Several months ago I participated in a Grit Study.  The premise of the study was to measure an individual’s “passion and perseverance for long term goals”.   I just received my score last month. According to my age group, I am average.  As hard as this is to accept for a person like me (see Know Thyself: Part 1 & Know Thyself: Part 2), accept it I did.  In fact, I have embraced it and plan to Crush It in 2010.

It’s never too late for resolutions.  I resolve to put more grit in my gears in 2010.

What will Mr. Spacely do without us.

So, what are you doing?

Trip to Montreal over Thanksgiving weekend to visit Aunt Jeanine