While I’ve been in China I’ve been creating videos and uploading ‘em to YouTube. From there they get auto posted to Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. I’m considering pushing the videos to this blog or at least including them in the RSS.

Maybe these are the two scenarios:

1.) Blog and blog feed stay the same and are used to post only longer form content. Have a sidebar with a couple recent videos.

2.) Basically turn my blog into a Tumblr. Make it more active and live. Have a sidebar with a link list of writings/essays.

I’m going to sleep on it. But, btw, I’m just used the QuickPress box in Wordpress for this post and I’m loving it.

I’ve been using HotSpot Shield for the last couple weeks, but a few days before Chinese National Day (Sept 1) things went kaput.

I heard about http://www.ninjacloak.com/ from a buddy here and have use that to look at Facebook a couple times, but it’s kinda of a pain in the ass. I’m using http://dabr.co.uk/ to look at twitter, but, without TweetDeck, what’s the point?

I Googled Hotspot Shield the other day and I swear my Internet went out until I released and renewed my IP. I’ve heard the same thing from other students here. So this time I went right to http://download.com/ and searched Hotspot Shield. When I got to the page I clicked this link to download version 0.942-2 for Mac and… what do you know, “The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.”

After clicking the link about six  more times, I went right over to NinjaCloak.com and pasted the address. Using a proxy to download a proxy, that almost meta.

Well, the download was successful via NinjaCloak, but Hotspot Shield still doesn’t work. Alas.

Admittedly, I haven’t given much effort to getting connected. I suppose I could do all kinda of cool tech stuff …like setting up my own proxy! Or, I don’t know, asking my cool tech friends about what they do. But, you know, I’m realizing I kinda like not worrying about what the world is doing. I kinda like that I don’t have the ability to Tweet from my iPhone every time something cool happens.

I like to boast about not owning a TV. And, I take pride in having no clue what 24 is about, or MadMen, or I don’t know, some other show like that. But, really, Facebook and Twitter are the same damn thing. Just stories. Things for us to keep up with.

It’s so nice being disconnected. Who knew. Everything in moderation.

When I got there, my coaches pushed me to to throw up, to pass out, to collapse. They told me my legs *could* move faster, I just needed to commit the movements to muscle memory. They told me I could break a five-minute mile. They told me I could keep running when my mind screamed STOP.

What I thought was 100% before track, was more like 60%.

By having experienced my highest threshold, I could more consistently practice at near 80%.

As my skill and endurance improved, my output at 80% improved and then, in turn, I had to reset the limiter.

I’m writing this so I will always remember to apply this to whatever it is I’m working on. And always remember the value of having a coach.

Two notes:

1.) For everyone, there is an absolute max. Not everyone can be an Olympian. You have to know what you’re good at and go for it.

2.) Regarding figuring out what you are good at: beware of paralysis by analysis. Pick something and just start. Give it your best. You’ll learn along the way and make adjustments as you go.

A dramatic description of wu wei is found in chapter 2 of Zhuang Zi:

A fully achieved person is like a spirit! The great marshes could be set on fire, but she wouldn’t feel hot. The rivers in China could all freeze over, but she wouldn’t feel cold. Thunder could suddenly echo through the mountains, wind could cause a tsunami in the ocean, but she wouldn’t be startled. A person like that could ride through the sky on the floating clouds, straddle the sun and moon, and travel beyond the four seas. Neither death nor life can cause changes within her, and there’s little reason for her to even consider benefit or harm.

This passage is metaphorical. To a Taoist, things arise dependently. The soul and body go together, because if there were no soul, there would be no body and if there were no body, there would be no soul. All these arise dependently like this (this is the meaning of the Yin-Yang symbol; if there were no yin, there would be no yang and if there were no yang, there would be no yin). A person who follows the principle of wu wei thus realizes how ridiculous it is to cling to good and to obsessively stay away from evil. By realizing how things arise dependently, a Taoist is able to accept both the good and the bad. Because he is able to accept any outcome, he is then able to have no goal to aim at. When Zhuangzi is saying a fully achieved person is like a spirit, he is saying that a fully achieved person does not differentiate between good and evil, benefit and harm, and therefore is not concerned with them: his actions become one with the Tao and as such he leaves no trace of having acted, nor can the consequences of his actions affect him.

-wikipedia on the concept of wu wei.

• July 7-21 Melissa and I toured Vietnam – including: Ho Chi Minh City/Sigon, Na Trang, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hanoi, Sapa.
• July 30-Aug 7th we went to Singapore to spend some time with my uncle who manages Asia Pacific for JMJ Associates. He’s great, learned about his business just hanging around there.
• Aug 7th until December 18, Melissa will remain in Hong Kong (more on that in a sec).
• Aug 7th – Sept 13th I’ll be in Hong Kong I’m going to take most of my time here working on personal projects, trying to meet as many interesting people as possible, see what the startup culture is like, and prepare for my upcoming studies.
• September 13th until December 10th I’m enrolled at Beijing Language and Culture University for a short semester – 5 hours a day of Chinese language instruction and 1 hour of private tutoring per day. I’ll either be living in a dorm with a Chinese roommate or in a home stay. Either option will be fun.
• After the new year there will likely be some time in Hong Kong to wrap things up, but the current plan is move up to Shanghai sometime in Jan or Feb and join the guys at 88 Spaces Coworking.

When are you coming to visit?! :)

It’s going to take awhile to get a grip on what’s going on in Asia overall, but I’m having fun figuring it all out. I really like it here (HK), I’m excited to study Chinese in Beijing, and I’m looking forward to working with Markus and Lucas on 88 Spaces in Shanghai.

When are you coming to visit?????

I’ve started looking up Hong Kong startups, entrepreneurs, etc. to start meeting with. Here is what I’ve found so far:

• Hong Kong Startup Association – This is really cool. Their about page has a list of Objectives. They are along the lines of what I see Startup District doing for Austin, once it’s officially functioning as a not for profit. It looks like HKSA is just getting off the ground, so I’m hoping to discuss with them how they will run the organization, how/if it’s funded, what real-world activities they will be hosting.
• 852Signal – A tech blog run by Angus Lau covering web2.0 in Hong Kong. Would be cool to meet this guy.
• Web Wednesday HK – Tech networking group started by Napoleon Biggs, I have a feeling they meet on Wednesdays… I’ll definitely hit this up.

Something I’ve noticed at a couple of these websites is that they have a list of the startups in Hong Kong on a side bar or on a separate page. Granted, it’s only about thirty names long, it’s a great thing to do.

I haven’t figured out what VC firms have a presence here. Or what they state of funding is.

Overall I’m a bit surprised more sites don’t come up when I search “hong kong startups” or “honk kong venture capital” or “early stage investing hong kong.” It does, however, make me appreciate how great AustinStartup.com is what I great job Bryan Menell has done over the years to keep up coverage in Austin.

Dell should market their phone as business device.

They can utilize existing government and enterprise contracts. These contracts take a long time to secure. Once they are in place, it’s relatively easy to push something in — in this case, to add a mobile devices agreement. If they are already using blackberry, they can cancel.

Dell should use Google’s Android OS.

Dell’s choices for OS are: develop their own (bad idea, since Dell does not make software), use Windows Mobile (this is not a good choice, because there are already lots of phones using Windows Mobile. Adding another to the market is not a compelling offer. Most phone using Windows Mobile are made by HTC.), so go with Android.

Other platforms are: Symbian is only on Nokia, Blackberry OS on RIM devices only, iPhone OS for Apple devices only.

The G1 was marketed as a consumer device to compete with the iPhone. If they use Android, they’ll be the first to target this platform at business users, which will be good PR.

Beyond that, consumer confidence in Dell is waning, as Apple and HP are growing stronger. When Dell tried to compete directly with the iPod, they sucked.

Go Android. Go business.

Glad to have him in Austin.  Welcome Travis.

QikCom is looking to  hire PHP developers asap (plus for interface design experience) and perhaps some Rails guys. Hit ‘em up if that sounds like you thing. Full time and contract. Travis@qikcom.com

What is QikCom? At first glance it’s Yammer (newsfeed/twitter for groups), and a little more. Two cools things: 1.) all security features are free (this is where Yammer is hoping to monetize) and 2.) add-ons can install on-top of the app — not sure how all this is going towork API-wise, but he’s definitely thinking.

–

…this is me trying to blog more, hope you like it. :)

Bryan Solis and Nova Spivack – chatting with the Cerego guys about the Singularity Summit and the SciVestor Workshop

San Diego is such a great city. I’m excited to be here at the DEMO conference. Melissa and I registered tonight and ended up hanging out for much longer than we had originally planned. We just kept seeing great people! Particularly the guys from Cerego.

Combining cognitive science with the social and collaborative structure of the web, Cerego empowers people to learn faster, remember longer, and manage their knowledge.

They run http://iKnow.co.jp. I haven’t played around too much with the service, but from talking with Andrew, Eric, and Kirk, I’m sold. Looking forward to really checking it out — they have a quarter million users in Japan and are now starting to opening up to the english speaking world. Their demo is Tuesday, right before Nova’s panel.

More to come! :)

 

Posted by email from johnerik’s posterous

This Q&A was originally for KXAN when they covered Conjunctured last month. Some events and references have already past.

Q: What exactly is coworking? And can you tell me a little bit about its history?

A: Coworking is not a new concept; it’s essentially just people sitting next to each other and working. The new part is the community that’s built around that concept, and that using the word “coworking” suggests a feeling and an action.

Coworking as we now know it started in San Francisco about 4 years ago. Reaching critical mass around 2000, the number of independent workers (freelancers, web entrepreneurs) increased like crazy. Thus, more and more people were working alone -in their apartment or perhaps in coffee shops, but still alone.

Saying “I’m coworking” became a way for people to talk to each other at coffee shops. People such as Chris Messina, who co-founded Citizen Space in San Francisco, soon realized that a coffee shop or someone’s home was not going to cut it. And coworking spaces were born.

Q: How long have you been working towards this goal of creating a coworking space? When did you originally have the idea?

A: In Austin, the idea for a coworking came out of a “Jelly.” Jelly, a term coined by NYC coworker Amit Gupta in 2006, are weekly coworking sessions. Dusty Reagan (founder of Austin’s Jelly movement), David Walker, and Cesar Torres and I realized after a couple weeks of Jellying that this was something special, and that as independent business owners we could benefit from this type of environment everyday.

During SXSWi 2008 we solidified our decision to create a coworking space, as we were able to talk to so many other founders of coworking spaces.

Using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, we went about creating a list of people who liked the idea of having a coworking space in Austin. Over 200 people are on the list. From there, we asked those with the most serious interest to fill out a questionnaire. We asked question like: What part of town? How much would you want to pay? How soon do you need space? Do you want a permanent desk?

We’ve bootstrapped the coworking space from the very beginning. 50 people filled out this form. With that knowledge, we started the hunt for a space that would appeal to what our community told us they wanted. It turned out to be challenging, because there is such high demand for real estate on the East side right now. We knew if we were going to get a space we would need to have the ability act fast, meaning having the money to put down when we found the perfect location. 6 of the 50 stepped forward and paid our newly formed LLC 1-6 months of the future coworking space’s fees in advance, so that we would have the thousands of dollars necessary to make the deposit, first month’s rent, etc that is required when signing on a commercial lease.

Q: What are the unique benefits of a coworking space, both for individuals and the community at large?

A: There are obvious benefits from coworking, such as decreased cost of office space, opportunities for social interaction, and helping independent workers get out of their house and into a community.

A term that is getting around the coworking community, likely coined by Julie Gomoll of LaunchPad coworking, is accelerated serendipity. It’s about proximity. About critical mass. Coworking brings like-minded people together in a creative and tight-knit environment. All across the country, coworking spaces are beginning to be considered as incubators for startup companies and small businesses.

Q: Austin is obviously a hotbed of technology, but at the same time it seems like the landscape is changing, away from enterprise and chip companies, and towards developers, designers, and more consumer-oriented technologies and startups. Would you agree with the statement?

A: Absolutely. This change has been happening quietly on its own in Austin. I see the future of Conjunctured and my own long-term goals as embracing and extending this change. In fact, I think we are leading this change.

Q: Now that your space is more or less up and running, talk to me a little bit about the longer-terms goals and impacts.

A: My personal mission is to ensure that Austin is technologically progressive and competitive.

I foresee that the people who participate in Conjunctured will become leaders in the movement to change Austin into a progressive hub of technology, specifically with regards to developing web technologies such as cloud computing and the semantic web.

Unite

While amassing the support necessary to make Conjunctued happen, I realized there was a need to unite Austin’s tech community in more that just one way. Austin has several cutting edge startups. Startups that are working with leading edge technology or creating it themselves. Startups that are changing the way the world interacts with technology.

These companies thrive on being in the thick of it. Their success depends on it. They also need to be surrounded by other people who are taking a lead. Leadership breeds leadership.

It was as a result of conversations with the people at the helm of these startups that led to the idea that Austin could benefit from a Startup District. A physical district that exists within the city, a particular part of town where there is a concentration of startup companies. I have been in talks with the Economic Development Department of Austin and members of City Council regarding this.

In the mean time, we have been supporting local events, many of which are going to be held at Conjunctured, such as StartupCamp on August 2nd, led by Brandon Wiley, and an upcoming iPhone DevCamp, lead by Andrew Donoho.

Educate

Austin needs to know what’s going on in Austin. The Austinites I met at SXSW had no idea which startups were in Austin and what they were working on. They were only familiar with Silicon Valley startups because Silicon Valley has an online network of websites and blogs that disseminate news and information.

Having a stronger Austin presence at SXSW Interactive 2009 is big part of this initiative. I want the Austinites who attend SXSW to be armed with knowledge of Austin companies and what is going on in Austin.

Invest

This is not just about creating a fund.

This is about creating a culture that reinvest in the future. The ideal situation is, companies succeed (with funding or without) and then the people who profit from these companies reinvest in younger companies and people. This is the culture that has helped to keep the Silicon Valley flourishing.

I’m working to spread the message of what we are doing in Austin around the country. For early stage companies, web companies in particular, it’s not about the money. It’s about the community, it’s about connections, it’s about mentorship.

Q: I understand you have been out of Austin; what have you been up to?

A: Since the 13th, I’ve been visiting locales in NY and in Boston such as New Work City, Spark Space, NYC Resistor, and Y-Combinator, because these spaces have become such hotbeds for innovation – with dozens of companies formed and launched within the past couple of years. I want to have the best understanding possible of how communities have rallied together to foster a stronger environment and launchpad for these types of folks.

I’m learning as much as I can about what others are doing and what is working so I can bring the best of this knowledge back to Austin and we can integrate it into our scene. I’m visiting San Francisco in August.

Questions I’m answering include: what level and type of economic development have these concentrated communities spurred; how are coworking spaces laid out to best encourage collaboration, creativity, work and happiness; how does geographical location and proximity play a role; what types of funding sources (VC’s, Angels) surround these communities, and why; what are their tenants like in the coworking spaces, and what do they want.

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• Austin as the Next Web 2.0 Hub (video)

The night before I left I pinged Chris Messina. An hour after I got off the plane, I met up with Chris and Larry Halff of Ma.gnolia and recorded a podcast with them for Citizen Garden.  Here are the goods on the cast:

We’re joined by John Erik Metcalf for a discussion about identity inside and outside of walled gardens, EAUT, tribalism, the usability of OpenID, and recomposable identity.

Ready to listen? Click.

(Yes, we are releasing Episode 8 on 08-08-08!)

Visit Citizen Garden on Ma.gnolia

I’m now off to the Snaptalent/DISQUS party with Melissa.

Two weeks ago I had a very productive and highly entertaining trip to New York (if you don’t count delayed and canceled flights), but I didn’t blog about anything. gah! So, here’s a quick recap:

Started the trip hunging out with Tony Bacigalupo of New Work City (really cool site), an initiative he’s leading to open a coworking space in Manhattan, and some of his potential clientele — the guys from http://beyou.tv and others (btw tony, thanks for all your help and advice on Conjunctured– needless to say, it’s much easier to find and open a coworking space in Austin, versus Manhattan.) Melissa and I went to Whitney Hess’s birthday party and met @brettof Mashable, Tom Limongello creator of http://failwhale.com, @gruen, @mknell, and more. We had coffee (and juice) with Eric Friedman from Union Square Ventures and breakfast with Girish Gupta from RRE Ventures. We had drinks, took an urban hike, and shared a wonderfully forward-looking conversation with Futurist, Gary Golden. Ate a vegan meal with @bre, hacker and founder of NYC Resistor. Met with Scott and Alan from Google. And Christopher from Google who introduced us to 3 entrepreneurs from the Yale School of Music. Visited Cambridge. Ran through the rain and chatted Tommy Li, President of the Harvard Entrepreneur Society. Had homemade curry and rice with Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, and this session’s 60 founders, at Y Combinator — this is a all post of its own.

mknell, brett, gruen

Melissa and I diverged from meetings or work often and walked in central park, tried both PinkBerry and its copy, RedMango, spent a day in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum and discussed life the universe and everything, ordered lots of smoothies and juice, laid on benches, went shopping. Successfully made seven trips to the Apple store at all times of the day. Successfully failed at getting Mel an iPwn.

Now, I’m in San Francisco — I’ll be blogging this trip. (and hopefully getting Mel an appl phone)

This is a media extra from Omar’s story: Instant co-workers – Austin telecommuters soon will have places to go when camaraderie of the office is missing — That appeared on the cover of the Austin Statesman’s Life & Arts section Sunday.