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2006-01-21: The Naked Conversations Launch Party. To celebrate the publication of Naked Conversations, a launch party was held in Medina, Washington, an interesting community along the shores of Lake Washington, convenient to Redmond (the East Side) and Seattle (the West Side). This represented a major culmination of the journey that Robert Scoble and co-author Shel Israel began during the U.S. Thanksgiving Weekend of November, 2004. It was thrilling to watch the book unfold on the
Naked
Conversations (née
Red Couch) blog
site. Part of the reward for me was being able to observe how the
authors
developed and expanded their collaboration over time, starting with
Scoble's brash initiation. The book points out that the
interviews on the blog are sometimes lengthier than those retained in
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Robert's wife Maryam was one of the instigators of
the festivities. Yes, I think she's always
ebullient. I've been watching a number of Microsoft webcasts, and
it's a treat whenever Maryam is the host. Robert's birthday was on Wednesday before the party and this was our opportunity to celebrate with him. That made this an interesting follow-on to last year's great party. The only problem, as mentioned by Kathy Edmonds to me a few days later, is that there are so many great people and so little time to have the conversations that you'd love to have with each person you meet at these events. |
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Buzz Bruggeman, together with Andy Ruff (potentially
appearing on a blog), was instrumental in
encouraging Shel and Robert to
write the book together. Jeff Sandquist (there with his wife Laurie) was on the original Channel 9 team and contributed to my taking off 15 pounds by Valentine's Day, 2005. Jeff posted one of the first mentions of David Allen's Getting Things Done that I saw. I ordered the books as the result of his and others mentions in the blogosphere. I still haven't done a weekly checklist, but my Outlook mail is much better organized these days. I notice I am no longer awkward seeing Buzz and
knowing that I still haven't installed his product, ActiveWords, on any
of my computers. I'm conflicted about having a non-free add-on
begin to color how I demonstrate and explain usage of software in my
writing. Now (Jan.
29) my Tablet PC is cratered again and my attention is on other
priorities once again. |
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Josh and Gretchen Ledgard are a Microsoft couple. She's in Human Resources there and I remember a great blog rant of hers about the expectations of managers anxious to fill positions. I notice that I
don't quite know how to behave around Microsoft developers. It
feels stupid to ask them what they do, and I am also wary of being
foolish by not knowing who is a prominent developer or blogger in
Microsoft circles. Another part of the awkwardness is that I might
actually read someone's blog via RSS and yet I don't have any kind of
connection with its author or even know the author's name and
affiliation. I just found Josh's blog on the on-line
Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) only because someone else at the
party linked to him in their celebration report. I see that I'm
interested in what his team is doing, especially around the MSDN Forums
and efforts that accommodate beginners and newcomers like Coding 4 Fun
and the Visual Studio Express Editions. |
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Mitch Ratcliffe and his wife. On the other hand, there may
be someone at the party that I know of, have never met, and don't
recognize. That was the case with Mitch Ratcliffe. I did not
know who he was when I took this photograph of those mischievous
twinkles. I recently began following Mitch's ZDNet Blog, Rational Rants, with special attention to his observations about Wikipedia. He looked familiar to me at the party but I couldn't place him and said nothing. It was only through Julie Leung's commenting on his being there that I knew I'd missed meeting him. There were others that I learned were there that I would have liked
to meet, like
Brian Jones, and I didn't happen to bump into him. I've gone
through these photos looking for matches, but none have shown up. |
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Brian
and Jen Zug, with
Julie
Leung. An example of meeting someone and not being sure whether I read their blog was David Anderson. I kept thinking that I read his Agile Management blog, but I wasn't certain, not remembering anything about it beyond the title. Returning home, I found that I had been subscribed, but I hadn't resubscribed as part of rebuilding my subscriptions on an emergency-replacement computer. I've caught up now, and I see that we have a common interest in trustworthiness. A follow-up conversation would be useful. That reminds me of another feature of my being at parties. I often have something I want to ask of someone I know will be there or who I would like to see there, like Jeff Sandquist). At the party or other event, I rarely remember what it is I wanted to talk about or even that I had something in mind. I think that my near-exclusive communication by e-mail is impacting how I don't have much to say when removed from that structure. Odd ... |
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David Luebbert demonstrates
Songtrellis.
Dave worked on an early version of Microsoft Word and is now in his own business, making it easy for people to compose music. He opened up his Mac and spent a good part of the evening near the living-room fireplace demonstrating what he's developed to make it easy for people to compose music. Although there were many bloggers and techno-geeks in attendance, people were mostly comparing phones. We all admired the OGO model 01+ that was being shown off. |
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Shel making a point with Steve Broback. I only know Steve as the fellow who does magic tricks near the end of Scoble parties. But I know I've heard the name in another context, and yes I have. Steve is the force behind the Blog Business Summits, and both Robert and Shel mention him. Steve and DL Byron have a practical book on business blogging to appear later this year. |
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John and Alison Dillow (not pictured) were very gracious to host the party in their
spacious home, and Perkins Coie was a generous sponsor for the event. The kitchen was a favorite hang-out of attendees (the outside veranda and lake-front view being another). The kitchen has a fireplace and is as large as the main-floor area of our West Seattle house. Alison confided to Vicki that the Dillows live in the kitchen. Vicki, listening to Francie (above), hung out here when she wasn't enthralled with exploration of the upper levels. About the house:
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About the book and the party:
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You are navigating Orcmid's Lair |
created 2006-01-26-14:20 -0800 (pst) by
orcmid |
