sebastiankeil.de

Still a couple of minutes/hours before we find out where Christopher S. Penn is heading next. Mr. Penn is heading to Blue Sky Factory as VP of Strategy and Innovation. I like this, makes a lot of sense. For fun I set up a little poll last week, it closed Sunday night. Here are the results. Sorry to @jowyang/Altimeter for forgetting to include you in the choices.

There are lots of video platforms out there, each with it’s own pro’s and con’s. Some suck, some I like so much for this use case, that I host my English Podcast there. In general, I still struggle with what do I put where since there are sooo many platforms. Some do live, some do iPhone Apps, some are just beautiful. E.g., I like Vimeo.com so much, that I hesitate to upload content there, because all the content that you find there is just very good. That’s a niche, too. Also, they don’t want the stuff everybody else has. Here is an excerpt from their upload rules:

Do Not Upload: Videos Intended for Commercial use

Exceptions: independent production companies, authors, musicians, non profits, churches, artists, and actors may show or promote the work they have created.

Businesses may not use Vimeo to externalize their hosting costs. Vimeo (including Vimeo Plus) is not a business service.

You may not upload videos containing ads before or after the video, unless given prior written permission from an authorized member of the Vimeo staff. Videos with any advertisements in them, including links to commercial sites, regardless of content, will be removed.

You may not upload videos pertaining to Multi Level Marketing (MLM), get rich quick, cash gifting, work from home business, or any other dubious money making ventures.

You may not upload product promotions or sales videos, such as real estate walkthroughs.

Television stations may not redistribute their programming.

We reserve the right to allow certain commercial content for those businesses who have coordinated sponsored advertising campaigns or direct partnerships with Vimeo.

Just a quick note in between:

This year I did not post any goals or resolutions. They exist, rest assured, but they are few, some of them with consequences if reached, and not all yet for everybody to chew.

As I alter decisions, behavior, priorities now to reach goals by the end of the year, one thing becomes obvious which is not new, but hard to act on:
When you decide to focus on one thing and not do another it is important to weigh on the future of what’s left behind. Are you putting it away for good? Then get rid of it. Don’t leave it on your list and shift it from page to page (or let Teuxdeux do it for you). Often it’s much healthier and has more impact on your productivity if you get rid of it. It will free you mind and lift the burden off your shoulders. Easy example? I had about three months of “brand eins”, an exceptional German business magazine, only partially read or brand new on a pile. Every time I moved the chair with that pile it stared at me, haunting me to act on it. Same as the cell phone art project.

Not any more.

Room freed up to focus on the big picture.

I like to create things. I like to spin ideas and turn them into something. But last year, too many was too many. Some did not make it out of the Dip. Like this one: Cell Phone Art.

It’s still a great idea though and I am giving it to you if you want it. Including the stuff I already drew, bought or built. Of cource I started with a blog. Make sure you read the pieces about the artists youth and style. A dear friend wrote it, we had lots of fun. Then I bought old cell phones on ebay. People sell these in boxes.

Before all that was one idea. Then there were more. Not a thousand, but about 1o. Enough to excite me.

What happened? Time was one issue. The pleasantry in the thought that I had a great idea, too.

But one of the key reasons to kill my work on it involves actually doing it. My wife sent me this great mathematical cartoon: “Modern Art = I could do that + but you didn’t” and I finally got of my butt. I also kind of had an agreement with someone to pay me a piece of tart for it. Ultimately I had to realize though that I was not good at any of the techniques involved. I compromised in paint, frame, binding and used what was there, not to mention that the actual craftmansship is poor. I would have to actually practice this (hopefully though not for 10,000 as Gladwell suggests), experiment and so on and so forth.

But I am already much better at playing guitar for example. And that is much more fun too. And I miss it. Way more. So please, you do Cell Phone Art. I haven’t seen it done. Take the first one, too, and redo it, make it better.

(This one is called ‘uh-oh’, consists of 4 Nokia 5110 phones and is supposed be a play on the Teletubbies. But my mixing skills resulted in brown instead of purble. See what I mean?)