Monthly Archives: February 2007

This American Life: Live – Boston

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This American Life - Live 2007 Boston - What I Learned From TelevisionKim, Kat, Alan, Eli and I went to see This American Life Live at the Boston Opera House last night. I think it was about three minutes (if that) into the show prologue that I put down my camera and decided that I wasn’t going to try to take any pictures – partly because I didn’t want to annoy the people around me, but more so because the first three minutes were absolutely excellent and I was afraid that I was going to miss something.

The prologue (which is always one of the best parts of the show) recounted the elementary school experience of a kid (now grown up) and his friend who made a fake video camera out of cardboard box and then how this became a fad among the his elementary school class and then everything that happened thereafter because of it. It was the typical “action, action, action…reflection” format story of the radio show, except that the story was accompanied by animation that looked like it was created by Chris Ware. The story itself was absolutely hilarious and it was doubly so when accentuated by the animation.

The theme of the show was “What I Learned from Television” and included performances/readings by Sarah Vowell, Jonathan Goldstein, Dan Savage with music by Mates of State (who were excellent). Also, Ira and Chris Wilcha, the director of the new TAL Television show, talked about making of the television show and showed some clips.

Some specific highlights of the live show included outtakes from the upcoming television show; Ira’s admission that he and his wife sometimes sing the theme to The O.C. when the show comes on and his description of how he stood up and pointed to his television in disbelief when TAL was described by Summer (one of the characters on The O.C.) as “that show where all those hipster know-it-alls talk about how fascinating ordinary people are.” (“Did that just happen?!?! Was it only on our Tivo or on everyone’s?”)

Other highlights included Jonathan Goldstein noting as Barney Rubble that all of the appliances (the stork trash compactor, the elephant shower, etc.) died shortly after the ice age began; Dan Savage’s story about his son, stereotypes and ownership of a poodle who was almost named Pierre, and last, but not least, Sarah’s take two of the requisite Tory Malatia quote that ends the show every week. Also, the music by Mates of State was excellent. I am expecting to add them to the iPod very shortly.

If you didn’t already know, the show premieres on March 22 at 10:30 on Showtime.

Susan (Bisson) Andersen and her husband Larry were also there about 3 rows away from us, so it was nice to see them as well. (Susan, I think you guys were waiting to say hello to us after the show, but I had an extreme need for some of the show schwag and that line was long. I owe you an email!)

Not much else to say about it except that it lived up to every expectation I had and then some, but then again, Ira, Sarah and gang would never let us down.

A Working Definition of Web 2.0

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It has been almost a year and a half since Adam and I first presented our thoughts on Web 2.0 to the MITX CEO Roundtable. Since that time, as a part of our day job, we’ve had the privilege of sharing our perspective and our thinking with a number of other folks. As would be expected, as we have had these discussions and as others have had similar discussions (which we’ve watched with huge interest), our initial thinking has evolved and I think has become much clearer.

You might think that after 18 months that we’d be past a point of definition and explanation, but our experience (even as late as last Thursday) is that we aren’t there just yet. There are a (surprising) number of people who are still struggling to understand what Web 2.0 is and what it means to them (and, in turn, to their businesses). One of the most significant challenges that we’ve had personally has been to come up with a definition that is both clear and simple and that provides a useful framework for follow-on discussions related to “Okay, so now what do we do?”

(Sidenote: At the time of writing this, searching Google on the term “Web 2.0″ yields roughly 406 million references. A number of these references have influenced our thinking over the past 18 months including the initial and follow-up entries by Tim O’Reilly as well as “Web 2.0: A Pattern Library” by Tim Ziegler published on March 21, 2006 on Webmonkey which like O’Reilly’s original article presented the idea of examining Web 2.0 from a pattern perspective.)

Given that, I thought it might be useful (and fun?) to quickly share some of our more current thinking related to how we are defining Web 2.0 is and what it is all about.

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Shelves in the Office

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Last weekend, Kim helped me put up some Elfa shelves in the office. I have been talking about shelves since I purchased the condo and now that they are up, I am delighted with they way they turned out.

New Shelves in the Office

We looked at some shelves that were more aethestically pleasing, but the Elfa shelves look great (better than I expected in fact) and they offer a lot of really easy flexibility allowing me to add or adjust the shelves with nearly no effort.

They were tremendously easy to install. I think it took us only about ninety minutes to get them up. Our only challenge was figuring out how to get screw anchors into the wall without breaking them and once Kim figured that out (she was the one to figure it out. if you know us, i know that doesn’t surprise you at all), it was smooth sailing. Once the top track is up, everything else is super-easy.

Add to all of that the fact that they are really a great value. For the four sets of shelves that measure sixty inches across, I think I paid roughly $225 which included absolutely everything – shelves, rails, hardware, etc.

I cannot say enough good things about the Container Store where I bought the shelves. Having worked in retail from high school through college at Lechmere where providing “legendary” customer service was a part of the culture, I often bemoan the poor customer service that is the norm rather than the exception of most shopping experiences nowadays. The Container Store, on the other hand, was absolutely fantastic – politely and patiently answering every question I had (over two trips), spending time explaining my options, helping me design the space and last but not least, helping me load my car after I had made the purchase.

Now, I just need to get them filled so they don’t feel so empty.