Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects.

I came across this site and idea yesterday and was immediately hooked.  Take the vibe of a BarCamp and focus that energy on something deliverable.  So—I decided to see if I can get the ball rolling on a StartupWeekend for West Michigan.  I’m so tired of hearing news stories and advertisements that start with the words “in these tough economic times” that I want to do something to give the press and the West Michigan community something positive to talk about. 

So meet StartupWeekend:West Michigan.  I have no idea what it takes to pull one of these off, but have scheduled an initial meetup for July 1st, 4:00PM at the HopCat in Grand Rapids.  If you have any interest in helping plan or just attend a StartupWeekend event come on out to join the discussion.

Once again I need to thank my clients, my peers in the web world, my family, and the good Lord above for being so richly blessed.

Not only will this be my first trip abroad —but I’ll be leaving my hometown of Holland, MI USA to visit my ancestral homeland.  I’m really curious to see how our local representation of the Dutch culture is similar or different to the actual culture of The Netherlands. 

If you are in that part of the world stop by and say Hello in a language of your choosing.

My hope is that by the end of the event on May 9th, a church will get the ExpressionEngine-based website built during the Building a Church Website tutorial series on Train-ee and we will have raised enough money to fully fund a fresh water well through charity:water.

I say “we” because I need your help.

To learn more about the project and the different ways you can help head over to the Water from a Website section.

Invariably whenever I mention the use of a purchased theme a discussion starts about how appropriate that approach is for building client sites.

So here’s the thing - Boyink Interactive is not a web design shop specifically, but rather provides clients with completed sites that fit their business requirements and budgets.  For K&K using a pre-built theme provided a site that is visually light-years ahead of their local competition (landscaping being a highly localized business) while keeping the costs to a minimum. 

Is the themed approach right for everyone?  Certainly not.  Does it have it’s place in the world?  Yep. 

So here’s hoping the site helps keep Kevin and crew busy during the warm season here in Michigan.

SXSW
This was my second year at SXSW - or just “South-by” to those who speak of it often.  It was quite a different experience for me this year as last year I was there as an employee of EllisLab and spent a large part of my time helping out with the EE2 demo and other company activities.  This year was on my own dime and I was free to make the experience my own.

I’m not going to bore you with the details of what sessions I went to—suffice it to say that the panels proved to be a mixed bag, some really valuable and some unbelievably unfocused.  It’s hard to imagine how people who do creative work for a living -work that involves crafting messages for known target audiences, and have enough success at that work to get on a panel at SXSW can then fail so completely in this situation.  I quickly learned to sit as close to the outside of a row as possible to make for a quick exit if the session was going in a direction that I didn’t like.

On the other hand the larger keynotes I attended where the speakers were higher level (folks like Lawrence Lessig, Kathy Sierra, etc) were interesting and entertaining - even if the subject matter wasn’t of immediate interest or the practical down and dirty how-to’s that I prefer.

The schedule was a bit frustrating - in that it seemed like at any given time there was either nothing of interest going on or four things that I wanted to go to.  The latter turned out to be the most frustrating thing about the week - I don’t think I’ve ever been in a spot where the opportunity cost for any given action was higher.  No matter which panel, event, or conversation I had it always felt like there were other ones that I should have sought out instead.  Getting real-time updates from other attendees via Twitter didn’t help - they always sounded like they were either getting more valuable information or just having more fun than I was.

The EllisLab party got leaked out on a SXSW Twitter feed so was overrun with people in search of free beer and food but without a clue as to who was putting the party on.  It started at 6:00, I got there about half-past and the Moonshine was already elbow to elbow and the crowd made it difficult to actually connect with other EE users.  I suspect that if the event happens again next year there will be an invite system or some sort of challenge-response at the door in an effort to keep the attendance down to a more appropriate audience.

However - despite the crowds or constantly feeling like I was standing in the less-green grass I had a great time.  I met a number of people I have only known on-line, reconnected with a good number of folks that I met at SXSW last year and met some new folks as well.  I had a number of great conversations around the web in general, iPhones, ExpressionEngine, dealing with clients, publishing books, and more.  I’m coming back home with a number of new ideas and some fresh thinking around everything I do online. 

Thanks to everyone who made it such an enjoyable and exhausting yet energizing time.  To those people I failed to connect with - my apologies for that and I hope to try again next year.

iPhones
If you follow me on Twitter you probably saw that I bought an iPhone 2 days before leaving for SXSW.  I’ve been putting off getting into the smartphone world for some time as I just don’t use a cell phone that much.  What I’ve learned already is that the main value of the iPhone (and likely other smartphones) isn’t that it’s a better cell phone—it’s that it’s a small computer that also makes phone calls if needed.  I was able to keep up with email and Twitter on the iPhone - to the point where I really could have left my laptop at home (and will next time).  At SXSW it allowed me to connect with people for meals and meet-ups that would have been much more difficult otherwise.  It also allowed me to almost be in two places at once - about halfway through the weekend I discovered the value of Twitter hashtags - so when I couldn’t get into a panel on wireframing I chose another but kept an eye on the Tweet-stream for the wireframing panel (all tweets by people in the audience for that panel who included the hashtag).  Obviously it wasn’t as good as being there and watching Twitter distracted me from the panel I was in, but overall I felt it was an added value - especially when some of the tweets indicated that the wireframing had some technical difficulties and went into question-asking mode after only a half-hour. 

One interesting thing was that the members of the wireframing panel were also watching their tweet-stream and were getting and responding to audience feedback in real time.  I’ll bet more of that will happen in the future - possibly even the audience questions will only be asked via Twitter vs. the open microphone and the opportunity it presents for verbal spam instead of true questions.

EE2.0
OK - now that you’ve completely skipped down to this point we can talk about EE2..;)  I’m sure the folks at EllisLab will post a writeup with more complete information—but in the meantime here’s what I took away (in no particular order).

One caveat before going on however—I don’t intend this post to turn into a “tell me more about X” or “did it also have Y” type discussion.  Please save those type of followup questions for the EE forums in response to the more official announcements.

• New field types: File and Number
• Centralized file management with integrated photo editor.
• Images placed in via filmstrip-looking interface (people said more like Wordpress).
• Gallery will be going away as a module, gallery-specific functionality will be in the weblog/channel module instead.  Upgrade process will convert existing galleries over.
• Trackbacks probably not there by default but probably available as a module.
• New CP item - Accessories.  These will be a way to add items to the Control Panel - such as contact info, links to screencasts, online manuals, etc.  Pretty much anything you can build as HTML.
• Templates as flat files will save out with correct file extensions.
• Templates created at file level will be automatically generated within control panel.
• CP Publish/edit screen highly customizable, drag and drop field layout, re-arrange per tab, create new tabs.  Layouts will be member group specific so you can have different from clients.
• Overall the re-organization of the CP should save much developer time in the mundane, do everyday type activities.

I’m sure I’m missing quite a bit - but definitely some stuff there to be excited about.

Edit to add: I know there is a great demand out there for more information about EE2 - but I have to both give credit and ask for some patience for the EllisLab folks.  Imagine yourself with four back to back client meetings everyday where you had to show what you had been working on for the last year and field all the questions and concerns.  Now do that for four days straight and throw in some late-night activities as well as hosting your own party in the middle of all of it.  The EL folks were working hard and looking & sounding quite ragged by the end of it all.  I’ve never seen a software company use this approach to engage with it’s users and I found it quite refreshing and an indicator of why I like working with these guys so much.  So cut ‘em some slack, let them get caught up on family time and sleep, and I’m sure they’ll be back with some good info for us all…;)

Pinewood Derby
Which brings me to the Pinewood Derby - which was the reason I had to leave SXSW on the day I did.  I have a boy and girl and they are part of a Cadets and Gems program through the neighborhood church.  Both groups do a classic Pinewood derby where the kids each make a car starting from a standard kit of parts.  The kids actually do most of build - cutting out the shapes, sanding and some painting. The cars then come home for final detailing and assembly.  My kids both did well - my son excelled at being graceful while not placing (there are lots of boys his age and they are highly competitive), and my daughter swept the local church event and the regionals in the “best of show” category where the cars are judged on appearance.  Pictured is her winning Hersey-Bar car.  So I am now on the hook for a new display shelf where cars and trophies can be prominently displayed….

Here’s the essential gist of it - I sort of know the brand image that I want to project, but am curious what message people have been actually getting.

So - if you are reading this and so inclined, leave a comment that answers the following:

1. Relationship (how you know me).
2. Time Known
3. Three adjectives you would use to describe me.

Thanks in advance!

1. I typically hate memes like “25 Random Things”. I usually blow them off but have enjoyed learning more about people I’ve friended so now feel guilty enough to respond. However I won’t tag 25 other people.

2. I’m neither an introvert nor an extrovert. I’m just a vert.

3. I was tongue-tied until the age of 9. I literally could not stick out my tongue because there was a piece of skin connecting the end of it to the bottom of my mouth. I was getting a physical to go to church camp when the Dr. came across it. He checked my enounciation by having me say the word “Methodist”. I spoke fine, but decided to cut it loose anyway. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a odd feeling. I’m sure my brother and sister were quite impressed with my new tongue-sticking-out abilities.

4. I’m an oddball PC user in a field saturated with Mac users. It’s more lazyiness than anything - I’ve used Windows for years, it doesn’t bother me, it’s actually pretty reliable. The other factor is just money - every time I need to buy a new computer I just can’t bring myself to pony up the money for a Mac. There are few things more boring to me than Mac vs. PC discussions.

5. I’m just about totally sports-illiterate. I grew up in a house where sports weren’t watched so just never got into it. I had a brief interest when I was about 10 - but once I found out that the “local” teams were made up of players who weren’t local I just didn’t see the point. I often marvel at the amount of time and money that is spent on sports, and wonder what a better world we could live in if that money was spent on science and research instead.

6. Showing His wonderful sense of humor, God has gifted me with a 12 year old son who has turned into a complete sports (and sports trivia) nut. I am constantly barraged with facts about games and players I know nothing about, could care less about, and am left trying to figure out the proper response.

7. I have intentionally run red lights in the small hours of the morning when I was the only one out - feeling both guilty for doing so and angry at the fact that traffic lights aren’t smart enough yet to automatically adapt themselves to changing traffic patterns (or at the city people who won’t spend the money on them).

8. I once rolled a Jeep on a mountain trail at 12,000 feet in Colorado. I was making a tough climb and the engine stalled. I had wet brakes so I started going backwards. There were other Jeeps behind me on the trail and in trying to avoid them I turned too quickly and went over 1 1/4 times. I was not injured and we got the Jeep flipped back up, reseated two tires, topped off the oil and drove it back to camp.

9. When I was 16 I passed the testing required to get an Amateur Radio License. As a reward I was offered the choice between a portable ham radio, or a motorcycle. I took the ham radio.

10. I have a terrible memory for street and highway names. I live in the town where I grew up and still can’t give good directions. However once I’ve driven a route I can usually find it again if need be.

11. I have almost a photographic musical memory - in that if I hear the first couple beats of song I know I can quickly tell you what it is and who did it. However if another artist covers the song or it’s re-arranged slightly I won’t have a clue. My wife’s abilities are just the opposite.

12. I was one of the first three kids in my high school with a computer at home (TRS-80). Because I could do the classwork at home I goofed off in class. However I knew more than the instructor and we both knew it. He gave me a C - and it was the only time I recall getting my parents involved to change a grade. He was supposed to move it to a B.  When report cards came out he hadn’t, I didn’t fight it again, and it ended up costing me a gold cord graduation. It seemed important at the time.

13. A couple of years ago I taught myself to weld.

14. I take alot of pictures.

15. I have won awards at the local fair for some of those photos, and for a sculpture that I welded together.

16. My wife and I enjoy being quietly counter-cultural. We homeschool our two kids, I work at home, and my wife does not work outside the home. We don’t watch broadcast TV or radio - we got tired of being advertised to so much, tired of how the popular media takes pot shots at our faith, and tired of the inane way it portrays men in general.  We do watch movies and listen to a lot of music - but it’s of our choosing and on our schedule. We live in a modest house and (other than the Jeep which is a summer toy) share a 13 year old full size station wagon. We’ve tried very hard to simplify our lives and own less stuff and have found it to be freeing. We get a kick out of being out with our kids and having people ask “Shouldn’t you be in school” and having the kids answer “We are - and you’re talking during class”. Weeell…ok..so that last part is a joke we keep private…but we’re sure tempted.

17. The year I turned 40 (last year), I wrote a book and started a 2nd business that has been successful way beyond my expectations. It will be a tough year to beat.

18. Based on the experience of writing that book, I’m convinced that the traditional publishing model is broken for small-run technical books, and in the future authors will act as general contractor for their own books, hiring graphical artists and editors while remaining more in control of the final product (and earning more money from them).

19. I was once asked to leave a programming job because I was really excited about this new technical development, and thought we should learn more about it and try to do business using it. The development was called “the Internet”, and the owner didn’t get it. Within a year after leaving that job the business was gone.

20. I have done work for every former boss/employer going back 15 years (including the one in # 19).

21. My first job was catching chickens at a chicken farm, pulling them from cages and putting them in carts in which they were shipped off the a soup factory.

22. Other jobs over the years: McDonalds, bus-boy, roofing, siding, putting up TV antennas (including tower work), selling consumer electronics, Production Assistant at a TV news station, True Green driver, and newspaper delivery boy (not in that particular order).

23. I went to my future father in law’s 40th birthday party while dating my future wife. I was around over 20 at the time, and my wife is older than I am.

24. I am not one of those guys who knows how many miles are on the current set of tires, or how many miles the last set went. I also don’t know at any given moment the MPG the car is getting or how long until the next oil change.

25. I have an older brother and a younger sister. We were the first generation on either side to go to college. My father and forefathers were all blue collar workers, manual laborers, farmers, or skilled tradesmen. I feel incredibly blessed to do the work I enjoy and to be self employed. When I get frustrated with my work I always take time to reflect that I get to work at home, choose my projects, set my own hours, sit in a comfortable chair, in a room with windows, with music playing and fresh coffee at hand.