The Audiorium

Dark Social

I remember those early days of the www before web crawlers. In the 1980’s we were using BBS sites like Usenet, then AOL in the early 1990’s to share links of our findings online with each other. Then in 1999 the term Web 2.0 emerged and gained a lot of exposure through Tim O’Reilly via the Web 2.0 conference in late 2004.

The radical shift that took place wasn’t so much that technology had taken a giant leap forward. It was in the way we thought about the web. Through the 2000’s the idea of ‘social media’ was coined and grew exponentially and platforms like Napster, Blogger, StumbleUpon, Wikipedia, Friendster, MySpace, then Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter came about.

Most of us now think of the internet as the platforms…

When I first came across the term “Dark Social” my imagination took me to the dark side of the force and I first thought of it like a Star Wars thing. I still do a little because the big difference from the old days to now is we mostly hang out on the platforms and they can track every detail of what we do and data mine it for profit.

Yet, that’s not my point or my axe to grind today. Dark Social means off the grid, sort of speak. We get all kinds of analysis these days about our ranking, visibility, engagement, hits, referring sites, yet this doesn’t draw a complete picture. These stats are based on our activity on the platforms yet a lot of our direct traffic and people sharing our content is still through messaging and email and can’t be measured.

A good read…

On the world wide web’s offical 20th anniversay I read a great article on The Atlantic by Alexis Madrigal:

Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong

British physicist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web at CERN in 1989. To document the project he created the world’s first website, info.cern.ch  The World Wide Web was officially 20 years old on April 30, 2013.

Check out this article on Mashable… The World’s First Website Gets Its Original Web Address Back: The Project

The Library over the River

Where else can you go fly fishing downtown? 

The Renton Community argument continues… The citizens voted overwhelmingly to keep the library right where it is, over the river. 

Update: via Twitter from @City of Renton just after my post. The library stays!

Tripping the Light Fantastic

Cedarbrook Lodge, SeaTac, Washington

I was at our company Leadership Boot Camp last week, April 11 and 12, 2013. In one of Cedarbrook Lodge’s (SeaTac, Washington) big rooms above the bar in a loft I found this beautiful Howard grand piano. It was love at first sight!

Trucks on Bellevue Way NE

Breakfast meeting at Palaminos in Bellevue… old truck on a new truck, Bellevue Way NE.

Rejection is not always a bad thing.

When I pick a topic to write about I like to do a little research before I throw it to the cyber-winds. I want to know what others are saying about the same or similar things I’m talking about. In other words, who’s collective lens am I apt to show up in.

Case in point is the title of this post: Rejection is not always a bad thing.

I did a little research on the subject and the top hits were mostly blogs about writers getting rejection letters from publishing houses, then followed rejection by lovers. The ‘lost love’ angle I naively didn’t think about. I stumbled into another universe and discovered several very gifted women who can tell a wonderful story and speak their truth with humility, insight, and humor.

I changed the title a few times to test the search results. Turning a simple little phrase that included ‘rejection’ got very different results that influenced the one I ultimately chose to use.

My topic was to share a story of rejection. One that was disappointing at first but led to inspiration and over the years a very cherished memory. One of my dreams was to create music for films. The early 80’s was a prolific period of time for me and I cranked out a lot of music. I had a list of my favorite movie directors and very systematically sent them tapes with letters on a regular basis. (I know, old school.)

Rejection takes action and it took longer back then. I delivered the communication, they got it, took a look, and got back to me. Maybe I didn’t like the answer, but something happened.

“Thank you for sending your stuff. We don’t want it, but thank you for trying.”

I’d rather get that communique than be ignored. Never knowing is a lot harder to deal with, I think.

One of my favorite film directors is Stanley Kramer. I loved so many of his movies, The Pride and the Passion (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958), On the Beach (1959), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), and of course the unforgettable It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).

Kramer moved here to the Pacific Northwest in the early 80’s and lived in Bellevue, Washington.

Don’t ask me what I was thinking. I was just a young guy in my early 30’s going for it. I sent him several of those packages and he always took the time to write me back. One day several months later his office contacted me. If I could be at a certain restaurant in Kirkland on a particular day and time, I could meet him.

When I arrived he was just finishing up a meeting at his table. I got to talk to him for about 15 minutes. A very gracious inquisitive person. We talked about film making and music, authors, actors, and living in the Pacific Northwest. He gave me encouragement and complimented my work.

I never made it to Hollywood as a film composer, but I did do the music for a few independent short films. 

I’ve smiled many times over the years about those letters and our meeting. In hindsight, my music was in all probability something he would never have used. Yet he made time for me and listened, responded, conversed and encouraged.

Rejection is not always a bad thing.

Do Not Eat This Chocolate!

A fun Sunday afternoon at Chocolopolis on Queen Anne in Seattle. This without a doubt is the hottest chocolate I have ever tasted! Yet, curiously addictive… I had to have more even after it totally took my breath away.

How will they find you?

Looking through some marketing materials from a few years ago. I used this in several of my social media conversations back in 2008 and 2009.

Created by: Janet Matzke, Tacoma, Washington.

The Family, 1936.

They moved from the coal mining camp of Newcastle to Renton in the early 30’s. This was taken circa 1936 where Grandpa George built their home on Tobin Ave behind Renton High School.