rxdxt

On Vox: Kidnapped!

So there I was, minding my own business in London, preparing for my vacation next week on the Amalfi Coast and my friend Arturo Artom, from Italy, who is also the CEO of Your Truman Show Leaves me a Spinvox message that he's going to be in London and would love to have dinner with my wife and I. Arturo is Italian and wonderful and we had some business to discuss about the new firm so I agreed also, i have recently agreed to sit on the board of this new company so it would give us some time to share my thoughts and feedback on their early beta and next steps to build and grow the platform and business.

Arturo is Italian, did I mention that? So we have food, lovely conversations, quite focused on The Truman Show, which is a video blogging platform company, based in Italy with offices in Silicon Valley. Ever since we started chatting about it back in the day I've been intrigued by the concept. Also, as many of you know, I did, with my wife Tavin, produce the 1st and in so far as I know, ONLY feature film featuring Video Blogging (Vlogging) On_line. If you haven't seen it I heartily recommend it. (available for purchase from Amazon or online on Vongo!).

On_line

Ok Vlogging, so some of you, mostly those closer in age to me or older are thinking, I DON”T GET IT.  Well, I hate to tell you, we likely won’t.  But to the next generation and to my daughters, video and computers are a way of thinking, communication and expression. Isabella always wants to video chat with grandmas (one of three) at bedtime and skypes me every night when I travel.  To them this will be even more natural than typing for those of us from the soon-to-be-anachronistic age of typing. 

More importantly, and this is what excites me about Your Truman Show, I think the art of personal story telling is nascent on the internet and Lonelygirl15 and if you go back even to the dark ages when I was a wee lad in the New Media business to The Spot, people LOVE to watch other peoples lives unfold. The site gives it’s audience the opportunity to tell THEIR story, and has a powerful and unique set of tools to allow others to watch, participate, judge, review and share. Interestingly I think in many ways this phenomena is just at it’s nascent beginning.

0;">Now, back to my story, so Arturo is VERY persuasive and charming when he wants to be, actually all the time. He says to me, Richard, you know a lot of these people at Digital Hollywood yes? (I say of course, having hooked him up to appear at and sponsor the event with Victor a few weeks before) He says, it’s too bad you aren’t going, I think it would be fun to have you there! I say, yes, it’s too bad, but I’m off on Vacation on Friday and it’s kind of a crazy week. The conversation devolves some how… the last thing I remember was going to sleep and I woke up, on a plane, over the Atlantic, somehow having agreed to JOIN he and his wife, Giulia on this whirlwind trip to Digital Hollywood for the launch of Your Truman Show… He is truly an amazing entrepreneur.  The show has been great, it’s been great to see old friends and get a taste of what’s happening back here on this side of the pond. More importantly the response to Your Truman Show (see techcrunch here) has been phenomenal and I’m excited to see what happens next.

<

Back to tonight, then off to San Felice Circeo.  I think I’ll have to improve my Italian, any suggestions?

Originally posted on rxdxt.vox.com

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On Vox: My travel map - new and improved...

ok so after i did that other one, I discovered this one - which is better. Also, it's easier to update. I do think I might need to do a motorcycle trip through the Caucauses or in Africa!

Originally posted on rxdxt.vox.com

The Green Thing...

So last night, at the invitation of the CEO of SpinVox (which, btw if you haven't tried it is simply the most important and useful new technology I've stumbled on since the blackberry - Voice to screen - with the 1st killer application emailing me perfectly transcribed voice mails with smart text phone numbers in them.)  I attended the launch of an environmental non-profit here in the UK called The Green Thing. It's founded by a couple of chaps from the advertising business including Andy Hobsbawm who founded my old nemesis Agency.  (razorfish and agency were the Hatfield's and Mccoys of the old interactive agency days.)

The event was lovely, great food, good conversation.  The ask wasn't too harsh and I felt these were people who really want to make a difference.  The idea is quite simple really - build a set of small, viral, jib jab style vignettes (website, emails videos, etc.) which encourage people to do one "green" thing a month. Like walking instead of driving for instance.

What I found most fascinating was in chatting with various folks at the event how knowledgeable people in Europe are about the topic of climate change compared to the US.  I'm going to try and help them in a few ways including arranging a benefit screening of Who Killed the Electric Car? I did meet a chap in the electronics refurbishing and recycling business who was lovely - and has a VERY interesting business model.

As I start to build my UK network I find its both simple and challenging. People are quite welcoming and interesting, but I don't seem to be communicating for some reason that I really am looking for a job.  Is it really so hard to imagine that I just might want to get re-engaged in something to do which is NOT of my own initial construction?

I still think that in the perfect world, I'd start an early or mid-stage VC fund. But my sense is that I don't quite have the profile to do this yet. Over the past three weeks I've met with 20-30 entrepreneurs and found easily 8 companies I would have invested in if I was on that track.  London is a fascinating place and I'm still in love with it.

 

Globalization - repost from Vox

So just about every day I read something about Globalization. Here in the UK it's almost always negative.

I find this so strange from a country whose massive colonialism and it's impact on the world are largely
responsible for much of what we now negatively associate with the concept. (before you rant, please note I'm talking historical precedent here not currently - the US definitely owns that position of honor.)

My feelings about Globalization are largely mixed. On the one hand I love to travel, and enjoy nothing more in the world than landing/wandering/getting lost and ending up in a town without one multinational advertisement or retail establishment. It doesn't happen often, the last time was deep in northern Romania - but when it does it's magic. So I guess you could say emotionally I'm with the anti-Global's; the world is a better place when we spend in our communities, use less fossil fuel and preserve our culture.

Except that it's not. One of the amazing things about technology, progress and innovation is the shrinking of the planet. The fact that I have been able to travel to all of the countries on the map above is the direct result of this. So I'm troubled. On the one hand my personal carbon footprint due to my traveling around the world is definitely larger than usual. Especially since my days as a roadie I've personally mixed up some foreign cultures between my music & film work and I know I've been responsible for the metaphorical cultural cross-pollination that naturally occurs.

But, and maybe it's because I'm mostly white (though not as much as you all might think), male, middle-aged and American that I think this is a good thing - but I still think it is. Trade, for the most part, is good - if it's Fair Trade. Cultural interchange has brought us the blues, reggae & dub and for that matter most of the great art of the 21st century.

In business terms, most of the wealth, success and happiness attributed to progress have to do with globalization and it's ability to open new markets and expand existing ones. I think most of the anti-globalization folks are off the mark - they should be screaming about sustainability. They should be yelling about free markets and fair trade (eliminating subsidies, corruption and increasing open markets, while rewarding sustainable business activities. In short, to borrow from Google. They should be demonstrating with signs that read "Don't be evil"

As long as we're conducting ourselves sustainably, I can't see the issue. More importantly, I think globalization is inevitable. We live in a smaller world, we've already met each other. We're going to fuck, trade, fight, innovate, steal, and love - lets just do it for the better good; with an eye to leaving the world a better place than we found it.

Next post will be less ranty - this is copied from my personal blog - which is here:

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A new day, a new blog

Hello all. I've been experimenting with various blog platforms with a goal of finding a personal one and a professional one where I can post once and share portions with the public. I've settled on Vox for personal purposes and we'll give this a try for business.