I woke up this morning at 6am to the sound of my Nokia N900 alarm, still searching for a sim card in this new old American land. While we were spending the last month in India between our most recent life in London and our new life in the Bay Area, we spent a week in a small coastal spot in the state of Kernataka called Gokarna.

While the rest of our month was filled with Mumbai chaotic excitement, motorcycles through Hampi boulders and temples, and family time in Kerala, our week in Gokarna was kind of like an extended New Years Day of resolutions and visions for 2010. We also spent time over four days practicing a morning ritual that will become a key part of our 2010 back in the United States.

When I reflected on the last few phases of my adult life since college, I saw that while I have been someone with strong vision and ideas for the future, my 7 years in Brooklyn and 3 years in London haven't seen much actual progress on putting finishing polish on any of ideas or creative work.

Especially during in my time at R/GA in London, I gave most of my waking energy to work and projects with clients and colleagues on the global Nokia Account. I don't regret the time I dedicated toward promoting the online & mobile launch event Rihanna Live for example, but at times it felt like I misplaced part of my soul at home.

There are words, music and images that I have been gathering on my journey over the last 10 years, stories that I feel compelled to share, applications that I want to create. And instead of pretending that I will work on these projects when I get home at night, with my head full of the inevitably chaotic day, I have decided that I will be keeping the clearest part of the day for myself and my priorities. I will be "choosing the morning."

So good morning to a great 2010 here in the Bay Area. Good afternoon to folks in London and good evening to those out in Mumbai and Singapore. I look forward to sharing some of these words and images and stories in the coming days and weeks and months. Now onto sit ups and push ups before breakfast.

The first ones were pretty random, like the first, Thunder Bay Flyover.

Then, a few months ago, I got a pretty interesting one where user comments were upset cause the song was used on top of a popular video from one of their favorite artists. The users of course weren't that happy, but it was interesting to see some of the comments were positive about the song.

Then today I realized did a search and realized that the song had been used a lot, so did a search on youtube for "Destination Non-Specific" and it came up about 50 results on Youtube.

When I was browsing, I noticed a user named annamaisa had even made an actual music video for the song, and it's actually pretty beautiful (and viewed over 10,000 times). See here.

Overall, people continue to validate my belief that many of us are living in the emerging gift economy. While I still have not leveraged any my life long social capital for actual tangible cash capital, I think that day might be coming soon.

Thanks all for the collaboration. Let's keep building the new economy. Check out "350 Make a Choice" from MuskokaDreamscape, which uses an alionsonny remix of my CCmixter track Everyday Choices to promote 350.org's climate action campaign.

With 172 names suggested and 1,192 votes cast over the 48 hour session, it was an amazing experience that put vastly more energy towards launching this venture than I could have ever put in alone.

When I first received word about the three winners, I was a little shocked (Loud Sauce and seedjar seemed completely random). But after writing some draft proposals using the name LoudSauce, and hearing back from some of you in my larger community, I am starting to seriously consider it.

Not only is it a great first story to begin a venture rooted in trust in the participation of the crowd (and a name submitted by one of my current Nokia clients), but it may be a name that designers may find interesting potential in exploring a brand identity (more on that in later emails). Let me know if you feel strongly that it works or doesn't work.

Lastly, please join me online for feedback and discussion, as I will continue posting refined versions of the vision and plan for the venture: for starters at the Global Social Benefit Incubator and the Changemakers.net Power of Us Competition.

I hope you will continue to spread the word and share your thoughts via email or the comments below. Enjoy this amazing week for the world honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the new leadership in the United States.

Using their own money or credits through viewing partner ads, crowds vote with their dollars to fund strategic ads that promote products, companies, and causes that they believe in. Users collaborate to push video and banner campaigns through dynamic Ad serving networks to the front pages of major media outlets online (and eventually offline). Media is only bought if the money is raised, and users see the difference they've made through analytics, with an incentive to invest in more campaigns to help build a sustainable culture and economy.

Important themes: open innovation, crowdfunding, radical transparency, measuring social and eco progress.

Useful metaphors: (1) Youtube + Kiva + Google Adwords. (2) like CarrotMob for Advertising. (3) A MoveOn.org Ad platform for everyone.

Suggest a name or follow progress at:
http://tinyurl.com/axjnkw

]]> 2009-01-10T13:36:18Z 2009-01-10T13:34:35Z tag:www.activefreemedia.com,2009://1.343 2009-01-10T13:34:35Z

Personally:

Looking back through my iPhoto collection over the last year, I was struck by two things.

1. First, the sheer quantity of places I had traveled in the last year: from the snow in upstate NY, a ski trip to the Alps near Geneva, a Brit/Turkish wedding in Istanbul, a week in Berlin (my new favorite European city), a summer in London, an adventure to Tanzania including a seemingly near death moment on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a musical wedding and look forward in San Francisco, not to mention numerous trips to Helsinki and NY.

2. I was struck by how disconnected I felt to the places and people in my life, especially some of the people I care most deeply about. Not only have I not shared many of the photos via Flickr or Facebook (why isn't there a better Flickr app for Facebook?), but also, in a year of typing on laptops and sharing via mobile phone,my shoulders felt the aches of a hunched back, my eyes and brain experienced the pains of screen fatigue, and my relationships felt as scattered as the 300+ 'friends' on facebook.

I seriously am starting to question the value of our evolution towards quickness of information, and wonder if I have actually appropriately digested this year. (Now after a week in a lake house with ongoing conversation, as well as slideshow of images, about the year with my close family, and without access to mobile or internet access, I have definitely digested a bit more).

Professionally:

The year of 2008 was my first full year behind the for-profit firewall, and I think it has taken it's toll. As those of you who know me beyond my time at R/GA, I am a full time sharer who believes in and practices the value of open thought and collaborative process. While my current employer also theoretically believes in the same, the reality of signing Non-Disclosure Agreements with global brands nervous about trade secrets and yet to be announced products creates an awkward situation that I don't think I've managed very well personally.

I want to be able to share the collaborative story both inside and outside the firewalls of my office and the offices of my clients, to connect people, resources, and inspiration to leverage our collective attention and culture to change the world for the better. I want to be more specific about what I intend to do, without leaving my job and my clients. I go into the holidays unsure of how that will play out in 2009.

Worldly:

Being based out of London in 2008, I generally felt a little disconnected to the events in the United States. However, while I mostly 'watched' the events of the presidential and congressional election, I was proud to have close friends with shared political history who worked on the ground to bring about the election of Barack Obama as the President of the United States.

Beyond that campaign, 2008 witnessed additional breakthroughs in awareness and interest in sustainable living, with nearly every major publication online and off dedicating at least one 'green' issue to the cause. Despite the growth in awareness and interest, and a general shy away from gas guzzlers due to the increase in oil prices, life continued pretty much as it has for the last century, with the quantity of plastic waste flowing nicely every time I bought pretty much anything. In the UK, some noted improvements were moves away from plastic bags and Pret-A-Manger's innovative inspiration for waste disposal in store.

Looking forward to 2009 and 2010

I predict that 2009 and 2010 will be the years that the leading cultures in the United States, Europe, and possibly in India, China, and Brasil, will struggle to realize the tangible shift in behavior required to make the necessary transformation of manufacturing and waste cycles. Despite the large scale events like Katrina, the fact is that most of us haven't yet felt the impact of our personal choices. Therefore, I personally will be contributing to the evolution by using digital media and data visualization to put powerful mirrors up to our choices (including my own) in order to cause the breakthroughs in behavior.

I also predict that from the ashes of the Economic breakdown, we will see the rise of one or two major new brands by the end of 2009 or mid 2010, in the like of the early days of Microsoft or Google, that will leverage the economic and ecological cost effectiveness of the Cradle to Cradle manufacturing model. Hopefully, that company's innovations will be able to be applied to revitalized transport industry and energy sector that will seriously challenge and inspire the likes of General Motors, Toyota, British Petroleum and Shell.

Colin Mutchler is one of the original CC success stories. Back in 2003, he posted his song, My Life, to Opsound under a CC BY-SA license. A month later a violinist name Nora Beth added a violin track, calling the new work My Life Changed. It was one of the first instances of CC facilitating unsolicited collaboration, laying the ground work for the amazing remix culture we have seen develop over the past 5 years. Mutchler has since expanded his resume, working on photography and media production as well as his music. We caught up with him recently to find more about what he has been up to since we last checked in - needless to say, it has been a while.

Our phone conversation, recorded back July through FreeConference.com (unfortunately the quality of the audio is less than ideal), covers some of his background working with the Barack Obama campaign on the ground in North Carolina, and why he thinks that the approach of the campaign, if successful, may result in more long term participation than previous campaigns.

Download from the podcast.

Photograph "Thinking Obama" thanks to cfrye6395 via Creative Commons Search.

Oxford Saïd Business School: Skoll Scholar wins Saïd Prize