Sanibel Journal

MP3 version of this week's podcast.

On June 10, 2008, the day after Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 3G, I attended a meeting of the Boston PDA User Group (BOSPDAUG) at MIT, where the next iPhone was Topic Number One among the developers and users in attendance. After the meeting, I interviewed the group's founder, Al Willis, who spoke about the iPhone in China, Apple's stock price, and when I'll be able to sync my Getting Things Done (GTD) lists between my Mac and my iPhone. (Answer: soon!) Music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig, and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

I visited the Libertarian Party national convention this past weekend in Denver. On Sunday night I spoke with Bob Sullentrup, who the next morning was reelected national party secretary. On Monday I returned in time to catch one of the candidates for national chair, Ernest Hancock, and in the hallways I spoke with several delegates who freely expressed their love of freedom, small government and low taxes. I found it invigorating to be among people who hold their beliefs so passionately. It was a refreshing break from the never-ending horserace between my candidate, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, with John McCain waiting in the wings. The full video of my interview with Bob Sullentrup is available here.

A terrific group effort by arts organizations attending the Marketing Tune-Up workshop in Great Falls, Montana. Thank you all!

On May 13, 2008 I gave a talk on podcasting at the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. Just as we were getting started, my host Beth Dunn of the Foundation spotted smoke coming out of an electrical outlet. Thus began an even more exciting evening than the one we'd planned. A Delicious list of tags for the talk is here.Thanks to Beth's quick working of her local network, she found alternate space for my presentation at the Cape Cod Community College. The MacBook Air was not playing nicely with the college's AV system, so as the audience made its way into the new venue, I quickly transfered my presentation to the trusty MacBook Pro I brought along as a backup.

Chris Lopez, communications director for the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee, spoke with me two days ago about preparations for the Democratic National Convention August 25-28 in Denver. He's got a big job, coordinating an expected 15,000 or so journalists who will cover what he calls the Superbowl of Politics. Our conversation provided an intriguing look inside the massive effort going on here in Denver to get ready for an historic event.

This is the mp3 version of Episode 56, Pianocaster Mario Ajero.

Republican Albert Maruggi, founder of Provident Partners and host of the Marketing Edge podcast, and Democrat Kesler Woodward, a renowned painter friend of mine from Fairbanks, Alaska, responded to my Twitter invitation today and gave their takes on Barack Obama's speech yesterday on race relations. Albert mentioned the New Communications Forum April 22-25, 2008 at The Vineyard Creek Inn & Spa in Sonoma County, CA. Check out Kes's art and accounts of his creative process here.I'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to leave an audio comment at 206-339-4717. Or e-mail me at PodChronicles@gmail.com.Music for the podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

My wife and I drove from Denver to the Panhandle of Texas to help out with the Obama campaign. This episode contains interviews at the watch party last night and some observations of where things stand the morning after. We leave as soon as I get this podcast finished for the long ride home.

Video evangelist Steve Garfield met me this morning at Sweet Finnish at 761 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, where each month for the past two years he has hosted Boston Media Makers in a back room filled with fascinating media creators, artists, and gadget freaks who have a chance to meet and share enthusiasms and info. BMM meets the first Sunday of the month at 10 a.m. for two hours. In this interview, Steve remembers how he first got into blogging, then video blogging, a genre he pretty much invented, and now live mobile "storycasting." Steve shows how a playful, experimental, happy engagement with new technology can yield results far beyond a mere effort to "monetize" internet innovation. He does talk about the nuts and bolts of moving toward making a living in this space, as well as what he's learning right now about the new frontier of mobile live broadcasting. The music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

Last night I participated in a Democratic caucus in Denver as a Precinct Captain for Barack Obama. This podcast contains interviews with fellow caucus goers and the general sounds of a very full school auditorium My precinct, 521, went 60-40 for Obama, and Colorado gave Obama a tidy 67% share of the caucus votes. Music for the podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD. Further information at http://earthpassage.com/glacier.htm

This is an audio portrait of The Phoenix Concept, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility for homeless men. Contributions may be sent to The Phoenix Concept, 2162 Lawrence St., Denver, CO 80205. The phone number is 303-293-3620.Music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig, and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD. Please feel free to send your feedback to PodChronicles@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the show notes page.

Jerome (Jerry) Lau of Construction Support Services, Inc., in Centennial, Colorado, has spent 50 years developing expertise in hydromechanics. Jerry has never written a poem about water, but the depth of his understanding of the topic struck me as similar to the level of attention an artist must devote to his or her subject in order to succeed. He recently finished a water-leak study of our building, and this morning he spoke with me about his work. The power of his expertise means he doesn't have to advertise or market the services he and his partner provide. His customers find him by word of mouth (and the occasional podcast). If you'd like to contact him, email me at PodChronicles@gmail.com.Music for the podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.mp3 version

A special Christmas week interview with my wife, Darlene, in which we discuss strategies for spouses married to social network addicts, quilting compared with podcasting, how to live in two cities, and how to transform Christmas shopping from a form of torture into an ordinary challenge, compliments of author Harville Hendrix and the dialog technique described in his book How to Get the Love You Want. I'm a big fan of The M Show podcast featuring John Wall and the lovely Carin, his wife, so this interview is indirect homage to them.The music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

An interview in Maynard, Mass., with Randy Corke, left, president and chief marketing officer of RPM Communications, and Simeon "Sim" Margolis, co-founder of Utterz.com and head of new media at RPM. They credit Christian Burns, Eric Rice, and Chris Brogan as among the key users who helped Utterz gain impressive early success since its official launch in September. I love Utterz, because it enables me to use my iPhone to transfer immediate photos, audio, and text (and video as soon as the iPhone has it) to my blog, to Twitter, and Flickr, as well as to the Utterz website. In classic startup style, our interview was punctuated by a really loud fire alarm, due to construction in the building, but we finished the interview with a different mic and I eventually was able to find my way out of the building. Thanks to Twitterers KityKity, ConnieReece, AverageJoe, and BethDunn for great questions, not all of which I had time to use in the podcast. Sim gave shoutouts to Utterers Robert, ChrisBrogan, ThePete, iJustine, LauraBelle and Tojosan. If YOU want to be herd, check out Utterz ! You might also be interested in their related product, Foonz for easy group calls from your mobile phone.

The comment line number for my podcast has been changed to 206-350-8045. Sorry for the confusion!--Len Edgerly

An interview November 27, 2007 at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard with Nolan Bowie, senior fellow and adjunct lecturer in public policy, after a class in his course, "New Media and Democracy." Addressing issues of propaganda and the internet.

I met Paul Foley through Steve Garfield's Boston Media Makers, and today Paul joined me for a conversation about his explorations of multimedia tools and the Internet. An accomplished freelance environmental portrait photographer, Paul sees a squeeze developing in the market for such work, especially in print. In his mid-50s, he is ready to cross the digital divide into story telling through still photography, video, and audio. He's also looking to social networks such as Twitter for worldwide distribution. After our interview today at my Cambridge place, Paul e-mailed me a handsome portrait of himself that I used as the thumbnail for this episode. Music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig, and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

Loïc Le Meur, the charismatic Frenchman who is starting a video conversation startup named Seesmic, spoke with me in the hallway today at Video on the Net (VON) in Boston. Loïc explained why radical transparency in his venture is not a risk, but a competitive advantage. That's why he and his team are posting videos five times a week, showing every detail of the startup and asking for help from the approximately 2,000 people subscribed. They give lots of it. Tres interessant! The waiting list to join Seesmic stands at about 5,000 and I'm right in there, hoping to get a chance to try it out. Loïc is wisely waiting until the alpha program is well tested before opening up to everyone who is eager to join the video conversation. He says in this interview that we will only have to wait another month or two. Photo by Nate Aune. Thanks, Nate!

Veteran Podcaster Dean Whitbread, a founder of the UK Podcasters Association, was in town this weekend for Podcamp Boston 2. We met online mainly through Twitter, and I enjoy following his smart and artful blogs, The Blog of Funk and Dean Whitbread. The iTunes Music Store contains his audio podcast, the Pod of Funk, and his video podcast, deek deekster: innit, both highly recommended. He also introduced John Cleese to podcasting. All this gives Dean lots of experience in podcasting and blogging, so it was a great opportunity to learn from him.Also on this episode, I hear from Simon Young of Auckland, New Zealand, who left an audio comment at the Pod Chronicles line, 206-202-0890. Simon and his wife have a new consulting venture, iJump, helping organisations jump into the social media playground. I first heard about him in an interview he did with Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand podcast, and I was very impressed with what he had to say about different kinds of writing styles.Music is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD.

I'm glad I had a quick trip scheduled to Denver this week, because it gave me a chance to experience the stunned joy of Colorado Rockies fans looking forward to the club's first-ever World Series. I turned to two of my most baseball-savvy friends for explanations, Kes Woodward who was in town from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Michael Drummy, a longtime Red Sox fan who moved to Colorado 10 years ago. This episode has other voices, all helping tell an amazing sports story.Music is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD .

At my 30th reunion of the MBA Class of 1977 from Harvard Business School last week, I asked 13 of my classmates what was the most important thing they had learned at HBS. The answers were as varied as the people with whom I shared the B-School experience. Was it the people? Was it a way of thinking that amounts to applied common sense? All of the above and more. It was fun and enlightening to be with these folks again, and I'm grateful to everyone who spoke with me for this podcast episode. See you in 2012!

Erin Trapp, director of the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, talks about how a new cultural center could reinvigorate Denver and help establish the city's claim as the Creative Capital of the West, as Mayor Hickenlooper likes to say. In this interview in Erin's office today, I learned some things I didn't know about the historic Carnegie Library/McNichols Building, where a cultural center might be created in Civic Center Park. The Audio Pod Chronicles theme music is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD

Rob Simon, the founder 30 years ago of Denver's well-known alternative weekly, Westword, has in the past few years turned his creativity and entrepreneurial talent toward podcasting. His company, BurstMarketing, created the impressive Cherry Creek Arts Festival podcast and continues to help business clients find solutions in podcasting. In this interview on Sept. 4, 2007, at Common Grounds Coffee Shop at Wazee and 17th Streets in Denver, he talked about what makes a successful podcast and about what he's looking for in the podcasting contractors whom he's hiring to help keep up with the opportunities. Special thanks to Twitter friends Goldiekatsu and Genuine for suggesting questions to ask Rob!

Yesterday I took Amtrak's Downeaster from Boston to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, hoping to capture words and sounds reflecting my lifelong love of trains. I also hoped I'd find someone to interview. Enter Peter McHugh. I think you'll enjoy his story.Flickr photo by Eric Olson (username: broccolbee) "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD

August 4, 2007 was the 46th birthday of Barack Obama, and the New Hampshire campaign celebrated with a canvass in several cities. I answered the call to go to Portsmouth, where I spent four hours in very hot weather knocking on doors in nearby Dover. My partner was Will Gattis of Falmouth, Maine, who happens to be a terrific singer-songwriter, as well as a young man who believes Obama is a dream candidate who just might change the country. You can hear "Christopher," Will's song that closes the podcast, and several others at his MySpace page .

Via phone, I caught up last night with Baratunde Thurston, a Boston-based writer, comedian and vigilante pundit whom I first met on Twitter . It turns out that Baratunde and I share a couple of common experiences, more than twenty-five years apart in Cambridge. In this interview, he talks about his personal history, his approach to comedy, his podcast, Twitter, and the recent Democratic presidential debate.Intro and outro music from "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD. Used by permission.

I'm at a board meeting of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) in Northampton, Mass., where today we focused on the organization's new Native Arts program to support Native American artists in New England and across the country. I was struck by the role arts and culture have played in preserving the identity of native people through centuries of incredible hardship. Before dinner, I interviewed Pamela Kingfisher of LarsonAllen, who is working with the Ford Foundation to help create an entirely new national foundation to support native arts. In this episode, she provides some context and emphasizes the importance of the New England initiative, also supported by the Ford Foundation. Background music is taken from the live performance before dinner by Thawn Harris and his wife Elanor Dove Harris, members of the Narraganset tribe in Rhode Island.

I think I've uncovered something that connects Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, in an odd sort of way. I'm an unabashed Obama backer, but I am also intrigued by Romney. This episode contains excerpts of a huge conference call with Obama, as well as Romney on Leno and a famous quote from Romney's father, George.(Note: Despite what I say in the audio, this is Episode 36)

Last week I attended my 35th reunion of the Harvard College Class of 1972. It was a lively, poignant event which featured an address by the school's most successful dropout, a reminder by the Rev. Peter Gomes that we are a community of the living and the dead, an anti-war ditty, real good music by Livingston Taylor, and a classmate's words of wisdom at the final brunch in Eliot House.

http://www.maho.org/Tomorrow morning I leave for St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to spend two weeks with my wife and her family at Maho Bay Camps. It's a very rustic setting, and I've decided it's not worth the hassle to try and keep to my weekly podcast schedule while I'm there. So I'll be back with the podcast in early June.

This evening at the Plus Gallery at 2350 Lawrence St., Denver, three artists gave talks about their work, and afterward I spoke with gallery owner Ivar Zeile about how he groups artists in a show and what he hopes to hear in Artists' Talks. The artists were Bruce Price, John McEnroe, and Evan Colbert.

At the Salt Lake City Airport before flying home to Denver, I begin a recap of the presentation I gave today at the Mountain West Conference on the Arts. My talk was titled "What the Heck is Web 2.0 and Can It Save the Arts?" The room was filled to overflowing, about 60 people, and they seemed to enjoy the tour I took them on of seven sites showing new ways the internet is being used to connect people. I hope lots of seeds were planted that may help arts organizations leaders and artists at the conference experiment with these new capabilities. I'm exhausted after a short night last night, and I can relate to the little girl crying in the background here in Terminal 2.I have links to the seven web sites I presented here. And here are another seven I didn't have time to discuss.

After Mike Daisy's powerful one-man show, "Monopoly" last night at the Zero Garden Street Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., I spoke with him briefly about how he came to be fascinated with inventor Nicola Tesla, and I found out he makes none of his material up, including inside stories from his friend Ray who works at Microsoft. "Monopoly" continues for three more shows, followed by a final monology, "Tongues Will Wag," Daisy's take on pets, to be performed Tuesday May 8. Highly recommended!

Drawing on examples from Adam Curry, David Allen and Adam Weiss, I arrive at five rules for good podcast interviews. Tim Donovan of Mowhawk Shade & Blind Co. in Cambridge was here at the house while I worked on the podcast, and he agreed to an interview. This gave me a chance to practice my new rules!

Leaders of the six regional arts organizations in the U.S. gathered during the past two days at the Admiral Fell Inn, in Baltimore, for a planning meeting led by Toby Herzlich of Santa Fe. This podcast episode comprises thoughts about the future by the executive directors of the RAOs, in this order: David J. Fraher, Arts Midwest; Alan W. Cooper, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; Gerri Combs, Southern Arts Federation; Mary Kennedy McCabe, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Anthony Radich, Western States Arts Federation, and Rebecca Blunk, New England Federation for the Arts. Major funding for the RAOs is provided by the National Foundation for the Arts.

Yesterday I attended the first meeting of a Project Evaluation Panel at Denver International Airport, convened to guide the process of choosing three new, temporary artworks from emerging Colorado artists. Two will be on a median strip of Pena Boulevard leading to and from the airport. The other will be on a new Regional Jet Facility nearing completion on Concourse B. This podcast contains interviews with panel members after our meeting, as we took a hardhat tour of the Concourse B area.

This book review of The Laws of Simplicity by MIT professor John Maeda follows David Tames's compelling recommendation of the book at last week's Boston Media Makers meeting. I loved this book and plan to read it again and maybe again. The writing is playful and clear. The concepts are subtle and powerful. Highly recommeded. Flickr photo of John Maeda by Keith Jenkins, Picture Editor of the Washington Post.

This week I visited the corporate headquarters of Me.dium in Boulder, Colorado, and spoke with Dean Steadman, left, community management director, and Tobias Peggs, business development director. This startup is in beta, available by invitation . It adds a window to your browser that shows who else is visiting sites you might be interested in, and where you can follow them and chat online. I loved the high energy of their funky offices, filled with bicycles and more than 25 (to me) very young employees. When I suggested a photo, Dean and Tobias left the conference room to don company T-shirts, a spontaneous bit of corporate enthusiasm and pride that I never saw when I worked for a natural gas utility. Me.dium is a potent evolutionary advance for browsing the internet. When the Twitter buzz dies down, I can imagine an even bigger phenomenon: people realizing they don't have to browse the internet alone anymore. If as many people cross over as Dean and Tobias and their gang hope, one day in the foreseeable future it may well be all about Me.dium.

OK, I admit it. I'm hooked on Twitter, the deceptively simple site that asks "What are you doing?" and gives you 140 characters to answer the question. I can't help posting these microblog entries, and I look forward to receiving them from my friends on my Motorola Q phone, a steady stream of innocent little posts which delights me, especially when I hear from my "real-world" buddy Kes Woodward in Fairbanks. Others on my list include Dave Winer, Cali Lewis, Kris Krug, Will Pate, Leo LaPorte, and Stephanie Booth of Lausanne, Switzerland.Music: "Going to the Sun"on the Glacier JourneyCD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon  Link here. Used bypermission.

I've been thinking about how the internet is changing what we mean by "friend," and how technology such as podcasting makes it possible to reach out to strangers despite differences in geography, ethnicity and other ways by which we separate ourselves from others. For specifics, I turned to a new friend on the excellent Me.dium site, and to a few strangers on the Boston subway's red line this morning. Music: "Going to the Sun" on the Glacier Journey CD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon Link here. Used by permission.Photo of a Boston subway station by Michelle Barrette of Kingston, Canada, courtesy of Flickr.