Posts tagged as:

conversation

Where does your spark come from?

by Todd Lucier on January 12, 2010

Every day presents a new opportunity to rise and make a difference for your community. But sometimes we need a little spark to start the fire.

Where does your spark come from?

Step Outside

Today, mine came when I strapped on my skis and headed out into winter under a bright blue sky. It was a breathtaking 30 minutes where I let go of all the worries, deadlines, projects, and people in my life and took time for myself. Regardless of the excitement I feel when I browse the Web, read blog posts, attend conferences or make presentations I connect more authentically to the people and projects in my life when take time to unplug and reconnect by listening to that quiet voice inside. When I put myself first, I have more patience and the ability to let go of my ego and take the time to pay attention and truly listen to others. For me, that comes when I step outside and explore the world around me.

It can be a challenge to break old habits and and take the time for yourself. It may be perceived by others as putting your needs in front of others out of self-interest. But in fact, if you can break through the inertia of procrastination and commit to giving yourself the time others may notice that you are much more present, peaceful and in touch with your humanity.

Engage with others

Another thing that inspires me is conversation. Real conversation. I often read twitter posts and stories by others, and write my own, but my absolute favourite thing is one-on-one conversations by telephone, (skype) or in person about things you and I are interested in. Comments on blog posts are nice, but meeting people who are passionate about what they do and bouncing ideas off one another is left me truly inspired. Indeed conversational relationships with people sharing ideas (without a focus on outcome) has led to the most inspiring long term relationships and the most inspiring projects I’ve ever been involved in.

It’s your turn

What are you going to do today for yourself? Stop procrastinating and take time to tend to yourself every day, not just on holidays or vacations. Do something you love. What are you passionate about?
Make an unexpected phone call. Ask someone you follow on Twitter to have a chat or invite a Facebook or LinkedIn friend for a conversation.

Keep the fire burning.

Special thanks to my twitterati for contributing their ideas for today’s blog post in one word. Heck, why don’t you invite one of them for a conversation?

@LarryChiang Unplugged
@SmallbonesShop Humanity. Community. Self-interest. Ego.
@nickwynja Challenge
@hjortur breathtaking!
@alexbainbridge procrastination. unexpected. telephone.
@wendyperrin Authenticity
@SeattleMaven Passion

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A 3 Person Video Chat: How Musicians can benefit from Web 3.0

by Todd Lucier on January 27, 2009

I have four brothers.
Each has a passion.
Here, three of us discuss the nature of the Web as it might apply to musicians.
(note: the video starts mid conversation – thinking about how a tech-literate band could connect with their fans on a whole new level using existing technology)

Let me tell you a bit about the participants:

Tom (the dude with the smart looking hat is on the left joined the conference from his home in Windsor, Ontario): Tom owns a bar in Windsor Ontario, Phog Lounge and his patrons are arts-oriented and he strives to help them understand how to use the Web. Tom has sick moves on the basketball court. Tonight, I’m skyping in to the bar to give a little presentation on screen. Tough job being the youngest of five brothers, but he leads us all doing a number of innovative things in his community including with Phog Lounge as his base:

Big Table - Got an idea? Folks in Windsor don’t keep it to themselves, they bring it to Phog Lounge to talk about it. Tease out the details with other dreamers and them make action plans to bring big ideas to fruition. This man is a futurist. Here are a couple of recent projects:

The Big Walk – intrepid locals take to the streets for a 17 hour walk about town to discover hitherto undiscovered treasures in the community. Stories are told, Webs woven.
Broken City Brilliance – capturing and sharing video, photos and stories of the downtown and posting them on a community Google Map back at the bar
Catch Tom’s Twitter stream @phogtom to learn when Canada’s best independent acts are hitting the stage at Canada’s premier live music venue (despite seating less than 60!)

Rodd (my identical twin bother lives in Komoka, Ontario – near London, Ontario): Rodd is an educator who strives to expose teachers to the world of technology and dreams of schools that use technology to inspire the youth of this world to make their dreams become a reality. He’s currently a go-to guy working with the Ministry of Education, helping Ontario teachers understand and embrace technology. He deserves to have more time to imagine the future of education. After all, who else is doing that?

If you know an educator who want to know what promise technology has in the classroom have them follow this @CleverSheep. Listen to his podcast or read his blog at TheCleverSheep.com

Me, Well, I hope you know me by now, I’m Todd and I start off this conversation (which we started recording after about ten minutes of dialogue).

The Creative Class and the new Web

I start by describing how an independent band could make use of current technology to connect with their fans. From there, we chat about all sorts of issues including how to establish a regular bar camp to help the Arts community embrace technology.

How’d they do that?

Many people are familiar with Skype or Google Video Chat for holding video conferences. Only iChat – a Mac application enables the simultaneous sharing of three cameras and microphones. Using standard laptops and wireless Internet access we came together and let the software link us.

I recorded and edited the screen and computer audio and my camera and microphone using ScreenFlow, really neat software that is designed for use in creating on-screen demos of software applications. In post production, I mixed my camera and mic with the screen capture creating the transitions to create the final product. I took about two hours to edit the screen transitions into the final product and this was my first ever use of the software – so I think it’s pretty intuitive and powerful stuff.

To share it, I uploaded it to Blip.tv and embedded it here.

I think the current evolution we’re seeing in the Web is creating unique opportunities to have important discussion and dialogue over great distances.

If you could pull two people together that you share an affinity with and just talk about issue that matter to all of you, what kind of magic could you produce?

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