music ... technology ... society ... power!

the following is a little recap, a day in the life of me and my small contribution to helping make a wish.

i love socially enabling technology. i love tunes. i find creative environments extremely enabling. when these interests intersect there is nothing quite like it, except for when they cummulate for a societal cause, where individual goals are set aside for the greater good. that is when something rare and magical happens. something i recently got to experience first hand.

a month or so back, during the holiday break, i received what looked to be an interesting spam email. to my company address no less which suprised me as those folks who manage the email services do a stellar job at keeping the noise out of my box. thank you a thousand times over. the email subject, bono's wish. intrigued, i gave it a once over. the message was from folks i knew. ok. short and to the point. hmmmmmm. ponder. close email and play with my son for a bit, priorities after all. after coming back and reading the email again, hours later, it started to sink in. this is real and could be fun, unique and of immense personal interest, long term. in a word, an amazing opportunity.

after dispatching a reply email ensuring the request was indeed intended for me i proceeded to contact the players, bob, chris and seth ... all great folks that i hope to meet in person one day. the objective, help bono with a wish. what an amazing opportunity. utterly cool.

a couple of weeks passed by where "we four" hashed out ideas with no literal barriers. good times. the objective, provide a societal good by melding technology with culture and artistry. the venue, concerts. the ultimate brew for a maximumal creative outlet. yeah baby! my perspective throughout this stage of the project was purely that of a concert goer and wanting to participating in something that was organic, natural and, well, cool. something i have actually thought about whilst sitting (not smoking) on the grass at shoreline waiting for the starting act to hit the stage. how could i be a part of the event.

after itterating through a round of hand waving and the like and formulating a clear goal in mind taking into consideration the associated dates, et al we needed to "make it real, make it happen." i knew we had all the necessary assets and the overall alignment was spot on mutually beneficial. having worked at sun for awhile i've seen and have participated in these types of impossible tasks before so i "wasn't afraid of what i didn't know." i've been called a "stress junkie" in the past which is a label i will not shun. different is good. status quo sucks.

at this point life is pretty good. now it is time to pony up. we need to connect the dots. having zero salesman (which is a field i respect) genes in my blood i take it quite personal regarding my commitment to projects i am involved with, be it personal or professional. my word is my word. thx mom! this one, though, i couldn't do it alone. feeling optimistic knowing there was no way we would let this one slip us by. not from a corporate perspective. not from a technology perspective. not from a humanitarian perspective. but, we still needed to "make it real." the dream needed to take root, grow and create new dreams in return. it needed to be planted. in just the right way. in just the right sunny spot. and time is running out which, btw, never bothers me as for most projects i work on there are 2 givens: there is never enough time and not enough people. small teams rock! ok. who can help? who can work it? dispatch emails. call. call people i have never met. walk the hall. folks are jazzed but everyone is understandably busy but the opportunity is right there. i can feel it. we can do this. ok, you get the idea, i sweated a bit towards the end till one day when i was chatting with my blog sista mary about a little idea i've been playing through when she mentioned something to the effect "hey, i'm going to help you with the ted project." i was floored! huge smile. it is going to happen. yes!

mary dove in hard and drove it even harder. bird-dogged it as one colleague puts it to which i whole heartedly and affectionately concur. she rallied together just the right team of folks. it began to take shape. it is happening. it is real. all the while quite rewarding on many dimensions.

it is amazing to work with creative folks regardless of how long or what the surroundings. i always learn from the experience and learning is what makes life worth living. creative people always do what's right and welcome nothing less. for me, it is the journey that makes the experience not the destination. as such, i always strive to travel with creative types when possible. makes the journey all the more interesting. this little journey of late, well, was quite unlike any other and very memorable. now, how about a 2.0? let's really push the envelope. what do you say :)

MyJXTA :: use it - learn it - do it

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: U2/Achtung Baby/One