studionashvegas | design and social media

So, there’s a new Chic-Fil-A opening up down the road from my house on Thursday morning.  The first 100 people there get a voucher/card/something worth free chick-fil-a for a year.  Now, I’m not one to pass up free food, so anyone who wants to can come down and camp with me.  I’ll have my laptop and some power cables (I hope) so we can have a good ole’ time. 

By the way, at around $5 a meal, every day, that’s about 2200 worth of food.  That means that Chic-Fil-A is giving away at max $22,000 worth of good – not bad for a story that people will tell over, and over, and over to their friends, right?

So, who’s with me?

Today it was announced (and confirmed) that Jay Leno will have his show back, and that Conan O’Brien future is heretofore unknown at this point.  I’m sure there will be plenty said about it tonight on The Tonight Show, but what’s more amazing is how (even in the face of a public outcry of support) NBC made the choice to support tenure rather than talent.

Jay Leno’s time slot is failing, miserably.  In fact, most of NBC’s programming (minus Chuck and [maybe] 30 Rock) is sucking buckets this season.  So, what would the logical thing be to do?  Punish the weaker link by removing him.  But, instead, they are choosing a wild card decision to reward failure and punish the ones who actually had to work hard to get their dues.  Conan has become what this recession is all about – the average joe whose job and livelihood is at risk.

NBC is by far the shining example of the old guard that has rejected the newer models of doing thing, not just in their programming choices.  Remember when NBC pulled out of iTunes?  Pulling out of the number one digital distribution method isn’t exactly what you would call a “winner” decision.

I can only see bad things happening from this, as the masses supporting Conan O’Brien rally behind the “Ginger Warrior” and against the oppressive “man”.

What do you think?  Whether you love Conan or hate him, do you think what NBC is doing is right?  Do you see any lasting repercussions on NBC’s side from what’s happened?

I’ve been watching the twittersphere react to what NBC is doing to Conan O’Brien, and while searching around this picture seemed to come up on nearly every site (woot.com even has this image on their product of the day):

The artist is  Mike Mitchell, and you can find other work he’s done on his website

So I’ve been doing my research trying to figure out which of the two location-based metagaming services are going to come out on top.  There are two that have risen to the top of the pack: Foursquare, my first choice, or Gowalla, the Austin based startup.  Both platforms bring their own set of features to the table, and each has their pros and cons, but here’s what I’ve learned so far:

Foursquare

• it’s competitive – you score points and get on a leaderboard
• the prizes are harder to obtain – they don’t tell you up front exactly how to win badges, so unless you visit wikipedia you have to earn them blindly
• strictly business – not a lot of bells and whistles
• precise – you have to have an exact address to add a new location
• Mayorship – only one mayor per place.

Gowalla

• more dressed up – I like the interface of Gowalla better than Foursquare
• easier to obtain badges – you get stamps, stickers, items, etc for doing just about anything
• I like the item aspect – it’s cool to see who has had items, dropped them, and then claimed them and dropped them again before you came along – a sisterhood of the travelling pants sort of thing (I mean come on, how awesome is it to pick up Tacos at Swanky’s Taco Shop [purely by coincidence])
• WP-Walla (the WordPress plugin) functions nice – the WordPress foursquare plugin does not.
• Foundership – you can leave an item for free for someone to become a founder and claim that place as your own.  But then again, so can other people.

So far, I think Gowalla is winning the location-based gaming war, but I’m going to give it a fair shot (1 week) to see.  What do you guys think?  Do you have any special reasons for choosing one over the other?

Photo by Adria Richards

Holly is driving and I’m on the way back home from WordCampAtlanta (well, from staying in Montgomery with her family for a while) and I’m finally getting a chance to reflect and collect my thoughts and what I learned.  WCATL was a fantastic event, and with over 400 people there the number of people I met, saw, and interacted with is too many to put into one post (also, thanks again to everyone who dropped by my presentation – it was a good crowd and I’m glad to hear that you got something out of it!)

But, I’m the first to admit I learn something every time I head to a conference, and this time was no exception. Here are a few of the high points I learned from WordCampAtlanta:

1. WordPress 3.0 is going to be Killer!

Jane Wells (@JaneForShort) gave a fantastic presentation on the future of WordPress, and the future is looking awesome. From the WPMU + WP Merger to a new theme for 3.0, lots of exciting things are in the works.  Her slides are below:

2. The PHP and WordPress communities can learn a lot from each other.

@technosailor gave a fantastic presentation (re: lecture in a discussion-y way) on how the core communities of both the PHP world and the WordPress world could stand to play nicer to each other.  Personally, I think that the problem comes from WP people starting out in WordPress and learning PHP (top down) instead of learning PHP then jumping into WordPress (bottom up). 

3. People will do just about anything for a copy of “Crush It”.

‘Nuff said.

4. The more I talk about WordPress at a conference, the more I realize I know nothing about WordPress.

Getting to meet giants like John Saddington (@Human3rror), talking to Jane Wells, and hearing Mark Jaqueth (@markjaqueth) made me realize that not only do I still have a lot to learn, but by not helping to make WordPress better I am hurting the platform more than I am helping it.  I submitted my first patch to the TRAC, but that’s only a small step in making WordPress even better than it already is.

5. The Atlanta WordPress scene is hopping!

There are a lot of people in Atlanta who are passionate about WordPress, and the community there is fantastic (how could 400 people otherwise justify getting out in the ice and show to come to the SCAD to hear about WordPress, yes?).  I was glad to meet a lot of you, and I hope we can keep in touch.

Oh yeah, this Steak and Shake is hopping!

Holly and I are hanging out unwinding after #wcatl, enjoying Frisco melts.  It was good to see all my Birmingham friends, and to make many new Atlanta friends I’ve made.  You guys have a super cool city, and even though I didn’t get to make all of the stops I wanted (Williams Street studios, Atlantic Crossing, and a few others) I had a great time.

For those of you who were looking for it, here are the slides from my presentation:

These are the same slides I did for BlogWorldExpo, so they have a few blogworld specific items in there… but for the most part, everything is the same content wise.

And please, if you have any questions about WordPress, blogging, or anything in general (even if you weren’t at the conference) please feel free to let me know.

I’m getting super pumped this weekend for the very first Atlanta WordCamp.  There’s an A-List of speakers (including Dougal Campbell and Mark Jaqueth and a host of others who have a lot of great WordPress information) and if you’re looking to network with people it’s a great opportunity.

I’ll be speaking on Blog Design (taking a different approach instead of the normal development speak) and showing people how to design a killer WordPress blog.  Of course, I’m also there for the nightlife, the networking, and hanging out with my friends coming up from Birmingham.

So, if you’re going to be there, make sure to come find me and say hello!

Let’s be honest – I’m ready to kick 2009 to the curb.  This decade has been deemed by the news agencies as one of the darkest in American history.

But let’s not focus on the negatives – let’s focus on what’s to come.  We stand on the precipice of a new chance, a new start for some, and a new era in technology, media, and humanity.

So, enjoy your day, and get ready to seize the new year with force!

If you didn’t read below, yesterday was my birthday! Holly took me out to a nice dinner and a movie to celebrate, and I had all intention of seeing Sherlock Holmes when I went to the theater.

Until I saw the posters for Avatar in 3D.

I’ll be honest, I had heard about it, but I hadn’t really seen anything about it, so I went in with sort of a blank slate – no preconceived notions, stereotypes, or whatever to guide my thinking.

That being said, this was, by far, one of the most incredible movies I have ever seen.  If you’re wanting to see a movie that redefines 3D, and some of the technology we use to make movies, then this is the one for you.

The hero, Jake, takes over his brother’s “Avatar” – a special husk that can be controlled while the user is asleep using links into the brain and muscular system.  The husk looks like a crossbreed between the human controller and the Na’vi – the natives of the land.

While the transformation is unwilling at first, once Jake meets some more Na’vi, he starts to realize that being human may not be his best (or only) choice.

I walked into the theater not knowing what to expect.  I walked out having experienced a true wonder in movie making.  I can imagine that when people watched “Star Wars” in the theater decades ago they felt like this.

Seriously, if you are looking for a good reason to see a 3D movie, this one’s it.  It’s got great action, great Sci-Fi battle scenes, and the plot (although a little predictable) is fantastically written.

5 Stars, for sure.

Instead, I’m asking all of my friends and followers to help me out with a favor.

Every year I take this time to recognize a special charity that is close to my heart.  Child’s Play Charity is an organization dedicated to providing gaming equipment and toys to hospitals worldwide.  They have over 60 hospitals in their network (Vanderbilt in Nashville is one of their partners, by the way).

If you want to check out what they’re doing, the Child’s Play website has a lot of great information, and lots of game companies are jumping on board with them.

If you have some spare change then please help them out – they do good things, and they need our help!