How Time Flies. Feedback Tools and Funding. - 06/30/2008 - 1:09 PM:
It's amazing how time flies. You put your head down to do some work, and the next thing you know it's two weeks later and you're just bringing your head up for air. :)
Most of my work at the moment involves a great deal of writing - proposal writing, e-mail writing, guideline writing, these sorts of things. I still marvel at the fact that - even though we're now working full time on this project - it's almost as if I have less time to do everything. I suppose it's probably to be expected - the more movement you have on a project, the faster new items develop that need your attention.
The 4th of July weekend will be a few welcome days off - my parents will be in town, we'll be visiting my grandfather for the fireworks, and I'll be able to put my feet up without feeling like I'm delaying something by not working.
And honestly, it's a good time for it, too. Just the other week we managed to finalize the details of "that elusive contract" that we've been moving towards for the last two months, and others are in the pipeline. Yes, it's vague, I'm sorry - but we're probably a week or three away from being ready to announce anything regarding that. Still, it's a tremendous sigh of relief to have something like that finished and out of the way, and it frees us up to really work on what we really want to work on - changes to the site itself.
Dustin is putting together a feedback tool that allows people to give us feedback on what scenes do and don't have certain characteristics. This will help us fine tune our system a little. Also, about two weeks ago we rolled out a Ajax based interface for testing - after getting some feedback we're about ready to replace the Flash version.
Both of those will probably go up the week after the 4th.
The issue of funding is an interesting one. Despite funding being an important element of keeping this project going (obviously), so far pursuing funding has been a fairly small part of what's been occupying our time. Simply standing up and declaring, "Show me the money!" is probably a poor way of seeking it - before we followed up on the contacts that we've made in the industry regarding funding, we've been exploring our possibilities and establishing relationships. We needed to know how the publishing industry would respond to our approach - would publishers be scared of us, find us interesting, ignore us, etc. Well, now we know the answer to all of those things.
The completion of the mysterious contract that I mentioned earlier not only gives us a great deal of potential data to work with, it also frees us up to shift our attention away from content and towards approaching funders. This is a huge shift in approach - it fundamentally means I now feel we have enough of an opportunity to offer that we're in a good position to open communications a bit more with the VC and angel communities.
Up until now, the delays in this area have been our own strategic choices. This adventure will start getting interesting again when a few things start happening, mainly when the site starts seeing the results of a larger database of books, and second when we start taking this to investors and getting feedback from that.
It'll be interesting to see how it goes as we start down that road in earnest.
But, now it's back to work. Dustin is waiting for my input on the feedback system, and Paul... well, Paul is doing his thing. :)
Cheers, and have a good 4th of July (for those of you that celebrate it).
Aaron
iPhone Interfaces and Flash - 06/11/2008 - 10:55 AM:
The iPhone doesn't support Flash, sadly, which means that iPhone-carrying library goers ultimately can't - at the moment - use BookLamp.org on the go to find books. Of course, the size of the book database impacts that as well, but I'll get to that in a second.
Dustin is tweaking the last changes to the Ajax based interface, though, and we're going to be rolling it out for testing in a few days. Probably we'll let a few people test it in alpha before rolling it out into the open. So, out of curiosity, we pulled the new site up on the iPhone, and it works pretty well. The animations and such are not perfect, of course, but still cool, and makes the transition away from Flash worth it - even if there are more cross browser compatibility issues. :)
After we roll out the new interface, you're going to see a cascade of changes take place - hopefully a number of important announcements, and a freeing of our hands in a number of cases. In fact, I'm looking at an agreement right now, in my hands, that I'm fairly excited about. One more of the ducks to be put up in a row.
The speed of the page is starting to become a joke (too much content), and the site was never really designed from scratch to be a long term, multi-page blog. "Read More" links and multiple pages would probably be helpful, formal links to BookLamp, etc.
Aaron
Back From New York, In the New Office, Just Met with Dan. - 06/02/2008 - 4:50 PM:
Life has been extremely busy since my return from New York last week. First off, the trip went very, very well. Every meeting I had planned in advance went better than I expected, and even a few cold calls brought back good memories of the starting days of CanGoogleHearMe.com. Showing up, facing a security guard, being rejected by a secretary; this seems to be the pattern that starts many of my adventures. :) Regardless, the expense of going to New York was absolutely worth the trip, and I've come back more confident than I was before. It's amazing how many doors can be opened by a willingness to be genuinely enthusiastic about what's going on around you.
Unfortunately, we're still not ready to talk about anything yet. We're in the process of getting our ducks in a row, figuring out who and what we're working with. The delayed posts result from the sad truth that between doing something that directly helps the project and making a blog post, the direct action tends to win. The consequence is that the more that's going on, the more likely I am to skip the blog posting for the day. :) It is absolutely fair to say that we've been showing up every day in the early morning, and working every day until late at night, and never once have we found ourselves wondering what to do next; things are moving at a crisp pace.
Also, we've moved into our office this last week, pictured above. Our move corresponded to the office building's grand opening, where we had a chance to meet the mayor, some people from different VC groups, and some executives from Micron, not to mention a fellow that makes documentaries for a living. Very fun. The photo above makes the room look very dark, partly because we had to cover the windows in order to keep glare off our screen. We stripped my home office of my glass desks, Paul's wife made us curtains, and poof - an office, at least for now.
Possibly more important to the project, we had a chance to meet Dan this weekend. Dan is a masters student in Florida that's likely going to be joining us on the project for the summer. He was looking for data for his masters work, came across us while researching Pandora, and gave us a call.
It turns out our work may be mutually beneficial to each other, so he flew out to Boise this weekend to shake hands, be interviewed, and generally get a feel for what life in Boise would be like. Very nice guy. Sadly, we forgot to take a picture of him aside from video - which I don't want to take the time to pull right now - and so you'll have to wait a bit before you get a picture of him. In the mean time, Dustin has been crashing through some of the interface conversion, and we'll most likely be rolling out a new beta interface in a few days, at least for testing. This is a bigger thing than you think, because it means we're free to start playing with all sorts of other tools, and moves us one step closer to implementing user accounts that let you favorite your books, etc. This also means we'll have something for our internal testers to start playing with very soon, hopefully.
Anyway, that's enough of an update for now. I've got to get back to work. As I like to remind everyone - we're having fun. And plan to continue doing so.
Aaron
Meetings in New York, Veeker Up Again, and Broadway Shows. - 05/21/2008 - 3:49 PM:
Note: Because I'm short on time, this is direct copy of what I wrote a second ago in the BookLamp.org forums. Sorry - pictures come here exclusively later tonight, so that makes up for it. :)
Veeker is back up and running, which is good; it means I can update the http://CanGoogleHearMe.com site with pictures and videos without having to wait until I get home to do it. Straight from the location I'm at, which is very nifty. I've always thought so.
My meetings have been very well. My first was yesterday, and it was a lunch meeting that ended up stretching for 5 hours as I was brought around and introduced to people. I arrived at noon, and returned home around 5:30 in the afternoon. I then turned around and went out to dinner with one of the guys from the company - named Pete - and another fellow named Tim, whose been following the story since original Google days and decided to invite us to dinner.
It was pretty cool, and I enjoyed it immensely. Tim, Pete, thanks for the dinner. We talked a waitress into taking our photo, which she did. She then vanished when I turned my back for a second, and so one picture is all we got. I'll post it a little later tonight on CanGoogleHearMe.com.
The second meeting was today, and it too went excellent. Very friendly, very helpful, very enthusiastic people. Everyone seems to see the value in what we're doing, and everything seems to fit. I've got another meeting tomorrow, and if goes as well, then this will have been a very successful trip. I have no reason to believe it's going to go sour.
The reason I'll post the picture, and maybe a quick, unedited movie or two if I have time, later tonight instead of now is because... well, I'm going to a Broadway show. I picked up a half-priced ticket down in Times Square today, to Mamma Mia. That starts in about two hours, but I need to take off and pick up some things on the way. Now that I can update via the phone, you'll probably see updates on Veeker as I go.
Cheers,
Aaron
Discuss this in the forums.
Arrived in New York, Cold Calls and Meetings. - 05/19/2008 - 7:19 AM:
I arrived in New York last night around 1 a.m. or so, and found myself in a city that hasn't changed much in the last few years since I was here. The airport was a little less crowded, probably due to the late hour, and the city lights were still bright. Driving in traffic is still much like running with the bulls in Spain, and point A to point B feels like you're living an action movie.
Gotta love the city. :)
This is going to be a short post - the Veeker Feed is not going to be updated for a bit, partly because my cell phone isn't sending pictures. When I get that figured out, the Veeker will start to update. In the mean time I'll try to post pictures of the trip as I go.
This feels like the old days, back by myself in California, only it's a different industry and a different crowd. Some of the meetings I have down here are already set up, but I'd like to have more. That means there are a few locations that I get the pleasure of calling on the old-fashioned way - walking into the lobby and asking for a meeting.
Much like my original trip to California, it's just me again, this time trying to crash the publishing industry. So far, every meeting I've had has been very positive and successful. Let's hope the streak keeps up. Walking into a building that houses international corporations, companies whose names have been familiar to me from an early age... it's pretty cool. If nothing else, this project at least gives me a good reason to meet some fundamentally interesting people.
Wish me luck. As always, I'm probably going to need it. :)
Aaron
aaron@cangooglehearme.com
Discuss this in the forums.
Confirmed Dates to New York; Electric Bikes and New Employees. - 05/13/2008 - 6:13 PM:
I use the term "employee" loosely, but we've picked up our first worker. Dustin - that's his name - isn't here as a response to our internship position, though he is a student. Instead he saw an interview I gave during BookLamp's launch, posted to our forums once or twice, and sent us an e-mail offering to help when he saw we were looking for programmers.
Dustin is a fairly young self-taught programmer, but a review of some of his code and some conversations with people he's worked with in the past earned him at least a trial week, and he'll most likely be working for us over the summer. He's enthusiastically tackling the user interface and the conversion from Flash, one of the bottlenecks we've been meaning to get around to for a while. If you check the veeker feed there on the right, you'll find a picture of him sitting on the floor of the (old) office with his white MacBook.
And speaking of the new office, we're not moved in yet. Construction on the WaterCooler isn't quite ready for moving in, though it is progressing every time I stop by to peer in the window. It's dusty from the constructions still, but the walls are painted, and we're waiting for a thumbs up to start packing things over.
Also, my travel dates to New York are confirmed. I'll be flying into New York on May 18th, staying for a week, and flying back to Boise on May 25th. I'm forced to remain a bit vague about who and where I'm meeting, but I'm happy that I'll have a busy schedule. Hopefully I'll be able to shed a little light on that soon.
On a final note, you may notice the picture up there of a bike. Now, I'm not normally one to be proud of a bike, since biking has never been my forte. After all, the bike I rode to and from the coffee shop in Chapter 2 was a $59 Wal-Mart special; how picky can I be? However, moving into the new office means that the Boise Greenbelt runs between the back of my apartment and the front door of the new office (or within a block or two).
Consequently, I decided to purchase a toy I've always thought was worth having - an electric bike. As far as toys and gadgets go, it's pretty cool. It doesn't run off of a motor by itself, but instead supplements your own peddling by an amount proportional to the force you apply, sort of like Steve Austin from 6 Million Dollar Man. The excuse is that it lets me peddle the 5 or 6 miles to work each morning without arriving sweaty; the truth is I just think electric bikes are cool. :)
I'd Like to Talk to Some Programmers. - 05/05/2008 - 6:47 PM:
At the start of this project - over a year ago now - I wrote a post called, "I'd like to talk to some programmers," and received more than 100 resumes in less than 24 hours. In those resumes I found the programmers that helped make BookLamp.org.
Now we're in search of an adventurous programmer versed in PHP, JavaScript, and Ajax - a programmer that thinks that BookLamp.org is interesting enough to spend a summer working on it in Boise, Idaho. The position carries a $2,000/month stipend and we'll provide housing if needed. We decided to create the position after getting e-mails from students looking for something interesting to work on for their summer internships, and thought we'd test the waters online to see who might be interested.
The position would be working directly on development aspects of BookLamp.org, working under the direction of both Paul and myself. So, I'd like to talk to some programmers - preferably ones that are looking for spontaneous summer projects (which means most likely college students). :) I'll leave it at that for now - e-mail me if you think you might be interested.
In the mean time, at some point this week we get to begin the move to the new office space, which is likely to be an exciting process. :) Plus, it's now solidly after 6:30, the sun is going down, and both Paul and I are still at the office for some unknown reason.
I'm heading home for dinner and to watch the most recent episode of Lost. :) Hope everyone has a good night.
Aaron
aaron@cangooglehearme.com
Heading to New York, Moving Into the Office - 05/02/2008 - 11:11 AM:
Somehow when we decided to take this project full time, I figured that would mean we had more time to do things like update the blog, both here and at BookLamp. It's had quite the opposite effect - I've been more busy now than ever before.
The two most interesting things are that 1) we'll be moving into our new office either next week, or sometime immediately following, and 2) I'll be heading to New York in a few days. We're moving into a business incubator in downtown Boise, and it is - as of this moment - still under construction. Walls are being painted, locks and security systems are being installed, and all the fun things that go along with a new office are in place.
To steal from the post I made in the forums, our little office is not grandiose, being more of an L-shaped walk-in closet with windows than anything else - but it is clean and new, in the heart of Boise's business area, and hopefully comfortable. It is suitably and pleasantly humble for a venture at the start. One of my family friends - who now owns a fairly successful architecture and engineering firm - has a picture of their first office still hanging in their main hall, and I take heart from it; it was an old cleaned out chicken coup, which they stuffed with desks and papers, and blueprints pinned to the wall.
In the grand scale of things, we're doing a bit better than that. :)
Also, it looks likely that I'll be heading to New York here sometime towards mid-May. It's a trip that's been planned for a fair bit, but now will kill several birds with one stone, to use a morbid turn of phrase. The last time I was in New York was about 4 years ago, and I had the unexpected pleasure of having lunch for a number of hours with the Senior Vice President of the New York Times Digital Division. I was still in college at the time, and that was certainly an experience - we chatted about video games and the impact of Apple Computer on the need to wear a tie to NY business meetings. You see, I'd refused to wear a tie to the conference out of principle - I figured if these people didn't like me because I didn't wear a tie, I didn't really want to work with them. Turns out that, as far as I could tell, Martin (the NYTimes VP) and I were the only people in the room that didn't have ties on.
Three times during the day I was mistaken by the owner of the hotel where the conference was being held as someone in charge. Your guess is as good as mine as to why that is, but I like to think it's because I was tieless. :)
It makes you wonder whether or not he remembers that conversation at all? Most likely not - I'd been working for About.com - which the NYTimes had just purchased - for a grand total of three days at that point. Hardly worth notice, really.
It's interesting to think of the changes that have taken place between then and now. Life is such an interesting adventure.
Aaron
Discuss this in the BookLamp forums
Opening Doors and Writing Books - 04/17/2008 - 4:58 PM:
On Monday, we had a phone conversation that was simply excellent, and may put us a long way towards having a book database large enough to make BookLamp.org useful.
But, since I can't talk about that until things are settled - it's still a bit early, really - I want to talk about writing books for a second.
I started writing a book a few years ago - it's the second book I've written in my life. The first book was written when I was about 15 years old, and was a 150,000 words long fantasy epic. It was also terrible, and my father was the only person that ever read it. The second book was started when I got to college, and is a little more than 100,000 words long - it's a science fiction novel in the vein of Michael Crichton. And, unlike my first, I think it may actually be rather good. It may be publishable.
If you log into BookLamp.org, you'll find that I threw it into the system to be analyzed, just for fun: People in the Dark by Aaron Stanton. My pacing graphs seem to be a bit lower than those around it. *shrug*
The point being, I finished it a while ago - I wrote the last word of the last scene, and it's been sitting around waiting for me to have time to edit it. Editing seems like a trivial task, but I haven't had time to work on it yet.
I've also had a policy that no one can read it until it's been edited, so while a few people have read the first few chapters, no one has ever read the thing cover-to-cover except myself. Well, until last week.
Finally, I let someone else read it, and it's gratifying to report that the review was favorable. Of course, it's almost certainly a biased review, but there are a few elements that make me feel good, even so. For one, I've watched my reviewer read many books, and I think I have a fair ability to judge when she finds them interesting. Watching her read my book was... well, it was like watching her read a book. :)
Any book. A "real" book. A book she liked. She didn't read it as if she were slogging through a swamp, desperate and determined to wade through regardless of what lay in the middle. She didn't breath a sigh of relief when she got to to the end. I don't think it was torture for her, and I believe - and I think I'm right on this - that she actually... well... she actually wanted to know what was coming next.
She found the characters interesting. She wanted to know what happened to them. How it ended.
In other words, I think she would have read it from start to finish even if she'd never met me. And that's immensely gratifying - in many ways as gratifying as opening the doors on BookLamp.org and finding that people see its value. It makes me want to sit down this weekend and consider editing some more of it, at least to the point that I'm will to have parents and siblings read it.
It made me realized - today, things are good. Life is good. There is a long, long road ahead with lots of things to do, and every plan I have might still fall on its face, but man, I'm sure looking forward to trying them out. :)
And hopefully my next post will have some substantial news about BookLamp's future. I can't wait to share. :)
Aaron
BookLamp's Forums
The Office Until the End of April. Random House and Baen. - 04/09/2008 - 7:10 PM:
Paul and I have been working on a full-time basis for about two weeks now. A large part of that time has been spent sending e-mails, following up on contacts, and similar stuff. It's also been about meetings, setting up the "office", installing hardware and software, and tweaking more minor elements of the interface. The picture you see to the left there is our current office - my workstation is the one in the middle, on the left. Paul works on the far right, and the last computer, in the very back is just a computer that exists for the sake of running Get Things Done software to help keep us organized.
At the end of April, there's an office space down town that we'll be moving into, but it's still under construction, at the moment.
So much has been happening in the last few days that it's hard to keep up with it. We've been meeting with banks, lawyers, chatting with other companies. Tuesday morning I spent about 15 minutes on the phone with the CEO of Pandora.com, which was fun and a unique experience unto itself. Very pleasant, and one of those chances that I wouldn't have expected to have when this project started.
But probably some of the more interesting elements of the last week have revolved around Baen Books and Random House. We have a conversation set up with Baen Books. But possibly more significant, we've had some very positive communications with Random House Publishing this last week. Where that will go, it's hard to say, but Random House is the largest English-language publisher in the world, as I understand it, and their involvement in the project would certainly be a huge step forward.
More mundane meetings have been going on as well - visits to the bank to meet people that know banking, and are familiar with VC funded companies, if it comes to that. On Tuesday afternoon we spent about an hour wandering around the shell that will most likely be our office soon.
But I'll cut it short, there. I need to revamp the blog format on CanGoogleHearMe to be a more traditional structure - so that you can click "Next Page" and see more posts, instead of simply having an endless line for each chapter. Until then, I'll post the more detailed elements on the BookLamp.org blog, which you can find on the front page of the site.
In the mean time, we're having fun. :)
Aaron
Discuss these events in the BookLamp.org forums.
Venture Capital Talks Tomorrow and Lost (the TV show). - 04/03/2008 - 7:17 PM:
Shortly after BookLamp hit the web, we were contacted by a VC firm called CrossLink Capital. Now, CrossLink is not the first VC firm that's approached us over the course of this project; until now we've always politely thanked VC firms and sent them on their way.
CrossLink, though, will be the first VC Firm we've talked to since we made the decision last week to take the project full-time. CrossLink is the venture capital firm that helped fund Pandora.com, NetFlix, and TiVo, by the way. We have our first conversations - introductions, basically - tomorrow afternoon. We'll hope that goes well.
We're in a nice position in that we don't absolutely need venture capital - there are options to take in different ways. However, all of our options are being looked at closely, and venture capital is certainly one of them. In this regard, I'm grateful for the number of people locally - talented, experianced, successful people - that have been willing to help us work through some of these paths. After a number of lunches talking about banks, VC, lawyers... well, let's just say that I've been very happy to have people who have walked these paths before nearby. :)
Also, we added a blog to BookLamp.org. CanGoogleHearMe.com will stay as it is - a semi-personal look at the inside of the company. BookLamp's blog will focus more on the progression of the site itself.
So before I go home (it's almost 7:13 p.m.), I just want to say that I came to a significant realization recently. I can watch Lost again. For nearly 14 months now, our late night programming sessions on Wen. and Thurs. nights meant that I haven't been able to watch a live broadcast of Lost in over a year. Until now. Now, I show up at the office at 9:00 or so, and head home (supposedly) around 5 or 6. Which means I'm home for Lost!
So now, if you'll excuse me, if I'm not home in the next 45 minutes... well, I'll miss my show. :)
Aaron
BookLamp's Blog Discussion
P.S. Maybe if I have time tomorrow, I'll throw up some pictures of Paul and I's current "office" - a room with some desks. :)
Taking This Project Full Time. - 03/31/2008 - 3:36 PM:
Last week's live meeting went fairly well - considering I didn't post an exact time or link until about 15 minutes before the thing actually went live, I'm a little surprised we had anyone show up at all.
But people did show up, people asked questions, and it was a first trial run on something that we'll polish more later. But I'll spare you the details and cut straight to our next immediate move.
After much discussion with the crew, we're taking BookLamp full-time, traditional hours. While we've put hundreds of hours into BookLamp up until now, we've been doing it on our spare time - late nights between 8:00 p.m. and 3 or 4 in the morning. Considering the response we've received, from people and from different companies that have been contacting us, we figure it's time to shift gears. To start with Paul and I (Aaron) will be shifting to a full time schedule - we'll get up in the morning, go to an office, work all day on BookLamp, and see where things take us.
In other words, we're going to give BookLamp and Novel Projects, Inc. a true, full go at it. We're in the process of tracking down a regular office at the moment - a place with a desk, power, and internet. All sorts of locations have been floated - friend's houses, garages, actually renting an office. For the moment, our focus is getting work started. The details of how we do that will be figured out with time.
For example, today is Monday, our first full day since deciding to go full-time. We didn't have an office arranged yet, though there are several leads we're following up on. So, we moved into a friend's spare bedroom until we figure out a more long-term solution. You can't wait around on amenities like a nice office before getting back to work. :)
Live Discussion Tonight at 9:30 MST. - 03/27/2008 - 5:35 PM:
This is a little late notice, but we're going to have our first live discussion tonight at 9:30 P.M. MST. We'll be using ustream.tv, probably, to stream and record the discussion, and you can watch it at this URL:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/booklamp-broadcast
We'll be talking about the different directions we can take BookLamp.org, address some of the questions that have shown up in the forums, and basically explore some of our options. Since it's such late notice, we'll see how many people participate - probably very few - but you'll be able to ask us questions through the chat system. More than anything, since we didn't publicize this on BookLamp.org itself, this is more of a test of the system for later broadcasts, but should still be interesting.
Again, the URL is:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/booklamp-broadcast
Turning Points, E-mails, and Plans for the Next Week - 03/24/2008 - 10:37 PM:
Every time CanGoogleHearMe (and now BookLamp.org) hits a new stage, there's at least a week or two of my life that deals entirely with e-mails and updates. We've received hundreds of good luck e-mails, contacts from different groups and private investors, libraries, VC firms, all sorts of people that seem to think we've got something worthwhile. Digg picked up the release, as well as a number of news organizations. I get the feeling the word is getting around. Our user registration went from 1,000 registered users to nearly 10,000 registered users is less than 72 hours, almost entirely by word of mouth.
So, I suppose now it's time to lay out our next moves - how do we go from technology demonstration to functional service. On Thursday, March 27th, the core group will be getting together here in Boise. We'll set up a camera - possibly live, if the tech works the way we want it to - and we'll have a discussion. We'll talk about the different ideas that people have brought up in the BookLamp forums. That includes the personal concerns, our worries and hopes, all the things that might impact where we go.
As part of that, I'm going to start introducing the different applications of the technology - not only the ways that it can be used beyond books, but also why we approached Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to start with. I want to introduce some videos that explain the reasoning we followed from the beginning. We figure that, worst case, people won't get the reasoning. Best case, people will, and that will take us to a more interesting public discussion.
It's possible all these videos will get out before Thursday's meeting, but let's face it - my track record with getting videos out on time is not the greatest. :) Most likely we'll have one out before Thursday, then the others will follow. I look forward to hearing people's reactions - your thoughts so far have been both encouraging, and enlightening.
Never hesitate to contact me.
Best,
Aaron
aaron@cangooglehearme.com
The Week Since Release of BookLamp.org; Digg It? - 03/17/2008 - 3:28 PM:
It's been a fun week here at CGHM. Getting e-mails of congratulations, and oddly enough, thanks. I expected people to e-mail us good luck (if we were fortunate), but I hadn't expected to be getting e-mails from librarians and teachers thanking us for focusing on something that (hopefully) might be helpful to the readers of the world.
We've been actively answering questions on the BookLamp.org forums, and so far I think we've done a fairly good job of being intelligent about this; at least, I think it shows that we've put some thought into the project.
We've been contacted by more than one publisher in regards to the system, and we're starting to see mention of BookLamp around the web. I've had several interviews, and we'll hope this takes off.
Every once in a while you see a "Digg This" link beside a post on other websites. I've never once requested on the front page of CGHM that anyone ever Digg something on our behalf - I figure that's not the place. Still, since is the release of the idea, I figure I'll make an exception this one time.
If you think it's cool, please go here and Digg BookLamp.org
If you like the project (described in the video above), and think the idea is interesting, click on this link and Digg the article. If you don't think it's worth it... well, you're not hurting my feelings. Please ignore it. But if you do, it's probably the fastest way to get word out that this project has potential.
Over the next week I'll be talking a bit more about our future plans. In the mean time, drop by the BookLamp forums and say hello. Thanks again, everyone.
Everyone, Please Meet BookLamp.org. BookLamp, Everyone. Play Friendly. :) - 03/10/2008 - 9:47 AM:
After staying awake for literally every hour of the last 24 working on the launch, Paul and I had a hard time coming up with a grandiose title for what amounts to the heart and soul of this blog: the idea.
So, with little fanfare, I'd like to introduce you to BookLamp.org.
I won't publish the video here, but there's a link, and I'd like you to go to it, watch the video, then sign up on the forums there and get ready to help us decide our next move.
http://beta.booklamp.org
BookLamp is a system for matching readers to books based on a full-text analysis of writing style, similar to how Pandora.com matches music lovers to new music. When you watch the video and play with the interface, examine the graphs, you'll begin to understand the depths of the data we're able to mine from a full text novel. You can see how the technology works, combining full-text analysis with self-learning systems to produce one of the most advanced book analysis systems in the world... we hope. :)
This approach allows book search programs to utilize the full text of a book in ways far beyond traditional keyword analysis or socially driven networks. At least that's the idea - you'll have to judge for yourself if we're onto something worthwhile.
Over the next few days, we'll be introducing different aspects of BookLamp, such as the Publisher's Project, the application that I think is both the most creative, and the most likely to change how the industry works.
But we'll see. It's possible this project will be a blip on the radar. It's also possible it could be something more. Please let us know what you think - I'm deeply, deeply curious to hear your thoughts. :)
And no matter what - whether you like the idea or not - thank you again to the thousands and thousands of people that have sent us good luck e-mails over this last year.
Partly because of your good will, this project is still fun. :)
Aaron Stanton
aaron@cangooglehearme.com
Five Days to Go. The Next Post I Make Will Probably Be The Idea. - 03/05/2008 - 11:27 PM:
We're now getting down to the line - five days left until we open the doors and let people poke around. Five days until a major turning point in what has been a rather exciting year for me; in five days, our belief in this project will either be justified or it won't be. It's interesting to realize that this post, made on a Wednesday night, may very well be the last post I make before we release the idea.
The next post I make will change the direction of this blog. Period. I predict that Sunday night, the night before we release, will be both busy and sleepless for me.
I want to take one last chance to retouch again on the value of ideas. So often you hear people talk about how ideas are not worth anything, that ideas are a dime a dozen. I remember a comment on Digg.com somewhere along the line. Someone mentioned that their company's standard line was something like, "know what you can do with an idea and $1, take the bus out of here."
It's almost as if people sometimes look at an idea as something other than the first step in any project, almost as if having a good idea is a lazy man's way of getting out of good old-fashioned hard work. People sometimes have a tendency of looking at ideas and saying, "Yes, but ideas are worth nothing unless you do something with them." That's partly true, except of course, that approach is a bit misleading. It's not any better to put in the hard work without any good idea at all; if you decided to go out and work hard at convincing movie studios to bring back Betamax, for example... well, it's just not a good idea. :)
You need both good ideas, and hard work.
Independently, hard work or good ideas are worth about the same, since they fuel each other. But to look at an idea and dismiss it simply because it's "just an idea"... I've never seen a more certain recipe for failure. Luckily, the people that I tend to take seriously, people that have been the most successful, tend to recognize starting points when they see them. Certainly, we're beyond the starting point, now, but it never hurts to pay homage to the place this all began: an idea.
I guess we'll see how that idea pans out very, very soon. :)
Wired.com, Amazon.com, and a Note About Evan. - 02/28/2008 - 2:03 AM:
It's a little after one in the morning, and we just finished with a programming session. Brandon is out of town for a bit working on another contract, so it's just Paul and I working locally as we head into the final week before release. Not that we're working entirely alone, though - for one, one of our distributed members, Robert, has stepped forward to help take up the slack as March 10th approaches. Then there's Albert, Matt, and Evan, though only Albert could be described as being local. Between us, we're getting there. :)
I spent a few minutes talking with Wired.com earlier last week, which I enjoyed - though I'm afraid I'm not very good at being interviewed. The interesting thing is this, though - assuming they're willing to honor a press embargo until after we release things ourselves, we're going to let them poke around the beta a little. This is very interesting to me, since it'll be one of the first times that the project is looked at by completely virgin eyes; meaning they don't know me personally, and are not a part of the admittedly supportive beta crew. I think Wired's reaction will tell us a lot about what to expect as a general reaction - so I'm a bit nervous, though genuinely curious to hear their thoughts. :)
On the up side, our presentation materials are still being bounced around Amazon.com. We've received word on Friday that our work is being positively received, and we should be cautiously optimistic. Being one to celebrate whenever the opportunity arises, I immediately went out and bought myself a $1 fudge sundae from McDonald's. One of the downsides of celebrating often is that your individual celebrations have to be cheap. ;)
I also think that it's about time we introduce Evan. The plan was originally to introduce him in California, but things became so busy that... well... it didn't happen. So, between putting together release videos and squashing last minute bugs that show up, I think we'll introduce Evan a little more formally, soon. Eating an apple in a single video certainly does not constitute an introduction, and as the fifth member of the team, it's well deserved.
So, the plan of action is to introduce him, introduce the idea, see how things turn out, and then - hopefully - go buy everyone I know a round of $1 fudge sundaes. :)
Putting Together Videos for the Release. - 02/22/2008 - 11:55 PM:
I drove an hour and a half to Albert's house today so we could film the base footage for the March 10th release. Albert, if you don't remember, is our volunteer videographer, and I've been getting calls from him all week. He tends to call and tell me about some sort of crazy expensive equipment he's managed to borrow for the recording. "I've managed to borrow a such-and-such microphone," he'll say, or, "My uncle, who does lighting, is coming over to help me set up the backdrop."
The result is the first video we've done that might not look like I filmed it with a handy-cam on a $10 tripod. Which is probably good, because the release is very important to me, obviously. You can see a little of the setup we're playing with in the Veeker feed there; it doesn't look like much, but you'd be surprised at how expensive the collection of equipment is.
I'll be crashing here tonight, and then getting up early tomorrow to film and edit all day. The goal is to have everything that needs to be done for launch - at least in terms of video - up and out of the way by the end of the weekend. At the same time, Paul and I were up late last night figuring out last minute feature changes, and Matt and I met on Skype this morning to work on interface elements. I'll update the Veeker feed as I go. In the mean time, have a good weekend.
Aaron
The Crunch Before Going Public. - 02/19/2008 - 10:21 PM:
This is the last group picture we took in California before coming home; who knows how long it will be before we see Evan and Matt again in person, let alone together in the same place. We've all sort of made a pact - well, me, mainly, but I'll drag the others along - that if everything turns out well for us we have to fly over to England and buy Matt a drink at a pub. We couldn't do that here in the States because of his age, after all, and a trip to the UK seems like a worthy reward for a long day's work.
This week marks the start of a flurry of activity that ends on March 10th. I'll spend most of the days between now and the day we go public in front of a computer monitor, preparing videos, outlining plans, and so-forth. In the introduction video to Chapter 3, I mention that phase two of this chapter was a bit unusual - I'll explain that in a few days when I discuss how exactly we're going to go about releasing this.
For now, I'll leave it at this - on March 10th we'll set things in motion with as much ability as we can. It'll be a lot of work leading up to it, followed by a lot of sitting around waiting to see how things turn out. In the mean time, this blog is going back to a twice a week schedule until March 10th.
A Note About Yahoo. Flying Home, Preparing for March 10th. - 02/18/2008 - 12:43 AM:
Our plane arrived safely back in Boise, Matt is currently on his way home to England, and Evan is bouncing between Washington and L.A. As the final step of the trip to California, we were able to celebrate Paul's birthday here at home. Happy Birthday, Paul.
Details about the different meetings are still forthcoming - still up in the air - but I think I'm ready to make a comment about Yahoo. Partly because of the bad timing of the Yahoo layoffs that occurred the second day we were in town, and partly because of a tightening of the belt they're currently undergoing, I'm fairly sure that we won't be hearing much from Yahoo until after March 10th. We were successful at getting our project and demonstration video in front of the right people, and I don't think they'd mind that I say that they found it interesting. They also did their part to help put us in contact with Amazon, which is certainly appreciated.
There's still more to be said to Yahoo, but considering the rocky road that the company seems to be treading at the moment, we'll not push it until after the general public can judge our ideas for themselves. When we release the idea, we'll explain our reasoning behind why we approached each company, and I think you'll understand; in the mean time, we'll leave the line of communication open with Yahoo, and see how it goes.
The rest is still in play, and we start preparing for the March 10th release as of tomorrow morning. Along with continuing with our efforts to connect with the right people, we start getting ready for the really fun stuff: casting off secrecy.
My thoughts go out to each ex-Yahoo employee that finds themselves without a job, at the moment. Hang in there the best you can. :)
Head to the Redwoods, Drop by Digg. - 02/16/2008 - 4:28 PM:
We're at the airport, now, getting ready to fly home. I'll talk more about meetings after we arrive back in Boise, because they're still in process - we've made many of the connections that we needed to make, and we'll see what happens before release on March 10th. You'll know more about that soon.
But here's something that happened that was a little fun yesterday. Albert, our 16-year-old talented videographer with a really expensive camera, is a big fan of Diggnation. 
He watches it often, and was once a part of a group of people that volunteered server space to Kevin Rose when he was facing issues at G4 (or so I'm told). So this entire week we've been joking about dropping by the Digg.com offices to deliver a beer or two, just because we're in the area and... well, it seemed like a funny thing to do (it makes sense if you're familiar with the show).
We'd pretty much decided we wouldn't have time ... except Paul, Brandon, Matt, and Evan (and Matt's dad) decided to take a roadtrip up to see the Redwoods north of San Francisco. They swung by Digg on the way out, dropped off some beers, and ended up getting shown around for about 20 minutes. I stayed at the hotel working, but we've heard that the beers were set on Kevin Rose's desk, and the people at Digg were genuinely cool and curious.
You can see in the picture that their office sign is a digg count - 3 diggs and counting. They haven't even hit the front page. :) At the same time, I hear the Redwoods were fairly impressive, as well. I wish I could have seen that, too. :) But, life is busy, sometimes. Can't catch every cool experience, I guess. Just have to do the best you can. :)
Secret Messages For Microsoft, and Dropping By Diggnation. - 02/15/2008 - 8:24 PM:
Sometimes you do things just because you can, and you'll never get a second chance. A little bit back, we were putting together an executive summary for Microsoft that we were told would be passed on to someone high up the chain of command. Who, we didn't know, because this information was all relayed via third parties. So we said to ourselves, "What do you write when you know that someone high up is going to read it?" We couldn't resist - when it came time in the executive summary to include a link to a video demonstrating the beta, we made the link read ...index.php?life+universe+everything=42.
Now, that doesn't do anything. Technically it assigns some variables, but those variables are never called and so it doesn't impact anything. We did it because... well, how many times in your life do you get to claim that you had a chance to send an executive summary up the ladder of a company like Microsoft, and you threw in a joke just because you could. :)
I have no idea if they understood it. I hope they picked up on it and got a chuckle. :) If not, we just come across as a little odd.
We have a sort of similar story about a decision on part of the crew to drop by the offices of Diggnation on the way to see the Redwoods, actually, but I'll mention that in a bit; deciding to do something fun because you can - for no reason - is worthwhile. And because if you don't... well, then you don't, and life simply goes on.
A Little Note for Those That Support Us. - 02/15/2008 - 2:33 AM:
I think the video pretty much says it all, in this one. Just for fun, we decided to record this late last night before going to bed. Personally, I've been out of town for the last two years on Valentine's Day because of CanGoogleHearMe. I owe some people. :)
We (the group here in California) ended up canceling our lunch out at Apple, Inc. today. We'd been invited to come by to see what the mothership looked like, but it wouldn't have been CGHM related - we don't really have any business with Apple. As much as everyone on the crew would have loved to meet some interesting people at Silicon Valley legend, it boiled down to the fact that... well, we were too busy. There's been a number of people e-mailing and inviting us to lunch, and we've had to turn many of them down. Even with five of us, life has been hectic - I remember doing all this stuff by myself last year, but even with more of us it doesn't seem to be less busy. Go figure. :)
Amazon's Good News, and Dropping By Googleplex. - 02/14/2008 - 1:57 AM:
We spent most of the day out at the Googleplex in Mountain View. Not in a, "We're meeting Google," sort of way, but in a, "Friend invited us to lunch," sort of way. It was an opportunity for those on the crew that had never seen the campus to drink the strange and unidentifiable free drinks in the fridge, and a chance for me to notch another Google restaurant under my belt. Last time I was there I had grass shots, the first and probably the last time I'll ever shoot lawn clippings as if it were alcohol. A trip to the Googleplex, aside from being fun, is almost always unique.
We had a really good time. :)
Another cool factor that's probably far more important than a casual lunch out at the corporate campus is that we may be in luck with Amazon.com. I'm not going to comment on it much, yet, because it's still fairly up in the open, but it looks like Matt's entirely unexpected contact with an Amazon employee on the flight to Mountain View could well be one of those events that set things in motion. We've sent along videos and executive summaries, and those were passed around, and... well, there was interest expressed.
Along with our executive summary, we sent along a message that said basically, "We didn't expect to have an opportunity to meet with Amazon during this trip, since you're based in Seattle. But we're here now, we'll be here until Friday, we have everything we need to show off what we can do, and we're eager to do so."
I'd consider that a step in the right direction. I'll let you know if anything cool happens. :)
The Ups and Downs of Being Different. - 02/12/2008 - 1:33 PM:
We had an interesting day, yesterday, with both ups and downs. I started it by waking up early to prepare presentation materials, and ended it by going to bed at around 4:30 a.m.
Let me be candid for a second, because I've been thinking about this since our meetings yesterday. Our approach has some positives and negatives - for one, we wouldn't be here if I hadn't decided to take that original journey in the way that I did, and you wouldn't be reading this. Plus, the last year would have been far less fun and I wouldn't be hanging out with the people I am - all of who turned out to get along great. On the other hand, not everyone "gets" our approach certainly, and it means we walk into a meeting as an unknown element.
Are these guys really any good? Is this just a gimmick? What are the chances of these guys actually having something to say that's worthwhile?
These are the questions that get asked before we're taken seriously. Until after they've heard us out, people tend to supply their own answers to those questions, which means we sometimes have a hard sell on our hands. Sometimes we walk into a room faced with someone who thinks it's their job to give a courtesy nod and move us out the door. On the rare occasions that I've encountered this, it tends to be from people that have only heard of the project second-hand.
It's a natural response. Withholding judgment one way or the other until there is more information would probably be better, but sadly the world doesn't work that way. What impresses me is that, to date, on the rare occasions that we've encountered a person with this mindset, it didn't last. By the end of the meetings, at least so far, their attitudes tend to change; getting us out the door and on our way stops being the top priority, and is usually replaced with curiosity and a willing ear.
We've never revealed this idea to someone that didn't walk away, at the very least, nodding their head and saying, "Interesting. Very interesting indeed."
If we manage to achieve that same success rate when we release publicly on March 10th, wouldn't that be something. :) Again, though, the world probably doesn't work that way. :)
Novel Projects' Silicon Valley HQ. :) - 02/11/2008 - 8:06 PM:
Paul took the incentive to wander around with his camera at the hotel that has become our de facto world headquarters, at the moment. Since we have no specific offices, HQ becomes the place where the most people in the company are gathered at one time. Right now, that's a hotel in Silicon Valley. :)
We're sharing rooms, which leaves us one bed short per room. I took the floor and let Brandon and Paul claim beds, but that has its upsides. For one, I have easy access to more power outlets than they do. I also get to have my own little bat cave, from which I sit imperiously and issue orders. It's all very fun... except for the hard floor, I guess. :)
Morning In a Coffee Shop. A Note About What We're After. - 02/11/2008 - 9:04 AM:
I woke up this morning at 6:45, having overslept by accident. A number of you have asked about what we're after, why we didn't seek venture capital, etc. So I thought I'd answer that:
I was being bombarded by public interest after returning from California the first time, and I had to make a decision, a cost-benefit analysis. What would I need to make this real? I'd need programmers more skilled then my own abilities, potentially office space, equipment, and time. Traditionally, the way you do that is to seek venture capital and hire people, buy equipment, rent space.
There were several venture capital firms of various sizes that approached us, and I thanked all of them (and meant it), and said, "Not right now. Not yet."
My reasoning went like this: I received literally dozens of e-mails from programmers interested in making this thing happen when I mentioned in one line of the blog that I was interested in talking to programmers. They were curious, interested, and wanted to help. I chatted one-on-one with those that I could. In the end, every programmer that heard the idea volunteered to join the team. We ultimately divided them into the Core and the Distributed team, described in a graphic from Chapter 2. That structure worked with mixed success, which I can talk about later if people are interested. I've never spoken of the idea in grandiose terms, never beyond saying that I believe solidly that it is genuinely good, and that others would agree when given the chance. I take some comfort in the fact that not a single programmer that knows the idea walked away.
The point being, I looked at what I needed, and decided that - at this stage - venture capital wasn't the solution. We had programmers, now, and we had equipment, time, interest, and passion. We had a living room for office space. :)
But there was a missing key element. The reason that drove me to California originally. And that we're still questing for. It's not money, time, publicity, or talent.
I think that will all be clear on March 10th. We've put a tremendous amount of work into building what we want to show off, hundreds of man-hours, and it's at the point that we need to find that missing element, one way or the other, in order to go forward. The most logical first move, from any perspective, is to approach the companies that have that missing element before we start trying to build it ourselves. We have something that we think they'll find interesting and worth their time in terms of return. They're in a position to help us, as well. Even in a traditional venture capital funded project, this would still be the next move.
Our silence now is partly driven by not knowing whether silence is important to the people we want to talk with. I'm off to the coffee shop now; we have our first meetings today.
We've Arrived. Met Matt, Met Evan. A Serendipitous Amazon Connection. - 02/10/2008 - 11:58 PM:
Talk about serendipitous events. Of the three groups of us flying into California, Matt turned out to have the most interesting trip. Aside from the fact that it was a long flight, he spent a good portion of it sitting next to a fellow that works at Amazon.com. They talked about different technologies and different projects, and we ended up with an e-mail address and a promise to pass the link around on Monday.
In the past, it's only taken one good connection to get things moving; the problem is finding that one connection. Who knows if this connection will help, but it's a start. And starts are worth celebrating.
We met up with Evan and Matt, and we've found our hotel. We went to dinner, had some gigantic sandwiches (you can see Evan's in the Veeker Feed) at a restaurant called Tomatina in Walnut Creek. My intention was to spend most of the night working on presentation materials, but I'm fairly exhausted. Instead, my intention is to get up at some unreasonably early hour, walk to a coffee shop while the rest of the crew is sleeping, and get work done there.
In the mean time, it's time for bed. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day.
Posting From the Airport - 02/10/2008 - 3:22 PM:
We're at the airport at the moment, waiting for our flight, so this is a quick post. The Veeker feed has some on-the-fly pictures of us as we go, but they're a bit incoherent. Our schedule looks like this: Evan, who is the fifth member of the core team, will arrive in San Jose at about 4:00 p.m. Matt lands at the San Francisco airport about 30 minutes later, and the rest of us land in San Jose about 40 minutes after that. Evan and the rest of us will meet up, and then figure out how to track down our European friend. :)
The plane will be boarding soon. Gotta run.
Matt Is On a Plane, 14 Hour Flight. First of Us to Start the Adventure. - 02/10/2008 - 12:14 AM:
I just got an e-mail from Matt over in England. He woke up this morning at 5:30 a.m., packed his bags, and got on a plane. I'm about to go to bed so I can have a fresh start for tomorrow, but he's flying over the ocean right now. He's the first to actually start moving on this adventure. For the rest of us, our flights leave tomorrow around the 4 o'clock p.m. range. Technically we're flying into San Jose - we'll meet up with Evan first, then with Matt at either the San Francisco airport, or the hotel. Fairly fun stuff.
I might watch My Date With Drew again for additional inspiration. :)
A Note About Yahoo, Inc. - 02/09/2008 - 1:30 PM:
Yahoo's role in this project deserves a bit more explanation then was given in the Chapter 3 Introduction video. For one, they deserve a nod for keeping their eyes open. As the video with this post says, Yahoo reached out to us while I was still in California on my original trip. "We don't know your idea," they said, more or less, "But we think you're interesting, and we'll listen if you want to talk to us."
I spent about an hour out at the Yahoo campus while I was there. We didn't talk about the idea itself; we talked about Yahoo and chasing dreams, and the state of the world. I met interesting people. And my impression was that, by the time I left, they still thought I was interesting, as well.
When I returned to Idaho and started tracking down programmers to help me put together a functioning version of the idea, I fired Yahoo an e-mail. I asked if the offer to hear me out when we were ready, in a number of months, still stood. They said that they would take the call, and thus a line of communications was open.
That's all it is right now. A line of communication. But in a story about communications, that's not bad. Yahoo starts Chapter 3 with a Yellow label on the "Nifty Chart of Company Openess" over there because they reached out when no one was asking them to, or expecting them to, and because that says a lot about them as a company. They're proactive, and aware.
But of course, the goal of this trip is to sit in a room for 30 minutes and show off what we can do in person, and to say why we think it's important. And sitting here in Idaho, one day before a trip to California, I obviously haven't had a chance to sit in an office in Silicon Valley recently. Whether I'll be able to with Yahoo, or whether or not that will happen, I don't know.
A line of communication, after all, is just a beginning. But beginnings are sometimes worthy of mentioning. And they're always worth getting a little excited about.
Chapter 3's Video is Up. We'll Release this Idea on March 10th, 2008. - 02/06/2008 - 10:59 AM:
So, after a bit of a battle with Google Video all day yesterday, I finally ended up temporarily hosting the video on our own server. Until we can resolve the sound issues that Google and YouTube are both generating when they encode the video, this will have to do. Watch the video - it kicks this off right.
In a lot of ways, this post truly starts Chapter 3, which begins with a trip to California, and ends - as our intention - with a full, public release of the idea on March 10th, 2008. It'll be interesting to see whether my belief in this project ultimately seems justified to everyone else. The details of how the release happens are very planned out, but we're probably not going to talk about that until we get back from California. I can tell you this: By the end of the day March 10th, you will know the idea, and it will start a chain of events that may - in many ways, be more interesting than the original journey to California. When that chain of events reaches the end, lasting roughly 5 weeks, we'll be at a turning point of some kind. What kind - and if it's good or bad - I'm not entirely capable of predicting.
Sometimes you do your best to set the ball rolling, and hope it ends up where you want it, without crushing your house along the way.
I will put a bit of a caveat on this, though. There are a limited number of extraordinary circumstances that could mess with the plans; if the right people said the right thing in the right way, for example. Not allowing for that flexibility seems like a bad idea, considering how slow other people's response times can be, sometimes. But right now my focus is on getting us from here to release. And release is going to be a lot fun for me, one way or the other.
Either nobody will like the idea and we'll look a little silly, or people will connect with the idea... and well, we'll see what happens then. :)
We Fly Back on Feb. 10th. The Counter Returns, and We Buy Plane Tickets. - 01/17/2008 - 1:09 PM:
Last night, just after midnight, Brandon, Paul, and myself gathered around a laptop and purchased airline tickets for the return trip to California. February 10th, 2008. At the same time, we coordinated with Matt over in England to do the same. Calls were made to distant states and countries. Plans were made. More plane tickets were purchased. Plots were brewed.
And then, after much discussion, we went upstairs to watch an anime show with a plotline that made absolutely no sense to me at all. Something about traveling between dimensions using thread, lots of teenage angst, and miniature Hello Kitty heads attached to cell phones. Seriously.
After a bit of deliberation, we decided a natural date for our return trip was February 10th, 2008, the one year anniversary for the original quest. It's not an arbitrarily chosen date, though - in fact, originally we'd planned a week earlier than that based on what our plans were a month or two ago, and moved it back only once we realized how close we were to the anniversary. It seemed like a natural move.
It makes you wonder, though, why it's so hard to get a reasonable airline ticket from Idaho to San Francisco that doesn't insist on parking you in Utah for a couple hours.
What I mean by not arbitrary, though, is that the timing is set to a plan. One that you'll be privy to as soon as I finish the video, which I've just now really started working on in earnest.
Someone interviewed me once and asked what I thought a secret to success was (they mistakenly presumed I knew), and I'll repeat it because... well, I like the idea behind my answer:
Have plans, and then have contingency plans, but most importantly, make your contingency plans more fun than your primary plans. Plan A for the original trip was to walk in Google's door and ask for a meeting. Plan B was to launch CanGoogleHearMe.com - I don't think you have to ask which of those was more fun. When this video goes up, it'll outline the new Plan A and Plan B, and I think you'll like it.
I figure no matter what, this is going to be a great deal of fun.
Plane Tickets, Plans, and Movies. It's Going to be an Interesting Ride. - 01/13/2008 - 7:06 PM:
The site has had a slight upgrade, the biggest change being that we've A.) moved Chapter 2 posts to a separate page, and B.) made the Veeker feed more prominent. We did this because we can update the Veeker stream from the road via our cell phones with pictures and video clips, which will make it more important in Chapter 3 than in Chapter 2. Chapter 2 was fundamentally stationary. Chapter 3 is all about moving around.
More importantly, in the next week I'll be changing the main video. Partly because I've never been happy with Chapter 2's video - missed some of the snap of the later videos - and partly because... well, we have a plan. We have a timeline that is very clear, and my intention is this: I intend to post a video outlining every move we're planning on making in the next two months. This includes everything - all cards on the table, including a timeline and outline of events that lead to the full unveiling of the idea. I'll explain exactly how I expect things to unfold, why we're doing what we do, and so-forth. The question will then be how good I am at predicting the future. What we have planned for Chapter 3, in some ways, is far more risky - and promises to be far more interesting - than Chapter 1. That's a fairly big claim, but I'll let you judge for yourself after the video goes up.
That 2:00 phone call went very well.
The counter will be back. When it does, it'll be a concrete deadline, because it will be determined by the airline tickets that we've already purchased. There's a great deal of information coming, and I am extremely eager to start sharing with you. But first, the video. We'll finish the touches to the site this week, get the video ready, and then we'll do our best to make our lives interesting, at least for a little while.
I'm excited. :)
The Last Post of Chapter 2. The First Post of Chapter 3. - 01/04/2008 - 8:28 AM:
I'm happy to announce that this is the last post of Chapter 2, and will be the first post of Chapter 3. We'll be enacting some graphical changes over the next week to help along the transition, but here, the story changes in focus.
From the start, the planned end of Chapter 2 was reached when we had a functioning product, and could return to California - and now Seattle - to show what we could do. That meant we needed a working product to prove the idea and something in place to protect that idea. We had a working product several months ago, and ended up having to ask a number of companies to wait while the more tedious paperwork cleared.
The final obstical, the patent, was cleared just before Christmas of 2007. Coming into January, we're now ready to move forward again. Chapter 2 was defined by slow movement. We were doing a lot of things that we couldn't talk about, and so the blog was filled with side quests and random tidbits. I intend Chapter 3 to be different. For one, I'm going to keep the posts on-focus. We'll move the Chapter 2 posts, with the exception of maybe the videos, to a seperate page and start Chapter 3 with a bit of a clean slate. And then I want to talk more candidly about the difficulties we're facing, the successes we've had, and give you a more internal idea of what hills we have to climb, and how we plan on climbing them.
That's the plan. That's how the new year starts. I have a call today at 2:00 that will influence what happens in the next month, one way or another - it's time to get this ball rolling.
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Just in case you feel like you want to send me a note, you can contact me at: Aaron Stanton aaron@cangooglehearme.com  |
