An Bui, Spelled An With 1 N

CRAVE has invited Danielle Morrill and I to speak at this month’s Coffee Chat, called Twitter Talk.

Learn about how Twitter came into existence and how it fits with other social networking and social media services, such as Facebook, as branding tools. Even if you’ve never used a service like this before, discover the power and simplicity of sending short messages (140 characters or less) to a group of friends and followers interested in what you have to say. This talk will include discussion of how to create an engaged community on Twitter, how to develop an audience of relevant Twitter users, and how to share valuable information about your products and content in an appropriate fashion - often referred to as “Twitiquette” (Twitter etiquette). 

It’s this Sunday, 4/19, from 2-4pm, at Dreamclinic, 902 NE 65th, in Seattle. Register at Seattle 2.0 or on the CRAVE Web site.

Hope to see you there!

Adam Philipp of AXIOS Law Group called me out weeks ago for my failure to list Espresso Vivace in an earlier blog post, An Bui Lists The Best Coffee Shops - Seattle. So obviously, I had to have coffee with him last night. When I arrived, Adam had just finished speaking with a client, demonstrating Espresso Vivace’s effectiveness as a location capable of faciliating production.

Espresso Vivace - 1, An Bui - 0

I ordered a soy latte, extra hot, no foam, for here. Regrettably, I neither specified short nor did the barista think to ask, so I ended up with a tall soy latte. The soy to espresso ratio leaned too heavily towards soy, with nearly 11 oz of soy to the 1 oz shot of espresso. As an aside, tall should not be the default size - a little too Starbucks-esq.  Espresso Vivace does get credit for having the short size on the menu.

Draw between Espresso Vivace and An Bui

While my latte wasn’t what I had in mind, I can’t fault Espresso Vivace for not having mind-reading baristas. Once I recalibrated my expecations, I have to admit an oversight for not including Espresso Vivace in my original post. Great latte and the barista got my extra hot, no foam down perfectly, without giving me grief.

Winner: Espresso Vivace

I say this because I’ve added yet another social media application - Tumblr. Do I really need another? No, not really. But do I love me some Tumblr? Yes, yes really. Why?

I can send pictures from my phone to a special Tumblr email and get the pictures online easily. I can import tweets from Twitter. I can quickly post little quotes, and even regular blog posts.

Lately, social networking applications seem to be moving towards cross-posting functionality. I can Jott to my Twitter and have the tweet sent to my Tumblr. I’ve already written about Twhirl’s auto updates to Jaiku and Pownce. I’ve also used TwitterSync to sync my Facebook status messages and Twitter.

As I let myself get so super obnoxiously busy, this functionality is becoming more important for effectively managing social media use. Of course, much of the fun of social media is the social aspect. Join Whrrl, become part of my friend network, and let’s meet up for coffee, at one of the top shops in Seattle.

I spent 15 minutes talking to Michael Martinez today, a luxury I hadn’t had in a long time. We caught up a bit – we talked about my professional progress and the use of various social media applications, including Twitter.

Michael also gave me two pieces of unsolicited advice:

Advice #1 from Michael Martinez:

Blog more often than once every two weeks.

I got scolded. Perhaps that wasn’t Michael’s intention, but that was the communication I got loud and clear. My current boss once gave me feedback: “Communication happens at the receiver.” I can be as clear and unambiguous as possible, but the communication really happens when someone receives the message I’ve put forth. No message put forth? No communication, because I dropped the ball. I took took Michael’s feedback as a scolding, because I needed a kick in the pants. In trying to manage my time and life better, I’ve allowed things to slip, such as this blog. I haven’t been on Twitter as much either, which leads to this vague, disconnected feeling.

Between various applications I use to manage my time and life, I’ve also found I’ve added some analog to my life.

The short list of applications includes:

• Jott which I use to send myself SMS and email reminders in an effort to keep myself together
• Xobni which gets me more excited about my work email than I deserve to be
• RescueTime which provides analytics about the applications in which I spend the most time on a weekly basis
• Whrrl which tells me where to go for dinner. Because I’m that decisive.

The short list of analog includes:

• Moleskine Notebook for the times it’s not polite to Jott
• Multicolored Gel Pens because they’re pretty and provide a quick visual way to convey an additional layer of information. You know you love color-coding!
• Sticky Notes, for the notes I want to ensure stay on my desk.
• MyLackey.com because I rather do something else other than pick up dry cleaning.

The glue that keeps it all together for me is coffee. Even after twelve glorious hours of sleep, I jones so badly, I still have my giant coffee of the morning.

So I’m back in the saddle. That means Advice #2 is another post for another time.

I had dinner the other night with one of Pelago’s talented developers. Pelago is the company that has brought us Whrrl, a geotargeted social networking online and mobile application that enables people to share real-world adventures and discover places, events, and people through the eyes of others in their social networks.

I reached out to Jason Crawford and asked him simply, Why Pelago? Why Whrrl?

Pelago and Whrrl offer Jason the following opportunities:

• A great product in the consumer space;
• Great people with whom to work;
• Interesting technological challenges;
• Personal career growth potential;
• Pelago’s strong future business opportunities.

Meeting Jason enabled me to put a face to the company. In addition to his reasons for joining Pelago, he shared with me the fact that Whrrl hasn’t changed all that much from the original product vision. I’m interested to see if this holds over time. Fred Wilson, of Union Square Ventures, discusses the number of companies in which he invested that underwent complete or partial transformations between the time they took venture capital and the time they exited the business. The numbers suggest that Pelago may transform, but at this time it’s too early to say.

The Pelago team constantly challenges itself to improve Whrrl by adding new cool features and added functionality to benefit Whrrl’s users. The user interface is intuitive and the map allows you to see clusters of social network validated points of interest. If your phone is on the list of phones that support Whrrl, you can go to m.whrrl.com/getit to download the mobile application. The Pelago team is working on bringing us additional cities and increasing the number of phones compatible with the mobile application.

Whrrl has been in public beta since 10/23/2007, so if you haven’t tried it, it’s not too late to join the party. RSVP to the “Whrrl Focus Group – wanna free drink?” through Facebook.

Join Whrrl. Add me as a friend, or become my fan. We can even find somewhere to get coffee in Seattle.

Twitter, my current microblogging application of choice, alternates between being available and unavailable of late. Ev and the rest of the Twitter team are working hard to resolve user issues. In the meantime, have you thought about giving Pownce a try?

Pownce - What is it?

Pownce is a social networking and micro-blogging site started by Kevin Rose, Leah Culver, Daniel Burka, and Shawn Allen. Pownce allows you to access your existing social networks, including:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• AIM
• MSN
• GTalk
• Your blog

all from a single user interface! 

Share links, files, pictures, events, and micro-blog posts with the public, your friends, or in private messages. Pownce became publicly available January 22, 2008, and people are still learning about its existence.

I’m still developing my Pownce network - unsurprisingly, the social network with the most crossover is Twitter. Some have said it’s like Twitter on Steroids but I’m hoping it’s more like Twitter on coffee, my personal obsession. Since my Pownce network is so limited, I’m encouraging you to take this opportunity to try Pownce with me.

Get Pownce. Add me as a friend. Let’s figure out Pownce together.

120+ people. 56 hours. 1 conference room at Adobe, and countless cans of Mountain Dew, Diet Coke, coffee, and other beverages, caffeinated or otherwise. Theoretically, we’ll launch a product at 9 pm Sunday night.

This product, skillbit(tm) enables users to discover “[Their] Team’s Potential, Now” Leveraging the power of the internet, skillbit enables business leaders to learn what skills, talents, and knowledge their teams have that may not be readily apparent.

19 working hours in, and I’ve met some really incredible people, about whom I will blog about in short at the conclusion of the weekend. I’ve also had the opportunity to execute skillbit’s web site, from start to finish. This process included:

• Coordination with the UX and design teams;
• Keyword research;
• Web site architecture;
• Writing content for the web pages and splash pages;
• Writing tag lines;
• Working with incredible people who share my passion for Web 2.0

Everyone at Startup Weekend has been very positive, encouraging, and open to others’ ideas and feedback, from what I’ve observed. In some ways, Startup Weekend and this experience thus far is like kindergarten - everyone is playing nice, everyone is trying different things, and everyone is learning a lot about community building.

Check out my livetwitter from Seattle Startup Weekend: @anwith1n 

Conversation déjà vu – In the past 10 days or so, I’ve discussed the same topic with multiple people – time, or more accurately, lack thereof. The reality of my life and the others with whom I’ve discussed this topic is that we don’t have the time to do everything we want to do. We can’t have it all. The question is: how does one take a resource of a known, fixed quantity and use it more effectively or efficiently?

I most recently discussed this with Eytan Seidman, who is in the midst of a transition from his role as Principal Lead Program Manager on the Live Search team to a role in an entrepreneurial venture back on the East Coast. I met the charming Mr. Seidman at the SEOmoz party where I met Natala Menezes of adCenter. Highly intelligent, engaging, and thought-provoking, Eytan (and his time) is in high demand. His availability and my availability have yet to overlap.

Jeremiah Owyang blogged today about time management – “Manage Your Time Like You Manage Money,” and yesterday I recommended Marc Andreessen’s blog post, “The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity,” to a friend. Both Jeremiah and Marc provide interesting insights to increasing effectiveness with one’s time.

Other productivity resources online include:

1. Lifehacker, one of Gawker Media’s blogs. Title should be self explanatory.
2. 43 Folders, Merlin Mann’s websites about personal productivity, life hacks, and life improvement.
3. Listible’s online life hack community.

Essentially, prioritization and decision making serve as the key components to productivity, personal or professional. Take the idea of touching each piece of paper once to 2008 – read each email once. Make a decision on it, then delete it.

Finally, less sleep + more coffee = more time to do.

A member of one of the Seattle area email lists I subscribe to asked an interesting question: “Best coffee shops for networking and just general working?”

Since coffee is a subject near and dear to my heart, I a) have an opinion; b)have a reasonable basis of comparison for my opinion. I’m partial to quite a few coffee shops here in Seattle. Some of the coffee shops I like have to do with the location of my apartment of the month and others have to do with where I work. Without further ado…

In Lower Queen Anne:
Caffe Ladro, at Queen Anne Avenue N & Roy, has friendly staff and a great ambiance in the summer. It’s a great place to work if work entails people watching.
Caffe Vita at 5th Avenue North provided me with a quiet place to sit and work when I worked remotely for Access to Justice Institute at Seattle University during my first summer in Seattle.
Caffe Zingaro on Mercer has plenty of outlets to plug your laptop into when the battery dies. I’ve worked there, met cute guys there (Call me, Shawn!), and conducted alumni admissions interviews there for Swarthmore College.

In Pioneer Square:
Zeitgeist Coffee at 2nd Avenue South and Jackson keeps me functional. The startup I work for is strategically located mere feet away from Zeitgeist. The coffee is a solid part of my routine, and the tomato gorgonzola soup gets me going through the busy days. We often have impromptu meetings while waiting for our lattes, but Zeitgeist can get crowded and loud when the line gets long as it often does.
Grand Central Bakery on First Avenue South has fantastic coffee and oversized, flaky pastries, unlimited refills, friendly and personable staff, unlimited refills… did I mention unlimited refills? I’ve never used them for wi-fi access, just as a meeting location. The blazing fire in the mornings goes well with that first cup of morning coffee.
Trabant Coffee & Chai at 2nd and James makes a soy latte to die for. They don’t take credit cards which makes it less convenient for those of us (like me) who rarely carry cash, but the creamy sweet goodness of the latte more than makes up for the inconvenience.

In Belltown:
Uptown Espresso in Belltown has lots of space and big tables for spreading out and hacking away. It’s good for groups as well as individuals. The Lower Queen Anne location isn’t as open as the Belltown location, but the lattes are just as good.

In Capitol Hill:
B&O Espresso in Capitol Hill has very accommodating staff, free Wi-Fi, and I always get a lot done when I’m there.

Others that make the list of Top Coffee Shops to Work and Network - Seattle:

• Top Pot on 5th Ave
• Zoka in the U District
• Café Vita on Pike in Capitol Hill
• Victrola Coffee on 15th between Harrison and Republican
• Tougo Coffee on 18th between Union and Pike
• Caffe Umbria in Pioneer Square
• Cherry Street Coffee House, on Cherry Street in Downtown
• Essential Bakery at Madison/MLK in Madison Valley
• Fuel in Montlake
• Caffe Verite in either location: Madrona or Ballard
• Louisa’s on Eastlake

Thanks to Sam Tingleff for a Google Map of the above mentioned Coffee Shops: Top Coffee Shops to Work and Network – Seattle