blue shift

The day I lived! And ignore the butterfly.

Happy Halloween everyone! I used to hate this hallowday (sorry, couldn't halp it) but now I celebrate it as the day I survived.

Five years ago today, at 6:47pm est, I was walking across a street on the way to dinner when I was struck by a car going 40mph by a drunk college student going from one party to another. I flew over the 30 feet or so (I'd have to check the records) and was going in and out of consiousness for about 40 minutes until the ambulance came. My clothing (including an awesome and brand new sweater I had just gotten for my birthday! ) was unceremoniously ripped off of me by the paramedics rather dissimilarly to the way I had imagined and hoped it might happen that night. I was taken to the hospital where I was given a clean bill health and walked out a few hours later! I had to borrow some clothing from a few friends.

This was an event that changed the course of my life. And it's totally awesome memory! It also changed my outlook on Halloween. It's the day I survived!

Given the circumstances of the accident, and the fact that I suffered no major physical injuries other then really painful bruising (in the following days), led many to consider the event miraculous. From what I've been told however, most people on campus hadn't heard that I actually survived. Apparently I still haunt the place.

To be honest, I would have preferred the physical damage.

The damage from the accident was mental. And thank god for it! If it weren't for the brain damage, I would never have pulled out of school the next semester. I would never have run into the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the Acceleration Studies Foundation, nor had time to obsess over all this open source, blogging, and social networking stuff!

The day I survived led to the rest of my life. So, thank the gods for drunk driving, brain damage, and Halloween!

In other news, if you frequent my site you may notice a few changes. First of all, it's no longer blue, but red! Also, there's a pretty butterfly in the top right corner. Ignore the butterfly. I like the overall color scheme, and am thinking about revamping my web presence and the butterfly is helping me in my thinking. Ignore the butterfly.

You may also notice a new widget to the top right. It's a countdown to my next surgery. This will be number thirty.. something on my vocal chords since I was an infant. I lost count after I passed thirty.

For many, this would be something to be sad about. I find it life affirming. And funny. Very funny.

Each time I have surgery, there's a remote chance I might not wake up from the anesthesia. This is a reality I've faced since I was young. It's never something I've feared. (Needles on the other hand...) To be honest, I've almost grown to enjoy my hospital visits in some perverse way! Save for having to deal with insurance.. That completely ruins the experience.

Why am I blogging this? Because each surgery I've had has been a day I've survived. I've had more brushes with death than I can even count, and each one has given me an appreciation for life that I'm thankful for without words, and a morbid sense of humor that it pains me to have to reign in around most company.

Also, I wanted to explain the widget. It's my way to celebrate! Ignore the butterfly.

Tags: surgery, halloween, life, celebration

Coworking Atlanta. Let's do this!

Update, October 2009: Two years later, and Atlanta finally has a dedicated coworking space! It's called Ignition Alley, and I wrote about it here. It's superexciting!

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Original Post: 

As I mentioned previously, Coworking is something that's been on my mind for a bit. So what is Coworking exactly? From the Coworking Community Blog:

"Coworking is a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents."

This can take a number of forms, from a bunch of people getting together at a cafe (with open wifi), someone's home, or a shared community space in order to get work done. I've had conversations over the last few weeks with a number of people (too many to mention here) about coworking, and there seems to be a lot of interest. Also, given the level of social media connectivity that's  (finally!!) forming in Atlanta, the time seems to be right for coworking to start happening. 

Why do I want this?

If you know me, you know that I'm really into the stuff I work on! I'm big on understanding where the world/web is going, and I'm even bigger on using this knowledge to mobilize communities to make a difference. I'm lucky enough to be working with a team of people who share many of my goals, philosophies, and values, but as we're a virtual team I often feel like I'm missing out on the type of community that being a part of a physical workplace brings. Bottom line? Working at home sucks. It can be lonely sometimes (not to mention difficult to self motivate) and I want more exposure to a diverse range of people who are as passionate about what they do as I am! (Srsly!!) Secondly, we often talk about "Web 2.0" and social media as not being about technology, but being about culture. Social media is both a product of cultural change as well as a catalyst for change that's driven by people. For the past two year, it's been difficult being a social media consultant in Atlanta because the city has been so far behind the learning curve. I think this is rapidly changing. It's becoming much easier to talk about blogs, open source, virtual worlds, etc with people, and we're beginning to see lots of interest in events around said topics and using said mediums. We've had a number of unconferences this year including (but not limited to!) SoCon07, Podcamp, and most recently a Barcamp! I look out at the what's going on in this city, and I see that there's a lot of connectivity between creatives of all types (software developers, artists, entrepreneurs, bloggers, etc) and a thirst for even more community, interaction, and the personal and professional opportunities these would bring. Historically, it's been difficult for creatives in this city to form such a community because there are too many centers. Atlanta is the poster child for urban sprawl, and until last year I didn't even realize that there was anything to do! Let alone people to meet. But now things are so interconnected that I think we can finally start connecting the dots here. So, let's do this!

What's next?

Amusingly, while doing a bit of research for this post, I found that someone beat me to the punch! Last friday was the first meeting of a group of coworkers under the banner of Jelly led by one Kristyn Shayon and attended by a number of people I know! So there's already one coworking group within the Perimeter! The next meeting is on Friday, November 16th and you can go to the groups wiki to rsvp. Secondly, I've talked to a number of my colleagues at What a Concept! and we're going to start having coworking sessions as a company on the north side of Atlanta (From Buckhead all the way up to Sandy Springs, Alpheretta, maybe Kennasaw, etc.) We think it would be really cool to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to join us! We'll be posting details on our company blog in the next few days. Eventually, I'd like to have a coworking space that we can call our own. Check out Citizen Space in San Francisco to see an example of what I have in mind! Of course, placement is difficult due to urban sprawl... and first things first: bringing the community together. So rather then try and centralize the Atlanta coworking community to a single place or under a single banner, I'm proposing that we use Yahoo's Upcoming event service so that anyone can post coworking events to a shared calendar. I've created a Coworking Atlanta group, and hope that everyone interested in organizing coworking events will join me in posting their events to this calendar. Join the Atlanta Coworking group on Upcoming, and link to it with the words "Atlanta Coworking" (like I just did) so it will be easily googleible. (And don't tell me that's not a word, Sherry.) As mentioned in the block quote earlier, coworking is a movement that's gaining steam in cities all over the place. If you're interested in learning more and becoming involved in the larger conversation, there's a blog at coworking.info, a wiki at wiki.coworking.info, and a coworking google group where you can connect with members of the global coworking community. Lastly, if you're planning on blogging about coworking activities in Atlanta, posting coworking pictures on flickr, social bookmarking, etc: I propose we use the following tag scheme: coworkingatlanta, coworking, atlanta.

Tags: coworkingatlanta, coworking, atlanta, community, social media