Maybe I’ll see you there for my 5 minutes of fame. I mean, literally, 5 minutes. The Ignite format gives you 5 minutes with 20 slides that rotate automatically every 15 seconds. It sounds like a fun little format and a cool way to get a quick dose of what’s going on in the Denver/Boulder area. Come check it out.

I’m often asked to expand on the concept of “the stage”. Everyone is familiar with seeing theatrical productions in the theater, on television, or in books. We embrace the opportunity to get to know new fantasy characters. We enjoy learning the story of their imaginary lives.

Digital Theatrics is a character-based story-telling process that happens through social web sites. They can be social media sites like Flickr and Youtube. They can also be social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. In fact, it can be anywhere people meet each other online. It can be based around anything from a classified ads site to a directories of businesses - so long as users can interact.

Now that you know the stage, how do the characters come to life?

Interestingly enough, it’s easier just to show you what “role playing” a digital theatrics character looks like - rather than describe it in words. And, fortunately, some other Internet user already created a perfect example for me. Lets look at the micro blogging social service known as Twitter. As a regular, everyday Intrawebs user, I tweet. You would expect me to, I’m a computer geek. However, who would have thought I would be tweeting along side Chuck Norris? As you may have guessed, that’s probably not really Chuck Norris.

The Norris example clearly shows what it means bring a character’s voice to life on “the stage”. The performance art falls somewhere between being a live actor/actress and being a writer. The “world” of the character expands to “the stage”.

Our Digital Theatrics experiment takes the process one step further by telling a pre-defined story in a real time way. While the performance requires a great amount of improv, there is a core story line to follow. The current project has 4 agents playing a total of 7 key characters. After more than two months of activity, the story is just beginning. Anyone who happened to meet one of these characters has the opportunity to discover the story.

While Digital Theatrics sounds a bit like an Alternate Reality Game, it is a distinctly different process. Most profoundly, Digital Theatrics lacks any “game”. There is no puzzle to unlock nor mystery to solve. Digital Theatrics is merely an interactive performance piece. That said, a DT campaign can easily serve as a huge asset for an ARG project.

From a marketing point of view, we’re still learning the potential value in Digital Theatrics. So far, the experiment is producing exciting results. I’m already imagining campaigns with hundreds of characters. We’re also trying to define clear ethical guidelines. There do seem to be black hat and white hat opportunities. I would like to be known as a company of integrity; understanding the ethical boundaries seems crucial.

From a cultural point of view, Digital Theatrics is already happening - regardless of what you call it. Unless, of course, Mr Norris really does sit in his basement talking trash on the Intrawebs.

Boulder is a fine city. So fine, in fact, that my previous employer longs to be here. Gaiam recently relocated out of Broomfield (a rather nice place for a business, actually - very near a nice airport) to “Boulder Rd”. However, they still aren’t in the city of Boulder. Gaiam is next door, in Louisville, CO. (note: maybe I should update their Wikipedia entry, it still says Broomfield).

Gaiam’s CEO, Jirka Rysavy, is so keen on being in Boulder that he’s asked that a Boulder PO Box be put on certain printed materials instead of the Louisville address - or so I’ve heard. Boulder really does seem to carry this strong of a stigma. You’ll find countless companies in both fitness and technology coming from Boulder. Where do you think those horrible-looking yet comfy-fitting Crocs come from? Yup! Boulder! And to be fair, Gaiam was originally founded in Boulder in 1988. Google is even moving an office into town. Anyway, if you wanna know more about Boulder, go read the wikipedia page.

The other exciting news, our first Digital Theatrics experimental project hit a big milestone today. The integrity of the project would be at risk if I gave out too many details. While we’ve had a strong evidence of public attention via our stats tracking, and while many people have engaged the story characters in various places around the web, we now have our first bit of real world user interaction with our primary story component. It feels like a first “customer” so to speak. Very exciting stuff!

The attached image overlooks the city of Boulder. I took this photo during one of my first hiking trips in Colorado last summer. We were very near the royal arch.

Now it’s time for me to finish the unpacking.

I feel as though I haven’t accomplished a lot for a “year”; however, things really only began rolling a few months ago. In that light, a lot has happened in a relatively short amount of time. Most of which was fairly well covered in the last progress report.

While Webcraft is still, officially, just me… I’ve had a lot of support along the way. From those who’ve chosen to bare with me as agents to the group that took on the risk of being my first client - thank you! And to all those that have taken the time to sit and chit chat about the concept of Digital Theatrics and other things Web, thank you as well. Most of all, I should mention my friends and family that have shown me support and enthusiasm. I hope to take all the energy that’s come my way and do good things with it.

I think the attached image of a glacier is a nice symbolism. They don’t move particularly fast, but they don’t stop and are responsible for epic changes. They’re also just really damn neat to look at!

Twitter is not the only service of it’s kind. Birghtkite bumped the concept up a notch by adding imagery and positioning. Meanwhile, Plurk found a creative new way to display a user’s timeline. It’s great to see innovation; but this brings us to the same problem that service like Ping.FM, HelloTxt, and Socialthing were created to help us manage - too dann many segregated service providers!!! And as the alternative providers become increasingly popular, they too will suffer the same ’single point of failure’ issue that hinder Twitter today.

This post is a call for change. I think we can learn a valuable lesson from another Internet technology. You may have heard of it: E-mail.

As an E-mail user, I can send a message from any service provider and feel fairly confident that it will be received by the intended party - regardless of what service provider they use. E-mail works across platforms because there exist a standard protocol allowing different systems to communicate with each other and work together.

Furthermore, I can choose to become a provider myself. I can download any of a variety of open source E-mail servers and install them on my own server. Because the service is tied to a domain name, I can give my service an identity that’s associated with my personal, company, or organizational branding. As an added bonus, in the event that I want to modify how my server works, I have full access to the source code to my software and a wide variety of documentation on how E-mail works.

Now, apply these concepts to Twitter. The same way Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail offer E-mail services - Twitter, Brightkite, and Plurk can still continue to provide their services to the public as they always have. However, with a standard set of communication protocols, users on one system could potentially interact with users on another.

Furthermore, with an open standard, developers would be free to create their own Twitter server software and distribute it online - allowing anyone to run their own service. This distributed model will resolve the biggest problem Twitter has today - service blackouts due to overloaded servers.

Most of all, as a community driven effort, anyone can contribute ideas and innovations. I believe this is the only way to truly take the concept of what Twitter is and turn it into a standard means of digital communication.

Two months later, things are on track. Of course, few things have gone exactly as planned and most things have taken twice the effort I expected. However, this week joyfully marks the beginning of the first ever Webcraft Studios Digital Theatrics campaign. I couldn’t have accomplished what I have without the support of some awesome individuals (thanks guys). The client seems excited and I think this campaign will serve their product well. This entire project is a huge experiment. I would tell you the details of the top secret campaign, but then I would be forced to kill you. We don’t want that.

The current campaign spans from now until the beginning of 2009. Organizing everything in just two months was a rush. My infrastructure works, but there are a few drawbacks. I find myself creating accounts and handing out passwords far too frequently. I’m currently deploying a wide variety of web applications which are all completely independent. Ultimately, I’m going to need a much cleaner and well refined system. I look forward to designing it.

On Monday, I will be traveling to Alaska. Much like the recent Mexico trip, Alaska will be another hard lesson in extreme telecommute. While the last adventure was not as productive as I had hoped, it was still successful. I was able to complete all of my mandatory tasks and maintain contact with key individuals. Perhaps soon, I can start publishing focused blog posts on making telecommuting a success.

The drastic way in which the Webcraft vision has evolved sort of haunts me. It was originally supposed to be strictly Web development. Digital Theatrics isn’t on the same radar. I do expect Webcraft to include a Web dev studio at some point in the future. Meanwhile, I wonder just how much the concept will continue to change in the next year or so. One thing is for certain, I really need to update the Webcraft website in general - especially the “about” page. Yet another burning to-do item. Time to get back to work.

To me and many others, a mobile work life is freedom. I’ve spent far too many days looking out of an office window admiring the beautiful day that was passing by as I worked. A couple of weeks ago, I was working from a barstool in a little Mexican surf town called Sayulita. A couple of years ago, the town completely lacked an ATM or any medical facilities. Even then, there were several places in town to get online. While I was there, I would catch up on work in between surf sessions and delicious meals. It’s a completely different way to live life.

Being able to telecommute also tends to be very green. You don’t have to drive to an office. In fact, you don’t even have to have an office. If you do, you can get by with a lot smaller office. That means less energy usage. In fact, mobile technology (such as laptops) tend to be far more efficient than most office equipment. There’s also the often forgotten cost of climate control. If your office runs the A/C, it’s creating a heat signature. And, did you leave the A/C on at home for the cat?

Mobility also gives you the advantage - and responsibility - of choosing when you work. I’ve noticed some telecommuters will still stick to a very tight 9-5 schedule. This is great if you want to be actively working and available when all of the office gnomes are being productive. It also creates a sense of structure so you know when you’re at work and when you’re not.

Conversely, I’ve noticed that other telecommuters are “always at work” and still “always at play”. This comes down to a lifestyle choice - and you might find it harder to manage than you think. For some, it’s easy to get so caught up in work that must get done - that they forget to play. For others, playing is so fun, they fail to get enough work done. In fact, the topic is so popular that there are a number of great books written around the topic including: The Four Hour Work Week, Getting Things Done, and Bit Literacy.

Over the years, I’ve found that the best way to manage a mobile work life is with a goal orientated business model rather than an hours based system. This can be difficult as we normally value a service based on the amount of time it takes to accomplished multiplied by some hourly rate. However, consider that rarely will any given task take two people the same amount of time to accomplish. With that in mind, you can see where a goal based system actually makes more sense.

I’ve often used project management tools such as activeCollab and Basecamp to break projects down and establish a milestone schedule. More recently, I’ve been using basic task tracking tools that are little more than feature rich to-do lists. While I’ve found the interface to be incongruent to the way I prefer to work, Remember the Milk is an excellent example.

For Webcraft, I’ve also put a strong focus on choosing browser based tools. For example, the previously mentioned Google Apps decision provided excellent mobility support.

Ultimately, the biggest decisions affecting mobility for Webcraft have more to do with “what” the work is. Digital Theatrics is the ultimate mobile job. Most of the work can be done with nothing more than a Web browser. An employee could potentially do a full days work via their mobile phone. To me, this is very exciting.

As I sit in this busy coffee shop on Folsom street, surrounded by laptop screens buzzing with wireless connectivity, I suspect that this trend of mobile computing may very well be in its infancy.

I’ve seen some iteration of this pattern happen at almost every company I’ve worked for. This first thing I realize is that I’ve worked at too many startups. After that, I realize that I’m going to face these same problems with Webcraft Studios. However, short of Microsoft releasing the entire code base under the GPL, I will never deploy an Exchange server for Webcraft. Meanwhile, I must find a strong groupware solution. My exploration has shown me that things are very different now. The playing field is not the same!

Looking for a feature rich solution with maximum mobility, I setup a Google Apps account. The package is impressive. Here’s what I’ve explored so far:

• Webmail: I have pure @webcraftstudios email running through a webmail interface exactly like Gmail. The only webmail client I’ve ever used that I’ve preferred to the Gmail interface is Zimbra, and that’s mostly personal preference. Google also offers fantastic spam filtering. If you prefer a traditional mail client, such as Thunderbird, you can still pop in and get your email.
• Calendar: I’ve only recently fallen in love with Google Calendar. I started using it with my primary Gmail account about 6 months ago. Sharing calendars between Webcraft accounts is smooth and easy. However, I’ve found sharing calendars between Webcraft accounts and Gmail accounts to have some slight limitations. It’s a minor point, but it makes it harder for me to keep my personal calendar and my business calendars happy.
• Custom Start: I avoided setting up customizable home pages for a long time. Finally, when tasked with designing MyGaia, I ended up exploring Pageflakes, Netvibes, and iGoogle. In the end, the “killer app” that kept me coming back to iGoogle was the Twitter applet. Once hooked, I started finding many other useful applets. I was pleased to see that the bulk of functionality offered in iGoogle is available as a custom Webcraft Studios branded start page. There are some extra features beyond iGoogle, such as customizing the look of the start page. However, some basic features seem to be missing, such as the ability to manage multiple tabs.
• Documents: As expected, yet another awesome Google webapp customized for your domain. The suite began as Writely (I believe) and includes a word processor, spreadsheets, and presentation tool. It also allows for document sharing. Unlike the Calendar, sharing a document with a gmail user seems to work fully.
• Chat: We definitely live in the world of too many chat clients. I personally use the desktop app, Pidgin, to manage my overwhelming and unorganized list of contacts spread across too many accounts. Still, it is nice to be able to have a Webcraft branded chat account for every user. It’s also nice that both the webmail and custom start pages have snazzy google chat webapps.

There are a few other bells and whistles I have yet to explore:

• Sites: I’ve never used Google Sites for anything serious. I did toy with the interface and found it to be brilliantly easy for managing a website. Maybe some day this tool might be useful to me.
• Google App Engine: It looks as though Google offers a Web app platform to do some seriously neat things. I don’t have the cycles to invest into exploring this options, but if you want to, start here.
• Partner Service: Finally, there are a number of “partner services”. The most prominent is a CRM called Sales Force. If you want to explore, there’s a slew of others.

Excitingly, I’m still finding more and more options for expanding what I can do online via Google Apps. I’m running into very few limitations along the way. All of the functionality I’m enjoying so far is completely free. The suite of tools is absolutely fantastic.

I have not had time to explore it, but the only competitive collection of tools that I am aware of are the Zoho tools. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who’s used both Google Apps and Zoho extensively.

There is one minor draw back to both Google Apps and Zoho - all of your data is stored on servers owned and operated by a third party. There’s good reason for a significantly large company - or a company with sensitive data - to avoid using a hosted solution. For everyone else, these solutions mean less cost and less hassle.

At this point, I highly recommend Google Apps to any startup. In fact, I will be recommending it to many of my clients.

Digital theatrics is the art of weaving a digital story in a virtual medium through social role playing. Social Role Playing is the art of impersonating a character on a social website.

Social Role Playing is for clients who want to bring a character to life. Imagine a cartoon or video game character. Imagine how that character might act online. What if Pappa Smurf had a blog? What would he talk about? Who would be on Duke Nukem’s top friends list? What kind of answers would he have for those surveys floating around in everyone’s bulletins?

Digital Theatrics takes it a step further by telling a story. However, in this story, the stage is the public Internet. Sound fun? I think so.

This evening I sent off the first theatrics proposal to a potential client. Unfortunately, I will not be able to discuss the details of the project until the play is complete. It just wouldn’t be as much fun if I gave away the surprise!

Today, I have a new offender. I was working on setting up our accounting with my new accountant (more on that soon). We checked out Quickbooks Online’s free trial. As seen in the attached image, QuickBooks Online completely blocks me from attempting to use their web application due to my operating system.

I wasn’t excited about using Quickbooks for my accounting. In fact, the open source community has a wonderful finance application called Gnu Cash. I’m not an accountant, and it’s been years since I’ve touched QuickBooks. I really have no idea how to evaluate Gnu Cash. However, my previously mentioned accounted took a tour. She repeatedly said, “oh wow.” Apparently, it has all of the features she was looking for and then some.

But Gnu Cash lacks one feature I’m hugely interested in, portability. I like the idea of being able to access my accounting from anywhere in the world. This is what brought us to evaluate QuickBooks Online. Thus, I am now on a quest to find other Web based accounting software. If all else fails, we will fall back on Gnu Cash.