John LoGioco.com

Looking down at ground zero from 30 floors up - whoa!

Today, while visiting a prospective partner for outbrain, my contact was nice enough to escort me to a huge window section of their swank offices that literally overlooked "ground zero."  In fact the very building I snapped these photos from collapsed as the twin towers fell on 9/11. 

Walking around the outside of "ground zero" you can't see anything much less any of the real progress and movement that's happening essentially below ground in the huge crater that remains.  Everyone knows the crater is big, but looking directly into it from 30 floors above, you can really understand the enormity of the space.  As my counterpart observed, you can probably fit 16 skyscrapers in this space.

Above is the left side of the crater, below is the right side;

Below is a picture of what the "freedom park" will look like.  What I found interesting is the design of the two huge  pools that will be in place where the original towers stood.  In the photo below these are the blue squares with the smaller dark squares in the middle.  But the small dark squares are actually holes where the water in the pools will be falling into.  I thought the design element of the "hole in the middle of the pool" strangely reinforces the aspect of collapse, death and decline - as opposed to an upward sign of rebirth, strength and freedom.  That said it will be a strong reminder for those generations who need to never forget!...so in that sense I think the design will be most effective.  Looking ahead I hope this prospect will become a trusted partner of outbrain - if so I will have the chance to post updates from this unique view of the progress being made at "groudzero."

 

NYSE Protest - "Bailout is BS - You Broke it - You Bought It"

This was the rally cry tonight at the base of the New York Stock Exchange.  These people were really pissed off and looked like they were staying the night.  Complete with drums, chanting and building crowds I wouldn't want to be a "suit" walking around there later.  Is this the kind of thing my 5 year old will ask me about when he's 20.  I think so - it feels that way.  Some images as I whizzed by;

Excited for Blogworld, new booth, speaking twice

I will be in Las Vegas over the next few days for Rick Calvert's second annual BlogworldExpo.  Rick, Patti and team did a great job last year so expectations are high this year for an even better show.  Over at Outbrain we are excited for this show.  We have a new booth that will make its official debut and are pleased to be involved with b5media on several sponsorships, two of which I will be speaking at.  The first presentation will be on Friday at 1:30PST and the second on Saturday at 4:15PM.  The topic of the presentations will focus on the issue of why bloggers should be "open" to providing their readers with external links.  This is a bit controversial for some bloggers so hopefully this will stir a conversation.  So you won't see powerpoint slides from me with bullet points and text, but rather images and short micro messages.  Let's see how it goes - any feedback is most welcome.  We're in booth #413, across from the b5 folks so stop by and say hello. 

IPhone rocks - except for the voicemail feature

I do love my new I-Phone.  Looking back just 2 weeks ago, my Verizon clamshell seems like the dark ages but Apple did do one thing that is a bit surprising.  It appears that QA missed one key ingredient for the "phone" part of the new I-PHONE which is voicemail.  When someone gets a new phone, the basics are call out, receive calls and voicemail.  Everything else is evolution right?  We'll somehow the basic element of voicemail slipped the QA folks because my new IPhone does not let me setup voicemail.  The button simply does not light for access and setup.  So callers that don't get me live go into the ethereal.  Upon hitting up the ATT store, I found out that it's a common bug and the fix lies with getting on a tech support call with Apple.  So I will do this, but for all that I love about my new phone from Apple, in the end, it's a phone first, and all the other cool stuff is really second. 

Sony's UNTRACEABLE dares you to not to click

This is an entertaining movie, a bit disturbing but nevertheless, a good recommendation for techies and web 2.0 people. At times the language is a bit technical, so being in the industry makes it fun to watch.

The movie is based on the concept that the amount of traffic a web site gets, effects the outcome of the subject. In this case, the more people that visit/view www.KillwithMe.com, the faster the victim dies. The site is live so check it out to see real world evidence of what would happen if someone actually did this in real life.

Diane Lane did a good job, but its the issues this movie raises about human nature that is triggering this post. Specifically how people's curiosity can drive them to do things even in the face of potential adversity to others. This concept is heightened on the web as people can become viewers anonymously. Aside from that, the movie exposes how the web can funnel a human superhighway almost instantly if the right type of content catches people's interest and sets off a word of mouth avalanche. Those of you in the content creation business should see this, not for ideas on content, but rather to see how the mass populace will direct itself given the right reasons - good or bad.