Black Slate Media

There is something to be said about that giddy feeling derived from reminding myself exactly what I do for a living. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind me I’m not in some bizarro dream state. Okay, well not really. But still, when you are willing to lock yourself in a room for two days to hear panelists discuss job-related matter, it is a powerful thing. There is only a thimble-full of people I know who feel that kind of passion and motivation for their career. I certainly wouldn’t be writing this had I chosen to become an accountant.

I attended An Event Apart in Boston last year. Not only did both conferences take me to a new city, but they also reinforced my enthusiasm for my job. If your company’s budget allows for you to attend conferences, I highly recommend this one. Hell, I’d probably even pay out-of-pocket. The learning experience is worth the price alone, and I had fun. A lot of it.

I want to take a brief moment time to highlight a few points that I feel were worth mentioning.

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Last week, we recieved a Webby Honoree for Politico. While we didn’t get nominated, it still feels good to be in the top 15% of the nearly 10,000 applicants. Our team put many hours of hard work into redesigning the site in an extremely narrow timeframe. I will post about it on a later date, as there is still much to do (I am fully aware that the site uses a table layout. We will be moving to XTHML/CSS soon).

If you haven’t heard by now, Flickr has recently announced support for video. The news was sort of a shock to me, but I assumed it was only a matter of time. Passionate Flickr have been quick to assemble an anti-video group, already with over 1,000 members. Who can blame them? Over the years, Flickr has proved itself a first-class photo-sharing service. Flickr have love because it serves a very niche purpose, and serves it well. The very thought of it entering the video arena to compete with YouTube and its ilk leaves one to wonder if that love has just been squandered.

I honestly doubt that competing with YouTube is even Flickr’’s intention; something they have made explicitly clear with the idea of treating video as a “long photo” (example). Videos are even imposed with a 90-second time limit and a request that they be personal and not over-produced. Whether or not Flickr’s user-base chooses to abide by this or flout it remains to be seen.

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Okay, okay okay! I know there is still plenty of time for until the 24th of April. But still, one can be giddy. Right?

I am excited to announce that I will be departing for New Orleans in three weeks to attend my second consecutiveAn Event Apart. Last year’s Boston conference was so great, it was nearly impossible to consider going anywhere else (though @media SF seemed tempting, until it got canceled). Every speaker in the lineup had given an excellent presentation and I expect much of the same this time around.

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April Fools Days has got to be one of the best days of the year to have an internet connection. From bogus news stories to groundbreaking type designs, the web is abuzz with clever pranks. Google introduced both a future search and the Google Doc Airplane.

To get the plane, just open a new Google Document and select “Airplane” from the drop-down. You will instantly see instructions and folding lines. All in all, I gotta say this seem very random and strange. But hey, anything goes on April Fools Day! How did it fly? Meh.