Everyman IT

Currently the Baltimore Tech community is a vibrant place with lots of people doing lots of great things.  Not only do we have the mass of startup companies with their entourage, but we also have numerous people giving their time, space, and some money to foster Meetups and other events to showcase the current state of progress in Baltimore and foster a new generation of tech entrepreneurs.

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Apparently I now have more to fear from the Holiday season then a stale fruit cake.  Total Daily Views on the “Eli the Computer Guy” YouTube Channel were steadily doubling every one and a half months last year until the week of Thanksgiving.  From Thanksgiving till New Years our stats plummeted from averaging around 4500 views per day to a low of 2554 on Christmas day.  The stats got better after Christmas, but it has been a surprisingly slow recovery.

Yesterday was our first day of overall higher views since November 3rd!  At 5208 Views in a Day this is our first “record breaking” day in almost 2 months…

This is just one of those “quirks” in business that you should expect to encounter even if you can’t fully anticipate it.

Sent to my YouTube Channel:

‎Hey, I really lvoed your vids and subbed. im 14 and I know alot about computers regarding my age. So I want to get someones facebook login details. She goes to teh same school as me and I talk to her alot.
So i need to know what is the best way to get the login information. The purpose for this is to just spy and not destroy or get hold of her account.
PLEASE ANSWER.

If I received one message like this I would shrug it off.  If I had received a few messages like this I would shake my head and lament the stupidity of too many people.  The fact that I get numerous requests like this a week tells me that there is something going on in society far deeper then mear idiocy of the populace…

Not only does the upcoming generation not feel required to pay for content, but they also seem to feel as if they have the right to violate people’s online world with little ethical consideration.  Additionally they are willing to reach out to complete strangers to ask for help in committing felonies with barely a second thought.

I have a feeling a major change in our society is coming.  I just don’t know if it will be a more open transparent society, or one full of more prisons and dumbfounded delinquents.

I ran across the YouTube Channel for LockerGnome today, and I think I have found my new hero.  He has 4235 uploaded VIDEOS, and has 128,734,945 views.  Doing a back of a napkin calculation that means he’s probably made around $700,000+ off of his YouTube Channel!

You can check the channel out here: https://www.youtube.com/user/lockergnome

The holiday season here in the good ole’ US of A is finally behind us.  The holidays are a time when retail businesses do their best, but many other businesses grind to a halt.  When I had the computer service business I expected from Thanksgiving to the middle of January to be very slow, and now having a web based video content business I see that the same will hold through.  Until Thanksgiving my Stats on YouTube and my web page were continuously going up, and I was expecting a steady rise in the revenue I received from advertisers.  In December everything sank for the first time.

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While I was backpacking through Nepal a few years ago I had the enlightening and frustrating experience of traveling with a Cambridge educated Philosophy graduate for a month.  When we first agreed to travel together and trek the Annapurna Circuit I was excited at the prospect of being able to discuss and debate with an exceptionally intelligent person.  After about a week I learned to keep my insights to, “That’s a cool cloud…”.

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Back when I was in college in the 90’s my Electronic Crime Professor introduced to me a concept called the “New York Times Rule”.  What this rule means is that you should feel comfortable with any information you send to someone else using electronic means being published to the front page of the New York Times.  Way back in the 90’s he explained to us how easy it is to capture, and repurpose communications. Hence politicians would be wise not to email pictures of their genitalia to women that are not their wives…

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Do you ever have one of those days where you stare blankly at the end of a chain of events and wonder, “How the hell did that happen?”  My expulsion from the GBTC was one of those days.

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I received an email from the new head of GBTC (Greater Baltimore Tech Council) stating that the GBTC will be going Nomad.  Apparently they are bailing out of the office space they have had for years and are going to try out the co-working model.  They are asking business members of GBTC if they have any open desks, and they will camp out for a few days at these businesses so that they can see how the tech world in Baltimore is working in the “Real World”.  On the face of it this seems like a pretty cool, cutting edge concept.  And as long as there are desks available it could be a great thing.  The basic premise is that the leadership of the organization that supports the Baltimore Tech Community will be able to see, and interact with the local tech community in “the wild” so as to better determine how to support its member.

Sounds great… Sigh…

The problem is… I have been asking for a specific mission statement from GBTC with objectives and it’s “reason for existence”, and I still haven’t gotten it.  How the hell am I supposed to know if “going nomad” will be a good thing for GBTC if I don’t understand what GBTC is trying to accomplish?  Sadly this seems like just another mass of sound bites, and fancy words to cover over the fact that the Greater Baltimore Tech Council is completely rudderless. 

My gut instinct is that the Greater Baltimore Tech Council is a “dead organization walking”.  The fact is that all of the WONDERFUL things that are happening in the Baltimore Tech scene don’t seem to have much to do with GBTC.  Long term members, and those who have their memberships paid for by their employers seem to be happy with GBTC, but us newbies who pay our own way are scratching our heads at the whole mess.  From my conversations with members there is a lot of discontent, BUT also a lot of inertia.  People are members because they have been members or have been told they should be members.  Every year they shrug their shoulders and write another check. This is a dangerous business model…

So that I am not labeled a whiner I will reiterate what I NEED in order to cut another check next year:

• Give membership a CLEAR mission statement with definable objectives
• Create events that are more welcoming and less formal.  As a technologist I can say that EVERY GBTC event I have been to has been intimidating.  A brain addled geek does not do well walking into a room of suit and tied, snobby, business people.  As a geek I find there is little common ground between me, and sales people that fill out these events.
• Create a real forum for deciding what GBTC is and where it should be heading.  Once a month have membership come together to discuss member needs, and how GBTC can help.
• Get the board members out, and make sure they have a BIG name tag that says BOARD MEMBER on it.  If they can hire and fire GBTC employees on a whim the members should at least be able to know who they are.
• Decrease cost of events, and increase the number of them.  Having been to a Dinner, the Wine Tasting and the Tech Nite Out I can honestly say that I’m not overly interested in drinking alcohol with Tech Sales People…  I can geek out to my hearts content on $30 of Panera Coffee and Bagels in any available conference room.Focus more on cool ideas, and less on venue.  GBTC should have WEEKLY Meetups or at the very least “sponsor” them.
• Slap GBTC on every Baltimore Tech event that has anymore then 2 people show up to.  Sponsor, Co Sponsor, Co Co Sponsor as many events as possible to get the GBTC name out there and make people think they should give a damn about it.
• Start acting like a startup that has to justify it’s existence to it’s investors (members) or risk a shameful death.  Because that’s what GBTC is and as an “investor” (Member) I don’t like what I see.
• Frankly I don’t care if you work out of an office, or a public bathroom.  My ONLY questions are, “Do you accomplish what you set out to do?”, and “Do I want to support these accomplishments?”.
• Get better LEADERSHIP.  The purpose of an organization like GBTC is to be a cheer leading section, and a coaches corner.  It should provide the moral support to drive its members to do greater things.  It does not exist to do  much on its own.  It exists to shine the light so that others can build their dreams.  The fact that Jason did not offer a toast, and address the gathering to explain the current GBTC shakeup at Tech the Halls speaks for itself. From what I have seen in the past few days I have no idea why summarily dismissing Sharron Webb and bringing on Jason Hardebeck was a “must do”.  The board seems to have replaced a competent MANAGER with another competent MANAGER, and caused a lot of membership soul searching in the process.  Personally I want GBTC to steered by a LEADER.  (seriously… I spoke with Jason one on one and he seems like a good guy, but if the “leadership” performance I’ve seen over the past few days is an indication I’m not very enheartened.)

For any of my followers you should know that the Baltimore Tech scene is simply FABULOUS right now.  There really is something in the air, and it is amazing to see it blossom. The question here is why does GBTC matter to it?

Here is a link to the GBTC Website: http://www.gbtechcouncil.org/  Does it make you excited to join???

and here is the email sent by GBTC new leader Jason Hardebeck:

The GBTC’s office has been in the ETC for a long time…I’m looking at a lease document from 1999 right now.  That means we can say "our offices are so last-century" with a straight face.  It’s a nice office; carpet’s a bit worn, but it’s got good light and it’s cozy.  Yet, there’s something missing…ah, that’s it.  Our members. That’s what’s missing.
Show of hands from anyone who’s ever set foot in the GBTC office.  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  Members don’t come here, because they are busy in other places, doing things like building cool stuff, creating, designing, selling, teaching, solving problems.  We love when our members get to do the things that make them special, but there’s a problem; it’s really hard to see you guys doing all that stuff when we’re stuck in a box at the back of the ETC.  So we had an idea, and Operation Nomad was hatched.

 

Pretty simple idea, actually. We’re going to leave our box and come out into the light to visit our friends, just like your Aunt Jean and Uncle Harry do every holiday season (but without the long wait for the bathroom).  You know you miss us, and we definitely miss you.  And just so we don’t feel nostalgic and get sucked back to the box, we’re taking a lesson from the Norsemen of yore.  When they sailed to a faraway land that they were determined to conquer, they burned their ships on the beach so there was no turning back. No worries, Ann and Neil, just a metaphor…and we’ll make sure we blow out the incense and scented candles before we close the door on the box on December 30th.  We’ll put on our helmets and strap on our laptops and venture into the wild…and we’re never coming back to the box.

 

But wait, you say, where will be the GBTC "be"?  Easy, we say, we will be with you.  Yes, just like Aunt Jean and Uncle Harry, we’re gonna pack up the station wagon and head over to your place.  We don’t need a lot of room and no wet towels on the bathroom floor.  We promise. And since the GBTC has lots of relatives, we get to spread the love.  Doesn’t that sound great?

 

So it turns out that this is not such an original idea after all.  Seems there’s this phenomenon called "co-working" that’s all the rage with the kids nowadays, and we’re itching to try it.  That’s where we need your help. It’s our goal to co-work from every single GBTC member’s workspace in 2012.  Before any visions of nephew Bobby moving into the basement come to mind, here are the ground rules:
-We just need a spot to park ourselves, a laptop, and a coffee cup.  Wifi and a map to the bathroom would be awesome, but otherwise we’re good.
-Only one GBTC’er at a time; we may hunt in packs, but we co-work solo.
-We won’t overstay our welcome.  Each stay is for one day max, and at least a few weeks between visits just so you’re not tired of us (unless you insist of course, and I hear Sharon bakes a mean pie).
-We’re not there to bother you.  Well, actually we are, because our real goal is to get to know your team and your business so we can do a better job of understanding what you do and how we can meet your needs.  There’s a saying about how observing animals in the wild is a lot more informative than watching them in the zoo or at a networking event, but forget I said anything.

 

That’s it, really.  All we need from you is a quick note letting us know if you’ve got a spot that we can hang out in every once in a while.  It’s certainly not an obligation, but *cough* all the cool kids will be doing it *cough* and we’d really hate for you to be left out.  If you’ve got a conference room that we can borrow for those rare occasions when we do need to hunt in a pack, that would be great too.  We’ll bring the donuts.

 

By the way, we’re still noodling on a tool that can help track our locations and schedule different locations and members so everyone can see where we are and where we’ll be, sort of like G(BTC)PS.    It turns out that when we stop paying rent for the box (the CFO doesn’t know we’re leaving yet, so no one tell her.  seriously.), there’s a few extra bucks in our pockets that we can use to buy some shiny toys or build a cool app that would get used by every member of the GBTC (including the ones with money and a similar penchant for shiny toys and cool apps).  Hey, wouldn’t it be great if there was a local company that could build us a tool like that?  We don’t like tomatoes from California, so please save us from elance.

 

In all seriousness, this is just the first step in our commitment to fully engage with our members.  It may sound absolutely nuts at first, but I promise you that it will make perfect sense very soon. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used that exact line with my wife over the past 20 years).
Please drop me a line or give me a call with questions and ideas. The GBTC only works when we all work together, and we mean that quite literally.
Enjoy the weekend and ban the box, 

 

Jason
GBTC

I have been a huge fan of the Kindle since I ordered my first gen one years ago. I have read countless books on Kindles and every morning read the Wall Street Journal on my Kindle DX.  When I heard that Amazon was coming out with the Kindle Fire I was genuinely excited and figured it would be a terrific product…

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