Thumos

I took a run through Strawberry Canyon this afternoon, up and along the ridge, and back down again beneath the canopy of trees hugging the creek. I have only run it a few times since my trainer, Peter Day, and I ran it earlier this summer.

As I trudged the ascent metering my rythym, a towering, demi-god of man came flying down the hill. With curling black locks in the wind he stormed past me stamping down the trail like a horse in full gallop.

“That’s always a great feeling at the end of the run, ” I thought to myself, “barreling down with whatever you have left to burn.”

As I continued up, settling into my stride for the next hour, I heard that galloping again, coming up from behind, and at nearly the same clip. He lost me over the next few turns in the shades of deciduous, and I could only think to myself again that he must have started up on the ridge and was now on a return leg.

When I had run this with Peter, we talked about many things, one of which was his email address.

“Thumos?”, I asked. “What made you decide on that for your address?”

“Achilles wrestled with it.” Peter replied. “It has been described as spirit, the principle of life, feeling and thought, passion, anger, joy, even grief. It was that inner dialogue with his thumos that finally spurred him to action.”

I knew Peter was the right trainer for me that day.

Up on the ridge it’s flat and twists along the top of the Berkeley Hills for another 2 miles or so, with inspiring view of the San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate, and Mt Tamalpais. It was an awesome experience today.

Well about 35 minutes into the run, here comes the Greek god again! He must have been going for a 15 miler. Irrepressible!

Now true, I am probably at least 15 years his senior, and nearly a foot shorter, but I am a decent runner. This guy was just incredible.

Thumos.

Strawberry, C2C. Time: 40:13/1:10:59

Talking about News

With the new thinking of a distributed web ala web 2.0, a new collaborative feedback loop is possible in news.

iTalkNews is a democratic journalism project that I am involved with. They’re currently in beta-mode, and are planning an official launch soon.

Liz Lee just set up a vlog from a road trip iTalkNews.com did earlier this summer. Check it out.

Google Talk

Looks like Google is set to launch an IM service with voice running Jabber. Some folks are running on the system now using iChat or GAIM.

It should be noted that the Jabber Software Foundation is a mentoring organization for Google’s Summer of Code program, which enabled university students to earn $4500 while working on open-source projects over the summer.

Will this be Jive skinned for Google?

Jive runs on the open source Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).

Too much. I am off for a run now…

Update: First test review is up for talk.google.com.

Ran the Campanile loop via tunnel. 1:01:54

Shadows on the Wall

I stumbled into a friend’s project today that set me off balance for a bit. Still not sure where to go with it. I have been wrapping my brain around technology as a collaborative lever the entire summer, fully thinking I’ve figured it all out – and here now this comes along.

“…(I) see only the shadows of the images which the fire throws on the wall…”

NDA and all, suffice to say, it challenges my thinking of social tools and how we can use them. It’s gearing up to be an amazing Fall.

On a running note, my trainer, Peter Day, should now be in Hawaii. He’s left me with a two week schedule focusing on time trials and stepping back off of the high mileage.

No run today. Yesterday 1:06:05 on the Emeryville Loop with a stop @ Peet’s on the way home.

Armchair Camper

Watching the FOOcamp and barcamp noise building up to the weekend, I thought it would be interesting to see what I could gleam from the various flickr images, blogs and wikis that were coming out of these camping trips.

Some of the earlier noise about bozo filters and hurt feelings left me wondering if some folks ever really left high school. I guess there will always be cliques. That aside, this weekend felt like a seminal moment. Perhaps something like Paris in the 1850′s…except much bigger, and digital.

Why not run “camps” more often, and in more areas!? Giving folks a reason to gather if for nothing but to share ideas…what a great thing!

Maybe something like a *camp Global Road Show.

Werewolves seem to be really popular with Foo folks. I never knew about Avant Game. Look like they know how to have fun.

From what I could see remotely, I think Ted Rheingold’s wikishirt should win a *camp innovation award! Great UI!

Update: Kinner Net Camp was held in Israel earlier this year. So it begins. I’m always playing catch up.

The Long Night

Well, here it is. After more than a year of pondering, playing and parenting, the blog is running. Much to catch up on. Marathon training, life as a marketing and sales consultant, web 2.0, and start-ups are just the beginning. This should be fun.

If you’ve arrived here from the About link, best way to find out about me is viewing my posts in reverse chronological order. In a past life, I built and sold a real estate web company (1994-1999) and slogged through the early 00′s as a top producing channel developer for a Fortune 500 media company.

I am a Principal partner in Universus Networks, LLC, a media agency for time/place shifted content.

[update December 2006] I now run Business Development for Millions of Us