Nintendo really gets it…Sponsor your own hack / crack event!

Yesterday I had the pleasure to take my son Zachary and his best friend Michael to a really cool event. Nintendo and ToysRus had teamed up to do a nationwide Pokemon meet up event.

The idea was that kids come to the store armed with their Nintendo DS devices. When we arrived there were probably 200 kids in the store with their DS's and pokemon games running. You walked up to counter and each kid was quickly given two sealed character cards with a special code attached. This code talked to a local wifi server they had staged in the store and allowed the kids to download two new super charged characters -- Manaphy and Electivire.

So what was in it for both companies? For ToysRus obviously the hope is that you are in the store and buy more product (and indeed we did). For Nintendo obviously they can sell more product too but there were other beneficial behaviors that I observed.

Kids of all ages (6 to 18) were interacting not only with their new characters but several were making deals and exchanging other characters from their devices over the wifi connections in the store. Of course there were also many discussions about specific game strategy and tactics. Many of the kids were discussing how the DS system interfaced with their Wii systems at home and uploading and syncing characters on their devices to the home systems.

Overall the event felt like a bricks and mortar viral event that was truly authentic!

OpenID and related XFN matters

I have to say that I have been a fan of OpenID since our leadership in the development team (Luke and Ken) both turned me on to it. The concept is a fantastic advance and beside that I have long been a fan of a client side solution for identity management called Roboform.

The latest article on the O'Reillly site is very interesting in that it points to an even further advance using XFN to create what is called a social graph using XML. I really like this idea as social networks proliferate. One of my favorite applications that me and my CEO have taken a liking to on Facebook is the Interactive Friends Graph application. It allows you to dynamically see all your friends and your relationships and connections between them and you. I highly recommend it!

I am looking forward to seeing what more fun can come from OpenID and XFN.

Our new grandson Zane

Our new grandson Zane

Originally uploaded by sl_morgan

This is a collage of our new grandson Zane (and other members of our family Allison, Emily and Emma) made with Ript. He was born on September 1, 2007 and weighed 9 and half pounds and was 22 inches long.

Zane my new grandson is born

My first and only grandson -- Zane was born this weekend on September 1. I wish I could share pictures with all of you but i haven't got any yet (come on I need my Flickr uploads).

So as a place marker I thought I'd load up my Ript page about the baby name Zane from babynamer.com. Allison and Skip (Zane's parents) had quite a time choosing my grandson's name but I am very happy with their choice. I definitely wasn't crazy about their second choice Tyson.

Zane originates from the great heritage of the name John which means God's grace.

The other vitals. Zane is huge -- nine and a half pounds and 22 inches long. Mother and grandson are doing great. Pictures to come soon.

Our First Mets Game

We went to our first Mets game on Friday 8/24/07. I have to say that it was a fantastic game as the played the Los Angeles Dodgers (orginally from Brooklyn). It was a win! Carlos, I know you are loving this!

We sat in the Bear Stearns box seats right next to third base and had a great view. My daughter is a huge fan of David Wright while my son is a fan of Jose Reyes. Both kids got what they wanted which was a very close up view of their favorite player. It was such a great family experience compared to Yankee Stadium which we visited last year. I have to admit it.

Even though most of my family are still Seattle Mariner fans, I have to admit I am still a tried and true fan of Yankee baseball. I hope my team can make the playoffs this year. I will keep my fingers crossed.

M&A and Financial Shenanigans

There are all kinds of rumors swirling around possible financial transactions about my current company, Oxygen Media. This post on Dilbert.com reminded me about the kinds of games that can go on around such events.

While most of the company is swirling around gossiping about this potential transaction, I am very pleased to see that my team(s) are just "hunker'd down" and doing their jobs respectively to a very high level. It is such a breath of fresh air. As a matter of fact, we have released our best product to date on Ript.com™ and several other great ones under development -- stay tuned.

My hunch is that this is because all of them live in their own skin (I know I do). By that I mean, they are all very confident (and rightfully so) and understand that their individual skills and talents are so valuable no matter what the future holds at Oxygen or any other company for that matter.

It’s All About the People Stupid

I remember watching a talk news show after Bill Clinton defeated the first George Bush in 1992. It was James Carville a political pundit announcing to the media why George Bush had lost the 1992 election so badly to Bill Clinton. He said "It's the economy stupid".

That quote sticks with me on the eve of our team's launch of a great new purposeful and playful product that they have developed -- Ript™.

As with any great product, there have been several things that make it special -- the idea, our product owner, the process, etc. The most important to me though is the Team.

Not at my present company but at some places I have been that don't grok technology I have had to remind execs of a similar idea to what James Carville said to the media in 1992 -- that is -- "It's All About the People Stupid". This would seem obvious but to some its not.

I have found throughout my career in technology that it is one of the core truths about Software Development and Information Technology. It is truly all about the people.

Please check out my team members blogs listed here because they have some great stories to tell about this fantastic new product.