I wanted to follow up on my last post about my new adventures with this update…a day later, I suddenly realized that I had left something really important out of my big announcement–the drive and the support that helped get me to become the next Bay Area Reporter for The Next Web.

As most of you probably know, I’ve been writing as much as I can recently for this cool tech blog called Bub.blicio.us, started over six years ago by one of the most well-regarded and smart people I know, Brian Solis. But did you also know that I was contributing for the site for over the past three years covering events and using it as a platform for me to showcase my photography and writing? I think it was because of Brian and Bub.blicio.us that I have gained a foothold here in Silicon Valley and without that, I don’t think I would have been recognized as much as I am now–not that I’m well-known now, but let’s just say that it was because of Bub.blicio.us that I’ve been put on the proverbial “map”.

I started writing here on this blog because I wanted to be recognized for being a great marketer who had some intelligent insights to share with people about the emergence of web technology. It’s been my main microphone and never expected someone to ask me to write for them. As my writing progressed, I’ve been fortunate to produce content for Network Solutions, which was an absolute great opportunity, but it was Bub.blicio.us that got me more recognition here amongst my peers and the tech community and for that, I’m ever grateful to the Bub.blicio.us team.

My success today is because of the enormous belief that Brian had in me and my writing ability to give me a chance to write for his blog. Then, he further demonstrated this trust by basically giving me control over Bub.blicio.us in naming me Editor-in-Chief…something, to this day, I’m humbled and ecstatic about. Thank you for helping me to realize my dream of becoming a writer…and for giving me the inspiration to now do that full-time at The Next Web.

So to that, I want to personally thank Brian, Krystyl, and everyone on the Bub.blicio.us team for their support in me and the amazing opportunity to work with them. I learned a lot and definitely enjoyed working with everyone there. Of course, my many friends and colleagues over the years have also played an important part in where I am as well so I don’t want to also forget mentioning them…you folks are the reason why I’m always so interested in what’s happening in the world. So thank you too.

No word yet on what’s going to happen to Bub.blicio.us in light of my new move, but you should definitely go check it out.

This month, I celebrate my four-year SF anniversary. I’ve had an interesting ride over the past few years and I’ve been fortunate enough to share it with many friends, old and new.  But perhaps what I’ve been most proud of is the fact that I’ve managed to find a really great job here in San Francisco and pick up my life after a couple years of (f)unemployment. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been an interactive producer at one of the best healthcare communication agencies that I know–Kane & Finkel. Of course many of you probably know what I did better as being a “drug dealer”, which technically isn’t too far off from the truth…I’ve essentially been working on the marketing side of things taking a strategy and executing it, thereby contributing to the cause of selling more drugs for patients to get better.

Time at Kane & Finkel

Working at Kane & Finkel has been very rewarding for me and I’ve definitely learned a great deal. From stepping foot inside this small but agile agency, working with a very creative and dedicated team centered around being as invaluable to the client as they are to each other, there was no challenge big or small that we couldn’t handle. In reflection, I’m amazed that I produced four iPad applications, at least five video animations, 4-5 websites, countless emails, numerous reports, and several dozen pages worth of documentation–definitely something that will stay with me forever.

But while working at Kane & Finkel has been nothing but great to me and helped me grow professionally, I can’t help feeling that there’s something missing from my life and time here in San Francisco. I’ve been here now for four years and what people have told me is that I’d be perfect in a startup or that I fit right in the industry. Sounded bizarre to me, but the more that I heard this, the more I heard the siren’s calling and I felt that right now would be the right time to see what other opportunities lay ahead of me.

Taking the leap

So, in looking at the economy and the opportunities that were available to me, I decided that right now would be the chance to take the leap. That’s why, September 25 will be my last day as an interactive producer at Kane & Finkel. I totally don’t go into this decision lightly, but I think that the desire to keep following what’s happening in technology and with startups has become too great of a calling that I couldn’t pass up.

So what’s next for me?

Today, I’m really excited to share some great news…starting next month, I’m going to be more involved in the technology and startup community getting to know the ins and outs of what’s it like to be an entrepreneur, investor, developer, designer, and lord knows what else. Basically, I’m going to be wandering through Silicon Valley eager to know more about what’s happening in tech–eager to hear your story. With that, I’m super happy to announce that I’m the newest reporter for The Next Web. Yup, that’s right…this time I’m going to be an industry man–covering consumer technology and startups right here in the greatest city I’ve ever lived in.

For the past few years, I’ve been watching from the sidelines, usually from afar, at some of the coolest tech companies begin and grow to become some of the world’s most important facets of everyday life. Each day, I’ve found my interest grow and my passion for the tech world increase…and now I find myself having an incredible opportunity to be involved while sharing it with the rest of the world. This is definitely something that suits my style…

Okay, here’s the particulars…I’ll be staying put here in San Francisco (natch) and the official title is Bay Area Reporter where I’ll be highly interested in the consumer tech & startup space. Expect to see me roaming through the streets of this great city, as well as throughout the valley.

Big shoes to fill

I’d be quite remiss to say that I couldn’t have gotten here without the help of some great friends–too many to mention, in fact, but I definitely appreciate all the support. I step into this roll with a bit of trepidation in doing a great job…not because I’m not qualified, but because of all those that have come before me and still are having a great impact on reporting the latest and greatest in tech. Working at The Next Web will be great because I will be working with some of the brightest reporters and minds in the industry–very thankful to be learning from folks like Zee, Brad, Alex, Matthew, Jon, Hermione, and many others on the team. Lots of great stuff has been coming out from The Next Web and I’m hoping that my hunger for news will help add value to that–definitely a role I’m eager to make an impact in.

But I can’t also forget that there’s been a lot of great folks in the industry that I whole-heartedly look up to and hope to be as successful as they have been/are now (in no particular order): Kara Swisher, MG Siegler, Michael Arrington, Eric Eldon, Ben Parr, Alexia Tsotsis, Rafe Needleman, Liz Gannes, Jolie O’Dell, Jennifer Van Grove, Om Malik, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Josh Topolsky, Robert Scoble, Shel Israel, Louis Gray, Jason Kincaid, Erick Schonfeld, Sarah Lacy, Michael Carney, Josh Constine, Drew Olanoff, Lance Ulanoff, Kym McNicholas, Owen Thomas, Ryan Block, Anthony Ha, Dean Takahashi, Adam Ostrow, Pete Cashmore, Adam Hirsch, and probably like a billion more names that I don’t have the space to list out–but there are definitely big shoes for me to fill…

The drive is there…I hunger for knowledge and to learn. So let’s do this…October 1, it’s game time.

Photo Credit: A writer’s tools via bloodylery/sxc.hu

One of the big things I love about being here in the Silicon Valley is the opportunity I have to learn about amazing tech products and be aware of the news surrounding it. Sure, you’ll get hit with the news via Twitter pretty quickly, but things just kind of move a bit faster outside of the Twitterverse and the online ecosystem. And I’d love to write about startups and emerging technology more and more, but never really had the major space to compose my message–until now.

Some of you already know (or at least guessed it by now), but a month or so ago, I was approached by Brian Solis (@briansolis) to take over the Bub.blicio.us blog and run it as the Editor-in-Chief. I have since accepted it and helped move it forward. Along with help from Krystyl Baldwin (@krystyl), Bub.blicio.us is going to usher in a fresh direction as being a blog dedicated to parties, tech, and the mysterious “bubble” –we’re going to keep writing about parties, conferences, events, tweetups, and whatever social gatherings you got because we think that the tech industry is alive and kicking. But we’re also going to be writing about technology, startups, and other companies that are living this “Bubblicious” lifestyle. If you got a great product and you think that it’s going to be a rockstar in the tech scene, then Bub.blicio.us wants to know all about it.

And no, I have not left my full-time job with my current employer, Kane & Finkel Healthcare Communications. It’s too good of an opportunity to pass up so I’m going to be balancing writing posts every day (if I can manage) versus my very demanding and interesting job. But I’m always looking for great people to help contribute to the site–if you got some interesting posts and ideas you’d like to share on Bub.blicio.us, please feel free to reach out, either in the comments or by using this comment form and I’ll get back to you right away!

Lots of great things are in the works and I’m really stoked about all that has happened. Make sure you check out the posts on Bub.blicio.us, add it to your RSS feed, and follow @bubblicious on Twitter–I love getting new followers! Oh, you got something you want me to take a look at, I’m open to that as well. Just drop me a line.

Photo credit: Ninjapoodles

I swear that Enemy of the State is fitting right now. Why? Because at the end of the movie, the lawmaker who proposed the communication bill is interviewed on the steps of Congress and when asked if the bill is dead, he replies:

In its current form, yes, but the issue is still very much alive, I can assure you, unless, of course, no one worries about national security anymore. We knew that we had to monitor our enemies. We’ve also come to realize…that we need to monitor the people who are monitoring them.

I understand that the government wants to protect American investments and its citizens, but at a risk to the way that we communicate and our freedom of speech? The Stop Online Privacy Act that is was going through the House of Representatives along with the Senate version, Protect IP Act (PIPA), are dangerous bills that should be stopped. Why were these bills enacted in the first place? Apparently because members of Congress are hearing about piracy taking place in entertainment, arts, music, and within other content structures that takes away money from hard-working Americans. Yes, I’m in favor of stopping piracy and counterfeit goods, but by giving the government, who has a political leaning automatically, no matter what they say, can very much shape the way the Internet currently exists.

Yesterday, Congressman Smith announced that he was pulling one of the most controversial provisions of SOPA: DNS blocking. Just how important is this? As noted in a VentureBeat article, if this provision were to be included in both SOPA and PIPA, it would grant the United States government the power and authority, along with copyright holders, the ability to block websites with infringing, pirating, or counterfeiting intellectual property. VentureBeat continues to explain that “One method of blocking a website under SOPA — which Smith intends to remove — includes getting Internet service providers (like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon FiOS) to block the site’s DNS record, which would prevent people from visiting those sites.“ This is absolutely remarkable that while the United Nations has declared the Internet a “human right”, the greatest country in the world feels compelled to limit access to its citizens. I’m even more frustrated by the fact that copyright holders have this control through the DNS blocking provision where they can systematically take out their competitors, vendors and partners around the world via the Internet simply by declaring that they are now infringing on their rights.

Keep up with the latest news about the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) & Protect IP Act (PIPA)? Check out my del.icio.us stack of bookmarked links curated – over 100+ articles talking about SOPA being debated now, from TechDirt, VentureBeat, Mashable, Ars Technica, CNET, and others!

 
In a nutshell, SOPA/PIPA are telling Americans that their government has the right to censor the Internet, even though we’ve told other countries not to stifle the Internet for their citizens. Although, in all fairness, President Barack Obama’s administration has come out against SOPA/PIPA because its current form doesn’t work for them. This post, penned by Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at the Office of Management and Budget, Howard Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff, and, perhaps most important, Aneesh Chopra, the Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Assistant to the President and Associate Director of Technology at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, states two great points about how the Internet should be managed:

Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small.

Across the globe, the openness of the Internet is increasingly central to innovation in business, government, and society and it must be protected. To minimize this risk, new legislation must be narrowly targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity. Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing.

We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet.

Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security. Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk.

So there you have it, three solid technology experts who have analyzed this information has provided a clear explanation why the current forms of SOPA and PIPA are bad and will do more damage than the intent that Congressman Smith had hoped for (no matter how good of an intent he meant). In fact, I believe that the testimony of these three experts far outweighs the testimony that was given by the supporters of SOPA in the first committee hearing, which featured members from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Motion Picture Asssociation of America, AFL-CIO, and Pfizer. These are not companies that you would necessarily associate with understanding Internet technology or ways to stop it. In fact, as I mentioned in my opinion post, I believe that these lawmakers within this committee are being fed influential data that is not educating them on how the Internet really works.

If Congress really wants to put people to work, they should not put restrictions on how business is being done. This is the 21st century and more and more is taking place on the Internet. The antiquated ways of doing business are over and manufacturers and legacy brands should learn to embrace the new forms of communication and business. In fact, you might want to read this fascinating and economic-enlightening post on about how the copyright holders are really scamming Congress. Something must be done to stop these scammers and violators of US laws, but complete Internet censorship is not the answer. I would think that for a political party that strives itself for encouraging the private sector, the Republicans, especially Congressman Smith, would be in favor of having companies develop new ways to combat these issues? Maybe instead of having a negative bill, we work on one that will encourage Americans to develop new technology to help control and minimize counterfeit technology while adopting to the behaviors that Americans are accustomed to? Let’s encourage Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, and the many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to fight piracy by developing new technology to help build trust with brands and consumers so that we won’t be scammed and taken by any international website. I, for one, am glad that the House committee has decided to hear from companies that oppose SOPA/PIPA and these representatives from Reddit, Internet service provider Rackspace (who probably hosts dozens, if not hundreds, of startups on their servers), Union Square Ventures (a venture capitalist firm), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others.

While the Internet was created here in America, it is not American…it belongs to the international community and must be treated very carefully. There are no borders within the Internet so trying to legislate it should be the last thing we want to do. So if Congress wants to be hypocritical and tell us how to live our lives on the Internet while protecting big business but not bettering the world that we hired them for, then I feel further that there’s no reason to have representatives since if we don’t have unfiltered access to the Internet to speak our minds, who do we speak out to? Our government isn’t listening to us…just to brands who want to protect themselves.

But in all the time that I’ve watched House Hunters, there’s some things that I’ve noticed appear on the episodes. It could be that it’s a 30 minute episode and there’s just not enough time, or that it just doesn’t fit into the normal schema of the show, but I think to make this a well-rounded show that is kept in touch with the time and the reality of those looking for homes, there should be some adjustments made to the series–not a whole lot and not permanently, but let’s not turn a blind eye to the trends in real estate buying, okay?

In all the episodes that I’ve watched, never have I seen a couple or an individual holding a cell phone, iPad, or mobile device. Why is this important? Well I would imagine that if HGTV had a social tech savvy buyer on the show, he or she would be compelled to use their mobile device to photograph the house they’re looking at for reference, perhaps take video, or use their iPad to research the surrounding area or find where they are on Google Maps. They might also feel inclined to ask for thoughts on Twitter, Facebook, or even Google+. Now, I totally understand that these shows are not live and are taped, so that means that HGTV doesn’t want their “contestants” (for lack of better word right now), to be leaking information about the episode that their buyers are looking at. However, when you think about it, House Hunters is more like an extension of the buyer’s experience. The three houses that they are looking at are selected to be aired probably after the buyer and the realtor have combed through the dozens of listings until they find three acceptable ones that pose a chance at being bought.

I’ve looked at the reality TV show’s FAQ section for potential participants on the show and there’s currently no mention about utilizing social media to help make a decision. I’m sure it’s probably going to be a deal-breaker for someone to come on the set and out of the three choices that they have, post things on social networks to help make a decision. But it would be fun to imagine it, wouldn’t it?