the dotmatrix project

(shot by Lenslinger)

Man, if Jason McCabe Calacanis is nothing else, he sure as hell is one smooth-talking dude.

Ever since Silicon Alley Reporter shut down due to the crash of the web agency industry he’s been stitching together the work of other people into something ripe for purchase. Funny how a business (SAR) that pimped those very same web agencies, driving up their visibility & rates and SAR’s advertising dollars, died the same death.

I heard a lot about Calacanis’ latest project, Mahalo, over the past 6 months, primarily through friends conversations out on the left coast and the occasional Scoble / Techcrunch / Winer ruminations. But when listening to Calacanis present Mahalo to Ed Cone and the audience this past weekend at ConvergeSouth, I have to admit I was a bit taken aback by some of the claims in his elevator pitch.

When contextualizing the features of Mahalo in the search world, Calacanis spoke of Google’s search algorithm (PageRank) in the past tense. He continued on, bloviating about the old way of presenting search results, where a machine based relevancy off of explicit criteria found within the markup, such as keyword matches with domain names and titles and the number of links to individual domains. This, Calacanis argued, creates relevancy that cannot be trusted as valuable, because SEO is a game and results are flattened out without any consideration of quality.

Mahalo is apparently different because Calacanis has hired a team of employees experts to create result pages that enhance the results of the zeitgeist of society (through the top 25,000 search queries). Forget the subjective argument surrounding “expertise” and answer this one question for me:

How does this make Mahalo a search engine?

The way I see it, Calacanis has created a super-collaborative link blog. Sure, there are community elements to it and there is a search box up top, but authors (or “guides”) are simply culling together their top link choices to give further context to an idea, issue, topic, place, etc. Mahalo isn’t a destination search engine; Mahalo pages are built to show up high in… you guessed it, Google search results.

None of this is bad, but it doesn’t make Mahalo a search engine. Or at least one attempting to compete with Google.

See, the vibe of the pitch keynote leaned pretty heavily in the direction of Mahalo being the future and Google being the past. Being that Mahalo is human in a miscellaneous fashion, I won’t compare it to Yahoo! back in the day — a site that attempted to categorize every known site into a master ontology. This is much smarter, as the well structured page titles, super-relevant links and structured data makes Mahalo pages ultra-ripe for a Google crawl and a well placed search result.

Calling a spade a spade — an SEO optimized link blog, trying to gain top spots in Google to cash in eventually on AdSense or similar — isn’t what CEOs do in this world.

To front like Mahalo is revolutionary in redefining search or that it will become a destination search engine — particularly, one that can marginalize Google’s PageRank algorithm through human expertise (btw, this very same algorithm is the one exposing these secondary result pages to the general public in the first place) — is a bit of crazy talk.

For shits and giggles, say that Mahalo succeeds in creating result pages for the top 25,000 search queries from Google and Yahoo!. Then what? How many “expert” monkeys are needed to not only scale to meet the demand of the ever shifting zeitgeist, but to maintain pre-existing hand-linked search result pages?

How long can Calacanis’ pet example, “Paris hotel,” stay relevant as the months and years creep on by?

Or is that the phase in Mahalo’s strategic plan where the real crowdsourcing kicks in?

Interesting stuff to ruminate over, but to lead off a conference hyped as “Creativity online for all people”…?

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

So far I’ve received nothing but great feedback from the other night (I had a great time, but I’m more than a bit biased).

There’s no way it could’ve happened without the effort of a bunch of people. A big shout of thanks goes out to:

• Simonne McClinton, Matt Bennett, Mikey Tourek and the entire staff over at The Green Burro: Thanks so much for hosting us. If you’re up for doing this again next year, I promise there will be no BBQ overlap to screw with head count. Thanks again for your hospitality and understanding
• The Wigg Report (Ben Riseling, Christine Fantini and Stephen Mullaney): You guys represent Durham like champs. Thanks again for trekking out. I’ll definitely take you up on the offer to hit up your neck of the woods the next time I’m in town.
• Little Mascara (Jessie Derusha, Chris Micca, Melissa Micca, Toaster and Max Diablo): Killer, rockin’ set; you guys brought it, put it on the table, unwrapped it and whipped our asses with it! Thanks again for putting your hiatus on hold for the show.
• Thacker Dairy Road (Molly McGinn, Chris Lord, Rebecca Stevens, Jonathan McMillan, James Harris and Jeff Yetter): What can I say? It’s been a fun time this summer watching you grow into such a dynamic sounding band. Thanks for holding down the late night segment. From what I’ve heard since Friday, you have a bunch of new fans out there.
• Sue Polinsky: Thank you for the trust you showed in me to do this right and for providing the budget for the bands. There’s no way I could’ve raised the money myself this year with my schedule. I’m still pissed about the BBQ scheduling overlap which cost us at least 40 people turning out, but I can file that experience under “Shit Not To Do Again” if you can.
• Mike Dunn (Mikey aka DaSkinnyBlackMan) and Stephen Charles (CharlesMedia): Man, you guys are seriously talented. Seriously. Fer real. Thanks again for making it last minute and producing such amazing shots!
• Andy Coon: My brother from the same mother. I’m really looking forward to collaborating on editing these music videos together. Thanks so much for all your work and support (and filming pointers).
• Desmond Sharpe via Carey Sound: Great job with the setup, on-the-fly sound checks and mixing. I’m looking forward to hearing the audio tracks!
• Jeri Rowe: I know for a fact that your timely article on Andy, myself and ConvergeSouth influenced at least than a handful of people to come out to the conference to learn how to publish their voice online. Thanks again for the well written story and your shared passion for a more creative Greensboro.
• Jordan Green: Thanks for pushing the music details over to Dave and the be there! section at Yes! Weekly. I’m sure we got at least a few folk to attend just because of that little promo. I’ll catch you at a nearby show soon, I’m sure.
• Bob Lefsetz: I got turned onto Bob’s rants a few months back and he’s greatly influenced my approach to promoting independent talent. He had nothing tangible to do with the event, but everything to do with unfurling my creativity. Thanks, Bob!

I’ve got a bunch of plans for local music promotion in the works, but still have a few conversations ahead prior to committing running a bigger and better event (read: a real music festival) next year.

To the folks who made it out this year — particularly those of you who plan to upload media of the event to the web per our fliers — thank you! (If I missed linking to you, let me know who you are in the comments)

While we put on this event primarily for these reasons…:

1. Provide talented, local, independent acts a platform to shine
2. Involve the local film and photography communities in making media (music videos to come; the stills look great)
3. Expose less known musicians and artists to the residents of Greensboro (and ConvergeSouth participants)
4. Give local venues a top-notch event to hang their hats on while developing return customers

… giving the gift of music to people sits squarely at the top of the list.

Thanks again for showing up.

Early yesterday evening, Andy and I plunked ourselves on the patio of M’Coul’s Pub and spent a few hours rapping with Jeri Rowe, the former A&E guru for goTriad and current Metro Section columnist for the News & Record. Jerry wanted to talk shop about ConvergeSouth, the Film and Music extensions that Andy and I are running, respectively, and how it came to pass that two brothers from Jersey ended up collaborating on numerous creative and community centered projects in Greensboro, NC.

Based on our conversation, Jeri’s piece (it’ll be in the paper tomorrow morning; God knows how long it’ll take to find its way online over there) seems like it’ll be just as much about our evolving relationship as brothers, as it will be about the festivals we’re attempting to give life to.

I gotta admit, at times the discussion felt like some form of sibling therapy. Here and there, when discussing the consumption culture we’re immersed in, our voices collectively crept up to a decibel most people would consider to be either argumentative or hostile. It’s funny how that happens with us both; we get really passionate about an idea or concept and seem to lose all sense of the presentation emanating from our vocal chords.

Jeri seemed to enjoy the boisterous brotherly banter, pausing to ask if we were Irish after the first crescendo or two. Shit, is it that obvious?

As Jeri drove the conversation from topic to topic, he paused for a few minutes to ask me about the concept behind the dotmatrix project — what I plan to do with it in the near future; if I plan to infuse music into it; will it affect community beyond the internet, etc. Man, I have so many ideas on the matter — some in motion, some still marinating — I can’t keep them straight from one day to the next. Hopefully, Jeri latched onto one of the more tangible notions in the bunch.

I guess we’ll see in the morning.

UPDATE: The article.

As of just a few hours ago, Greensboro’s own, Little Mascara, confirmed that they will be sharing the stage with The Wigg Report and Thacker Dairy Road on October 19th at The Green Burro in downtown Greensboro, NC.

So, we’re now officially booked! Thanks to all my peeps out there who suggested acts and helped me pull this together. I’m still trying to lock down a DJ for the evening — someone to keep the crowd live before the show and in-between sets. Stay tuned because I think we’re getting close to getting our man.

Over here in ConvergeSouth Music headquarters, we’ve got big dreams to one day become a full-fledged music festival — a multi-evening event that promotes talent representing diverse sounds and messages from all over North Carolina. So while you’re enjoying a night of killer music this year — and do enjoy it, because these bands are all great, independent acts — know that the real diversity of this festival lies down the road ahead of us.

Picture hopping from a hip-hop show at one venue to an alt-country act at another, but getting caught up in the vibe of the numerous street performers out and about in-between the half-block trip. Yes, Bob Lefsetz, this is going to be shit you’ll dig — unsigned, talented acts promoted via the internets and local word of mouth playing fun venues for a cheap cover.

Ok, enough getting ahead of myself… remember to register for ConvergeSouth and receive free entry into our nite-o-music with your conference badge in tow (otherwise, bring $10 for the cover charge)

See you next month!

Fresh off their win over 30 some odd bands at Ziggy’s Battle of the Bands last weekend, Thacker Dairy Road — along with The Wigg Report — has signed on to play the inaugural ConvergeSouth Music event on Friday, October 19th at The Green Burro in downtown Greensboro.

This entire evening of great local, indie music is free for registrants of ConvergeSouth, which is also free… so what are you waiting for?

Register today.

We’re still booking acts, so stay tuned for updates..

I’m happy to announce that the well-reviewed and self-described pop-punk outfit, The Wigg Report, is the first act signed to play ConvergeSouth Music to be held on October 19th at The Green Burro in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina.

In the spirit of local talent at ConvergeSouth, they’re representing nearby Durham, North Carolina.

More soon!

(originally uploaded by Benjamin James)

Simply put: The grass is greener on the other side.

Really.

Do yourself a favor and stop and smell it. Or is it the coffee you’re supposed to smell? I remember now — sip your coffee and smell the roses while laying out on a freshly cut patch of grass by your ever trusty John Deere tractor.

Ok, the picture has tulips in it. Cut me some slack, I really tried.

Seriously, though, this past two months of not reading my feed reader from top to bottom while contextualizing a myriad of news items and thoughts into posts as if my life depended on it… well, it’s a pause that I highly recommend to all intra-day bloggers.

I’m sure their loved ones would agree with me.

Since shutting down connecting*the*dots, I’ve been able to shift my focus to a few loves (mm… photography), take care of myself more with semi-frequent trips to the gym after a lunch at Earth Fare and concentrate much more on the foundation of dotmatrix — from client work to infrastructure issues to exploring potential business models.

So yeah, I’ve been busy.

Longing for details? Here are a handful of projects I’ve been working on during the Great Blogging Blackout of 2007:

• dotmatrix has been leading the user experience design of a future-state CMS for Scripps Networks since April, recently bringing two great designers into the mix — David Reid of RadiantUX and Tina Roth Eisenberg, A.K.A. swissmiss.

• Last month, we wrapped up an information architecture project with Rutgers University’s School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS). During our initial conversations, I lobbied for the introduction of blogs to their professors and staff, proposing that if adopted, the blogs would provide a necessary voice to the online face of the staff and a mechanism for communicating with prospective students, current students, research colleagues and fellow professors steeped in cliques across department lines. The web committee agreed.

  While SCILS won’t be taking advantage of the live web until sometime in the upcoming year — blogging will have to earn its place in the daily workings of professors — the newly designed website is scheduled to launch towards the end of the summer. Longtime friend and colleague, Ray Mancini of Good World Media, led the visual design of the site.

• Another information architecture gig just went live last week; Landwatch is a redesign of an existing property listing service and an arm of the start-up property service, Second Space. Once again, Ray Mancini is the party responsible for the UI.
• I’m currently looking to book three acts for the ConvergeSouth Music Festival to be held at M’Coul’s Pub in downtown Greensboro on October 19th. Okay, so it’s not really a “festival” per se — it’s our first year and I’ll be happy with putting on a great gig with a small number of local/regional acts. Hopefully we’ll have a line-up announcement soon.

Toss in my incessant desire to photograph everything under the sun and my work on a number of personal projects that are just beginning to see the light of day, I’ve kept my hands quite full these last few months.

So I stopped blogging and the earth kept spinning — imagine that.

Sometimes you really do have to just stop and mow the… er… smell the roses.