It was so great to see everyone last week at the Twin Tech Party. it was a lot of fun, we gave out tons of the little ev beach balls and it sounds like everyone had a really good time. It was good seeing the folks we knew well out having fun, and meeting tons of new people with really interesting things happening. DC is rising… A couple highlights included: Zippyjobs, which is working with colleges to offer student employment. I loved Aquent’s give away’s, the folks from nclud were friendly as always and I ended up getting a cigar from Martin (lifesaver), and Peter did a fantastic job of putting on the entire event.

I wanted to let everyone know the winners of the drawing we had for the Limited Edition evDeliv Beirut Set (Much more dignified name than Beer Pong but it did end up getting us some honorable mentions on a few blogs including Zach’s Washbiz blog) and the Limited Edition evDeliv Picnic Set. Aptly picked prizes for both sides of the Twin Tech Town.

David Fogel, from xculture.tv was the winner of the Beirut Set. David has a number of fascinating projects going right now focused around merging the online media space with real social interactions, and in helping local businesses and people. I dropped off the Beirut Set off this afternoon at his modern, artsy flex office space, Space 88,  and he let me know of some cool events he hosts at Eighy Eight, both focused heavily on art, positive urban planning and community building.  Very cool stuff. Sonia Taylor of Allison and Partners won the picnic set, but we have not been able to reach her yet. Congrats to both of them!

Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.

Nicholas Carr in a recent post: “Is Google Making us Stupid?” discussed his basic feeling of how our minds deal with the information overload in the digital age. Or more precisely, how our minds are altered by the new half real, half virtual world we find ourselves in. So much of it rang true that I am tempted to go beyond just quoting his piece, but to actually dissect llines of it piece by piece. I’m not capable of reading a long blog post, I can barely read a blog post period. I skim. I look over the key words, trying to grasp the main concept. Even when researching a development issue or trying to define a new strategy I look for the “do this, now do this” part to get my desired result as quickly as possible, and then am disappointed when the solution isn’t miraculously achieved when I performed actions I didn’t even vaguely  understand. I am a  child. I am clueless.. I am lost in the Internet age…

That’s only half the truth however. While most people involved in Social Media would agree that at times, they also perceive that they are losing the ability to digest a long piece of sustained one sided flow of information from one source, they also believe that this “power browsing”, as Nicholas described it is, what gives them their super human powers. What is special about reading something for a sustained amount of time, such as a book, is the ability to set the book down, contemplate, understand, then go back to reading. What power browsing does is allow for people to connect the dots on a higher level. Let’s not forget that inside of each of our brains is still a powerful processing unit capable of quickly reading through garbage, processing, and taking away what is important. While you may now be skimming my post, you still might catch an enlightening sentence here and there and discard the rest of my over indulgent crap.

My question remains, however, do we actually allow ourselves enough time to contemplate? Are we really connecting the dots to deeper understanding or just flailing through an ADD fantasy? What do you think?

BTW, I kept this short because I feel, just like me, most of you would have quit reading by now if it was longer. (is this even bad?)

Somewhere in the midst of pushing for change in DC, I started throwing out the concept that I should be president, I started talking about it in chat rooms, blogs and to anyone that would listen. I never thought it would go far, but it is starting to catch on. I need your support, however, to keep this going! Email me to see how you can help! We’ve been getting quite a bit of press lately, below is a clip from Channel 3 News here in DC.