My wife started an M.I.A. station for me this evening on Slacker Radio. She began browsing Google photos while listening to Paper Planes, and happened to stumbled across Shawn Mortensen’s photography site. The photos were so incredibly cool that I hardly noticed that my wife was side-scrolling through an enormous portfolio. The experience was similar to that of reading a picture book without a cohesive story.

Afterwords, she moved on to her neck of the blogosphere, checking out Dooce and Craftzine.  I noticed the similarities to the massive amount of scrolling it required to move through Shawn Mortensen’s site — except this time, she simply flicked her mouse wheel. This enabled her to move through a more complex story much faster, without any mouse or keyboard clicking, or any decisions other than scrolling.

Looking at the simplicity of these two scrolling sites, I wonder why we have landed so concretely on a set of prescribed paths to experience the web. Why not scroll along a path of interest through Wikipedia instead of clicking on a specific keyword? Do we really need to take the word “page” so literally as to treat each web page as though it belonged in a book? Or are we beginning to explore a whole new path of knowledge building?

Those are the requirements, which are essential for things to work, but what about the freedom to work? When I first asked myself this question I couldn’t imagine what it meant. Freedom and work practically seem antithetical. But then I remembered where some of my best work was done: Everywhere! Anytime! Oftentimes, at 1 in the morning when I’m suddenly drawn to work until well past my bedtime.

The freedom to work is simply the ability to do what is required however you see fit. When you have one day to finish developing a mountain of code, head to the mountains and crank up some Skynard. Or, grab your whole department and hang out at the park in order to road map all of the new customer requirements. It doesn’t matter how you do it. What matters most is that you get the job done on time.

What do you feel about the freedom to work?

My hopes are that, 1.) Such a project be released into the open source domain, preferely by one of the many excellent Silverlight development companies who currently have open source Controls publically available, 2.) The project be names Silverwave, and 3.) An additional Theme in the download which transforms the Interface into Liquid Metal — known, as course, as the Silverwave theme. A liqud metal version of the Google Wave logo would be cool but not entirely necessary.

(This is, of course, merely a concept. As an Experience Designer I can attest to the simplicity of Microsoft Silverlight and would rejoyce a marriage with Google Wave. Being that Wave is due to be released later this year on Google Code as an open source download, I believe this would be an excellent opportunity to couple the adoption rate of both these technologies, while showing two of the biggest competitors on the web what can be accomplished through the power of collaboration!)

To find an answer, Google: ‘iVolunteer‘ and you will find a number of iVolunteer organizations, ranging from Holocost Victim Survivors to Professional Youth Organizations. At the very top of this list you will find my favorite iVolunteer organization: ActionFeed.org, who are developing an iVolunteer application for the iPhone and iTouch. The catch is that none of these iVolunteer organizations are related to one another, apart from their name, and their passion to support the Volunteer Community.

While some might have an issue with sharing their identity, those who call themselves something are unlikely to give up their name. Developing applications for existing communities can strengthen each one that is connected by their common identities, by providing access to resources that they might not otherwise have access to. For all of the Business and Health and Local Communities, this means access to a Development Department. And to the Development Communities, access to the most important thing for an application: Users.

The majority of my professional years have been spent in the Development Department. I’ve learned that coders don’t typically consider how their .NET makes the end user feel. My best days were spent in the Project Management Department, prototyping the applications before the requirements were delivered, simply to ensure that the interface made sense to the end user. However, with all these different departments, I often wondered why the Users never got a Department of their own? We would Market to them and Support them, but we seldom asked if it made any sense? Instead, we sent complicated instructions on how to use it to the Translation Department.

One can only imagine how excited I was to discover that people were looking at how we connect to technology. They call themselves Experience Designers, or User Experience Designers in relation to Human-Computer Interaction. Just recently, thanks to Bridge Worldwide, I have learned that Design Companies are now hiring entire teams of Experience Planners. The Users have their own Department! This marks a momentous change in the way we connect to technology. Thanks to the Experience Planning Department, all of us who rely on technology will soon have the skills to use it.

What I overlooked at the time was the ways in which people were networking on the web. Instead of learning the newly emerging tools, I chose to rebuild the wheel which was just starting to roll. Since then, numerous avenues of Social Networking have emerged, most notably Twitter, while those that existed prior to the Social Web explosion (ie. MySpace) now struggle to appear relevant to a market that is constantly evolving.

These last few days have had me logging into many of those old networks that I joined, and pointing all of them to my personal brand, centered around this website. One thing I didn’t anticipate was the number of Christopher and Chris Ritter profiles that currently populate many of these networks like LinkedIn. Nevertheless, capturing these searches through a variety of data streams (aka Social Networks) is the first step I am taking to solidify my Personal Brand.

On the way home I counted all the businesses along the highway that couldn’t overcome the unnecessary costs. One of the passing billboards had their website listed at the bottom, and I was reminded of the Web 1.0 when nobody saw the need for a website. It wasn’t before long that everyone knew they had to have one. The same thing is happening with the Second Coming of the Web: Social Media, where the West Coast  is overflowing with new ideas that will soon make it around to the Midwest.

While this does offer me some time before the Social Media bomb hits Southern Ohio, I’m unsure exactly how to navigate myself into a position to help individuals, businesses, and communities, make the transition to a more social existance on the Web. One thing is for certain: Learning the Social Web is an active process, not passively learned in a single book or blog. I imagine the end result of the seeds I sow will look much different than my current set of expectations.

The Power Head Icon

The power head is a very strong image; however, I feel it projects a more serious approach than I’m comfortable portraying. I would prefer that my image be more colorful, and easily adapted into any situation. This lead to the character concept who would ultimately act as a user guide through my website.  The first draft of this character concept is pretty straight forward. Maybe, a little TOO straight forward.

First Draft of the Character Concept

The next step I plan on taking is to pose the head — MY head — in a particular fashion, as to imply a specific intent. I have been thinking that a great salesman smile would really fit the bill. Then again, I am a straight-shooter with very little room for sweet talk. I need to think about the right impression my face makes, since the first impression is the most important.

Nearly a decade later, after honing my skills on numerous products, I am turning those skills inward to create my own personal brand. This is proving to be quite a challenge as I know so much more of my inner workings than I ever knew of NeoTrace, et al. With the amount of knowledge I possess of my own personal experiences, it seems nearly impossible to condense myself down to a shooting star, or a hawk. How can I hope to interpret myself to the end user without a concise definition of who I am?

I believe the word ‘Product’ is essential in determining my own peronsal brand. It was never a challenge to imagine NeoTrace on the desktop because it was a ‘Product,’ and the desktop was its native environment. My native environment is on a farm in Southern Ohio. In order to interpret myself on the web I need to visualize my product. I may be different things to different people, but I need to determine what I wish to contribute to the Social Web — and, of course, how to make enough money to keep the lights on!

One thing I’ve learned from the previous Administration is that the Government sets the tone of the Country. This means that the trend of companies such as Google and the New York Times to open access to their data will soon become a necessity for businesses to survive. A high degree of trust will be expected by citizens and consumers alike, as will the ability to directly communicate with every level of the business, from the leaders down to the production line.

For this reason, I have decided to explore the Social Web in order to learn how to connect with others, so that I might share this information with those who wish to define their online identity. I hope that you will join me in my experiments on the Social Web by providing feedback on your experiences, or recommendations for others to explore. And if you are in business, small or large, get in touch with me to discuss how your company can define itself on the Social Web.