Dirk Knemeyer and Andrei Herasimchuk are the founding partners of Involution Studios, a cutting edge and fast growing digital products design firm. Here’s an excerpt what promises to be a longer conversation.

Jeffrey Osborne: Let’s assume that your reputation continues to grow and that Involution Studios ends 2006 with record earnings, happy clients, and a strong outlook on 2007. How is success changing you as a person? And, what are you doing to shape those changes in a positive direction?

Dirk Knemeyer: The company is doing really well and should have a banner year. I credit that to my brilliant business partner, Andrei Herasimchuk: he is an otherworldly interface designer. I learn something new from him every time we work on something together, and the products we build are outstanding because of him.

I don’t really see success changing me as a person. Ever since I was a little boy, my grandfather told me to be prepared for great things. So I was sort of pre-conditioned to expect success to happen and then pretty much have taken my accomplishments in stride as a result. That’s not to say that I will accomplish *great* things, or that I even want to ultimately be that ambitious. But I think any success that I do enjoy will just feel pretty natural for me.

JO: Did you plan to have a career in design and technology? Read the rest of this entry »

In case you start feeling like you’ve got your online business all figured out… this click fraud piece in Wired (by Charles C. Mann) will give you something to think about.

Somehow Charles makes the topic of click fraud something interesting to read. Not an easy trick considering that the real drama is technologically beyond my grasp. He reports that the click fraud problem has been serious for the past few years. I didn’t know the extent of it until now. In the short term it seems you’ll have to live with the risk if you want to use cost-per-click advertising.

Today I’m going to help facilitate this exciting workshop. There will be some exceptionally clever heads in the room and I’m looking forward to a lively conversation.

In the organizers’ words:

The purpose of this workshop is to explore ways to catalyze collaboration both within our respective communities and within society at large. What are the tools — both social and technical — that will enable us to do this?

Sounds pretty fun, huh? It gets better… just check out the venue 1366 Mission. Strategy geek romper room heaven. 1366 Mission is a project of Jeff Shults, and the management strategy firm J. Fairchild. Judging solely from their site, it sure looks like they’ve created a great atmosphere for big picture thinking.

This is it. Thanks for coming!

Why New Improved?

Because I think marketing language is funny. The Home for the New and Improved can be like an asylum for emergent thoughts and wayward ideas. I’m glad to have a catchy name because I’m tired of the word blog.

Naming the tool wasn’t something I set out to spend a lot of time on. I asked my friend Paul, and he suggested New Improved. He described it as a family joke, sort of like they would ask each other “what’s new and improved?”

“Thanks for the idea” I said, and just like that, it was mine. Read the rest of this entry »

The California Solar initiative was approved today. It’s known as the “Million Solar Roofs” project, and it aims to provide a total of $3.2 Billion in incentives over the next 11 years. That is projected to be enough to generate 3,000 MW of solar electric energy.

Vote Solar has been tracking the issue, and they’re organizing a celebration this afternoon at San Francisco City Hall (4:30). It’s reported that Sierra Nevada, Wolaver’s, and Butte Creek brewing companies have chipped in free beer for the party.

This is a great example of the type of answers that I suggested in my previous post. It’s not an immediate solution, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction, and it will provide the impetus for further technological innovation in the solar sector.

I’m not very familiar with the process leading up to this decision. It would be nice eventually to see if political economists can extract a lesson from this apparently successful step.

I’m thinking specifically along the lines of what it would take to engineer a replicable process. If this type of initiative is feasible in California, could the intellectual capital used here be somehow repurposed by solar advocates in other states? I don’t know if it’s that big of a victory. Regardless, it’s nice news.

This week I worked with friend and neighbor Angelina DeAntonis to help her design a simple photo gallery for her growing website. We tried to get the technology out of the way, to focus more on the power of the images. Please let me know what you think.

Ocelot Clothing Gallery.

I want a world where people are motivated by the beautiful things they love.

At the same time, I’m not blind to the fact that many people are driven by their fears. Hopes and fears.

Some people, like economist Robert Hirsh, take a hopeful approach to fearful problems. Last year’s Hirsh Report (PDF) is a comprehensive study of the phenomenon of “peak oil”. Martin Tobias’ blog provides links to the Hirsh Report, AND a great interview (MP3) with Hirsh that highlights the lessons he’s uncovered.

In the interview Hirsh states: Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes when things don’t work it’s not because something is technically wrong. It might be because the web is changing, and the tools that you used to use aren’t compatible with the current technological environment.

CuteFTP 5.0 XP isn’t an old tool. In this post I describe a recent problem that I had with the tool. Apparently it’s just old enough to interfere with what I’m trying to do.

I downloaded version 7.0 and the problem is gone. Buying upgrade licenses is not fun. Solving problems is.

On with the blog migration.

This article came to my attention via a Berkeley, California blogger who goes by the name Kos.

The article is a brilliantly written account of one company’s unconventional growth management strategy; they decided it would be in their best long term interests to pull their products out of Wal*Mart stores.

They turned their back on tens of millions in revenue. Pretty bold.

The author of the piece, Fast Company senior writer Charles Fishman, has done something that I wish Fast Company would do more of; he’s explored the relationship between fast growth and smart growth. The story seems to run counter to the typical Fast Company flashiness, newiness, and consumer oriented fastiness.

Anyhow, Fishman’s long story is well worth a read if you have any interest in:

• growth management
• brand differentiation
• long term business thinking
• living local economies, and
• resource efficiency

The story is focused on Jim Wier, CEO of Simplicity, the parent company of Snapper brand lawn equipment. In explaining his decision, Wier is quoted: Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a short list of resources related to putting health information online:

• Health on the Net
• Journey of Hearts’ Medical Internet Ethics
• National Health Information Awards
• URAC
• American Medical Association’s Website Guidelines
• eHealthcare Leadership Awards