Weblogsky: My week, and welcome to it!

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My week, and welcome to it!

It was a busy week, and I didn't have time to stop and blog what I was doing, but I can summarize here, since it was mostly pretty interesting.

I met with Tom Brown, Kevin Koym, David Bluestein et al on Monday to talk about a web testbed environment that DCI is setting up. This is where we can start realizing the potential synergy between DCI and the Bootstrap organization. The idea is to build a web technology sandbox for local bootstrap web entrepreneurs.
Spent some time with Apogee Search, experts in the field of online marketing, especially search engine marketing. We've discussed how my consulting focus can extend their capabilities, and I'm learning quite a bit more about the marketing world from them.
Innovation blogger Renee Hopkins Callahan, a friend of mine who's moved to Austin recently, dropped by the Polycot offices to visit with Jeff and I. It's great to talk to Renee; she's always so focused on creativity and business innovation.
Doryan Rice, Silona Bonewald and I have been working on the plan for this year's big EFF/EFF-Austin party at SXSW Interactive. We met with Ryan Pitylak and Danielle Thomas of UnlockAustin.com. Danielle's also associated with White Ghost Shivers, the band that's playing at the steampunk-themed EFF party: "We revel in string band music from the 20's and 30's, mixing early jazz, hokum, vaudeville, ragtime, western swing, and hillbilly, while at the same time unleashing the gutterous underbelly of a pseudo-rock world gone wrong..."
I met with Bijoy Goswami and the guys at Small World Labs to talk about the Bootstrap Network - the online social network platform for Bootstrap. Small World Labs provides the technology, and I've just become their Bootstrap liaison. We talked about a road map for both social and technological development. (After the meeting, as often happens when Bijoy and I connect, we had more far-reaching conversations about the Bootstrap organization and the future of business in Austin and in the world.
After Bijoy, I met with Michael Strong, CEO of Flow, for great conversation about his work as well as the work I've been doing, especially for Worldchanging. We talked quite a bit about online and offline community, and he told me about Peter Barnes' new book, Capitalism 3.0, coincidentally just reviewed by Graham Webster for Worldchanging Washington DC. Barnes wants to "protect the commons by giving it property rights and strong institutional managers." Michael introduced me to Charlie Jackson, CEO of Acceleros and founder of Texans for Peace. Charlie's helping Iraqi entrepreneurs sustain (and, hopefully, rebuild) their businesses.
Finally, I met yesterday afternoon with Xikui Ding, a lawyer with the Mo Shaoping Law Firm from the Peoples Republic of China, in Austin via the international visitor leadership program. The visit was set up by the International Hospitality Council of Austin. He was "focused on criminal and constitutional law, including exposure to NGOs working on free expression, leading law schools and other sources so that he may see the importance of innovation and free expression in our information society." I was meeting him as President of EFF-Austin. "Mr. Ding handles many high profile cases for political prisoners. Most significantly, he has handled the defense of New York Times researcher Zhao Yan in a complicated case involving disclosure of state secrets, which has pushed at the limits of Chinese criminal procedure law. He also was the lead associate for the defense on the case of the Internet writer Shi Tao, which revealed that security officials obtained information from Mr. Shis private Yahoo account for his conviction."