Given June 18th, 2011. Wedding of Greg Miller and Kelly Fellows. R-Ranch, Dahlonega, GA

I’m very honored to be here today. I’m not even sure exactly how to be a best man, but I Googled it and I found out I’m supposed to give a speech.

Hello everyone, welcome and for those that don’t know me, my name is Rob Olague, and I’m the best man. Thanks to everyone on behalf of the bride and groom for coming, and to the wonderful parents of the bride and groom for making this all possible.

Greg, I was going to tell a really embarrassing story about you, but then I remembered that I’m in all of them, and we’re not here to embarrass ME. So let me tell you about the real best man here today, my friend Greg.

Greg and I met back in the 4th grade, and we weren’t always friends but somehow we always wound up getting into the same things. We spent hours on Brak Sector and Halo, and we wakeboarded at Lake Anderson on the “Good Ship Lifestyle”. It was always a good time with Millertime.  We kept in touch through high school and beyond and Greg has been my best friend for over 15 years.

What I know about Greg is that he’s a truly sincere person, intelligent, trustworthy, caring,  kind and witty. He’s someone I’m proud to call my friend.

Which brings me to another friend, Kelly. Kelly and I met back in 2003 at USC. We were pretty good friends and I liked hanging out with Kelly, so I invited her up to the bay area during a break in finals sophomore year.

So we drove down to Santa Cruz and met up with Greg and some of his friends over at UCSC and when Greg pulled me aside to ask about Kelly, I told him everything I knew at the time: Kelly is smart, kind, fun, very cool, from Georgia.. And she’s a Trojan, so what more could you ask for?

The spark from the beginning was undeniable. I just so happened to take a picture that night and Greg and Kelly were looking into each other’s eyes already. It’s an obvious love they have from the beginning, and nothing has changed. I still see the same look they give to each other, the way they are when they’re together. They are individually some of the greatest friends I have and best people I know. They’re also more than that. They’re a testament to kindness and understanding, love and commitment, and the ability to find the bright burning soulfulness of true love.

I may have made the introductions but it’s Greg and Kelly who have done all the work. I’ve been proud to see this relationship between two incredible friends grow and flourish and lead to this day. But I must say this is only the beginning. You two have a wonderful future ahead of you; Together.

Greg is a very lucky man to leave here today with a beautiful and amazing bride, and Kelly is lucky to be leaving here today with …. well, an incredible dress and beautiful flowers.

Greg, Kelly. I love you both with all my heart and I’m honored to be here on your wedding day.

I’d like to ask you all to join me in a toast to the bride and groom’s many years of future happiness. I found a quote that I thought appropriate: “There is no remedy for love but to love more.”

May you find the remedy in each other always. Congratulations.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhFU-VYMewo

My best man speech for Greg Miller and Kelly Fellows. They are wonderful friends, and I hope the speech did them the kind of justice they deserve. Over a year in writing, but a lifetime in the making.

World-famous street artist Banksy recently released a film called “Exit Through The Gift Shop” (trailer here), billed as the world’s “First Street Art Disaster Movie.” A commentary on the state of street art, a burgeoning underground movement, it is for many, the first look into a culture of art that takes place on the streets that provide context for the pieces themselves. Some of the best street art in the world changes the everyday outside and urban landscape into a thing of beauty, or a message to force those to look at their surroundings in another way.
The movie is a shot at the so-called ‘hype machine’, that overvalues the work of street artists, out of context, turning serious social and political commentary into a money-making enterprise. This phenomenon, the film seems to state, is sucking the soul out of the street art world.

“Exit Through The Gift Shop” focuses on the relationship primarily between three artists, Banksy, Shepard Fairey (best known for the Obama HOPE poster and his OBEY series), and the outsider, Thierry Gutta aka Mr. Brainwash.

I feel like the movie was a bit mean-spirited toward MBW, a sort of cliquish view of street art. Everything he did, Banksy and Fairey do as well, but they consider his work un-organic and derivative. Throughout the movie we see Mr. Brainwash following his heroes around, learning from them and, ultimately, becoming them.

The attacks on Thierry seem unfair when we are comparing to Shepard Fairey of all people. How is he truly different? While MBW’s works are sometimes derivative and devoid of context and meaning, that doesn’t mean at all that the entirety of his work is bad. It would be like saying Banksy’s rats or Fairey’s OBEY make their other works inconsequential.

At one point, Banksy mocks the mishmash of what Thierry’s movie was. It reflects the unclear nature of Banksy’s message, who is himself an enigma – someone whose art is at times overtly political and sometimes whimsical.

We have to ask the question of how much motivation is a part of this street art world. Must your motives be pure to participate? If so, while Banksy and Fairey have ‘outed’ the motivation of MBW, why do they consider themselves above that? And they played a role that MBW clearly wanted to emulate – if he was emulating the best he could, maybe he knows more about Fairey and Banksy than we do.

A bowl ban of 2 years, and the loss of 20 scholarships. Sounds heavy, but take heart, Trojan fans – all is not lost. Here are a few reasons the Empire will not fall:
- Company Culture. People playing for us play so they can get to the NFL. Other schools are all about bowl wins, team history, prestige, winning championships, etc., but that’s not the program’s priority at USC. Although our fans are all about championships, the program’s ultimate goal is to prepare and send guys to the NFL.
So a guy that goes to SC isn’t thinking championship, he’s thinking NFL – and us not having bowl-eligibility doesn’t hurt that. That’s the culture that Pete instilled when he was here (he was an NFL coach beforehand, remember), and Kiffin (also an NFL coach and a PC disciple) is going to coninue it.

- Team talent. Even before the sanctions, our recruiting classes are smaller than other teams (even the best programs, like Texas and Ohio State), because we don’t have that many holes to fill on our roster. SC recruits for quality, not quantity. Besides, walk-ons at SC have a history of producing – e.g. last year’s NFL Rookie of the Year Clay Matthews, for one, and to a lesser extent, multipurpose QB-WR-FS-holder Garrett Green.

- Location. SC is still in the nation’s second-largest media market. While other, smaller and less prestigious schools need to go to a bowl because playing in a bowl against top-level competition will help scouts evaluate whether or not the guys are as good as advertised, SC doesn’t need that. Every SC game is on TV (many of them national TV), and for all the flak that the Pac-10 takes, it’s always going to be discussed in the major media outlets.

- Hegemony. There just aren’t any other big-time programs in our area that can steal recruits. There’s always UCLA, and Oregon is gonna be good for a while – but SC is the undisputed powerhouse on the west coast. Though the Ducks are good, and we’re coming off a “down year” (although i can think of a hundred teams that’d love to have a season like we did last year), we’re still the premier destination for players that want to make it to the NFL. Two bowl-less years aren’t gonna knock us off.

There’s still reason for optimism in Trojan-land. So let’s get out there and watch our boys win a Pac-10 championship.

FIGHT ON!

Yap stated that Asia’s virtual economy is five times the size of the United States’ – and it is growing quickly. This means faster evolution on the web of new business models due to fragmented and evolving consumption modes. Mr. Yap said that Singapore is focused on creating networks where they are needed, in areas such as health, transportation and employment. This will create simplicity for everyone from everywhere and digitize physical interactions. Yap described his concept of an “information shadow”, the idea that capturing physical interactions with the world could create corresponding data online, fueling the kind of information that can create new insights and industries.

Singapore is uniquely situated to capitalize on this digital revolution by orchestrating elements of social networks, design, businesses and creative works. Michael Yap says cross-discipline and cross-border collaboration is not just the future of Singapore, but also the outlook for the world.

Read more Notes from TEDxUSC.

Recently, I attended the second annual TEDxUSC event and participated in an exciting day of speakers, artists, and an interactive reception.

Maja Matarić introduced to the audience the concept of socially assistive robots. By creating non-contact assistive robots, Matarić hopes to solve part of the healthcare problem. Her robots have had success in being companions for people with special needs, such as the elderly, stroke patients, and children with autism spectrum disorders. She found that stroke patients who needed to complete a daily exercise regimen were far more likely to do so with one of her robot “coaches” than someone who was asked to do it on their own. She envisions her robots of the future as personalized one-on-one coaches, monitors, motivators, and companions. Her initial results sound like a positive direction for both health motivation and a practical application of robotic technology within the healthcare arena. Learn more about her work in this article from the New Yorker, or visit the USC Robotics Interaction Lab.

Read more Notes from TEDxUSC.

I do not on principle object to stronger border enforcement or deporting those who enter the country illegally. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s justification of this bill however, is to protect Arizonans from rising cross-border violence in the state due to the influence of drug cartels (her words).

The bill doesn’t go after drug cartels. It instead invites racial profiling of minorities for harassment and identification. And although the law is not to take effect until mid-summer, some of the law enforcement in Arizona is not hesitating to make use of it, and already one of our own citizens has been harassed and detained (video from an Arizona news channel). The man detained underlines the point that Arizona’s lawmakers refuse to accept – that this man, being as stereotypically categorized as “illegal”, presumably because of the color of his skin and his accent, is in fact as American as they are. The truth is that is exactly the type of person the bill is intended to target, harass, and annoy.

Supporters cite that police are prohibited from using the law unless there is ‘reasonable cause’ for suspicion, and that it cannot be on the basis of race. It is well-established that the police are at times an overbearing power against the citizens. In particular, Maricopa County Sherrif Joe Arpaio’s methods are reminiscent of Bull Connor’s during the 1960s. These provisions do nothing but encourage the fabrication of ‘reasonable cause’ by police forces. The requirements for reasonable cause of suspicion is easily reached by any behavior that an officer feels is justified.

The fabrication of these circumstances are encouraged by the provision that allows citizens to sue their police forces or local governments if they do not adequately enforce this law. In comparison, I want to point to an ordinance in Los Angeles that would be illegal in Arizona, called Special Order 40. This order mandates that officers will not initiate police action for the purpose of determining immigration status. It does not prevent criminal suspects who have been booked for other crimes from being reported to immigration authorities, but in fact mandates it if there is cause for suspicion. In the belief of the past several police chiefs of the city and myself, it creates a safer society when residents are able to report crimes against them to police authorities without fear of reprisal. The nature of the Arizona law makes already besieged communities targets for criminal and administrative misconduct because they cannot report crimes against them. When a population is fearful of the police, crimes go unreported and unresolved. This will raise, rather than lower the amount of crime in Arizona, especially against minorities, and does nothing to stem the tide of violence or those who engage in criminal activity.

This law will undoubtedly affect Americans who fit a stereotype and reside in Arizona, or pass through the state. Citizens everywhere should be offended that the encroachment upon their 4th Amendment rights that this law codifies. While a boycott of Arizona products is short-sighted and accomplishes only the further destruction of the legal economy there, opposition is rightly directed at those who support this legalized discrimination and the political officials who created and passed it.

To learn more about how to take a stand against SB 1070, please visit ¡Alto Arizona!

A showdown in mobile ads is brewing.

At this morning’s iPhone 4.0 developer preview, Apple announced their new mobile ad platform, iAd. Since buying Quattro Wireless earlier this year, a mobile advertising product was expected from Apple. The features of this platform include HTML5 rendering, closer OS integration, and the ability to keep the ads in-application on mobile phones, rather than being sent to a web browser when the ad is clicked.

Some of the early ads demoed onstage were for Nike and Toy Story 3, and integrated interactive features like in-ad games. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, said “We have figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of the app.” Apple says the iAd will be able to take advantage of hardware features like geolocation and accelerometers. This may herald the start of mass adoption for hyperlocal advertising. Apple hopes to entice developers with 60% of the advertising revenue.

On the other side of the silicon valley, Google is watching closely. Their own bid to buy mobile advertising company AdMob has been challenged by the FTC, as anticompetitive, and a decision is expected later this week. Google already offers advertising through AdMob, and localized ads through their AdWords program, which extends to webpages, television, radio, and mobile.

Google’s strategy is broad in including all wireless carriers and building on the strength of their own Android mobile operating system, other mobile products, and cross-platform integration through AdWords. Apple’s strategy depends upon the continual success of their iPhone, iPad, and iPod products, and enticing developers to participate by sharing revenue.

We’ll be watching this issue at Speaking of Social Media. To learn more about iAds, see this article from techradar.com, and to learn the latest about the Google/AdMob deal, check out this article from TechCrunch.

Originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.

In this case, you’re excited about something…. that you have no idea what it is! Perhaps on Thursday, they will tell you Apple products are made of people!

I like my Mac as much as the next guy, but I’m concerned that the cult that is beginning to surround the Apple brand will blind people to the shortcomings of their devices. The iPad is nothing compared to some of the other technology out there but it gets more attention than other, more groundbreaking ideas. Apple does some pretty evil things too; a non-replaceable battery means they are pretty much leasing technology to you, you will never fully own it. Not to mention DRM lock-in for the media you buy. First music, then movies and tv, and now books and magazines.

The next Apple is out there, designing, and creating something even more fabulous than you can imagine. My worry is that when it comes, nobody will 1) recognize it because they are indoctrinated into the Apple cult or 2) be able to switch because they are locked into Apple’s DRM and devices.

So before you get too excited about iPhone 4… remember, that it might be people.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sp-VFBbjpE

Mobile apps, internet technologies, and cloud-based software exists for everything from instant news feeds and self-publishing to location-awareness and social causes. Sharing these experiences via social media has made the world better-connected and informed. These same technologies are on the cusp of being relevant to healthcare in our everyday lives.

A recent interview at ReadWriteWeb with Health 2.0 conference founder and health care blogger Matthew Holt discusses some of the potential uses of these technologies.

Holt noted the way that electronic health records are gaining traction but the potential future use of these records go far beyond saving trees. Making the information shareable and social to a trusted network, such as specialists, doctors, and researchers chosen by the patient, could create a health-oriented RSS feed and enable mashups that discover links in diseases  or any number of other uses. Unprecedented health data sets to work with have the potential to revolutionize drug discovery and enable deeper research about health.

Another potential for revolution is in the emerging “internet of things”. Once relegated to the laughable notion of an internet-connected toaster, researchers and futurists like Holt see potential in this concept to expand the reach of health awareness and fitness. Already, the success of the Nike shoe + iPod, and the Wii Fit have changed the common perception of social media, the internet of things, and their relationship to health.

Holt discussed the potential use of mobile apps like UPC scanners and mobile phone barcode readers to assess nutrition facts of products. Expanding on this concept would entail creating a virtual kind of health diary that seamlessly compares your diet to the items you have scanned. The  real world and the virtual world are ever-increasingly colliding, so why not use technology to your advantage in the healthcare realm?

The sticking points still remain to be worked out, and security, privacy, and permissions will remain issues for the near-term. However, with people like Holt and plenty of our own client partners looking into the future, the real healthcare revolution is just beginning, and it promises to be a whole lot more sopshisticated than a Foursquare badge.

Originally posted at Speaking of Social Media.

For several years, I was working as a sole proprietor doing IT for several businesses in the LA area. The clients ranged in industries and size, from 5-person offices in PR to 500-person offices in entertainment. I wanted to share some of the lessons I learned from managing that enterprise. Although I no longer do IT consulting full-time, it got me through college and paid my living expenses for several years. It was an incredible experience.

If you are interested in going it alone, I have some basic advice that applies no matter your industry.

1. Billing
Getting paid for your work is probably the most important thing you’ll need to manage as a sole proprietor. I billed on the 15th and the last day of the month, with terms of 15 days from invoice to payment.

I used a program to track hours and automate invoices for Mac called Billings. I liked it, but the new thing is to use a web-based service that accepts web payments, like Intuit’s. While your clients aren’t likely to pay online (and you should probably discourage it to mitigate fees), the option is helpful and online tracking means automated alerts when the bill is not yet paid.

Delays in being paid means you’re getting less money (money not in your bank earns you no interest), while the client gains interest from not paying you. You have expenses and bills. While I never did this myself, I highly recommend charging a penalty on your invoices for past-due payments. This should at least equal the interest rate of your bank.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to charge what you’re worth. Cut-rate prices signal prospective clients that the quality of your work may be substandard. Negotiate. It’s tricky at first, but if you set a lower limit and start above that, you should be able to get what you’re looking for.

2. Pay the man
While we’re on the subject, keep amazing records of your expenses and consult an accountant or knowledgeable person about what you’ll be able to write off and pay from a dedicated bank account. This will keep your records much cleaner.

On the flip side, taxes will be your biggest headache. Set aside 15% of your income and pay quarterly. It’s a huge hit to your income, but you should be getting a substantial portion back at the end of the year, provided you are good about receipts and write-offs. If you can’t afford the 15%, you should think about raising your rates.

3. Network
This hardly needs to be said. Network in every way imaginable. Attend conferences, connect with old co-workers, and get involved in your industry. Having an online portfolio and recommendations on LinkedIn will go a long way in establishing your credibility. You’ll learn more and find new ways to improve your business.

Keep a spreadsheet of freelancers that can help you out and your experiences with them. Give jobs to friends. They’ll pay you back someday with their own reciprocal connections.

Talk to EVERYONE about what you do. I got jobs from roommates, old colleagues, professors, and people I met in bars.

I once got a client from standing in an elevator with an armful of old computer points and saying “Can you believe I’m going to fix this?” A gentleman in the elevator looks and says “If you can fix that, I might need you.” Keep your elevator pitch in your back pocket. Be able to say in 15 words or less what it is you do. Internalize your values and mission about how you work. Mine was “I am passionate about making technology work for small businesses.”

4. Feedback
You aren’t perfect. Your work isn’t flawless. That’s not an issue. If you are willing to accept criticism, it will reflect well on you and your work ethic. Go above and beyond in circumstances where it’s required and make your clients a priority. Communicate as best you can about potential pitfalls and this will also give you a chance to demonstrate your intimate knowledge with your industry.

5. Make mistakes
I’ve made more than I can count, and I lost business. But I also learned from these experiences and you must keep the mindset that the payment lost is actually paid to you in knowledge. You won’t make the same mistakes again or in the same way.

6. Always have new business
You may have plenty of clients or more work than you can handle. That doesn’t mean it’s time to stop looking for new clients. Be prepared to grow your business along with the work you do. Keep a calendar of follow-ups to keep in touch with those that you’ve done business with before and remember that you could lose your bread-and-butter client any day. Don’t be unprepared to lose a client, you must always have another one on the burner.

6. Enjoy
You’re a sole proprietor. Enjoy the freedom! You set the schedule, you create the priorities. Spend some of that time doing what you want to do. Life is too short not to attend your kids’ soccer game or miss the chance to reconnect with old friends. There’ll always be work, but there won’t always be the opportunities you now have the freedom to enjoy.