Feb
01

Painting on a White Canvas

“Hey, Du4, where ya been?!”

As is evident from the shameful lack of updates here at Must. Be. AWESOME!!! central, I’ve spent quite a few months producing copious amounts of elbow grease instead of flapping my gums. Some of this work has been alongside and in conjunction with my friends Tim Newberry and Jon Iadonisi at the White Canvas Group, about whom I’ve written before. Tim and Jon have built an awesome technology and design collective, something akin to a privatized version of DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which built the internet!). WCG has hit a number of home runs, particularly in the launch of their GridMeNow product. Their work, dedication, and creative spirit has inspired me numerous times as a freelancer, and I’ve come to call Tim and Jon great friends.

That’s why we’re all proud to announce that they’ve just hired me as the White Canvas Group’s Director of Operations.

“Say what?!”

Indeed, I thought freelancing would be the end-all, be-all for me, but one aspect of that life became overwhelmingly crushing: when you’re on your own, you hardly ever have a team to call your own. Teams function in mutually supporting ways, from collaborative to social. One thing I learned about myself in the past couple years was that I don’t learn so well on my own; it takes the varied perspectives of a multidisciplinary group to challenge me and from that, I fashion knowledge. One great thing about the White Canvas Group is what a great team Tim and Jon have built. I’m going to learn as much as I contribute here, if not more.

“What about mustbeawesome.com?!”

As part of our deal, WCG has acquired my mindshare in its entirety, including much of the speculative work I’ve written about and performed here on mustbeawesome.com. We haven’t quite figured out how all of that works into the larger WCG business strategy, but for the short term, I won’t be updating the blog anymore. The archive will stand for now but the possibility exists we may integrate some of the mustbeawesome.com content into WCG’s web presence in the future. All I can tell you now is stay tuned to whitecanvasgroup.com for more as it develops.

“So what’ll you be doing, dude?”

We haven’t quite sussed out what “Director of Operations” means just yet, but the crew here at WCG have made it pretty clear I will be doing a LOT. Developing next-level digital influence strategies. Creating and teaching new methods of cyber-tradecraft. Designing, gaming and blowing up social network analytics in a big way. Investigating methods of enhancing human performance and testing them. I ain’t even kidding. Stuff’s about to get real over here, ya’ll.

“So what’s next?”

“The future, Marty!” It’s the beginning of an awesome new adventure for me, one that will take me to strange and interesting places. Who knows where that’ll lead just yet, so all I can say is stay tuned. You know how I like to party, so there will likely be a little celebratory happy hour in the near future. If you’d like to go or just want to say hi and talk about WCG, drop me a line at chris at whitecanvasgroup dot com.

Apr
30

Enabling Protest with Foursquare: Du4 at IO Global 2012

Foursquare Logo

Foursquare Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m extremely lucky to have been asked back to present at this year’s Information Operations Global Conference in London this June. I had a ball last year talking to folks about the “Andy Carvin effect” and discovering new challenges in the military and government influence space. This year, in addition to a presentation on what to expect next from digital technology, I’ve been asked by the conference organizers to conduct a practical workshop focused on some kind of social technology. I’ve chosen to do something much different than prior years’ workshops by showing attendees how to use Foursquare to compel people to move physically to an influence objective.

My workshop will actually take place over the course of the entire conference. I’ll conduct an intro session where I will explain to participants how Foursquare works and show them the various pieces and parts of the app. Then, I’ll split participants into teams and give them a “live fire” exercise objective: Somewhere in London, a protest against a corrupt politician will be organized. Because local authorities are cracking down on traditional methods of communication amongst the protesters’ organizers, they’ve chosen to leave instructions for supporters to join them using Foursquare. Teams will then be turned loose in London to find the protest.

In preparation for the exercise, I will set up a number of check-in locations around the conference. Some of these will be easy to find; others will require teams to do a little social media detective work to discern where the next clue lies. By the end of the conference, teams will be evaluated on their progress in finding the protest location. We will then brief the conference attendees on our lessons learned from the experience.

I’m really excited about the promise of using Foursquare in this fashion, and it will be a huge learning experience for me to see how military IO professionals might find new ways of using the service. I don’t think the book has been written on how app-enabled location-based services can socially be employed for military and government influence objectives yet. There’s plenty of data on how well Foursquare works for brick-and-mortar merchants, but I believe there’s an additional layer of influenceable data that lives amongst that base layer. Admittedly, a large part of whether this concept would work or not in some regions of the world comes down to user adoption, but of all the location-based services, Foursquare already has the global incentives for users to adopt on their own: virtual rewards (i.e. badges) and physical rewards (i.e. specials and discounts via merchants).

If you have any feedback about to better execute this workshop, or if you have some advice you’d like to share in making this a more value-filled experience for conference attendees, please sound off in the comments.

Details on the conference itself follow:

  • Conference locations: Charing Cross Hotel, London, UK
  • Dates: 26 June (workshops), 27-28 June (main conference)
  • IO Global main website: http://www.informationoperationsevent.com/Event.aspx?id=594180
  • Register for IO Global here: http://www.informationoperationsevent.com/Event.aspx?id=594178

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Mar
07

SXSW 2012 App to Watch: NewsiT

I have the privilege of working with a cool new DC startup that’s been selected to present at SXSW 2012′s HatchPitch competition. NewsiT is an app that empowers citizen journalists to document and report events and respond to emerging editorial assignments. The app just debuted for iOS users in the App Store, and the NewsiT editorial team is rolling out a number of assignments specifically geared toward SXSW. Already you can sign up to answer an assignment about the next big technology debut at SXSW by writing a text piece, shooting video, or submitting photos.

It’s a supercool idea that puts mobile reporting organization right into the hands of people who want to get the word out about something, particularly those who suddenly find themselves in the middle of emerging events. Eventually, I can foresee a news ecosystem growing out of this technology and its users. Imagine something like this being available for people in the Middle East during the Arab Spring.

I’m most interested to see the potential of this service applied to musicians and bands seeking wider exposure at SXSW. In the next few days, NewsiT will post assignments and tasks that allow bands to upload multimedia pieces about their personal stories of journeying to Austin to get seen. Furthermore, fans and SXSW attendees will be able to post their own stories about the coolest bands they see at SXSW and/or personally interview musicians themselves.

I think this is a great way to integrate crowdsourced content development. The app interface is slick and easy to use, perfect for snap decisions to capture and disseminate content happening around you. My favorite bit that, admittedly, still needs some development is the gaming aspect of the reporting: users receive points and unlock badges based on their engagement with the platform. I’m ditching my trusty FlipCam for this year’s SXSW and will be reporting the AWESOME directly from NewsiT, so be sure to follow along at the website. Download the app to contribute yourself, whether you’re going to SXSW or you’re interested in one of the existing assignments.

{Disclosure: I’m working for NewsiT as part of their street team for SXSW 2012.}

Enhanced by Zemanta
Feb
17

Exit To Live

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the general wanderlust I get every year to escape the DC region and travel to new (or semi-trod) places and experience interesting events. Among many trips last year, I went to London and spoke at the Information Operations Europe conference, and I had a huge SXSW adventure in Austin, Texas. This year, I’m getting ready to embark on a road trip to SXSW 2012 that will begin with my wife and I spending our anniversary with Elvis in Graceland, and I have many more things on the horizon for both fun and work.

Image courtesy of ~Rare-GFX at Deviant Art

I really only learn when I go somewhere else. Social Media Week came to DC for the first time this year, and it’s just wrapping up today. Aside from a regularly great DC Tech events and one AWESOME public diplomacy panel, I found most of the panels pedantic and aimed at journeyman social media and communication professionals. Perhaps I only attended the crappy ones, but the feeling of having missed advanced insight pervades. Compared to the things I’ve learned at virtually every out-of-town engagement I went to last year, DC just hasn’t stacked up in the department of strengthening my personal learning curve. And that’s really the issue here: if I’m going to invest time and energy going somewhere, even if it’s local, I need live value from the experience. Most often, I also need that value to teach me something or otherwise inspire me to self-improvement in some way.

Sounds simplistic, doesn’t it? Of course you want value from the events in which you invest your time and money. Having traveled internationally the past several years though, I found learning value even on personal trips. Meeting other travelers in crowded bars or on the streets can change your perceptions of the staid environment of your home city. That’s just basic exposure too. Add a great conference, meeting or other event to that trip, and you can come home full of new knowledge and experience to motivate you for months.

In your travels, what have you learned? Have you found a specific exit to your hometown that lead you to a new motivating experience? Did something unexpected happen to you on a trip that inspired you when you got home? What trips, events, or plans are you making in 2012 that you hope will inspire you to live when you get home?

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Jan
20

Melt Faces at Mad Rose Tavern, Feb 2nd

I’m spending more time offline in 2012 planning and executing events and building integrating marketing plans around those events. Many of these projects are exploding through client work, some as experiments via my volunteer time in cause-based organizations. I’m learning a ton from it though, and I’m putting a lot of the lessons learned to work in my other passion: MUSIC.

Last year, I started two rock bands. VA Stripper grew out of mine and guitarist Andy Petrick’s love for 1990s rock, a passion we both shared experiencing the music scene at SXSW 2011. For various reasons, VA Stripper never quite got off the ground explosively, so we started another act. This act – Brains of J – paid tribute to one of our favorite ’90s bands still rocking today, Pearl Jam. Both are very different projects, and both give us very different satisfaction in performing. Brains of J is a headlong dive into the music of Pearl Jam, while we plan on writing our own music as VA Stripper at some point in the very near future. However, both use similar methods of integrated event marketing to get fans to come see our shows.

Hence, the Must. Be. AWESOME!!! call to action:

Come see both bands Feb 2nd at Mad Rose Tavern

If you’re in the DC/North Virginia/Maryland region, consider coming to see both VA Stripper and Brains of J for our first full-on rock show. Joined by DC sensations The Vandelays, we’ll have a solid show of facemelting from 9pm till closing time. The Mad Rose Tavern sits within spitting distance of the Clarendon Metro station on the Orange Line. View a Map of Mad Rose and the surrounding area.

Be sure to grab one of us and tell us what you think of the show too!

What else can you do to support us?

Engage, baby. Here are a few things you can do to keep track of us:

Enter your email address:

Email Format

 

And in closing… some FACEMELTING!


Brains of J – “Hail, Hail” Live at The Front Page from Chris Dufour on Vimeo.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Dec
05

Station Ident: It Puts the Lotion on Its Skin

Hi. I’m Chris Dufour. Perhaps you’ve heard of me.

According to this place on the interwebz, I do things like digital strategy, creative content development, and event planning. I dig words like brandjacking, LOLling, and memefucking. From time to time, I write on this electro-buoyant tablature. Occasionally, I make rock. Ultimately, I blow doors down. I also like things in triumvirates.

Above all things, I chronicle the AWESOME. Been a bit delinquent in that lately. Alas, I’m sometimes given to fly.

You can holla at me via Twitter, which I monitor ridiculously, or contact me via this website.

This is my current favorite internet meme:

This is Must. Be. AWESOME!!! Dot com.

Dec
04

Mister Du4 Goes to Washington

Tomorrow, I’ll be accompanying my lovely wife to a holiday tweetup at the White House. While I’ve visited the White House on several occasions – some for fun, many for work – this will be my first visit where I’ll get to interact with senior members of the Obama Administration’s communications and engagement staff. I intend to livetweet the entire day, so be sure to follow me on Twitter or just search the hashtags #WHTweetup or #AtTheWH throughout the day.

I’ll monitor my Twitter and Facebook feeds all day in case you want to send me a question to ask the officials on hand. On the docket to brief and greet us are:

I’m less interested in the content of the White House’s outreach to people and more interested in how they’re doing it. I think this administration’s embrace of digital strategy has been a groundbreaking step forward in engaging and involving the public in a better, more transparent fashion. That said, I’m no stranger to throwing the occasional turd in the punch bowl, so if you’ve got something testy you want answered by these folks, holla atcha boy!
Enhanced by Zemanta
Aug
16

Come Join the Fun at Rando Happy Hour

Image courtesy Spectacle Theater.

So… every few months I put on one of these Rando Happy Hours, which is essentially me just mining my contact database and telling everyone at the same time where I’ll be drinking one evening. What ends up happening is a really fun social experiment wherein I get to see how the varied people in my offline network interact together.

There’s no goal: it’s totally rando. Hence the name. However, what ends up happening at these things are odd little personality collisions between people who would normally never talk to each other, and I love watching it happen. For instance, one of my music buddies might rub shoulders with a buttoned down colleague of mine from the Pentagon, resulting in commodious AWESOME talk about favorite bands. People have even found new leads on jobs and work through the amorphous blob that is the Du4 grid.

So if you’re in the DC/NOVA area, feel free to come join us in Shirlington on August 30th for a brew. The details follow–

Enhanced by Zemanta
Jul
22

Links of the Week: July 22, 2011 Edition

‘Wired’ Magazine Forecasts the Death of the Printed Monthly Comic

Damn decent analysis from Comics Alliance on the evolving debate over printed versus digital comics. CA’s Doug Wolk guest posts for Wired and puts a comprehensive evaluation on all sides of the issue, favoring the coming doom of the $4 monthly printed comic. I’ve been saying this ever since the iPad debuted, but DC Comics‘ recent announcement that all of its future titles will be released digitally the same day as print is a game changer. Moreover, digital comics provider Comixology recently sold Warren Ellis’ entire epic Planetary for a mere $25, a quarter of the price of DC’s Absolute Edition and on par with trade paperback pricing. It’s bold publication decisions like this that will continue to hammer away at the frayed, yellow pages of print comics, badgering the aging black shirted slobs of yore into submission and inviting new audiences to experience these AWESOME comics. Had they thrown in the Planetary specials that weren’t included in the Absolute collections, I may have forked over the cash.

Why Can’t We Preorder Digital Comics?

With more proof that Comics Alliance is becoming my go-to source for coverage on the digital comics debate, David Brothers offers a compelling argument for comics publishers who are trying to figure out to make money off digital offerings in this early stage. While the numbers on digital purchases are not so enticing to comics publishers today, they are trending upward (and will probably explode by the end of the year with DC’s “Great Experiment”). Brothers argues for setting up a preordering program for digital comics similar to how customers can preorder comics from their local comic book store. This could be a good way of tracking trends on digital offerings as well as marketing to the supposed “new audience” DC has cited is circling well outside physical comics stores. I think this isn’t a bad idea but ultimately for this to work, you have to bring the costs down on digital comics. I would pay a year’s subscription for almost any title if you could get each issue under $0.75. What’s more, publishers could also make some serious bank by preordering digital bundles of classic comics stories. I like where the thinking’s going; we just need to keep moving the football down the field.

Warren Ellis at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego

Warren Ellis. He braingasm you. Image via Wikipedia

 

A Collection Of Rambling On The Subject Of Digital Comics

Warren Ellis, writer extraordinaire and Mad Space Bastard, weighs in on the digital comics debate. A negative tongue from Saint Warren is a likely kiss of death for your product, so Graphic.ly better be paying attention to his UX concerns on their iPad app. Ellis counters comics publishers’ digital strategies with the simple yet elegant solution he devised for his web serial Freakangels: serialize a page a week online then collect finished stories into print editions for on-demand sales. To an extent, he plays to the Old Print Wankers more than those of us at the edge of the digital evolution, which I found odd, but then again, he’s seen the receipts come back on his own digital work.

Anonymous vs. NATO: Get your popcorn ready

So, remember when NATO was all like, “Donchu DARE come all up on mah porch!” and Anonymous was all like, “Bitch, PLEEZ!” and then the internet exploded??? Yeah. This was a topic of great interest at IO Europe a couple weeks ago mainly because no one knew how to deal with it. Purported “cyber-experts” were more in favor of getting their systems completely OFF the internet instead of figuring out creative ways of defending against attacks like LULZsec and responding appropriately. A large part of this fear, I believe, comes from simple inequity in information assurance professionals these days– they don’t know their Googles from their Farmvilles. So ignorant posturing of the kind seen in this article will just antagonize online attack groups like Anonymous. They don’t have to get an operation approved by 10 echelons of command like we do.

New 3D Looney Tunes Announced, Archive Mel Blanc Recordings To Feature

I’ve been fairly disappointed in Warner Bros’ revamped-for-the-21st-century Looney Tunes Show, which has earfucked me with simpering, inane impersonations of the Mel Blanc’s original character voices and insanely horrible musical numbers. So to discover that a creative animation director built new Looney Tunes shorts around archival recordings of Blanc has me giddy as shit. Hopefully, this provides the impetus for more AWESOME GENIUSES like this director to cut up and reinterpret existing Blanc recordings into new takes on his classic characters. I gotta believe the technology is getting close, right?

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Jul
21

Dad used to work out of this old transportation warehouse:

Media_httpimagesinsta_vdffi