Guest Blog Post on the BMW i3 Blog

I was privileged to be asked to write about my experience with the BMW i3 since I got my car on August 11, 2014. We crazy owners call that being "born electric" and are enthusiastic about our experience. Check out my post over on Tom's blog and let me know what you think.

The Technology of Desire

There is a quote I like from the movie, "Amadeus" where Mozart is trying on wig after wig and after seeing three of the samples on he exclaims "Why don't I have three heads!". The technology subject of the scene was the 'wearables' of the 18th century and that advanced wig design was all about fashion and prestige. Not too different from our jeweled device cases or electric cars. On this last point, I am susceptible and in love!

I have wanted an 100% electric car for 20 years, since the EV1 from GM was heralded as the first of many. I remember test driving it and lamenting that the lease was wholly out of range on my salary . . . with kids and a sizable mortgage. Fast forward to 2011 and the 100% electric Nissan LEAF arrives on the scene, but its a wig I just don't like. Designed for the family and looking like a weird creature, I just did not have the desire for that technology. I have been a BMW owner since 2000 (with a brief gap in an old Mitsubishi Eclipse while buying a house!) and I needed a car to peak my desire before jumping into the all-electric technology. I knew hybrids were abundant, but to my mind, unless you switch over to an entirely new way of powering your mobility, its just not that interesting.

I equate that to personal cloud computing. I write this post on a Chromebook, using no MS software, no local storage, and no save button. When you can't install old technology (like gas in the BMW i3) and you force yourself to save content to the cloud, you work differently and think differently. So my i3 BMW battery electric vehicle (BEV) is on its way from Germany and I have followed the making and shipping of it all the way. Yesterday it made its way through the Panama Canal and with cloud technology I can track the ship real-time on maps and webcams has it threads through that 19th century technological wonder.

"Panama Canal Map EN" by Thoroe

I know webcams and GPS is not new, but my use of them is purely voyeuristic and born of desire. Since ordering this car, I have communicated with people all over the world via my own little mapping project; learned a great deal about amps, volts, and resistance; and forced myself to use cloud-based image editing tools discovering that they are now quite capable and can replace all of my need for those old ones I have installed on my old Windows laptop.

As evidence of that, and evidence of my 21st century impatience, I have followed the car for weeks and it slowly made its way out of the English Channel, across the open Atlantic and pulled into the Panama Canal on the vehicle carrier ship the Metis Leader.

I am not normally a stalker, but the combination of 20 years of desire and the ubiquity of information urged me to make screen captures of the various webcams online in the Canal. I made a short video out of them as the ship with my engineering wonder of a car went through the engineering marvel of a transportation route.

In the end this is all about transport: electricity moving me on the road, water moving cargo around the world, and technology transporting me to heights of geeky desire I have previously not known!

BMW i3 Mapping - Update!

I have been compiling an opt-in map for BMW i3 owners and owners-to-be I have "met" on various online forums. I have recently updated the map to include almost 150 people! I created more accuracy by adding specific postal codes so there is a unique dot for everyone. I also thought it might be simpler to have a form to collect new people for the map, so check that out below. If you need a correction, feel free to use the form for that, too.

BMW i3 Mapping

I have not posted here in a while because I have been busy buying an i3! We ordered this one which is currently sitting on a dock in Germany waiting to board a ship to the West Coast!

Yep, its true, adopting new technology at the $50k scale is almost a full-time job. That's because serious research is involved and getting to know a whole new community of people online who are in the same cult. After absorbing all kinds of pros and cons and experiences of the very early adopters, I thought I'd give back to the growing community by making a map of BMW i3 owners and owners to be.

These are folks I have "met" and interacted with on the BMW i3 Facebook group and the My BMW i3 Forum. I have mapped about 120 people to date! Click around and explore. In big cities, where there are more the one owner, clicking on the dot will only show the first one. If you are an i3 owner, let me know your name, city, & state and I'd be happy to add you! Check it out with a direct link or embedded below.

The Death of a Poet

I attended the memorial for Hillary Gravendyk today at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. I met her only briefly at a poetry reading called the Fourth Sundays: Poetry at the Claremont Library. Of the day's poets, her reading was best and I bought her book called "Harm". Although she was obviously in failing health her spirit soared, Full of light and humor and purpose. I only had time enough to tell her that I was touched by her poems.

Today, just several weeks later, I am sitting in a garden at Pomona College listening to her family, colleagues, and friends extoll the very light of which I caught a glimpse. You will be touched, too, if you pick up her book, Harm, from this website or from Amazon. Here are some poems and readings I found of Hillary on the web.




Poems
http://www.octopusmagazine.com/Issue10/Gravendyk.htm
http://www.likestarlings.com/poems/cynthia-arrieu-king-hillary-gravendyk/
http://inlandiajournal.org/2011/08/10/hillary-gravendyk/
http://www.achiotepress.com/naturalist.htm

Readings / Interviews
http://vimeo.com/39807194
http://vimeo.com/30935449
http://www.yovisto.com/video/12124
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/2012/04/04/the-blood-jet-writing-hour-with-guest-hillary-gravendyk

Reviews
http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-890650-56-8
http://www.thevolta.org/fridayfeature-harm.html
http://thermosmag.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/of-durations-of-endurances-interview-with-hillary-gravendyk/
http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/bodies-in-pain
http://kulturindustrie.blogspot.com/2012/03/hillary-gravendyk-harm.html

=========================
“Harm”

Ahead the sky is winnowed to its smallest feature. Starred with damage,
the body. What was promised, what was revealed. A long staircase of
wounds. Behind: unseen error. Or accident. Harm winking on, a neon
sign that says closed. Pain glued to each window. The rooms shadowed with
harm. You offered anxiety, a harness made from care. Curved handle, in-
tention. Harm a kind of adhesive. Skin clusters around the opening,
ridged and thick. There are lighter and darker marks. They disclose. Pa-
per echo, gesture. Bleakness along the spine of narrative. Harm flat as a
swept floor. As a drawn planet. A bright story is requested. What will be
touched? Machines, that flashing support, a threaded needle. And the
body, sutured to harm.

Empower Employees to Publish Video to Enterprise Video Servers with Google Glass

My article, Use Google Glass to Create Enterprise Video: Here's How, has just been published for the May 2014 issue of Streaming Media Magazine. I provide step-by-step instructions and screenshots for creating quick videos with Google Glass and sharing them inside your company on various video management platforms.

It is online now and will be in print in a few weeks. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Mediasite Unleash 2014

After a pause in posting, I find myself at Sonic Foundry's customer conference, Unleash 2014. I have attended for the last 5 years and the conference is a great place to connect with old friends and make new ones. This year, I am nominated for the Enterprise Video Awards in the "Video Maverick" category. It sounds loftier than it is, since one nominates oneself, but it is fun never-the-less!  Check out my entry on the World of Webcast blog below.