Trust this will find you well.

So I’m doing a class in NYC this week. Normally I travel across the country giving this class, but I’m really happy that Third World Newsreel & The Hip-Hop Association is giving me an opportunity to do this work here in NY (my hometown).

I’ll be hosting a technOrganzing workshop this Wednesday at the Third World Newsreel/Hip-Hop Association office. It starts at 6:30pm. I’ve attached a pretty good overview, as well as some videos. I go into detail and show examples during the workshop.

There is a small fee in the form of a donation to Third World Newsreel, but it’s very inexpensive. Also, the first 3 people that RSVP, get in for free (actually with a donation made by me on your behalf).

There are only 25 seats. Fast & Parallel MVMT might help you get in the class.

Peace.

—-

Technorganize = the approach of using technology to organize information and resources.

Next Community Class :: Wednesday - April 30, 2008 - 6:30pm - 8:30pm - RSVP Here.

Watch A Pre-Class Overview :: Watch Here.

–

Reason :: Being such a mobile person, I use new technology to give me greater control over how I find, use & share information and resources. I call this effort “technOrganizing.” It was actually named by the honorable George “rithm” Martinez during one of our many trips to Anchorage, Alaska.
From basic to brilliant, I appreciate an ability to be extremely productive. I regularly explore the benefits of using technology to organize information and resources over traditional approaches. Rather than organizing based on “everything has it’s place, so put it there” I subscribe to “decide how you would like everything to be found.”

Inspiration :: There are many pioneers who are normalizing the use of new technology to increase productivity, time management and collaboration. There is an art of getting this knowledge to the masses; TechnOrganizing is that art.
In the spirit of the pioneers who utilized new technology to create art (DJ, Aerosol Artist & Producer), I work to demystify using the new age of Web 2.0 / Office 2.0 online services instead of desktop applications, and detail how storing data online rather than onto one’s desktop or laptop hard drive can help with the overall effectiveness and value of the information being created, stored and/or distributed among their communities.

Trusted System Architects ::

• David Allen, Founder of Getting Things Done
  
• Merlin Mann, Creator of Inbox Zero
  
  
• Ismael Ghalimi, Founder of Office 2.0
  

5 Approaches to TechnOrganizing Success ::

1. Get a top line view of things before going deep [Focus on Strategize & Prioritize - See Top Line Tool]
   
   
2. If it takes >2 mins, do it now. If <2, create an action [GTD].
3. Address what needs to be addressed, and note/reference what doesn’t. [Create Indicators]
4. Write, Search & Work How You Think First, then Adjust [Based on Advanced Keyboard Shortcut, Operators & Tags]
5. Spend 10 minutes exploring Help sections [Look for video tutorials. If not in the application itself, on Youtube.com]
   

Check These ::

• Watch: Getting Things Done (GTD)
• Watch: Inbox Zero
• Read Extreme Productivity Slideshow: Ismael Ghalimi GTD with Office 2.0

Below is a great link from Ismael Ghalimi [LinkedIn], who among the many pioneers, is one of the most inspirational for me. His work on Office 2.0 has incredible implications on access to extreme productivity among many communities. Much of my awareness about these new tools come from reading his blog. He’s so fresh:

Visit Office 2.0 Set Up

Hey Friends,

So, we’ve launched a search for the ultimate intern called, “Paid With Perks.”

After interning and volunteering for several years of my life, I personally understand both the pros and cons of the intern/volunteer experience. Luckily, I had the pleasure of working for some of the best people in the world, during some of the most challenging times of a young professionals life. It was hard to intern/volunteer. Very hard!It did give me an ironman set of patience, experience and perspective.

Simply, I would like to offer a similar experience to someone else. Plus, I would like to give them some money and a lot of perks, including a free trip to Cali.

If you know anyone who might be interested, please tell them to Say Hello.

Thanks!

-Rolando Brown, Chief Cultivator

hello@parallelmvmt.com

347.229.1362

Responsibilities will include supporting effective sales, marketing, & research efforts. Candidates will work directly with Parallel’s Chief Cultivator to research prospects, leads and communities.

Intern will aid in the maintenance of prospect/client databases, schedule and follow-up with appointments, help initiate calls to leads, maintain regular prospect mailings and profiles and stay up-to-date with prospect correspondence.Additional responsibilities include utilizing agency literature, intelligence tools, events and contacts to attract and incite interest in the agency philosophy and clients.

The intern would work in both office and retail environments, with up to four people. Pay is in form of a internship stipend and travel expenses. Of the many perks, one of the best is an all expense paid business trip to California this summer. Great training for artists interested in business, as well as aspiring entrepreneurs interested in art.

1. Must be able to work at .least 2 days per week in office or a total of 16hrs.

2. Undergrad college students preferred

3. Have strong desire to succeed

4. Exhibited interest in culture, design, art and business

5. Candidates should demonstrate introductory knowledge of business, brand and product development, marketing and publishing

6. Must be self-motivated and respect all deadlines

1. Intern will enjoy 100 training hours in the areas of technOrganizing, branding & business development

2. Internship will offer over 400hrs of hands on experience

3. Founders are some of the coolest, experienced young MVMT Makers you’ll meet on both coasts.

APPLY

DOWNLOAD FLYER

Parallel MVMT is a creative consultancy specializing in business development, branding, technOrganizing™ and non-profit services. Utilizing unique partnerships with premium brands, we work to Combat the Mundane™ through progressive networks.

Interested in partnering with Parallel MVMT to develop your business, propel your brand, or reach a market of MVMT makers? Let us know.

Simply, it allows me to share my entire iTunes library with my other computers, my co-works and my friends, in like 5 minutes. Wow.

After trying nearly every kind of service there is to sync my music libraries across computers and online communities, I feel good with this one.Here is quick bit of information to help you understand why I love this app.

1. I love music. I listen to copious amounts of it, and I want to always listen to copious amounts of it. Online communities are cool, but nothing beats my own personal collection of music I often get directly from the artists themselves. Yes, it’s really personal.

2. I like to keep my laptop harddrive empty (meaning, I don’t like to use up a lot of space on it, so that it runs faster.) I am active reader and believer in IT Redux / Office 2.0

3. My friends are always asking me to listen to my music, because I get so much of it (call me popular man with music.)

4. I want to stream music to my iPhone and iTouch without having to download the music directly to the device. Yes, for all you music rippers, it is possible (note: support artists, but their music… directly from them though.)

Example 1: Kolks Man Music

Example 2: Rock Man Music

So, go and download Simplify Media, and look for me.

My username is rolandobrown.

If you share your music, I will share my music.

I have about 80 gigs.

You?

So,

Statement 1: I really watch movies and listen to albums. American Gangster made my list.

Many of us, many of you, rather many people have stopped actually watching movies in full and listening to entire albums. I’m not sure if its because of a general lack of interest in the artists that are producing film and music, a shift in people purchasing more single songs than full albums, or my lack of connection to the “underground community” of people who really revel at the opportunity to know a film in and out or listen to an entire album, front to back, first track to last. I have lots of ways of watching films and listening to albums. I won’t bore you, but I will share.

For every “Gangster Film” I entertain watching, I see it at least 3 times, working carefully to understand the importance of the characters. For every Jay Z album, I always wait a while before actually listening to the album. Jay’s albums have sat on my desk for weeks before I open them (yes, I still buy music too.)

I always let the smoke pass, allow the advertising to settle, before I really sit down and just press play. I’ve just recently both watch the movie and listened to the entire album. Outside of really appreciating the opportunity this give us for critical dialogue, I am overall conflicted by my emotions and opinions of the value of this effort to tell these stories. I mean Frank Lucas walked out to Public Enemy in the Movie, and Jay Z has a ridiculous amount of double entendres that have both historical and metaphorical value, still its again another addition to the hundreds of big picture, or straight to DVD films, having been produced on this particular subject; the success and ultimate downfall / detriment of our American Gangsters. In an earlier post, I wrote: “It was never the gangster that people were mad at. It was the negativity, the youth losing their lives over the ideas they embraced, and not for revolution, or growth, but for material wealth. I’ve long struggled with the idea of what was the best way to describe to people why this was intricately linked. A simply good man in Hip-Hop would always do far less than a Good man who had muscle. That was what I always saw in Malcolm. The reformed gangster, not the gangster who got rich and continued to destroy himself and the community… What was my role?”

This is what I’m questioning now. This is what I would assume Jay is questioning. This is what I hope someone on the set of American Gangster was anticipating.

Statement 2: I am not as prepared to make this statement as I would like to be, but we need more Hero’s.

Though this inability has not stopped our community from making statements before. So, this is not immature, its just not as worked through as I would like it to be. Still, here goes.

It is one the most difficult things to explain right now, my swaying in emotion and opinion (both frustrated and in favor of) the telling of our communities stories. I often ask people who are excited by movies like American Gangster, if these are our only hero’s. If these are the only stories worthy of mass distribution? Is this our only Blue Magic? Have we no more? Is this our only blues, and our only magic, the perfection of Gangster?

If I say the whole hood says yes to that question, I feel a fraud, a liar even, knowing the many other heros that also gave us turkeys on thanksgiving and gifts on christmas (anyone who says that’s crazy, hasn’t grown up where I have). I remember being one of those kids in the street, thankful for being remembered. And though, I could feel as if these stories of our American Gangsters are the only ones American is interested in really telling, I remember others, rather refuse to not take those hero’s into consideration when asking this question. Who are our hero’s? What is there place in our legacy?

I could say it in a cliche way. I could say that in the brick building that built me there were more stories of street entrepreneurs like Barry Blue, Chino and Knowledge Build, than there were stories of the countless of mothers, teachers and community activists that we admired.

But this wouldn’t be true. We admired many. Many, many, both wonderful and the worst. We admired many, championed many, because in some way, maybe in many ways, we understood that though we couldn’t perpetuate those actions that hurt our community, we also could never offer those trespassers up to a system that we don’t trust in the first place. These stories just never made it to the movies.

Its difficult too because you then begin to think about all the people who had opportunities to really add value to our communities before Crack hit, and the many chances they missed, were unequipped for, and or merely incapable of living to realize. This is difficult to discuss, primarily because it is difficult to live, live through and/or remedy, this problem of drugs and violence in our communities. And though there are answers, those answers aren’t always helpful. One answer in particular I hear often that doesn’t help is, “we did what we had to do.”

Again, I don’t have the language to describe exactly the way this feels like right now, but I have recorded a quick little video to help work through it. Sometimes its easier for me to talk than it is to write, especially late nights like this. Here is a video. This is how it has been top of mind recently though:

Statement 3. American Gangster Can Be Remixed, Refined, Redone.

Nick James from Oakland, CA is an incredible producer. He remixed the American Gangster album. And it’s a great remix. Listen to this version of the album allowed me to listen to Jay Z’s lyrics in another way.It made his words more clear, and I was in many instances able to hear him more than the music.

Again, many of us don’t actually listen to albums anymore, and so I can’t trust that many people even listen to lyrics anymore. I can say Nick has made it much easier to appreciate the complexity of Jay’s lyrics by bringing to Jay a series of equally complicated music.

The American Gangster remix, The American Producer, allowed me to at least really listen to the questions Jay Z was asking of his listeners, if not himself as well.

You can download it here.

That’s all for now.

To all of my fellow cultivators…

My folks over at Pinger just went public. Check them out. I’ve used them for a few days to get my voicemail from my T-Mobile account visually.  It’s been a big HELP!

What does that mean?

Well, if you get anywhere as many voicemail as I do, then you can visualize this.

Scenario 1:
You’ve been in meetings all day, or on the train, or at lunch. You return to 6 - 16 voicemail’s in your inbox.

You know not who these messages are from, just that you have six. You go through message 1 - 4, good but not as important as message 5, which had you hear before message 3, you would have hung up an called them back write away.

It would be great to be able to see in a visual inbox, much like GMAIL:

Message1  - Bill collector / You’ve Been Approved for a New CC.
Message2  - Someone heard you were what they needed in their life.
Message3  - Long lost friend.
Message4 - 12  - You better be at my party, or my housewarming, or sneaker launch, or graduation, or whatever would benefit from your presence.
Message13  - Potential client. Said they need a proposal in 30mins.
Message14  - Family, telling you they miss you.
Message15 - Client, big priority.
Message15 - Business partner saying something that inspires you to continue the day.

Now, it’s one thing to take 15 mins to listen to every message. It’s another thing to be able to with one click go directly to… (I’m not even saying who I would call back first. You all won’t catch me there. Not al all. lol)

Scenario 2:
You leave your actual phone at home when you rush out of the house in the morning to avoid being late. You all day, dial into your phone using a landline in order to check your messages. Wow. That is the worst feeling.

It would just be great to get the voicemail’s to your email, right?

–

Well, my friends over at Pinger have found a solution.
And, a mad important detail, it’s free.

Check them out.
Tell them that Grow sent you.
Ohh, add me to your contact list.

www.pinger.com