I’ll be in NYC this weekend (8/16 - 8/18)

I’ll be in NYC this weekend (August 16th through the 18th) to attend NYIGF for Photojojo. If you wanna meet up know of something great going on, let me know!

(And if you’re free Saturday night, stop by House 2.0 and hang out!)

Congrats to Joe and AirBed & Breakfast!

My pal Joe Gebbia’s got a really cool site called AirBed & Breakfast… it’s sort of like an up-market version of Couchsurfing. It lets users rent their apartment to people traveling to their city, and travelers get a cheaper stay than a hotel, and some local flavor.

I wrote about them back in March and am thrilled to see ‘em getting more and more attention. Just in the past few days, they got a plug in the Wall Street Journal and a post in TechCrunch!

Their marketing strategy for the site, by the way, is spot-on. Instead of trying to attack the entire world at once (and spreading themselves too thin, with cities upon cities with no listings) or concentrating on one city at a time (slow), they’re latching onto popular events and conferences.

By creating campaigns around design and political conferences and major events, they make it temporal, and relevant. In one stroke, the site is worth talking about and blogging about for anyone who’s talking or blogging about that event. Smart.

An idea for Yelp, Menupages, and their brethren

Allow people to review, fave, or star individual menu items.

Here in San Francisco, Yelp is indispensable. In NYC, I used Menupages all the time. Both are great for simple, honest, user-generated feedback of places to eat.

Often, I’m visiting the page for a restaurant I’ve already tried, just to skim through the reviews and decide what to order. Case in point, my favorite sammy shop in the whole wide world, Ike’s Place, has a ton of amazing vegetarian sandwiches on the menu. My favorite is their “Going Home For Thanksgiving” sandwich, but sometimes I want to try something new.

Wouldn’t it be neat-o if you could just look at the menu and see reviews for each item? Maybe even sort by popularity or rating? I think it would.

Social Serendipity

I’ve been noticing something happening to me more and more often recently: serendipitous social connections being made between me and old friends, strangers, or even between two people I barely know, as a result of some data I put up publicly on the net.

Here’s three examples over just the past few days:

1. I twittered a meeting I was having earlier week with Lisa Congdon at Rare Device, who I met through my pal Kate Bingaman-Burt, and as a result, someone I don’t even know named Beth, was reconnected with Lisa. Beth and I don’t know each other, Lisa and I just met this week, and Kate and I have only communicated through digital means… we’ve never met in person.
2. I posted a photo of a dollar bill I had that reminded me of a side project of a guy that used to work for me… seven years ago. As a result, I got an email from him the next day.
3. I posted this photo of a special bottle of Dr. Pepper I bought back in February. Yesterday, I got this email through Facebook from a gal I don’t know looking for the soda in the Bay Area for a friend who’s obsessed with the drink and has a birthday coming up.

Of course, none of these events are truly serendipitous, they’re all indicative of the incredibly interconnected fabric of social connection we’re weaving online with every piece of information we put out there. The more we open ourselves up, the more we’re weaved into the social fabric, with each piece of information we release becoming a possible point of connection (or re-connection) with old and new friends.

Apartment or Apartment Share available (San Francisco)

One of the rooms in my apartment just opened up, and I’m considering either finding a new roommate or making the room available as a share for people who visit SF often and would prefer to have a furnished room in SF that they can use a few days to a week a month for less than they’d spend on one night in a hotel room.

If that’s of interest, or if you know someone looking for an apartment, read on…

If you or an equally awesome friend is looking for an apartment in San Francisco (starting mid August to Sept 1), a room is about to open up in my apartment. It’s a three bedroom in San Francisco that I share with two other people, and one of them (Jenny) is starting grad school and moving into school housing.

• In Duboce Triangle (seriously great, super walkable neighborhood with tree-lined streets, and lots of places to eat.) A quick walk to the Lower Haight or Castro. 2 blocks from Duboce Park (swell dog park — and the apt itself is dog-friendly.) Within 3 blocks, you’ll find burritos, burgers, vietnamese and chinese, bars, a gym, and a 24-hour Safeway (grocery store)
• Washer and Dryer in unit.
• Shared Kitchen + living room + bathroom
• 2 blocks from the Church St. MUNI (K,M,T) and N-Judah, J-Church, F-Market, and 22.
• $550/month. (Yes this is the insane part. It’s rent controlled because my other roommate has been there for a while.)

p.s. If you’re interested in the share idea, drop me a line. I have one person interested so far, and it’d be around $100-200/month.

Either way: email me.

Photojojo and Jelly on Pop17!

Sarah Austin did an interview with me for Pop17 (Thanks, Jamie!) when I was at speaking at PSFK SF a couple weeks ago, and it just went up! I talk about Photojojo and Jelly.

p.s. Here’s a post by Jeannie on the panel we did on Core77.

I’ll be at CHA in Chicago July 18th through the 20th

I’ll be in Chicago on 7/18 through 7/20 to attend CHA for Photojojo and to see buddies Sean Johnson (thanks for putting me up!) and Jacob DeHart.

It’s a brief trip, but if you’re in town and wanna meet up (or have suggestions for things I MUST see), let me know!

I’m Speaking at PSFK SF on July 17th

Just a quick note — I’ll be speaking on a panel at PSFK’s San Francisco conference on July 17th, alongside Liz Dunn of FunnyOrDie and Jeremy Townsend of The Ghetto Gourmet.

I’m fearful that it will start ridiculously early. (But glad that Piers took my suggestion and booked the Swedish American Hall, which is only a block away from my apt!)

Link: A mini-interview with me on PSFK
Link: Conference details + tickets
(I have one free ticket… haven’t decided how to give it out yet..)

5 Portraits in 10 minutes

I was hanging out with my friend Frederick Johnson last week and he was telling me about a really neat photography drill he had to do when training with the military to be a combat photojournalist (you’ll have to wait for the Photojojo Book to hear that one.)

Anyway, we were talking about the exercise, and Frederick challenged me to take portraits of five complete strangers in 10 minutes, right then and there. I’m happy to say I made the challenge in under 10, and got a baby and a dog to boot. :) And had a ton of fun!

See also: Frederick shot a video of me talking about the candy for portraits project I did with Bre last year, inspired by Youngna and Zach’s earlier project.

Jelly on NPR’s Marketplace!

Many of you have already heard this, but I helped organize a Jelly in Manhattan on my way home from Delhi to San Francisco, and Alex Goldmark covered it for Marketplace on NPR. (This is our second time on NPR. The first was September of last year)

Here’s the audio segment:

And here’s some video they shot, featuring a whole bunch of friends and Jelly regulars!

Link: Marketplace at Jelly (Full MP3)

When We Messed up Mother’s Day

I have a post up on Rohit Bhargava’s site, The Personality Project, about how we messed up last Mother’s Day. I’ve gotten good feedback on it, but reading it still gives me the chills.

Thanks to Jinal Shah for getting me involved!

Link: I messed up

Follow me on Twitter and Tumblr

I’ve been blogging less over the past few months, but I’ve found myself gravitating to Twitter and Tumblr for quicker, more informal updates and finds.

This blog’s in need of an update, and it looks like I may eventually move it over to Tumblr entirely.

For the moment, though, I’ll keep up with all three. If you’re interested in what I’m up to, I hope you’ll follow me on Twitter and Tumblr!

Link: Amit on Twitter (Why Twitter is worth using)
Link: Amit on Tumblr

Jelly in San Francisco Tomorrow (Friday, May 16th)

Quick note: I’ll be at Jelly tomorrow in San Francisco (North Beach). It looks like it’ll be a good crew.

We’ll be out on the roof, enjoying temps in the 70s. We’ll also have a grill, so feel free to bring some eatables!

Sign up to get emails about future Jellys in San Francisco, or RSVP for tomorrow’s event

p.s. Jellies in Austin and NYC also tomorrow, and next week, Jakarta!

Green Desk is a Sweet new Coworking Space in Brooklyn

Green Desk looks like an amazing new shared office/coworking space in Brooklyn. (DUMBO)

In addition to being carbon-neutral (solar panels, carbon credits, renewable energy), they’ve got some really unique features: fitness center with shower, shared bicycles, rooftop access and views of Manhattan, shared MP3 archive, etc.

Best of all, it’s an awesome location (just one stop into Brooklyn on the A/C and F) and prices start at only $300/month!

If I were in NYC, I’d love to work here.

Link: Green Desk: Sustainable Shared Office Space
via Zach

UPDATE:

Thanks for the support and the blog post. We’re actually opening our first floor in the building on June 1 and we’re getting close to being sold out pre-opening. The response has been really amazing.

Miguel
Co-Founder
Green Desk

Opens in two weeks and they’re almost full!