Photojojo’s putting on a series of events over the next couple months in NYC and SF. They’re called Photo Safaris and the idea is simple: anyone with a camera is welcome, we find a fun event, location, or organize a tour, you have fun shooting for an hour or two, then we go to a bar, show off everyone’s photos, and give away some prizes from our sponsors.

The first one is this Saturday, October 25th in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Hope you can make it.

Link: Photojojo Photo Safaris
Link: RSVP for this Saturday

One of the rooms in my apartment just opened up, and we’re looking to fill it by November 1st or sooner. We’ll start interviewing this week.

The apartment is a three bedroom in San Francisco that I share with two other people, and one of them (Jenny) started grad school and moved into school housing*.

The room is small (12′ x 13′), has a window, a large closet, and is quiet. The rent is very cheap ($550/month + utilities) and the lease is month-to-month.

• 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.
• Bike parking in back.
• Shared Kitchen + living room + bathroom
• 2 blocks from the Church St. MUNI (K,M,T) and N-Judah, J-Church, F-Market, and 22.
• Available 11/1 or sooner.
• $550/month. (Yes, really. It’s rent controlled because my other roommate has been here for a while.)

We might be picky, but if you are awesome and are interested, email me. And if you know someone who might be interested, pass it on. Thanks!

* Jenny was going to move out a few months ago but she decided she didn’t want to give up the room and stayed on a bit longer. In the end, paying for a room she wasn’t using didn’t seem like the best idea, so now we’re looking again!

Briefly, we’re looking for someone entrepreneurial, smart, and savvy to take charge of our online store business. We started the store two years ago and have seen impressive growth despite it being a sideline until now. We’re aiming to put a lot more time into the store, and we’re looking for a perfect someone to take over buying, marketing, promotions, and overall direction. You’ll have a good deal of responsibility, lots of flexibility to be creative, and the opportunity to learn and grow a ton.

Please pass it on to your photo-happy San Francisco friends!

Details: Photojojo Jobs: Entrepreneurial online store manager wanted

Looking forward to seeing my pal Mareen, meeting new friends like Fabian Töpel, and finding some cool products to sell in the Photojojo Store!

If you’ll be at Photokina, drop me a line so we can meet up!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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..)

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.

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)

Thanks to Jinal Shah for getting me involved!

Link: I messed up

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

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 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!

Come if you can! (More info/RSVP)

p.s. A little birdie tells me Alex Goldmark from NPR’s Marketplace might be there, too. ;-)

A couple weeks ago, I tried finding out more about all the folks that were following me on twitter by asking them to introduce themselves. (Credit to Charlie for the idea.) It was awesome.

Stuck on a tarmac ahead of a 14 hour non-stop last week with nothing to do but wait, I wondered whether my twitter friends could come to my rescue with a joke or two to help me pass the time. Holy crap, did you ever!

I picked the number 5 randomly, so the fifth twitter wins: hilary. Let me know what you’d like and I’ll do my best to get it! :)

Thanks everyone for helping out!

	aliciak@superamit I’m emailing you a joke, b/c it’s too long. And you HAVE to bring me something back, b/c we are each other’s life coach. ;) 03:03 PM April 14, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	zingano@superamit: Q: What’s brown and sticky? A: A stick. 08:26 AM April 14, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	divabat@superamit what do you call someone skeptical about magic? Pessi-mystical. 02:25 PM April 14, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	drcw@superamit what do you call cheese that’s not yours? NACHO cheese! 08:54 PM April 13, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	tonymaro@superamit You hear about the murder in West Virginia they can’t solve? CSI says all the DNA matches and there’s no dental records! 11:05 PM April 13, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	hyermish@superamit - Jewish Presidential Dreams… http://tinyurl.com/5vfet2 10:15 PM April 13, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	stuboo@superamit Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine. (ouch) 10:09 PM April 13, 2008from web in reply to superamit
	hmason@superamit (badbad) Q:How do you tell an introverted computer scientist from an extroverted computer scientist? A: He stares at YOUR shoes. 10:05 PM April 13, 2008from twitterrific in reply to superamit
	jenningschris@superamit Going with the India theme….Who does a considerate cow think of? Udders HAHAHA 09:05 PM April 13, 2008from txt in reply to superamit
	tylerwillis@superamit how many people from northern california does it take to screw in a light bulb?? a: “Hella” 07:03 PM April 13, 2008from TwitterFox in reply to superamit
	organ_printer@superamit in his sleevies. 09:01 PM April 13, 2008from im in reply to superamit
	organ_printer@superamit where does the king keep his armies? 09:01 PM April 13, 2008from im in reply to superamit