My drive-the-other-kids-to-school duties had me out and about this morning, so I was able to swing by Viget to check out the beginning of DC Design Talks and welcome all of our guests to the Lab.  Turnout was great, and what I caught of the early talks by Samantha and Nathan was great too.  Some early photos:

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We all spend a lot of time working to be the best at whatever it is we do, as we well should, but days like yesterday remind me what I never forget when I think about it.  Everything else is small-time compared to being as good of a husband and dad as I can be.

Colin Deane Williams was born yesterday (which you know if you follow me on twitter).  He’s my second son and my third kid.  Most likely, my family is now complete, which is an odd feeling — it’s just making me try to soak up and enjoy every minute that much more.  I’m as proud of my family as a dad can be.

When Andrew and Micah were making fun of each other in Trident last weekend over Twitter, I felt like I was there with my old Startup Weekend pals.  Then, when Andrew revealed that they were talking about VC Wear, a new t-shirt site that sells $100 shirts — to “accredited investors only” — and is already for sale itself for $100k, I threw up in my mouth a bit.  Especially after reading their pitch deck (PDF).

There are some funny ideas, and even though it started as a joke cooked up over a plane ride, the story got press and blog coverage, but didn’t quite make TechCrunch (yet).  My favorite shirt so far:

So are they making money?  At $100 per shirt and enough buzz get it in front of a lot of people, I dare say they’ve covered whatever costs they had (if any?).  I like it because Andrew and Matt had an idea, put it together quickly, and didn’t waste any time getting it out there.  I’m sure they’d love to sell thousands of shirts, but it doesn’t matter — they’re having fun with it.

Speaking of Micah, he wants to be #1 in Google, but not for his name (he already has that … it’s a bit easier than Brian Williams).  For some reason Micah wants to be #1 for the search “douche bag.”  With that little link I’ve now done my part in making his dreams come true.  Good luck!

Aaron spoke last night at a Viget-hosted meeting of DC’s Social Media Club.  He covered a lot of blogging topics, with a focus on how engaging in social media effectively can impact a brand (for a company or an individual).  My favorite line was:

“Authenticity will always garner trust, even if you’re an ogre.”

Brand is “less about perception and more about trust.”  Building trust is what’s important, and that has nothing to do with who you are or what your message actually is — it just matters that you’re direct and transparent about it.  I find that a common concern among companies and individuals is that too much transparency will reveal the “warts” and be a detriment to establishing credibility. 

When the goal is not a perception of perfection, but in fact a real relationship rooted in trust, it changes the game.  The warts become a good thing (because they show it’s real) and a positive pressure is created to not just seem worthy of trust and respect, but to actually be worthy.  Everyone wins.

You can watch Aaron’s entire presentation here.  Thank you again to Aaron for speaking, attendees for attending, and Larissa / Livingston Communications for organizing.

Viget is hosting the DC Social Media Club event on the evening February 21st.  Aaron Brazell, Director of Technology at b5media will be giving a talk on “Blog Draft Day: Making it Into the Bigs” and he’ll be:

“sharing some of my own experiences as well as insight I’ve gained managing proverbial ‘A list’ blogs at b5media.”

Should be a good discussion.  I spoke on a panel with Aaron last year, so I can promise you first hand that he’ll be worth fighting the traffic for.

Compliments of Viget, there will be plenty of seats and soda (you’ll have to know the secret phrase to get an adult drink) as long as all of Aaron’s ~1,000 twitter friends don’t all show up at once.  To be sure you get your spot, contact Larissa at the Buzz Bin.

A big congrats to Samantha, the newest member of the Viget family (until Monday, when David starts).  It was just announced that she is a SXSW Web Awards Finalist for the Blog category.  Last year was my first SXSW experience, when Squidoo won for the Community category, and it was a blast.  The Blog award recognizes:

Sites that revolutionize the power of publishing by providing regularly updated content of a personal or professional nature.

Her blog, Bad Ass Ideas, is one that I followed well before she applied at Viget.  Of all her posts, this one is my favorite. 

Samantha’s recognition is much deserved, and I have a lot of respect for her commitment to sharing her knowledge and insights with the community.   It’s something we really believe in at Viget (which will be even more apparent in the coming weeks as our company-wide blogging plans are revealed).

Speaking of community, it will be great to have the DC web community represented (the Library of Congress blog is also a finalist) at SXSW.  We’ll have six folks from Viget there, and I know a lot of other local web people will be making the trip.  I dare say Samantha can count on some rowdy cheers at the awards ceremony …

This isn’t a post about politics, it’s about how creativity spreads.

When I was a kid, if I created something that I thought was cool I might show it to my friends and family — an audience of, say, a dozen (I didn’t have many friends). Even professionally-creative adults way back then, who were capable of making something that actually was cool, would have to go through a lot of effort to get that cool thing out to more than just their inner circle. Distribution was hard.

In case you haven’t seen this video, it’s another good example that times have changed.

will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas isn’t into politics, but he watched Barack Obama speak in New Hampshire on January 8th.

In a moment of inspiration he turned that speech into a song, then made a video with his friends. Even as recently as 2004, that probably would have been the end of it. But it’s 2008, so he put the video online and within a few days millions of people had watched it, potentially influencing the outcome of a Presidential election. The story in his (trimmed) words:

but that speech…
it inspired me…
I came up with the idea to turn his speech into a song…
so I called my friends…
and they called their friends…
in a matter of 2 days…
We made the song and video…

Usually this process would take months…
a bunch of record company people figuring out strategies and release dates…
but this time i took it in my own hands…
and we did it together in 48 hours…
and instead of putting it in the hands of profit we put it in the hands of inspiration…
then we put it on the net for the world to feel…

And the video:

When distribution is free and easy, creativity (with a flash of inspiration) goes a lot farther than is used to. So go do something creative, put it out there, and see what happens.

Jackson and Jason have been kicking around for awhile the idea of putting together a low-cost, one-day conference series targeting the DC web community.  After a very successful BarCamp and lots of Refresh meetings (and happy hours), I think they realized that the community is willing (dare I say asking) to participate in these kinds of events.  Enter the DC Talks series, and their first event on February 29th, DC Design Talks 2008.

The DC Talks are quarterly conferences for Washington, DC-area web professionals that feature some of the region’s best speakers and practitioners at a fraction of the cost of other conferences.

Unlike BarCamp, where anyone can talk and a lack of structure is part of the idea, DC Talks is more of a “real” conference in that speakers are pre-selected and probably a bit more prepared.  Unlike “real” conferences, though, no one is out to make any money (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and the cost to attend is just $35.  Viget is hosting at our new office, and I’m sure other sponsors will kick in to cover meal and swag costs.

They tout it as a “local” event, but based on the current speaker (and growing attendee) list, which includes a couple of guys from our second home, Durham, NC, and another from Boston (sort of), I’d say it’s worth traveling for. 

Darren recently posted about the SethGodin account on Twitter, which is run by someone who simply tweets every time Seth writes a blog post.  This morning, Seth (the real one) posted to explain why he’s not really using Twitter, even though “he” has almost 1,500 followers.

“In 1993, we installed a primitive form of chat on our network at work. I think it was called SnapMail. I discovered pretty quickly that I was spending three or four hours a day using it. I was really good at it. And I also didn’t get as much done as I needed to. So we ripped it out. Just because it was stimulating doesn’t meant it helped with our goal.”

Does Seth think that Twitter is just idol stimulation?  A meaningless distraction?  A worthless time-suck?  I don’t think he does.  He also says:

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