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dynamIt Confidant:

We’ve worked with some great people over the years, however, there are a choice few on which we bestow the title “dynamIt Confidant“. Our list of confidants is short and includes IA people, programmers, designers and a few bus. dev. guys who we know are ridiculously talented and who we also know we can count in our circle. Our confidants get dynamIt email addresses, are part of the family, eat Thurman with us, wear dynamIt t-shirts and are, in general, people we can count on in life, yes, but more importantly in WEB.

Ryan Cook:

One of our confidants is Ryan Cook (cook, cookie, ry-guy, vooder, etc). Ryan has worked with us in strategy, research, IA and programming capacities. He is absurdly talented and has an acute sense of detail. His curiosity and (to quench that curiosity) knowledge of web is seldom matched. Ryan takes the initiative to be up-to-date on the industry/world (if that’s possible) and looks constantly to contribute to it. His skills include IA and database schema, XHTML, PHP, MySQL, CSS, JS, AS and anything else that he’s researching at the time. His official academic accomplishments decorate him with a degree in botany and minors in computer science and computer engineering (typical diversity exhibited by a member of dynamIt). I had the pleasure of gallivanting around Europe with Ry for about 6 months a few years ago including sailing the Greek Isles for a week. Those months gave us plenty of time for other conversation [read lack of consistent connectivity in hostels and on night trains]. Ryan’s complexity doesn’t end at algorithms. In fact, it only begins. Ryan happens to be a certified tracker and talented in wilderness survival. He’s a great skier, an entrepreneur, an avid reader (loves philosophy/religion), eclectic music lover and passionate outdoorsman and extreme athlete.

Ryan has recently, well, in the last 2 months, moved out to Boulder - an incredible natural environment and a hotbed for entrepreneurship, technology and business. He is currently the head of operations for VC Wear and is also the founder and facilitator of TechTreks.

Ryan’s move to Colorado was somewhat catalyzed when he pursued an idea that came from StartUp Weekend Bloomington in the spring, but has since found his place in the diverse and progressive community.

Look for Ryan to guest post on the dynamIt blog soon. All of you StartUp Weekend Junkies may be interested as Boulder is where Andrew Hyde resides and where the whole idea was born. Ryan will be shedding some light on the scene out there.

Follow Ryan on Twitter: @protonron; Check out Ryan’s site: WhereToCaptain.com.

Who are your Confidants?

What does your network look like? Do you work closely with industry-folk, strategists, programmers or designers around the country?

one.

nick

Journalists lead interesting lives, their work takes them to unique places even in the local setting. This is a life that most of us will never know beyond what we see on the news and in the papers.

However, I have found that technology allows us to dig a bit deeper and have a stronger experience than traditional media. Consider this scenario:

Last week dynamIt was interviewed about StartUp Weekend Columbus, which was held over the weekend at TechColumbus. We were talking rather informally with the reporter and the camera man while they setup in our office. We developed a good rapport with the camera man and so I began following him on Twitter (@AndYL_WCMH).

Andy is an avid Twitter user and often tweets (to use the parlance of our times) from his mobile phone while on the job. For example, the day after the dynamIt interview, Andy was down in Cincinnati to shoot an interview with presidential hopeful John McCain. Twitter received periodic updates of the trip, including a few camera phone pics.

Meanwhile, back in the office, I was following along via Twitter, and I could not help but feel almost as if I were there standing right next to Andy as he was at work. When I watched this story on the news I recalled the behind-the-scenes story told by Andy via Twitter. I was captivated by this story because I knew how it came about. I got so much more out of a simple news program because it was supported by web and mobile technology.

The homepage of our website reads the following:

“We are passionate about web and excited by new trends and web technologies.”

We received an e-mail from someone who had visited the dynamIt site after seeing Nick and Dan on NBC 4 news last week. In his e-mail, this gentlemen informed us that we had a typographical error right on our homepage. He claimed that it should read, “We are passionate about the web…” We quickly thanked him for looking out for us, but confirmed that it is as we have intended.

At StartUp Weekend Columbus this past weekend the same gentlemen approached me about the exact same issue insisting that we were wrong. I was not looking for an argument so I smiled and said something along the lines of “it makes sense to us, we see web as not just a singular object, but as a much larger concept.” But, this man was not convinced. He claimed that it is grammatically incorrect and that the language makes zero sense to the average person. He told me that from a marketing standpoint using this language will just confuse our potential customers and they will not want to work with us.

The audacity of my inquisitor encouraged a range of emotions, but I stayed cool and sincerely thought about what he said. In certain contexts does it sound silly to use the word ‘web’ without the definite article preceding it? Why is it that I left the article off when I originally wrote that blurb for our front page? Why does it sound so natural as it is? What is (the) web, really?

To me, the web is not an object, it is not a thing you use, it is not a place you go. Rather, web is an idea. The web is does not exist to do to a denumerable number of tasks. I do not use the web to just do x, y, and z. Sure, you may just need to do x, and we can help you with that too, but we see web as an endless array of possibilities. When you work with dynamIt we want to open up all of these paths to you. Every application we’ve built is different than the last and every one in the future will be different still. This is what keeps us passionate and engaged. Each project we work on is its own unique little puzzle that we receive great pleasure in solving.

So, within a matter of minutes I was able to craft this argument.

“What is the definition of a noun?” I asked, to which I received the response, “a person, place, or thing.”

“Well, yes,” I said, “but, there is one type of noun that you are forgetting. A noun is defined as a person, place, thing, or idea.” He complied.

Next, I asked, “give me an example of some other nouns that represent ideas.” He responded quickly with two: philosophy and chemistry.

I concluded, “Does it not makes sense if I say, ‘We are passionate about philosophy’? When referring to the subject as a whole, Would you ever say, ‘We really enjoy the chemistry’?”

So, what does everyone think? What is (the) web, really? Did I win the argument? Or, is dynamIt just a little bit crazy? Comment below.

What would happen if 100 or so like-minded professionals gathered for a weekend in pursuit of converting an idea to a reality? If you are interested in such an experiment, you may be interested in the series of programs known as Startup Weekends. Startup Weekends are 3 day events, seeking to compress processes that usually take months into a long, sleep-deprived weekend. By the end of Friday night, the group decides on an idea to pursue, with the ultimate goal of launching the idea by Sunday night. What happens in the next hours is a mess of excitement, frustration, victories and defeats. It’s quite a process, and it’s memorable to say the least.

Sometimes there is a clear, defined product that launches from the program, but sometimes not. What is most important about these weekends is not the product, but the benefits that such a program can contribute to the community. Startup Weekend is, and always will be, a community-driven experiment that expands and enhances connections. The program first started out in entrepreneurial-minded Boulder, Colorado, and has since taken place in over a dozen cities. I was lucky enough to participate in Bloomington, Indiana Startup Weekend.

How does all of this pertain to dynamIt? Well, Startup Weekend is coming to Columbus (July 18-20), and we are incredibly excited about it. So excited, in fact, that we are helping to sponsor the program by dedicating money and time towards the promotion and execution of the event. TechColumbus, an incredibly progressive and innovative group is at the front of the Columbus weekend, and we are honored to be in partnership with them to allow such a wonderful program to happen in the Capital City. (If you are interested in the tech community in Columbus, make sure to join TechColumbus for member events, programs, and networking).

There is still a limited amount of spaces open for the weekend, and you can register and learn more by visiting the Startup Weekend Columbus Blog. It’s being updated all the time with news and notes as the program nears closer. You can also engage by following the Startup Weekend Columbus Twitter.