Did a blog post on the corporate website here.
Tech docs can be found here.
You can pre-order the new chumby8 here.
Showing posts with label chumby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chumby. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
My new gig
So...
Yeah. Well I didn't really take much time off between gigs.
A couple of weeks ago, I took over the ceo position at chumby from Steve Tomlin. We had been thinking about external communications and for the most part wanted to talk to partners like Sony and Best Buy and some others prior to saying anything in public. Somewhere along the way, I forgot about this press release which hit the wire as I was coming back from NYC and Boston last night, so I guess it is time to say, this is what I am doing!
I have been close to the chumby team over the last several years, but certainly the most with Steve Tomlin who founded chumby and was also my investor and board member at Intercasting. Beyond Steve, the founding team of Bunnie, Duane, Ken and the rest of the team at chumby have done an amazing job creating not just a product, but a product that people actually buy!
In addition to having success with their own product, the idea that the chumby network of flash applications can be proliferated on other devices has been validated with their work with Sony on the Dash and with Best Buy on the Infocast. Expect to see more of that on devices like tablets and televisions in the coming months.
For me this gig brings some new challenges and some familiar ones. A significant part of the job going forward will involve working with content companies, which I have done throughout my career and also marks a return to the advertising world, where I cut my teeth at MP3.com and at Vivendi. The new challenges are consumer electronics and working with retail distribution. My past two gigs at Good and Intercasting involved working with some of the same players that I expect to work with in the future, although in a different context.
I am excited to take the helm at chumby and look forward to helping to scale the business beyond the success achieved thus far. It is a great honor to take the reins of a company that you have watched someone build from scratch and I will do everything in my power to deliver on that promise to the team, to our partners, and to the many people who have become great fans of what chumby has done thus far.
Yeah. Well I didn't really take much time off between gigs.
A couple of weeks ago, I took over the ceo position at chumby from Steve Tomlin. We had been thinking about external communications and for the most part wanted to talk to partners like Sony and Best Buy and some others prior to saying anything in public. Somewhere along the way, I forgot about this press release which hit the wire as I was coming back from NYC and Boston last night, so I guess it is time to say, this is what I am doing!
I have been close to the chumby team over the last several years, but certainly the most with Steve Tomlin who founded chumby and was also my investor and board member at Intercasting. Beyond Steve, the founding team of Bunnie, Duane, Ken and the rest of the team at chumby have done an amazing job creating not just a product, but a product that people actually buy!
In addition to having success with their own product, the idea that the chumby network of flash applications can be proliferated on other devices has been validated with their work with Sony on the Dash and with Best Buy on the Infocast. Expect to see more of that on devices like tablets and televisions in the coming months.
For me this gig brings some new challenges and some familiar ones. A significant part of the job going forward will involve working with content companies, which I have done throughout my career and also marks a return to the advertising world, where I cut my teeth at MP3.com and at Vivendi. The new challenges are consumer electronics and working with retail distribution. My past two gigs at Good and Intercasting involved working with some of the same players that I expect to work with in the future, although in a different context.
I am excited to take the helm at chumby and look forward to helping to scale the business beyond the success achieved thus far. It is a great honor to take the reins of a company that you have watched someone build from scratch and I will do everything in my power to deliver on that promise to the team, to our partners, and to the many people who have become great fans of what chumby has done thus far.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
New Media Degree Programs
Last week this time I was on a plane bound for Wisconsin. Back in October I had been at a college football game and the husband of one of my wife's friends had talked to me at the game about the school he was teaching at in Wisconsin. Anthony knew I worked in the high tech industry and I knew that he was a professor in a technology department at that school.
I have to admit that I couldn't entirely figure out how an English PHD would be able to, much less be allowed to teach in a technology department but that wasn't my issue. At the time he asked me what we were doing with Flash and I described how I thought that it was one of the important technologies we would be working with over time and how it was something we use a lot in sales presentations.
We talked a little bit about how I visit colleges several times a year to talk about technology and how media is being transformed. He asked me if I would ever consider coming out and talking to his students. I told him that I try to stick to LA, NYC, Boston, SF and other cities where I am doing business but I would consider it if asked.
Fast forward several months and there I am headed to Wisconsin to visit the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. Earlier this year Anthony had reached out and asked me if in fact I could come out but not necessarily to speak. The University was undergoing a review process on his department and they wanted to have representatives from industry as well as other universities to gain a broad perspective. I have to admit that I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but I agreed to go.
The degree program I was asked to review is the Bachelor's degree in Web and Digital Media Development. The link to the department can be found here. My fellow reviewers and I spent the better part of two days looking at the curriculum, met with faculty, students, community business representatives and university administration.
I have to say that it was a fascinating experience. The degree program they have developed is a fascinating blend of technology and design. When I think about how much time I spend in front of a computer, it makes perfect sense to me why an English professor who can program in Flash would be in a technology department. I personally walked away with a lot of admiration for this school to create a program that today is hard to find but is certainly one that will be widespread in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how they will expand on what they have started and whether or not they will be able to assume a leadership position in a new category.
Two big takeaways for me. One is that it is interesting to see how universities have to grapple with the emergence of new disciplines, especially in areas with rapidly changing technologies. It is not unlike the emergence of computer science degrees out of math departments many years ago. Two, it will be interesting to see how students who are trained in interdisciplinary studies (technology, design, psychology, English, human computer interaction) will impact and contribute to technology in the coming years.
One of the feedback points that I gave to the students when I spoke with them was that although they are doing some pretty amazing stuff with Flash on computers, the opportunities that I see that are significant to me are how will design conform to devices that aren't computers. There are more mobile handsets in the world than computers and as I head to CTIA this weekend one of the devices in my bag has some pretty amazing Flash prototypes that we are working on. Other devices like the Chumby are built around Flash as a core piece of their value proposition and the desire to leverage the large installed base of Flash developers.
I hope that the University of Wisconsin continues down they path they have started on and I can say that I am personally going to try to see how I can help this fledgling department interface with some of the people I know who are working at the intersection of design and technology. Thanks for having me out and best of luck.
I have to admit that I couldn't entirely figure out how an English PHD would be able to, much less be allowed to teach in a technology department but that wasn't my issue. At the time he asked me what we were doing with Flash and I described how I thought that it was one of the important technologies we would be working with over time and how it was something we use a lot in sales presentations.
We talked a little bit about how I visit colleges several times a year to talk about technology and how media is being transformed. He asked me if I would ever consider coming out and talking to his students. I told him that I try to stick to LA, NYC, Boston, SF and other cities where I am doing business but I would consider it if asked.
Fast forward several months and there I am headed to Wisconsin to visit the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. Earlier this year Anthony had reached out and asked me if in fact I could come out but not necessarily to speak. The University was undergoing a review process on his department and they wanted to have representatives from industry as well as other universities to gain a broad perspective. I have to admit that I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but I agreed to go.
The degree program I was asked to review is the Bachelor's degree in Web and Digital Media Development. The link to the department can be found here. My fellow reviewers and I spent the better part of two days looking at the curriculum, met with faculty, students, community business representatives and university administration.
I have to say that it was a fascinating experience. The degree program they have developed is a fascinating blend of technology and design. When I think about how much time I spend in front of a computer, it makes perfect sense to me why an English professor who can program in Flash would be in a technology department. I personally walked away with a lot of admiration for this school to create a program that today is hard to find but is certainly one that will be widespread in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how they will expand on what they have started and whether or not they will be able to assume a leadership position in a new category.
Two big takeaways for me. One is that it is interesting to see how universities have to grapple with the emergence of new disciplines, especially in areas with rapidly changing technologies. It is not unlike the emergence of computer science degrees out of math departments many years ago. Two, it will be interesting to see how students who are trained in interdisciplinary studies (technology, design, psychology, English, human computer interaction) will impact and contribute to technology in the coming years.
One of the feedback points that I gave to the students when I spoke with them was that although they are doing some pretty amazing stuff with Flash on computers, the opportunities that I see that are significant to me are how will design conform to devices that aren't computers. There are more mobile handsets in the world than computers and as I head to CTIA this weekend one of the devices in my bag has some pretty amazing Flash prototypes that we are working on. Other devices like the Chumby are built around Flash as a core piece of their value proposition and the desire to leverage the large installed base of Flash developers.
I hope that the University of Wisconsin continues down they path they have started on and I can say that I am personally going to try to see how I can help this fledgling department interface with some of the people I know who are working at the intersection of design and technology. Thanks for having me out and best of luck.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Chumby, Woot and Attention
I was fortunate to get one of the first Chumbys through a friend (thanks Steve). My Chumby was a bit autistic and recently I had to have it 'operated' on which resulted in a much better performing Chumby. While I still owe Steve a Rabble widget...I thought it would be cool to stick the Chumby in my kitchen near the spices and the wine bottles.
I wasn't sure why I decided to do that when it would make a lot of sense perched on the bookcase near my computer but for whatever reason there it was in my kitchen scrolling through Flickr pics of my family, an occasional Woot ad, Digg headlines and ESPN sports news. Periodically I would find myself walking over to see what was on Digg. Worse, I would remind myself that I need more pictures of the kids posted for grandma and grandpa. Even worse still I found myself walking over early in the morning to see what gadget was on sale on Woot. I don't know how it happened but I am now a Woot addict. I have yet to buy my first gadget, but I know it is coming. I can feel it coming.
My wife Jessica commented that she thought the Chumby was cool but she wanted some of her stuff. I think for Steve and crew this is really good. You just need more stuff for woman who don't read Slashdot. You know something that has the headlines from Defamer or better yet People magazine. I clearly don't relate to the news reading habits of the my age female demographic but if Woot gets me excited in the morning what kind of man am I?
As I have for the last 8 months I find these sorts of moments bringing me back to how Attention is the currency of the future, hell the currency of now. The small reminders of what I have seen on the Chumby has had a impact on me over the last several weeks where I switched from reading my regular blogs to reading Techmeme and Digg on a daily basis while surfing my Sidekick for Woot when I am on the road. I struggle with how I can properly filter my attention and focus on how I spend those rare moments not dedicated to the family and to the business. When I figure that out I will be glad to share with you.
I wasn't sure why I decided to do that when it would make a lot of sense perched on the bookcase near my computer but for whatever reason there it was in my kitchen scrolling through Flickr pics of my family, an occasional Woot ad, Digg headlines and ESPN sports news. Periodically I would find myself walking over to see what was on Digg. Worse, I would remind myself that I need more pictures of the kids posted for grandma and grandpa. Even worse still I found myself walking over early in the morning to see what gadget was on sale on Woot. I don't know how it happened but I am now a Woot addict. I have yet to buy my first gadget, but I know it is coming. I can feel it coming.
My wife Jessica commented that she thought the Chumby was cool but she wanted some of her stuff. I think for Steve and crew this is really good. You just need more stuff for woman who don't read Slashdot. You know something that has the headlines from Defamer or better yet People magazine. I clearly don't relate to the news reading habits of the my age female demographic but if Woot gets me excited in the morning what kind of man am I?
As I have for the last 8 months I find these sorts of moments bringing me back to how Attention is the currency of the future, hell the currency of now. The small reminders of what I have seen on the Chumby has had a impact on me over the last several weeks where I switched from reading my regular blogs to reading Techmeme and Digg on a daily basis while surfing my Sidekick for Woot when I am on the road. I struggle with how I can properly filter my attention and focus on how I spend those rare moments not dedicated to the family and to the business. When I figure that out I will be glad to share with you.
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