A goal of mine this year is to be more productive creatively; specifically in web development and photography. For me, it seems that the hardest time to be creative is when there is a completely blank canvas. The possibilities are endless, thus the places to start are infinite as well. So to create, and more importantly to keep, forward momentum I decided to come up with photography themes on a regular basis to narrow the focus and reduce the number of starting barriers. It turned out that a few other people were interested in that idea too.

Introducing photopath

Having themes for photography is not a new idea. However, rather than join an existing group of strangers, I want to participate with people that I know and their friends. I've launched photopath.org with nothing more than a single page and a starting point. At the moment there is no real design, no solid foundation. Personally, I hope that the enthusiasm for the photography will equally drive the web development process. It will be an iterative and organic growth experience; one that I hope I will be able to stay one step ahead of.

Roadmap

Technically, it requires a flickr account (available for free). The site will be using machine tags to identify the photographs for the weekly themes. I'd like photopath.org to become a place where anyone can create their own group and set up their own themes. It would be far more interesting to have 100 groups of 10 rather than one group of 1,000. Themes would be shareable across groups. Any account management would be handled through an OpenID solution, since Flickr requires a Yahoo account anyway. If the project fails miserably, there is no investment on behalf of the users – all photos would be stored on Flickr. There is no commitment or obligation to participate on a weekly basis either, although it seems natural that the greater the level of participation will be directly related to the experience of the project and the motivation for the group. For now, I'm keeping it simple and will add to it over time.

Inspiration

We block out so much from our daily lives out of necessity. I hope that the themes will help to increase our level of daily observation and spark creativity not only in photography, but in other aspects of our daily ventures. The first theme has been completed, and I've been blown away by the quality of the submissions. Get in touch if you'd like to take part in the project.

photo by Mr. Lizer (RGB theme – week 1)

Well, I avoided it for over a year, but finally gave into the weirdness that is Twitter. I stayed away for all the obvious reasons, like… "who cares what you're eating right now" or maybe I didn't want to have documentation of the exact degree of boringness to which I lead my life.

So, why now?

I always dismissed it as an unnecessary distraction, and as it appears, that's ultimately 99% of the fun. But there is more to it than that. There is the possibility of personal discovery in the way of discovering similar interests. There is immediate help available. You may not blog "wonder where i should eat in Seattle", but you might twitter it, and if you have any tweeting friends (which i have few), you may get some advice. But recently, I've noticed links to twitter updates (or statuses) in web development blogs that I frequent as part of a general conversation on web development. The kind of conversation that we've learned to follow in posts is now carried over into tweets. Great.

Will the world be out of balance when this happens? Should I be Jaiku-ing this?

If Hillary Rodham Clinton were twittering?…

Well, she is. Obama and McCain too. As of March 8, 2008:

Barack Obama: followers: 14,365, following: 13,731, updates: 77

Hillary Clinton: followers: 1831, following: 0, updates: 66

John McCain: followers: 342, following: 849, udpates: 150

Not surprisingly, Obama has the twitter edge. I find it interesting that the crew (or intern) that manages his account chooses to follow others, where Clinton does not. I also find it interesting that McCain is following nearly three times as many than are following him and has twice as many updates as either of the other two. I prefer to think that they are actually the ones twittering away, and in Obama and McCain's case, following the updates of others. "I can't believe Byron is eating a panini for lunch again!!!" Still though, you have to applaud the effort.

And then there's this

In case you've missed it

Twitter sets out to answer the question "what are you doing right now", in 140 characters or less. The full on explanation can be found in this video.

Flickr and the Library of Congress have teamed up to introduce an archive of old photographs called The Commons. According to the announcement "The key goals of this pilot project are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the huge Library of Congress collection, and secondly to how your input of a tag or two can make the collection even richer." Flickr members are invited to tag photos and leave comments.

Personally, I think this is a great idea. There are currently about 3000 photos in the Library of Congress' photostream; 1930s-40s in Color and News in the 1910s. Help make this pilot a success, get in there and add some tags and comments.

A new year's resolution I have for 2008 is to become a better photographer—or at least do more of it. Flickr to the rescue. The site inspires, but also involves. While you're off Facebooking and MySpacing each other, I'd rather be Flickr'ing.

London Flickr meetups

One month finishing up Boston life, four months world travel and one month getting set up in London. What can I say? The last six months have been the most extraordinary I've ever been a part of.

Around the World

There were several firsts for me on this trip; first time in the southern hemisphere and the first time to keep going one direction until you end up back in the spot where you left. It's a liberating feeling, I must admit.

The world is so diverse—landscape as well as people—it really takes getting out in it to appreciate that. I am lucky for the people that I have met and the places I've seen over the last few months. The fact that I was able to make the journey with my wife means everything to me. And we're still married after over 100 days at each other's side—that's gotta count for something!

So what's next?

Starting over is a good time to set new goals. All over the world, especially in poorer countries, environmental issues take a back seat. The pollution in China was unreal. I'm researching ways to contribute to projects in other parts of the world to encourage and promote better environmental behavior through organizations like The Carbon Neutral Company and Climate Care. I am examining and adapting my own habits as well.

We've got our place in South London; I've got my UK Work Visa. And I have my new MacBook! It was good to step away from computers and the Internet for a couple of months, but I have to say that I am really looking forward to getting back into it. I'm recharged and ready for new challenges. Flash and Ruby on Rails are what inspire me these days. I can't wait to dig into some good projects and develop some new skills.

I'm gradually exploring and getting to know London. Saw Dali and Film at Tate Modern; I highly recommend this exhibition. Not only does it have some of the classic paintings, but it has his films and an animation that he worked on with Walt Disney that only recently got made. Very interesting. I'm also getting to know England. So often we don't explore our "home areas" because they seem so familiar and will always be there. I am making it a point to cover the close by areas while it is all new to me.

Travel is still in the works, but for the foreseeable future, it will be shorter trips. Mount Kilimanjaro, Argentina, Morocco, all of Europe; consider yourselves next.

Resignation. On February 8, 2007, I handed in my official resignation. Or did I tender my resignation? I'm still not quite sure how I want to refer to it yet. The point is that in about five weeks, I will be unemployed and homeless—I couldn't be happier!

The Decision

Boston housing prices are just too low and there is way too much sunshine, so my wife and I have decided to pack it up and move to London. I kid of course; the truth is I've only spent a total of about 4 or 5 days in London over the last 4 years. Although that is still twice as much as I spent in Boston before moving here from Texas in 2003. Thankfully the culture shock will not be as extreme this time around.

The Sweet Stuff

You should see the looks when I mention that I'm travelling four months to get there. Americans just don't do that type of thing; especially when you're 30. Okay, 30 something. The looks range from you're crazy to I didn't know we could do that. A European, on the other hand, will tell you about the 18 month trip they had as a gap year.

I got my passport at age 26—earlier than most people in my country. Ever since that first Europe trip with my brother (thanks again for that one Shawn and Steph), I've had the travel bug. It's really more of a parasite, and I mean that in the best possible way. It just sits there…waiting. I can't walk by the travel section at Borders without feeling it going into a feeding frenzy. Lucky for me, I'm married to a woman who shares the value of travel. My bug is a sweet ladybug compared to her Godzilla. Her gift for planning trips is astonishing. She is brave, inspiring and creative; I can't wait to go around the world with her.

The Goodbyes

Leaving is never easy; not when you like the place you're leaving. And we really like Boston. We really like our friends here. The winter can get a little ridiculous for a Texan, but overall, it's a great place to be. Who knows, maybe we'll end up back here one day.

The Challenges

London is an amazing city. Or at least it was for the few days that I've been there. I look forward to exploring it as a resident and really getting to know it's quirks and character. I can't kid myself, it will be a challenge to get set up, find a place to live and to find a job. If you know of any tips, job leads, or immigration advice; please, speak up.

So, London, until August.

Cheers.

As this year's South By Southwest Interactive festival approaches, I find myself reflecting on the lessons learned from last year and sit in anticipation of what is to come. Truth be told, I got much more out of this than I contributed. There is just so much to absorb that it's difficult not to.

The Takeaway

The common themes had to be quick iteration and starting small. Every speaker I listened to had a similar story when it came to application or community development. They started something, usually on the side, and developed it over time. This sounds like common sense I know; but when you are developing a project, it is easy to forget that.

A few years ago, I unfortunately dug myself into a hole by trying to do too much, because I knew how to do too much. Meaning that I over-engineered every aspect by responding to scenarios that we'd be lucky to ever be in. Regretfully, I let myself and my friends down by never being able to take that first step and let the application grow into something. You end up with nothing.

I mentioned it in my relaunch, but I'll say it again. I was afraid of going down the same path with this website. There is so much that I want to do, but the regular job, freelance work and life gets in the way. So I launch with what I have and grow into it. Outside of you and me, no one really visits anyway; so I have time.

Choosing Sessions

I realize that a review a year after is sad, so I won't get into a play-by-play recap. There are a ton of great presentations to choose from; it is inevitable that you end up in the wrong one at times, or get pleasantly surprised by others. This is an oversimplification, but my advice to myself is to be wary of the ones of a technical nature. I don't mean to say to avoid these, but take precaution.

If a session is titled "AJAX" and you are a web developer, it is perfectly logical that this may be of interest. These are 50 minute sessions so there is likely to be a 15 minute history of how the name AJAX came about. This session is a perfect fit for the manager or the curious, but not the developer. On the flip side, I attended a DOM Scripting session, given by Jeremy Keith and Aaron Gustafson, that was very inspirational. A little bit technical, a little bit overview and a little bit of a showcase; this shows the true spirit of SXSWi.

About the panels, these are often hit and miss, with little to go by other than the topic and the speakers. In general, I'd say the fewer speakers the better. The panel covering mapping was one of my favorite sessions. If I'm being honest though, I would've preferred to hear Dan Catt for the full 50 minutes – no offense to the other panelists.

Bottom line is explore. Make sure you check out the topics that you know little about, you may be surprised. Pick out some familiar names and hear what they have to say, but be sure to check in on the people that you haven't heard of, you will not regret it. The good thing is, you can always switch mid-session if you bought a lemon.

I don't mean to sound cynical, because I absolutely loved SXSWi 2006. I'm thankful that my employers were able to send me. It is definitely worth it. Talk to a couple of people around you and you really notice the quality of the audience. There are so many ideas going around; something is definitely wrong if you are not inspired. Oh, and the nightlife is not so bad either.

If you go

Say hi. I'll be the nerd with the laptop.

codecreative.com is the online evolution of Byron Manley. A constant work in progress—both the site and the author. Once again, this site's primary purpose will be to serve as a portfolio. However, I relaunch with the greater notion of documentation and experimentation. I hope to share the experiences that I go through as a web developer in the hopes that I can contribute to a community that I have learned so much from.

This site is built on the Symphony web publishing system, created by twentyone degrees. The main draw for me was the opportunity to work with XML and XSLT. A couple of helpful screencasts convinced me to give it a shot. Overture, the Symphony community, is small right now, but I hope to help it grow as I dive in deeper. I'm anxious to integrate with many of the APIs out there; another reason for going with the XML/XSLT base.

To be completely honest with you, I built 80% of the site in Wordpress before starting over with Symphony. There was nothing wrong with Wordpress, in fact I like it; I have no doubt I will use it for other projects. The problem is, I have a tendency to work and re-work things to death on personal endeavors. What eventually happens is I get a lot of work done, but never end up with anything to show for it. I've noticed it; This relaunch is a conscientious effort to correct that behavior. I relaunch knowing that this site is far from where I want it to be. I look forward to the challenges.

Today is Ridiculous Day. Happy Birthday, Shawn.