My Experiments with Self-Publishing

I've just launched an experiment in self-publishing. I've used the service Lulu.com to create an online store for my picture books. It's called ClayBot.com and it takes advantage of on-demand technologies, only printing a physical book when someone orders from the store. No inventory. No overhead.

I chose Lulu after researching a bunch of services that are available. So far I like it, but I am definitely going to experiment with some other sites. Some similar services include: Blurb, iUniverse, Xlibris, Trafford, Gorham, Amazon's Booksurge, Amazon's CreateSpace, CafePress, Scribd, and AuthorHouse.

My Documentary About Dot Com Culture

I finished editing late last night and here it is - Exit Strategy News Episode One: Bandwagon.

I've been collecting video and photos from over 18 years in the Internet industry. Erik Koto and I have captured many of our friends and colleagues on video and we'll eventually assemble further episodes. Tell us if you have video sitting in a closet somewhere. Also, we'd love to interview you. Everyone has a story.

We want to capture what it's like to work in the Internet industry, both past and present. What are your memories of the dot com bubble? Where will the future lead us?

Also Available: High-Resolution versions.

MountainZone.com Early Media Coverage 1997

Here are some more retro flashbacks from the early days of the web. This montage shows how the mainstream media was covering our dot com start-up between 1995 and 1997.



These clips were pulled from the following:

MountainZone TV Commercial series

"Wild Wild Web" syndicated on CBS

CNN Financial

Seattle News on KIRO-TV

ABC Sunday Night Movie "Into Thin Air"

"Up To The Minute" on CBS

Live Update on CNN

Reebok's "PE-TV"

"Playing in Style" on FOX

For more stories from the dot com days, see posts about my personal Internet history.

Digital Handel's Messiah, 1994

In 1994 my company won a contract to broadcast the the annual Kennedy Center Handel's Messiah performance live on the web with video. We'd barely just started our company, MediaZones, and the only reason we got the gig was because very few companies were doing live internet video. We'd had some cursory initial success with local Seattle events and that made us the default experts. So, we loaded all our digital gear into travel cases and headed to Washington, DC to try and make it work.

We were hired by a company associated with the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. They'd made all the arrangements to get our crew from Seattle to DC and all we needed to do was make a postage-sized flicker of video appear on their webpage while the live event was going on. We used a now-defunct software-hardware combo called Xing Technologies that required we lug a giant server with us, along with 4 desktops and a laptop. Not to mention our cameras, microphones and cables.

In those days we felt lean and mean when it came to equipment. When we were at events, the TV crews would gawk at us and be amazed that we could broadcast from just seven suitcases. They couldn't take us seriously because we, in their minds, had barely any equipment. We didn't even have a van. How could we be professionals? How indeed.

Back in 1995, I sketched this comic rendering of the whole adventure and I have recently posted it online.

In comming weeks, I'll post some photos of this trip...I just uncovered another box of media from those old early days of the web. Stay tuned!

Comic: Making a Cybercast 1997

Back in 1997 I owned a company called MountainZone.com. We published outdoor sporting information on the web. We didn't know it at the time, but we were building a community.

We traveled from Seattle to Stratton, VT to broadcast the US Open Snowboard Championships. Since we were posting our audio, text, pictures and videos to the Internet, we called it "cybercasting" which sounded even sillier in the 90s than it sounds now.

We finagled ourselves into all-access media passes and we bartered a free room in exchange for a banner graphic on the event page. We were doing everything for the first time...breaking ground. Media folk and journalists rarely asked for web connections in the early 90s when we started our cybercasts, but by the late 90s it was becoming more common for press rooms to offer Internet. Although the connections were thru 28.8 modems, definitely not high-bandwidth.

We were serious about the sport and our team knew the riders, event planners and other professionals. By the end of the weekend there was underwear on the lamps, beer on top of the computers and silly string hanging from the ceiling. How we ever published anything is beyond me.

But it worked...and the visitors to the website started streaming in. First there were dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. By the time we sold MountainZone in 1999 we had millions of visitors pouring into the site to learn about mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding and climbing.

Above is a comic I drew on the plane ride home (click it for the full story). The photos are provided as proof (to myself) that it all really happened and it was not a dream. Watch this blog for more of my personal Internet history. I’ll be digging up some great dirt.

My Personal Internet History: Mae Phim

Back in the late 1990s, me and fellow Internet junkies in Seattle would occasionally take time away from the computers to eat. A little Thai place in Pioneer Square was always packed with dozens of high-tech knowledge workers. Mae Phim was the place to go if you wanted to pick up secrets, spot entrepreneur rock stars or spread rumors. It is still there today. Order the garlic chicken. Three star.