Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, virtual reality pioneer in the realm of virtual reality, human computer interaction, and design, died today. He was 47.

Aside from being a passionate advocate for the commingling of computer engineering and the arts — a topic that I hold dear — Randy movingly spoke about both living and dying well in his Last Lecture at CMU. His speech had in some ways pushed me on a slightly different course in life. The themes he talks about are the same ones that come up when we talk about how to succeed in our new world of openness. He will be remembered as a man who stood up and spoke directly to the inner desire in all of us to be better tomorrow than we are today.

There’s no better person from whom to hear it then Randy himself. The video is over an hour long, but it’s worth it.

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don’t seem as depressed or as morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.

I spent this weekend “geeking out” at a PodCamp Boston 3, the social media “un-conference” held at the Harvard Medical Center. The organizers – Chris Penn, Chris Brogan, Chel Pixie, Sooz, Steve Sherlock, Doug Haslam, and Whitney Hoffman — deserve a great deal of kudos for putting such great event together.

This was my second PodCamp, and already the differences have been noticeable. The diversity of attendees — from the marketers and PR folks that dominated the last event in October, to designers looking to understand new methods of value creation on the web, to a teacher looking to use co-created media to help troubled students learn to communicate — was matched only by the passion and enthusiasm we had as a a whole to learn from each other and take what we have found back with us, to use and experiment with in our own ways.

A Few Highlights of PodCamp:

No Experience Necessary: A number of folks — some who traveled a significant distance — came to learn about how they can use social media within their organization without having been associated with the “social media space” (a term I particularly loathe) up until this point. What many of them quickly learned is that they have been a part of the global conversation that is happening — they just didn’t realize that it can be harnessed.

The Value Isn’t (Always) In the Sessions: No one is really an expert at PodCamp — The sessions, while engaging and thought-provoking for the most part — were not the highlight of my PodCamp experience. The most fun I had was sitting upstairs in the BrainTorrent rooms  having ad-hoc discussions with presenters, attendees, and organizers. (Another highlight: Chris Brogan covering “Pork & Beans” and “Round Here” on guitar, with varying degrees of success. I occasionally helped Chris cover up his guitar gaffes with my terrible vocal prowess).

Chris Brogan on Guitar, Jeff Fisher on Lyrics

Sponsors Who Understand: The sponsors of the event — mDialog, Blue Sky Factory, mZinga, Utterz, Blip.tv, blubrry.com, ooVoo, matchmine, marketingprofs, and Marketwire — deserve a great deal of credit for participating in the general conference conversations. They all understand that the best PR is when you become a member of your own public. Well done.

A Few Things I Hope to See Improved at PCB4:

Encourage Outside Participation: The social media community in Boston is small and tightly connected, and it seemed at times that the event was just another event for folks to get together again. While I met more folks from outside the social media community this year, the only way our community will truely keep learning is to continue to open the door for other to share their ideas.

This Stuff Doesn’t Make Itself: An number of folks — like myself — came to the conference as experience designers. We are the people who are designing social media products and recommending that our clients use them to grow or transform their business. I had several very good conversations in the BrainTorrent room around designing for social spaces — I’d like to see a presentation or two about social design principles at the next session (I already have Keynote open).

All in all, it was a great camp, and I’m looking forward to following up with all the great folks I got a chance to meet.

I returned from vacation to Nantucket earlier this week I believe I’ve finally cleared my head ehough to blog some of the photos taken in 5 days of absolutely nothing.

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Photo Credit: Kayak the Rockies (Flickr)

Ah, technology. The better half and I are currently sitting on the ferry to The Grey Lady, where plan to spend 5 leisure-filled days hobnobbing with the créme de la créme of society. Or so they say.

Blogging will be relegated to all things jaunty and sunny, hopefully in photographic form.

It is turning out to be a formative year for our nation. Off all days, the Fourth of July is a great time to remember that, even with the falling dollar and an international reputation, this is still a remarkable country. This year’s primary season, which featured both the first female and the first African American candidates that were serious contenders for the office, had record voter turnouts. A new type of politics, routed in the new realities of our hyperlinked world, has seemingly emerged, even if our two-party political system is still at an ideological impasse.

All in all, it’s good to be here. Enjoy the fireworks.

Photo by Kadath (Flickr)

Monday afternoon was a beautiful one. Since I found myself with some free time, I decided to engage in this summer’s leisure activity of choice: Sitting on a quiet patio with a good cocktail or two and some great reading material. Luckily, such a patio exists not two blocks away from my front stoop.

Because a good cocktail is better enjoyed on a full stomach, I ordered the crab cakes. It came with a mixed green salad.

The salad came with tomatoes.

The tomatoes came with their own surprise inside.

As a result, I spent Tuesday in bed, in the fetal position, when not positioned over my toilet. In my current state, I had some time to reflect upon how the effects of large-scale industrial agriculture have effected our food culture here and abroad. From monoculture farming and genetically modified seeds, to  new livestock breed patenting, the industry has gradually been allowed to disassociate food from its place of origination.

Hopefully the general cultural zeitgeist afforded by the global marketplace and by the Internet — the fracturing of markets into micromarkets differentiated by niche products or regional availability — will reinforce the economic viability of alternative agronomics such as Community Supported Agriculture and the slow food movement.

Until then, I suppose we’ll need to be comforted by the fact that foodbourne illness outbreaks are discovered and broadcast in near real time, allowing faster response time.

Meanwhile, at the far end of the food supply chain, I’m heading back to bed.