Video from my Ignite presentation at Foo Camp.

A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of working with the legendary filmmaker Albert Maysles and his awesomely talented crew as the subject of a documentary. It’s a campaign for Mitchum that profiles the hardest working Americans in several short films. Then people get to submit their own stories for the chance to get a film made about them and a cash prize of $100k!

I was excited for the opportunity to participate as a way to promote NeighborGoods and I’m really happy with how the film came out. If you like it too, I hope you’ll share it with your friends. And who knows, maybe you are the hardest working American?

Ben Brown and I were hard at work in the NeighborGoods.net office and to our surprise, something pretty exciting was happening in the alley: Michael Bay and his crew were filming an action shot for Transformers 3! They were flipping a smart car down the alley on a really cool hydraulic platform! So what did we do? We filmed the action and put it on youtube! Duh! Then we began our battle to see who could get the most views. Our videos started to appear around the web on entertainment blogs and the comments started rolling in. Ben was handily winning our contest as his view count quickly rose. At about 33k views, Ben received a surprise! A DMCA take-down notice from YouTube! Paramount claimed that Ben’s video matched third party content. That’s an interesting claim considering THE FILM DOESN’T EVEN EXIST YET!!! Ben contested the claim but he hasn’t heard back from YouTube yet. In the meantime, my video is still up. I guess copyright is only an issue if you get more than 30k views?

Well, now that Ben’s out of the competition, I should hit that mark any second now. Heh heh.

So if you’re not sure how copyright works, it protects films, books, music, basically “works” of art. It does NOT protect stuff happening in the real world in front of your face which you are totally free to film and post wherever you want.

This article about our awesome videos on Techdirt does a good job explaining it. So watch my video in protest! I just need 20k more views to catch up with Ben.

What is the role of creativity in running a startup?

NeighborGoods HD Test from sparky rose on Vimeo.

Check out the new intro video we made for NeighborGoods! And please share it!

Camera and editing: Aaron Neitz
Visual effects and music: Sparky Rose
Starring: me and my friends!

Re-blogged from NeighborGoods.net

We’ve been hanging in Austin this week for South By Southwest Interactive Festival and it’s been a really exciting event for us! Check out the video interview I did for Pepsi’s Digital Speakeasy.

The big theme at SXSW Interactive year was definitely all about location and tools that help people connect locally. We’re excited to be a part of this emerging trend and we’ve got lots of things planned to make it even easier for you to share with your neighbors.

Speaking of your neighbors, why don’t you go ahead and invite five friends to share with you on NeighborGoods!

Thanks for your support, neighbors!

Startup Stories #3, The Wall from Mickipedia on Vimeo.

Every entrepreneur hits the wall sometimes.

Accept Help Graciously from Mickipedia on Vimeo.

Part 2 from the startup video series.

Show Links: WePropel & Sparky Rose

Sparky not only made my awesome video bumpers, he also came up with some great potential titles for the video series. And now I don’t know what to call it. Basically, my plan for this series is to share my experience of running a company. Not just tips and tricks but really what it’s like. What am I learning and how does it feel? I might even talk to other CEOs or show you around the office or something. Like a web startup, I’m giving it room to grow however it may. So I want to make sure the title allows for some transformation. Which of these titles do you like best? Can you think of a better one?

UPDATE: Thanks, y’all! Startup Stories is the winning title!

The 10 Ways Startup Advice is Flawed, by Eric Ries GigaOm.com

This is the first in a (hopefully) series about my experience as an entrepreneur. I still need a title for this series so let me know if you’ve got something crafty.