Quitting initiatives

Life is really complicated. Enough complicated not to require other complication ignitors.

I’ve started doing things professionally on the web since 1997 (10 years dude :-) ) and I’ve been fortunate enough to start up quite a lot of projects and – quite obviously – to quit them down due to lack of time, low profits or – ups – lowering interest from yours truly.

CIRI was a Javascript then Perl search engine with only Italian Hip Hop sites in its index. It’s been the first (and mainly the only one) in its genre and, before Google entering the Italian market, it was the leader, period. I turned off CIRI mid 2006 due to the impossibility to compete with Google index.
Reason: lack of profitability (due to Google entrance in the same market)

CIRI eventually lead to the creation of the HOTMC.COM network which I co-founded and co-managed till late 2006; the birth of Francesca and my entrance in Gabetti forced me to leave the whole property to my Pal Simone due to lack of time (he’s a great Director and Owne, IMHO).
HOTMC.COM is still the leading Italian online magazine about Hip Hop and its community is an ever growing thing.
Reason: lack of time (due to changes in my professional and personal life)

The last (in time order) project I quitted has been Flashability (I decided to make the decision public yesterday on the Flashability site – in Italian): an online magazine devoted to the spread of the usability culture in Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash CS) helping a lot of developers worldwide to design better interfaces (back button, ya know what I mean?).
During time I lost my interest in the technology and my job wasn’t even bond anymore to Flash, finding good contributors has always been a mess so… why keeping it alive?
Reason: lack of interest

And, you might wonder, what about Mobup (the open source mobile uploader to Flickr)? It’s development is currently freezed, but the project is still in my mind and heart.

Telling a story

I recently finished the wonderful Freakonomics book which, in my 2006 revised edition, came with a bunch of blog posts from the Freakonomics blog. And, my friend, it’s been a revelation: I really enjoied Lewitt and Dubner blog style: they don’t write posts, they tell stories instead (I just subscribed to their feed, by the way).

And here from my decision; I want to start telling stories instead of reporting facts, I want a major personal commitment to my Yellow Line blog: I’ll start with a mandatory Post Day a week, based on Friday evening (CET) and look where it’ll take me from there; I won’t romance facts, I’ll just try to write in a more compelling way; what I want is a blog I’ll enjoy to re-read, instead that a blog I just enjoy writing for.

You, my loyal readers, will be my judges.

Back in town

It’s been a while since I haven’t posted a single line here (also my Flickr photo stream deserve a better treatment) but I’ve been travelling through vacations and busy days (and the deadline for my “Achivieng real business growth through Second Life” hasn’t helped).

But now I’m back with a whole lot of things to says and experiences to be told. And, again, with so few time available to write them down.

So, let’s go with a Powerpoint style bullet list of important things happened meanwhile

That’s all for now.