Just arrived in Paris from SFO, via Air France for LeWeb. A lots of “firsts” in the trip for me personally: First Leweb; First trip to Paris/Europe, First TransAtlantic flight. At LeWeb, I’ll be at the Seesmic booth and will be involved in a couple of sessions.

If you happen to read this and packing for LeWeb (especially if you’re staying longer in Paris), here’s my experience – mostly in preparation at the ticket counter. While the flight experience was very nice (very helpful flight attendants), I had a very interesting ticket counter experience that tested my patience: I got hit with overweight carry-on baggage.

According to the Air France baggage allowance webpage. You are only allowed 1 bag total (for economy peons, like me). What they didn’t include on that page was information on the carry-on. That information happens to be under “Hand Baggage.” This, of course, I didn’t catch as I was in the middle of packing.

Being the noob European traveler, I discovered that some ticket counter people at Air France were very strict about baggage weight. 23 kilograms (50.6 lbs)  for check-in. 12 kilograms (26.4 lbs) for carry-on. I was trying to carry on 4 laptops to be used for a combination of the Seesmic booth and the presentations for LeWeb and my check-in bag, although very small and compact, was 22 kilograms – and I swear, the ticket counter was going to call security on me. My smiles that worked on previous check-in experiences were not at all effective here.

Extra baggage costs $50. Extra weight would have costed more, but they wouldn’t even allow me to pay for the extra weight. I ended up having to split my laptops, have one of it wrapped (there’s a wrapping service in the middle of International SFO for $7).

I could have lied about not having a check-in bag, but they were tagging check-in bags, as well. I couldn’t tell you if attendants were checking- but I probably would have gotten busted if I didn’t have the “I approve this carry-on for this flight” sticker.

At first I thought the ticket counter attendant was singling me out, but I had seen another ticket attendant escort a person with their bag to be measured in one of those cabin baskets that (I thought) no one really uses (“Sorry, sir, but that bag is too big…”). Then, as I waited for the attendant after I re-adjusted my baggage, I turned around to see Iene Koehler was in line and had the same issue – and also ended up re-adjusting her baggage.

After that fiasco, everything was perfectly fine! It was quite the pleasant coincidence to meet and connect with another LeWeb participant. I also bumped into Phil Jeudy on the same flight. Along with Irene, I ended up hitching a ride with another LeWeb attendee, Myriam. She was a big Seesmic supporter and is very involved in the Paris tech scene.  Talk about your silver lining.

So, word to the wise if you are planning on bringing a lot to your flight to Paris – watch your carry on weight. See you at LeWeb!

It’s been two days since I had my surgery, and it’s not been as bad as I expected, but it wasn’t a piece of cake that I was expecting it to be.

For my first surgery experience, it was quite the ride. Originally scheduled for 12:15 it was a little bit taken aback when I received a phone message saying I was twenty minutes late for a 9:30 surgery. Apparently, they had rescheduled my surgery and forgot to tell me about it. After confirming they had the right patient, I agreed to come in, since I was spending the time waiting. Of course, I couldn’t help but to be apprehensive when you start of the morning with a misunderstanding of scheduling for your first surgery.

Upon arrival, I spent a good 20 minutes doing paperwork, basically signing off the worst case scenarios – it’s a little sobering when potentials risks includes little things like death and whatnot…

After the paperwork, I was led to a prep room. The one thing that I was pretty happy with was that each person that came up to me made sure what the surgery procedure I was in (as normal policy) “… and the surgery procedure you’re here for is…? Which means…?”

I was then in a recliner chair prepped up, met my surgeon and the anesthesiologist going over basic expectations and reviewing all my charts and previous test results. Now it was on to the surgery room. Upon walking in, it was a bed with arm rests spread across. I couldn’t help it but the image that popped up was the execution scene in “Dead Man Walking.” Once my arm was strapped and feet were wrapped, I began with the anesthesia and was out in 3 seconds (Brentium was challenging me to go more than 10 seconds). Next thing I know, I was back in the prep room that I began and the surgery went well.

However, I couldn’t help but to feel that the surgery center was trying to kick me out like I was a cheap patron at a Chinese restaurant. I recall being extremely groggy and my body going through all kinds of pain. That first day of recovery was probably the harshest as I was going through some extreme nausea. I looked at my body and had four nicely bandaged stab wounds. The surgeon was also kind enough to take some pictures of my bladder inside my body and then the dissected insides of the black sludgy bile and the gallstones that were the impetus for my surgery.

The next day progressed well as my nausea stopped, but the wounds were still quite tender. At that point my body felt like it was pelted with a dozens of shuriken knives. Breathing took a lot of effort and it hurt to cough or blow my nose. But I was slowly able to eat and drink a normal meal. Throughout this time, sleep, fluids and extreme rest become your best medicine. By today, I still feel pretty bruised up, and my body is tender but on the road to recovery. Won’t be able to do any muay thai, but I hope to start working out within the month.

So, I’ll be going through a Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy. Such a cool sounding name that I dare you to google it. (Small warning: this may not be for the quesy if you decide to check it out any further…)

Essentially I’ll have 4 holes in my body in a combination of camera, lights, and incision!
I can’t help but to think of a certain game of needles and marbles. All in all, it should be a simple surgery, and I appreciate all the support. Just the thought of having an organ pulled out of me is still a little disturbing.

The killer for me? No eating or drinking after midnight until surgery at 12pm. I’ll be interested to see how I’ll feel after recovery.

I’m going to have surgery to lose an organ in two days…

I guess that sounds a little bit dramatic. Well, it certainly was an unexpected series of unfortunate events. Actually, it was just one – and it ended up with a planned removal of my gall bladder.

Two weeks ago, at 2am, I was struck with a writhing pain in my abdomen that left me nauseous and curled in a standard fetal position. I ended up in emergency where I went through a series of tests including x-rays, ultrasound, and then the CAT scan – the white stargate ring that takes your body to another dimension. As the pain subsided thanks to a dose of a pain-killing syrup that happened to be stronger that vicodin, the ER doctor diagnosed me with a classic case of gallstones. Then, to my surprise, I was nearly scheduled for immediate surgery, before I put on the brakes and asked to slow down. Luckily, my case was not serious enough to warrant an emergency surgery.

After being discharged, I scheduled an appointment with my personal physician, where he recommended me to a surgeon – who happened to be a top-notch doctor- and according to Yelp -  five stars (thank god, you don’t see much of those for doctors…). After reviewing my files, the doc showed me my gallstones on the CAT scan screen, and had recommended to have my gall bladder – an organ that I don’t need to live – removed. The surgery would take about 90 minutes and I’d be out of the hospital by the end of the day – with 4 holes on my body and a without an organ I don’t really need (will post more on the gory details).

Now, another thing that makes things interesting is that I’ll be flying to France for LeWeb where I’ll be tending to a Seesmic booth, and then heading to Bucharest to meet with our coworkers at our office. Fortunately, the doctor shared that the recovery time from surgery is expected to be enough for me to fly out to Paris. We’ll definitely see.

We could have scheduled it after my trip, but the surgeon was planning a vacation overseas the day I was scheduled to come back, so I would have had to have scheduled it in January. Judging by my medical charts, I could have waited to have it done then, but the risk was another potential episode of visiting the ER. So with the surgeon available on Tuesday – part of the juggle for scheduling was not just the doctor’s time, but also the surgery facilities. Lo and behold, we found a spot among the four that happened to fit the surgeon’s availability. So, Tuesday it is… Next, I’m going to a lab for an EKG test on Monday morning. I don’t even know what an EKG really is…

Update: So the EKG was pretty easy – as Nathanael Boehm mentioned – 15 seconds – got the results with a sheet of paper of a bunch of squiggly lines. A precautionary monitor of your heart. Should be fine.

YouTube – Did You Know 4.0.

When I was working as a youth director in Cameron House, a non-profit, faith-based organization, I had gone through a lot of books on leadership and community building activities – which were simply games – one book focused specifically for building community and was written by Wayne Rice, a popular author on youth ministry activities. Rice discussed about community building and referenced the theme song to Cheers.
Cheers was a very popular sitcom that ran for 11 seasons and was set in a bar in Boston. The lyrics “you want to be where everybody knows your name” rang a bell with being in a community.

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

Rice, being a Christian educator, made the obvious reference on how the lyrics reflected how people should feel in the church community. But the lyrics were about the local bar!

I think the lyrics still apply to a lot of the tech conferences and gatherings in San Francisco, and also apply to communities online. What’s also funny is that the characters in the TV show have quite the similarities with some of the people that I see in the various gatherings:

• A cute but klutzy, pretentious snobby scholar (Diane Chambers)
• A doofus, but likable lothario with the responsibility of leading the community (Sam Malone)
• A boyish country homeboy with the childlike IQ equivalent (Woody)
• A socially awkward self-claimed know-it-all (Cliff Claven)
• and an everyone’s-favorite only-good-for-laughs funny man (Norm)

I think you’ll find the same type of people in your various communities that you’re involved with and that could go the same for your online communities. The synergy of those different types of personalities make for a pretty vibrant environment, as long as there’s a common interest. And if that interest creates a feeling of belonging, where everyone knows your name – that’s one of the core components of creating community.

In doing a google search for “community management,” I found it funny that community management was not apparent in the eyes of the almighty Google’s suggestions.

But Google can suggest what strawberries are doing…

I recently had a chance to attend Gnomedex as a sponsored guest as Seesmic. Seeing this group of eclectic geeks laughing, sharing, debating, learning and building relationships – and for me personally -getting to know many of the people at the conference hit a personal chord. One of the things that I’ve been toying around with was the idea of what community is to many of the social media or community managers in the industry.

One of the things that I’ve done is conduct some flip cam interviews. This is not so much a large-scale project as the 100 Interview project by Derek Overbey and Morgan Brown – but I simply wanted to ask what community is to each of them.

I had a previous post of quoting Chris Hughes of not knowing what community is. Sometimes, I find myself feeling the same way. I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend this next month toying, contemplating, joking, struggling on what community is.

I’ll most likely take advantage of the following resources for helping define community:

• Interviews with those involved in the social media / community building industry
• Resources and other links/reports/interviews from industry leaders, peers, friends and probably some rivals or enemie
• I’ll most likely profile many people in my circle of influence, as well as role models, teachers in the industry.
• My experiences in managing communities at Seesmic, along with Loic Le Meur’s experience and guidance
• My previous job experiences in managing communities before my position in community involvement (product manager, project manager, support, client services, developer)
• My past experiences in managing communities in technology, social media, and in non-profit and ecclesiastic (yes, church…) settings

As I try to sort this out, I would like to start of with Shashi Bellamkonda, the “Social Media Swami” from Network Solutions. First of all, Social Media Swami is a title that I would die for. Second, this man is the real deal when it comes to creating a community in the tech industry, and I found myself very lucky to have met him.

Looking forward to seeing what I come up with in the next several days…

I recently read a FastCompany article on Chris Hughes, who coordinated Barack Obama’s online campaign – making a huge impact on both marketing and politics. The author deftly placed a quote from Hughes that stood out for attention:

“I don’t really know what ‘community’ means. And I never use that word.”

Brilliant.

I’ve spent several years working in various groups and teams of smart, energetic and wonderful people – in business, technology, education, non-profit and faith-based. The fact of the matter is, that I also don’t know what community means.

However, I’ve seen some people draw strength from working in groups, others find their identities through their teams. And there there are others, in order to avoid their own insecurities, just don’t want to feel… alone, but be able to eventually stand in confidence.

I’ve been privileged to witness extraordinary things accomplished through teams and groups – emphasizing the proverb “None of us are as smart as all of us.” 

I’m currently in the process of working, talking, interviewing with some of these extraordinary people, and will be talking more about community in various settings. The best thing about it is that I won’t be doing it alone. I’ll be looking for my community to help me.