Thursday, February 13, 2003

FEAR IN NEW YORK CITY: First and most importantly, I owe the title of this blog to my buddy Dan Dubno at CBS. More on that in a minute. Second, this entry has nothing to do with collaboration. Third, what a bust of a trip to New York: no one can seem to focus. When I think back to my first day at college I remember one thing: I never wanted to get into a scrap with the kids from New York City. They may have been small, but they were tough and nothing bugged them. The other memory I have of New York is the Superman movies, where there were kids hawking newspapers on street corners at all hours of the day. There was always a supreme villain who was promising death and destruction to all in Gotham, and at random intervals. No one was safe. It was always refreshing to snap out of the trance that reading a good comic provided, and know that I was safe and sound. "Mark" is a guy that works for me at Groove, and he called me as they were closing the door on Delta Shuttle fl 1825 out of Boston this morning. "Dude, New York has just gone code red. A chemical or bio attack is imminent. You may want to think twice about coming down." REWIND. Mark, tough kid from Brooklyn. Grew up in NYC, grew a thick skin selling software into NY banking accounts, and was pretty dang fearless. This is the kind of scrappy kid that would make me think twice about a fight. And he's telling me to reconsider my trip. Coming in from the airport, I was in a New York City taxi driven by Mr. Collins. Collins had to be 70 years old and of Jamaican descent. He chastised me for being scared of the headlines and urged me to "live your life!"  He then proceeded to sing Methodist hymns on the way into the city. Sigh. Great voice, but 60 minutes later, I was tiring of that "Old Rugged Cross". (What a neat old guy though).  The rest of my day went like this: 1100: Good meeting 1400: Another good meeting 1800: Dinner on 2nd Avenue in a near empty restaurant 1810: Dudes hawking papers on every corner with headlines about the impending chemical attack (totally surreal) 2103: Still breathing and feeling quite fine, thank you On to Dan Dubno, who is one really interesting guy. He also goes by Digital Dan at CBS. I met him several months ago after he did a piece about Groove on the CBS Evening News. You can see the clip here.  Prior to my career in software, I spent 10 years in the broadcast business. First doing radio in Washington DC (WPGC) and Baltimore (B104) and then doing some television. The fact that Dan loves Groove and the use cases for which he sees a fit serves as a real blast for me. When I went to see Dan today, he looked really agitated. I respect Dan not only because he is a gadget freak like me, but because he has a real code of ethics. Journalism is a communications medium to spread truth, not threats and conjecture. Yet most of the local NYC television outlets today were pumping the terrorist story like a cheap Jerry Springer episode. Dan seems disgusted by the hype. He promises a very interesting talk on the responsibilities of media at an upcoming event. I'll be tuned in. New York is one surreal scene today.  Terrorists 1: People 0 9:03:57 PM