Des Moines Archive

A Prolific Little Valley Girl...

Trying to get back to some regularity with my BusinessWeek columns. This one posted tonight for tomorrow, and I'm quite proud of it. It keys off a lot of things I've been writing about on this blog: The hollowness of engineering traffic, obnoxiousness of sites like Twply, and my frustration with too many people trying to game the system versus just build a good product or create good content. It all came together around this idea of Web 2.0 killing the last metric that matters for advertisers: The unique user.

It was an observation Roger McNamee made in the Yahoo greenroom when he came by the studio a few weeks ago, and it's been working its way around my head since, so I fully credit him.

Speaking of Valley Girl, here's my previous column in case you missed it. It has to do with corporate layoffs and features a shout out to Mr. Nathan Wright of Des Moines who I met on the book tour!

If you read the blog a lot, you probably notice a lot of similar themes work themselves out here, then later wind up in a column or on TechTicker. Writing is like thinking, and my commenters always help me sharpen my thinking. You let me know when I'm on to something and push me on another angle when I'm blind to it. So thanks, everyone. Instead of cutting you in on my paycheck, I'll just refrain from annoying you with ads on this site. Deal?

NOW, speaking of Roger McNamee, I have some news. He cut his hair! Background: Roger's hair ignited quite an uproar among TechTicker commenters. I'm sorry-- he's Roger McNamee, a former top fund manager and one of the most successful Valley investors and he's giving you investing advice and you're upset about his hair??? As I Twittered at the time it was an act of civil disobedience against the policies of the Bush administration. Roger says once he got confirmation that Bush was safely back in Texas he cut off a whopping 14 inches giving it to Locks of Love. I don't have an "after" picture, but below is the before, in video form:

Impromptu Coworking in Des Moines

This is practically from the vault! Mr. Lacy and I shot this video with Des Moines' first co-working space Impromptu Studios during the Mid-West swing of our User Generated Book Tour, but never got around to editing it until now. It's still timely though, since Impromptu Studios just had its open house last week.

I'm fascinated by the coworking trend, because I'm firmly convinced the social web has given anyone hardworking and talented in the services sector of the economy a new opportunity to work for themselves.

If you don't know about coworking, watch this video. If you are trying to start a coworking spot, hopefully it will inspire you. A group in Des Moines had been talking about co-working via an email group, but it wasn't until the conversation moved to Twitter that things started to actually happen. Eventually software developer Daniel Shipton-- encouraged by his wife Abbie-- had to "man up" and put their names on a lease and hope others followed. They charge people about $350/month for a permanent desk, with a small discount for a several month commitment. It's just enough to break even.

If you already have a rad coworking space and we're coming to your city on the tour, please let us know!! We'd love to come check it out!

CO-WORKING IN DES MOINES from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

Two of the Coolest Things I've Seen in a While

Ok, let's all take a break from freaking out about Paisano's guest post on Y Combinator. (btw: I've realized today it's more fun to let someone else create controversy and just watch the page views roll in! Hang in there, Pai!) I wanted to share two things that made my day:

First, Robert Jensen of the Des Moines Twitter posse made a UGBT Guitar!!! Check it out! I think I want one of these! To get your own pack of SarahLacy.com UGBT stickers with your city's name, email Olivia at sarahlacy dot com. (Has to be a city on the tour, Seattle and Portland stops are LATER THIS WEEK/NEXT WK! RSVP and spread the word!)

Second: The latest Lacy Jump. This is by Sam Purtill, frequent SarahLacy.com commenter. Sam actually has an unnamed cameo in the book. If anyone can name it for me, you get a free T-Shirt. Or you could just do your own Lacy Jump and get one. Sam: Yours is on the way!

Once you're lucky cliff jump from Sam Purtill on Vimeo.

Maybe You Can Go Back Home...

I shot this video with Hillary Brown (or @hillabean as Twitterers may know her) my first night in Des Moines. She grew up in Des Moines and felt she had to move because it held no job opportunities for anyone wanting to do "creative" marketing. Now, she has stunned herself by moving back. It's a great story for anyone who misses his or her hometown, and it's a great example of the spread of Web 2.0 and how it's changing where and how people work around the country. Also: Hillary on what Des Moines has that L.A. doesn't!

Enjoy!

DES MOINES 2.0 from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

[Said LacyJump Video here and link to Twitter Badges here.]

UGBT: "I (Steak) Omaha!" Also, "Des Moines HELL YEAH!"

I saw both of those slogans on T-shirts during my recent swing through the Midwest. I asked Jeff Slobotski to mail me the first one, as the store was closed, and plan to order the second one on this rad site.

Why? Well, Omaha does have good steaks. And both Omaha and Des Moines have a genuine, not obnoxious  self-promotional culture that I've seen in few places. Cities like New York, San Francisco, and LA don't really have to promote themselves. They're like the cool guy at the party who's like, "Yeah, I know you're into me..." Atlanta, Phoenix and Nashville are almost the cool guy at the party who got to ride with him and wants to MAKE SURE YOU KNOW IT! (That guy is annoying.) Meanwhile cities like Memphis and Detroit have inferiority complexes, so they're frequently self-deprecating even when they have something to brag about.

Omaha and Des Moines aren't pushy about it-- but they love their cities and want you to know why. It must be a Midwestern thing because the same thing struck me about Chicago. I flew there several years back when BusinessWeek was trying to get me to move there and everyone from the cab driver at the airport to the desk clerk at the hotel told me how  much they loved Chicago and how much I would to. There's something undeniably endearing about it.

Beyond that, there were some other (hopefully more salient) impressions about the Midwest I wanted to share.