Last week I had the opportunity to share some thoughts with several large audiences.  In what was a whirlwind trip to the City by the Bay last week I spoke on consecutive days – first a keynote @ OMMA on Tuesday, followed by a short ‘High Order Bit’ at Federated Media’s ‘Signal SF’.  Both my OMMA keynote and FM HOB are embedded below.  Forbes had a nice summary of my talk, while Technorati recaps my Federated Media gig.

Video streaming by Ustream

Today, in conjunction with Federated Media, Intel has launched a new program called ‘MyLifeScoop‘.  What is this, you ask?  I think the blog post on FM’s site announcing this says it best:

“…a practical guide for how people use technology in their everyday lives – home, school, cooking, movies, pictures, multimedia, email, storage, you name it. This is a practical, useful tool that aggregates all the best news, information, tips, tricks and how-tos. And, what’s more, it’s all updated in real-time, so it has the newest, coolest, freshest, most useful information available.”

We’re just getting started – I encourage you to check out MyLifeScoop on your own to see how you can improve your everyday life through the use of technology.  Remember – amazing things happen with Intel Inside.

I’m in the digital media business and there are many days where I am exposed to innovative digital opportunities.  When I think of display advertising, more often than not, innovation does not come to mind.  Today, that changed with the introduction of FM Ad STAMP (well – I actually saw this last week but I was sworn to secrecy by the smart account types over @ Federated Media).  My description won’t do it justice so I encourage you to check out their overview page, blog post, and screencast.

My quick take?  This is going to change display advertising for the better.  I think FM did a great job taking into account ‘how’ people are using the web, social networks, and reacting to ads put in front of them by giving marketers a product that provides an ‘engagement’ opportunity with valued customers.  I think the Conversationalist “a 600×250 social ad unit that allows brand advertisers to engage their readers in conversation directly within the ad unit via social media tools like corporate and product blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages, RSS feeds, syndicated content and more…” is brilliant – hat tip to FM for recognizing the need for display advertising innovation and delivering an exceptional product.

Outside Lands is becoming an annual event in the Bay Area.  For the second year in a row Intel is playing a role in the three day jam in Golden Gate Park.  Our participation is two-fold. We’ll have a large presence on site at the festival, and we’re also partnering with Pandora (from previous posts, you know I am a fan of this service) and Federated Media to bring you a ‘MixTape‘ of the bands that will be performing in the City by the Bay – streaming right to your computer.

The music lineup is fantastic and features some of my favorite bands. Having missed out on last year’s jam session, I was looking forward to attending this year.  Calendars didn’t work out so I won’t be hanging out in Lindley Meadow, Speedway Meadow, or the Polo Field listening to Band of Horses or The National.  Check out Ranger Dave’s Magic Scheduler to help you see all your favorites!

From John Battelle today – officially launching his search to fill the top Executive Leadership position at Federated Media:

“It’s time to take it to the next level. FM is no longer a scrappy startup, and while its leadership team is deep and experienced, we’ve come to the conclusion that to take the company to the place we all know it can go, we need an additional leader on board.  So today, I’m announcing that I’m officially launching a search for that position. It used to be you did this in private, but we live in the world of social media, and one of FM’s mores is transparency. I want to honor that value today.

So let me be clear: I am in no way leaving the business. This new leader – the title will depend on the person – will be responsible for running the business – taking all reports and managing to our plan – but he or she will be working very closely with me.”

I wouldn’t expect anything less from one of the leading companies in this space.    Good luck with your search John - hopefully you’ll document this process on the social web along the way.