Kermit the Frog once said, “It ain’t easy being green!” My company and I completely disagree, and that’s why we are excited to introduce the first Application released by Dank Apps Inc—LOTTO. Now Facebook users can win weekly jackpots with this weekly contest application. As Lotto grows, so do the jackpots. Best of all, users get up to seven tickets and roll the dice of luck without paying a cent.

Within three weeks of launching, LOTTO already has over 80,000 users and is ranked as one of the most recently active Facebook applications. Its instant and growing popularity has warranted us to start work on a 2.0 version of it, where we will be utilizing more ‘Word of Mouse’ functions. We will have new and improved updates soon, but for now check out the logo and method of design below.

Yesterday I flew back from St. Louis where I had been meeting with a client.  When I was in line at the airport I saw this sign. I was totally shocked, upset, and to be honest a little sad. There is nothing funny about not letting someone be funny. With all the humor sucked out of me I just put my head down and got in line like cattle to show I am not a terrorist. I did however show Airport Security that I travel with more then 4 oz of toothpaste so that had to be taken away. Score another point for the “Travel Size Toiletry Association” I am 3-6 so far this season.   

This past weekend marked the annual Carrot Summer Extravaganza. This year we were fortunate enough to make the Dave Matthews Band Concert in CT our location for summer fun. The entire crew had a great time tailgating outside the New England Dodge Center in the afternoon, and an even better time inside the arena jamming out to the greatest songs of the DMB catalogue. Some of the braver carrot crew members went to the show on Sunday as well. I was awesome for Chris, Bobby, and I to go backstage and meet some members of the band. The Tail-Gaiting was fun but Backstage was a little more my scene Bobby and Chris got Mad at all the chips I was eating and told we to try the veggie dish… I only ate the Carrot.

Although most everyone was in awe of the show, I have to admit that my favorite moment of the weekend was seeing Carrot’s Co-Founder Chris Petescia’s design on the DMB tickets. And although the summer extravaganza date and place for 2008 has yet to be confirmed, I can guarantee it will be a blast!

Backstage at the concert with Rashawn Ross (DMB’s New Trumpet Player) 

I thought this was a cool shot that I took. It is Furtado Jr, & ABB smoking a cigar. 

Director of the Conference Robert Chiarito contacted me today with the reviews of my speech on “The Perception Makers.” I received one of the highest scores of the conference with a 4.7 out of 5. I also received some interesting comments about my speech:

“Wow! Seemed like a ‘know-it-all’ teenager on speed. Clearly knows a lot about Web 2.0?  - Paula Berg, Southwest Airlines

“Great energy, more than makes up for somewhat disjointed content. Where will he be in 10 years?” - Maggie Fox, Social Media Group

“Great!” - unsigned evaluation (no my mother was not at the conference) 

“Thoroughly educational and entertaining! Great speaker to end the day with” - Eric Tatro, Cohn & Wolfe

I am pretty excited to get back a very favorable score and remarks from the people attending the conference. I would like to thank everyone who left feedback. I wanted to post video of the event but Bobby the idiot tapped over it.  

From Shaboo on our Carrot Blog 

Mike and I have been working on an extremely exciting and perhaps profound piece of literature to be released in the near future. The article is tentatively titled “In a Web 2.0 State of Mind: optimizing time, energy and resources in a consumer-generated content world.” In the article, we discuss the overbearing influence Web 2.0 can have on the user: 1) the difficulty and confusion from various layouts and designs of various Web 2.0 platforms 2) the all-consuming nature of having various platforms to cater to that often creates an inability to properly access and optimize the user’s talents and time according to business and personal needs. We then apply the Theory of Multiple Intelligence postulated by Dr. Howard Gardner of Harvard University, a theory that is quite renowned in the field of education, and apply it to the world of Web 2.0, which in many ways is the most profound ground in education online. Our findings and implications are meant to help users gain a stronger understanding of themselves, their needs and their relationship within the Web 2.0 world so that they can utilize their only talents and needs in the consumer-generated platforms that are vastly becoming necessary tools in our lives.

Hopefully, you will enjoy the article as a means of practical knowledge for your Web 2.0 business and pleasure needs. If you would like to know more about the article, keep your eyes open for further posts on its release. We also invite any suggestions on the various medias we should target the article for as we are currently exploring publishing options.

My friend Mike Radparvar who I call Mike Rad emailed me a link to an old article that MTV did that featured Mike & I. MTV found it interesting how Mike & I decided to just drive up to New Hampshire during the primary and new media document our experience. I thought the article really showed how the youth is being active in politics which you know I love.  MTV Article