New: @KeepitLocalOK iPhone App (How digital is going local.)

There are a few things that I get more excited about then how local groups (businesses, organization, communities) can harness digital tools and strategy. The potential for limited exposure, super high value applications and mediums is crazy big. Part it is the that they accessibility for these tools and digital markets are finally close enough to be leveraged by the small business owner or local innovator. The video below, from KeepitlocalOK on their new iPhone App is a prime example:

Keep It Local OK 2012 from christopher hunt on Vimeo.

KeepitLocalOK is not only now helping small businesses have a hyper-connected reward system to give their customers, and connect with new customers - it is not creating a new “niche” layer in Oklahoma City that they can be found within. This app allows me to share and find the local businesses in my area. Personally, as someone passionate about investing in local this makes it super easy for me to support and chose these businesses as a consumer and new customer. What is even more impressive is the investment and quality of the app. It isn’t just a digital brochure, it’s a part of what I call Value Centered Empowerment Marketing. It isn’t just message, it is means for believers and rewards new discovery. Just love this app and idea becoming reality. Check out the app here

"Pathgatory"

parislemon:

Some smart thoughts on the new Path by Hunter Walk (full disclosure: a good enough friend of mine to be a Path friend).

A great point on the “seen” numbers:

Lots of the P2 design choices are wonderful and detailed. The one I totally disagree with is making “view by #” a default piece of metadata. Seeing high #s on my friends’ posts (because they’ve accepted more friend requests) is subtle pressure for me to friend more people as well to establish my credibility within the ecosystem. Path has focused on creating value in its feature, not via game mechanics and this is the one inconsistent decision. My solution would be to record that data and make it visible only to the post’s author in their own view. That way i can see which of my posts had the most interaction relative to the size of my own graph.

That’s one element of Path that seems to go against its core strength as a tighter network. Walk’s solution is a good one, I think. 

Related: a week ago, Josh Constine also wrote about Path’s unique social dynamic:

The maximum sharing volume likely comes with a friend count of between 3 and 5. As you hit 15, 40, or 100, you’ll censor yourself more, and find less reason to use Path in addition to other services.

That means you have to undertake the socially awkward experience of rejecting requests from your co-workers, acquaintances, and fellow early adopters, and make sure not to put them in the same position. You may have already let some loose acquaintances into your inner circle or have outstanding requests from Path 1, and will need to go in and remove them.

I was coming dangerously close to the 150 limit when I went in yesterday and removed some people. I don’t mean this to be an insult, of course, but rather a reality check. Am I really that close with you? Should we actually be connected here?

I cut about 15 connections. I plan to do more. But it’s hard. It really does go against everything we’ve been taught about social networks the past 5 years. That’s not a bad thing by any means. It’s just different. 

100 Million Downloads In The Mac App Store

parislemon:

Apple:

Apple® today announced that over 100 million apps have been downloaded from the Mac® App Store™ in less than one year. With thousands of free and paid apps, the Mac App Store brings the App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, and download and install them in just one step. Apple revolutionized the app industry with the App Store, which now has more than 500,000 apps and where customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps and continue to download more than 1 billion apps per month.

And, as Jim Dalrymple notes:

Apple confirmed for me today that those 100 million downloads do not include downloads for its newest operating system OS X Lion. The figure also doesn’t include updates to apps delivered to users from the Mac App Store.

Finally, the figure doesn’t include apps that users downloaded to other authorized Macs. Can you imagine what that figure would be if all of those numbers were included?

Optical disc status: deceased. 

notifications are making you poor and stupid

As I’m jumping into leading, organizing and focusing my own world the origins of distraction are becoming abundantly clear. It now seams pretty silly to leave Facebook or Twitter open all the time on my computer - same with email - but when you are unfocused those timely updates can fake their way into our urgency thinking. And our phones are filled with 100 times more distractions with rapidly decreasing value for any of them!

As I’m trying to create, lead, and breath my own air in my work I am realizing how attention damaging all the notifications and alerts on my phone have become. Attention is the #1 most valuable thing anyone of us has - it’s what David Allen, Stephen Covey, Scott Belsky and Seth Godin have all been trying to tell us! So why do we waste it on so many unimportant - fake urgent things?

If we all had a nickel for every lament of the distractions in our world, we’d be as rich as we’d be if we simply turned them off and focused on our passions adequately.

Here is what I’m doing now:

  • When I’m at a meal, at my desk, or driving I leave my phone facing down. I still want to review updates when it’s a good time - but that is not all the time.
  • I’m now militantly only checking email and social inboxes a couple times a day. There is literally no reason to check them any more often then that for productivity reasons. Only my ADD reasons would need more then that.
  • Using Lion’s Full Screen - a lot. The same focus that comes from the iPhone or iPad in content creation is perfect for working in OSX Lion on the Mac. Yes, sometimes you are assembling and coordinating digital logisitics needing multiple app windows open. But it terms of creating value that is rarely what you need your computer to look like.
  • Finally, paper is the thinking medium for me, the computer the doing medium. If I try to “think” through things on the computer it’s like trying to think in an Arcade. There are too many “shiny’s” to go to.

For those of you with the weight of producing “the” value for your world, owning your own business, leading your own cause, how do you squeeze the value out of each day keep your attention focused?