eROI NYC Interactive Agency

Our extended eROI family out in Portland are a constant reminder of what it feels like to live in a community and not just a city.  Sure, New York City is full of festivals and parties where, if you’re lucky you’ll see 5 or 6 familiar faces, but when’s the last time you gathered hundreds of your neighbors together to rally around a community cause?  Probably never.
The Old Town / Chinatown section of Portland, where eROI is based, was graced for 60 years with the beautiful and odd Hung Far Low Chinese Restaurant sign.  The sign was considered a landmark in the hood; one of those things that “keeps Portland weird”.  Big props to a city that embraces its weirdness!  When the sign was removed last year, it sparked some anger from its loyal friends.   Approaching the anniversary of its removal, eROI, along with some of its neighbors, rallied together to throw the Old Town Block Party on September 12th to honor the sign and raise money for its restoration.  The sweet email and site done by our Portland brothers, Tom and Quang, set the tone for a beautiful day in Old Town, where friends and family came out for food, drinks, music, shopping and of course, to  support the resurrection Hung Far Low.

I love the depiction of the Matrix when you are not in the Matrix. You remember the green cascading river of code:

What does data “look” like? That is so interesting. The very thing that makes the internet so powerful is impossible to visualize in its vastness.  How do you depict millions of ones and zeros moving at light speed in a way the average person can understand? The simplest answer…KEYWORDS.

This is a virtual map of NYC made up of KEYWORDS…I first heard of it from Graeme McMillian weekend editor and contributor to io9.com. This KEYWORD Matrix is called: Pastiche and is perhaps best explained by its creators, software designer Ivan Safrin and visual artist Christian Marc Schmidt:

Conceptually, Pastiche is a parallel experience of the city, a map that not only documents, but also suggests action. It is a public counterpart to the private physical architecture of the city. Its source an aggregate of individual blogs, Pastiche is a system that anyone has the ability to contribute to. It defines a new kind of public space, while both proposing an experience and inviting comparison-in the process of relating one’s own perspective to a larger collective subjectivity, one situates oneself in relation to an impromptu community, formed around the idea of New York.

Mac users can participate here.

Please wear your earphones if you have them handy. It’s worth it. 

I made the trip to Portland last night to work out of the home office for a few days and go to the Holiday Party. After a six hour flight (yikes) I finally landed in PDX. It is so great to be with the team. Some say you never realize how much you miss people until you see them but in this case that’s wrong. I miss the eROI team everyday in NYC. Its great to be back sharing the ups and downs of rocking the internet on a daily basis. One of the coolest things about being back besides seeing the team is the office. The eROI kids are lucky to work in such a sweet environment. I will put together an eROI Cribs episode after I get some good footage this week. Great to be back eROI team. What a great way to round out the year.

Following my week in Portland, Alex Williams (Sales and Strategy) came to New York for a few days. We had a crazy day of meetings in really tall buildings and had a few great nights out.
Its great to see him take a huge interest in the city. I met some great people this week and hope those connections will grow to partnerships.  Its always great having people from the team out here from the Wild West.

We all have at some point been away from Home. I find my self now the furthest I have ever been. This is on my mind right now as I just got back from a trip back to Portland. Being back made me home sick for the first time since being out in NYC. I was home sick for both of my homes Portland and Hawaii. But it was a happy home sick if that makes any sense. It made me remember how I got here in the first place and I was excited all over again.
The big take away from my time in Portland besides the obvious project progress was the importance of meetings. I am sure a lot of us take it for granted that your team is right down the hall or on another floor. But after a week was full of meetings I had a sense of “meeting shock”. After three months living as a voice on the phone I forgot the power of non verbal communication and the affect it has on all of us. The simple affirmation of a smile or the glance of disapproval is so precious in leading a group of creatives. Being able to see the so called “lightning in a bottle” as it unfolds in front of you is part of what excites me about what I do. It was certainly refreshing to feel that again.
Being back in the city is great and I did find myself missing it. As I reflect back it refreshes my confidence to be out here knowing that I have a slick team back home.
So I go off to lay the ground work to have my own team here creating our own lighting. Thanks for the great week Portland!

My post this week is a little video I put together that documents my journey to New York City. Enjoy!!!!