As I go through the loss of my marriage, I’m tending to lean into pain rather than turn from it. Based on what my wife says, I hurt people’s feelings on twitter during the last election. I’m sensitive about that now and hold back what I share on Twitter, Facebook and my blog out of respect for her desire for privacy and because my primary goal is to be kind. Also politics is just about the least important priority in my life right now.

Last night the Tony Awards were on TV. I love live tweeting during award shows, but it’s inconsistant with the personal brand I need to build on Twitter. At the same time, it’s part of who I am, and I’ve gotten to interact with some really fun people, especially during the Oscars.

I was having a conversation with one of the coolest people on the planet and I had a thought I liked so much I tweeted it: “Broken people look for kindness wherever it’s available and share it whenever it’s possible.” @talasyn on twitter replied with two tweets: “I’ll have to disagree. Some broken people do. Other broken people only see the ugly in people. Those are the self-absorbed bkn” and “..cont… And pride is the wedge between broken and surrendered… Stupid pride. I hate you.”

Given my sensitivity, I assumed I had offended this guy. Since I’m leaning into pain, I DM’d him and asked him to email me. I told him I think I can learn from him, and if he hates me, I want to understand why. He did email me and explained that he wasn’t saying he hated me. He was saying he hated his “stupid pride.” He also said some very nice things about me being open about my struggle.

I could have assumed I made this guy mad for whatever reason, and now he hates me. I could have unfollowed him. Instead I asked him, and as a result, I found someone I’ll probably end up having a great meal with one day where we talk about life and God and who knows what else.

140 characters can get us in trouble online, but we don’t have to stay there. People are deep, and I’m learning to explore the depths rather than running away in offense. I can’t always do it. I won’t always do it, but I want to try.

Last year, Variety reported that Twitter signed a deal with Reveille productions and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted TV series. Later Twitter’s Biz Stone said it wouldn’t be an official Twitter show. Twitter is allowing production companies to work on TV projects based on Twitter without endorsing one over another.

I have two ideas for turning what happens on Twitter into compelling TV. I shared one of the ideas on Twitter this morning:

I got two types of responses. Social media folks understood why it could be a good show because they see examples of peoples lives being positively changed or at least inspired every day. Other folks weren’t certain anyone could squeeze more than a single episode out of the idea.

Last year Amanda Rose organized an event called Twestival to raise money to provide clean and safe drinking water to over 17,000 people in developing countries. The event raised over $250,000. Since then Twestival has raised nearly half a million dollars. An episode about Amanda Rose and Twestival would start with a tweet and end with people filling bottles with clean water in a village somewhere.

May 20, 2009 Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Drew has a sense of humor about the cancer and started blaming everything from losing his keys to Twitter being slow on his cancer. He asked other people to blame things on his cancer too using the hashtag #blamedrewscancer. Drew’s goal is to raise $1 for every tweet blaming something on his cancer. Another episode would tell Drew’s story.

When Nashville flooded a couple of weeks ago, Pete Wilson tweeted a request for volunteers, hammers, trash bags and brooms to help with cleanup. Hundreds of people showed up to help. There are stories to be told about that.

Those are three examples that made the news. Other amazing stories of people connecting and helping each other in very special ways happen every day on Twitter. To me nothing is more interesting that hearing people’s stories about going through pain and coming out the other side stronger and with more depth.

I’m throwing my pitch out to everyone because I don’t mind if someone other than me makes it happen. I’d love to work on a project like this, but I’d also like it if someone else wants to make it happen.

The quick pitch is Extreme Makeover Home Edition meets Twitter meets On the Road with Charles Kuralt.

Do you have an amazing Twitter story to share? Leave a comment!

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Jason Calacanis tweeted about a documentary called, We Live in Public. The title sounded relevant to my life, so I looked it up on Netflix and watched it today … gotta love the Netflix iPad App. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant film to watch, but there are lessons anyone participating in social media can learn from it.

The film is about Josh Harris. Harris made a lot of money in the early .com days. He had a vision for Internet TV back when most of us were still on dial-up. He started a company called Pseudo.com and when his personality made investors uncomfortable, he moved on to invent lifecasting. He and his girlfriend lived in a loft with cameras and microphones everywhere until the experiment cost them his money, their relationship, and maybe some sanity.

For about a year before we launched GeekBrief.TV, I studied attention economics in an effort to understand how to share information people can get from a wide variety of sources in a way that is special enough that they would want to get it from us. As a shy, retreating, bookish couple, we had to stretch outside our comfort zone in order to accomplish our goal. It helped immensely that Luria has that special something when she’s on camera. Stretching beyond what felt comfortable enabled us to accomplish what I thought we could.

Tools of social media give us all access to the world any time we want it. It’s then up to us to choose how much we live in public. As Luria and I walk through the pain of ending our marriage, it feels improper to talk about the personal stuff and disingenuous to say nothing at all. Our goal is to make it through this gracefully. I’m inclined to share my personal pain because it has helped me to read other people’s stories. Anytime I do that though, I have to do it in a way that is respectful of Luria’s desire for privacy. It’s tricky so my default is now set to Not Share.

Everything we’re going through is new. I’m sure we’ll both make mistakes. I’m more sure I’ll make more mistakes than she will. I’m not convinced it was the right thing to announce this on our blogs. I just don’t know, but one thing she and I both believe is that the geek world is better than the cool world because geeks are concerned about perfecting our tech while accepting one another just as we are. Beyond that, living in public is a tricky proposition, so if you choose to do it, it’s probably best to proceed with caution.

The first Monday after iPad was launched into the wild a video went viral featuring a 2.5-year-old groking an iPad. Lots of Internetizens LOVED the video, but it didn’t wow me or make me laugh. This one did, though.

Via Gizmodo

It will be another month before most of us get our hands on an iPad with 3G. According to Engadget, an Apple Engineer saw Woz in line, that the 3G with him and showed to to him. It has black plastic at the top to provided better 3G connectivity.

It took me a long time to grok Facebook. Cali and I looked at from an entirely different perspective than a regular facebooker. We have so much love and appreciation for thousands of people who watch GeekBrief.TV that we added them as friends on Facebook when they asked us to. I stopped adding people after about a hundred because I found the flood of information about people’s personal lives to be overwhelming. Now I’m back to adding friends of our show, but Facebook is really about not letting go of those real connections we make in our lives.

A few weeks ago, I connected with my favorite cousin from growing up. She and I spent as much time as we could together singing, watching Cinemax and eating Doritos. Around college time, I pulled away from friends and family for a stupid reason. I had a nickname that everyone, including teachers in school called me. I HATED it made me feel small and avoid social situations because I hated being called that name. It’s an Arkansas thing, I guess. I have a great aunt who seems to have no qualms about being called “Mutt” her whole life.

When I left for college, I used my real name and started life fresh. Lots of good came from the fresh start approach, but I regret so deeply that I lost touch with all those people who meant so much to me growing up. I should’ve just told everyone to stop calling me that stupid name!

This morning, I checked in with Facebook and had a friend request from one of my best friends during the high school and early college years. I approved the request and started browsing her friends and saw so many names of people I care about and miss having in my life. Clicking around led me to a memorial page for one of my best guy friends from childhood. He was killed in Afganistan December 30, 2009. He was one of the best kids I knew growing up. His dad is a doctor. They were wealthy. He didn’t have to serve the country by going to war. He had to have done it because he wanted to do it. I never would have known he was gone if it wasn’t for Facebook.

An earlier generation told us about the hardship of walking to school uphill both ways. I think my generation will tell our kids about how we used to loose touch with the people we loved when we moved to a different city. That doesn’t have to happen anymore and it is a beautiful thing.

I’m going to spend some time this weekend connecting with people I miss in memory of my old friend, Jeremy Wise (1975-2009).

Having personally done embarrassing things on the Internet, I can imagine what Daniel Brusilovsky is going through right now. According to Mike Arrington’s post on TechCrunch, an intern “allegedly asked for a Macbook Air in exchange for a post about a startup.” Cali and I thought of Daniel right away. Then Daniel posted an apology on his blog for a line that “was crossed.”

I can’t remember how long I’ve known Daniel, but I think it’s been since 2006. Before he really started making waves around Silicon Valley, he and I used to chat about new media, school and how he was connecting to big names in technology. I remember pinging him on iChat sometimes when he was up too late and telling him to go to bed!.

If Daniel did, in fact, ask for/accept a MacBook Air in exchange for a post on TechCrunch, that’s a bad thing. If he didn’t know it was bad before, he knows it now. The best part about being so young is that he has plenty of time to redeem himself.

Daniel is probably the best networker, I’ve ever met. I’ve admired his ambition. I’ve watched him go to school, work at QIK, attend tech events and put off sleep to accomplish as much as he could as quickly as he could. Daniel has tons of potential and this doesn’t change that. If he learns from the mistake and continues to pursue his dreams, I still look forward to watching what he’s going to do.

I hope the adults that Daniel has reached out to in Silicon Valley will reach out to him and be there for him. Let’s give him the chance to redeem himself and shine like those of us who admire him always thought he would.

I ended my last post with a question: What can I do for you? Shamir Katsu asked what he could do to reproduce the “Geek Brief miracle.” If you already know the GeekBrief.TV Story, jump down to the last paragraph.

My wife and I used to do Web design and development during the time Internet culture was starting to bloom (before the dot com bubble popped). Tech TV was a cable channel about technology that drew geeks together, and for the first time, geeky people started to feel like we could be cool too.

After the bubble burst, we kind of burned out on tech. We stepped away completely and took a job in the glamorous world of self storage. The company we worked for was called Extra Space Storage and although we thought it would be a temporary job, they treated us well and let us open new stores so we could move around the country. Before we knew it, we had been there almost five years. That was 2005, the year podcasting started to gain attention.

We loved the idea of podcasting for the same reasons we were drawn to the Internet. We listened to Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code, then Dawn and Drew and the list just kept growing. When Dawn and Drew quit their job to Podcast full time, we decided that would be our goal.

Around the same time, Steve Jobs announced the first iPod with video. It seemed like there was room for new content. Everyone always said podcast about what you love. The thing Cali and I love in common is technology. We loved Engadget and Gizmodo so we decided to create a gadget video blog.

My idea was that Cali Lewis would be the International Head of the Geek Intelligence Agency and she would issue regular “Briefs” about gadgets and technology. We had no experience with video production, but we were laser-focused. We wanted to make the best looking show we could make and improve it every day. We also wanted to make it a business that would succeed.

It has been very successful, from our perspective, but it has been hard work. The first two years, as we were really learning how to get the show done, we often worked 14-16 hours a day at least six days a week. Mevio, our partner for distribution and advertising, has been an unseen force in what we’ve been able to do too. They made it possible for us to do the show full time and have connected us with advertising dollars that have kept Cali in T-Shirts and both of us in gadgets. It’s been good.

To me, three things all successful new media projects have in common is compelling content, professionalism and a sense that they all just keep doing it and doing it and doing it. Constant content production plus laser-focus is what seems to work.

UPDATE: Shamir Katsu asked two follow-up questions…

(1) How did you get hooked up with Mevio?

It’s easy now. Anyone can sign up for an account and launch a show on the network. They look at shows that perform in terms of audience growth and they reach out with advertising opportunities. Jeff McCord, the host of the Moxie Mo Show is a perfect example. He watched GeekBrief.TV, wanted to do a show of his own, asked us for advice, launched his show and he’s making extra money from it.

(2) How do you maintain that focus and drive to keep going when things are not going well?

There are two different ways to go with that. Some pursuits aren’t worth the effort. If you start something and it doesn’t ever start clicking, it’s probably best to let that go and move on to something else. If you start something with merit, you’ll see some signs of success and you’ll want to focus on what works and abandon what doesn’t.

When things aren’t going well it’s time to be as objective as possible. Sep back and work to understand the problem. Make adjustments a pay close, close attention to the things that bring positive results and do more of those things!

Of course we registered each of these domains at GoDaddy.com using promo codes GB1, GB2 or GB3 to register each of these domain names at a discount, but now the list is up to 87 names.

ATADAY.COM
BAILEYBABBIN.COM
BAILEYBABIN.COM
BIGTRIP.TV
BIGTRIPTV.COM
CALILEWIS.COM
CALILEWIS.TV
CALILIVE.TV
CALLILEWIS.COM
CARNIVORE.TV
CLEARCHURCH.COM
CLEARCHURCH.ORG
CRAPPYCHRISTIAN.TV
CURIOUSCALI.COM
DATELOVEFOOD.COM
DEARCALI.COM
DRUNCHIES.COM
EVERYTHINGYOUNEEDTOKNOWABOUT.COM
EXPATIA.COM
FAMCAST.TV
FEEDMYINTERN.COM
FONTSHIRTS.COM
GBTV.BIZ
GBTVLIVE.COM
GBTVPC.COM
GBTVSEARCH.COM
GBTVTALK.COM
GEEKBRIEF.BIZ
GEEKBRIEF.COM
GEEKBRIEF.INFO
GEEKBRIEF.NET
GEEKBRIEF.TV
GEEKBRIEFRADIO.COM
GEEKBRIEFTV.COM
GEEKINTELLIGENCE.COM
GEEKPEEP.COM
GEEKYBAR.COM
GIAHQ.COM
GOGOSHOW.NET
GREEKBEEF.COM
HELPIO.COM
HELPMEBUYTHIS.COM
ICALI.TV
ICALITV.COM
IFEVERYBODYGAVE.COM
INEVITABLEMEDIA.COM
IYULE.TV
IYULELOG.COM
IYULELOG.NET
IYULELOG.ORG
JOINGIA.COM
LURIA.TV
LURIAPETRUCCI.COM
MAKEOVERME.MOBI
MAKEOVERME.TV
MARKANDCALI.COM
MYADVANTAGE.TV
NEAL.FM
NEALANDCALI.COM
NEALANDLURIA.COM
NEALCAMPBELL.COM
NEALCAMPBELL.TV
PAIDBYPIXELS.COM
PAJAMA.TV
PANTSCANDY.COM
PEPPERQUE.BIZ
PEPPERQUE.COM
PEPPERQUE.INFO
PEPPERQUE.NET
PEPPERQUE.ORG
PEPPERQUE.TV
PEPPERQUE.US
SHINYHAPPY.TV
SOMERANDOMWEBSITETHATYOUVENEVERHEARDOF.COM
SPLANATION.COM
STARSHOLLOWPODCAST.COM
THEBRIEF.TV
TULLIOPETRUCCI.COM
TVSIDELINE.COM
TVSIDELINE.INFO
TVSIDELINE.MOBI
TVSIDELINE.NET
TVSIDELINE.ORG
TVSIDELINE.TV
WOZISMYFRIEND.COM
ZEEDEEBEE.COM
ZEEDEEBEE.TV