Blog It Forward >> Inspiration Edition

In celebrating San Francisco designer Victoria Smith (Ms. SFGirlByBay) and her endeavor to encourage dialogue about personal inspiration, I’m taking today mention the organizations, projects, and ideas by women I admire and am motivated by, SF or otherwise.

The Blog It Forward project, which includes 300 design aficionados discussing their inspiration, is a kind of chain letter in the best way. No middle school students have their feelings hurt, and bloggers partaking in the project link to one another’s work. Ohioan Pretty Shiny Things shared her visual inspiration before me, and today I’ll be followed by the vintage-minded The Sunday Times Market, which I’ve become quickly enamored with while I should have been typing and linking away on this.

In having spent the better part of this week in the Texas state capital for South by Southwest Interactive, interactive whiz kids (and migas) are especially front of mind. I feel fortunate to be learning from especially visionary women designers, communicators and founders, and following Heather Gold’s recent live taping of her podcast episode about acknowledging the effort in making things, I tip my bicycle cap to these inspiring individuals, including:

Alison Covarrubias and Claire Fontana, whose educational Hatch Network design is admirable /// Jen Bekman for demonstrating the potential for art community growth with 20×200 /// Han Pham for her Youth Women Social Entrepreneurs collaboration /// Jamie Panzarella, for giving y’all Ladywood in the next few days /// Miki Johnson, for her visual and thought-provoking liveBooks photo blog contributions /// Tiffany Shlain for sharing her early “Connected” documentary work /// Rebecca Bortman, who I’d love to have perform at a future Ignite Bay Area event with her SF-born band My First Earthquake, for art directing another successful Disposable Film Fest /// Janetti Chon and Stacey Foreman for announcing a great speaker lineup for this summer’s Conversational Marketing Summit /// Lindsay Ronga for bringing the Cork’d wine community to vino drinkers everywhere /// Cara Jones for introducing journalist consortium Storytellers for Good locally this week //// Maria Ly, for bringing activity tracking platform Skimble to SXSW to lots of acclaim when she wasn’t allowing us to tape her climbing at Mission Cliffs time and again /// Kristy Graves and Amy Benziger for helping open the HUB community space in SF in the upcoming weeks /// Sharon Vosmek’s leadership in the Astia network’s expansion to India /// Kennedy School alum Elana Berkowitz’s contribution to the FCC’s broadband plan, which goes before Congress shortly /// High school pal-turned-producer extraordinaire Leah D’Emilio for helping Rocketboom’s programming expand /// Femgineer Poornima Vijayashanker and Liz Wilsie for rigorous prep of their new software for sole proprietors /// Caitlin Bristol, for expanding Ecofabulous’ style and sustainability video offerings while kicking leukemia butt on her bike /// Shauna Causey for leading by @Voluntweetup example /// Gayla Trail, for whom positive “Grow Great Grub” book reviews are well-deserved /// Danae Ringelmann, whose good acquisition news about the IndieGoGo funding platform is well worth celebrating this week /// Project H founder Emily Pilloton for getting the Design Revolution Road Show to kids and adults nationwide /// Rebecca Orlov for exapnding Blog Out Loud live events to Northern and Southern California /// and, of course, Victoria Smith for starting this undertaking and launching her vintage Etsy shop last week.

This is just a sample of the women who inspire your work, and I’d like to open this up to mentions of yours. Have at it!

Finance Platform IndieGoGo Acquires Distribber

On the morning of their South By Southwest soiree, artistic project fundraising platform IndieGoGo has announced that their San Francisco-based company has acquired Adam Chapnick’s digital distribution service Distribber. The deal, which will allow creators posting projects on IndieGoGo to sell completed works on Amazon and NetFlix from the platform, comes weeks after the founders of the two companies spoke about independent arts distribution at Sundance. Financial terms were not disclosed, though the agreement is said to enable filmmakers to sell to multiple stores simultaneously while keeping more project royalties.

Alternative Film Showcase Opens at Roxie

After sadly missing The Disposable Film Festival’s first bike-in movie screening, the promise of a full three days of programming seems like a perfect way to kick off the weekend before South by Southwest Film. The festival, which premieres annually in SF before heading to Brussels, Beijing and other host cities and is art directed by My First Earthquake frontwoman Rebecca Bortman, opens tonight with a sold out competitive shorts program at The Roxie.

Criteria includes “films made on non-professional devices such as one-time use video cameras, cell phones, point and shoot cameras, webcams, computer screen capture software, and other readily available video capture devices” (and don’t think that doesn’t include feature-length projects). For those new to the genre, Vimeo community director Blake Whitman will present on basic shooting, animation creation, and editing at ATA on Sunday–and as for promotions, it doesn’t get much better than “The more you know! Free. Includes bagels and coffee.”

DFF 2010 Bumper from Disposable Film Festival on Vimeo.

Ignite Bay Area >> Watch it Live

If you’re not among the technologists, writers, engineers, designers, bicycle mechanics, urban astronomers, and violin instructors to take part in the Bay Area celebration of Global Ignite Week on Tuesday night, you can join via Livestream, follow the presentations via @IgniteBayArea and access them later on the newly launched IgniteShow.com.

This week, 15 local talks will be joined by sets of five minute, 20 slide talks in 65 cities around the world answering the Ignite charge to “Englighten us, but keep it quick.” 10,000 people will be participating worldwide, and San Franciscans (appropriately) will be privy to talks about achieving enlightenment through nightclubs and the opportunity costs involved in modern dating.

Watch live streaming video from ignitebayarea at livestream.com

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Gyllenhaal Promoting Independent Docs on PBS

As though I needed another reason to wonk out on documentaries, Maggie Gyllenhaal assuming hosting duties on the PBS series Independent Lens is enough to make the months between Sundance and South By Southwest likable. Twenty-seven independent films being broadcast this season include dramas, comic shorts, and experimental pieces shot in locations as diverse as a cramped Manhattan apartment filled with modern art and the world’s largest garbage village outside Cairo.

A feature film that local pal Alley Pezanoski-Browne associate produced about custody battles over pets rescued post-Katrina, Mine, will be part of the programming along with two films I’m especially looking forward to: Unmistaken Child about the Tibetan boys who could assume the identity of an important reincarnated monk and The Eyes of Me about the teenage challenges of students at the Texas School for the Blind. Thankfully for television-less moi, the series is available on Hulu and Netflix.

Pre-V Day Edition

I’ll keep the pink links to a minimum, but there are quite a few Valentine’s Week events in SF that deserve consideration. We can get the worst named out of the way first–that being “Singles & Sprinkles” at food community space 18 Reasons on Thursday. The Little Lane art studio will be helping with cookie decoration over Domaine de Montrieux “G-Spot” Vin de Table 2006 (“g” being for grapes, goofball).

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks is planning a two-day tribute to filmmaker John Hughes with three for $10 screenings as part of his “Midnight for Maniacs” series at The Castro Theatre. Non-ironic late ’80s film lovers may find back-to-back “Pretty in Pink” and “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” on Saturday perfectly Cupid-esque.

My neighborhood dance spot Rickshaw Spot will host the SF Bike Coalition’s annual “Love on Wheels” fundraiser on Friday evening (after which sitting in a dark theater may be ideal). Free valet parking will be available for the ’70s-style dating game. Participating cyclists will be quizzed on local destinations and paired for sponsor-covered dates. Bike bachelorettes, fear not: in response to the question “are cyclists better lovers?,” the invitation states:

“Clearly, yes! Cycling women are known to be low-maintenance, more independent, and more fun-loving than women who wear makeup to the gym.” (See the full invite for endurance details.)

Speak During Global Ignite Week >> Bay Area Edition

The second Ignite Bay Area program on March 2 at Automattic will be a co-ed event to celebrate Global Ignite Week, and partner Carmel Hagen and I are sharing a final call for technical, artistic and otherwise entertaining presentation ideas. Do join (and be quick with your creativity–the program will be announced next week once final submissions are considered).

What it is: If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world individuals have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers since 2006 with Ignite Bay Area now hosting a regular local series.

Why you should be involved: Great talks we’ve seen in this format include how to run a marathon, why e-literature is compelling, and everything you can learn about relationships from roller derby. But we haven’t seen yours yet.

How to take part: Send a brief paragraph description of your idea to ignitesf@gmail.com by January 31. We’ll share the lineup in early February and speakers will have until February 22 to create their slides to be presented to technologists, entrepreneurs, sponsors, and pals.

We’re excited to hear your ideas and see your name among those people are sharing support for in advance of the next @IgniteBayArea event.

LA Has the Goods

When I moved to the Bay Area I was fascinated by the news that Berkeley had a tool lending library. So people could steal the city’s hammers and hurt their neighbors with public property? (It’s worth noting that I grew up close to Detroit.)

Screen shot 2009-12-21 at 8.06.38 AMBut the model has its fans–so much so that it’s entered the citizen sharing space online. Micki Krimmel (who gave a fantastic presentation on learning lessons for romantic relationships from roller derby at December’s Ignite Bay Area) was frustrated upon having to purchase a rarely-used backpack for a trip to Thailand after being unable to find one to borrow. Knowing she also had a slew of stuff that only gets used rarely, she created NeighborGoods.net, a platform for sharing items with friends and neighbors. more

Off the Mat Benefit

OTM_Dec5Chalk it up to spending the past week in yogi Rusty Wells’ Bhakti Flow teacher training, but I’m most excited about the Off the Mat, Into the World benefit that Yoga Tree Castro is hosting this Saturday night. I first heard about the organization that looks to mobilize yoga devotees to act at the Wanderlust Festival, and I’m glad to see that Kerri Kelly is joining a few other instructors for a nighttime practice to raise $40,000 for the organization’s “Global Seva Challenge” and Shanti Uganda, Building Tomorrow, YouthAIDS, and the New Hope School.

According to the organizers, “All of these organizations are working to eradicate the tremendous financial and health crises that exist in Uganda and creating sustainable solutions for communities in crisis. OTM is committed to continuing our work to support cultures and communities where basic human needs are at risk and to offering our hearts, hands and resources in joyful and practical service.” Call it what you like; sounds like can’t miss to me.

Supermarkets, Public Interest & Other Events of Note

There are two local events on December 5 that I regrettably won’t be able to attend but would encourage you to (and would love to hear how they go):

4015664489_32abe1115dSupermarket Street Sweep: Friends who have participated in past citizen cyclist scavenger hunts (“alleycats”) have had a blast riding around SF with strangers, especially when it’s for a good cause. The SF Food Bank will benefit from Saturday’s food drive, which is to feature hundreds of people riding between grocery stores to stock up on food. It may look like a logo-fest (left), but it’s great to see that so many bike-friendly organizations are participating.

The Future of the Forum: A day-long symposium hosted by UC Berkeley will explore the impact of public forums online and the ways they affect participatory democracy, media and the public interest. The tickets are pricey at $345 but the speaker list is fantastic, including NPR arts and tech correspondent Laura Sydell, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder Mitch Kapor, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman (a few folks who should have a bit of insight into new types of public dialogue that are emerging).

These are of course in addition to the first Ignite Bay Area | Women Innovators event (also in Berkeley at the LEED-certified David Brower Center) on Tuesday, December 8. The future of the book, all you ever needed to know about the Bible, and Ms. PacMan as feminist icon are all on the agenda of five-minute talks by developers, technology and communications experts. Do join.