Very excited for MOTM in 2010. We’ve located an excellent venue for our Thousand Oaks meetup. I’m back on track, scheduling the year, speakers and topics. Excited to be working with Ben Kuo to find the right mix of influence and expertise we like to bring to the group.

Shoot me a note if you have ideas for topics and guests. We’re also going to open the door for sponsorships, giving us opportunity to do bigger and better things.

To get to know the story and the company background, we’ve setup a live video chat on Facebook with David Arquette, hosted by @shiralazar. We’re broadcasting live via Spinnio technology, developed by my buddy Dustin Luther,  shooting video streamed from the Propr store in Venice, CA (1306 Abbot Kinney). I’m excited for the community to see what’s going into these clothes and the passion that’s driving the direction of the new Fall and 2010 lines.

Hope you can join the conversation this Friday night, November 6 – you too can interview David Arquette. See you online.

What a great success story – and it’s just getting started.

Jason Kiesel gave us access to publicly elected officials through his application – Freedom Speaks.

This resonated with an aggressive path Kurt Daradics (aka ‘KurtyD‘) was taking by waking up the neighborhood with the power of the social graph – Co-founding the Digital Family and our group, MOTM.

They combined energies to create a civic engagement platform called CitySourced, empowering the population to better the environment (using smart-phones). Wining a spot at TC50, they take third place but win over the media and judges with a tool that is already changing the way cities are managed.

Check out some of the outstanding media coverage. Let’s shift our focus to building tools that change the world, as Ben Kuo recognizes the socalTECH community vision.

Congrats guys!

Douglas Bowman, the top visual designer at Google, recently left to lead the design team at Twitter. Bowman shares the dynamics of Google’s data driven design – one small change to a link color on Google.com can affect the bottom line in large dollar amounts.

At Twitter, Bowman will have the toughest job as an interface designer. He now has millions of critics to comment instantly on his design implementations. This is the future of all websites, thus the need for a strong balance and philosophy on utilizing customer feedback for design and application direction.

I also take Bowman moving to Twitter as yet another indication that search is evolving. Search.twitter.com is a great search tool, a bit coarse and sometimes distorted, but the best resource for live search. Mahalo.com is also a good resource for social search, more refined in the vein of Wikipedia. And finally, for shopping,  Scour.com will pay you to search and provide discounts for purchasing.

The NY Times calls this the Age of Google. Twitter is not the next Google, but Google is nearing the end of its Age. Search is young and entering a new era.

Read: Data, Not Design, Is King in the Age of Google

Last week was off the hook. We brought out Steven McClurg from EA’s social gaming division. Steven shared some great insight on the current trends and monetary successes of casual and virtual gaming examples in social media. Ears were tuned to converstion on gaming business models, built on social platforms, such as EA’s launch of Scrabble on Facebook.

Special thanks to Jonathan Dingman and Fireside Media for posting some great photos.

Thanks to Sean Percival for a nice post on lalawag.

ABC News: Obama Makes Internet History: Inauguration Sets Record for Streaming Online Video

We got the postcard in the mail, opening day planned, here’s your $5 gift card. Thanks and we’re on our way.

Flash forward – I entered the market tonight and got that ‘this is something different’ feeling like you got when you first walked into Ikea. Similar philosophy – keep it simple, hip, and relative…to my demographic. Fresh & Easy products seemed to weigh other brands, but they give you a few options, and you’re done. I’m pleased with not being overwhelmed with a wall of brands. In fact, the rows seem to end at 6 ft high, which is also interesting.

It’s loaded with strange and forward thinking ‘engaging customer experiences’ like a kitchen table to try foods? I don’t know, it was late, I’ll be exploring more later.

Alas the self checkout – no need to prepare for awkward conversation and offers for charity, help with bagging, and how much I saved by entering my phone number and tracking my food purchases. Had to turn my brain back on, going into ‘new interface computer scan debit card mode.’

It is what it is. You might find a fit and hit it frequently – most likely the idea – they kept this in mind. Lot’s of straight-forward, good looking food featuring with a share of prepared foods.

If you love Wal Mart and “Pay Less For More Cheap Bad Food Grocery Chain” You may enter and say, “What the…” and turn around. But you should give it a chance.

I enjoyed the experience and feel like there’s a lot more to find there. Not a bad first impression for a grocery store? It’s closer and less intimidating then the Other chain grocer where I run laps to find the bread. I still heart Costco (quantity and price) and Trader Joes (the official market of Indiana Jones), but we’re off to that fourth option with a four word name – Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market™. You should give it a shot. Check the website for possible coupons..

This is going to be so much fun. My friends are putting together a historic holiday party on Dec 11, featuring the community of web and tech from all the local groups, together at the Skirball. Some of the smartest, hippest people are driving this project and the list of affiliates is oustanding. Stay tuned for further detail on featured guests and events for the night. Check out http://www.digitalfamilyreunion.net

One scan of the new release wall and I’m totally perplexed. Sometimes I stoop to 2 min load times of Rotten Tomatoes’s New DVD Release rating percentages on my prehistoric, windows mobile Treo. I’ve had business ideas for Blockbuster about every visit. You hear the frustration, no need to continue rambling.

Check this article out – Can Blockbuster Be Saved?

Seems to be a logical yes. It’s a Humongous brand. Some of us grew up going there religiously, more than the golden arches for most.

It’s also a necessity, they’ve blasted out any other attempt at retail rental and they’re the only choice for that last minute decent video rental option. Albertson’s was a lonely hope with in-store rentals for $1/week, but they just went to the kiosk.

The Kiosk has my vote occasionally, in rare sequence of big hollywood making a good movie. The Kiosk is the top 40 jukebox.

For me, it’s no different than FM radio – it’s content has been heard repeatedly for years and you can almost predict what the next song in rotation is.

[ BUT now my radio is stuck on 100.3 the Sound of L.A. It plays a crop of what I consider to be a real playlist for my target market. (Unfortunately, KCRW doesn't make it above the hills of the valley to my neighborhood) ]

Blockbuster needs to focus on a new target – me. Let’s make it easier to find a movie. Let’s bring in some sort of ratings system – RottenTomatoes.com perhaps – add critics to user ratings and suggest movies through a kiosk. Make cases smaller and house more movies! Think of the library – KIOSK – Add 4 Kiosks – one at each corner. I’m sure movie licensing is cheap nowadays, be the library of movies.

Even the library is competition – I rent every Sunday – free documentaries and $2/week rentals of catalog hollywood titles.

Any suggestions for big blue? IF you see the light, put your money where your mouth is – Stocks are $2 a share!

In case you missed it – Can Blockbuster Be Saved?