Gratitude is the memory of the heart

This has been a tur­bu­lent year by most accounts, so I spent Thanks­giv­ing remem­ber­ing those who stuck by me through thick and thin:

Brian Bres­lin has been a con­stant friend as well as a part­ner in orga­niz­ing Refresh­Mi­ami, Bar­Camp­Mi­ami and build­ing StartPR. When I struck out on my own ear­lier this year, Brian lent me office space: thank you. Whether it’s to bounce around an idea, startup some­thing new, evan­ge­lize the South Florida new media com­mu­nity, or just chew the fat, he has been a wel­come and much appre­ci­ated source of sup­port. Yvette Ferry is another friend who also always present with good advice and great cheer through the best and the worst of this year, and I could not have made it with­out her either.

Bar­Camp­Mi­ami was held in Feb­ru­ary 2008 just prior to FOWA, the Future of Web Apps Con­fer­ence. About 16 spon­sors and part­ners chipped in to make our Bar­Camp pos­si­ble, where 300 peo­ple attended. Peo­ple who had trav­elled from across the US, Latin Amer­ica, and even Europe for FOWA, took time out to attend Bar­Camp. We could not have held the event with­out the help of Mel Kirk, who was with FOWA at the time, and from Nick Dominguez, Michael Mont­gomery, Yvette Ferry, Brian Bres­lin, Chris Say­lor, and our local com­mu­nity (Refresh­Mi­ami) who helped spread the word about both Bar­Camp­Mi­ami and FOWA.

We hope to three-peat Bar­Camp next Feb­ru­ary, now with a Word­Camp orga­nized by Alex Har­ris. A num­ber of peo­ple are hep­ing this year, includ­ing the already men­tioned and Agustina Prigoshin, Chris­tine Adolf, Ulisses Orozco, Michael Castilla, George Drage, and Chris­t­ian “Fan­less” Calzadil­las.

The Refresh­Mi­ami com­mu­nity is a reg­u­lar source of inspi­ra­tion, moti­va­tion, and friend­ship for me, and I appre­ci­ate all that this pas­sion­ate com­mu­nity of tech­nol­o­gists and new media prac­ti­tion­ers does through­out the year. They have enriched my life in ways untold. Thank you also to our great spon­sors, includ­ing Ali and Eduardo at Brikolodge cowork­ing, and the Yahoo! Latin Amer­ica team.

Paul Kruger: thanks for your sup­port and your advice.

Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells cham­pi­oned the Social Media Club and it is an honor to work with them at the national level as well as in orga­niz­ing the new chap­ter of Social Media Club South Florida with Yvette Ferry, Chris­tine Adolf, Agustina Prigoshin, Ulisses Orozco.

The Knight Cen­ter for Inter­na­tional Media and the Uni­ver­sity of Miami School of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion (UM SoC), where I teach social media and work on new media projects: in par­tic­u­lar, I appre­ci­ate the help, encour­age­ment, and friend­ship of Kim Grin­feder, Lelen Roberts (retired), San­jeev Chat­ter­jee, Chris­tiane Del­boni, Lau­ren Jane­tos, and Trevor Green. In addi­tion to their sup­port, they also push my lim­its and I’ve learned alot from them.

UM SoC stu­dents involved in the Knight Cen­ter, includ­ing Greg Linch, Walyce Almeida, Andrea Bal­loch, Matthew Byrnes, and Shell Jun Zhu. Among other things, they recently suc­cess­fully peti­tioned to have a class on social media taught at the uni­ver­sity, based on my syl­labus. I am deeply hon­ored by their col­lec­tive action on my behalf and I look for­ward to great things from them. They are absolutely brilliant!

Mark Krupin­ski of Ras­mussen Col­lege and Doterati in Orlando. He’s orga­niz­ing a quickly grow­ing and very active web/tech com­mu­nity in Cen­tral Florida and it’s been a real plea­sure to work on some joint projects with him this year.

Mobile Mon­day Miami is a bud­ding com­mu­nity of mobile phone pro­fes­sion­als in South Florida, and my grat­i­tude goes to Michael Tange­mann and Jef­frey Sass as we get this started. We appre­ci­ate Nokia’s sup­port with their spon­sor­ship and hosting.

Alfredo Sanchez of QoS Labs, Vic­to­ria Edwards of The Collins Cen­ter for Pub­lic Pol­icy, and Melissa Raulston of Florida State Uni­ver­sity, who included me on dis­cus­sions about statewide dig­i­tal divide issues with the objec­tive of set­ting up a Florida 2.0 social net­work. It’s an ambi­tious task and a work in progress, but the inter­ac­tion has opened new pos­si­bil­i­ties for all of us. I also appre­ci­ate Alfredo’s col­le­gial­ity and the new doors he has opened for me.

Pat M., Laura V., Susan K., and Bill R.: thank you for loop­ing me into your projects when­ever you get the chance.

Shel Israel, Tara Hunt, Leah Jones, Fred Pullen: thank you. You know why.

It’s been amaz­ing to work with such tal­ented and moti­vated peo­ple through­out the year on such diverse projects. More than just col­leagues, they have moti­vated me to see things in new ways and to learn new skills.

A huge word of thanks goes to the those who inter­act with me on Twit­ter, Flickr, and Face­book. Indi­vid­u­ally and col­lec­tively, they have pro­pelled me for­ward and have propped me up. I can only hope that I am adding to my con­nec­tions’ lives as much as they are adding to mine.

I am also thank­ful for my fam­ily and friends that I have not named here; I would have been toast with­out them! They know it, and they know who they are

Note: I apol­o­gize for any omis­sions, they are not intentional.

Quote attri­bu­tion from the post title: “La recon­nais­sance est la mémoire du cœur.” –Jean-Baptiste Massieu, French eccle­si­as­tic (1742 — 1818).