There were seminars that went beyond the internet (but it’s still in there somewhere). One I sat though talked about health. In 2008 the New York Times ran an article that stated sitting in front of a computer all day is not good for you. There was some additional research shown that says adults spend 8-9 hours sitting at their desk every day. Kids were spending 7-8 hours a day sitting.

Most alarmingly, this is now matching smoking as a factor in heart disease.

This is a subject close to me, recently at work we were given pedometers and asked to track our daily steps. A low day for me was 6000 steps, this converts to about 3 miles (average was about 10k steps). Not very far and realistically means I was on my feet for maybe an hour that day. My walk to and from the car park takes care of maybe a third of that distance.

Like most people I struggle to actually find the time. I have a demanding job, a social life and considerable stress. I have started making it more of a priority and have found that once I have pulled into the gym car park or laced up my sneakers the hard part is done.

I’ve worked hard to get rid of the excuses for why I’m not able to work out today. It’s becoming a more important part of my day, and after sitting through this seminar, I’m happy I’ve a couple of doctors that nag me.

Now for the obligatory computer geek part. There are a number of good apps out there that help me develop a program that works for me and track progress. I was recommended the “couch to 5K” by someone a little while ago (it’s an app and podcast). I’m slowly working back up to it, I’ve only just been allowed to start running again on my knee in the last couple of weeks and it’s felt like slow going with lots of muscle aces and pain the day after.

To go with the Couth-to-5K app I’ve started using the iFitness app on my iPhone to track progress. It’s a very comprehensive app to aid in the gym, suggest workouts and track intake. It’s not too difficult to use, but it does have to be used and that’s where I need to be more consistent.

With this seminar the big take away was you need to do something, we all know that’s important, but the stats are something of an eye opener.

Over the weekend at BWE10 I was given a couple of books to look at and review. It was nice to be recognized and approached, but I’ve been back a couple of days and you will notice there are no book reviews on the site.

Friday lunchtime I found myself sitting across from a lawyer over lunch, we got onto discussion of libel and how it applies on the web. Actually the entire group got into the discussion, as it’s something that seems rather important to be aware of. Over the last couple of years it’s become one of the hot topics of law and has become rather well defined.

A number of scenarios were talked about and some of the outcomes were actually rather astounding. Lets look at my situation, lets say  I were to write a review that the books sucked and offered nothing new. Do I have any liability?

The answer turns out that I do, quite a lot, and more importantly there is clear precedence. A couple of years ago an American blogger and professor received notice that he was being sued over a negative review he game to an author on his blog. Nothing inflammatory or personally attacking, just a negative review. The case is still going through the courts.

But wait, there is more. A blog owner is responsible for the comments on their site. I don’t allow comments to post untill I approve them and don’t publish many I get. The level of liability is actually rather shocking. In 2008 70,000 (yes thousand) blogs were shut down over content liabilities.

Were these writers doing anything wrong in your opinion? I’m not a professional writer and the definition of libel is rather all encompassing.

In the US there is Federal protection – “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”

It was pointed out to me tha there is a big difference between free speech and stupidity. There’s no legal protection against stupidity and there have been plenty of cases where damages have been awarded to someone when a writer said something stupid or made accusations that were anything other than 100% true.

There are cases where former friends ranted about one another on Facebook, the rant cost one of them $16,000 in costs and damages. It’s a scary world and I’m looking at liability insurance of some type.

Anyway, the one of the two books I’ve read so far was good, and I’m not going to say any more than that for now. But if you’ve got any books that you might like me to review, let me know.

BWE10 was a fascinating couple of days. Some great seminars, very interesting people that have carved themselves out a tiny niche that is their online brand. There were none of the “7 steps to unlimited riches on the Internet” type seminars that no one buys into, but more along the lines of “this worked for me, think about it”.

As I said before, it was a little bit of a stretch to get work funding for this conference, but I’m very glad I did. Very happy at the decision to stay another day when my flight got delayed up on Friday afternoon. Something to do with thunderstorms in Salt Lake City, after dealing with British Rails’ “wet leaves on the line” excuse for many years, travel disruption (especially with full flights) is something I’ve learned to deal with.

It was a lot of fun and a very, very good learning experience. And couple of days in 80+ degrees and a little pool time squeezed in, is never a bad idea.

As with most conferences the parties were excellent, a different place each night. First night was miX at Mandalay Bay with great views over the strip. Friday was at Haze in the new Aria Hotel and finally at the Palms hotel there was karaoke backed by a live band. Very cool venues, interesting cross section of individuals and some first class people watching. Lets be fair, when a distillery and the biggest nightclub group in Vegas are sponsoring the parties, the potential for a great time is very high.

While the parties, seminars and late nights sushi were great. I’m not going to fill the page with hyperbole describe the last three days as a life changing. It was not, but it was life affirming and the decision to stay another day was perfect. I met people who make a living in new-media and I talked with others who want to and have the determination to do so.

Personally, I don’t want to make a living as a blogger. I have a job I’m starting to really enjoy again. I see my group and I making a difference on what’s been a very difficult and challenging program to date. It’s fun being a proper ME again rather than a process manager.

Over the last few days I’ve spoken too and exchanged business cards with cooks, moms, lawyers, sponsors, entrepreneurs, dads, engineers, writers, therapists, techs, geeks, computer guys of every description and a porn star. Many were like me, we don’t want to put the work in to make a fortune on the Internet, but we have something to say. The Internet gives us a forum to say it on and in this conference we have a chance to come together and share what we’ve learned.

Truthfully, I came away from the weekend more convinced than ever that it’s very difficult, verging on the impossible for all bar the biggest sites make much money off the internet. It’s a place to say what you want, but the revenue streams are typically still “old media”, book sales (even if it’s an e-book), speaking engagements and so on.

I do say “typically”, there are sites emerging that are successfully using ad and sponsor branding as their revenue source. One thing I did learn was that hold grail of monetization for nearly all is moving to a subscription based income, today the market does not seem to quite be there.

Nothing has changed, content is still king, and the Internet, despite legions of people with something to say has not changed that basic “old media” truth.

The Internet can be used communicate thoughts, build a brand and to promote the individual or company. These are activities that in themselves do not generate any real money for the user.

There are a number of Internet marketing, positioning and consulting companies there this week looking for business. At times it seemed like maybe half of the people I spoke to were “consultants”, largely self-labelled. They talked of high-level concepts and rarely had any detail to back it up. There is certainly an element of the Wild West in some of the groups trying to make money from the Internet.

What else did I learn…

On the hardware side nearly everyone (a rough guess would be maybe 90%) there use Macs. I’ve never seen so many MacBooks in one place before. Of the PC’s I did see all bar a couple were a netbooks, something that Apple don’t make yet (but the new, smaller screen size MacBook Air is rumoured to be coming soon).

However Apple does not have the smartphone market cornered. Numbers did seem to be split fairly evenly between Blackberry and iPhone, with a few Droids making up the numbers.

Google really have the shit together when it comes to new media, they are driving the direction of the market way more than anyone else, and I believe will play a very large part in people making money. I think this is a good thing, they are willing in invest, have great tools that only got better with the acquisition of Blogger a couple of years ago.

The big guys like Adam Carolla, Jeff Hayzlett and Rob Barnett, along with the successful like Scott Ginsberg and Leo Babauta all seemed to have three things in common.

• They are taking a long term view of the market. It’s new and no one knows what it will look like in 2 or 3 years.
• They all have a plan to grow and scale their business as the market emerges.
• They understand they are their personal brand and the value intrinsic to that.

Lots to think about, lots of great conversations over whiskey, an awful lot of fun and many more thoughts yet to come.

Today I’d like to present a new definition of irony… Getting an anonymous, unsigned, threatening comments from a fat troll who spent almost 15 minutes viewing my site, asking if anyone views my site…

Same person viewed my site at least twice a week for the last few months. I really hope she found something better to do with the rest of her weekend. We know who you are, at least have the ovaries to sign your threats.

Seriously, I really can’t make this stuff up.

Update – 10-18 – Another visit from the troll today.

A conference pass, key to a Vegas hotel room and a couple of martinis at a full on geek party in miX… Really, does a Thursday get much better?

It’s been a fascinating couple of days and so much that I can apply professionally. A lot to think about, but there have been a number of reoccurring themes today.

For me the two most relevant were simplicity of message and making sharing of that message as easy as possible. I work in a rapidly changing process driven world where the message is complex and the method for sharing necessarily formal. Lot’s to think about.

I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say once I get a chance to digest what’s been said and review my notes.

After England returned home after a very poor showing in South Africa manager Capello promised there would be changes in both approach and personnel. Qualifying for Euro 2012 started with two comfortable wins against what looked like decent opposition in Bulgaria and Switzerland away. Bringing a couple of younger players like Adam Johnson and Joe Hart into the squad and giving them a chance to show what they had also helped to work on the relationship between coach and fans.

OK, it’s England and the expectations of the fans are unreasonable, but they are only as good as their last game. And it was not impressive to watch.

Tuesday night against Montenegro the same tactics that were found wanting in South Africa were back in evidence. During the summer Capello’s 4-4-2 looked poor when compared to teams like Germany, Holland and Portugal with their free flowing, less ridged game.

Capello has excuses. Injuries, especially to strikers took away a few of his first choice players, but. The continuing poor form of Wayne Rooney is a cause for worry and takes away any creativity the team has, Capello built this team around Rooney and when he does not perform they seem desperately short of creativity.

Both players missed a couple of good chances and England had a decent penalty shout after what looked like a deliberate handball in the Montenegro box during the first half. The visitors did what Scotland failed to do against the Czech Republic; they came to get a 0-0 draw and come away with a point. It was difficult to find too much positive in England’s performance.

Lets not forget, England has taken 7 points from a possible 9 and are in a good position. While they did not play like world-beaters they should be able to break down Montenegro at home. The team does remain unbeaten and should qualify. They created a few decent chances, but could not finish them. After the disappointment of last summer I’m probably over reacting, after all it was only one game, but I do wonder if has Capello learned any lessons from the World Cup?

England plays France at Wembley next month and game after that is not until February when they travel to Copenhagen to play Argentina in another friendly. It’s a chance for Capello to try something different, blood a few new players and give us a glimpse at what he has in mind to try to keep up with the evolution of the game we see from the top continental sides.

The next competitive game is a big one, they play Wales in Cardiff at the end of march. Come away from that with anything other than a win and the FA will be facing a huge call for change. Unfortunately history shows the FA listens to public opinion, look no further than the appointments of Keegan and Hoddle to show that.

Capello needs to show that he did learn something from the summer and is doing more than just seeing out his contract with England.

After a couple of disasters in Singapore and Japan when they needed good finishes the hopes of the drivers championship for the two McLaren drivers seems to getting a little more remote. Last weekend in Suzuka Hamilton had an off on Friday, got given a five-place penalty for changing his gearbox and finally had issues with the new box and was without 3^rd for a significant portion of the race.

Jenson button never had the pace of the RedBull drivers, went with a different tire option that the rest of the front runners, a gamble did not pay off.

So, not a good weekend for McLaren, the problem is that it comes in the back of another poor team performance in Singapore, where Alonso’s Ferrari led lights-to-flag. There Hamilton did not finish for the second race running and Buttons fourth place dropped him even further away from the championship lead.

1. Weber – 220
2. Alonso – 206
3. Vettel – 206
4. Hamilton – 192
5. Button – 189

There are three races left, Korea, Brazil and Abu Dhabi, with seven points between first and second it means Weber needs to beat Alonso and Vettel at least once more. With Alonso and Ferrari making such a strong move up the leader board over the last 4 or 5 races it sets up a very interesting finish.

It’s difficult to say the two McLaren drivers are out of the chase, but it’s a win and a bit more between Hamilton and Weber. For either of the McLaren drivers to win this the drivers above them need to start having reliability issues and collecting DNF’s.

Hamilton has failed to finish in 3 of the last 5 races, this run of bad form has occurred on the higher speed circuits that (Belgium, Monza and Japan) that earlier in the year seemed to suit the McLaren over the RedBull chassis.

Vettel feels he is in a “very good position” in the title race. Over the last few races Webbers main contender has changed from Hamilton, to Alonso and Vettel. Fourteen points is not much of a gap and this year’s championship looks like it’s going to the final race.

After the minor front wing argument in Silverstone where the RedBull management was clear the driver leading the championship would get some level of preferential treatment. Many feet that (and rumour supported) Vettel was the favoured driver inside the team and that’s not changed. However Webber has a fourteen point lead in the championship.

After his win at the British GP at Silverstone Webber said on his team radio: “Not bad for a number two driver.”

RedBull have already thrown away a 1-2 finish in Turkey when Vettel and Webber collided. Vettel was forced to retire and Webber finished third. The team can’t allow that to happen again, it will be interesting to see what Vettels reaction would be if the team asked him to put aside his own interests to support Webber in the fight for the championship.

The constructor’s championship is not wrapped up either. After Japan RedBull have a 45 point lead over McLaren. This is not much, allow the two RedBull drivers to race one another and it is a mistake away from allowing McLaren back into the championship.

Assuming the circuit passes inspection this week the circus is heading to the unknown in Korea, no one has even turned a wheel there yet, another interesting race in a couple of weeks.

For a team only two years old there have been quite a number of big moments. The opening night against New York was special, last seasons 3-0 demolition of Colorado impressive, last week in Columbus was another great performance and of course there was winning the cup in DC last year. There have been some lows, most of the first half of this year that culminated in the atrocious performance in LA over July 4th weekend.

As an indication of how this team does things differently, the cup itself was carried into the stadium by two members of the ECS prior to the game. This franchise set out to be competitive from the start, to listen to the fans and create a community around the game. This has been helped by the club largely doing the right things both on and off the pitch.

Last night made the top of my list; there was an atmosphere perhaps even better than the opening night and the two teams gave us a game worthy of a cup final. They played positive, passing football and both sides went out looking for the win.

In a repeat of what went on last week in Ohio, Columbus never really had an answer for Seattle’s attack. In the middle was Nufko and Montero, whose very presence creates space on the outside for the outright pace of Zakuani and Nyassi.

At the other end of the field Tyson Wahl was in for Leo Gonzales and he struggled initially, but over the 90 minutes won the fight against Emmanuel Ekpo. Columbus’s other threat Schelotto was marked out of the game by Pat Ianni, who had maybe the best performance on the field.

It’s difficult to say Seattle dominated, but they spend long periods of time in control of the ball. There were times Seattle played a very pretty passing game, but the final passes were more often to feet rather than space for the runners to hit.

Columbus deserved their early lead. They had kept Seattle under pressure and the goal was a very well taken chance by Kevin Burns that came onto the end of a nice passing move around the Seattle box.

Sounders equalized shortly before the break and it was Sanna Nyassi who scored for the second game running. The Columbus keeper came for a cross and never came down with the ball and Nyassi slotted home to level the score.

Even when Seattle fell behind the noise never went out of Quest field, there was little doubt that Seattle was going to score and when Nyassi obliged the place just got louder. I hesitate to say Seattle were destined to win last night. I was nervous before the game, but once we’d made it to kick off I had no doubt that Seattle were going to win.

Seattle began the second half the stronger team, lots of possession but nothing that got past the Columbus defence until Jeff Parke missed a fairly straightforward chance at the back post. A few minutes later Nyassi scored his second. He was in just the right place to clean up from a Zakuani header that came back off the bar.

There was a late scare that bough an involuntary “fuck” from me. Robbie Rogers unleashed a big shot that rattled the underside of the crossbar, Keller was beaten but his luck held. The rebound fell kindly for Seattle and was quickly cleared down the field.

Shortly afterwards Nyassi came off to one of the loudest cheers of the evening, he was be replaced by Fernandez as Sigi tried to close the game down for the last 10 minutes. Those minutes dragged, but Keller’s goal was not seriously troubled again.

Eventually the ref blew for full time and I think it’s fair to say the Sounders were the better team on the night. Seattle retained the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup in front of 31,311. Quite the night at Quest, if you were there you know how good it felt.

On Saturday the team play Kansas City, all the team needs is a point to clinch play off football once again. Last year the team finished the season struggling to score goals and struggled against Houston in the playoffs. This year looks very different; the team in on great form, is scoring freely and dispatching the teams they should be.

Tonight was something special, about the only MLS night I’ve known at Quest to compare it with was the opening night last year and the 3-1 win over New York. This was a celebration of the beautiful game, what it can mean to a community. It’s rare for a side to win a major trophy in front of their home fans, that was a fun night.

Tonight Columbus meets the Sounders in the 97th US Open Cup final. Both teams are looking for their second Open Cup win, the Crew won in 2002, and of course the Sounders won last year in DC. I was following the game through a combination of text messages and refreshes on Jose’s Seattle Times blog game thread on my phone in SeaTac I had to switch off with about 5 minutes left to play and never got the result until I met my brother in Heathrow 9 hours later.

This year I will be sitting in the stadium, a far better place to be.

A lot of people in Seattle seem to think this is a foregone conclusion after Seattle took apart Columbus 4-0 at their place a few weeks ago in the league. This is Sigi’s old team, they are very good and very much a potential play off opponent.

Columbus will be motivated, and can Robert Warzycha deny his old boss, or will the Sounders become the first team in 28 years to retain the cup. What ever happens some history will be made tonight when the game is played in front of the biggest crowd the cup has ever seen.

Winning a trophy at home is rare in the world of football, tonight Seattle and Columbus will add another chapter to their story. I believe Seattle are good enough, I don’t doubt the crowd will be fired up for what could be a great night of football.

On one of those warm Saturdays that make the fall in Seattle so worthwhile Seattle took on Toronto FC. Toronto are one of the teams on the outside looking in on the playoff race. Sounders win and the playoffs are all but coming to Seattle, a Toronto win and the picture becomes a little more complex. In league terms it’s a “six-pointer”.

This was also the last weekend of the baseball regular season and the M’s were on track to 101 losses and the second worse record in the league behind Pittsburgh and their 103 losses. I only saw three games this year, but two of them were wins, I count myself among the fortunate.

In the end Seattle had plenty, the 3-2 result looked closer than the game was. Seattle went behind to a Dwayne De Rosario goal early on, Keller was pissed at his defence, I think with good reason as they seemed to be playing flat across the back and De Rosario slipped past them with a well timed run.

Seattle then scored three. Zakuani slotted home with a very nice finish. Nkofo does what he’s paid to do and scored with a strong header from a well placed corner. Lastly for Seattle was Sanna Nyassi’s first goal for the club, long overdue and followed by quite the celebration.

There was a little worry, once again Montero did not have a great game, he seemed to be missing something, a little confidence perhaps. He’s a natural goal scorer and will find his touch again. Seattle played solid football, they held possession well and the back four especially had an exceptional game as Toronto threw everything they had at them in the second half.

Beating Toronto was not the only result that went Seattle’s way on Saturday. San Jose could only manage a draw against Columbus. Then Kansas City lost in New York. Lastly, the icing on the playoff cake for Seattle was Colorado loosing to D.C. United. All the results Seattle wanted came together.

End result of all the math is that Seattle clinches a playoff place in Kansas City next weekend with a draw or better.