On October 15th, 2006, while a small group of amateur photographers were hiking at Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona, something strange happened. A guy jumped. Well, actually, another guy jumped first, then his wife, and then the jumper jumped. At the time, he wasn’t the jumper. In fact, he very rarely jumped and nobody had ever remarked that his jumping was any different than anyone else’s.

A guy jumps

The strange thing which happened that afternoon was the jumper’s jump. It didn’t end when his feet returned to the ground. In fact, the jump didn’t even end in Phoenix.

At the time, nothing seemed special about the jump. The preview screen on the camera showed what appeared to be a well-captured photo of a good jump. Nothing spectacular. Just a good jump. The hike resumed.

Throughout the following months, the group met up at other locations around Phoenix. When the opportunity arose, the photographers enjoyed taking other jumping photos. The jumper, who was still not known as such, happily obliged.

At a conference in November of 2007, the jump that left the ground over a year earlier started to turn into something. The jumper was introduced to someone he had never met by someone he had never met as, “the guy that jumps.” The jump had somehow preceded the jumper.

Jumpers jump the jumper’s jump in NH

Fast forward another thirteen months to December of 2008.

A group of people in New Hampshire who had never been in direct contact with the jumper scheduled a local photography meet-up. The theme of the meet-up was to jump. More specifically, it was to emulate the jumper’s 2006 jump and those that followed.

How the jump traveled over 2,000 miles to the Northeast United States on its own is a testament to the strange power of the Internet.

Amazingly, the jump didn’t stop there.

The jump that left the ground in 2006 was seen again in 2009 on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Some 5,000 miles away, a German Flickr and Twitter user visiting Lake Garda in Italy decided to jump the jumper’s jump.

“trying a shalerjump @ lake garda” by vanse1980 on Flickr

That, to me, is a leap of unimaginable scale. One that started innocently enough during a hike in Phoenix, Arizona.

Tags: jumping
Posted in Articles, Fun, Photography | No Comments »

I’ve gotten to know a lot of people in the Phoenix technology community by attending, organizing, helping organize, and promoting all kinds of events. I really enjoy meeting new people, but even more so, I enjoy connecting people with others.

In a way, people can be like puzzle pieces to me.

I didn’t set out to have this viewpoint. I made up the puzzle piece part after I started this blog post. When people attend events, they are generally looking for something, whether they know it or not. They might know they are looking for help on a project or a new employee. They may not know that they might otherwise be looking to meet other people in their community with similar interests.

When I meet and get to know people, something happens subconsciously while I listen. I wonder how they fit with the people I already know. You could think of it like a jigsaw puzzle or perhaps even fitting a word onto a Scrabble board.

I don’t consider myself to be a person others need to meet. I don’t do any contract work and as an employee of a company, I don’t hire or contract other people.

I’m not really an endpoint.

However, because of my ability to index the hundreds of people I know and many of their skills and interests, I tend to be a useful as a conduit.

The obvious example is someone looking for help with a software development project, where I can connect them with several options for PHP, Flash, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, .NET, etc. resources and/or developers.

The less obvious example is when I meet a person who is peeking into the tech community for the first time. The second I hear they are interested in design, I can tell them off the top of my head when upcoming design events are, where they can meet people with similar interests. Or connect them directly with people in those circles or organizers of those events.

As this is typically a subconscious thing and I do it so often, I might not even realize I’ve done it. The stories occasionally come back to me, but I bet I’m missing out on some of them. They don’t come full circle, but a certain amount of altruism — possibly affecting someone’s life and expecting absolutely nothing (not even a thank you or recognition) in return.

Tonight, I was at the after party for Ignite Phoenix, and butted in on a conversation between two people I knew and two people I didn’t. During an introduction, I said “I’m Brian,” and was met with, “Wait, this is Brian Shaler? You’re the guy who recommended we work with them!” gesturing to the two guys I knew in the group.

Call me cheesy, but I think there’s something special about being a catalyst for such professional and social relationships.

Posted in Networking, phoenix | 1 Comment »

Short notice, but the 4th Ignite Phoenix event is Tuesday, June 16th! As of this writing, that’s tomorrow!

Ignite Phoenix
Location: Tempe Center for the Arts
700 W. Rio Salado Parkway
Tempe, AZ 85281
Time: 6:00PM - 9:00PM (If you RSVP’d, get there by 5:30!!)
Cost: Free!

Ignite Phoenix is an awesome and inspiring event where various speakers are given 5 minutes and 20 slides (which automatically progress every 15 seconds) to tell others what they are passionate about. Topics have ranged from my talk one Data Visualization to Dean Heckler’s talk about his experiences designing and manufacturing a desk.

They made 400 tickets available, but sold out within hours of announcing them. However, you can still make it. There will be about 100 walk-in tickets available at a first-come, first-served basis. At 5:45, all reservations will be canceled and all unclaimed tickets will become available to walk-ins. Also, while the presenters will be in the theater, there will be 200 seats available in the Lakeside room, where I think they will be streaming the presentations onto a projector.

More Ignition

I just became aware of a developer-centric spin-off of Ignite Phoenix (which is itself a spin-off of O’Reilly Media’s Ignite). Developer Ignite, sponsored by the Intel Software Network, will be held on July 22nd in Chandler, AZ at Ganplank. The format will be the same, but the content will be all about software development. I will definitely submit a presentation idea, but they will only be selecting 8 presentations. (I didn’t make the cut for Ignite Phoenix, which selected 18 of 73 submissions)

Posted in Events, Networking, phoenix | 1 Comment »

Are you interested at all in mobile technologies? iPhone? Android? BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, etc?

Then you need to go to this event.

MobiFestival.com
May 16th, 2009
9:00am - 7:00pm

Location:
Gangplank HQ
325 E. Elliot Rd.
Chandler, AZ 85225

Mobi Festival is where platform allegiance is checked at the door. The goal is to bring together mobile enthusiasts, explorers, developers and professionals to share the current state and their visions for the future direction of mobility.

Mobi Festival hopes to support the many voices helping to unlock the potential of a truly digital life in a mobile world. The format will be part conference and part un-conference. There will be some scheduled speakers at set times and bar camp style presentations in between. Additionally, there will be time set a side for break out groups to actually do some mobile hacking. This conference is for mobile developers by mobile developers.

Joe Stump of Crash Course Keynoting

INFO: http://mobifestival.com/
REGISTER NOW: http://mobifestival.eventbrite.com (FREE!!!)

Intel will be providing mobile devices for hack session.
Go Daddy will be raffling iPhone and G1 throughout the day!
Lunch and Free T-Shirt provided for those that register online!

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“We kid because we care.”

I hadn’t noticed it until people from outside of Arizona started asking me about it. “Why are people in Phoenix always making fun of each other?” I originally thought it was just me, but it seems to be a general attitude toward anyone who puts himself out there.

In my travels, I’ve come across cities with truly vindictive people who create enemies within their communities. Phoenix doesn’t seem to have quite as much of that genuine angst — with only a few exceptions.

However, when it comes to public displays of negativity, Phoenix seems to stand out among cities, based solely on my personal encounters with people outside of Arizona who have made this type of observation. It’s hard to say if there is a reason or if it just happens to be this way.

I know quite a few awesome people in Phoenix who are incredibly positive, but they tend to be quieter.

It is common for people to be to proud to acknowledge people around them. It’s also far to easy to sit at home and belittle the achievements of others or critique their ways of doing things. Unfortunately, this seems to be human nature.

Posted in Articles, phoenix | 3 Comments »