News: A New Leap for a New Year

By on January 24, 2012

Farewell, Focal Length Designs

With the new year comes a lot of changes over here at Focal Length Designs. The holiday season was a wild success, and I’m grateful to the many people in both San Francisco and Portland (and abroad) who supported my efforts in December. But in November I made a very tough decision to stop making camera lens bracelets after the holiday season.

Instead, I will be focusing my efforts on this new blog, The Ambidextrous Brain, teaching opportunities, and pursuing the sustainability and longevity of the I Heart Art: Portland program. I’m sad to see the bracelets go, but I’ve never felt better about the decision I’ve made, and I’m ecstatic to be able to put one of my many hats into the closet for safe keeping and focus on something that truly feeds my soul.

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Connecting to Your Community: Part Five

By on January 12, 2012

Previously in this series: Learn to Share: A Primer | Part One: Setting the Stage | Part Two: Identifying Your Motives | Part Three: Becoming a Catalyst | Part Four: Developing Synergy

Making A Difference

Ripples by Sanath, on Flickr

HYPOTHESIS
The best way to balance our commodity-driven culture is to contribute to the community through the open exchange of knowledge, ideas and information.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

It’s been two full years since that first meeting of the minds—that planted seed that grew and blossomed into the I Heart Art: Portland program. After two full years of hosting accessible professional development workshops, convening community salon discussions, and devising unique speed-networking events that reach into Portland’s vibrant community of makers, I look back and I smile to myself.

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Spare Any Change? Challenges for the Future of Micropayments

By on January 4, 2012

coins by meddygarnet, on Flickr

There has been a lot of buzz among my friends and cohorts lately about micropayments—small, social sums of money that can be paid out to any Content Creator—bloggers, podcasters, musicians, information providers, etc.—as a way of showing support, congratulating them for their work, and encouraging them to produce more. The movement has gained some momentum over the past few years, and the most prevalent network used to distribute and promote these payments is Flattr.

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