ETech, Sandy, and more soon...

As many of you already know (because I'm running to you in hallways!), I'm chairing the O'Reilly ETech Conference in San Diego this week. There's so much intelligence, creativity, and fun in this place. I always swore I'd still run the ETech program even if I left O'Reilly: and, for the 6th year in a row, I'm thrilled and honoured to be involved. (Now if I could only be in all those sessions at the same time.)

Of course, I have plenty to tell you about — namely, Sandy and her debut at Under the Radar last week — but will have to wait till I have more than three minutes at a time in front of the computer. More soon...

A presciently-timed vote of confidence

I'm still processing the incredible honor Stikkit received last week: the 2007 SXSW Web Award for Best Technical Achievement. Needless to say, we were thrilled beyond belief.

But not for quite the reasons you'd think.

The award validated what we feel we've accomplished with Stikkit: truly interesting, subtly powerful, supremely flexible technology that suggests new ways to think about organization and collaboration.

Indirectly, it also reflected how we and our users have felt about Stikkit: excellent tech, tricky metaphor.

So why then were we so pleased?

Back in January, having reached the same conclusion, we returned to the fundamental promise of Stikkit: that it makes organizing your daily details as simple a jotting down a note or firing off email.

And it dawned on us that the core product had been there all along.

We noticed that active Stikkiteers — ourselves included — tended to interact with Stikkit from the comfort of an already-familiar interface: email. We already know how to use email to collaborate and share; and with the addition of Stikkit's "thinking," our email had become more useful.

We've spent every moment since building something that accentuates all of those qualities of Stikkit that drew people in in the first place, while, at the same time, keeping it simple by baking it right into your inbox.

So the recognition of what we'd achieved technically came at just the right time: as I sat in our office in Portland, Oregon, 2000-odd miles from SXSW, contemplating just how we had come to create our new product.

I'll post more details in the next few days. For right now, though, I just want to thank the SXSW judges for the presciently-timed vote of confidence.

Getting Things Done with Stikkit

Brett Kelly wrote an extensive guide to using Stikkit as a GTD Powerhouse that was then linked to by Lifehacker. It's obvious Brett put in a lot of effort into thinking this through and writing it up, and we really appreciate it.

Stikkit won a SXSW award!

I just had the considerable honor of standing on a stage in front of what must have been a few thousand people, all who are passionate about creating things for the web, and accepting the award for Stikkit for Best Technical Achievement. Of course a million things ran through my mind about what I would say once I walked on stage, but once in front of the mic, all I could say was how excited I was, and how I wished Rael could be there to enjoy the moment with Asha and I.

Had I had my wits about me, I would have said:

We couldn't have done it without the considerable efforts of everyone who has worked on Stikkit, but just as important, those who have used Stikkit and given us good feedback and criticism. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to share what we love with you.

Presenting at Under the Radar: Why Office 2.0 Matters

We've been cooking up a little something interesting to present at the Under the Radar : Why Office 2.0 Matters conference in Menlo Park on March 23. If you're at the conference or in the neighborhood, Michael and I would love to meet you in person.

Jen's Starks Paper Sculptures

When I first saw these stunning paper sculptures by Jen Stark my heart jumped as I thought they were done using standard sticky notes. Despite the fact that they're not, and are made from construction paper, I still think they're totally noteworthy (ahem), and suspect someone might be able to do something similar with sticky notes. I might break out the X-Acto knife and try it myself, but I'd encourage others to beat me to it.