But why assume that Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page will be different from Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black? Because they are geeks? Anyone who believes this is under the spell of geek religion.

I was finally able to get one of these sweet little devices myself a little over a month ago and since then I’ve been addicted to thee data it provides! You can see my overall progress online and track my attempts to be more active in my day-to-day life (which is hard when you sit behind a computer all day).

Sadly, today when I walked out to my car, the FitBit became unclipped from my pocket and disappeared! I didn’t notice until much later that it was gone; and as you can imagine I was heartbroken. My mind started to race about where it could be, and who may have run it over or (gasp) stolen it!  Then I started to think about I’d return to my inactive ways now that I didn’t have a little piece of technology encouraging me daily. Pictures of my stuffing my face with donuts flashed through my mind!

When I got back to my office, I brought up the FitBit website and started to search to see if they offered replacements for situations just like mine.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find any infromation, but I did track down an email address. I dropped their support line a note, asking if they sold replacement units.

Within the hour I received an email back from the FitBit Team.  They expressed honest disappointment in the loss of the FitBit and then did an incredible thing; asked for my mailing address so they could send me a free replacement.

Now, I realize that in the age of social media we’ve come to expect this sort of thing. We hear (and I preach) that “Word of mouth is the best advertising”. And you know what; its true. Simply offering to providing me with a replacement when I was willing to pay is the best customer service I could ever receive. And as a result of this action; I’m going out of my way to tell everyone not only what a great device this is; but also that a great company built it.

However; after getting this email I started thinking about where I was today, and how it could have fallen out of my pocket. So I walked to the parking garage and scouted around the cars. To my surprise there was the FitBit! Lying on the ground, completely unharmed! I snatched it up, secured it deep it my pocket and tracked my steps back to my desk.

So, even though, I didn’t necessarily get anything out of FitBit ; I feel that they deserve huge congratulations for their company behaviour.  A real person replied to an email; with real emotion; it a very fast time frame. They offered to look after me and weren’t looking for some kickback or promotion.  Kudos to Rachel and the team at FitBit!

I get the irony or having to use more words to explain what this means and how I’ll apply it; but here it goes.

1. Being able to explain a point in a concise manner

2. Less talking about something and more action towards accomplishing it

3. Using more multimedia (audio and video) to share content and explore ideas.

I’m looking forward to applying this in 2011 and I hope that it makes the upcoming year more successful for myself, my projects and my city.

However, I’ve noticed one thing about many of these applications, and what makes an ok one versus a great one.

Its all in the back button. As in, great applications don’t rely on that crutch. Most websites don’t need great UI because if the visitor ever gets confused they can just ‘back out’ of the situation. Web applications don’t have the luxury, there need to be a way for me to navigate through your ‘site’ without every having to use typical browser functions.

I’ve started to realize though, that this shouldn’t be a requirement of just cloud apps. All websites should be held to this standard, and its nowhere near common enough. As an example, take your favorite webpage and turn it into an application via Chrome. Is it still as intuitive as before?

What do you think? Am I completely off my rocker and (as I expect) have no real design sense?

One of my volunteer commitments is with the Marketing and Development committee at Museum|London.  On Monday night some of the volunteers got together to call Museum donors, partners and patrons for their support over the past year. To accomplish this, we built a complete virtual call centre; powered by the internet and completely mobile.

Skype came in very handy to make the phone calls. Their inexpensive unlimited Canada wide calling and the ability to set the Caller ID made this an almost professional setup.

Because we were only calling to thank sponsors and not to raise additional funds; it was easy for anyone to sit down, grab a script and dial some numbers.

I’m excited about where this idea could go next. It was simple to assemble, setup and use and could be easily redistributed to any organization or group that wants to make a lot of phone calls quickly and easily. If you have an idea please get in touch with me.

However, I was left with a couple of thoughts after the evening.

Many people focus on the concept of ideas and get very excited hearing new ones and feeling like they are part of a club that “gets it”.  Unfortunately too many people don’t think that they should implement those ideas and put them into action

So to everyone who was there last night, or people who participated on Twitter, here is my call out to you:

What are you going to do, today, tomorrow and in the coming months to put into action one of the many things you heard Scott say? It shouldn’t be too hard, his talk was full of “actionable items”.

Pick something and make that change in your personal and corporate life. Once we all start implementing ideas rather then just taking about them then we’ll be really “Un” Marketing.

Its not that I’m sitting at home twiddling my thumbs and so their is a lack of unique content to write about.

Unfortunately I think its the exact opposite. I’m being willingly pulled in multiple directions and the obligations and desires leave me with little time to sit down and write.

But the desire is always there and the moment that there is some time available I turn to this page. I’ve got a number of ideas and projects that I’d like to expand on further, and share my thoughts about.

• The growing interest and community involvement in UnLondon and the UnLab
• The upcoming SMarts Conference
• Projects brewing at Museum|London
• The concept of failure
• Reviews of books I’m reading or have finished reading
• etc

What would you like to see me discuss?

Rework - by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37Signals . An amazing and detailed look at how to approach your work with an emphasis on creativity, corporate culture, and a proper balance. A must read for anyone, entrepreneur, or president of a large business.

Ignore Everybody – by Hugh MacLeod. This book is a great compliment to Rework and focuses on the need for personal creativity and the buckling down to create. This is a super quick read, and the book is interjected with MacLeod’s signature “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards” illustrations.

Lastly, I’m in the middle of reading Drive - by Daniel Pink. It ties together the previous two books in an uncanner manner. I’ll post my full thoughts once I’m done reading, but its quickly becoming one of my favorites for 2010.

An interesting thing happened that winter though. As I walked from class to class when ever I would pass a fellow student with an iPod would would nod slightly to each other. We didn’t know the other person but we were connected by the shared bond of having one of the few iPods on campus.

Fast forward to 2010. On Sunday I went on a leisurely bike right around downtown. I noticed a vey similar trend taking place. Whenever I passed a cyclist (who was obeying the rules of the road) we telepathically acknowledged the other, nodded, and essentially provided them with (a tiny amount of) personal approval.

The iPod took off like wildfire and before too long there were more then justa dozen on campus. The exclusivity bond disappeared, but I didn’t mind that. Thousands of people had discovered the excitement of having all your music in your pocket and I was glad that they had.

I’m hoping and I’m optimistic that the same trend will be repeated with cycling here in London. I hope that one day events like Critical Mass are no longer necessary because there are tonnes of cyclists using the roads to commute.