A lot and a little can happen in a year
Another post about last year's posts around this time.
I made the prediction a year ago yesterday that Apple would release an iPhone within 18 months. Looks like I've got six more months to win that bet. Not so sure that's going to happen still... they'd have to announce it in January and get it approved by the FCC, etc. Moto's Ed Zander pretty much confirmed that Apple is working on a phone in that interview where he said "screw the Nano," but we'll see if it happens soon.
Mobile Monday USA is now officially One Year Old! I changed the name from the Bay Area Mobility Forum to MobileMonday.us last year around this time, literally helping set off a worldwide resurgence in the group. I copied the name after seeing a video from Daniel Skuka's Mobile Monday in Japan, but the open nature of the Silicon Valley version - with the blog, Yahoo! Group and Flickr photos - set a new tone for the organization and spawned versions in LA, NY, London, Singapore and other places to come.
Diego Doval announced last year that, sadly, he was wrapping up his startup in Ireland and looking for other opportunities to pursue. Behold the amazing power of weblogs! Within a short time he was contacted by Amazon, Google, IdeaLab, and finally Marc Andreessen who wondered if he didn't want to come out to California and join his new startup that would eventually be called Ning. At that point Diego and I had known each other for a couple years, but had never met... now I'm over his house weekly playing video games. Considering at one point that I was in Madrid and Diego was in Ireland living completely different lives, this is quite the amazing outcome.
Also finally (and deserving a much bigger post) I joined Yahoo! a year ago as a consultant. I didn't become full-time until February, so maybe it doesn't count as an anniversary - but I've been working in the offices for a year now, which is quite the record for me. I haven't worked at the same place for a year in... oh... say a decade? It's the best job I've ever had (or anyone could have for that matter) and the really cool stuff in mobility is just starting to get momentum there now, so I'll have to work through my malaise and try to stick around for a while longer... :-) Not that I'm reconsidering the choices I made (I would've made them again) but blowing off Google last October when the stock was at 190, thinking that it was overpriced... and it's now at $425? Woof. Let's hope it drops a lot soon, so I don't have to tell my grandkids that story.
See you next year!
-Russ