Life in One Sentence

Grew up on the East Coast, moved to California as a teenager, went to school at Swarthmore, worked at HP, went back for my Master of Education at Harvard, worked at the MIT Media Lab, started my own company Dom.net, consulted for and then joined Macromedia to work on Dreamweaver, left during the Adobe merger to join Odeo, helped create Twitter (long story), helped create iPhone Developer's Camp at Adobe (another long story), quit my job to write books and software with my family in San Francisco.

Oblogitory

Can't talk. Writing a book.

For media inquiries, please contact my agent:

Erin Malone
ecm@wma.com
William Morris Agency
(212) 903-1581

You may want to follow @TheBook.

This is what it feels like when an idea won't leave you alone.

A sudden crisis of success. Plans within plans. Inertial motion.

My Month Off

During most of October and November, I took a leave of absence from my job at Adobe. The original reason was to take care of baby Leo, but it took an incredible turn when I was invited to work on Obama '08 for iPhone. Here is a sample of the stuff I got done, in no particular order:

1. Launched three versions of Obama '08, getting it to the #7 Free App
   
2. Practiced my cutback
3. Wrote the DollarApp principles
4. Discovered the DollarApp mission
5. Participated in The Great Schlep
6. Fixed my posture, which was killing my neck and hands
   
7. Taught Leo how to say "dada" and gave him his first computer
   
8. Got DollarApp's first app into the Beta stage
9. Sold enough things to pay for a new MacBook Pro
   
10. Retained a Good Lawyer for my company
    
11. Got my company a bank account, credit card, and debit card
    
12. Created a company Logo
13. Printed company Cards and Stickers
14. Talked about Twitter on TV
15. Gave a speech entitled "Why a Dollar"
16. Gave my mom a hug

In case you are tempted to take time off to work on an important project, or to build a side business I highly recommend it. Here were several lessons that I learned about working for myself:

1. I have high expectations for myself, which is daunting
   
2. I can't give myself any valid excuses for slacking or procrastinating, which is annoying
   
3. When you're doing everything yourself, you can only do one thing at a time, which is frustrating
   
4. Having a fiscal goal and deadlines will focus you dramatically, which is invigorating
   
5. Sometimes you have to completely shed every habit in order to gain new healthy ones, which is transformative
   

Thanks to everyone who supported this important transition, used the Obama '08 app, or otherwise stoked me on my journey!

Vote Obama

Let's talk about November.
I'll tell you something y'all best remember:

You gotta vote for Barack Obama and his Democrat friends.

C'mon Vote Obama

Vote Obama

Vote for Barack Obama and his Democrat friends.

Lemme tell you why:

This election there's a strong connection

Between George Bush and John McCain.

We cannot afford four more years of pain -

It's time for a change!

Vote Obama

Vote Obama

Vote for Obama, and Joe Biden

It's good for your pocket, go

Vote for Barack and Joe!

Vote for Barack Obama.

Listen to your momma, vote for Obama.

Vote for Obama and Biden and their Democrat friends!

[Download "Vote Obama" mp3]

Manageable Life - the story and song

Enjoy the story and song of 'Manageable Life', written in 1998 and performed last week as a re-dedication of a very special place in Boulder Creek.

Thanks to old pal Al Lundell for capturing this.

You may also enjoy this audio-only rendition, performed with Nick Peters back when I wrote it.

Klezmer in Killington

Last month, I visited New England for Ben Vigoda's Olde Tyme Bachelor Party Jam Band. It was a blast! Here's Jon Feldman, Jordi Kleiner, and Bret Bjurstrom playing a tune of Jon's called "The Inception".

In the middle of the take, we cut to Ben and company making musical instruments for his wedding.

10 Things I'm Great At

They say, "Do what you're great at, and find people to do the rest."

Here is what I came up with:

1. Sleeping - I can sleep on a dime. Once, I achieved polyphasic sleeping. This one is first because, as a new dad, I just can't get enough sleep, and it's always on my mind.
   
2. Guitar - I can play the hell out of that thing, and it keeps me sane.
   
3. Networking - I like people. Also, I like networks.
   
4. Photography - I can frame my subject, and I tend not to be self-conscious behind the camera.
   
5. Writing - I can just go start. I was blogging before there were blogs.
   
6. Traveling - I'm good to go, and I always document my travels.
   
7. Teaching - Animals, kids, adults, I like to teach.
8. Deciding - I trust my gut, and I'm usually right.
9. Learning - I'm like lightning.
   
10. Breaking - I always find the weak point.

Things I'm getting better at: Drawing, Singing, Piano, Forgetting, Remembering, Reading, and Compassion.

Mac in Your Pocket

See this video segment featuring yours truly on Adobe TV! Here's the byline:

"Dominic Sagolla researches and tests new features for Adobe products in development. After hours, this diehard Mac enthusiast creates applications for the iPhone."

This was filmed in August of 2007, just after the first iPhoneDevCamp.

iPhoneDevCamp 2 at Adobe SF

iPhoneDevCamp 2
August 1-3, 2008
Adobe Systems, San Francisco, CA

iPhoneDevCamp 2 is an upcoming not-for-profit gathering to develop applications for iPhone and iPod touch using both the native SDK and web standards. This is a follow-on event to the first iPhoneDevCamp, held in early July 2007. We are pleased that Adobe Systems has agreed to provide the venue again this year.

Attendees will include Cocoa Touch developers, web developers, UI designers, and testers, all working together over the weekend. Development projects will include both solo and team efforts. While some attendees will wish to work solo during the event, we encourage attendees to team up, based on expertise, to work in ad-hoc project development teams. All attendees should be prepared to work on a development project during the event.

Attendees will be able to:

* Create new applications for iPhone and iPod touch.
* Migrate Mac OS X applications to iPhone and iPod touch.
* Test and optimize applications for iPhone and iPod touch.

We have some exciting things in store this year - a few things we’re not quite ready to announce, but check back reguarly for updates on the event.

We are sensitive to the NDA that Apple has in place on the iPhone SDK. It is our hope that Apple will lift this NDA shortly after the public launch of the App Store. iPhoneDevCamp 2 will be held one month after the launch of the App Store. We have no intention of violating the terms that individual developers have in place with Apple on the iPhone SDK.

Confirmed sponsors so far include Adobe Systems, gogo apps, RadTech, Belkin, iLounge, Core Cases, Viewzi, ANSCA Mobile, The Apple Phone Show, and iWipes. We’re actively looking for additional sponsors to help make iPhoneDevCamp 2 a success. This is a not-for-profit event and 100% of sponsor dollars are used to pay for event costs.

The organizers of iPhone Dev Camp 2 include Raven Zachary, Dominic Sagolla, Christopher Allen, Chris Messina, Bart Decrem, whurley (William Hurley), and Blake Burris.

iPhoneDevCamp is not affiliated with Apple, Inc.