Greetings From Twinsburg Ohio

I am chilling out at a local Starbucks and started thinking about how the rapid advances in technology and web 2.0 has impacted my life – both on a personal and professional level. For example:

1) Just a few years ago, I’d have rented the Garmin GPS unit for $15 a day. Lots of people I know own one of these gadgets and paid $600+. But today, all I needed to do was whip out my crackberry and start up the Google Maps app… and boom I have turn-by-turn directions for free. Google has an uncanny way of investing resources into technology we actually use – their investment into their mapping technology confused me at first. Now I am starting to get it. They can basically snap their fingers and put Garmin out of business tomorrow morning if they so choose.

2) Thanks to Facebook, I recently reconnected with a friend I literally grew up with – our parents used to put us in the same crib when we were babies. It has been many years since I have talked to her. Because of Facebook, I learned that she is married with 2 kids and is living in Ohio. Without Facebook, I doubt we’d have ever spoken again. Instead, I’m holding out some hope that I can meet her and her family for dinner tonight.

3) I still am blown away that I can take a photo with my blackberry, email it to a Flicker-appended email address, write the copy of my blog article in the email copy and post it right to the Top of Mind Blog. I learned this trick from Ryan Hartman at Bloodhound Blog Unchained. If you don’t know Ryan, you should take a look at his, hmmm how do I put this… unorthodox marketing style at www.retechulous.com.

We are living in an era of unprecedented innovation and it is really exciting! One minute, Garmin looks like a high flyer (remember that brief moment in time where we all had beepers?). The next minute, you wonder how Garmin survives the next 3 years.