By now you may have heard of Chatroulette (chat – roulette). It’s a phenomenon whereby you can “meet” a stranger via a random webcam connection. There are no profiles to fill out, no registration requirements, no ways to predict who might be on the other end. For some, it’s a heart-racing thrill to see who appears in the video box. Driven by chance, mystery, voyeurism, and that odd human behavior of having to look at things like a car wreck, it picques curiosity and takes people-watching to a whole new level.

On the other hand, as you can imagine, it’s also a petri dish of every aspect of humanity – on one occasion, I gave it a whirl with a friend and we saw a person with a Venetian mask, another who had his webcam pointed at his chest so his face wasn’t visible, and another, well, we’ll leave that to your imagination.

Nonetheless, the utter simplicity of the navigation makes this site easy and addictive. Find a weirdo, click next. Find somebody interesting, chat away.

The psychological motivations of this site fascinate me. Like watching a scary movie or riding a roller coaster, Chatroulette provides that rush of adrenalin – not knowing what to expect and not being able to control it. And with an expectation of adventure – based in the safety of your own room – you can simply click “Next” to swiftly proceed to the next stranger. For some, it’s definitely the cat’s meow.

This is an awesome idea! Social media meets running meets marketing meets doing good for others. 

Join Nike in helping rebuild Haiti after the earthquake by committing your Nike+ runs to the effort. By doing so, you will be helping Nike raise up to $100,000 as part of their overall commitment to donate $500,000 to the efforts in Haiti. $1 will be donated for every mile/kilometer run with a goal of reaching 100,000 miles or 160,000 kilometers. For more info visit www.nike.com/haiti.

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I’m a member of Nike+ and while I had occasional struggles with the device, the website and social aspects of the site have never let me down.  To me, Nike+ does a great job of feeding into our natural competitive instincts and adds a touch of humor as well.  Additionally, their strategies of employing social media are chock full of inspirational ideas.  Users can create their own groups and challenges to spurn on more running (and more purchases of the Nike+ device and membership in the site), individual members can establish goals for themselves (resulting in recurrent visits and stickiness) and there’s even integrated chat called “Trash Talk” which allows members to broadcast their thoughts and opinions to the group.

This latest endeavor – Help for Haiti – is another brilliant execution by Nike.  It’s a call to action to run more with the Nike+ device because not only will it benefit yourself, but will benefit those in need in Haiti.  I’ve been feeling especially lazy after returning from Hawaii (plus, I’m still nursing my pulled muscle) but this encourages me to get out there as soon as possible.  Every mile counts.  For me.  And for them.

It’s Friday. I’m supposed to be on vacation (I’ve been on vacation for the entire week… not that anyone could tell…I’ve been online the entire time… but that’s my fault… anyway, I digress….).

I just saw this video and had to share. For anyone in the news business, I think you’ll appreciate the tongue-in-cheek lesson. Well, I thought it was funny.  But then again, I’m holed up in a hotel room with my 120 degree laptop on my legs, getting sweaty and radiated, when I should be getting sweaty and radiated by the Hawaiian sunshine.

When it comes to online dating, honesty is probably the best policy, but some things are better left unsaid.  Navigating the rough waters of how to describe yourself in an honest and catchy/compelling way is something all online daters struggle with.  Indeed, the 40 million Americans using online dating sites have quickly learned what can make the difference between getting overlooked and connecting online: the perfectly written dating profile description.

Yesterday, Imagini launched ProfileWiz, a new site that helps both the 2 million new monthly users of dating services, as well as experienced romance seekers looking to freshen up their profiles.

Utilizing Imagini’s patent-pending VisualDNA technology, ProfileWiz poses questions and presents possible answers in the forms of photos. In less than five minutes, ProfileWiz produces a 500-word personalized profile reflecting the personality and dating preferences of the user that can be accepted as is or tailored into an even more nuanced version. ProfileWiz is capable of writing more than over 64.1 trillion possible profiles that help cut to the quick in the quest to find a partner.

With 49.9 million links with profile tips and writing services costing $30 to $200 per profile – dating industry revenue topped $1 billion last year – ProfileWiz produces a description for a fraction of that. In addition to helping members of online dating services save money, it saves time searching with an apt, enticing description that sets them apart.

While I’m not single, I did find my ProfileWiz report psychologically illuminating. While I probably would do a terrible job describing myself, ProfileWiz was indeed like my personal Cyrano – articulating my wishes, preferences and hopes in a beautifully compelling way.

You can get your own ProfileWiz report at http://www.profilewiz.com.  And if you hurry, the first 1000 people that click on this link – http://www.proiflewiz.com/18001. can save $4.75 and get their report for free.

It’s raining cats and dogs outside at the moment.  The window next to me has just fogged up so I can no longer see outside.  Meanwhile, I’ve been online with various clients, colleagues, and reporters discussing upcoming news for the mainstream consumer audience.

The fog on my window has forced me to focus on the things close to me as I can no longer see the vista beyond.  Sometimes, I have to also remind myself that beyond the foggy window, or finger of fog descending upon the hills, there lies a world where not everybody has an iPhone, not everyone Tweets every day or plays Foursquare, and those who, dare I say, don’t even check their email every nanosecond like I do (I know… loser).

When it comes to technology public relations, it’s easy to fall victim to the TLAs (three-letter acronyms), buzz words (social graph, anyone?) and common assumptions (what?! you don’t have an iPhone?) that we in Silicon Valley toss around in our daily conversations.  But as I was reminded by a colleague today, this unique vocabulary and set of beliefs we have can sound like a foreign language and thereby distance the message from those who actually might be interested in hearing it.

So while the stereotype of the geek may have changed from the guy above to Neo of The Matrix or to Mr. Million Twitter Followers Ashton Kutcher, I still remind myself to leave the acronyms at the door and just speak in plain English.  It’s not about the features.  It’s what the features can do for me.  And now, I think I’ll wipe off that fog from my window.

Last week I played a bit of a matchmaker – introducing tech companies to the leading venture capitalists in the Bay Area. While the companies had different stories to pitch, and the VCs had different areas of emphasis, the one common denominator in all of the meetings was the emphasis by the VCs to the entrepreneurs to maintain a laser focus on solving one problem and doing it extremely well.

I think it’s the normal ambition of an entrepreneur to do things well, but given the Type-A personality of most entrepreneurs, it’s also common to see them want to pursue multiple problems with their solution. It’s a hard temptation to resist, knowing you could build a solution that has a bevy of features applicable to a variety of problems. But, just as best-selling author Daniel Pink (@danielpink) says in his newest book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, it’s critical to come up with a one-sentence description – whether that one sentence describes who you are, what you do, what you want to do, the company you’ve created or work for, etc.

So, for me and the Consort Partners team, I think we’ll keep focusing on public and financial relations for technology companies. Keeping it simple. And focused.

This is awesome. A great example of Pay(ing) it Forward. I just donated through the link.