backpack exec.

shialabeowulf:

(via siriuslymeg)

I began dialing the first number I could think of…4 - 0 - I tapped away, swiftly and deliberately like Camacho sparing before a fight. The feel of resistance against my thumb was somehow gratifying, like the satisfaction you get from popping bubble wrap. I remember watching the screen light up with beautiful green digits after every successful jab to the keypad as if my phone was keeping score for me.

With the phone to my ear I began tinkering with the antenna, reaching my apposing arm over my head like a chimpanzee. Never have I been so excited to talk about absolutely nothing with just about anyone. So long as that anyone is on the receiving end of this call and not directly in front of me asking where Dillard’s is -

I’m sorry, what? I’m on the phone.

After what seemed to be hours of waiting for someone to pick up, I finally hear a familiar voice.

Eddie! What the f**k are you doing man?

Of course, this was a dick thing to ask because I already knew what Eddie was doing. Eddie was home, grounded. And here I was asking him to meet me at the mall so I could gloat about my new cell phone.

Velocitygeni.us, a student housing consulting firm, asserts its stance for an open and free Internet by signing the Declaration of Internet Freedom (DIF).

In short, DIF describes the need to protect expression, access, openness, and innovation for those who wish to use the Internet.

Controversy over some of the manifesto’s implications, like the right to anonymously post customer reviews, directly relate to important issues in the Student Housing Industry. Though, the overarching message supersedes any financial liability, says Jason Velazquez, founder of VelocityGeni.us.

“It’s a tricky issue. We have strong cause to believe user anonymity has become a business model; leveraging the rights afforded to the people as a means for private profit. The right to remain anonymous, as inconvenient as it may sometimes be, is worth protecting for the greater good.”

Velazquez continues with a call for trust through transparency by urging others in student housing, particularly operators, to consider signing the pledge as well.

“We have a lot left to learn about apartment reviews and the ramifications they have on our industry. But, it is clear we have an issue of trust from our residents. The signing of this manifesto shows support for our residents’ rights to free and anonymous speech.”

The mention of trust, or lack thereof, is a reference to a recent phenomenon where companies have taken legal action against residents on grounds of deformation; forcing review sites to reveal a reviewer’s identity through means of court order.

“The DIF pledge could be used as a means to communicate that such actions violate our residents’ right to free speech and will not be a consideration under similar circumstances.”

Velazquez has been known to publicly criticize review sites that potentially use anonymity to generate large amounts of free user-generated reviews with, as he puts it, “little regard to content validity”. Though, his company’s signing of the DIF suggest that any efforts to end such practices will stop short of infringing on individuals’ right to free speech.

The VelocityGeni.us team plans to release a white paper detailing the affects anonymity has on apartment reviews in the coming months.

Our Mission at VelocityGeni.is:

As the first strategist firm in the industry, VelocityGeni.us inspires a new era in student housing. We exist to push forward the evolution taking place in our industry.

We believe in disrupting the status quo. We believe in progress through innovation. We believe in a better student housing experience for everyone. Join us.

Our Focus at VelocityGeni.us:

Student Housing is in our DNA. It is what we do, exclusively. We are Information Architects. We are Action Strategists. We are Velocity Geniuses. Through this lens, we focus on four core themes:

• Direction
• Growth
• Momentum
• Open Innovation

Mike Evangelist (yep, that’s his name) still remembers one of his first meetings with Jobs. It took place in the Apple boardroom in early 2000, just a few months after Apple purchased the American division of Astarte, a German software company where Evangelist was an operations manager. Phil Schiller, Apple’s longtime head of marketing, put Evangelist on a team charged with coming up with ideas for a DVD-burning program that Apple planned to release on high-end Macs — an app that would later become iDVD.

“We had about three weeks to prepare,” Evangelist says. He and another employee went to work creating beautiful mock-ups depicting the perfect interface for the new program. On the appointed day, Evangelist and the rest of the team gathered in the boardroom. They’d brought page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various windows and menu options, along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.

“Then Steve comes in,” Evangelist recalls. “He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. ‘Here’s the new application,’ he says. ‘It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says burn. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.’ “

“We were dumbfounded,” Evangelist says. This wasn’t how product decisions were made at his old company. Indeed, this isn’t how products are planned anywhere else in the industry.

Excerpt form: Invincible Apple
http://www.fastcompany.com/1659056/invincible-apple-10-lessons-coolest-company-anywhere