Call out of the blue

I just spoke with Dan from NY. We had a good conversation about Internet ideas and doing fun things with the new wave of web opportunities. Dan told me about his idea (no one steal it) to create a lunch meet web application for his college. Basically, if you're not in class, maybe you can find out about someone you'd like to talk to, and join them for lunch. Cool. Maybe I could have a quick lunch with someone who is in Biology one year ahead of me. Maybe I can pick their brain about how to do better in some killer courses.

I can have lunch with some people who want to play ultimate frisbee on Sunday afternoon. I can have lunch with someone who took that film class, and see if I should take it too. I can have lunch with someone who would like to learn about and possibly help me with a cool web app for bringing hungry like minded students together.

I was pleased to get a call request after so long, b/c this experiment basically died down after the first two days. I kind of was scared of it getting out of control, and it didn't. But now part of me wishes it had grown. I'm just so pleased that I got to talk to some interesting people that I would never normally have had a chance to speak with. I'm also glad that I was able to help in the act of reaching out to someone. Just to chat. All our barriers are imaginary.

Well, Dan may be the last person I speak to through this. It was fun doing this, and I definitely have to say, that even in its small scale, this was a positive and successful experiment, given that I started it in less than an hour. I have many more 'silly ideas', and I plan to play with them for some time. Unless I have more people to call.

I Will Call You

Simple:

I was in the grocery store this afternoon, thinking of some cool new fan dangled Internet idea. Instead I thought of this social experiment. I'll Call You. How does it work?

You email me your number at iwillcallyou@gmail.com, and I'll call you. Why do you want me to call you? Maybe you're just curious. Maybe you want to talk to me about this idea. Maybe you just want to participate in this experiment. Maybe you don't believe me. Maybe you just need someone to talk to. Maybe you want to shoot the breeze for a bit. Do you even need a reason?

Oh, and by the way, I set up this page, email address, and pushed my site all in under an hour. I started this, let's see it's 8/21/2006 7pm Eastern.

Anyhow, lets see if anyone gets in touch with me. I'll probably blog a little about any interesting conversations I have. Enough, let's start.

Positive Experience

Ok, quick update, I've now spoken with 3 very cool individuals. First there was Collin from Iowa, my first caller! I remember sitting in the kitchen waiting for gmail to tell me if anyone has emailed. One minute, two minutes. Wait, this is a silly idea, who is going to give me their number?And what are we going to talk about? I decided to eat something. I came back about 10 minutes later: 'You Have Mail'. I jumped on the phone and connected with Collin, who was great to talk to. Very encouraging.

Then I got my second email from Germany! Whoa, I'm already international. I couldn't connect with Serah as she was about to go to sleep (it's a different timezone there ya know), but I'm definitely calling her tonight.

Then I spoke to Nick from New Jersey. Nick was totally surprised and couldn't believe it when I called. I had this image of him falling off his chair as he spoke with me. I loved talking to Nick about this idea and how it has been very easy. I haven't gotten a lot of emails yet, but that's ok. It's manageable. Right now I can still call everyone in my in box.

I also just finished speaking with Alex from Columbia University in NY. Definitely my longest and most interesting conversation yet. We talked a lot about Internet ideas and experiments taking off the ground. Alex struck me a successful individual who has worked on a number of sites himself, and shares my enthusiasm for the possibilities of the Internet. Check out columbiatunnels. And he's coming up with another cool idea, for which he still needs a name. He should ask pollground for suggestions.

International Calls

Scotland? Bangkok? Germany? Just some of the countries I'm getting emails from. This is going to start costing me. But you know what, it's worth it. I've been enjoying talking to people here in the US, it'll be just as fun to speak with someone abroad. And I like traveling and haven't been in so long. So if I want to go to Bangkok I can ask the other person what it's like.

Myshele from Scotland was way cool and nice to talk to. We talked about traveling and how she loves Scotland. And then I checked out her website and was able to put a face to the voice.

Michael from Jordan was also a great chat. He even offered to reimburse me (via paypal) for calling him. I didn't know you could just send someone money like that. Check out Michael's essays, we talked about one in which he says friendships lose value with the Internet. Like, being able to connect with anyone means friendship is everywhere. So their value is diluted. I suppose that's true. However, my real friends have never changed for over 10 years now. Other people are more just acquaintances. Anyways, too philosophical.

Ok, time to make some more calls.

Cool People Cool Places

I've been talking to some very cool people now and I'm amazed where some people are calling from. Just got off the phone with Sara from Germany. Cool chick, who loved this idea. In fact, we got to talking about another idea, which anyone is free to pursue.
IWantAPostcard.com. Have you gone to someone's house and seen a fridge pasted with all these cool postcards from all over the world. How cool they must be. How traveled, how worldly, how popular. Well what if you could go on a website and exchange postcards with people. Someone would just leave their location and an email. You would contact and exchange address' and postcards. What do you write on it? Just go to quotes.com and use their material, who cares.
Well, I would really like to call some people in some cool places. Are you in New Zealand? How about the Amazon? Down under in Australia? South Africa? I'm going to need skype for all this.
Ok, three people to call now, one is from Thailand...

Alienation

Today I talked with Faraz from Ohio, who also got to me from Reddit. Second person from Ohio.

Also got off the phone with Kenneth. This was fun and stimulating. I'm starting to be surprised by some of the cool conversations I've had now. Kenneth is from NY city and is reading The Brothers Karamazov. He read me some very stimulating excerpts about alienation, isolation, and the opposite, to come together. Anyhow, more philosophical stuff, blah blah, but it was applicable. I mean, this little experiment is all about reaching out in a way.

I realized that these people who read the first part of my blog, and then decide to actually email me their number...these people are not like everyone else. There is quite a bit of trust involved there, a bit of unusual openness. Is this a good thing? I would have to think so. I have respect for the people I've spoken to, for taking this little leap and saying why not.

I'm finding myself excited about calling the next person now. What WILL we talk about? You know it's the funniest thing the person on the other end is always so surprised to hear from me. Why is that? Do they think I will never call? I feel responsible now to call or reach out to anyone who emails me. I'm just afraid my in box will go nuts any minute. I have a plan for that. I will randomly ask one of the callers to take over some of the email requests. And if they get too busy, then they can pass on the torch.

What will happen? Will this expand into a never ending web of people calling each other?

Ok, I have a skype account now for international calls. What time is it right now in Asia?