Full Circle Associates

Robert Scoble posted earlier this week about hooking up PCs to TVs. Most of it is out of my comprehension sector, and my hardware zone (no HDTV in this house) but in What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV , Robert piqued my interest, curiosity and an idea. Oh, maybe it's an evil plan. And pretty much off topic for this blog, but what the heck.

No, wait. It's about collaboration and I've been blogging about that this week. So I have an excuse.

Here is what Robert inspired. Robert, I hope you "hear" this (and I know you are on the road, so...)

Wouldn't it be fun to have a party (lighter than a "camp" or "unconference," please) where geeks, protogeeks and non geeks got together in someone's living room and put a system together that links a PC to a TV with all the fun things that offers? What if we tried a variety of ways of doing it and compared/contrasted, with people bringing in equipment to experiment with? Maybe at the end there could be a few "recipes" of the options, equipment lists and vod/pod casts of how to do it. OH, and of course, food, drink, and the usual merriment.

I hear you will be in Seattle in a week or so. Hint hint. Want to plan a party and build a system in my living room? We could document it, then others can set up pre-holiday parties and get their systems set up.

We here at the White House want to build a system, but knowing where to start is daunting. Our need is really a PVR so I can liberate my husband from his collection of antique VCRs and I'm not sure TIVO is the way.

We aren't geeks. I'm just a proto geek but not on the hardware side. My perception is that you need a lot of knowledge to both select the hardware and configure. My geek friends tell me how great it is. But I just can't seem to make the leap. Alone.

I bet I'm not the only one. Mark Cuban's point about simplicity and ease of installation is real to me. And it is just another data point about the importance of second wave adoption in new technologies. I love my geek friends. I'm amazed at the things you create. Creating them, at the level of complexity that you do, is not my driving interest.

So my solution for now? Collaborate. Why wait for the industry?