Love from Lulu

Ah so, the sweet folks who came to us from Lulu.com had a good time it seems- at least according to my Thanksgiving guest, Katie Jamison, in this official Lulu blog post. (which right now is on the front page of Lulu)
For me it’s so cool to have brought together the people involved in that workshop, and extra cool to have other people dig just what a bizarre and “progressive” thing it was we were trying to do. I love how Katie describes her time with us in this post. “Industrious” and “progressive” (two words Katie uses to describe our little scene) kind of sums up my favorite flavour of geek, actually, and so the gal’s write up left me all smily and glowy.

The way our interaction went with Lulu is exactly the way I hope Indyish can continue to interact with big(ger) companies- we connected with people from the company on an individual and ideaological level, without a trace of corporate scheeze-vibe; indyish gained a lot of knowledge and some really positive and good exposure from the interaction, and some awesome free stuff; and the individuals from the company developed a serious appeciation for the unique value indyish and other focused arts networks can offer to individuals who may also use their service. And from our conversations it seems like lulu might be able to learn from us about how to encourage the growth of other arts networks with their services, so everybody wins. Lulu seems unique in that it doesn’t secretly see itself eclipsing all other entertainment services, communities and marketplaces- it provides a specific layer to the intellectual property industry eco-system in away that is completely informed by lessons learned about intellectual property from the history of open source development. It knows in it’s bones that no one goes it alone, and that the little guy is pretty much always the person you should be on the good side of.

It’s precarious swimming along with fish with more money and reach then you have- you never know what kind of danger lurks- but Katie and Nick made us feel nothing but proud to have them around, and excited to brainstorm and scheme with them. Having their excellent answers to questions anchoring our workshop added a professional and friendly polish to the whole darn thing. Decidedly a mutually beneficial happening, and one I’m really proud of- not least because it’s maps a kind of blueprint for future workshops and website/art-makin collaborations. Can anyone say CVP North Carolina? I can.

So thanks Katie for your kind words! We had so much fun and learned so much from you! Mtl misses you guys! We’ll come visit soon! And c’mon, come to Expozine!