Well, it’s been a long time since I wrote anything here. I’ve been too busy with the part-time job I already mentioned here, university projects and exams, and other kinds of stuff. But I decided to take a little time aside to share with you the project that job is about.

Stream19 is a social network for action sports’ fans. It’s built around the concept of a Spot, a place where those sports can be practiced, like a beach great for surf and bodyboard, a skate park downtown, a good downhill mountain for BTT and so on. For this first alpha version, we centered the application on those spots. On the main page you can see a world wide map with spots marked all around, with the icon of their respective category. You’re free to roam through the map, search for more spots and view their information. Besides the usual name and resumé of the spot, there’s also photos and videos.

In this phase, users can only add new spots and upload photos and videos. Later, on the next phase, we plan to add real social network features. Full profile pages with everyone’s uploaded photos and videos and more interaction between users through friendships, comments, messaging system. We’re also planning on involving action sports’ brands and shops to keep users close to their interests.

Much work is still to be done, but the enthusiasm of some early adopters is keeping us motivated. Further news from the project will be released at Stream19’s blog.

Seth Godin is a well known marketeer and the author of several bestselling books on permission marketing. He is also the sole author on the most popular blog on that subject: Seth’s Blog, where he regularly expresses opinions and thoughts.

Small Is The New Big is more like a compilation of little stories. Those stories are a selection of posts on Seth’s Blog, all around a similar subject. They can be personal experiences the author faced on a particular time of the day, new ideas for breakthrough products and, most of all, advices for everyone who works around product development, services, marketing, management, or any other corporative job.

This particular collection is about change. Why should you embrace change on your company and how can you do it successfully in a world full of adversities. About the book’s title, Seth Godin supports that the best way to change inside your business is to be small, be agile. In this fast-changing world, no longer are the big companies making progress, but only the small ones, which have the ability to do the unexpected and innovate.

The language used on the book is straightforward and direct, which may sometimes be seen as a bit arrogant. However that’s not the author’s intention. The ones that read Seth’s Blog for a long time now might found themselves reading again some of its posts, but the book is directed for those searching for inspiration and mind-changing rants.

More about the book and some free samples on the book’s lens.

November 17, 2007 by Sérgio Santos Website product book

The complete list of reviewed books.

The web is already full with online word processors. I still hadn’t adapted to the new format. Every time I wanted to right something quickly, like for this blog or other projects, I always found myself loading this blog’s admin interface or the OpenOffice.org Writer. I’ve had already tried Google Docs, Zoho Writer and even 37signal’s Backpack, but I’d end up back to the usual places. However, Buzzword seems to be able to change that a bit.

Buzzword is a very appellative online word processor, made by Virtual Ubiquity. Later, their company joined Adobe, given to their impressive use of Adobe tools, specially Adobe Flex, in what the application was built.

After you sign up for the preview version, there’s an example document ready to open. There you’ll be able to experience the great font rendering engine and the simple (and very good looking) editing interface. It all works very smoothly and the black background seems to emphasize better empty documents. There’s no big editing features here. Just a couple of nice fonts, basic text and table formating and the ability to add comments. Those are particularly useful since Buzzword gives you the possibility to share your documents, as well most of the other similar applications out there. Unfortunately, it only supports RTF and Microsoft Word .doc format for offline saving and there’s no integration with blogging platforms for example. It could be a good opportunity to grow in other markets.

What really made me keep Buzzword bookmarked in my browser top bar, besides it’s simplicity, it’s just the inspirational feeling I get when I see the documents list, that makes me want to write the world in there. It won’t make you a better writer, but can help you with a little push, and you will surely impress others using such a gorgeous work tool.