Patricia Handschiegel wrote a great post today about the emotional states entrepreneurs cycle through. Reading it, I saw myself working on People's Software, and feel some of the same feelings working on the new thing we're readying for 2009.

Patricia's identifies the following problem feelings as cycles entrepreneurs go through:

1. Feeling overwhelmed--that's obvious, right?
2. Shockeds & surprised--who knew X ?
3. The big decision--once you make it, that's it, whatever it is.
4. Mourning: Sad when startup takes over most of your life.
5. Tired: Anyone not get this one?
6. Hatching--launch or sale, it's the rocket ship ride.

Patricia's list is much more detailed, and both useful AND funny--check it out here.
(And did I mention how kick ass Patricia is? A real inspiration.)

Here's where my attention is going these days, with different proportions of attention to each at different times:

Co-founder, People's Software.  We have a cool idea about a scheduling problem we want to solve and we're working on getting our first app from alpha to beta, so we have enough features to get it out in the market and get feedback. It's been slower than I wish, so this is both an exercise in patience and a chance to appreciate programmers.

Program Manager/Evangelist, Knight News Challenge: Want to win a chunk of $5MM for a project that has a specific geographic focus, promotes democratic community discourse and engagement, and is open source, can have an API or be scaled by others in some way? If yes, you should be checking out the Knight News Challenge, which I have the privilege of managing this year, along with a team of amazing people and some inspiring leadership from Gary and Alberto. This program is so innovative, and Knight has been so positive about trying new things, like the Garage, the mentoring program, and the social media marketing--it's a pleasure. But applications close Nov, 1st, so get cracking.

Women entreprenurs/women leadership work: This is still something I am figuring out, but I want to spend more time in 2009 helping women become more successful as entrepreneurs and leaders. Women Who Tech is doing a teleseminar with me called :Owning Your Own Power" on Ocrober 11th; that's based on a She's Geeky workshop I did last year. People who want to collaborate in this area, love to hear more from you.

And of course, I am also blogging and writing for BlogHer, and doing some speaking.

The other big thing in my life is that I've moved to the East Bay and am looking for a long-term place to live; interested in co-housing, and/or creating a progressive community with a few adult housemates in North Oakland or Berkeley. I spent lots of years very engaged in my Park Slope and South Orange neighborhoods, want to have the feeling of local community again.

"So now we have a company with a woman CEO and a woman CTO and a woman COO. And the work we do? The work we do together? It's only incidental that it's software. Because what it is -- what it really is -- is applause. It is praise, for all these glorious women. Because it is fitting, and it is right, to give them thanks and praise."

--People's Software co-founder Lisa Williams, writing about PSco and how BlogHer --and the conferences it has held--played a game-changing role both in her life--and in bringing our new company together.

Jeremy Zawodny's going to work at Craigslist!!!!!

Not LinkedIn,  not Facebook, not a little start-up, but the little local engine that could  and did go big time--Craigslist!

Jeremy writes: "

But this time it was different. Over the course of about three seconds, something clicked in my little brain and I realized that craigslist is a pretty unique combination of things: a small company with a solid financial base, a great service that I use myself, a focused groups of people who really care about doing things well, and an open-source friendly environment.

I replied that I might be interested myself and things kind of took on a life of their own from there. In the weeks that followed, I got the chance to meet much of the team (including CEO Jim Bukmaster and Craig himself). Each time I came away liking more and more about the team. I've also been impressed at how well the company takes care of its people and how thoughtful they are about making important decisions."

I think this is awesome.

"If I've learned anything from Spread Firefox, BarCamp, coworking and the like, it's that propaganda needs to be free to be effective. In other words, you're not going to convince people of your way of thinking if you lock down what you have, especially if what you have is culture, a mindset or some other philosophical approach that helps people narrow down what constitutes right and wrong."
and
"On the one hand, there's uncertainty about how to build a "national identity"-slash-business on top of lots of user data (that, oh yeah, I thought was supposed to be "owned" by the creators), and on the other, a model of the web, that embraces all its failings, nuances and spaghetti code, but that, more than likely, will stand the test of time as a durable provider of the kind of liberty and agency and free choice that wins out time and again throughout history."

-Chris Messina, writing at factory city about open standardsm data portability, and market competition, in this case for data, protocols and so called "open" code.

NYTimes columnist David Brooks keeps writing the coolest stuff. Here's some snippets from the latest, on the ascendency of geek culture:

"The jock can shine on the football field, but the geeks can display their supple sensibilities and well-modulated emotions on their Facebook pages, blogs, text messages and Twitter feeds. Now there are armies of designers, researchers, media mavens and other cultural producers with a talent for whimsical self-mockery, arcane social references and late-night analysis."

and

"Barack Obama has become the Prince Caspian of the iPhone hordes. They honor him with videos and posters that combine aesthetic mastery with unabashed hero-worship. People in the 1950s used to earnestly debate the role of the intellectual in modern politics. But the Lionel Trilling authority-figure has been displaced by the mass class of blog-writing culture producers."

Here's Alex Polvi's  sweet one from the Vidooop identity contest--(and maybe a reason to take a break from life in the Valley, see if you can spot what I mean):

I'll be at the Editor & Publisher conference in Las Vegas for the next couple of days, in support of the Knight Foundation announcement of the 2008 Knight News Challenge winners.

If you're not aware of this Knight program, it's a multi-year grant program that supports innovative ideas that use digital media and technology (mobile, platforms, etc.) to transform local and regional community news and support discourse in the commons. Knight has funded both very location specific projects and much more platform-driven efforts and these efforts have jump-started platform and tool development around local, community, news and even some social justice and accessibility issues,because of how well-distributed the funding has been.

Last year's News Challenge (2007) winners iwent to 25 individuals, and to private and public entitiesthat ranged from individual developers to  MIT to MTV. This year's list of winner's is equally cool, and the announcement of the winners is tomorrow.

In two weeks, I move out of the Silicon Valley area for a brief stint and head for the next great adventure. The work it's taken to get to this moment and the degree of focus getting a start-up into even a semblance of operating mode is considerable, and I feel like the longer, more reflected and crafted pieces I wanted to--and occasionally wrote and published--on this blog, have suffered.

Instead of commentary on social media, it's been tasks, chores, logistics, errands, recruitment, funding, operations, moving--all the time, pretty much (with some writing specs and planning).

Even my reading has narrowed down alot more into the startup stories--Hacker News is my new best friend.

So starting this week, I'll be doing more blogging about where leaving Yahoo has led me--to starting a new company--and about the start up experience in general.  My intent is to chronicle what happens to us over the next four-six months. I want to capture the experience of pulling a team together, creating a plan and a product, and share some of the stories of winding our way through the funding and focusing process, getting to alpha, and making real quality execution and value happen.  I've started alot of businesses, run my own consulting company, and been an exec building value at a number of big companies--but this is my first run at a true start-up--and the engines are reving now.

Meanwhile, I know many other people have knowledge and experience to share. So, iff you have great reading, great resources, or stories to share, please post in  the comments, or ping me directly...thoughts, comments, etc. welcomed.

Chuck , the SEO Rapper, Prophetic Prophet sez: "My 9 to 5 is in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Consulting at an agency called Pop Labs." These videos are where his passion lies--

Susan sez: No doubt there are many performances at web advertising sales meetings and awards dinners in Chuck's future.