The video features a group of Portland High School youths speaking to the camera about their views on invention, robots, engineering, opportunity, discovery and more. They speak to their involvement. To others involvement. They speak to a need to empower their lives – to get to where they want to be. To discover their place in the world and their individual path to the future.

Here are the goods:

Here’s the screen caps:

Sean’s pink ball

Hobbit bowling mystifies

Dudes being dudes

The end of days

Jared whooped our butts!

The crew breakdown

Cory // El Capitano

The captain made it happen and finagled several strikes to lay down a solid night on the lanes. Not only that, but he let out an awesome growl/grunt every time he sent one ripping down the lanes!

Ryan // Hulk of Backend

Ryan made it clear that he was already kind of drunk by the time we arrived at the alley. This didn’t keep him from dropping pins like nobody’s business. There were also plenty of hobbit jokes, the best being:

You knocked that pin all the way back to the Shire!
-Short Timer

Sean // The Animator

The Animator got his drink on but forgot to get his game on. On one game he only scored a 67, but that was with a 9 point error from the computer, so it was really only a 58! He blamed it on the alcohol, I blame it on the Flash!

Plus he had no style on the lanes, and he bowled the whole night with a bright pink ball…

Brandon // Junior Intern

I dropped two gutter balls in a row to start the night off. But, I turned it around, took a tip from Jared and bowled a 154 my final game. Not bad for the Junior Intern, eh!?

Plus, check out that style on the release!!!

Jared // Short Timer

Such finesse! I think the pictures can basically speak for themselves for this guy. He’s a seasoned vet and he didn’t hold back!

Look at that dedicated approach!

And he’s taking points away from me…

And Jared bowls a stellar 197

Are you a person that makes websites, in any shape or form? If so, take the A List Apart (ALA) survey. Since 2007, ALA has conducted a survey of web professionals with the objective of determining position classes, defining job roles, salaries, etc. The 2009 survey was just announced.

The results are made public and, I think overtime, could provide vital human capital information for the industry at-large. (I can call it an industry right?).

If you think about it, ours is somewhat a new field. Our roles are perhaps formally defined by only 15 years of practice. Often our titles are self defined, determined by old-school design protocols and/or terminology that evolved out the “new economy” of the late 1990s. (Ouch – remember that?).

As a person who makes websites, my own titles have included: Webmaster (my least favorite), Web Coordinator, Web Communications Director, Information Architect, Information Strategist, Strategist, User Experience Architect, User Interface Developer and Interactive Project Manager.

I wonder what’s to come. Maybe if enough of us take this each year, I will eventually have an easier time knowing what to say the next time I have to determine my job title. So, help a girl out – take the survey and pass the word along.

Behance Network

This online community of designers, artists and creatives offers quite a bit of customization to colors and some layout options for portfolio display. Behance has a very healthy supply of great work by great creatives and supplies a very long list of selective fields to tag yourself under. Join and create Circles to narrow down your network and find other creatives to collaborate with. And, of course, you can always appreciate work that strikes you as awesome.

Flickr

Flickr is a great resource to find imagery as well as share it with others. I would gear this Website more towards photography and design resources, however, you can use Flickr as a way to share portfolio work as well. Another good use for this Website is to share inspirational imagery or just keep a quick and handy gallery of your inspirations for use at any time.

Vimeo

Vimeo is a little the opposite of Flickr. Here keep a selection of your short films, motion graphics or flash animations.

Carbonmade

Carbonmade is easy to use, though I would not consider its overall display of work nor organization to be quite as good as that of Behance. When you start getting into portfolio’s its browsing UI degrades slightly. Nonetheless, it still ranks as a good place to show your work and get more eyes on it.

Coroflot

Corflot creates a network that is easier to navigate than Carbonmade and more user friendly. It has a lot of similarities to Behance in terms of appreciating work, categorizing in sets or projects and displaying information about the artists. With over 164,000 portfolios, give it a shot!

Design:Related

Honestly, this is not my favorite. I wouldn’t consider this one to be the most UI friendly site in this list and its overall display of your work doesn’t quite compare to that of Coroflot or Behance. Again, probably wouldn’t hurt to try it out though.

Deviant Art

Ah, Deviant Art! You are likely to find just as much work you could care less about as you are to find some very amazing work. It is definitely worth it to browse the site every once and awhile to see some pretty great stuff from almost any artistic field. All in all, its probably not the most professional option.

Shown’D

This site incorporates some sexy jQuery into its portfolio viewing, however, really leaves you stranded once into a portfolio. The only way out is a link back to the home page. This site would benefit from some better UI throughout but remains an interesting spot to show your stuff.

Wordpress

As odd as it may seem, Wordpress is a decent option for displaying your work. With as many of the available themes out there, the ability to quickly put together a blog/portfolio is incredible. Obviously I still suggest taking the time to design and build your very own custom theme, but if you’re someone who doesn’t mind pre-made templates you can be up and running in no time.

Dennis captures it:

Recently I learned that emergency responders often scroll through the cell phones contact to find ICEs. Brilliant! Simply add ICE to your list of contacts, program in the number, and, voila, if you are ever in trouble, responders can easily get a hold of your ICE. And, for good measure, you can add a few ICE numbers (ICE 1, ICE 2, and so forth). Quick, go program your parents (and kids) phones.

So, what does this have to with the iPhone?

Well, for those that have special medical needs, I also learned that there is application called ICE that stores more extensive information, such as conditions, medications, doctors, etc. It also overrides the iPhone lock feature if a user has set this up.

And, this got me thinking about all the ways in which iPhones and other smart (and not so smart) mobile devices are a collection of personal tools. So, while sharing ICE with the Opus Creative gang, I asked folks what are their favorite phone applications (I mean tools).

Lindsey (User Interface Developer)
“Oregon Trail. I played it in school as a kid, now it’s my ideal way to pass time, like in the dentist’s office. It’s soooooooooooooo fun. Oh, wait, I also would say Tweetie and Things. Oh, and PDXBus. Oregon Trail is fun though.”

Ryan (Project Manager)
“Definitely AroundMe, Paper Toss and Craigslist. Really, I can’t decide.”

Kara (Senior Strategist)
“I have a wicked addiction to Wurdle. I can’t stop playing. Luckily, it’s much better with the sound on, so I can’t sneak play it. There are applications that are clearly more useful, but this is my favorite.”

Dennis (Creative Director)
“Apple Remote. My daughter’s favorite app is Trivial Pursuit. Facebook, Now Playing, and Around Me tied for a close 2nd.”

Erika (Account Director)
“Facebook, Now Playing, Around Me, and Weatherbug are the ones I use the most – plus I like to play various games with my daughter.”

Mary (Human Resources Manger)
“Slacker or Pandora Radio. So easy. Or, then there’s Mint and Google Maps – gosh, I use that all the time. And my daughter LOVES Peanut Butter jelly and Time Noise Trio. You should see her dance to it, so cute!”

Anne (Art Director)
“There’s Nearby, which locates you on the map and then you can search ‘Drug Store’ for example to find what’s near you; there’s Epicurious that lets you search recipes by ingredient, so if you’re standing in the store and see that avocados are on sale you can find what else you should pick up with them; GasBag for nearby gas prices and I couldn’t live without TrimetTracker to see when buses are going to arrive. For fun there’s MoonPhase and FingerPiano.”

Joel (Production Designer)
“My girlfriend has Grocery IQ on her phone and I’m a fan. Great grocery-list app. She can even email me the list in the store so we can break it up and shop separately.”

Related posts:

1. Facebook to the rescue
2. The Under-Utilized Side Of Social Media
3. Facebank?

Though only available on the Android phone and in the Netherlands, Layar has done a nice job pulling together GPS, camera and web data into one app. But I think augmented reality apps will take-off once they allow for greater personalization. It’s one thing to pick up on the latest house for sale and quite another to allow for personal filtering like overlaying the digital notes/thoughts/recommendations from a friends previous ramble through Amsterdam. Or for that matter, enabling real-time augmentations.

 - Keith Gerr

Related posts:

1. The Sovereign Consumer
2. Best Buy CMO Has Become An Ad Unit
3. Game-Changers