It's Alive!

Or, at least, it's a start. Ladies and gents, we have a name. We are ... 8020 Publishing. More soon.

Who are you guys?

Derek and Paul both have backgrounds in Photojournalism and have paid their dues in newsrooms. Since 1995, they've both been working the web as designers and consultants.

Paul was Managing Director for the North American branch of Deepend, an award-winning UK-based web consultancy, from 1999 to 2001. He then founded Theorem, a multi-disciplinary design firm specializing in interactive product development. As Theorem, he helped launch Current TV, a groundbreaking television cable channel where the shows come from their viewers, and relaunch BitTorrent, the revolutionary file-sharing technology.

Derek's focus online has always been on websites that give their users a voice. He worked on early virtual community pioneering sites like HotWired and Electric Minds (with virtual community firebrand Howard Rheingold). He even wrote a book about it all called Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places. Derek's been involved in blogging since before it had a name as the Creative Director of Blogger (1999-2000) and Senior Designer of Technorati (2004-2006). And he's been a creative spirit since the early days founding projects like Fray and City Stories. He's currently the cofounder of JPG Magazine, the quarterly of brave new photography.

Friends for years, Derek and Paul teamed up in 2006 to found a new creative design agency. But within their first few weeks of collaboration, they hit upon an idea for another business that was too good to pass up. So they scrapped the design studio and started building something else. More on that soon.

Photos from the Great Decubification of 2006

We moved into our new office last weekend. Step 1: Discombobulate the old horrible cubeness. Step 2: Set up the new hotness. So far, so good.

Money Tree

Those who know me know I name all my plants Fred. It's a long story. Anyway, today I came into the new office to find an office-warming gift from my mom. It's a Money Tree! Thanks, mom! :-)

Nothing says "startup" like a van full of IKEA

The Starting of a Startup

This is the blog for the startup that Derek and Paul are working on. What are we building? You'll see.