Member Newsletter #1

Brian Bailey -

Happy Winter Solstice!

From time to time, we'll drop a note in your inbox about the site and community especially for you, the 100 founding members of Uncommon in Common. It may be a bit of news, question, or work in progress. As seasons and rhythm are one of my favorite Uncommon ideas, I thought the solstice was the perfect excuse for the first edition.

Tangibly Uncommon

We finished mailing the Tangibly Uncommon envelopes last Friday. I had the privilege of delivering a few in person and it was so much fun, I wish I could've met up with each of you over a warm or cold beverage. It's been delightful to see the tweets and photos. Thanks to Keeg for capturing the package so well with this photo. I can't to see the stickers and buttons in the wild. Hopefully they lead to some interesting conversations.

Colin and Daniel have taken to wearing the string from the package as a reminder to slow down and savor experiences, which is brilliant. Then they started dreaming up a leather Uncommon band (not a musical group). Can someone make 100, please? :)

When you open your envelope, you'll find the one piece of Tangibly Uncommon I kept secret — an original essay by Kathy Sierra, a founding member and one of my favorite people. If you're not familiar with her, these two posts from last year are great places to start. If you see "Kathy Sierra" on a conference list of speakers, go. Seriously.

I hope you have a chance to enjoy Kathy's essay and Jack Cheng's wonderful preface* over the holidays, as well as spend time with the three postcards. We're excited to see them arrive in our mailbox and start creating beautiful stamps for your favorite things.

Meet and Greet

A number of you have mentioned how excited you are to meet your fellow founders. I would love to send a simple list of everyone's name and a link to where they can be found online (a temporary solution, of course). Though Uncommon is a community, I still thought it best to ask first. If you'd prefer to not be included in such a list for now, or if you have a preference for first name only or a specific link (or no link at all), please let us know.

December 26 will mark six months since the first post about Uncommon. Thanks to each of you for helping start this new community. If you ever want to chat, just drop me a note and we'll arrange it. And you are contractually obligated to let me know if you visit Austin :)

Happy holidays to you and yours!

Brian

  • If you look closely, you'll find an inspired, but completely accidental, tie between Jack's preface and @etherbrian's print.