Proximity
n. Nearness in place, time, order, occurrence, or relation.

Last September, I picked up my things and moved them to Dallas, Texas where my roots have been planted since high school. It has required a few adjustments on my part: more phone calls, more video conferencing, more time spent at airports, and even setting strict work hours for myself (so that I leave the house and interact with people face-to-face). The transition was seamless and it's been a blessing to be able to continue working with such great folks (clients and dittos) while also being close to my family.

Yesterday, I left my house at 6:30am headed south on I-35 to Austin for South by Southwest Interactive. I arrived at the airport (AUS) at 10:45 to pick up fellow-ditto Alan. While parking the car, I received a phone call. It was my hotel roommates who just arrived from New York, also at AUS in need of a ride. They saw a tweet of mine and realized we were all in the same place. The result: 4 people squeezed into my car, headed towards town by way of Guero's Taco Bar and the fun began.

The last 36 hours have truly been one big, crazy, social, beer and Mexican food filled social experiment. It has become very clear to me that proximity is pretty much irrelevant, a thing of the past like slouch socks, friendster.com, and proprietary software. Distance might make the heart grow fonder, but it doesn't keep people from staying in touch and staying connect. I've met up with 5 different folks here since arriving here who I hadn't seen in 2+ years (one of them I hadn't seen in 13 years!). Thanks to things like facebook, twitter, flickr, and blogging we've been able to stay in touch and up-to-speed on what each other is doing by means of ambient conversations. We seriously picked up exactly where we left off, no back-stories needed and no awkwardness (well no less than you would expect from a bunch of geeks at a tech conference).