Early in the year, Race-Dezert.com was approached for the purpose of initiating an advertising campaign. A fraction of the initiative was unconventional and something I had yet to see upon the web. I wanted to park a brand's Facebook and Twitter widget in the direct line of site and embed it above the fold of editorial and community-created forum content. The conventional banner ad was a no-brainer. But the direct engagement social widget advertising was a request that seemingly fell upon death ears.

It was inevitable. I called it out the day I left. I understood full well, as managing editor (or "Managing Partner" =), who was taking reigns and how little they understood the dynamics of the industry and the core lifestyle of its community. It may have taken two years longer than I and many others had anticipated but it's official. Advastar Communications gave up Off-Road.com, selling it to (perhaps) a more formidably savvy web publisher, which appears geared to make gains on its investment straight way after squeezing the trigger. Off-Road.com, the once off-road industry mega site that was rumored to shut down its doors and even its web servers, sold to VerticalScope.

Do I stream? Do Ustream? Well, if you're considering launching a web cast that seeks to stream a live audio or live video show, then Ustream is an excellent platform to place your web streaming efforts into. I love the social media channel for its compartmentalized embed options, which can be easily tailored to your website's design layout. If you're not familiar with Ustream, a decent place to begin delving into how the platform works is found within the embedded video upon this page.

I have long touted the principle of self-sufficiency and regularly integrate it into my work ethic as well as the work itself. From an editorial standpoint, this translated into articles that identified the lifestyle of self-reliance. This played well, as most of my life after newspapers has existed in the outdoors or automotive world, specifically the off-road and powersports industries. Therein, my passion was for the real life application and core lifestyle aspect of the industry and not the overplayed editorial advertising puff pieces orchestrated through the overzealous marketing department. I loved the down home how-to articles on the techniques and methods that would make one effectively self-sufficient when embarking upon adventure.

Last week, on the crux of moving forward on several projects and completing critical phases of others I had a hard drive failure. Fortunately, I run my primary machine with multiple hard drives for real-time backup and likewise back them up via remote backup applications such as Carbonite. Now, in updating Google Docs for several real-time client collaboration folders, I figured it a good idea to further collaborate via Google Wave, and in doing so, I began to realize a powerful platform for every facet of my life in media. From managing editorial, business, ecommerce, advertising, marketing, publishing, planning and conceptualizing, Google Wave is a very interesting and highly extensible platform that ought to be considered for its potential power in communications.