Not too long ago, I came across a pretty amazing group of individuals united by a common inspiration. I’d been hearing about them since Fall ‘08 and finally had a chance in January to be a fly on the wall of what was the most awe-inspiring meetings I’ve attended in some time. They have a vision to sustain a very poignant dialogue on a grand scale, and I am in the fortunate position to help them do it.

Since then, I’ve been riffing on a couple ideas of how to sustain our collective goals on the web for a wider audience than will attend our event early this summer. The thing is, I work with some of the most talented designers and engineers who design many of the leading web properties in the world and even though I’ve been learning various web technologies in bits and pieces for a years now, I always fall into the same trap. Every time I learn how to make a drop down menu or an interactive graphic I’m taken aback by the complexity inherent in building a ZDNet.com or a CNET.com. I get lost trying to piece together my weekend accomplishments into a coherent whole, let alone a mind-blowing web experience. I decided that this time would be different.

I have most of the tools I need, and thanks to open standards the rest are pretty easy to obtain. So I’m setting out to learn as I go and build a dream site for a group that has inspired me to contribute my talents and hard work for a good cause.

What does this entail? I’m giving myself 30 days to build this beautiful web site, and in those 30 days I’m going to learn javascript to the extent necessary, and pick up as much elegant CSS as I can from the myriad sources around me. I’ve already gotten the support and assistance of colleagues and friends alike. I’ll be posting the resources I find useful, and snippets of the progress I’m making along the way. Check out my updates on Twitter as well as in 12 second video format for the more entertaining bits (at least I’d like to think so) and leave a comment or @reply.

As I get into it I’ll most likely reach out for help, tips and I will probably resort to live streaming on Justin.tv to share my agony, but it’s all for a great cause that I’ll share with you soon. As I sign off I’ll point you to (1) the resource I’m currently relying on for the basics, w3schools’ Javascript tutorial and (2) some of my initial handiwork.

I had to break my blogging silence to hype a couple of things that I’ve been into lately and get back into the swing of things.

First off, OMG AZIZ ANSARI IS THE GREATEST LIVE STANDUP EVER!!! I saw him at the Punchline last night and he was off… the… hook. I know I can’t shut up about it, but I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time and it was an amazing treat.

Secondly, check out Obopay who looks like they’re going right up against Paypal in the secure, peer-to-peer payment space  secure payment by text message. With backing from telecom and financial giants like Nokia, Citi, Verizon and MasterCard [I know!], the possibilities seem endless. There’s a great NYT article putting the company’s efforts in context with comments from CEO, Carol Realini. Building upon the profound gains of cell phone usage especially in third world markets Obopay is offering a simple and cheap mobile banking solution. More power to them!

Thirdly, [it's a bit of a shameless plug but] if you want to hear about some of the most interesting sites cropping up you MUST check out Rad On The Web, hosted by Neha Tiwari and Carlos Rodela. Each episode, they review a handful of sites all with the cultivated air of true nerdiness. Watch it!

With that, I’m off! I’ll be writing more soon, I promise.