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There is something about a New Year. Something fresh, a starting point. Something that makes us want to get rid of the old and bring on the new.  Something magical that happens the second the bell tolls midnight and the fall of the crystal ball brings on the New Year.

So what are your plans for the New Year?  What are your resolutions? What do you plan to leave behind?

Read more? Lose weight? Watch less TV? Eat the right foods? Get organized? The list goes on…

Every year I struggle a little with resolutions. Not because I can’t figure out some good ones that will apply but because within a few weeks or months it seems I have forgotten all of them. So this year is going to be different. Nope, no resolutions. Just a few things I need to resolve and here is my list;

• be better at following the “Golden Rule”
• embrace changes in my life (like kids getting married)
• work hard at being a better person
• help others succeed
• re-invent myself once again with my new businesses
• get a better haircut (LOL…but true)
• be a better Leader
• do the right things not just doing things right

Yup, nothing about food, weight, TV, exercise or organization. This year is about resolving things and when 2011 comes around, I want to honestly say, “I left the world a better place in some way last year.”

That will do.

A post on a friends blog spurred a chain of thoughts which lead to a little reminiscing which lead to this post…

• Remember when Twitter had no spammers, no MLMarketers, no DM’s offering free e-books on how to make a fortune?
• Remember when you had to be in college to use Facebook?
• Remember when Adam Curry did a “daily” Daily Source Code?
• Remember when everyone was saying, “Have you heard about this thing called PodCamp?”
• Remember when the hottest new marketing thing in the world was a place called Second Life?
• Remember when Google Feedburner was called Feedburner but before was called Burning Door?
• Remember when the term social media meant nothing?
• Remember the world before YouTube?
• Remember when you had to explain to everyone what a podcast is, what a blog is?
• Remember when iTunes opened up to podcasts?
• Remember when Mevio was called Podshow and Mevio Music Alley was called the Podsafe Music Network?
• Remember when the Podcast Expo became the Portable Media Expo which became the New Media Expo and now the Blog World and New Media Expo?
• Remember when no one, I mean no one used FriendFeed?
• Remember “Pownce?”
• Remember when the official name for a blog was “weblog?”
• Remember when Google launched adsense? or when people would ask, what’s a Google?
• Remember when reading your favorite blogs became easier with the creation of news feed technology, called RSS, by Dave Winer?

I could go on and on and on…I would love to hear some of your “remember whens.”

One wonders if there is justice in the world? In our society when someone feels they have been wronged there are laws to protect them. If the act is bad enough, someone goes to jail, if not…they just get sued. It is the “get sued” part where the cross hairs live for often a person may be unjustly sued (whether true or not) or in the opinion of a community unjustly sued (whether true or not.)

Earlier today Chicago Now reported that a tenant of Horizon Realty was sued for a “tweet” they sent regarding the place they lived. If you are bored and want to read the complaint, here it is;  Twitter lawsuit.pdf.  A woman with less than 20 followers on Twitter complained about mold in her apartment to a friend, so Horizon Realty sued her for $50,000 in damages.

The purpose of this post is not to agree or disagree with the lawsuit, but rather to point out when the online community turns on someone/something because they see injustice…the results can snowball. I mean snowball in a big way. One of the top tweet topics today are commentary from literally thousands of Twitter users spreading the word about the injustice they perceive.

Business can learn a big big lesson here.

Seek to resolve before you pull out the big guns. The lawsuit and report of the lawsuit has created a huge PR problem for this company. In a world where information is in real time one would think companies would adjust their actions to take the every changing world into account. Once the mob turns against you the damage is irreversable and the public relations nightmare just grows bigger and bigger.

What would I do? I would withdraw the lawsuit, address the issue, work towards a productive resolution for all parties and if at fault, I would stand up and let the community know I made a mistake and I am sorry.

Will this happen, only time will tell…but till then you can read the Twitter communtiy tweets about it here.

Yesterday I had the chance to watch a video produced by Google from a conference they held a couple days ago. The video was about a new communications/collaboration tool under development planned to roll out later this year. The name of the product is “Wave.” Granted the video is 80 minutes long featuring the development team that is creating Wave (the same brothers that brought us Google Maps) and all I can say after watching the video is…wow!

For a moment think of email, document sharing, mapping, texting, IM’s, picture sharing and more all built into one tool that delivers information instantly along with needed levels of security, accountability and functionality. Imagine a tool where client side applications can be added into the product to produce instant language transalation, polls and more. Then, on top of all that, imagine the addition of gadgets to add untold functionality to your communication. Then finally, it is open source. Which we know means third parties can produce applications for Wave that will give it even more powerful functions.

Once the video started I was quickly captivated by the demonstration of the product under development and instantly could see how it will change everything. I mean everything, email, sharing documents, project management, feedback & comments, instant messages and collaboration. If you don’t believe me, take the time to watch the video below. Then when you are done, wave hello to the future.

If you want to get in early on Wave, go here to sign up. http://wave.google.com/

This video is so impactful and relative, I had to post it… Watch it and see for yourself, would love to hear your comments.