Shel interviewed me last week for the upcoming FastCompany TV effort that he and Robert Scoble are spearheading. I thought it would be interesting to interview him back. He was nice enough to agree.

Can you send over 1-2 as-of-yet unpublished pics of you? Maybe back in your bartending days? Or if that’s dumb, maybe a pic of your dog/cat.

I don’t have any old pictures on digital. There are many flickr shots of me that you can pick from. My Dog’s name is Brewster, and I have tagged many shots of him. I have a Flickr folder called Brewster the wonder dog. My favorite is the shot of him running in the ocean taken by Pat Phelan.

Thanks a ton for doing this.

Send money.

You’ve been a cab driver, a bartender, a reporter, worked in PR, and are now a famous blogger (soon-to-be TV star). What’s one lesson from each job?

First, I would not call myself famous. If I were famous, I would get better seats in restaurants and people would let me skip in supermarket lines. In all four jobs, I learned the same lesson. Ask open-ended questions and let people tell you their stories. They will often surprise you. They will also appreciate that you listened and for that you will be rewarded.

If you could have a “naked conversation” with anyone alive or dead, who’s one person you’d love to interview? What’s the first thing you’d ask them?

Adam. I’d like to know what relationships were like before women went shopping.

What angle do you find yourself naturally gravitating towards and why does it fascinate you?

My glib answer is prone. I’d like to take more naps. My more serious answer is that in most debates, I wonder what is the fair solution. I favor open over closed. I prefer actions and products that benefit the many over the few. I like simple over complicated and I prefer the Boston Red Sox over any other sports team.

If you had to choose a company to work at for the next 5 years, which one would it be?

I have just started a relationship with FastCompany, and it may sound like self-promotion but this new video blogging gig is the opportunity I have dreamed of. I get to return to life as a journalist after a 25 year hiatus. I believe that video online over the next five years will be as ground-breaking and important as was radio in the 1920s. I am being allowed to cover what I like and I get to spend more time with Scoble. I kid Scoble a lot, but I find he has the best instincts for finding what’s new and important in areas where I have great passion.

What kind of reaction did you get to your open letter to Evan Willams and biz Stone?

I have posted more than 2,000 times on a wide variety of subjects. The pen Letter was the most responded-to post I ever published (with the possible exception of “What washer dryer should I buy“) . The interesting part is that no one disagreed with what I had to say. There was no conversation, just confirmation that Twitter is essential good. It’s performance sucks and it needs to get better or entire neighborhoods will simply pack up and leave.

What’s the most powerful, recent product demo you’ve seen?

I saw 2 at DEMO a few weeks ago that I think will change the world if the work as promised. The 1st is LiveScribe. This is a handheld pen that will sell for under $150. You write a word on a xeroxable treated page and when later you tap on that word, you hear a recording of what was being said at that time. That’s not the killer. The killer is it

can translate what is being said into seven languages. That would mean that I could have face to face meetings with people all over the world and this little device would translate in both directions. If it works, this is a world changer and the fact that it is PC independent makes it a most mobile of devices.

Second is Skyfire, which lets you browse on a mobile device as fast as you do it on a computer. At least that’s how fast it was during the three demos of it that I watched. If it is that fast in real life, then it brings us a significant step closer to the reality of our mobile devices being the only computer we need.

Why is SAP so interested in Social Media?

I would really prefer you ask SAP that question. I will put you in touch with Mike Prosceno if you want.

What are your initial objectives with GNTV? Will you collaborate with Scoble at any point?

GlobalNeighborhoodsTV (GNTV) is a video extension of the SAP Global Survey I started on my blog last June. I am focused on social media’s impact on culture and business. It will begin with me asking a highly diversified lot of people about social media. I’ve interviewed 25 people so far including you Sam, Ivan Chew (Singapore’s Rambling Librarian), Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester, Bob Lutz, vice chairman of GM, the founder of the two start ups I listed above and anyone else who I think is interesting or valuable to the general body of knowledge of social media. I don’t know where it will go in the longterm, but I trust viewers will take me to where it should go.

What sort of shit do you get for that picture of you and Scoble in the shower?

There is no photo of Scoble and me in a shower. BLEAH! I would never take a shower with him or anyone who resembles him. The photo to which you refer was a shot taken of Robert & I at the TechCrunch 5 launch party for our book. We took off our shirts and only our shirts. My excuse is that I was drunk, and I am extremely rarely drunk Robert’s excuse is that he is a shameless self promoter who will do anything when a camera is placed in front of him.