Modeled after Internet Week NY, Social Media Week, FotoWeek DC, Fringe Festival, etc… DCWEEK will consist of a series of distributed events produced and hosted by individuals, organizations and community groups. We’ve got all kinds of DC-peeps behind us so this is going to be city-wide and amazing.

DCWEEK is a time to do the following:

★ to learn from others through sessions, keynotes, workshops and panels
★ to meet new friends, clients, partners, investors and collaborators
★ to focus on the issues in DC that can be addressed in new ways
★ to come together to support innovative businesses, people and ideas
★ to showcase the DC area as an important region for technology, innovation and creativity
★ to work on projects that benefit the city and the world
★ to experiment with what’s possible
★ to have fun at some great parties

>>So, mark your calendar for  June 11 – 20, 2010 and…

1. RSVP TODAY to get updates: http://dcweek.eventbrite.com
2. Join the Facebook Group to meet others: http://bit.ly/dcwfbook
3. Follow us on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dcweek
4. Submit an event you plan to host: http://bit.ly/dcweform …If you want to get involved, you can:

• Host an event/session that explores a digital interest area
• Host a ‘studio tour’ to show off your stuff
• Host a party or fundraiser for a digital cause
• Create a project for execution that week

Get more info at http://digitalcapitalweek.org. It’s gonna be awesome.

Shiny Heart Ventures Announces Thankfulfor.com

The Shiny Heart team has two projects in the works:  one is more involved and it’s still in development (more about that later), and the other is just about ready for launch. It’s called Thankfulfor and it’s all about gratitude. We’ve talked with a few close friends and family about it and the first question we usually get is, why?  Well, why not?  As Jerry Maguire once said: “We live in a cynical world. A cynical world.” It’s the easy and expected path to resort to sarcasm and snark nowadays. But our mission is not to build products that remind people of jaded attitudes – it’s to build products that remind people of the joys of life. What better way to do that than to provide a way for people to take stock of the things – big and small – that they are thankful for each day. In my experience, when we are feeling thankful it’s just a hop and a skip away from feelings of happiness – and happiness is contagious, particularly across social networks. We have a perfect medium to take advantage of this and maybe do the world some good.

So, back to the point.

What is Thankfulfor?

Thankfulfor is a micro-blogging site focused on gratitude. You can enter up to 140 characters about what you are thankful for and post them to your personal “journal” of thanks, which can either be private or public. You can also choose to send each Thankfulfor post to your social network on Twitter (and soon Facebook), spreading the good vibes far and wide.

Thousands, maybe more, practice gratitude globally, many using gratitude journals where they write down a few things they are grateful for each day. Most of those people will tell you it’s more than just a journal – it’s a key to happiness and well-being. Thankfulfor promises to take the resources available today and develop tools for a growing generation of people interested in journaling their gratitude as well as expressing and sharing their thanks with others.

While we haven’t opened up the site to everyone yet, we’re very close. If you are in the DC area and want to be one of the first to see it, we will be demoing Thankfulfor at TECH cocktail DC at the LeftBank in Adams Morgan tonight, August 27.  Out-of-towners, sign-up for our email updates (above) and follow us at @iamthankfulfor on Twitter.

We are so thankful for all of you who are here and supporting us in your own way. We hope you’ll give Thankfulfor a try. More to come soon!

Frank Gruber and Jen Consalvo work near the pool at the Hilton Embassy Row Hotel in Washington, D.C. They pay $15 a day for pool access. WASHINGTON POST / TONI L. SANDYS

We’ve had some major excitement here at SHV recently. As you may have seen in one of the nine ten (and counting) major press outlets that featured our story, we (Jen & Frank) were recently profiled as part of Mike Rosenwald’s (@mikerosenwald) story on Digital Nomads. Now we know there are many, many people out there who have lived this way for years and we are somewhat new to the game. But that makes it even more exciting for us and in a way, makes us feel like we’ve found our tribe. We love discovering blog posts and tweets from people whose work lives reside outside of an office (whether they work for themselves or not) – and sharing info about how they get things done. We’ve received so much encouraging feedback – we’d just like to say thank you! Also, a few things…

1. Many of you are asking about what we’re going to launch and when. We should have one announcement in the next 2-3 weeks so make sure you sign up for our email updates (at the top of this page) or follow us on twitter so you are one of the first to know what’s going on.

2. No, we don’t spend a lot of money working from places like the Hilton pool. That was one place we had wanted to try out for a while, but will reserve for only special occasions since they charge extra for the wifi. Frank does actually go into the AOL office as much as he can when he’s in town (but most of his team is distributed across the country anyway) and Jen works from home (she calls it “the nest”) to save money. Both of us like to mix it up once in a while though and keep looking around for interesting new places – especially on the weekends and when on the road, since for us, work doesn’t really stop. To understand this “connected 24/7″ life, check out Peter Shankman’s post “Why don’t you do some work?“.

3. If you haven’t seen the article, here are some links… sorry, can’t resist! This is our first version of a “Press” page

• WashingtonPost.com – Digital Nomads Choose Their Tribes: Teleworkers Find Camaraderie in a New Kind of Colleague
• WashingtonPost.com – Digital Nomads Choose Their Tribes VIDEO
• HeraldTribune.com – Roaming through the work day
• MercuryNews.com – Digital nomads ditch cubicles for diners and pool decks
• SiliconValley.com – Digital nomads ditch cubicles for diners and pool decks
• Los Angeles Times – With wireless devices, telecommuters cut the cord
• Jakarta Globe – For Digital Nomads, the Office Is Wherever They Want to Be
• Omaha World Herald at Omaha.com – Digital nomads ditch cubicles for coffee shops, pool decks
• Austin Statesman.com – Digital nomads ditch cubicles for cafes pools: With Wi-Fi lifelines and willing employers, workers ply their trade wherever they please
• The Seattle Times – Cubicles foreign to digital nomads
• TheDay.com Connecticut – Digital Nomads Ditch Cubicles For Diners And Pool Decks