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Social Media Club Atlanta and SoCon09

So had the opportunity to talk a little bit thursday and meet some folks for the first time at Manuel’s as social Atlanta showed up for 2 key sessions – Social Media Club Atlanta Chapter and planning for SoCon09.  The first part of the night was trying to figure out what to do for SOCon09, I more listened and distracted than added value, but I was there and tried to help.

SoCon09 is apparently the region’s premier social media thingy, so I’ll be there and apparently I’ll donate some time too.  If you are in Atlanta February 5 and 6, it should be a good time.  I really don’t know how you register, what it costs or like any of that  This is probably something I should know, but I don’t.

The best comment of the night was “Deal with it, Atlanta isn’t silicon valley” and that’s true, you don’t think cool technology or investment, wish I remember who said it.  That being said the level of interest, desire to improve and to develop interesting relationships is alive and well in the south.

photo by you.

The Social Media Club sucked up the second half of the night and provided for an interesting discussion with the active participants.  Peter Fasano definitely sparked a little conversation around the room with the discussion topic/theme of Retail and social media.

Many thanks to the Regator folks who bought drinks and for Tessa and Peter organizing it and getting the ~30 people together.

In the end, there are some really interesting folks in ATL doing this social media thing, some of which I knew about, other who I didn’t like Dan Greenfield.  My only complaint was it made for a rather late day, as I slid into the Unicorn to catch some band, who I equated to Nanci Griffith with a synthesizer. Not really a complaint and not really any bad times.

photo.jpg by you.

What’s Social Media Club?  Check it out and get involved!

Common Thought, a brilliant day and giving back!

I clearly meant to write this earlier, but been busy trying to figure out what the status of the day is with Heuer. I still kinda don’t know what’s up, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t honor the good work Creative Commons is doing. So while it is Blog Action Day and the kick off of the fund raising campaign for CC, I’m going to focus Fabiana Zonca’s photo below which I found via a “Thought” tag on Flickr.

Thinking of you by Fabiana Zonca.

Thinking of you

Also you can create a video on WHY it is important/you like it, you could also put up a widget up like I have or just donate via the widget on the right to Creative Commons.

Creative Commons? Be aware and support on 10/15

The momentum continues, a couple folks along with myself have just completed an effort with Social Media Club and Creative Commons to increase visibility for the groups and the creators which leverage Creative Commons licensing. This is one of the first deliverables in the Social Media Club’s 4 projects, increasing awareness and adoption for industry standards is central to the mission of the group. To that end, October 15, 2008 – TOMORROW – represents the first opportunity to evangelize the importance of standards and move this mission forward in partnership with Creative Commons.

So what can YOU do to help create more awareness around the important service Creative Commons provides? There are 3 ideas which certainly would help which have been bantered around, but I suspect the community can come up with more by October 15th. The key theme is just to identify a way to let folks know about the best practices around the sharing/creating of creative works leveraging a Creative Commons License. So which one of the below are you going to do?

  1. Post an article describing the services Creative Commons provides to content creators and why YOU think that is important.
  2. Add a widget to your blog to encourage financial support.
  3. Create and/or focus a creative commons licensed work via your preferred social media channel (Twitter, blog, facebook…)

So what are you going to do tomorrow? Doesn’t really matter, it only matters that you do SOMETHING.

Social Media Club: Standards update and Atlanta chapter

Well, I spent the better part of the week just submerged in work, but Aaron Strout and Chris Saad are already syncing up on data portability, Mark Resch over at Cerado is hooking me up with some creative commons folks and the 4 Missions and 4 projects are clearly underway, not just in writing, but in action as well.

So since others are working, I figure I have to continue some momentum on stuff I’ve been hoping to work. I’ve done a fair amount of outreach with limited input, but the input/questions I’ve had were mainly general questions on what some of the standards are, so I thought I would let you know a little more about them, where I actually know something or at least understand via their website.

What is Creative Commons? Well, in their own words:

Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. Our licenses help you keep your copyright while inviting certain uses of your work — a “some rights reserved” copyright.

In my words, it’s a way to share content and provide the RIGHT sourcing to provide the credit where credit is due. Social media has made access to content easier and represents an opportunity for chaos and CC looks to balance access and creative rights.

What is the Data Portability Project?

The DataPortability Project is a group created to promote the idea that individuals have control over their data by determining how they can use it and who can use it. This includes access to data that is under the control of another entity. Get a creative commons widget

What the heck are microformats?

Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patterns (e.g. XHTML, blogging).

I suspect that explaination doesn’t really do it does it, now does it? (edit/update: that’s an awful lot of does its – clearly directionally correct, but needs a little work) I’m still not sure what microformats mean for the average person, but I know it’s important or it wouldn’t be on the list darn it. My sheer lack of understanding has made this the lowest priority. Trust me, I’ve tried to figure this out and even after going to the wiki I’m still stumped on the value prop. Since I would like to learn before I engage I’ve sent Ben Ward an email – will let you know, but basically microformats describe stuff, for humans first and machines second. I may have also found my way in another way… we’ll see.

One ID/Username might be cool – OpenID please.

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.

You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to.

Open Web Foundation

Well, this is a new one which Chris added to the list, but definitely an important one, not sure how it has been overlooked until now, but better late than never. Even tho their mission seems a little lofty, looks like good stuff. Since it is new to the list and seems like an interesting agenda, the outreach is underway. Here is the basic high level overview:

The Open Web Foundation is an attempt to create a home for community-driven specifications. Following the open source model similar to the Apache Software Foundation, the foundation is aimed at building a lightweight framework to help communities deal with the legal requirements necessary to create successful and widely adopted specification.

Since there are definitely no shortage of opportunities to work on standards in the space, any other ideas let me know and I can bring it back to the group, or you could leave comments over at Social Media Club.

One of the other 4 projects is to expand media literacy and part of that comes through membership I would think. So looking to roll out an event in September 4 for Atlanta to start up again. We are finalizing the location, but tentatively it is at Tony’s on Holcomb Bridge in Roswell, other ideas are welcome as Sherry and I look to re-ignite the group with just a little help from others in Atlanta. Should have it solidified in the next week or so…