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Technology

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…

August 8, 2008 by
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It’s a BIGG Network and A Real Pleasure

This is a guest-post from Mary-Lynn and George of the Bigg Success Show where she and George share their life, their interviews and years of expertise to their audience/listenership/readers. Yup, they have talent AND good things for folks to grok on – a radio reality check.

It is with great appreciation and respect that I post this piece, which well – made me blush and Emily is always reminding me that real people are just as valuable as “friends“, if not more valuable.

This post is really timely, since I’m posting this right now from the cabin overlooking a great morning valley view, getting back to basics – people, family and the outdoors.

Thanks for the post, the reminder and kind words. I did decide to put a couple of reactions inline, in bold/Italics, which could be considered editing, but thought I should share a little bit my reaction and Emily’s for y’all.

Merging Your Networking Worlds


We sure are social! Social networking and social sharing sites are among the most popular on the internet. We can make friends all over the world. Yet some people haven’t jumped on the social networking bandwagon.

At the same time, business networking groups are also growing. We crave interaction with other people and we’ve realized that there is tremendous power in our network. Yet some people have abandoned traditional networking for the most part.

We think it’s best to use both methods because each of them has its own significant advantage. (@emmyeg: “Told you so Jon”)

Social networking is more transparent


Social networking offers a significant advantage over traditional networking – networks are more transparent. For the most part, we can see each other’s friends.

With offline networking, you may see someone you know with a few friends or colleagues. However, short of a significant event (e.g. a wedding), you usually don’t see his or her extended group.

With social networks, you can browse your friend’s entire list of connections. You know all the people they know within that particular site. You can grow your base of friends much more quickly than you may offline.

Traditional networking offers fuller communication
When you’re online, you can LOL. You can :). There are ways to communicate who you are, but your true personality doesn’t fully come out.

If we talk on the phone, more of “you” comes through. Even better, when we meet in-person, your full dynamic is on display. That’s the richest form of communication.

We have a great example of this. We subscribe to Jon’s RSS feed for Spatially Relevant. We read every post. While a lot of Jon’s personality comes through, we’re glad we’ve met him in person and witnessed him giving a great presentation. (JG: Thanks for the feedback, I was completely nervous as it was my first social media pitch in public, but it was good to have both George and Mary-Lynn from a confidence perspective)

That’s where you truly see how energetic he is. You get the full sense of his fun-loving spirit. You see how truly brilliant he is (JG:blushes, not quite sure about that). Blogs, e-mails, instant messages, social networks, and all other forms can’t duplicate the experience of meeting someone in person.

Merge your networking worlds


Our point is this – merge your networking worlds. The real power in a network comes when your online and offline efforts work seamlessly together. You may be part of a virtual group that organizes a meeting in the real world. You can easily stay in touch with people online that you met offline.

Don’t stick your head in the sand … explore a social network or two. Don’t hide behind a computer … get out where the people are.

Because that’s the bottom line – networking, whether online or offline, is about people. It’s about building meaningful relationships. The richness of the human experience lies in experiencing humans.

(Emily: “Yup, so glad we met them, good people without a doubt”)

August 2, 2008 by
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It’s Marketing! Because they said it is…

Why are marketers so often not interested in doing something new or rethink some of their base assumptions. Too often technology marketers are too “inside the four walls”, a little too technical or distracted to go back and re-examine core assumptions. Should try and do it as much as possible.

One of the biggest challenges/rat holes many marketers get into is being unwilling to make something up or to look at your product/market in a different way. The challenge is how can you deconstruct and repackage something most everyone already has and make it differentiated. Is there a opportunity to create a position on something or highlight capabilities which in an average day might just be something you expect out of a product and call it something new? Pretty common thing for most product and market folks – you hang around a product so long you forget what is the value add. Today’s general market example of this is Pretzel Dip.

I eat a good deal of pretzel’s and I’ve never thought about buying pretzel dip, instead I spend that extra time putting mustard on a plate for dipping and occasionally adding in cheese. Pretzels have just gotten cooler – they have dips now.

While I didn’t purchase the pretzel dip, I was definitely pleased to see someone creating a niche cheese category. The value isn’t the cheese or the mustard – it’s both together. Novel concept – Chocolate and Peanut butter

While you can never get enough cheese innovation – are there technology examples? Sure, I’ll use my hosting provider – MediaTemple.

Grid Schmid

I’ve spent the better part of the last 5 years test driving hosting providers, Yahoo!, Network Solutions, Go Daddy and a few of the other cheap providers – all had some quality of service issue I didn’t like. Yahoo! sucked with anything which required a data base, the others were slow and some didn’t have ANY customer service. After trial and error, I’m now go to my MediaTemple almost religiously, even though it is a little clunky. The control panel requires too many clicks and setting up a redirect is nearly impossible, but I’m not dissatisfied at all.

I am currently a user of a Grid Server, a product who’s sole value prop is we keep your site running. I would think that most hosting providers have some sorta high availability plan to keep sites up, but not that many give it a name. That’s the idea – sometimes just giving something a name is cool marketing.

Once you have a cool name, you can have mini-taglines like the Grid Servers “Clustered Burstability”. That was enough marketing to suck me in for the initial purchase. MediaTemple is naming all kinds of stuff and letting me know about it. It appears they are indeed naming features and infrastructure components.

In theory, with the burstability of my Grid Server, I’m good should I write anything of real interest need to scale a little. After all, I’m in to them $20/mo — Oh but wait – you NEED a container to really make sure your site stays up.

Gotta Have a mySQL Container!

After migrating and setting up my first site, I began to read about the mySQL container in my cPanel. Quick thought – hmmm, what if I do write something interesting and then I get all bound with mySQL queries? Yup, gotta have a container for another $20/mo. So while I think bought another thing I’m pretty sure I don’t need – the entry level mySQL container, I really don’t want to shut it off. So now, whether I need it or not, I’m up to $40/mo in MediaTemple services, mainly because they gave something a name, which convinced me I had to have it without TALKING to a single person ever.

What can YOU Make up?

So as you look at what you do – what is something you do which could be repositioned as a value add if you just packaged it up?

MediaTemple is at it again they have just convinced me that with a reasonably usable repackaging of the user configuration tools as the newly launched uControl I should be happy…

Oddly I am.

Because they said so..

July 6, 2008 by
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