Thanks everybody that braved the morning’s #memsnow.
(Metaphorically) it was great to meet around the Expedition fire (while it was snowing) fresh with tales from the wild. It was great to share the time with everybody along with two new folks: Liz Jostes (our speaker) and Bryan Burnett of O.R. Nurses, Inc.
It was great to hear what’s happening with the CA’s StartupMemphis site. Check it out and don’t miss Dowd’s Cloud! Thanks James!
Awesome discussion about the many ways to use DropBox, and other great utilities out there like HeyTell and (my favorite) ShowMeWhatsWrong.com (Thanks Bryan!).
Liz did an outstanding job walking us through Klout. Not only did she share the scoring, and some of the controversy about Klout, but she also shared a side by side comparison of her own experience. Check it out: Klout’s not for everbody, and not for Liz (anymore). Here’s her Klout (BarCamp Memphis version) presentation on SlideShare. Great work Liz!
Saturday: MobileCamp Memphis!
MobileCamp Memphis is this Saturday. Please register at http://mobilecampmemphis.com/register – and if you’d like to present, let us know so we can get your topic on the list.
So the podcast is undergoing a series of logistical trial and error tests. New formats. New segments. Some delays in getting it out to you. To make it up to you, though, we bring you a fascinating interview with the creators of the Children of the Wall film project, Sarah Bolton and Eric Swartz. Never imagined Memphis had much in common with Berlin? Think again. These filmmakers set off for Germany to document the rise of artistry in Berlin after the fall of the wall in 1989, and they found that gentrification of the city was driving the artists away from the city. Then, they realized the same thing was happening right here in our own backyard.
Sarah brought her findings to IgniteMemphis 2 (photo to right), and she and Eric hope to have their film ready for viewing in late March. Listen in and check out the Children of the Wall website for more information on this awesome project. Find more of Eric’s film work at Event One Media, and connect with the Children of the Wall project on Facebook and with Sarah and Eric on Facebook too!
You will also hear a neat social fundraising tool mentioned in the interview, IndieGoGo. The Children of the Wall campaign has ended, but if you’re looking to raise some dough (and aren’t we all?), you’ll definitely want to give this site a look.
Dave tosses out some much deserved props to the Memphis community for utilizing Twitter to get out information about the recent inclement weather and to Google for delivering a heavy blow to content farms. If you can decipher the stockmarket, you can check out the effects over time on Demand Media Inc (a high traffic content farm) here. In our new tech corner segment: the world has gone app crazy. If you’ve got the app fever, and depending on which side of the Google v. Apple debate you fall on, you’ll either want to check out the Chrome App Webstore or previews of Apple’s new app-centric OS, Lion, which is due out sometime this summer. On the former, I highly recommend Scribble, a note-taking app, and I look forward to faster versions of two neat apps: Post Post and GoodNoows. Fun fact – it would appear those links for Chrome Web apps do, in fact, work in Firefox… weird.
We’d also like to give a shout out to our friends at the Commercial Appeal who are putting together a video podcast called Clicks and Coffee. The episodes are only a few minutes long, so go have a look!
Thanks for coming out to Twilight Camp last night! While we usually gravitate towards the news of the week and latest apps, last night’s discussion revolved primarily around an idea called Collaborative Consumption. If you’ve ever couchsurfed, you know the idea.
And that idea is this: “Collaborative Consumption describes the rapid explosion in swapping, sharing, bartering, trading and renting being reinvented through the latest technologies.” Basically, the social world has created an opportunity for expansion, collaboration, and efficiency. Last week, we were discussing some movies (The Social Network) and TV shows (Six Feet Under) at the office, and decided to just swap out titles out amongst each other, rather than renting them elsewhere. Ultimately, collaborative consumption magnifies “what’s mine is yours.”
That said, you should try it out. Here are some sites ready for you to consume, collaboratively:
Today’s breakfast had a great crowd, which was fantastic because we crowd-sourced our topic! To kick off the year, we decided to ask Expeditioners for their Predictions for 2011 in social media and technology. It seems many of the members are placing their bets on QR codes and mobile devices. Of course it’s all speculation, but it’s fun. We know the Next Big Thing could come from a completely unpredictable source, but here are a few of the developments we’re looking forward to…
2010 saw mass migration to social media, but 2011 could be a different story. Expeditioner Lorrie predicts that the rate of new adopters will drop in 2011, but that previous adopters will get even more savvy, increasing the quality of their engagement and conversations.
Mary anticipates that (like we did with our topic today) more brands will crowd-source ideas, and then award those who contribute. They won’t have to send out surveys or call for customer feedback, they can just ask for suggestions on their Facebook page. Doritos, Pepsi, Dominoes, and Starbucks are already experimenting with crowd-sourcing their product advertising, and we’re thinking it’s about to boom.
Then, Aaron thinks 2011 will see the rise of mobile. The Verizon iPhone, affordable Android phones, the new iPad, and new tablets will put mobile devices in more hands than ever.
Ansley’s prediction goes hand-in-hand with the popularity of mobile – the decline of the app. In 2010, there was “an app for that.” In 2011, we’re likely to see “a mobile site for that,” where brands turn to HTML5 to create a beautiful, interactive, touch-screen compatible site instead of spending time on a stand-alone application.
Tim thinks there will be no white iPhone in 2011. Joe says Google will dominate the world. Or at least dominate the cloud with their new operating system, Chrome OS. It’s in beta now, but this OS stores all your data from photos to music to documents online (in “the cloud”), so you can access them from anywhere.
On a serious note, net neutrality will become a major issue. It will also be the topic of one of our upcoming breakfasts. We will begin to explore what it means for the Internet to be a truly global community, and we will face censorship conflicts. Privacy will deteriorate even further as what walled gardens are left become translucent, and (we believe) people will continue to share online despite the risks.
Most Expeditioners peg 2011 as “The Year of the QR Code.” These (so far) under-utilized bar codes could be everywhere pretty soon, as more people have the smartphones to read them. Make your own QR code with BeQRious or ScanLife, or with a URL shortener like Goo.gl, Bit.ly, or Budurl. Then, get an app on your smartphone to read them! The ScanLife app is good one.
Once we’ve got all these QR codes, and people are scanning everything, we’re also likely to see a rise in push notifications for coupons. Someday soon, your phone may know you’re on the grocery store aisle with the tomato sauce, and send you a coupon! Read up on this new trend on Dave’s blog.
A few other resources (not really predictions, per se) that were mentioned during the breakfast:
Quora – a Question/Answer site that hasn’t been loaded up with a lot of junk (like Yahoo Answers).
New Facebook Messages – Get the new Facebook messaging system that will integrate your texts and email.
Our final predictions come from Dave, who anticipates a rise in apps geared towards cutting down on technological distractions. For instance, there could be an app to collect your new message notifications and consolidate them into a single digest that comes to you ever hour, or every five. More vitally, perhaps we’ll see better apps to cut down on texting while driving, an issue AT&T takes up in a compelling ad. Find more of Dave’s predictions here.
Don’t forget about Twilight Camp on the 20th. Plus, get ready for the 48 Hour Launch – a great chance for any entrepreneurs and skilled collaborators to give life to the Next Big Idea!
This is our 16th episode. We’re growing up so fast – and Elizabeth still hasn’t gotten the hovercar somebody promised her. And while we’re coming of age, social media shows no signs of stopping its growth and constant reinvention.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took place recently, and the nascent gadget freaks in us await January’s unveiling of shiny new toys as though it were Christmas proper. Everyone wants in on the act.
While we’ve been telling people for a long time to go ahead and grab the Twitter username you want before someone else does, it seems that Twitter will soon begin releasing usernames that seem to have been abandoned.
If they delete and release these usernames all at once, expect there to be an absolutely insane landgrab, like when Facebook suddenly allowed custom usernames and URLs.
Unfortunately, when it comes to usernames, you can’t always get what you want. But if you try canonical URLs, you’ll get what you need – an easy way to tell your audience how to find your social presence.
Elizabeth Cawein, Matthew Crawford Trisler, Eric Mathews, and Dave Barger
Eric Mathews stopped by our office to drop some knowledge on us about how two Mercury Technology Labs startups – Marks Menus and Into Outdoors – are leveraging social technologies to achieve their goals and provide functionality.
Eric notes that if Memphis wants to maintain a vibrant entrepreneurial community, then what’s going on in that community needs the city’s attention.
The Memphis Flyer gets that – and “20 Under 30,” the cover story of their latest issue, takes that idea to the general public. The story focuses on 20 of the most influential Memphians, most of whom bring attention to how great it can be to live here – and at least two of them are local social luminaries.
Stephen Hackett made the list – not for his “#gojgo” campaign, like Matthew says in the podcast (he hadn’t seen the paper yet, just the list of who was on it) – but for a post on his blog, Fork Bombr, about how if we want Memphis to be a better place, we need to take responsibility for making it so.
And there’s @ILoveMemphis herself, Kerry Crawford Trisler, married to our own Matthew Crawford Trisler (whose heart beats faster at just the sound of her name). Her efforts on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and the I Love Memphis Blog have earned her not just a spot on the Flyer’s list, but the cover.
Congratulations to everyone on the list – that’s a big honor, and you all deserve it!
Please join us tomorrow – Friday – for the Core Conversation podcast. This time around we’ll be talking about Creative Commons, Copyright/Copyleft issues, and promoting music online with the Creative Commons Foundation and Eric Maskol, who wrote our crazy-catchy theme music.
Do take some time between 11:30 and 12:30 to join us. You can call in to the Core Conversation at 646-721-9429.
As for the Social Expedition Podcast we’ve been talking about all this time, you can Download it here, listen in the player at the bottom of this post, or click the iTunes logo to subscribe.
But it wasn’t all about Google — we gave Facebook a little attention as well, mostly because lately Dave can’t stop talking about the Suicide Machine. Facebook has blocked access to the service, so if you want to delete your Facebook presence you’ve still got to do it the old-fashioned way. Dave sees this as a potentially big faux pas on the part of our friends at Facebook — Marky Z, as Dave calls him — but we’re not all in agreement on that point.
And of course, our guest this week is the lovely Rachel Hurley — perhaps better known to some of you as Rachel And The City — who manages the social media happenings at Ardent. She talks to us about the evolution of social media in band promotion at Ardent, but also lots of stuff she’s learned along the way, from the true value of Twitter to finding the right kind of followers.
Be sure to join us tomorrow as usual for the Core Conversation, kicking off at 11:30 a.m. CDT. We’re talking about the recent Social Fresh conference in Nashville as well as online privacy — when was the last time you had a look under the hood of your Facebook profile to see just what the man knows about you? Call and weigh in at (646) 721-9429 or listen live here.
You can download the podcast, stream it via the player below, or subscribe in iTunes.
Here’s the consensus in our office: 2010 is pronounced “twenty-ten.”
Today we’re talking about snow days – Elizabeth apparently got out of school for rain once.
"Snow Elvis Statue" by mrbrent62 on Flickr
We’re also talking about something you might do during your day off – the Facebook’s Community Council – helping to police for offensive content on Facebook through crowdsourcing.
You might also want to drink something warm, like coffee – and Google’s new Caffeine search engine algorithm may or may not be released, but it’s certainly going to affect the way social activity reflects in your search engine rankings.
But what’s kind of lame about snow days is that they make it difficult to get out and mingle with friends – say, at tweetups like the one we had Tuesday at South of Beale, welcoming Jeremiah Owyang to Memphis for a brief stay, or to our Social Expedition Breakfasts, like the one Wednesday, where Eric Mathews presented.
Rather than drive to events like that in snowy weather, it might be safer to just call a good friend. Thom Rigsby, for example, joined us on the phone from Huntsville, Ala., where he lives and works as a blogger and social media strategist.
We talked with him about the importance of getting out and meeting people in meatspace, and what he thinks 2010 will bring to the social sphere.
Don’t forget that the Core Conversation call-in podcast will start back up on Friday – We’ll be talking about the rise of the Mobile Web.
You can download the podcast, listen by clicking the player below, or subscribe in iTunes by clicking on the logo below.
Conversations are already starting to sprout up about the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference in Austin, TX.
We brought in Kerry Hayes, the Special Assistant for Research and Innovation from Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton’s office to talk about the mayor’s use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media in communicating with Memphians and keeping us updated on what they’re doing. We also cover Net Neutrality and bringing high-speed internet access to all Memphians.
Join us on Friday for the call-in Core Conversations podcast for predictions about what 2010 holds in store for social media, tech, and emerging Web technology.
You can download the podcast here, click the player below to listen on this page, or click the banner to subscribe in iTunes.
Time passes all too quickly, and we’ve reached our tenth episode. Though we weren’t sure what the traditional gift for the 10th anniversary is (turns out it’s tin or aluminum), we have always known what we’re here for – celebrating the ideas behind and progress of social media, as it expands into both our personal and business lives.
Google seems to have jumped the gun a little bit on releasing their new real time social search. It’s going to drastically affect the way businesses and marketers behave on social networks, even if it doesn’t much change the way people search.
One major risk faced by businesses who wish to optimize their social networks for the new social search is that they’ll put their customers off with their behavior – this is more critical than ever, given that Facebook’s new privacy settings make it easier than ever to make annoying business practices (and annoying relatives) disappear from your personal profile.
Shawn Danko of the Kooky Canuck
We talked with Shawn Danko from downtown Memphis’ Kooky Canuck restaurant about how he got into using social media to promote his business and build relationships with customers.
You can find Kooky Canuck’s social efforts on Twitter and Facebook.
We also give a nice shout out to the Peabody Hotel’s social networking – they are our Memphis Tweeter of the Week.
As for upcoming events, Friday will see our next Core Conversation podcast, the first of a two-part series on predictions for 2010 and what you think will happen with social media and the internet.
Lastly, if you’re a podcaster, or if you’re looking to get into podcasting, or if you’re just curious to meet other people who are addicted to listening to podcasts, we’re having MemCast – a gathering of Memphis podcasters and podcast enthusiasts – on Monday, Dec. 14. For information about that, follow MemCast on Twitter.
You can download the podcast, click the player below to listen on the page, or subscribe in iTunes.
