We were delighted to have some new-comers, and of course, always great to see some of our regulars. Once again, we did not get kicked out of Davis Kidd, which is really a shame because…

The next Twilight Camp will be at the LunaWeb office! Though I suppose it still wouldn’t be wise to get ourselves barred from Bronte Bistro. After all, there is that yummy chicken salad.

Now for the recap. The conversation kicked off with the news of the hour (of the literal hour), Facebook Places launched in Memphis at approximately 4:30 yesterday afternoon. As of the meeting, only one of us had gotten to use it at all, but what information we did have:

• There aren’t any prizes, badges, or any other “game” element to it.
• You can push check-ins from Foursquare to Facebook Places, but not vice-versa.
• You can tag your friends in your check-ins to let people know they are with you. This could be potentially problematic.*

*If you do not want friends to be able to check you into Places, go to “Account” in the Facebook toolbar, then “Privacy Settings.” Look for “Customize Settings,” then scroll down to the second section, “Things others share.” Find “Friends can check me into Places.” Change the setting to Disabled, and you’re done!

A matter of hours impacted some of the arguments from last night’s discussion of Foursquare vs. Facebook Places. Today, Mashable featured an article on the travel rewards program that will now be affiliated with Facebook Places. Topguest, the service that’s tapping into Facebook’s API, is fresh off the market, rendering its partnerships limited. So limited that, for now, rewards only come in the form of discounted hotel stays, watering down our argument just a bit, but it’s not null and void just yet – and we don’t expect it to be so any time soon… if ever. As for the privacy issues, well, they are still there. All this in mind, it seemed we all agreed that Foursquare is our preferred check-in app/game/stalking mechanism. It seems that it’s becoming that way for many others too. While we were Twilighting, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley (@dens) was tweeting: “Just heard from The @HarryH that today was @foursquare‘s biggest day ever in terms of new user signups. #dball4life.” Because Rachel isn’t giving up anytime soon, stay tuned for http://www.foursquarememphis.com/ (not yet live).

Also in Location-Based news, did you know there are different levels of editors in Foursquare? Well, I know at least one of you did. When you’ve checked in enough, it seems you can become a “Level 2 Editor,” which enables you to combine locations. So, if two people created two different check-in locations for Davis Kidd, say “Davis Kidd” and “Davis Kidd Booksellers,” a Level 2 Editor could merge the two locations into one. Who knew? Andy Glover did!

In iPad news (and there’s always iPad news, isn’t there?), Andy has an awesome new case with a very clever strap on the back to slip your hand through so you can easily hold the device with one hand. So simple, yet so brilliant. Then, our iPad scholars sang the praises of the Academic research sharing application, Mendeley (also available for desktop!).

Is the iPhone coming to Verizon? Well, of course, none of us know for sure, but signs point to… maybe. Verizon customers thinking about switching to a smartphone might want to wait a bit longer to see if any more evidence leaks (and we all know Apple has some trouble keeping their announcements under wraps these days).

WordPress bloggers – check out the Zemanta plug-in! This thing is nifty. Once you install it, start writing a blogpost. The plug-in combs your content and recommends links, photos, Wikipedia articles, etc., and it’s super easy and awesome. I know another plug-in that does pretty much the same thing was mentioned. What was the name of that one, Andy?

Don’t miss the breakfast on September 1!

• Gowalla has a better iPad application (Foursquare just has the iPhone app, which you can zoom in on for the iPad’s bigger screen)
• But the Gowalla app is apparently pretty buggy.
• On the other hand, Gowalla has sweet prizes to collect and trade, adding another fun element to the GPS check-in.
• Of course, the main pro for Foursquare is the participation: it has about 5 times as many users as Gowalla, and is growing much faster.
• More businesses are interacting with Foursquare. Apparently, if you show the cashier at American Eagle that you checked into their location, you can get 15% off your purchase through July 31!

On to iPad apps! And we got a few great recommendations. Starting with Twitter apps, Tweetdeck is of course very popular, but one of our participants had to tout the superiority of HelTweetica. A very pretty interface and the ability to activate a Twitter screensaver are two of this programs nicest features. Definitely worth checking out.

For anyone looking for a great journaling application for the iPad, our friend Andy swears by MaxJournal for $2.99. He downloaded 3 other journal apps, ranging from $0 to $10, and he said this one was by far the best.

The prize-winning iPad app, though, had to be Uzu, a $3 app that puts thousands of particles at your command. With multi-touch kinetic response, you can create a swirling vortex of phenomenal cosmic power the likes of which genie-Jafar has never seen! For the key to that dork Disney reference, skip to minute 3 here. But it’s like that. Only, on an iPad. Apparently, it’s a great stress-reliever/mind-clearer.

The iPad has been a huge success for Apple. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for their most recent iPhone. Much of Twilight Camp was spent in speculation of what Apple should do. Of course, today, we all found out what they are, in fact, giving out free bumpers (and refunds for already purchased bumpers) to all iPhone 4 users, and offering a full refund to those who are still unsatisfied and want to return their device. Oh, the drama.

Those on the Android side of things can simply lean back and chat up the latest apps (as they hold their phones just as they please, of course). Once again, the Advanced Task Killer is ranked as the number one battery saving app of them all. Also mentioned as highly wonderful were Doubletwist (media app), Launcher Pro (an alternate homescreen app), and, just for fun, Retro Camera.

A few other interesting topics that were tossed out onto the table…

• Jigsaw.com is “The world’s largest database of up-to-date, downloadable, & complete contact information.”
• Searching #tcot in Twitter makes for some interesting political debate material.
• Viral videos, especially the Double Rainbow, and of course, the EPIC Old Spice commercials.

Lastly, there were two big issues discussed that we at the Social Expedition will be watching here over the next while. First, we speculated on the complexity of internet anonymity, particularly on forums and comment sections for newspapers. In some ways, the option of anonymity offers users a chance to say what perhaps could not otherwise be said. Especially in the case of countries where dissent is a punishment, anonymity gives a voice to those who would otherwise be unable to bring their opinions to light. On the other hand, you run the risk of receiving a multitude of inappropriate, off-topic, or radical comments. What do you think? Should anonymity remain?

And secondly, we are growing concerned over the lack of conversation happening on Twitter. Maybe DMing has become more prevalent than replying, but we’ve noticed a definite drop in the number of interactive tweets. It seems more like Twitter is becoming a giant billboard, and we definitely don’t want to see that happen. Let us know what you think in a comment, or better yet, tweet it to @smexpedition, and we’ll start a Twitter conversation!

Gary Duke shares his Social Media Yay

We were happy to see new faces and familiar friends at the Bronte Bistro in Davis-Kidd Bookstore this past Thursday doing exactly what Social Media is meant for… socializing.

We had a lot of good conversation about our individual Social Media “yays” and “boos” for the past few weeks. People shared their big wins with the group and some of the things that they were struggling with in the social realms. We had a lot of awesome yays from the group and by the end of the dinner, many people had helpful suggestions on how to fix some of their boos.

Here’s some of what we heard from the group:

Yays –

• New Facebook Public Profile
• General social well-being
• New social opportunities
• Fun community involvement from Social Networks
• New Facebook widget
• Posterous
• A successful campaign
• A start up realizing that Social Media is an integral part of its strategy

Boos -

• Facebook app trouble
• WordPress struggles
• The Need for a Facebook Public Profile
• Needing to learn more about social
• Lack of motivation for blogging
• Ignored reccomendations
• Sleazy marketing links on Facebook walls
• Social media regulations and policies (social buzzkills)
• Always having LOTS to learn

Thanks to everyone who came out! We’ll see you at the breakfast on August 5th.

May Twilight Camp by LunaWeb on Flickr. View the full May Twilight Camp photoset.

Social Media Expedition’s latest Twilight Camp descended upon Davis-Kidd bookstore’s Bronte Bistro on Thursday. The food was delicious, the company was dear.

It was great fun to chat about new ways to distribute information in a place where printed media still thrives.

It’s funny, but most of the conversation around our dinner that evening centered around feeds. We gathered our minds together trying to sort out how best to use RSS feeds and the social aggregator Friendfeed.

The ease and convenience of using RSS feeds – through readers like Google Reader, Newsgator, and even mail applications like Outlook or Apple’s Mail.app – leads pretty much every regular user of the technology to the same problem: overload.

And while talking about how to trim the content to what’s useful, we also swapped our favorite feeds.

Discussion around Friendfeed centered around how to find real usefulness from a service that essentially aggregates content from other services. Some people were very much in favor of it, and everybody seemed curious.

It was great to see everyone out at the latest Twilight Camp, and we hope to see you again next time. Stay tuned for more information about our next Twilight Camp, as well as the Social Media Expedition Breakfast.

 We’ll be making a scenery change this time around, hopefully with the benefit of a slightly quieter atmosphere for our core conversations. This time we’re meeting at the Bronte Bistro inside of Davis Kidd bookstore from 5:00 – 7:30.

If this will be your first TwilightCamp, this is the after hours version of our Expedition breakfasts. It’s a little more casual, but still packed with information and networking opportunities. There will be plenty of time to catch up with your Memphis social community, as well as some more core conversations to help each other stay on top of our Social Media game. We hope you can all make it out. RSVP here.