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!

Eric Mathews, co-founder of Mercury Technology Labs and LaunchMemphis, introduced the Expeditionaries to what he called the new digital divide. Currently we use the term to refer to the haves and have-nots of basic web access; the “new” digital divide would refer to the split between the haves and have-nots in the social media realm. The tweeters and the non-tweeters, the Facebookers and, well, surely there’s someone out there who’s not on Facebook.

An even closer look at the divide reveals more distinctions in levels of access or activity, Mathews said, with smart phone users landing at the high end of the spectrum, non-users at the opposite end and levels of involvement in between, from the person who is always attached to social media to the person who uses social tools occasionally through other web platforms. That idea — the integration of social elements in non-social web presences — is what Mathews called “social light.” The concept, alongside location-based services and niche social networks, is where Mathews predicts the money-making will be for web entrepreneurs in the immediate future.

To illustrate the point, Mathews introduced the group to four Memphis-area start-ups: Mark’s Menus, Into Outdoors, Xtrant and NRange. Each company is using one of the tools he mentioned, whether light social, LBS or niche networks, and the results are measurable and impressive. Into Outdoors, a niche network for hunters and anglers, is just peeking out of beta and already has more than 1,200 fans on Facebook and six advertisers who want to get on board, site unseen.

Another of the start-ups, Xtrant, is a social network for the enterprise, a topic that was explored further during the core conversations following Mathew’s presentation, along with WordPress and Facebook in 2010. If you’re interested in learning more about start-ups and technology/entrepreneurship in Memphis, check out Mathews’ Mercury Tech Coffee, happening every Monday at 7:30 a.m. at Republic Coffee.

You can also hear more from Mathews later this month when he’ll be appearing on the Expedition podcast (in the meantime be sure to check out this week’s episode featuring Thom Rigsby — you can find it here later today). In other podcasting news, our first Core Conversation of the year happens tomorrow, so join us at 11:30 a.m. to talk about the mobile web in 2010. You can listen here or call and weigh in at  (646) 721-9429.

And don’t forget to check out our Wave to find or post helpful links and continue on conversations you started at a breakfast or tweet-up. For now, just search “Social Expedition” in Wave or contact @SMExpedition on Twitter for an invitation — we’re working on a way to make it more easily accessible to all interested Expeditionaries soon!