Jeff Pulver is onto something with his face-to-face social tagging efforts.

Exhibit A: Yesterday’s breakfast gathering of some 40 of Jeff’s Facebook and Twitter friends at the S&S Restaurant & Deli in Inman Square in Cambridge for 2-3 hours of good food and even better conversation.

Social tagging in action, in case you’re wondering, means the following:

• Grab a stickie note
• Write a word or phrase on it that describes the person you want to tag
• Slap that tag on a fellow attendee’s shirt or blouse.

I was tagged as “proud dad” and “podcast guy.” Sounds just about right, doesn’t it?

Jeff also encouraged us to leave “wall posts” on the clothing of our fellow breakfasters (white stickie = tag; yellow stickie = wall post, in case you’re keeping score at home)

Here’s why social tagging — and yesterday’s breakfast, in particular — can work so well:

• Social tags are excellent conversation starters — for the tagger, the tagged, and the stranger checking out those tags.
• Online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter help us build relationships around like-minded interests, and face-to-face events help us to strengthen those relationships.
• Who’s going to turn down free breakfast?

It also doesn’t hurt when events like these happen in places like Boston, a true “social media hub.” Jeff is smart to tap into this crowd.

Jeff Pulver on face-to-face social tagging

Here’s my interview with Jeff at the conclusion of yesterday’s breakfast. Our talk covers a wide range of subjects:

• Why Jeff has started social tagging events
• How tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Seesmic are changing the way we communicate
• The need to experiment
• How social media has evolved in 2007 and where it might be headed in 2008.

(Photos courtesy of Dave Fisher.)

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My friend and fellow New England Podcaster Jack Hodgson has taken on an exciting new venture: Voxci.

The service is still in early beta — or “alpha,” to be precise — and so there’s plenty of work yet to be done to smooth over the site’s functionality and user interface, but Voxci definitely has promise.

Think of Voxci as an audio alternative to del.icio.us, the popular social-bookmarking site where users tag, comment on, and share interesting links from around the web.

Here’s how Voxci works:

• Enter the URL of any web page you want to bookmark
• Record an audio message of up to 60 seconds about that page, either through your line-in microphone or by telephone
• Add in a title, description, and tags

And that’s it. Your post is now available for viewing and listening, as your audio streams through a simple Flash player. Here are my Bryper posts to date.

You can, of course, search your own bookmarks as well as others’, and search on specific tags. Voxci also offers an RSS feed of all your posts — here’s mine — and an embed code, making it easy to pop your entries into your blog, just as I’ve done here.

Took a look and listen to my first Voxci audio bookmark, which I’ve included above. The photo is from a baseball game I took in with Shel Holtz last month.

I think Jack’s onto something here. Boomarks become infinitely richer when there’s an audio description to go along with them. As an example, listen to Steve Garfield’s story behind the story of the “Candy Girls” photo he posted to his Flickr account.

Technorati Tags: Voxci, Jack Hodgson

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Here is an audio comment that I’ve just sent on to Topaz Partners ahead of the group’s scheduled Friday-afternoon recording of PRobecast, a weekly PR podcast.

In episode 12 last week, co-host Tim Allik (the show’s hosts rotate from week to week) mentioned liveblogging on behalf of a client, The Scuderi Group, on the Air Hybrid Blog.

In this comment, I question 1) whether it’s PR’s place to do the actual blogging for a client in the first place (my take: it’s not) 2) why the ghostblogging isn’t at least disclosed. On this blog, none of the posts includes an author’s name, so we really don’t know who’s doing the writing. The About page, which hasn’t yet been updated, also doesn’t offer any clues.

I look forward to Topaz’s response to this comment on PRobecast 13, which should be released over the weekend.

Technorati Tags: Topaz Partners, PRobecast, Tim Allik, Air Hybrid Blog, The Scuderi Group

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Hosted by Bryan Person. Recorded from historic Boston, Massachusetts, USA and published for Tuesday, April 3, 2007.

Hosted by Bryan Person. Recorded from historic Boston, Massachusetts, USA and published for Tuesday, April 3, 2007.

Subscribe to the New Comm Road podcast. It’s free, and it ensures you won’t miss a single episode! Click on the iTunes image above, or paste this feed into iTunes or your podcatching software of choice: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NewCommRoad

IN TODAY’S SHOW:

* New Comm Road Citation to Bryper

* Mitch Joel promo – Foreword Thinking Podcast

* Kathryn Jones audio comment – ?? (Question) of the Week – Inspiration and Indie Tunes video podcast – IfNotNow.Net.

* PodCamp NYC promo – April 6-7, 2007 at the New Yorker Hotel.

* PodCruise Miami promo – December 7-10, 2007

* Report on social networks for ethnic groups from Brett Atwood’s PR 475 students at Washington State University.

* Audio comment from Eden Spoken, from Bargainista.Blogspot.com/

* Interview with Eli Singer and Andrea Lekushoff about the social media book launch for The Strategy Paradox, by Michael Raynor. Event held in Boston on Tuesday, March 27.

* Audio comment from Michael Seaton, from Scotiabank, The Money Clip, and The Client Side.

NEW COMM ROAD MAP:

* From Christopher Penn, recapping Bum Rush the Charts.

TOOLS OF YOUR TRADE:

* From David Levy, from TheThingIs.typepad.com

Music:
+ From GarageBand.com: Still Holding On, by Rantings of Eva

* This show can also be found on Blubrry.

YOUR FEEDBACK:

• Leave your text and audio comments below this post
• Send us audio files or text e-mails to comments-AT-NewCommRoad.com
• Call us on our comment line: (206) 202-3996

Technorati Tags: Historic Boston, Foreword Thinking, Mitch Joel, Kathryn Jones, Question of the Week, PodCamp NYC, PodCruise Miami, Eden Spodek, Bargainista, Eli Singer, The Cundari Group, Andrea Lekushoff, Deloitte, Strategy Paradox, Michael Raynor, Michael Seaton, Scotiabank, The Money Clip, The Client Side, Christopher Penn, Financial Aid Podcast, Bum Rush the Charts, David Levy

LISTEN:

Running time: 00:51:56

Direct download this episode, or listen using the player above!

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You’re driving to work and listening to one of your favorite podcasts. The host makes a particular cogent point that has you nodding enthusiastically in agreement, or, perhaps, a not-so-convincing statement that has you fuming in disgust. Either way, you just have to send in a comment to the show right then.

But there’s a problem. Or several, in fact:

Problem 1: You’re driving, so leaving a text comment on the podcast blog isn’t exactly an option.
Problem 2: You don’t have the audio-comment telephone number handy, and you don’t want to fiddle around too much on your mp3 player to find the spot in the episode where the host gives out the number.
Problem 3: By the time you arrive at the office, you’ve forgotten the main point you wanted to make in the first place, so even when you do find the number on the show’s website, you’ve lost the initiative to comment.

So, simply because you didn’t have a telephone number when you needed it, the next episode of your favorite podcast won’t be featuring your undoubtedly brilliant insight. Such a shame.

The solution? If there’s an audio-comment line for your favorite podcast, add it to your mobile phonebook … right now! You can also add the “#” sign before the name of the show, so the number displays at the very top of your contacts list.

For my podcast, for example, you’d enter # New Comm Road, and then the number: (206) 202-3996.

Then, the next time you’re in the car and the host says something particularly insightful or nonsensical, just flip open your phone, punch up the first number in your address book, and — while keeping your eyes on the road and hand(s) on the wheel, of course — call in with your contribution.

In speaking on behalf of my podcasting brethren, I promise that we’re very much looking forward to hearing from you.

Previous podcast listening tips:
3. Say hello.
2. Stick in the earbuds while doing the chores.
1. Skip an episode.

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Shel’s Second Life avatar, Shel Witte, was one of the 40 members of our audience.

(Running time: 3 minutes, 10 seconds)

Technorati Tags: CaseCampSecond Life, Shel Holtz, Shel Witte

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In this audio report, I talk more about planning and preparing for the first-ever PodCamp Boston, which is set to begin, as well as my attempt to win a free trip to Ireland.

Sites/people mentioned:

• PodCamp Boston
• PodCamp Boston blog
• Berkman Center Friday-evening podcasting party
• SendMeToIreland.com
• Lisa Williams
• Ted Demopoulos
• Leesa Barnes
• Laura Allen
• Michael Bailey
• Stephen Turcotte
• Megan Dickinson
• Suzanne Falter-Barns
• MaryHelen Votral
• Jay Fitzgerald

Listen

Direct download audio file.

Running time: 4:46.

Technorati tags: PodCamp, PodCamp Boston, Ireland

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Podpress version 6.6, released late Tuesday night, now allows blog commenters to quickly and easily leave audio comments directly to a blog post. All you need is a cheap, basic microphone.

Here’s how:

1. Click on the comments or title link at the top of this post to be taken to the permalink page
2. Scroll down to below the text commenting area, and click on the Insert Audio Comment link
3. Once the Java applet has loaded (you may need to approve its use the first time), click the Record button and start talking. Comments are currently limited to 30 seconds, but that will be changing very soon (to two minutes)
4. When you have finished, Preview your recording if you like. Once you’re satisfied, click Attach
5. Add in any additional text comments as you normally would. Then, Submit the comment.

And that’s all there is to it. The audio comment will either a) be available for immediate listening through the regular Podpress player or, b) in cases where a blogger has moderated comments turned on, appear as soon as the comment as been approved.

For podcasts and podcasters, where audio comments are almost always encouraged and welcomed, this Podpress upgrade truly is a dream plugin. Easy for the commenter. Easy for the podcaster. And a richer experience for the readers and listeners. An all-around winning combination, and one that Mike Bellina and I will be talking about in the upcoming edition of the New Comm Road Podcast.

Give the plugin a try by leaving your audio comment to this post!

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Just click on the “MyChingo, Leave a message” image link in the right-hand sidebar of this page. You can leave an audio comment up to two minutes in length, and I’ll be sure to play it.

Note: no offense meant to our Spanish-speaking, and specifically Mexican, audience, for whom the word chingo is anything but “chat lingo.” I do like this easy-to-use (and free!) service, and am willing to give it a test drive for a while, in spite of its intercultural red flag.

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On a separate comments blog that I set up on a sub-domain of Bryper.com, I’ve recorded and published a pair of comments to posts by the indefatigable Lee Hopkins, and another for the podcast blog of Donna Papacosta.

Then, I sent trackbacks to Lee’s and Donna’s blogs, and I also left short comments on their blogs that included a link to my posts.

This is yet another way of continuing the conversation around the blogosphere, a topic that I’ll be discussing with Mike Bellina later this week on the New Comm Road Podcast.

Meanwhile, over at Inside PR, PR pros and podcasting co-hosts Terry Fallis and David Jones are also posting audio comments that their listeners send to them. Excellent!

Without a doubt, the process of leaving audio comments will become even easier for the masses very soon. Just as Waxmail makes it dead easy to drop audio feedback into an e-mail, a similar tool/plugin for blogs can’t be far behind.

It would certainly make for a dynamite addition to blogs.

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