Here are the event details:

• Venue: Beantown Pub
• Address: 100 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02108
• Google Map (nearest T stops: Park Street and Downtown Crossing)
• Time: 6:30 – 8:30pm
• Cost: Pay for your own food and/or drink
• Upcoming.org announcement

Full disclosure here: I do have a selfish reason for organizing this event. I just got word that I’m going to be profiled for included in an article in a Boston newspaper, and the reporter (a well-known blogger herself!) needs a group photo or two to go along with her story.

But the angle of the article should resonate with those of us who are big believers in real-time social networking: that we’re not all a bunch of introverts living in our grandmothers’ basements. Instead, we really do put the social in social media. I hope you’ll join me on Tuesday night to reinforce that very point, just like these guys did at a Boston Tweetup to meet and greet Jim Long (center) in late October).

(Joe Cascio photo)

Technorati Tags: Social Networking, Tweetup

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Week 3 – Friday, August 31, 2007

1. Lifestreaming
I’m not sure this is a game-changing concept, but aggregating your disparate social media content into a single place certainly can be helpful.

2. Backlash against Scoble
His videos about the future of search have people fired up.

3. A pissed-off Tom Coates.
If you’re preparing a blogger relations campaign, don’t bother pitching him.

4. So why can’t some Americans find their own country on a map?
Should I laugh or cry over Miss Teen South Carolina’s attempt at an answer?

5. 8 out of 10 Americans have heard of blogs
A Marketing Daily study shows the nation is getting better acquainted with blogging

6. The ‘Facebook Undertow’
Mitch Joel blog says quality AND quantity of friendships now matter in social networking

7. The Facebook factor
Jackie Huba writes about the social network’s fast-moving, word-of-mouth power.

8. Twitter
It continues to play an important role in creating and strengthening online and offline connections.

9. PodCamp Boston 2
Still almost two months to go, and we’re closing in on 700 registrants.

10. What’s in your bag?
A clever Flickr meme.

Technorati Tags: Social Media Top 10, SMT10, whatsinyourbag, Facebook Undertow, Tom Coates, Miss South Carolina, Lifestreaming

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• There are certainly plenty of new-media enthusiasts who aren’t yet using Twitter, if our small sample size lf eight was any indication. Only only or two of the participants, in fact, had actually tried the service prior to last night.
• The “what is Twitter?” question remains an intriguing one. The four answers I like to give (none of which is perfect):
  1. (Micro)blogging
  2. Instant messaging
  3. Chat
  4. Virtual water cooler
• Twitter’s open API has unquestionably helped to fuel its growth, empowering developers to creative imaginative applications and plugins
• Some call Twitter and other social networking sites a haven for the “lonely”; Jack and I say they reinforce the notion that humans need to connect with others who share similar interests.
• I Twitter because a majority of the online company I keep is Twittering. If the community migrates elsewhere, I probably will, too.
• The quick-hit nature of Twitter brings out my natural sarcasm much more naturally than my blogging here does
• The need to cement and strengthen relationships/friendships started and developed online with face-to-face events is apparent through the skyrocketing popularity of unconferences and other Web 2.0-centric in-person meetups.
• The Cambridge Common is a great place to go for food, drink, and lively discussion after the meetup proper.

Thanks to Janet Lee, Mike Walsh, Alex Sherman, Jesse Baer, Critt Jarvis, Deb Block-Schwenk, Hurry, and Bill for making sure our presentation became a true and meaningful dialogue.

I look forward to returning to a Berkman Thursdsays event soon — as a participant.

Technorati Tags: Jack Hodgson, Bryan Person, Berkman Center, Berkman Thursdays Blog Group

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Hosted by Bryan Person. Recorded from historic Boston, Massachusetts, USA and published for Monday, February 19, 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:

News and discussion
+ PodCamp Toronto taking place on Saturday-Sunday, February 24-25, 2007 at the Rogers Communications Centre at Ryerson University. I’ll be there, and I hope that you will be, too!

+ Jay Moonah and Bryan Person will lead a presentation on using Second Life. Check out the full schedule.

Listener feedback:
+ Audio comment from David Levy on social media and the 2008 presidential race.
+ Audio comment from Christopher Penn, host of the Financial Aid Podcast, on social media and the 2008 presidential race.
+ Audio comment from Marko of photography.ca and pets.ca with questions about using Flickr and how he likes to learn.

Podcast promo:
+ Steve Runner will be podcasting while running the Boston Marathon.

New Comm Road Map:

A discussion of Twitter, a social media tool gaining in popularity.

+ A system for sending IM/SMS.
+ Can send and receive updates on the web, through an IM client, or via your mobile phone.
+ Something Chris Heuer from the Social Media Club calls “Everywhere Messaging”
+ A way to communicate a state of mind and answer the question “What are you doing?”
+ Could be called “asynchronous micro-blogging”
+ Why can’t it expand to audio and video?
+ Must be coming soon: Twittering to specific groups
+ It can be used in political campaigning.
+ It can be used in internal communications.
+ It can be used to easily keep in touch with family and friends when you’re on the road.
+ A chance for marketing or mobile marketing coming?
+ My profile: Twitter.com/Bryper

Steps on the Road Map

1. Sign up for an account at Twitter.com
2. Decide whether you want your updates to be seen by anyone — public — or just by friends that you approve. This latter option works best if you just want to use Twitter within a specific group.
3. Add friends.
4. Determine whether you want receive messages by IM — AIM, Gmail talk, or Jabber — and phone. Consider how often you want to receive those interruptions while your working, whether you want to receive messages in the middle of the night, etc. You can also choose just to receive IM/phone messages from a select group of friends. To exclude a friend from IM/phone updates, click on the user’s profile and select “leave.” You still keep that person as a friend, but your IM/phone stream won’t pick up that user’s messages.
5. If you have a specific link you want someone to see, include the URL in your post. Promote your blog post, new podcast, etc.
6. Build community by featuring your friends in your posts with the “@ symbol” or a link.
7. Need a quick question answered and want to ask a big group at once? Try throwing out the question to Twitter.

Tools of your trade

A new segment on the podcast that will feature your audio contributions and how you use new media in your job. Which new-media tools do you use?

Send in your audio contribution with these three components:

1. Introduce yourself
2. Talk a little bit about your job. Are you in PR? Marketing? A non-profit company?
3. Talk about how you incorporate the tools of new media into your work. Which new-media tools do you use and how do you use them?

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: PodCamp Toronto, Jay Moonah, David Levy, Christopher Penn, Financial Aid Podcast, Marko Kulik, Twitter, Everywhere Messaging, BarrackObama.com, Chris Heuer

LISTEN:

Running time: 00:31:25

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

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I just received this generic LinkedIn invitation:

I found you while I was searching my network at LinkedIn. Let’s connect directly,
so we can help each other with referrals. If we connect, both of our networks will grow. To add me as your connection, just follow the link below.

The request came from a person that I didn’t know, or at least that I didn’t remember that I knew. If you’re a LinkedIn member, how do you handle these invitations?

My take is that 1) this person — who seems to remember me — should have personalized his request, in order to jog my information-overloaded brain (Where or when or in what context did we first “meet”? Was it online or offline?) 2) I’m diluting the value of my network, and by extension, my connections’, when I accept invitations in willy-nilly fashion from names I don’t recognize.

(Update: Thanks to the power of Gmail search, I’ve been able to dig up that I commented on this person’s blog exactly one month ago. A strong enough connection to connect LinkedIn style? I’ll have to think it over.)

Technorati Tags: LinkedIn

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