Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I am hiring for a Social Media Position at Network Solutions

I saw this cool post from Jason Falls at his Blog Social Media Explorer . He is hiring and since I met him a couple of times I can vouch that he is a cool guy and will be great to work for. Of course you would have to probably live or move to http://www.possibilitycity.com./ and I am sure that's good too. Jason is a very knowledgeable guy and I am honored to know him.

Now if you decide that you would rather come to the Washington DC area or you already live here then please check out this position Look for Social Media Practitioner / Blogger for which I am hiring.

Questions or comments please email me or connect online. Cheers !

ZDNet reports T_Mobile to introduce 3G tomorrow

I am a T_Mobile user with a N95 and this is excellent news for me.

T-Mobile rolling out 3G data service on Thursday (updated) by ZDNet's Jason D. O'Grady -- iPhone users will have to wait at least another 60 days for our US$199 3G iPhones, but in the mean time T-Mobile will be rolling out their new 3G data service in a bunch of cities beginning on 01 May (this Thursday) according to Boy Genius Reports. They even posted this stealth-looking screenshot that looks like [...]

Castles in the air or solid approaches to Social Media

Connie Bensen sitting in Victoria BC airport alerted me to Jeremiah Owyang's recent post on his http://www.web-strategist.com/blog titled "Castles, Towns, and Missionaries". His post outlines 3 styles  that companies are adopting for Social Media Engagement ( Jeremiah used the term Marketing).

Locked in the Castle
Keeping the good stuff close to your domain.

 

Building roads to Towns
Reach adjacent towns by enticing them with content, and provide them with links (roads) back to your land

Traveling Missionaries
Missionaries spread to new communities.

Read Jeremiah's post for the details which I assure are thought provoking and you will be sending his posts link around the office like I am going to do.

I am not sure if "Castles in the Air" is a common idiom here in the US. But when I was growing up if I said something that was a dream and probably not achievable then I would be told that I was building "castles in the air" . I am using the term in my title because if this is not done right SOcial media strategies will remain "Castles in the air"

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Introducing Guy Kawasaki

Just wanted to point to a great post on Guy Kawasaki's Blog http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/04/the-art-of-the.html . He posted a introduction that Jenny Lawson of Good Mom/Bad Mom was going to do for the event at the Houston Technology Center and then supposedly "chickened out". The event was sold out. I am glad Network Solutions also sponsored the event.

Guy Kawasaki I did not invent the motorcycle

I was to go to Houston too but since my brother was in town visiting from India I missed this event. Well, there will be a next time !

CSuspect makes an superb video at Podcamp DC -The Future of Media in 2008

Mine is better than yours ( camera)

 

 

 

 

 

Chris is a good friend and a co-blogger on our food blog . I knew there was going to be trouble when I saw him with his camera equipment. He spent a lot of time with interviews and produced this great video below.

I am really happy to have another DC media maker who is likely to scale great heights.
He is @csuspect on Twitter and in case you folks are not aware of the gory details of his past I am outing him here :

Chris Condayan serves as the manager for the American Society for Microbiology's public education outreach initiative in which he oversees the production of the society's MicrobeWorld Radio outreach program. Condayan has spearheaded ASM's efforts in podcasting, establishing the organization as the first scientific society to have a daily audio podcast and a weekly video podcast. He also regularly presents on podcasting and new media at many science and education-based conferences in the U.S. and Canada.
Prior to his work with ASM, Condayan served as the director of communications for the National Mental Health Association where he developed and implemented communications strategies for the oldest and largest mental health organization in the nation.
Previously, Condayan produced his own weekly alternative music radio show, Capitol Radio, on CBS Radio's 106.7 WJFK in Washington, D.C. ( actually this is taken word for word from http://www.newmediaexpo.com/SpeakerBios/CondayanChris.htm)

More details at : http://www.linkedin.com/in/chriscondayan

If you are in the Hyattsville area or if you just want to listen to some good info visit his blog at http://www.hyattsvilleh4x.com/

 

Update : I forgot to mention his punk band is playing Rock and Roll Hotel on June 6 with Pietasters and Alleged Bricks

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Jim Long & Andy Carvin Talk on Social Media and Journalism at Podcamp DC

It was a session that was packed. Both gentleman are very experienced and are world travelers and can say " The other day when I was at the White House" :).

They used a wiki http://andyjim.pbwiki.com/ to present and is rich with resource and example links.

They are great guys and are good friends. Instead of summing up their talk let me point you to some great posts written by other smart people.

http://www.helenmosher.com/2008/04/podcamp-dc/ (Helen Mosher)

 http://blog.thelettertwo.com/2008/04/20/video-from-podcamp-dc-new-media-and-the-new-journalism/ ( Kenneth yeung)

Andrew Feinberg talks about "Identity, Privacy, Security" at Podcamp DC

Those who are attending PodCamp NYC should watch out with so many tracks to attend. Podcamp DC had 4 tracks and Andrew Feinberg of CapitolValley.net spoke about Identity, privacy and Security as part of the Social Media track. I heard good feedback and Andrew even had a few props (http://www.capitolvalley.net/2008/04/me-taking-questions-after-my-i.html).

See the slides from Andrew's talk below:

Podcamp dc Joel Mark witt

If this guy stood for election I would vote for him. He works for the maryland zoo. marylandzoo.tv. Even if marylandzoo.tv was not part of his job he did multimedia anyway using the principle. do it and apologize later.

Joel talked about how the established media on one side and the you tubers on the other side. There is a gap in the middle.

Joel's advice is to tell a story and target it to a tribe. As usual Smart guy that Joel is he he encouraged the smart people in the audience to start a discussion.

Joel asked the audience if they wanted help with terms like tagging and had all the audience record a video and tag it podcampdc and piglatin. look for these videos.

He asked Andy Carvin to explain about how to further their messages. Andy of course live videocast this  from his n95.

Joel's Presentation Slides:

Social Media Head hunter Calls - Event in St Louis

I very often tweet my cell number on my commute home and have the opportunity to talk to some wonderful people. On a recent call I had the chance to speak to James Durbin @smheadhunter. We have a common friend Robert Neelbauer of jobmatchbox.com. James full of great ideas and we discussed a small business networking conference in St Louis sometime soon. The idea is to have a evening networking event for St Louis Small Business and blogger/twitter community. We have an hour of networking and an hour of a keynote speech. The best way to this would be to bring in the local business journal, the local paper, the regional chamber, and maybe even several large companies from St. Louis. I hope to rope in Todd Jordan and get more support from Twitterati.

Anyone else interested lets start a dialog in the comments and make this happen in June or July. We had a great time doing similar events sponsored by Network Solutions at Miami, Charlotte and Orlando.

James Durbin blogs at   http://stlrecruiting.com, and http://www.brandstorming.com and his company's website is  http://durbinmedia.com

Thanks James for calling and hope to meet you in person soon. I am honored that you gave me your time.

Podcamp DC - Chris Brogan's post

My version of Karma Yoga is that you do some good  without expecting anything in return. I think the Podcamp principle is the same . Most people come there to learn and a many to teach and spread the knowledge without expecting anything in return. I am more in the learning category and my involvement in podcamp DC was that Network Solutions was sponsoring the lunch. 

A few days before the event Podcamp DC I still saw there was a spot vacant and just pinged Tammy. That is the story of how I came to talk to a room full of smart people about " How small business can business can use social media".

Now the good things that came my way by doing this are that Kenneth Yeung a DC Blogger took this video of the presentation . Thank you Kenneth.

Chris Brogan wrote a post The Beauty of PodCamp on chrisbrogan.com and that was thrilling for me. See the post and the photo with him. he is a great guy to meet and being featured on his blog is a honor.

I learnt a lot from discussion we had in the room during my talk  and want to thank those who attended the session. Please leave a comment on Chris brogan's blog about the podcamp movement.

For more coverage of Podcamp DC you should see these blogs too.

Kenneth’ Blog http://blog.thelettertwo.com

Andrew Feinberg on CapitolValley.net

Helen Mosher

Thursday Bram

caseysoftware

techrepublican

wireless muse

joelogon

Jim Long

Justin Thorp

Aaron Brazell

Rob Carlson

Justifying attending Conferences

Cam Beck (The Age of Conversation contributing author) has a new post on the blog ChaosScenario about attending Ad:tech. I have been attending a few conferences as the Social Media Swami for Network Solutions and the 5 points that Cam states on his post are on the dot for me too. Before moving into this position I have been very academic about conferences and choosing sessions to attend and then dispersing the knowledge to colleagues and friends who did not attend. Now I would use more of the time for networking ,exposure and trend  spotting.

Here are the 5 that Cam wrote on Chaos Scenario and read the rest of the post http://www.chaosscenario.com/main/2008/04/adtech-parting.html

5 reasons you should attend these
conferences


  1. Networking. I met a
    lot of good people at Ad:Tech, and got an opportunity to see others I don't get
    the opportunity to see that much.
  2. Exposure. I don't
    care who you are, it's good for those in your industry to be aware of what your
    company does. If you need business, with over 10,000 people in attendance, this
    is a good way to build it. Maybe you have all the customers you can handle, and
    if so, good for you! But nothing is perpetual in business except change. So it
    will be nice to be on the top of someone else's mind when they happen across a
    situation that causes them to reflect, "Hey, I know the perfect company for your
    project."
  3. Education. We're apt
    to think that our problems and challenges are unique, but in reality there isn't
    much that is new under the sun, if you know what to look for. Chances are you'll
    come across someone, either in conversation or by watching a keynote or panel
    discussion, who has found a way to tackle something you've been struggling with,
    and it might spark an idea on you can approach your situation.
  4. Trend-spotting. Where
    is the industry heading? What are the buzzwords? Hint: If
    you haven't heard any new ones lately, see my warning about being in an echo
    chamber.

  5. Vendor research. This
    is sort of a combination of all of the other reasons, but it deserves its own
    space for the extent to which you can educate yourself about the companies out
    there who are, in pursuit of their own interests, are dying to help you solve
    your business problems. I know a lot of us get pitched by potential vendors all
    the time, but it's hard to beat the opportunity to see so many of them in one
    place, at one time.

Great post Cam ! Now I am looking for thoughts on justifying sponsorships for conferences.


Blogged with the Flock Browser

Saturday, April 19, 2008

podcampdc pics

DSCN0972 DSCN0973 DSCN0974 DSCN0975 DSCN0976 DSCN0977 DSCN0978 DSCN0979 DSCN0980 DSCN0981 DSCN0982 DSCN0983 DSCN0984 DSCN0985 DSCN0986

Podcamp DC the fun starts

Podcamp is a unconference so a bit of a treasure hunt to find the registration desk is OK. The walk was good  remember this is entirely run by volunteers.

 

The first session I attended is the one by jessie Newburn. Jessienewburn gave a talk on generations and Social Media and generated a lot of discussions.  The audience had equal number of Boomers and millenials and dominated by Gen xers. I think the Gen Xers are eager to learn about how to communicate to Millenials. The millenials are probably thinking of how to avoid communicating with Gen Xers ( thats my take :)

Tak eaways

Boomers - use Tv

Gen Xer : deinstitutionalize the message. more from a person than instiution

Millenials : peer to peer, "Treat them as they are knowing that you have a agenda," capacity to do things together

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Waiting to meet Kamalesh Dwivedi new CIO Network Solutions

I think this is the first CIO position created at Network Solutions . I am happy to welcome Kamalesh Dwivedi. You can read the press release about Kamalesh that contains a lot of good stuff. Kamalesh was an Executive Vice President and the CIO at TeleTech Holdings, in Englewood, Colorado before joining us.

Kamalesh is the sponsor of an endowment at his old school IIT Kanpur to encourage excellence in education in India by instituting a professorship Chair and three scholarships for women students department at IIT Kanpur.

Information Week says

"Kamalesh Dwivedi, CIO of ADC Telecommunications Inc., a maker of broadband network equipment, software, and integration tools, wants ADC to move faster than its customers to anticipate their demands."


Prior to ADC, Kamalesh Dwivedi was the CIO of Scientific-Atlanta, now a division of Cisco.

I look forward to having a conversation with him soon. Any bets on where I will meet him first - Parking lot, elevator, corridor, at my office, at his office etc...

I am thrilled that Kamlesh is a IIT(Indian Institute of Technology) graduate. That's a school every kid in India dreams about going to IIT. I wanted to go too but it has some amazing competition.

What is IIT ?

Here is what the Chairman of InfoSys Narayana Murthy says about IIT.
... my son ... wanted to do computer science at IIT. To do computer science at IIT, you have to be in the top 200 and he couldn't do that, so he went to Cornell instead.
STAHL: Think about that for a minute. A kid from India using an Ivy League university as a safety school. That's how smart these guys are ...


Here is a Yahoo answer
Indian Institute Of Technology.
ranked no. 1 in India and recently 3rd in world just after Massacheussets institute of tech [MIT] nd stanford institue..
getting into an IIT is a huge accomplishment as it has been voted as the 4th toughest exam in INDIA


Of course Dilbert has some cartoons of IITians ( which is a compliment) that are collected here http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~ajitb/dilbert.html

Interview on Blog Talk Radio by John Havens

John Havens is VP Business Development of Blog Talk Radio and is running a series of interviews with communicators for IABC (International Association of Business Communicators). I met John as one of the lead organizers of Podcamp NYC and we discussed how Network Solutions can help. John had seen Shel Israel's interview with me on Global Neighborhoods and that made him curious.
Please listen to the interview and give me any feedback on the interview and how to improve my interviewee skills :)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Keep track of domain names containing your name

One of the best ways of keeping track of domain names that are expiring that relate to your name is the Keyword Alerts by Network Solutions. This is a free service and you can sign up by creating an account. You get an email everyday for the domains that are expiring for the keywords you specified.
For people who use RSS feeds and find that very convenient Network Solutions introduced a RSS feed for expired domains. Ades Blog has great review on using this RSS feed for expired domains

Just as its wise to setup a Google alert for your name, I think you should use both these services to keep track of domains that contain your name or your company name that maybe expiring.

Excited about John Havens interview on Blog Talk Radio April 16th 12 noon EST

I am excited and eagerly looking forward to talking to John Havens tomorrow ( April 16th ) at noon EST on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/IABC about my role as the Social Media Swami at Network Solutions

John is among the lead organizers of Podcamp NYC and I am happy he has time to do this interview. John and has interviewed several celebrities including Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and president of Sun Microsystems so I feel great about this.

Come and join if you have the time tomorrow.

Olympic Atheletes Blog for Lenovo

John Bell mentioned the Social Media activities of Lenovo on his bloga few days ago Digital Influence Mapping Project and gives Lenovo a Social score of 4.5 of 5. You should read John's post for details on what Lenovo, Wells Fargo and Strabucks are doing in terms of social media.

Today the Wall Street Journal carried an article on Lenovo's Sponsorship of the Olympics. Lenovo is the only Chinese company to be a global Olympic sponsor, alongside entrenched heavyweights McDonald's and Nike. What was very interesting is this line from the article

The company is working with Google
Inc. to launch a blogging site, http://www.2008.lenovo.com/, that will host blogs by
Olympic athletes from all over the world to create a sort of online Olympic
village.

That should be cool to get Olypic athletes as bloggers. Wonder which athlete should I add to my RSS?

Capital Cabal Now in Maryland too

Hank Dearden is a great guy. I have met him at Web Managers Round Table events but never had a chance to go to any of the Capital Cabal events. I was thrilled to see an email from Hank today announcing a Maryland Capital Cabal meet every 4th Tuesday.
Before I give you the details of the meet, I must tell you Hank always spices his emails with something funny. The latest email had this :

Before we get to other facts, just a quick reminder to duly apply yourself
to today’s necessary paperwork. Yup, it’s an annual offering but brings us
joy all year around. We’re speaking of course about that birthday card for
actress Emma Watson aka Hermione in the Harry Potter movies, who was born in
Paris 18 years ago today. Cards can be addressed care of Hogwarts, left on
any window sill, and a passing owl will surely collect and deliver post
haste.

Event website: http://www.capcabal.net/4thTuesday/


Who: You and dozens of other New Media Professionals
What: 4th Tuesday “Dot Com” Networking Salon and Cocktail Party – www.capcabal.net/4thTuesday
When: Tuesday, April 22nd, 20085:30PM - 9:00PM
Appetizers, drink specials, parlor tricks, door prizes and other wonders.
Where: Blackfinn's Pub, Lower Level4901 Fairmont AvenueBethesda, MD 20814 – Downtown Bethesda
301-951-5681
Use Bethesda Metro - Walk North on Old Georgetown Road, turn Right at Woodmont and then Left on Fairmont. Plenty of street metered parking in the area, payment required until 10:00PM. There's a large public parking lot on Woodmont Avenue right around the corner from Blackfinn.


Ambiance: By popular acclaim the Official Background Music is all 80s, most of the time, since our natural progression is birth, school, network, network.
Price: $15 at the door, includes first beverage, heavy appetizers and a door prize chance for cool stuff, including gift certificates, bottles of vino, a vintage Wired to treasure and other swag
Bring: Plenty of business cards and your own birth school worx tales to tell.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Someecards.com


Usually when I am driving back home I like to Twitter my Phone number that I am available to talk for the next 30 to 45 minutes. I have enjoyed several great conversations. I checked out http://www.someecards.com and they have a card for this very situation.

I checked out a lot of the cards and they seem like a cool company. You can email these cards for free to anyone. I sent this card to my boss.

I think you will have fun sending these cards. The company's innovation is in the content of these cards and the fact that you can buy these cards in the printed form.

More Companies are getting Social Media - COmcast & American Airlines

I discovered 2 companies entering the social Media Sphere this week.

American Airlines : http://aaconversation.blogspot.com/

Comcast on Twitter ; @ComcastCares

Kudos to these 2 companies for taking the first step. I will watch their progress . If you are a American Airlines flier I would ask you to participate in their Blog and let them know what you want on their blog.


Andrew Feinberg has a post on Comcast Twitter outreach o the CapitolValley Blog

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Flickr introduces Video

I just saw that Flickr has introduced video. Currently its for pro members only.Videos are limited to 90 seconds in length, and 150MB in filesize. The processing was very quick and the video was ready in minutes.

Good show ! Yahoo ! Now i dont have to go to two places if I have both pictures and videos on my camera.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Twitter for Power Users- Hashtags

Paisano has written a great post on his blog http://thepaisano.wordpress.com/ that is very interesting. if you like digg it.

Hashtags are being used more and more by people looking to refine their use of Twitter. I've seen them used a lot, but never understood their application until this article.


read more | digg story

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Social Match Box : Solving the Recruitment problem for Small Business and Start-ups

Small companies may be challenged to find avenues to spread the word that they are recruiting. Stepping in to solve this problem is the Social Match Box DC organized by Robert Neelbauer and blogger and owner of  JobMatchBox.com & Staff Magnet LLC. The second such event in the DC area was organized on 31st March at the Teq Corner in Tysons, VA.

 

DSCN0603The event is for companies that are 150 employees or less. Companies  pitch what they do and what they are looking for in 2 minutes. Attendees are categorized as  Socializer, Hiring Manager , Partners ,Job Seekers. There is plenty of networking and plenty of pizza.

About 150 people attended this event. Network Solutions was the title Sponsor for this event. This is part of my job in community outreach and spreading the word that Network Solutions offers solutions. ( pssst ... Nework Solutions career web site is at  NetworkSolutionsCareers.com )

of the companies that I met and are fresh in my mind are http://www.publi.us/ , http://crowdmind.com/ ( did not present but I met Richesh and I like their idea), http://tinselvision.com/ ( They even showed a excert from a Bollywood movie) http://odeo.com/.

You can read more details on Jobmatchbox.com and Ann Bernard has a recap on WhyGoSolo

Nahum Gershon of SocioSphere took a lot of pictures, he had to leave early since he left for Europe today. We will get his pictures after his return. I hung out with Jimmy Gardner ( EastCoast Blogging) , Ann Bernard & Keith Casey ( WhygoSolo) and Steven Fisher ( Venture Files). Since Network Solutions was a title sponsor I got to announce to the world my title ' Social Media Swami" which got a good response from the crowd.

Keith CTO Whygosolo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a nice chat Kim Hart of the Washington Post. I have been reading her stories both in the print edition and the Washington Post Blog. i remember she wrote about the Technoliday in December.She used to write on Telecom companies and now her beat has expanded to include the local tech scene.

Kim Hart( Washington Post) & Shashi Bellamkonda ( Network Solutions)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gail Glassmoyer is the lady who launched my tech Career. We go way back at least 8 years when she was the placement Manager for Chubb Computer Services and I was training in Client Server programming. She now works as HR Director for Siteworx. It was very nice to meet her again.

Gail GlassMoyer SiteWorx

 

 

 

 

 

 

I met Twitter friend DCPatton for the first time offline. He is a life saver since he works for TrafficLand in DC. :)

DSCN0599 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert and Juliana Neelbauer  did a great job organizing the event. See more pictures at http://snipurl.com/238fs 

DSCN0606

Senior .Net Developer Job Opening in Denver, Colorado

This is a posting from a friend of mine from the Denver area. If this position interests you please send me an email and I will be happy to forward it.

Does anyone know of a Senior .Net Developer in Denver, Colorado that would be interested in joining a growing technology company?

The type of person we are looking for is someone with 5-7 years of demonstratable .Net experience (C#, programming patterns, web services, etc). They should be able to conceptualize, develop and maintain C# code. Must be highly motivated, self starter and works with minimal supervision while at the same time adheres to standards and follows documentation guidelines.

Send good Karma to your friends

I saw this tweet from Anil Dash "@TechCrunch agreed, not very constructive. In exchange, I offer a very positive site that you should cover: http://plusoneme.com/ I dig it"

I checked out the site and sent soem positive karma. It is great to make people feel good. you should try it.

AI generated summary of 60 minutes AI edition

In a 60 Minutes interview that aired on April 17, 2023, Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned that artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing rapid...