Network Solutions Tips On How to protect your domain name

One of the costs of doing business online for most consumers is remembering passwords and usernames. You can be safe using steps that you would take with any personal information wheterh offline or online. Microsoft has a good resource on creating strong passwords here http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/create.mspxNetwork Solutions is providing tips on how to protect your domain name through simple steps.

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TechCocktail - Chicago :How to Grow a Community for a Traditional Business Gary Vaynerchuk

Watch the stream live here http://snurl.com/2bg7r-nc ( Dave Armano)

At TechCocktail the audience got a break to get ready for him. he followed Dick Costello who gave a amazing presentation. Dick is the founder of feedburner and now after Google acquired feedburner works for Google. btw Eric Olson of Tech Cocktail worked for Feedburner.

His talk started with a clip from a Nightline story on Gary.

Gems from his speech:

Be true to yourself

To build community you should become a RAT ( Real. Authentic and transparent)

Everything you do is being recorded. Game is over. You cannot hide anything.

You have to be completely real otherwise your business will be hurt

It is easy for small people to hurt big businesses

Being 150 thousand percent passionate about your products before you think of building community

People like a face behind a company ( I wouldn't work here if I didn't believe in the company)

In the next 3 to 4 years the world is going to be full of live streaming video. Even if no one is watching it it is live for ever

Most powerful word - patience

Don't think about how many readers or the audience the tool has - participate first

National anthem of a 18 innings baseball game

RSS may not be understood by majority and we are just starting.

I stopped by business and started live video blogging with zero viewers

I went to every blogger irrespective of what they were on Alexa etc

Work hard and work everyday understanding your goal

Take every opportunity to interact with people - you don't know who will become what in a few years

be everybody's friend

IT takes effort and time and tools are launching everyday

I have done a lot for Viddler.com. Even when I knew youtube.com had much bigger community I used viddler much against my better business judgement

If you own or are starting a company you should start thinking of yourself as a community manager than a CEO

Biggest reason for success for companies in America is Word Of Mouth

I am represented by the biggest talent agents in Hollywood

I spent a lot of time commenting and adding value to the conversation on blogs where they talk about wine

I spent the time when my business was losing money but i did it because I believed it and it gave me results.

I talk to people even if they have only 4 readers.

You have to give a lot more than you expect in return

Community is difficult to track. Big companies should embrace it

Use innovative messages like " this message is 87% correct"

These are our lawyers show their pictures

Content is king but marketing is queen

You should watch one of the episodes of Winelibrary.tv to understand how passionate Gary is. Between the time I met him first at the New New Internet conference in Reston Virginia last July and today he is a bigger star. He has been featured on a lot of national TV shows and his wine recommendations are followed by thousands of people.

What I like about him is that he never seems to forget people he meets. he is famous for holding impromptu parties ( See Brian Solis post). This is what Chris Brogan thinks of Gary http://www.chrisbrogan.com/being-the-same-you-always/. Greg Cangialosi mentions him in his interview for Solutionsarepower.com

Well there is a example here of how a business can bloom with personality. Rohit Bhargava 's book Personality not Included says just that.

Techcocktail Chicago - Jared makes you more productive

Jared Goralnick gave a great presentation on how to be more productive. He proved his point by placing the slides of his presentation online even before the presentation so people don't have to take notes.

Link to presentation : http://www.technotheory.com/2008/05/productivity-talk/

Jared is very passionate about helping people be more productive and gives talks at many conferences. I had blogged about him talking at SOBCon 08 http://www.shashi.name/2008/05/sobcon08-jared-goralnik-founder.html.

See how he made it easy for me to post this easily without having to give you a lot of my notes :)

TechCocktail Chicago

It was worth every bit of the early rising I had to do for getting to Chicago before 8 a.m. Met Geoff Livingston at the Chicago Midway airport. It was weird that South West has a flight to Chicago almost at the same time from BWI and Dulles IAD in the morning.

 

 

 

The Loyola Water Tower Campus is in downtown Chicago  and it was easy to get there for $2 using the EL from midway and changing to the red line.

The campus is great. Did not love the fact that the break away session room is 13 floors down but the location is awesome. So far have been to these sessions.

You Can Build a Business From Anywhere Mike Domek

• 9 Tips to Profitability: How Squidoo Did It  Brian Williams & Corey Brown
• Leveraging Social Apps & Widgets For Your Business
  Moderator: Sean Ammirati
  Panel: Keith Schacht, Troy Henikoff, Nick O’Neill, Alex Bard
• Everyblock.com by Adrian Holovaty
• How to Think About Partnerships  Nick Fera\
• Keynote by  - Allan Cox, "Discovering your inner CEO" It was cool to be recognized by him as he walked into the room prior to his speech as we are FaceBook friends :)

 

 

Met a lot of smart people. Frank Gruber, Eric Olson, Dave Armano, Nick O'Neil, Leora Zellman ( She took a lot of pics), Mark Drapeau, Tim Courtney, David  Jeyes, Steve Jones, Gary Vanyerchuck, Bernard Kappe, Corey brown, Brian Wills. Micah Baldwin, Jared Goralnick, Justin Thorp (we meet more outside DC than in DC :) )

leora the photographer

Frank gruber the singer kicks off techCocktai

l

Capital Cabal in Bethesda

 

I have been meaning to attend the Capital Cabal for a long time. I got my opportunity when Hank Dearden started a Maryland meet every 4th Tuesday . Blackfinn pub is a nice place to meet and network in downtown Betheda. I ran into Andrew Feinberg , Craig Stotlz, Erika Miller from Tower Club, Cheryl Dickison - R2integrated (r2i) , Renee Lewis and Sam of Razume.

 

Interview with Hank Dearden Organizer of Capital Cabal

 

Meeting Smart people at Capital Cabal

 

I am definitely going to the next one.

Off to Tech Cocktail Chicago - May29th 2008

I am off for a day trip to Chicago tomorrow to attend the Tech Cocktail Conference . Day trips are usually tiring but meeting so many smart people at Tech Cocktail Conference in Chicago will keep the energy flowing.
After the conference I am free till 6.30 if anyone wants to meet-up till the party at John Barleycorn’s Wrigleyville

TechnoSailor.com celebrates 4 years

 

 

 

 

 

May 20th was the 4th Anniversary of Technosailor.com. At the 4th anniversary/birthday party at Austin Grill in DC.

Technosailor announced that a 4th Blogger was joining the team. The team at technosailor.com will now be Aaron Brazell, Steven Fisher writing about venture capital and marketing, Carlos Granier-Phelps ( I met him in Miami - very nice guy) writes the Spanish Technosailor.com and Mike Dougherty - marketing topics.

 

 

 

 

I am happy that the Technosailor.com is expanding. Aaron Brazell left B5media for what I call "retirement" (Just a joke). I am sure he has a lot of ideas up his sleeve and look forward to seeing more announcements in the next few weeks.

Here is a funny video that shows we had fun at the Technosailor.com 4th birthday.

 

I wish him and Technosailor.com the very best. In case you you don't have it on your list of blog to read be sure to add it to your feed or email subscription.

 

As you can see I am catching up on my blogging calendar. This is one post that I must finish before I settle down.

Readers can now print your Blog posts

I discovered a widget by HP on Sampad's blog called 'Print it". Adding the widget will allow your readers to choose and print any post on the page. The feature by Tabblo,com which HP acquired is called " HP Blog printing". TypePad, Wordpress and Blogger users can easily add a widget to their sidebar that allows readers to choose blog posts to print.

The website where you can get this http://developer.tabblo.com/index.php/hp-blog-printing/

The pitch from the download site :

Turn your blog into a print center

HP Blog Printing makes it easy to add full-featured printing to your blog so users can enjoy a customized read on the go. Starting at the print button, readers can pick and choose the posts they want to print, free of sidebars, ads and other clutter. Each great-looking printout is fully formatted to reduce paper waste.

Blog author benefits

• Enhancing blog printability and usability is free and easy.
• Readers like choosing content and printing direct from the web.
• Printouts extend your reach. They move online content offline so others can share, store and enjoy.
• The great printing experience is independent of each reader's platform or web browser.
• Great-looking, formatted prints make you look good.

If you are asking yourself - who or why is it necessary to print a blog post, I can give you an example. We have a thai recipe in our kitchen that was printed from this blog post at en-ulagam.blogpost.com a fellow blog at http://food.alltop.com. I had also posted this recipe on my food blog.

Would you use this widget? Do you know any blogs that should be using this? I can think of the number of times I have printed Jeremiah Owyang's or Chris Brogan's Blog posts to show around the office where I would have used this feature if it was on their blogs.

Your own Wikipedia page ?

I confess I googled my first name "shashi". I consider myself privileged that I am result number 3 after Shashi Tharoor ( author and UN Diplomat) and Shashi Kapoor ( A well known Bollywood actor).  The two top results were Wikipedia pages. My curiosity was aroused. Who creates these pages? Can the person create the page themselves? So I asked this question on Twitter.

IS it a good idea to start a wikipedia page for yourself ? No business reason but just in case someone searches for you? Advice?

These were the replies:

trib: @shashib think it's considered pretty bad form. I have a vague recollection there's actually a policy.

GridironGoddess: @shashib I think wikipedia frowns on someone starting their own page

paulswansen: @shashib Sounds like a good idea. There's some possibilities there.

andybob: @shashib if you have to create your own wikipedia page you're not significant to be on wikipedia - the editors will likely remove it.

epodcaster: @shashib: It's great to have a wiki page but generally frowned upon if it's you that creates or edits it.

shawno: @shashib: I think it's generally considered bad practice to start your own Wikipedia page.

saamir: @shashib I think they'll delete it if you're not notable enough

paulhyland: @shashib: good idea to start wikipedia page for self? Sorry, answer here: believe not considered good form, might be removed as promo, insig

I guess I will be giving up any thoughts of creating a wikipedia page for myself. Do you know anyone who has a wikipedia page? are you yourself on wikipedia?

Would love to hear from you, please comment here.

Our Good Name - Meeting Jack London Chairman CACI

ExecutiveBiz had a event yesterday at the Tower Club in Tysons Corner. the event was a book signing by Jack London Chairman of CACI. The Book "Our Good Name" is 778 pages long and I have added it to my Queue of books that I have and not read yet. :)

My 3 takeaways :

a) Companies should prepare for crisis management and learn to defend their name in the changed world. I think he said ' Companies should not think that this won't happen to them".

b) Keeping quiet and hoping that a crisis will go away is not a good strategy.

c) In this day and age the trend is  for people to get the story out first and check the details later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack was very open and approachable (No one hovering around to intervene). I asked him the main motivation for the book and here is what he said. (Sorry it is not complete because I got a call and the N95 stopped recording :( )

He answered my question as to whether they intervened on blogs promptly and said that they did not. The implication in the answer I think was that they were in a crisis mode already with the main stream media and possibly did not have the resources to engage everywhere.

All the royalties for this book will be donated to disabled veterans charities.

This is the first time I have been to the Tower Club. I was happy to meet Erica Miller the membership director of Tower Club who I previously met at the recent TechCocktail DC. The other awesome folks I met are Social Media Mavens Marybeth Fraser and Dana Theus.

eMarketer Article - Online Ad Spending Holding Strong

Here is the link to the article : http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006319&src=article1_newsltr

Key takeaway

For the full year 2007, online ad revenues totaled $21.2 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)/PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) "2007 Internet Advertising Revenue Report." That was 26% higher than 2006, which was itself a record year.

My Commentary: As the consumer spending declines offline increase in buying online makes sense to me. Why drive several miles to the store when you can order online.

At a recent training course I heard 2 of my fellow attendees say that they lived in the City and did not have a car so they made use of online grocery ordering services. They had evaluated zipcar but it was expensive to use that service for their shopping trips.

This may not hold true for a long time if the economy is not stimulated. First people will cut their shopping trips and luxuries like eating out. That can extend to putting off online purchases too. IS the growth trend for the online sales going to keep going up ?What do you think ?

5 Things Businesses have Forgotten about Domain Names

Rohit Bhargava - Author of the book "Personality Not Included" has So five very simple rules you can follow to get smarter about your domain name strategy:

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Cheers ! Jim Beam takes a step in the Social Media

Interview in Chicago : I took this video at SOBCon08 where Jim Beam was one of the sponsors. JJ Betts is a very nice guy and I took this interview at the docks on the banks of the Chicago river. The social media portal of Jim Beam is http://www.thestuffinside.com/ and they are definitely thinking "outside the cask". Check out Mark MurrMann's page http://www.thestuffinside.com/subjects/markmurrmann. I was happy about their community efforts to provide food, baby care, car repairs, financial assistance, and computers to the families of our troops http://www.thestuffinside.com/subjects/operationhomefront

Top Bourbon in the world: Jim Beam has a amazing brand awareness and is the world's number selling Bourbon according to the company. Here I must mention my knowledge of Whiskey, whisky - how ever you want to spell it. I grew up in India where the only brand that people have heard of is Johnny Walker (blame the British for that one) and everyone thinks in terms of Scotch.  This time on my trip to India instead of the customary Johnny Walker Black label I should take two bottles of Jim Beam . Beam Global's brand Teachers Whisky sells very well in India.

IMFL Is popular: Of course Scotch is a costly drink so most people drink IMFL . According to this web site http://alcontcitic.com/spirits.htm India represents one of the world's largest whisky markets .Scotch whisky market in India is growing at a fast rate of around 40% per annum. Malt whisky is a growing category in India, the total whisky market is around 70 - 75 million cases, of which imported whiskies account for around 300,000 cases per annum, and is growing at  35 - 40 per cent in India.

How to drink Jim beam ? The question I have for you experienced Jim Beam drinkers? What is the best way to drink Jim Beam . Did James Bond drink Jim beam? Was this bourbon featured in any spectacular movie scenes? Come on help a bourbon novice out here ? of course I should have asked these questions of JJ Betts. Maybe I will send him an email. Please comment and educate me.

Psst : Network Solutions also sponsored SOBCon 08 where I met JJ. Jim Beam sponsored the cruise and dinner.

New word Splommenters

Susan Scrupski of ITSinsider has a post about Social media Spammers. She referred to a post of her friend Tammy Erickson http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/erickson/2008/05/the_new_challenge_for_women_in.html where she talks about

The next challenge looms ahead – to reshape corporations – to make them better places for our daughters – and our sons – and ourselves. You battle-scarred veterans – women and men – who have opened the doors of opportunity, have given today’s young women the confidence that they can achieve whatever they choose. Now, let’s give us all humane workplaces that are worthy of being chosen.

Now the first comment here is from Kimberly Rosenberg who openly recommends a product in the comment. In my opinion you mention a product in a comment only if the post is about products and usually asks for recommendations. In this case if the post was about which products to use for Small Business this would have made sense.

My question is that most comments are <no-follow> so no search engines are ever going to see them or provide any link value. What do you think these comments achieve other than the blog readers clicking the links?

Note: I must mention that I see that Tammy Erickson will be ’ll be speaking at the Business and Professional Women’s National Employer Summit, “Women in the Workplace: Our Next Challenge” on June 20, 2008 in Washington, DC. http:/ /www.bpwusa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4750 .

Where in the World is Shashi Bellamkonda - Location services becoming hot

LiveContacts lets you track your friends using the GPS on their device. For the past few weeks I have been testing a service called LiveContacts from livecontacts.com.

You can use Livecontacts with a compatible phone and a cell phone service from T-Mobile or AT&T in the US (where the provider does not restrict your GPS) . Sorry IPhone users your turn will come soon.   One of the first advantages of Livecontacts is that you don't have to do anything to update your position. The livecontacts software ( called localizer) you download on your phone does it automatically. Imagine you are hiking in a canyon and your family can see your position on their computer. In conferences you can spot where your buddies are and find them easily.

Livecontacts will introduce some additional features to allow you to see the location on your phone which will be cool. If you are concerned with privacy you can just turn off the tracking.

What I would like to see in Livecontacts:

a) A consolidation of names between buddyfinder, livecontacts and localizer.

b) Support more phones. I have a T-Mobile dash and that was not compatible for the testing and when  mentioned this to Livecontacts I got a loaner N95. I have fallen in love with the N95 so its either buying a N95 now or waiting for a N96 for me.

When I go to India on vacation  this summer I can use livecontacts to see where the kids are. My wife who will be joining us later can see which place in India we are in. I see possibilities of integration with other social networks and software. Of course while your boss can use this to see where you are , the chances are you are not going to add your boss as your contact :) even if you do companies who give you a company phone probably have this information already.

If you have any of these phones http://www.livecontacts.com/default.asp?id=124&cat=1 try this service out and make me a contact.

Since launch on April 15th there are over 10k users. I asked Melanie Davidson to give me some stats on the worldwide distribution of the livecontacts beta users (Anyone can sign up at livecontacts.com)

It seems like there is a explosion of location tracking mentions.  Dave Troy who I met again at the SocialDevCamp last week evangelizes openlocation.org with the aim to create "create better location-aware applications". In fact he launched the initiative at Oreilley's Where 2.0 http://en.oreilly.com/where2008/public/schedule/detail/4335.

A lot of people on Twitter have started using Britekite where you feed your location and it tell you who else is around you and broadcasts your location on Twitter.

Rohit Bhargava wrote a post http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/how-location-sh.html on targetting people where they will be. A term he used is location shifting which is that even if people reside in one place or add a place in their social network profile they could be anywhere.

Newsweek has an article on Loopt which is a competitor to LiveContacts  and charges $3 per month for a similar service.

This is a product from Findwhere.com a local company in the DC area that makes GPS tracking software products that can be used for surveillance, loss prevention and security.

Larry Page Stars on Ustream on Monday

Just saw this tweet from @ustream on twitter that Google's Co-counder larry Page will be on Ustream. What does this mean ? Submit questions and find out for yourself .

From the Ustream website :

Ustream.TV proud to present a live broadcast of the New America Foundation’s interview-style discussion and Q&A session with Google Co-Founder and President Larry Page. And guess what, you can participate!

During the discussion, Mr. Page will describe Google’s strategy for expanding access to the Internet and allocating spectrum more efficiently — and explain why opening the vacant TV channels for unlicensed access after next February’s DTV transition is the most important thing the FCC can do this year to promote broadband deployment and tech sector innovation.

http://www.ustream.tv/blog/2008/05/15/google-co-founder-larry-page-to-be-live-on-ustreamtv

Personality meets your biz: a par-tay you won't want to miss by Network Solutions

Powerful Solutions for Small Businesses - A Networking Event for Entrepreneurs
With Rohit Bhargava Author "Personality Not Included "Hosted by Jonny Goldstein – Jonny’s Par-Tay



Presented by Network Solutions in association with DC Media Makers
Location:
Busboys and Poets
2021 14th St. NW
Washington DC 20009
Ph: 202-387-7638
Wednesday June 4th

Speaker: Rohit Bhargava
Rohit is a marketer, blogger, speaker and author of the anticipated new book, Personality Not Included -- a guide for companies on understanding and using their personality to better connect with customers in the social media era. A founding member of the pioneering 360 Digital Influence team at Ogilvy, he writes the Influential Marketing blog (now ranked among the top 50 marketing blogs in the world) and is often featured as an expert in media including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Fast Company. His new book, published internationally by McGraw-Hill, has received significant early praise and features a forward by bestselling author and entrepreneur, Guy Kawasaki.

 DC Media Makers: www.dcmediamakers.wordpress.com

DC Media Makers is the preeminent association of journalists, entertainers, advocates, documentation and tech enthusiasts dedicated to video blogging - and learning media literacy - in Washington, DC. We trade web video production knowledge and teach newcomers how to make and distribute media online. We feature guest presenters, critiques, and collaborative projects. Whether you are an old pro (-we have members from CNN, NBC, and NPR), an established videoblogger, or someone who wants to jump in but doesn’t know where to start, we welcome your involvement. DC Media Makers believes peer learning is the best kind of learning, so we encourage you to participate, teach, and learn with us.

Jonny's Par-tay

Jonny Goldstein is an entertainer, artist, filmmaker, and host/executive producer of Jonny's Par-tay -- the interactive live online TV talk show. Every week, Jonny interviews guests who use social media to achieve their goals in business, culture, and the arts. Jonny has been featured in mainstream media outlets like NPR, NewYork1, the DC City Paper, and the New York Post. He has blogged at jonnygoldstein.com since 2004.

Scott Stead is the technical director, online producer, and conversational lubricator of Jonny's Par-tay. By day he is a broadcast engineer at CNN, helping the big dogs bark. Scott has worked in TV for the last decade, along the way playing guitar and drums in various bands and doing lots of other cool stuff. To peer deep into the depths of Scott's soul, visit his blog scottstead.com.

Online Event Registration - Powered by www.eventbrite.com

Dreaming of a Fortune the astrology kind - SimplyAstro.com

Shiv Verma is based in Virginia and is my friend for many years. In the last few months he has been telling me about the hard work that has been going into launching two websites cooljodi.com ( "Jodi" in Hindi means couple) and Simplyastro.com. He is a hardworking guy and I am sure he will succeed( nice guys always do !) Cooljodi.com will have a lot of interest in India where websites like shaadi.com are very popular. I reead the Washington post astrology section regularly so I plan to check out Simplyastro.com. As we went to lunch i thought it was great opportunity to capture Shiv's enthusiasm on camera. Here is the interview on Qik.com

Shiv's pitch for simplyastro.com

Astrology Services built on most complex astrological rules engine. Services also include well renowned Panel of Experts providing Personal Services. Some of the unique features include - FREE Membership to view your Horoscope, Birth Chart, Match Making, Sade Sati Predictions, Period Analysis, Your Gems, Your Lucky Numbers, Daily/Weekly/Monthly Predictions, Yearly Predictions, North/South Style Horoscope, Career/Business, Vaastu/Feng Shui and lot more!

Disclaimer: Despite my protestations Shiv paid for lunch but as we go out often I will be reciprocate the next time we are out fr lunch :)

Feedback from friends means so much

I have been following the utterz of Barefoot In the Garage for many months now. I was really touched by this reply.

 

Tom Jordan is a writer and is very creative with his utterz. http://barefootinthegarage.blogspot.com/ . His wife Emma is recovering from cancer and I am privileged to be able to watch Tom be strong for his family and at the same time keep us entertained through his Utterz.

 

His other online works:

The Unreal OC

Guy Waving Hand

Theater of Your Mind

Utterz

PHP Conference in DC June 2nd to 4th

The DC PHP Developers Group is organizing the 2008 DC PHP Conference & Expo, June 2-4, 2008. The agenda has some great topics and speakers http://www.dcphpconference.com/?q=node/87 . Another reason to go to the conference is also that my friend and local Social media nice guy Keith Casey of Whygosolo.com and Caseysoftware.com is organizing it with a great bunch of other folks.

Talking about user groups here is a list of user groups I know of in the DC area. it would be great if you could comment and let me know the ones I have missed ( there must be lot of them:) ) and we can consolidate this info. This may be useful for newcomers etc.

 

DC metro tech user groups

Northern Virginia Drupal Users:http://groups.drupal.org/northern-va-users-group
Northern Virginia  Java User Group: http://novajug.org/
DC PHP Developers Group :http://www.dcphp.com/
Washington Area SGML/XML Users Group: http://www.eccnet.com/xmlug/
Maryland Cold Fusion User Group: http://www.cfug-md.org/
Capital PC User Group (CPCUG): http://cpcug.org/
Maryland Linux User Group: http://lounge.cs.umd.edu/clubs/umlug

How Is Twitter Helping or Hurting You and Your Blog?

Lorelle Van Fossen writes an article that makes you stop and think about how you should schedule your time. Twitter can be a powerful tool but if not used in appropriate doses can give you a stomach ache :) Good article to read for everyone in the blogging world.

I met Lorelle at the SOBCON08 and she spoke about how to speak to your blog audience, an awesome eye opening  session.

read more | digg story

SocialDevCamp : Harry Chen Simplifies the Sematic Web

I attended the SocialDevCamp in Baltimore on Saturday 10th May. This is a “unconference” so people come to the event and then suggest sessions and then vote on them. The agenda is then made onsite and people go to the session rooms that they are interested in.The session on Semantic web was the most interesting one. It was presented by Harry Chen who I thought was a student but turns out he is Prof. Harry Chen of University of Maryland Baltimore County. I hope I get to meet Harry at other events.

Video of his presentation
http://www.viddler.com/explore/kyeung808/videos/9/ by Kenneth Yeung

Here is his presentation:

| View | Upload your own

Harry Chen also recommended this video to understand Semantic web.

Other links suggested by this session :

http://simile.mit.edu/timeline

http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Exhibit/Examples

http://swoogle.umbc.edu/

dbpedia.org

http://www.mindswap.org/2003/PhotoStuff/

SocialDevCamp - A room full of CEOs

SocialDevCamp is a new "unconference" movement for "for Thought Leaders of the Future Social Web" which was held at the University of Baltimore 's Thumel Business Center Building on May10th 2008. I am really glad that Network Solutions joined the other great companies and individuals who sponsored SocialDevCamp.

To explain my headline , while the baby boomers and Gen Xers maybe content to meet the CEO, most Millenials want to be the CEO. This also led to me remember the words of Gray Hemel '' Out there in some garage is an entrepreneur who's forging a bullet with your company's name on it. You've got one option now--to shoot first. You've got to out-innovate the innovators. " quoted in the book "The Art of innovation" - Tom Kelley. This is how the atmosphere was. And judging by the number of C level cards I got , these entrepreuners are not waiting for someone to make them the CEO.

As SocialDevcamp started in the auditorium there was so much brilliance in the room that I wished I had worn my shades indoors too :)

In typical barcamp style the organizers -David Troy , Ann Bernard and Keith Casey of WhyGoSolo - chose to limit sponsorship to only $250 per sponsor for the event. When they were short of funds they reached out on Twitter and asked for help. The community responded and the conference was a great success.

The event started of with breakfast and networking where anyone could suggest a Session and that was voted by everyone.

Once the sessions were decided they quickly updated the Wiki with the agenda and the participants started the day. I attended these sessions:

- Persuasive Social Media
- Social and Semantic Web
- Selling the Value of Social Web to Management ( Moderated by me, will post a recap in a separate blog post)
- Washington area/East Coast startup scene and resources

The location was awesome, well planned with a central place to socialize and the auditorium and session rooms right across the center hall.

photo credit Jeff Kubina

The sessions themselves were full of enthusiasm with the the experts contributing their knowledge.

The after party was a great success and was held at

The Brewer's Art
1106 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Tel: 410-547-6925

Follow-up posts for this conference will be :
Remarkable people I met
Should we create a Wiki : How to pitch Social media to your boss

Along with the organizers I would like to mention Dave Troy's son who filmed on QIK and Jennifer Troy for organizing the afterparty and echoing Dave Troy's thanks 'Jim Kucher at the University of Baltimore deserves huge kudos for securing the terrific space at the Thumel Business Center at a deeply discounted price."

Great Blog Posts about SocialDevCamp ( some referring to it)

Jimmy Gardner : http://eastcoastblogging.com/2008/04/23/event-socialdevcampeast/

Greg Cangialosi : http://www.thetrendjunkie.com/

Dave Troy : http://davetroy.com/?p=29

Ann Bernard: http://whygosolo.com/posts/socialdevcamp-was-a-success

Kenneth Yeung : http://blog.thelettertwo.com/2008/05/11/im-a-little-verklempt-socialdevcamp-was-neither-about-development-or-camping-discuss/

AkshayJava : http://socialmedia.typepad.com/blog/2008/05/socialdevcamp-t.html

Jason J Thomas : http://www.baltimoremick.com/blog/2008/05/11/socialdevcamp-east-some-thoughts/

Rob Carson : http://epistolary.org/rob/ ( he is thinking about writing a post)

Tom: http://blog.600block.com/2008/05/12/600block-attends-socialdevcampeast-geeks-out/

Keith Casey http://caseysoftware.com/blog/socialdevcamp-east-recap

Raj Budgetpulse.com http://www.blog.budgetpulse.com/?p=22

Harry Chen : http://harry.hchen1.com/2008/05/10/594 and http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/2008/05/12/myspace-plans-to-support-the-semantic-web

Mark Scrimshire : http://ekive.blogspot.com/2008/05/health-20-and-healthcamp-going-beyond.html

Alex Hillman http://www.dangerouslyawesome.com/2008/04/22/the-east-coast-revolution-socialdevcamp-east/

Kenneth Yeung http://www.cornerofwhatever.com/

Nick O' Neil http://www.socialtimes.com/2008/05/the-washington-post-rails-dc-yet-again/ and http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/05/10-reasons-you-should-read-the-social-times/

Travis J Todd : http://www.growvotes.org/blog/

Russel Heimlich http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog/socialdevcamp-east-was-all-about-the-future-of-the-web/

If I missed your post please comment and I will add it.

Video Coverage of SocialDevcamp

Kenneth Yeung : http://www.viddler.com/explore/kyeung808
Qik: shashi, davetroy

Alan Chaess: http://www.seesmob.com/

Photos from SocialDevCamp

Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/tags/socialdevcamp/

Jimmy Gardner : http://tinyurl.com/5ed9vw
Mark Scrimshire : http://animoto.com/play/Ztz5V0MrZveVv61VDp30Gw

Many thanks to sponsors, volunteers and attendees who made this event be successful.

Sponsors of SocialDevCamp

:

• AetherQuest Solutions
• AwayFind.com
• Blue Sky Factory
• BudgetPulse
• ClearPoint Technology Group
• David Beaudouin & Co.
• Jimmy Gardner My Drop Bin
• JOBMATCHBOX.com - Jobs, Tips and Resources
• Mind Over Machines
• nClud.com - providing graphics and design support
• Network Solutions
• PostModern Dating
• Roundhouse Technologies
• Rosenberg, Martin, Greenberg, LLP
• SEMQO, Inc.
• SmartLogic Solutions
• SpotCrime.com
• University of Baltimore
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
• Web Connection
• Sleep.fm

  Volunteers

  Bob Neelbauer - http://www.jobmatchbox.com/ ; Social Matchbox
  Akshay Java - http://socialmedia.typepad.com/ ; UMBC
  Premraj Jeyaprakash - http://www.budgetpulse.com/ ; Isquare Inc
  Teria Rogers - teriarogers@yahoo.com
  Ben Kutil Baltimore Designer Ben Kutil, @benkutil

Registrants (aka Campers)
(Some people on the list may not have actually made it, I may have missed others who registered on-site)

1. Aaron Batalion
2. Akshay Java
3. Alan Chaess seesmob @chaeseco
4. Alex Hillman
5. Amit Shafrir
6. Amy Hoy - Slash 7
7. Amy Senger
8. Andrea Baker
9. Andrew Wright
10. Anjan Shah
11. Ann Bernard - http://whygosolo.com/
12. Anthony LaFauce
13. Armen Arevian
14. Barry George
15. Becca Baker
16. Ben Kutil benkutil.com
17. Berin Szoka Progress & Freedom Foundation
18. Bill Mill billmill.org
19. Bob Neelbauer - Twitter: Jobmatchbox Jobmatchbox.com
20. Brent Halliburton - ad.com
21. Brian Cary
22. Brian Devine
23. Brian Drake
24. Brian Hoffman [http://www.mypersianbuddies.com]
25. Brian Sloane
26. Bryan Hurley
27. Bryan Liles
28. Charles Harvey
29. Cesar Diaz
30. Cherie Beck
31. Chris Ballance - http://www.chrisballance.com/
32. Chris Conley ümlatte llc
33. Chris Kinnan
34. Clay Fink
35. Colin Drane
36. Colin Lowenberg
37. Colin Steele
38. Craig Green
39. Cynthia Neil
40. D. Keith Casey, Jr. - http://whygosolo.com/ ; http://caseysoftware.com/
41. Dan Goodman
42. Daniel Schiavone
43. Dave Troy - http://twittervision.com/ ; Roundhouse Technologies, LLC;
44. David Beaudouin - dbnc.com ; communication2-0.com; bohtimore.com
45. David Cizek
46. David Crandall
47. David Kirkpatrick
48. David Patton
49. Derek Wright
50. Eddie Welker edwardwelker.com
51. Elizabeth A. Terrell
52. Emad Ibrahim blog Yonkly - open source twitter
53. Evan Steinberg - http://www.checkmycampus.com/ - get the REAL scoop on college
54. Eyal Termechi
55. Fname Lname
56. Frank Hecker - hecker.org
57. Gary Sharma
58. Gene Deems
59. Geoff Livingston
60. George Brett
61. Greg Bloom
62. Greg Cangialosi The Trend Junkie
63. Greg Ritter Blackboard
64. Greg Yardley Pinch Media
65. Harry Chen -- gnizr.com
66. Holly Samee
67. Isaac A Mosquera
68. Ivan Peevski
69. JP Toto - 30Points Design & Consulting
70. James Lombardi
71. James Watkins
72. Jane Harvey
73. Jane Quigley Jane Quigley
74. Jared Goralnick - AwayFind.com
75. Jasmine Sante
76. Javier Rios - [http://www.javierios.com]
77. Jeff Kubina claimid.com/kubina
78. Jen Gunner http://www.gbtechcouncil.org/
79. Jen King
80. Jennifer Gunner
81. Jennifer Troy
82. Jesse Rohland Pinch Media
83. Jessie X Jessie X
84. Jia Ji = http://edeify.com/ ; http://dancetown.us/ - could use a place to stay Friday night
85. Jim Wang
86. Jimmy Gardner - http://2plus11.com/ ; 2Plus11 Technology (http://mydropbin.com)/
87. Joe Cascio (tentative) Read at Joe's, Joe's Video, Etc., On Twitter: joec0914, SociaLogic.org
88. Joel Eisenlipz (aka Stephen Nason)
89. Joel Fisher Advertising.com
90. Joel Mark Witt = FolkMedia.org
91. John Ferrell
92. John Trupiano SmartLogic Solutions
93. Jonathan Fields
94. Joy Gatewood Fulton
95. Juliana Neelbauer staffmagnet, LLC
96. Julio Barros E-String
97. Justin Michaliga
98. Justin Thorp - Clearspring Technologies http://clearspring.com/
99. Justine Lam
100. K.C. Hopson
101. Kenneth Yeung TheLetterTwo.com - Blog and Twitter
102. Kristina Everett
103. L.A. Davis
104. Lauren Galanter LaurenGalanter.com (tentative)
105. Lili Balfour
106. Lisa Moore Toonamation
107. Liz Pruszko - the315.com/blog
108. Lokesh Dhakar lokeshdhakar.com
109. Lorne Epstein http://www.yourehiredbook.com/
110. Lynn Wallenstein http://www.poweredbygeek.com/ and http://twitter.com/lwallenstein
111. Mahvash Taqi
112. Mark Drapeau
113. Mark Scrimshire - http://ekive.blogspot.com/ and ekivemark on Twitter
114. Matt Topper - http://www.matttopper.com/ and topperge on Twitter
115. Melanie Kelleher
116. Michael Neville
117. Mike "bear" Taylor Seesmic bearlog
118. Mike Brenner Sunrise Design
119. Mirco Mannucci
120. Mit Majithia
121. Nahum Gershon - http://www.sociosphere.net/ ; http://www.schmooz.org/
122. Newt Fowler
123. Nick Hall
124. Nick O'Neill Social Times AllFacebook.com
125. Nikolas Coukouma - twitter
126. Nisha Thompson
127. Patrick Ewing - http://project.ioni.st/
128. Patti Chan - http://600block.com/
129. Paul Worsham - Chief Social Officer 1 Piazza
130. Pramit Mohapatra - FightTicker.com
131. Premraj Jeyaprakash - http://www.budgetpulse.com/ ; Isquare Inc
132. Raj Malik
133. Ralph Sklarew workingWidgets
134. Rana Sobhany
135. Randy Boland - BrockLi.com
136. Regan Buker
137. Renee Edelman
138. Riaz Virani
139. Rich Goldman
140. Richard Ellsberry - BaltimoreCollective.org / MediaWiki
141. Rob Carlson vees.net
142. Robert Neel
143. Russell Heimlich @kingkool68 - U.S.News & World Report
144. Ryan Spahn Sleep.FM - The Social Alarm Clock
145. Sara Spivey
146. Scott Scheyer
147. Scott Tranter
148. Scott Tuddenham Searchles
149. Sean Shadmand
150. Shashi Bellamkonda SolutionsArePower.com, Shashi
151. Sri Nagubandi Sri Nagubandi
152. Stan Schwartz Toonamation
153. Stephen Hopkins
154. Stephen Muirhead
155. Steven Mandzik - swordplay, robotchampion
156. Suzanne Hurley
157. Tac Tacelosky
158. Taylor Davidson - http://www.taylordavidson.com/
159. Teria Rogers
160. Thibeaux Lincecum
161. Thomas Keeley FreedomWorks.org
162. Tim Shey
163. Travis J. Todd - http://growvotes.org/
164. Vicki Contie
165. Victoria Pickering
166. Yair Flicker - SmartLogic Solutions
167. Zvi Band
168. George Brett TW: @ghbrett
169. Mike Subelsky subelsky.com
170. Wilson Mar
171. Brian Drake Facebook
172. Mike Rosenfeld
173. Vlad Korolev
174. Tom Poe 600block.com
175. Ross - http://stratacomm.net/ http://dctechevents.com/
176. Clarence Wooten http://www.collectivex.com/

Weather on demand on Twitter

I have been following SunDC and Wx_DC to get the weather on Twitter for the DC area. I always thought it would be nice to have weather on demand on Twitter

I saw a Tweet from DrThomasHo

"you can now get temperature in Fahrenheit from @isitniceoutside by appending (f) after postal code

@isitniceoutside is developed by @howicode. The advantage I see is that you can get weather on demand.

How to start:

a) Follow @isitniceoutside on Twitter

b) @isitniceoutside will start following you back.

c) To get weather send a DM example : d isitiniceoutside 20171(f)

d) If you want to get the weather in Celcius then you don;t have to out the (f) at the end.

So now when you want the weather use Twitter. Some of the questions I have for @howicode are :

What is the source of this weather info?

How often is it updated?

Want to see other Bots etc who give you weather on Twitter go here : http://twitter.com/search/users?q=weather

Google may be buying more than half a Million servers every year

There is a great article on Business Week on the recent funding of $100 million that Facebook  received. The funding according to Spencer. F Ante's article will be used "entirely for servers".

Its interesting to see a few numbers from other major players:

- Data Center Knowledge puts Facebook as having 10,000 servers (including 1,800 MySQL servers) and will buy 50k with the new funds.

- Forrester Research's Gillett a leading expert on the evolution of IT infrastructure, and researches topics such as customer use and adoption of virtualization, grid computing, and utility computing estimates that Google, owner of the world's biggest Web search engine, is buying half a million servers each year. Did you know a study last year said YouTube accounted for 10% of all internet traffic.

- Microsoft's (MSFT) annual consumption is as much as 200,000 servers.

How does this compare to you or your company? have you see other figures around the internet? Would be very interested in hearing more.

First SocialDevCamp on May 10th In Baltimore

In the new media its amazing to find that conferences are being organized pretty quickly. Between the time that I heard of SocialDevCamp and the date its being held there was a gap of 30 days.

Dave Troy says "developers and thought leaders who are interested in imagining the future of the web, not just where it is today."

Network Solutions is one of the sponsors of this event.  I am excited to be going tomorrow.  Details of the event are at http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/SocialDevCampEast

 

Will try to create a lot of media and have a day of knowledge and networking.

SmallBizSurvival.com releases EBook - 20 Small Business Ideas for Small Towns

BeckyMcCray of SmallBizSurival.com released a e-book resource for Small Business Owners in Small towns. From Becky's blog :

Need ideas for a small town small business? We have a new ebook for you.
20 Small Business Ideas for Small Towns is a short ebook detailing 20 different ways you can make a successful business in a small town. It also covers seven ways to generate your own ideas, so you can dream up the small biz idea that best fits you.
This booklet is brought to you by Network Solutions.

Create your own Flickr Cards

I stumbled on this website that shows how to print your own business cards using your Flickr photos. I have not tired it yet. If you tey it I would love to get your feedback. please comment here.

http://stuff.gazpachosoup.net/flickr-card/

Thanks,

Shashi

Talking to Strangers about Social Media - Teaism

After the techCocktail DC a few weeks ago I walked to Teasim in Dupont circle in DC to have dinner with Nahum , Jimmy Gardner.

Being social people we started a conversation with a fellow guest. This is what she said about social media.

She was going to a job interview in a few days and I hope she got the job.

Summize for Twitter Search

Summize is a tool that you can use to search for any keyword mentioned on Twitter.

Both for me personally and for Network Solutions I use tools like Tweetscan and Terraminds to search Twitter for any conversations that mention me or Network Solutions. I have been using Summize and really like it. here are reasons why I like Summize:

a) advance search is easy. I use this query to make sure I do not miss people mistyping my name.

"shashib OR shashi OR netsol OR "network solutions" OR sashib OR shasib OR networksolutions"

b) Everytime there is a new "tweet" Summize updates the top of the browser to show the number of new tweets.

c) Summize gives you links to conversations associated with the "tweet"

SOBCON08 - New friends

The start of SOBCON was awesome. Ruth Mary Sylte @rmsylte tweeting to me that the CTA ( Chicago "el") was the best way to reach down town. Its amazing and costs only $2. You reach town in 30 minute or less.

I met Liz Strauss in Chicago for the first time on a meridian on Michigan Avenue on Friday. We had met previously in SXSW in Austin. You can't miss her - she is tall and remarkable.

 

  

 

Tojosan( Todd Jordan) I was looking forward very much to meet. Despite the weather paying spoilsport he arrived at the hotel in time for us to walk around and get a meal . I really got to know him well and he is very genuine and is the kind of person who will help anyone selflessly. With Tojosan it was like we continued our online conversation offline.

We walked to the Khyber Restaurant to meet some other awesome guys Dawud Miracle, Adam Kayce , Chris Garett and have some great food. Chris took a rain check as he was feeling the jet lag and wanted some shut eye before the boat ride.

Dawud Miracle and Adam Kayce Photo By Denise Wakeman

I met my fellow Network Solutions attendee Randy Windsor also for the first time in Chicago.

I have to write more about the boat ride, the evening in the Emerald Loop, meeting Leah Jones in person.

The city of Chicago was full of nice and polite people and so was the entire attendee list of SOBCON.

Don't be fooled by John Hong's pose here. He is very interesting and blogs for Zappos. ( Is that right?)

Attendees

• Cliff Atkinson
• Shashi Bellamkonda
• JJ Betts
• Chris Brown
• Chris Brogan
• Harry Brooks
• Anita Bruzzese
• Dave Bullock
• Mark Carter
• Brian Clark
• Tom Clifford
• Clay Collins
• Valerie Combs
• Chris Cree
• Lisa Cree
• Thomas Croghan
• Donna Cutting
• David Dalka
• Kevin Dixie
• Tim Draayer
• Monica Duncan
• Easton Ellsworth
• Kevin Ferrasci O'Malley
• Jonathan Fields
• Sarah Filipiak
• Mary-Lynn Foster
• Annie Galvin Teich
• Brian Gardner
• Chris Garrett
• Jon Gatrell
• Phil Gerbyshak
• Jared Goralnick
• Karen Hanrahan
• Joseph Hauckes
• Vicky Hennegan
• Scot Herrick
• John Hong
• Stephen Hopson
• Robert Hruzek
• Timothy Johnson
• Sara
• Pete Jones
• Todd Jordan
• Bob Kakoliris
• 
  Christine Kane
• Adam Kayce
• Kristen King
• Scott Kolbe
• Jen Knoedl
• Stephen Koernig
• Bryan Kress
• George Krueger
• Amy L
• Tammy Lenski
• James G. Lindberg
• Eli Litscher
• Rick Mahn
• Sim Margolis
• Michael Martine
• Becky McCray
• Maria Meadows
• Cory Miller
• Ann Michael
• Dawud Miracle
• Debra Moorhead
• Matthew Murphy
• Paul O'Flaherty
• Tim Padar
• Jesse Petersen
• Wendy Piersall
• Sandra Ponce de Leon
• J. Erik Potter
• Karen Putz
• Susan R Quandt
• Levy Rivers
• Barbara Rozgonyi
• Jeff Sable
• Sheila Scarborough
• Mary Schmidt
• Derek Semmler
• Maria Sharon
• David Sherbow
• Steve Sherlock
• Brad Shorr
• Louise Silberman
• Sonia Simone-Rossney
• Julien Smith
• Stephen Smith
• Michael Snell
• Derrick Sorles
• Terry Starbucker
• Liz Strauss
• Jon Swanson
• Ruth M Sylte
• Windsor Tanner
• Michelle Vandepas
• Lorelle VanFossen
• Colleen Wainwright
• Denise Wakeman
• James D. Walton
• Randy Windsor
• Sandy Wrenshaw
• Joanna Young