Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Archives for November 2008

Rise of the Community Manager

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As the world continues to get connected to the internet and the number of people participating online using social media to connect to one another accelerates, the role of Community Manager is becoming one that more companies and organizations realize is a critical hire and one they need to consider now.

When the majority of online participants are always-on and always-connected — be it with laptops connected via wifi in a coffee shop or with mobile or smartphones — more are connecting with one another in established social networks (e.g., Facebook, MySpace) or with micro-groups like those anyone can set up at providers like Ning; with micro-messaging platforms like Twitter and Identi.ca; using social bookmarking, photo, video and other offerings; and adjusting their attention and focus as they see fit in any number of possible places to do so online.

This Wikipedia article on social media sums up just some of the places this diffusion of attention can be placed: “Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google Groups (reference, social networking),  Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social networking), Youmeo (social network aggregation), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Avatars United (social networking), Second Life (virtual reality), Flickr (photo sharing), Twitter (social networking and microblogging) and other microblogs such as Jaiku and Pownce. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms like Mybloglog and Plaxo.”  

If you haven’t poked around (or at least tried out) any of those areas or offerings in the social media category, even understanding the nomenclature and what each social media type enables is an incredible challenge. Where do you start? 

…  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang Goofin’ Off

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Probably should’ve posted this yesterday, but if you’re wondering, “Hey! Where is this weekend’s Minnov8 Gang podcast?” we all decided to take this Thanksgiving weekend off and spend time with family and friends (with substantial time spent in the malls for those of us not cybershopping).

We’ll be back at it next Saturday after, of course, we all go shopping and contribute to our economic uptick (BTW, have you been using Best Buy’s Giftag Firefox add-on for collecting your wish list for this holiday season?).

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 15

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A lively discussion about social media tools, approaches, and a handful of insights about this hot area from the never-bashful-or-lacking-for-opinions Gang.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson, Garrick Van Buren

The term “social media” has many connotations depending upon whom you ask for an opinion or insight about what it covers, what it means, and exactly what sort of ‘media’ comprises it (e.g., blogging, social networking, social bookmarks, video sharing, et al).

We certainly don’t try to make this show a primer or any sort of comprehensive overview of the social media space, but we’re each in-the-game using several forms of it, advising clients and others on its use, and being surprisingly connected with most of the other thought leaders in social media nationally, so we’re exposed to quite a bit and cover alot of ground in this podcast.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 52:33 — 30.5MB)

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Show notes:

+ Social Media Breakfast who brought in Jeff Pulver for this month’s meeting

+ Pistachio Consulting (Laura Fitton) who published “Enterprise Microsharing Tools Comparison” (PDF or view full screen here at Scribed)

+ Tools: TubeMogul; Ping.fm; OnePlace’ new “Twitter-like” feature addition; Delicious and Cullect; Tweetie for the iPhone (iTunes URL); Analytics: Collective Intellect; Radian6; Google Analytics add-ons like these hacks and tips and this Social Media Metrics Greasemonkey Plugin For Google Analytics

+ Mentions: Motrin Moms controversy; Tim O’Reilly‘s Twitter stream and, curiously, the fact that his archive page doesn’t save or reference his tweets; Google Friend Connect

+ Other: “A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media” by Jeremiah Oywang and a “Groundswell” slideshow, with great info, here (and there are other ‘Related Slideshows’ worth viewing on this page.

+ The final report has been released and it’s very enlightening if you’re involved in social media in any way. “Kids’ Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures” is a three-year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Carried out by researchers at the University of Southern California and University of California, Berkeley, the digital youth project explores how kids use digital media in their everyday lives. (via Danah Boyd)

  • Two page summary (PDF)
  • White Paper – Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project (PDF)
  • Article here in The New York Times and many others.

Playing Tag at Social Media Breakfast

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Thursday morning (11/20) saw another gathering of Social Media Breakfast at Best Buy headquarters. This was a “special” event presented by Best Buy rather than the gathering those who attend the event each month have come to expect.

It was billed as “Breakfast with Jeff Pulver“. Jeff is considered a true VOIP pioneer and a very active enthusiast in social media or what he terms “Social Communications”…a term  more fitting to this movement since it focuses on the act of communicating rather than the medium through which we do it.  He hosts breakfasts around the world and, as it appears, he is using them to practice Personal Tagging.

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MinneDemo Showcases MN Innovation

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Ben Edwards & Luke Francl, Minnedemo hosts and organizers

Nearly 300 people attended MinneDemo last Wednesday held in Uptown’s Intermedia Arts which was the best venue in the series of “unconference” demo showcases. Ten Minnesota tech companies presented their products in 7 minute demos to a packed auditorium coordinated by MinneDemo co-founder Luke Francl.  After a brief introduction by Luke and MinneDemo co-organizer Ben Edwards, the demos began without the use of Powerpoint or any other presentation software.

The event got off to a fast start with Reactor, the first product from Rochester-based Hardcore Computer. An imposing beast of a computer at over 125 pounds, this is billed as the first personal supercomputer. Aside from being a wicked fast machine tuned for gaming, the first thing you notice is that the entire motherboard is encased in oil to cool the processor and other components. This fluid is highlighted with a blue light that makes a stunning first impression. After the demos were complete we were able to see Reactor put through it’s paces with a racing game which was most impressive. But it was clear from speaking with executives at the event that they have plans to target other processor intensive applications outside the gaming world such as architecture, video rendering and government applications….  [Read More…]

Visi: Vision 2008 a Success!

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Last Thursday, I was delighted to find myself at Visi‘s Vision 2008 conference. Billed as, “The conference will provide IT managers and business executives the opportunity to hear from technology leaders on the topic of “Technology Innovations That Drive Business”,” it met those objectives and more. 

No question it’s always an imperative for leaders to connect up at a venue that’s all about ideas, new ways of thinking about the I.T. status quo, and to consider ways to shift and accelerate those areas where I.T. provides increasingly mission-critical value to the business.

The conference started off with a keynote by Geek Squad founder (and and guy who seems like someone highly reluctant to fit into a corporate suit) Robert Stephens. Without a wireless connection available (either Wifi or 3G), I put my laptop back in my bag and just listened to him. Fortunately, a more highly disciplined journalist was in front of me, Graeme Thickins, and I saw him with (gasp!) a pen and paper feverishly taking notes so I’ll refer you over to Graeme’s post.  He really captured the essence of Robert’s talk and it’s worth a read. Suffice to say, Stephens had many great insights for any startup, entrepreneur, or corporate leader…especially in this time of trouble where cutting-to-the-chase and offering up pure and true value and doing so in an attractive and fun way is more important than ever before.

(UPDATE 11/17/08: Visi’s Gary Elfert has posted Robert’s keynote in six parts (due to YouTube size limitations, I presume. You’ll enjoy it).

Attending several of the sessions (e.g., Closed Loop CRM; Innovative and Proven Online Tools to Drive New Business) while also visiting all of the booths and taking a tour of the data center upstairs, the value I received far outweighed any costs in fees, parking and time investment. Like always, it was the people I interacted with that made it such a strong and worthwhile event and I met nearly a dozen people with whom I’ll connect with in the future.

Since I first visited with Visi’s CTO, Jason Baker, back in September and wrote this post, I’ve periodically thought about the company and the people, the challenges they face in a time where computing is increasingly shifting to the cloud and competition is accelerating (especially with unlikely entrants like Amazon Web Services), and I learned something at this event that I wasn’t expecting.

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Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 14

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We talk with Mike O’Connor from the MN Ultra High-Speed Task Force, a self-described community organizer, entrepreneur and tech-geek (blog here & bio here) turned business-leader (and, I might add, a gentlemen farmer turning his Wisconsin 420 acres back to its original pristine state).  Mike also became moderately famous in Minnesota as one of the people who popularized the Internet back in the mid-90’s and, in fact, started an ISP with his gang of cohorts in St. Paul called “Go-Fast.net” which he later sold.

Mike also has alot of experience in public policy matters having been with the St Paul Mayor’s Y2k Taskforce (chair), St Paul Mayor’s Education Taskforce (chair), Minnesota Legislative Coordinating Commission Working Group on Taxation of Telecommunications (member), St Paul Mayor’s High Tech Council (founding member), State of Minnesota Information Policy Council (member, Steering Committee), and the Lowertown Cyber Village Association (founding member).

Mike graduated from Grinnell College with a Bachelors Degree in Economics, and received an MBA from Cornell which, as you’ll hear on this show, clearly helps him have a solid perspective when it comes to funding, public policy and how broadband could act as a catalyst for innovation in our State.

We wanted to talk with Mike for those reasons and, most importantly, since he has gained a global perspective (e.g., he’s on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) Business Constituency group) but because he’s one of the Governor Pawlenty appointed members of the MN Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force.

Hosts: Steve Borsch,Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:20 — 37.3MB)

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Links from this show:

+ Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Task Force

+ Mike’s UrbanUsers blog (he represents urban areas of Minnesota on the task force)

+ From our story about Daren Cotter who founded CotterWeb due, in no small part, to his access to broadband when attending Mankato State University and how it acted as a catalyst that sparked his entrepreneurial endeavor

+ Blandin Foundation‘s Broadband Initiative and this blog on it

+ Technology Information Education Services (TIES) provides technology and information resources to school administrators, educators and students and Dennis Fazio, now Director of Technology at TIES and formerly with the now defunct MR.Net (MN Regional Network and here’s a Wayback Machine MR.Net page from 1996)

+ Mentioned Internet2 (and here’s a PDF map of this network).

(Note: We had some trouble with the conferencing bridge today so, unfortunately, Mike’s audio is a bit choppy. I apologize for that — Steve).

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 13

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One of the most enjoyable venues for getting connected with the Minnesota tech community is at MinneDemo. Taking nothing away from previous startups who’ve showcased their wares, each event has learned what works and what doesn’t, and this event Wednesday, November 12th is going to be the best one yet!

Begun by Luke Francl, Ben Edwards, and Dan Grigsby, Luke and Ben have carried the effort forward and we were delighted to have Luke on the podcast to discuss the event and to go through the companies that will present in four days.

MinneDemo brings together entrepreneurs, investors, software developers, designers, and other techies for a night of short demos and long conversations. Founded in 2006, this is the fifth MinneDemo event. It will be held at Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S. in south Minneapolis (map). Pre-networking begins at 6:30 pm, and the demos start at 7:00.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Garrick Van Buren, Phil Wilson

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 41:13 — 24.0MB)

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Mentioned on the podcast:

Tickets are still available for Wednesday’s event. Register here.

 

Lessons From Our First “Social Media” President

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One of the keys to marketing campaign management is ensuring that a message, advertisement or call to action is delivered “at the customer touch point”, or that place where the advertisement or content can be delivered and where the customer or prospect is likely to be receptive to it. 

The Obama campaign’s effectiveness in delivering their messages and calls to action will be hyper-analyzed over the next several months. From large spending on traditional media to leveraging the internet, tapping in to the social media zeitgeist, and engaging with people (especially young people) in ways never before possible was a key component to their win.

In this unprecedented traditional media and online media use, there are key lessons here for every company, organization, movement or individual wanting to sell, build brands, move an agenda forward, or build an ecosystem.

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