Hi All,
I just wanted to share with you a project I’ve completed for a new and upcoming startup called Ideabreaker .
The startup was founded by Jeffrey Lyons and David Lago this year and they have entered their business into a venture capitalist competition on VenCorps .
They contacted me Sunday and said they needed a product demo based of 2 sample User Interface (UI) concepts and an Excel file with specs. I took the challenge and went in full speed ahead.
Take a look at what I created: Ideabreaker Product Tour/Demo Link
Pretty much when it is all said and done this product will be the first, "Semantic Project Management " WebApp on the market. But this isn’t just going to be a PM application, but it is a combination of "Idea Management " tool as well!
Give me your feedback.. the good… the bad… the ugly…
If you are interested check out the blog: Ideabreaker’s Blog Link
Back by popular demand… the political mudslinging season… yee haw!
First off… I’ll say I’m a conservative independent. WAIT!!!! Don’t stop reading! This isn’t about my political views… this is all about Social Media Marketing and “Gen Y” aka ”Millennials“.
I’m signed up for both McCain and Obama email marketing lists just to keep loops on what each of them are doing. Something came through today that was very interesting from the John McCain camp.
Click on the image to see Full-Sized view. Regardless of which side of the political limbo you stand on this may be a bit out there.
I agree with the message this email is pointing out… the media is definitely obsessed with Barak Obama and yes this is supposed to be humorous, but to whom? What’s the strategy here?
Why is this so?
Obama and his Marketing/PR team really seems to have solid handle on Social Media Marketing. As for the McCain camp, well they don’t seem to be on track or anywhere near the right track!
Obama know that the “Gen Y” are the key to his success. In that past (and currently), we (Gen Y) are so apathetic to the political world because of all the mudslinging, rumors, lie, etc… The news is so biased. Everyone has to spin it there way. This is how the majority of Gen Y view traditional media/news. Obama is definitely trying to change that though social media. Just look at the friend stats (as of 7/22/2008):
Facebook Friends: Obama(1,177,514) & McCain(173,849)
Myspace Friends: Obama(426,453) & McCain(59,463)
This is definitely going to be the year of the “Social Media Presidential Race“.
Discussion Points
- What are your thoughts on the marketing practices of this years presidential race?
- Would you change anything about the Obama strategy?
- If you had control of the McCain camp… what would you do different?
- Did I miss anything?
Well we had our first Tweetup here in Central Virginia last Wednesday and it was a huge success. There were 9 of us there each representing different local companies. Among the group there were local business owners representing companies such as: CultureSmith Consulting, Futprint, and TRImagination (me). If I left you out please shoot me a quick message and I’ll add you.
I’m currently using 37signals’ Basecamp to manage most of my projects. If you are not familiar with Basecamp , basically it is a online web application (SaaS ) that provides tools for intuitive project management and easy online collaborating.
I was thinking this morning wouldn’t it be great if I could manage my Basecamp projects via my iPod Touch. I started Googling and came across the very thing I was looking for. Outpost !
Outpost is a iPhone / iPod Touch App that will allow your to access your projects without using a browser. They haven’t quite released the product yet, but it should be out in August. You can go to their website and signup to be notified when it releases.
If you don’t have a solid web-based project collaboration / management tool yet I would strongly advise using Basecamp . Its easy, intuitive, and best of all they have a free basic package. It will allow you to get aquainted with all of the features. When you need more features its really easy to upgrade to a professional package.
I’ve been through every open source PM tool out there. I’ve used Microsoft Project and several other web apps, but nothing as of yet compares to 37signals Basecamp.
If you have any questions about Basecamp feel free to shoot me a message or an email.
Central VA TweetUp #1
Live in or near Lynchburg, VA and want to meet other people who are using social networking sites for business? Then meet us for the first ever Central Virginia TweetUp – a meeting of people who may only know each other by their @Twitter nick names. In this case, the gathering is being extended to include users of other social networking platforms (like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, Facebook, etc.) as well.
Day/Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Time: 5:45 p.m.
Location: Charleys Restaurant, Lynchburg, VA
Cost: Dutch treat, separate tabs
Food: Appetizers and drinks or dinner, whatever floats your boat
Other: Wi-Fi is free so bring your laptops if you want. We’ll get to know each another, see who’s doing what and if there are ways we can connect. Come ready to share your favorite blog sites, viral media stuff, new iPhones (and old if you want to sell) and whatever else is on your mind. Feel free to bring a friend! Pass this link along or trackback to your own site.
RSVP: (@CherylSmith999) by Monday, 7/14
Sponsorship Opportunities: Attention progressive companies in Central Virginia or beyond, have a chance to meet talented folks on the cutting edge. Get a little company visibility on this site, and others (as applicable) and at the event. Pick up the tab – that simple. And if you have free stuff you want to pass out, that’s always good! If you’re interested, please contact (@CherylSmith999).
What am I missing? What suggestions do you have for the TweetUp? Who can you bring with you? Leave your feedback by clicking on the comment button below.
Recognition: Central VA TweetUp idea and initial conversations with @frankmartin and @nicktripp. TweetUp design by Lee-Graham.com
(post was mostly copied from CultureSmith’s post)
TimesOnline.co.uk released a story today titled, “Waiting for the internet meltdown.”
They say its the end of the internet, but I say its just the beginning!
THE ISSUE
The current domain registry is limited to 21 Top Level Domains (TLD): .com, .net, .org, .me, etc… and under our current Internet Protocol (IP) system “IPv4” (32 bits) there are roughly 4.2 billion IP addresses available. Not bad considering there are 6+ billion people… right?
What happened a few weeks ago was ICANN did was allow people the freedom to create their own .com, .leegraham, .trimagination, .hsova, etc… Pretty cool and this will allowing another level of creativity in creating branded domains.
Now there will be pretty much an unlimited set of TLDs. They are saying all of these new TLDs will take up all of the IP addresses. Yes, this is definitely a possibility.
THE SOLUTION
There is a planned extension of IP addresses called, IPv6 aka “IP, the next generation.” IPv6 is 128 bits instead of the 32 offered by IPv4. Basically, this will allow for 3.4 x 1038 IP addresses.
Cisco’s IPv6 Solution – Example 1
More Geeky Explanation
(click either image to view Full Size Image)
While this is still in the testing and experimenting stages it should replace IPv4 and resolve the IP / TLD issue. Currently, most operating systems (Windows 2000+, Mac OS X 10.2+, & most Linux OS) and most network routers. In 2000, Cisco – the world’s largest IP hardware company, released a IPv6 roadmap for implementing the new system.
Yes, there will be a significant cost to upgrade the worldwide system, but this is very similar to the days before cities had citywide electrical & waste management systems. Its a big step to make the upgrade, but in the end the benefits will be rewarding.
CONCLUSION
There appears to be no real need for alarm. Could this be an online newspaper journalist, looking to create some sort of chaos/doomsday scenario to drive hits to his online newspaper?
In reality, Google has been working on this before June 2006 and it is still a concern that they are actively working on: Google IPv6 Conference 2008 & Google Blog: Looking toward IPv6 (May 2008). They even have a working IPv6 link (this requires an IPv6 connection): ipv6.google.com
This is the beginning, not the end of the internet!
Its official, June 18, 2008, Mozilla Firefox crushed the world record for most downloads within 24 hours with a final number 8,002,530.
WOW! Thats pretty intense. They even give the participants a little certificate saying thanks for helping set the record. Here is a shot of mine:
Congrats to the Mozilla Team and thank you to everyone that participated. You were apart of history and the proof that word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is highly effective!
I was just on Twitter and saw a post from @TDefren to this SlideShare.
[slideshare id=496437&doc=whatthefissocialmedia070208-1215026815612657-8&w=450]
It put the “What” & the “Why” of Social Media out there in Layman’s terms, plus it gives a great laugh.
Created by @mzkagan of The Secret Diary of a Bonafide Marketing Genius
Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. Recently, we’ve improved the performance of this Flash indexing algorithm by integrating Adobe’s Flash Player technology (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200806/070108AdobeRichMediaSearch.html).
In the past, web designers faced challenges if they chose to develop a site in Flash because the content they included was not indexable by search engines. They needed to make extra effort to ensure that their content was also presented in another way that search engines could find.
Now that we’ve launched our Flash indexing algorithm, web designers can expect improved visibility of their published Flash content, and you can expect to see better search results and snippets. There’s more info on the Webmaster Central blog (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html) about the Searchable SWF integration.
Posted From: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/google-learns-to-crawl-flash.html
Crowdsourcing is definitely an interesting concept, and there have been a few successes and a few failures over the past couple of years. One of the most interesting was Cambrian House, a platform for crowdsourcing business ideas.
However, it is time to make way for something better. VenCorps (currently in Alpha) is up and coming.
