There was a little noise made recently about a website called Please Rob Me. It was created to demonstrate the problems with sharing too much information online via location-based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla.

These services allow you to use smartphones and other mobile devices to “check-in” and collect badges. They also allow you to make recommendations and suggest tips for the destinations that you visit. Some restaurants and attractions have realized that it is a great way to offer discounts or specials to regular loyal customers. New tools are being promised by Foursquare in the near future that will allow interested business owners to learn everything from their busiest time of day among that subset of customers to what happened the last time that someone came in, so I’d say that the rate of adoption may be picking up just enough…

Even if there’s been a steady adoption rate of location-based social networks, I have a feeling that it would take a dedicated thief who knew specific neighborhoods fairly well who was willing to be extremely patient to truly benefit from this information.

There is actually a group of organizations that could benefit from this type of service, though it would help if the information could be translated appropriately – law enforcement agencies.

This is still a leap but it could be a way that pro-active policing and surveillance is made easier in the future. It could be used to determine trends of movement through the city. Considering the type of information that Foursquare is preparing to roll out (and Facebook’s unofficial announcement about their plans), it wouldn’t be a stretch to create a digital map and provide a visual of a “swarm” of activity, possibly allowing  help police officers out when identifying where to place additional officers or where to step up additional patrols for events. It’s not like it hasn’t been done before. It was; for last year’s SXSW conference in Austin, TX.

We don’t necessarily need to share any information about traffic while we’re driving because – well, we already do that with Google Maps if we use it on a GPS-enabled phone.

As a matter of fact, we’ve been sharing personal information for a long time now – everything from zip codes when checking out at a major chain store to email addresses via website logins in exchange for a “cookie” that tracks where you visit. That’s probably why so many people have been sharing their homes as destinations online.

I considered adding my home as a place I could become “mayor” of easily, though I still haven’t. Even without that tidbit of knowledge, I’m certain that folks can figure out when I’m home and when I’m not.

One more thing too – just because I’ve said where I am doesn’t mean that someone isn’t home or that my neighbor isn’t next door. We post when stores and restaurants open and close too, remember?

Maybe we share too much nowadays, but we do have the ability to control it. We also seem to want to stop the fall of the public man – only we don’t want to be that public.

What do you think?

How do you connect with others in an unfamiliar place?

This is not to say that the performance of Aida was not breathtaking and enjoyable – it was both. I eventually even got into a conversation with the older woman sitting next to me about what my favorite opera was and why I was there by myself. I wasn’t actually there by myself – Betsy’s parents were somewhere near Row E; I just happened to end up with a ticket in row W.

During the intermission I saw people in the performance space that I knew but that didn’t exactly recognize me sitting in a shirt and tie – not to mention the fact that they were in their own worlds. It’s something that’s completely understandable – especially when you realize that “all the world’s a stage” (blame one of my professors in college for my accepting that truth in this context).

This meant that with the exception of the one conversation with the woman sitting next to me during the second intermission, I had no one to talk to about the performance – or anything else.

Then I pulled out the relatively new phone (yes, a Palm Pre that I still need to finish writing a review of soon) and I suddenly realized the benefit of having a gateway to the world that could fit in the palm of your hand.

The periods when the space was not filled with melodious sounds and capturing my attention I was checking emails and sending birthday text messages. I even took a couple of notes for this post – including the fact that there was a couple about three rows back who were each on their iPhone playing games and sending out tweets (and they were there together).

I learned a long time ago that you can feel like you’re by yourself even when you’re surrounded by a rather large crowd of people. A web-enabled phone allows me to have a safety-valve available for when I begin to feel that way. These folks have chosen to “follow” me or be my friend meaning most times someone is there listening to what I’m saying or willing to answer the question I’ve posted. You hope that’s the case at least.

Does it always work out as you hope? Probably not; I’m sitting at the opera trying to pick Betsy out from the back of the space with blurred vision while another friend is sitting in a bar in Philadelphia celebrating her birthday. The odds of finding some common topics get tough but the mere fact that the opportunity exists is quite important.

This new approach to the window to the rest of the world may mean that most of your friends may not live in the same city as you. It can also mean that some of these social events could lose their luster if you’re not necessarily doing that offline networking since you’re glued to your personal screen.

It could also mean that there are people who claim they are your friends for the sole purpose of keeping tabs on you who may never engage. Once you reach that level it becomes an issue of figuring exactly what it means when you call someone a friend. I will say that I’m starting to examine that issue myself right now.

The important thing was that at least for a few moments between acts, I felt connected and like somebody felt like listening.

I guess the question remains after all of this:

How do you connect?

Photo: Tweeting the What is Social CRM? 140 char answer at #soccrm | the_rab/Flickr

I shy away from both labels (and probably will for some time still to come) since I don’t feel as though I’ve earned it. I have this weird opinion that if you ever think of yourself as an expert you’ll feel as though you don’t have to learn anything else – that you know it all. In a field that seems to change once every couple of days, I have a feeling that’s not going to happen for some time.

That said, perhaps since there are others calling me an expert I should probably feel comfortable using the term to describe myself. I doubt I would, but it may ease some of the concerns that were addressed earlier today over on Social Media Birmingham.

While I do feel that the fishbowl has gone over this topic with a fine tooth comb (including one person whom I consider an expert explaining why they stopped using that label to describe themselves and what an they’d want an expert to know), it is important to look at it from the point of view of the client or consumer.

This field of digital communications for all intensive purposes is essentially 15 years old. In our “run-from-one-place-to-the-next,” “we-need-it-NOW” lifestyle, we’d assume that by now someone has to have a concrete set of standards for people to be able to accurately measure the intelligence of the person or company that you’re asking to handle a portion of your marketing and outreach campaign. We don’t – and I don’t think we need to (per se – but that’s for another post); but…

…people put trust in labels. They believe what they are told. It is a trust economy nowadays after all.

The problem seems to exist because of how labels develop based on the situation around their recipients.

Perhaps if you’re in a city that’s beginning to embrace social media, an expert is someone who can go over the basics, like how to set up an account and some initial trends that are going on. Maybe for that situation, you’re their expert.

For those in another community where they have been fully embracing all of these tools for some time there’s a person that can explain how to measure the effectiveness of the messages and the conversations as well as recognizing opportunities to connect offline as well as potential use of print materials. They’d be that community’s expert, but they may not be what the other community wants because of the level of knowledge being sought (and vice versa).

These “experts” are people too and they have different levels of skill. Let’s appreciate that, do good work, and let that speak for itself in terms of where you fall in the pantheon of folks practicing an ever-changing craft.

That said, I’d add one more thing – speak in your own voice and appreciate the authentic voices of others.

Or I could just let Jason Falls say it much more eloquently or maybe even much more succinctly than I just did.

I look forward to seeing what else I can learn from others out there while I have my own shingle hung on the door for business.

Photo: Dennison Label Sheet. Calsidyrose/Flickr

Now, I had two things going through my mind at this point:

Did I warn people often enough of the pending excess of tweets flooding their streams? We did once at the beginning of each effort.

Were these events important enough to try to make the campaign a more relevant issue to our followers on Twitter and – hopefully – the city and the region? Considering recent voter turnout numbers in local elections, I thought it warranted some attention.

We received a positive response from the first evening’s coverage, including a mention from one of the city’s alternative weeklies since they couldn’t cover it themselves.

Last night’s event drew more support, but only after one of our stream followers made the following comment:

@bhamterminal guys. seriously. Twitter is not a chat room. I don’t need play by play of local city council meetings. unfollow in 3, 2, 1…

While I’m grateful for the encouraging words that I saw the account receive involving the use of Twitter in this instance, I started to wonder about the fact that even though folks don’t like to think of social media tools in marketing terms, it definitely behaves like one since its essentially an opt-in process.

I’d have to say that it’s better than a chat room – it’s a conversational engagement tool.

As a result, some folks use Twitter as a chat room (including the wildly popular #journchat on Monday nights and #blogchat on Sunday nights) while some use it as an informational stream – a fire hose of knowledge if you will.

The great thing about it is you can choose to drink from the hose whenever you want to. There have been additional tools out there to help shut off portions of the stream, including Twittersnooze (though it’s currently sleeping itself) and third party applications like Tweetdeck and Seesmic that allow the creation of groups. Twitter’s new Lists functionality even provides help with reducing the force of the flow. Of course, you can always choose to block, unfollow or unfriend a stream if it becomes too much for you. It will not be the end of the world and you may even figure out a way to re-engage in the conversation later on.

As for how we deal with moving the conversation off of Twitter and somewhere where it feels less like broadcasting… I have a few ideas, but I’ll wait to hear your suggestions down below first and then share them and mine later this week.

By the way – don’t be afraid of making mistakes when using Twitter or any digital communications tools.

It’s not failing – it’ll just help you in the long run.

Photo: Fire hydrant. mikbor/Flickr.

There are many that wonder why these books don’t go the way of the dinosaur since nobody uses them anymore . There are numbers that appear to bear that out. They’re also looked at as a barometer of our economy (and not one necessarily delivering a rosy message either). Slate even posted one story last spring that all but suggested that their ultimate fate should come sooner rather than later and there are some that agree.

I actually remember having a rotary dial phone in the house when I was little (there’s one of those embarrassing but apparently cute – in Mom’s eyes at least – photos of me on it out there somewhere) but I can’t remember the last time I used the Yellow Pages. I think it was sometime back in 2004 when I first moved here to get the number to turn on the Internet service.

Actually it was one evening when we had to call the cable company because our service was out and we didn’t have the number handy (ironic, isn’t it?).

I’m not sure that we’ll ever see printed directories truly go away, though it may be helpful if we had a few more opt-out programs for folks who didn’t want them delivered.

But here’s what gets me…

For all of the talk about social media tools and everyone’s use of them, it’s always sobering – and important – to remember that most people are still just getting their feet wet in this thing. We normally assume that everyone is already connected to the Internet and always has access to a computer or smartphone. That’s not the case (as much as we’d like to be).

My point is that not everyone hops on the bandwagon at the same time. We’d like them all to do so, but it’s not going to be the case. We need to remember that when we’re talking about these tools (there’s me talking to myself as well as you again).

Just out of curiousity, do you remember the last time you used a printed phone book?

And what do you think?

Photo: André Natta

The room was comfortable, the front desk was extremely helpful and the breakfast attendants talked me into a full breakfast that was so good that it kept me satisfied practically all day Saturday.

Plus, it was one really comfortable bed (as you can see)…

While I was driving back, I couldn’t think of many things that could have made the stay even better – save one that would be a perk.

I thought about what it would be like if you were able to communicate with a hotel or inn directly using social media.

Hotels are already looking to tools like Twitter and Facebook to reach out to those of us out here in the virtual universe, but the tone of the conversation would need to be altered slightly.

Followers are currently able to find out about contests (that chains hope become viral – like the one that David Sullivan just won) or about special deals that are only they will be able to learn about. I’m hoping that eventually it will also make it possible for me to communicate with the desk about availability (if I’m a regular or business traveler) or be able to request the hotel shuttle come and pick me up in addition to helping with recommendations.

It wouldn’t be fair to ask for a change without pointing out the personal touches that using social media and search allows one Garden Court Inn to provide (thanks for the link, @SocialMediaComm).

Putting this question out via Twitter today pointed me in the direction of several sites that use that popular service to share information with their followers – but it is still in the early adoption stages as is all of this stuff. My adopted hometown of Savannah has a couple of entries in the race, including a profile for the DeSoto Hilton, the city’s tallest building, as well as the Hyatt along the waterfront. There are also several hotels using Facebook, including aloft, Hilton Garden Inn and Sheraton Hotels and Resorts among others, though many appear to be using as a broadcast vehicle and not necessarily one that builds relationships over the long term via a two-way conversation.

One reason to be optimistic about that interaction changing is Hyatt’s HyattConcierge account on Twitter. The profile has more than 7,800 followers and a quick look at recent tweets from it shows that it’s responding to people while making others aware of answers to questions that they may have. It also appears as though they probably have as much traffic occurring as direct messages to travelers as the open information stream. It’s just cool to think about what it would be like if several properties could get to that level of assistance for their guests.

A few things will need to change in order for this to spread across the industry. The accounts would need to be used by more than just  the marketing department. I know that managers are always worried about how their staff uses their time (I know I was when I managed), but the ability to have folks able to receive answers to questions like “What’s going on in town this weekend?” or “Is it possible to make reservations at (insert name of restaurant here)?” would be a treat for those following and probably a lot more fun for your front desk and concierge staff than you think.

Another issue involves getting that conversation online to be a two-way one and not just one of giveaways and contests. This would involve both sides of that conversation taking steps to truly change their behavior, including having questions asked and answered by other guests. That may take a little longer, but I still think that the results would be great.

I’d love have some of you share more examples of hotels and smaller properties using social media tools to enhance the guest’s stay.

Anybody?

Photo: HGI bed. André Natta

This photo is from my second Main Streets Conference in New Orleans in 2006 after some friends and I finished having some lunch at Central Grocery. There’s also a story about a streetcar and a very long trip to a cemetery, but I digress…

My first one was in Baltimore, MD in 2005 and I have several fond memories from it. None of them would have never happened had I not physically been there.

Here’s one example: I was set to go to one of the last sessions on Tuesday afternoon when six of us decided that we’d skip out and check out one of the city’s municipal markets for some oysters. We ended up spending two hours talking about preservation, revitalization and everything else under the sun. Being able to hang out and talk with these guys, including Billy Parrish (a former National Trust Main Street Center director) and economic development consultant Don Rypkema was the highlight of my conference.

I would have never gotten that from just following the conference online. While one can occasionally find those types of conversations and opportunities, they are rare.

That’s why I’m exploring Nashville as you’re reading this on Friday evening getting ready to attend what promises to be a great open to the public session at the National Preservation Conference (and I haven’t even talked about getting to hang out with Jason Falls, Chris Brogan and Rachel Luxemburg at Daquiri Island during BlogWorld Expo 2007…).

Wednesday’s post about virtual conferences led to a few online and, ironically, off-line conversations about the benefits and pitfalls associated with it. This included one from a friend via Facebook that asked about what happens when you give away too much online.

“…nonprofits need a revenue stream from somewhere and conferences, while very time- and money-intensive, do generate revenue. If enough content is put online, how do attendees justify paying to register? At what point do they stay home and be virtual attendees for free?”

It’s become common to be able to find and expect some kind of an opportunity to take part in conferences virtually, most likely via following along on Twitter or hoping for a live stream of a keynote or two. Even with that expectation, many would still choose to attend in person if at all possible.

Last night, I got a chance to watch the happenings at another conference via mycontent.com (great site BTW) – this year’s BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas. I was reminded of one valuable piece of advice during Chris Brogan’s keynote…

(The link goes to Chris’ blog post about it. Great reading…)

I’ll put it this way: it doesn’t make any sense to hide behind the keyboard and only glean from the streaming video and Tweets – and that goes double if you’re there in person.

BTW, I probably just spoke to myself as much as I tried to pass along Chris’ advice to you in my own voice.

We need the chance to enjoy chance conversations, fleets of fancy and rainbows. For that reason alone there will always be a draw to attend a conference in person. There’s something about sitting in the Ryman in Nashville or hanging out at the Daiquiri Island in  the mall at the Planet Hollywood Hotel or sitting at a coffee shop and being able to actually talk to someone one-on-one that just doesn’t happen any other way.

Social media in this case is a window that lets us catch a glimpse of what’s going on (and what we may feel we’re missing out on) elsewhere in your community. It’s still only a glimpse.

You need to be able to hold onto those memories and cherish the communities of which you’re a part. The tools are there to help make it easier. Hopefully we’ll have some great conversations soon about how to do that – both on and off-line.

Photo: Muffed at Central Grocery. André Natta

The group that has popularized the Hipster PDA shouldn’t surprise us with their love for the tactile. I consider myself a borderline hipster – despite my excessive reliance on my laptop to run my life, many of my friends would not necessary be surprised to see a pencil in my hand and a legal pad out as I work out a problem. Hipsters still enjoy the art of creating the flyer or poster. We enjoy the craft and the thought that has to go into it. I cherish a poster that I bought at my first ever Kentuck Festival – it’s a hand printed poster for a Man or Astroman? concert at The Bottletree. Despite my love for the nebulous, the historian and packrat in me still loves to hold something in my hand.

Even on The Terminal, whenever we sponsor an event, we still cherish the visual and the tactile even though we never “go to press.” We figure that while many would say that it’s all about content, we know that one reason that folks visit the site is because of how it looks (and we can’t disappoint as a result).

Do you still find yourself looking on the wall for the latest information instead of in the paper or online? Maybe it’s the ability to sort through layers of information in much the same way that web workers dig through search results to find what it is that they’re looking for. The main difference is that it can provide in a glimpse an idea of the kind of neighborhood it is, the kind of regulars that frequent the establishment, much in the same way that the merchandise or the items on the menu in a way that you will never quite be able to get no matter how hard you try on the computer.

What do you think? Can the bulletin board be a window into a neighborhood even in this modern world? Do you have any examples of a bulletin board that provides us that glimpse?

Let me know.

NOTE: This post was originally written for my personal blog, Dre’s Ramblings, in spring of 2008.

I should really say that I was looking forward to taking advantage of some of the “open to the public” presentations and events being held during the conference. I knew that I couldn’t make the trip to BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas this year (incidentally one of the largest blog conferences in the world) taking place on the same weekend. I also knew that going to Nashville early would mean that I could squeeze two conferences into one trip with BarCamp Nashville taking place on Saturday.

Unfortunately, as the week’s schedule started taking shape, I realized that I would only be able to attend events and activities on Friday. I figured that I wouldn’t quite be able to experience the conference the way I’d hoped despite the fact that I’d be able to get a taste of what was going on via Twitter.

Now, I already knew what the conference hashtag was going to be; it’s #presconf if you’re wondering. Creating one for Twitter has almost become a requirement for events, allowing folks who aren’t able to attend to glean from tweets of those who are lucky enough to be there. It also, by way of sites like What the hashtag? allow for organizers to measure how frequently the tag was used as well as provide an easy way for a collection/log of tweets to be made.

Well, given the country’s current economic situation, the National Trust decided to take the idea of being a virtual attendee to another level.

It’s not so much that it’s anything new being done on the National Trust’s Virtual Attendee page of their official website. Many of these tools have been implemented for BarCamps and WordCamps across the world. It’ll be easy for those that know about it to be able to follow live blog chats during presentations, webcasts of featured talks, watch the photos get added to Flickr and get a sense of the buzz going on in Twitterville.

The point that I’d hammer home is this is not an unconference, but probably one of the largest gatherings of historic preservationists taking place in the Western hemisphere every year doing this. It’s not necessarily the first group of folks you’d identify with providing open access to conference presentations. Or are they?

Wouldn’t it make the most sense to help spread the word about the benefits of encouraging preservation projects in your community by making informational sessions available on the web? Doesn’t the fact that the hashtag has the potential to be a trending topic on Twitter or photos suddenly flooding the Flickr pool mean that the preservation movement can be shared with a whole new group of folks who probably didn’t even know that the conference was taking place? Can these tools encourage conversations in forums or groups that they’ve never taken place in before? Can this be transformed into a new perk for supporters? Will this impact how other organizations choose to hold and organize their conferences in the future? How much do we lose out on without the ability to talk with others face to face?

Well, in my case, it makes it a little easier to accept arriving at the conference late knowing that I’ll at least have some idea of what’s been going on.

I’m interested in what you think about it…

Photo: Hello Nashville! Farin Salahuddin, National Trust Conference Coordinator(PreservationNation)/Flickr

Maybe this is one example of what collaboration is supposed to look and sound like?

The sounds of fingers hitting keys on laptops filled the large conference room in the NBC 13 studios high atop Red Mountain in Birmingham, AL on October 7. The city’s statue of Vulcan stood outside bathed in a sea of pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Inside, bloggers from across the region had the opportunity to interview experts and community leaders while participating in a blog-a-thon focused on an issue that may not get as much visible exposure this month – domestic violence. This is despite national initiatives and a Presidential proclamation.

It was definitely not your typical blog-a-thon. For those of us who’ve participated in this kind of virtual event before, it’s an opportunity to raise awareness about a given issue by dedicating space on your site. This donation of time, space and opinion normally take very different forms as participants are not necessarily exposed to the same resources or at the same level of being able to use the tools available. You basically don’t participate if you’re only looking to increase traffic to your site as that is not something that is guaranteed, though it is possible. What Blogging Against Violence attempted to do was see what happens when you try to provide ways for anyone that wants to participate in that event to have access to the same wide range of tools and resources.

Conversations with those that participated in the event (which actually continues online until October 15 – incidentally Blog Action Day) should lead those interested in doing a similar project to believe that it can be successful. Bloggers feel as though they have a chance to produce a piece of work that they may not normally have the ability to because of the resources provided by the organizers. Organizers are pleased with the chance to provide an opportunity for the facts to be presented to bloggers to share with their readership. The use of the hashtag #wfundbham by the bloggers and supporters led to use and exposure by folks in New York and Wisconsin of things being done in their communities.

It may not have led to an immediate increase in donations (which people are able to make at any time), but it did increase its exposure and people’s awareness about the issue, both helpful when asks are made in the future.

It also provided a chance for folks that know of each other only virtually to at least be in the same room and feed off of each person’s energy, no doubt leading to potentially more partnerships and collaborative efforts later on.

While we’d be providing different points of view we’d be speaking in one voice. If that’s the case, Sam Davidson’s observations on collaboration could be applied not just to nonprofits and churches but all forms of for profits ventures and city governments.

Just think of the changes that could come from such a change in mindset.

I’m optimistic that we’ll get a chance to do it again very soon and that we’ll be able to get more folks to participate and help spread the word. It’d be nice to hear from you of any other examples that may be out there of similar collaborative efforts…

Photo: Women’s Fund Blogathon. acnatta/Flickr