We at @getGauss made it to LeWeb 2011 all because of people like YOU helped vote us there! We are very grateful for your support!

Have you been wondering what our bootstrapped startup is all about? Watch our live world premiere from on stage at LeWeb in Paris:

This is what Gauss – The People Magnet is all about:

Be sure to let me know what you think!

Our bootstrapped startup Gauss – The People Magnet (@getGauss) has made it to the @LeWeb Startup Competition semi finals! Now we need you to vote for us and help us spread the word so we will be one of the 16 startups allowed to pitch at the @LeWeb finals in Paris in December.

Here’s how:

1. Visit http://is.gd/gaussleweb and click the “vote” button to the right of the video.

2. Spread the link http://is.gd/gaussleweb to everybody in the universe!

3. Come back and visit http://is.gd/gaussleweb every 24 hours until November 13th and give us another vote by clicking the vote button to the right of the video.

Thanks! <3

I’ve been way too busy lately and should probably have filled you in on what the hell I am up to these days much earlier. Anyways – here’s the lowdown.

As I alluded to a while back, I’m co-founding a new tech startup in the social/local/mobile space. It just took a hell of a lot longer than expected to assemble a willing and able crew of bootstrappers to make it happen, but now it’s finally happening!

Introducing ‘Gauss – The People Magnet’!

Did you ever find yourself wondering if you are missing out on meeting interesting relevant people around you right now? Gauss (@getGauss) answers that question for you; It discovers, helps you with approaching, connecting and actually meeting up with the people relevant to you around you right now.

Gauss (@getGauss) is a real-time proximity based discovery and introduction engine. The first product we’re shipping is an iPhone app; a People Magnet for your pocket.

You connect the app with the social networks and services that you currently use (like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc), pocket the magnet and carry on. Gauss will instantly start with discovering and attracting relevant people to you.

Gauss aims to reduce the seeming randomness of serendipitous encounters and the hassles related to approaching and connecting with relevant new people in lasting and meaningful ways.

Gauss is also the unit of measurement of a magnetic field, named after the legendarily awesome German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Be sure to sign up and spread the word for an early beta access if this sounds like your kind of thing! You can read more on the Gauss Blog.

I (and most likely almost all of you) never thought it would come to this; I actually completed a half-marathon, the Hella Hamburg Half-Marathon. Yay!

Albeit on inline skates.

Albeit with busted ball-bearings. In cold gusty head winds. In the pouring rain.

It was a literal hell on wheels – imagine chewing on a tablespoon of sand and you’ll get a feeling for how smooth and effortless my ball-bearings were turning – but at least I didn’t quit. I kept going until I crossed the finish line. Only to skate in to the right (but the wrong) side of the time recording mat. Doh!

Oh, well. Finishing instead of throwing my skates in the Binnenalster and quitting the race was enough of a victory for me.

Mental note to self: Bring an extra set of ball-bearings or skates to the next competition.

In the spirit of the time honored tradition of new year’s resolutions, I thought I’d share what I’ve decided to STOP doing for 2011 and beyond.

So without further ado, let’s indulge in some modern day voodoo / sympathetic magic / psycho-cybernetics / egotistical self-justifying cathartic mumbojumbo, shall we:

In 2011 and beyond, I will:
 

1. STOP underachieving to stay within my comfort zone (see 2.)



I guess you could say that I’m a notorious underachiever. It’s a lazyness an energy conservation kinda thing, I venture. Thermodynamics and all that. I guess being “really good” doesn’t make you “remarkable”, though. I don’t blame anyone but myself, but school and being a slave salaryman for years certainly made me lose the will to live reinforced the path of least resistance in me.

START stepping way out of my comfort zone by going back to being self-employed, founding and bootstrapping a new startup – and moving together with my long-time girlfriend.

 

2. STOP working hard at waiting for someone else to pick, deputize, knight or crown me (see 1.)



START taking matters back into my own clammy hands and leave the greasy pole salaryman rat-race. Who’s the boss now? Well, I am. I alone am now responsible for my success – or failure.

 


3. STOP only doing what I’m good at (see 1.and 2.)



Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you should be doing it. Have you ever thought about that?

START throwing myself off cliffs, forcing me to learn how to fly whilst falling.

 

4. STOP not focussing my time and energy (see 1. 3. and 5.)



Passion comes easy – I seem to have unlimited amounts of it. Focusing it is hard – I have seemingly unlimited interests and fleeting distractions.

START focusing, disciplining, killing all but one of my pet projects (or at least put them in suspended animation or better yet – put them up for adoption, delegate them or give them away), working towards ONE goal doing ONE thing at a time on ONE project, putting my skin in the game, committing the time and resources, going out on a limb, sticking my neck out and risking failure.

 

5. STOP criticizing (see 3. and 4.)




START giving, helping, praising more than receiving, criticizing, chiding. It’s easy and cheap to be negative and criticize or comment without taking the time to reflect and suggest solutions and improvements. But, as Carnegie reminded us: “Be lavish in your praise and hearty in your approbation.” and as Lincoln said: “A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.”. I’m OK, you’re OK. I guess not everybody’s OK, but we’re both OK, OK?

If you catch me relapsing, feel free to verbally abuse and humiliate me in public and on the Internet.

What are you going to STOP doing in 2011?

Update: It seems Safari 5.1+ together with OSX Lion’s “All My Files” Finder view implements something similar as I suggested. Funny!

After a recent discussion on @twitter with @limi and @philikon on the difference between the Firefox and Chrome Internet browsers, I started thinking about why I still find both browsers lacking in the download experience department.

For an excellent primer on how the different Internet browsers currently handle downloads I highly recommend reading @Limi’s blog post and come back to revisit this post.

I do not know about you, but I hate the Firefox Downloads window like the redheaded stepchild it is. The web-page-in-a-tab solution from Chrome (yeah, yeah, yeah – I know Opera did the tab thing first, but who uses that browser besides you?) doesn’t quite jive with me either.

Thus I decided to do this quick & dirty mockup of how the download experience in the browser could be improved.

Introducing the Browser Downloads Docking Menu

I would think a slide in/out dock menu for downloads would be a better solution. This way you’ll always know where your downloads are and it enables context (page and download file viewable simultaneously, guaranteed) and visual/ spatial cues (e.g. in an OSX version you should animate the download file flying into the downloads dock menu).

Visual / Spatial Cues

I think it’s important to visually show that the user’s intent to download has been registered, where the download can be expected to be found and what you can do next. If the dock menu is not out/showing already, it should slide out first, showing the user how and where.

Filtering & Recovery

Some sort of parameters to adjust list view of downloads should be added, but not visible to the normal user as default. Should be extremely easy to understand and use for normal people. Should change and filter view live/realtime. The big fat “Show all” button is there to secure that the user can feel confident that she’s seeing everything and that all filters are off/reset.

Your Opinion

What do you think? Are you happy about the current download experience in your browser? How would you make it better?

In the spirit of sharing, here’s an alphabetic list of the books I read and lectures listened to in 2010. I think I learned something from each and every one of them, so I can recommend them all.

I’d love to learn more about what you’ve been reading lately. What did you read in 2010? Do you have any ideas on what I should be reading in 2011? Did you read any of the books on my list too? What did you think? Tell me in the comments below!

All Marketers Are Liars
by Seth Godin

All people tell stories. Marketers included. Better get yours straight.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by [drumroll] Benjamin Franklin

Nice to know more about Ben Franklin and what Dale Carnegie was talking about. Spoiler: There’s no kite in it.

Project Gutenberg
Amazon
Kindle
Audible
Archive.org

The Black Swan
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You will never be able to view after-the-fact explanations the same again after reading this one. At least I can’t.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Blink
by Malcom Gladwell

On the adaptive unconscious – or intuition, or the power of thinking without thinking, if you will.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Business Model Generation
by Alexander Osterwalder (@business_design), Yves Pigneur (@ypigneur)

HackFwd Build 0.2 – Mallorca July 2010

Don’t marry your business plan – it’s going to be thrown out the moment you get funded anyway. Focus on your business model if you must. Here’s some help to do just that.

Get it:
Amazon

Bursts
by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

The hidden pattern behind everything we do. Barabasi is a great storyteller.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Click
by Rom Brafman, Ori Brafman

On why we seem to instantly connect with some people. On why we ‘click’, see?

In the video above, Ori Brafman “[...] talks about the power of oxytocin in making instant connections with people, and how it affects our personal and professional relationships. Vulnerability and proximity are both important factors in making lasting connections and relationships, and affect workplace efficiency and collaboration.”

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Critical Mass
by Philip Ball

On how one thing leads to another. Better insights in this one compared to “The Tipping Point” mentioned later. Thanks to @kitblake for recommending it!

Get it:
Amazon

Crowdsourcing
by Jeff Howe

On the wisdom and power of crowds.

Get it:
Amazon
Audible

Crush It!
by Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee)

Gary’s highly personal (and after-the-fact) advice for success. But if you need to learn how to hustle, listen to Gary. He’s awesome! I recommend the audio version to hear the author read it himself with added bonus materials. Contagious energy and passion.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The Dip
by Seth Godin

On when to quit – and when perhaps not to. Or on “bad quitting” and “good quitting”.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The Facebook Effect
by David Kirkpatrick (@davidkirkpatric)

The rosier version of the story behind Mark Zuckerberg’s “Social Network”. Highly interesting. Set in this light, you really get to love and respect “The Zuck”. No, I’m not kidding.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Engage!
by Brian Solis (@briansolis)

The survival guide for businesses and brands in the [communication and information] world of today.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders
by The Stanford Technology Ventures Program

Are you into entrepreneurship like me? Are you thinking of starting your own venture? Your own startup? Not exactly a book, but who cares. You should listen to every single one of these 130+ awesome talks with lessons learned by the superstars of the entrepreneur world. I know I did and I am eternally grateful for the insane amount of time it has already saved me by learning from other people’s mistakes.

Get it:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu

Here are some of my favorites:

From Harvard to the Facebook
The Art of Negotiation
Secret to Successful Negotiation
Negotiations On and Off the Field
Research Lens on Understanding Entrepreneurial Firms
Phases of a Startup
A history of venture capital
A Panorama of Venture Capital and beyond
Stimulating innovation and creativity in the workplace
Fall 2009 Quarter Roundup: What did we learn?
Getting to Plan B
Honest Advice on Starting a Company

Fascinate
by Sally Hogshead (@SallyHogshead)

On discovering the triggers of fascination behind yourself and your brand – and how to tweak them to better communicate your values and position yourself.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Flip the Funnel
by Joseph Jaffe (@jaffejuice)

On how to use existing customers to gain new ones.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle

Fooled by Randomness
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

More awesomeness from Taleb on rethinking of common (mis)conceptions and after-the-fact explanations.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Freakonomics
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

On rethinking common (mis)conceptions and raising new questions by applying economics.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

ECON 159: Game Theory

Because everybody should remember to put themselves in the other people’s shoes, know never to play a dominated strategy, use iterative deletion and know about best responses and the Nash Equilibrium. And because Prof. Ben Polak is an amazing teacher! And it’s free from Yale.

(Aside: Yale University uses the Plone CMS – An awesome and humbling factoid for me personally. Yay!)

Get it:
Open Yale Courses
Also available on iTunesU

Getting Things Done
by David Allen

Nah. I still practice my own Inbox Zero version to get my things done.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

How Pleasure Works
by Paul Bloom

Interesting facts about why we (or at least some) attach value to and desire mundane objects that has been owned by or in some case were only in the vicinity of a famous person; how under some conditions an object is thought of possessing some sort of “essence” of the famous person, but I found it going here, there and everywhere rather shallowly without arriving at any particular place.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
by Dale Carnegie

I’d say just stop worrying because you’re going to die and you can’t stop it. Period. Being curious about other works [than described further down in this list] of Carnegie’s made me read this one (so you probably won’t have to).

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

How to Win Friends & Influence People
by Dale Carnegie (re-read)

If you’d ask me, I’d still say this is a must-read, relevant as ever. It’s the Web2.0 handbook, how to get ahead, the guide to being a better man/woman/rathernotsay. Read, learn, do! Rinse and repeat.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum
by Alan Cooper (@MrAlanCooper) (re-read)

On why and how you should get serious about software design and why programmers shouldn’t design software. Not as fresh as when it came out, but it holds up nicely.

Get it
Amazon
Kindle

Linchpin
by Seth Godin

On rethinking your mindset, value generation, your role and position [as an employee] in the modern work place. (I personally think linchpins should quit and start their own businesses, though).

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Linked
by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

On how everything is connected to everything else and what it means.

Get it:
Amazon
Audible

The Long Tail
by Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) (re-read)

On why the future of [or actually current] business is selling less of more.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Meatball Sundae
by Seth Godin

On why you shouldn’t and wouldn’t make and sell a meatball sundae – although some corporations still seem hellbent on making them.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The (Mis) Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward
by Benoit B. Mandelbrot

A fractal view on financial turbulence. Provides interesting insights on market mechanics, or rather the actual lack of empirical insights to such. Do not let the math aspect scare you: It’s a [relatively] math phobic safe book.

(Aside: Mandelbrot unfortunately died in 2010.)

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle

The New Psycho-Cybernetics
by Maxwell Maltz

This one really put me off by referencing pseudo-science as science-fact. Aside from that fact, it says something along the lines of that you can program yourself to be and behave like you want to. Simplistically speaking, just tell yourself “you are the kind of person who does x” or “you are NOT the kind of person that does y” in front of a mirror and you’re on your well on your way. It’s all about self-image, see?

It’s also talking about the tortoise mind or the lizard brain; the power of your brain processing problems without your active thinking, better explained here:

(Aside: I’d really love to read more about any scientific research on the “Tortoise Mind”. Perhaps you know of any?)

Get it:
Amazon
Audible

Outliers
by Malcom Gladwell

More on why the gaussian distribution model doesn’t tell you the whole story and why 10.000+ hours of practice actually counts for quite a lot.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Permission Marketing
by Seth Godin

It’s the opposite of Interrupt Marketing. Which one is the most successful? Yes, you get it. But why do so many companies still not get it?

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The Power of Pull
by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, Lang Davidson

On rethinking business and innovation in a fast moving and globalized world. Mostly for suits, so there’s a good chance you know and live most of this already.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The Prince
by Machiavelli (re-read)

This classic was a fun re-read whilst experiencing, shall we say managerial turbulence, this year.

Get it:
Project Gutenberg
Archive.org

Social Media 101
by Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan)

Enough talk about social media. Here’s something that you can and perhaps should do.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions
by Gary Klein

A cognitive psychologist’s research on “naturalistic decision-making”. Ever wondered why you as an experienced professional make (good) decisions in seconds that you find hard or next to impossible to explain to say, you boss or even to yourself? Enter RPD (Recognition Primed Decision):

From Wikipedia:

Recognition-primed decision (RPD) is a model of how people make quick, effective decisions when faced with complex situations. In this model, the decision maker is assumed to generate a possible course of action, compare it to the constraints imposed by the situation, and select the first course of action that is not rejected. RPD has been described in diverse groups including ICU nurses, fireground commanders, chess players, and stock market traders. It functions well in conditions of time pressure, and in which information is partial and goals poorly defined. The limitations of RPD include the need for extensive experience among decision-makers (in order to correctly recognize the salient features of a problem and model solutions) and the problem of the failure of recognition and modeling in unusual or misidentified circumstances. It appears to be a valid model for how human decision-makers make decisions.

Hah. Stick that to the next person requiring you to explain and/or have you follow the next theoretical decision processes du jour based on evaluation and elimination of total options based on explicit input: “It’s RPD, mofo!”. Another case for intrinsic knowledge beating explicit knowledge, I wager.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle

Superfreakonomics
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Challenging even more common (mis)conceptions and raising even more interesting questions with applied economics. It surprised me as being at least as funny and provocative as their first book, Freakonomics.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell (@gladwell)

On how, why and what things lead to another. Providing less substance and answers than I had hoped for but Gladwell is an entertaining read as always.

Get it:
Amazon
Audible

Tribes
by Seth God

What is a tribe, why do you need one and how and where do you find it?

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Trust Agents
by Chris Brogan, Julien Smith (@julien)

What is a Trust Agent and why and how would you become one?

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

The Wealth of Networks
by Yochai Benkler

On how social production transforms markets and freedoms.

Get it:
Harvard
Archive.org

Understanding Media by
Marshal McLuhan (re-read)

Interview

I think I read it the first time back in 1994 or 95 understanding little but being highly intrigued. As I read it again in 2010 I don’t know if I actually understood much more but it sure as hell raised a number of interesting questions and provoked a lot of new thoughts so I guess I found it even more fascinating now as it’s arguably obvious to most that we’re living smack in the middle of his ‘prophecy’. Spoiler: The Medium is the Message.

Get it:
Amazon

UNMARKETING
by Scott Stratten (@unmarketing)

Unthinking, unlearning, relearning marketing, helping small and large businesses master the art of (un)marketing with example stories in this day and age: Listen and engage, do not interrupt and try to find better ways of cold calling because you know it sucks.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

Wikinomics
by Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams

How mass collaboration changes everything.

Get it:
Amazon
Kindle
Audible

I mostly listen to books these days to make better use if my time. I use a Sony DR BT-50 stereo Bluetooth headset with the iPhone for audio quality and wireless convenience anywhere.

Get it:
Amazon

Disclaimer: The links to the books are not affiliate links. I’m not getting a cent from anything you might buy. I’m just lazy and didn’t bother to list all the stores on the intarweb.

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Like I mentioned at the beginning, I’d love to learn more about what you’ve been reading lately. What did you read in 2010? Do you have any ideas on what I should be reading in 2011? Did you read any of the books on my list too? What did you think? Tell me in the comments below!

Have you tried out TweetMag yet? It’s an exiting new iPad app that will let you comfortably read an aggregate of your @twitter feeds. The app is not totally unlike Flipboard, but it’s currently and it let’s you consume the content in a more flexible and enjoyable way in my personal opinion. However, the way TweetMag (as of writing) facilitates twitter list management sucks. I’ll suggest a quick and dirty fix to that below, but first, take a look at the sweet TweetMag app in their promo video:

The problem with lists in TweetMag

Right now, the process of adding and managing twitter lists in TweetMag can be a very painful chore especially if you are following many lists from one single user. You have to add each list separately, one at a time, by dragging the icon of a list from the menu bottom right to the top menue bar or rack (up to “TOP STORIES” and “CATEGORIES”). As that was not bad enough, you need to drill your way down the interface to find the same user again and open her lists again for adding the next list. And again. And again. And again. Ouch! And as if that wasn’t enough, you can’t even see which lists you have already added! That’s just silly and poor design if you ask me. Click on the image below to see a screenshot of the current TweetMag app on the iPad in its original size:

My improvement suggestions

It doesn’t have to be this painful. I’ve made a very quick and dirty improvement suggestion illustrated below, adding a simple visual cue and an extra button.

The user should visually be reminded of the lists she’s already added by labeling and/or fading out (ghosting) the already added twitter list’s icon (illustrated). It is not possible to spot which lists the user has already added in the current version of TweetMag, potentially leading to a lot of unnecessary back-and-forth operations to verify if a list has already been added or not.

Currently, to add another list from the same twitter user, the user is forced by the software app to step out of context, remembering (internalising) the previous steps and repeat a multiple step process to get back into the context of continuing to add twitter lists from the same user.

That’s just not nice to the user in my book. I think the software should play by your processes and let you stay in your context. By adding an add/remove list button directly in the list overview, the user would be able to add, remove, manage all list operations in one process without having to leave context or having to remember previous steps and keeping the original goal in mind while working herself back into context repetitively per list management operation.

Adding colour to the add/remove buttons like green and red could further enhance affordance.

Should you be worried that any spatial navigational cue of having the user dragging the icon to the TweetMag rack might be lost for each add/remove operation using simple button operations instead of drag & drop, I suggest looking at how Apple OSX is doing this; You could animate the icons flying up on the rack, flying down out of the rack respectively to retain the visual cues. Take a look at the image below for a quick and dirty mockup of my suggested changes:

I also added the suggestion on Get Satisfaction should you be interested in my suggestion to improving list management in the TweetMag app.

Your opinion

What do you think of TweetMag? Do you love it? Hate it? Perhaps you prefer Flipboard? Do you create and manage twitter lists with TweetMag?

No, I don’t mean a brief history of Old Boy Networks, The Family or other more outlandish and exotic pre-digital era networks.

You see, as I was doing my due diligence for this crazy new venture, I jotted down some notes on the history of digital social networks leading up to the Facebook era and I thought I’d share them here with you.

Most of the following is based on to the level of theft in no small part, verbatim quotations from the book “The Facebook Effect” by David Kirkpatric (@davidkirkpatric) and some tidbits from Wikipedia, Google and my own faulty memory.

And, yes – it is heavily biased towards the US and Europe since I did not have much good source material on say, e.g. Chinese, Korean and Japanese social networks. Feel free to fill me in.

I highly recommend the book if you are interested in a different (albeit rosier) perspective of the story behind Mark Zuckerberg‘s (@finkd) Facebook than the book “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich and the film version “The Social Network” by David Fincher. Preview the book in Google Books, buy the paper version at Amazon, or as a eBook from the Kindle store or as an audiobook from Audible. (I bought mine from Audible).

I claim Fair Use, as in the “Please don’t sue. That wouldn’t be fair.” kind. The following content is meant for educational purposes only . If you want to use or republish, please make sure to credit and attribute  David Kirkpatric and Wikipedia. Commercial (re)use would probably be bad for your karma.

Here we go – A Brief History of Social Networks:

1968

J. C. R. Licklider Source: Wikimedia Commons License: Public Domain

JCR Licklider & Robert W. Taylor write the essay “The Computer as a communication device” and predicts;

“you will not send a letter or a telegram – you will simply identify the people who’s files should be linked to yours”

1973

The first Community Memory terminal, an ASR-33 teletype, at Leopold's Records, Berkeley, CA, 1973. Source: Community Memory Project Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5

Community Memory started. A notable precursor to the public Bulletin Board System.

From Wikipedia:

Community Memory was the first public computerized bulletin board system. Established in 1973 in Berkeley, California, it used an SDS 940 timesharing system in San Francisco connected via a 110 baud link to a teletype at a record store in Berkeley to let users enter and retrieve messages.

While initially conceived as an information and resource sharing network linking a variety of counter-cultural economic, educational, and social organizations with each other and the public, Community Memory was soon generalized to be an information flea market . Once the system became available, the users demonstrated that it was a general communications medium that could be used for art, literature, journalism, commerce, and social chatter.

1978

Monochrome BBS - A more recent modern BBS

The first BBS is launched.

From Wikipedia:

The first public dial-up Bulletin Board System (BBS) was developed by Ward Christensen (@WardXmodem). According to an early interview, while he was snowed in during the Great Blizzard of 1978 in Chicago, Christensen along with fellow hobbyist Randy Suess, began preliminary work on the Computerized Bulletin Board System, or CBBS. CBBS went online on February 16, 1978

1979

Diagram of usenet, Author: Benjamin D. Esham License: Public Domain

Usenet enables members to post to groups dedicated to specific topics.

From Wikipedia:

Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.

Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980. Users read and post messages (called articles or posts, and collectively termed news) to one or more categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles a bulletin board system (BBS) in many respects, and is the precursor to the various Internet forums that are widely used today. Usenet can be superficially regarded as a hybrid between email and web forums. Discussions are threaded, with modern news reader software, as with web forums and BBSes, though posts are stored on the server sequentially.

1982

Minitel built in 1982 Author: Tieum License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The French postal service is the first to bring the concepts of commenting in online groups and chartrooms to a mass consumer audience with the launch of the national online service, Minitel

A side note, from Wikipedia:

The German “Bildschirmtext” (BTX) is almost as old as Minitel and technically very similar, but it was largely unsuccessful because consumers had to buy expensive decoders to use it. The German postal service held a monopoly on the decoders that prevented competition and lower prices. Few people bought the boxes, so there was little incentive for companies to post content, which in turn did nothing to further box sales. When the monopoly was loosened, it was too late because PC-based online services had started to appear.

1985

AOL logo 1991 to 2006 Source: brandsoftheworld.com License: Fair Use

America Online starts (albeit under another name; Quantum Computer Services, Inc.)

http://www.well.com/

The WELL (The Whole World ELectronic Link) launches in San Francisco by Stuart Brand, Larry Brilliant (@larrybrilliant) et al.

1987

Howard Rheingold (@hrheingold) – a big user of the WELL – publishes an essay in which he coins the term “virtual community” to describe this new experience.

1988

Screenshot of Prodigy

IBM and Sears launches commercial online service called Prodigy.

Anonymous users, pseudonyms were the norm on these online services.

IRC II

IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser Talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland.

1991 – 1994

The World Wide Web sees the light of day in 1991 created  by Tim Berners-Lee (@timberners_lee) and Robert Cailliau (robertcailliau.eu).

From Wikipedia:

The World Wide Web, abbreviated as WWW and commonly known as the Web, is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can viewweb pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks.

CU-SeeMe logo

CU-SeeMe, an Internet videoconferencing client originally written by Tim Dorcey of the Information Technology department at Cornell University launches for Mac in 1992.

In the early days of the World Wide Web the notion of an online community advanced a little further, enabling users to set up a personal homepage that could in some cases link to pages created by other members.with services like Tripod started in 1992 with two Williams College classmates, Bo Peabody (@bopeabody) and Brett Hershey, along with Dick Sabot, an economics professor at the school, theglobe.com founded in 1994 by Cornell students Stephan Paternot (@stephanpaternot) and Todd Krizelman and GeoCities originally founded by David Bohnett (@dcbohnett) and John Rezner in late 1994.

1995

match.com screenshot anno 2008

match.com started by Gary Kremen as a proof of concept for Electric Classifieds which aimed to provide classified advertising systems for newspapers launches, filled with personal information for a highly specific purpose.

Classmates.com created by by Randy Conrads launches to help people identified by their real names to find and communicate with former school friends.

The first Internet Forums (or Message Boards) start to emerge.

1996

PlanetAll a social networking, calendaring, and address book site launches in November 1996. It was founded by a group of Harvard Business School and MIT graduates including Warren Adams. (A big thanks to James Currier for pointing out that I had missed PlanetAll!).

From Wikipedia:

PlanetAll was possibly the first social networking site on the Internet. The site had more than 100,000 groups, organized around real-world counterparts such as academic institutions and employers. When the user entered the name of his or her university, the service would list the user’s classmates who were also members of the service. Users could exchange authorization to access the each others’ contacts. Many sites at the time offered web-based address books and calendars, but PlanetAll.com combined the two: when a user entered travel plans into the calendar, the service would cross-reference the destination with the address book, as well as the user’s contacts’ travel plans; the site would then notify users when they would cross paths with their contacts.

1997

Reid Hoffman

SocialNet.com dating service founded by Reid Hoffman (@quixotic)(Hoffman worked at Apple on eWorld, but perhaps better known for founding LinkedIn and as an Angel Investor).

sixdegrees.com founded by Andrew Weinreich launches, takes social networks further. A breakthrough in use of real names. The first Rolodex in the cloud. Invitation only. At the time revolutionary. “Network me” feature for matching you with users that met your quality criteria. Failed due to operating costs, licensing costs, development and maintenance costs and users only having dialup Internet at the time (e.g. the service lacked photos due to bandwidth concerns). Bought out for 120 million. Shut down in late 2000. Weinreich was granted a broad reaching social network patent.

1999

Ethnic focused networks Black Planet founded by Omar Wasow (@owasow) and Asian Avenue co-founded by Benjamin Sun, Peter Chen, Grace Chang, Michael Montero, and Calvin Wong launches with limited social networking functions.

The daily jolt (R.I.P. April 6, 2010) launches as a campus bulletin board for 12 Schools.

tickle.com launched originally as emode.com, with quizzes and tests for both entertainment and self-discovery, by James Currier and Rick Marini. Warren Adams of PlanetAll is an investor.

Swedish teen community Lunar Storm (R.I.P. August 8th 2010) launches

Ordinary people begins using email. Again, using addresses that typically would not correspond to their real names.

Address books of emails maintained on and within the services. Members did not identify real-life friends or establish regular communication pathways with them. Later in the decade, Instant Messaging (IM) services like ICQ, PowWow and Ubique to hold the same way. People used pseudonyms for themselves, not their real names.

1998

On August 4, 1998, Amazon.com announces that it has agreed to acquire PlanetAll. Under terms of the agreement, Amazon.com acquired 100 percent of PlanetAll in exchange for 800,000 shares.

2000

Amazon.com shuts down PlanetAll.com on July 2, 2000, telling PlanetAll members, “We are pleased to announce that we have completed the integration of the key e-commerce related features of PlanetAll.com into our main site at Amazon.com… Although PlanetAll.com will be going away, you’ll still be able to enjoy some of the tools that help you keep in touch with like-minded folks.”

2001 – 2002 : Social Networking bug hits Silicon Valley and SF

2001

Cyworld (huge in Korea) adds social networking capabilities

Plaxo launches by Napster co-founder Sean Parker (FB profile)(and later The Facebook CEO) and two Stanford engineering students, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Has a viral concept; One user leads to more users – It has a Network Effect.

“Network Effect” as explained by Wikipedia (excerpt):

In economics and business, a network effect (also called network externality) is the effect that one user of a good or service has on thevalue of that product to other people. When network effect is present, the value of a product or service increases as more people use it.

The classic example is the telephone. The more people own telephones, the more valuable the telephone is to each owner. This creates a positive externality because a user may purchase their phone without intending to create value for other users, but does so in any case.Online social networks work in the same way, with sites like Twitter and Facebook being more useful the more users join.

The expression “network effect” is applied most commonly to positive network externalities as in the case of the telephone. Negative network externalities can also occur, where more users make a product less valuable, but are more commonly referred to as “congestion” (as in traffic congestion or network congestion).

Over time, positive network effects can create a bandwagon effect as the network becomes more valuable and more people join, in a positive feedback loop.

Ryze launches by Adrian Scott (@adrianscottcom). Explicitly business-only.

2002

Friendster launches March 22nd by Jonathan Abrams (@ABRAMS), Peter Chin and Dave Lee. It gambles to lure users away from match.com. Uses real names and photos on profiles. You could search for friends near locations. Invitation only, befriend if you liked the photo. Cracked the code of the modern social network, defined basic structure. Problems; “Fakesters” – People with fake names, fake photos. Plagued by engineering misjudgments; did not scale, had major outages, performance issues. Mark Pincus (@markpinc)(later founder of Zynga) and Reid Hoffman (@quixotic) are investors.

Club Nexus launches by Stanford students Orkut Buyukkokten (@orkut) and Eytan Adar. Meant to connect Stanford students only. Complicated, too many features. (Bonus material: An analysis of Club Nexus by the founders.)

InCircle launches by Club Nexus founders. Alumni only.

Orkut Buyukkokten (@orkut) leaves for google. Programs a new social network prototype. Pitches it to google. orkut.com launches.

CourseMatch and Facemash are created by Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) while at Harvard.

Harvard Connection is founded by the Winkelvoss twins Cameron Winkelvoss and Tyler Winkelvoss with Divya Narendra and some help from Mark Zuckerberg.

2003

LinkedIn founded by Reid Hoffman (@quixotic).

Tribe.net founded by Mark Pincus (@markpinc). A social network around specific interests. Burning Man, Alt Sex and connecting turned out to be what the users are more interested in instead of buying and selling things.

Patent by SixDegrees.com‘s Weinreich put up for sale, Reid Hoffman (@quixotic) and Mark Pincus (@markpinc) buy the patent for $70.000 in front of highest bidder Yahoo!.

MySpace founded by Tom Anderson (@myspacetom) and Chris Dewolfe in frustration of Friendster’s failures and wanted to appeal to the fakesters. Hustled bands, artists and fans in Los Angeles to join. Music + Sex + Anonymity + Chaos seemed to be the recipe.

Collegster.com free usable services by students for students launched at UC Irwine Alumni.

House System launched at Harvard to buy and sell books, review courses. It invited students to upload their photos.

WesMatch at Williams College.

GaleStation at Yale. A dating site.

CUCommunity (or CampusNetwork, SEASCommunity.com) at Columbia University.

Hi5 created by Ramu Yalamanchi (@ryalaman), big in Spanish speaking countries.

2004

The Facebook launches. Limited to elite universities offering a stark contrast of an experience of that of MySpace

From the CrunchBase profile:

When Tagged launched in 2004 as a teen-only social network, security was a top priority. In October 2006 the site made a drastic change and went from being under-18 only, to allowing users of any age to join. This change has helped user registration skyrocket. In fact, Tagged was adding more users per day than MySpace in May of 2007.

2005

YouTube founded by former PayPal employees Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim

2006

twitter launches in July 2006 by Jack Dorsey (@jack), although the founding story behind it is controversial.

YouTube sold to Google in November for $1.65 billion.

2007

Dana Boyd & Nichole Ellison write in a paper:

“The salient features of a true social network”: “A service where a user can construct a public or semi-public profile, articulate a list of other users which whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. You establish your position in a complex network of relationships. And your profile positions you in the context of these relationships. Usely in order to discover otherwise hidden points of common interest or connection.”

twitter reaches it’s tipping point at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. During the event Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.

Orkut.com strangely occupied by nearly over 50% Brazilians and 20% Indians.

2010

Amazon is awarded a social networking system patent based on its previous acquisition of PlanetAll.

twitter has over 190 million users.

Facebook launches Graph API, Open Graph protocol, an improved Facebook Connect and Social plugins, has over 500 million active users. Mark Zuckerberg is Time’s “Man of the Year”.

Microsoft and Google still haven’t got a real answer to social networks.

[fblike layout_style='button_count' show_faces='true' verb='like' font='arial' color_scheme='light']

What is your take? Something missing? Tell me what you think in the comments below.

As you may already know I use Dell Netbooks with Apple OSX and I previously wrote a post about how you can too.

I recently encountered a problem with the Dell Mini (Inspiron) 9 that I found no real helpful solution to fixing on the intarnets, so I thought I’d just take a moment to share what I did to fix it. Sort of.

Whatever you do, don’t buy a new Dell battery before you’ve tried this. If it doesn’t work, you’re probably better off buying a new (used) Mini 9 on e.g. eBay instead, cost/benefit wise. You can always use the old Mini 9 Hackintosh on mains in the kitchen, on the night stand, in the bathroom, give it to someone who could need a computer or whatever.

Problem / Symptoms:

• Battery not recognized on boot up (“Battery not identified, press F1 to continue”)
• OSX reports that the battery is 100% charged (although you know it’s not)
• White power/charging ligt and red low battery warning light blinking, disco style
• Battery will not charge whatever you (even downgrading BIOS to A00) do and will eventually run out of juice
• GOTO 10

Possible Causes:

• BIOS upgraded to A05 or above
• Something else (I have no idea. You tell me.)

Conditions / Prerequisites:

• Dell Mini 9 with blinking leds, disco style
• NetBookInstaller 0.8.4 RC1 “special edition”
• OSX Snow Leopard updated to 10.6.5 installed on said Dell Mini 9 by way of said version of NetBookInstaller
• USB stick with Dell I910 Mini/Vostro A90 USB Key Drive flashBIOS Utility installed (Don’t ask me how to get it. Search around.)
• Make sure the battery is connected to said Dell Mini 9

Recipe / Fix:

• Boot from said “Dell I910 Mini/Vostro A90 USB Key Drive flashBIOS Utility” on said USB stick
• Select the Mini/Inspiron A04 BIOS and flash it
• Wait for the flashing to complete and reboot the Netbook

Et voilà. On boot, there should be no nagging “battery not identified: press F1 to continue”, no more disco blinking of LED lights and the battery will now recharge. I hope. At least it now does for me. For good measures, let the Hackintosh recharge the recommended-from-Dell 12 hours before using it

I’ll mention here that this worked with the original Dell battery that came with the Mini 9 and with my Chinese 8 cell aftermarket battery.

Problems / Still to resolve:

• If you pull the mains power plug out, the red/white disco style blinking will return
• If you pull the mains power and re-insert it, OSX reports that the battery is 100% charged (although it’s not)
• If you pull the mains power and re-insert it, the Hackintosh will not recharge
• GOTO 10

Kludge to the Fix:

• Don’t pull the mains when turned on
• Re-insert mains
• Reboot
• Or turn off, turn on, let boot
• Or keep it turned off, connected to mains, see if the white charging light is on, if the battery is actually charged
• Or rinse, lathe and repeat the flashing of the BIOS if the battery won’t charge once again

Hey, at least you do not need to buy a new battery or a new Dell Mini 9. I never promised you a rose garden.

Here’s the official Dell response to Mini 9 and 10v battery problems on the Dell support forums, although it did not help me initially. I tried to flash the BIOS back to A00 through each revision up to and including A06 with no positive result. Flashing directly from A06 to A04 with the battery inserted seems to have worked for me.

This has nothing to do with the “Airplane Mode” on Linux issue or the 12 hours charge-up battery issue, mind you. Those are red herrings if you’re using OSX and have the symptoms I described above.

In other personal Hackintosh news, I recently acquired a Dell Mini 10v off of eBay and upgraded it with 2GB RAM, a 60G SSD and OSX 10.6.5. I find the size of the keys more convenient for work use than the Mini 9. My experience so far is that the Mini 10v works flawlessly with OSX 10.6.5 – including sleep. I’d recommend it instead of the Mini 9 if you’d ask for my opinion on the two.

I do have a 3G iPad and I’m really happy with it, should you be wondering, but I still find myself needing a “real” OS for work use from time to time. Maybe it’s more due to my mouse, keyboard, desktop paradigm conditioning over the years than the iPad iOS and Apps. Sure, I’d really love to get the new MacBook Air, but as a bootstrapping entrepreneur, I find the cost/benefit of a Hackintosh to be the more conscientious choice at the moment.

Do you use OSX on non-Apple hardware? Tell me about your experiences.

Bonus Material:

How to change the HD for a SSD in a Dell Mini 10v

How to upgrade the RAM in a Dell Mini 10v (Part 1 of 2)

How to upgrade the RAM in a Dell Mini 10v (Part 2 of 2)

Dear friends and random strangers! You might have noticed that I’ve been extraordinarily boring quiet in the last couple of months. The reason is that I’m working on the next big thing ™ bootstrapping a new startup with partners. It’s not like it’s the new F-117 but we’re kinda stealthy about it still.

We think we are addressing a real-life problem by tapping into existing potential to mitigate it. I know that isn’t saying much but I’m super excited about this! We’re either changing the world or going home on this one.

We’re all about doing the heavy lifting aggregating power and wrangling leveraging technology to work for people – real people like you and your family and friends and colleagues – and not the other way around. (Ok, maybe not for you, you and you – but for YOU!)

It may just be a small step in a nacent field, but we think its potential to make a difference in your life is just awesome. We are extremely passionate about it. We want to be able to share our vision with you any-day-real-soon-now!

What makes us perhaps a little different than most of your average garden-variety tech startups – besides our vision – is our eclectic team. Our team consist of seasoned pros with a couple of merit badges of their own. I am super excited to have them onboard!

I think there’s such a great background story behind it all too. I wish I could tell you more right now.

Should you be looking to invest, our Keynote deck is quite fancy and our enthusiasm for our vision highly contagious, but we’d love to get back to you in a month’s time or so when our own money, blood, sweat and tears has transmogrified into proof.

If you’re interested to know more I would love to have a coffee with you right about now. If you’re interested in contributing, help out or join, come aboard – we’re expecting you!

Let’s talk! My iPhone is as always +49 (0) 151 40 133 149. My mail is as always vidar@blacktar.com. My lines are as always open. :)

I recently attended a brilliant and funny talk by Ryan Dahl (@ryha) on node.js at @cowoco a great co-working/co-location initiative in Cologne, Germany.

Here’s my recorded live stream from the event. (I apologise for the quality and the Flash format of the videos. I hope USTREAM implements HTML5 video soon too.)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Friends, as you know – within a month I got downsized and re-hired.

As I now touch on the topic again, it is to tell you that the last re-hire did not work out. Not for me, nor for the company who hired me.

Wrong timing, we all agreed. Time to move on. It’s ok.

Hindsight has 20/20 vision. I probably shouldn’t have jumped headfirst into another relationship within the same month that I got out of an old one. On the other hand, we didn’t marry and we didn’t have any kids – thus the breakup was quite clean and amicable. So you know, it won’t be awkward seeing us together again at that cocktail party. On the contrary; it will be good sporting fun. Shift happens. We’re both mature enough to deal with that. Just don’t let us share the cab home – who knows what could happen. ;)

I am really greatful that I got to know a bunch of very talented and brilliant people during my short stint. I’d say that alone made it worth the experience.

Alas, as of now I am a free agent, taking time to enjoy life and to enjoy the good conversation with new and old friends.

As always, I’m looking for great new conversations – so do not hesitate to get in touch. I know you have some great stories to share!

Deutsch?

Do you work in or with Social Media? Marketing or PR perhaps? Maybe you’re working in a completely different field and are curious about what exactly this Social Media thingamajig is all about? Are you a gear head or a techie with a burning passion for Social Media? Maybe you’re in a company or NGO that has already embraced it, maybe in a company, NGO or GO that fears and shuns it? Are you an Social Media champion inside or outside your company or organization? Are you perhaps an independent enthusiast brimming with Social Media chutzpah? Maybe you think Social Media is a fleeting fad, the emperor’s new clothes and the greatest evil facing humanity in the 21st century [and your name is Andrew Keen]? Do you live or work in or around Cologne, Germany? Maybe both? Perhaps you’re based outside of Cologne but keep constantly looking for excuses to travel to Cologne for lunch? Do you really need more than the Dom, Carnival and Kölsch beer to lure you to Cologne? Do you keep reading through really long paragraphs on obscure blogs with silly names?

Well, then the Social Media Lunch Cologne is most certainly for you.

What?

It’s an informal regular event in Cologne inspired by the Social Media Breakfast founded by Bryan Person where social media experts and n00bs alike come together to eat, meet, share, and learn.

When?

The very first Social Media Lunch Cologne launches

Thursday the 1st of July 2010, 12:30 – 14:00 CET.

Be sure to not miss out on the “I was there” bragging rights – success or failure notwithstanding! If you can’t make it – don’t be sorry for long. There’s going to be another Social Media Lunch Cologne just for you. Or one that you can quite possibly make it to. Sometime.

Where?

The idea is to keep rotating places in the Cologne inner city for variation. The first Social Media Lunch Cologne will be held at the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln.

How?

Tell all your friends, colleagues and relatives to come (or stay away, respectively), show up at the venue sometime during the timeframe or drive by and wave to the rest – just wing it and do it your way. Whatever you do be sure to bring some lunchmoney allowing for a handsome tip. That’s basically it.

If you feel like connecting and spreading the awesomeness, perhaps already craving to commit that RSVP – there’s a facebook page and blog for that.

No registration needed, though – It’s informal, remember?

If you’re into #hashtags feel free to use #smlcgn for your tagging and labeling needs.

Why?

Well, why on earth not? I personally am a grumpy zombie in the morning, I don’t eat breakfast and I currently don’t live in North America. I don’t know about you, but I do certainly need to eat lunch each and every day and I do live and work in Cologne, Germany and constantly find myself trying to fill the lunch hour with additional value to go with the grub.

Do we need another Social Media Meetup in Cologne? I personally think there’s potential in a local lunchtime event on a regular basis for helping Social Media professionals, the curious and enthusiasts alike, narrowing our serendipity funnel and helping to add value to our common passions and interests. I’ll let you be the judge if we really need it.

It is definitely NOT a replacement for or competition to other excellent social events and initiatives in Cologne like pl0gbar, twitwoch, Online-Stammtisch Köln, likemind, Last Tuesday, Web Montag and others. I have tremendous respect and bundles of love for the guys behind those initiatives and I for one will still be attending those event like before. Not to worry.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Bryan Person for the original inspiration and Robert Wallis and Daniel Backhaus for their early support and encouragement.

Disclaimers

This is not a sponsored event. I’m not getting paid for this nor do I aim to make a profit. Sponsors may be sought in the future to help cover potential costs, and I promise to always be transparent on these issues. My views are my own and may not reflect those of my employer(s).

If you find yourself compelled to treat this event as your own sales show and hawk your services and/or products, please consider that people may laugh at you. Loudly. In public. It could even escalate to throwing of bread crumbs. Consider yourself advised.

Get in touch

What do you think? Would you attend? What would you expect? What would you like to talk about? Do you have something to show? Do you have some great ideas? Suggestions? Improvements? Special dietary requirements? Fears, uncertainties and doubts? Let me know – in the comments below, on twitter, facebook, mail me or call me (DE +49 (0) 221 3023 953 – INT +1 (650) 450-8047, both CET)!

I personally woud be thrilled even if only one person showed up for the first event. That would be truly awesome! Hope to see you there!

- Vidar ‘blacktar’ Andersen, Cologne and the Internets 15.06.2010

—

Arbeitest Du im Social Media oder beschäftigst Du Dich mit diesem Thema? Vielleicht im Marketing oder PR-Bereich? Vielleicht arbeitest Du aber auch in einem komplett anderen Bereich, bist aber neugierig was es mit dem Begriff Social Media auf sich hat. Bist Du ein Techie mit einer glühenden Leidenschaft für alles Digitale? Vielleicht bist Du aber auch in einer Firma die Social Media als neuen Kanal für sich entdeckt oder diesen wegen seiner  Neuartigkeit fürchtet und meidet? Bist Du ein Social Media Champion innerhalb oder außerhalb einer Firma oder Organisation? Bist Du ein unabhängiger Enthusiast randvoll mit Social Media Chuzpe? Es könnte natürlich auch sein, dass Du denkst Social Media ist eine Modeerscheinung, des Königs neue Kleider oder das größte Teufelszeug des 21. Jahrhunderts (und Du heißt Andrew Keen)? Lebst und arbeitest Du in oder in der Nähe von Köln? Oder beides? Vielleicht lebst Du auch außerhalb Kölns, suchst aber immer nach Ausreden um nach Köln zum Lunch zu reisen? Braucht es mehr als den Dom, Karneval oder Kölsch Dich nach Köln zu locken? Liest Du immer noch lange Absätze in obskuren Blogs mit komischen Namen?

Nun dann ist der Social Media Lunch Cologne genau das Richtige für Dich.

Was das ist?

Der Social Media Lunch Cologne ist ein informelles, regelmäßiges Event in Köln inspiriert durch das Social Media Breakfast welches von Bryan Person gegründet wurde. Social Media Experten und Newbies nehmen gleichermaßen bei einem gepflegten Mittagessen teil,  um sich auszutauschen und voneinander zu lernen.

Der Lunch ist definitiv kein Ersatz oder Konkurrenz zu Veranstaltungen in Köln wie pl0gbar, twitwoch, Online-Stammtisch Köln, likemind, Last Tuesday, Web Montag oder anderen. Ich habe großen Respekt und jede Menge Hochachtung für die Köpfe hinter diesen Initiativen und ich werde diese auch weiterhin besuchen.

Wann?

Der erste Social Media Lunch Köln findet am Donnerstag, 01.07.2010, 12:30-14:00 Uhr statt.  Wer beim ersten Mal dabei ist kann für sich den First Mover Status beanspruchen, ungeachtet des Erfolgs oder Misserfolgs. Wenn Du es nicht schaffen solltest, mach Dir keine Sorgen, der nächste Social Media Lunch kommt bestimmt.

Wo?

Die Idee ist den Lunch an verschiedenen Orten innerhalb Kölns stattfinden zu lassen. Der erste Social Media Lunch wird im Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln stattfinden.

Wie?

Erzähle Deinen Freunden, Kollegen oder Verwandten, dass sie irgendwann während des Zeitfensters vorbeischauen (beziehungsweise wegbleiben) sollen. Alternativ kannst Du auch nur vorbeifahren und winken. Tu wonach immer Dir ist. Vergiss nicht das Geld fürs Mittagessen und ein bisschen Trinkgeld mitzubringen. Das ist dann auch schon alles.

Wenn Dir nach connecten und teilen ist, wir haben eine Facebookseite und Blog dafür.

Registrierung ist nicht nötig – denn es ist informell, ne?

Wenn Du #Hashtags magst benutze doch #smlcgn als Label und Kategorie.

Warum?

Nun warum nicht? Ich bin ein unleidlicher Zombie am Morgen und frühstücke nicht. Ich weiß nicht wie es Dir geht, aber ich esse jeden Tag zu Mittag, ich lebe in Köln und versuche immer die Mittagspause mit etwas Sinnvollem zu füllen.

Brauchen wir ein weiteres Social Media Treffen in Köln? Ich glaube das es einen Bedarf an einem lokalem, regelmäßigem Mittagessen Event gibt, an dem Social Media Profis, genauso wie die Neugierigen und Enthusiasten sich austauschen, inspirieren und ihre Passion teilen können.

Ich überlasse die Notwendigkeit eines solchen Events Eurem Urteil.

Danksagungen

Danke an Bryan Person für die initiale Inspiration und Robert Wallis and Daniel Backhaus für die frühzeitige Unterstützung und Ermutigung.

Disclaimer

Dies ist kein gesponsertes Event. Ich werde dafür nicht bezahlt noch beabsichtige ich Profit daraus zu schlagen.  Sponsoren werden vielleicht zukünftig angestrebt, aber nur um mögliche Kosten abzudecken und ich verspreche bei diesem Punkt maximale Transparenz walten zu lassen.

Meine Ansichten sind meine eigenen und nicht die meines Arbeitgebers.

Wenn Du Dich gezwungen fühlst diese Veranstaltung als Deine eigene Vertriebsplattform zu nutzen, dann rechne damit, dass Dich die Leute auslachen könnten. Laut. Sehr laut und öffentlich. Eventuell kommt es soweit, dass Du mit Brotkrümeln beworfen wirst. Insoweit bist Du jetzt gewarnt.

Nimm Kontakt auf…

On Thursday the 6th of May I attended the Freigeist Conference at Rheinenergie Stadium in Cologne. The conference connects movers and shakers in the regional online tech and marketing scene; marketers, agencies, programmers, global companies (Google, Microsoft, etc), start-ups, consultants, venture capital, funders, founders, investors and the like. I thought it would be a good opportunity to reconnect with old contacts, meet new and sample the general status of the regional tech scene.

I had to cut the conference short to attend to matters at work, not being able to attend the more social sessions and the start-up pitch competition in the evening, but heres’s a rough of what I experienced before having to leave prematurely.

Google

Steffen Kramer from Google Germany showed off some of the tools they provide to plan, track and monitor online marketing efforts and a brief primer how to use them:

Google Insights For Search

Google Ad Planner

The Google Business Channel on YouTube provides more videos on their solutions.

I managed to live-stream some of the talks, but the network and software was unfortunately a bit flaky.

Thierhoff Consulting

Dr. Kai Thierhoff talked about successful German startup stories, but unfortunately – at least in my personal opinion – the focus of the talk was mostly on clones of US start-ups, the German mee-too companies that will, as I see it, have extreme problems sustaining business after launch (just a hint to copycats; the Internet knows no borders, you know) – and besides are very boring and very non-innovative. He also mention the brilliant presentation template from Sequoia Capital that is worth checking out if you are thinking of pitching VCs for funding.

Microsoft Azure

MSFT Azure is (like e.g. Amazon Web Services) a software and hardware answer to cloud computing needs with their respective products and services.

Carsten Humm, technology evangelist at MSFT held a basic primer on the concept and pricings. A selling point was that they comply with EU data storage and privacy laws – the data is saved within the EU should you require it.

He also mentioned that MSFT will be holding a BizSpark Camp in Cologne on the 24th of June if that’s your sort of thing.

Here’s a short primer on MSFT Azure lifted off YouTube: