dangerouslyawesome

Tomorrow night at 6pm, we’ll be holding a meetup to discuss some of the background dialog that’s been going on regarding the formation of Independents Hall as an organization. If this is something you’re interested in being involved with, I’d love to get you into the conversation.

If you can get to Nodding Head tomorrow around 6, you should RSVP on Upcoming. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, I’ll be sending out an email to the Google Group after the meeting and blogging the results of the conversation (for you voyeurs and those unable to make it) but I’d really love to have a good group out to talk to about some of the plans we have. It’s some really exciting stuff, so I hope to see you there!

[tags]independents hall, Philadelphia, coworking, Nodding Head, meetup [/tags]

There has been a LOT of buzz about Facebook’s F8 application platform since it’s release on thursday night. And don’t get me wrong, I think this is a REALLY cool opportunity to leverage the tools AND the community that Facebook has in place to spread usership and awareness of web apps. Facebook has opened up some ridiculously cool tools to a very large audience. But maybe..it’s too large?

I’m scanning my “friends timeline” and noticing a clear division.

My geek friends are adding Facebook apps left and right.

My school friends (current undergrads and recent grads) have ALMOST no app usage, with the exception of the most popular app on facebook, iLike.

What does this mean? Well, at this stage in the game it means that geeks are bleeding edge and the rest of my friends aren’t as tech savvy. Fine. But long term, will the adoption rise? Depends on the app. I see things like last.fm getting a lot of traction. Music listening habits are always popular conversation on college campuses, and that data will become increasingly valuable to record companies and the artists, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the next step was INCENTIVES from the labels and artists to share your listening habits. Just my own speculation.

But beyond that, I’m having a hard time seeing F8 apps take facebook by storm. Even though facebook has opened beyond the “University Only” model, they have a stigma. In time, that stigma will likely go away, and if F8 is Facebook’s team being forward thinking enough to prepare for it, that’s interesting and awesome in itself. But I think that the Facebook audience at large (the large concentric circle of a large percentage of students in the US) compared to the rest of us who are really excited about F8 (a.k.a. “social networking geeks of the world”) still has huge opportunity for market penetration, like the Last.FM example above.

App developers: try thinking like a student. What do students need and use? I can easily answer the question because I was an on-campus undergrad very recently. Here’s a short list:

• Take-out Food
• Textbooks
• Music
• Nightlife
• Discount ANYTHING

This is hardly the end of the list, but a couple of quick, easy to illustrate examples. I’ll hit them one at a time, and how I think integration with Facebook would boost usership of Facebook AND the service being provided.

When I lived on campus I had little interest in walking to the dining hall to get lousy food that was going to eat a hole in my stomach. Cheap pizza places (2 large pies for <$10) and hot wings (40+ wings for $12) were all over campus, and they all delivered. And the best part? When CampusFood.com came out, I could browse a menu, and then with saved credit card information, click “order”. Cheap food delivered to my door with minimal human contact, and no cash transaction, every college student’s dream. Campusfood (or someone else) needs to integrate this into Facebook. They already claim to support transactions, so that part should be easy.

Scenario: I come home from a party, a few beers in, browse facebook to add my new party friends, poke a couple of the girls that I think are cute, and order a pizza, all in one workflow. And best of all? In the morning I can browse the public timeline to see what all of my OTHER friends have ordered…maybe there’s a new spot on campus that I haven’t tried yet, and Johnny’s sandwich order sounds really tasty…boom. You have personal recommendations without people even needing to talk to each other.

This one’s easy. Facilitating a textbook exchange on Facebook is easier than ever. Someone should do this RIGHT for a change. I’d love to see a Netflix for textbooks, though I understand the challenges of varying versions/editions of textbooks. Still, seems possible. The ability to announce when I’m done with a book via the public timeline and have someone come along and snatch it up seems pretty plausable.

Music

The success of the Last.FM plugin is encouraging, and I already mentioned my thoughts on incentive-based scrobbling. If nothing else, the publicity of “I’m listening to…” being announced on the “News Feed” is free publicity. I’m not looking to get paid for my data in cash, but something from the label to say “thanks for providing us with some of the most valuable market research info we’ve had in years” would be nice. Maybe an album or two of mainstream music that doesn’t blow? Discounts on itunes, etc seems to make the most sense, but again…I’m open to suggestions.

Nightlife

One of the most successful features of Facebook, in my observation, has been the party planning tools. Set a time, place, and invite a pile of people. RSVPs. Privacy from the guest of honor, if you need. Conversation about what to bring. Etc. College kids love to party, but once they grow up past the legal age to drink, many of them move form house parties (where they sit around and drink apple juice, i promise) to the local bar scene. These bars need to be taking advantage of Facebooks new open-ness. Promotions and event invitations with incentives like drink specials, guest list only open bars, theme parties…etc.

I’ve been using Philly2Nite.com regularly (and recently had the pleasure of lunch with one of the co-creators Chris Nagele, who has an awesome eye for the kinds of strategy I’m describing), and think that other city-based niche nightlife sites could benefit from Facebook’s new open platform. Philly2nite has it’s own social network and has come up with some cool ways of leveraging it, but tying the two together seems like a match made in heaven. PLUS, that network extends past graduation because we all know that people don’t stop having social lives when they graduate (at least, I hope they don’t stop). Announcements of friends attending a particular event is easy incentive to get someone to come out to a party that they might not have otherwise, and the Facebook mechanisms are perfect for that.

Discounts/Bargain Shopping

Slickdeals, Restaurant Coupons, FatWallet(and other cash-back deal sites) all NEED to recognize the opportunity to hit a target audience of kids who want to have the hippest, coolest, trendiest WHATEVER but are on a tight budget. Cash back and discounts are quick wins in the eyes of a college student. Take advantage of that, and work it right into my facebook account.

I could go on and on with this list, and if I had more time myself I’d build every single one of these apps, or pursue the means to make them exist. But I’d love to see the mechanisms provided by F8 really recognized better by the greater part of the social economy that comprises Facebook. Let’s see where this goes, and if anyone sees any of my app ideas (or anything similar) please let me know in the comments!

Technorati Tags: campusfood, discounts, F8, Facebook, music, nightlife, opportunities, students, textbook

Photo Credit: seanbonner on flickr

I’ve mentioned BlogPhiladelphia in my blog more than once, in my recent videoblog, and it was the primary focus of my last appearance on PhillyTip. But with the exception of the last one, I haven’t done a very good job of explaining what BlogPhiladelphia actually is.

Since I started working with Annie (who totally rocks, by the way) on this project, I’ve managed to swing the format into a hybrid format of “Unconference” presenter/breakout session format and Open Grid Sessions, not unlike the hybrid barcamp event Web2.Open. The reason? I (and Annie, of course) see this as a platform for generating awareness in Philly about what is going on in the realm of social media, blogging, collaboration, and all of those juicy things you may have noticed that I get myself wrapped up in. This means that YOU.

Do you live in Philly and do something related to social media, web marketing, innovation, creativity, or any of the above? BlogPhiladelphia could be an opportunity for you to show the world that you’re here and you’re doing awesome stuff.

On the flip side, if you aren’t from Philly, this is going to be the weekend to come check us out.

Already on the roster for presentations and session leaders are: Josh Hallet, founder, BlogOrlando, hyku.com/blog David Parmet, public relations expert, parmet.net/pr Joey Sweeney, CEO, Philebrity Brands, (philebrity.com and philebrity.tv) Maura Johnston, associate editor, idolator.com Howard Greenstein, Social Media Consultant and co-founder Social Media Club, www.howardgreenstein.com Dave Coustan, Blog Master at EarthLink, http://blogs.earthlink.net Alicia Dorset, blog editor, fastlane.gmblogs.com oh yeah…and me!

Alex Hillman, Web developer and founder, independentshall.org Also, from the press release:

To make this informational conference as accessible as possible for bloggers and non-bloggers alike, there will be no fee to attend. Participants are only required to cover travel and accommodations. For information on registration; details on sessions, panels, panelists and attendees; links to recommended hotel packages and Amtrak discounts; and details on Philadelphia attractions, visit www.blogphiladelphia.net.

So really, you have no excuse. Block off the dates, set up a place to stay if you’re traveling in, and register now.

Technorati Tags: alicia dorset, barcamp, blogphiladelphia, coworking, dave coustan, david parmet, gptmc, howard greenstein, joey sweeny, josh hallet, maura johnston, philadelphia, unconference, uwishunu

Trying out something new. Got 15 minutes to spare? Give us a listen.

Thanks to the viddler guys for building a tool that let me deep tag and comment the crap out of the video. For full comment and tag threads, see the viddler website. For something that doesn’t require flash, hit this .mov.

Enjoy. Oh, and comments on videoblogging welcome. I’m a total n00b in this realm. Enough typing. On to the video!

[tags]annie heckenberger, NYC, SWAT, alex gilbert, amit gupta, backchannel, barcamp, blogphiladelphia, chapter house, coworking, cream cheese sessions, creatives, deep tagging, entrepreneurs, freelancer, geekyfantastic, geoff dimasi, gophila, gptmc, hall, independents hall, jelly, junto, new york times, open grid, philadelphia, punkave, technical, unconference, uwishunu, web developer, willotoons[/tags]

I just left the inaugural session of Philadelphia Jelly coworking. As per a suggestion from Jacob Patton, with a twist from one of the participants, I am considering dubbing this Philadelphian version, Cream Cheese Sessions. Alternatively, we could simply adopt something along the lines of “PhilaJelly”, but I’m a pretty big fan of Cream Cheese Sessions, especially if we can invent some kind of ridiculous back-story . I’m open to ideas in the comments.

At any rate, I would call the event a success. Over the course of the day, there were 8 on-site participants (most of whom were there for the entire day). The campfire backchannel that I set up was visited by about a half dozen off-site “drop-ins”, some from Philly, as well as one couple from Rochester that are moving to Philly soon and a friend of mine in Maryland. Additionally, Geoff from P’unk Ave dropped in during the class that he teaches at UArts, and I gave the class a quick overview on Coworking and Jelly via the campfire room.

The cafe that we crashed was the Chapter House at 9th and Bainbridge. Honestly, I felt kinda bad because I didn’t give them a heads up that we were taking over but they were kind enough to not kick us out, this time. Next time I’ll provide some warning and maybe arrange some kind of compensation. But we all bought drinks and most people bought some food.

The spread of talent and skills and “titles” was varied. Everything from designers, developers, project managers, general creatives…there was a good representation across the board. Really, anyone who works alone, or in a non-creative setting, could have benefited from today’s session. And really, you don’t need to even be an indie. A few of our coworkers either “worked from home” (and thats what we are, a home away from home), or took a vacation day to work on side projects.

The response was positive from all of the participants, and a few photos can be seen on flickr, as well as on the Independents Hall Homepage.

Will we do it again? Absolutely. As Roz said:

“I felt so much more productive working in an independent yet collaborative environment. I could focus on my work, but draw inspiration from the random moments where we’d all stop briefly and chat about an idea or concept. I hope to make coworking a regular part in my work process.”

And I’d agree.

I’m considering contacting twitter to set up a “PhillyCreamCheese” group that people can join, and I’ll send out an notice (or anyone, really) that I’m working from location “X” today, and anyone can join me. Impromptu Coworking at it’s finest, dontcha think?

This was a great experiment and I can’t wait to see where it takes us as we continue down the road to having an established coworking presence in Philadelphia.

[tags]coworking, jelly, cream cheese sessions, Chapter House, Philadelphia, Independents Hall[/tags]

a number of people have pointed me to Blog Philadelphia in the last 24 hours, but the credit goes to Brian Oberkirch for kicking off the conversation between me and conference organizer Annie Heckenberger.

From the website:

This two-day “unconference” will be open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike. There will be a few panels featuring leading tech pioneers spanning a wide spectrum of technology platforms and social media experience. We also plan to bring together a good cross-section of experts to lead break-out sessions covering various areas of social media: avatars, blogging/vlogging, mobile/sms technologies, online & mobile social networks, podcasting, PR in the world of CGM, virtual communities, community-edited news sites, social bookmarking, and of course, where and how marketing fits into all of this.

By partnering the resources of Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation and Philadelphia “stuff to do” blog UWISHUNU, this looks like it will be an incredible inaugural event to really kick things off for Philly. Plus, Annie is excited about Independents Hall and using some of our ideas and resources, as well as cross promoting events.

The event, which is taking place July 12 and 13, is totally free and sounds like a fantastic time. Hopefully this will be one of the events that really helps define this new culture that I’m working on creating here in Philly! I’m stoked to take my barcamp experience to an event like this, hopefully we can pull off something on the caliber of what Whurley put together for Barcamp Austin.

In other news, we’re kicking off a developer-based QA group tomorrow night with some folks that participated in the last few Juntos, and then this friday the coworking group is hosting a Jelly at a location still to be finalized. If you’re interested in participating in either, drop me a line ASAP.

[tags]blogphiladelphia, Annie Heckenberger, unconference, Junto, Barcamp, Jelly, coworking[/tags]

My friend Randy Schmidt IMd me tonight to tell me about a friend of his who is driving a race called One Lap America.

The race follows the route that used to be the Cannonball run when it used to be illegal. Check out the history of the event at the website.

Randy’s friend, Chris Gottschall and his driving partner Jim Wegielewski had hoped to blog the experience, but recognized the obstacles. When Randy told Chris about Twitter, it was clear that this would be the best way for both the drivers to record the event in real time. Both of them plan to twitter the entire way.

Twitter has been used for all kinds of things from application mashups to server status notifications to conference party going. This is one of the first time’s I’ve seen someone recognize twitter as a tool to do something that would be very difficult by any other means. The multiple on-ramps (and I’m not talking about the ones on the interstate) provided by twitter mean that an activity that would be pretty tricky to do mobile…like blogging…that is made even more tricky by long distance mobility…like a cross country race…is now possible. And best of all, easy.

I’ll be interested to see if there is any kind of fan-groups that form around Chris and his driver’s twittering as they cross the country. I know I’ll be watching. Will you?

[tags]twitter,One Lap of America, Chris Gottschall,Jim Wegielewski, Randy Schmidt, Data Onramps[/tags]