LinkedIn.  It's social networking for professionals.  So, think MySpace and swap out thongs for resumes and there you have it.  It has been an indespensible tool for me to find the right person in the right places to connect to, and reach them through a trusted contact that can recommend me. 

Like offline networking, it's value is maximized when you keep up with it, b/c connections are a funny thing.  You never know when someone is connected to someone that might come in handy.

This is a continuation of other "Getting Into... " posts... see:

Getting into this online stuff: Part I - Blogging as the Industry Cocktail Party

Getting into this online stuff: Part II - A better way to bookmark and favorite links on the web using del.icio.us

Here are our goals:   You want to make sure that everyone, or as many people as possible, who are familiar with you and who already use LinkedIn productively, are connected to you.  Why?  Because when you really need a connection to a certain ad agency, its more likely you'll find it closer when you have 350 contacts than if you have 2.

Plus, you want to make yourself easily findable, so that when people are looking for what you can offer, they can reach you easily and you sound impressive.

So, here goes:

1) Organize and cleanup your contacts first.  LinkedIn is most effective when you use it in conjunction with a real online address book and email system.  For most, that means Outlook, which can be big and bulky but is also very powerful and has a well integrated email and address book solution.  Many students still use their phone for numbers, their AOL, Gmail, or Yahoo! addressbook for emails and Facebook fills in the gaps.  Well, grow up.  Seriously.  Think about how much of an information advantage someone has with a hosted addressbook with names, companies, emails, numbers, and notes all in one place, and who can access that from the web or on their phone. 

2) Once you've got that all settled, install the LinkedIn toolbar for Outlook or just export and upload your contacts via *csv file to LinkedIn.  This will allow LinkedIn to trudge through your contacts and emails and find out who you know is already on the system.  These people are no brainer invites.  You know them and you don't need to explain to them the value of joining.  If you want to invite newbies, that's your own uphill battle if you choose to climb it.

3) After you upload your contacts, LinkedIn will tell you how many people you know and talk to are already on the system and give you a link to invite them to connect.  Create custom invites!!  I hate hate hate the stock invite and you should never use it.  You want something that reflects who you are and sticks in someone's mind... maybe something that will cause even more
conversation. 

For example, here is what I use:

As [insert timely pop culture reference here... spring training, celebrity weddings, etc] happen, , I'm using LinkedIn to keep in touch with my professional networ just in case I don't make the Mets major league roster.. Because you're a PERSON, I'm going to take two seconds to write a mildly creative and entertaining invitation, even though you know what this whole thing is about and any text is probably unnecessary.

So link to me, and then I'll troll your network for opportunities, contacts, dates, etc... all the while getting your permission at every step. Pretty soon, your network will realize that I'm a far more interesting person than you are, and one by one, they'll probably unlink you. You'll wind up alone in a bar somewhere, and probably wind up in a fight.  Several haymakers and a black eye later, you'll wonder where all your friends went and you'll only have yourself, Reid Hoffman, Sequoia and Greylock to blame. :)

Of course, I'm joking...

Obviously, you can't blame the VC's.

- Charlie

Is this good for everyone?  No way!  Why?  Because, one, it is a little bit snarky.  For me, that's ok, but for a salesperson or a student or just someone who might have to present a slightly more professional face than a t-shirt and jeans product manager, you might want to rethink that, unless you know the person you're inviting can take a joke.  Second, there's a lot of inside joking here.  Most people don't know who any of the people are that I mentioned... except people in online media and technology.  Figure out what works for you.  For me, I don't think I've ever had anyone turn me down b/c I only invite people I actually know who already use the system plus I create this funny invite.

Make sure you update this regularly.  If you use Firefox, install the LinkedIn plugin.  I use it all the time... searching for people's names instead of through the Google searchbox.  Redo the e-mail process every few months.

4)  Live your profile.  Make sure your bio is up to date and well written.  Describe not only what you have done, but what you would like to do.  Make sure you use keywords that would likely be used in the kind of searches that you want to be found with.  Personalize the page by adding a LinkedIn screename for public profiles and stick it at the bottom of your e-mail signature.  Use the blog badge.  Put it on business cards.  You want others that you encounter knowing that you have it.

5) If people don't accept your invite, do not pester them.  They'll come around... or maybe they just don't like you, which is their right.

6) Ask for introductions sparingly.  Some people join LinkedIn and two minutes after using it, I already have 6 requests to get introduced to people in my network.  WHOA, Nelly!   Calm down.  I try not to ask people for introductions to people for at least a good month after we get connected... and usually after having at least one other non-LinkedIn related conversation.  Plus, don't keep asking the same people.  If you have 5 connections, all of whom have one contact except for one with 553, don't keep pestering that one person... get more friends.

7) Recommendations...   no one ever really uses them, but you can score about a million brownie points... ermm...   I mean social capital dollars, with someone by writing them sincerely and where appropriate.  Many people don't even know they exist, and then when you randomly write something nice about them, they're floored.  Admittedly, I don't do this enough, but the few times I've had, it really made the other person feel great and strengthened our connection.

So, there's LinkedIn 101 in a nutshell.  I have 380+ contacts and, in my industry, there usually isn't a department or person I can't find some way to get into.  I don't know where else you'd get that kind of penetration through the corporate viel...   used wisely, its an indespensible tool.

Upper East Side meeting of local digital media and tech folks.

Link to Is 'Web 2.0' Another Bubble? - WSJ.com

This is just bizzare, b/c Spark's Todd Dagres is working for a VC firm that invested in a video sharing company and a social "discovery" plugin for Firefox.  Not quite sure how he's arguing the bubble side of Web 2.0.

Please pass this on to anyone you think would be appropriate.  It is a fulltime position for someone with great internships up to a couple of years of experience.  To me, this is just about the coolest marketing job I could imagine someone having out of school and it is a real opportunity to make a name for yourself and be a part of something big.

*****************************************************************

You lead a full and exciting life, both online and off. You know nightlife, art, sports, politics and lots of different kinds of people. They’re all on your IM buddy list, MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, blog, Xanga, Friendster, MyYearbook, etc., etc.

You know these sites like the back of your hand because you actually use them. Your profile has the coolest bling and you’re the first to find the latest stuff. How many online friends do you have? 50? 100? 500? 1000?

Ideally, you also have experience, either at an internship or fulltime, with more traditional media and PR as well as experience in an internet or web-based role, including online organizing, website development, implementing online campaigns. Blogging experience, effective writing skills, marketing, journalism, RSS and HTML knowledge are a huge plus.

You work with a product manager and help generate buzz for Oddcast’s new talking avatar product.  (Example: www.myspace.com/ceonyc not final product )  This is not sales. It is a free product where you will lead by example. You will need to find creative ways of using the product and stay connected and tuned in to key influencers.

Responsibilities:

1) Live out loud online and be yourself. Build real and authentic relationships with key influencers in social networks.

2) Pitch use of online talking characters to target audience. Get initial users signed up.

3) Create a platform specific communications and feedback program that informs users of best practices, new features, use cases, and collect bugs, suggestions, etc.

4) Create fun product pages on various social networks and keep up-to-date. Post relevant information in forums and message boards.

5) Monitor buzz, news, growth, and create appropriate reporting for tracking.

6) Help plan and execute creative guerilla marketing campaigns. Pay attention to entertainment news to help generate topical pop culture references and stunts to generate buzz.

SUBMISSIONS: Please submit your resume and links to wherever you live online, your Facebook, AIM, MySpace, blog, etc. to jobs@oddcast.com.

(Don’t clean up your profile for us. We want you “as is”… we swear!)

No phone calls will be accepted. Due to the volume of applicants anticipated, we will not be able to respond individually to each applicant and will only be contacting those applicants that we feel best meet our criteria.

ODDCAST IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. WE CAREFULLY CONSIDER APPLICANTS FOR ALL POSITIONS WITHOUT REGARD TO RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, CREED, GENDER, NATIONAL ORIGIN, AGE, DISABILITY, MARITAL OR VETERAN STATUS, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, OR ANY OTHER LEGALLY PROTECTED STATUS.

Was having a conversation with a friend today who feels a lot of pressure from her PR firm to learn about all of these new social media tools so that her clients can take advantage of them.

She's also given 10-20% of her emerging media time for education, and her emerging media time is only 50% of what she's supposed to be working on for her clients...the rest is on traditional media.

Meanwhile, the folks that make social media attractive... the movers and shakers of MySpace and the blogosphere... they're doing it fulltime.  They're tagging and reblogging and connecting and pasting cool widgets into their pages everyday.

Anyone who doesn't live in that world everyday, not as work research but recreationally, because they love connecting and discovering new things online, is simply going to fall behind. 

It's actually pretty funny, that a lot of these young people who are social network junkies don't realize that the skills they possess are highly sought after by marketing and PR firms.  They have an innate understanding of what flies in this world.

Whether you work for a VC firm, PR firm, in marketing, for a brand, a media company, etc. you need to find a way to integrate these tools into your real life, otherwise it's always going to be something "extra" that you never get to or don't fully understand because you're just a casual user.  There's no blog you can read to get all the answers.  No conference that will help you get it.  What also won't work is hiring a bunch of interns that you think are "cool", because no single intern is going to be representative of anyone else.  Unless you live in this social media world, be prepared to watch it pass you by like an outsider.

Unless someone is having a NYE party, I think Darren's got the last tech event of the year just about locked up...     Check it out. 

Link to Darren Herman - Marketing, Advertising, Media and Technology Blog » Blog Archive » Entrepreneurial Gathering - Last of 2006

"Le Pain Quotidien on 77th between 2 & 3rd Ave (Subway:  6) on Wednesday, December 27 at 3pm EST.   The get-together will have 1 hour of formal discussion and then a schmooze fest.  Feel free to spread the word but please RSVP by leaving a comment on [Darren's blog].  Since I’ll be hosting (coffees, teas, pastries), I’d like to know how many folks will be coming… also, no egos please as ideally there will be serial, parallel, and brand spankin new entrepreneurs and I’d like there to be a level playing field for all to participate.  Online folks and offline folks welcome!"

So I signed up for yet another social network, Kaneva,  and *yay* my avatar plays in it.  And what's cool is that I'm not the only Oddcast avatar in there...  check out this cool use of SitePal for this movie review page.  One interesting thing going on in there though is that all the users are obsessed with friending, commenting and "raving" (giving a thumbs up) each other.  Why?  Because Kaneva has built  a 3D virtual world that is in closed beta and only available to its most active users.  Everyone seems to want in.  It's fascinating to watch and I'd bet that they couldn't get that kind of usage if they paid people in cash.  The only issue is, how long can you keep the donkey from getting the carrot?  Do people give up after a while?  I sort of feel like you need a disincentive here to balance it out... like some kind of measure of authenticity.  So, for example, I shouldn't count as a very good connection.  I'm new, I have no other connections.  I have no previous contact with these people.  People like me should count against them and real relationships, or at least real-looking relationships, should count more.

If anyone at Kaneva is listening, I'd love to see the beta of the virtual world and discuss how to make the site more authentic.  It's a good site... pretty responsive...  nice creation tools that are helpful, but still flexible... but I think this carrot might be fleeting in the long run.

So, I've been eyeing the new LG phone that Verizon is selling, the "V".  Here's a question.  Why the heck would you make a phone that has a QWERTY keyboard if it wasn't a smartphone?

I'd love to find a way to get Windows Mobile on this phone, or at least Microsoft Word and Outlook, because I love the form factor.  It's great because it looks and acts like a real phone on the outside, with real numeric buttons and such, but then flips open for advanced usage. 

Is there any way to hack this?

So, I needed a new schtick for my avatar and came up with something this morning.  Starting today, for the next few weeks, I will update my avatar and deck him out with Jamba Juice favor colors depending on what I drank that day.  Today's avatar is purple.  Click through and click the play button at the bottom to hear what today's flavor was.

Just so you know, I was not paid for this... I just really like Jamba.

Well, check that, I did get a free smoothie for putting $25 on my Jamba Card, but anyone can take advantage of that offer until the end of the year, I think.

So I just ordered a webcam for my nieces in Tampa and one for my parents.  I have one, too.  This will either be a completely game-changing way for my family to increase the amount of interaction it has with each other or be a total failure.   Should be interesting nonetheless. 

Now I just have to get my Dad off AOL dial-up and on broadband. 

So I received a couple more comments on the 10 Reasons to go Short on Second Life post and now I have a new line of thinking here... but first I want to make a couple of points.   Rick Schettino wrote:

"...And kids will be as deft in VR as today's kids are in MySpace or YouTube. Second Life is a whole lot more fun and adventurous than ANY "flat" entertainment centered website..."

Thinking that, because a technology is superior, that the product has more utility is certainly logical, but I don't think it's accurate.  That's the same kind of thinking that makes people think that voice chat is better than IM, and so far, voice on the web hasn't even made a dent in IM usage.  Sometimes, "old" technology has a usefulness that would disappear if upgraded.  I like that IM is just text.  I like that I can partially ignore it and still have a conversation with someone who is also partially ignoring me.  I like that I can talk to 8 people at a time on IM which I cannot mentally do on Skype.  It's not old or broken, it is what it is and it works.

Flatness is not the bottleneck in MySpace or YouTube, it's portability, relevence filtering, etc.  If I could get the people most like me or videos I love recommended to me in a better way, that's infinately more useful than a more complex 3-D profile or viewing experience.  We talk about the same thing in the avatar space.  Are there better looking avatars out there rendered in 3-D?  Absolutely.  Is that going to make people want them more?  I think the jury is still out on that, but certainly the simpleness of their avatars doesn't seem to be hurting Habbo Hotel, for example.  If I had a choice between a lightweight, portable avatar that could do more stuff, versus a heavier one that was less interactive, but 3-D and rendered in video or something else besides Flash, I think I gotta go with the little flat people... at least that's the bet that Oddcast is making. 

On more point from Rick, who I'm glad commented along with Stephanie is keeping me thinking on this.  Commenters rule!

"It's not for everyone yet, SL won't benefit a wallpaper manufacturer as much as it will an energy drink brand."

Absolutely...  and marketers need to realize that it works better for some than others.  However, I think that's one of my fundamental issues with it as a platform versus the web.  Wallpaper manufacturers can buy Google keywords and let the web work for them just as much as Coke can build out a whole music video website that has an immersive brand experience.  The web as a platform works for everyone and if you have a platform that is only going to be useful to a subset, that hinders the experience.  When I needed a replacement pen for my Toshiba tablet, I googled "Toshiba replacement tablet pen" and got paid results that I clicked through and bought.  There's nothing about 3-D that could have helped my experience.

The experience that I will certainly bet on, and the original point behind my post is that, fundamentally, I do believe in a better merging of the web and reality, but I don't think it comes from building a reality on the web... in VR.  I think it comes with assitive technology that is useable in the outside world.  I'd rather walk around in a real showroom with a pair of glasses that gives me Robocop/Terminator like product information based on what I'm looking at versus sitting at my computer walking through a virtual showroom.  VR is going to make it's way into my shades before it pulls us all further away from reality online, in my opinion.  When I'm walking down the street, and I look in a store, I should be able to say, "Do they have red socks?" and get an answer because my shades know what I'm looking at and they are connected to the store's database.  I want my shades to plot my course in reality with little assitive arrows to the nearest Jamba Juice.  That's were the web and reality get merged... not in a big constructed experience online, in my opinion.  That's where marketers can spend better dollars...    with floating coupons over there offline stores in real life targeted to me.  Of course, we're a little ways a way, but not that far. 

But that wasn't the point of my post, actually.

When industries change, new job opportunities are created.  Nowhere is that more true than in digital media right now.  A lot of times we complain about the lack of adapting going on in this space and how content players and brands are slow to move, but there's a real human resource bottleneck going on.  New trends are creating needs for unique combinations of skills and knowledge, and having a real tough time finding them.  Here's a set of positions that are sure to be very lucrative going forward.

Commercial Online Video Production:  There's been tremendous growth in the amount of online video content and it's only going to continue.  About half the online population has the means to capture video and only about 11% actually uploads it anywhere.  In some way shape or from, that's all going to be monetized.  If you think that all of the TV commercial folks are going to thrive in the world of the 7 second spot, think again.  Not only that, but with better targeting and plummeting costs of producing content, more and more commercials will get made to uniquely suit each audience.  If I were to start up a creative business now, I'd start making cool video commercials tailored for the web.  Demand is sure to skyrocket and the tolerance for branded messages interrupting my video consumption will be very low, so they have to be great.

Brand and social network savvy designers are going to be king in the sponsored world of free content.  In a skinnable web, pimpin' ain't easy, especially when you've got to mix in a brand that isn't normally associated with coolness.  Demand for branded MySpace layout desginers should be at an all time high.  Some Winamp skins are a great example of branded design whose look and feel is so attractive, that people actually demand your brand.  AIM has opened up Triton to interactive and branded immersive backgrounds and YouTube is sure to have more sponsored channels coming.  It takes a certain kind of eye to manipulate the elements of a brand, retain their brand identity, but make them fit seemlessly in a visually appealling way to the irregular, non-IAB standard world of sponsored channels, skins, widgets, bling, etc.  Oh, and did I mention they can't look like an ad?  PS, if you can do this well, I might have a job for you at Oddcast.

Interaction architects.  Digital advertising isn't flat anymore.  More and more brands are building environments that resemble web applications or casual games than they do banner ads.  That's kind of a different animal than a lot of production folks are used to, particularly when we're trying to stay social media optimized at the same time.  Where does the embed code go?  What should the user see when we're processing their video?  Does every creation have it's own unique URL?  Development of a good interactive site is sounding a lot more like you're trying to build YouTube than an ad.  I think a lot of former information architects and developers would be well served to look into working at advertising firms to help build environments that make sense to the end user.  Developing a branded application with the end user in mind, like you would try and build a useful online service, can often end up with a different result than something meant to promote a brand identity first.

Social media caretakers.  Who follows the buzz on the web about your product?  Who answers the comments on your blog and comments on the blogs of others?  Who accepts and adds friends on your brand's MySpace page?  Being in a conversational and social environment has created a whole new set of tasks.  Its easy to think that you an hire a college intern to do all of these little things, but keep in mind that these interactions are often the most visable and forward facing part of your business to end users.  Its a balance. Theres a need for someone not so senior that they won't roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty but someone experience enough to keep strategic messages in tact and also know when to run things up the flagpole to upper management.

What's consistant about all of these positions is the presense of three basic, human, non-automatable, non-outsourceable skills:

1) Communication skills
2) Creativity
3) Ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes

Know how to express yourself, be constantly generating new ideas, and realize that you aren't  representative of anyone but yourself.

It's widely accepted that a good strategy in Monopoly is to buy just about everything you land on. 

So, here's a thought question for you...   Given where Google's share price and multiple is right now, why wouldn't they do pretty much the same thing, particularly with revenue generating businesses? 

Just about any profits they could buy that are trading cheaper than their own stock would be, even growth stocks.

So where's the natural limit to this idea?  Surely they can't integrate everything all at once, but when you've got this much house money to play with, is there a really good reason not to go all out on an acquisition strategy.  YouTube should be just the beginning.

One of the most productive meetings I've had since joining Oddcast was one that I was probably the most cynical about at first.  Adi, our CEO, invited me and our VP of Biz Dev to sit down for an hour and just talk about all of our "nightmare scenarios" of all of the worst things that could possibly happen to our consumer product.   I'm a bit headstrong and when I think I'm headed in the right direction, I barrel forward without looking back too much.  So, to reevaluate everything so late in the game seemed to me to be a little bit of a waste of time.

I was completely wrong.  We dove down into the very basic functionality of the product and more than kicked the tires on every assumption we made... we deflated them.  What resulted was some of our best thinking about new ideas for the product and not simply ways that we could hedge our bets, but small things we could do to ensure that our product has as broad an appeal as possible.   It was truly out of the box thinking and it got us very excited about our new ideas.   

Obviously, you need conviction to your ideas, but conviction doesn't mean burying your head in the sand either.  It's important to be willing to turn everything on its head once in a while just to make sure you're still anchored in reality and that your thinking isn't just the rationalization of momentum.

This is a must read for anyone interested in mobile.

Jason Devitt has a three part series on the market forces that might bust open the carrier crunch.

Part I.

Part II.

Part III.

You should really check out Ask City. 

Links to businesses, movies, events...  And I can draw, annotate, and put my own pins in the map.  Didn't think anything would get me off Google Maps but one use and I'm hooked.

Link to pizza, 7423 Ridge Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11209 - Ask Business Search

You should really check out Ask City. 

Links to businesses, movies, events...  And I can draw, annotate, and put my own pins in the map.  Didn't think anything would get me off Google Maps but one use and I'm hooked.

Link to pizza, 7423 Ridge Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11209 - Ask Business Search

nextNY is now 459 members on a listserv...all coming together in about 10 months.  We've averaged about an event a month, and probably somewhere in the neighborhood of averaging 45-50 attendees per event.  Already, there's a nextChicago and talk of the next concept appearing in other cities.  A lot of people have asked me how it got put together, so I thought I'd share.  Sorry if this is a bit long and rambling, but that's a lot like how the group unfolded.  It wasn't a part of some big master plan... it evolved.

First thing I did was to e-mail a small group of about 5-10 people who represented a good cross section of the community...  people that I had met in person on several occasions.  I wanted to get ideas and feedback from people involved in the NYC tech community from a number of different perspectives.  These weren't A-listers that hardly knew me...   They were people I knew I could count on to be enthusiastic about passing on the word about what we were doing.   The first few people you involve really need to be enthusiastic. 

Our first goal was just to get people together in person socially.  From the beginning, I think everyone involved agreed that it was important to build real social ties within the group before we attempted any kind of grand undertaking. 

Everyone involved e-mailed me to RSVP and I just put everyone on a big "BCC" list.  When the number of people responding got out of hand, I moved pretty quickly to a Google Groups list.  That accomplished two things.  First, I didn't want our messaging to just be about me broadcasting.  The group should be able to talk within itself rather than just get talked to.  Plus, that allowed everyone in the group to set their own participation level.  Most people get every group e-mail as it comes in, but some get digests.

Here's how the listserv works for us.  The listserv is private and you have to get approved by a moderator to join.  Sound sort of walled garden?  Maybe, but I think granting access to people's inboxes should require some level of oversight.  That being said, every single person who asks for approval gets it and the only thing I do sometimes is to respond back to a generic e-mail address and ask them who they are.  I think it's good to watch who is coming into the group--first to make sure they are actual humans and second to direct them to others they might want to get connected to.  (Or just to say a friendly hello.)   Having a second or third admin is important, too, even if they're not doing approvals.  You never want a situation where someone can say that you were unilaterally dictating any policy.

This fits with some basic guiding principals that I've tried to stick with:

• The group is owned and run by the community.  We have no board, no officers.  Everyone's voice gets to be heard.
• That being said, it's not exactly majority rules, because we try to stay clear of voting.  Voting doesn't always work, because not everyone will bother to vote and some people put more work into the group than others, so the question of whose vote counts more would come into play.  The group is really driven by legwork and feedback.  If someone has an interest in something, they do the work to lay it out and gather support.  Social capital is a big factor.  Generally, if someone gets a lot of pushback on something, it's not worth costing yourself a lot of social capital to try and push ahead against the expressed wishes of the group.  It works amazingly well.  At least three of our events were completely driven by members of the group who just announced an interested, gathered support, and made it happen.
• So far, we've been able to avoid anything to do with money, with the exception of renting gym space for our dodgeball tournament.  No membership fees and no other charges for admission.  Our event spaces have been donated as have been our web properties.  I think when money is involved at the group administration level, it dictates that you need more hierarchy and structure, and when you start building that in, you leave open the possibility for more disagreement on how things should be run. 
• Commitment to offline.   I think it is important for a group like this to run regular in-person events.  It doesn't matter if you only get 10 people, but make it a point to try and do something every month... and commit to it over the long term.  Don't do two, see how it goes, and give up.  Not everyone wants to take part in a listserv, but if you have something concrete to direct people to, it helps when you're trying to spread the word.  "Hey, come show up to our next event on xx date..."   The participants will come and go, but you'll grow a stronger core group over the longer term that sticks with it that you'll get to know even better.
• Everyone in the group should feel like they can lead any effort. 

Ok... back to technology.   One thing about a group of techies on a listserv is that you can debate which technology to use forever, and often people want to use the latest and most complicated thing, when sometimes all you need is drop dead simple.  For us, I think the best technology decision we ever made was to make the site out of a wiki.  Our website is built on top of Stikipad and it has served us well.  Anyone can create a page for any purpose and we do all our event RSVPs from it.   The website was created by volunteers from the group who offered to design and implement it.  My part?  I secured the domain name.  It was rough, I know... but I pulled through it.

We just launched our blog a short time ago even though blogging was something we had discussed a long time ago.  We voted a blog down initially, b/c we didn't want to broadcast quite yet before we even knew what our goals were or whether or not the group would have any staying power.  Plus, we were avoiding the question of "who is allowed to blog".    That question came up again, and we've opened it up to anyone, but we do have a blog policy.  We encourage members to discuss what they'd like to write about, because we're very conscious about people writing things that may not be representative of the group.  So far, we've done more covering and promoting than opining and that's probably the better way to go.  Opinion pieces are probably better left to the personal blogs of members.  Oh, and we used SquareSpace for the blog, which wasn't "standard" in the tech world, but it's a NYC based company and it has served us very well so far.  More so than what people want to use, you need to pick a platform that is liked by the person who is actually going to set it up, because blogs don't create themselves, plus they all pretty much work in a similar way.

On the name...    There are two things about a name that I was looking for.  One, something that implyed a younger group.  That's where "next" comes in... it implies the future, the next generation...whatever.  Also, the word tech is not in the title and that was on purpose.  Technology, particularly in NYC, also needs to encompass digital media and I wanted to make sure that we got folks from the design, advertising, marketing and PR worlds as well, because it's really about the whole community, not just the builders of technology.

One thing I got a lot of questions upfront about was the whole "young people" thing.  In fact, I got summarily booed at a NY Tech Meetup (which I'm proud to say) when I mentioned age.  We don't have any specific age limits and since then, I've sidestepped the question by saying "up and coming".  That's a better way to put it and actually closer to what I intended.  I wanted to meet other people who were looking up the ladder... who were trying to figure out what the next thing was going to be.   We always like meeting more experienced people, and they come as speakers to our events, but having "up and comers" makes the group more about learning, advice, helping bring other people up, and less about just making business contacts.  In a way, it was sort of selfish, because that's what I was looking for at the time.

We also try to make sure that our events reflect our stated focus on participation by the community.  Even when we invite expert speakers, we invite them to "Community Conversations" and put them in the audience to help drive discussion, not sit on a panel and broadcast. 

Last thing.  I'll repeat one thing.  The group would not survive if it had to live and die with the leadership of one person.  Everyone in the group really needs to feel empowered to initiate and follow through while at the same time, keeping an open dialogue with the group.  I'd like to think, in fact I know, that if I walked away from nextNY right now, it wouldn't skip a beat and that's the best thing I could have hoped for it.  A lot of people have told me, "Hey, you know, you could really turn this into something much bigger for yourself."  The truth is, I couldn't.  If I did, I wouldn't have all these great people wanting to participate.  They're participating because of their interest in the community. 

Also, what could be bigger than meeting 400+ enthusiastic local folks who share your interests?  That's pretty big, to me.

I hope you found this helpful.  Feel free to start your own next community in your area.  We don't own any rights to anything and we actively promote active community building, no matter where you are. 

No, I'm not talking about babies born too early...  (I was born ten days late, in case you were curious...)  I'm talking pre-MBA's.   More and more VC firms and startups are finding that having some more "net native" up and comers around can be pretty valuable, and they're getting more expanded roles than just dialing for dollars. 

One great example who is now blogging is Sarah Tavel from Bessemer Venture Partners.  She recently joined us at a nextNY event and rumor has it shoots a mean stick at the pool table.  Hopefully, she encourages more women to participate in nextNY and the NYC area technology community at large.

"Sooner or later, most online communities reach this crisis point because the ideals of the founders are replaced by regulations demanded by the different types of people who interact in them. We shouldn't be surprised; what we do when we interact online is replicate the social practices we are familiar with offline."

Source: Real life crashes into Second Life's digital idyll | Technology | Guardian Unlimited Technology