DISQUS

And i would argue that you need to be super-social-media-literate to succeed in the 21st century :)

Change has come to Washington, Fred. From the grass roots, all the way to the top it looks like were sync'd up to get some important work done over the coming years!

Chris is my personal hero. No deep insight in this comment....sorry.

@mitch I tried to disagree with you on the "think smaller" point but, you know, you're right. I've been doing some talks lately on how to thrive in this downturn and the "think smaller" principle correlates with my "do only what you know" advice.

I think people have gotten a bit over extended in terms of trying to do things they aren't really best at and it's better to focus on what you do best and let things grow from there.

-Peter

p.s. twin tech link for those how need it: http://twintech3.eventbrite.com

There's a hung ground swell here in DC around transparency in government and the excitement is reaching a crescendo now that Obama has secured the Presidency. DC is about to lead the world in this area and is sooo needed - soo exciting!

Thanks for the kind words, Jimmy. Being the talented developer that you are, the question is...what will you be entering?

P

@Marc and @Mark - It's really interesting what the government a) has been willing to do in the past and b) will be willing to do now and in the future with regard to empowering citizens to take part in government.

As Mark mentioned, we've created http://www.appsfordemocracy.org to empower citizens of the world (it's open to all) to create widgets, web apps, maps mash-ups, facebook apps and more that will be useful for DC and beyond.

The key idea is this is a way for us to "save our own money" by not assigning huge IT contracts to single firms and waiting years for things to get built. We expected to see hundreds of cool, useful apps built in a 30 day period for....1% of the cost it would take to create them the traditional way.

Peter (@Corbett3000)

Wow. This is the best post I've read in recent memory. Nice work, Sam. I really like this as a philosophy at this current moment. I've been asked to speak at a few upcoming conferences on "using digital marketing to weather a downturn" and I'm def going to integrate this point of view.

p

I watched that vid in its entirety the other day...awesome some. look for his vid from the keynote at Blog World Expo...you'll like that too

You're the man Brent. Thanks for the link love...and now i finally get to see the presentation that stole all the people from my talk! :P

I think the Facebook Connect will be the most highly targeted advertising network the world has seen. When i travel across the web, facebook will serve me ads based on a) my social graph b) a the context of the site i'm on.

If I'm a brand like...Corona, I'd use connect to serve ads to M/F 21+ who are reading blogs/pubs that focus on entertainment/going out. Couple that with hyperlocal geo targeting and you've got the recipe for successful digital marketing.

Peter
http://www.istrategylabs.com

The new Lexicon app is 'pretty cool' but incredibly restrictive - especially since you can only choose from 17 topics to track.

The really value in this tool will be when any word can be tracked and displayed long with sentiment. As an interactive & brand strategist i'm excited by the possibility of monitoring mentions of my clients branded keywords in facebook and seeing a) how they trend and b) what the sentiment around them is.

Once Facebook ads a last layer to them mix - integration with their social ads platform - we'll be able to see in near real time the effect of social ads on sentiment around brands.

Thanks for posting, Steve. I just sent out an update which you'll see in your email:

900+ attendees at the moment.

I'm trying to confirm whether or not this is the biggest event of it's kind in the US. DC/MD/VA could claim some serious bragging right if it is. I hoping the startups/sponsors get some great coverage out of this, along with all the invaluable personal connections that are made.

Also, if you or anyone else plan to live blog, there will be wifi.

Peter

enough about your social media experiences nick. lets talk about me....

@Tamar thank you for a great post!

Inbound Marketing Conference is on 9/8, featuring Seth Godin, Chris Brogan and others (including me).

http://www.inboundmarketingsummit.com/

Hi Steve,

Thank you for the insightful post. I'm eager to hear as much as possible from people regarding Twin Tech and especially from those who have already navigated both worlds.

This past week, the NVTC and I put our heads together after digesting all that happened and we're proud to be moving forward with Twin Tech II. I'll make that announcement early this coming week.

Also, regarding a conference, I think you're absolutely correct. The key is for us to mix the crowds up a bit more (i.e. Twin Tech II) and then draw insights from that audience as to what they'd want from a deeper interaction that perhaps would span a full day/two days.

It's 100% my intention to make the capital region THE destination for tech ventures...I've seen sooo much amazing talent leave the area for the valley or elsewhere, and if I/we have done our jobs correctly, in 5 years people will be leaving the valley to come here.

Peter

Concerns over tagged content would be easily remedied by allowing the brand page admin to approve a tag on any piece of content first before it becomes associated with the brand via their page.

Additionally, this would be a major boon to brands looking for user generated content to use in their campaigns....and a simple disclaimer that reads "by tagging this, you give us the right to use it however we like". That could be hairy...but interesting!

Oh, and I just realized I wrote about a "branded tagging" methodology back in 2006...not related to facebook but could be interesting to read nonetheless: http://www.advercation.com/2006/08/15/branded-t...

Note: NVTC just sent out their email and the RSVPs bumped from about 155 to 220, so it seems there will certainly be a few folks from that crowd to get to know at the party.

As always, thanks for your continued leadership in the DC Tech space - you were missed at Lunch 2.0 today...I equated you to a "profligate father" of the group since you were absent!

@justin as you know I USED TO talk about the need for a more formal organization for our "InnoVerse" here in the greater dc area that would help solidify our voice, program events, and manage the communications about our efforts........it was a nice thought, but looking at how this 'scene' has evolved over the past couple years, it's not necessary. We have an un-organization which is very vivacious. There is a place for more formal groups like the NVTC, which i'll be joining, but i don't think we need to create another one.

We have a wide diversity of events, and perhaps have one of the richest tech cultures in the country. Which other cities can say they've hosted all of the above?: StartupWeekend, Facebook Developers Garage, Refresh, a BarCamp (and a 2nd coming soon), WidgetDevCamp, a chapter of Social Media Club, MobileMonday meetups, Lunch 2.0, Internet Advocacy Roundtable, and sooooo many more - oh and those were all within the last year basically. I'd venture to guess that San Fran, Austin, and New York are the only cities that have this kind of diversity in their technoculture.

Viva La DC!

This is a very timely and needed conference. My clients will be very interested to listen in on the conversations that go on during this event, and I'm sure those who go will learn a tremendous amount.

Fred is being sponsored by the ZipIt: http://fredonzipit.com/

The video you linked to offers that URL at the end, and my guess is that his audience is really hooked on what he's doing.

As far as i can tell, this is a tightly scripted, well thought out production, rather that a fly by night video blogger who doesn't have support from professionals and is making waves by just being silly/interesting.

Kudos to the production team/interactive agency. Very well done.

Scoble, our "man on the street" impromptu interview turned out well, check it out (lots of other good insight from DC people):

http://www.istrategylabs.com/dc-tech-scoble-ins...

I wish Gordan and the SocialCash guys well...they certainly know how to generate revenue online, so if any app dev next helps from someone, turning to them is not a bad idea.

Quick question though, i came across www.myofferpal.com when i was checking my 'honest box' messages in facebook, and i noticed they were powering the social currency monetization system in that app. Any difference between them and SocialCash?

You really are the #1 douche bag.

Let's see if wikipedians let my external links edit to this post stay:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douche

Mr. Bly you are an absolute master of self promotion. Well played.