I did indeed attend the Got Social Media Conference at the Houston Technology Center this week… it was Awe-SOME! More on that later… One of things to come out of it is I FINALLY set up a Twitter account. I have ony had it a day so I am not addicted yet and I really don’t have anything interesting to report, but I will keep you posted. I did however read a VERY interesting blog on Global Neighborhoods this morning. Its a pretty amazing example of Social Media – its just a conversation between people who more than likely don’t see each other very often – supported by technology. Its authentic, its passionate, its informative, honest, kind, criticizing, and solution based… check it out…

January 25, 2008
An Open Letter to the Twitter Guys
To: Evan Williams & Biz Stone
RE: Fix it before we nix it

I am a huge fan. You are two good guys. Twitter is the most addictive thing I’ve experienced since I quit smoking in 1987, and it’s so much better for my health. I have built a multinational circle of friends because of Twitter. We care about each other even if many times we have never met.

I could extol your virtues at length. In fact, I often have. As a writer, I love the Twitter story.

Late one night, while an exhausted, enthusiastic team slaves away, one absent founder uses the SMS hack to send a photo link of himself gloating over a glass of wine. That photo spawns an epiphany. The hack is more valuable than the company. They give investors their money back and start over again. Twitter is born. The team shares it with a few friends who share it…you’ve heard this part before…

read it here >> (and check out the comments… this is Social Media at work, I am curious the see the buzz around this, this week.)

Its new, its simple, its soooo Martha.

We designers are looking for ways to stretch the envelope a little… you know that "Think Outside the Box" thing… unfortunately, everything on the Internet comes in little boxes. That’s the way HTML works… we have tables with cells and guess what? They all have straight edges. In the ancient past of web design – everything had a straight – then we got smart and made little curved graphics and faked round edges. And for a while you had your choice – straight edge vs curved edge… now, we are shake it up a bit. The most recent example I came across was the Martha site, and you know… she’s just sooo Martha. Her design team has taken the whole edge thing in a total different direction… I immediately went – well, of course! Say what you want about Martha – she definitely has style.

Well I ran down a rabbit hole called Technorati this morning and stumbled upon this video of Ed and Natalie J (2 of my favorite people in one video!) I clicked on it intending to check it out quickly and honestly write it off as an experiment in how YouTube works… then Ed does what Ed does and actually shared some useful info… which is just one the reason’s I like him so much. So, If you every wondered what the heck is NetSquared, RSS or Podcasting and then wondered why should care… watch the video below. The goods are towards the end… you just got to hang in there a bit.

A Conference About Communication:
Houston, TX
January 24th, 2008

From the site, “It

Got an email from my brother this morning. We live across the US from each other and get to see each other for the usual FamVaCa and occasional holidays. He sent out a link to a YouTube video he had uploaded. My boys and I had the same little kid joy at getting to see him and the idea that all this technology and "social media" is truly about connection sunk in a little deeper. The thing that still wow’s me over is my kiddos will never know a world where Uncle Mike isn’t playing guitar on the internet. They’ve seen it now – its normal – mundane. To me… its still a treat.