I spent the day at MinneBar on the University of Minnesota campus. It’s been interesting to watch this annual event grow over the past few years. Solid attendance (400+) and a packed docket of sessions made this (un)conference well worth my time. The new design track of sessions was a hit with me too. It was great to see so many familiar faces, connect with new folks and even meet some Twitterers in the flesh.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Jamie Thingelstad led an aptly named Power WordPress session. He obviously knows his way around WordPress! He shared some incredibly valuable plugins, practices and SEO tips. Easily one of my favorite sessions of the day.
• I got a personal demo of Seesmic, a video conversation platform, from Thomas Knoll. It’s sort of like Twitter with video or video blogging with video comments. Very cool and worth watching in the coming months. I wish him all the best in his move west.
• Looking forward to the evolution of the Refresh TwinCities group. Exciting changes on the horizon…
• The State of the State: Technology in Minnesota panel raised some good issues about encouraging local startups and entrepreneurs. It was barely over when a summary was posted to the Blog Herald by Matt Kraven Craven.
• I was lucky enough to play with a laptop from the One Laptop per Child initiative. The design was quite innovative, very sturdy too. The display is color indoors and switches to monochrome in full sunlight. It even flips back on itself for reading ebooks. I’d love to see this feature on other laptops. It would be something to get these in the hands of children around the world.
• Consolidating all the demos into back-to-back lightning sessions was another welcome addition this year. My friends at Localtone Radio showed off their site and even gave me a shout out for doing the design (Thanks guys!). I was also impressed with demos by Scribblr Scribbls , FanChatter, CodeMorphic.

A big thank you to the organizers and sponsors. I’m really looking forward to next year.

Photo by keela84

It all started a few weeks ago. I had recently given into the hype and begun using Twitter. I quickly became addicted to the micro-blogging platform and a bit of a zealot, trying to convert everyone I met into a user. But this isn’t about that. I’d like to focus on the day I realized how powerful the twitterverse (yes, people call it that) really is.

One evening while watching CNN I tweeted (people call it that too) about Anderson Cooper. Not 24 hours later, Anderson Cooper was following me on Twitter. Now, as of this writing he’s following 1,498 others. But what stuck with me was that he had been listening. He took the time to set up an alert. He gets it. Not many other journalists do right now. After reading his tweets, I discovered that he’s actually very funny too.

Lightning struck again this week when I tweeted a link to a thoughtful piece about Zappos that Tim Brunelle had written for talentzoo.com. The article mentioned Zappos and their innovative use of Twitter for customer service. Less than 5 hours later Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was following me. Again, he’s listening. He’s also a voracious Twitterer. He gets it too.

Slowly the potential power of this platform is sinking into mainstream America. Comcast, of all companies, now has a dedicated staffer monitoring Twitter and blogs for complaints. They’re beginning to get it.

How about your company? Are they listening? Do they get it?

I just spend a total of 3 minutes playing at Animoto.com and created this:

Unbelievable, right? I’m a believer now. Using a nifty custom algorithm, Animoto.com analyzes your photos and the music to create a one of a kind multimedia experience. You simply select your photos from your computer or elsewhere online (like Flickr or lots of others), choose the music from their collection by genre or upload your own DRM-free tracks and then they make it awesome. Five minutes or so later you can email, embed, send to YouTube or download the finished product.

Their business model is clever too. You can make as many 30-second clips as your heart desires for free, pay $3 for a single full-length video or $30/year for unlimited full-length videos. Try their Facebook app as well.

Original photo by ElvertBarnes

There’s something about this post from Minneapolis Metblogs earlier today that fascinates me. It’s not the subject matter per se (a scoop on the latest venture of a recently fired local weather man) it’s the story’s sources. They cite a tweet by local blogger and entrepreneur, Graeme Thickins (go Graeme!), and the meterologist’s LinkedIn profile.

Twitter and LinkedIn? Why not? Both can be valid sources of certain types of information, both are public, and, most importantly for journalists and bloggers alike, they are readily accessible. Continue reading →