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Wordcamp Fayetteville #WCFay

April 29, 2010 By 1 Comment

wordcamplogo I don’t know how this one slipped by me but there is a Wordcamp coming to Fayetteville at the Fayetteville Town Center on May 29th and 30th.  I was talking to Brent Passmore tonight on Twitter and he filled me in and I immediately registered online.  If you are a wordpress guru in the Central Arkansas area you should definitely think about heading up for the conference. I think registration is like $30 if you signup before May 1st and after that date it goes up to $40.  Definitely worth the haul if you are into WordPress.

There will also be an ‘unconference’ day Sunday at The New Design School.  If you are heading that direction be sure to give me a heads up so we can try to hook up and head down to Dixon Street the night before…There are two tracks for the conference, one for developers and the other for bloggers, here’s a little more information:

You can attend any session you want during the seven 45-minute blocks, but you might want to decide which track better serves your educational and developmental goal for the conference.

  • Blogger track: We want to teach people who’ve never blogged before, up to intermediate level, how to use this free tool known as WordPress to their advantage. Whether you’re a citizen journalist, a small business owner, educator or nonprofit executive, we can help you learn to get your message out into the Interwebs.
  • Developer track: This is for advanced WordPress users, theme designers, plugin creators or those who just like to get dirty with WordPress code. We are our own best resource so lets teach one another.
Filed Under: Web Development, Wordpress™ Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

#ToadSuckDaze Gowalla Stamp!

April 28, 2010 By 1 Comment

2767_0931061454738_thumb[1] Okay, so I reached out to Gowalla to help us promote this weekends Toadsuck Daze Festival in Conway by creating a custom Gowalla Event Stamp and wow did they ever come through for us.  I can’t say enough how awesome Sandi and the crew there have been to work with in putting this thing together.  They kick butt. 

To get this stamp, you will need to be at Toadsuck Daze this weekend and check-in on Gowalla.  The event stamp will be available from Friday through Sunday.  Here’s a preview of the Gowalla page for the event: http://gowalla.com/spots/1029425.  If you haven’t RSVP’d for the event yet, you can do so by visiting: http://toadsucktweetup.com.

Oh, and here’s what the custom event stamp looks like.  I think that this is the first ever custom event stamp from Gowalla for anything going on in Arkansas so for all of you Gowalla Groupies, you won’t want to miss your opportunity to add this to your collections!!!

stamp-toad_suck_daze_2010

Isn’t this the coolest thing you have ever seen??
Also, for news and information about the #ToadsuckTweetup be sure to follow @toadsucktweetup on Twitter.

Filed Under: Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: , ,

RSVP for #ToadsuckTweetup!

April 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

You can RSVP online for the Toadsuck Tweetup this Saturday at noon in the square!  By doing so it will give us a good idea as to how many people we can expect to attend.  Just select YES in the box below to RSVP.  Thanks, and stay tuned for more news and information.  I am looking forward to meeting everyone, this should be an awesome time.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: ,

Toadsuck Tweetup – This Saturday

April 27, 2010 By 6 Comments

toadsucktweetup_thumb[1] We have finally arrived on a date and a time for our first Toadsuck Tweetup.  We will have the tweetup on Saturday, May 1st, 2010 at 12 noon at Toadsuck Square.  The event is open to any Twitter users / enthusiasts  in town for the festival.  We will have prizes and giveaways for those who attend, stay tuned to this blog for more information as the date draws near.  The Conway Area Chamber of Commerce has jumped on board to help us promote the event so be sure to stay tuned to their website for more information as well.

Just another sidenote for Twitter / Gowalla users, there will be a custom Gowalla Event Stamp for the weekend available for people that check-in during the event.  I think that this is the first stamp of it’s type ever available for users here in Arkansas so you don’t want to miss out on that.  Again, stay tuned for more information as well as the launch of our website, http://toadsucktweetup.com in the very near future.

Filed Under: Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: , , ,

EP:007 – The Cotton Club Podcast

April 27, 2010 By 2 Comments

podcast-artwork-250-itunes[1] After a short hiatus, The Cotton Club Podcast is back!  Tonight I had special guest co-hosts Keith Crawford and Robert Blake on the show to discuss a wide variety of topics including the new Facebook enhancements rolled out at the F8 Conference and we each weighed in on what our thoughts were as to how it’s all going to impact site owners and bloggers.  We also touched on Location Based Applications, Gowalla and Foursquare, and how we view these two competing applications.

Robert also broke a funny follow-up chapter to the Gizmodo / Apple controversy where the new iPhone was discovered in a bar.  Apparently the “Apple Police” have started raiding homes!  You won’t want to miss the newest revelations in this saga so be sure to listen.  Also, as we closed out the show all three of us commented on our iPhone apps of the week.  Keith shared Pocket Universe: Virtual Sky Astronomy, Robert hee-hawed a little bit about Farmtown, and I closed out the show discussing the Gowalla Sniffer.

It’s hard to believe but we almost went for 45 minutes this evening making this one of our longer shows, but be sure to listen to the entire show because it’s packed w/ some cool content.  If you haven’t already subscribed to The Cotton Club on iTunes, you can do so by clicking here…

EP:007-TheCottonClubPodcast [ 42:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup
Filed Under: Podcasts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Custom Gowalla Event Stamp!

April 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

2767_0931061454738 A few days ago I reached out to Gowalla to see if they would be interested in helping us out with our first ever Toadsuck Tweetup by designing us a custom stamp for Toadsuck Daze.  I got notification today from Sandi that they were in fact interested and that they were going to design the custom stamp for us.  This stamp will be available for people to pick up by checking in on Gowalla during the weekend long event.  Now, I haven’t seen the stamp yet, and I can only imagine that it’s going to have a frog on it since that is the direction that I pointed them in, kind of fitting don’t you think?

Why is this a big deal?  Well, because aside from large, highly publicized events, there just aren’t that many of these custom stamps out there to pick up for Gowalla collectors and enthusiasts, and I am not for sure but this might be the first one in Central Arkansas for an event.  The only way to get this stamp is to check in on Gowalla during the festival weekend, after that it’s gone forever unless of course you picked it up, in which case it’s yours forever!  A great time to do this check in would be during the tweetup we have scheduled for 12 noon on Saturday during the festival.  Stay tuned for more information on the Tweetup later, I just wanted to shout from the rooftops how cool Gowalla is for helping us out with this.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Toadsuck Daze, which is expected to see 150,000 people this year, here’s a little bit of information from the main website:

Toad Suck Daze is a free festival.  A 3-day festival of food, family and fun held on the streets of downtown Conway, Arkansas. This ‘Laid Back Weekend’ occurs annually the first weekend in May and has something for the entire family: arts & crafts, ‘Toadal Kids Zone’, a carnival, local and national entertainment, food, rock wall, petting zoo, ‘Stuck on a Truck’, 5K/10K, golf tournament, a 3 on 3 basketball tournament, magicians, and so much more! Toad Suck Daze is also home to ‘The World Championship Toad Races’. The festival is run almost exclusively by volunteers from Conway and Faulkner County, including the local police and fire departments. It has free admission and proceeds go to support higher education in Faulkner County. Since the start of the festival over $1 million has been given in scholarship and towards scholarship endowments. This money has helped over 200 individuals attend local institutes of higher learning.

If you aren’t familiar with Gowalla, I suggest you check them out immediately if you work in the web industry!  You can find their awesome app in the app store as well as linked from their corporate website: http://www.gowalla.com.  Stay tuned for more info on this stamp as I get it…

Filed Under: Current Projects, Miscellaneous, Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: , ,

#RefreshCA – Tuesday, April 27th

April 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

refreshlogo[1]Tomorrow night I will be speaking at the Central Arkansas Refresh monthly meetup alongside Robert Blake on a topic that everyone of us in the industry can relate to, How to Deal with Clients. The meeting is open to the public and starts at 6pm at The Flying Saucer in downtown Little Rock.  You can RSVP on Facebook if you want or just show up unannounced, entirely up to you.  Bring a friend a co-worker with you, it should be a good time.

If you aren’t familiar with the #RefreshCA group, we are a group of developers, designers, bloggers, and IT professionals that meet once a month to discuss topics and emerging technologies related to our industry.  You can learn more on our website, http://refreshcentralarkansas.org and by joining our Facebook Group.  There will also be some assorted swag given away as well as pony rides for the kids. (just kidding about the pony rides…)

Filed Under: Central Arkansas Refresh Tagged With: ,

Arkansas Diamonds Football

April 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

200px-ARDiamonds If you know me very well at all you are probably aware that I am just not that big of a baseball fan, and typically this time of year I am extremely bored.  But, after discovering that the Arkansas Diamonds (formerly the Arkansas Twisters) of the Indoor Football League, who make their home right here in the Natural State, and play their home games at Verizon Arena, my boredom fades away fast. 

If you aren’t familiar with Indoor, or Arena Football, you should definitely check it out, especially if you are a football fan. The action is fast and the ball gets aired out a lot more.  In order to help you get acquainted a little bit, here’s what I am going to do…

 

Win 2 Tickets for the May 1st Game vs Texas Roughnecks!

I am giving away 2 tickets to the May 1st Arkansas Diamond’s football game against the West Texas Roughnecks at Verizon Arena.  To be eligible to win, here’s what you have to do… 

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: , ,

Taking Notes w/ Evernote

April 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

image The other day my wife and I set out to clean and organize my office closet, it hadn’t been organized in several months and I am not the type of person that can be very productive if things aren’t organized in a certain way, this is most likely the result of me being diagnosed with mild OCD in my early twenties.  My office closet serves as the “catch-all” in my business world because i can shut the doors and everything, no matter how crookedly it’s stacked, is out of sight and out of mind.  While cleaning out the closet we went through and tossed tons and tons of old notebooks w/ notes from everything from client meetings to church sermons.  It’s safe to say that I am a note taker…

One of the first apps that I downloaded after getting an iPhone was Evernote.  At first I didn’t really use it that much w/ the exception of a few specific times where I found myself w/out a notebook in hand but over time I have found myself using it more and more for things in my day to day life.  The really cool thing about Evernote is that it’s a synchronized application between my iPhone and my desktop (both Windows and Mac). 

All of my notes are tagged and stored in notebooks that are extremely easy to locate via the web, desktop app, or on my iPhone.  For me being able to retrieve informational notes quickly and easily is top priority, and user interface is a close second.  Evernote answers both of these in a big way.  Not only is the Evernote interface easy to navigate but having tagged content, it’s only a few seconds to locate.  I have about 10 notebooks presently, each w/ various pages of notes, clippings, and scans related to various things I am involved in.  Most recently I even started using Evernote to store client project notes, I can open up my iPhone and record notes or take notes on my desktop during conference calls. 

Some other really cool features w/ Evernote are that you can post notes via Twitter by following @MyEN and probably the most cool feature right now is the ability to post voice recordings.  With the premium version of Evernote (which costs about $5 a month) you can add supersize uploads, advanced security, and my favorite, Collaboration, to your service.  Let’s say that I have a note that I want to share w/ someone else and give them the ability to edit the note, it’s just a matter of upgrading to premium service.  The entire Evernote experience is so UX driven that I am falling in love with it more and more everyday.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Wireless Tagged With:

Let’s Discuss Gowalla & Foursquare

April 13, 2010 By 17 Comments

Today we had an active discussion on Twitter (for the 10,000th time) regarding the whole Geo-Social showdown between Gowalla and Foursquare.  I have summarized some of my thoughts that I took from this conversation below as well as some insight provided by people in my network.  I have also posed some questions below that I would love to have your feedback on so please feel free to comment your thoughts…

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image Being a die-hard Gowalla fan as well as a loyal user I have a hard time buying into the statement that Foursquare is the best geo-social application to get behind.  A common response that I get back from my network of followers is that Foursquare is better for businesses. 

Every time I hear this I keep thinking that maybe I am missing something with Foursquare that I should learn more about but the best that I can come up with is the fact that Foursquare has these listed features for businesses that more or less allow business owners to post messages to users who are in the area to entice them to visit an establishment.  Foursquare also allows owners the opportunity to offer specials to Mayors and those who have loyalty points (# of check-ins).  I guess I can sort of see where everyone is coming from on their position that Foursquare might be better than Gowalla in this one aspect, but overall Gowalla has a much better product and user experience.  As a developer and a business owner, I can attest to the fact that user experience and application quality go a long way!!!

I posed the question today on Twitter: What makes Foursquare better for businesses than Gowalla? and I didn’t get any really concrete or specific answers back from very many people.  Keith Crawford brought up the fact that Gowalla really needed to address business users, and I agree w/ that point.  Natalie Ghidotti mentioned that Foursquare did a better job connecting users to businesses w/ mayorships, etc. and I can sort of see that point of view as well, but doesn’t the idea of picking up items on Gowalla that can be exchanged for tangible items such as appetizers, t-shirts, phone cases, etc., sort of counteract that?  Not to mention making it more fun when you win these items?  Furthermore, to counteract the loyalty aspect of Foursquare (ie. mayorships, # of checkins, etc.) couldn’t Gowalla’s leaderboard also answer that one? 

Not too far into this debate, I posted links to the online location profile for Pleth, LLC in Conway from both locations (Gowalla: Pleth, LLC and Foursquare: Pleth, LLC) to demonstrate that from a desktop browser perspective there really wasn’t much difference between the two.  It wasn’t long after this that a representative from Gowalla, @SanLei came into the conversation and had me refresh my browser to see my Pleth location page again.  She had added my company information, twitter handle, and stream into my profile page.  All day long during this conversation we never heard a word from Foursquare. 

Bryan Jones also weighed in saying that he also leans toward Gowalla over Foursquare for similar reasons that I do, Quality over Quantity.  Mark Ferguson also weighed in saying that he preferred getting items for prizes than becoming a mayor of a particular establishment, and I think I am inclined to agree w/ his position as well. 

  • Here’s my thing, isn’t the user experience going to win out every time? 
  • Does anyone disagree w/ my position that Gowalla has a much better user experience? 
  • What does Gowalla need to do to address / encourage Business Use?
Filed Under: Social Media / Web 2.0 Tagged With: , ,
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